(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Today’s GAS is again a slightly different take on the more familiar Kropki Pairs, this time with differences and ratios of 3.

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Theme: Three’s Allowed

Author/Opus: This is the 91st puzzle from Philip Newman, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). If a white circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers must have a difference equal to the given number. If a black circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers must have a ratio equal to the given number. Pairs of cells without circles can have any relationship.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:33; One party hat (🥳): 15:33. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Helicopter Hal’titan.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 4:44 (on slightly harder version), with SudokuPad replay file shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).

Solution: PDF; solving video with explanation to be added later from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for other less common variations of Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Everything here is close but not quite telling the truth (away by one). Maybe the solution can still be sorted out if you see the full picture and compare the local lies to find the global truths.

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Theme: Stretching the Truth

Author/Opus: This is the 109th puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Also, every given clue is lying. The correct value is either one more or one less than the given clue.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 6:00; One party hat (🥳): 11:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: deceptive Diceratops.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:26, with SudokuPad replay file shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).

Solution: PDF; solving video with explanation to be added later from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for other less common variations of Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Today’s GAS is a slightly different take on the more familiar Kropki Pairs, with white dots requiring a difference of 2 instead of 1. To subtly remind you, Philip Newman has scattered a few 2s in the grid.

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Theme: Yours Twoly

Author/Opus: This is the 90th puzzle from Philip Newman, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). If a white circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers must have a difference equal to the given number. If a black circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers must have a ratio equal to the given number. Pairs of cells without circles can have any relationship.�

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 6:22; One party hat (🥳): 12:22. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Gandititan the Grey.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:01, with SudokuPad replay file shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).

Solution: PDF and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for other less common variations of Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
The cage clues in this variation are only partially true. Can you find the liars to make progress to the one solution?

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Author/Opus: This is the 87th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Also, each cage must contain two of the three numbers given in the upper-left corner of that cage.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:30; One party hat (🥳): 14:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Panphagia on Fire.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:11, with SudokuPad replay file shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).

Solution: PDF; solving video with explanation to be added later from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for other less common variations of Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

(This post is part of: “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku”.)
(Prompt 1): Dr. Sudoku: You are an expert Sudoku maker who can do almost anything with Sudoku. Design a Thermo-Sudoku with L, L, M in boxes 1, 2, and 3, and then “OR” somehow in the middle. Then “NO” somehow in box 7 and 8 and 9 at the bottom.
(Prompt 2): [Redacted but it talks about The Final Boss? and highlighting a favorite memory.]
(Prompt 3): Instead of givens, could we add a white dot (or two = symmetry!?!) that means numbers are consecutive when in adjacent cells. The audience / algorithm does not seem to like givens.

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Theme: LLM or NO?

Author/Opus: This is the 24th puzzle from “Dr. Sudoku”, our AI-powered puzzle engine pushing the limits of sudoku intelligence.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Some thermometer shapes are in the grid; numbers must be strictly increasing from the round bulb to the flat end. If a white circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers in those cells must differ by 1. Pairs of cells without circles can have any relationship.

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for more Thermo-Sudoku puzzles. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Thermo-Sudoku to get started on. More Thermo-Sudoku puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store. Also, visit this page to purchase all of the puzzles from the 16th World Sudoku Championship including some Thermo-Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Twelve Months of Sudoku? post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

Special Editor’s note: To try to replicate whatever the “Cracking the Cryptic test” is, we turned off all human playtesting of this puzzle. This is the first time we’ve only let machine processes say there is nothing “too hard” to this puzzle and out of the range of what we have published before. So time estimates are impossible to share but it has a credible answer if our analytics are to be believed. But it is probably fairly hard and you’ll want some Sudoku skills and good notation and all that. To confirm: however you think the puzzle was constructed, no one that breathes oxygen has ever solved this puzzle and no pencils or paper were injured in the creation of this puzzle or post. Showing we respect other forms of carbon might matter to silicon which sits higher than carbon in some projections of the periodic table. We’re still confident it belongs here in our gallery of masterpieces and that you can (fairly) solve it. Even if those two dots are a bit bothersome. Tweaking with more humans in the loop could still make this perfect which is what we would do for a proper puzzle post.

more from Thomas

This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Here is one last flower from Philip Newman in the form of today’s Entropic/Modular Lines Sudoku. If you aren’t familiar with these variants, looking at a numeric keypad could help as one rule cycles across different columns and the other cycles across different rows!

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Theme: Birbs of Paradise

Author/Opus: This is the 88th puzzle from Philip Newman, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region).

Numbers along peach lines (entropic lines) must form a repeating cycle of L = Low (1, 2, 3), M = Medium (4, 5, 6), and H = High (7, 8, 9) numbers like …LMHLMH… or …LHMLHM….

Numbers along teal lines (modular lines) must form a repeating cycle of different
remainders after division by three, specifically zero (3, 6, 9 ≡ 0 mod 3), one (1, 4, 7 ≡ 1 mod 3), and two (2, 5, 8 ≡ 2 mod 3) like …012012… or …021021….

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 8:00; One party hat (🥳): 15:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Epic Epachthosaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:58, with SudokuPad replay file shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).

Solution: PDF and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for other less common variations of Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Can you work through all the W shapes in this grid and “Go West”, placing values between the extremes shown in the circles?

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Theme: Go West

Author/Opus: This is the 85th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Also, numbers along each line must have values strictly between the values of the two numbers in the circle cells bounding that particular line. (For example, R3C2, R3C3 and R4C2 must have values strictly between 1 and 4, the values in R4C1 and R2C3.)

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 5:30; One party hat (🥳): 11:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Pachelbel’s Khaan.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:09, with SudokuPad replay file shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).

Solution: PDF and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for other less common variations of Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Be ready for a party of thinking once you get your head around the rules of this variation (read carefully, because apparently this has been “A Long Time Coming”).

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Theme: A Long Time Coming

Author/Opus: This is the 106th puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Clues outside the grid indicate the sum of numbers in that direction starting at the first cell in the row/column and continuing to either the first odd number or the first even number in that direction. The solver must determine if a clue refers to an even or odd number as the stopping point. (For example, possibilities for the left of row 2 include 643 as 6+4+3 = 13 and 3 is the first odd number, or 76 as 7+6 = 13 and 6 is the first even number. A one-digit outside clue could reference just the first cell, since that would be the first odd/even number in that direction.)

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 8:00; One party hat (🥳): 15:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: glum Glacialisaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 1:54, with SudokuPad replay file shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).

Solution: PDF and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for other less common variations of Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
After the Anti-Windoku by clover! a few days ago, here is a proper Windoku to explore the extra no-repeat rules with full sets of 1-9 going into the gray squares.

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Theme: Hedron

Author/Opus: This is the 84th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Also, each of the four 3×3 shaded regions must contain the numbers 1 to 9 without repeats.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 9:00; One party hat (🥳): 18:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Geometric Gasosaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 4:01, with SudokuPad replay file shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).

Solution: PDF and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for other less common variations of Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Be cautious with your rounding in this Tens Digit Product Sudoku by clover! The ones digit never matters.

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Theme: Rounding Error

Author/Opus: This is the 105th puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules: Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region. The number clues given between pairs of cells indicate the tens digit of the product of the numbers in those two adjacent cells. (For instance, two adjacent cells containing 8 and 9 would have a clue of 7, since 8 × 9 = 72.)

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:00; One party hat (🥳): 13:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: spherical Shanag.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 1:54, with SudokuPad replay file shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).

Solution: PDF and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for other less common variations of Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.