(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
With the end of the August guessing game, we’re starting to see new themes again from GAS starting with this highly symmetric XV Pairs Sudoku puzzle from Philip.

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Breakdown

Author/Opus: This is the 32nd 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). Whenever an X or V, reflecting the Roman numerals for 10 or 5, is placed on the edge between cells, the numbers in the two adjacent cells must sum to exactly 10 or 5. (Pairs of cells without an X or V mark can have any sum value.)

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 6:00; One party hat (🥳): 12:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Baalsaurus, Breaker of Hearts.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:04, 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.)
This puzzle combines two puzzle types (Nonograms and Sudoku) and it will be even more “approachable” if you carefully consider that in advance, because there are lots of givens on the left but no givens in the Sudoku grid on the right at the start.

PDF

or solve online (horizontal form, using SudokuPad)
or solve online (vertical form, using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 29th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: This puzzle is a combination of Paint It Black (Nonogram) puzzles and Sudoku, where the cells shaded/highlighted when solving the Nonogram contain numbers to transfer to the empty grid to form a valid classic Sudoku.

Specifically: The grid on the left is a Nonogram. Shade some cells so that the numbers outside the grid indicate the groups of consecutive shaded cells which are in that row or column in order, either from left to right or from top to bottom. There must be at least one white cell between any consecutive shaded groups. Rows and columns without outside clues can have any pattern of shaded and unshaded cells. Transfer the numbers in all shaded cells to the right grid, and then solve the right grid as a Sudoku. Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:44, 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 more Genuinely Approachable Sudoku puzzles on this site. 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.)
Each line in this intriguing puzzle is connecting pairs of factors, so thinking of what numbers can come together and which cannot is essential throughout most of the solve.

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or solve online (using SudokuPad);
[update 2025-08-29-10:00 AM PT] see also the author’s “fixed” version in SudokuPad which adds a given but is similar in difficulty. This version did not survive typesetting so we never saw it until after our own publication here. There have been a lot of asymmetric puzzles this month and we don’t directly edit the GAS except to confirm valid puzzles and reasonable times; we’ll discuss together if / how we do patches in the future if GAS make changes after our publishing.

Theme: The Cold, Hard Factors

Author/Opus: This is the 31st 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). For every pair of adjacent values connected by a line, one number is a multiple or a factor of the other. It is possible for a number to be adjacent to itself on a line. (For example if R3C4 were 3, then R2C3 which is connected to R3C4 could be 1, 3, 6, or 9, because 1 is a factor of 3, 3 is a factor and multiple of itself, and 6 and 9 are multiples of 3.)
The color of the lines in this puzzle is for artistic purposes only.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 8:00; One party hat (🥳): 24:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: August Austroposeidon.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:27, 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.)
In this Figures Sudoku, you may ask “why? why? why? why?” but more from the shapes of the figures than the approachability of the logic.

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 28th 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, within each identically shaped cage, the same set of numbers must appear in some order.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:07, 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 more Genuinely Approachable Sudoku puzzles on this site. 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.)
Earn some stars by doing some extra product-focused arithmetic in this puzzle to crack into the Sudoku steps.

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 49th 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, in each row or column with a given clue outside the grid, the value of that clue is the product of all numbers in the starred cells in that row or column.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:33, with Penpa Plus replay this time.

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 largest numbers around some sets of cells are marked, but can those pointers show you where all the logic sits to solve this interesting puzzle that doesn’t give any very large values?

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Quadrennial Maxis Sudoku

Author/Opus: This is the 30th 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). An arrow in the grid points to the largest value in the four surrounding cells. Numbers may repeat around an arrow clue, but the largest value must be unique.
(In this puzzle, for example, R2C1 is bigger than R1C1, R1C2, and R2C2.)

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:30; One party hat (🥳): 15:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: August Adamantisaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:16, 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.)
There is some interesting symmetry going on in this Numbered Rooms Sudoku by Bill Murphy where the outside clues describe two cells, a number and how far into the grid it sits.

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 27th 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, clues outside the grid indicate the value to be placed in the Nth cell in the corresponding row/column direction, where N is the value of the first cell in the grid in that direction.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 6:30; One party hat (🥳): 13:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Outside Ouranosaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 1:50, 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 more Genuinely Approachable Sudoku puzzles on this site. 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”.)
This is not an official puzzle but is a fully solvable puzzle. It is something created as the GMP team was on retreat. We spent a full day on what we call “The Trouble with Cryptic Sudoku” and if we should have a stronger editorial voice with GAS and other things now that we are highlighting an unfamiliar community.

After being underwhelmed by a variation used by GAS that probably shouldn’t bother to ever get used (the rules are harder to describe than the variation can ever be in practice), and for sure the wrong time to apply the awesome title “From the Sublime to the Ridiculous” when the puzzle was quite far from either, we decided to have a team effort to turn meh (sorry Philip) to Sublime and Ridiculous.

This was a prompt shared between actual intelligences, not our AI Dr. Sudoku today, where the goal was to “merge the world of Sudoku with whatever people are doing on the YouTubes as Thomas says and Logic Masters (Deutschland).” Thomas got to make half the grid in his way and everyone else got to think about a favorite rule and bring it back to the table on their side since good ideas need at least 9 unique voices, none that repeat. Maybe there is something to merging the sublime and ridiculous after all.

Solve online in SudokuPad!

Because this puzzle is not a proper Sudoku as we would have on GMPuzzles, the puzzle is only meant to be experienced in what is considered “The App” for Cryptic Sudoku. Your experience on the best app, notation styles, ways to show instructions, and design goals may vary. But believe us, the confetti is worth it when you discover the incredible use of [REDACTED] instead of adding more givens.

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, this is a Positive Diagonal Sudoku: Numbers cannot repeat along the marked diagonal.
• Also, this is a Kropki Pairs Sudoku: If a white circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers in those cells must differ by 1. If a black circle is given between two adjacent cells, then the two numbers must have a ratio of 2. (Note: Pairs of cells without circles can have any relationship.)
• Also, this is an XV Pairs Sudoku: Whenever an X or V, reflecting the Roman numerals for 10 or 5, is placed on the edge between cells, the numbers in the two adjacent cells must sum to exactly 10 or 5. (Note: Pairs of cells without an X or V mark can have any sum value.)
• Also, this is a Sum Nine Sudoku: If a diamond is given between two adjacent cells, then the numbers in those cells must add to 9. (Note: Pairs of cells without a diamond may or may not add to another value than 9.)
• Also, this is an Either/Or Sudoku: any numbers given on the edges between cells must belong to one of those two adjacent cells.
• Also, this is a German Whispers Sudoku: Adjacent numbers connected by a green line must differ by at least 5.
• Also, this is a Parity (Odd/Even) Lines Sudoku: Adjacent numbers connected by a red line must be of opposite parity (i.e., be even / odd and then odd / even).
• Also, this is a Little Killer Sudoku: Numbers along indicated diagonals must sum to the given total outside the grid.
• Also, this is an Even Sudoku: Cells with a gray square must contain an even number.
• Also, this is not an Odd Sudoku, even if it seems odd. You just don’t know the main editor well, who comes from the upper-left side of the positive diagonal mentioned previously and doesn’t like using all the ingredients when making a dish.

This is probably a wrong idea to do again but certainly not a Wrogn Sudoku. We just wanted to check if you were reading and catching typos because commenting on the 100% accuracy of these instructions including edge cases is part of your enjoyment of life. If that is you, then we should tell you this might be a Wrogn Sudoku. Specifically, there are four fewer “wrong rules” above that do not apply at all than their are typos in this puzzle. For clarity, we consider Wrogn a typo everywhere it appears including this sentence.

(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Can you identify each of the pairs of digits hidden in coded cages in this puzzle to unravel the one true solution?

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 48th puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

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 in this puzzle is coded with a letter. The same pair of numbers must appear in some order in each cage marked with the same letter.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:13, with Penpa Plus replay this time which lets edge marking be done as preferred for this pairs-focused style.

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.)
Sudoku often has you following a long chain of logic around the grid; this variant should give you some of that flow in an “approachable” way.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Author/Opus: This is the 29th 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. Also, all arrows must be connected in a single cycle traveling around the grid; the number placed in each arrow indicates the number of cells away the next arrow visited in the cycle is.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 1:47, 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.