Clover’s left room for something extra in every region of this Surplus Sudoku, the first of a two puzzle series this week.

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 28th puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Surplus Sudoku rules, with numbers from 1-8: Insert a number from 1 to 8 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row or column. Some regions appear with more cells than there are numbers in the indicated range. Some number(s) repeat in these regions, but all numbers in the indicated range must appear at least once within each of these regions.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:28, 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 Kropki Pairs Sudoku by Philip Newman has an amazing arrangement of numbers and dots, both visually and logically.

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Tilting Kropmills

Author/Opus: This is the 9th 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 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. Pairs of cells without circles can have any relationship.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:51, 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.

Following up from the last “Weighted” puzzle, today’s GAS from Bill Murphy is a proper Little Killer and quite fun even if harder than the prior puzzle.

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: New Body Rhumba

Author/Opus: This is the 6th 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). Numbers along indicated diagonals must sum to the given total outside the grid.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:02, 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.

Searching for music for the Sudoku Wedding, you sometimes run into a special experience that stays fresh even after 81 straight playthroughs.

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or solve online (you will need to activate “letter tool” in the settings menu)

Author/Opus: This is the 581st puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

Rules: Place a letter from the phrase “SHINY GOAL” into each cell so that no letter repeats in any row, column, or bold region. If you are not finding one true calling, you might need to find two crossing copies of the mantra HOLY in the grid, each appearing in a straight line in some direction (like in a word search).

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for other classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

Note 2: More detail on this puzzle and Thomas’ Sunday are in this special section of the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.

The line shapes in this German Whispers puzzle by Philip Newman both make a visually stunning theme and interact well with the given clues.

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Emerald Isle

Author/Opus: This is the 8th 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 in cells directly connected on a green line must differ by at least 5.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 4:04, 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 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 special “weighted” variation of Little Killer has the usual sum constraints paired with a strictly increasing set of values when moving down along the paths. Can you solve Bill Murphy’s latest puzzle?

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Author/Opus: This is the 5th 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). Numbers along indicated diagonals must sum to the given total outside the grid, and must also increase as they move down along
the path of the arrow (e.g., R1C2 + R2C1 = 14 and R1C2 < R2C1).

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:19, 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 XV Pairs Sudoku by Philip Newman almost has its own X shape made out of the adjacent cell clues. Can you solve it?

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Octavianus

Author/Opus: This is the 7th 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 (🎩🥳): 7:00; One party hat (🥳): 13:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Tiberian Tobasaurus.

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 Zipper Lines Sudoku by Bill Murphy will have you thinking about how to link pairs of cells together sometimes, helping you zip to the solution when everything fits.

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: One Rizla

Author/Opus: This is the 4th 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). Numbers that are an equal distance apart from the center of a line have the same sum. If the line is an odd length in cells, then the number in the center cell must equal the sum of any pair of numbers along the line an equal distance away from that cell.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:54, 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 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.

Today Clover continues sharing appropriately-themed puzzles to mark the fifth year of GAS. In this Killer Sudoku variant, all the cage sums must end in five.

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Author/Opus: This is the (5×5)th puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.*

Rules: Variation of Killer Sudoku. Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region. Within each cage, the sum of the numbers must end in five (i.e., 5, 15, 25, 35, 45). Numbers do not repeat within a cage.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:22, 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 more Killer Sudoku and this link for classic Sudoku. More Killer Sudoku puzzles can be found in Killer Sudoku by Serkan Yürekli.

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.

*Special Editorial Note: With this published puzzle, Clover has set a new record (likely never to be broken?) for fastest time to 25 posts on Grandmaster Puzzles (just 26 days). This breaks the previous record by legendary male puzzlemaker Thomas Snyder set on January 28, 2013 (29 days). While some may say that puzzles like Just One Cell Sudoku shouldn’t count as much, we think every diverse idea matters in this world and every one of Clover’s 25 record-setting puzzles has been a stellar display of hand-crafted Sudoku.

Today’s Genuinely Approachable Sudoku shows a symmetric theme with only a few distinct numbers given as clues; can you solve this fun puzzle by Philip Newman?

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or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)

Theme: Sharrows

Author/Opus: This is the 6th puzzle from Philip Newman, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Arrow Sudoku rules.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:20, 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 more Arrow Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Arrow Sudoku to get started on. More Arrow Sudoku puzzles can be found in these books in our e-store.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our week-0-discussion thread on the GMPuzzles Discord. If you are not yet part of this Discord community, use this link. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.