{"id":35558,"date":"2026-04-19T00:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?p=35558"},"modified":"2026-04-18T09:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:46:07","slug":"counting-neighbors-sudoku-by-clover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/counting-neighbors-sudoku-by-clover\/","title":{"rendered":"Counting Neighbors Sudoku by clover!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(This post is part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/gas\/\">Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS)<\/a> series.)<br \/>\n<em>In this puzzle, you&#8217;ll want to look near each of the X clues to find a &#8220;treasure&#8221; of logic and a path to the final answer.<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260419-CountingNeighborsSudoku-XMarksTheSpot.png\" alt=\"Counting Neighbors Sudoku by clover!\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260419-CountingNeighborsSudoku-XMarksTheSpot.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>or <a href=\"https:\/\/gmpuzzles.com\/s\/260419XMar\">solve online<\/a> (using SudokuPad)<\/p>\n<p><b>Theme:<\/b> X Marks the Spot<\/p>\n<p><b>Author\/Opus:<\/b> This is the 128th puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (<a href=\"https:\/\/sudokutheory.com\/gas\/\">GAS<\/a>) team.<\/p>\n<p><b>Rules:<\/b> 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 marked with an X indicate how many different numbers are in the four cells diagonally adjacent to it.<\/p>\n<p><b>GAS Time Standards (highlight to view):<\/b> Two party hats (\ud83c\udfa9\ud83e\udd73): <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">8:00<\/span>; One party hat (\ud83e\udd73): <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">15:00<\/span>. All other solvers earn a \ud83e\udd95: <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">neighborly Nebulasaurus<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): <\/b> <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">3:29<\/span>, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/sudokupad-clover-April_19_2026_X_Marks_the_Spot-a874-d210.replay\">SudokuPad replay file<\/a> shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).<\/p>\n<p><b>Solution:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260419-CountingNeighborsSudoku-XMarksTheSpot-soln.pdf\">PDF<\/a>; solving video with explanation to be added later from GAS team.<\/p>\n<p><b>Note:<\/b> Follow this link for other less common variations of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/sudoku-3+variation-2\/\">Sudoku<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Note 2:<\/b>\u00a0Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/discord.com\/channels\/1059513302847336469\/1380897111599616020\">Daily GAS discussion<\/a>\u00a0post\u00a0on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/RNNfEBEbQS\">this link<\/a>\u00a0for basic access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.) In this puzzle, you&#8217;ll want to look near each of the X clues to find a &#8220;treasure&#8221; of logic and a path to the final answer. PDF or solve online (using SudokuPad) Theme: X Marks the Spot Author\/Opus: This is the 128th puzzle from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":444,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,126],"tags":[8,15,56,237],"class_list":["post-35558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-puzzle","category-othersudoku","tag-sudoku-3","tag-wednesdaythursday","tag-variation-2","tag-gas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Counting Neighbors Sudoku by clover! - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this puzzle, you&#039;ll want to look near each of the X clues to find a &quot;treasure&quot; of logic and a path to the final answer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/counting-neighbors-sudoku-by-clover\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Counting Neighbors Sudoku by clover! - The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this puzzle, you&#039;ll want to look near each of the X clues to find a &quot;treasure&quot; of logic and a path to the final answer.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/counting-neighbors-sudoku-by-clover\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-19T07:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260419-CountingNeighborsSudoku-XMarksTheSpot.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Clover\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drsudoku\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@drsudoku\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Clover\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/counting-neighbors-sudoku-by-clover\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/counting-neighbors-sudoku-by-clover\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Clover\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/18e8374ccaf31b1bfa1dc36c28c5c56d\"},\"headline\":\"Counting Neighbors Sudoku by clover!\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-19T07:00:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/counting-neighbors-sudoku-by-clover\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":224,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/counting-neighbors-sudoku-by-clover\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/images\\\/puzzles2026\\\/260419-CountingNeighborsSudoku-XMarksTheSpot.png\",\"keywords\":[\"sudoku\",\"wed\\\/thurs\",\"variation\",\"gas\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Puzzle\",\"Other Sudoku\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/counting-neighbors-sudoku-by-clover\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/counting-neighbors-sudoku-by-clover\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/counting-neighbors-sudoku-by-clover\\\/\",\"name\":\"Counting Neighbors Sudoku by clover! 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