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Solving Strategies

By Gunny

I'm describing some strategies to solve the levels.

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Created by

Gunny
Online

Category: Achievements, Gameplay Basics

Languages: English

Posted

15 Jan, 2016 @ 7:11am

269	Unique Visitors
2	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

General

Sorting

Isolated numbers (Basic)

Last possible number in a square (Basic)

Corresponding Squares (Advanced)

End

Comments

General

Hi,
I think you are here, because you struggle with the game. So did I. I thought of some possible strategies and I now want to share them with you.
I will not provide solutions to all levels, just general strategies to solve them. That should do fine.
I completed the game within 3 days and just used these. No paper, no external program or anything else. Just simple logic.

Have fun.

Level 5-1 is used as an example.

Sorting

Sorting is elemental in this game. It provides a good overview and it let you see easy first clicks.

So, at the start of the level it looks like this:

Now sort it, so in every field the smallest number is on the left side. It should look like this:

Isolated numbers (Basic)

Now we look for isolated numbers.
I normally start with the 1. Afterwards I look for the biggest number (in a 7x7 grid it would be the 7). If there are rows or columns which only have one square with the 1 you can look them.

Here we have one in the third column and the fifth row.

Now we can also eliminate all 1's in the secons column and the third row, because we have secure 1's in them. Just click them once, so they now show the next bigger number.

After that you could continue with the 1 in the fifth column.

You can do this for any number. If there is only one in a column or a row nail them down.

Last possible number in a square (Basic)

If a square has the numbers 1 and 5 in it and somewhere in the row/column is a secure 1 this square can only be the 5.

Row 3 - square 5 (of course also square 4)

Corresponding Squares (Advanced)

Sometimes 2 squares have the same two numbers in them.
Be careful. It just works for two numbers, not three or more.

In the fourth row the first and fourth square both have 1 and 3 (marked in screenshot) in them.

So if one is 1, the other one has to be 3. For us it doesn't matter which is what, we just want the information, that the 1 and 3 are in these two squares. Because of this information we can determine that the middle square in this row is 4 (it can't be 3).

End

And that's it. With this 3 strategies you can solve any puzzle in this game. You don't have to guess or just get lucky.

Have fun.

2 Comments

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Scalarik 12 Jan, 2022 @ 3:46am

Regarding "Corresponding Squares" tactic, it actually can work with more than two squares. The actual rule is "if N squares in a row or column all contain only a set of N different numbers, then other squares cannot have these numbers".

For two squares this means that if they contain two numbers (in the guide 1&3), they are a closed set. And this means you can eliminate these numbers from all other squares on the row.

For more than two squares, all squares don't have to have the same numbers. Say, if three squares have numbers 1,2 and 4 in any combination, other squares on the row/column cannot have any of these numbers. What matters is that a set of three squares contains a set of three numbers.

For later levels with larger grids this will become more important.

Vermilion 8 Jan, 2018 @ 4:53am

Great Strategies. I struggled on level 1 for a while before I came across this guide so thanks a lot!

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