In short, instead of using numbers 1-9 for a 9x9 board, you use 2 twice, 3 three times, and 4 four times (for a total of 9).
It plays differently from sudoku than I expected. I assumed it would be simpler, since you have fewer digits. But once I settled on irregular region shapes, I discovered that it can also be quite difficult. In sudoku you eliminate a number by placing it; in sufuku a number is only eliminated once all its copies are placed. So you count lines instead of mostly scanning the board.
As I want the game to be approachable, the daily boards are mostly 6x6 or 7x7 for now. Larger boards are more interesting because 6x6 has only one set of numbers: [1, 2, 3]. But for 9x9 you can go with [2, 3, 4], [1, 3, 5], or [1, 2, 6] (I skip pairs like [2, 7] because I consider them boring). 10x10 is the first one that offers a set of four numbers: [1, 2, 3, 4].
Of course it turns out the idea has been around for some time: 2-3-4 Sudoku (Uwe Wiedemann) and Sudoku Ripeto (Miguel Palomo). I'm curious what you make of it as a daily game.
Today's Friday, so the board is on the harder side. You can play easier boards in this week's archive.
proy87•1h ago
matthorse•1h ago
Some interesting strategies come from the irregular region shapes. For example, you may notice that all 2s a region needs can only go in one row. If other regions have cells in that row, that often forces these cells to be a 1 or a 4 (or a 3 for 6x6 boards).