Question for the Sudoku players

[Pool Hall Ace]

What do you do when you get so far into a puzzle, then get completely stuck?

Move on to another puzzle, then come back to it?

[kedrys]

1. Start over, usually

If I'm that bad off, I just start over. I rarely do those on paper anymore, though. My dad got me addicted to the freakin' game, and he does his on paper.

[yewberry]

2. I start over if I've made mistakes

but if it's just a hard one, I come back to it. I can't leave them unfinished. I do them online, so it's easy to just hit 'clear' when I've screwed it up too much.

[Pool Hall Ace]

5. I forgot to add that I've checked my work so far, and I

haven't made any errors. This puzzle is a Hard one, and I haven't done Sudoku in a while, so maybe I'll step back and do some Mediums for a while.

[hellbound-liberal]

3. I do relatively easy ones out of the local paper but whenever I get stuck

in a difficult puzzle, I look at the answers and get some help in one corner of the puzzle and then go from there.

[Cabcere]

4. Usually I move on to another puzzle

Whether I come back or not depends on whether I'm working on paper or online. When I'm online, I usually just pick a new puzzle and go from there...but when I'm doing a paper Sudoku - like in a book or something - I usually find another one to work on for a little while and then come back to it. :) Hope that helps! :hi:

[Xipe Totec]

6. Change strategy

There are several tricks, some simple, some subtle. If you're stuck it means you need to try a different approach.

For example, sometimes you can narrow the location of a number or two numbers to a single minor square, and they are on the same row or column. Although you can't figure out where exactly to place the numbers, you know one thing for certain: Those numbers cannot appear anywhere else on that same row or column. Knowing this you may be able to solve a different minor square that shares that row or column.

That's one of the more subtle tricks.

[Q3JR4]

7. If I get really really stuck,

I pick a logical number and fill it in with pencil lightly (I also put an asterisk or something near the number so I know where my "guess" started from). Everything filled in after that I write in lightly. If you hit a logical inconsistency, you just erase everything that was lightly filled in, all the way back to the first guess. If your guess is wrong and you only have two possible choices, the other choice must be correct. That may or may not open up other play possibilities, just depends.

I know, I know, that's not the way you're supposed to play it. I only do this when I get really stuck.

:shrug:

Q3JR4.

[Q3JR4]

8. I guess it's

logical though, "Reductio ad absurdum."

:D

[Pied Piper]

9. I have a Sudoku game on my iPod

It has an error-checking feature (which you can turn on or off) that beeps and flashes the screen if you enter the wrong number. I have it turned on, but I try to solve the whole puzzle without a beep or flash. I can always solve the puzzles at the "Normal" level, but I haven't tried the harder levels yet.

This game has the option of "penciling in" draft numbers, but I haven't needed it yet. Probably when I get to the harder levels...