The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[bokodi]

I've been looking at this one for hours. Please help me with the next step.

[SpAce]

Looks like you've exhausted all basic techniques, so you need something more advanced next. One technique that will solve the bottleneck is called Empty Rectangle. You have a couple of different ways to use that here (but you only need one). The most obvious opportunities are in boxes 4 and 7, using digit 4. (Here you can also see the same patterns as Finned or Sashimi X-Wings, aka Grouped Skyscrapers, or more generally as short X-Chains.) Ask again, if you need more details.