The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Pupp]

That was quick: I already solved my first Fiendish puzzle in under 15 miniutes.

[Pupp]

Just a minor update.
Been rolling along in the Fiendish level.

Not much else going on. Getting better with a variety of harder techniques, and avoiding getting stuck to the point where I'm looking for a Deus Ex Machina move.

.

[Pupp]

Going to have to learn Turbot Fish. Been stuck on a Fiendish puzzle rated SE 5.7.

I have solved other puzzles after that though. I was a bit surprised that it was only rated 5.7. According to SE, it has even harder stuff later in the puzzle, including Alternating Interference Chains (AIC).

I'm not going to post the puzzle, I really don't want any hints at the moment, outside of what technique SE is suggesting.

[Pupp]

Just a mini update. I've gotten good enough that I'm usually able to find a key cell with two number. (There are a couple puzzles that I haven't been able to solve regardless of what I do.)

I'm not satisfied with that, per se, but at least, using force chains, I can at least find a key square, where one of the two number, if not solve the puzzle, with trivial stuff, at least gets me close enough that any "roadblocks" are very short bumps in the road.

That being said, it's not best practice, but at least it gets me to the next puzzle. I still need to learn more techniques, no doubt. Of course, if I get to the next level, It's pretty much a given that I'll have to learn more techniques. But for now, I'm just kinda rolling along. Once I get all 250 puzzles solved, except the ones I'm stuck on, I'll double down and learn anything I need to be able to solve the puzzles I'm stuck on. I've done nearly 250 puzzles on Fiendish 1, and currently I've only been unable to solve 2 puzzles. Seems like the puzzles are getting a bit more complex. One recent puzzle had two "hidden triples", and Unique Rectangle, outside of whatever the hardest technique was. I can't remember exactly what the hardest technique was off hand though. I think it was a VWXY-Wing. I didn't plug it into a solver to get a list of techniques, and it's been a few days, so I can't remember what puzzle number it was anymore.