Sudoku Game Help

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Hint function

You will find the Hint command in the Help menu. To get a hint, you can also use the toolbar or the keyboard . The Hint function will successively (if you use it multiple times) display cells with only one possible solution. With very difficult Sudoku puzzles, it is possible that no cell with a single solution exists In this case the program will mark all cells with only two possible solutions.

You can use the Game Help page of the Settings dialog to choose whether you want to get detailed or simple hints and how long a hint is displayed. Detailed hints will also mark all numbers that cause a specific solution. The following pictures illustrate the difference:

With the detailed hint (on the left), you can easily see that the fourth and sixth column already contain a 3. Therefore only one cell in the lower middle square is left that can contain a 3. If detailed hints are switched off, the program will highlight the same cells (example on the right), but you need to detect yourself, why there is only one possible solution for this cell.

Beside the detailed hint above, you may receive following similar hints:

Due to the highlighted threes, there is only one cell left in the bottom row where a 3 is allowed.

The highlighted eights allow to enter an 8 only in the bottom cell of the fourth column.

You will receive this kind of hint only rarely (and only for very difficult Sudoku puzzles), as the program will display this hint only if no other kind of hint is possible. You can only enter a 6 in the highlighted cell here, as all other numbers from 1 to 9 are already present in the same row or column or hemmed square. These hints are usually hidden, because they do not conform to the usual strategies that a human player would use to solve a Sudoku.

Mark False Pieces

When you almost finished a Sudoku puzzle, it may happen that no cell is left that can be filled out without violating the Sudoku rules. In this case, you have entered one or more numbers into the wrong cells sometime before. The 'Mark False Pieces' command in the Help menu allows to mark all numbers that do not comply with the solution. This command is also available in the toolbar or via the keyboard . You can then remove the false numbers by clicking them with the right mouse button.

Alternatively use the 'Remove False Pieces' command in the Help menu to remove all false numbers immediately.

It is also possible to enable the 'Do not allow false values in a cell' option on the Game Help page of the Settings dialog. After that the program will not allow to enter any false number into a cell.