SudokuSolver Forum

If you were going to introduce some sudoku beginners to variants, which variants would you introduce first?

Depends on whether the beginner likes to use arithmetic skills when solving Sudoku.

If he/she doesn't, then probably Diagonal (X) and then ones with more constraints such as Windoku, Disjoint Groups and Jigsaws etc.

If he/she does, then most definitely Killer Sudoku and Non-Cons and maybe others such as Greater-than/less-than, Odd/even etc.

And if he/she really digs arithmetical solving I'll be eager to introduce him/her to the fascinating world of KenKen and No-Op KenKen.

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ADYFNC HJPLI BVSM GgK Oa m

My road went from vanilla sudoku to samurai to killer which became a freeway (or tollway ). Never been able to get off!! Just an occasional dirt-road to vanilla X and vanilla jigsaw, both very enjoyable.

BTW - jigsaw sudoku became the main puzzle type accessed at sudocue.net according to the most wanted, though not today.
BTW2 The stats at sudocue.net seem to be exactly the same now as ever .

I occasionally dabble with a clueless explosion (or is that clueless special? can never remember which one is which). You'll all know about it when I finish one!!

Hope your beginner is more adventurous than I've been.

Cheers
Ed

Just to add to my post above there are also the fairy chess pieces and 2 types of constraints:

Anti-[piece] requires no arithmetical skills but creates a lot of fishes/pointing multiples moves.

[Piece]-NC often allows the puzzle to have very few initial givens to guarantee a unique solution (e.g. NNC=kNight Non-Consecutive).

And then there are other obscure variants of killers such as Maurice's repeat cages and the equality/inequality killers originated by Miyuki Misawa.

However, I don't consider Gattai puzzles (e.g. Samurai, Butterfly) or Clueless Special/Explosion to be variants by themselves. They don't involve extra constraints, just the same set of rules on a larger piece of paper.

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ADYFNC HJPLI BVSM GgK Oa m

It seems to me that the math-based puzzles (such as killers, etc.) would be more confusing to a beginner (in terms of understanding what you're supposed to do) than those with extra constraints (such as X, windoku, etc.).

For me the issue is whether the player is interested in applying his/her arithmetical skills. I've known beginners who are eager to play killers from the get-go. Many veteran vanilla players are still hesitant to tackle killers. Your assumption that "beginners" are all confused by math-based constraints is based on your own "beginning" experience I'm afraid.

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ADYFNC HJPLI BVSM GgK Oa m