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Mega Sudoku for Busy People

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Tips and Tricks for Mega Sudoku

This Squidoo lens describes tips and tricks to solving Mega Sudoku, so that a normal person can play with Mega Sudoku and not have it take over their life.
All images in this Squidoo are used with the explicit permission of UClick and the Puzzle Society.

Contents at a Glance

Step 1: Find an Online Mega Sudoku that...
Step 2: Getting Started
Step 2.1: Terminology
Step 3: Singles First
Step 4: Effective Singles
Step 5: Two Are Better than One

Wait---Let Me Get My Glasses

Sudoku, all by itself, has taken over a piece of the puzzle pages of daily newspapers--but I've recently discovered the joys of Mega Sudoku, as a break from writing science on the Internet and editing manuscripts for people. Trying to solve Mega Sudoku on paper is a nightmare, if not a second (or in my case, third) job, but solving it online can be quite entertaining. What I wanted, when I first got into Mega Sudoku, was a little brain break, some little absorbing logic problem that I could take a few minutes to solve and then get back to work. You wouldn't think it to look at it, but Mega Sudoku is exactly what I was looking for.

Like a normal-sized Sudoku, to solve Mega Sudoku you must have an exclusive set of numbers across the puzzle, down the puzzle, and in each of the 16 sub-squares. Regular-sized Sudoku uses the numbers 1 through 9; Mega Sudoku uses 1-9 and A-G, or 16 different characters. This makes Mega Sudoku vastly more interesting and intricate. But not, I say, NOT impossible; and if you break it into little logic problems, it can be a great brain break for those of us with intricate jobs.

But to stay sane, you must play it online. Although there are several online versions of plain old Sudoku (and in fact you can download one for your cell phone or Blackberry), at the moment, there's only one version of Mega Sudoku, and it is produced by the Puzzle Society at the Washington Post and syndicated in 50+ papers and other places.

The first thing you have to do is find an online site that publishes Mega Sudoku in an adequately large size. To fully appreciate the logic, you need as much screen size as possible. Fortunately, there are a few places where interactive Mega Sudoku appears in a large enough format to be usable.

Here's a comparison:
Newsweek has a version that is compact, so it fits on a small screen, but too small to use in the 'hints' phase.

Washington Post, on the other hand, has a very much larger image that allows you to use the 'hints' phase without going blind.

Be sure to set your screen size so that it can see the entire puzzle if possible.

Step 2: Getting Started

Show Me the Possibilities!

Like crossword puzzles, Mega Sudoku starts the week on Monday with the easiest puzzles but by Sunday, it's darned near impossible. So if you are just learning, start with a Monday puzzle. The Mega Sudoku puzzle allows you to call up the entire last month's worth of puzzles, so no matter what day of the week it is, you can start simply.

So, call up a Monday puzzle by going to your site of choice, and scrolling to the bottom left corner. Use the drop down box to pick last Monday's date, and press click.

Next, click the options button. Set options for the Monday puzzle (and all subsequent puzzles until you decide otherwise) by clicking the check mark for 'catch conflicts' and for 'show me the possibilities'. I find it helps to shout "Show Me the Possibilities!" when you do this.

There are several elements to the puzzle that are worth knowing. First, the numbers that are provided by the puzzle are in green; any you insert are in black. If you fill in a box, a row or a column, the puzzle will play a lovely Jamaican rhythm riff to tell you that's done: but if you are wrong, it won't tell you that at all.

When you're learning the rules, it's best to be methodical. Later on you will learn to scan for patterns, but until you get the patterns (or if you're tired and just want a diversion), be rigorously methodical.

If you don't have huge blocks of time (and who does?), you can do one step at a time and save the puzzle for later. Each step is fun and generally requires a little brain activity, so I don't even mind not finishing a puzzle for a given day.

So, are we ready? Let's go!

Step 2.1: Terminology

Defining the Grid

Just to make it clearer, here is a set of terms I use to describe bits of the Mega Sudoku grid.

Grid - the whole puzzle, 256 cells aligned neatly in sixteen rows and columns
Square - 1/16 of the puzzle, consisting of sixteen cells grouped in four rows of four cells each.
Cell - 1/256 of the puzzle, one single entry
Row - 1/16 of the puzzle, rows cross from right to left of the grid
Column - 1/16 of the puzzle, they travel up and down the grid.

The yellow box indicates where your cursor is presently located.

Step 3: Singles First

What married couples hate to admit

The first and easiest step is to scan the puzzle looking for 'single' entries. Are there any cells anywhere in the puzzle that have only one number in them? In this example, the fourth row of the square has a cell with only an E in it. If you enter the E in, the other E entries will drop out of adjacent squares. On some lovely Mondays, all you need to do is look for singles and fill them in, the remainder of the puzzle falls away. (Some Mondays I am the goddess of Mega Sudoku, and Mondays being what they are, I recommend this as a good way to start out your week).

Step 4: Effective Singles

Next, look for 'effective singles'. That's when even though there are other entries in the specific cell, one of the numbers occurs only once in a given square, column or row. In this example, each cell in the square has multiple numbers. But in the bottom right hand corner is the only E in the whole square. This cell must be E.

These are hard to find (at first), and here's where you get to be methodical. Go through the puzzle looking for effective singles, first looking at each square, then each row, then each column. Well, the order doesn't much matter, and in fact I do it in a different order nearly every day. If you have a memory like mine (uh, not that good), just look at the first line in each cell for each group (that is, check each cell for 1-4 first, then for 5-8, then 9-C, then D-G).

Step 5: Two Are Better than One

Next, look for pairs. Pairs are cases in which the contents of two cells cancel each other out. This square shows two pair cells which contain only the characters 1G and 1G. Thus, both 1 and G are done for this square, and, also thus, the fourth cell in this row hand corner cell (which lists 1GB) must be B.

Further, pairs can be within a cross-puzzle row, so that if there are two cells with only 1G in them in separate squares within one row or one column, that cancels out the 1 and G for the entire row. In fact, the rules for each of these (singles, pairs and triplets) work for any group of 16, whether they are in a square, column or row. For these purposes, it is easier to see the patterns if we focus on a square.

The funny thing is, there aren't a lot of effective pairs--that is, pairs that contain exclusively two characters even if they have other character possibilities listed. I don't know whether this is a logical constraint of the puzzle, an eccentricity of the puzzles I've looked at, or the fact that I just can't see them, but I've been looking for weeks and never come up with one.

Step 6: Triplets!

Why Three is Never a Crowd

Did you guess? When the contents of three cells have numbers that cancel each other out, that's called a triplet. Seems pretty straightforward, don't you think? In this case shown here, there is an effective triplet in the second row down. Can you see it?

There are quads and effective quads, but, let's not beat a dead horse.

Step 7: Rinse and Repeat

At this point, if you've not solved the puzzle (and it must therefore be at least Thursday), go back and repeat the previous steps.

Step 8: When All Else Fails....

By Sunday, sometimes searching for singles, pairs, and triplets doesn't get you all the way home. Whether there are just too many options left to see the clues, or the puzzle is at a level where, as in chess, you must think three or four steps ahead, I don't know, and I don't really care. Even on a Sunday, there's a point where your absorption in the puzzle must be side-tracked to something else. At this point, save the puzzle, because (shhh) you are going to guess.

The best cells to pick to guess in are ones that are limited to two choices (so you have a fifty-fifty chance of being right), that are located in the interior of the puzzle (so the ramifications are pretty widespread), and that include a character that is still pretty much unsolved. If, for example, there are sevens left all over the place on the puzzle, pick a seven.

You'll know you guessed wrong when a cell appears to have no options at all. At the point, reload the page and it will take you back to where you last saved the puzzle. Enter the other character and voila! Mega Sudoku solved (eventually).

New YouTube Sudoku

A weekly hand-picked video about Sudoku from YouTube.

sudoku: by kyleowensimon | video info

1 rating | 479 views

curated content from YouTube

Reader Feedback

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hfink6434 Sep 19, 2009 @ 1:54 pm | delete

i have found 2 others. FUN.EONS.COM AND SHOCKWAVE.COM. Both give you all the information you need and allow you to print it at FREE

Reply

Kris Hirst Sep 27, 2008 @ 7:41 am | delete

The Washington Post has some--in fact the first paragraph lists the location of where you can find 16x16 puzzles.

Reply

Ruy Sep 27, 2008 @ 4:31 am | delete

Thank you for a patient and smoothly step by step solution.

Reply

dsamiel@cocmst.net Aug 15, 2008 @ 4:10 pm | delete

Where can I find 16 x16 sudoku puzzles

Reply

MeganCasey Feb 8, 2007 @ 4:18 pm | delete

great lens!

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Mega Sudoku Software and Screen Players

If you're a real addict and don't want to use the Internet to play, there are electronic Mega Sudoku Screen players and software that will run puzzles on your home computer.

Mega Sudoku for Busy People

Tips and Tricks for Mega Sudoku

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Step 1: Find an Online Mega Sudoku that Works

Wait---Let Me Get My Glasses

Step 2: Getting Started

Show Me the Possibilities!

Step 2.1: Terminology

Defining the Grid

Step 3: Singles First

What married couples hate to admit

Step 4: Effective Singles

Step 5: Two Are Better than One

Step 6: Triplets!

Why Three is Never a Crowd

Step 7: Rinse and Repeat

Step 8: When All Else Fails....

New YouTube Sudoku

Reader Feedback

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