Strategy Detailed Descriptions
Advanced Strategies
Pick a Trial Number
This is sometimes referred to as "Bifurcation" or
"Branching".
If none of the strategies can find any more solutions, then the
only choice is to make a guess and see where it leads. Before guessing, you
might want to try Menu/Hint/Loop
Through All Strategies to see if there is something you overlooked. If
still stalled, then do the following:
- Use Menu/File/Save
to save the current puzzle under a temporary name so you can make a
different guess if your first guess is not successful.
- Look for a cell with the fewest possible choices, ideally
only 2 possible numbers so you have a 50/50 chance of being right. Solve
that cell with one of those numbers.
- Use the other strategies until one of the following
occurs:
- The puzzle is solved: you are done.
- A conflict is encountered: your first choice was wrong,
so load your saved puzzle with Menu/File/Open,
try again with a different number, then continue with step 3. (If all of
the choices for a given cell produce errors, then the puzzle is bad and
cannot be solved)
- Again the strategies fail to find a solution: Your first
guess is still possible, so save the puzzle again under a different name
and continue with step 2. This "branching" can go to several
levels for some puzzles. You will need to keep track of which numbers
have been tried at each branch.