Sudoku Village
Sudoku Village
Our free daily · new every day Sudoku A fresh grid every day, at five levels Play Sudoku Village is ordinary sudoku with something attached to the end of it. The grid is the classic nine by nine, the rules have not been touched, and every puzzle has exactly one solution.
What it adds is a reason to start the next one. Completed grids feed a progression outside the puzzle, which is a small thing until you notice you have solved six in a row on an evening when you meant to solve one.
Whether that appeals is personal. The underlying sudoku is properly made either way, which is the part that actually matters.
How to play Sudoku Village
You are given a grid with some numbers already placed.
- Select a cell, then choose a number for it.
- Every row must contain the digits one to nine with no repeats.
- Every column must do the same.
- Every three by three box must do the same.
- Switch to notes mode to write small candidate numbers into a cell without committing.
Notes mode is not optional
On the easier settings you can solve without it. Above that, notes are the difference between solving and guessing, because the harder techniques all work on candidates rather than on answers.
Turning it on early feels like extra work and saves far more time than it costs.
The difficulties
The settings do not just remove starting numbers, they change which techniques are required. An easy grid can be finished by scanning. A hard one contains positions where no cell has a single obvious candidate and progress comes from eliminating possibilities instead.
Tips and strategy
Scan for the number, not for the cell
Take the digit one and look at every box that does not contain it yet. In each box, cross out the rows and columns that already have a one somewhere.
Often a single cell survives. Then move to two, and so on. Running the digits in order through the whole grid is the fastest opening in sudoku and most people never do it, because they look at empty cells instead of at numbers.
Fill in candidates before you need them
Once scanning stops producing placements, go through the empty cells and note what each could be. Doing this while the grid is still relatively open is quick.
Doing it later, after you are already stuck and frustrated, is slow and error prone, and a mistake in your notes is worse than no notes at all.
Pairs do the work on hard grids
When two cells in the same row, column or box have exactly the same two candidates, those two digits belong to those two cells. Neither can appear anywhere else in that line.
That single idea unlocks most hard grids. It does not tell you an answer directly, it removes candidates elsewhere until an answer appears on its own.
A locked candidate is progress
Sometimes a digit can only go in one row within a box, without you knowing which cell. That still eliminates it from the rest of that row outside the box.
Recognising these is what separates a hard grid that takes ten minutes from one that takes forty.
Do not guess, ever
A guess in sudoku does not fail where you made it. It fails much later, and by then the grid is full of consequences you cannot untangle.
If you truly cannot find a step, restart the scan from digit one. Something has almost always become available since the last time you looked.
The value of the progression
The village on the outside of the puzzle is a habit device. It gives an ordinary sudoku session a shape, and it is why people who bounce off plain sudoku apps sometimes stay with this one.
Nothing in it changes the puzzle, and there is no advantage to be bought. It is a reason to come back, and it is honest about being exactly that.
Playing one grid a day
Sudoku rewards regularity more than volume. A single grid every day builds pattern recognition far more effectively than a dozen grids on a Sunday and none the rest of the week.
The reason is that the techniques are recognition problems rather than reasoning problems. Spotting a pair or a locked candidate is something your eye learns to do, and eyes learn from frequency, not from duration.
There is also a practical benefit. One grid at a consistent difficulty gives you a measurement. If a setting that used to take twelve minutes now takes six, you have improved, and if it still takes twelve after a month, you are probably solving by scanning alone and never using candidates.
That is the point at which moving up a difficulty is worth it, even though the first few grids at the harder setting will feel considerably worse than the ones you were finishing comfortably.
Other sudoku here
Sudoku Classic is the plain version with no wrapper, Daily Sudoku gives one fresh grid a day, and Wordoku swaps the digits for letters. More in sudoku and board.
More games like this
Play our free daily puzzles See all →
Made by us. One a day, the same for everyone, no sign up.
Last updated
Frequently asked questions
Are the rules of Sudoku Village standard?
Yes. A nine by nine grid where every row, column and three by three box contains the digits one to nine exactly once, with a single valid solution per puzzle.
What does notes mode do?
It lets you write candidate numbers into a cell without committing to them. Above the easy setting it is essential rather than a convenience.
What is the fastest way to start a grid?
Take each digit in turn and check every box that is missing it. Scanning by number finds placements far faster than staring at empty cells.
How do I get through a hard grid?
Look for two cells in the same line with the same two candidates. Those digits belong to those cells and can be removed from everywhere else in that line.
Does the progression change the puzzles?
No. It sits outside the grid and gives you a reason to start the next one. The sudoku itself is unaffected.
Is Sudoku Village free?
Yes, free in the browser with no download and no account.