This sudoku advent calendar contains 24 variants that were included in my Sudoku Variants Series (SVS) but turned out to be too hard to be solved by a wide range of puzzlers. I aim for difficulties of 1-2 stars and have written some general and/or specific hints as well. I hope some players will try the original SVS puzzle #406 after solving the advent version.
Cold Arrows
General hint for this type:
Arrows close to the border and pointing to the border as well as the digit that is pointed to both have to contain low digits.
Apply classic sudoku rules.
A blue arrow points toward a cell N distance away that has a value less than N, where N is the digit in the cell with the arrow.
The digit on an arrow cannot be 1 or 9.
Solution code: Column 9
yesterday, 23:13 by garycblack
SudokuPad solution link:
https://sudokupad.app/tt3skelu2i
on 9. December 2025, 05:11 by Richard
Fixed minor grammar mistake and added the SVS-number to the link.
on 8. December 2025, 09:03 by dzamie
Huh, that was really easy. I'm so used to your puzzles being 2-star, it threw me for a loop - I figured I must have missed something. I'll have to give the harder puzzle a try later; this was pretty fun.
on 8. December 2025, 06:34 by brightonsimon
Very nice, thank you :-)
on 6. December 2025, 13:11 by Franjo
Thank you very much for creating and sharing this lovely - and indeed easy - puzzle.
on 6. December 2025, 07:55 by Klausku
Nice and easy (peasy). Thanks!
on 6. December 2025, 06:16 by Piatato
Smooth!