The Big Dipper - Hard and Easy
(Published on 13. September 2026, 10:43 by Zinker)
My latest Sudoku, “The Big Dipper,” comes in two versions— harder and easier. You'll find the links below. The harder version (picture) takes a little longer to get into, so don't lose patience. I hope you have fun, whether you choose the easier or harder version. Since this is my first puzzle with two versions, I'm looking forward to your feedback.
If you want to try the harder version, don't look at the easy one :).
The normal Sudoku rules apply: in each row, each column, and each bold-outlined 3x3 box, the digits 1–9 must each appear exactly once.
Additionally:
Yellow stars: Around an yellow star, all surrounding digits are either all even or all odd.
Red star: Around a red star there are always two pairs of identical digits in a cross formation (e.g., 4 4 and 9 9)
Black and white stars: Cells connected by a white star contain consecutive digits. Cells connected by a black star have a 1:2 ratio. Not all white and black stars are given.
The Wormhole (Killer cage): Digits in cages add up to the given sum.
Links
Hard Version:
F-Puzzles: Link
Sudoku-Pad: Link
Easy Version:
F-Puzzles: Link
Sudoku-Pad: Link
Solution code: The second row
Comments
on 13. September 2026, 13:51 by GeorgeTheToad2
I also went for the hard one and found it easy. Very much a parity shading puzzle and less than 20 minutes. Nice break in to the puzzle.
on 13. September 2026, 13:45 by anothermember
Very nice, I recommend people try the hard version, it's not *too* hard and has a nice break-in that seems to be lost in the easy one. Smooth solving after that.
