Easy Peasy Sudoku Advent (24) - Delimited Kropki
(Published on 24. December 2025, 06:00 by Richard)
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 #282 after solving the advent version.
Delimited Kropki
General hint for this type:
Like in usual kropki sudokus, it helps to search for longer chains of cells that are connected by dots. Especially the black (red in this case) ones.
R8C2 is the best place to start. There is only one digit that fits there, and after that block 9 comes into play.
What's next?
Leftovers
But one special leftover is published tomorrow, so keep an eye on the portal at 06.00.
Merry Christmas to all of you!
PS: don'f forget to check out the website of the Holiday Season Sudoku Contest! The instruction booklet for the contest contains brand new puzzles and there are four more practise sudokus published there than here in the portal. Speaking of that: Weiqi can have a few more solves. It has a super interesting entry of which I am pretty proud. The current number of solvers is a bit too low in my opinion. ;)
Apply classic sudoku rules.
Only for two cells connected by a green line, kropki rules apply:
A white (open) circle between two cells indicates that the neighbouring digits are consecutive.
A red (filled) circle between two cells indicates that one of the digits is twice as big as the other digit.
The absence of a circle indicates that there is no neighbouring digit that is either consecutive or double.
Be aware that between digits 1 and 2 the circle can be either white or red.
Be aware of the negative constraint. The higher you climb in the tree, the more important it gets.
Sudokupad (no answer check)
Sudokupad (with answer check).
I am happy and thrilled to see so many solves from dozens of (for me) new players on these advent sudokus; many more than I am used to for most of my SVS-sudokus. I think I will put more effort in keeping the difficulty level a bit lower for future SVS's. (The next SVS is scheduled for coming friday; December 26.)
Looking to this success I am considering to make a calendar
next year again; there were too many 4- and 5-star SVS's to include in this year's calendar, so there will be enough material for a sequel.
I had the idea for this calendar and the theme only on the 8th of October and the first two puzzles saw the light of day a few days later, so it was more or less a race against time to finalise them all before December 1. If it comes from a new calendar next year, I will start earlier to avoid this rush.
But I appreciate some feedback though. I have spend a lot of time in writing the hints, and see hardly comments on them. So I wonder: were the hints useful at all?
I have put quite a few puzzles aside because I found them still too hard. Also my tester has returned some of them saying they were not 'easy peasy' enough. In some cases I made an adjustment, but in other cases I started with a clean sheet. So I have a small pile of leftovers. I will post them in the new year, since I have spoiled the portal enough now; the side effect of an advent calendar is that I took quite a bit of room with my creations, were the idea of LMD is to publish only one or two puzzles a week. My apologies for that!
Solution code: Row 3
Comments
on 5. January 2026, 23:34 by abbysc
As a beginner, thank you very much for the advent calendar. It has brought us much joy over the holidays! I will be looking forward to finding further fun puzzles to solve throughout the year (and maybe someday I will be brave enough to venture into 3+ star difficulty).
As for the hints, I usually read them after solving the puzzle to see what I missed. :)
on 27. December 2025, 19:49 by TeddieMilo
Tq, it is very nice & fun. happy new year!
on 27. December 2025, 16:30 by Statistica
Vielen Dank für den Kalender Richard.
on 27. December 2025, 10:24 by Tws
A beautiful final of this nice calendar! Thanks and merry xmas to Richard!
reply ->@your hints!
I've always tried to solve without hints. I only read them when I had trouble understanding the rules. Even then, they weren't particularly helpful. I would prefer a simple example to help us "beginners" understand the rules.
on 25. December 2025, 19:00 by Lizzy01
Beautiful xmas tree! And fun to solve, too.
My christmas themed puzzle is on the easier side this year too, if you're interested in checking it out
on 25. December 2025, 13:52 by henrypijames
I add my thanks for this wonderful series. They are the only puzzles I've done this year with the knowledge that they're (supposed to be) easy, for normally I only choose to do harder puzzles these days.
on 25. December 2025, 03:04 by Phase Queen Rachel
Nice simple ending to the advent. I enjoyed it! :D
Since you're looking for feedback on the hints: I mainly used the general hints and they were really nice. But I only ever needed to use a specific hint once, but when I did I was super glad it was there, so they definitely helped even if I rarely used them.
And now that the advent is done I'm gonna go back through my favs and try the harder versions of them.
---
Reply: thanks!
I noticed you started with the only SVS that I am (in hindsight) not particularly proud of. The original Snake is the only one where bifurcation is necessary. Don't let that one withold you to try the others. :)
on 24. December 2025, 20:12 by dzamie
That was fun :D
Thanks for the flurry of wonderful puzzles this month! I've really enjoyed most of them!
on 24. December 2025, 18:39 by RebelSystem
Happy Christmas to you Richard and many thanks for all the extra fun you've given us during advent. Looking forward to spending some of Christmas Day with your special puzzle gift.
on 24. December 2025, 15:56 by SennyK
Thank you for all your wonderfull puzzles. I did not use the hints, as rules themselves were enough for me, though I suspect that beginner solvers did appreciate them. Merry Christmas!
on 24. December 2025, 13:48 by JVA
Some of the last puzzles I'm finding the hints mandatory for a 1* level
on 24. December 2025, 13:37 by Franjo
Thank you very much for creating and sharing this wonderful series, Richard! And for all the other ones you have published here. (I didn’t want to see any hints, so I ignored all of them ….) Merry Xmas to you and your family!
on 24. December 2025, 13:24 by vidarino
Thanks for the puzzles, Richard! Great fun! Merry christmas!
Didn't use the hints personally, since discovering the underlying logic and structure is part of the fun of the solve for me.
on 24. December 2025, 11:33 by flutchman
Merry Christmas Richard!
Thanks for all the puzzle.
Regarding the hints: I personally didn't use them, although they're a nice touch.
on 24. December 2025, 11:09 by geronimo92
Thanks a lot for this advent calendar Richard and merry Christmas to all
on 24. December 2025, 10:27 by zuzanina
Thanks a lot for all the puzzles in this calender and in general. Looking forward to the HSSC and upcoming SVS. :-)
Regarding your questions:
I personally didn't need the hints and also enjoy puzzles that are not too easy peasy. But I think the hints are a great way to get started. Your puzzles always have fantastic solving paths and I love the challenge to find them.
Merry Christmas to you too!
on 24. December 2025, 10:21 by zeniko
Thanks for the entire fun advent calendar with this beautiful final entry. For me, your puzzles have been something to look forward to every day. Happy holidays!
on 24. December 2025, 09:17 by Piatato
Sweet, merry Christmas!
on 24. December 2025, 09:06 by Goembi
Thank you Richard for the puzzles! I really enjoyed them! Normally I look for 1-star puzzles to solve. But with the available hints (even when not always needed) I tried your Advent series and really-really enjoyed them. Merry Christmas!
on 24. December 2025, 08:27 by Klausku
I love the christmas theme (maybe more than I would do in the summer). This last puzzle was indeed easy peasy for me. But many of the others were not. And that‘s a good thing. Please keep the difficulty as it is, when you set a calendar for next year. Considering the hints: I only needed the general hint at one puzzle to get started. But in general, it‘s a useful thing.
Again, thank you very much for this lovely calendar and many hours of fun. Happy X-mas
on 24. December 2025, 06:39 by r45
Vielen lieben Dank für die schönen Adventsrätsel und frohe Weihnachten an meine Lieblingsnachbarn.
on 24. December 2025, 06:30 by Nylimb
Thanks for all of the Advent puzzles! I think this one was the easiest of the bunch. I found a few others not quite easy peasy, but none were especially hard. I didn't read any of the hints until after solving.
