EXTREMEPUZZLE BOOKS

Extreme Killer Sudoku 3, puzzle 118: step-by-step solution

Step through the whole solution, or skip to the hard parts. Blue digits are placed by the walkthrough; red strike-through marks a candidate being ruled out.

Puzzle
Killer sudoku, number 118 of 150 in Extreme Killer Sudoku 3
Difficulty
Expert 2 (expert and beyond), from the final, hardest third of the book
Key technique
Forcing Chains
Hard steps
7 of 90 steps need an advanced or expert technique

Blue digits are placed by the walkthrough. Red strike-through marks a candidate being ruled out. Cells are named by row and column: R3C5 is row 3, column 5. Arrow keys step too.

The key technique: Forcing Chains

Try each candidate of one cell in turn. Every choice leads to the same result, so that result must be true.

Other advanced and expert techniques in this solve: Multi-Sector Locking (×3), Advanced Innies (3+ sectors), Remote Pairs, XY-Wing.

Every move above the basics is listed on the killer sudoku techniques page, each with a one-sentence explanation and worked examples from the books.

The hard steps, in text (7)
  1. Step 6 · Multi-Sector Locking advanced
    Rules out 7 from R6C4.
  2. Step 7 · Advanced Innies (3+ sectors) advanced
    Places 4 in R9C5, 2 in R9C6 and rules out 2 from R1C6, R2C6, R3C6, R4C6 and 11 more; 1 from R3C4, R5C1, R6C4; 4 from R6C4, R6C5, R7C4, R7C5 and 6 more.
  3. Step 10 · Multi-Sector Locking advanced
    Rules out 1 from R6C5, R7C5, R8C5.
  4. Step 11 · Forcing Chains expert
    Rules out 6 from R6C4.
  5. Step 21 · Multi-Sector Locking advanced
    Rules out 2 from R1C3, R2C3, R3C3, R4C3 and 1 more.
  6. Step 22 · Remote Pairs expert
    Rules out 3 from R4C5, R5C5; 5 from R4C5, R5C5.
  7. Step 80 · XY-Wing advanced
    Rules out 3 from R4C7, R5C7.

The book

Volume three: 150 new killers, none repeated from books 1 or 2. No starting digits, just cages and their totals, ramping from hard to brutal.

150 new puzzles. Expert and beyond. Puzzles by M. J. Bailey. Paperback, 5 × 8 in, 196 pages, £9.99 / $11.99. Every solution in the book carries a QR code to its own walkthrough, so you can check one step without seeing the whole answer.

On Amazon from 15 Dec About the book

Try a free sample puzzle (PDF) · prints on A4 or US Letter

More step-by-step solutions: Extreme Sudoku 1 · Extreme Killer Sudoku 1 · Extreme Sudoku 2 · Extreme Killer Sudoku 2 · Extreme Sudoku 3.