Sudoku and Slant are both grid-based logic puzzles you solve by pure deduction, so solvers naturally wonder how alike they really are. The short answer: Slant is distant to Sudoku. Below we lay out what the two share, where they part ways, and whether the skills you have built on Sudoku will carry over.
- Grid: Cells with vertex clues
- Closeness to Sudoku: Distant
- Also called: Gokigen Naname
What is Slant?
Draw a diagonal in every cell so that each numbered vertex has exactly that many diagonals meeting it, and no closed loops form. Here are the rules in full:
- Every cell gets one diagonal, either "/" or "\".
- A number at a grid vertex counts the diagonals touching that point.
- The diagonals may never form a closed loop.
See a Slant grid
Slant draws a diagonal in every cell so each numbered vertex has exactly that many diagonals touching it, and no closed loops form. Below, a 2×2 block of diagonals.
One diagonal per cell; vertex numbers count how many meet each corner.
It is a single-solution logic puzzle, and the vertex counts force choices the way Sudoku clues do. But you draw diagonals, not digits, the clues sit on corners, and the no-loop rule and drawn output are unlike Sudoku - a distant relative.
What Slant shares with Sudoku
- It is a single-solution logic puzzle solved without guessing.
- The vertex counts force choices the way Sudoku clues do.
How Slant differs from Sudoku
- You draw diagonals, not digits, and the clues sit on corners, not cells.
- The no-loop rule and the drawn output are unlike Sudoku.
Do Sudoku skills transfer?
No technique transfers, but the local-count deductions and the ban on loops reward the same careful, prove-every-step logic as Sudoku.
The verdict
Slant shares Sudoku's constraint-driven deduction but produces a lattice of diagonals rather than numbers.
Where to play it
If it was Sudoku you came for, the level is the choice that matters more than the variant - Slant and Sudoku part ways on the rules, but a Sudoku grid can be a two-minute warm-up or an hour of work depending on nothing but how much of it you are given.
Difficulty and type are two separate dials here: the type sets the extra rule, the level sets how much of the grid you start with. Easy Sudoku leaves 36 of the 81 cells filled, so there is always an obvious next move somewhere; Evil Sudoku leaves 23, with no easy moves at all. Take it at the gentler end while the pattern is still new, and move up once it stops being a fight.