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.