Sudoku and Str8ts are both grid-based logic puzzles you solve by pure deduction, so solvers naturally wonder how alike they really are. The short answer: Str8ts is close 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: 9×9, black-and-white
- Closeness to Sudoku: Close
- Also called: Straights
What is Str8ts?
A 9×9 grid split by black cells into compartments, each of which must contain a "straight" — a set of consecutive numbers in any order. Here are the rules in full:
- As in Sudoku, no digit repeats in any row or column across the whole 9×9 grid.
- Black cells split each row and column into compartments of white cells.
- Each compartment must hold a straight: consecutive numbers in any order, e.g. 4-6-5-3 forms the run 3–6.
- Black cells may carry a clue digit that is excluded from the compartments but still blocks that digit in its row and column.
What Str8ts looks like
Str8ts is played on a 9×9 board where black cells split each row and column into compartments of white cells. Every compartment must hold a straight — consecutive numbers in any order. Here is a solved row: a compartment of 3-5-4 (the run 3-4-5), a black cell, then a compartment of 7-8 (the run 7-8).
A Str8ts board: black cells split each row and column into white compartments, and every compartment holds a straight — consecutive numbers in any order (here 2-3-4, 3-4-5, 6-7-8, …).
Each compartment is a Renban line by another name, on Sudoku's own 9×9 board with the usual no-repeat rows and columns. The boxes are gone, replaced by compartments — so a Sudoku solver's candidate-elimination habits transfer almost wholesale.
What Str8ts shares with Sudoku
- It is played on the same 9×9 board with the very same "no repeats in a row or column" rule.
- Compartments behave like Renban lines — a set of consecutive digits scrambled in order.
- Solving leans on pencil marks and single-candidate elimination, exactly like Sudoku.
How Str8ts differs from Sudoku
- There are no 3×3 boxes — the boxes are replaced by compartments of varying length.
- The consecutive-run rule adds range reasoning Sudoku doesn't have.
- Black cells and their clue digits are a structure with no Sudoku equivalent.
Do Sudoku skills transfer?
Str8ts rewards the same candidate-elimination habits as Sudoku — naked pairs and singles thin the marks — layered with the range logic of a Renban line. A Sudoku solver picks it up in one puzzle.
Brush up on the technique that carries over: Naked Pair.
The verdict
Str8ts keeps Sudoku's 9×9 row/column skeleton and swaps boxes for consecutive-run compartments — a Renban twist on familiar ground.
Prefer to stay with Sudoku?
If Str8ts appeals, these Sudoku variants scratch the same itch and you can read up on each here: