Sudoku and Yajilin are both grid-based logic puzzles you solve by pure deduction, so solvers naturally wonder how alike they really are. The short answer: Yajilin 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: Rectangular
- Closeness to Sudoku: Distant
- Also called: Arrow Ring
What is Yajilin?
Draw one loop through the empty cells and shade the rest so that arrow clues correctly count the shaded cells they point at. Here are the rules in full:
- Draw a single closed loop through cells that are neither clues nor shaded.
- Shaded cells may not touch each other orthogonally and are never on the loop.
- An arrow clue counts the shaded cells in the direction it points.
What a Yajilin looks like
Yajilin draws one loop through the empty cells and shades the rest, so arrow clues count the shaded cells they point at and shaded cells never touch. Here is a small solved grid: a loop (purple) around a single shaded cell (dark).
A loop through the empty cells; the middle cell is shaded (kept apart from other shaded cells).
It is a single-solution deduction puzzle, and the arrow counts force placements the way Sudoku clues do. But the answer is a loop plus shaded cells, not a filled number grid — loop-drawing and the no-touch shading rule have no Sudoku counterpart. A distant relative.
What Yajilin shares with Sudoku
- It is a single-solution logic puzzle solved by deduction alone.
- The clue counts force placements the way Sudoku clues do.
How Yajilin differs from Sudoku
- The answer is a loop plus shaded cells, not a filled number grid.
- Loop-drawing and the no-touching shading rule have no Sudoku counterpart.
Do Sudoku skills transfer?
No technique carries over literally, yet the forced-count reasoning behind each arrow mirrors the logic of a Sudoku hidden single.
The verdict
Yajilin blends a loop and shaded cells under counting clues — Sudoku's deduction, a very different board.