SudokuFang: Learn Sudoku
Step-by-step hints & solver
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Stuck? Hints name the technique and frame the area, so you solve it yourself. Photo-import any puzzle: instant rating, step-by-step solve path. No ads, no subscription.
SudokuFang — the sudoku that explains every step.
Hints don't give away the answer: they name the technique, mark the relevant area, and reveal the reasoning step by step.
Import any standard sudoku by photo or by hand for an instant rating and a complete solve path.
No ads. No subscription.
[Layered Hints]
· Optional five-layer reveal: technique, area, candidates, eliminations, full explanation
· 70+ techniques, from basic eliminations and pairs to chains, fish and beyond
[Analysis Workshop]
· Import by camera, by hand, or by paste
· Detects no solution, a unique solution, or multiple solutions
· Difficulty rating (ER and score) with a technique breakdown
· Complete solve path, with the technique, eliminated candidates and placed digit marked at every step
· View alternative techniques at any step; long-press a candidate to test a hypothesis
· Generate puzzles within a score range
· Export the solve as a GIF or a long image
[Daily Challenge & Library]
· Daily Challenge: the same puzzle worldwide, medal calendar, same-month make-up days
· Library: seven difficulty tiers, plus your own grouped collections
· All-time and weekly leaderboards; race friends on the same puzzle in a room (online)
[Variants]
· 20 variants: Killer, Diagonal, Jigsaw, Windoku, Thermo, Kropki, Sandwich, Skyscrapers and more, each with four difficulty levels
· Custom rule combinations on boards from 4×4 to 9×9
[Input & Display]
· Auto-candidates, 10-color annotations, chain drawing, solve replay
· Customizable keypad layout, key placement and gestures
· Apple Pencil handwriting on iPad
· Over twenty color schemes, plus themes generated from your photos
more Really comfortable to use. The interface is clean, the controls feel smooth, and the overall solving experience is great.The analysis feature is seriously powerful. I've tried quite a few Sudoku apps, and I haven't seen anything stronger yet.
Really comfortable to use. The interface is clean, the controls feel smooth, and the overall solving experience is great.The analysis feature is seriously powerful. I've tried quite a few Sudoku apps, and I haven't seen anything stronger yet.
New
• Pencil handwriting: write digits straight into cells with Apple Pencil; small corner digits become candidates; learns your handwriting
• Custom rule sudoku: combine rules into a new puzzle, 4×4 to 9×9
• Input area settings: 5 keypad layouts, customizable key placement, Minimal and Full presets
• Lock input: lock a digit, Erase or Candidates for continuous entry
• Gesture settings: customizable long-press, double-tap, swipe and Apple Pencil actions
• Drag to fill: drag a digit key onto a cell to place it
• Display settings: candidate highlight modes, board and font size controls, coordinate labels; reorganized color schemes
• Help: help center, guided tour and in-context tips
• Redesigned home screen with a new Workshop entry
Other
• Bug fixes
2.0.2 Sep 20
[Big] Variant Sudoku: from 3 to 20 variants
• New: Windoku, Center Dot, Anti-Knight, Anti-King, Even-Odd, Consecutive, XV, Kropki, Thermo, German Whispers, Renban, Palindrome, Between Lines, Sandwich, X-Sums, Skyscrapers and Little Killer
• Four difficulty levels for every variant, with a fully retuned difficulty curve — Medium bites, Hard means it
• Killer Sudoku board redrawn: cage sums moved onto the cage corner so candidates are never covered
[New] Variants now play like the classic game
• Notes, auto-candidates, pause, error checking, stats and results — all there
• 10-color annotations, chain drawing, elimination marks and board snapshots now work in variants too
• Stuck? Reveal the selected cell's answer
[New] Tap a number, light up the board
• With no cell selected, tap a keypad number to highlight every placement and every candidate of that number at once
[New] Turn a photo into a theme
• Generate a custom theme from any photo, with 30 fine-tune options
• New in-game palette: brightness, font size and highlight styles, one tap away
[Improved]
• New "chip" style for candidate highlighting
• Weekly leaderboard scoring fix
• Many interface refinements and stability fixes
1.0.15 Aug 21
[Big] Tutorials, completely rebuilt: a full learning path from basics to the extreme
• Theory courses arrive: Foundations / Chains / Rank Theory / Deadly Patterns / Exocet — 5 courses, 27 chapters, with real-board illustrations and concept cards
• Exocet theorems chapter: Mirror Sync, Target Pair, Locked Member, Same-Box and Region-X theorems each come with a dedicated diagram highlighting base, targets, mirror cells and Region X
• Technique explainers: six bilingual sections for all 70 techniques (what it is / why it works / the math / how to scan / reading highlights / checklist)
• Step-by-step walkthroughs: explanations now follow the actual structure of the step in front of you, not a generic template
• Learning path aligned with the seven game difficulties: stage challenges, mastery profiles and review suggestions
• Practice upgraded: classic curated puzzles plus unlimited isomorphic variants; rare techniques like the Trivalue Oddagon are now practicable
[New] Score Leaderboards
• Engine-rated scores accumulate into all-time and weekly boards
• No sign-up needed — play under an auto nickname, rename anytime
[New] Welcome Onboarding
• A fresh three-page intro: pick your level, score a quick win, find your way around
[Better] Hints
• Five-level progressive reveal: technique → area → candidates → eliminations → full explanation. Think first, no spoilers
• Hint cards link straight to lessons and explainers
[Better]
• Replay player: technique-visual toggle, key-steps-only mode, staged loading
• Draft tools now offer 10 colors across chains, shapes and regions
• Advanced engine reliability: automatic recovery from background termination
1.0.14 Jul 18
[New] Analyzer Studio (all-new standalone workbench)
• Full-screen analyzer : load any puzzle for auto rating (ER + score) and a complete solve path
• Solve-path player: step through every technique with explanations; draggable score-colored progress bar
• Skip basic moves: singles, locked candidates and subsets no longer count as steps — jump straight to the key techniques
• Alternative techniques: enumerate every possible move at any step and replace it to recompute the path
• Revamped puzzle picker: Recent / Favorites / Imported / Library tabs with thumbnails and difficulty filters
[New] Analysis Sharing
• Composable image: toggle & drag-reorder blocks — no-hint board / hinted board / result board / engine notes / difficulty report — plus a custom caption
• One-tap Solve GIF / long image: original board + difficulty report + every step with hints
• Difficulty report: full score-colored band + technique counts
[New] Puzzle Sharing Upgrade
• New share cards with QR codes; share as image, link, or code
• Short links & universal links: friends tap a link and the puzzle opens right in the app
• Board images in three flavors: initial / current / with hints (WYSIWYG)
1.0.13 Jul 14
[New] Draft System 2.0
• Seven marking tools: cell coloring, candidate coloring, logic chains, pre-delete/delete marks, mini regions, free drawing
• Four chain types (strong/weak/construction strong/weak) with smart straight-or-curved rendering, matching hint visuals
• Six-color palette (red/blue/green/yellow/purple/gray) + custom color picker
• Full undo/redo, long-press erase, apply pre-deletes to notes in one tap
• Share a snapshot of your annotated board
[New] Daily Challenge Calendar
• All-new gold-themed calendar, adaptive light & dark
• Complete any difficulty to light up the day; finish them all for a gold trophy
• Monthly medals: bronze/silver/gold unlocked by days completed
• Make up missed days within the current month (streaks & leaderboard unaffected)
[New] Tutorials × Advanced Engine
• Practice puzzles, interactive lessons and endgame training now generated and hinted by the advanced engine
• New "Full Solve Replay": step-by-step playback of an entire solution path
• Onboarding adds a "First Technique" interactive challenge and a learning path card
[New] Appearance & Settings
• Two new themes: Classic White II & Classic White III
• Three-level candidate note depth (light/standard/deep)
• Settings restructured: language on top, dedicated theme page
[Improved]
• Refreshed multiplayer battle UI end to end
• Solve analysis fully engine-rendered, consistent with hint highlighting
• Analyzer step panel: mini dock, prev/next with auto-scroll, single-row filters
• Faster technique training generation: multi-tier cache + background prefetch, difficulty-aware puzzles
• Fixed technique-config crosstalk causing generation failures and inconsistent ratings
1.0.12 Jul 10
This update brings a smarter solving experience across the board:
• All-new advanced solving engine: sharper hints, instant puzzle generation, and a true difficulty rating for every puzzle
• Redesigned puzzle library: continue playing, smart recommendations, browse by difficulty, plus search and favorites
• Puzzle Workshop: generate puzzles by difficulty, rating range, or even a specific technique
• Much better photo recognition: improved accuracy, pencil-mark detection, and paste-to-import from images
• Daily Challenge difficulty is now true to its label, and you can jump straight to the next puzzle after winning
1.0.11 Jul 9
[Improved] Unified Full-Screen Library UI
• Library puzzles now open in full-screen modal, matching the home-screen new-game experience
• Title, SE/H rating, Settings / Restart / Replay / Share all available
• Back button auto-switches between "Library" and "Home" based on entry point
[New] Global Recents Tracking
• Library's "Recents" tab is now global: every classic home-screen new game is auto-tracked
• Variant Sudoku (Killer / Diagonal / Jigsaw) excluded to keep the list clean
• Up to 100 most recent puzzles, sorted by latest
1.0.10 May 13
[Improved] Hint Visualization Overhaul
• Step-by-step chain demonstration: Forcing Chains, AIC and other complex techniques now show deduction process node by node
• Each step displays candidate changes after assumptions, clearly showing how deductions lead to contradictions or conclusions
• ALS technique highlighting improved: clearer group boxes, more precise link endpoints
• Fish technique visuals refined: removed cluttering lines, kept clear row/column grid markers
[New] Technique Preference Management
• 9 trial-and-error techniques disabled by default (Forcing Chain family, Dynamic Chains, etc.)
• Backtracking kept as fallback to ensure hints are always available
• Enable/disable any technique anytime in Settings
• 4 sorting modes to browse and manage 77 techniques
[Improved] Full Bilingual Support
• All technique names, hint explanations, and UI text fully support Chinese/English switching
• Fixed display issues in English mode
[Fixed]
• Fixed technique sorting and highlighting issues
• Fixed Discontinuous Nice Loop link rendering errors
• Improved overall hint system performance and stability
1.0.9 Mar 28
[Improved] Solution Path Visualization Redesign
• Completely redesigned solution path browser: fixed board + top/bottom navigation + scrollable step cards
• Full theme color support: path highlights, candidate marks, and strikethrough all follow your theme
• Removed AIC elimination arrows for a cleaner look
[Improved] Hint Highlighting Overhaul
• Naked/Hidden Single: related cells now include all cells in the same row/column/box for full reasoning context
• Hidden Pair/Triple/Quad: added same-unit empty cells as reasoning context
• Simple/Advanced Coloring: removed complex chain lines, kept dual-color backgrounds for clarity
• Swordfish/Jellyfish: related cells now show the complete row×column grid to visualize the fish pattern
• ALS techniques: use background colors to distinguish ALS groups, removed cluttered lines
[New] Learn-by-Playing Tutorial
• New guided tutorial mode: learn Sudoku while solving real puzzles
• Step-by-step guidance with interactive actions for quick onboarding
[New] App Rating Prompts
• Auto-prompts after 3rd, 10th, and 30th puzzle completion
[Improved] Brand Refresh
• Unified branding to "SudokuFang" (数独芳)
• Updated share cards and web sharing page visuals
[Fixed]
• Fixed crashes in certain practice mode scenarios
• Fixed multiplayer connection issues with network check alerts
1.0.8 Mar 23
[New] Photo Alignment — Custom Camera + Grid Guide
• New "Align & Capture" mode: built-in 9×9 grid overlay for precise alignment
• Semi-transparent mask highlights the alignment area with bold box separators
• No more skewed photos — significantly improved OCR recognition accuracy
[Improved] Image Recognition Enhancement
• Smart candidate filtering: automatically distinguishes pencil marks from main digits
• 6/9 confusion auto-fix: rule-based correction for conflicting 6s and 9s
• New "6↔9" flip button: one-tap to swap all 6s and 9s manually
[New] Comprehensive User Guide
• 12 chapters, 52 feature entries covering all game functions
• New chapters: Learning System, Share & Export, Rankings, Platform Integration
• Added missing docs for X-Ray, input mode switching, long-press popover, and more
[Fixed]
• Fixed a critical crash when tapping the Hint button
• Added "Contact Author" entry in Settings → About
1.0.7 Mar 21
【新功能】每日挑战 2.0 + 全球排行榜
• 每日挑战系统全面升级,新增多难度选择
• 全球排行榜:查看全球玩家名次,按用时排名
• 挑战好友:分享谜题链接,比较你们的成绩
【新功能】4 种新解题技巧(共 53 种)
• WXYZ-Wing:四数翼方法,扩展 XYZ-Wing 的高级候选消除
• X-Cycle:交替推理链循环,发现矛盾进行消除
• Franken-Fish:跨宫鱼型技巧,突破标准 Fish 的行列限制
• 避免矩形(Avoidable Rectangle):利用唯一解特性消除候选
【新功能】解题回放 GIF 导出
• 完成数独后可将解题过程导出为动态 GIF
• 一键分享到社交平台,展示你的解题技巧
【新功能】在线谜题分享
• 生成专属谜题链接,好友点击即可在网页上解题
• 分享者成绩对比:好友完成后可看到你的用时和排名
1.0.6 Mar 20
【新功能】解题路径分析器
• 解题路径回放:浏览最优解法的每一步操作,学习高效解题思路
• 技巧统计对比:统计解法中各种技巧的使用频率,对比自己的解题风格
• 链线可视化:推理链路以连线形式直观展示在棋盘上
【新功能】X-Ray 候选数可视化
• 全新 X-Ray 模式:以可视化方式展示候选数分布,快速定位关键格
• 提示技巧自定义:自由配置提示系统使用的技巧范围
• 动画教学增强:新增动画演示,提升技巧学习体验
【新功能】连续操作模式
• 连续候选模式:连续标注多个候选数,无需反复切换
• 连续擦除模式:批量擦除候选数,提升操作效率
• 技巧偏好评分:根据你的解题偏好适配难度评分
【多语言完善】
1.0.5 Mar 17
【重大更新】教学模块全面升级
• 49 种技巧全覆盖:每种技巧都有互动 Demo + 分步推理讲解
• 新增 50+ 道互动练习题:29 种高级技巧新增独立练习,告别重复练同一题
• 新增 4 种技巧教学:唯一矩形 Type3/Type4、超级宫、链推理
• 练习计时:记录每次练习用时,精准追踪学习效率
• 练习结果完整记录:成功和失败都纳入掌握度评估
【引擎修复】
• 修复 UR Type2 端点排序导致的误判
• 修复 3D Medusa / ALS 推理链定位异常
• 修复 W-Wing 端点排序不一致
• 修复高难度跳过技巧时的回溯逻辑
【稳定性优化】
• 修复锯齿数独引擎潜在闪退
• 修复 OCR 图像导入潜在闪退
• 修复成就合并时进度丢失
• 修复存档保存抖动问题
• 修复多处 UI 渐变色闪退风险
1.0.4 Mar 15
【新功能】提示模式切换
• 单步提示:每次只给一步操作(消除候选数或填入),细粒度辅助
• 单格提示:完整推导链逐步展示,学习解题思路
• 可选「基于盘面候选数」:使用你标注的候选数进行分析
• 默认单步模式,在设置中随时切换
【新功能】多人对战增强
• iPad 全屏对战:对战界面改为全屏展示,棋盘大小与单人模式一致
• 全部候选数填充:多人对战支持全部候选和单格候选,与单人模式一致
【优化】数独技巧命名规范化
• 12项技巧名称对齐社区标准:涡轮鱼→多宝鱼、几乎锁定集→待定数组等
• 所有教程、提示、题库中的技巧名同步更新
【修复】
• 修复 iPad 对战棋盘大小不一致问题
• 修复技巧描述中的术语不规范
1.0.3 Mar 14
【新功能】历史记录增强
• 恢复对局:从历史记录直接进入之前的对局,继续下棋或复盘
• 自定义命名:左滑记录重命名,为重要对局标注备注
• 导入题库:左滑记录一键导入到个人题库,方便重玩和分享
• 可恢复标记:有棋盘数据的记录显示恢复图标(↺)
【新功能】完整软件使用指南
• 7大功能分组:游戏模式/基本操作/辅助工具/历史记录/题库系统/统计与成就/个性化设置
• 30+ 条详细说明,覆盖每一项功能
• 入口:解题教学 → 使用指南
【修复】
• 修复 SwiftData schema 兼容性问题,避免数据丢失
• 数据获取优化,提高可靠性
1.0.2 Mar 10
【新功能】草稿标注系统
• 候选数上色:5 种颜色标记关键候选数
• 格子上色:用颜色高亮重要区域
• 逻辑连线:绘制强链/弱链,支持不同颜色
• 放大弹窗:精准选择小格子中的候选数
【优化】提示系统增强
• 提示技巧连接线:直观展示推理链路
• 最后一步数字高亮:引导填入答案
• 切换面板自动关闭提示,避免高亮残留
【优化】操作体验
• 新增撤销系统优化(支持批量candidates撤销)
• 点击空白区域取消选中
• 擦除按钮智能清理候选数
• iPad 横屏三面板布局(填格子/提示/草稿)
• iPhone 竖屏固定高度面板,布局更稳定
【修复】
• 修复提示高亮动画卡死问题
• 修复教学练习棋盘数据错误
1.0.1 Mar 9
New
• Pencil handwriting: write digits straight into cells with Apple Pencil; small corner digits become candidates; learns your handwriting
• Custom rule sudoku: combine rules into a new puzzle, 4×4 to 9×9
• Input area settings: 5 keypad layouts, customizable key placement, Minimal and Full presets
• Lock input: lock a digit, Erase or Candidates for continuous entry
• Gesture settings: customizable long-press, double-tap, swipe and Apple Pencil actions
• Drag to fill: drag a digit key onto a cell to place it
• Display settings: candidate highlight modes, board and font size controls, coordinate labels; reorganized color schemes
• Help: help center, guided tour and in-context tips
• Redesigned home screen with a new Workshop entry
Other
• Bug fixes
more Version 2.0.2 Sep 20
Data Not Collected The developer does not collect any data from this app.