Kakuro
- Category
- Brain
- Players
- 1
- Controls
- Tap
- Digits
- 1 to 9
- Loads
- No download
Controls
| Tap a white cell | Select it. |
| Tap a digit | Place it. |
| Tap ✕ | Clear the cell. |
Next up
| Tap a white cell | Select it. |
| Tap a digit | Place it. |
| Tap ✕ | Clear the cell. |
Kakuro is a crossword built from sums. Each run of white cells has a clue giving the total it must reach, and the digits one to nine are used without repeating inside any single run. Where a row and a column cross, one digit has to satisfy both.
It rewards knowing your combinations. There is only one way to make a total of a certain length from distinct digits in many cases, and recognising those fixed combinations turns a slow arithmetic grind into quick pattern recognition.
Learn the forced combinations. Some totals can only be made one way from distinct digits, and spotting those gives you cells you can fill without any further reasoning.
Work the crossings. A cell belonging to both a row run and a column run is constrained twice, so start where the two sets of possibilities overlap least.
Remember digits cannot repeat within a run. That rules out far more combinations than the total alone, and it is the constraint beginners most often forget.
Pencil in possibilities mentally before committing. A cell with only two candidates is usually resolved by whichever one lets its crossing run work.
One to nine. Zero never appears.
Not within the same run, though the same digit can appear in different runs.
The total that its run of cells must add up to.
Partly, but the real work is deduction. Knowing which combinations are possible matters more than adding quickly.
Nothing at all. The whole of Kakuro is built into the page itself, which is why there is no loading bar and no waiting before you can play.