--- title: "Which Sudoku Techniques Do You Really Need? | Sudoku Flow" description: "We counted every technique our hint engine used on 60,000 puzzles: four basics do most of the work, the X-Wing is rarer than you think, and six never came up." url: https://sudokuflow.com/guides/sudoku-techniques-you-need/ language: en last_modified: 2026-11-05 --- [Sudoku guides](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/) # Which Sudoku Techniques Do You Actually Need? 60,000 Puzzles Counted We counted every technique our hint engine used on 60,000 puzzles: four basics do most of the work, the X-Wing is rarer than you think, and six never came up. Updated 2026-11-05 ## Quick answer Four techniques appear in almost every puzzle: the last remaining cell, the nearly complete row, column or box, the hidden single and the naked single. After them come the pointing pair (24.0% of puzzles), the Skyscraper (14.2%) and ALS-XZ (13.5%). The X-Wing, taught early in most guides, appears in only 2.2%, and 6 of the techniques our engine knows never came up at all. - Singles do most of the work in every puzzle. - The pointing pair is the first technique on notes to learn. - The Skyscraper and the Y-Wing come up far more often than the X-Wing. - Some famous techniques never came up in 60,000 puzzles. - Learn in the order of use, not in the order guides list them. ## How we counted Our app's hint engine solved each of the 60,000 puzzles in its bank the way a careful person would: at every step it takes the easiest technique that places a digit or rules one out. For each technique we counted in how many puzzles it was used at least once, and in how many it was the hardest step. Which technique the engine meets depends on the order it tries them in, so this is the picture for a solver who always tries the easiest step first. ## Every technique, most used first Used in: the share of all 60,000 puzzles in which the technique was used at least once. Hardest step: the share in which it was the hardest technique the puzzle needed. | Technique | Used in | Hardest step | |---|---|---| | [Last Remaining Cell](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/lastRemaining/) | 100.0% | 0.0% | | [Nearly Complete](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/nearlyLastRemaining/) | 100.0% | 15.9% | | [Hidden Single](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/hiddenSingle/) | 83.3% | 16.7% | | [Naked Single](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/nakedSingle/) | 82.8% | 0.8% | | [Pointing Pair](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/pointingPair/) | 24.0% | 9.9% | | [Skyscraper](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/skyscraper/) | 14.2% | 10.1% | | [ALS-XZ](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/alsXZ/) | 13.5% | 13.5% | | [XY-Chain](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/xyChain/) | 12.4% | 9.5% | | [Naked Pair](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/nakedPair/) | 10.5% | 3.0% | | [Y-Wing](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/yWing/) | 10.3% | 5.6% | | [W-Wing](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/wWing/) | 6.7% | 4.5% | | [Box/Line Reduction](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/boxLineReduction/) | 5.5% | 2.2% | | [Hidden Pair](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/hiddenPair/) | 4.9% | 1.0% | | [Unique Rectangle](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/uniqueRectangle/) | 2.7% | 1.9% | | [X-Wing](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/xWing/) | 2.2% | 0.7% | | [Empty Rectangle](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/emptyRectangle/) | 1.8% | 1.1% | | [X-Chain](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/xChain/) | 1.5% | 1.0% | | [Simple Coloring](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/simpleColoring/) | 1.4% | 0.8% | | [XYZ-Wing](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/xyzWing/) | 1.4% | 0.8% | | [Pointing Triple](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/pointingTriple/) | 1.1% | 0.4% | | [Naked Triple](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/nakedTriple/) | 0.8% | 0.1% | | [Swordfish](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/swordfish/) | 0.3% | 0.1% | | [Finned X-Wing](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/finnedXWing/) | 0.2% | 0.2% | | [Grouped Two-String Kite](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/groupedTwoStringKite/) | 0.2% | 0.1% | | [Hidden Triple](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/hiddenTriple/) | 0.2% | < 0.1% | | [Two-String Kite](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/twoStringKite/) | 0.1% | 0.1% | | [Finned Swordfish](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/finnedSwordfish/) | 0.1% | 0.1% | | [WXYZ-Wing](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/wxyzWing/) | < 0.1% | < 0.1% | | [Naked Quad](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/nakedQuad/) | < 0.1% | < 0.1% | | [ALS-XY-Wing](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/alsXYWing/) | < 0.1% | < 0.1% | | [Hidden Quad](https://sudokuflow.com/lessons/hiddenQuad/) | < 0.1% | 0.0% | ## What it means for learning The four singles are the whole game on Easy and Medium, and they do most of the work everywhere else. The first technique that works on notes is the one to learn next: the pointing pair is used in 24.0% of all puzzles. After it, the Skyscraper, ALS-XZ, the XY-Chain, the naked pair and the Y-Wing each turn up in at least one puzzle in ten. [Stuck on a Hard or Expert Sudoku? The Technique You Need Next →](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/stuck-on-hard-sudoku/) ## Famous but rare The X-Wing is in almost every list of Sudoku techniques, but our engine needed it in only 2.2% of the puzzles, and the Swordfish in 0.3%. Six techniques the engine knows never came up at all: the Jellyfish, Remote Pairs, BUG+1, Sue de Coq, 3D Medusa and the forcing chain. They are worth knowing for the hardest puzzles, but you can solve every puzzle in our bank without them. ## Practice Every Find the Mistake puzzle on this site has exactly one wrong digit, and you can play each board right on its page. [Play the puzzles →](https://sudokuflow.com/puzzles/) ## Sudoku guides - [How to Find a Mistake in Sudoku](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/find-a-mistake/) - [7 Common Sudoku Mistakes and How to Avoid Them](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/common-mistakes/) - [Why Won't My Sudoku Solve? A Checklist](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/sudoku-wont-solve/) - [Naked Single vs Hidden Single](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/naked-single-vs-hidden-single/) - [Pointing Pair vs Box/Line Reduction](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/pointing-pair-vs-box-line-reduction/) - [X-Wing vs Swordfish](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/x-wing-vs-swordfish/) - [How to Start a Sudoku: The First Five Minutes](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/how-to-start-sudoku/) - [Stuck on a Hard or Expert Sudoku? The Technique You Need Next](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/stuck-on-hard-sudoku/) - [Sudoku Tips That Actually Work (and Is There a Formula?)](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/sudoku-tips/) - [How to Teach a Child Sudoku: 4×4, Then 6×6, Then 9×9](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/teach-kids-sudoku/) - [Can Every Sudoku Be Solved Without Guessing?](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/solve-without-guessing/) - [How to Solve Sudoku Faster](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/solve-sudoku-faster/) - [Do the Diagonals Count in Sudoku? Diagonal Sudoku (Sudoku X) Rules](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/diagonal-sudoku-rules/) - [What each Sudoku difficulty level asks of you](https://sudokuflow.com/data/sudoku-difficulty-levels/) - [Sudoku facts](https://sudokuflow.com/guides/sudoku-facts/) - [Sudoku checker](https://sudokuflow.com/tools/sudoku-checker/) - [Sudoku for kids](https://sudokuflow.com/printables/kids/) - [Find the Mistake Sudoku](https://sudokuflow.com/find-the-mistake/) ![Sudoku app icon](https://sudokuflow.com/assets/app-icon.png) ## Want more boards like this? We also make a Sudoku app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android. There are no ads in it at all, it works offline, and when you ask for a hint it shows you the technique instead of just filling in a number. [App Store iPhone, iPad, Mac](https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6502922368?pt=125379530&ct=sudokuflow_web&mt=8) [Google Play Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rubigogames.sudoku&referrer=utm_source%3Dsudokuflow%26utm_medium%3Dweb%26utm_campaign%3Dsite) Sudoku Flow is made by Rubigo Games, the developer of the Sudoku app recommended on this site.