How to play / Use a hint

How to use a hint without spoiling the puzzle

By the end of this you will know how to ask what kind of step is available next, and what that does and does not tell you.

Before you start: A board open, and a position you are stuck on.

Steps

1. Open the board menu and choose "Hint". On a phone the hint control is on the board toolbar and reads "What kind of step is next".
2. Read the panel titled "The next step".
3. It names the technique, reading "It needs nothing harder than a" and then the name of the technique.
4. Tap "Read more about it" to open that technique in the library.
5. Tap "Keep going" to close the panel and return to the board.

What happens

You learn the KIND of step available, not its location. The app says so plainly: where it is, is yours to find. Most of the time a hint is telling you that you have not missed anything clever, which is itself useful, because it means the step is an ordinary one you have overlooked.

If something goes wrong

The panel says "Nothing to point at"

The message reads that no step was found that we can name, and that either the board is finished or it needs something beyond what we check for. On a published Proven Sudoku board the first is far more likely.

You wanted to be told the square

That is deliberate and there is no setting for it. Naming the square ends the part of the puzzle you opened the app for.

Questions

Does using a hint affect my stats?

Yes. A hint counts as help, so a solve that used one is not recorded as unaided. The stats screen keeps a separate "Best, no hints" for solves that used neither a hint nor a check.

Will a hint ever tell me which square to fill?

No. It names the kind of step available next and never where it is.

Related

• How to check your work on a sudoku boardBy the end of this you will be able to find out whether anything you have filled in is wrong, and you will know what the check does not tell you.
• How to enter numbers and use pencil marksBy the end of this you will be able to fill a square, pencil in the numbers a square could be, and take back anything you did not mean.

What this is for: read about the feature.

Last updated 2026-09-20.