kakuro | Imamother

yo'ma

Thu, Mar 14 2013, 2:35 pm

I just found it and it's hard. I can't even finish an easy level. Anyone play it and actually finish it?

Rutabaga

Thu, Mar 14 2013, 2:48 pm

I only like to play online where they tell you what the possible combinations are. I'm too impatient (read lazy) to figure it out myself. My brother, on the other hand, loves to do them by hand.

Try the free weekly puzzle here.

vicki

Thu, Mar 14 2013, 3:34 pm

My seven year old daughter got a Kakuro book when her math enrichment club ended. She can get through an easy one with some help from me. LOL

yo'ma

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 9:46 am

YAY!! I finally finished one and it was considered easy Confused

. Is there a trick to it or is it supposed to take a long time?

OheivYisrael

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 10:17 am

I love these kinds of puzzles- Sudoku, Ken-Ken, and Kakuro... I can do the easy ones quickly, but generally only do the hardest ones I can find.

I'm a math and puzzle person though. It's what I do all day. :-)

Yo'ma, there are a bunch of tricks that I have for starting off the puzzle, which makes finishing up easy. Want some?

yo'ma

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 10:39 am

OheivYisrael wrote:

Yo'ma, there are a bunch of tricks that I have for starting off the puzzle, which makes finishing up easy. Want some?

Yes please!

OheivYisrael

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 10:49 am

If there's a grouping of 2 numbers that must = 17, you know immediately that it's 8 & 9. 16 is 7 & 9. 3 is 1 & 2. 4 is 1 & 3.
Very often a 16 and 17 will intersect, so you therefore know that 9 is the overlapping number, and you can fill in the rest off of that. If 3 and 4 intersect, you know that 1 is the overlapping number.

For a group of 3 numbers, if it must = 6, you know that it's 1,2,3. If it's 24, you know it's 7,8,9. Etc.

photoshop_mommy

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 11:13 am

anyone know where to buy kakuro books? I've been using the same one since 10th grade, just photocopying the pages, and I'm getting really bored of the same puzzles over and over...

shirtsandskirts

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 11:14 am

I love kakuro, much more than sudoku. I only have two books that are basically all finished. Also wish I knew where to find more...

yo'ma

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 11:21 am

OheivYisrael wrote:

Thanks, but that part I figured out Smile

photoshop_mommy

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 11:24 am

all 9 numbers add up to 45. So if you see 8 boxes, do 45 minus whatever the number is in the box, and you know which number to leave out. (8 boxes with a 36 would be 45-36=9 so you need numbers 1-8)

There are for sure more tricks that I can't remember without having a kakuro in front of me...

happy12

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 12:02 pm

Barnes and nobles online has a selection of kakuro, sudoku (with diff. variations), ken ken, hidato, and even challenging dot to dot. In the US there is generally free shipping over $25.

happy12

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 12:05 pm

Also www.djape.net has tons of different puzzles that can be printed. He also has an email newsletter and sells books thru amazon.

seeker

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 2:21 pm

I got a book of it from Amazing Savings before an airplane trip some time back. I found that, like Sudoku, once I get the hang of it it gets kind of boring for me. But for a real challenge, I like http://killersudokuonline.com/ both the regular and the greater than. The easy - medium ones I had fun with, and the harder ones are delightfully maddening.

smilingmom

Fri, Mar 15 2013, 3:45 pm

seeker wrote:

Me too, I've just completed the impossible levels, but redo them.

the world's best mom

Sat, Mar 16 2013, 11:55 pm

I used to love sudokus and I knew how to finish a kakuro (possibly with some looking at the answers for help). Now I have a few more kids and a few hours less sleep each night and my brain doesn't work the way it used to. Now I only enjoy sudokus if they aren't very hard at all, and even those don't interest me much.

However, I've been buying variety puzzle books (Penny Press Family Variety Puzzles and Games) and I love those. They each have 2 pages of sudokus, a couple of kakuros and a bunch more. I love the brick by bricks and cryptograms and quotefalls and stretch letters. I can't do anything that requires too much thinking or a high vocabulry though. My vocabulary is not amazing.