# Sudoku Collector — Sudoku that teaches techniques > Sudoku app teaching expert techniques with guided puzzles and custom import. (iPhone/iPad app by Sravan Nerella.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sudoku-collector/id347833241 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Sravan Nerella](https://appshunter.io/developer/347833244) - Category: Games, Entertainment, Puzzle, Strategy - Price: $0.99 - Rating: 2.30/5 from 7 App Store ratings - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 13.0 · 133 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2009-12-23 - Data updated: 2026-10-14 - Monetization: paid ## What is Sudoku Collector? You've solved a thousand Sudoku puzzles. Now learn how the hard ones really crack — and bring the hard ones with you. Sudoku Collector teaches you the techniques expert solvers use — not by grinding, but by guiding. Every puzzle is named for the technique it teaches: Naked Pair, X-Wing, Swordfish, ALS Chain, all the way up to Bowman's Bingo and Pattern Overlay. Choose Guided mode and the app walks you through hint trains that reveal each step in plain language. Switch to Challenge or Zen mode when you're ready to fly solo. BRING YOUR OWN PUZZLES Found a hard puzzle in a magazine, on a website, in a friend's screenshot? Tap it onto a grid or paste the 81-character string — the app validates exactly-one-solution, classifies it against the same 79-technique solver that drives the built-in packs, and lands it in your Dossier. From there you Play it with the full Train hint sequence, watch the optimal solve as a filmstrip ("How to Solve"), or play it again as a fresh visual variant. No other Sudoku app on the App Store teaches imported puzzles with the same machinery as its first-party content. WHAT'S INSIDE • 8 tiers, 79 named techniques across 12 families — Foundation, Intersections, Subsets, Fish, Wings, Single-Digit Chains, Multi-Digit Chains, Colouring, Uniqueness, Almost Locked Sets, plus Forcing and Exotic for the deep end. From Full House and Naked Single all the way to ALS Chain, SK-Loop, Exocet, Tridagon, Kraken Fish, and Bowman's Bingo. • A growing curated library of 82 packs — 69 single-technique drill packs, 8 family packs (Subsets, Fish, Wings, Unique Rectangles, Forcing, and more), and 5 mixed-tier packs. Every pack carries a calibrated learning curve: 50 hand-picked puzzles, every one chosen for what it teaches. New packs land over the air without app updates. • Same seed, fresh board every replay — under the hood every puzzle has trillions of visual variations, so a "Replay" gives you a new-looking grid every time. The library never feels small. • Your Dossier — your personal collection of puzzles you imported from the world, organized in folders, replayable forever, every one taught by the same engine as the built-in packs. • Guided hint trains — plain-language explanations of why each move is the move. The solver runs against your live board on every tap, so hints are never stale even if you solved part of the puzzle a different way. • A board built for chain solvers — color whole cells, color individual candidates inside a cell, and draw strong or weak links between candidates right on the board. Chain notation as a working surface, not a notebook. • Daily puzzles tuned to your level — twelve daily slots across the tiers, with a customizable difficulty range so you don't waste your day on six puzzles that are too easy and three that are too hard. The app gently nudges your range upward as you grow. Auto mode reads your trail progress; Custom mode lets you set the range yourself. • Accomplishments — a career wall, solver-identity trophies, and per-tier milestone tracking. • Filmstrip replay — at the end of every solve, watch your own moves play back as a victory parade, frame by frame. The same filmstrip view powers "How to Solve" by feeding it the optimal solver path instead of your moves — so you can study before you play, then watch yourself crack it after. • A deliberately minimal board — three themes (light, dark cool, dark warm) for everything around the board; the puzzle surface stays clean in all three so nothing competes with the logic. WHO IT'S FOR For Sudoku players who've plateaued at "intermediate" and want a path through the hard stuff — and for the chain-solver crowd who've never had an app that respects how they actually work. Bring the puzzle you can't crack from anywhere; the app meets you on it. The app works entirely offline; new puzzle packs ship over the air when you're online (and you can turn that off too), but nothing about how you play ever leaves your phone. ## Key features - Learn 79 named Sudoku techniques - Guided hint trains with plain-language explanations - Import and analyze custom Sudoku puzzles - Play imported puzzles with full hint sequences - Daily puzzles tuned to your skill level - Visual variations for replayability - On-board chain solver notation ## Is Sudoku Collector safe? Not enough ratings yet to assess Sudoku Collector. ## Is Sudoku Collector legit? Sudoku Collector appears to be a legitimate app. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Sudoku Collector is 83 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data. ## Frequently asked questions about Sudoku Collector ### What is Sudoku Collector? Sudoku Collector is a paid Sudoku app designed to teach advanced solving techniques. It offers guided puzzles, custom puzzle import, and various game modes. ### How does Sudoku Collector teach techniques? It teaches techniques through puzzles named after specific strategies like Naked Pair or X-Wing. Guided mode provides step-by-step hints in plain language. ### Can I import my own Sudoku puzzles into Sudoku Collector? Yes, you can import puzzles from magazines, websites, or screenshots by tapping them onto a grid or pasting an 81-character string. The app validates and classifies them. ### What modes are available in Sudoku Collector? Sudoku Collector offers Guided mode for learning, Challenge mode for solo play, and Zen mode for relaxed puzzling. ### How often is Sudoku Collector updated? The app was last updated on June 15, 2026, with version 1.2.2. New puzzle packs are delivered over the air without requiring app updates. ### What devices does Sudoku Collector support? Sudoku Collector is available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod, indicated by its support for these devices. ### What is the price of Sudoku Collector? Sudoku Collector is a paid app priced at $0.99. ### Is Sudoku Collector suitable for younger players? Sudoku Collector has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for a wide range of players interested in logic puzzles. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.2.4 — 2026-07-24 What's New in 1.2.4 • Daily puzzles now stay up to date — the latest month always appears, and you can scroll back through a full year of past dailies. • More accurate technique credit: the victory screen now reliably recognizes every solving technique you used, including trickier cases the previous version could miss. • Your progress is safe if you leave mid-puzzle — techniques you've already used are remembered even after fully closing the app. • Cell coloring stays out of your way — the digit you're tracking stays highlighted while you color, and coloring no longer places a number by accident. • Various stability and correctness fixes to the solving and hint engine. ### 1.2.3 — 2026-07-07 See the technique behind every move. Sudoku Collector now recognizes how you solve. As you play — with or without hints — the app identifies the actual technique behind each of your moves, from Naked Singles and Pointing Pairs all the way up to X-Wings and XY-Chains. • Replay, reimagined — step through your finished puzzle and see the technique named at every move, with the exact placement or elimination highlighted where it happens. • Know your game — discover which techniques you're already using naturally, including the advanced ones you didn't realize you'd spotted. • Cleaner, clearer playback — every step now shows what changed and why, so your solve reads like a guided walkthrough. Your solve, decoded — move by move. ### 1.2.2 — 2026-06-15 Fixed the download of daily puzzles from server instead of defaulting to local set of puzzles. Welcome to Sudoku Collector. This is the v1.2.2 release. THE BIG IDEA Most Sudoku apps treat puzzles as a difficulty commodity — random grids labeled Easy through Expert. Sudoku Collector inverts that. Every puzzle is hand-classified by the technique it teaches, and the Train button teaches the technique BEFORE it shows you the move. FOR PEOPLE WHO LEARN BY DOING • 79 named techniques across 8 tiers, organized into 12 families. • Ten pure-strategy families — Foundation (the four singles every solver starts from), Intersections (pointing and claiming), Subsets (naked and hidden groups), Fish (X-Wings, Swordfish, Jellyfish and their finned cousins), Wings (short bivalue chains that pivot on a cell), Single-Digit Chains (strong-link chains travelling on one number), Multi-Digit Chains (bivalue chains alternating across cells), Colouring (two-colour networks that flush contradictions), Uniqueness (deadly patterns and the rectangles they forbid), and Almost Locked Sets (sets one candidate away from being locked). • Plus two more for the deep end — Forcing (try every branch; everything that survives is true) and Exotic (research-grade patterns from the edge of the canon). Many purists call these trial-and-error rather than logic; they're here for the players who want them. • A growing library of 82 curated packs: 69 single-technique drill packs, 8 family packs, 5 mixed-tier packs. 4,100 puzzles total — every one hand-picked for what it teaches. • Guided hint trains: Hint → Learn → Find → Reveal. Each tap teaches more before it shows more. The solver runs against your live board every tap, so hints adapt if you solve part of the puzzle a different way. • A visual technique glossary covering all 79 techniques with worked examples — always free, always available. FOR PEOPLE WHO COLLECT • Bring any valid Sudoku in: tap it onto a grid or paste an 81-character string. • The app validates exactly-one-solution and classifies the import against the same 79-technique solver. • Imported puzzles land in your Dossier — your personal puzzle collection, organized in folders. • Each Dossier puzzle plays with the FULL Train hint sequence, the FULL chain-link drawing, the FULL filmstrip replay — same machinery as the built-in packs. • "How to Solve" — study the optimal solve path frame-by-frame before you attempt. • "Play Variation" — replay your imports as fresh visual variants, forever. FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE CHAIN NOTATION • Color individual candidate digits inside a cell — not just the whole cell. • Draw strong and weak chain links between candidates, right on the board, in your chosen color. • Full undo for everything you mark, so a slip of the finger never costs you the chain you've been building. FOR EVERY PLAY STYLE • Three play modes: Guided (errors shown, technique named, haptics — for learning), Challenge (timer + personal best — for competition), Zen (no errors, no technique name, no timer — for thinking). • Long-press anywhere to skip the menu — fills a digit, candidate, or color in a single gesture. Built for solving speed; no extra taps between you and the move. • Daily puzzles tuned to your level — twelve daily slots with a customizable difficulty range so the day's puzzles actually fit your skill. Auto mode tracks your tier progress; Custom mode lets you set the range yourself. The app nudges the range upward as you grow. • Three themes: Light, Dark Cool, Dark Warm — for everything around the board. The puzzle surface stays clean in all three. • Filmstrip replay — your own moves play back as a victory parade at the end of every solve. • Career Wall, Solver Identity, Tier Milestones — your accomplishments tracked over time. ### 1.2.1 — 2026-05-26 Welcome to Sudoku Collector. This is the v1.2 release. THE BIG IDEA Most Sudoku apps treat puzzles as a difficulty commodity — random grids labeled Easy through Expert. Sudoku Collector inverts that. Every puzzle is hand-classified by the technique it teaches, and the Train button teaches the technique BEFORE it shows you the move. FOR PEOPLE WHO LEARN BY DOING • 79 named techniques across 8 tiers, organized into 12 families. • Ten pure-strategy families — Foundation (the four singles every solver starts from), Intersections (pointing and claiming), Subsets (naked and hidden groups), Fish (X-Wings, Swordfish, Jellyfish and their finned cousins), Wings (short bivalue chains that pivot on a cell), Single-Digit Chains (strong-link chains travelling on one number), Multi-Digit Chains (bivalue chains alternating across cells), Colouring (two-colour networks that flush contradictions), Uniqueness (deadly patterns and the rectangles they forbid), and Almost Locked Sets (sets one candidate away from being locked). • Plus two more for the deep end — Forcing (try every branch; everything that survives is true) and Exotic (research-grade patterns from the edge of the canon). Many purists call these trial-and-error rather than logic; they're here for the players who want them. • A growing library of 82 curated packs: 69 single-technique drill packs, 8 family packs, 5 mixed-tier packs. 4,100 puzzles total — every one hand-picked for what it teaches. • Guided hint trains: Hint → Learn → Find → Reveal. Each tap teaches more before it shows more. The solver runs against your live board every tap, so hints adapt if you solve part of the puzzle a different way. • A visual technique glossary covering all 79 techniques with worked examples — always free, always available. FOR PEOPLE WHO COLLECT • Bring any valid Sudoku in: tap it onto a grid or paste an 81-character string. • The app validates exactly-one-solution and classifies the import against the same 79-technique solver. • Imported puzzles land in your Dossier — your personal puzzle collection, organized in folders. • Each Dossier puzzle plays with the FULL Train hint sequence, the FULL chain-link drawing, the FULL filmstrip replay — same machinery as the built-in packs. • "How to Solve" — study the optimal solve path frame-by-frame before you attempt. • "Play Variation" — replay your imports as fresh visual variants, forever. FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE CHAIN NOTATION • Color individual candidate digits inside a cell — not just the whole cell. • Draw strong and weak chain links between candidates, right on the board, in your chosen color. • Full undo for everything you mark, so a slip of the finger never costs you the chain you've been building. FOR EVERY PLAY STYLE • Three play modes: Guided (errors shown, technique named, haptics — for learning), Challenge (timer + personal best — for competition), Zen (no errors, no technique name, no timer — for thinking). • Long-press anywhere to skip the menu — fills a digit, candidate, or color in a single gesture. Built for solving speed; no extra taps between you and the move. • Daily puzzles tuned to your level — twelve daily slots with a customizable difficulty range so the day's puzzles actually fit your skill. Auto mode tracks your tier progress; Custom mode lets you set the range yourself. The app nudges the range upward as you grow. • Three themes: Light, Dark Cool, Dark Warm — for everything around the board. The puzzle surface stays clean in all three. • Filmstrip replay — your own moves play back as a victory parade at the end of every solve. • Career Wall, Solver Identity, Tier Milestones — your accomplishments tracked over time. The app works entirely offline; new packs land over the air when you're online (toggle in Settings if you'd rather they didn't). Nothing about how you play ever leaves your phone. Bug fixes: - Fixed cell taps landing on the wrong cell after rotating. - Fixed tutorial controls being cut off iPad in portrait mode. ### 1.2 — 2026-05-20 Welcome to Sudoku Collector. This is the v1.2 release. THE BIG IDEA Most Sudoku apps treat puzzles as a difficulty commodity — random grids labeled Easy through Expert. Sudoku Collector inverts that. Every puzzle is hand-classified by the technique it teaches, and the Train button teaches the technique BEFORE it shows you the move. FOR PEOPLE WHO LEARN BY DOING • 79 named techniques across 8 tiers, organized into 12 families. • Ten pure-strategy families — Foundation (the four singles every solver starts from), Intersections (pointing and claiming), Subsets (naked and hidden groups), Fish (X-Wings, Swordfish, Jellyfish and their finned cousins), Wings (short bivalue chains that pivot on a cell), Single-Digit Chains (strong-link chains travelling on one number), Multi-Digit Chains (bivalue chains alternating across cells), Colouring (two-colour networks that flush contradictions), Uniqueness (deadly patterns and the rectangles they forbid), and Almost Locked Sets (sets one candidate away from being locked). • Plus two more for the deep end — Forcing (try every branch; everything that survives is true) and Exotic (research-grade patterns from the edge of the canon). Many purists call these trial-and-error rather than logic; they're here for the players who want them. • A growing library of 82 curated packs: 69 single-technique drill packs, 8 family packs, 5 mixed-tier packs. 4,100 puzzles total — every one hand-picked for what it teaches. • Guided hint trains: Hint → Learn → Find → Reveal. Each tap teaches more before it shows more. The solver runs against your live board every tap, so hints adapt if you solve part of the puzzle a different way. • A visual technique glossary covering all 79 techniques with worked examples — always free, always available. FOR PEOPLE WHO COLLECT • Bring any valid Sudoku in: tap it onto a grid or paste an 81-character string. • The app validates exactly-one-solution and classifies the import against the same 79-technique solver. • Imported puzzles land in your Dossier — your personal puzzle collection, organized in folders. • Each Dossier puzzle plays with the FULL Train hint sequence, the FULL chain-link drawing, the FULL filmstrip replay — same machinery as the built-in packs. • "How to Solve" — study the optimal solve path frame-by-frame before you attempt. • "Play Variation" — replay your imports as fresh visual variants, forever. FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE CHAIN NOTATION • Color individual candidate digits inside a cell — not just the whole cell. • Draw strong and weak chain links between candidates, right on the board, in your chosen color. • Full undo for everything you mark, so a slip of the finger never costs you the chain you've been building. FOR EVERY PLAY STYLE • Three play modes: Guided (errors shown, technique named, haptics — for learning), Challenge (timer + personal best — for competition), Zen (no errors, no technique name, no timer — for thinking). • Long-press anywhere to skip the menu — fills a digit, candidate, or color in a single gesture. Built for solving speed; no extra taps between you and the move. • Daily puzzles tuned to your level — twelve daily slots with a customizable difficulty range so the day's puzzles actually fit your skill. Auto mode tracks your tier progress; Custom mode lets you set the range yourself. The app nudges the range upward as you grow. • Three themes: Light, Dark Cool, Dark Warm — for everything around the board. The puzzle surface stays clean in all three. • Filmstrip replay — your own moves play back as a victory parade at the end of every solve. • Career Wall, Solver Identity, Tier Milestones — your accomplishments tracked over time. The app works entirely offline; new packs land over the air when you're online (toggle in Settings if you'd rather they didn't). Nothing about how you play ever leaves your phone. ## Related topics [suduko helper](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/suduko-helper) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-14.*