Dynamic Arcades
← All articles

Puzzle & logic Beginner guide

Numeral Glade: find your first forced Sudoku move

Start Numeral Glade’s first 6×6 Sudoku board with a move you can prove. Combine the row, column and box, then follow the next three deductions.

By Dynamic Arcades About 3 min read

Numeral Glade Easy board 1 before any entries. The first column contains 5, 4 and 3, and the third row contains a 2.
Start at the empty cell in row 3, column 1. Its row, column and box together rule out every digit except 6.

The first move in Numeral Glade, our small Sudoku game, doesn’t need a guess. On Easy board 1, the leftmost cell in the third row must be 6. The reason only becomes clear when you check its row, column and box together.

If you already have a different board open, use Boards, choose Easy, then board 1. This example starts with the untouched numbered board, not a random puzzle. Rows count downward from the top; columns count from the left.

Check three places before entering a digit

Numeral Glade uses digits 1 through 6. Each row, each column and each box must contain every digit once. Its boxes are two rows tall and three columns wide. That’s smaller than the familiar nine-digit Sudoku described in Nikoli’s rules, which uses 3×3 boxes.

Look at row 3, column 1 in the starting picture:

  • The column already contains 5, 4 and 3. Cross those off your list of possible digits.
  • The row contains 2. That leaves 1 or 6.
  • The box contains 1, in row 4, column 2. So 1 is out as well.

Only 6 remains. Select the empty cell, then press 6 on the game’s digit pad. A cell with just one possible digit is often called a single. You haven’t tried an answer and waited for an error; you’ve ruled out the alternatives first.

A cyan 6 entered in row 3, column 1 of Numeral Glade. All original clues remain unchanged.
The first 6 is in place. Recheck its column before moving to an unrelated part of the board.

Let that 6 lead to the next move

An entry changes the choices in every cell sharing its row, column or box. Here, it starts a short chain:

  1. Row 2, column 1 becomes 1. After entering the 6, column 1 is missing only 1 and 2. Row 2 already has a 2 at its right edge, so this cell must be 1.
  2. Row 3, column 2 becomes 4. Its row still needs 1, 3, 4 and 5. Column 2 already contains 3, 1 and 5, leaving only 4.
  3. Row 2, column 2 becomes 6. Column 2 now needs 2 or 6. The 2 already in row 2 rules out 2 here.

These aren’t the only cells worth inspecting. They show why it’s useful to revisit the neighbors of a new entry: a cell that had two possibilities can suddenly have one.

Keep notes separate from answers

Select Notes before using the digit pad if you want to record a possibility in small type. Turn Notes off before entering your answer. A note doesn’t fill the cell, even when you’ve written only one candidate.

For this opening you can work without notes. If you enter a digit in the wrong square, Undo takes back that entry; Redo restores it. Those controls also let you revisit the first deduction and see exactly what changes when the 6 disappears.

Continue checking the row, column and box of an empty cell. If more than one digit survives, leave it for now and inspect another. Easy board 1 was completed using that same single-candidate check for every empty cell, without hints or mistakes. When you’ve filled the grid, the game shows Solved! with your time, mistakes and hints.

Checked against Numeral Glade v4 on 8 October 2026. The complete board, Notes, Undo and Redo were verified with mouse input and emulated touch. Screenshots show the actual game; this is not physical-phone testing.