genina.com: Forum

lampshade wrote:

hippa wrote:I use my left thumb to select the squares and my right thumb to select the numbers and pencil mode on/off.

That is a great approach. I feel like I waste a lot of time moving my finger down to change numbers and turn pencil mode on and off, then tank a good run when missing a button because I'm moving too fast to stay accurate. That said, you have a much different style than I do, and maybe the two handed approach wouldn't help me all that much.

My top hard and expert times are a mix between a careful study and place -- slower, and more cycling between numbers -- and a rapid, blind filling of pencil marks, followed by a fast paced picking off of easy targets. In my careful studies, I don't touch pencil marks until I get stuck, and if that happens, my time isn't going to be a top 100, so I slow down and enjoy a stress-free puzzle solve. Far more of my top daily 100 times are from using the heck out of pencil marks. Those times will always be among the slowest of the top times posted.

When it comes down to it, I'm not a great sudoku player, but I'm good enough to brute force myself into the top daily 100 often enough. With that, I was still able to get a 0:34 easy and 1:39 expert. Watching your expert video makes me realize how much faster I could be if I were better!

Thanks for posting those videos. I should try to get some of my own up on YouTube.

Go with whatever feels the most comfortable. My style of using my thumbs is something I've developed over about 3 years of using the app, I doubt copying it would happen overnight (or if you can do that you don't need my style). Holding my phone vertically the numbers are just too far for me to feel fast - I'm already messing up a lot of runs by having my fingers work faster than my brain as it is. When it comes to pencil marks, I'm mainly using them as reminders of a few key numbers/spots or for when I get really stuck, and if that happens a personal top10 is out of the question already, similar to what you mentioned.

I'm not great at sudoku either if you compare me to anyone who's actually good at it. I just play a lot, and have done so for a good 7-8 years by now. You're bound to get lucky a few times in that timeframe if you play like I do.