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The following screenshot is taken from the Android app Kakuro++ (level 9 riddle 12)

enter image description here

And I verified the current status within the app. I managed to solve the puzzle by guessing a 50/50-number and eventually having to backtrack to pick the other possibility. However, I'm not a big fan of that approach. I'm looking for a trick that can preferably be applied also to other puzzles of similar difficulty.

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3 Answers 3

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In the bottom right corner, in the 6-clue pointing right, you know:

The leftmost square cannot be a 1, since this would force both the bottom squares in the 3 and 4 clues to its right to be a 1.

This forces:

The square diagonally above the 6-clue to be a 1. Then, the 12-clue in this column must be 1245, since there is no longer a place for the 6 to go. This lets you fill out the column like so:

Next step

The bottom right corner falls to easy deductions:

Easy fill

Next:

Look at the 14-clue down in the middle of the puzzle. We now have a 3&5 in the column, so there cannot be a 6 in the top cell. This forces the crossing 12-clue to be 1245, and thus the cell directly under the 14-clue is 4. With some easy consequential fill-ins:

Next steps

Finishing up:

In the 15-clue down in the fifth column, the remaining two clues need to sum to 10, which force them to be 8 and 2. The rest is just fill-ins.

Finished

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    $\begingroup$ Although all of you have answered the same strategy (which I'll try to be more observant for) I decided to award this answer with the checkmark because it of your effort :) $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 5, 2022 at 17:51
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You can start in the area near the orange cursor:

The vertical 3 and 4 to the right of the cursor both use a 1. Therefore there is a 1 on each row there, and the square above the orange cursor cannot be a 1.
The vertical 12 must use a 1 somewhere (2+3+4+5>12) and there is only one possibility left for that.

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  • $\begingroup$ Good catch! I managed to apply this logic to the cursor field but not to the one above, silly me, haha! $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 5, 2022 at 13:57
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(Dupe, but with pic)

You have an X-wing of ones at the bottom right, so you can place the 1 in the 12 clue:

enter image description here

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