Cracking the Cryptic

Cracking the Cryptic

Studio Goya · August 1, 2022 · Casual, Strategy, Board Game, Puzzle, 2D

Cracking the Cryptic is free to play — no purchase needed. We track it so you know if that ever changes.

PC
Very Positive92% · 2457playing now
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →

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Cracking the Cryptic price

Cracking the Cryptic is free to play — there is no purchase price, on Steam or anywhere else we track. We keep watching it, so if it ever stops being free the price history on this page will show when that happened and what it changed to.

About Cracking the Cryptic

✦ AI summary

Cracking the Cryptic is a handcrafted sudoku app featuring expertly designed variant puzzles from the world's best constructors, including unique constraint types like lines, dominoes, and thermo rules. Earn stars by solving carefully calibrated puzzles ranging from beginner to extreme difficulty, with educational hints from the channel's hosts for the toughest challenges.

Line Sudoku

Line Sudoku is a pack devoted to sudokus involving… LINES! Each puzzle features one or more of the popular “lines constraints” that often feature in variant puzzles on Cracking The Cryptic, including Renban, German Whispers, Palindromes, Region Sum and Ten Lines!

We’re thrilled that Line Sudoku includes puzzles by Phistomefel, Qodec, Clover, zetamath, Jay Dyer, Tallcat, Mr Menace, Peter Veenis, Joseph Nehme, Richard Stolk, Prasanna Seshadri, Tyrgannus and Full Deck & Missing A Few Cards! In addition, Mark and Simon have written hints for the challenging puzzles themselves so these hints are meaningful and, above all, educational.

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Welcome to the brand new Sudoku app from YouTube’s most popular Sudoku channel, Cracking The Cryptic.

Unlike other Sudoku apps, we feature handcrafted and curated puzzles from the world’s best Sudoku constructors. Each collection features puzzles made by various authors that are now familiar names to those who follow the channel. Authors like Phistomefel, Clover, Sam Cappleman-Lynes, Christoph Seeliger, Richard Stolk, jovi_al, Qodec, Prasanna Seshadri and of course, Simon and Mark!

Downloading Cracking the Cryptic will give you access to our two launch packs. Our first free collection is a variety pack by Prasanna Seshadri featuring 7 puzzles inspired from our previous Sudoku apps; Sandwich, Classic, Chess, Thermo, Miracle, Killer and Arrow Sudoku. Our first paid collection is Domino Sudoku, a new variant not featured in our previous apps with puzzles from our amazing constructors.

We’ll be releasing more free and paid packs in the future so keep an eye on the app for more Sudoku content from Cracking The Cryptic!

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Domino Sudoku

Domino Sudoku is named after its domino-like appearance with X's, V's, white dots and black dots placed between cells on the grid. Each puzzle features one or more of these domino types with them all having a different effect: an X means digits in the two cells in the domino must sum to 10; a V means they sum to 5; a white dot means the digits are consecutive; and, finally, a black dot means the digits must be in a 1:2 ratio (ie one of the digits must be double the other).

As you can imagine, when you allow the world’s best Sudoku makers to use these rules they are in their element and they’ve made another set of masterpieces for this collection with a huge amount of variety! We’re thrilled that Domino Sudoku includes puzzles by Christoph Seeliger, Sam Cappleman-Lynes, Richard Stolk, Prasanna Seshadri, Phistomefel, Qodec, Clover and jovi_al. In addition, Mark and Simon have written hints for the challenging puzzles themselves so these hints are meaningful and, above all, educational.

As a bonus, Studio Goya has curated 10 generated beginner puzzles so that players of all skill levels can enjoy Domino Sudoku!

In Cracking The Cryptic’s games, players start with zero stars and earn stars by solving puzzles. The more puzzles you solve, the more stars you earn and the more puzzles you get to play. Only the most dedicated (and cleverest) sudoku players will finish all the puzzles. Of course the difficulty is carefully calibrated to ensure lots of puzzles at every level (from easy through to extreme).

So do join us as we continue to try to revolutionize Sudoku app genre.

Cracking the Cryptic — game info

Platforms
Windows, macOS
Steam Deck
Verified
Player modes
Single-player
PC Game Pass
Not included

DLC & expansions

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

Recommended Sep 11, 2026
Good sudoku puzzles to play
1 found this helpful
Recommended Jul 9, 2026
Finally they have made a place to put all their new hand crafted Puzzles, instead of new Games. New additions come out as DLC, putting everything in 1 place. I still love the old ones too, but this is more convenient for everyone.
1 found this helpful
Recommended Aug 28, 2026
Chellenging and fun
Recommended Jul 24, 2026
Good amount of very fun free puzzles!
Recommended Jul 4, 2026
Great puzzles, definitely on the harder side once you go along
Recommended Jun 15, 2026
I'm just a beginner but I have improved my game immensely after about 6 hours. The graphic interface is easy to understand and one package of games was under 5 dollars. I believe I will have hours of fun entertainment.

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