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Obvious Triples (Naked Triples), Explained

Most sudoku guides call these naked triples. In Bubble Sudoku they are Obvious Triples.

When three cells between them hold only three colors, those colors belong to those three cells. No other cell in that row, column, or block can take any of them.
1

Read the block

BEFORE

Six cells are open here and none of them shows a single color. Four of them show exactly two, which looks promising, but no two of those four show the SAME two, so there is no pair to find. A matching group can still be hiding. It just needs three cells instead of two.

2

Find the three that share three colors

Look at the three cells in this block’s right column together. The top cell shows Orange and Light Green. The middle cell shows Orange and Dark Purple. The bottom cell shows all three. Between them, only Orange, Light Green, and Dark Purple can go in these three cells, and there are exactly three cells, so those three colors fill them.

3

Take those three colors off the rest

None of those cells is settled on its own, but the three of them together are. Only Orange, Light Green, and Dark Purple fit in them, so no other cell in the block can take any of the three. Light Green is the only one of the three written anywhere else, and it comes off both cells that show it.

4

Read what that leaves

AFTER

The middle cell of the top row was showing Red and Light Green. Light Green belongs to the triple, so with it gone, only Red is left. Place it, and the Red note below comes off as it lands. The triple is no closer to being solved than it was, and it does not need to be.

Cells being readKey cellColor tints match the color being followed

Key Insight

A triple does not need three cells showing three colors each. Here two cells show two colors and one shows three, and that is the common shape. What makes it a triple is that no fourth color fits any of them. The quickest way to find one is to start from two cells that almost pair, look at the colors they use between them, and find a third cell that adds nothing new.

If you’re stuck on a puzzle, see what to try next, in order.

Bubble Sudoku’s hints walk you through Obvious Triples on a real board, one step at a time.

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