I think a lot of it probably comes down to practice and repetition.
Between Puzzlemix and Nikoli I have done a lot of different Hitori puzzles and I found that, as I completed more and more puzzles, there were more and more patterns, both simple and complex, that I recognized.
A couple of example patterns that I used when solving this puzzle:
1. When there is a row (or column) with the same number in 3 consecutive squares (e.g. 12224), the middle square must be white and the outer 2 squares must be black (e.g. 1BWB4).
2. When there is a white square with black squares on opposite sides and the same number on the other 2 sides, any other occurrence of that number in the row or column must be black. For example, if the following pattern exists, every other 2 in the middle column must be black:
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Last edited by Penelope 4th Feb 2016 at 09:40
Between Puzzlemix and Nikoli I have done a lot of different Hitori puzzles and I found that, as I completed more and more puzzles, there were more and more patterns, both simple and complex, that I recognized.
A couple of example patterns that I used when solving this puzzle:
1. When there is a row (or column) with the same number in 3 consecutive squares (e.g.
12224
), the middle square must be white and the outer 2 squares must be black (e.g.1BWB4
).2. When there is a white square with black squares on opposite sides and the same number on the other 2 sides, any other occurrence of that number in the row or column must be black. For example, if the following pattern exists, every other 2 in the middle column must be black:
123
BWB
527
You can however view other players' statistics and comments in the tables above.