This is my puzzle, and I’m so happy you enjoyed it! I tried to demonstrate as much logic that this ruleset offered as I could, aiming to show the potential. There’s a couple interesting things for the intended solve path. At 21:41, it’s actually possible to immediately do the logic with r3c3 and r9c3 to avoid the Kropki dot entirely- but I didn’t even realize that when making it, and though a player pointed it out to me afterwards, I thought the Kropki dot made it a bit easier to get your bearings so decided to keep it. Starting at 1:17:22, there’s some interesting logic with the 6s. If you attempt to put any 6s outside of the middle three rows, you can’t- either one’s alone in its row, or one’s alone in the column. So it’s actually possible to show all three remaining 6s have to be in the same column, and the only column that’s possible in is c6, which is the intended path. A lot of the logic you found without using it I didn’t even know was there, though, and I found it quite enjoyable seeing the alternate route. At 1:52:41- so you can’t check it. This actually meant that in the very first version of my puzzle, my intended solution actually broke the rules, because there was a 9 without a partner in the row! Luckily it turned out to be an easy fix, but that definitely made me concerned. I actually have appeared on this channel once before; I made a sandwich sudoku around two years ago, though the quality would never make it on now. All in all, I’m really glad you enjoyed it, though I’m sorry the ending was a bit opaque; and I greatly enjoyed watching you play it. Thank you! :D
What a fantastic puzzle. I had been mulling over how to set a sudoku that didn't follow the rules of sudoku as I am sure many people have, but that was a masterpiece of construction. I left a general comment for the channel, but I found your comment and was wondering if you would be up for a "how I set this puzzle" video for the channel? It really is some convoluted logic to get your head around, and having to think way outside the traditional box of sudokudom. One question, was the 666 through the middle of the puzzle just to show how devilish you could be :) If you could send a link to the first puzzle of yours that made it on the channel, I would really like to see the progression. Keep up the awesome setting!
Awhile back, I don't know exactly when, Simon made a comment in a video where he said something like, "Whatever ruleset you want to think about, if Phistomofel gets his hands on it, he will make the ultimate best puzzle there will ever be with that ruleset." Having said that, I would love to see him use this ruleset and make a puzzle with it.
I also spotted the requirement for the remaining 6s to be in the same column and in the same rows as the already-placed 6s, and kept waiting for Simon to figure it out and quickly fill them in.
I did it quite differently from 1:17:22, and the 3 6s were the very last digits I placed. Once you have that 49 pair in the 38 cage, if r2c8 is a 9, then it is impossible to place the final 2 9s. That places all the 9s, fills the rest of r2 with 4s, which fills the thermo with 4s and then finishes those, and then I think looking at any of 6, 7, 8 will quickly finish things, I just happened to do 7 & 8 before 6.
Took 190 minutes and I had to regain confidence in my logic by watching Simon catch up a couple times, but I got there! Fantastic puzzle, if brutal. Rare we see 5/5 difficulty on the channel, (and rarer that I succeed without hints lol) but always fun.
Simon: "Have a go at this yourselves" Me: *looks at 113 minute runtime* Me: "No, I don't think I will, Simon. But I will enjoy watching your suffering and brilliance in equal measures"
Actually this is one of the puzzles I am more inclined to try myself. Because the rules are completely new and Simon cannot rely on most of the tricks he is familiar with.
16:57 "I know this must be frustrating for people who expect me to fly through these puzzles." I cannot overstate how much nobody, absolutely not a single soul expects you to fly through THIS puzzle. Take your time. Never forget this channel is all about the journey, not the end. :)
I laughed already when he looked at the rules: "I'm sorry for reading this again, I hope nobody's reading this and thinking oh yeah, I understand what to do." Oh yes Simon, we all understood the rules at first glance and we are so disappointed at you! 😂
He realized it very quickly at least. I spent five minutes rechecking before jumping to the comments to see if anyone had come up with an alternate solution. Then your comment made me jump to the timestamp and turn the lightbulb on 😮💨
Some of my coloring habits: * Not using grays * Matching the color to its number (4=green, 8=yellow, etc.) or at least the same "column" (green=147, yellow=258, orange=369) * Specifically green vs. orange to contrast opposites (e.g. parity, high/low) * Multi-coloring with grey to indicate one digit known to be exist in a given domino/pair * Reserving a specific color (like gray #2) to indicate that the digit is "completed" (i.e. all instances placed and in a way that satisfies extra rules) * 19-sandwich: known 19s get yellow, known "not 19"s get gray #2
I started laughing when I read the rule set. The fact that the setter managed to design something solvable is really quite unexpected - congratulations Isaac, this is truly original work.
If you think about it, a valid solution with this ruleset (with a different layout of clues, obviously) _could_ be to have each box filled with nine of the same digit. That's the proof that the ruleset works. All you have to do from there is swap pairs of digits, like scrambling a Rubik's cube. Making sure each next iteration is still a valid solution. Eventually you get here!
This might be one of the puzzles that will mostly haunt Simon for a long time, I had a look at this one in the past and I didn't even dare to try it because of how crazy and ridiculous it looks. Truly incredible works from both Isaac and Simon here :D
I feel so bad whenever Simon apologises for anything. I do hope it's slightly for show and that he does not think of himself the way he seems to be talking about himself at times. You're unbelievably amazing, Simon!
Sadly, I'm very close to certain he does think that way, or at least did at one point long enough to have that mental pathway immortalized, as it's pretty much the exact train of thought I often fall into.
This sodon'tku is fantastic! The reason why it is so great, it's because it teaches you how to solve it along the way. You start to notice the thermometer, then the new cage rules, then the maximum of 4 rules (one digit in max 4 rows, max 4 columns or max 4 box). I feel like if I was given another puzzle with the same rules I would solve it much faster thanks to the newly acquired knowledge. Congratulations to the creator. Just brillant.
I thought you were joking about the "computers like me" thing, but these comments really are being made by an AI faster than realtime aren't they Is this a research project? I'm curious who's behind this.
1:26:13 starting from this point, I kept yelling at the screen, "Simon! Look at the 7's in Row 5! You need another 7 in row 5, and it can only go in r5c4, because you already have 7 in four columns!". Absolutly amazing and brilliant puzzle, the logic here is just so clever and beautiful.
Agreed, I figured out that each number proscribes a bounded rectangle containing at most four active rows and columns (although not all corners of the rectangle are included in the set). Once you have that, the sevens get automatically placed, the three remaining sixes have only one logical location, and the fours and eights remain to be cleaned up.
Same. I was especially screaming after he was like "It would be silly if it was something to do with the 7s." and then he didn't double check the 7s real quick to make sure he didn't miss anything.
This is definitely the first (and likely only) puzzle I have ever felt like I understood faster than Simon. I think it was just set in a way that my brain sees patterns. That triple 6 in box 5 was placeable immediately after the 6s in box 6 which would have tripped the remainder of the puzzle.
The 9s destroyed me. I saw the 9s for about 30 minutes just eating away at me as he did the most round about logic to rule out digits when he didn’t need to. It’s tough.
You could hear something like sarcasm as Simon said that. He has to say "have a go" because that's what he always says -- but he knew perfectly well that most of us were firing up the popcorn popper and settling in to watch the master at work.
The rule set seems impossible for both the solver to solve and the setter to create a puzzle with a single individual solution. Kudos to both of you (assuming Simon is able to solve it.) Excited to watch Simon's process for the next 2 hours!
i started to panic because it looked for a second like he wasn't going to click the check button.. all the time sitting here knowing it wouldn't work..
I did the same thing on my solve and pressed the check button at the end. It provided some welcome light relief after a lot of head scratching. Lovely.
This looks impossibile until you realize the "max four" rule, then it's just brutal :) well done to simon for discovering it, i wouldn't in a thousand year. Kudos to the setter, this is an amazing puzzle and very innovative which is saying a lot!
I was one of the first testers of this puzzle (the author and I tend to send our first drafts to each other) and I definitely struggled quite a bit with it. You did marvelously, Simon. The logic of the 6s towards the end can be spotted a bit sooner but the rest of it was very well done, indeed - and a joy to watch. Edit: Also, I guess the thumbnail artist (you?) is a Phasmophobia fan? :D
Yes, when you have the first six 6 in 2 boxes and columns, there are two possible solutions, the remaining three 6 in a column, or the seventh in a column with 6 the eighth in the same row and box as the seventh and the ninth in the same column as the eighth. Starting from Simon's position at 1:17:30, the first option is forced into box 5 and the second option is impossible. Then the position of the 4 is forced and the 7, 8, and 9 are not difficult. It took me 5 minutes from that point. One hour 40 minutes in total. I cheated a bit when I did not know how to solve column 3 I saw the beginning of the video until Simon said no more than 4 houses of the same type per number.
A few moments after Simon had placed the second set of 6’s down, I figured out that it needed a third set of 6s, and seen where it would have went. I was done with the puzzle after 1:23:00, but only because Simon had lead me to that point. :) Good job Simon, you’re much more brilliant than I in these Sudokus, but I was grinning widely when I was able to complete this puzzle much earlier than you finishing the video. :)
When Simon said "do have a go", I was like why does he think of us so highly, but afterwards when he explained the rules and put the minimum and maximum digits that could go on the thermo, I was actually ahead of him, for that I'm really proud. But then again its because of Simon and Mark that I'm able to keep up with them and their logic, so thank you so much.
Toward the end, thinking about how to allocate the 6s is pretty powerful. You've already placed six 6s in the grid, in two boxes that are completely full. You know the remaining three 6s all have to go in the same box, because otherwise there'd have to be a box that only gets one 6. This rules out boxes one and three. The three 6s also all have to go in the same column, because otherwise one of the columns that's not column three or column nine would only have one 6. So the only place that can fit them is R4-6C6.
yep I got that straight away...makes a change. I also worked out the box 3 9's logic earlier which helped in some places. Needed some Simon-nudges earlier on in the puzzle though
This was the key issue that Simon missed. The video would have been far shorter if he'd just realized that the remaining 6s had to be in one column, and in one box. From very early on, there was only one option, and then many of the other considerations would have been moot.
34:24 It's amusing how you backed into this 2 a different way, although 2 minutes earlier you formulated a number can be in a maximum of 4 rows, 4 columns, or 4 boxes. But didn't notice the 2s were already in 4 boxes. So at the time you formulated that rule, you could have instantly placed that 2. :)
And then he applies the same logic to box 4 a minute later, reasoning that he can't place a 2 in box 4 because that would require an 5th column, completely glossing over the fact that it would require a 5th box in the first place 😁. It's pretty obvious you'll need a 2 in boxes 1 and 2, on columns 1 and 6, on the same row. The 9th 2 should then go on the intersection of any box, row and column that already contains a 2.
That rule was missed a lot. Simon tends to forget these checklists all of the time. Not sure this would have been less than 60 minutes even if Simon spent 10 seconds counting "five columns of 8s" instead of 3 minutes doing some other deduction (or repeating one). e.g. at 1:13:37 he has postulated 8 in five columns, but works really hard two minutes later to show that the 9 in box 2 is a problem. That was a ten second deduction that took until 1:16:50, which is about three minutes.
Resnikoff was so preoccupied with whether or not he could, that he didn't stop to think if he should! Also, it'd be cool if someone made a genuinely approachable anti-sudoku for us simpletons.
Everything is wrogn (rZOU-0E5MDI or "Pretty little Liars: The Sudoku" on the channel) by DiMono is challenging without being extreme (~4 stars equivalent on LMD imo) and was one of the first wrogn puzzles. Well worth a try [or watch] if you like these types of puzzles. It is still a sudoku though, so not as tricky as this one and possibly a good place to start.
@@ThomasJohnsen2 I have been wondering since the start of this one whether it would be possible to create something called "double negation" which would combine sudon'tku and wrogn ideas.
Nice puzzle! This took me almost 5 hours to solve, despite my previous experience with anti-sudoku puzzles. One observation that would have helped Simon a few times is that a row, column, or box can have at most 4 distinct digits in it.
Please don’t apologise ❤️ I’m so unintelligent when it comes to these sorts of puzzles but your way of explaining and going through them makes it so I can at least understand when you crack it !! :)
@@Jonas.Nilsson A 27 thermo would require every digit to appear an average of 3 times. Not to mention this thermo has 5 digits in two separate boxes, and there's even a box in which it has 7 digits. That alone would require 15 different digits, even with slow thermo rules. It should be immediately obvious that this thermo is way beyond being compatible with normal sudoku rules.
The point was that we have previous seen long thermos. It has been puzzle before that have had rules that allowed long thermos, so it's not that surprising that he didn't talk about a long thermo before he noticed a 2 cell 20 cage.
I love it when we see their reactions to seeing a puzzle for the first time. Granted, with most puzzles the reaction wouldn't be quite THIS amazing, but I still think they should include reveals in the video more often.
The initial reaction on The Miracle Sudoku was even more priceless. And there was one puzzle where Simon actually called Mark by phone iirc. Priceless moments on cracking the cryptic
I'm so glad to see this puzzle on the channel. This is certainly one of my favorite puzzles from last year and one of the puzzles I've most persistently recommended. The way this premise that sounds like a joke is twisted into a puzzle that I feel could really be its own genre is amazing. Hats off the constructor, and hats off to Simon!
It originally was a joke, as a matter of fact! I proposed the idea to a friend and laughed, and then I decided to try seeing what would happen if I tried the ruleset- and to my surprise, interesting logic began coming out, which inspired the puzzle!
@@notchmath9642 And great that you keep up with the comments too after setting it and watching Simon's solve. Sorry that you don't have the gear to do a HOW I DID IT video. I would watch that. Great work, and as previously said, "Above my pay grade!"
@@victusinambitus A basic summary- I set a valid solution to the ruleset that I thought looked interesting, fixed it because it actually wasn’t a valid solution and had a lone 9 in a row, then added clues one by one to try and force the solution I knew I wanted before I placed the first clue. I started with the longest thermometer possible, trimmed pieces of it off to add logic, added more clues to fix more logic; then after testing revealed an alternate path I didn’t like, I tweaked the puzzle to remove that path, and made a few other slight adjustments to try and make the solution path more telegraphed. Never once did I actually change the solution, only the clues leading to it.
I really laughed out loud at the rules, hilarious. But I don't even want to give it a try ... but definitively I'll watch this. Addendum: Around 90 mins, when there's 6 sixes, the remaining 3 sixes should go to R4-6C6, right? Add2: After watching the whole thing, very enjoyable and fun. And so so very different.
Me too, as soon as i saw "normal sudoku rules CANNOT apply" i laughed for a good 20 seconds. I had to pause the video Edit: oh no the rules get worse lmao
@@garak2406 Yeah you can do to by considering that due to the configuration of the other 6s, the 6s now are limited to only three columns/boxes so the other three 6s must share a column and a box
As soon as Simon placed three 6's in Column 3 and Column 9 he could have placed the other three 6's in column 6. There were no other rows 6's could go and all the other columns in those three rows already had at least 1 digit placed. It was forced to be there.
The 6' s and the 9's are the ones that I was screaming to him for about an hour.... they were so obvious to me....but to come to that I think I never have the brain, so I could not be cruel to Simon at all...
1:17:30 The moment you fix six 6s in only two columns, the other three remaining 6s are terribly restricted. They must for sure be in the same box (otherwise you'd need at least ten to make every one be paired). For the same reason, they must be in the same column. The only available place is in column 6, box 5. I'm surprised Simon didn't catch on that, and 30 minutes later he's even struggling to place the only remaining 6 in the puzzle.
I think this could have shortened the video by 30 minutes. I saw this immediately and kept shouting at Simon untill the end of the video. But then again, Simon had to let go of all his trusted techniques and had to reinvent the wheel. As a novice sodoku player myself (tabula rasa if you will) I could spot many quick solutions to this puzzle surprisingly well, because I don't have the old habits of normal sodoku. Kudos for Simon for solving the puzzle regardless of missing this technique!
I agree! This is the first and only puzzle in the channel so far where I think NOT been an expert Sudoku solver is actually an advantage! The curious part is that it would have taken me AGES to figure out some of the rules Simon found (like the maximum of 4 rows/columns/boxes for each digit), but once he established them I could incorporate them maybe easier than him, because in my case they didn't clash with everything I knew was correct in Sudoku!
I don't know why I this puzzle was the first 9x9 "Sudoku" of your channel that I seriously approached without checking for any tips. Somehow it looked intriguing to try my brain on a puzzle that doesn't need greater Sudoku knowlegde so to speak! I was stunned first of course, but watching so many of Mark's and Simon's awesome videos taught my eyes to look to the right places more quickly than I thought. First the long Thermometer, then the strange closeness the digits wanted to share and a sprinkle of lots of different colouring approaches (I switched all the finished colours to green to not get too overwhelmed). Once I got to the ends of the long thermometer and could close in on the right numbers thanks to the magnificently clever clues by the setter, I was confident enough to see it through to the end!!! I truly loved this puzzle and enjoyed every moment of this 3 hour journey with a nice tea and some chocolat!!!! Thank you Mark and Simon for all the great time I can spend with you and your explanations and logic bombs!
I think there was beautiful logic in the puzzles regarding the 6 placement once you got the 6s in r456c3 and r456c9 (at about 1:20:00), that the remaining sixes must be r456 in the same column due to requiring 4 additional sixes if they are in different rows/boxes and only having 3 eights left, leaving them to be c6r456 since there were no other places left.
That's quite possibly the way you were supposed to progress. Simon could've probably finished 20 minutes sooner if he'd spotted that. It's just such a more clean and clever ending to this masterpiece of a puzzle than Simon's way.
Is it true to say that if you get two parallel sets of three digits (as the 6s) the three remaining must also be arranged in a matching parallel set of three digits? I can't see any other arrangement that's possible, but I don't trust my logic fully.
@@mrmckenzie0 Yep! Otherwise- well, let’s say there is one digit in a fourth row. Then it needs a partner in that row. But now you have two sets of four digits, and you can’t put the ninth in a fifth row, and you can’t put it in a new column since there isn’t a tenth for a partner. So the other three have to be in the same rows as the first two sets of three. But the first digit you place in a new column requires a partner in the column, and then the last digit can’t go in a new column, and the ones with the first two sets are full, so it has to go in the column with the other two new digits.
I usually don't try the puzzles with 2 hour videos, but in the past I've been really impressed with how great the harder puzzles with weird rules are when watching Simon solve them, so I decided to give this one a go. I found myself exclaiming Simonisms about how brilliant the puzzle is as I discovered -slowly- new bits of the logic. Took me well over 2-3 hours split over 2 days but I can say this is my absolute favorite puzzle that's been featured on the channel and probably my produest solve, thanks for an absolutely brilliant puzzle! There's some logic with the 6's that makes the puzzle quite a bit easier to finish that Simon missed I think: once you get the 2nd column of 6's on the far right, you can deduce that the remaining ones can't be anywhere in the top boxes and therefore have to be somewhere in the middle 3 boxes placed as a vertical column; there is only one spot at that point with 3 free vertical spots and this immediately places the remaining 6's!
97:44 for me. I can’t believe I solved this!! I was about to lose my mind at some point, but somehow managed to get to the end. This ruleset is brutal, I’ve never been this confused while solving a sudoku before, but at the same I enjoyed every single second of the solve. Incredible puzzle, just awesome.
Love that every technique, idea and logic used to solve a regular sudoku gets thrown out the window, great fun to watch your solve. Thanks Simon and especially NotchMath. Brilliant.
Amazing puzzle. Amazing solve, Simon. I was quite pleased that on (very few) occasions, I was able to spot the logical path before you in places. But I could not have found the logic to arrive there in the first place. Fantastic!
This is a really weird experience watching this. I still definitely don't have Simon's ability to solve this but I was beating him to many more deductions then I ever normally would (only after he'd worked out where to look). Turns out experience can be a hindrance when the rules are flipped on their head - I had much less issues adjusting given I rarely do the puzzles myself
Oh my GOSH what a puzzle. Geez. One of the best puzzles I’ve ever seen featured on this channel, and an incredible solve by Simon. I hope to see more Isaac and more Sudon’tku in the future, perhaps with other variants - an Arrow Sudon’tku, an XV Sudon’ku, etc.
Knight Sudon'tku. Skyscraper Sudon'tku. There was one kropki clue, but make the board full of dots. Quadruple Sudon'tku. Lockout lines Sudon'tku. German Whispers Sudon'tku. So many options.
I never cared about sudoku or anything like that until I saw your channel. I’m dyslexic really bad with math and numbers so sudokus have always been hard for me to do. But the way you explain your thought process makes it really easy for me to understand and follow along and I really appreciate that! Your videos are so calming and comforting! One of my favorite new channels!
As a lover of negative constraints, this was a pleasure to solve! As usual with the more difficult solves, I needed more time than you, Simon, and also a few times some input from your video to get unstuck. :)
When I saw the rules for this puzzle I just laughed maniacally and settled in to watch Simon struggle. You should not at all beat yourself up for not seeing things on this puzzle, it was absolutely insane. I think you did get a bit hung up on the thermos in the last half hour or so. It resolved itself pretty nicely at that point by just focusing on where the remaining digits could go. And there was a nice bit of logic with 6s where the arrangement of the first six forced the remaining three in box 5. That being said, getting to that point at all was impressive. And bravo to the setter for coming up with such a clever idea. This takes wrogn to a whole new level.
Only 23:49 into the video: I think I just realized, that since every number has to have at least one "partner", in order to NOT fulfill the usual Sudoku rule of "one in every column/box/row", this leads to a massive constraint. Unless I'm mistaken, this means every number has to appear in 3 to 4 separate rows, and 3 to 4 separate columns. If it's 3 rows, it has to be 4 columns and vice versa. I don't think any one number can occupy less than 3 colums/rows, or more than 4 columns/rows Well, or I could be a big doofus like usual and I'm missing something obvious. I'll just continue watching. I'm not at the point yet where I could solve these puzzles by myself, but I'm learning, hopefully Edit: Nope, I'm wrong. 4 rows & 4 columns does in fact work, as does 3 rows & 3 columns. so now in my mind the possible configurations are 3r3c, 3r4c, 4r3c, 4r4c
1:18:13 finish. One thing I did that helped was when a number had reached 4 rows and 4 columns, I would highlight the virtual 4x4 area and look for any possible spaces that could be used to fill the remaining instances of that number. Brilliant and unexpected puzzle!
Its ok Simon. I read the rules, understood them, and still reread them because I was hoping I was wrong. This is way above my pay grade so I dare not try it on my own but take a bow for solving a puzzle full of nothing but negative constraints and Isaac can take a bow right beside you for setting it. Edit: An hour and ten for me but it would have taken me days to get that break in. Someone needs to send Simon a Puzzle of equal brilliance to give to Mark in order to repay this "kindness" 😂
The Phasmophobia thumbnail got my attention, and am I ever glad it did! This has to be one of the most amazing puzzles I’ve seen on this channel. Appears truly absurd and impossible to draw even a single conclusion at the outset, and yet the logic is there, and surprisingly understandable once the momentum starts. I can barely imagine solving this, and find it truly baffling that a human brain could SET it. Amazing!
That was absolutely epic, I have never laughed out loud as much at anything! Massive congratulations to both Simon and Isaac for the best puzzle I have ever seen! (And I can't believe you actually clicked "Check" 😜, just imagine playing this one with the error checker switched on!) One thing to note is that when you placed the two '6' triominoes, that means that the remaining 6s *must* also be in a vertical triomino in r456, any other configuration will lead to needing to place too many partner cells and you'll go over the allowed nine 6s, and then there is only one place where that can go - no need to use the thermo to finish them off.
Wow, that was an interesting puzzle. I assumed from the video length that I'd find it intractable -- but after watching the first 10-15 minutes of Simon's solve and realizing that I was getting things at about the same speed he was, I decided to try it. There was one point I got stuck and had to check with the solve to see what I'd erroneously eliminated, but other than that, I got done in about 70 minutes after I stopped watching the video.
And he continues this incorrect line of thinking after removing the 5s. Typical he removes them for - not the wrong reason, because at this point he already has nine 5s - but through much more complicated reasoning.
I'd like to see more sudon'tkus. So creative! Seems like there could be a lot of very interesting puzzles with this kind of format, not needing sudoku rules.
i'm not even gonna attempt to knit while watching like i usually do, because the second i stop paying attention i'll be utterly lost on what's going on. what a hell of a puzzle, i'm so excited :D
Great puzzle, and great video, thanks! On the coloring, 1st, thanks for bringing in the Mark-style grey flashes for colors where there's more than one option in a box, makes things much clearer. 2nd, I'd suggest (if a puzzle like this ever comes up again, because I don't think it's useful for general sudokus) that you keep 1 color (let's say yellow, since it's fairly mild) and mark all the "done" sets in that color - i.e., you could color all the 5's red once you have all 9, then put red on all the 2's once they'd done, etc... It would make it easier for you to track which numbers are done, and save lots of colors for other patterns.
This was enjoyable, since I was learning along with Simon how this rule set worked, which allowed me to get ahead of him at some points during the solve - but the quickness that Simon picked up the nuances of the ruleset was breathtaking. Incredible work by the setter, superb work by Simon. My brain is tired just watching - this is not a puzzle I would have attempted alone.
I was wondering if someone finally does the sudoku where the rules are started with "Normal sudoku rules does not apply" and I was not disappointed. Bonus points for not having any digits in the grid. Really beautiful creation.
50:00 minutes for me. I was quite impressed by myself. Once I understood the limitations (4 rows, 4 columns, 4 boxes max) plus needing at least 2 of each digits in each box, it was easier.
Really enjoyed watching this Simon, absolutely brilliant to see you struggle to turn your hardwired Sudoku thinking off. Several times I was yelling at the screen that any digit can only ever be in 4 rows, columns or boxes (which you realised early on, but didn't use at several crucial steps to prevent going further down a path which can already be ruled out due to the 5th row, column or box being attempted). And hats off to Isaac for building this uniquely (I think) solvable Sudon'tku puzzle!
Absolutely incredible puzzle. I'm wishing I stopped to give it a go myself now - perhaps I will in a few months when I have forgotten more of the logic. What a treat this was. I was laughing through it because it was so joyous to appreciate it all and I Love when Simon gives his little rants of high compliments to the setter :) bravo!! I'm sure this puzzle will inspire many constructors and I look forward to hopefully seeing more like this appear on the channel in the future!! What genius this was, absolutely stunning
I enjoy watching you solve something that I can barely wrap my mind around, it’s ok to move at a snails pace. It’s so interesting to watch you use logic to figure things out
Reading that ruleset is honestly one of the best laughs I've had in a while. Not started the video yet but I am incredibly excited to see how the hell Simon manages this one. I don't think I have it in me to attempt this.
After a good three and a half hours of work, I was confused when the page didn't tell me I had the correct solution--I went to the video to see what I'd done wrong, saw that Simon had gotten exactly the same result as me, and figured he must have solved it in the last few minutes, so I went back to try to do exactly that. I spent a few minutes checking that I'd done everything right before watching the end of the video and learning that it wasn't my mistake at all! Really an incredible puzzle, incredible props to Isaac. I had a great afternoon with it.
Simons face when he clicked the check button and saw that message saying things were wrong... What I spent 2 hours and bobbined it.. And then the laugh when he remembers normal sudoku rules do not apply. 🙂
From 1:26:02 all i could see was both sevens in column 4, and with Simon leaving it to the very end of the puzzle was painfull. Always a joy seeing the unique way u see puzzles. Thanks Simon, a joy to watch a solve i would never finish.
One of my proudest solves!! Wow what a puzzle though!! I always wanted to see “normal sudoku rules do not apply”, and what a marvellous puzzle… top 5 for sure
1:46:00 "I bet it's something like I could have done the sevens and totally interrupted some communication somewhere" [proceeds to ignore 7, which has unique placements in box 5/8] Although, admittedly, that'd only be 10 minutes or so saved at that point. Or ~30 minutes if he'd followed the "7 can't be in 5 boxes" logic from 1:27:30.
This was an amazing puzzle (no, I didn't bother to attempt it) and the best solve I've ever watched. I could see the ending way before Simon did, and was cheering him on rather loudly. Definitely my favorite video on the channel ever! I wish I could watch it for the first time again. Amazing setting and solve!
I try earlier version of this puzzle, and it's absolutely stunning idea! I'm sure this version should be an improvement to the solve path, and makes it more beautiful!
I only just discovered your channel a few days ago and have binged several of these videos! I had no idea sudoku (er- sudon'tku lol) could be so complex or so much fun. At the same time, I find your videos very meditative and lovely (I doubt I could solve these myself yet, so I've been knitting and enjoying listening to how you tackle these for now)! Thanks for sharing & Happy New Year!
I feel like this is the only puzzle where my lesser sudoku knowledge helped... once he'd gotten his break in, I started seeing tons and tons of stuff that he was missing... this was quite the interesting puzzle!
"I hope no one is looking at this and knows exactly what to do." I do know exactly what to do, wait for you to start solving the puzzle and try to keep up!
I decided to give this a shot, paused your video, and it took me THREE HUNDRED MINUTES to complete!!! I had to skim through your video to make sure I hadn't broken it twice because I had come to an impossibility, but was luckily only two or three undos away from the mistake each time. During my 4th hour, I was working towards the 38 box and started adding up to it! I had pairs of 3, 7, and 9 and was panicking when the 7's weren't working out! Realized my mistake, but man was this a tremendous puzzle... Also gave me a shock when I clicked the check and it flared red over everything lol
Unlearning scanning patterns seems really to be hard and get into the way of Simon's thinking for solving this. In the last part, after placing seven 7s in four rows and columns the last 7s are forced for instance. since there were only two places left in the quasi-jellyfish defined by the placed 7s in the four boxes (r5678c4578).
Very proud to say that while I normally can't keep up with Simon's logical skills, I had figured out the 2's (with the domino not exact locations) about 10 minutes before Simon. This is like mirror mode of Mario Kart where all the normal muscle memory is reversed which makes the illogical logical and lefts rights.
This is my puzzle, and I’m so happy you enjoyed it! I tried to demonstrate as much logic that this ruleset offered as I could, aiming to show the potential. There’s a couple interesting things for the intended solve path.
At 21:41, it’s actually possible to immediately do the logic with r3c3 and r9c3 to avoid the Kropki dot entirely- but I didn’t even realize that when making it, and though a player pointed it out to me afterwards, I thought the Kropki dot made it a bit easier to get your bearings so decided to keep it.
Starting at 1:17:22, there’s some interesting logic with the 6s. If you attempt to put any 6s outside of the middle three rows, you can’t- either one’s alone in its row, or one’s alone in the column. So it’s actually possible to show all three remaining 6s have to be in the same column, and the only column that’s possible in is c6, which is the intended path. A lot of the logic you found without using it I didn’t even know was there, though, and I found it quite enjoyable seeing the alternate route.
At 1:52:41- so you can’t check it. This actually meant that in the very first version of my puzzle, my intended solution actually broke the rules, because there was a 9 without a partner in the row! Luckily it turned out to be an easy fix, but that definitely made me concerned.
I actually have appeared on this channel once before; I made a sandwich sudoku around two years ago, though the quality would never make it on now.
All in all, I’m really glad you enjoyed it, though I’m sorry the ending was a bit opaque; and I greatly enjoyed watching you play it. Thank you! :D
What a fantastic puzzle. I had been mulling over how to set a sudoku that didn't follow the rules of sudoku as I am sure many people have, but that was a masterpiece of construction. I left a general comment for the channel, but I found your comment and was wondering if you would be up for a "how I set this puzzle" video for the channel? It really is some convoluted logic to get your head around, and having to think way outside the traditional box of sudokudom. One question,
was the 666 through the middle of the puzzle just to show how devilish you could be :) If you could send a link to the first
puzzle of yours that made it on the channel, I would really like to see the progression. Keep up the awesome setting!
Awhile back, I don't know exactly when, Simon made a comment in a video where he said something like, "Whatever ruleset you want to think about, if Phistomofel gets his hands on it, he will make the ultimate best puzzle there will ever be with that ruleset." Having said that, I would love to see him use this ruleset and make a puzzle with it.
I also spotted the requirement for the remaining 6s to be in the same column and in the same rows as the already-placed 6s, and kept waiting for Simon to figure it out and quickly fill them in.
I did it quite differently from 1:17:22, and the 3 6s were the very last digits I placed. Once you have that 49 pair in the 38 cage, if r2c8 is a 9, then it is impossible to place the final 2 9s. That places all the 9s, fills the rest of r2 with 4s, which fills the thermo with 4s and then finishes those, and then I think looking at any of 6, 7, 8 will quickly finish things, I just happened to do 7 & 8 before 6.
Took 190 minutes and I had to regain confidence in my logic by watching Simon catch up a couple times, but I got there! Fantastic puzzle, if brutal. Rare we see 5/5 difficulty on the channel, (and rarer that I succeed without hints lol) but always fun.
Finally, a sudoku puzzle where Simon isn't forced to do sudoku and can just enjoy all of the other rules
I was going to comment the same thing but was reading the comments first, saw yours . 😀
So very true. Underrated comment with just a handful 👍s at this moment. 🤣
I laughed a lot at your comment
He certainly did complain about it though
@@DoodleNoodle129 That was happy complaining.
Simon remember, that wasn’t the longest sudoku solve on this channel, it was the fastest sudon’tkus solve on the channel! Stay positive!
Simon: "Have a go at this yourselves"
Me: *looks at 113 minute runtime*
Me: "No, I don't think I will, Simon. But I will enjoy watching your suffering and brilliance in equal measures"
Lmao
😂😂😂
Exactly my thoughts
Actually this is one of the puzzles I am more inclined to try myself.
Because the rules are completely new and Simon cannot rely on most of the tricks he is familiar with.
@@gibbeldon Yeah, starting watching he's been a little slower on the logic. His normal sudoku filling is so fast I usually can't keep up.
16:57 "I know this must be frustrating for people who expect me to fly through these puzzles."
I cannot overstate how much nobody, absolutely not a single soul expects you to fly through THIS puzzle.
Take your time.
Never forget this channel is all about the journey, not the end. :)
Agreed
how many times do people have to repeat that for him to understand ?
maybe he will never get it ?
Well said Daihatski!
I laughed already when he looked at the rules: "I'm sorry for reading this again, I hope nobody's reading this and thinking oh yeah, I understand what to do." Oh yes Simon, we all understood the rules at first glance and we are so disappointed at you! 😂
i mean i personally would fly into the puzzle and not get back up, so keep that all in mind when you're self-critical
I've always wanted to create a Sudoku with rules that start with "Normal Sudoku rules don't apply". This was brilliant.
Actually this had even stronger restriction - not only they don't apply, but they absolutely CAN NOT apply.
it would be funny to have one but just dont put "normal sudoku rules apply" and wait for him to figure out that you dont have to follow them lol
You absolute evil😭😭😂😂
@@Konomi_io
The greatest moment: 1:52:39 when Simon clicks the check button... you can just see his heart sink for just a moment until he realizes. Priceless!!
I love how it perfectly suits theme of sudon'tku
"What have I done wrong...? Oh right, everything."
He realized it very quickly at least. I spent five minutes rechecking before jumping to the comments to see if anyone had come up with an alternate solution. Then your comment made me jump to the timestamp and turn the lightbulb on 😮💨
EVERYTHING IS WRONG!!! 😭
@@Jivvi everything is wrogn
This is the first time I could keep up with Simon. Having basically completely new rules does really even the playing field.
I am so proud of Simon for uncoloring and reusing colors that have done their job for once XD
i'm just glad he's finally flashing/double-colouring the choice-of-positions options :)
i like to make 9 colors mosaics with my puzzles personally
@@fulltimeslackerii8229 do you match the numbers to the colours ? (e.g. 8 = yellow, 5= purple)
Some of my coloring habits:
* Not using grays
* Matching the color to its number (4=green, 8=yellow, etc.) or at least the same "column" (green=147, yellow=258, orange=369)
* Specifically green vs. orange to contrast opposites (e.g. parity, high/low)
* Multi-coloring with grey to indicate one digit known to be exist in a given domino/pair
* Reserving a specific color (like gray #2) to indicate that the digit is "completed" (i.e. all instances placed and in a way that satisfies extra rules)
* 19-sandwich: known 19s get yellow, known "not 19"s get gray #2
I coloured completed number sets black. Force them out of my mind, to focus on the rest.
I love the idea of Mark cackling to himself at the joy of sending this to Simon - brilliant.
I started laughing when I read the rule set. The fact that the setter managed to design something solvable is really quite unexpected - congratulations Isaac, this is truly original work.
solvable AND unique. seems impossible
If you think about it, a valid solution with this ruleset (with a different layout of clues, obviously) _could_ be to have each box filled with nine of the same digit. That's the proof that the ruleset works. All you have to do from there is swap pairs of digits, like scrambling a Rubik's cube. Making sure each next iteration is still a valid solution. Eventually you get here!
This might be one of the puzzles that will mostly haunt Simon for a long time, I had a look at this one in the past and I didn't even dare to try it because of how crazy and ridiculous it looks. Truly incredible works from both Isaac and Simon here :D
After this, I'm thinking Simon will be sticking to very basic sudokus for a little while.
Finally, the puzzle you always wanted. A sudoku that doesn't make you do sudoku.
You know it's complicated when Simon proves something, has time to forget about it, and reproves it later.
I feel so bad whenever Simon apologises for anything. I do hope it's slightly for show and that he does not think of himself the way he seems to be talking about himself at times. You're unbelievably amazing, Simon!
Sadly, I'm very close to certain he does think that way, or at least did at one point long enough to have that mental pathway immortalized, as it's pretty much the exact train of thought I often fall into.
This sodon'tku is fantastic! The reason why it is so great, it's because it teaches you how to solve it along the way. You start to notice the thermometer, then the new cage rules, then the maximum of 4 rules (one digit in max 4 rows, max 4 columns or max 4 box). I feel like if I was given another puzzle with the same rules I would solve it much faster thanks to the newly acquired knowledge.
Congratulations to the creator. Just brillant.
Exactly! As soon as you formulate all the rules in your mind, it becomes very doable.
Rules: 02:16
Let's Get Cracking: 05:01
What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
Bobbins: 2x (1:15:01, 1:42:57)
Scooby-Doo: 1x (49:51)
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Sorry: 21x (03:42, 16:56, 26:15, 43:58, 1:04:46, 1:11:47, 1:12:31, 1:20:10, 1:20:16, 1:26:06, 1:30:12, 1:32:18, 1:38:05, 1:40:45, 1:42:57, 1:45:37, 1:45:45, 1:47:30, 1:48:03, 1:48:03, 1:52:25)
Hang On: 17x (01:47, 02:15, 02:24, 17:36, 22:37, 22:59, 34:52, 34:52, 37:06, 38:57, 40:49, 44:57, 51:55, 1:00:18, 1:01:32, 1:06:56, 1:47:48)
Surely: 10x (19:50, 37:47, 59:43, 1:03:58, 1:11:25, 1:18:32, 1:30:27, 1:32:32, 1:39:37, 1:42:42)
Good Grief: 9x (37:11, 38:25, 45:05, 1:08:18, 1:23:08, 1:24:30, 1:49:21, 1:50:17, 1:53:16)
In Fact: 9x (31:30, 32:27, 45:53, 47:14, 53:54, 1:06:54, 1:08:30, 1:20:51, 1:29:52)
Beautiful: 8x (23:43, 35:11, 46:38, 49:44, 51:06, 1:05:14, 1:05:14, 1:16:16)
Nonsense: 5x (24:43, 30:00, 54:11, 1:00:43, 1:20:13)
Clever: 5x (02:00, 23:33, 33:32, 45:05, 1:20:18)
Wow: 5x (10:48, 10:49, 15:37, 1:22:08, 1:34:19)
The Answer is: 4x (23:54, 24:57, 29:28, 49:49)
Brilliant: 4x (24:46, 24:48, 45:12, 1:06:06)
Goodness: 3x (03:10, 04:41, 1:45:40)
Obviously: 3x (08:22, 1:49:53, 1:52:56)
What on Earth: 2x (15:44, 1:12:33)
I Have no Clue: 2x (54:30, 1:20:28)
Ridiculous: 2x (45:29, 1:25:40)
Magnificent: 2x (1:52:23, 1:52:25)
Umpteen: 2x (50:54, 55:10)
Progress: 2x (1:44:03, 1:52:29)
Axiomatically: 1x (24:01)
Secret: 1x (00:19)
Recalcitrant: 1x (1:21:24)
Stuck: 1x (56:34)
Horrible Feeling: 1x (1:45:32)
Lovely: 1x (25:41)
Break the Puzzle: 1x (1:36:50)
Elegant: 1x (1:21:47)
Deadly Pattern: 1x (46:28)
Gorgeous: 1x (29:33)
Barbaric: 1x (17:06)
Come on Simon: 1x (1:41:02)
Disappointing: 1x (1:22:50)
Corollary: 1x (55:04)
Phone is Buzzing: 1x (1:01:30)
Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Ten (13 mentions)
Two (190 mentions)
Red (25 mentions)
Antithesis Battles:
High (2) - Low (0)
Even (9) - Odd (0)
Lower (6) - Higher (5)
FAQ:
Q1: You missed something!
A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
21 views total and already someone has made timestamps. legend!
@@thomasbarrett6017 the Sand knows all.
@@Draedaja sands of time...
I thought you were joking about the "computers like me" thing, but these comments really are being made by an AI faster than realtime aren't they
Is this a research project? I'm curious who's behind this.
This has to be a computer given how long the video has been out
"It could have been 487 there..."
I am eagerly awaiting the next Sudon'tku, with a 2-cell 487 cage.
1:26:13 starting from this point, I kept yelling at the screen, "Simon! Look at the 7's in Row 5! You need another 7 in row 5, and it can only go in r5c4, because you already have 7 in four columns!".
Absolutly amazing and brilliant puzzle, the logic here is just so clever and beautiful.
Same. And it's literally the second to last digit he got. Brilliance does blind.
Agreed, I figured out that each number proscribes a bounded rectangle containing at most four active rows and columns (although not all corners of the rectangle are included in the set). Once you have that, the sevens get automatically placed, the three remaining sixes have only one logical location, and the fours and eights remain to be cleaned up.
Same. I was especially screaming after he was like "It would be silly if it was something to do with the 7s." and then he didn't double check the 7s real quick to make sure he didn't miss anything.
Yeah, I'm not even done the video yet and I'm yelling about the 7s. :-D
I scrolled all the way down here to find this comment, lol. It bugged me for almost half an hour while watching the video.
This is definitely the first (and likely only) puzzle I have ever felt like I understood faster than Simon. I think it was just set in a way that my brain sees patterns. That triple 6 in box 5 was placeable immediately after the 6s in box 6 which would have tripped the remainder of the puzzle.
I saw that too lol
yep, that was brutal
The 9s destroyed me. I saw the 9s for about 30 minutes just eating away at me as he did the most round about logic to rule out digits when he didn’t need to. It’s tough.
I felt exactly the same! So exciting to finally be able to be faster than Simon for once!
@@PhaythGaming same, i could tell as soon as he penciled in all the fours in box 3 . that was like aound 1:15:00 i think
Simon: "Well, have a go; have a go at the puzzle yourselves..."
Viewers: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, sorry, no, we're OK thanks"
🤣
You could hear something like sarcasm as Simon said that. He has to say "have a go" because that's what he always says -- but he knew perfectly well that most of us were firing up the popcorn popper and settling in to watch the master at work.
Spot on!
I’m smiling just at the rules. I’m so glad you’ve managed to graft through this and I can’t wait to watch.
The rule set seems impossible for both the solver to solve and the setter to create a puzzle with a single individual solution. Kudos to both of you (assuming Simon is able to solve it.) Excited to watch Simon's process for the next 2 hours!
You should try making one- you can add more rules/limitations to make it unique after building a multi solution puzzle.
I think Simon doesn't post the video when he can't solve the puzzle, so you can always assume he solves it
That ‘check’ ending with the panic was incredible 😂 Well done Simon.
i started to panic because it looked for a second like he wasn't going to click the check button.. all the time sitting here knowing it wouldn't work..
The whole time I was crossing my fingers it would end that way and Simon didn't disappoint XD
I did the same thing on my solve and pressed the check button at the end. It provided some welcome light relief after a lot of head scratching. Lovely.
honestly, one of the greatest puzzles i’ve ever seen. almost two hours of entertainment. scary.
This looks impossibile until you realize the "max four" rule, then it's just brutal :) well done to simon for discovering it, i wouldn't in a thousand year. Kudos to the setter, this is an amazing puzzle and very innovative which is saying a lot!
I was one of the first testers of this puzzle (the author and I tend to send our first drafts to each other) and I definitely struggled quite a bit with it. You did marvelously, Simon. The logic of the 6s towards the end can be spotted a bit sooner but the rest of it was very well done, indeed - and a joy to watch.
Edit: Also, I guess the thumbnail artist (you?) is a Phasmophobia fan? :D
Yes, when you have the first six 6 in 2 boxes and columns, there are two possible solutions, the remaining three 6 in a column, or the seventh in a column with 6 the eighth in the same row and box as the seventh and the ninth in the same column as the eighth.
Starting from Simon's position at 1:17:30, the first option is forced into box 5 and the second option is impossible. Then the position of the 4 is forced and the 7, 8, and 9 are not difficult. It took me 5 minutes from that point. One hour 40 minutes in total.
I cheated a bit when I did not know how to solve column 3 I saw the beginning of the video until Simon said no more than 4 houses of the same type per number.
I spotted the 6s as soon as the cage became 6s and was furious for the next 30+ minutes as Simon flailed around trying to continue.
A few moments after Simon had placed the second set of 6’s down, I figured out that it needed a third set of 6s, and seen where it would have went. I was done with the puzzle after 1:23:00, but only because Simon had lead me to that point. :)
Good job Simon, you’re much more brilliant than I in these Sudokus, but I was grinning widely when I was able to complete this puzzle much earlier than you finishing the video. :)
is resinkoff a play on effin ser issac backwards?
When Simon said "do have a go", I was like why does he think of us so highly, but afterwards when he explained the rules and put the minimum and maximum digits that could go on the thermo, I was actually ahead of him, for that I'm really proud.
But then again its because of Simon and Mark that I'm able to keep up with them and their logic, so thank you so much.
Toward the end, thinking about how to allocate the 6s is pretty powerful. You've already placed six 6s in the grid, in two boxes that are completely full. You know the remaining three 6s all have to go in the same box, because otherwise there'd have to be a box that only gets one 6. This rules out boxes one and three. The three 6s also all have to go in the same column, because otherwise one of the columns that's not column three or column nine would only have one 6. So the only place that can fit them is R4-6C6.
yep I got that straight away...makes a change. I also worked out the box 3 9's logic earlier which helped in some places. Needed some Simon-nudges earlier on in the puzzle though
Easy logic that Simon completely missed. I was facepalming for the final hour of the video.
That was the exact thing I was yelling towards the screen for about an hour....
Yep, I noticed that too, came here to comment but you beat me to it
This was the key issue that Simon missed. The video would have been far shorter if he'd just realized that the remaining 6s had to be in one column, and in one box. From very early on, there was only one option, and then many of the other considerations would have been moot.
34:24 It's amusing how you backed into this 2 a different way, although 2 minutes earlier you formulated a number can be in a maximum of 4 rows, 4 columns, or 4 boxes. But didn't notice the 2s were already in 4 boxes. So at the time you formulated that rule, you could have instantly placed that 2. :)
And then he applies the same logic to box 4 a minute later, reasoning that he can't place a 2 in box 4 because that would require an 5th column, completely glossing over the fact that it would require a 5th box in the first place 😁.
It's pretty obvious you'll need a 2 in boxes 1 and 2, on columns 1 and 6, on the same row. The 9th 2 should then go on the intersection of any box, row and column that already contains a 2.
That rule was missed a lot. Simon tends to forget these checklists all of the time. Not sure this would have been less than 60 minutes even if Simon spent 10 seconds counting "five columns of 8s" instead of 3 minutes doing some other deduction (or repeating one).
e.g. at 1:13:37 he has postulated 8 in five columns, but works really hard two minutes later to show that the 9 in box 2 is a problem. That was a ten second deduction that took until 1:16:50, which is about three minutes.
@@57thorns Well but that's what we love about him :)
Resnikoff was so preoccupied with whether or not he could, that he didn't stop to think if he should!
Also, it'd be cool if someone made a genuinely approachable anti-sudoku for us simpletons.
Everything is wrogn (rZOU-0E5MDI or "Pretty little Liars: The Sudoku" on the channel) by DiMono is challenging without being extreme (~4 stars equivalent on LMD imo) and was one of the first wrogn puzzles. Well worth a try [or watch] if you like these types of puzzles. It is still a sudoku though, so not as tricky as this one and possibly a good place to start.
@@ThomasJohnsen2 I have been wondering since the start of this one whether it would be possible to create something called "double negation" which would combine sudon'tku and wrogn ideas.
I published a few easier ones on Logic Masters Germany, numbers 000372, 00037B, and 00037U.
@@logiciananimal this sudoku does have “wrogn” in it. the totals don’t add up stuff
@@fulltimeslackerii8229 I guess - what I had in mind is something like the superposition rules etc. being wrogn somtimes.
Nice puzzle! This took me almost 5 hours to solve, despite my previous experience with anti-sudoku puzzles.
One observation that would have helped Simon a few times is that a row, column, or box can have at most 4 distinct digits in it.
Please don’t apologise ❤️ I’m so unintelligent when it comes to these sorts of puzzles but your way of explaining and going through them makes it so I can at least understand when you crack it !! :)
When Simon said "This 8 needs a friend" that really hit me in the feels
Simon apologizing for struggling with a puzzle that us mere mortals can't even start makes me smile.
I love how you notice the 20 cage at the start instead of the 27 cell Thermo
Right?!?! Hahaha
Well there is other puzzles that have slow thermo rules.. So we have seen something like a 12 long thermo in the channel before.
@@Jonas.Nilsson well this one is a 27 long thermo, more that double the 12 you mention
@@Jonas.Nilsson A 27 thermo would require every digit to appear an average of 3 times. Not to mention this thermo has 5 digits in two separate boxes, and there's even a box in which it has 7 digits. That alone would require 15 different digits, even with slow thermo rules. It should be immediately obvious that this thermo is way beyond being compatible with normal sudoku rules.
The point was that we have previous seen long thermos. It has been puzzle before that have had rules that allowed long thermos, so it's not that surprising that he didn't talk about a long thermo before he noticed a 2 cell 20 cage.
I love it when we see their reactions to seeing a puzzle for the first time.
Granted, with most puzzles the reaction wouldn't be quite THIS amazing, but I still think they should include reveals in the video more often.
The initial reaction on The Miracle Sudoku was even more priceless.
And there was one puzzle where Simon actually called Mark by phone iirc. Priceless moments on cracking the cryptic
This must’ve been super strange to solve for somebody so well versed with sudoku rules.
I'm so glad to see this puzzle on the channel. This is certainly one of my favorite puzzles from last year and one of the puzzles I've most persistently recommended. The way this premise that sounds like a joke is twisted into a puzzle that I feel could really be its own genre is amazing. Hats off the constructor, and hats off to Simon!
It originally was a joke, as a matter of fact! I proposed the idea to a friend and laughed, and then I decided to try seeing what would happen if I tried the ruleset- and to my surprise, interesting logic began coming out, which inspired the puzzle!
@@notchmath9642 And great that you keep up with the comments too after setting it and watching Simon's solve. Sorry that you don't have the gear to do a HOW I DID IT video. I would watch that. Great work, and as previously said, "Above my pay grade!"
@@victusinambitus A basic summary- I set a valid solution to the ruleset that I thought looked interesting, fixed it because it actually wasn’t a valid solution and had a lone 9 in a row, then added clues one by one to try and force the solution I knew I wanted before I placed the first clue. I started with the longest thermometer possible, trimmed pieces of it off to add logic, added more clues to fix more logic; then after testing revealed an alternate path I didn’t like, I tweaked the puzzle to remove that path, and made a few other slight adjustments to try and make the solution path more telegraphed. Never once did I actually change the solution, only the clues leading to it.
@@notchmath9642 Amazing Thanks
I really laughed out loud at the rules, hilarious. But I don't even want to give it a try ... but definitively I'll watch this.
Addendum: Around 90 mins, when there's 6 sixes, the remaining 3 sixes should go to R4-6C6, right?
Add2: After watching the whole thing, very enjoyable and fun. And so so very different.
I wanted to attempt this after reading the rules, then I looked at the length of the video however, and decided to watch instead.
Me too, as soon as i saw "normal sudoku rules CANNOT apply" i laughed for a good 20 seconds. I had to pause the video
Edit: oh no the rules get worse lmao
🤣🤣🤣
🤣😂🤣
🤣🤣🤣
I thought the same about the Last three sixes and i still can't see any other possible solution when you have this Arrangement.
@@garak2406 Yeah you can do to by considering that due to the configuration of the other 6s, the 6s now are limited to only three columns/boxes so the other three 6s must share a column and a box
As soon as Simon placed three 6's in Column 3 and Column 9 he could have placed the other three 6's in column 6. There were no other rows 6's could go and all the other columns in those three rows already had at least 1 digit placed. It was forced to be there.
That annoyed me so much, if he had noticed that he would have completed the puzzle in about 20 minutes less give or take.
I still don't get why the 4's could bot go in. I did not see the 5 rows restriction.
I shouted "do the 6s" so often while watching ^^
I noticed this as well, I was really hoping he would see it
The 6' s and the 9's are the ones that I was screaming to him for about an hour.... they were so obvious to me....but to come to that I think I never have the brain, so I could not be cruel to Simon at all...
-Sees the title of the video: *ooooh*
-Sees the length of the video: *OOOOH!*
1:17:30 The moment you fix six 6s in only two columns, the other three remaining 6s are terribly restricted. They must for sure be in the same box (otherwise you'd need at least ten to make every one be paired). For the same reason, they must be in the same column. The only available place is in column 6, box 5.
I'm surprised Simon didn't catch on that, and 30 minutes later he's even struggling to place the only remaining 6 in the puzzle.
I think this could have shortened the video by 30 minutes. I saw this immediately and kept shouting at Simon untill the end of the video. But then again, Simon had to let go of all his trusted techniques and had to reinvent the wheel. As a novice sodoku player myself (tabula rasa if you will) I could spot many quick solutions to this puzzle surprisingly well, because I don't have the old habits of normal sodoku. Kudos for Simon for solving the puzzle regardless of missing this technique!
I agree! This is the first and only puzzle in the channel so far where I think NOT been an expert Sudoku solver is actually an advantage! The curious part is that it would have taken me AGES to figure out some of the rules Simon found (like the maximum of 4 rows/columns/boxes for each digit), but once he established them I could incorporate them maybe easier than him, because in my case they didn't clash with everything I knew was correct in Sudoku!
I don't know why I this puzzle was the first 9x9 "Sudoku" of your channel that I seriously approached without checking for any tips. Somehow it looked intriguing to try my brain on a puzzle that doesn't need greater Sudoku knowlegde so to speak! I was stunned first of course, but watching so many of Mark's and Simon's awesome videos taught my eyes to look to the right places more quickly than I thought. First the long Thermometer, then the strange closeness the digits wanted to share and a sprinkle of lots of different colouring approaches (I switched all the finished colours to green to not get too overwhelmed). Once I got to the ends of the long thermometer and could close in on the right numbers thanks to the magnificently clever clues by the setter, I was confident enough to see it through to the end!!!
I truly loved this puzzle and enjoyed every moment of this 3 hour journey with a nice tea and some chocolat!!!!
Thank you Mark and Simon for all the great time I can spend with you and your explanations and logic bombs!
I think there was beautiful logic in the puzzles regarding the 6 placement once you got the 6s in r456c3 and r456c9 (at about 1:20:00), that the remaining sixes must be r456 in the same column due to requiring 4 additional sixes if they are in different rows/boxes and only having 3 eights left, leaving them to be c6r456 since there were no other places left.
That's quite possibly the way you were supposed to progress. Simon could've probably finished 20 minutes sooner if he'd spotted that.
It's just such a more clean and clever ending to this masterpiece of a puzzle than Simon's way.
@@darkluigi254 It is, yeah! (I set it)
@@notchmath9642 Great setting! 👍 I noticed that triple 6 at about 1:37:40 and later looked for a comment like this.
Is it true to say that if you get two parallel sets of three digits (as the 6s) the three remaining must also be arranged in a matching parallel set of three digits? I can't see any other arrangement that's possible, but I don't trust my logic fully.
@@mrmckenzie0 Yep! Otherwise- well, let’s say there is one digit in a fourth row. Then it needs a partner in that row. But now you have two sets of four digits, and you can’t put the ninth in a fifth row, and you can’t put it in a new column since there isn’t a tenth for a partner. So the other three have to be in the same rows as the first two sets of three. But the first digit you place in a new column requires a partner in the column, and then the last digit can’t go in a new column, and the ones with the first two sets are full, so it has to go in the column with the other two new digits.
I usually don't try the puzzles with 2 hour videos, but in the past I've been really impressed with how great the harder puzzles with weird rules are when watching Simon solve them, so I decided to give this one a go. I found myself exclaiming Simonisms about how brilliant the puzzle is as I discovered -slowly- new bits of the logic. Took me well over 2-3 hours split over 2 days but I can say this is my absolute favorite puzzle that's been featured on the channel and probably my produest solve, thanks for an absolutely brilliant puzzle!
There's some logic with the 6's that makes the puzzle quite a bit easier to finish that Simon missed I think: once you get the 2nd column of 6's on the far right, you can deduce that the remaining ones can't be anywhere in the top boxes and therefore have to be somewhere in the middle 3 boxes placed as a vertical column; there is only one spot at that point with 3 free vertical spots and this immediately places the remaining 6's!
97:44 for me. I can’t believe I solved this!! I was about to lose my mind at some point, but somehow managed to get to the end. This ruleset is brutal, I’ve never been this confused while solving a sudoku before, but at the same I enjoyed every single second of the solve. Incredible puzzle, just awesome.
Love that every technique, idea and logic used to solve a regular sudoku gets thrown out the window, great fun to watch your solve. Thanks Simon and especially NotchMath. Brilliant.
Amazing puzzle. Amazing solve, Simon. I was quite pleased that on (very few) occasions, I was able to spot the logical path before you in places. But I could not have found the logic to arrive there in the first place. Fantastic!
36:25 “I’m going to do that, cause it makes me feel colorful”
I love this man so much
15 minutes in and I’m amazed. This is so much fun to watch. I think it’s brave of you to even attempt this on video, Simon. Brilliant!
Hands down the most intriguing puzzle I’ve seen on the channel. Absolutely genius construction and brilliant solving
This is a really weird experience watching this. I still definitely don't have Simon's ability to solve this but I was beating him to many more deductions then I ever normally would (only after he'd worked out where to look). Turns out experience can be a hindrance when the rules are flipped on their head - I had much less issues adjusting given I rarely do the puzzles myself
Yep I thought the exact same. Not having a habit of solving normal sudoku actually helps with this puzzle.
I think this has officially taken the top spot as my favourite puzzle on the channel. Simply sublime.
Oh my GOSH what a puzzle. Geez. One of the best puzzles I’ve ever seen featured on this channel, and an incredible solve by Simon. I hope to see more Isaac and more Sudon’tku in the future, perhaps with other variants - an Arrow Sudon’tku, an XV Sudon’ku, etc.
Knight Sudon'tku. Skyscraper Sudon'tku.
There was one kropki clue, but make the board full of dots. Quadruple Sudon'tku.
Lockout lines Sudon'tku. German Whispers Sudon'tku.
So many options.
I never cared about sudoku or anything like that until I saw your channel. I’m dyslexic really bad with math and numbers so sudokus have always been hard for me to do. But the way you explain your thought process makes it really easy for me to understand and follow along and I really appreciate that! Your videos are so calming and comforting! One of my favorite new channels!
As a lover of negative constraints, this was a pleasure to solve!
As usual with the more difficult solves, I needed more time than you, Simon, and also a few times some input from your video to get unstuck. :)
When I saw the rules for this puzzle I just laughed maniacally and settled in to watch Simon struggle. You should not at all beat yourself up for not seeing things on this puzzle, it was absolutely insane.
I think you did get a bit hung up on the thermos in the last half hour or so. It resolved itself pretty nicely at that point by just focusing on where the remaining digits could go. And there was a nice bit of logic with 6s where the arrangement of the first six forced the remaining three in box 5. That being said, getting to that point at all was impressive.
And bravo to the setter for coming up with such a clever idea. This takes wrogn to a whole new level.
Only 23:49 into the video: I think I just realized, that since every number has to have at least one "partner", in order to NOT fulfill the usual Sudoku rule of "one in every column/box/row", this leads to a massive constraint. Unless I'm mistaken, this means every number has to appear in 3 to 4 separate rows, and 3 to 4 separate columns. If it's 3 rows, it has to be 4 columns and vice versa. I don't think any one number can occupy less than 3 colums/rows, or more than 4 columns/rows
Well, or I could be a big doofus like usual and I'm missing something obvious. I'll just continue watching. I'm not at the point yet where I could solve these puzzles by myself, but I'm learning, hopefully
Edit: Nope, I'm wrong. 4 rows & 4 columns does in fact work, as does 3 rows & 3 columns. so now in my mind the possible configurations are 3r3c, 3r4c, 4r3c, 4r4c
You are correct with your edit. Also, every number has to be in either 3 or 4 different boxes, by much the same logic.
@@dmdeemer You can have one digit fill a box. In fact, 5's are in 2 boxes in the puzzle ;-)
1:18:13 finish. One thing I did that helped was when a number had reached 4 rows and 4 columns, I would highlight the virtual 4x4 area and look for any possible spaces that could be used to fill the remaining instances of that number. Brilliant and unexpected puzzle!
This puzzle is so cool that I keep coming back to it just about every month just to watch you struggle and call Isaac a barbarian
So satisfying that I spotted the pattern of 6s in box 5 almost instantly after the 6s in box 6. Such an amazing puzzle and definetly worth the time.
Its ok Simon. I read the rules, understood them, and still reread them because I was hoping I was wrong. This is way above my pay grade so I dare not try it on my own but take a bow for solving a puzzle full of nothing but negative constraints and Isaac can take a bow right beside you for setting it.
Edit: An hour and ten for me but it would have taken me days to get that break in. Someone needs to send Simon a Puzzle of equal brilliance to give to Mark in order to repay this "kindness" 😂
Laughed out loud at the rules. Then did a double take when I saw the video length. Thanks CtC for going above and beyond for our amusement!
The Phasmophobia thumbnail got my attention, and am I ever glad it did! This has to be one of the most amazing puzzles I’ve seen on this channel. Appears truly absurd and impossible to draw even a single conclusion at the outset, and yet the logic is there, and surprisingly understandable once the momentum starts. I can barely imagine solving this, and find it truly baffling that a human brain could SET it. Amazing!
That was absolutely epic, I have never laughed out loud as much at anything! Massive congratulations to both Simon and Isaac for the best puzzle I have ever seen! (And I can't believe you actually clicked "Check" 😜, just imagine playing this one with the error checker switched on!)
One thing to note is that when you placed the two '6' triominoes, that means that the remaining 6s *must* also be in a vertical triomino in r456, any other configuration will lead to needing to place too many partner cells and you'll go over the allowed nine 6s, and then there is only one place where that can go - no need to use the thermo to finish them off.
Wow, that was an interesting puzzle. I assumed from the video length that I'd find it intractable -- but after watching the first 10-15 minutes of Simon's solve and realizing that I was getting things at about the same speed he was, I decided to try it. There was one point I got stuck and had to check with the solve to see what I'd erroneously eliminated, but other than that, I got done in about 70 minutes after I stopped watching the video.
@21:50 Yes you can eliminate the 5s from those celles because the thermos is inversed, so they can't be 5s.
And he continues this incorrect line of thinking after removing the 5s. Typical he removes them for - not the wrong reason, because at this point he already has nine 5s - but through much more complicated reasoning.
What a fun puzzle! For some reason, I really took to the odd rules and thoroughly enjoyed watching Simon solve it!
I'd like to see more sudon'tkus. So creative! Seems like there could be a lot of very interesting puzzles with this kind of format, not needing sudoku rules.
i'm not even gonna attempt to knit while watching like i usually do, because the second i stop paying attention i'll be utterly lost on what's going on. what a hell of a puzzle, i'm so excited :D
Great puzzle, and great video, thanks! On the coloring, 1st, thanks for bringing in the Mark-style grey flashes for colors where there's more than one option in a box, makes things much clearer.
2nd, I'd suggest (if a puzzle like this ever comes up again, because I don't think it's useful for general sudokus) that you keep 1 color (let's say yellow, since it's fairly mild) and mark all the "done" sets in that color - i.e., you could color all the 5's red once you have all 9, then put red on all the 2's once they'd done, etc... It would make it easier for you to track which numbers are done, and save lots of colors for other patterns.
This was enjoyable, since I was learning along with Simon how this rule set worked, which allowed me to get ahead of him at some points during the solve - but the quickness that Simon picked up the nuances of the ruleset was breathtaking. Incredible work by the setter, superb work by Simon. My brain is tired just watching - this is not a puzzle I would have attempted alone.
I was wondering if someone finally does the sudoku where the rules are started with "Normal sudoku rules does not apply" and I was not disappointed. Bonus points for not having any digits in the grid. Really beautiful creation.
"Have a go at this puzzle yourselves." No thank you, Simon, I will take the passenger seat on this one...
I just wish RUclips had a “Love” button. This was mind-blowing. Congratulations, Simon and Isaac.
50:00 minutes for me. I was quite impressed by myself. Once I understood the limitations (4 rows, 4 columns, 4 boxes max) plus needing at least 2 of each digits in each box, it was easier.
i’m so sure!
Really enjoyed watching this Simon, absolutely brilliant to see you struggle to turn your hardwired Sudoku thinking off. Several times I was yelling at the screen that any digit can only ever be in 4 rows, columns or boxes (which you realised early on, but didn't use at several crucial steps to prevent going further down a path which can already be ruled out due to the 5th row, column or box being attempted).
And hats off to Isaac for building this uniquely (I think) solvable Sudon'tku puzzle!
Absolutely incredible puzzle. I'm wishing I stopped to give it a go myself now - perhaps I will in a few months when I have forgotten more of the logic. What a treat this was. I was laughing through it because it was so joyous to appreciate it all and I Love when Simon gives his little rants of high compliments to the setter :) bravo!!
I'm sure this puzzle will inspire many constructors and I look forward to hopefully seeing more like this appear on the channel in the future!! What genius this was, absolutely stunning
I enjoy watching you solve something that I can barely wrap my mind around, it’s ok to move at a snails pace. It’s so interesting to watch you use logic to figure things out
Reading that ruleset is honestly one of the best laughs I've had in a while. Not started the video yet but I am incredibly excited to see how the hell Simon manages this one. I don't think I have it in me to attempt this.
After a good three and a half hours of work, I was confused when the page didn't tell me I had the correct solution--I went to the video to see what I'd done wrong, saw that Simon had gotten exactly the same result as me, and figured he must have solved it in the last few minutes, so I went back to try to do exactly that. I spent a few minutes checking that I'd done everything right before watching the end of the video and learning that it wasn't my mistake at all!
Really an incredible puzzle, incredible props to Isaac. I had a great afternoon with it.
Simons face when he clicked the check button and saw that message saying things were wrong...
What I spent 2 hours and bobbined it..
And then the laugh when he remembers normal sudoku rules do not apply. 🙂
Every single cell turned red, which was a good verification that no one cell followed normal rules.
From 1:26:02 all i could see was both sevens in column 4, and with Simon leaving it to the very end of the puzzle was painfull.
Always a joy seeing the unique way u see puzzles.
Thanks Simon, a joy to watch a solve i would never finish.
I'd love to see a lot more of These marvelous Sudon'tkus
One of my proudest solves!! Wow what a puzzle though!! I always wanted to see “normal sudoku rules do not apply”, and what a marvellous puzzle… top 5 for sure
1:46:00 "I bet it's something like I could have done the sevens and totally interrupted some communication somewhere"
[proceeds to ignore 7, which has unique placements in box 5/8]
Although, admittedly, that'd only be 10 minutes or so saved at that point. Or ~30 minutes if he'd followed the "7 can't be in 5 boxes" logic from 1:27:30.
This was an amazing puzzle (no, I didn't bother to attempt it) and the best solve I've ever watched. I could see the ending way before Simon did, and was cheering him on rather loudly. Definitely my favorite video on the channel ever! I wish I could watch it for the first time again. Amazing setting and solve!
I try earlier version of this puzzle, and it's absolutely stunning idea! I'm sure this version should be an improvement to the solve path, and makes it more beautiful!
Finally a puzzle i finished before CTC! Got about 90 minutes. Really fun! I hope more puzzle like this come along, its such a fantastic concept.
I only just discovered your channel a few days ago and have binged several of these videos! I had no idea sudoku (er- sudon'tku lol) could be so complex or so much fun. At the same time, I find your videos very meditative and lovely (I doubt I could solve these myself yet, so I've been knitting and enjoying listening to how you tackle these for now)! Thanks for sharing & Happy New Year!
I feel like this is the only puzzle where my lesser sudoku knowledge helped... once he'd gotten his break in, I started seeing tons and tons of stuff that he was missing... this was quite the interesting puzzle!
Simon hasn't even started solving and I'm already wheeze-laughing
"This is absolutely nightmarish"... ... "Well, have a go" No thanks, I'll just sit back and enjoy watching this.
"I hope no one is looking at this and knows exactly what to do."
I do know exactly what to do, wait for you to start solving the puzzle and try to keep up!
Right!!!! 🤣
Sudon'tkus should definitely become a thing :D Great job Simon for solving it!
I love love loved this solve! What a GREAT puzzle! Possibly my favorite solve of Simon's. So much fun. Thank you!
I decided to give this a shot, paused your video, and it took me THREE HUNDRED MINUTES to complete!!! I had to skim through your video to make sure I hadn't broken it twice because I had come to an impossibility, but was luckily only two or three undos away from the mistake each time. During my 4th hour, I was working towards the 38 box and started adding up to it! I had pairs of 3, 7, and 9 and was panicking when the 7's weren't working out! Realized my mistake, but man was this a tremendous puzzle... Also gave me a shock when I clicked the check and it flared red over everything lol
Unlearning scanning patterns seems really to be hard and get into the way of Simon's thinking for solving this. In the last part, after placing seven 7s in four rows and columns the last 7s are forced for instance. since there were only two places left in the quasi-jellyfish defined by the placed 7s in the four boxes (r5678c4578).
Very proud to say that while I normally can't keep up with Simon's logical skills, I had figured out the 2's (with the domino not exact locations) about 10 minutes before Simon. This is like mirror mode of Mario Kart where all the normal muscle memory is reversed which makes the illogical logical and lefts rights.