Thank you very much for the feature! This idea came quite randomly - I assumed it would be impossible for it to work nicely, but, as you mentioned at the end, the 1 and 5 clues (which were the first two I placed) created such a nice opening that I had to see this to completion. Glad to see you enjoyed it :)
You hear Simon talk about one brilliant or genius puzzle after another. I often get worried that his overuse of the words brilliant and genius will cause them not to mean too much. Especially, when a truly brilliant and genius puzzle like this one comes along. It seemed by watching Simon, you get an idea of what was going to happen. Then the shaded area takes a turn that you didn't expect. In this puzzle, it seems very difficult to look ahead. It is like you are being pulled along like a child by the hand of a parent. Simon is right, you look at this puzzle and you think how can this work. It not only works but you're helpless to stray from the path that is presented. The solve is truly elegant. This is a puzzle any Setter would be proud to call their own.
Today marks the day that I am caught up on the videos. I’ve been a subscriber for quite a while. Waay back to under 70k subs to be honest. Last December I fell off an ice covered roof at work and was in the hospital for a bit. 3 herniated discs and a good bit of feeling lost in my lower extremities. But, your videos have been a great way to pass the time during recovery in rehab. Throw some headphones on, set the phone in a visible spot and let the videos play as I’m either pedaling away on the cycle, doing stretches, or just listen to the video as I’m on a weight machine trying to regain strength and control in my legs. I know you get a lot of posts about how the channel helps people in many ways. But I hope that you truly understand that it touches one’s life in a way that is unexplainable. Keep up the good work and I know your videos will be helpful for more individuals in the future.
Год назад+201
"Stranded domino of orthogonal loneliness" such poetry ❤️
Rules: 03:55 Let's Get Cracking: 07:00 Simon's time: 43m20s Puzzle Solved: 50:20 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Bobbins: 1x (23:39) Three In the Corner: 1x (43:37) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Ah: 8x (07:47, 11:00, 13:44, 17:20, 17:20, 22:33, 29:39, 51:29) By Sudoku: 6x (29:13, 34:29, 36:34, 44:19, 45:55, 50:01) Clever: 5x (22:05, 22:08, 27:08, 34:46, 41:46) Hang On: 5x (33:06, 33:09, 39:17, 39:17, 48:43) In Fact: 4x (18:38, 18:44, 44:39, 50:13) Sorry: 3x (21:13, 41:40, 45:22) Cake!: 3x (01:38, 01:43, 01:56) Good Grief: 2x (41:37, 48:37) The Answer is: 2x (12:43, 45:48) Lovely: 2x (25:50, 25:51) Brilliant: 2x (01:37, 02:39) Incredible: 2x (24:51, 24:51) Whoopsie: 2x (41:23, 45:22) Fabulous: 2x (51:31, 51:31) Symmetry: 2x (22:12, 22:14) What on Earth: 1x (28:01) What a Puzzle: 1x (50:28) Naked Single: 1x (35:22) Naughty: 1x (28:21) Stuck: 1x (28:48) Beautiful: 1x (13:05) Extraordinary: 1x (27:40) Ridiculous: 1x (48:32) Gorgeous: 1x (31:33) Take a Bow: 1x (51:29) Approachable: 1x (02:47) If I Trust my Pencil Marks: 1x (43:29) Masterpiece: 1x (00:57) Obviously: 1x (01:59) Next Trick: 1x (36:52) Pencil Mark/mark: 1x (43:29) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Fifteen (9 mentions) Three (81 mentions) Green (14 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Even (2) - Odd (0) Shaded (36) - Unshaded (8) Row (4) - Column (4) 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! Q2: Can you do this for another channel? A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!
This is so good! It feels like a very well written story. The opening logic leads me to the next 3x3 region’s logic and so on. I don’t feel lost where to look next. Up to the ending sequence where it still used the ruleset to disambiguate the digits. Truly a chef’s kiss.
I find myself teetering between being impressed by his deduction skills while simultaneously yelling at the screen because he isn't seeing obvious answers
So many of these featured puzzles seem to rely heavily on the non-Sudoku rules doing the heavy lifting for a majority of the solve with a flurry of Sudoku at the end as everything falls into place. What's lovely about this is how the orthogonal shading and Sudoku really feed into each other, with small breakthroughs bouncing you back and forth between the rule sets. Fantastic setting.
Blown away by this one. Extremely impressed by the way the puzzle seems to sort of unfold, starting simpler and adding more and more things to take into consideration. By the end there are even some twists on the format which really test your understanding. It's almost narrative the way it evolves as you play.
Absolutely genius. I solved it in 55 mins and then immediately spent another hour watching Simon solve it in pretty much exactly the same way. It's so clever and linear that I presume everyone's solve path is pretty much the same for this. At one point I thought I'd broken it, when in box 4 I couldn't put a 3 or 4 on the circle. Highlight of the puzzle for me was realising that you had to do the unlikely and convoluted thing of putting a 5 in the circle and having an extra domino on the left, just to fulfil that circle. Also really enjoyed deducing that the wiggle was necessary, and realising there was only one way of making the region in box 2 work once it had to have the given 6 on it. Would LOVE to see a 'making of' video about this... Xendari must have had so many moments of amazing discovery when following the solve path along and realising how many cool bits of logic arose, like the ones I mentioned above. I wonder how much rejiggling and tweaking of the given clues was needed to make the grid work? Or did it feel massively lucky that it unfolded in the way it did? Great stuff 👏
I am always mesmerized by these 'orthogonally connected' puzzles with a contiguous region that spans all boxes. I haven't been able to solve any of them yet on my own - but always so fascinating to watch Simon and Mark tackle them.
It took me a little over an hour ( I thought I had broken the puzzle at the wiggleability part, and started doubting my previous logic) but it was so fun the entire way through! Not often I feel confident enough to try one of the puzzles on the channel, but this one just makes you feel so smart without completely breaking your brain.
Fascinating to see how this puzzle worked - thanks for featuring it, Simon. It feels as if it might be possibly just within my reach, so I will put it on my list to possibly try in the next few days.
At 41:00 there is the possibility that the path is R4C4 R4C5 R3C5 R2C5 R2C6 though that is easily dismissed because if would put a 1 or 2 in the circle in box 2 even though there are 3 gray cells. Not to mention that R2C6 cannot be a 1 or a 2.
31:22 ... over and over, I kept telling myself 'this *must* lead to a break'; it never happened, and I ended up with a truly fascinating solution Incredible puzzle!
That was an excellent puzzle! I watched the first 10 minutes of Simon's solve, realized that I was finding almost all of the moves before he did, and then I finished the solve from there, taking about about 45 minutes including the time I spent watching. I'm glad I did; I really enjoyed it.
What a brilliant puzzle! I never would have thought that I could solve something like that a while ago, but watching this channel has taught me so much. It took me a long old time but I managed it without watching the video and then when I did, I was reassured to see Simon running into problems at some of the same points that I did, although he worked through them far far quicker than me. I backtracked for ages thinking that I'd got it all wrong! Really enjoyed that one, thanks.
That was beautiful. I'm amazed at how quickly I solved it (~40 mins) given how bewildered I was initially. The logic flowed like a fine wine at my dinner table.
27:09 for me 🎉 Incredible sudoku, and I did not expect such a linear solvepath, though I must confess that at some point I was almost certain I had broken the puzzle... The way out was very narrow but brilliant ! 😊
When puzzles have a minimal amount of clues, I don't think it's possible to have a nonlinear path. Each clue is squeezed out to make the maximum number of deductions to produce a solvable grid
I did it in an hour. These few-given-numbers, creative-additional-rules puzzles are so much fun! Thank you for featuring these! I come to this channel for my daily wind down sudoku puzzle now.
Nice musical intro! Geez, this is a miracle puzzle. One of the best puzzles we’ll see this year imo. Utterly brilliant. Relatively simple to solve, like none of the deductions are super ridiculously hard, and it just flows so smoothly and elegantly. Well set and well solved!
The bit you solved at 41:33, good grief is an understatement! I restarted my puzzle thinking I had to have made an error somewhere. Had I not, with a little more self-confidence, I might've been on course to beating your time! Great puzzle ^^
I like it when my grid almost exactly matches Simon's, as far as 40 minutes into his solve. It must be a very linear solution path. [Edit: Although my grid diverged a few minutes later, when Simon missed that 3 was resolved in row 8 at 43:35]
Truly brilliant puzzle. Well done Xendari and We’ll done Simon, and keep up the stunning work; Both of you! P.S I turn 18 tomorrow, and taking a driving course the week after! Wish me luck!
I finished in 41:45 minutes. This was such a unique and fun puzzle. I almost immediately suspected that n had to be 9 and it was so fun proving it with the given 5 clue. From there, it practically solved itself as the limitation of a 9 as n made it only capable of being 1, 2, or 3 cells long. I had a great time working my way through this one. As always, it feels good to beat Simon's time. Great Puzzle!
Fantastic puzzle! Very approachable. Was able to quickly identify the value of the equal sum and finished in 36:04 (including a mistake in the path traveling across the top of the grid).
Hi Simon. New to this channel and only played standard Sudoku before. This is amazing! A beautiful logic line got to box 2/5 on my own and realised I needed a wiggle but couldn’t get past the 6 needing a 3 so had to watch your solution and the “bent” triple. Really proud to work rest out. Also done a fog one. Still slow but I’m hooked 😊
I thought for sure I made a mistake around that "wiggle section" at the top. Took me a while to spot how it would be possible, but I got it around the time you did. Excellent puzzle and solve!
Hi guys - starting at around 31:12, Simon explains how the shaded cells can't go "East" from box 6 to box 7 Apologies if I'm missing something, why can't the 9 be placed in r5c6? Similar to the r8c4 in box 8. Thanks!
That was magical. The smooth way it unfolded was gorgeous. It was like being on a guided tour, with attractions at every step. Realising that the circles were limited to 5 or less, and that certain positions had to exit in a straight line was the key to quick progress. The way that, at each step, the digits already placed meant that all but one option were eliminated was part of the magic. Although this made the puzzle rather easy, it was so lovely to discover each step, I just don't mind. I had a similar brief moment of panic around the 6 in box 2.
Simon, I really appreciated that you didn't quickly "jump" to the box-2 answer; it was quite educational watching the process you used to logic through it step-by-step. I had sort of jumped to the fact that it was a possible way to arrange things, and then I couldn't find another solution, which was perhaps a faster solve but not particularly repeatable for other puzzles (nor something that gave me much confidence in it).
"A stranded domino of orthogonal loneliness." As someone whose 1st language is not english, I feel proud of myself for perfectly understanding that sentence lmao. Thank you for the videos, they're always fun to watch!
Thank you Xendari for such a wonderful puzzle. Thank you Simon and Mark and all at CTC for inspiring me to hone my logic skills to be able to solve this. I surprised myself by immediately spotting the 1 and 5 break in. I hit the jackpot fiinding your channel while seeking basic tips for standard Sodoku. Firstly it is fun and entertaining to both watch and try the puzzles.Secondly the scope of variant sodoku being created is brilliant. Last but not least, I chose sudoku as a fun way to test my logical thinking and never expected discover such well delivered guidance on how to tackle both sudoku and unencountered variants.
Tried to solve it before watching the video. For me it took 221 minutes. An awful result. Now I'm feeling stupid at the end of the video. I started to use sudoku rules, only when I shaded all cells and filled all circles. Sudoku is boring, and I haven't practiced it for many years. This puzzle makes sudoku fun again. Great video. Thanks!
I decided very early on that it wouldn't ever be possible to have six shaded cells in a region with individual sums of 9. No matter how you try to lay them out, you can't make three distinct regions, and making more than three (while still impossible) would violate the pigeonhole principle - you'd need at least two single-cell regions. So all of the circled digits were no more than 5, and while pencil marking that made the puzzle seem hopeless, the possibilities quickly vanished. This puzzle gave me more "I have to have made a mistake somewhere" energy than most, but it was definitely a thrill from start to finish, and I consider beating Simon's time (including his explanations) a success in any puzzle.
I was hoping that around 18:30 Simon would find the stellar logic that since 6 shaded cells add to 18 (2 sets of N), the remaining 3 cells would have to sum to 27 because of the secret, which is clearly impossible. Which rules out 6 cells in general haha.
The phrase “stranded domino of orthogonal loneliness” is so beautifully sad and poetic for talking about how you can’t shade those two cells as part of the sum line.
Around 41:00 with the "wiggle" I don't think you specifically ruled out the case of the shaded area going through the center of the upper 3x3, though it is quickly disproved by the combination of the 6 and circle. Thanks for the video!
Great construction, although I don't personally find this type of puzzle as fun; it's hard for me to prove that I've exhaustively considered all possibilities in very large option spaces. That's taking nothing away from the quality of the puzzle, it just always feels like I need to make assumptions [that there are no possibilities I haven't considered] to proceed in these.
Solved this one all on my own! Wonderful puzzle, though I did struggle quite a bit with the chaos-construction, if that's the right term for this. Boxes 2, 4, and 5 had me stuck for a little while, but I pulled through XD
47min for me, yesterdays and todays puzzles back to back great ones (not that I don’t like other puzzles but these two just fit in the perfect range for me as require thinking but they’re not monsters that I just give up on or spend 1.5-2h mostly staring at the grid)
As someone who's basic sudoku isn't that strong, I appreciated the end of this puzzle when I had finished all of the variant logic, and the sudoku at the end was fairly simple.
it is actually quite nice to see the fast paced completion of the puzzle if you hover your cursor along the "red bar" at the bottom of the video. one can see the greyneyy slowly growing ^^
Nice intro - I've been a fan of that song since I was pretty young. Crazy that a band with the guitar pyrotechnics of Nuno Bettencourt (my cat's namesake!) got big with an acoustic tune.
34:04, but I needed two bits of help. I screwed up Box 8 right off the bat because I had two shaded lines going into the box and I assumed they had to remain separate and I checked my logic of r3c4 being unshaded and saw that I was wrong (I undid my work and redid my logic). I do like that I also used green and gray, but green was "shaded" for me as it jumped out better, haha.
Me who has no idea how you solved the shading even as you you explained it: “that 35 on the bottom is solvable” adds one star to my sudoku chart I now have two stars ⭐️ ⭐️
I completed it first until I found the shaded 6 in box 2, then couldnt figure out how that was going to work (didnt think about including r2c4 in the shading) and assumed I had to have made a mistake. So I started over and, to my frustration, got to the same point. Not knowing where I went wrong, I started watching the video up to the point where I found out I hadnt made a mistake, and just had to look more carefully how to solve it. Then it occured to me (well before the video actually got there) so I finished the puzzle and then the rest of the video. Good to know that Simon also thought it was wrong for a moment 😜
nice puzzle! at first i misread and thought it would have multiple solutions. in the end it took me only slightly more time than Simon with 44.48m, thinking the whole way through i must have messed up somewhere, because i couldnt believe i was solving it. i didnt restart after going through the rules though!
Just got your app, lots of fun, I just wish I had a few more eyes for those situations where I can totally put a 7 in box 8 but I have to go through every number trying to figure out what I'm missing. The "eureka" moment (where you first start to put some numbers down and get momentum) for me on some of these puzzles isn't too hard to find, but I invariably get stuck like half way through because I've got one incorrect note on some square somewhere. Reminds me of grad school. 10/10
I frequently struggle with deductions on rulesets I haven't seen before. Watching Simon's chain of logic in the first ten minutes of this solve was absolutely incredible. Everything made perfect sense as soon as he said it but just seeing how quickly he was able to come to those conclusions...so impressive.
In the very beginning, the part in box 9 where you solve the shaded regions, I am confused as to why it can't escape through box 6. Specifically, if you had the 3 cell shaded region in row 7 of box 9, it can pick up either of the cells in r6 c8 or 9 without breaking, at least from my understanding of the rules. Unless, it has to be a continuous path with only one start and one end point, but from my understanding of the rules this is not the case. They simply must be connected to the overall path. Could you not have something like this (shaded cells: r6c8, r7c6-9, r8c6, r9c6-8)?
This puzzle looks just a bit funky. Divide the grid so it looks chunky, Into nines, oh what fun. And when we are done, A robot appears that looks klunky.
42:05 i think he missed the possibility of r4c4, r4c5, r3c5, r2c5, and r2c6 all being shaded to get to the right side of the grid. luckily i think another piece of logic will eliminate that possibility but it is there with the things he has stated here.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you very much for the feature! This idea came quite randomly - I assumed it would be impossible for it to work nicely, but, as you mentioned at the end, the 1 and 5 clues (which were the first two I placed) created such a nice opening that I had to see this to completion. Glad to see you enjoyed it :)
Very nice puzzle! Good job!
Take a bow indeed! A beautiful puzzle and a great walkthrough by Simon. Well done both of you!
Excellent puzzle! I loved how as we went along, the custom rules and normal sudoku rules constantly interact with each other.
You hear Simon talk about one brilliant or genius puzzle after another. I often get worried that his overuse of the words brilliant and genius will cause them not to mean too much. Especially, when a truly brilliant and genius puzzle like this one comes along.
It seemed by watching Simon, you get an idea of what was going to happen. Then the shaded area takes a turn that you didn't expect. In this puzzle, it seems very difficult to look ahead. It is like you are being pulled along like a child by the hand of a parent. Simon is right, you look at this puzzle and you think how can this work. It not only works but you're helpless to stray from the path that is presented. The solve is truly elegant. This is a puzzle any Setter would be proud to call their own.
Thank you. Lovely rule set and break in, the rest a sequential series of joy
Today marks the day that I am caught up on the videos.
I’ve been a subscriber for quite a while. Waay back to under 70k subs to be honest.
Last December I fell off an ice covered roof at work and was in the hospital for a bit.
3 herniated discs and a good bit of feeling lost in my lower extremities.
But, your videos have been a great way to pass the time during recovery in rehab.
Throw some headphones on, set the phone in a visible spot and let the videos play as I’m either pedaling away on the cycle, doing stretches, or just listen to the video as I’m on a weight machine trying to regain strength and control in my legs.
I know you get a lot of posts about how the channel helps people in many ways. But I hope that you truly understand that it touches one’s life in a way that is unexplainable.
Keep up the good work and I know your videos will be helpful for more individuals in the future.
"Stranded domino of orthogonal loneliness" such poetry ❤️
Yes! 🙂
@@longwaytotipperary Ditto!! 😀
@@davidrattner9 😄
Headless Robot strutting down stairs with a tray ❤
I love how Simon was absolutely certainly it had to be a three ignoring the most simple sudoku.
Rules: 03:55
Let's Get Cracking: 07:00
Simon's time: 43m20s
Puzzle Solved: 50:20
What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
Bobbins: 1x (23:39)
Three In the Corner: 1x (43:37)
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Ah: 8x (07:47, 11:00, 13:44, 17:20, 17:20, 22:33, 29:39, 51:29)
By Sudoku: 6x (29:13, 34:29, 36:34, 44:19, 45:55, 50:01)
Clever: 5x (22:05, 22:08, 27:08, 34:46, 41:46)
Hang On: 5x (33:06, 33:09, 39:17, 39:17, 48:43)
In Fact: 4x (18:38, 18:44, 44:39, 50:13)
Sorry: 3x (21:13, 41:40, 45:22)
Cake!: 3x (01:38, 01:43, 01:56)
Good Grief: 2x (41:37, 48:37)
The Answer is: 2x (12:43, 45:48)
Lovely: 2x (25:50, 25:51)
Brilliant: 2x (01:37, 02:39)
Incredible: 2x (24:51, 24:51)
Whoopsie: 2x (41:23, 45:22)
Fabulous: 2x (51:31, 51:31)
Symmetry: 2x (22:12, 22:14)
What on Earth: 1x (28:01)
What a Puzzle: 1x (50:28)
Naked Single: 1x (35:22)
Naughty: 1x (28:21)
Stuck: 1x (28:48)
Beautiful: 1x (13:05)
Extraordinary: 1x (27:40)
Ridiculous: 1x (48:32)
Gorgeous: 1x (31:33)
Take a Bow: 1x (51:29)
Approachable: 1x (02:47)
If I Trust my Pencil Marks: 1x (43:29)
Masterpiece: 1x (00:57)
Obviously: 1x (01:59)
Next Trick: 1x (36:52)
Pencil Mark/mark: 1x (43:29)
Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Fifteen (9 mentions)
Three (81 mentions)
Green (14 mentions)
Antithesis Battles:
Even (2) - Odd (0)
Shaded (36) - Unshaded (8)
Row (4) - Column (4)
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!
Q2: Can you do this for another channel?
A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!
I really like this!
I just wanna know... Why? How long it took you to write all that down?
@@Zero_Eleven I could be wrong but this looks like a coded algorithm
@@Zero_Eleven if you read the FAQs, it explicitly states that it is a computer, so I assume it's an algorithm much like @Grace Dreifuerst said
No way dude.
This is so good! It feels like a very well written story. The opening logic leads me to the next 3x3 region’s logic and so on. I don’t feel lost where to look next. Up to the ending sequence where it still used the ruleset to disambiguate the digits. Truly a chef’s kiss.
I find myself teetering between being impressed by his deduction skills while simultaneously yelling at the screen because he isn't seeing obvious answers
I do love these orthogonally connected shaded area puzzles. Especially the minimal info ones. Very clever.
Me too. And the chaos construction ones 😊
I also like how good Simon is at solving those types of puzzles too
So many of these featured puzzles seem to rely heavily on the non-Sudoku rules doing the heavy lifting for a majority of the solve with a flurry of Sudoku at the end as everything falls into place. What's lovely about this is how the orthogonal shading and Sudoku really feed into each other, with small breakthroughs bouncing you back and forth between the rule sets. Fantastic setting.
Blown away by this one. Extremely impressed by the way the puzzle seems to sort of unfold, starting simpler and adding more and more things to take into consideration. By the end there are even some twists on the format which really test your understanding. It's almost narrative the way it evolves as you play.
Absolutely genius. I solved it in 55 mins and then immediately spent another hour watching Simon solve it in pretty much exactly the same way. It's so clever and linear that I presume everyone's solve path is pretty much the same for this. At one point I thought I'd broken it, when in box 4 I couldn't put a 3 or 4 on the circle. Highlight of the puzzle for me was realising that you had to do the unlikely and convoluted thing of putting a 5 in the circle and having an extra domino on the left, just to fulfil that circle. Also really enjoyed deducing that the wiggle was necessary, and realising there was only one way of making the region in box 2 work once it had to have the given 6 on it. Would LOVE to see a 'making of' video about this... Xendari must have had so many moments of amazing discovery when following the solve path along and realising how many cool bits of logic arose, like the ones I mentioned above. I wonder how much rejiggling and tweaking of the given clues was needed to make the grid work? Or did it feel massively lucky that it unfolded in the way it did? Great stuff 👏
"A Stranded Domino of Orthogonal Loneliness" 12:00
Bravo sir. Bravo.
I am always mesmerized by these 'orthogonally connected' puzzles with a contiguous region that spans all boxes. I haven't been able to solve any of them yet on my own - but always so fascinating to watch Simon and Mark tackle them.
It took me a little over an hour ( I thought I had broken the puzzle at the wiggleability part, and started doubting my previous logic) but it was so fun the entire way through! Not often I feel confident enough to try one of the puzzles on the channel, but this one just makes you feel so smart without completely breaking your brain.
Fascinating to see how this puzzle worked - thanks for featuring it, Simon. It feels as if it might be possibly just within my reach, so I will put it on my list to possibly try in the next few days.
At 41:00 there is the possibility that the path is R4C4 R4C5 R3C5 R2C5 R2C6 though that is easily dismissed because if would put a 1 or 2 in the circle in box 2 even though there are 3 gray cells. Not to mention that R2C6 cannot be a 1 or a 2.
I have noticed the same "mistake".
Yes. More scope to wriggle than he saw.
The work of a genius. Xendari, this one is absolutely magnificent.
I loved this puzzle, and Simon's solve was phenomenal
31:22 ... over and over, I kept telling myself 'this *must* lead to a break'; it never happened, and I ended up with a truly fascinating solution
Incredible puzzle!
That was an excellent puzzle! I watched the first 10 minutes of Simon's solve, realized that I was finding almost all of the moves before he did, and then I finished the solve from there, taking about about 45 minutes including the time I spent watching. I'm glad I did; I really enjoyed it.
What a brilliant puzzle! I never would have thought that I could solve something like that a while ago, but watching this channel has taught me so much. It took me a long old time but I managed it without watching the video and then when I did, I was reassured to see Simon running into problems at some of the same points that I did, although he worked through them far far quicker than me. I backtracked for ages thinking that I'd got it all wrong! Really enjoyed that one, thanks.
That was beautiful. I'm amazed at how quickly I solved it (~40 mins) given how bewildered I was initially. The logic flowed like a fine wine at my dinner table.
An absolute wonder! "Very well done" doesn't say enough!
27:09 for me 🎉
Incredible sudoku, and I did not expect such a linear solvepath, though I must confess that at some point I was almost certain I had broken the puzzle... The way out was very narrow but brilliant ! 😊
When puzzles have a minimal amount of clues, I don't think it's possible to have a nonlinear path. Each clue is squeezed out to make the maximum number of deductions to produce a solvable grid
@@BryanLu0 Indeed!
I guess what I meant is not only was it linear but also quite easy to follow for the most part...
I did it in an hour. These few-given-numbers, creative-additional-rules puzzles are so much fun! Thank you for featuring these! I come to this channel for my daily wind down sudoku puzzle now.
I did this puzzle this morning and I knew immediately it's going to appear very soon here. Indeed a great puzzle.
Nice musical intro! Geez, this is a miracle puzzle. One of the best puzzles we’ll see this year imo. Utterly brilliant. Relatively simple to solve, like none of the deductions are super ridiculously hard, and it just flows so smoothly and elegantly. Well set and well solved!
Simon, you are precisely the sort of person I want to speak to at a party. And I am sure a lot of subscribers think the same as me!
The bit you solved at 41:33, good grief is an understatement! I restarted my puzzle thinking I had to have made an error somewhere. Had I not, with a little more self-confidence, I might've been on course to beating your time! Great puzzle ^^
I like it when my grid almost exactly matches Simon's, as far as 40 minutes into his solve. It must be a very linear solution path.
[Edit: Although my grid diverged a few minutes later, when Simon missed that 3 was resolved in row 8 at 43:35]
One thing I noticed at the 25:00 mark is that Box 8 cannot have 3 shaded cells on row 9 because there won't be any room for the digit 6 in box 8
This looked deliberate to me. Very beautiful logic.
What an absolutely stunning break in!
Truly brilliant puzzle. Well done Xendari and We’ll done Simon, and keep up the stunning work; Both of you!
P.S I turn 18 tomorrow, and taking a driving course the week after! Wish me luck!
Good Luck!!
Good luck Alek!
I finished in 41:45 minutes. This was such a unique and fun puzzle. I almost immediately suspected that n had to be 9 and it was so fun proving it with the given 5 clue. From there, it practically solved itself as the limitation of a 9 as n made it only capable of being 1, 2, or 3 cells long. I had a great time working my way through this one. As always, it feels good to beat Simon's time. Great Puzzle!
Fantastic puzzle! Very approachable. Was able to quickly identify the value of the equal sum and finished in 36:04 (including a mistake in the path traveling across the top of the grid).
Hi Simon. New to this channel and only played standard Sudoku before. This is amazing! A beautiful logic line got to box 2/5 on my own and realised I needed a wiggle but couldn’t get past the 6 needing a 3 so had to watch your solution and the “bent” triple. Really proud to work rest out. Also done a fog one. Still slow but I’m hooked 😊
57:16 - pretty happy with that one, some lovely logic.
I thought for sure I made a mistake around that "wiggle section" at the top. Took me a while to spot how it would be possible, but I got it around the time you did. Excellent puzzle and solve!
Yesss let's see another wonderfull solving by Simon. Can't wait ✨️✨️
This is such a cute puzzle and very pleasant solve! Hats off to Xendari 🎉
Hi guys - starting at around 31:12, Simon explains how the shaded cells can't go "East" from box 6 to box 7
Apologies if I'm missing something, why can't the 9 be placed in r5c6? Similar to the r8c4 in box 8. Thanks!
What a fun! And consistent puzzle.
Thank you!
Great puzzle. Really enjoyed the flow of this one.
That was magical. The smooth way it unfolded was gorgeous. It was like being on a guided tour, with attractions at every step. Realising that the circles were limited to 5 or less, and that certain positions had to exit in a straight line was the key to quick progress. The way that, at each step, the digits already placed meant that all but one option were eliminated was part of the magic. Although this made the puzzle rather easy, it was so lovely to discover each step, I just don't mind. I had a similar brief moment of panic around the 6 in box 2.
Simon, I really appreciated that you didn't quickly "jump" to the box-2 answer; it was quite educational watching the process you used to logic through it step-by-step. I had sort of jumped to the fact that it was a possible way to arrange things, and then I couldn't find another solution, which was perhaps a faster solve but not particularly repeatable for other puzzles (nor something that gave me much confidence in it).
"A stranded domino of orthogonal loneliness." As someone whose 1st language is not english, I feel proud of myself for perfectly understanding that sentence lmao. Thank you for the videos, they're always fun to watch!
Thank you Xendari for such a wonderful puzzle. Thank you Simon and Mark and all at CTC for inspiring me to hone my logic skills to be able to solve this. I surprised myself by immediately spotting the 1 and 5 break in. I hit the jackpot fiinding your channel while seeking basic tips for standard Sodoku. Firstly it is fun and entertaining to both watch and try the puzzles.Secondly the scope of variant sodoku being created is brilliant. Last but not least, I chose sudoku as a fun way to test my logical thinking and never expected discover such well delivered guidance on how to tackle both sudoku and unencountered variants.
This was a really good one - highly recommended to anyone scrolling through the comments trying to decide whether to spend time on it. You should!
"stranded domino of orthogonal loneliness" is a pretty great phrase
Could be a line from a Manic Street Preacher song
Tried to solve it before watching the video. For me it took 221 minutes. An awful result. Now I'm feeling stupid at the end of the video. I started to use sudoku rules, only when I shaded all cells and filled all circles. Sudoku is boring, and I haven't practiced it for many years. This puzzle makes sudoku fun again. Great video. Thanks!
I decided very early on that it wouldn't ever be possible to have six shaded cells in a region with individual sums of 9. No matter how you try to lay them out, you can't make three distinct regions, and making more than three (while still impossible) would violate the pigeonhole principle - you'd need at least two single-cell regions. So all of the circled digits were no more than 5, and while pencil marking that made the puzzle seem hopeless, the possibilities quickly vanished. This puzzle gave me more "I have to have made a mistake somewhere" energy than most, but it was definitely a thrill from start to finish, and I consider beating Simon's time (including his explanations) a success in any puzzle.
Stared at the puzzle for 5 minutes thinking there was no way I'd be able to solve it and then it just clicked. Great puzzle.
I was hoping that around 18:30 Simon would find the stellar logic that since 6 shaded cells add to 18 (2 sets of N), the remaining 3 cells would have to sum to 27 because of the secret, which is clearly impossible. Which rules out 6 cells in general haha.
Amazing puzzle, what a beautiful video to watch on a friday night. Such beautiful logic and Simon was very entertaining too. Thank you!
Was that intro more than words by extreme? It was lovely
You have a beautiful mind, Simon. Thank you for showing us mortals how it is done
The phrase “stranded domino of orthogonal loneliness” is so beautifully sad and poetic for talking about how you can’t shade those two cells as part of the sum line.
Some rare things are "weirdly wonderful" - like this puzzle.
Around 41:00 with the "wiggle" I don't think you specifically ruled out the case of the shaded area going through the center of the upper 3x3, though it is quickly disproved by the combination of the 6 and circle. Thanks for the video!
Great construction, although I don't personally find this type of puzzle as fun; it's hard for me to prove that I've exhaustively considered all possibilities in very large option spaces. That's taking nothing away from the quality of the puzzle, it just always feels like I need to make assumptions [that there are no possibilities I haven't considered] to proceed in these.
Crazy puzzle! Very well made!!!
This is one of the best puzzles I have ever solved. Absolutely loved it.
Solved this one all on my own! Wonderful puzzle, though I did struggle quite a bit with the chaos-construction, if that's the right term for this. Boxes 2, 4, and 5 had me stuck for a little while, but I pulled through XD
Simon, among many other things, you are the king of anthropomorphism!
25:29 for me, truly a beautiful puzzle with a fascinating ruelset!
47min for me, yesterdays and todays puzzles back to back great ones (not that I don’t like other puzzles but these two just fit in the perfect range for me as require thinking but they’re not monsters that I just give up on or spend 1.5-2h mostly staring at the grid)
As someone who's basic sudoku isn't that strong, I appreciated the end of this puzzle when I had finished all of the variant logic, and the sudoku at the end was fairly simple.
it is actually quite nice to see the fast paced completion of the puzzle if you hover your cursor along the "red bar" at the bottom of the video. one can see the greyneyy slowly growing ^^
What's the song in the beginning? I recognise it, but dont know from where!!
Nice intro - I've been a fan of that song since I was pretty young. Crazy that a band with the guitar pyrotechnics of Nuno Bettencourt (my cat's namesake!) got big with an acoustic tune.
34:04, but I needed two bits of help. I screwed up Box 8 right off the bat because I had two shaded lines going into the box and I assumed they had to remain separate and I checked my logic of r3c4 being unshaded and saw that I was wrong (I undid my work and redid my logic).
I do like that I also used green and gray, but green was "shaded" for me as it jumped out better, haha.
Bonne fête Guillaume !
52:36 What a gorgeous puzzle.
43:20 for me. I’m happy with that! Fun solve, and not nearly as intimidating as it looks! :-D
"Sayin', 'I love you', is not the words I want to hear from you. It's not that I want you not to say it, but if you only knew."
What a smooth and still not easy puzzle!😮😮❤
59:31 for me, this was absolutely stellar!
Very beautiful puzzle. Not monstrous, nice solving-flow and satisfying discoveries.
Me who has no idea how you solved the shading even as you you explained it: “that 35 on the bottom is solvable” adds one star to my sudoku chart I now have two stars ⭐️ ⭐️
I completed it first until I found the shaded 6 in box 2, then couldnt figure out how that was going to work (didnt think about including r2c4 in the shading) and assumed I had to have made a mistake. So I started over and, to my frustration, got to the same point. Not knowing where I went wrong, I started watching the video up to the point where I found out I hadnt made a mistake, and just had to look more carefully how to solve it. Then it occured to me (well before the video actually got there) so I finished the puzzle and then the rest of the video. Good to know that Simon also thought it was wrong for a moment 😜
nice puzzle! at first i misread and thought it would have multiple solutions. in the end it took me only slightly more time than Simon with 44.48m, thinking the whole way through i must have messed up somewhere, because i couldnt believe i was solving it. i didnt restart after going through the rules though!
"A stranded domino of orthogonal loneliness" will be the name of my first album if I ever become a musician.
Just got your app, lots of fun, I just wish I had a few more eyes for those situations where I can totally put a 7 in box 8 but I have to go through every number trying to figure out what I'm missing. The "eureka" moment (where you first start to put some numbers down and get momentum) for me on some of these puzzles isn't too hard to find, but I invariably get stuck like half way through because I've got one incorrect note on some square somewhere. Reminds me of grad school. 10/10
12:08
That is a stranded domino of orthogonal loniness
👌👌👌
NARRATOR’S VOICE: “It wasn’t the first robot without its head carrying an empty tray strutting down some stairs, and it wouldn’t be the last.”
Loved the introduction of More than Words. Check out the Jimmy Fallon / Jack Black version of the video - it's totally awesome.
❤ this song! Love the close harmony!
I think I must've missed something... At 40:54 is there a reason for why the wiggle can't go up the board to row 2 and break in box 3 that way?
If so, the circle would be at least 3, and you would get at least 10. Also, r2c6 cannot be 1 or 2
Simon is exactly the person that I would like to bump into at a party :D.
Continents aside.
Hi Simon! Requesting that you play 74-75 by the Connells. Thank you!
Xendari, I would very much like to see the process of puzzle creation. Could you make a video on this?
I frequently struggle with deductions on rulesets I haven't seen before. Watching Simon's chain of logic in the first ten minutes of this solve was absolutely incredible. Everything made perfect sense as soon as he said it but just seeing how quickly he was able to come to those conclusions...so impressive.
In the very beginning, the part in box 9 where you solve the shaded regions, I am confused as to why it can't escape through box 6. Specifically, if you had the 3 cell shaded region in row 7 of box 9, it can pick up either of the cells in r6 c8 or 9 without breaking, at least from my understanding of the rules. Unless, it has to be a continuous path with only one start and one end point, but from my understanding of the rules this is not the case. They simply must be connected to the overall path. Could you not have something like this (shaded cells: r6c8, r7c6-9, r8c6, r9c6-8)?
45:10 is some quality foreshadowing
More than words , nice
This puzzle looks just a bit funky.
Divide the grid so it looks chunky,
Into nines, oh what fun.
And when we are done,
A robot appears that looks klunky.
27:35 for me. Wow that was tough. Very interesting puzzle!!
Thank you so much for the birthday shoutout ☺️❤️
42:05 i think he missed the possibility of r4c4, r4c5, r3c5, r2c5, and r2c6 all being shaded to get to the right side of the grid. luckily i think another piece of logic will eliminate that possibility but it is there with the things he has stated here.
Sublime puzzle...and the only occasion that I've got vaguely near Simon's time...! 😆
such a good puzzle, took me 65 min to solve, very incredible