My favorite part about this video is at 43:29 when Simon goes "2 can't be on the pink line" and the comes up with an absolutely (brilliant but) convoluted way of placing it in box 7 instead of using the 68 pair that everyone watching was shouting at the screen about.
43:50 When Simon says "here's my logic for that" on a deduction that could be resolved by just cleaning up immediately adjacent pencil marks you know we're in for some lovely (if totally unnecessary) logic XD
I'm just glad I wasn't in the middle of taking a drink when he said "I now think this is the 2 on the green line... I might be wrong about this". I feel I might have expelled it quite rapidly. 😂
Absolutely insane to wind it out lile that 🤯🤯🤯 Simon will always frown upon sudoku-solving in a sudoku, and will also always miss the most basic sudoku logic at the same time. What a paradox 🎉
And the total blankness when it comes to the 2 in box 2? "I am so stuck... could it be sudoku?" - never once looks at box 2 and the 2 that would clear 9 cells of Fog. Now, having said that, would it really help? probably not, because it leapt out at me, but it would be 1 more cell filled that isn't now.
He used his pencil marks to rule the two out of the top two cells and it was the unique didgit of the triple in the column and he went way out of his way to prove it, even while his pencil marks showed it clear as day 🤣🤣
I felt like this puzzle had a narrative arc. Each revealed renban was only 2 cells at the beginning, but it continued to draw you in and tease you along until that absolute BANANAS logic in the bottom right to start the final unravel. Well done Mxyo! I've never agreed more with a video title
The simple way to explain why a 7-cell renban becomes a 9-cell renban if it dips down one row and returns is: it has 2 added cells, one to change row and one to change back. The middle span is the same length as had it stayed on one row.
@@258thHiGuyNeither red line nor yellow can do that though, its already 7 horizontal guaranteed and every vertical dip-down needs a backtrack so its +2 per dip-down. But yeah, during my own solve I was convinced the yellow had to double-dip and I needed Simon's help to continue past that. Now it's clear that never could've worked.
I thought of like 5 different things before Simon noticed them and that made me so happy because that means I’m actually learning something. Your commentary throughout was amazing as it always is, so thank you so much. Also props to Myxo for this puzzle, I think it was the most interesting sudoku puzzles I’ve actually seen.
2 in box 2 has been available since 42:58. This would have helped a lot in getting the order of the 149 triple in row 9. Since a 4-9 pair would force 4 and 9 to be together on the white dot in box 3. There goes Simon forgetting sudoku again and not getting the 2 in box 2 until 1:04:24
I don't normally try puzzles that take Simon over an hour, but I LOVE fog of war so I gave this one a go and I am so glad I did. So many steps in this that blew my mind. Found my self shouting "are you kidding me!!" in complete awe at several points. Absolutely incredible puzzle. Hats off to Myxo.
I love that your first pencil marks stayed until the last five minutes and the 2 you used in explaining the rules for white dots was actually a 2. It’s the little things
This is the best FOW sudoku I have ever solved. What I found the most special about this sudoku is the consistent difficulty level through the whole solve path. That’s probably why this is the first time I was able to solve a +1 hour solve video. Thanks for this !!
I cannot tell you the joy of solving this puzzle! The logic was immaculate and really tested my abilities, but I got through it with no help and no resets! Fog of war is my favorite rule set and this is truly the best I've played.
Thanks CTC for featuring this puzzle. The logic felt so good to walk through it really felt like I could see the solver walking me through the puzzle step by step once I started the ball rolling.
This puzzle was, unlike some fog of war puzzles, not at all simplistic or simplified by the constraint of the fog. The reasoning, though perhaps limited to where in the puzzle you could see things, was quite amazing and wide-reaching, I thought. Thanks so much, Simon - I always enjoy you enjoying yourself while doing a puzzle, and this was especially true tonight.
Can i just say, i cant go a day without watching simon do battle with some of the most exquisite puzzles. When i started watching the channel in 2019, i had no idea how much joy a simple 9x9 grid could give so much adventure and discovery. Hats off to all involved in this community of solvers and setters. ❤
I saw the length and didn't think I could even attempt, but I am so glad that I did. I got 91 minutes. This my be my favorite puzzle I have ever done on this channel. The logic flowed so well. Absolutely Incredible!
took me 01:41:45. i made like 2 mistakes right right at the beginning that i had to go all the way back to fix. but im still happy with my time! if i had attempted this last year i wouldntve been able to solve it at all
havent even started watching the video yet. Giving the puzzle a go cos it looked so intriguing... i'm 5 minutes in and just wanted to say - this beginning is GENIUS
Update: I finished and watched the video straight afterwards, to see Simon embark on the same fantastic journey I had just completed. Myxo, this puzzle was so up my street I can't even tell you. It was pure unadulterated FUN from start to finish. It really was like exploring a little abstract neighbourhood of beautiful logic. The fog was used to perfection in so many places - rather than fog just being a mechanism for revealing things in a particular order, I love it when you really have to imagine how things connect up behind the fog in order to solve it. Favourite parts were the same as Simon's; the RIDICULOUS break-in at the beginning... needing to imagine how each pair of digits on the black dots gets bumped onto the next row down on the line, and how this then means R3C1 and R4C2 can't contain the same digit. Realising the orange line can't be length 9. Realising the green line HAS to be length 9. And the last few cells of fog in the bottom right holding interesting secrets until the very end. Definitely in my top 3 FOW puzzles I have seen. Don't just take a bow - take a hull, a stern.. in fact take the whole ship 👏
@@martysears Exactly the same reactions for me! I HAD to see Simon go through all the "ah ha!" genius steps I had experienced myself. That was such a good fog of war puzzle.
I loved the rule about the coloured Renbans, and figuring out how to both make it work, and decipher which line gave us the first digits. I was a bit less enthused later on in the puzzle, making sense of all my pairs, triples, quads, etc. But it resolved nicely in the end :)
35:37 for me. I made the correct but unearned assumption that the red line only dipped down for two cells in r3, forgetting about the possibility (until watching the video) that r2c6 might not be on any of the lines.
33:59, really enjoyed how the fog added a line shape deduction game to the puzzle. Every element seemed to add something useful, and it was fun how it would bounce you back and forth all around the grid but not frenetically. Great puzzle!
1:59:31 for me. I have no where near the mastery of logic than many of you here possess, and I can not be happier with the time i finished this puzzle in. The logic as to how the Blue, red, and yellow lines were constructed, really helped me crack the opening. Unfortunately, there's a few times where, looking back after seeing Simon's solve, I feel like i got lucky with bad assumptions. I got the 9 in R9,C1 without considering that the gray line could have been 4,5,6,7,8,9. One thing I'll say about "Fog of War", it really makes you focus on one or two logical elements, and how they interact. Magnificent puzzle Myxo, I am very pleased I took the time to solve it.
Such a different experience to watch Simon solve a puzzle once I've already solved it. I'm not entirely sure which I prefer, but both are fun! It's interesting the little variations in solve path, as well. The overall structure is pretty consistent, but usually somewhere around the third quartile of the solution it branches out significantly and there are a number of possible paths.
I also got a small undeserved break at the start, as I immediately put in the 9 in R1C3, thinking (after doing several combination Renban/region sum puzzles in a row) that the immediately completable blue line at the top was both Renban and a region sum (thus the only digit that could go in the lone cell in Box 1, given the black dot that had to have a 1-2 domino, was 9). It didn't actually end up helping much if at all, and the overall flow was identical to Simon's solve, but... maybe a digit swap is possible? I dunno, I suppose it's fairly unlikely that someone would make that mistake _without_ having just previously done several Renban/Region sum puzzles... I realized my mistake pretty quickly, and watched for times when it would've made things easier, and it never really did, so I think it was okay.
I don’t remember which puzzle it was but I remember that feeling… my first independent solve! I’m still learning so I balance attempts and views but I still LOVE an independent solve (I’m building to a quicker time 😊) Even though I work in academia I still find this community the best place to practice learning how to learn (everywhere else is teaching a particular topic)
I was a bit confused by the Reban rules, until Simon explained the top line. Then I realised the dot numbers had to drop a line, and then repeat in the 3rd line along with the other 2, and I was away. I got the 9 in r4c9, then got stuck. I felt much better when Simon got to the same point and then said "I think I'm about to get stuck here".😅 It's surprising how you can get stuck on your own version, then resort to the video and whilst Simon is explaining a move you already did , you suddenly see your next move somewhere else. I like the fog of war puzzles, as the fog always gives you a clue as to where to go next, unlike open puzzles where it could be anywhere in the grid. 70 minutes. Very happy.
"It's surprising how..." Indeed! This happens to me all the time. I think it's hearing Simon make calm, logical deduction after logical deduction. It somehow resets me into a more logical frame of mind, and allows me to make deductions that were previously eluding me.
I finished this one a little ahead of Simon. The main difference is I was fortunate and saw the 2s aligning in columns 4 and 5 right away, and that gave me a fog-clearing 2 in box 2. I thought when Simon saw the aligned 4s in columns 8 and 9, he might look for similar. Hopes dashed.
Super daunted by the length of the video, but I managed to finish it (after many distractions) in 71:50! What a phenomenal puzzle, really got to flex a lot of the techniques I’ve picked up watching the channel
Don't be daunted by long Simon videos. These days (for me anyway), its just an invitation to beat his time. He dodders around so much, ignores all the low hanging fruit, and is determined to search out the most complicated 5 steps of logic to deduce a naked single that was staring him in the face for 15 minutes. If its a Mark video over an hour?... that's another story.😨😨
69 minutes for me (nice) Although this is 4/5 difficulty, FOW puzzles are definitely easier since the next step is easier to find. The logic still isn't easy though. Awesome puzzle
Simon the translation of the puzzles name is: neighborhood in the fog or clouded neighborhood (depending on how you want to understand the word clouded) allthough the adjectiv "benebelt" is usually used for "clouded" minds not actual mist.
Um actually... the most accurate translation (I found) would be: muzzy neighborhood. Foggy is usually "neblig" with a mostly literal meaning "Benebelt" is an adverbial form used as an adjective with the (often figurative) meaning of "covered" or "affected" by fog/mist. (Not to be confused with "eingenebelt" which is another adverbial form but has a kind of more specific and clearly physical meaning of "surrounded" (e.g. a ship) or "penetrated" (e.g. a bush) and alike with fog/mist as the result of an action/event. Yes, German is fun indeed...) This said, clouded neighborhood is a decent translation.
It can also mean "drunk". Or "woozy" if that state of mind isn't caused by alcohol. Maybe that was the intention, but while not wrong it also sounds a bit strange in this context. "Vernebelt" is another option for this, but that has connotations of someone actively causing fog or smoke.
I watched the old prison break puzzle yesterday and the two Myxo recent solves and you guys can logically deduce on a different realm of reality, it's amazing. Making a puzzle seems insane - it's crazy to see a master at their craft.
45:42 for me. That is a seriously good puzzle - it's now on my short list of favorites. Every time I think we've reached peak Simon, I'm proven wrong. The latest entry in this series is the logic for placing 2 on the green line at 43:44. *chef's kiss* We love you Simon, don't ever change. 😀
What fantastic fun this one was. Fog is wonderful for keeping the solve linear and giving direction to keep you from getting lost for long periods of time.
That was gorgeous - 32:58 for me. So many lovely bits of logic in it, but part of me loved the simplicity of the final renban line that got revealed, and the way that it sorted everything out even more than some of the more intricate bits.
I can definitely see why many people regard this as one of the best fog of war puzzles out there. Pretty difficult but it never quite feels like the fog is just annoying, rather it's there to make you think. I really liked the element of having to determine the shapes of the lines, and I never really felt stuck, which is always a plus for me. I did it in just over 70 minutes, but I could have been faster if I had spotted that the 9 had to go on the purple line (which I somehow didn't realise for probably a good 10 minutes until I thought about maybe actually doing some sudoku, as you can see Simon's influence is pretty strong haha). Absolute genius setting work by Myxo, I really enjoyed this one!
normally an 60min+ video from mark is beyond me. but this is FOW, so I'll give a a try. I flubbed the initial lines, but still lead to the 1 in box four, and I got back on track. 49:44 was my time. pretty happy pleased. came back here to see how mark did the bottom three rows. Loved the 2 in box 7!
Shoutout to that 2 that had to be placed in r2c6 in box 2! Finding it clears 9 full squares of fog which finally truly confirms the shape of the blue and red lines, AND it reveals the white dot in box 3 which is crucial to finishing off the puzzle! It not only FEELS rewarding to find, bur ACTUALLY directly rewards you with how much, and what, it reveals. The 1 in box 4 has a similar rewarding feel to it, although I personally failed to spot the easy naked single, lol. The 2 in box 2 could have been spotted by Simon earlier if he had noticed the X-wing on 2s in boxes 5 and 8, but finding it at the point when he really needed it only makes it more of a reward. My own final time was 39:31, which I'm very happy with!
What a break-in. Even though I went very exactly step by step through the process to figure out the first digit I still wanted to gasp when it was right. Haven't even tried the rest yet, I just had to come in and comment about that. Edit: Finished in about 50 minutes. That was amazing. Such a big smile on my face so many times. Not really overly hard, but constantly surprising.
Took me about 90 minutes to solve which made me proud, this is definitely not an easy puzzle. But then again, Simon proved his ability to make me feel stupid :) 19:30 "ah, we're being told that is a 2" blew my mind. I worked out in decent time, what the lines roughly look like, and then in like half an hour from there found that 2. Simon spots it instantly, that is insane. Thanks Myxo and Simon, certainly one of the best FOW puzzles out there!
Solved all on my own in about an hour! Magnificent puzzle, I adore fog of war puzzles, no need to worry about where to look next. It's always great at showing you exactly where the next clue is. Grand recommendation from me :D
55 on the dot for me. Feels like I'm beating Simon's (slowed down by commentary) times more and more. Great puzzle. Went from "this must be impossible, right?" to being done pretty quickly with some neat lightbulb moments.
This really shows how different minds work. I had no problem seeing the shape of the lines as soon as the clues appeared, but of course totally stumped on almost everything else. 😅
I fear the day that you do not upload. I won't be able to get to sleep! 😧 Thank you for making all the content. I've been watching you for years, and love your work.
Around 39:00, why couldn't the pink line turn up again into r7c3 or r7c4 and then down again to meet with the right hand end to form a 9-cell-line? (Obviously, it would have been wrong. But how could Simon know at that time?)
I couldn't see the line in r9c8. I was smashing my head against the wall (figurative) trying to make further progress. Finally caved to see how you progressed - solved it in about 30 seconds once you pointed out the line.
This was a great puzzle! Although it took me an hour too, I’d still recommend it to beginners looking for a challenge. There aren’t any outrageously hard techniques required to get through each step, once you know where to look. I loved the initial logic required to decipher the lines and get the first digits clearing the fog. It took me a bit longer to plod through the rest, but I did it with help from wild pencil marks and sudoku - Simon’s favourite things! 😂
Very proud of myself, solved with a time of 53:04. Noticed pretty early on that there was only one place for 2 in column 6 after 12 pair was placed in box 8 and noticing that 2 could only be in r5c4 and r5c5 in box 5. Made the solve much easier since placing the 2 in box 2 cleared fog and placed the 45 pair in box 3.
43:50. this is so hilarious, seeing Simon say "I think it's a 2", having that 68 pair and knowing that Simon is about to over complicate things... then he starts coloring cells and I just crack hahaha
I definitely needed a little pointing from Simon to get through this, but I can agree that it's the most elegant and clever fog puzzle I've done for sure
By now, whenever I see a Fog of War puzzle, I'm in! This one made me a bit hesitant due to the video length being above 1h, but I jumped in anyway. I found the break in without a problem, but then I got stuck when I forgot about doing Sudoku. I didn't even think about looking for a naked single, so I completely missed that and needed Simon to tell me that. After that, though, I was able to logic out the rest of the puzzle, only needing a "reset" of sorts when I broke box 9, so I needed to figure out how far to rewind by checking the video. All in all, this was a very enjoyable puzzle!
This was an interesting puzzle because for the first time I was ahead of Simon for all of it until somewhere in the middle. This line logic was very intuitive for me, but when more of it got revealed Simon's excellent Sudoku eye is unbeatable, even though he got semi stuck on the obvious 7 to collapse it at the end.
Loved it. Such a fun puzzle, especially with the 149 on renban lines twice. And then a couple of surprising digits you can find. My favourite was the 2 in box two. That felt out of nowhere right in the middle of some fog. Very well thought out puzzle. Mad respect.
This was such a fun puzzle! Once I got to around where you had things at 59:00, I realized there was an x-wing with the 2s between boxes 5 and 8 that allowed the placement of the '2' in box 2.
At 49:20, Simon says of the black line "if this is a 4 9, we can still fit the necessary digits ..." But you can't: 8 is already excluded by sudoku, removing the 9!
I don't follow the logic at 34:12 that because r5c3 is one of 348 that r5c4 and r5c5 can't be any of 348, and thus must be 257. I was able to prove that r6c3 must be 4 but r5c3 can be either 3 or 8. After that, I just don't get to any unique solution. If I make r5c3 an 8, I get r6c4 and r6c5 a 26 pair, and r5c4 and r5c5 part of a 457 triplet. r5c8 and r5c9 a 12 pair.
12:06 as soon as he put this pair we know row 3 column 2 is a 4 (since 2 and 4 are the only possible numbers since only they can get halved and doubled while staying in sudoku numbers and that square has 2 black dots), which would've made row 3 column 1 an 8 since the 2 is already taken in that box, and row 4 column 2 a 2, but instead he proceeds to talk about lines for the next 8 minutes just to gain a tiny part of that same knowledge
@ 15:03 - "I don't think we know how long that red line is" - yes you do. As soon as it breaks into R3, it HAS to be 9 cells. It doesn't matter how many cells are in R3, the length is always 9. @ 18:05 - "Is that always going to be 9 cells or what?" - Of course it's going to be 9 cells. Think about it - it has to cover 7 cells horizontally. It must dip down, and where it does, both ends where it dips down overlap with the line above, so we have cells in both rows, increasing the length by two. If the lines weren't constrained to be orthogonal, it would be different. @ 30:10 - "Do you have to pick up a 7?" - Instead of thinking about it like that, ask where R4C4 goes in box 4. It can't repeat on its line, and it can't go in C3. It can't go next to the other 57, so it must be in R6C1. This means R5C1=6. It also means that R4C4=R6C1=R5C7. @ 43:50 - "I now think this is the 2" - Of course it is! There's no doubt. You have 268 pencil-marked in three cells, and two of them are 68. What is the third one? Instead, you used a completely ridiculous chain of logic to prove the bleedin' obvious. You would probably claim you didn't see it. I would say you just didn't bother looking, which is your biggest problem. @ 48:35 - How can that line include 9? It would need an 8, and there's no way to pick up an 8 from any foggy cells, so the line starts with 1 and 4, R9C1=9. The line needs a 2 and a 3, and the 3 must be in box 9. After eleven minutes of floundering, you spot it. @ 1:08:35 - "7 is in one of those squares, is that useful?" - No, but the 7 in box 5 is, because it resolves the 48/57 pairs in box 8, and this goes around the grid fixing everything. Of course, you should have got this when you worked out A was 7, but that would have been completely out of character. That was a very interesting FoW puzzle. There was a nice flow to it, as long as you don't forget sudoku, and ask the right questions. That eleven-minute hiatus could have been avoided if you'd only asked "can this be 9?" Further floundering would have been avoided if you'd looked at the result of making A=7.
At 19:58, I was wondering what was stopping the blue line from being 9 cells long. I later realized that the yellow line would be impossible to connect if that was the case. At 27:24 I have to disagree. The reason why the red line cannot cross from cell F8 to G8 (using chess notation from white's perspective) is not because the line would be straight (it can still move down at G8 i.e. G8-G7-H7-H8) but because it would block yellow from connecting given the hint.
94:46, with a few helpful pointers along the way, watching your solve. This was absolutely bonkers and elegant and hard in a sustained and constant fashion. Great puzzle, 5/5 would recommend, I now need a nap.
Thank you @Mixo and @Simon for the puzzle and video: I loved this one, every time i had no idea what to do, the fog just directed me where to look. 66 minutes, only just slower then Simon. I must admit i did an assumption somewhere and forgot to take it out and when i came back to that cell it happened to be the right number. I couldn't see through this mishap to actually prove it and so let it be. I just finished the puzzle again , took me ages and a lot of steps to come back to that digit, so i did kinda a big cheat, oops. Simon being stuck at 56 minutes cost him a lot of time, and i can't say the step to get out of there (i used the 2 x-wing in column 4 and 5 to place 2 in column6) was obivous to spot.
Everybody: "Oh, there is a 68 pair in box 7, so the 2 is in r9c3"
Simon: "Let's not do sudoku! I have a 4-steps complicated proof that 2 is in r9c3 !"
You should add a time stamp to your comment 43:28...!!!
@@johnpauladamovsky86He only took a minute longer than needed. Not as bad as sometimes.
Let's make this i-wing into a...bent i-wing! (hashtag WeLoveSimon)
@@michaelmatter1222 The "Bent-Triple" is my favorite terminology in all of SUDOKU.
@@bobh6728 yeah, but then the 5 minutes to disambiguate R9C4 having solved R4C4 (starting at 1:04:30 or so)
My favorite part about this video is at 43:29 when Simon goes "2 can't be on the pink line" and the comes up with an absolutely (brilliant but) convoluted way of placing it in box 7 instead of using the 68 pair that everyone watching was shouting at the screen about.
43:50 When Simon says "here's my logic for that" on a deduction that could be resolved by just cleaning up immediately adjacent pencil marks you know we're in for some lovely (if totally unnecessary) logic XD
Well, he did clean the 2, he just didn't realize it was a 6/8 pair lmao
@@gumilhopipoca4041 Removing the 68 from a 268 center mark with a 68 pair pointing at it is part of "cleaning up pencil marks" in my book
@@HunterJE Ah I see, I personally interpret differently when you say "cleaning", but I understand what you mean.
I'm just glad I wasn't in the middle of taking a drink when he said "I now think this is the 2 on the green line... I might be wrong about this". I feel I might have expelled it quite rapidly. 😂
We have reached peak Simon with the 2 in box 7. Love it!
i love watching this mans brilliant brain at work
Absolutely insane to wind it out lile that 🤯🤯🤯 Simon will always frown upon sudoku-solving in a sudoku, and will also always miss the most basic sudoku logic at the same time. What a paradox 🎉
And the total blankness when it comes to the 2 in box 2? "I am so stuck... could it be sudoku?" - never once looks at box 2 and the 2 that would clear 9 cells of Fog. Now, having said that, would it really help? probably not, because it leapt out at me, but it would be 1 more cell filled that isn't now.
He used his pencil marks to rule the two out of the top two cells and it was the unique didgit of the triple in the column and he went way out of his way to prove it, even while his pencil marks showed it clear as day 🤣🤣
@@d4r4butler74 It took me a while (and your comment) to notice the x-wing on 2s in box 5 and 8. Well spotted!
Around 25:00 is the most Simon way to realize you can’t bend the line any further without going past 9 cells lol
I felt like this puzzle had a narrative arc. Each revealed renban was only 2 cells at the beginning, but it continued to draw you in and tease you along until that absolute BANANAS logic in the bottom right to start the final unravel. Well done Mxyo! I've never agreed more with a video title
The simple way to explain why a 7-cell renban becomes a 9-cell renban if it dips down one row and returns is: it has 2 added cells, one to change row and one to change back. The middle span is the same length as had it stayed on one row.
which is also why the orange renban had to be 8 cells, because otherwise it'd be 10. No need to fiddle about with bishop's moves.
Would it hypothetically be possible to say it dipped three cells down into the next row, if you didn't know about the orange line?
@@258thHiGuyNeither red line nor yellow can do that though, its already 7 horizontal guaranteed and every vertical dip-down needs a backtrack so its +2 per dip-down. But yeah, during my own solve I was convinced the yellow had to double-dip and I needed Simon's help to continue past that. Now it's clear that never could've worked.
I thought of like 5 different things before Simon noticed them and that made me so happy because that means I’m actually learning something. Your commentary throughout was amazing as it always is, so thank you so much. Also props to Myxo for this puzzle, I think it was the most interesting sudoku puzzles I’ve actually seen.
2 in box 2 has been available since 42:58. This would have helped a lot in getting the order of the 149 triple in row 9. Since a 4-9 pair would force 4 and 9 to be together on the white dot in box 3. There goes Simon forgetting sudoku again and not getting the 2 in box 2 until 1:04:24
I'm amazed I spotted this! And I have Simon to thank for being able to do so, which feels somewhat ironic, but that's why we love Simon
That one was pretty rough because I saw it pretty much immediately with the 1-2 pair in box 8
Oh wait, I have to wait another 20 minutes before he realises it?
I don't normally try puzzles that take Simon over an hour, but I LOVE fog of war so I gave this one a go and I am so glad I did. So many steps in this that blew my mind. Found my self shouting "are you kidding me!!" in complete awe at several points. Absolutely incredible puzzle. Hats off to Myxo.
I love that your first pencil marks stayed until the last five minutes and the 2 you used in explaining the rules for white dots was actually a 2. It’s the little things
This is the best FOW sudoku I have ever solved. What I found the most special about this sudoku is the consistent difficulty level through the whole solve path. That’s probably why this is the first time I was able to solve a +1 hour solve video. Thanks for this !!
I cannot tell you the joy of solving this puzzle! The logic was immaculate and really tested my abilities, but I got through it with no help and no resets! Fog of war is my favorite rule set and this is truly the best I've played.
Thanks CTC for featuring this puzzle. The logic felt so good to walk through it really felt like I could see the solver walking me through the puzzle step by step once I started the ball rolling.
This puzzle was, unlike some fog of war puzzles, not at all simplistic or simplified by the constraint of the fog. The reasoning, though perhaps limited to where in the puzzle you could see things, was quite amazing and wide-reaching, I thought. Thanks so much, Simon - I always enjoy you enjoying yourself while doing a puzzle, and this was especially true tonight.
Can i just say, i cant go a day without watching simon do battle with some of the most exquisite puzzles.
When i started watching the channel in 2019, i had no idea how much joy a simple 9x9 grid could give so much adventure and discovery.
Hats off to all involved in this community of solvers and setters. ❤
Simon's method for finding the 2 in box 7 is exactly why we love Simon!
I saw the length and didn't think I could even attempt, but I am so glad that I did. I got 91 minutes. This my be my favorite puzzle I have ever done on this channel. The logic flowed so well. Absolutely Incredible!
2 hours and 13 minutes, definitely my hardest solve ever. What an amazing puzzle!
It took me exactly 133 minutes! our solve times were identical, HAHAHAHA!
and an extra 12 seconds as-well if by some chance those were also the same
took me 01:41:45. i made like 2 mistakes right right at the beginning that i had to go all the way back to fix. but im still happy with my time! if i had attempted this last year i wouldntve been able to solve it at all
Yay, Luc! His mum is a fabulous flutist also, and his siblings all musicians and music teachers; it's a family business!
This whole puzzle is sublime! From start to finish - the logic is so incredibly satisfying. Thanks for posting.
havent even started watching the video yet. Giving the puzzle a go cos it looked so intriguing... i'm 5 minutes in and just wanted to say - this beginning is GENIUS
Update: I finished and watched the video straight afterwards, to see Simon embark on the same fantastic journey I had just completed. Myxo, this puzzle was so up my street I can't even tell you. It was pure unadulterated FUN from start to finish. It really was like exploring a little abstract neighbourhood of beautiful logic. The fog was used to perfection in so many places - rather than fog just being a mechanism for revealing things in a particular order, I love it when you really have to imagine how things connect up behind the fog in order to solve it.
Favourite parts were the same as Simon's; the RIDICULOUS break-in at the beginning... needing to imagine how each pair of digits on the black dots gets bumped onto the next row down on the line, and how this then means R3C1 and R4C2 can't contain the same digit. Realising the orange line can't be length 9. Realising the green line HAS to be length 9. And the last few cells of fog in the bottom right holding interesting secrets until the very end.
Definitely in my top 3 FOW puzzles I have seen. Don't just take a bow - take a hull, a stern.. in fact take the whole ship 👏
@@martysears Exactly the same reactions for me! I HAD to see Simon go through all the "ah ha!" genius steps I had experienced myself. That was such a good fog of war puzzle.
I loved the rule about the coloured Renbans, and figuring out how to both make it work, and decipher which line gave us the first digits. I was a bit less enthused later on in the puzzle, making sense of all my pairs, triples, quads, etc. But it resolved nicely in the end :)
35:37 for me. I made the correct but unearned assumption that the red line only dipped down for two cells in r3, forgetting about the possibility (until watching the video) that r2c6 might not be on any of the lines.
33:59, really enjoyed how the fog added a line shape deduction game to the puzzle. Every element seemed to add something useful, and it was fun how it would bounce you back and forth all around the grid but not frenetically. Great puzzle!
44:00 that has to be the most convoluted way to get that 2, love it😂
Wow..just wow from you Myxo!!! Astonishing solve from you Simon!! This channel is just amazing each day.
1:59:31 for me. I have no where near the mastery of logic than many of you here possess, and I can not be happier with the time i finished this puzzle in.
The logic as to how the Blue, red, and yellow lines were constructed, really helped me crack the opening. Unfortunately, there's a few times where, looking back after seeing Simon's solve, I feel like i got lucky with bad assumptions. I got the 9 in R9,C1 without considering that the gray line could have been 4,5,6,7,8,9.
One thing I'll say about "Fog of War", it really makes you focus on one or two logical elements, and how they interact.
Magnificent puzzle Myxo, I am very pleased I took the time to solve it.
Such a different experience to watch Simon solve a puzzle once I've already solved it. I'm not entirely sure which I prefer, but both are fun!
It's interesting the little variations in solve path, as well. The overall structure is pretty consistent, but usually somewhere around the third quartile of the solution it branches out significantly and there are a number of possible paths.
I also got a small undeserved break at the start, as I immediately put in the 9 in R1C3, thinking (after doing several combination Renban/region sum puzzles in a row) that the immediately completable blue line at the top was both Renban and a region sum (thus the only digit that could go in the lone cell in Box 1, given the black dot that had to have a 1-2 domino, was 9).
It didn't actually end up helping much if at all, and the overall flow was identical to Simon's solve, but... maybe a digit swap is possible? I dunno, I suppose it's fairly unlikely that someone would make that mistake _without_ having just previously done several Renban/Region sum puzzles...
I realized my mistake pretty quickly, and watched for times when it would've made things easier, and it never really did, so I think it was okay.
I don’t remember which puzzle it was but I remember that feeling… my first independent solve! I’m still learning so I balance attempts and views but I still LOVE an independent solve (I’m building to a quicker time 😊)
Even though I work in academia I still find this community the best place to practice learning how to learn (everywhere else is teaching a particular topic)
I was a bit confused by the Reban rules, until Simon explained the top line. Then I realised the dot numbers had to drop a line, and then repeat in the 3rd line along with the other 2, and I was away.
I got the 9 in r4c9, then got stuck. I felt much better when Simon got to the same point and then said "I think I'm about to get stuck here".😅
It's surprising how you can get stuck on your own version, then resort to the video and whilst Simon is explaining a move you already did , you suddenly see your next move somewhere else.
I like the fog of war puzzles, as the fog always gives you a clue as to where to go next, unlike open puzzles where it could be anywhere in the grid. 70 minutes. Very happy.
"It's surprising how..."
Indeed! This happens to me all the time. I think it's hearing Simon make calm, logical deduction after logical deduction. It somehow resets me into a more logical frame of mind, and allows me to make deductions that were previously eluding me.
I finished this one a little ahead of Simon. The main difference is I was fortunate and saw the 2s aligning in columns 4 and 5 right away, and that gave me a fog-clearing 2 in box 2.
I thought when Simon saw the aligned 4s in columns 8 and 9, he might look for similar. Hopes dashed.
Super daunted by the length of the video, but I managed to finish it (after many distractions) in 71:50! What a phenomenal puzzle, really got to flex a lot of the techniques I’ve picked up watching the channel
Don't be daunted by long Simon videos. These days (for me anyway), its just an invitation to beat his time. He dodders around so much, ignores all the low hanging fruit, and is determined to search out the most complicated 5 steps of logic to deduce a naked single that was staring him in the face for 15 minutes. If its a Mark video over an hour?... that's another story.😨😨
69 minutes for me (nice)
Although this is 4/5 difficulty, FOW puzzles are definitely easier since the next step is easier to find. The logic still isn't easy though. Awesome puzzle
It's not often I find a puzzle that feels perfect for me. It took 68 minutes, no cheating. Would buy again. A+++
Awesome
Not like Simon 7:26 who cheats xD
Simon the translation of the puzzles name is: neighborhood in the fog or clouded neighborhood (depending on how you want to understand the word clouded) allthough the adjectiv "benebelt" is usually used for "clouded" minds not actual mist.
Um actually... the most accurate translation (I found) would be: muzzy neighborhood.
Foggy is usually "neblig" with a mostly literal meaning
"Benebelt" is an adverbial form used as an adjective with the (often figurative) meaning of "covered" or "affected" by fog/mist. (Not to be confused with "eingenebelt" which is another adverbial form but has a kind of more specific and clearly physical meaning of "surrounded" (e.g. a ship) or "penetrated" (e.g. a bush) and alike with fog/mist as the result of an action/event.
Yes, German is fun indeed...)
This said, clouded neighborhood is a decent translation.
It can also mean "drunk". Or "woozy" if that state of mind isn't caused by alcohol. Maybe that was the intention, but while not wrong it also sounds a bit strange in this context. "Vernebelt" is another option for this, but that has connotations of someone actively causing fog or smoke.
I watched the old prison break puzzle yesterday and the two Myxo recent solves and you guys can logically deduce on a different realm of reality, it's amazing. Making a puzzle seems insane - it's crazy to see a master at their craft.
Very very very very very enjoyable puzzle. Took me just under 58 minutes. Now to watch Simon solve it...
Myxo is definitely one of the Jay Dyers or Phistomefels of the world.
45:42 for me. That is a seriously good puzzle - it's now on my short list of favorites.
Every time I think we've reached peak Simon, I'm proven wrong. The latest entry in this series is the logic for placing 2 on the green line at 43:44. *chef's kiss*
We love you Simon, don't ever change. 😀
Simon: "Ah! I now think _this_ is the 2 on the green line."
I honestly laughed aloud.
What fantastic fun this one was. Fog is wonderful for keeping the solve linear and giving direction to keep you from getting lost for long periods of time.
That was gorgeous - 32:58 for me. So many lovely bits of logic in it, but part of me loved the simplicity of the final renban line that got revealed, and the way that it sorted everything out even more than some of the more intricate bits.
Another tour de force of settler and solver!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻Simon and Myxo!!!
Simon names not one but TWO heptominos in this video! The polyomino naming enthusiast in me is throwing a little party.
My first solve of an hour long Simon video. I love these fog puzzles.
I can definitely see why many people regard this as one of the best fog of war puzzles out there. Pretty difficult but it never quite feels like the fog is just annoying, rather it's there to make you think. I really liked the element of having to determine the shapes of the lines, and I never really felt stuck, which is always a plus for me. I did it in just over 70 minutes, but I could have been faster if I had spotted that the 9 had to go on the purple line (which I somehow didn't realise for probably a good 10 minutes until I thought about maybe actually doing some sudoku, as you can see Simon's influence is pretty strong haha). Absolute genius setting work by Myxo, I really enjoyed this one!
This was my first 4 star solve! Took me 100 minutes exactly, and was so much fun the whole way through! What a beautiful puzzle.
normally an 60min+ video from mark is beyond me. but this is FOW, so I'll give a a try. I flubbed the initial lines, but still lead to the 1 in box four, and I got back on track. 49:44 was my time. pretty happy pleased. came back here to see how mark did the bottom three rows. Loved the 2 in box 7!
59:49 for me. Oh that one was a BLAST! Especially the idea with the gray line I enjoyed very much! 😊
I got stuck for so long cause i did not see the gray line. They should have chosen a different color there
Shoutout to that 2 that had to be placed in r2c6 in box 2! Finding it clears 9 full squares of fog which finally truly confirms the shape of the blue and red lines, AND it reveals the white dot in box 3 which is crucial to finishing off the puzzle!
It not only FEELS rewarding to find, bur ACTUALLY directly rewards you with how much, and what, it reveals. The 1 in box 4 has a similar rewarding feel to it, although I personally failed to spot the easy naked single, lol. The 2 in box 2 could have been spotted by Simon earlier if he had noticed the X-wing on 2s in boxes 5 and 8, but finding it at the point when he really needed it only makes it more of a reward.
My own final time was 39:31, which I'm very happy with!
What a break-in. Even though I went very exactly step by step through the process to figure out the first digit I still wanted to gasp when it was right.
Haven't even tried the rest yet, I just had to come in and comment about that.
Edit: Finished in about 50 minutes. That was amazing. Such a big smile on my face so many times. Not really overly hard, but constantly surprising.
lovely puzzle , the logic flowed in a way that was really satisfactory
Loved it! Solved it without getting stuck and needing hints for a change!
Took me about 90 minutes to solve which made me proud, this is definitely not an easy puzzle. But then again, Simon proved his ability to make me feel stupid :)
19:30 "ah, we're being told that is a 2" blew my mind. I worked out in decent time, what the lines roughly look like, and then in like half an hour from there found that 2. Simon spots it instantly, that is insane.
Thanks Myxo and Simon, certainly one of the best FOW puzzles out there!
Solved all on my own in about an hour! Magnificent puzzle, I adore fog of war puzzles, no need to worry about where to look next. It's always great at showing you exactly where the next clue is. Grand recommendation from me :D
55 on the dot for me. Feels like I'm beating Simon's (slowed down by commentary) times more and more.
Great puzzle. Went from "this must be impossible, right?" to being done pretty quickly with some neat lightbulb moments.
This really shows how different minds work. I had no problem seeing the shape of the lines as soon as the clues appeared, but of course totally stumped on almost everything else. 😅
I fear the day that you do not upload. I won't be able to get to sleep! 😧
Thank you for making all the content. I've been watching you for years, and love your work.
You know the puzzle is a real doozy when Simon neglects to greet Maverick!
Great solve as always. And of course Simon finds the most round about way of getting digits. The 2 in row 9 was a classic!
This is the comment I wanted to see. My brain was exploding watching Simon disregard Sudoku lol
45 minutes of awesomeness! Absolutely loved it.
Around 39:00, why couldn't the pink line turn up again into r7c3 or r7c4 and then down again to meet with the right hand end to form a 9-cell-line? (Obviously, it would have been wrong. But how could Simon know at that time?)
The break in was won of my favorites ever.
I’ll admit that it went full on Mark when I got stuck. Surprisingly helpful in a fog sudoku.
Adored testing this back when it was posted to the Discord! Very fun one.
What an amazing puzzle! Had so many "wow" moments. Such a genius construction!
Big thanks to Simon for clearing up markup after it's been used, puzzle is cleaner that way. And a great puzzle took me 101 minutes :)
Hands down one of my favorite puzzles of all time!
52:10 for me. I quite enjoyed this one. Fog of war puzzles are just so fun and this one had some interesting logic.
Stunning puzzle, thank you. A little over 90 minutes for me.
I couldn't see the line in r9c8. I was smashing my head against the wall (figurative) trying to make further progress. Finally caved to see how you progressed - solved it in about 30 seconds once you pointed out the line.
This was insanely fun to solve, my favorite sudoku varient by far is the fog.
This was a great puzzle! Although it took me an hour too, I’d still recommend it to beginners looking for a challenge. There aren’t any outrageously hard techniques required to get through each step, once you know where to look.
I loved the initial logic required to decipher the lines and get the first digits clearing the fog. It took me a bit longer to plod through the rest, but I did it with help from wild pencil marks and sudoku - Simon’s favourite things! 😂
I love puzzles like this where the first digit is hard earned but totally possible to logic out
Very proud of myself, solved with a time of 53:04. Noticed pretty early on that there was only one place for 2 in column 6 after 12 pair was placed in box 8 and noticing that 2 could only be in r5c4 and r5c5 in box 5. Made the solve much easier since placing the 2 in box 2 cleared fog and placed the 45 pair in box 3.
44 minutes, now definitely time to get some sleep. I like these new variants of fog puzzles where you have to consider the paths of various lines.
Very nice! 52:52 for me.
Wow, one of the best puzzles I've ever done! Super proud of finishing it at all. Ended up with 62:13
More fog puzzles please!!!
That green line in box 7 was legendary.
What a fantastic puzzle. Fun all the way through.
43:50. this is so hilarious, seeing Simon say "I think it's a 2", having that 68 pair and knowing that Simon is about to over complicate things... then he starts coloring cells and I just crack hahaha
at 39:25 why can't the pink line go up to to position 3 in box 7? Simon went straight across to the right but I wasn't sure what the logic was?
42:39: the 2 in box 7 saga mentioned in everyone else's comments
49:00 "bobbins mcbobbinsface"
1:04:47 disambiguates R4C4
1:09:24 finally uses R4C4 to disambiguate R9C4
One of the best you've done!
I definitely needed a little pointing from Simon to get through this, but I can agree that it's the most elegant and clever fog puzzle I've done for sure
By now, whenever I see a Fog of War puzzle, I'm in! This one made me a bit hesitant due to the video length being above 1h, but I jumped in anyway. I found the break in without a problem, but then I got stuck when I forgot about doing Sudoku. I didn't even think about looking for a naked single, so I completely missed that and needed Simon to tell me that. After that, though, I was able to logic out the rest of the puzzle, only needing a "reset" of sorts when I broke box 9, so I needed to figure out how far to rewind by checking the video. All in all, this was a very enjoyable puzzle!
This was an interesting puzzle because for the first time I was ahead of Simon for all of it until somewhere in the middle. This line logic was very intuitive for me, but when more of it got revealed Simon's excellent Sudoku eye is unbeatable, even though he got semi stuck on the obvious 7 to collapse it at the end.
43:48 Simon's logic for placing the 2 after all the digits are pencil marked in the box anyway!
Loved it. Such a fun puzzle, especially with the 149 on renban lines twice. And then a couple of surprising digits you can find. My favourite was the 2 in box two. That felt out of nowhere right in the middle of some fog. Very well thought out puzzle. Mad respect.
This was such a fun puzzle! Once I got to around where you had things at 59:00, I realized there was an x-wing with the 2s between boxes 5 and 8 that allowed the placement of the '2' in box 2.
Fantastic puzzle! Those long-distance fog clearages were downright thrilling when I found them.
At 49:20, Simon says of the black line "if this is a 4 9, we can still fit the necessary digits ..." But you can't: 8 is already excluded by sudoku, removing the 9!
That took me a couple minutes to notice.
I don't follow the logic at 34:12 that because r5c3 is one of 348 that r5c4 and r5c5 can't be any of 348, and thus must be 257. I was able to prove that r6c3 must be 4 but r5c3 can be either 3 or 8. After that, I just don't get to any unique solution.
If I make r5c3 an 8, I get r6c4 and r6c5 a 26 pair, and r5c4 and r5c5 part of a 457 triplet. r5c8 and r5c9 a 12 pair.
Yay! Another myxo puzzle!
12:06 as soon as he put this pair we know row 3 column 2 is a 4 (since 2 and 4 are the only possible numbers since only they can get halved and doubled while staying in sudoku numbers and that square has 2 black dots), which would've made row 3 column 1 an 8 since the 2 is already taken in that box, and row 4 column 2 a 2, but instead he proceeds to talk about lines for the next 8 minutes just to gain a tiny part of that same knowledge
@ 15:03 - "I don't think we know how long that red line is" - yes you do. As soon as it breaks into R3, it HAS to be 9 cells. It doesn't matter how many cells are in R3, the length is always 9.
@ 18:05 - "Is that always going to be 9 cells or what?" - Of course it's going to be 9 cells. Think about it - it has to cover 7 cells horizontally. It must dip down, and where it does, both ends where it dips down overlap with the line above, so we have cells in both rows, increasing the length by two. If the lines weren't constrained to be orthogonal, it would be different.
@ 30:10 - "Do you have to pick up a 7?" - Instead of thinking about it like that, ask where R4C4 goes in box 4. It can't repeat on its line, and it can't go in C3. It can't go next to the other 57, so it must be in R6C1. This means R5C1=6. It also means that R4C4=R6C1=R5C7.
@ 43:50 - "I now think this is the 2" - Of course it is! There's no doubt. You have 268 pencil-marked in three cells, and two of them are 68. What is the third one? Instead, you used a completely ridiculous chain of logic to prove the bleedin' obvious. You would probably claim you didn't see it. I would say you just didn't bother looking, which is your biggest problem.
@ 48:35 - How can that line include 9? It would need an 8, and there's no way to pick up an 8 from any foggy cells, so the line starts with 1 and 4, R9C1=9. The line needs a 2 and a 3, and the 3 must be in box 9. After eleven minutes of floundering, you spot it.
@ 1:08:35 - "7 is in one of those squares, is that useful?" - No, but the 7 in box 5 is, because it resolves the 48/57 pairs in box 8, and this goes around the grid fixing everything. Of course, you should have got this when you worked out A was 7, but that would have been completely out of character.
That was a very interesting FoW puzzle. There was a nice flow to it, as long as you don't forget sudoku, and ask the right questions. That eleven-minute hiatus could have been avoided if you'd only asked "can this be 9?" Further floundering would have been avoided if you'd looked at the result of making A=7.
At 19:58, I was wondering what was stopping the blue line from being 9 cells long. I later realized that the yellow line would be impossible to connect if that was the case.
At 27:24 I have to disagree. The reason why the red line cannot cross from cell F8 to G8 (using chess notation from white's perspective) is not because the line would be straight (it can still move down at G8 i.e. G8-G7-H7-H8) but because it would block yellow from connecting given the hint.
94:46, with a few helpful pointers along the way, watching your solve. This was absolutely bonkers and elegant and hard in a sustained and constant fashion. Great puzzle, 5/5 would recommend, I now need a nap.
Such a cool puzzle, it's awesome how the first line to see (blue) is literally the last one to be solved!
44:09 😭 there was literally a 68 pair staring at you, and Simon just goes on to prove it in a complex way
Thank you @Mixo and @Simon for the puzzle and video: I loved this one, every time i had no idea what to do, the fog just directed me where to look.
66 minutes, only just slower then Simon. I must admit i did an assumption somewhere and forgot to take it out and when i came back to that cell it happened to be the right number.
I couldn't see through this mishap to actually prove it and so let it be.
I just finished the puzzle again , took me ages and a lot of steps to come back to that digit, so i did kinda a big cheat, oops.
Simon being stuck at 56 minutes cost him a lot of time, and i can't say the step to get out of there (i used the 2 x-wing in column 4 and 5 to place 2 in column6) was obivous to spot.
1 hour 45, first time I've completed one that Simon also had to take time with. Super happy!
This puzzle was a blast to solve!