Yay! So happy to see this get featured. It truly is a miracle construction: I made it sleep deprived on a red-eye flight to halifax and was so excited that it didn't break that I spent time at the airport and hotel lobby finishing the rest of it! Fantastic solve that surprised me in a lot of places! You got the way the 2-cell sums were divvied up very quickly and, though it took a while to get there, the way you explained why orange couldn't be 6 is the prettiest explanation I've seen. I'm honored :)
I was very confused by the ambiguity of the ? clues outside the grid because the rules lacked definition regarding the order in which external clues apply to the grid. Having those clues apply a left->right order is required for the puzzle to solve uniquely, but the wording leaves the order completely undefined and even seems to indicate that it is irrelevant. Simon in his solve uses a left->right ordering numerous times for specific logic.
@@tedg1278 I get this. If one isn't familiar with Japanese sums maybe it isn't blatantly obvious but the staggered order of the ?'s might give pause for thought about the possibility. If there hadn't been any ? clues, the ordering criteria wouldn't even make a difference. Simon definitely used the missing "in that order" criteria when solving. Maybe we could start a petition on one of those petition websites to get this added to the directions on the puzzle in the link (this is just me being facetious)?
I'm not a player or setter, but it seemed to me (as a casual onlooker...maybe an obsessive onlooker as I've watched nearly every video they've released since 2020) that the solve path seemed to use the clues in a very specific order and I wonder if the setting path was basically the same path. I can imagine that finding/inventing this was extremely satisfying, maybe moreso than solving is. The ending was most epic and I can't really see how those numbers could even have been planned.
I am amazed that, despite the complex mathematical calculations Simon usually does in his head, he had to use his fingers to work out how many numbers there are from 10 to 17 inclusive. And then he checked it, still using his fingers. He is human after all.
I love at 1:05:10 when Simon is totally fine with two digits in the same box both being a 1. He has completely forgotten that this is a sudoku puzzle, understandably
I was dumbstruck when he decided that's a perfectly legal fill! As much as he is taken aback by needing to do sudoku early in these puzzles, it looks like it's helpful as a reminder that it's still a sudoku puzzle 🤣
haha I understand I was going BONKERS trying to do this, i gave my ? contigs a golden colour and then i couldnt count properly, I wrote down a number grid and went mad because i had too many 3 contigs and then realised I had not written down the number 22 so only counted 6 poss 3s, truly a mental puzzle
That’s the tricky thing about so many variants of Sudoku. Especially when Simon is tackling a different one every day. It can take me a bit to ‘forget’ an old rule set when starting a new puzzle.
I love the longer videos! I know they must be a pain to make and edit (and even to solve a puzzle), but selfishly, I really enjoy being able to "spend an evening" with you guys. I hope you enjoy your evenings as much as you allow me to enjoy mine!
Not giving up shows some serious tenacity! Congratulations on the solve, no matter how long it takes it was still impressive given how incredibly hard this puzzle is.
It's funny how we root for Simon to see things we see, and we feel crushed when he doesn't. Who else was crestfallen for Simon not swapping the 14 and 16 in the above-column 9 cage totals? Superb solve by our lead dog Simon, and a supremely clever setting by tesseralis.
The weirdest thing about this puzzle is the pattern of sums it uncovered: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 1. There are a maximum of 9 single-digit sums. Once they're all used, 2. There are a maximum of 8 two-digit sums, since 9+8 is the largest. Once they're all used, 3. There are a maximum of 7 three-digit sums, since 9+8+7 is the largest. This pattern continues all the way down to 1 nine-digit sum, as long as you keep using up every possible sum from the previous digit.
I did it! Took three days, about 12 hours of work and I even built a big spreadsheet to calculate it. Hardest puzzle I've experienced, but I got it done. ;)
I have been watching Simon for more than two years. Every sudoku, I am disappointed because he does not see some easy deduction (usually it is a black digit or something very trivial). Then there are puzzles like this, where he teaches me what is humility and what a true logic master can do. Thank you, Simon (yeah, I will be one of those lining up at the party to talk with the guy in the corner....lol)
Every once in a while, I remind people that you can watch these videos on double speed and it's WAY better. You get all the satisfaction from a Simon solve in half the time!
@@spacelem I have no issues with the sound at double speed, but I don't use RUclips's native speed control. It might also be that a mobile device or lower end computer has worse audio processing, but idk what kind of a device you watch it on.
This was an absurdly stunning puzzle. Took just over two and a half hours but enjoyed every second of it, except the bit where it said the answer didn't look right. Was a relief to check the end of the video and see the same message (and answer) from Simon's solve. 🤯
What a lovely solve! I especially liked the math at 1:24:15, when Simon adds 10, 11 and 17 to get 28 (nope, it's 38!), and then 10 seconds later says, that 28 is missing 7 for a complete row (nope, 28 is missing 17!) - those two errors cancel each other, and the conclusion turns out to be correct - I guess he deserved that kind of luck.
This video popped up for me ten days ago. I paused as soon as the rules were read and I'd clicked with how to start and gave it a go myself. Now ten days and a restart later, I finally have it. I used a lot more scribbled notes, but even beside that, seeing you crack it in just under two hours was amazing. Well done, and well done to Tesseralis.
3:28:44 (With a little help from Simon.) I did manage to get most of the colouring logic done unaided but am very proud of how far I got on my own. What an incredible puzzle!
103 minutes for me. Japanese sums are probably my favourite type of sudoku because they are long solves but always seem to keep moving quite fluently and full credit to tesseralis for creating a puzzle that can do that
Puzzles like this are great they get me cheering for when Simon spots the logic I found and shouting encouragement when he gets flummoxed on where to go. Good lord this was an amazing puzzle
I’m in love with this puzzle! I started my attempt about 30 minutes ago and went absolutely nowhere. I was so totally lost I had to come back here to see how you made your first breakthrough. The insight you had 12:10 about the shaded cells in row 1 being part of a longer contiguous set of cells along the columns… I will admit I didn’t see that at al 😂
Man that was brutal, but beautiful. I finally managed to solve it after over 4.5 hours. I kept breaking the puzzle trying to shuffle the two-cell region totals.
Watched the entire thing. The logical thought process required to complete this was beautiful to witness. The setter is as usual either a maniacal evil crime boss or a genius, possibly both.
To be fair, even though I wasn't really affected by the lockdowns, that's when I found CTC. It's been a pleasant journey. I don't "need" the channel as some people do, but it's nice how consistent it is and I check back every day or two.
Loved the solve. Thank you for the herculian effort! The sheer focus you can muster for over 2 hours is really impressive. May I suggest keeping hydrated while solving these monstrosities? Maybe even a cookie to keep your sugar level healthy?
I love watching Simon go through the five stages of grief about missing something "obvious" meanwhile I haven't a clue what's going on until he explains it :'D
This was a phenomenal puzzle, I really enjoyed solving it. it took me 5 hours. Thanks as always for finding these amazing puzzles, Simon. And thanks Tesseralis for the cool puzzle
This is really quite incredible. Like Simon, I got the grid "quickly" and then got absolutely crushed trying to put in the digits. I ended up having to come back twice to the video to get a hint (first to realize that the 17 had only place to go, and second to get prompted to do some exhaustive casing down in the bottom right, eventually leading to the realization that only one combination was actually possible). Anyway, uh, 3:47:31.
1:55:06 finish. I flew through the beginning of this puzzle, finally getting stuck with the two-cell cages on the right side of the grid (and stuck for quite a while). One thing I noted early on in numbering was that the single cells in row 2 and column 4 had to go in the grey cells of row 1. This differentiated them quickly. For the shading of r8c5, I was able to determine it earlier by noting that row 3 was already a 42 clue, so shading the cell grey would have given me a second clue of the same total. Such a fun puzzle!
After just shy of 11 hours, after having to back track two errors I discovered with Simon's solve, I stumbled upon SImon's solution. What kept me from quitting was the ambition to be only one of 29 people in the world to have ever have solved it. Opps! The software didn't create solvers.
Got to 1:02:37 (based on the shading I can see on the hover preview, at least) on my own before getting stuck, gonna watch the video now and see what I'm missing. Pretty proud of myself for making it that far, at the very least. Edit: Ah, lots and lots of math with three pairs, got it. Edit 2: Finished the rest all on my own! I couldn't really figure out what I was supposed to do to figure out which was the 19 and which was the 20, though. Tried one as the 4-6 to see if it broke the puzzle and it ended up resolving, which I know is how resolving digits goes sometimes but it didn't feel like that was supposed to be resolved in that way. Fun puzzle though. I tend to quite enjoy the math ones, I get a pretty big notes section on my phone after puzzles like these :)
I actually solved it. The timer is at about 6 hours and there are some short breaks where I didn't pause it but that's about it. Certainly one of the hardest puzzles that I've been able to actually get through.
11:10 it is funny to hear Simon say that he doesn't remember whether either grey or green is usually accounting for the shaded cells... Well, it is obvious that often grey is used for shading, but in this puzzle it is the other way round! Rather confusing ;-)
There's a prophecy you missed at around 1:35:00, don't blame you for missing it but I found it pretty funny. Earlier in the puzzle you offhandedly joked once you finished the bulk of the shading that "we know some weird things now, like these 2 cells are not the same digit" and you chose a 1 as a random example to show that r3c9 and r9c7 could not be the same cell, because it would force an identical total into r3 and c7. Fast forward to 1:35:00 you're looking for where 1 goes in row 9, it clearly can't go into c1, so we're left with 3 cells cross boxes from box 8 to box 9, but you can actually eliminate r9c7 by exactly the logic you found so long ago, if you put 1 there, 1 is forced into r3c9 of box 3 and the puzzle breaks.
Long videos are fine by me Simon. On in the background while I did some tedious work from home, and made the whole thing I lot more bearable. Anyway what an amazing puzzle and what an amazing solve. I am always taken aback by this kind of video, just unbelievable
My only infinitely minor quibble with this solve... at the very end, the clues above column nine could have been corrected to 16 and 14, instead of 14 and 16. But otherwise, absolutely astonishing work! Take a bow!
I've been trying to at least attempt more of the puzzles on this channel but I think I'm gonna let this one go by :l excited to see what magic Simon can work on it though!
A "weird" thing I caught while doing this, for options, there's 9 singles, 8 doubles, 7 triples. 6... 5... 4... Which obviously makes sense when you think about it, but I was like, Oh Wait! I don't need my fingers.
I've never attempted (or even seen) a Japanese Sums puzzle before, so I had no idea where to start with the sums themselves. But I'm kind of proud of myself for at least figuring out the correct shading (minus the final two cells that required the sums to be deduced). It was neat to realize that there were a limited number of two- and three-cell totals available, along with using that fact to complete (most of) the shading.
The crossover I didn't know I needed: Nonograms and Sukoku! I have loads more experience with nonograms, and so some of the less intuitive stuff was really clear to me. For example, around 17 minutes when you figure out that column 4 has to contain three single-cell cages and one two-cell cage, due to the amount of space that would take up you can immediately fill in r9c4 as green. The amount of sudoku logic this requires would have really stumped me though, and if I'd tried it myself I'm not sure how long it would have taken me to come up with the single digits rule at the beginning haha! Part of me wishes I had given it a go before watching, but oh well -- I'm sure there are other puzzles like this.
I think Sven has it set up that if you put in the solution for just the Sudoku part (leaving the clues blank), the check would pass ignoring what's in the clue. It'd always be nice for the setters to provide the solution, but you can add one in after the solve as well.
Your top video has 8.8 million views. The length of the video is 25:11 (less than 30 minutes). There's something wrong with the math even if every viewer watch the whole thing all the way through you're looking at less than 4.4 million hours. That is nowhere near 1 billion hours. Is it possible the statistics you were looking at were describing how many hours total all of your videos together have been viewed?
Love this puzzle. Is there a reason at 1:00:00 that you can't have an 8th 3-cell region if you then didn't make the 2 orange lines 2-cell regions? Then you would have a total of 7 2-cell regions (less than the max), and then 8 3-cell regions. Then R3C9 would be green. You would then get R3 all green, which is not allowed since C3 is all green, so Simon got the right answer, but was it for the wrong reason?
If R3C9 is green, then R3C1 turns grey (R3 cannot be entirely green), causing the quotum for 2-cell to reach the max and thus reaching too many 3-cell regions, so R3C9 must be grey. But it was potentially confusing indeed, as I was wondering the same at first sight, as Simon did not mention this at that point (already he had explained earlier on that either R3C1 or R3C9 must be grey as R3 cannot be green).
A man who knows the triangular number of 6 by heart, when he needs to know how many two-digit numbers there are between 10 and 17, he counts with his fingers... twice.
Two hour video? I'm not even going to click on the puzzle. Solves the puzzle in about the same time as the video. What an incredible puzzle but where did the afternoon go?!
I actually liked the length of the video. Plus i think the ?'s is what's hanging up the software. Loved the solve. If you ever want to do another one this long, go for it.
54:37, an easier logic for me was that c2 and c6 couldn't both contain two 3-cell clues without producing two 45s. This means they contain that last 2-cell clue. Then r6c6 could not create another 2-cell clue, and this forces c6 to contain the eighth 2-cell clue, with a 3-cell clue.
I couldn't initially see where you were getting the two 45s, but I see it now. If c2 and c6 were both two 3-cell clues, then they would both have greens in row 9, which would have to connect, making both columns 3 and 5 complete 45 rows. 👍
Are you sure that it's not 1 billion minutes instead of hours? 9 million viewers would have had to watch the video for about a hundred hours each to get to 1 billion hours
1 billion minutes is still too much as that would be close to 2 hours per view for a 25 minute video. my guess is that it has 1 million hours watch time, that would be about 7 minutes per view which is very reasonable
Yes indeed, 1 billion hours divided by 9 million viewers divided by 25 minutes would imply that each individual viewer watched the famous video over 200 times each...
Loved the solve!! Couldnt help but be a little bit annoyed by the column 9 japanese sums being switched till the end... Was hoping he'd notice at the end or something lol!
It seems like every other puzzle Simon solves, he says it's one of the most amazing puzzles in the history of the universe. Even more strange, I don't know that I would disagree.
I've watched up to the 1:09:00 point in the video and this is the point I got completely stuck. It's nice to have it confirmed that I'm on the right path up to this point. But now I'm going to bed, and will see if I have any further inspiration when I look at the puzzle with fresh eyes tomorrow.
Well done, Simon! Fantastic solve, again. Love the longer videos, especially if I can keep up with your logic. Which mostly I did on this one. No way could I have solved it. Although I did see the start in row 1. I think we didn't get the confetti from the 3 in the corner because the software assumed the corner of the grid was the black cell in the bottom left of the grid. If it had been a 3 in the right bottom corner it would probably have worked.
49:08 so close to spotting column 6. Counting the number of two cells we know we are out of two cells regardless of where we place the gray in column 6.
What an incredible puzzle, really really stunned! It took me about 4 hours to solve (sorry Mark did not see your video but I did check quickly your solving path afterwards which was pretty much the same). One thing keeps me puzzled however, I was shocked(!) when it said it was was not the correct solution! But the solve counter says it has been solved 22 times. How is that possible?
@28:12 I'd say this is where a cheat sheet on the side would come in handy to track the highest possible amounts of X-cell clues with unique totals, because I can already see 3-cell clues are still limited. If you maxed out 2-cell clues, then 3-cell clues would yet cap at out 7 additional: 19-24.
@ 56:19 - "oh no, it's a question mark" - yes, but the cell below it isn't, so it has to extend to the right, making C3 the 45. Why would you look at R8C2, but not also look at R9C2? @ 1:05:29 - what are you talking about? You can't have two 2s in the same box. The first rule s "normal sudoku rules apply". This really was a brute of a puzzle. Sadly, you missed my favourite bit of logic which resolved the 19 and 20. If the top was 469, you ended up needing two cells to be 8 in the same column. Although I was delighted to solve it, I can't say I look forward to more like this. I got through the shading quite easily, but the amount of graft that was needed to get going with the numbers was a bit too much to be particularly enjoyable for me. Once there were enough deductions to have some traction, it wasn't too bad though. I can't imagine how one goes about setting a puzzle like this. The intricacy was incredible, and for it to be possible to get started, and for it to still hold onto some secrets right up to the end was impressive. What I found interesting was discovering that, if you stack the numbers into the fewest possible cells, there are 9 1-cells, 8, 2-cells, 7 3-cells, 6 4-cells, 5 5-cells etc.
I took a different path towards shading the grid. By seeking out exactly 15 instances of 2 cell clues or 3 cell clues, you can resolve column 2 and column 9. This helps because you dont need to identify each 2 or 3 cell sequence initially, you just need to limit the total of both to 15 instances or less. A few places where the sequence can be "2 or 3 cells" makes counting 2 cells difficult, bit they clearly contribute to the 15 total.
I don't know at what point this appeared (at 1:41 now, so some time before that), but the 56789 quints in row 2 and box 3 mean that r2c3 and r2c4 are the same values as r1c8 and r1c9 and they can only match up in one way since there is no overlap between 56 and 89. That allows you to clean up some pencil marks and narrow down the top right red line significantly.
Well beyond my skill! Simon's logical "oops" at the very beginning (extending column 9's green along with the others) made me wonder if he was gonna get lucky that it had no negative impact.....or a total disaster that needed repair.
Yay! So happy to see this get featured. It truly is a miracle construction: I made it sleep deprived on a red-eye flight to halifax and was so excited that it didn't break that I spent time at the airport and hotel lobby finishing the rest of it! Fantastic solve that surprised me in a lot of places! You got the way the 2-cell sums were divvied up very quickly and, though it took a while to get there, the way you explained why orange couldn't be 6 is the prettiest explanation I've seen. I'm honored :)
I was very confused by the ambiguity of the ? clues outside the grid because the rules lacked definition regarding the order in which external clues apply to the grid. Having those clues apply a left->right order is required for the puzzle to solve uniquely, but the wording leaves the order completely undefined and even seems to indicate that it is irrelevant. Simon in his solve uses a left->right ordering numerous times for specific logic.
@@tedg1278 I get this. If one isn't familiar with Japanese sums maybe it isn't blatantly obvious but the staggered order of the ?'s might give pause for thought about the possibility. If there hadn't been any ? clues, the ordering criteria wouldn't even make a difference. Simon definitely used the missing "in that order" criteria when solving. Maybe we could start a petition on one of those petition websites to get this added to the directions on the puzzle in the link (this is just me being facetious)?
I'm not a player or setter, but it seemed to me (as a casual onlooker...maybe an obsessive onlooker as I've watched nearly every video they've released since 2020) that the solve path seemed to use the clues in a very specific order and I wonder if the setting path was basically the same path. I can imagine that finding/inventing this was extremely satisfying, maybe moreso than solving is. The ending was most epic and I can't really see how those numbers could even have been planned.
Just mind blowing from you! Extravagant and Extraordinary setting and concept!
congratz! it is a masterpiece
I am amazed that, despite the complex mathematical calculations Simon usually does in his head, he had to use his fingers to work out how many numbers there are from 10 to 17 inclusive. And then he checked it, still using his fingers. He is human after all.
I love at 1:05:10 when Simon is totally fine with two digits in the same box both being a 1. He has completely forgotten that this is a sudoku puzzle, understandably
I was dumbstruck when he decided that's a perfectly legal fill! As much as he is taken aback by needing to do sudoku early in these puzzles, it looks like it's helpful as a reminder that it's still a sudoku puzzle 🤣
Momentarily confused. In a normal Japanese sums puzzle that would be a valid placement.
haha I understand I was going BONKERS trying to do this, i gave my ? contigs a golden colour and then i couldnt count properly, I wrote down a number grid and went mad because i had too many 3 contigs and then realised I had not written down the number 22 so only counted 6 poss 3s, truly a mental puzzle
lol... and not a single pencil mark after an hour. But he DID finish.
That’s the tricky thing about so many variants of Sudoku. Especially when Simon is tackling a different one every day. It can take me a bit to ‘forget’ an old rule set when starting a new puzzle.
“Do have a go.” Nope. Popcorn is all I need for this one.
I want a shirt that says "The Answer is 42, but the Secret is 45" 😆
and the difference is 3 in the corner
Is this the next kickstarter? 🤔
Interesting 😊
I lost it when Simon said that the clue was a “harry styles clue” because it could only grow in one direction 😂
I had to watch it back to make sure I heard that right! Had me and my partner cackling
You really want to speak with Simon at parties.
im so confused by that
I love the longer videos! I know they must be a pain to make and edit (and even to solve a puzzle), but selfishly, I really enjoy being able to "spend an evening" with you guys. I hope you enjoy your evenings as much as you allow me to enjoy mine!
After an hour in, I nearly forgot we were to be populating the grid with digits. The shading aspect of the puzzle was fulfilling enough.
It is a relief to watch Simon to spend 2 hours to solve a puzzle that struggled me over 3 days. It makes me feel that I am not that foolish!
Yeah. When simon needs more then 1 hour, you know it's HARD
Well done, you!!!!! On so many fronts: the solve and the tenacity, to name two. :)
Not giving up shows some serious tenacity! Congratulations on the solve, no matter how long it takes it was still impressive given how incredibly hard this puzzle is.
After two failed attempts I just watched the video! 😆
Theres barely any puzzles thars more than 2 hr long. And this is one thats from hell
It's funny how we root for Simon to see things we see, and we feel crushed when he doesn't. Who else was crestfallen for Simon not swapping the 14 and 16 in the above-column 9 cage totals? Superb solve by our lead dog Simon, and a supremely clever setting by tesseralis.
I began to wonder if that was what the puzzle was considering "wrong". Those external clues being mixed and still pencils and what not.
The weirdest thing about this puzzle is the pattern of sums it uncovered:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35
36 37 38 39
40 41 42
43 44
45
1. There are a maximum of 9 single-digit sums. Once they're all used,
2. There are a maximum of 8 two-digit sums, since 9+8 is the largest. Once they're all used,
3. There are a maximum of 7 three-digit sums, since 9+8+7 is the largest.
This pattern continues all the way down to 1 nine-digit sum, as long as you keep using up every possible sum from the previous digit.
I did it! Took three days, about 12 hours of work and I even built a big spreadsheet to calculate it. Hardest puzzle I've experienced, but I got it done. ;)
Simon counting on his fingers to do 17-9=8 is one of the funniest things I’ve seen on the channel 😂
I have been watching Simon for more than two years. Every sudoku, I am disappointed because he does not see some easy deduction (usually it is a black digit or something very trivial). Then there are puzzles like this, where he teaches me what is humility and what a true logic master can do. Thank you, Simon (yeah, I will be one of those lining up at the party to talk with the guy in the corner....lol)
I remember starting this on Logic Masters Germany on a Wednesday, and finishing it on a Saturday. I'm quite proud that they were on the same week.
Sometimes I think Simon believes a sudoku grid is only 8 rows because he never looks at the 9th. lol
You are a far braver man than I am Simon. Not only to take on this puzzle, but on a live video too. Amazing.
The only channel where "Thats a pretty, naked, single" could be a wholesome sentence lol
What a puzzle..
Every once in a while, I remind people that you can watch these videos on double speed and it's WAY better. You get all the satisfaction from a Simon solve in half the time!
Maybe it's different for other people, but I find it doesn't adjust the sound cleanly, and the clipped sound annoys me way too much to watch.
@@spacelem I have no issues with the sound at double speed, but I don't use RUclips's native speed control. It might also be that a mobile device or lower end computer has worse audio processing, but idk what kind of a device you watch it on.
I won't be able to solve along in double speed
@@jakubt8701 I won't be able to solve along in 0.25x speed, so I watch it at double speed anyway
Watched last third at 1.5X which worked for me.
Two hours? ... Okay, lets make some tea first :D
This was an absurdly stunning puzzle. Took just over two and a half hours but enjoyed every second of it, except the bit where it said the answer didn't look right. Was a relief to check the end of the video and see the same message (and answer) from Simon's solve. 🤯
1:05:10 is the most quintessential Simon disregarding sudoku rules ever lol, i love it! you *can* have two 2's in that box??
What a lovely solve! I especially liked the math at 1:24:15, when Simon adds 10, 11 and 17 to get 28 (nope, it's 38!), and then 10 seconds later says, that 28 is missing 7 for a complete row (nope, 28 is missing 17!) - those two errors cancel each other, and the conclusion turns out to be correct - I guess he deserved that kind of luck.
This video popped up for me ten days ago. I paused as soon as the rules were read and I'd clicked with how to start and gave it a go myself. Now ten days and a restart later, I finally have it. I used a lot more scribbled notes, but even beside that, seeing you crack it in just under two hours was amazing. Well done, and well done to Tesseralis.
3:28:44 (With a little help from Simon.) I did manage to get most of the colouring logic done unaided but am very proud of how far I got on my own. What an incredible puzzle!
103 minutes for me. Japanese sums are probably my favourite type of sudoku because they are long solves but always seem to keep moving quite fluently and full credit to tesseralis for creating a puzzle that can do that
Puzzles like this are great they get me cheering for when Simon spots the logic I found and shouting encouragement when he gets flummoxed on where to go. Good lord this was an amazing puzzle
In each of your videos, I adore you the most. Then I watch Mark, and I adore him the most. I'm a flip flopper. Love you both!
you're not the only flip-flopper
Every time you say something is obvious, I find it is so clever to spot the trick 😂
The solve is so satisfying to watch
Hats off to Simon for solving this one. After looking at it on and off for several days I gave up as frankly it was driving me mad!
I’m in love with this puzzle!
I started my attempt about 30 minutes ago and went absolutely nowhere. I was so totally lost I had to come back here to see how you made your first breakthrough.
The insight you had 12:10 about the shaded cells in row 1 being part of a longer contiguous set of cells along the columns… I will admit I didn’t see that at al 😂
Man that was brutal, but beautiful. I finally managed to solve it after over 4.5 hours. I kept breaking the puzzle trying to shuffle the two-cell region totals.
Watched the entire thing. The logical thought process required to complete this was beautiful to witness. The setter is as usual either a maniacal evil crime boss or a genius, possibly both.
A little anticlimactic that the solution was not included in this puzzle! What a hard solve. Kudos to tesseralis.
To be fair, even though I wasn't really affected by the lockdowns, that's when I found CTC. It's been a pleasant journey. I don't "need" the channel as some people do, but it's nice how consistent it is and I check back every day or two.
Mind blowing solve from you Simon!! Perseverance galore and absolutely incredible logic and deductions along the way!!
Loved the solve. Thank you for the herculian effort! The sheer focus you can muster for over 2 hours is really impressive. May I suggest keeping hydrated while solving these monstrosities? Maybe even a cookie to keep your sugar level healthy?
I love watching Simon go through the five stages of grief about missing something "obvious" meanwhile I haven't a clue what's going on until he explains it :'D
This was a phenomenal puzzle, I really enjoyed solving it. it took me 5 hours. Thanks as always for finding these amazing puzzles, Simon. And thanks Tesseralis for the cool puzzle
Whew this one took me 10 hours! I thought the puzzle was going to get easy once the shading was complete, instead it only got harder!
This is really quite incredible. Like Simon, I got the grid "quickly" and then got absolutely crushed trying to put in the digits. I ended up having to come back twice to the video to get a hint (first to realize that the 17 had only place to go, and second to get prompted to do some exhaustive casing down in the bottom right, eventually leading to the realization that only one combination was actually possible). Anyway, uh, 3:47:31.
What a great puzzle, enjoyed watching you solve it with great immensity
Whoa! I'm glad it's a holiday here in the US, I have time tonight to watch this masterpiece!
1:55:06 finish. I flew through the beginning of this puzzle, finally getting stuck with the two-cell cages on the right side of the grid (and stuck for quite a while). One thing I noted early on in numbering was that the single cells in row 2 and column 4 had to go in the grey cells of row 1. This differentiated them quickly. For the shading of r8c5, I was able to determine it earlier by noting that row 3 was already a 42 clue, so shading the cell grey would have given me a second clue of the same total.
Such a fun puzzle!
Rules: 07:30
Let's Get Cracking: 10:14
What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
Three In the Corner: 5x (1:58:38, 2:00:31, 2:00:44, 2:00:50, 2:14:18)
Bobbins: 3x (12:50, 33:49, 2:14:10)
Maverick: 2x (1:24:36, 1:50:48)
The Secret: 2x (37:57, 38:04)
Knowledge Bomb: 1x (14:51)
Scooby-Doo: 1x (36:50)
You Rotten Thing: 1x (2:00:47)
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Hang On: 21x (19:30, 29:28, 35:28, 48:57, 52:38, 57:00, 57:01, 59:31, 59:31, 1:16:41, 1:17:07, 1:38:56, 1:43:56, 1:43:58, 1:47:29, 1:47:29, 1:47:29, 1:49:21, 1:51:15, 1:54:48, 1:56:14)
Sorry: 14x (05:15, 10:27, 36:11, 36:11, 36:47, 40:41, 45:25, 1:13:23, 1:36:45, 1:36:45, 1:36:45, 1:38:04, 1:38:35, 2:02:19)
Ah: 12x (12:33, 26:28, 54:56, 1:00:28, 1:05:28, 1:05:48, 1:05:48, 1:22:18, 1:27:16, 1:46:30, 2:00:06, 2:00:06)
Wow: 11x (15:25, 18:06, 19:33, 22:47, 48:13, 1:01:29, 1:01:31, 1:05:31, 1:14:29, 2:02:37, 2:02:52)
By Sudoku: 10x (1:09:02, 1:09:05, 1:13:45, 1:49:46, 1:54:52, 1:55:57, 1:57:00, 1:58:27, 2:02:16, 2:02:56)
In Fact: 8x (17:21, 30:51, 1:28:50, 1:32:36, 1:39:51, 1:53:58, 1:58:15, 2:11:43)
What on Earth: 5x (21:49, 34:26, 46:59, 47:02, 1:14:29)
Brilliant: 5x (1:48:56, 2:11:08, 2:11:11, 2:15:58, 2:16:01)
Extraordinary: 5x (00:49, 01:39, 02:20, 34:39, 56:56)
Clever: 4x (18:06, 19:33, 1:30:29, 2:11:03)
Obviously: 4x (13:52, 1:00:28, 1:32:10, 1:47:03)
What Does This Mean?: 4x (22:28, 1:08:39, 1:49:31, 1:51:02)
Cake!: 4x (06:10, 06:19, 07:10, 07:14)
Bother: 3x (51:03, 55:03, 56:18)
Stuck: 3x (05:48, 2:09:39, 2:15:47)
Incredible: 3x (03:47, 03:47, 2:07:47)
Surely: 3x (1:48:08, 1:53:29, 2:07:28)
Unique: 3x (00:32, 07:23, 09:15)
Good Grief: 2x (1:02:33, 1:17:55)
Useless: 2x (46:42, 46:46)
Goodness: 2x (1:50:48, 2:09:42)
Naughty: 2x (2:04:33, 2:07:07)
I Have no Clue: 2x (36:00, 47:12)
Lovely: 2x (06:53, 1:06:11)
Break the Puzzle: 2x (59:29, 2:12:01)
Astonishing: 2x (03:34, 2:14:03)
Shouting: 2x (02:18, 03:23)
Apologies: 1x (1:32:07)
Naked Single: 1x (1:52:30)
Out of Nowhere: 1x (1:24:43)
In the Spotlight: 1x (2:00:34)
Horrible Feeling: 1x (1:47:35)
Beautiful: 1x (1:22:18)
Bonkers: 1x (1:46:33)
Approachable: 1x (05:46)
Famous Last Words: 1x (1:56:57)
Irritating: 1x (1:56:52)
Think Harder: 1x (51:21)
Stunning: 1x (2:15:28)
Corollary: 1x (19:36)
Proof: 1x (1:46:43)
Unbelievable: 1x (2:08:54)
Full stop: 1x (1:35:41)
Phone is Buzzing: 1x (1:14:15)
Plonk: 1x (2:02:59)
Let's Take Stock: 1x (1:59:20)
Fabulous: 1x (50:05)
Have a Think: 1x (57:49)
Thingy Thing: 1x (18:36)
Pencil Mark/mark: 1x (1:36:17)
Genuflection: 1x (2:15:19)
Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Fifteen (60 mentions)
One (161 mentions)
Green (82 mentions)
Antithesis Battles:
High (21) - Low (5)
Even (13) - Odd (0)
Shaded (5) - Unshaded (3)
Lower (6) - Higher (1)
Outside (3) - Inside (1)
White (3) - Black (0)
Column (106) - Row (39)
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 love the way you go from "I don't have a Scoopy Doo" to bubbling over with excitement.
After just shy of 11 hours, after having to back track two errors I discovered with Simon's solve, I stumbled upon SImon's solution. What kept me from quitting was the ambition to be only one of 29 people in the world to have ever have solved it. Opps! The software didn't create solvers.
What a fascinating and beautiful, yet terrifying puzzle! It blows my mind that it's possible to set this one.
This is amazing! It’s like a nonogram and sudoku crossover I love it!
this puzzle is absolutely stunning! thanks for the share!
Got to 1:02:37 (based on the shading I can see on the hover preview, at least) on my own before getting stuck, gonna watch the video now and see what I'm missing. Pretty proud of myself for making it that far, at the very least.
Edit: Ah, lots and lots of math with three pairs, got it.
Edit 2: Finished the rest all on my own! I couldn't really figure out what I was supposed to do to figure out which was the 19 and which was the 20, though. Tried one as the 4-6 to see if it broke the puzzle and it ended up resolving, which I know is how resolving digits goes sometimes but it didn't feel like that was supposed to be resolved in that way. Fun puzzle though. I tend to quite enjoy the math ones, I get a pretty big notes section on my phone after puzzles like these :)
I actually solved it. The timer is at about 6 hours and there are some short breaks where I didn't pause it but that's about it. Certainly one of the hardest puzzles that I've been able to actually get through.
One of the best, if not actually the best sudokus ever
11:10 it is funny to hear Simon say that he doesn't remember whether either grey or green is usually accounting for the shaded cells... Well, it is obvious that often grey is used for shading, but in this puzzle it is the other way round! Rather confusing ;-)
In Japanese Sum type puzzles, it's common to make the summed digits green to make them more legible, contrasting the "obscured" gray cells.
There's a prophecy you missed at around 1:35:00, don't blame you for missing it but I found it pretty funny. Earlier in the puzzle you offhandedly joked once you finished the bulk of the shading that "we know some weird things now, like these 2 cells are not the same digit" and you chose a 1 as a random example to show that r3c9 and r9c7 could not be the same cell, because it would force an identical total into r3 and c7. Fast forward to 1:35:00 you're looking for where 1 goes in row 9, it clearly can't go into c1, so we're left with 3 cells cross boxes from box 8 to box 9, but you can actually eliminate r9c7 by exactly the logic you found so long ago, if you put 1 there, 1 is forced into r3c9 of box 3 and the puzzle breaks.
Long videos are fine by me Simon. On in the background while I did some tedious work from home, and made the whole thing I lot more bearable. Anyway what an amazing puzzle and what an amazing solve. I am always taken aback by this kind of video, just unbelievable
91:23 for me. That was absolutely incredible, I can't believe I managed to solve it. What an awesome puzzle, loved it so much!!
My only infinitely minor quibble with this solve... at the very end, the clues above column nine could have been corrected to 16 and 14, instead of 14 and 16.
But otherwise, absolutely astonishing work! Take a bow!
Oh my word.... it's 3.30am...
Well, I'm not turning it off.
Absolutely mind-blowing construction and an equally phenomenal solve by Simon. A masterpiece on both ends! Bravo
I've been trying to at least attempt more of the puzzles on this channel but I think I'm gonna let this one go by :l excited to see what magic Simon can work on it though!
I just watched a 2:16:23 puzzle solving video and loved it the whole time. I think I have a problem.
A "weird" thing I caught while doing this, for options, there's 9 singles, 8 doubles, 7 triples. 6... 5... 4... Which obviously makes sense when you think about it, but I was like, Oh Wait! I don't need my fingers.
this was brutal but also much fun! took almost exactly the same path as simon did
I've never attempted (or even seen) a Japanese Sums puzzle before, so I had no idea where to start with the sums themselves. But I'm kind of proud of myself for at least figuring out the correct shading (minus the final two cells that required the sums to be deduced). It was neat to realize that there were a limited number of two- and three-cell totals available, along with using that fact to complete (most of) the shading.
Well done! I did the single digits and then quickly gave up and started watching the master at work 😅
The crossover I didn't know I needed: Nonograms and Sukoku! I have loads more experience with nonograms, and so some of the less intuitive stuff was really clear to me. For example, around 17 minutes when you figure out that column 4 has to contain three single-cell cages and one two-cell cage, due to the amount of space that would take up you can immediately fill in r9c4 as green. The amount of sudoku logic this requires would have really stumped me though, and if I'd tried it myself I'm not sure how long it would have taken me to come up with the single digits rule at the beginning haha! Part of me wishes I had given it a go before watching, but oh well -- I'm sure there are other puzzles like this.
1:05:14 classic simon completely forgetting about sodoku, though to be fair sodoku was severely lacking up to this point.
I think Sven has it set up that if you put in the solution for just the Sudoku part (leaving the clues blank), the check would pass ignoring what's in the clue. It'd always be nice for the setters to provide the solution, but you can add one in after the solve as well.
Your top video has 8.8 million views. The length of the video is 25:11 (less than 30 minutes). There's something wrong with the math even if every viewer watch the whole thing all the way through you're looking at less than 4.4 million hours. That is nowhere near 1 billion hours. Is it possible the statistics you were looking at were describing how many hours total all of your videos together have been viewed?
Love this puzzle. Is there a reason at 1:00:00 that you can't have an 8th 3-cell region if you then didn't make the 2 orange lines 2-cell regions? Then you would have a total of 7 2-cell regions (less than the max), and then 8 3-cell regions. Then R3C9 would be green. You would then get R3 all green, which is not allowed since C3 is all green, so Simon got the right answer, but was it for the wrong reason?
If R3C9 is green, then R3C1 turns grey (R3 cannot be entirely green), causing the quotum for 2-cell to reach the max and thus reaching too many 3-cell regions, so R3C9 must be grey. But it was potentially confusing indeed, as I was wondering the same at first sight, as Simon did not mention this at that point (already he had explained earlier on that either R3C1 or R3C9 must be grey as R3 cannot be green).
You know the puzzle is hard when you have no digits after an hour solving 😂
A man who knows the triangular number of 6 by heart, when he needs to know how many two-digit numbers there are between 10 and 17, he counts with his fingers... twice.
Two hour video? I'm not even going to click on the puzzle. Solves the puzzle in about the same time as the video. What an incredible puzzle but where did the afternoon go?!
I actually liked the length of the video. Plus i think the ?'s is what's hanging up the software. Loved the solve. If you ever want to do another one this long, go for it.
Wow. I struggled! It took me three and a half hours but I got there! Lovely puzzle, I thoroughly enjoyed it 😅
Yesterday Mark gets a 16 minuite solve today its 2 hours for you. But l have the day off work so l can relax and watch Lets get cracking !!!
54:37, an easier logic for me was that c2 and c6 couldn't both contain two 3-cell clues without producing two 45s. This means they contain that last 2-cell clue. Then r6c6 could not create another 2-cell clue, and this forces c6 to contain the eighth 2-cell clue, with a 3-cell clue.
I couldn't initially see where you were getting the two 45s, but I see it now. If c2 and c6 were both two 3-cell clues, then they would both have greens in row 9, which would have to connect, making both columns 3 and 5 complete 45 rows. 👍
@@RichSmith77 The two 45 clues was given to me by something Simon said earlier in the video about c3 and c5.
Pedantic point. A stela/stele is a single slab, usually carved. An arch like those at Stonehenge is a trilithon (three stones).
Are you sure that it's not 1 billion minutes instead of hours? 9 million viewers would have had to watch the video for about a hundred hours each to get to 1 billion hours
True!🤣 I thought about this too, You're the only one who mentioned that by the way
1 billion minutes is still too much as that would be close to 2 hours per view for a 25 minute video.
my guess is that it has 1 million hours watch time, that would be about 7 minutes per view which is very reasonable
Yes indeed, 1 billion hours divided by 9 million viewers divided by 25 minutes would imply that each individual viewer watched the famous video over 200 times each...
I think threh must have mixed it up eith total watchtime for the whole channel
Loved the solve!! Couldnt help but be a little bit annoyed by the column 9 japanese sums being switched till the end... Was hoping he'd notice at the end or something lol!
Puzzles like this are beyond my feeble brain so I'll just settle down with the popcorn 😅
It seems like every other puzzle Simon solves, he says it's one of the most amazing puzzles in the history of the universe. Even more strange, I don't know that I would disagree.
I've watched up to the 1:09:00 point in the video and this is the point I got completely stuck. It's nice to have it confirmed that I'm on the right path up to this point. But now I'm going to bed, and will see if I have any further inspiration when I look at the puzzle with fresh eyes tomorrow.
If it took Simon more than 2 hours to solve it, I think it's safe to say I could never solve it in 2 centuries.
Well done, Simon! Fantastic solve, again. Love the longer videos, especially if I can keep up with your logic. Which mostly I did on this one. No way could I have solved it. Although I did see the start in row 1. I think we didn't get the confetti from the 3 in the corner because the software assumed the corner of the grid was the black cell in the bottom left of the grid. If it had been a 3 in the right bottom corner it would probably have worked.
49:08 so close to spotting column 6. Counting the number of two cells we know we are out of two cells regardless of where we place the gray in column 6.
53:00 And Simon found another way to resolve the column, which give more than just column 2.
Simon, this was your finest hour to date ... and to be denied confirmation at the end is unconscionable.
What an incredible puzzle, really really stunned! It took me about 4 hours to solve (sorry Mark did not see your video but I did check quickly your solving path afterwards which was pretty much the same). One thing keeps me puzzled however, I was shocked(!) when it said it was was not the correct solution! But the solve counter says it has been solved 22 times. How is that possible?
@28:12 I'd say this is where a cheat sheet on the side would come in handy to track the highest possible amounts of X-cell clues with unique totals, because I can already see 3-cell clues are still limited. If you maxed out 2-cell clues, then 3-cell clues would yet cap at out 7 additional: 19-24.
@ 56:19 - "oh no, it's a question mark" - yes, but the cell below it isn't, so it has to extend to the right, making C3 the 45. Why would you look at R8C2, but not also look at R9C2?
@ 1:05:29 - what are you talking about? You can't have two 2s in the same box. The first rule s "normal sudoku rules apply".
This really was a brute of a puzzle. Sadly, you missed my favourite bit of logic which resolved the 19 and 20. If the top was 469, you ended up needing two cells to be 8 in the same column.
Although I was delighted to solve it, I can't say I look forward to more like this. I got through the shading quite easily, but the amount of graft that was needed to get going with the numbers was a bit too much to be particularly enjoyable for me. Once there were enough deductions to have some traction, it wasn't too bad though. I can't imagine how one goes about setting a puzzle like this. The intricacy was incredible, and for it to be possible to get started, and for it to still hold onto some secrets right up to the end was impressive.
What I found interesting was discovering that, if you stack the numbers into the fewest possible cells, there are 9 1-cells, 8, 2-cells, 7 3-cells, 6 4-cells, 5 5-cells etc.
20:25 for some reason this reminded me of an old poem
Oneone was a racehorse
Twotwo was one too
Oneone won one race
Twotwo won one too
I just finished this in 2 hours. I loved it :)
Holy Moly 😮
One moment…. I’ll need to get Popcorn and red Wine …. ❤
checking one of the softwares that the author themselves put it on, yes your solution is correct
I took a different path towards shading the grid. By seeking out exactly 15 instances of 2 cell clues or 3 cell clues, you can resolve column 2 and column 9. This helps because you dont need to identify each 2 or 3 cell sequence initially, you just need to limit the total of both to 15 instances or less. A few places where the sequence can be "2 or 3 cells" makes counting 2 cells difficult, bit they clearly contribute to the 15 total.
nonongram, kakuro and sudoku together! Amazing puzzle!
I don't know at what point this appeared (at 1:41 now, so some time before that), but the 56789 quints in row 2 and box 3 mean that r2c3 and r2c4 are the same values as r1c8 and r1c9 and they can only match up in one way since there is no overlap between 56 and 89. That allows you to clean up some pencil marks and narrow down the top right red line significantly.
Well beyond my skill! Simon's logical "oops" at the very beginning (extending column 9's green along with the others) made me wonder if he was gonna get lucky that it had no negative impact.....or a total disaster that needed repair.
I skipped to the end to see what the picture was, and realized it's actually a completely different ruleset from what I thought, haha
At 1:24:50 the 8/9 in r2c4 can only go in one spot in box 3 and it is in r1c9. This would maybe speed it up somewhat. What an amazing puzzle