Thank you so much for featuring this puzzle! I am super proud of how it turned out. Your thinking was spot on, and I am amazed at how quickly you managed to understand the core concept! Big thank you also to Jovi and all the other amazing setters that got me into creating puzzles :D Ps.: I really enjoyed your terminology, I call them double friendlies, too!
I had noticed that you excluded any triple friendlies. Did you think of including those at any point, or did you just have to concede in putting in the 4/7/1 in those spots?
@@JalebJay in an earlier stage I had marked those cells in red and had the rule "Red cells can not be friendly", but I realised I could just put givens there which have the purpose of making the puzzle unique while ALSO blocking the tripple friendlies!
@@JoWovrin fair enough. It was one of the first things I thought of when trying to find a contradiction of each digit in green twice. Wanted to know how the creator worked through it.
This puzzle is really incredible. I recommended it because I've really never seen anything like it before! Very grateful to JoWovrin for this gift! And he knows how much I love symmetry, so he somehow not only got this grid to work, but he found a diagonally symmetric layout of clues. Incredible to me.
@ jovial....Happy birthday to you!! Great bday present for you. Hope you have had a good one. Keep on setting. Can't wait to see your next one be featured.
I think this is the most original puzzle I have seen for a while. I do hope there is a second book, because the sheer beauty of some of the recent constructions is simply mind-blowing,
At first glance, it definitely earns its 5 out of 5 rating by appearance. Once Simon takes the time to check out the logic, he turns the puzzle into more of a hide and seek. Once you know what to look for, everything seems to fall into place. When you are armed with this logic, the puzzle becomes very approachable. I would highly suggest just checking out the logic part of the video. Then try it on your own before you finish the rest of the video. Sometimes it's very satisfying to be able to finish a puzzle and I think the hint in the beginning will help immensely to tame this puzzle's difficulty.
That's almost exactly what I did, I stared at the puzzle for 20 minutes to no avail, started watching Simon's solve and a soon he said there's 27 max friendlies the logic just clicked for me! I paused the video and solved in 42:54 (not including the 20 minutes staring)
I think thats what the issue is...I don't think the summary for the puzzle really describes what the objective is well enough. Once Simon explained it the puzzle seemed pretty straightforward and easy
Never did I imagine I would find something like Sudoku to be so enjoyable to watch, a big part of that is thanks to this channel and especially your enthusiasm for the craft! Cheers and thanks for the great videos!
When I initially tested this puzzle for Jo, even before it got released, I instantly knew it was a special one. The logic in this one is absolutely spectacular. Definitely deserving of a feature, time to watch how Simon cracked it!
Holy cow! I actually did it! With absolutely know help from this video. Wow, I really have learned so much from this channel! I don't care how nerdy it is, I feel an incredible sense of accomplishment finishing this puzzle all by myself. Thank you SOOOOOOO much for all I have already learned from your station and all the future knowledge bombs you will bestow upon me!
Blocking the super friendly positions was a good step to not make this puzzle go to impossible. Without those blocks not knowing that the friendly cells could only be 2 per digit would have been maddening. And the 3 and 7 double friendly cells being forced early on was a nice gift.
I think the hardest deduction was that realizing that there were 27 incidents of friendly digits (row/col/box), and that he had to double up on some. I think the biggest hint to that was that the 159 diagonal were full of given digits... one of those little hints that the setter wanted you to figure out. Simon made this look easy!
Crying from the poem, lovely read. I'll need to watch again to wrap my head around the sudoku logic. Beautiful poem, beautiful puzzle, beautiful solve.
Simon, that poem was indeed a somber, yet beautiful, piece of art. Thank you for sharing your love of poetry with us. Please do include more poetry in your videos.
Wow!!! I got totally and completely stuck and convinced myself that a solution was impossible. In the first few minutes, Simon asks how many friendly digits there are in the grid. , , . The insight to ask the right question is amazing!
Man, this took me 6 hours to solve, but I'm proud to say I did it without any looking up any hints. I figured there was some restriction across the whole board, but it took a long time to grasp what it was. I actually tried filling out the grid with pure guesses just to see how it was possible, and realized it was actually fairly difficult. The breakthrough for me was noticing that there were '27 constraints' and '18 friendly digits', so that meant at least 9 friendlies were going to have to do 'double-duty', (and none of the digits could do 'triple-duty' because of the givens). I confess I never made the connection that a given digit could only do double-duty once, which would have made it a lot easier. I colored in all the 'digits that could be row-column friendly', all the 'digits that could be box-column friendly' and all the 'digits that could be box-row friendly', and realized it was a suspiciously organized pattern. I then went through the patterns possibilities and realized that in order for there to be at least 9 'double-duty' friendlies, the 'box-row' friendlies in boxes 2,6, and 8 always had to be friendly. The puzzle unwound fairly easily from there, but I was very unsure of my logic even towards the end. Fantastic puzzle, that definitely gave my poor brain a workout.
Where do you begin with this puzzle?! The thing which made it for me was realising the subtle hint of the unavailable ‘triple friendly cells’, that was the moment you knew you were actually onto something. Even then it took Simon saying that there could only be one more friendly cell in each row, box and column, as a result of the ruleset, for things to become clearer (it’s weird how some obvious logical steps can seem like a massive leap until you see them, in this case 2-1 must equal 1)! The moment of realisation that followed was something else and the solve path was then brilliant as well! Thank you Jo W, that was fantastic! And thank you to Simon for leading everyone onto the right path, that could have taken a while!! You really have no need to doubt either, it was a well reasoned and brilliantly executed solve which I’m sure many people will enjoy watching. Thanks again. :)
I've just recently started watching your videos, and I've learned so much. I worked on this one while watching (I haven't learned all the tricks yet), and at one point thought "huh... that's some kind of 'friendly X-wing'..." Sure enough, just a little bit later you said the same thing! Thank you for making these, I've found joy in learning to solve these with you.
Loved this puzzle and solve! Well done! Very interesting ruleset, I think this is the first friendly puzzle I’ve seen, and geez it didn’t disappoint a bit!! I also love the extra things you do to make this channel brilliant, whether it’s a song or a poem or a riddle or anything else, it’s truly special. Thank you.
Completely amazing. I am blown away everyday with CTC. While I can’t approach the genius of Mark and Simon it makes my day when I might see a break in a few seconds before Mark or Simon. When someone starts making shirts with CTC sayings please include my new favorite saying. “Unfriendly naked single”. Thank you Simon and CTC for another 47 minutes of beauty.
Fantastic puzzle with very intriguing rule set. Proud to say I did it in under an hour. All the while saying to myself, "Gee, I really hope I didn't screw up!"
Very original, elegant puzzle! Can Jo provide us a video of how he set this one, i think the puzzle deserves it. It's very nice how Simon adapts so quickly to these new rules and does them so quickly and smoothly. I am amazed.
I really enjoyed this one. The difficulty is that it's impossible......until you figure out the trick. Then it's actually not that hard. The logic was absolutely stunning.
Definitely amazing puzzle. Took me awhile to figure out the key. I knew there were 9 double friendlies pretty quickly, but took me about an hour to figure out that it had to be 1 for each number as I was wasting time trying to falsely prove there had to 1 in each box.
Proof that watching this channel does indeed make you better: Not only did I actually manage to solve the puzzle (with some initial help from Simon), I also thought 'ah, it's an X wing of friendliness'. Soon maybe it will be applying phistomefel rings and 'bobbins'! Many thanks!
I am a Sudoku Beginner (Regular, Chess Sudoku, some Thermo Sudoku) and I’ve been watching the channel for some time. Simon and Mark have reignited a lost hobby of mine and given me such a relaxing youtube channel to watch in the evenings! Keep up the amazing good work!! p.s. I am working my way through your chess sudoku app, with varying results, but thoroughly enjoying every moment of it!
Dear CtC, I just got my book today. (December 1st -- although it is the 2nd as I type this.) IT. IS. AMAZING!!! Thank you so much for the hard work and dedication! The first thing I did of course (besides perusing some of the colorful artwork) was to look up my name in the back. It's so cool you did this for the backers. It makes us feel a part of something wonderful! I can't wait to "Get Cracking!" Thanks, again! Forever Your Fan, Josh Dyer
This brings back memories of the friendly sudoku you did which had the crazy loop around the grid of all having 2 possibilities and forcing themselves. (Badly explained. Sorry. But I do remember it and the breaki in quite well)
Rules: 03:43 Let's Get Cracking: 04:56 Most popular number, colour, box and parity this video: One (195 mentions) Blue (15 mentions) Box 1 (11 mentions) Even (2 mentions) What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Bobbins: 1x (26:03) Chocolate Teapot: 1x (28:16) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! By Sudoku: 10x (21:13, 30:54, 31:05, 31:20, 36:20, 36:39, 37:33, 38:22, 39:43, 41:29) Hang On: 10x (06:13, 06:13, 06:21, 08:25, 20:13, 20:29, 22:55, 22:57, 27:30, 29:24) Good Grief: 3x (06:24, 30:11, 44:23) Sorry: 3x (10:10, 15:44, 23:30) Naked Single: 3x (41:07, 42:29, 42:33) Beautiful: 3x (18:04, 18:04, 39:07) Nonsense: 2x (18:39, 18:43) Clever: 2x (01:48, 20:57) Elegant: 2x (44:32, 44:52) Gorgeous: 2x (23:28, 45:15) Magnificent: 2x (44:02, 44:04) In Fact: 2x (00:46, 34:35) What on Earth: 1x (08:25) Naughty: 1x (38:26) Lovely: 1x (35:26) Brilliant: 1x (02:39) Oh It Can!: 1x (38:56) Bonkers: 1x (25:06) Masterpiece: 1x (00:56) Unbelievable: 1x (04:49) Obviously: 1x (42:46) Whoopsie: 1x (30:52) I Digress: 1x (03:31) FAQ: Q1: What is a Simarkism? A1: A Simarkism is something that Simon and Mark typically or frequently say. Q2: How do you do this so fast? A2: I'm not made of flesh and blood, but of sand ... Q3: Why don't you include 'XX' and 'YY'? A3: Probably it's already on the list ('Scooby-Doo' for example), but not mentioned in this video. But if you think it's not, tell me what you'd like me to include and there's a good chance I'll add it! Q4: You missed 'XX' at 'YY:ZZ'! A4: That could very well be the case! Human speech is hard to understand for computers like me, especially British sometimes! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn! Q5: Could you turn these statistics into videos? A5: I've been playing around with the idea and I'm open to input as to what people would like to see. Let me know if you are interested in this and/or have suggestions.
Yesterday Simon said finding the corner quadruple was once of his best ever solving moments. Well, I found that quadruple (albeit more slowly!) and I think solving this puzzle today feels better. Much better. Probably the one puzzle I've solved where I'd rank in a decent centile. Just under 55 minutes for me and I'm feeling rather smug.
39:59 for me and after taking 100 minutes plus yesterday, I'm not putting 40 minutes! Having filled in all the digits in each cell for possible 'greens' and then realised the logic that every number needed to do two 'jobs' once, deleting the numbers that didn't fit meant that what was left meant It nearly solved itself from then on. Great puzzle.
I started the puzzle and I immediately knew it had something to do with the total number of friendlies in the grid... but somehow my mind was just too sluggish to grasp it. So I watched the first minute or so of Simon solving it, just to get a feel for how he's thinking, and before he had even figured it out himself, the lightbulb went on for me too, and then it was a delightful breeze. Really nice puzzle! :)
I figured out the main trick lying in bed last night, it required a bit of insight that was just through the roof. I feel really good about getting this one. One of the best ever.
what an incredible puzzle! It took me about 40 minutes before I made the key deduction that each digit has to appear in exactly two friendly cells, but once I got that, the whole thing fell into place beautifully.
28:09 for me. That was weird, I could definitely understand that logic, as I solved the puzzle without breaking it once, but I’m not sure I would be able to explain it to anyone. Such an interesting concept that I can’t even put it to words. I really enjoyed this one a lot.
Took me about an hour (I quit after 20 minutes and pondered things while I did other stuff ... the epiphany came to me during that break), but ... Mind, Blown! A truly exceptional puzzle!!!
This is a really clever puzzle. The trickiest part is understanding how the puzzle works. Once you start placing some of the friendly cells, it becomes very approachable.
What a joy of a puzzle! The entire flow up through figuring out all the friends felt like one fun discovery after another. And despite its stated 5/5, it felt quite approachable to me - there was nontrivial logic, but the shape of the puzzle did a great job of pointing you at what to think about.
I love how Simon double checks his logic before hitting submit whereas Mark hits submit the instant the puzzle is done - probably meaningless but gives me a chuckle regardless
There's a setting in the software that automagically fires off the check as soon as you enter the final digit. Simon has this switched off, Mark switches it on: you can often see him pause before the final digit for a visual check of his own.
As mentioned by Phil Boswell, there is an automatic check feature. Before they implemented it Mark would sometimes forget to to hit the check button and he would have a digit in the wrong place. But with the autocheck, there is no forgetting the check.
Wow, I get the logic and solved this in 32:47, started watching this channel since pandemic and now i'm able to solve 5 out of 5 stars puzzles, thanks Simon 🤟
“…about as useful as a chocolate teapot” made my week simon, thank you for that absolutely delightful phrase. lovely solve of this fantastic puzzle as well of course!
Despite being 5/5 difficulty this is one of a few of these puzzles I finished without getting stuck, took me 58 minutes but I'm quite proud of myself. I guess the indexing/friendly cells made sense to me. I had just about the same pause and same reaction Simon did when realizing the 2 per box limit and how it broke open resolving all the friendly cells. Amusingly I picked the exact same color combination as you did Simon despite not yet watching the video, maybe I'm watching too much of your solves, if thats possible.
There's a 1-2 pair up in b1 that can resolved relatively early through a fun bit of logic: a 1 in c3 would force the 2 into r2, causing three friendly digits in the box.
32 min for me, had all friendlies beside the 2-8 xwing by 19 minutes and then struggled to actually do the sudoku part. I usally dont even try sudokus from the 40+ min videos but the ruleset intrigued me.
After 49 minutes of scratching my head, I found my second breakthrough: - Each digit can be a friendly cell no less than two times in the grid. The only places where a digit would only have exactly one friendly cell would be 1-1-1, 5-5-5, and 9-9-9, which are all conveniently occupied. (Genius puzzle setting!) - If each digit is a friendly cell at least twice, that means a minimum of 18 friendly cells. - Each box contains exactly two friendly cells (rule). So there must be 18 friendly cells total. - Deduction summarized: Each digit is a friendly cell exactly twice in the grid. This turned out to be useful for 6, because 6 must be friendly once in box 6 and once in column 6. That uses up all possible friendly 6-es, so another 6 cannot be in row 6. And for the friendly cell in row 6 to be friendly, it could only be 1/6 before. Now it can only be a 1. (Fascinating!) Then this 1 begins a chain reaction. This solves column 1 to have its friendly 1, but it does not touch with box 1 nor row 1. And there is only one unused 1 left that can be placed, and it must be both in row 1 and box 1 at the same time. This means the 1 in box 1 can only be in two cells. And this is beautiful, because the green cell in box 1 could only be 1/3 before, but now it cannot be 1.
Around 144 minutes, I finally found all friendly cells and their values. Now only basic sudoku remains. But I gotta say, this was a lovely puzzle, and I'm glad I tried it out before I watched the video. edit: Final time is 148:21. Now let's watch how Simon did it. :)
I got this in 44:18, (including the time I spent watching Simon solving because I couldn't spot the importance of the "two friendlies" rule), and I found it rather amusing that it took Simon until the 38 minute mark to figure out where 1 and 2 went in box 1, when I'd been able to figure out where they went just based on my first run of friendly pencilmarking after I'd grasped the importance of the "two friendlies" rule. (to be fair to Simon though, I only even got that far because he was a giant for me to stand on the shoulders of)
I was worried. It looked for a moment like this puzzle might end without Simon uttering the phrase "An X-wing on friendlies" but thankfully he came through.
I wonder why nobody uses the 'side' notation; instead of marking 2 or 3 boxes with a little number, just put it on the side, on top of at the bottom, outside the puzzle. It really clears up the notations.
I was *so* close to getting the starting logic. Figured out the difference between twice-friendly and once-friendly cells, but focussed on trying to count how many were in each box/row/column, rather than on the needs of the digits. So ended up giving up and watching ther video, then kicking myself.
Solved this one myself as well. 10/10 quality. I think the difficulty is 3 or 4 out of 5, though. The new concept just makes it more difficult at first :)
Simon: "We know these cells can't be nines which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot." The chocolate teapot, 20 seconds later: "Well look who needs me now!" ò.ó
I suspect that once you have the concept, and understand the logic, the puzzle nearly builds itself. A setter's video would probably be very short, and cover choosing the givens (which I concede is no mean feat).
Thank you so much for featuring this puzzle! I am super proud of how it turned out. Your thinking was spot on, and I am amazed at how quickly you managed to understand the core concept! Big thank you also to Jovi and all the other amazing setters that got me into creating puzzles :D
Ps.: I really enjoyed your terminology, I call them double friendlies, too!
Amazing unique wonderful puzzle!!
Incredible job setting this.
I had noticed that you excluded any triple friendlies. Did you think of including those at any point, or did you just have to concede in putting in the 4/7/1 in those spots?
@@JalebJay in an earlier stage I had marked those cells in red and had the rule "Red cells can not be friendly", but I realised I could just put givens there which have the purpose of making the puzzle unique while ALSO blocking the tripple friendlies!
@@JoWovrin fair enough. It was one of the first things I thought of when trying to find a contradiction of each digit in green twice. Wanted to know how the creator worked through it.
Brilliant in its simplicity. Well done, Jo.
This puzzle is really incredible. I recommended it because I've really never seen anything like it before! Very grateful to JoWovrin for this gift! And he knows how much I love symmetry, so he somehow not only got this grid to work, but he found a diagonally symmetric layout of clues. Incredible to me.
The symmetric clues were lovely, because it sort of attempted to hide how vitally important blocking the 1, 5, and 9 on the negative diagonal were.
@ jovial....Happy birthday to you!! Great bday present for you. Hope you have had a good one.
Keep on setting. Can't wait to see your next one be featured.
I think this is the most original puzzle I have seen for a while. I do hope there is a second book, because the sheer beauty of some of the recent constructions is simply mind-blowing,
At first glance, it definitely earns its 5 out of 5 rating by appearance. Once Simon takes the time to check out the logic, he turns the puzzle into more of a hide and seek. Once you know what to look for, everything seems to fall into place. When you are armed with this logic, the puzzle becomes very approachable. I would highly suggest just checking out the logic part of the video. Then try it on your own before you finish the rest of the video. Sometimes it's very satisfying to be able to finish a puzzle and I think the hint in the beginning will help immensely to tame this puzzle's difficulty.
Definitely one of those puzzles that earns its difficulty rating in the break-in.
That's almost exactly what I did, I stared at the puzzle for 20 minutes to no avail, started watching Simon's solve and a soon he said there's 27 max friendlies the logic just clicked for me! I paused the video and solved in 42:54 (not including the 20 minutes staring)
I think thats what the issue is...I don't think the summary for the puzzle really describes what the objective is well enough. Once Simon explained it the puzzle seemed pretty straightforward and easy
Never did I imagine I would find something like Sudoku to be so enjoyable to watch, a big part of that is thanks to this channel and especially your enthusiasm for the craft! Cheers and thanks for the great videos!
When I initially tested this puzzle for Jo, even before it got released, I instantly knew it was a special one. The logic in this one is absolutely spectacular. Definitely deserving of a feature, time to watch how Simon cracked it!
Holy cow! I actually did it! With absolutely know help from this video. Wow, I really have learned so much from this channel! I don't care how nerdy it is, I feel an incredible sense of accomplishment finishing this puzzle all by myself. Thank you SOOOOOOO much for all I have already learned from your station and all the future knowledge bombs you will bestow upon me!
Blocking the super friendly positions was a good step to not make this puzzle go to impossible. Without those blocks not knowing that the friendly cells could only be 2 per digit would have been maddening. And the 3 and 7 double friendly cells being forced early on was a nice gift.
I think the hardest deduction was that realizing that there were 27 incidents of friendly digits (row/col/box), and that he had to double up on some. I think the biggest hint to that was that the 159 diagonal were full of given digits... one of those little hints that the setter wanted you to figure out. Simon made this look easy!
i love to see simon beiing so happy and lucky when cracking a mad puzzle
Crying from the poem, lovely read. I'll need to watch again to wrap my head around the sudoku logic. Beautiful poem, beautiful puzzle, beautiful solve.
Yeah, I also teared up both when reading it myself before the sudoku and when Simon read it after.
As a non-native speaker I didn't get it at first, but after googling and rereading it clicked and I also teared up a bit
Videos like this are what make watching sudoku almost as fun as doing them. I was chuckling at evey reference of super friendly and unfriendly digits
"X Wing on friendliness", well it's official, nothing in Sudoku can surprise me anymore.
Next up finned x friendlies.
I actually played ahead and got to this part by myself and thought "Simon is going to lose his mind with an x wing of friendliness"
@@donaldsnyder1543 Tune in next week for "Friendly neighbourhood skyscrapers!"
It is amazing the way information is slowly gathered throuth the puzzle. A really brillant setting. Congratulations!!
Simon, that poem was indeed a somber, yet beautiful, piece of art. Thank you for sharing your love of poetry with us. Please do include more poetry in your videos.
Wow!!! I got totally and completely stuck and convinced myself that a solution was impossible. In the first few minutes, Simon asks how many friendly digits there are in the grid. , , . The insight to ask the right question is amazing!
Yes, Simon has a way of asking just the right question.
I haven't smiled so much for a puzzle in a while. Lovely.
Man, this took me 6 hours to solve, but I'm proud to say I did it without any looking up any hints. I figured there was some restriction across the whole board, but it took a long time to grasp what it was. I actually tried filling out the grid with pure guesses just to see how it was possible, and realized it was actually fairly difficult. The breakthrough for me was noticing that there were '27 constraints' and '18 friendly digits', so that meant at least 9 friendlies were going to have to do 'double-duty', (and none of the digits could do 'triple-duty' because of the givens). I confess I never made the connection that a given digit could only do double-duty once, which would have made it a lot easier. I colored in all the 'digits that could be row-column friendly', all the 'digits that could be box-column friendly' and all the 'digits that could be box-row friendly', and realized it was a suspiciously organized pattern. I then went through the patterns possibilities and realized that in order for there to be at least 9 'double-duty' friendlies, the 'box-row' friendlies in boxes 2,6, and 8 always had to be friendly. The puzzle unwound fairly easily from there, but I was very unsure of my logic even towards the end. Fantastic puzzle, that definitely gave my poor brain a workout.
dude gets further than I would have ever gotten in 10 minutes and I just keep yelling at the 6 he has via Sudoku for 5 minutes.
That's our Simon!
What is this "Sudoku" you speak of? 😎
Bro I've been screaming for so long for that 6 it was pissing me off
Where do you begin with this puzzle?! The thing which made it for me was realising the subtle hint of the unavailable ‘triple friendly cells’, that was the moment you knew you were actually onto something. Even then it took Simon saying that there could only be one more friendly cell in each row, box and column, as a result of the ruleset, for things to become clearer (it’s weird how some obvious logical steps can seem like a massive leap until you see them, in this case 2-1 must equal 1)! The moment of realisation that followed was something else and the solve path was then brilliant as well! Thank you Jo W, that was fantastic! And thank you to Simon for leading everyone onto the right path, that could have taken a while!! You really have no need to doubt either, it was a well reasoned and brilliantly executed solve which I’m sure many people will enjoy watching. Thanks again. :)
I've just recently started watching your videos, and I've learned so much. I worked on this one while watching (I haven't learned all the tricks yet), and at one point thought "huh... that's some kind of 'friendly X-wing'..."
Sure enough, just a little bit later you said the same thing! Thank you for making these, I've found joy in learning to solve these with you.
Loved this puzzle and solve! Well done! Very interesting ruleset, I think this is the first friendly puzzle I’ve seen, and geez it didn’t disappoint a bit!! I also love the extra things you do to make this channel brilliant, whether it’s a song or a poem or a riddle or anything else, it’s truly special. Thank you.
Completely amazing. I am blown away everyday with CTC. While I can’t approach the genius of Mark and Simon it makes my day when I might see a break in a few seconds before Mark or Simon. When someone starts making shirts with CTC sayings please include my new favorite saying. “Unfriendly naked single”. Thank you Simon and CTC for another 47 minutes of beauty.
Fantastic puzzle with very intriguing rule set. Proud to say I did it in under an hour. All the while saying to myself, "Gee, I really hope I didn't screw up!"
Very original, elegant puzzle! Can Jo provide us a video of how he set this one, i think the puzzle deserves it. It's very nice how Simon adapts so quickly to these new rules and does them so quickly and smoothly. I am amazed.
I really enjoyed this one. The difficulty is that it's impossible......until you figure out the trick. Then it's actually not that hard. The logic was absolutely stunning.
Definitely amazing puzzle. Took me awhile to figure out the key. I knew there were 9 double friendlies pretty quickly, but took me about an hour to figure out that it had to be 1 for each number as I was wasting time trying to falsely prove there had to 1 in each box.
Proof that watching this channel does indeed make you better: Not only did I actually manage to solve the puzzle (with some initial help from Simon), I also thought 'ah, it's an X wing of friendliness'. Soon maybe it will be applying phistomefel rings and 'bobbins'! Many thanks!
I am ever amazed by the puzzle-making community. This was a great puzzle. Wonderful idea. The Sudoku variants are never-ending.
Just "wow". Another brilliant example of these meta-puzzles. Literally applauded.
I am a Sudoku Beginner (Regular, Chess Sudoku, some Thermo Sudoku) and I’ve been watching the channel for some time. Simon and Mark have reignited a lost hobby of mine and given me such a relaxing youtube channel to watch in the evenings!
Keep up the amazing good work!!
p.s. I am working my way through your chess sudoku app, with varying results, but thoroughly enjoying every moment of it!
Dear CtC,
I just got my book today. (December 1st -- although it is the 2nd as I type this.) IT. IS. AMAZING!!! Thank you so much for the hard work and dedication! The first thing I did of course (besides perusing some of the colorful artwork) was to look up my name in the back. It's so cool you did this for the backers. It makes us feel a part of something wonderful! I can't wait to "Get Cracking!" Thanks, again!
Forever Your Fan,
Josh Dyer
This brings back memories of the friendly sudoku you did which had the crazy loop around the grid of all having 2 possibilities and forcing themselves. (Badly explained. Sorry. But I do remember it and the breaki in quite well)
Just subscribed to the Patreon for these guys - it’s a must really!
This is the first puzzle on this channel I've been able to solve
Rules: 03:43
Let's Get Cracking: 04:56
Most popular number, colour, box and parity this video:
One (195 mentions)
Blue (15 mentions)
Box 1 (11 mentions)
Even (2 mentions)
What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
Bobbins: 1x (26:03)
Chocolate Teapot: 1x (28:16)
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
By Sudoku: 10x (21:13, 30:54, 31:05, 31:20, 36:20, 36:39, 37:33, 38:22, 39:43, 41:29)
Hang On: 10x (06:13, 06:13, 06:21, 08:25, 20:13, 20:29, 22:55, 22:57, 27:30, 29:24)
Good Grief: 3x (06:24, 30:11, 44:23)
Sorry: 3x (10:10, 15:44, 23:30)
Naked Single: 3x (41:07, 42:29, 42:33)
Beautiful: 3x (18:04, 18:04, 39:07)
Nonsense: 2x (18:39, 18:43)
Clever: 2x (01:48, 20:57)
Elegant: 2x (44:32, 44:52)
Gorgeous: 2x (23:28, 45:15)
Magnificent: 2x (44:02, 44:04)
In Fact: 2x (00:46, 34:35)
What on Earth: 1x (08:25)
Naughty: 1x (38:26)
Lovely: 1x (35:26)
Brilliant: 1x (02:39)
Oh It Can!: 1x (38:56)
Bonkers: 1x (25:06)
Masterpiece: 1x (00:56)
Unbelievable: 1x (04:49)
Obviously: 1x (42:46)
Whoopsie: 1x (30:52)
I Digress: 1x (03:31)
FAQ:
Q1: What is a Simarkism?
A1: A Simarkism is something that Simon and Mark typically or frequently say.
Q2: How do you do this so fast?
A2: I'm not made of flesh and blood, but of sand ...
Q3: Why don't you include 'XX' and 'YY'?
A3: Probably it's already on the list ('Scooby-Doo' for example), but not mentioned in this video. But if you think it's not, tell me what you'd like me to include and there's a good chance I'll add it!
Q4: You missed 'XX' at 'YY:ZZ'!
A4: That could very well be the case! Human speech is hard to understand for computers like me, especially British sometimes! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
Q5: Could you turn these statistics into videos?
A5: I've been playing around with the idea and I'm open to input as to what people would like to see. Let me know if you are interested in this and/or have suggestions.
Chocolate teapot!! This was a new one to me (both as a Smarkism and an expression), but I'm now going to look out for it!
I haven't seen one of these for a while, so Idk when you stared noting most popular numbers and colours. It's a really good addition to Simarkisms.
How about "now known" (at least twice in this video)?
" Re-position My Glasses, Prepare For Action " . Does sound (and look ) like a phrase from Thunderbirds that Brains would have used !
“If anyone watches this video out of context, they will probably me committed to a mental institution”
What a lovely puzzle! This video was full of wonderful 'taken out of context' quotes. I am especially a fan of "naughty 2".
Nothing to add, but feel the need to celebrate this absolutely amazing puzzle! Just really really really good. I have been stunned. :)
I played the drinking game on this video with the word “friendly” and I died 30 seconds after “let’s get cracking” 🥴☠️
Nori Nori. If you don't get the reference, go back and watch the Nori Nori Sudoku.
Yesterday Simon said finding the corner quadruple was once of his best ever solving moments.
Well, I found that quadruple (albeit more slowly!) and I think solving this puzzle today feels better. Much better.
Probably the one puzzle I've solved where I'd rank in a decent centile. Just under 55 minutes for me and I'm feeling rather smug.
Watching you solve this was 90% brilliance and 10% mildy infuriating - and I wouldn't have it any other way ;)
SUPER enjoyable puzzle/solve/constraint! BIG THANKS to all involved!
39:59 for me and after taking 100 minutes plus yesterday, I'm not putting 40 minutes!
Having filled in all the digits in each cell for possible 'greens' and then realised the logic that every number needed to do two 'jobs' once, deleting the numbers that didn't fit meant that what was left meant It nearly solved itself from then on. Great puzzle.
Really proud of myself on this one. Great, fun logical reasoning. I love how it slowly opens up as you find each new friendly cell.
21 minutes in i realised why the puzzle was called "friends²"... VERY clever, incredible puzzle and an incredible solve!
Was waiting for Simon to realize the 3 was already twice friendly. And was not disappointed with his reaction.
I started the puzzle and I immediately knew it had something to do with the total number of friendlies in the grid... but somehow my mind was just too sluggish to grasp it. So I watched the first minute or so of Simon solving it, just to get a feel for how he's thinking, and before he had even figured it out himself, the lightbulb went on for me too, and then it was a delightful breeze. Really nice puzzle! :)
I figured out the main trick lying in bed last night, it required a bit of insight that was just through the roof. I feel really good about getting this one. One of the best ever.
Happy (belated?) birthday, jovi_al! May you live as long as you want to, and want to as long as you live!
what an incredible puzzle! It took me about 40 minutes before I made the key deduction that each digit has to appear in exactly two friendly cells, but once I got that, the whole thing fell into place beautifully.
Amazing ruleset, and the way Simon nailed it is impressive as well...
28:09 for me. That was weird, I could definitely understand that logic, as I solved the puzzle without breaking it once, but I’m not sure I would be able to explain it to anyone. Such an interesting concept that I can’t even put it to words. I really enjoyed this one a lot.
Took me about an hour (I quit after 20 minutes and pondered things while I did other stuff ... the epiphany came to me during that break), but ... Mind, Blown!
A truly exceptional puzzle!!!
This puzzle was great. I like that as soon as you can wrap your head around the central logic, the sudoku itself was relatively easy.
This is a really clever puzzle. The trickiest part is understanding how the puzzle works. Once you start placing some of the friendly cells, it becomes very approachable.
Two puzzles for the price of one. Great fun, and so original. Thank you!
What a joy of a puzzle! The entire flow up through figuring out all the friends felt like one fun discovery after another. And despite its stated 5/5, it felt quite approachable to me - there was nontrivial logic, but the shape of the puzzle did a great job of pointing you at what to think about.
WOV! Simon, your logic was stunning and remarkably quick. BRAVO!
Simon Chuckles Menacingly:
5/5 you say?!!! Heh.
Then proceeds to annihilate this puzzle like it’s a play toy for him. Absolutely amazing.
Loved it - once I wrapped my head around the unfamiliar logic, it was fairly approachable!
I love how Simon double checks his logic before hitting submit whereas Mark hits submit the instant the puzzle is done - probably meaningless but gives me a chuckle regardless
It carries over into other games, I've noticed
There's a setting in the software that automagically fires off the check as soon as you enter the final digit. Simon has this switched off, Mark switches it on: you can often see him pause before the final digit for a visual check of his own.
As mentioned by Phil Boswell, there is an automatic check feature.
Before they implemented it Mark would sometimes forget to to hit the check button and he would have a digit in the wrong place. But with the autocheck, there is no forgetting the check.
Wow, I get the logic and solved this in 32:47, started watching this channel since pandemic and now i'm able to solve 5 out of 5 stars puzzles, thanks Simon 🤟
Took over an hour and two resets, but did it with no hints/tips from the video! Never been so pleased to solve one myself!
Amazing!! What a brains in the composition and in the solution!! To seat and watch with some popcorns.
“…about as useful as a chocolate teapot” made my week simon, thank you for that absolutely delightful phrase. lovely solve of this fantastic puzzle as well of course!
Wonderful puzzle, though Simon definitely made it seem not 5/5 difficulty. Truly unique logic, it’s amazing what setters are getting up to these days!
I think it was just the instructions. really confused by what the puzzle was asking for XD
Despite being 5/5 difficulty this is one of a few of these puzzles I finished without getting stuck, took me 58 minutes but I'm quite proud of myself. I guess the indexing/friendly cells made sense to me. I had just about the same pause and same reaction Simon did when realizing the 2 per box limit and how it broke open resolving all the friendly cells. Amusingly I picked the exact same color combination as you did Simon despite not yet watching the video, maybe I'm watching too much of your solves, if thats possible.
I managed to solve it, using exactly the same reasoning. It took me a lot longer to get there, though. Well done Joachim and Simon!
Wow! What a delightful puzzle! And quite doable once you work out the very clever logic implied by the rules! :-D
i had no idea how to solve this. Great work.
The first deduction is incredible and very well explained
Lovely poem. Thanks for sharing it. And of course the puzzle - very entertaining and amazing.
"Green is not a creative color" but I suppose it can still be a friendly color
Holy smokes. What a funny puzzle.
Nothing better than this! 👍 Great video Simon
There's a 1-2 pair up in b1 that can resolved relatively early through a fun bit of logic: a 1 in c3 would force the 2 into r2, causing three friendly digits in the box.
43:01 for me, but I checked against the video at two points to be sure my reasoning was right, so I didn't do it alone.
simon: has a channel dedicated to solving sudoku puzzles
simon at 10:11: *apologizes for trying to solve the sudoku*
33:06 is an old "favourite", pointing at a missed deduction. (the 46 in column 9 giving the 6 in box 6)
Loved this puzzle and solve!
29:19. One of these that if you know how the friendly cells are restricted, then it isn’t particularly monstrous. Top puzzle though 👍
32 min for me, had all friendlies beside the 2-8 xwing by 19 minutes and then struggled to actually do the sudoku part. I usally dont even try sudokus from the 40+ min videos but the ruleset intrigued me.
After 49 minutes of scratching my head, I found my second breakthrough:
- Each digit can be a friendly cell no less than two times in the grid. The only places where a digit would only have exactly one friendly cell would be 1-1-1, 5-5-5, and 9-9-9, which are all conveniently occupied. (Genius puzzle setting!)
- If each digit is a friendly cell at least twice, that means a minimum of 18 friendly cells.
- Each box contains exactly two friendly cells (rule). So there must be 18 friendly cells total.
- Deduction summarized: Each digit is a friendly cell exactly twice in the grid.
This turned out to be useful for 6, because 6 must be friendly once in box 6 and once in column 6. That uses up all possible friendly 6-es, so another 6 cannot be in row 6.
And for the friendly cell in row 6 to be friendly, it could only be 1/6 before. Now it can only be a 1. (Fascinating!)
Then this 1 begins a chain reaction. This solves column 1 to have its friendly 1, but it does not touch with box 1 nor row 1. And there is only one unused 1 left that can be placed, and it must be both in row 1 and box 1 at the same time. This means the 1 in box 1 can only be in two cells.
And this is beautiful, because the green cell in box 1 could only be 1/3 before, but now it cannot be 1.
Around 144 minutes, I finally found all friendly cells and their values. Now only basic sudoku remains. But I gotta say, this was a lovely puzzle, and I'm glad I tried it out before I watched the video.
edit:
Final time is 148:21. Now let's watch how Simon did it. :)
I got this in 44:18, (including the time I spent watching Simon solving because I couldn't spot the importance of the "two friendlies" rule), and I found it rather amusing that it took Simon until the 38 minute mark to figure out where 1 and 2 went in box 1, when I'd been able to figure out where they went just based on my first run of friendly pencilmarking after I'd grasped the importance of the "two friendlies" rule. (to be fair to Simon though, I only even got that far because he was a giant for me to stand on the shoulders of)
This was a cracking puzzle. Pun completely intended.
beautiful puzzle and solve. Thank you.
I was worried. It looked for a moment like this puzzle might end without Simon uttering the phrase "An X-wing on friendlies" but thankfully he came through.
How do I type "Box Thingy" into a friendly cell ?
Are you THAT Maverick?
I wonder why nobody uses the 'side' notation; instead of marking 2 or 3 boxes with a little number, just put it on the side, on top of at the bottom, outside the puzzle. It really clears up the notations.
very cool. Took me a while, placing the friendlies isn't very intuitive at first, but they come along. Once you got them, the rest isn't too hard.
I was *so* close to getting the starting logic. Figured out the difference between twice-friendly and once-friendly cells, but focussed on trying to count how many were in each box/row/column, rather than on the needs of the digits. So ended up giving up and watching ther video, then kicking myself.
“Naughty 2 you should play better with others” I’m howling 😂😂😂
Solved this one myself as well. 10/10 quality. I think the difficulty is 3 or 4 out of 5, though. The new concept just makes it more difficult at first :)
I look forward to trying this one, but I've finally bit the bullet and did the ZetaMath one - that was fun!
That was spectacular
Watching this a bit late, but wow! A great puzzle and a great solve!
61:48. Such a clever trick! Really enjoyed this one
Simon: "We know these cells can't be nines which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot."
The chocolate teapot, 20 seconds later: "Well look who needs me now!" ò.ó
We want a setter video of this puzzle! Please!
I suspect that once you have the concept, and understand the logic, the puzzle nearly builds itself. A setter's video would probably be very short, and cover choosing the givens (which I concede is no mean feat).
@@TheEricthefruitbat Maybe. I would like to hear the story.