An Opportunity To Use Sudoku Secrets

** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
A really excellent sudoku tonight from Dag H which combines the new "counting circles" ruleset with Yin Yang! Depending on how familiar you are with certain secrets, this might be quite an approachable puzzle (but still lovely to solve). But, in any event, it is a REALLY good sudoku.
Have a go at the puzzle here:
sudokupad.app/8uefwr5pkz
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Colour the entire grid in two different colours, so that a) each colour constitutes one orthogonally contiguous region, and b) no 2x2 square of cells is entirely one colour. A digit in a circle indicates how many times that digit appears in circles. All odd digits in circles are one colour, all even digits in circles are the other colour. White dots separate consecutive digits of opposite colour.
The puzzle Simon mentioned in the introduction is called Region Geometry and it's by Emre Kolotoğlu. If you have some minutes free, you can try it at the link below. (Simon's solve is unlikely to appear because the video is 3hrs 36mins long and the KZbin algorithm will not be kind to it.
logic-masters.de/Raetselporta...
** CIRCLE SUMS by JESPER **
Simon's solve of this unbelievably good (and very challenging) sudoku is now available to watch on Patreon. It is over 2 hours long and is suitable only for those who enjoy movies...
/ crackingthecryptic
There's also a new sudoku hunt from Riffclown for our February competition! Get it here for just $2:
Other bonuses on Patreon currently include:
Simon's 2.5 hour solve of Roller Coaster Nurikabe
Mark's latest solve of The Times Club Monthly Special Crossword
** HEXCELLS STREAM **
Our latest Hexcells stream happened last night and you can watch it at the following link:
kzbin.info7fsRf0Q28s8
** KICKSTARTER - DELIVERED 24 December 2023 **
Our Kickstarter has finished and we've created the finished novella/puzzle collection for you. It was delivered on Christmas Eve so check your inboxes!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
** ORDER OUR NEW BOOK AT THIS LINK **
If you would like to get hold of a physical copy of our new book, Cracking The Cryptic's Greatest Hits - Volume 2, there is still a chance. Visit the link below:
bean-games.pledgemanager.com/...
▶ SUDOKU PAD - Use Our Software For Your Puzzles ◀
You can input classic sudoku puzzles into our software and help support Sven, the programmer responsible for the wonderful user interface we all use to play these puzzles everyday. The app also comes with 12 handmade puzzles from us:
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Android:
play.google.com/store/apps/de...
ALSO on Amazon: Search for “SudokuPad”
▶ Contents Of This Video ◀
0:00 Theme music & puzzle introduction
1:02 Crossword video today
1:28 Sudoku Photo!
2:23 Happy Birthday
3:38 Rules
6:14 Start of Solve: Let's Get Cracking
▶ Contact Us ◀
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[@JDBJake]

I'm waiting for the day a setter makes a Yin Yang puzzle where the final solution is the same as Simon's example

[@jujunorman4695]

Me too

[@stevieinselby]

Either the full comb or the perimeter entirely one colour!

[@JDBJake]

@@stevieinselby I was thinking the comb but the full perimeter is also a good shout lol

[@andremouss2536]

26:27 seconds after Simon warns about a trap, he falls into !

[@whatsleep17]

Luckily the dots forced the same logic he used, just due to opposite colors, not even/odd

[@rojavida]

@@whatsleep17You’d have to explain to me how that works. It just looks like he just got lucky. How would the kropkie dots force yin/yang colours on their own?

[@asherhiggins7853]

@@rojavida The ruleset says "White dots separate consecutive digits of opposite color." I totally missed that too, and wondered how he got on so long without realizing his "mistake."

[@rojavida]

@@asherhiggins7853I totally missed that! Thanks. I ended up solving the numbers without completing the colours but now it makes sense!

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 03:42 Let's Get Cracking: 06:19 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! The Secret: 5x (06:22, 08:50, 09:02, 17:45, 20:51) Three In the Corner: 3x (28:06, 30:01, 36:37) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Checkerboard: 16x (17:55, 18:00, 18:46, 19:18, 26:31, 26:34, 26:37, 26:39, 26:46, 27:30, 27:36, 28:59, 29:04, 29:13, 29:18, 32:17) In Fact: 10x (04:42, 07:34, 07:43, 07:43, 21:11, 23:20, 23:41, 25:04, 35:24, 37:42) By Sudoku: 9x (13:30, 15:10, 21:05, 23:52, 31:19, 31:42, 31:57, 31:59, 34:58) Sorry: 7x (11:50, 12:06, 16:46, 20:56, 20:56, 24:33, 33:17) Gorgeous: 4x (08:53, 15:10, 15:12, 36:55) Hang On: 4x (15:23, 22:02, 24:16, 29:07) Ah: 4x (05:48, 14:03, 32:09, 32:45) Beautiful: 3x (08:46, 09:57, 36:55) Weird: 3x (27:53, 27:56, 32:38) Naked Single: 2x (21:14, 35:27) Nonsense: 2x (20:23, 38:04) Brilliant: 2x (36:43, 36:46) Going Mad: 2x (33:07) I've Got It!: 2x (01:28) Obviously: 2x (07:20, 19:21) Pencil Mark/mark: 2x (13:43, 30:37) Triangular Number: 2x (07:51, 08:36) Goodness: 1x (27:45) Clever: 1x (27:04) Naughty: 1x (38:10) In the Spotlight: 1x (36:40) Straight Off the Bat: 1x (35:13) Take a Bow: 1x (36:52) Surely: 1x (23:54) Phone is Buzzing: 1x (13:15) Progress: 1x (29:33) Fabulous: 1x (02:13) What Does This Mean?: 1x (04:28) Nature: 1x (16:16) Cake!: 1x (02:50) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Twenty One (6 mentions) Two (68 mentions) Blue (56 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Odd (26) - Even (20) White (7) - Black (0) Column (11) - Row (8) 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!

[@HunterJE]

Saw what Simon was heading in to ending the puzzle with and was so satisfying that he did without even setting it aside on purpose

[@arkb0t379]

As soon as I saw all the 389 candidates going in I tried to focus on figuring out the top right corner ahead of Simon, and I wasn't disappointed

[@frankjiang1857]

Finished in 41:42. What's strange for me about this puzzle, is that I didn't have to finish coloring in the spaces to solve the sudoku. So, about half way through the coloring, I just used normal sudoku rules to solve the sudoku. And it took me a decent amount of time more to solve the coloring. Fun puzzle!

[@Quantris]

yup as soon as you get all the circle numbers filled in (well actually just their parity is enough) the coloring doesn't really matter anymore

[@mikedonnan6541]

Me too. I filled in all the digits with only 2/3 Ying Yang complete...and am now stuck (and am normally good at YY)...!!! 😆

[@harrysarai3947]

Last digit. That was the Chef's Kiss, to a brilliant puzzle.

[@ruminator2943]

I love that my brain is so focused on the solve that the confetti almost always catches me by surprise. The delight I experience has never diminished. Thank you Sven and setters for all the joy you send my way.🎉

[@longwaytotipperary]

The ability of non circled digits to be either color regardless of being odd or even was confusing to me. However, Simon did a great job in solving the puzzle!

[@agitatorjr]

Yes, I had to start over after spending a long time after realizing that.

[@QuarkTwain]

Same here. I purposely chose colors other than blue and orange, which helped to keep my brain from automatically coloring every odd digit orange

[@waldolala2]

Yes, this was so confusing to me as well. Especially the white dot in box 3/6.

[@JohnHazl]

I keep wanting to set a yin yang puzzle where the colors are all odd/even or high/low - and then I realize it would immediately break along the perimeter because every row and column has both odds and evens (and high and low digits).

[@jdkemsley7628]

To me it felt more unpleasant than confusing. Not a rational feeling, I suppose

[@libbilation]

I humbly request more Yin Yang puzzles! They're my favorite variant and I always delight when they're featured on this channel.

[@olleicua]

completely agree. Yin Yangs are a lot of fun and I also really like the counting circles so this was a great combination.

[@brianj959]

Yes, I always enjoy the colouring/sudoku combo puzzles and Simon is very good at them too.

[@ZaidK_]

You might enjoy a game called Nurikabe

[@monicaarnett2527]

I love seeing the more approachable puzzles. Usually I have no idea about how to go about the break in on the 4-5* puzzles. I got this one immediately and got the solve too.

[@Millenassang]

Day 1 of asking for the very long bonus videos🤤 (Because we like to suffer to contemplate setter beauty but most of all watching you battling it out and missing the fact that you have to do sudoku as your next step) 🤓

[@bobblebardsley]

This was lovely but that whole initial phase of determining/limiting the circles as you worked through the 1, then the 2s, etc etc was really gorgeous, I'm still getting my head around the circle count rule so the fact that so much of that was dictated just by their position without doing any of the rest of the puzzle was magical.

[@tBagley43]

here's how I got it: we know there aren't nine "9" circles, or eight "8" circles, because you would need to put that number in every box (in the case of 9) or all but one box (in the case of 8), and there can only be one appearance of that number in boxes 2 and 3 combined, or in boxes 4 and 7 combined. furthermore, we know there aren't seven "7" circles, because of that above fact, and because there can't be any circled 7 in box 8, since the 7 in that box is already placed.

[@mc_davit]

@@tBagley43 my start was counting the circles which there are 21 of, and looking at column/row 2 tells us that there are at least 6 different digits in circles, since 1+2+3+4+5+6 = 21, the number of circles we have, these digits are the only ones present in the circles

[@leeway3739]

Since it didn't say that "not all white dots are given", my brain just assumed that ALL were given. I broke the puzzle 4 times before I caved and watched Simon's video to figure out what I was doing wrong. Puzzles work so much better when you are using the correct rules! 🤣

[@thnderleg]

Same. I seriously think puzzle setters should always include if not all the given clues are given.

[@JohnHazl]

Thank you for the video and for the praise! Very nice solve. This is the 3rd puzzle of mine you've solved and the 2nd Yin Yang - I just think they're neat!

[@joelstevens5670]

Fabulous combination of the 2 rulesets. I loved that the digits in circles almost placed themselves and the yin yang did the rest. Many thanks, solving that gave me a huge amount of pleasure. 😊

[@arianebarnes]

You were mostly right about row 1 column 4 at 20:12 It and column 5 cannot both be blue, so either they are both orange (and row 2 col 3 is blue), or they are split orange blue, and the rest of the exterior is orange.

[@blobz-1]

Excellent puzzle -- props to Dag H. Loved watching your solve of it, Simon.

[@Rubrickety]

Wonderful puzzle! My brain had to fight hard to remember that non-circled digits _didn't_ need to match the parity of the yin-yang.

[@katiekawaii]

This was great. 👏 Challenging enough that I needed your early pointers but approachable enough that I was able to take it from there and solve the rest on my own. I would love to see more like this!

[@integralmystery]

I was really excited to see the white dot constraint not saying "not all dots are given", and started looking for the negative constraint only to realise it breaks.

[@nemoyatpeace]

Yeah, I'm struggling with the wording of that constraint, it sounds like it should be a negative constraint the way it is written. So, the fact that "not all dots are given" isn't included reads to me that if there isn't a dot, then they aren't consecutive/diff colors.

[@JorgePacker]

I hate it when I have to check the video only to find out I missed a little bit of the rules! I managed to solve the sudoku, but the white dots separating colours was what I needed to finish the colouring!!! Loved this puzzle! 👌

[@chocolateboy300]

I completed the sudoku in 91 minutes. However, I still had a lot of coloring. I ended up needing Simon's help and the checkerboard trick was really helpful. I made a dumb oversight and forgot about the white dots giving opposite coloring. That made it way harder than it should've been. I ended up coloring everything in 192 minutes.

[@BijickY]

Great perseverance. I like to see longer solve times in the comment section.

[@emilywilliams3237]

I loved this video and puzzle - I started the puzzle by myself before watching your solve, and did some things - but it was quite late tonight and I really wanted to just have the pleasure of watching you. So that's what I did - but I'll come back to this myself before too long! Thanks, Simon.

[@kolskit]

Simon's subconscious is hilarious. While he says consciously 'I don't see how it resolves' his pointer hovers directly over the '3/9' on r6c7 which had just been shown to be a 3 by the 9 in its row. Then while looking further he CLICKS on the 3/9 square subconsciously while talking about how he needs to figure out 'the high digits and the 3'. Then he consciously finds the 3/8 pair in row 5 that resolves box 6, and he does every other digit he can before getting back to box 6 where his voice gets all gravely for a second as he says 'That's a 3...' The human brain is a marvel.

[@80fajoogaloo80]

Very fun puzzle. Always happy to see more yin yang :)

[@Hakucho64]

Loved the puzzle, thanks! Now to watch Simon's solve, which I'm sure will involve lots of revealage of secrets.

[@grahamania]

00:27:26 for me. Fantastic puzzle! Always love the combination of Yin Yang & Sudoku. Kind comment.

[@lake1525]

Great puzzle Dag H! Always love a good yin yang puzzle

[@tezcharold]

Come on setters, it's time someone made an interesting ying yang with Simon's example shading. ;)

[@_aullik]

This was surprisingly extremely hard for my brain. I colored the yin-yang part in orange and blue because of the odd even rule and i made MANY mistakes where i assumed an add digit in orange or an even in blue, or i colored a tile based on the number even tho it wasn't circled. I also cannot scan for the live of me. I had to go back after 40 minutes and redo it from the start with different colors and then it worked.

[@GrahamFirst]

How lovely for Simon to find a three in the corner at the very end, without even needing to "save it for later".

[@titusadduxas]

40:06 of pure joy. Absolutely loved it!

[@Salman-os7pr]

Since last 3 days, I've been able to solve puzzles that you do! As much as I love easier puzzles I really wish to watch long 4/5 star puzzle solves from Simon instead (so I don't have to solve it) and leave Mark's puzzles to solve whenever I get time!

[@taylorjohns6243]

Took nearly an hour and a half but I'm proud of myself for solving without Simon's help this time! I was playing with where 5s and 6s could go for embarrassingly long before I noticed the 23 pair in C2, which forced a 5 onto the other white dot pair. Now to watch Simon's solve

[@kilimanjarocruz660]

Fantastic puzzle. I just don't like the wording of the rules. It seems to me that ``White dots separate consecutive digits of opposite colour'' implies a negative constraint (or for the very least is not clear either way).

[@constanza1648]

I found this kind of easy when you know a couple of things about yin yang and circles. Lovely puzzle.

[@dinane]

Delightful puzzle! Delightful voice over! A delightful way to take a coffee break.

[@dinane]

Also just love that you got to the end to find the 3 in the corner.

[@kalimyre]

19:00 I bet you're actually charming and interesting at parties, there's a reason people love watching you solve a logic puzzle for hours at a time

[@zaps-aim]

Is that step at 26:26 valid? I don't see any basis for colouring r4c8 orange at this point. There's no circle there, so orange=odd can't be assumed for this cell.

[@RichSmith77]

I think Simon used incorrect reasoning (he was treating orange as odd, even though only seconds before he said he needed to be careful not to make that mistake). However, it could still be coloured orange for a different reason. We're told that white dots separate cells of different colour in the last line of the rules.

[@ryanschroer9854]

Same, I don't think it's valid

[@zaps-aim]

ah yes, you're quite right ​ @RichSmith77 , so the step *is* valid at this point (but the given explanation is not)

[@constanza1648]

I think he is accustomed to coloring polarity puzzles, so when he uses orange, he says "odd" without thinking twice. In this case, coloring and polarity only affect circles. But, of course, white dot made the trick.

[@RichSmith77]

@@constanza1648 @26:16 "When I say that becomes even, I mean it becomes blue actually. I better be precise." Just 10 seconds later... "So that becomes odd..." 🙂 The fact he refers to the cells on the white dot as a consecutive pair, I believe he actually means "odd" when he says odd, rather than "odd" simply standing in for orange. Especially as he seems to have forgotten that white dots separate colours later, at 32:55.

[@raysouth1952]

Great puzzle. I used the orange/blue combo to do the yinyang but I’ve done so many odd/even colouring puzzles I kept trying to eliminate wrong digits! Once I’d coloured the entire grid I switch to purple/green. It was doing my head in!

[@clara931]

I do agree on the weather, even of I live quite far away from the UK. But weather warnings, 2 degrees, snow/rain slush mix and crazy winds. Here to hope it gets better soon

[@user-ox9oo6wp6d]

I can complete the whole Sudoku part without the rule of "white dot separate opposite colour". That rule is simply for the Yin Yang part, which is very interesting.

[@SirJefferE]

I thought it was kind of interesting that once you solve the circles, the ying yang section no longer has anything to do with the sudoku section, and you can solve every digit of the puzzle without even looking at the ying yang. I still finished the ying yang for completeness though.

[@maljamin]

Wow, yes, I missed this rule and was flabbergasted with Simon for ... using this rule.

[@Orenotter]

There once was an otter named Oren Who at Cryptic puzzles was scorin', Who when he went to sleep Counted circles, not sheep. He was solving sudoku while snorin'! Okay, in truth, I was in the bathroom, but I had this grid pictured in my head and was working on it while AFK.

[@joelstevens5670]

Brilliant!! 🤣

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

8:20 for me. Wow, I flew through this one. Great puzzle!!

[@kupupuku-ff7dm]

Your times are always phenomenal! I'm curious, how old are you? What do you do in life? Where are you from?

[@anaayoung9142]

Lovely puzzle and a great puzzle!

[@psiphiorg]

It was nice to have a quick break-in with the circles and r2/c2. Lots of lovely logic that never required too much complex thought. My time today was 24:22, solver number 1805.

[@DavidLai911]

At 20:20, you might've been thinking how R1C5 could be blue instead of R1C4, probably with some similar logic to 25:20

[@ericpraline1302]

Fun, thanks. Lord knows why it took me so long to spot the 1 in r/c2, but it did. I think this is the first yin yang puzzle I've done in which the first step was not to use the border trick.

[@tdbraun6837]

Good to see the Gathering for Gardner still continues...

[@jimi02468]

I wouldn't mind talking with Simon in parties. It would be a nerd party!

[@57thorns]

24:50 Personally I used r1c5 and considered that rather efficient in determining the colour of the frame.

[@nalulumbay]

Spent more than half an hour to solve this but I ran into contradiction midway in my solve. I restart it and solve it in 36:18. I'm so proud of myself because I rarely can solve sudoku with a lot of rules in it without watching Simon or Mark solve first.

[@bakingsteele]

Right at 25:12 when he misses the naked single of the 2. I love watching you solve by the way.

[@piarittersporn]

Brilliant puzzle.

[@stevieinselby]

At 23:45, I'm puzzled as to how Simon used the blue domino in box 2 to rule out r9c9 being blue but didn't then immediately colour the entire perimeter clockwise from r1c5 orange 🤔

[@katiekawaii]

I love that the very last digit was the three in the corner 😄

[@mudscuffer]

I struggled to keep in mind that the even/odd restraint only applied to the circles, and managed to break the puzzle. Did a complete restart a few days later and solved in 23:14. It was quite nice after you get your head around it.

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

Beautiful puzzle :-) It took me 63:34 to solve it, but finally I got there!

[@Acylumgaming]

All of the Islands of Insight Ive been playing has really trained my yin yang brain

[@maljamin]

I love how it's starting to seem like Simon's refuge from his harshest critics is to chastise his own brain. Naughty brain.

[@olanmills64]

Did Simon overlook some logic in concluding that the circles must have the digits 123456? For example, when initially looking at the puzzle, isn't it true that the circles could contain 3567, or 12468, or indeed any set of digits that add up to 21? Now it turns out that in this puzzle the circles must contain 1-6, but I feel like you have to do some logic first to determine that. They can't contain a 9 because there is a row and a column with no circles. It turns out they can't contain an 8 because that implies there must be exactly one box where an 8 is not in a circle, and if you analyze the way the circles are arranged (the two lines of six circles), you will find that is not possible. Similarly, if the circles contain a 7, then there must be exactly two boxes which do not have 7 in a circle. However, again because of the arrangement of the circles in a line and then also the box with the given 7, you'll see that's not possible. Since the circles can't contain a 7, 8, or 9, then now you know they must contain the digits 1-6 in order to make up 21 circles. Am I wrong in my assumption that Simon skipped some steps?

[@steve470]

His logic was solid. There are 21 circles, and because there are six circles in row 2 (and/or column 2), there must be at least six different digits in circles. There's only one set of six or more different sudoku digits that add to 21.

[@olanmills64]

@@steve470 doh! Of course. Thanks

[@tBagley43]

you don't know that the digits in circles are 1 through 6 just because 21 is the 6th triangular number. there are many other combinations it could be, for instance, 1+2+5+6+7 = 21. here's how I got it: we know there aren't nine "9" circles, or eight "8" circles, because you would need to put that number in every box (in the case of 9) or all but one box (in the case of 8), and there can only be one appearance of that number in boxes 2 and 3 combined, or in boxes 4 and 7 combined. furthermore, we know there aren't seven "7" circles, because of that above fact, and because there can't be any circled "7" in box 8, since the 7 in that box is already placed.

[@virginvalleyhighschooljazz864]

It could be, except row 2 (or column 2) has 6 circles in it. So your example would need to repeat one of those numbers in the row. Once you need 6 different numbers, the triangular number rule comes into effect.

[@danielmaryakhin3057]

Managed to solve the puzzle while coloring just about half of the grid. Was fun anyway.

[@wanderlustwarrior]

47:22 for me. I spent over 12 minutes not entering in the last digit because I wanted to have the coloring correct first.

[@johnbell9074]

45 mins for me. Thanks!

[@jonmeilstrup5419]

It was an interesting puzzle, but the coloring part had multiple solutions. I finished the puzzle before watching Simon, and came up with a slightly different pattern for the two colors, that also matched the rules. Then, I watched to see where Simon differed from me. It was in one of the couple places where the assumption was the color matched the parity of the cell, even though it wasn't a circled number. I think the key difference for me was in box 1, where the 7 and 8 are separated by the white dot. In my solution, both are colored orange. So, there seems to be a unique set of numbers for the solution, but at least (and probably only) 2 coloring solutions to the puzzle.

[@pvandewyngaerde]

White dots separate consecutive digits of opposite color!

[@jonmeilstrup5419]

@@pvandewyngaerde Thanks for that comment--I must have missed that rule at the end. That would disambiguate the two different colorings I found.

[@marcbennett9232]

Res Arcana is fantastic. and you pronounced it correctly!

[@zirco77]

If Simon really wants to "chastise his brain", I think a cup of wine might do. ;)

[@markp7262]

21:39 finish. A very nice puzzle, with some simple logic that might take a minute to click. Fun fun fun!

[@RL-gl8qg]

I love Simon's brain. I'm sure he has many other fine body parts, but the brain is just lovely.

[@KeisariCubes]

This would be a checkerboard if that's not blue -song request 😂 🎶

[@abcadef6171]

I'm silly and completely missed the six circles in row 2, but there's another way of seeing the start, that's also pretty enough to be worth mentioning: box 1, column 2, row 2, box 5, box 7, box 8, and box 9 are seven sudoku regions that contain all of the circles, so there can't be any digits more than 7, but also the given 7 in box 8 isn't in a circle, so there are no digits higher than 6, and hence the digits have to be 1,2,3,4,5,6.

[@doncook4097]

Love this one. Is it me or is the yin Yang not unique? I found several ways to do it.

[@Quantris]

I only found one way (same as in the video); which cells do you have different? Edit: make sure you're following the rule that white dots separate opposite colours

[@EmonEconomist]

55:05 for me. I made a silly assumption with regard to negative constraints - turns out I was on the right track anyway, but that would have messed me up.

[@dustyburwell592]

35:31 this here is the moment I realized “that’s three in the corner”

[@stephansande]

Very nice puzzle. I think Simon made a mistake in 26:29. He said R4C8 was oranje because of the white dot. That cannot be said within the given ruleset! What am I missing here? Edit: argh! Must read the rules better.....

[@stevependray]

I thought exactly the same!

[@smahoney1212]

Chocolate Cake is great. I will point out that today in the US in National Banana Bread Day!

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

36:21 for me - I was worried that I would get mixed up with the rules and think the non-circled digits followed the coloring rules, instead I miscounted how many circles I filled in and filled too many with 3.

[@jillyapple1]

There mere fact there are 21 circles does not mean they are populated with only 1-6. If the placement were different, it could be 4, 8, and 9. However, given the placement, I was able to rule out 7, 8, and 9, which did leave 1-6 as the necessary numbers.

[@markablov]

14:18, looks like counting circle rule now is very familiar to me :)

[@six_5000]

52:20, neither gracefully nor elegantly

[@DitDede]

At around 12:40, the way I figured out the 5s and 6s is to look at column 2, which hold consecutive pairs. One of them would have to be 2-3, and the other would be 5 with either 4 or 6. Thus, R1C2 has to be even (the other 4 or 6) and R1C1 is odd (5)

[@DitDede]

Never mind, Simon got there a couple of minutes later :)

[@Landis963]

48:00 on the dot! And with only a little help from Simon on the circles.

[@iceberg54321]

30:25 missed a bit of logic in column 3, you can't have a 79 pair, they are not consecutive, and you see an 89, so it has to be 78 with a 9 in box 3, which gives you the 8 and 9 in column 2.

[@piasecznik]

15:36 for the sudoku part. Not sure how long I took for the coloring because the timer stops when the sudoku section is finished...but probably another 20 minutes? Took me a while to remember/rederive the checkerboard trick.

[@Melissa_Hz]

Simon kindly stop teasing us with the 3 hour solve. You know we all want to see it! 😆

[@MjDiabolo]

20:44 Probably another comment told you already, and you figured it out later anyway of course, but i guess your brain wasn't talking to you about why the cell above the circled 46 pair in row 1 cant be orange, but rather about why the cell above the circled 2 right next to it cant be blue. (Because it would isolate a orange next to it or create a blue 2x2) -a yin yang noob enjoying your content (and beeing a litte bit proud about spotting things befor you do, while just learning the rules. although it is easier, when i am just watching, and >95/100 things you absolutly spot befor me 😄)❤

[@MjDiabolo]

21:55 uhh another spot: the 17 works its way right back, the lower circle in box 7 must be odd, that u can colour :) thats a satisfying thing in (the solve of) the puzzle

[@mc_davit]

31:31 had the sudoku solved in 25 minutes but couldn't do the yin-yang without simon mentioning white dots separate color, totally forgot that part

[@navifx4]

I spent several minutes trying to figure out where the rest of the colors went after I got all the numbers in

[@liammcg8904]

So , I solved it in 36:51. But I only got halfway through doing the ying yang - that gave me the parity of the digits in the circles, and once I got that finished, I had enough info to solve the placement of all the digits by regular sudoku. Feels really wierd - I got the alert saying the I got the puzzle correct, but my screen is still half filled with white dots :)

[@liammcg8904]

At 26:28, Simon says it's a consecutive pair, and labels a square orange, but that restriction only applied to squares with circles, not non-circled squares.

[@steve470]

@@liammcg8904"White dots separate consecutive digits of opposite color". Whether Simon made a logical error or just misspoke, the colouring was justified by the rules.

[@liammcg8904]

sorry yes, thanks for that, i read the rules incorrectly. @@steve470

[@laurettadelmar2781]

19:58 anyone else staring at Row 7 Column 1 and willing it to become a 4 😂

[@masu33]

Solved it without the secrets, so it is not necessary to use them, I'd say. :) Possible that it would have been more elegant though...

[@daanperelachaise]

That went fast - 8:53. At around the 25:30 minute mark in the video it's possible to figure out the parity of all the circle-digits, after that i ditched the coloring, that saved a lot of time.

[@srwapo]

But, the rules say you have to color! (says someone who colors puzzles that don't need it an embarrassing amount of times)

[@RichSmith77]

Save time by using this one simple trick: Don't complete the puzzle!

[@daanperelachaise]

Alright, sort of a fair point :). When you think about it it's silly not to do a bit of the puzzle to finish quicker but missing out on fun doing so. However, i do feel that puzzle constructors should build puzzles that actually require puzzlers to use the constraints they put in. I (and many others, i suppose) am left feeling a bit unsatisfied when something is only half-useful and half-necessary.

[@Sujisan4]

Holy smokes, what a way to end the puzzle. Three in the corner for the win.

[@benjaminrealy5661]

51:38. I misread the white dots as being of seperate colours instead of consecutive digits of separate colours. So that definitely cost me some time. Also only did the colouring until all circles were coloured. Kind of disappointed i didnt HAVE to solve all or most of the colouring to find the solution to the sudoku. 3/10.

[@srwapo]

19:40, took a few minutes to figure out the digits in the circles (obvious once I had the right thought!)

[@iceberg54321]

Someone construct a puzzle with his example of yin-yang.

[@nonyobisniss7928]

19 minutes for this one. I also think I solved it without referring to white dots separating opposite colours. Can anyone else confirm that that last extra condition for white dots is only needed for the colouring, and not for the solve of the sudoku itself?

[@RichSmith77]

The Yin Yang colouring is part of the puzzle, so you haven't "solved it" until you complete the colouring.

[@nonyobisniss7928]

@@RichSmith77 Not according to the answer check, but sure, I wasn't claiming otherwise. It took less than a minute to finish the colouring at the end. I just found it interesting that one of the rules wasn't necessary for solving the sudoku part of the puzzle.

[@ysalas7631]

The 78 pair on the dot at the top was available for nearly the whole puzzle. It sees an 89 pair at the bottom dot. If there's a 9 on the top dot, then there must be an 8 across from it and it breaks the puzzle.

[@mstmar]

i missed the part about white dots separating opposite colors, and finished the sudoku but couldn't for the life of me find out how to make progress on the coloring beyond the circled digits +border

[@ronjohnson6916]

First time I've ever spotted something shading related before Simon. R1C5 had to be odd (he got distracted by R1C4)

[@RichSmith77]

More accurately, r1c5 had to be orange. As it wasn't in a circle, it could have been an even digit in orange.

[@ronjohnson6916]

@@RichSmith77 Yeah. Orange. My own autocomplete in action there.

[@jorrr9096]

This was a nice puzzle, but you can stop colouring when you know all the circles, which you can deduce quite quick. So I never finished the colouring actually