Can You Name A Better Puzzle?

** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
This is the one you've all asked for! Yin Yang by Jesper is surely one of the most brilliant and extraordinary sudoku puzzles ever. A quite ludicrous ruleset which constantly begs the question - HOW did he create this? Just one point: It's not very easy :)
Play the puzzle at the link below:
app.crackingthecryptic.com/su...
Rules:
Divide the grid into regions, each consisting of nine orthogonally connected cells. Each row, column and region must contain the digits 1 to 9 once each. Shade some cells so the following conditions are all fulfilled: All shaded cells are connected; all unshaded cells are connected; no 2x2 area is fully shaded or fully unshaded; and each region is either fully shaded or fully unshaded. The digit in a cell with one or more arrows is equal to the total number of shaded cells that appear in the indicated directions combined (not including the arrow cell itself). Not all possible arrows/arrow combinations are given.
There is an example on this page:
logic-masters.de/Raetselporta...
** PATREON REWARDS JUST OUT **
We've just released a brand new Sudoku Hunt from Joseph Nehme themed around Equal Sum Lines! With 13 puzzles in all, this is just a wonderful collection of puzzles. Do have a go if you can.
Just $2/month here:
/ crackingthecryptic
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Melvyn Mainini

[@jesperjosefsson5543]

What a lovely surprise to see my latest puzzle featured! Simon, I am really impressed by your perseverance and bravery in taking on this rather difficult puzzle in front on the camera, well done! Thanks also to everyone that requested it 🙂

[@matthewjohnson6360]

I bet you were screaming in your head, 'NO NOT LIKE THAT.'

[@davidrattner9]

Absolutely incredible from you Jesper!!! Still mind blowing that you constructed this!! Congratulations on this being featured!!

[@snowfloofcathug]

Fantastiskt gjort

[@emilywilliams3237]

This made for a very interesting video to watch - thank you for this puzzle, Jesper, and for sharing it!

[@longwaytotipperary]

wow 😲

[@Jodawo]

Simon: "I wouldn't have thought,the idea of a puzzle was to label every single cell." Mark: "I tried to tell you that but you just don't listen. "

[@tangrybird04]

Can we just appreciate that Cracking the Cryptic is not afraid of posting long videos 👏 they know that we, the viewers, will be interested the whole time

[@deejawng]

I get SO EXCITED every time I see an hour-long video. This one is like Christmas!

[@afrayedknot81]

Yes! And more chaos constructions, pencil puzzles and hybrids, please! ❤️

[@danielmarkelon7807]

or maybe we just watch at 2 times speed... lol

[@Zooral45]

Looking forward for each one

[@matthewirvine1361]

it's simple, there is a puzzle to be solved, it will be solved, it will be recorded and it will take as long as necessary

[@zach31194]

As soon as Simon put the X’s instead of doing grey/green coloring, I knew it was gonna confuse him. Cuz right after, instead of noting that the X meant the other cell had to be grey, he said ‘it can’t be green because it can’t go that way’ Wonderful puzzle.

[@BigAsciiHappyStar]

at least he didn't try to make two numbers add up to 10 😁😁😁

[@aquaticIntrovert]

His brain seemed pretty fried from focusing so hard on all the different yin yang and region rules by the end, he didn't once use the logic of the X's after he placed them, did a convoluted counting method to figure out which cell was green or gray at the end of defining the regions instead of just noticing that if it was green it would make 2x2's, and a few other uncharasteristic misses. But hey, it's only because he walked me right up to that point that I was even able to spot those things and I wouldn't even try this sort of puzzle myself, so we cut him lots of slack.

[@Alex_Meadows]

"Do have a go!" Rarely have I laughed so hollowly. Thank you, Simon, but I would much rather watch a professional do it, so now I know how my evening will go - looking forward to it!

[@solfeinberg437]

Simon's logic when he knows a perimeter region has at least one shaded cell AND he knows one side contains unshaded and the other shaded, but he can't determine that the cell in the perimeter region adjacent to the shaded region must be shaded is astounding. Shaded regions must be contiguous. Unshaded regions must be contiguous. For all my complaining, I'm sure he'll get through the next part I'm currently stuck at. And I'm so glad he has these videos. This is what I do now. Work, eat, workout, sudoku. It's basically my second job. Thanks, Simon!

[@anneselwyn6465]

Thank you so much for removing the mid-cell lines once all the regions were found and outlined. Much easier to scan without them. Love the channel

[@ribozyme2899]

Took a proper while though.

[@dreamwalkertunes]

My ocd was SCREAMING

[@niverio8400]

It is indeed pretty tough to find a puzzle better than this one! I have solved this one before and it is absolutely legendary. I do have a few others that are equally beautiful in terms of their simplicity (while still being Chaos Constructions, and albeit with easier rulesets): First one is Ariadne by KNT, which is probably one of the best C.Cs ever made, and the other one is Region Geometry by kolot. Both puzzles left me wondering "How did they set this?", and were a joy to solve. So if any of those puzzles made an appearance, I would watch them in a heartbeat as well. Now time to grab the popcorn and watch the solve in its entirety :)

[@NeatChill]

Well done my friend

[@SMTRodent]

Another one where I open the rules, read the rules, look at the grid and decide no, I'll just watch Simon crack it. Looking forward to this one!

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

That was my reaction upon seeing the run time.

[@minetogiveaway]

@@Sam_on_KZbin oh god if it takes Simon two hours it'll take me a week

[@HunterJE]

Simon so proud of his X marks on grey-green dominoes then so loathe to actually use them once one of their halves got shaded...

[@whatsleep17]

I loved when you removed the green lines. So satisfying!

[@DennisvanRosendaal]

I was shouting at the screen for a long time to remove those lines.

[@DArtagnonW]

1:51:30 THANK YOU, I was screaming for... nigh-literally hours... to delete the region pencil marks. Ahh, that looks so much better!

[@Thebomb95673]

Honestly when it’s a 2 hour video you know it’s gonna be good

[@adipy8912]

You looked at the timer like 4 times and you didn't say "sorry" on any of them. That's an improvement. This should be in Guinness World Record book and have the long title: Longest Cracking the Cryptic video by Simon Anthony without him saying "sorry, long video" at the end.

[@leojs5673]

watching two movies today, one about a thunder god, and another about a sudoku god! sounds like a very fun day 🤓

[@davidanderegg1232]

1:45:44 That is the most convoluted way I can think of to realize the cell marked to be the opposite of gray is in fact green

[@RichSmith77]

I don't know why he bothered placing those Xs on cell boundaries. He just completely ignored them.

[@davidrattner9]

Just an absolute beast of a puzzle and tremendous solve from you Simon! Amazing setting and construction Jesper! Masterpiece from you!! At just under 2 hours, will pass on having a go, but thank you anyways Simon! Your solving skills and dedication Simon to this community on a constant basis is 2nd to none. Very lucky to see such commitment from both you and Mark!!

[@AlexanderDaniel]

omg a two hour video !! really needed this right now 🙏🏻

[@NIMPAK1]

This was one of the few times I actually decided to try the puzzle myself. It took me the better half of two days, a lot of dead ends and I couldn't figure out the logic at the end and just had to wing it. I wouldn't claim I'm smart for finishing it, but I'm glad I forced myself to stick it out until the end no matter how impossible it seemed.

[@emilywilliams3237]

I totally love your pleasure in this puzzle, Simon, and I agree, it is an amazing puzzle. I agree with your wonderment about how Jesper could have managed to set this. As I have said before, when you get your hands on a region-defining puzzle, you clearly have a lot of fun, and you are excellent at it. A couple of lovely vocabulary words tonight were "plaudits" and "profligate," and I laughed out loud when you said that you did not want to pencil mark a cell with some large number of possibilities because you are allergic. You are very funny, Simon. Thanks for this video.

[@GregJonson]

You just know that a puzzle that takes Simon 2 hours to solve would take _you_ centuries.

[@parlabaneisback]

I really appreciate the time he takes to explain the more complicated steps to those of us struggling to keep up. If he didn't do that I imagine his solve time would be even more impressive, but I'd far rather have the explanations.

[@dzaijn]

What an unbelievable experience. Thank you so much Jesper and Simon.

[@Playmaker6174]

Yay I'm so glad that this puzzle actually made it here, it's an almost 3 hours journey for me with full of emotionally high-stakes moments, and I was fully drawn into the sheer brilliance that Jesper has inserted in this one. Just a breathtaking puzzle ;)

[@th.nd.r]

This is one of the best puzzles featured on this channel. Absolutely brilliant. Jesper is a genius. Wonderful setting and wonderful solving as well!! This just kept me enthralled, it felt like a new world and Simon was our tour guide through it. So good.

[@f.b.jeffers0n]

The joy you get as you approach the end brings a smile to my face!

[@enricosoldati289]

I just started to watch this channel less than a month ago, and thank you Simon. You, with this video are making me fall in love with these magic sudoku that are so clever.

[@professor-raccoon]

What a journey this video was. I had to take a break mid-way through it because I was just utterly overwhelmed from both the difficultness and beautifulness of this masterpiece

[@HunterJE]

35:39 No need to use the arrows to prove at least one shaded needed in that domino - if at least one of those two weren't shaded you'd form an unshaded 2x2 with the unshaded cells in column 1...

[@colinstamper7876]

I may not be here every day, but I'll always come back to support long videos! I want to encourage you that there's at least one of us that loves listening to these long solves at work or relaxing at home 💙

[@BillLamoreaux]

After 90 minutes without a Maverick sighting, I was starting to think that someone shot him down. ;)

[@NabsterHax]

This puzzle looked so fun. I got stuck early on without the logic of the perimeter being only 2 contiguous shaded regions, but the rest of the logic looked pretty reasonable for me!

[@GregOgasawara]

Incredible all the way through; and thank you for removing the region building lines!

[@julianriml4860]

All the love in the world for bringing us the joy of all these puzzles everyday you two are the best please keep doing what you love and we will enjoy each and every bit with you!

[@Frondoof]

Just started binging through your videos and they are a treat! This should be on everyone's list.

[@Kios_Antares]

I really liked this video, I was having a very bad evening but concentrating on the video and the logic helped me wind down and not think about much - also the satisfaction from the puzzle coming together definetely helped

[@FredT34]

Watching this for 2 hours was so incredible! Congrats to Jesper and Simon

[@shellmichael9665]

There were so many layers to this. What a puzzle. Loved every second.

[@stevieinselby]

15:30 - not quite true - the unshaded cells could extend from the point in row 9 back across r9c1 and up towards the shaded cell in c1, while the shaded cells extend upwards to r1c1 then all the way round the back to r9c9 and back towards the origin before meeting the unshaded run.

[@HunterJE]

26:31 "I'm actually wondering whether we could do something like [a full horseshoe] and have a green gap in the middle [of row 1] - Would be tough typing that "16" in the lower left corner in the current software...

[@nicholasbrinkmeyer7120]

I'm not usually a fan of the videos over an hour, but this was fascinating and had beautiful logic. Thank you for posting this solve.

[@imurrx]

I have to say, watching you play has elevated my skills. I am trying to pick up some of the more advance techniques you use and taking note of the logic you use. thank you.

[@zmaj12321]

Puzzles like these make me realize that my sudoku to pencil puzzle expertise ratio is recirprocal to Simon's.

[@longwaytotipperary]

"Do have a go" I went to the kitchen for snacks and drinks. Carry on, Simon!

[@davidrattner9]

What kind of snacks and drinks did you get? Agree with you..cozy on up for a breathtaking masterpiece!!

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@davidrattner9 Watermelon/feta cheese salad + popcorn + chocolate/sea salt/caramel ice cream bar + ice tea + wine (it WAS a long puzzle after all 😄)

[@davidrattner9]

@@longwaytotipperary that is quite a spread and nice wide assortment and variety :-)

[@emilywilliams3237]

That was my thought, too, though your smorgasbord was much more interesting than my glass of milk and a few animal crackers.

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@davidrattner9 😊

[@ahouyearno]

1:43:20 if you ever have someone look and talk to you the way Simon looks and talks to this sudoku, marry them!

[@chipsounder4633]

Incredible puzzle, edge of my seat the whole video 🎉

[@nikolajovanovic5048]

This looks absolutely brilliant.

[@verdiss7487]

Inarguably one of the best puzzles you've featured on the channel. I don't know if this is a novel ruleset - if it is, the selection of rules is itself absolutely genius. These rules played off of each other *perfectly*.

[@the29monkeys]

Tremendous puzzle and a nice solve. Thanks Jesper and Simon.

[@chiepah2]

2 hours? This is fantastic, I'm going to go fix some food and settle in for a nice long series of brilliant deductions.

[@MitraLaTenn]

Dear Simon, I don't know how many hours I have already enjoyed ,seeing you solving the hardest puzzles in the world. But I can ensure you, that Ilike this kind of movies a lot. Thanks for solving!

[@piarittersporn]

Mind bending. I gave up and just watched Simon in amazement. Although I had solved most of the grid (gray and green cells and several digits) correctly, I couldn't cope with the division of the regions anymore because I had placed four gray cells wrong. Respect for all the patient ones who persevered until the solution.

[@kevray85]

Simon created the “boundary marker” pencil mark and then forgot what it meant to him…

[@David_K_Booth]

Wow! Looking forward to watching this!

[@TiagoMorbusSa]

What a tremendous puzzle and what a tremendous solve, but I'm afraid quite a lot out of my league. Outstanding!

[@ericpraline1302]

What a blinder of a puzzle. I enjoyed every minute even though it nearly melted my brain. Juggling all the different types of logic involved was, shall we say, an interesting challenge and at one point I had to backtrack a little after making a mistake.

[@leeannadimoulas5163]

Yay! A long one to watch while I do dishes! I love watching the ones that are too hard for me while I do my housework. 😁

[@titusadduxas]

Wow! Just over 6.5 hours for me with a couple of hints in the video! I always felt I could solve it though! A truly stunning puzzle, though quite how it was constructed is beyond me! Kudos to everyone who did it unaided!

[@maurobraunstein9497]

I spent about three hours on this, if not more, before realizing that the puzzle was broken. Sad times. But hey, now I get to watch you do it!

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

83:07 for me. What a puzzle!! I would love to see a video explaining how it was set, it just makes no sense to me. Absolutely incredible, kudos to the setter for somehow coming up with such a masterpiece.

[@Cpchurch87]

You should start a channel, your times are always excellent

[@markp7262]

1:34:15 finish. What a monster! I'm glad I kept yelling at the computer, because after a few minutes Simon heard me, and erased all of those silly lines covering the numbers. 🤣

[@crispywhiskers9365]

amazing amazing amazing. both by jesper and simon, the art of the setter and the solver! :D

[@danielbreiner9830]

Absolutely amazing, and oh my goodness did this take me a long time to solve. :D

[@inspiringsand123]

Let's Get Cracking: 07:19 Simon's time: 1h50m00s Puzzle Solved: 1:57:19 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Bobbins: 8x (35:08, 51:16, 1:12:55, 1:33:58, 1:43:47, 1:48:23, 1:53:11, 1:55:15) You Rotten Thing: 1x (1:28:48) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Ah: 32x (12:37, 15:50, 17:11, 17:13, 17:18, 22:54, 22:59, 36:45, 40:20, 42:18, 44:01, 44:44, 45:45, 48:07, 51:21, 54:32, 58:21, 1:05:38, 1:12:52, 1:15:26, 1:15:39, 1:18:29, 1:21:40, 1:25:07, 1:25:07, 1:32:04, 1:34:08, 1:35:49, 1:36:03, 1:38:35, 1:50:21, 1:53:24) Wow: 21x (09:30, 23:03, 29:59, 36:14, 45:45, 47:28, 53:22, 58:34, 1:07:46, 1:08:06, 1:15:14, 1:21:19, 1:34:35, 1:34:35, 1:34:35, 1:34:35, 1:34:35, 1:41:51, 1:57:24, 1:58:35, 1:58:36) Hang On: 15x (27:02, 27:02, 27:02, 30:16, 38:06, 50:45, 57:31, 1:17:46, 1:21:43, 1:31:32, 1:31:32, 1:36:15, 1:39:45, 1:39:45, 1:39:45) By Sudoku: 14x (30:38, 44:55, 1:01:56, 1:08:55, 1:09:11, 1:15:27, 1:19:26, 1:42:45, 1:43:55, 1:47:22, 1:48:46, 1:50:11, 1:52:20, 1:56:19) The Answer is: 7x (08:35, 13:21, 13:40, 48:33, 1:34:23, 1:41:59, 1:52:38) Obviously: 7x (09:34, 12:15, 17:46, 26:14, 26:17, 40:35, 46:11) Good Grief: 6x (37:38, 43:17, 1:00:52, 1:41:36, 1:41:45, 1:57:12) Sorry: 6x (16:31, 22:10, 1:08:19, 1:09:40, 1:25:39, 1:36:28) Goodness: 5x (04:17, 1:05:08, 1:41:22, 1:43:24, 1:43:24) Checkerboard: 5x (48:15, 48:25, 48:29, 48:48, 1:20:35) In Fact: 4x (04:57, 1:02:53, 1:34:16, 1:43:09) Pencil Mark/mark: 4x (57:49, 1:41:06, 1:44:11, 1:54:29) Nonsense: 3x (43:28, 45:01, 1:14:51) Clever: 3x (43:54, 1:05:08, 1:41:51) Beautiful: 3x (01:42, 01:42, 1:32:46) Extraordinary: 3x (00:47, 1:00:18, 1:47:18) Ridiculous: 3x (01:08, 43:30, 1:09:28) Corollary: 3x (04:53, 23:24, 44:02) Stunning: 2x (53:23, 53:25) What on Earth: 1x (35:01) Useless: 1x (39:19) Naughty: 1x (1:53:16) Horrible Feeling: 1x (1:40:55) Lovely: 1x (1:18:29) Incredible: 1x (02:16) Come on Simon: 1x (1:08:25) Of All Things: 1x (1:50:11) Surely: 1x (1:56:03) Full stop: 1x (1:58:20) Progress: 1x (1:25:57) Let's Take Stock: 1x (1:17:06) That's Huge: 1x (53:50) Nature: 1x (12:39) Symmetry: 1x (1:51:38) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Ten (12 mentions) Two (162 mentions) Green (116 mentions) Antithesis Battles: High (2) - Low (0) Even (9) - Odd (0) Shaded (108) - Unshaded (34) Column (59) - Row (20) 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!

[@insectbah]

Absolutely engrossing video and astonishing puzzle!

[@bbgun061]

Holy cow, that’s a puzzle! I loved your play through of Obra Dinn. I think you would really enjoy playing Obduction!

[@ralphbecket]

Stunning!

[@christophstahl8169]

Just done this and I agree that this is an exeptional puzzle. What is really interesting is that it is not done in completed steps - so you can't finish the shading before you do anything else, so you juggle shading, regions and sudoku. I felt in constant danger of dropping something. And then with all that it feels amazing that it solves but it's at no point very hard. Just takes time. Time very well spend. Wow, just wow.

[@steve470]

195:09 for me (including stepping away a few times). Really difficult but fair, and very enjoyable to solve. Great puzzle!

[@Coyotek4]

1:38:54 ... yeah, this one's a personal 'keeper' Words won't do this one justice ... it's that incredible!

[@craigw1701]

That was super fun! 116 mins (on my second attempt :p ) The way the puzzle was very difficult, but always had something to hammer away at, meant never really felt stuck at any point and the time flew by :) Amazing! Well done!

[@BigAsciiHappyStar]

I believe the arrow clue at r1c3 is unnecessary (but that may be approaching bifurcation territory), but the puzzle is already difficult enough even with the extra clue 😃 Needless to say I agree this is one of the best I've ever seen!

[@splicerdicer8800]

I can't believe it, it took me over 5 hours over a span of 2 days, but I actually solved it! The reward is to now watch a 2 hour video of Simon solving it far more efficiently lol.

[@victorpacheco6702]

At the 1 hour mark: "that felt like 10 minutes" and i feel the same way about the video... Its so entertaining

[@ArsTuilindo]

I spent 5 hours over a number of attempts on this, used crazy logic chains (not sure if they were the intended algorithm ). I’m extremely proud that I solved it with no restarts due to some typos or imperfect logic I usually have.

[@bogdancoman91]

This should have been in the GAS series I believe. I've done it in under 10 minutes. xD. Jokes aside, this is really impressive. Both the puzzle itself and how you solved it. Incredible!

[@bobananaful]

Brilliant puzzle!

[@gregind01]

Simon you said it perfectly, WOW!

[@Adrian_Grey]

"At least I'm getting started" says Simon, 30 minutes into the puzzle 😂

[@DuelScreen]

151:13 Yes and thank you. Those extra lines were cluttering up the puzzle. I'm glad you removed them once they were not needed.

[@stuartharris2165]

2 HOURS!! Don't know about popcorn, is there an interval half way through? lol

[@jordylont1879]

Oh my goodness, I’m so excited

[@KalikiDoom]

That was absolutely genius! ❤

[@QazwerDave]

I want av version of this where shaded regions can't orthogonally connect to other shaded regions and vice versa !!

[@PrometheusZandski]

Not an easy puzzle. The shading seemed impossible at times, but it really helped in the end. Keep posting the 1.5 - 2 hour videos!!

[@logiciananimal]

I cannot even imagine how to iterate through placing those arrows - is there a checker somewhere?

[@matt5075]

Where do I find the link for the Dinner Party reservations?

[@laurensjansen4254]

Isn't it true that you could have coloured R8C1 as early as 37:37? because if you shade that cell, R8C2 can't be shaded because of the 2x2 but it aslo can't be unshaded because it would isolate the shaded cell in R7C2. just a though.

[@steve470]

Yep. r8c1 grey + r8c2 grey = 2x2. And r8c1 grey + r8c2 green = checkerboard. Therefore r8c1 is not grey. Nice catch!

[@flobiish]

When you said you'd gone over an hour, I was as surprised as you. I was watching along and thinking, "I thought he just said it's been 30 minutes."

[@matteopotato]

Amazing. I would love to watch a construction video!

[@anthonyhastings5961]

How do I catch up with your current content?

[@markbennet9058]

@1h03 how you remember the rule you have not used yet and make it do work ... I am second division (or lower)

[@markbennet9058]

@20 mins loving the logic

[@mackthisarrowhearth295]

"Yea, I am available for dinner parties" I just had to stop the video and wait for 5 minutes to stop laughing and be able to follow the marvelous genius whilst be capable to.understand any :*)

[@RichSmith77]

Took me 168 minutes, but I feel the need to record the fact I was able to solve this monster. What a construction! I might have been quicker had I noticed what Simon noticed straightaway at 1:15:30, that there was only one place for a 2 in row 1. Instead, I tested what would happen if I tried to put 6 in r1c5, and found I broke the puzzle about 30 steps later 😂. To make up for that, I'll point out that there was an easy way to see that the shaded region, starting from the 2 in r8c4 at 1:25:10, had to extend upwards and connect with the grey 'magnet' above, since the alternative was extending it right along row 7 where it would have isolated the green in r8c5. Also, at 1:22:15, I think the easier way to see that r4c5 couldn't be grey was that after it forced r3c5 to be green, then r3c4 could be neither green (2x2 green region) nor grey (checkerboard). And why mark some dominoes with an X, to denote one cell is shaded and one is unshaded, and then ignore those Xs when you resolved one half of the domino?

[@wossaaaat]

holy..... it's 3.30am... do I really? Mmm... probably. Thank you Simon.

[@mikesparks3398]

I'm still trying to figure out level 5 puzzles on regular sudoku ..lol

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Haven't watched the video yet, but just have to comment on "begs the question" in the description text -- kind of a pet peeve. The phrase is a technical term from logic, dating from the middle ages. It doesn't mean "raise the question" but rather "assume what you're trying to prove," or make a circular argument. For example, "Is it true that CTC videos are interesting? Suppose, as a hypothesis, that they are either riveting or fascinating; then the conclusion follows." That's begging the question.

[@zimmicks3170]

I was waiting for you to remove those annoying Lines lol. Awesome puzzle as always!

[@Raven-Creations]

You keep doing it, you have correct intuitions, go to great lengths to explain them, and then completely forget about them when it matters. You worked out that R9 and C9 were completely shaded, and that there had to be an unshaded cell in R1, and at most 1 shaded cell in C1. So how could R1C1 possibly be shaded? How could the additional shaded cell (if any) be anywhere other than R8C1? This makes the top 7 cells of C1 green. Now consider R8C1/C8. R8C1 sees almost the same as R8C8. If R8C1 were shaded, the two would have to be the same, so R8C1 is unshaded, R9C1=8, R1C1=1. Because of the 2x2 rule, there can be at most 4 shaded cells in R8. This makes R8C4=12, R8C8=23, and R8C1=34 (because each has to see at least one more than the one before it). Why were you even considering whether the 5 in R1 could be green? You've already stated about half a dozen times that all of the shaded cells in the boundary have to be contiguous, as do all the unshaded cells, so if only one of the domino is shaded, it has to be the 5. You always seem to waste so much time on chaos puzzles considering the blindingly obviously impossible, and by obvious, I mean using logic you're totally aware of and have already expounded while solving the puzzle. My end game of the yin yang was quite different. I had in columns 6 and 7 alternating dominos of two grey and then one of each. This meant that there was no way for R8C8 to escape through the middle, and had to go straight up. This gave a linear grey region down C9 and round into the 6 in R9, which disambiguated it all. The other region on the bottom had to pop up to take its 6, placing greens on either side, and this took the only available green in C7, resolving all the dominos. Brilliant puzzle, that was pretty tough, at least at the start. It certainly required some interesting logical thinking, rather than just being observant.

[@justintime9699]

What happened to the up arrow in R9C1? It didn't get counted? Eight shaded to the left and none to the up?

[@steve470]

"The digit in a cell with one or more arrows is equal to the total number of shaded cells that appear in the indicated directions combined (not including the arrow cell itself)." 8 to the right + 0 above = 8 in the cell.