Cracking The Cryptic: The Extended Cut

** Today's Sudoku **
Today's video is a movie-length edition. Simon does battle with Emre Kolotoglu's Border Sums - a chaos construction with a brand new ruleset and a perfect 100% rating on Logic Masters Germany. This is an extraordinary sudoku and you can play it at the link below:
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Rules:
Each row, column, and region must contain the digits from 1 to 9 exactly once. The regions must be orthogonally connected and determined by the solver. Clues outside the grid show the sum of the two digits separated by the first region border seen from that direction in that row/column. (A row or column with a clue cannot be occupied by a single region.) For example; if the regions were the regular 3x3 boxes, then the clue at the top of column 6 would be the sum of R3C6 and R4C6, and the clue at the bottom of column 6 would be the sum of R6C6 and R7C6.
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[@emrekolotoglu5133]

Simon, thank you so much for featuring my puzzle again. It was a wonderful solve as usual. I am happy to see that you caught every little deduction that was intended. I especially liked the column 4 logic and resolution of the 1-5 pair in row 5 while constructing the puzzle and you caught both very nicely.

[@alexcannon-microdot]

Fantastic work Emre - I can hardly imagine how you would put something together like this!

[@d4r4butler74]

Thank you for the wonderful puzzle!

[@KyleBaran90]

After watching Simon solve it, I hope there's a more approachable one, maybe 3 or 4 stars. It's a great concept

[@slurpleslixie]

I know little about setting so this might be a silly question, but would a 'negative' constraint version of the ruleset be interesting? i.e. a 6 clue also means that the first time it sees two digits sum to 6, that must be a boundary. My intuition about negative-like constraints is they can give you extra information but also allow for some really non-obvious logic.

[@EdoTimmermans]

This puzzle is just beautiful right up to the end, thank you Emre! Also, it was a joy watching Simon solve it.

[@Rubrickety]

"The cells that are possibly blue, or actually blue, that can be two, are very few." --Simon Anthony, poet (57:56)

[@jamesdonnelly9217]

Sounds like Lewis Carroll or Dr Seuss

[@sameendusk2623]

1:12:21 "It can't be here, that's for shrue; It can't be there by su-do-ku."

[@UghUgh1234]

Not only is it amazing that he can solve these types of puzzles, but it’s even more amazing that he can explain himself very well the entire time while solving.

[@topilinkala1594]

It is amazing that he can explain the same thing four times in one minute. Why do he think that the viewers have as short memory than he has?

[@1SSJA]

​@@topilinkala1594what's your problem with repeating himself

[@longwaytotipperary]

"This puzzle has been requested a lot of times - but not by people who have solved it" 😂- popcorn ready!!! 🍿🍿🍿

[@RotemN]

Extended cut? Over 90 minutes long? Popcorn was ready before i even clicked play

[@inspiringsand123]

Let's Get Cracking: 05:07 Simon's time: 1h29m36s Puzzle Solved: 1:34:43 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Three In the Corner: 1x (13:30) ​Scooby-Doo: 1x (1:12:04) You Rotten Thing: 1x (56:02) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Ah: 28x (03:50, 05:47, 06:29, 07:06, 08:44, 10:04, 14:12, 17:50, 24:10, 29:24, 33:53, 39:37, 39:38, 42:30, 44:23, 47:21, 47:22, 1:00:29, 1:02:25, 1:03:23, 1:03:25, 1:14:09, 1:16:04, 1:24:52, 1:26:16, 1:32:02, 1:32:19, 1:32:45) Hang On: 13x (04:26, 08:43, 14:07, 14:09, 18:06, 32:07, 45:27, 57:32, 57:36, 1:06:57, 1:07:49, 1:24:10, 1:30:45) Sorry: 8x (18:21, 29:02, 46:35, 48:11, 55:18, 56:37, 1:15:32, 1:26:16) By Sudoku: 8x (52:04, 1:01:04, 1:05:17, 1:08:53, 1:12:24, 1:30:04, 1:33:12, 1:34:09) In Fact: 8x (00:31, 03:12, 03:50, 11:22, 13:12, 1:02:40, 1:30:28, 1:30:30) Good Grief: 7x (19:18, 46:59, 59:13, 1:00:34, 1:00:40, 1:33:51, 1:34:15) Clever: 7x (04:45, 07:41, 07:43, 29:44, 1:34:52, 1:35:33, 1:35:33) Beautiful: 6x (19:16, 22:30, 31:05, 50:28, 59:10, 1:29:47) The Answer is: 5x (39:39, 39:39, 40:03, 43:42, 1:01:00) Surely: 5x (14:15, 1:18:58, 1:19:01, 1:19:01, 1:19:11) What Does This Mean?: 4x (27:28, 46:27, 1:11:08, 1:11:51) Nonsense: 3x (11:41, 1:24:19, 1:24:21) Incredible: 3x (01:54, 50:15, 1:35:23) Astonishing: 3x (01:16, 50:44, 1:34:36) What on Earth: 2x (09:44, 51:47) Goodness: 2x (1:24:56, 1:34:57) Naughty: 2x (47:34, 1:17:56) Stuck: 2x (25:48, 1:05:47) Lovely: 2x (07:50, 1:09:41) Brilliant: 2x (19:47, 50:15) Wow: 2x (50:03, 50:04) Bother: 1x (28:50) Fascinating: 1x (46:53) Elegant: 1x (1:36:07) Ridiculous: 1x (1:33:05) Approachable: 1x (01:43) Epiphany: 1x (1:35:44) Bizarre: 1x (46:42) Magnificent: 1x (1:35:23) Losing my Marbles: 1x (1:34:04) Corollary: 1x (36:13) Obviously: 1x (18:22) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Twelve (36 mentions) One (213 mentions) Blue (70 mentions) Antithesis Battles: High (2) - Low (2) Even (8) - Odd (0) Black (3) - White (1) 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!

[@ry-et1vi]

Hi, is there a reason you removed the rules timestamp?

[@inspiringsand123]

@@ry-et1vi I don't display it if I don't detect it automatically.

[@ry-et1vi]

@@inspiringsand123 okay ty :)

[@Sam_weiqi]

This comment is excellent.

[@jdeleca]

Dayum!! A lot work u did there man!

[@LazerWulf]

I love Chaos Construction puzzles. It's fascinating watching the gears turn in Simon's mind as he tries to figure out the regions.

[@randysavage1011]

I actually knew that 10 does not equal 12 before watching this video

[@cookiequeen5430]

Woah dude you must be a very talented mathematician

[@bobh6728]

They are equal if you use different bases. But those should be notated.

[@kyleoddson2367]

My quantum game theory teacher told us a joke, something like, "a client is talking to their lawyer, their spokesperson, and their on-staff mathematician about how to present the results of some figures. The lawyer talks about the legal loopholes of not saying the numbers accurately. The spokesperson talks about not saying the numbers at all. The mathematician calls the client aside and asks 'the results of this arithmetic are the problem, right? ... what do you want the results to be?' " Everybody laughs :P (I'm sorry, I sure I botched the joke, but the punchline is there!) We can make 10 equal 12, if you want. We uh... we just won't have 9 different digits anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@HunterJE]

Something that I think would be really helpful in "regions must be deduced" type puzzles would be as soon as a region is fully established (e.g. in a puzzle like this once all 9 cells are placed), outline using pend tool and also remove shading - this frees up colors which reduces the need to use less legible/accessible colors or confuse matters by having multiple regions of the same color.

[@truskawka6999]

Let me get this straight, did you just suggest to wash out colored cells to someone who runs into shading before he even sees real opportunity to? Simon would find us irl and shade our right hands blue, left hands orange before he would get rid of his shading I'm also bit suspicious his kids might have their body parts permanently colored, not to mention Maverick being red-orange so he's not colorblind friendly

[@HunterJE]

@@truskawka6999 Pencil Mark and Shady Simon

[@enracnocilihc6057]

Simon is red Mark is blue If colors disappear I'll never forgive you

[@esotericVideos]

I like the colors personally :P

[@tred4999]

@@HunterJE What about Sim Shady instead?

[@ItsSansom]

The fact that the regions have to be so convoluted for the clues to work is amazing. I mean, just look at row 5. 6 different borders in the row, when only 2 are needed for the edge clues

[@btestware]

I only needed two hints from Simon to solve this, and it only took me five days. Simon helped me out at the 8:00 minute mark, and again around 47:00 when I was really stuck. What a great puzzle.

[@doncook4097]

I’m amazed with this rule set. I’d like to see it with an easier puzzle

[@Donrafa189]

I love these chaos constructions. Truly feels like you are the presence of people whose minds just operate in realms we mere mortals cannot access. Thanks for finding and solving these bits of genius!

[@crhodgkin]

I appreciate the broad range of puzzles featured. I enjoy the approachable puzzles and the puzzles that feature elegant logic, but I also enjoy the really difficult puzzles that I would never attempt.

[@tallcat]

One of the best chaos constructions i have ever solved - great stuff from start to finish! Well deserved feature. Also, I believe 'observed' is when you ask LMD to let you know if it has been solved - presumably if you wanted to reach out and ask for help?

[@aronlide]

If you "observe" a puzzle it's put in a list for you, so I think most people use it for listing which puzzles they are interested in solving. That's what I do, at least. :)

[@Playmaker6174]

As a regular solver on the site, I do think that "observed" list is for the list of puzzles that you want to solve but are not finished at the present time yet :} (although it might not be close to the original meaning of that German word)

[@michielgerretzen9777]

Chapeau for everyone you managed to solve this on his/her own without peaking at the video ..... One bridge to far for me to solve. Thank you, Simon, the way you cracked this one, and more importantly, took us all with you on the way to resolution 🙂

[@hess4win725]

I really enjoy puzzles where you need to determine the region!

[@Antinomiste]

"If the one is in that cell, the cell is a one." It's important to state those little logical steps that may not be obvious to a beginner

[@chiepah2]

I am glad to be able to exist in a period of time where such pure distillations of logic can not only be realized but can be found so regularly that they can be showcased like this nearly everyday. It gives me hope for the future of humanity despite seeing the depths of depravity we are capable of with the same or more regularity.

[@G.Aaron.Fisher]

110:17 for me. Very happy to have mostly kept up with Simon on this one. Fantastic puzzle for sure.

[@danielauto3767]

Great Puzzle! More like this please. I love those hard chaos construction puzzles.

[@awilliams1701]

So the youtube algorithm just showed me "Dutch Sudoku Magic" It's dated July 2020. I didn't notice the date until I realized the sudoku pad software looked like the older version from when I first started watching the channel. I must say I'm glad about this recommendation. It was a really good puzzle!! Really elegant logic. It's partial skyscrapers sudoku. Lots of really interesting stuff going on in there. Don't know why it showed up, but I'm glad it did. lol

[@TheEricthefruitbat]

This was the most fascinating of the CtC movies.

[@LeutnantJoker]

Also once more suggesting adding more distinct colors :) There's tools online to generate them. There's absolutely ways to have 9 different nice looking colors that contrast well with the blue pencil marks :) Maybe the next feature for your software dev :)

[@killroy42]

There is a Trello board where you can suggest and vote on the next feature!

[@dk81990]

Beautiful puzzle! Took me 2 hours+ but the logic was very clever. Such a simple rule-set too!

[@MattGriffiths81]

That was a really fun puzzle. Still love the linear solving puzzles rather than the "takes an hour to figure out the break-in" type. My final time was 168 minutes, and I'm happy with that.

[@betyourlife09]

This was a glorious puzzle and I loved Simons solve. Thank you for solving these difficult puzzles so I don’t have to but can still appreciate their brilliance.

[@maverickstclare3756]

I had to watch it in two sittings ! & loved it

[@therocknrollmillennial535]

Final Time for Me: 1:14:15 This was one of the coolest puzzles I've ever been able to solve. Thank you, Simon, for giving me the courage to attempt to solve difficult puzzles. And thank you, Emre, for making such a beautiful puzzle. I was utterly impressed at every turn, and while I didn't have the capability to pull out ahead as far as I did with the puzzle Simon showcased yesterday, I still greatly enjoyed the hunt for each deduction. I also made a costly error in deducing the "14" in Simon's Yellow Region and that cost me about 10 minutes to backtrack. Still, what a puzzle. It's the sign of a brilliant setter to make someone like me, who is still a relatively inexperienced solver when it comes to these wild rulesets, feel comfortable enough to work through these amazing steps.

[@emo6577]

I love every puzzle on this channel but I would especially love if you feature more of these chaos construction puzzles! They really get my brain working hard, in a good way of course

[@tyfunk8614]

Always look forward to the CTC movies! They do seem to go by fast haha

[@longwaytotipperary]

Beautiful setting!! Beautiful solve!! Beautiful puzzle!!

[@CauchyIntegralFormula]

128'09". Another very devious, very long puzzle. I worked myself into a contradiction a few times and had to consult the video to get myself back on track

[@verdiss7487]

"We have learned the shape of Green" sounds like some incredibly profound Buddhist philosophical quote

[@davidblake6889]

Amazing puzzle. Amazing solve, as usual, Simon. Thanks to Emre for creating it. I was riveted to the screen for the whole solve.

[@ericpraline1302]

What a puzzle. I would give it 6 stars out of 5 for difficulty. It nearly made my head explode - some of these puzzles should come with a health warning. Sadly I made a mistake quite close to the end and had to backtrack slightly, but resolved it in the end.

[@AlRoderick]

Another feature request for Sven, clearly there needs to be one more color option, so you can make nine distinctive divisions to the grid without using either the light gray that's invisible or the black that blocks everything out. I think a teal or cyan would be distinct from the other shades to anyone who isn't colorblind. Alternatively you could add an option two pencilmark the lower right corner with letter variables, to denote cells that are the same but not necessarily of a known fill.

[@Zilvaras2]

You only need 4 different colors to color the whole grid. I agree that you may need more colors to mark different options while solving, but the grid only needs 4 colors, just like maps only need 4 colors.

[@msolec2000]

@@Zilvaras2 Nah. I mean, yes, but nah. This would also help reach 12 colours, which is great for pentomino puzzles.

[@CaptianKatsura]

I've also been thinking that a teal or a cyan would make for good extra colors. The other alternative I've thought of would be to make the purple more purpley and add pink, but that would probably be less colorblind friendly.

[@Coyotek4]

Took me nearly 2 hours (1:53:58), but I did it ... it's a keeper for me. Amazing puzzle!

[@xskyzel]

That's by far the hardest puzzle that I've ever solved! I admit I needed your help by the end! I thought the Inception was the hardest, but this one is a whole new level!! Amazing!!

[@th.nd.r]

Beautiful setting and solving, I agree with you Simon, this deserves a sequel! I also appreciate the use of font to accommodate for the ğ!

[@PathOfShrines]

Amazing idea! 1:49:45, and I needed to take a couple of minor prompts from the video.

[@scottjacoby2594]

Would love to see this in a 10x10 with 10 regions.

[@alphazero924]

Wouldn't you need 11 and one blank square for that to work since you only have 9 digits to work with? Or would you use 0 as well or something?

[@scottjacoby2594]

@@alphazero924 Would use the 0 since Sven's software allows it. I would just like to see Simon and Mark use the 0 feature more often. Figured this was a good time to use it since you don't need to rely on regular shaped regions.

[@LeutnantJoker]

Not bored at all. I enjoy these long ones. Maybe you can do a really long video every once in a while. I enjoy them :)

[@Roblilley999]

Well, better get the popcorn ready

[@Raven-Creations]

Brilliant puzzle. I love these chaos construction puzzles, and this was a cracker. I got off to a great start (I loved the way the 213s had to link up), but unlike most other similar puzzles, which tend to get easier as you progress, this seemed to get harder until close to the end. I got the logic that placed the straight line between C4/C5 early on, but by using the other side of the line. I was working out how many regions had to fit in the available space on the right and realised I'd have two cells left, which could only come from grey (and be 1 & 3). Some of the deductions needed were really well hidden, and took some seeking out, even following my own guidance always to investigate what your last deduction gave you. It was a good solve from Simon too; there were a few minor things missed, but nothing worth mentioning.

[@stephenjames2951]

Nice break in. The whole time he is explain column 5 I am sure we are all saying “Uh, Simon look at row 1”

[@PreciousPatchesFarms]

Simon! I need a note for my husband excusing me from the housework I needed to get done this morning. 😉 good solve.

[@josephdlist]

In the past two days, I’ve watched a multi-million dollar 90 minute movie staring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Lopez and 90 minutes of Simon solving this puzzle. Why did I waste all that time on the Owen Wilson movie?

[@kingarthur4088]

44:36 this single deduction alone took me a few hours to figure out (which pretty much cracked the puzzle for me) but simon found it instantly haha

[@RichSmith77]

You did better than me. That was the one tip I needed. I got to that point by myself, but couldn't get further. Once I saw Simon mention it couldn't be a yellow three, I could see why, and that allowed me to (eventually) complete the puzzle.

[@michaellautermilch9185]

1:02:30 - officially safe from 3 in the corner, this is an excellent puzzle. Good job by the setter!!

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

80:08 for me. Man, what a journey of a puzzle, that was an extremely tough one. I really thought at some point I wouldn’t be able to finish it, but I soldiered on and finally made it to the end. Awesome idea and awesome puzzle, really beautiful one.

[@spudd86]

An easier way to see that the borders in row 5 don't share a cell for the 5 and 6 totals is if the red region extends all the way to the grey there isn't enough room for orange... also red can only take 3 more cells so there's no other way for it to touch grey other than a straight line. Therefore red doesn't touch grey in row 5.

[@jklroxmysox111]

Thank you! I saw that right away and then frustratingly watched Simon over-logic his way through that pretty simple conclusion. I love the man and this is honestly one of my favorite channels on KZbin these days but sometimes I scratch my head at him lol

[@stephenpassmore7306]

Time well spent

[@cookiequeen5430]

What an interesting solve! Good way to procrastinate sleeping...

[@sjm6280]

Chaos constructions are amazing! Simon may have checked more often that an adequate amount of cells was left for each region, for instance it was so clear the lower green region had to be a 3x3 box since the yellow region only had 4 cells left and had to reach column 4

[@Zilvaras2]

It's so strange when you switch from x1.5 to x1 to hear "normal" Simon's voice to sound so slow :D

[@kyleoddson2367]

I usually go with x2; super jarring transition down!

[@MattYDdraig]

74:54 The logic that unfolded most of the left hand side of the grid was as delicate as morning dew on a petal and just as beautiful. The right hand side was probably every bit as good but I was appreciating it less as my brain was stubborn in finding it. 😅

[@danielwcrompton]

I loved this!

[@flobiish]

Loved it.

[@Katalina1403]

Amazing how you solve it!

[@General_Fragrant_Soap]

As always it was very interesting!)

[@Tfin]

After 12 minutes, I've found one place where there is definitely not a border. Unfortunately, I don't know if those two cells are red, yellow, or blue. Finished in (eventually). I found some logic that gave me that 39 pair you ended with much earlier, but I can't recall what it was. Probably something with the 9s on the left side.

[@gregs2284]

Thank you for putting yellow and green on opposite corners so they don't come into contact..... 45:43 This region next to the yellow is a new colour -- I'll make it ..... green!

[@NFSHeld]

42:09 At this point, I'd probably already introduce green as 4th color for the left side, and then give the 3 in R5C2 and the 5 in R3C3 a green/blue flash, because we know they are not purple or yellow, but they could be either blue or part of the 4th unknown green region.

[@jaeusa160]

@38:50 Another way of disproving the 4-1-5 possibility in row 5 is that it extends Yellow and Red to r5c4 and r5c6, which forces Blue and Orange to max out at 8 cells. Breaks on both sides outright, on top of the column 5 duplicating 1s. All kinds of broken there.

[@Daniel.Walker]

What a fantastic puzzle - on watching I can see I got very lucky with one key assumption. It was a very subtle assumption on a boundary, but an assumption nonetheless! Could have been very messy!

[@luffyz0218]

*simon gets a text* *looks* oh thats not important its just mark 😂😂😂

[@specialkalberta]

Amazing

[@HunterJE]

51:55 The 3x3 green really is forced here - my way of seeing that is if you start with a 3x3 green region, you're already at 8 yellows to bound that and can only add one more yellow square. From there, if you try to give one of green's 3x3 to yellow, there's no way to give green a cell back above that line that doesn't require at least two more yellow squares to enclose it while still reaching column 4 with yellow

[@lalu1677]

Yes exactly.. and since yellow already has 5 cells it can only take 4 more.. if you were to do kinda like a backwards z with the yellow in r6 and r5 green would have to take 10 cells which is not possible… I’m always amused at how Simon solves these kind of clues.. he sees something really hard to spot but misses the kinda obvious clues

[@PauxloE]

25:40 "I have the feeling we are about to get stuck here". - After ~ 80 minutes I was at exactly these solved digits (with quite a bit more pencil marks, the bottom-left region partially colored, and the rest of the grid fully multi-colored (and a border drawn between row 4 and 5), when I was stuck. Curious how Simon will get out of this. 37:29 "I can't make the assumption that the 1-5 boundary is totally distinct from what will have to be a yellow boundary." - If we had a 4-1-5 double-boundary in the middle, the red, yellow and gray regions don't leave enough space for the orange and blue regions, they'd have only 8 digits each. (The reasoning of the 1 in column 5 is simpler, though.) 43:50 "Is there some way that we know where the boundary is for this 7-clue?" - I had a look at the 12 and 13 clue in column 4. They show that there must be at least 3 regions in this column, and given that in the left 4 columns we only have 4 regions, and the purple one can't reach, all remaining 3 need to reach column 4. The only way for the yellow one to do so is by taking the bottom 3 squares also ... or so I thought. I now recognized that it could also leave a 3×3 square in the bottom and stretch out in row 6. And this one seems to be the correct one (I noticed shortly before watching Simon do so), given that we need to put a 3 in column one (in the yellow region), which in my path instead did go in R9C4 in the yellow region. Argh. I got stuck again near the situation of 1:08:00 (with more pencil marks in the grid, but the same amount of known digits and regions). The "there must be a 3-9 boundary" was the needed hint here (of course, all other ways of making 12 are already gone in the column). 1:13:45 "Is there some reason that those are impossible?" - At least the gray 1 in R5C6 is impossible, as it would connect to a red 5, which would not give enough space for orange. (There could still be a 1 there, it just would have to be orange.) ... and of course, Simon finds this also immediately. 1:19:08 This gap gives me the last breakthrough, after this I finally can solve it myself. Total time 352:15 (including watching the video until here).

[@BigAsciiHappyStar]

Having reached level 5872 in Toy Blast, I thoroughly approve puzzles involving 9-cell regions. If you get 9 orthogonally connected blocks of the same colour then you can make a Rubik's Cube :D

[@01evansa]

I was waiting for you to bust into song singing, "I'm in love with the shape of Blue"

[@forgottenfamily]

37:00 Another way to solve that there can't be a common center point on row 5 is that it would require yellow and red to prevent blue and orange (respectively) from encroaching on row 5 which would constrain each to a maximum of 8 cells which, obviously, is impossible

[@forgottenfamily]

Logic used 40 minutes later at 1:14:40

[@neilramsey1368]

Clever puzzle

[@ApesAmongUs]

He finds the 312 going down but doesn't immediately find the 213 across the top row.

[@40492Uncle]

I am surprised that you haven't lunged at the latest Phistomefel puzzle called "Non-consecutive Renban" that was published on LMD on 9th February. What's up Simon? Have the two of you had a fall-out?? That would be absolutely disastrous!!! 😱

[@fuuryuuSKK]

Amusingly, the phone buzz around 10:45 happened to sync up with a YT push notification that arrived on my phones seconds apart followed by Simon's phone doing its buzz

[@mikepictor]

I made good progress, and got as far as about Simon's 47 minute mark...but was just slogging. Decided to call it a night

[@michielgerretzen9777]

@29:57 Row 5 is screaming ...... R5C1 can't be pink because of clues left and right to the row....

[@alexismayfield522]

Perfect timing!

[@petebellamy1962]

Still convinced that Sven occasionally does the scoring on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. We know he has a thing for figures.

[@KyleBaran90]

I would describe this puzzle as a "pleasant nightmare"

The orange region must come down to the 5th row.

[@scottaberc]

My favorite game within the game is to try to guess which color Simon is going to use with each new region.

[@kyleoddson2367]

Even when I can go a bit without help, I'll check which color Simon is using, so that if I DO check back in, I don't need to mentally re-calibrate my color selection. (I still absolutely refuse to use blue for even or orange for odd, but that's on me.)

[@RoderickEtheria]

I got the 39 in c6 before the finale. I actually had the 9 value in c7 after I dealt with the 39 pair in c6.

[@twitterpaited]

Is that the first ever Trifurcation logic on the channel?

[@deerel]

That is a hard puzzle. My God!

[@Wallopy_Joe]

The 4, 1, 5 thing in the middle from the 5 and 6 clues could have been ruled out much quicker by realising orange has to escape downwards

[@BRBTheFireball]

Sven Neumann's clock says I solved this puzzle in 61 minutes, but his clock must be running slow because it didn't feel like it took me only 61 minutes.

[@logiciananimal]

I cannot begin to imagine how hard this rule type would be without the initial "symmetry". Yikes.

[@libromaniatic]

Simon clearly says the central cell cant be a one. And then proceeds to leave a 1 there marked for ages. I am now convince he does for the views

[@doublelxp]

I think he did it so he could remember that he was marking the possibilities of the boundary rather than looking for specific digit locations, so that in and of itself was OK. What drove me batty about it was that it couldn't possibly have been part of the boundary because it would have isolated a region into being smaller than 9 cells and so could neither be the 1 nor the 5.* *Says someone who probably couldn't even figure out where to start in the puzzle.

[@Matthew-wz8ng]

The observed means that there were witnesses when they were solved, as I could say I solved it but did not.

[@ricardodiaz8799]

where can you see the difficulty of a puzzle in te app?

[@RichSmith77]

I think video length is probably the best indicator of difficulty. Cracking the Cryptic don't give a rating, other than sometimes quoting the rating from Logic Masters Germany, or claiming a puzzle is supposed to be "approachable" according to their testers (take with a pinch of salt 🙂).

[@tymon5349]

Solved. 16 times Observed 30k+ (soon to be)

[@kupa6077]

i dont get the "people dont like black or light grey" stuff. just use it please

[@RichSmith77]

What does it matter? He had enough distinct colours without them. Black makes it harder to see pencilmarks. Light grey, while not being too bad, is quite close to white and not the easiest colour to distinguish. That's enough reason to avoid them, unless you run out of colours.

[@kyleoddson2367]

With a loooot of help and some backtracking, 1 hour 49 or so. Ooof!

[@1fosters]

1:31:00 Red 5 Standing By.

[@laurv8370]

35:25 and the following 10 minutes or so: much too complicate, you lost a lot of time. That can not happen because blue and orange regions would only have 8 cells each, end of story, they have both to reach row 5.

[@johnsouza4391]

Another "brilliant"!

[@slurpleslixie]

I know it's very simple to do by the fact that 10>9 (another CtC knowledge bomb) and maybe that was just obvious to you, but I would have definitely appreciated explicitly proving that grey was not blue once you placed the 2 in R3C5 and coloured it in. At the time you coloured it, you hadn't yet considered the fact that grey was the same colour as every cell underneath it, and then also never mentioned that that was why it couldn't be blue, and up until you do that only know that it isn't orange, not that it also isn't blue.

[@RichSmith77]

"At the time you coloured it, you hadn't yet considered the fact that grey was the same colour as every cell below it". Eh? He coloured the entire column grey at the same time, exactly because he knew they were the same region, since the 1/2 pair formed the first boundary for the clue at the bottom of the column. (See from 20:35 in the video.)

[@slurpleslixie]

@@RichSmith77 You're right, I'd remembered him as putting the colour in first then looking down the column rather than jusy saying "that's another colour" (to me at least implying it wasn't blue) and then looking down and colouring it all grey, but even given that I was just surprised there was no offhand mention of the reason why it couldn't be blue. Which I know is reasonably obvious but if Simon wasn't stating or proving obvious things the videos would be quite a lot shorter :P

[@RichSmith77]

@@slurpleslixie That's fair. 🙂

[@cyberrb25]

38:27 there's even more reasons to consider yellow and red not sharing the same gray cell for the boundary sums: Were you to press on row 5 the yellow or the red regions into the gray region, the blue and the orange regions would no longer be able to count 9 cells on themselves, respectively.