Simon In The Lion's Den

** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
The cat of high stature makes a reappearance on the channel today! Tallcat's Lion's Den is a superb killer sudoku full of "aha" moments... Give it a try at the link below:
tinyurl.com/tc...
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. In cages, digits must sum to the small clue in the top left corner of the cage. Digits cannot repeat within a cage.
Nahileon's puzzle, Archery Target, which we titled 'The Masterpiece', is worth checking out. Simon's solve took over 90 minutes! It's available here:
• The Masterpiece
▶ NEW PATREON CONTENT ◀
Our new Patreon monthly reward based around Equal Sum Lines sudokus is OUT - you have until May 20th to send us the solution and be in with a chance of winning a prize.
Qinlux' incredible sudoku hunt is still available. Congrats to Kristy Klingert on winning the competition.
Philip Newman's video explaining advanced classic sudoku techniques as well as how to solve his monster puzzle Palpatine's Design is OUT.
Also Simon's solve of the new Phistomefel logic puzzle, Slitherlink Liars, is also available now.
You can join us on Patreon for as little as $2/month here:
/ crackingthecryptic
▶ Contact Us ◀
Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic
email: [e-mail]
Our PO Box address:
Simon Anthony & Mark Goodliffe
Box 102
56 Gloucester Road
London
SW7 4UB
(Please note to use our real names rather than 'Cracking The Cryptic'.)
▶ SUDOKU PAD - Our New App ◀
It's OUT on Windows (released yesterday!) via Steam here:
store.steampow...
You can now input your own classic sudoku puzzles into our software using our new App! The app also comes with 12 handmade puzzles from us and we're also releasing occasional bonus puzzles too. Already available on IOS and Android.
**************************************************************
▶ OUR ARROW SUDOKU APP IS OUT ON ALL PLATFORMS!
Here are the links:
Steam:
store.steampow...
App Store:
apps.apple.com...
Google Play:
play.google.co...
▶ OUR KILLER SUDOKU APP IS OUT ON ALL PLATFORMS◀
apps.apple.com...
store.steampow...
play.google.co...
▶ SIMON REACTION BOARD (!) ◀
With thanks to Andrea for creating this :)
simonreacts.av...
▶ CTC FAN DISCORD SERVER◀
/ discord
NEW: Guide To Our Discord Server:
tinyurl.com/CT...
▶ OUR BACK CATALOGUE - ALL CATEGORISED WITH LINKS!◀
tinyurl.com/CT...
▶ NEW CRACKING THE CRYPTIC MERCHANDISE◀
teespring.com/...
▶TRY OUR CLASSIC SUDOKU APP◀
AppStore: apps.apple.com...
Steam: store.steampow...
Android: play.google.co...
▶TRY OUR SANDWICH SUDOKU APP◀
AppStore: apps.apple.com...
Steam: store.steampow...
Android: play.google.co...
▶SEND US PUZZLES TO SOLVE/CONTACT US◀
[e-mail]
▶FOLLOW US◀
Twitter: #crypticcracking
@crypticcracking
Instagram (for how to solve daily clues from The Times): www.instagram....
▶Logo Design◀
Melvyn Mainini

[@tallcat]

Feline of great stature here! As always, many thanks for the feature :) This whole puzzle came from the placement of the 10 cages and what might be able to be done with that. The title - which Simon was unsure about - is a reference to an old bingo call for number 10 (I always remembered it as Lion's Den, number 10 - although nowadays it seems to more directly refer to the prime minister at the time). An oblique hint for those in the know. It is also interesting that, when constructing, I did not overtly use the SET approach myself but did focus more on the 'shared digits' of the cages as my way in - although the SET deductions definitely make the solve path a little smoother down the line. Happy to say you found all the major logic in the puzzle (although did make it a little harder for yourself at times ;) )

[@AleksandrYgA]

Glad to hear that my approach was the intended one. Just to make sure - the idea was that 10 cages in box 1 and 3 can't have more than 1 repeated digit cause repeats will go into 21 cage in box 2 and ruin it, but it also can't have no repeats at all cause 6 different digits sum to 21. The repeated digit can be 4 or 5 (less than 4 will still crush 21 cage, more than 5 will crush the 10 cages since only 1 repeat is allowed), and 4 isn't an option cause you can't do 2 different 10 sums with 4 so the repeated digit is 5. That's how i got the 579 for 21 cage and 145 / 235 for 10 cages. Then you can place some 9s and 7s, it limits the 18 and 21 cages (multi-box ones) cause their cells in box 2 happen to be 4 maximum

[@groovinhooves]

Splendidly devilishly semi-difficult solve - thanks so very much for sharing.

[@jameshess7109]

sss-

[@crystalgehrt8861]

Just a beautiful set, and the second time you impressed me today, Tallcat! I just did whirlygig before this one, and they are both so fun to solve. Congratulations!

[@tallcat]

@@crystalgehrt8861 thank you! It’s always gratifying to here the puzzles I make are enjoyed.

[@MyriamTT]

Simon's ability to ignore a simple deduction in favor of a more complicated and interesting one is always remarkable.

[@ryaneakins7269]

Over the years, Simon has thrown away a lot of Scrabble tiles. I hope they’re biodegradable :)

[@Hertog_von_Berkshire]

Rumour has it that he reuses the bags. 😁

[@distortedilluminations1328]

I love that Simon took the absolute longest path possible to resolve the three six pair in the nine cage.

[@bard-anilsen]

Ignoring the naked singles to work out the 9-3 pair was also a nice touch.

[@justarandomdood]

@@bard-anilsen another i-wing being completely ignored 😔😔

[@nendwr]

I've only got around to watching this video and wondered how the 20 cage on the left was meant to be resolved - I'd done it by uniqueness versus the 12 cage in box 6. So I smiled at Simon's non-resolution of the 9 cage there - I'd been a step further along in missing the glaringly obvious!

[@mikedonnan6541]

Despite being a ‘mere mortal’ level solver, I think I can see the break in straightaway…BUT…only due to the marvellous tutelage of Simon & Mark over the past year…thank you 🙏

[@57thorns]

It feels a bit weird to find a break in using sets "straightforward". Now I just need to get through the rest of the puzzle as well.

[@Katie-pt1qd]

"TallCat you are a very beautiful person" I'm just going to pretend that he's complimenting me too because this is so wholesome and cute

[@neahkaiyhosier8769]

When Simon freezes and you think your video paused but then you notice his fingers twitching. lol

[@CilantroGamer]

The second the puzzle popped on the screen I was thinking OH! SET! I SEE IT! It's so crazy to me how things are progressing and evolving not only with my own skill, but the skill of the community. Edit: Decided to give it a go, 1:21:22 which is way longer than it should have taken because I missed some very obvious logic in places. Simon unfortunately missed a pair of 36 pairs that would have sped things up, but it's so easy to miss those things. The 36 pair in row 1 can be resolved with the 6 in R9C7, which forces 3 and 9 into box 6 column 8. Since it has a 2 cell cage, that means the digits must be in it because if one's in there, the only way to make the sum is the other. Super simple logic but very satisfying to find.

[@abdoroma6928]

That's why we love simon Because he looks for the hard clow ignoreing the easy one

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 03:00 Let's Get Cracking: 03:42 Simon's time: 34m03s Puzzle Solved: 37:45 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Phistomefel: 2x (00:35, 05:50) Bobbins: 1x (37:11) ​Scooby-Doo: 1x (00:24) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Beautiful: 10x (00:40, 02:22, 18:45, 20:41, 22:11, 25:37, 34:13, 37:44, 37:47, 38:33) Ah: 7x (05:45, 05:58, 24:14, 30:51, 32:32, 32:38, 33:53) Scrabble Tiles: 7x (06:33, 06:40, 06:49, 06:53, 07:01, 07:32, 07:52) Pencil Mark/mark: 5x (05:11, 16:22, 23:54, 29:57, 34:43) Gorgeous: 4x (00:49, 22:37, 32:40, 35:45) Hang On: 4x (13:49, 17:39, 24:58, 24:58) In Fact: 4x (15:28, 21:24, 21:54, 31:10) Lovely: 3x (12:39, 22:46, 36:42) By Sudoku: 3x (27:41, 36:30, 37:03) Obviously: 3x (01:25, 07:28, 08:19) Good Grief: 2x (25:45, 26:02) Sorry: 2x (01:00, 22:41) Nonsense: 2x (22:01, 22:05) Brilliant: 2x (01:08, 04:50) Shouting: 2x (01:49, 31:56) I've Got It!: 2x (18:40, 18:40) Bother: 1x (32:03) Apologies: 1x (31:56) The Answer is: 1x (19:33) Clever: 1x (26:00) Missing Something: 1x (31:46) I Have no Clue: 1x (03:29) Horrible Feeling: 1x (31:44) First Digit: 1x (25:43) Take a Bow: 1x (38:37) Come on Simon: 1x (17:07) Famous Last Words: 1x (33:12) Surely: 1x (27:04) Whoopsie: 1x (31:13) Progress: 1x (33:08) Next Trick: 1x (16:54) Nature: 1x (22:56) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Ten (38 mentions) One (80 mentions) Yellow (34 mentions) Antithesis Battles: High (2) - Low (1) Even (6) - Odd (0) Row (9) - Column (4) 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!

[@smylesg]

How are we looking for adding "by the power of Grayskull"?

[@kyleborders420]

somebody has alot of time on their hands....

[@jasond4084]

No wonder you are so good. You play Scrabble with numbers! 😆 Thanks to you and Pencil Mark for all of the lessons.

[@grahamrskelly6042]

I love the birthday announcements and shout outs. Part of what makes this channel great is the community

[@glum_hippo]

I don't think I've ever spotted a SET more quickly than in this puzzle. I am a bit embarrassed to admit that, but I'm wholly unashamed to admit that I absolutely loved this puzzle and am glad to see it featured.

[@shalaz1981]

I was trying to explain this type of set theory to someone yesterday. Now I can I go back and tell them to just watch this episode. What timing. Thanks so much.

[@SnowTheJamMan]

Love Tallcat's puzzles, he has the brilliant abillity to make a puzzle with a constraint you're not too familliar with flow beautifully and make you fall in love with it, i.e his most recent puzzle "Hush" was the first numbered rooms puzzle i solved and it was sublime, hope to see that one on the channel at one point.

[@tallcat]

Thanks for the kind words :)

[@CHUNGAandNANOOK]

Upvoted for FZ

[@emilywilliams3237]

I so enjoy the videos when you (and Mark) are clearly having so much fun. I enjoy all of the videos, but sometimes the pleasure just comes through strongly, and today is one of those. I think that I'll have a go at this puzzle a bit later. I did take a look at it before watching the video, and decided that Simon would certainly try to employ set to achieve the break in, and even highlighted some of the correct sections. But my thrill at getting that far was short-lived, because I could not go farther. I am so pleased, though, that I could get that far at all - thanks to the many examples of the usefulness of that kind of analysis on this channel (and a good number of scrabble tiles, mostly colored orange and blue, that I found on the floor around my computer ... 😊) Thank you so much, Tailcat, for this excellent puzzle and for the enjoyment that we all get from watching Simon solve it.

[@longwaytotipperary]

😄 At your colored scrabble tiles near your computer!

[@AWanderingSwordsman]

Very clever puzzle. After the start which took a while I sped through and was pretty amazed I didn't end up making any mistakes. I used the video to reach the point where you realize there must be a shared number in the top box and it can't less than 4, or 4, or 6 or 7 which leaves 5. Ended up with 29 but definitely needed the video for the break in.

[@LittleBallOfPurr]

Had a lot of fun solving this one a week or two back, would never have broken in without what I learned on CTC. So, big thanks to you, Simon, and a big thanks to TallCat for such a purrfect puzzle.

[@tallcat]

Always glad to hear fellow felines have solved my puzzles :)

[@prahas777]

I loved the 10 cage construction. Bravo!

[@piarittersporn]

I'm always fascinated when Simon fills and empties his colored scrabble bags in order to eliminate cells/areas. I also think I finally got it. In the end, I was able to easily solve the puzzle with his jump starter. An ingenious puzzle.

[@th.nd.r]

Beautiful setting and solving! tallcat + Simon is always such a stellar duo. The minimizing/maximizing bit with SET was SO cool, and the 10 cages just kept giving and giving. Can’t wait for the next one!

[@tallcat]

Glad you enjoy! :)

[@th.nd.r]

@@tallcat 💙

[@wazzzuuupkiwi]

Lovely puzzle, I needed your help to establish the relevant sets of cages to compare their sums, but after that I took a totally different approach. I decided to find out where the two copies of 8 and 9 that we have in the yellow cells have to appear in the blue cells, specifically which of the 21 or 20 cage contains both an 8 and a 9. this led to the conclusion that the 21 cage contains a 7, and the 12 pair in row1 ruled 7 out of the 10 cages there, by sudoku, the 10cage in box7 could then not contain a 127 triple, but the 10cage in box 9 had to contain 7. this mean that the blue cells neede an additional 1 or 2, and it must be in the 15cage with an 8 or 9; And that is was only possible in one way, leading to a lovely cascade of disambiguation of the 1s, 2s, 8s and 9s to finish out the puzzle w/ the assymetrical cages. Great puzzle, even if I couldn't manage the break-in!

[@spelldaddy5386]

I went about the secondary break in a little differently. After the set, I realized that an 8 or 9 must be in the 15 cage. If you put a 9 in, it must be accompanied by 15 or 24, which in combination with the 12 at the top, produce a maximum value of 8. Those 3 digits would then be forced into the 10 cage in box 9, which breaks. Even when you put 8 in the 15 cage, you still have 7 others plus maximum 2, which is 9, so you need a digit that can go outside of the 10 cage. Those options are 6789, so I knew the 15 cage must be 168, which also disambiguates the coloring

[@killamoosdraree730]

As usual, it took me much longer to solve. I do enjoy puzzles that involve math and puzzles that involve some pattern recognition. Thanks!

[@Coyotek4]

45:10 ... I used SET theory to make progress after 5 minutes, then bogged down for almost a half-hour. I eventually found a way through regarding what the 10-cage in the lower-right could be, and finally found my way through. Nice puzzle!

[@r3ckl3ss66]

It’s always fun watching Simon, as smart as he is, take the long way around with logic to avoid sudoku

[@markp7262]

23:17 finish. For my sets, I used columns 2/3/7/8 vs. row 1 and boxes 4/6, with a difference of 45. Same result, just came in from the high digits of row 9, instead of the low. When Simon filled in the 12 cage in that convoluted way, I kept pointing at the 9 in box 5, throwing a 9 in the cage. Sadly, Simon did not see me. But he got there in the end, as always.

[@EdonSerifi]

Starting with the number seven, ending the puzzle with the number seven.

[@jaysondudley4176]

Feel pride in your work Simon!

[@HaroldSchmarold]

First and last digits placed were both sevens. Nice

[@jonhansen9622]

Happy Saturday, and good luck to the Patreon members in the drawing later today!

[@longwaytotipperary]

Thanks, Jon. This is the first hunt I've entered!

[@Jesthers]

Finished this one in an hour after watching the video past the Phistomefel part (no way I would ever figure that out on my own). Very nice puzzle that kept me rechecking cages for ages to actually figure out what to do XD

[@bkaozzz]

34:08 for me. Made a mistake in the middle and had to rewind a lot of steps but in the end I'm so happy I managed to finish!

[@Ryan-1704]

Noticed columns 2 and 3 quickly so highlighted them and got a break in. Six cells remaining which summed to 45 was restrictive in combination with the 21 cage. Was a really fun puzzle and finished it in 28:09, one of the few times I was quicker than the video length

[@mattinm]

21:00 - Why did we even waste the next minute plus looking at options? It was already stated that: 1. One of the 10 cages has 2-3-5 2. The smallest digit in the 21-cage is at least 4. 3. A digit is repeated between the two 10-cages, which is in the 21-cage. This is already enough information to conclude that the 5 is shared, since it’s forced by (1) and the only digit from that that can be in the 21-cage by (2).

[@LednacekZ]

16:01 for me. I am really happy with my solve. I spotted the extended Phistomefel ring start right away. I have watched/solved so many CtC puzzles that the 3 square cages in boxes 2,4,6 were too obvious to me.

[@CaptianKatsura]

Congrats on your solve! I also spotted the ring right away, but I wasn't smart enough to figure out what I was supposed to do with it, so I gave up.

[@alarictaqiarentza9451]

That's very impressive time. Congrats!

[@LednacekZ]

@@alarictaqiarentza9451 thx. Simon would have a much better time if he did not explain the ring every time he used it.

[@tyrgannusgaming6657]

No large cages but lots of pointing geometry. Looks interesting just at first glance!

[@tallcat]

@Tyrgannus I learnt it from the master ;)

[@clausewitzianwar]

It must have been serendipity that just yesterday I watched the "Ten Knights" video from a while ago, it really helped with the relationship between the 10 cages

[@kimberlypreston6204]

I feel bad for missing the last few videos. I have been a loyal watcher for 2 years. BUT in my spare time I can't keep my eyes off the Depp/Heard trial. 😂🙃😁

[@KyleBaran90]

I attempted this one last week! I can't remember if I solved it or not. Very eager to see how you do it.

[@icepyrox]

I saw the set faster but did not see the shared digit bit, so even with that hint it took me 100 minutes. On the other hand, its the first tallcat I ever did and I love how the logic just bounces around in his puzzles. One day I'll see how things bounce without the help of the video

[@AmmoBoks]

"By the power of Greyskull". I love these, to the uninitiated, seemingly weird comments that reveals age and interest. Nice and fast solve again.

[@timothybexon6171]

Thanks for saying happy birthday to me. I'd have been happy for you to share my Royal Albert Hall story with everyone, but I'm not complaining.

[@michaelholdowsky6386]

This is a most elegant puzzle!

[@JohnRandomness105]

31:45 I did exactly the same, and got those four digits (2457) once I fixed the 39 in the cage -- easier upon noticing the 9 to the left. It was a bit disappointing.

[@pedrobluis]

Never neglect sudoku 🤣 that 3/9 cage was fixed since r6c4 became 9 😉

[@KombatGod]

I would have preferred "Simon in the den of the Lion" so that it rhymed but whatever :)

[@Brekin_Constras]

26:39 for me. Used a slightly different break in than Simon. Instead of using full set theory I did maths on rows 2 and 3 where the 6 cells that were not in the 10 cages and also not in box 2 had to add to 46 so they only had 1 degree of freedom. Using the same logic with columns 2 and 3 only forces a sum of 45 which only gives 2 degrees of freedom. R1C3 then has to be a 4 because if not the best you could do in the 10 cage for box 1 would be 234. After that there was some pencil marking, math logic for columns 7 and 8, then sodoku the rest of the way.

[@Michael-yd7nt]

I did the exact same thing, my first digit was the 4 in box 1 as well.

[@DiMono]

I suspected this puzzle would make its way here. ;) I got the same first digit in a very different way. I didn't catch the 10 cage trick until later.

[@julieannmyers8714]

Great puzzle! Doing sudoku from the beginnings of logical deductions in boxes 1, 2 & 3 would speed things along. Thanks, Simon! Enjoyable to see your initial break-in.

[@darleneofthetallpines5742]

Excellent puzzle and solve!

[@henrymarkson3758]

Soon as I saw the puzzle, I thought scrabble tiles and bags.

[@zibus8456]

Fascinating. I started this puzzle in a completely different way - getting most of box 1 full and then moving to the different corners. I didn't see the 89 pairs Simon starts with at all - they just happened to be there when I finished. Didn't use set in the same way, though I did sort of. Very interesting to see such a different solution path.

[@wuzzzzzzek]

Hi, What was your solving path? I would love to know the different apprach here :)

[@zibus8456]

@@wuzzzzzzek I made a video going through it, if you'd like to watch. kzbin.info/www/bejne/d57VdYB9oraUhtk

[@reubenmckay]

I love Simon's Scrabble tiles explanations. I never get tired of hearing them.

[@peterkelley6344]

has anyone ever sent the guys a set of scrabble bags - with tiles?

[@longwaytotipperary]

Enjoying listening to Captain Beaky! There''s a bunch of us (I believe) who would love for you to read some Capt. Beaky in an intro or outro!

[@CrackingTheCryptic]

Don't tempt me :) :) :)

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@CrackingTheCryptic how about some cake? 🎂

[@paullamport2908]

Phistomefel Ring and its 242 varients This gave me a much easier break in to today’s puzzle. I assumed this was already well known but as Simon did not use it I thought I would give you my break in. There are 243 unique Phistomefel Identities only one of which is a ring. There are more than a 1000 if you allow rotation and reflection. An Identity is defined by its 4 “corners”. The only restriction is that the corners form a rectangle and each corner is in a different 3x3 box. One part of the identity is the 4 corners plus the cells that are on the same horizontal and vertical line as each pair of orthogonal corners that are not in the same 3x3 boxes as the corners. The second part is the set of all cells in the 3x3 boxes containing the corners that are not on the same lines as the corners. In this puzzle the four corners of the Phistomefel Identity are the corners of the 9x9 grid (1,1),(1,9),(9,1),(9,9). Add to them positions 4,5,6 of rows and columns 1 and 9. The other identity is made of the 16 cells in the corner 3x3 boxes that are not in row and columns 1 to 9. The minimum value of the first set is 84 using the cages and 12 in row 1 and 12345 and in row 9. The maximum value of the second set is 84 using the 10 cages and two lots of 8 and 9. I know this looks really confusing but it is easier honest.

[@stevieinselby]

I'm impressed with myself - I spotted the SET break-in on my own, made several useful deductions, and the only hint I needed from the video was for Simon to ask whether the two 10-cages at the top could avoid sharing a digit. Nice one!

[@joadbreslin5819]

This is the first puzzle I can remember where my solve path was completely different from Simon's. My break-in involved looking at rows 2 and 3 together, and subtracting the 2 ten cages plus the 24 contribution from box 2, and noting the restricted values of the remaining digits. Then I did that again for columns 2 and 3, and later for columns 7 and 8. Perhaps Simon's method was more efficient, but I felt that mine was simpler.

[@michaelharvey2391]

This was my break-in as well. First digit for me was the 9 in r3c3 with 1 in r1c1, both forced.

[@dibenp]

16:53 I have been watching enough videos to spot another deduction. Yay! The 15 cage in box 6 column 9 cannot contain an eight and a nine, so purple must be in column eight, which forces purple 89 into r2c9.

[@dibenp]

He sees it at 24:58. And makes a really clever deduction in box 2 well before that. 👍

[@AndreAy1975]

Solved it with much help from the video.

[@RachelTension]

actually managed to get this one in only 54 mins

[@dwarfigplays9806]

That was hard. 1:08:35 for me. Did not found full logical pass. Made an assumption... luckily solved. I hope Simon's solve will help me to see al the internal logics.

[@_-_-Sipita-_-_]

26:26 for me. i started with a set, then i used shared digits thing (like tallcat said)

[@srwapo]

40:59, but I had to watch around the 22 minute mark that a 5 had to be in the 21 cage to make progress. Was able to solve it from there.

[@Poet13xRatedRKO]

after you determined the 12, 12345 and 89, you should go back to the original coloring. On the top you can find out that the two 10 cages in box 1 and 3 have a repeated digit 5 to fill the 21 cage with 5+7+9. Then look for the rest of blue and yellow and remember they have the exact same digits. I somehow made a mistake at my first attempt, but on the second I got a time of 11:50.

[@julieannmyers8714]

👏👏👏

[@Foxyjosh]

I got it! A lion is a tall cat. You are in Tall Cat's den. LOL

[@smylesg]

Should have been called "Lion's Ten" and trusted people to make the leap to the pun.

[@averygaron994]

Could've restored the symmetry with a couple of cages with no given totals, which would've been amusing

[@leickrobinson5186]

Yay! I finally beat Simon’s time! :-D

[@peterkelley6344]

The Pedestrian was a fascinating watch. Sorry I arrived late to the livecast. Would like to see more of that,

[@WheatGrinding]

At 31:14 - an easier way to see the 12 cage must be 3 and 9 is that 9 is forced into it by sudoku :)

[@EmilKamppp]

I love the Heman reference ✌️

[@thehuguenot625]

I found you can just do it a pure math way without the sets. Columns 2,3,6 & 7 total to 180. You can substract 40 from the boxes and we know the middle rows of those columns are 25 and 30. So you're left with a value of 85 (180 - 40 - 25 - 30 = 85) for the 12 cells in the top and bottom boxes not in the 10 cages in those columns. Now if you put maximum numbers in every row but the top row you have 64 (3X89 pairs and a 6 & 7 on the bottom for 64). That would leave 21 for the 4 cells at the top in those columns. And at most they can be 21 because of the 21 cage at the top, so you have the maximum below, and then can place 1/2 pairs in the top corners.

[@kitetsu7534]

Holy moly, that was crazy :D

[@PauxloE]

So I got the break-in (the 89 pairs + 12 pair + 12345 quintuple) quite easily (also got another 89 + 67 pair in row 9, which Simon found at 15:05), but then got stuck afterwards. I tried to get some more cages into sets, but without success. (After some help from Simon, specifically the idea that the two 10-cages need to have exactly one common digit, which is also in the 21-cage, I managed to finally solve it.)

[@dsquirrel]

At around 23:30, there's a faster path to identifying the yellow and purple digits. Simon has eliminated 7 from the three-cell 20 cage in r4c1/r5c1/r6c1. This cage must contain a 9--to see this, consider a three-cell cage with neither 7 nor 9, and maximise the other digits: 8+6+5=19 is still too small. Now consider where 9 can go in box 1: certainly not in the 10 cage, and sudoku using the 21 and 20 cages eliminates the cells in row 1 and column 1. That leaves only one place for a 9, namely the purple digit in r3c3, and this means yellow is 8.

[@andilee3537]

Different path to the solve than Simon, started out with the set, but did more work on the outer ring first. Very nice solve

[@lunardancer6047]

So this one wasn't quite a Phistomefel Ring, but it was a Phistomefel Thing.

[@ocaly]

took me 25:12 was surprisingly easy considering the video time

[@shteevuk]

Hey how come Simon's corner pencil marks aren't covering up the cage numbers the same way mine do when I'm using the app? Is there some feature I haven't go turned on?

[@adrianhead6272]

Completed in 20m44s.

[@stevesebzda570]

@25:39 That's perfect. That "89" [that is ''purple"] has to go in the "579" 21 cage. So, it's NOT an 8. IT'S A NINE. That was my 1st digit [and all the 8s and 9s]. It solved great from there [albeit, slowly and carefully where I'm concerned lol ]. NICE 😎

[@kyleborders420]

how do people come up with all these different sudoku puzzles???

[@tallcat]

Check out my setting video a few weeks ago and you’ll see :)

[@solfeinberg437]

146 minutes = 2 1/2 hours. No help. Yea! Used the outer ring in corners in corner boxes Phistomofel set thing.

[@ErsagunKuruca]

42:04 with a few peeks.

[@loquicraft]

tinyurl is not working for me, anyone knows what happens? Or maybe anyone can give me the original url of the sudoku?

[@ashutoshsodhani]

I usually look at this channel daily fo rnew and exciting puzzles. i tend to solve them myself first. If I get stuck , I refere the video. In this particular case and other similar cases in the past, I was able to glimpse the coloring around the corners, and that would nudge me towards around the involvement of phistomephels ring etc. Is there a way / suggestion so that the youtube video preview doesn't turn into a spoiler. I know these previews are the very reason I got hooked into sudoku variants -- but if someone has a workaround , I would love to know.

[@poslfit]

I feel obliged to point out that labeling Scrabble tiles in this way will invalidate them for use in competitive play, as it would be construed as a violation of NASPA rule III.A.2. It would be better to use unmodified A-Math tiles for this purpose. :)

[@JB-kf9oo]

Anyone have any recommendations for puzzles to get better at set theory? It seems so obvious after watching Simon but in the moment I couldn’t figure out a break in.

[@logiciananimal]

Since we keep invoking the power of Greyskull, maybe we need some more 80s cartoons puzzles. Thinking ...

[@wanderlustwarrior]

53:50 for me, but I Had to look to the video to remember there's more than one way to make 22.

[@TrueValandor]

Oh my god it's reverse phystamophel.

[@johnrupesh4535]

I wanna see Mark solve this puzzle.

[@bruceh8043]

Finish in 42 minutes.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

22:08 for me. I could have been faster, but somehow 9+4 doesn’t equal 12. It took me a while to backtrack and fix it lol. Well still a very enjoyable solve, nice puzzle!!

[@williammorris7279]

Slightly off-piste, but ICYMI: a stream of Zetamath reacting to Simon solving his puzzle Distinction has so few "likes" compared to CTC, and I think it is a brilliant watch, so kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJu3Yop-bZ6fpa8 . Hope this is not out of order.

[@phuybrechts6875]

sudoku-skills are still terrible ! But the rest is 🔝🔝🔝🔝📣

[@anybrody]

done