This Sudoku Is Borderline Genius

[@martysears]

Ooh thanks for another Rat Run feature Simon, I am really enjoying seeing how you tackle each of these. You certainly sailed through this one without much problem! it was quite uncanny how you considered each possibility for the path in the same order that I did, but I think in the end your solve time was quicker than mine was when I was test solving it haha. (This puzzle was one of the first ones in the series that I made, a little while ago, and sometimes if it's been a while since I set it, I will get stuck on my own puzzle. It's really quite annoying🤣)

[@pouletbelette]

This series is very fun to watch. Thanks Marty!

[@Ardalambdion]

In 2030 Finkz gets so intelligent that she succeeds Simon and Mark in running this channel.

[@krtwood]

Don't be silly. She might be able to solve a Phistomefel puzzle but how is she going to sing the three in the corner song?

[@Gandalfa82]

She runs the channel, Simon and Mark work for her.

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@krtwoodRight!!!!

[@krtwood]

@@Gandalfa82 I don't see it. She's a paws on sort of rat that's not suited to management.

[@AO968]

​@@krtwood I can think of several possibilities: - She'll use AI voices of Mark and/or Simon - She'll have it incorporated into the software, so that each time she gets a 3 in the corner, the song starts playing - She'll develop the ability to talk [human language], and sing it herself.

[@noamasaf2668]

idk if this is gonna sound stupid, but sometimes i feel like this is just adult dora. he’ll miss something that’s completely obvious to me (while focusing on more challenging and less in your face stuff) but i’d be screaming in my head “THERE’S A 5 RIGHT THERE” feeling all excited that im seeing something he’s not. thats very dora searching for items right behind her, and its somewhat pleasant😭

[@darrenbent7601]

I know what you mean... He is a very enjoyable puzzle solver.

[@samueldeandrade8535]

​@@darrenbent7601 I don't think like that anymore. And I find it hard to defend such proposition. I mean, Simon does a lot of nonsense that must be on purpose. For example, the 5 to get 11 with the 24 pair. He just put the 5 here 29:34 . Why? It makes no sense. Also, what is the need for the colors? None. Once upon a time I thought Simon was great. Simply great. But now ... I get tired watching him. I understand who thinks he is great though.

[@darrenbent7601]

@@samueldeandrade8535 I like the way he uses the colours to break up the path at the required splits to show how he came to the conclusion for the values needed at each stage of the path. I also like the so-called nonsense too, he really has an entertaining was of going through the process. I find his system really easy to follow, because I get really lost if I was to try to do them blind.

[@AO968]

@@samueldeandrade8535 The purple region has to add up to 11, as per the region sum rule. He already has a 2 and a 4, so 5 is the only digit left he can use there (2 + 4 + 5 = 11). If this confuses you, then you're not paying attention. The colors are there to make it easier (for him and the viewers) to distinguish the individual line segments. You can solve it without the colors, but it may make it harder to see these regions and thus make the chance of errors bigger. And we're not basing Simon's skill on this puzzle alone, as this one seems quite doable, even for novices like myself. Rather, he has solved puzzles that even experienced solvers struggled with, including one in May last year, that *_only one person had solved before him_* , and it took him well over 2 hours. If that's not proof that Simon is a brilliant solver, what is?

[@screetchycello]

This is hilarious, accurate, and I will never be able to *not* think of the channel this way 😂

[@kevinsurget8571]

I really like how each new Rat Run is better than the last, yet still quite approachable

[@Tepalus]

I'm waiting for the 11x11 where you have to catch Finkz within a Sudoku because he escaped the lab.🐁🐭

[@PassionPopsicle]

Someone @ marty sears STAT 😂

[@chipsounder4633]

Quality idea 🎉

[@smylesg]

The 11x11 grids should have passageways between boxes like the game Clue.

[@StefanieWai]

@martysears 🙏🙏🙏🐀

[@animeshsharma5666]

she* mate

[@Donrafa189]

That joke makes me laugh every time😂 “An arcane process we sometimes use in these sudoku puzzles”

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 42 minutes. These rat runs are my favorite. I think they rival fog of wars. The theming really adds a personality that I really enjoy. The one way doors are a cute idea to incorporate in this puzzle. I thought I had broken it when connecting two lines, before realizing that I forgot a door in box 1/4 could be used. Great Puzzle!

[@NickFegley]

I don't usually comment, but I want to express how much I really enjoy these Fitz puzzles. Thank you so much to the setter for their excellent design, and to the channel for bringing them to my attention!

[@madsli]

Along with a sudoku puzzle variation with a 3 in every corner, I am also looking forwards to the day when Simon tackles a puzzle where 5, 7 and 9 can be on black dots.

[@katiekawaii]

Each of these puzzles is like a masterclass in a different sudoku variation. It's brilliant. Props to you, Marty. 👏👏👏 Genius.

[@emilywilliams3237]

Very fun-looking puzzle, and series of puzzles! Of course Marty Sears is going to produce great puzzles all the time. Thanks for bringing us the series, Simon, with your usual aplomb and éclat!

[@skiesofarcadia4885]

These puzzles sometimes make me feel like Pooh Bear patting his head, "Fink, fink, fink. . . . Oh bother" 😅

[@wypmangames]

I'd like the lab to use a fog machine to cloud finkz' view (fog reveals clues like one ways and maze borders for path, only when you get digits)

[@reubenmckay]

I'm really enjoying these Finkz sudokus. I hope Marty Sears keeps making them and Simon keeps solving them. I feel like there's a lot of potential to make some interesting combinations of paths and variant rulesets in this series yet still maintain the more appraochable nature of each puzzle.

[@Hakucho64]

Surprised myself by being able to solve it without help! Lovely puzzle, thanks Marty.

[@Fishmanaym]

I love Finkz puzzles and this one was wonderful, not the hardest of them but the most fun to solve yet for sure.

[@David_K_Booth]

Very entertaining sequence of puzzles. Thanks so much, Marty!

[@Afterthoughtbtw]

It's funny how much some cleverly placed flavour text can make a really fun puzzle even more fun.

[@dty999]

34:07 without any clues from Simon! Very happy with that.

[@slopjoust]

I would like to see Finkz make her way through a fog of war maze.

[@nidoking042]

I got to the 11 total in a slightly different way, after noticing that there are four cells on the path in box 9 and a black dot outside. Every black dot must have at least one low digit (1, 2, 3, 4), which means 10 is an impossible sum for that region. 11 is then both the minimum and the maximum (based on there being four segments in box 5).

[@WhoStoleMyAlias]

Or yet another way, after finding that the region sum must be either 10 or 11, the maximum for the coloured cells in column 8 becomes 27 and 30 respectively. Since you can only make 18 with two cells if they are both 9 this means that the region sum cannot be 10 and therefore it must be 11.

[@Dj_AnDy]

​@@WhoStoleMyAlias At that point isn't the maximum sum of colored cells 30 or 33?

[@WhoStoleMyAlias]

@@Dj_AnDy No, I meant strictly the cells in column 8, so that is 10+10+3+4=27 or it is 11+11+3+5=30

[@Dj_AnDy]

@@WhoStoleMyAlias oh now I see what you meant 👍

[@SomethingWellesian]

These Finkz puzzles are great. So far I’ve needed a bit of a push to get started on all of them, but the solve is so smooth once you’ve got in. Hopefully I’ll find the break-in of the next one on my own🙃

[@skiesofarcadia4885]

Marty, I know you sometimes see these comments. I really love this whole series and may have already skipped ahead to #5 out of excitement :) Thanks for creating such fun, thematic puzzles!

[@martysears]

Love reading the comments :D Hope you enjoyed episode 5... episode 6 will be released in a few hours :)

[@skiesofarcadia4885]

@@martysears Definitely! Looking forward to its eventual feature on this channel and excited for the next installment this evening :)

[@longwaytotipperary]

Very nice puzzle! Agree with others, would like to see Finkz find her way through some fog….😁

[@neil2796]

I was starting to feel sorry for that poor neglected yellow 4 cell segment.

[@darrenbent7601]

That is very clever, especially with that regency sum constraint. Marty Sears must be a wizard with the calculations.

[@piarittersporn]

Fortunately not difficult but very exciting and wonderful puzzle. With this type of puzzle it is always very helpful for me to immediately mark the "gray areas" where Finks cannot go through. Here it went pretty quickly.

[@davidrattner9]

More Wonderfulness from you Marty! Fun puzzle to solve!! Love to see you Simon have as much enjoyment in Solving!!

[@PleasantDoorknob]

Simon really does his best to avoid the easy bits 😂 That poor 5 in r3c3 was totally neglected

[@KathiVaudee]

@@PleasantDoorknob I was so focused on this it distracted me from the actual solving that was happening😂 first he doesn’t put the 5 in and when it’s finally in I’m still screaming at my screen cause it’s ignored once again

[@michealfehr9371]

I have been enjoying the Rat Run series very much and solving them alongside simon as i almost always need a bit of a helping hand once i get stuck

[@dikinebaks]

34:48 man I'm really enjoying these ratmaze puzzles

[@doujutsugg184]

88 minutes. fantastic puzzle. i got stuck for like 30-40 minutes without any clue and then it all solved when i put pencil marks and got one digit i missed. brain melted

[@PerMortensen]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who takes 2 or 3 times as long as Simon to do these puzzles.

[@Coyotek4]

18:52 ... loving these as I progress (and catch up on some of what I missed) Nice puzzle!

[@tBagley43]

47:25 really fun puzzle with lots of interesting logic I recommend highlighting all possible paths with the yellow pen tool, and slowly deleting paths when they cannot be taken or turning them green when they must be taken, it really helps with keeping track of things

[@jonathancard4466]

When you're 30 minutes in and don't know Finks' path, and the video is only 40 minutes long, you know you should have called in sick to work.

[@WeaselOnaStick]

As much as I love these puzzles I wish Sven added the ability to toggle on/off custom puzzle overlays like the maze walls here. They become obsolete once you figure out the path, and with the path+segments drawn the walls clutter the board too much

[@timking4625]

An astounding puzzle! Thanks to both setter and to Simon

[@ronjohnson6916]

Clever and approachable. My own favorite type of puzzle.

[@Raven-Creations]

This was the perfect puzzle to do while waiting for the Friday crossword to appear. Fun, nice logic, and quick to do. I normally prefer harder puzzles, but since the crossword's just been posted, it doesn't get any better.

[@MattYDdraig]

25:47 Another charming and brilliant experiment with Finkz. This started a little easier than the last with much more forced path it seemed, but then so much more to uncover to complete the digits. So much fun, thank you!

[@-ARatnakumar]

17:40 Finkz can go up and take right, it is a possibility but it can be ruled out because of 6 cells in the box , so got lucky there

[@travisdudley4520]

With the last few Finkz puzzles, I've been wondering if her maze will eventually be inundated with fog. 🙂

[@seymy4362]

As always, I'm happy to know I'm one of your favorite people and I get to hear THE secret(TM) again

[@chipsounder4633]

Box 9 was better as the kropki dot needs a 123 or 4 so red cant be 10. Loved that again.

[@AFT3RDAY5]

What a particularly beautiful puzzle 🥰👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Solved it without cheating in 37 minutes 🎉 Now I must do the others too 😄👍🏻

[@six_5000]

71:48 these rat puzzles are definitely the best of this year 🐀🐀🐀

[@ericpraline1302]

Was actually bamboozled for a time as I forgot about direction of travel when considering the arrows and trying to work backwads. Keep the cupcakes coming.

[@ca-ke9493]

The parity shift is genius! I'd admit it took me way more tries and bifurication to figure out how the parity would work out. Many times I thought I had broken the puzzle I just couldn't get my box 9 to settle correctly. Had to resort to constantly fixing the parity to get it to work then solve. I had figured out that the diagonal was needed but could not work out how the path would work at all.

[@Artoooooor]

If previously the dots were called "kropki dots", now they should be "porzeczki blackcurrants"!

[@KANPAI666OPPAI]

Great puzzle! Was able to suss out the sum and path pretty quickly, but had to backtrack twice on the numbers since I probably pencilmarked some segments incorrectly and went off those assumptions. Love how the off path clues worked to solve the rest of the grid!

[@markp7262]

21:49 finish. A nice, straight-forward puzzle that is still a challenge. Very fun, excellent!

[@Landis963]

65:56 for me - I think I have a bad habit of Goodliffe-ing everything even when it's not useful. (I looked up whether Finkz can have chocolate cake, and rats apparently can digest theobromine in small doses. So maybe a chocolate petit fours?)

[@kenrickman6697]

Perhaps Sven could implement some sort of layer feature? You’ve done a few puzzles lately where it would be helpful to have more information as you solve, but it causes clutter. I’m thinking of these Rat Run puzzles, and also the recent misplaced killer clue puzzle. Putting the maze, color notes, or various lines on different layers would make it possible to select only the type of notes that you’re interested in at the moment.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

12:12 for me. Fantastic puzzle once again!!

[@tomgalli1188]

Loved it! The path was easy. I colored all the areas Finkz couldn't go, and it practically drew itself. Then, of course, I got excited in the sudoku portion, made a silly mistake, and cost myself a fair bit of time. This is the journey! 109:34

[@nathanmays7926]

I wasted about 30 minutes trying to disambiguate the ending using all sorts of hidden X and Y wings before realizing the arrows were also "greater than" clues and not just one way doors for the purpose of the path. Note to self: fully read the rules twice before giving it a go.

[@PauxloE]

Again, nice puzzle. And a bit of a contrast to the other ones, which had only local constraints (except the Primer). 67:49 for me, solve counter 4578. I still remembered from the previous puzzle that black currants on the path could only be 48 pairs, which threw me off for a while (it was not possible to get lines of length 4 below 15, and this didn't work in the middle box). After figuring out the mistake, I got the complete path before putting in any digit pencil marks.

[@dwdei8815]

Once you've got the two regions (here in khaki and mauve) in box 5 the region total is easy to work out. It can't be made in 6 cells so most of Box 8 is greyed out as not viable for the path, and suddenly Box 5 is forced to have either entirely 4 region sums (is 45 divisible by 4? Calculators out, everyone!) or 4 region sums plus a left-over digit. That constraint makes it a slam-dunk.

[@titusadduxas]

37:46 - I really enjoyed that one. Not too difficult once you got your head round the rules.

[@frankjiang1857]

Finished in 30:22. Didn't realize the one-way doors were actually also greater than and less than signs until I was kind of stuck with some possible deadly pairs. Then I reread the rules and finished it up. Also, Finkz has a lot of self-control not to grab a black currant which is next to his path but not go down that path! Fun puzzle!

[@craigfjay]

I resolved the 10/11 segment total by looking at the segments in column 8, and counting the digits from 1-4: Box 3 would need 1, box 6 would need 2, and box 9 would need 2, totalling 5 digits from 1-4 in column 8.

[@fade2dblack]

That's Finkz in the corner. That's Finkz in the spotlight, losing his religion. And cheese.

[@cora1327]

18:15 an F1 reference! My two worlds collide! I’d never have thought:) amazing win for Hamilton. I may be bad at variant sudoku, but this is something I can answer: the chicane in Silverstone is Maggotts & Becketts.

[@myacky5887]

I've shouted at my screen before, but I never thought I would be shouting corner names at Simon!

[@TheRedReid]

32:53 for me. Absolutely loving this Finkz series!

[@Whalexander]

Solved in 54 minutes 38 seconds, what a fantastic puzzle this was.

[@MariaVlasiou]

The thing in this puzzle that confused me was if I consider the starting cell as path and thus in the equal sums. So if the noise went straight north, right and exit as intended, whether she moved 5 or 6 cells.

[@AditaBattleForge]

Rat Run 4? Fantastic! I wonder where Marty will stop :D

[@zhoppa]

...9?

[@johnarmstrong607]

@@zhoppa but then you can have doublers 😀

[@darrenbent7601]

Maybe the whole line through all boxes is a Palindrome? That will be a challenge.

[@grahamania]

00:28:53 for me. Love doing these puzzles along with Simon. Great fun! Kind comment.

[@ca-ke9493]

76:05 for me :D i usually do not like sum puzzles, its difficult to work out the combinations needed. But i really liked figuring out the maze and using the secret to figure out that the regional sum was 11 was very satisfying indeed. After the break-in the sudoku took a long while, im not fast at scanning sudoku.

[@_dr.mayhem]

Me: "Look at the black currant dot in box two, look at it, look at it." At 27:18 Simon: " okay lets look at this black currant" Me: "Not that one"😭😭😭

[@apiyo_puzzles]

Can't wait for you to do number 5. It has an aha moment to die for.

[@adrianp5465]

It really feels like Finx needs a fog of war puzzle. See the maze from its viewpoint.

[@BozoTheBear]

Outstanding!!

[@rowan1230]

205 minutes for me, BUT this was the first variant sudoku I've solved in which I had to additionally draw something in the grid! Still too intimidated to try a Yin Yang puzzle but progress is progress...

[@savanbanan51]

Oh what I would give for a finkz plushie!

[@praematura]

Oy, not my best solve. 😅 Got the path pretty fast, made progress then stalled as I'd forgotten the arrow were doing double duty! Once I realized that, was able to finish in 33:04, but suspect I could have shaved at least 5 minutes off that, if not more, if I'd remembered all the rules! Regardless, many thanks to Marty for an amazing puzzle, it was very enjoyable!

[@Zilvaras2]

24:21 if box 4 had 2x10, the remaining 3 cells would have to add up to 25, which is impossible with 7 8 9. But I took the longer way with columns 4 and 5 and their 90 sum to show that 10 is impossible.

[@DarrenNakamura]

Finished in 44:38. Cool idea for a puzzle.

[@mudscuffer]

35:16 for me. Really interesting puzzle, though I found the busyness of the grid a bit more distracting in this one than in the earlier ones.

[@Aliessil]

Finished in 32:54. Got stuck in a deadly pattern towards the end, until remembering the segment totals - d'oh!

[@franzelmagetower]

Another fantastic entry in the Continued Adventures of Finkz. I hope he gets Flowers soon. Or perhaps not...

[@y_prime]

solved in 15:26 - another nice addition to the series

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 04:50 Let's Get Cracking: 08:43 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Phistomefel: 3x (01:45, 01:52, 01:55) The Secret: 2x (20:42, 20:44) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Sorry: 6x (15:06, 15:06, 29:29, 29:29, 32:15, 33:54) Cake!: 6x (02:59, 03:03, 03:31, 04:39, 10:58, 38:30) Ah: 5x (15:40, 17:02, 17:34, 19:27, 19:27) Beautiful: 4x (22:48, 22:48, 26:39, 29:44) Brilliant: 4x (00:39, 04:47, 38:39, 38:41) In Fact: 4x (06:57, 21:00, 22:38, 36:04) Goodness: 3x (38:07, 38:30, 38:39) Triangular Number: 3x (08:22, 13:02, 14:08) Shouting: 2x (02:54, 04:35) Hang On: 2x (29:21, 29:21) Clever: 1x (38:49) Recalcitrant: 1x (37:47) Stuck: 1x (28:41) Fascinating: 1x (02:08) First Digit: 1x (24:25) By Sudoku: 1x (26:36) Approachable: 1x (02:28) Obviously: 1x (10:44) Whoopsie: 1x (38:01) What Does This Mean?: 1x (06:41) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Ten (15 mentions) One, Two (53 mentions) Black (19 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Low (2) - High (1) Even (3) - Odd (2) Higher (2) - Lower (0) Black (19) - White (0) Column (8) - Row (7) 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]

29:45 I don't think it's possible, but I'm curious how often Simon starts a sentence with "it's" and ends it with ", this." Like "it's a beautiful puzzle, this" instead of "this is a beautiful puzzle."

[@nicocost33]

42.50 for me. That was fun!

[@GregJonson]

Very creative, and quite approachable! 26.36 for me

[@theboykev762]

Hi, Simon. I love watching these videos. One question i have though, after the colouring but before you started putting numbers in, why couldn't the blank cell in box 5 been a 9? 4 dominos could add to 9 each. Am i missing something as to why not? Thanks. Kev.

[@martysears]

Hey Kev, this is definitely a possibility I wanted people to consider at first. The way to disprove 9 as a possibility for the region sum (and also that spare cell in box 5) is that some boxes have segments with 4 cells. The minimum these can be is 1234, so the region sum must be at least 10.

[@davidroshan77]

The 4 segmented yellow cells were completely ignored, the coloring and Walls made it hard to see. Poor Simon..

[@sheepdude860]

Solved in 37 minutes! Seemed impossible at first 🎉

[@joeskis]

This puzzle does have at least two possible sudoku solutions. I know because it was the first one I found. But the puzzle said it wasn't right. It took me awhile to find out that I was disobeying a one-way door rule.

[@paulellingham9358]

Nice puzzle. It's a real shame I tried to solve it in the direction of cupcake-rat instead of the correct way. I got a suspiciously short path and gave up and watched the video. Doh!

[@psiphiorg]

An enjoyable puzzle! My time today was 17:33, solver number 8661.

[@srwapo]

28:00, thought I broke it before remembering the cell the rat starts on ALSO counts to the sum.

[@theashen]

literally read the instructions seven times and still couldn't understand them.

[@stevesebzda570]

"Others"? This is the 1st I've seen. Others of them, though? Thanks

[@anthonymelvin2391]

I made a comment on another Marty Sears puzzle and have to do the same here... *Spoilers* The path is a rat, albeit rotated on its side! Great work Marty!

[@ashnose]

The next one is equally good

[@jinkela7295]

Why did Simon use a red line instead of blue in an RSL-themed puzzle?

[@martysears]

probably to stand out against all the blue walls

[@LednacekZ]

19:22 for me. the more i do them the easier they get.

[@ThePolymathlete]

19:13 for me. These puzzles are fun

[@jcsoundguy]

I kept yelling R3C4!!!