How To Solve Sudoku Without Cheating ;)

[@smylesg]

Anyone else bothered that the yin-yang symbol doesn't follow the rules of yin-yang puzzles?

[@AlRoderick]

Well, the symbol is thousands of years old compared to Sudoku puzzles. So I'm thinking it has precedence.

[@smylesg]

@@AlRoderick It was more a question of why these are called yin-yang puzzles, but you have a point.

[@Patterner]

i am now

[@mccoyn6144]

New rule set: yin-yang, but one shaded cell and one unshaded cell doesn’t connect to the other cells of the same color.

[@RedFoxtail26]

@@mccoyn6144 Evil. I love it.

[@MrRoflHamster]

Always love to see a shorter video, because it means I might actually have a chance :D! Still took me ages though. Just squeezed under the 2 hour mark with 119:59. After Level 1 of the classic sudoku app and Rising Circles my 3rd Sudoku ever completed. Really enjoyed it. Keep up the great work! This is such a wholesome community :)

[@Phil_Schaffer]

Foggy Ying-Yang? Amazing. So much fun. 55:57 to finish. Even though I tend to skip through Simon's sometimes long explanation of the rules and tricks, I just remind myself that if he hadn't done the same thing in previous solves, I wouldn't now be able to finish these puzzles on my own now. Keep on explaining Simon so more of the world can learn of the joy of solving these wonderful puzzles.

[@hunter5w6]

I just solved my first non-classic sudoku!!! been watching CTC for a little while but never able to solve the awesome puzzles you guys do without following along (and even then…) but I was actually able to solve this one!! it took me a solid 92:24 but this was so so fun and I’m super excited to try more!! thank you Blobz for the amazing puzzle :3

[@gatlygat]

Well done Hunter! Congrats 🎉

[@simonl4523]

Congratulations!

[@alantaylor846]

Congratulations! Well done!

[@Coldheart322]

Simon really likes surprising me with where he is looking. Just got the 4 in box 9, which is caged, and produces some shading, and Simon is talking about cage totals... "Oh look, this is a naked single" 0.o I mean, he did work out a cage was 2 or 8, but missed spotting there wasn't enough room for it to be 8, so naked single over there! It's hard keeping track of his line of thought at times. I guess that happens when I look at a 2d puzzle and Simon is thinking in 4 dimensions. 😛

[@MarcusTheDorkus]

OMG I didn''t even realize until watching Simon's solve that I had missed shading provided by the caged 6 in box 7. I filled that digit in at 2 minutes and didn't complete the shading until 43 minutes through my 46 minute solve. If I was watching myself doing that solve I would have spent a whole 41 minutes in agony at seeing myself not notice such an obvious thing.

[@stangerrits6712]

Same here 😄

[@InigoMoreno]

Same for me, I had come looking for this video

[@josephnation9063]

Turns out it's solvable even if you forget the rule forbidding 2x2's. Which I know on account of having forgotten the rule forbidding 2x2's.

[@josephnation9063]

(And, to be clear, you still arrive at an identical solution without 2x2's)

[@Kirbyfan87827]

I'm not good with yin-yang and cave logic, so I needed to watch up to about 17:44 in the video before I could make any real progress on the puzzle myself, but after that, I was able to finish with no assistance in 36:38.

[@steveboltonhill]

Loved your solve. This was the first combined yin yang and fog of war that I had ever seen. It was a bit difficult to see where the fog had been cleared because of the shading. Suggestion: Instead of coloring the boxes, perhaps use the pen tool to create circles of different colors for shading and make the fog- clearing more apparent.

[@psiphiorg]

For a puzzle that doesn't allow any 2x2 regions of the same color, my time today worked out quite ironically to 22:22! I was solver number 307. It was a lovely puzzle, and I had a lot of fun solving it!

[@michaellee7313]

Solve 307? This puzzle exploded! Only a couple of hours later and I'm solver 2746!

[@daanperelachaise]

33:33 for me!

[@nekogod]

And 3+0+7 is 10, which in binary is 2!

[@yadiracamacho499]

Maybe Sven could add a subtle pattern/texture to the fog

[@mute1085]

Lovely and approachable, and exactly what I love about FoW puzzles: there is a new clue almost at every step, this is almost like going on an adventure. I managed to do it in 24:43.

[@heatherallan9767]

🎨 my spectating skills are getting better and better ✨

[@KyleBaran90]

Blobz puzzles are always a treat, I actually paused the video because I hadn't been aware this came out. The pentomino ones are great, too.

[@christophercordes951]

Took forever for me because I missed a very simple deduction about midway through. I started about as smoothly as Simon though.

[@danielepicone1480]

Extremely approachable today, as there is no particular break in and the solve path is extremely linear, as it is usual with fog puzzles. Almost feels like this was made specifically for Simon as he loves yin yang, fog, circle hints, and coloring. Cleared in 21m16s.

[@victorfinberg8595]

"extremely approachable", ASSUMING you are an expert at yin-yang puzzles

[@MCarrington01]

Too simple IMHO. I noticed the cage in r5c2 was unnecessary for the solve.

[@EntirelyPointlessContent]

​​​​@@victorfinberg8595agreed. It's doable easily (relative to really hard puzzles) if you know various secrets gleaned from previous experience. Not the same as approachable, people are throwing that word around a lot and forgetting their own built up expertise. Yin yang especially is essentially impossible if you don't know two quite niche secrets that 99% of us basically learned from Simon ages ago.

[@TheOnlyMrFake]

"Not all such dots are shown" and "All dots lie on the boundary" made me think there was a negative constraint. That all dominoes that fulfilled the rules for either type of dot had a dot that simply wasn't visible, and thus that all such dominoes had to cross the boundary. This was obviously not the intended reading of the rule.

[@six_5000]

27:57 … Somehow I managed to get all the correct digits with my shading being completely wrong … it’s probably a very good thing that I don’t try to solve these live on video

[@MattYDdraig]

27:59 One of the smoothest Fog of War puzzles I've seen. The yin-yang logic is made especially approachable with the combination with kropki dots. Very enjoyable.

[@inspiringsand123]

Let's Get Cracking: 10:08 Simon's time: 32m47s Puzzle Solved: 42:55 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! The Secret: 6x (08:58, 10:21, 10:27, 10:29, 12:33, 12:35) Maverick: 5x (04:09, 09:49, 09:49, 09:53, 09:56) Three In the Corner: 2x (33:53, 41:23) Chocolate Teapot: 1x (41:51) You Rotten Thing: 1x (30:28) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Checkerboard: 10x (10:40, 11:15, 13:44, 13:48, 13:51, 21:08, 24:26, 26:34, 29:43, 36:06) Hang On: 8x (14:56, 24:12, 24:31, 24:54, 29:16, 33:23, 35:31, 35:53) Ah: 8x (15:25, 22:14, 26:45, 28:18, 30:58, 34:19, 38:39, 39:25) Beautiful: 7x (01:19, 04:20, 18:55, 30:50, 42:55, 43:06, 43:06) Sorry: 6x (03:31, 03:42, 04:04, 18:24, 20:28, 38:46) Lovely: 5x (18:53, 25:26, 39:29, 42:45, 42:55) By Sudoku: 4x (26:06, 40:45, 40:54, 41:28) Obviously: 4x (00:48, 01:20, 02:14, 08:55) Brilliant: 3x (03:59, 34:19, 34:21) Wow: 3x (14:15, 40:56, 41:00) Pencil Mark/mark: 3x (16:27, 21:30, 34:41) Cake!: 3x (04:01, 04:04, 04:40) Naked Single: 2x (30:44, 32:09) Stuck: 2x (22:27, 27:34) Shouting: 2x (01:28, 38:46) In Fact: 2x (08:29, 12:20) What Does This Mean?: 2x (16:11, 31:26) What on Earth: 1x (36:22) Goodness: 1x (20:25) Clever: 1x (04:58) In the Spotlight: 1x (41:25) Off to the Races: 1x (18:51) Gorgeous: 1x (29:01) Approachable: 1x (05:03) Witty: 1x (04:58) Alacrity: 1x (22:07) I've Got It!: 1x (09:19) Chromatic: 1x (01:42) That's Huge: 1x (18:14) Nature: 1x (19:48) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Ten (4 mentions) Two (84 mentions) Blue (53 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Even (9) - Odd (3) Shaded (5) - Unshaded (4) White (8) - Black (3) Column (10) - 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!

[@svnb.3466]

Hey hey. I think "Knowledge-Bomb" should be added to the list. :3

[@258thHiGuy]

The very first digit I tried to put in the grid on my own was wrong. Great start

[@alexridley9947]

There’s some beautiful coloring that could’ve been done w/ that 4 at 31:25. We know that white dot to its left had to see an orange and a blue because of the secret. So the 4 can only see maximum 2 blue cells to its left, itself and the one next to it, before requiring an orange. So it needs to have at least one blue that it sees above it bc the cell below it is orange, the cell to its right is orange, and left caps at 2 before it has to be orange-so we’ve only accounted for 2 of the 4 that the cage needs. When we color the cell above the cage blue, suddenly we’ve connected blue to blue and the 4 cage sees 4 blue including itself in the vertical line. By virtue of hitting the amount the cage needs, the cell to the cage’s left must be orange. Simon figures out that shading 5 mins later at 36:03 by figuring out the 9 in box 8 is blue and then following the shading logic there.

[@emilywilliams3237]

I think that this is definitely within my ability level, so I'll try it soon. Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm, Simon. Very enjoyable video!

[@truskawka6999]

I really enjoyed how he completely disregarded cage emerging below 5 at 32:00, meaning it's either for cosmetic purpose, or naked single was accidental :v

[@hidalgobuscato7957]

Thank You Simon. I had chocolate and cherries cake, and a Banana Split (banana and gelato!) Thank you for the time spended together ❤

[@flinty8121]

Surplus of redundant clues today....

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 44:53 minutes. The puzzle was so fun and it utilized fog of war so well. I really dug the way these seeing clues interacted in the puzzle. I think my favorite parts are when I had to zoom across the entire grid to find logic that way. One was using Yin Yang secrets to color the border and get the given cage in the top right marked. Then, later on I was able to pencil mark a cage in r3c3 that created a pair and gave a digit in r3c1, seemingly out of nowhere. That was fantastic setting. Great Puzzle!

[@Deditzy.]

Who else uses Simon’s solve time as an indicator of whether or not they’ll be able to finish the puzzle?? 😅😅 mine’s 30 - 45, anything longer than that I don’t bother try. 😂😂😂

[@Deditzy.]

Solved this one … lol

[@Kinada]

That was fun and not too hard as long as you know the yin-yang basics.

[@jonfbanks]

38 Minutes for me, this one tickled my brain so perfectly, I kept seeing where the logic paths were going. I NEED to check out more of Blobz puzzles now because I think they think like me.

[@clara931]

I normally try all FoW puzzles. But I never try any with shading (well rarely) a bit torn today. But as I am tired and have had a long day at work I think I'll just enjoy a master in action

[@GoldenredDragon]

This one was really well crafted, the next step always just a tad far enough for the smarts to engage, but not too far that the frustration kicks in. A respectable 36 minutes for me, I enjoyed it a lot! Thank you!

[@Raven-Creations]

@ 17:12 - "There's something interesting going on with these two cages" - Really? You've just put 6 in a cage. Is that not interesting enough for you? @ 18:42 - "This hasn't got out, so it has to grow" - Sheesh! It's a caged 6, you know exactly how far it has to grow. @ 32:07 - "Does it all fall apart?" - You've just mentioned the dot to the left of the caged 4. That means the 4 has to grow vertically, where it immediately bumps into another two blues, making 4. Come on, it's smooth as butter this, and you're making it seem like coarse sandpaper. Really nice puzzle, quite easy, but with a few places to stop and think along the way.

[@Max16hr]

I was so quick at the beginning, but then i really got stuck. 68:26 min at the end. That puzzle really enjoyed me :)

[@JPRobinso]

Wow - lovely puzzle! took me 113 minutes, with only one hint from Simon, I forgot to remember the no 2x2 same colour rule, this set me going again. ...I'd have been quicker if I'd appreciated that you couldn't have chequer board pattern, or used the 'must have an even number and an odd number on a consecutive domino' thing. but I finished so I'm reasonably proud.

[@dorien99]

Took me exactly 55:00 minutes today, fan of FOW puzzles, new to yin-yang (as in first ever yin-yang solve) which i couldn't have done learning some yin-yang tricks from Simon (mainly about the edge)

[@frankjiang1857]

Finished in 57:52. First time doing yin/yang puzzles and it took me a while to get the hang of it. I would NOT say this is approachable as it takes a certain logic required to understand the implications of the yin/yang aspect combined with the cave constraints and the 2x2 aspect means there's a lot of mental gymnastics to keep things in place. Still, a fun puzzle, but I would NOT recommend it to people who have just been doing regular sudokus or killer cage sudokus and the like.

[@DWestheim]

I gloriously punched a 9 into the bottom-left corner and bravely failed my way forward from there. Let's just say I arrived at a valid sudoku grid eventually, even with *a* valid coloring and all other clues adding up, except for that 9, and the software wouldn't have it. I'm such a numpty man.

[@goldcakes]

40 minute video from Simon, FoW, and it's sudoku. There's no reason not to attempt it. That puzzle was very flow-y for lack of a better word. My time was 01:12:13

[@sinajakelic]

31:37 you can have 2 digits already there: 67 pair in r9 rules out the 7 from the 79 pair in c7. So r9c7 is a 9 and from the 28 option in r7c5 the 8 is ruled out because it only sees 2 orange fields (no room for 8 oranges) So r7c5 is 2.

[@kwongshuchung]

1:10:46 for me @#6121 Just overlooked an easy caged 7 to finish.........wasted half an hour.......

[@ffets-SEP]

This was quite difficult but managable. I needed Simon's help at one point, but otherwise, I solved it on my own in 113 minutes.

[@AFT3RDAY5]

That T-Shirt is absolutely brilliant 🤩👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 If you ever produce some, I’ll definitely buy one ❤️

[@daniellucas5522]

That 6 in box one by sudoku took me a solid 10 minutes to find. Great puzzle, just an unfortunate blind spot from me.

[@sebastianthurow605]

I couldn't get it started on my own, because I misinterpreted the "orthogonally" aspect. I thought because of that each cell in a cage can be a maximum of 5, since I thought orthogonally connected was meant (I am used to that from other CtC puzzles) but of course the word "connected" is missing :D

[@bait6652]

Sometimes these designs u just want to see how far u can solve without dispersing the fog. This was a nice one after u discover the B1 cage/dot(75)...it becomes a pairwise solve where one path clashes giving u the solution. Extra cages in b5r5 and b1c1 seem extra

[@Tringard]

I kept getting interrupted while working on this delightful puzzle, some nice speedbumps along the way where you have to think a little differently from how the flow had been going. I also failed to appreciate the 7 immediately that Simon discovers at 38:42. By the time I did, it effectively finished the puzzle for me with what I had worked out

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

13:06 for me. Very enjoyable puzzle!!

[@erikaplante-jean7745]

I think Simon is to used to do super hard puzzles. He kept searching for super complicated ways of finding numbers and missing obvious things

[@hewholimpsmartin]

Excellent puzzle Magnificent solve Always a pleasure to watch Thank you

[@sparkyt]

54:17. Always nice when I get stuck to go back and watch the video and see Simon stuck in the same spot. Sure he could have placed that digit for 3 minutes and it took me about 15, but still a little affirming.

[@deniz5566]

My first fog of war and yin yang puzzle completed!! Thank you Simon for everything!! 💚

[@svnb.3466]

please Simon, when you mark a digit, look at its row/column if it already is there. 😅 but I guess that would be just too easy for his brain to find challenging

[@kevinbrownsword9558]

Excellent puzzle. Ying yang is one of my favourites I think. At least one I enjoy doing the most

[@dampnose3008]

Omg please don’t use blue with fog of war. For those of us with blue yellow color blindness grey and blue are indistinguishable. This was impossible to follow only knowing what one color was up to until the fog was cleared

[@dannstarrjp]

29:25 Simon does a nice logic around the 4 in r7c4 and then looks at the cell next to it also in a cage… where exactly the same logic applies and it’s even easier to see it can’t be 8😂 but he says we don’t know what it is. How can you literally verbally say something and then looking at almost identical cell 5s later don’t even think if similar logic applies (he even says it’s in a cell so it would be interesting if it’s a 2 lol)

[@EmonEconomist]

Took me 43:41 (and I was scared by the firm direction not to 'cheat' so I was very careful not to accidentally hit a wrong key!)

[@imblackmagic1209]

i have to learn how to count, otherwise these puzzles will be impossible for me! thanks for sharing, amazing solve as always

[@eve_the_eevee_rh]

40:14 solver 6217! That was a fun solve, even though I made a mistake somewhere and had to restart

[@emdiar6588]

12:03 Not to be pedantic but a Yin-Yang puzzel can have either no change of colour, or two changes of colour along the perimeter. How could it ever have only one change of colour?

[@donaldsnyder1543]

60 mins or so. Apparently I can't count shaded/unshaded cells well 😥.

[@flobiish]

I don't think that last cage in box 4 was entirely necessary. Or necessary at all.

[@martinbull-gundersen8878]

I did not use it (nor the white dot it was on), so no, pretty sure they are not needed. It made me wonder if there is another solve path (mine resembled Simons pretty much).

[@stevieinselby]

Fun fact, the only "missing" cage is the 9 in r1c4, every other cell that could have a cage has a cage, which makes me suspect that Blobz wasn't particularly trying to set a minimal puzzle with absolutely no surplus clues and strictly one solve path.

[@_kyarumii_]

Not knowing those two yin yang secrets really got me stuck in the beginning. Only managed to break into it properly once i watched your ruleset explanation.

[@dpatto]

Interestingly the software thought I had completed this and pre filled it with the digits from a recent solve. Very strange.

[@kathyjohnson2043]

Simon, I know you've identified with that 3 in the corner when at parties, but as far as I can see, you are a 10.

[@tritojean7549]

13:16 so i wanted to check and if we only count the first page of color on the site linked in the desc the orange and blue are indeed the most contrasted but if we includ the other pages the yellow and dark blue from the second page are the most contrasted color on the site

[@ericpraline1302]

Nice, and fairly straightforward, more so if you don't invent cages that aren't there.

[@parksantiago3511]

The 79 pairs from box 6 and 7 looking at box 9 giving the seven, Simooon! hahaa

[@titusadduxas]

41:21 - That was most enjoyable - Yin Yang and Fog make a perfect match for me!

[@ThyDungeonman2]

Thank you for your lovely kindness toward those of us who are colorblind

[@saphirelynn2000]

34:20 to solve. Very proud of that time. This one was fun. The logic seemed to flow nicely.

[@aleksandrajanicka6949]

By this wording I wonder whether „all dots” should read as „including those not shown mentioned earlier” or not.

[@stevesebzda570]

My 1st yin-yang puzzle. And with cave and fog, doing it again. Fun

[@Unchained_Alice]

This is a great introduction to ying yang especially. Very approachable and very fun. My time was 31:21

[@PeterZaitcev]

Nice tine, you got me. 31:48

[@eleanorshuttleworth9346]

54:31 for me. I got stuck for an embarrassingly long time before looking at the dot in row 9 :(

[@reecec626]

"By dint of cul de sacage" is the most Simon thing I've ever heard 😂

[@RescueMichigan]

When I was at the point Simon was at 38:50 I found a much more tricky way to resolve the cages in Row 6, which made the cage Simon finds in R2C1 extraneous to my solve: if R6C4 was 8, R6C5 would be 7, but 8 would be forced on the white dot at the top of column 5 and have no partner.

[@ruminator2943]

Thanks for this comment. It's what I was looking for, but couldn't find. Had been a smooth solve for me up to this point, then after, the rest unwound easily. A bit disappointed I missed it, but maybe next time... Now to check out Simon's way forward, to see another way I could've cracked it!

[@ruminator2943]

Oh no!!! 😳 It seems I must've missed some simple sudoku.🤦🏻‍♀️

[@LillaJag]

That cheeky little smile in the title scare me and if I have never solved a fog of war puzzle and therfore not cheated 😂

[@y_prime]

solved in 13:59 - surprisingly fun set of rules! it's a lot to read, but it's a cool construction

[@veggiet2009]

Finished in 00:54:03, after starting i only went back to the video to get one clue when i was stuck

[@Rach881101]

25:54 for me. Lovely hybrid fog of war and yin yang puzzle!

[@jim43]

At 22:31 Simon wonders if he can assume that quad clue is a 2 and then just does so. I made some more progress than him from that point without doing that assumption but did eventually get stuck elsewhere. I only got unstuck by making that same assumption about that partially covered quad clue. But I'm wondering if it was possible to solve this without having to assume that quad clue was a 2 either by revealing more of the fog around it or some other logic.

[@mute1085]

Same, I didn't want to use it at first, but then at some point I forgot that and did use it.

[@RichSmith77]

I didn't feel like I was making an assumption. You could see it had to be a 2, with just half of it revealed.

[@mikeg2845]

The answer seems to be no, which sours me on this whole puzzle. I also got stuck there.

[@literally_why8999]

I'm a year late, but a great puzzle nonetheless. 20:24

[@andermium]

Only 23:30 minutes for me! Finally beat Simon for once

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

18:54 for me. I thought i have seen a yin yang in fog before, turns out i was wrong.

[@megaminxpll]

14:02, on the easy side, once it broke, it was just singles more or less.

[@studgerbil9081]

very nice solve, very accessible and very cool puzzle.

[@piarittersporn]

Brilliant puzzle. I love the foggies.

[@wizofoz0605]

I seem to have a white dot missing between r1c2 and r2c2.

[@zappajohns4600]

36 min 45 sec solve time for me, great little puzzle

[@DrJekyll78]

Drink for talking about color blindness!

[@longwaytotipperary]

Foggy puzzles are my favorites!

[@andyjackson2891]

Definitely one of the easier puzzles....😀

[@Mason-lr5dz]

Did anyone else follow the link to find an entirely filled in puzzle?

[@sebb8347]

How does Simon get the colours to look so vibrant?

[@holliambria9870]

This is lovely! Mixing fog and yin-yang is very fun

[@bruceh8043]

I forgot to start the timer.. grrrrr... lol Solver #4144.

[@nmappraiser9926]

Really neat puzzle! Thanks to Blobz.

[@MatthewSchempp]

59:06 for me. I got stuck on the shading for Row 7 column 7 for quite a while (actually solved the rest without it), and had to watch a bit of Simon's solve to remind myself I could highlight by color. Fun puzzle!

[@MichaelGreen831]

I started this video 9 minutes after it was uploaded. I clicked on the game and 10 people had completed it. I had to take a break (work, work, work). I just finished the puzzle (63:46) and already 907 more people have solved it. YAY!