Is This The Most Bizarre Sudoku Solve Ever?!

[@martysears]

Hi Simon, Haha this was a hilarious video, I’m glad it made you giggle. Your mini breakdown at 47:00 made me laugh a lot too. I actually didn’t think of this as particularly trolly, although I did set it for Palpot’s ‘set something a bit crazy’ prompt. I always enjoy mean minis but haven’t set many myself. I haven’t seen one done in a 4x4 before, and then I thought, you would have lots of digits not being used in a 4x4, in fact more than enough for another one beside it with no repeats. And this quickly evolved into the quadrant layout. This was one of my quickest puzzles to set, I think it all came together in two hours. I kind of discovered the logic as I went, in much the same way that the solver would. I was originally planning to have an 8 cell renban spanning the whole diagonal and quickly realised that was impossible, because that would require 12 different digits in the grid. So it then seemed natural to maximise it as much as possible at 6 cells, requiring two digits of overlap, and making quadrants 1 and 4 contain the same set of digits. I thought this was quite a nice ‘big picture’ deduction for the break-in, as it’s not immediately obvious but does feel kind of obvious after you spot it.

[@martysears]

So I then had the choice of which digits to leave off the renban. 0123, 0129, 0189, 0789, or 6789. I really wanted the discovery of the digits to rely on the previous deduction that quadrant 1 and quadrant 4 have the same digits, so I wanted a sneaky step that involved thinking about two different lines in those different quadrants at once, as well as the renban dividing them. A German Whisper seemed like a good way to rule some of the options out - immediately the extreme options 0123 and 6789 are impossible on a German Whisper. Giving two high and two low digits (0189) would have been most useful wouldn’t it? But where’s the fun in that? I felt compelled to make it three of one polarity and one of the other, and I found it satisfying that I could easily force that with the geometry of how the German Whisper bends. That leaves you with two options of 0129 and 0789, and what better way to disambiguate a polarity dilemma than a good old region sum line? This is all a very round-about way of saying that Simon, you solved the puzzle exactly as intended (as usual), albeit with a couple of unnecessary (but interesting) digressions. Thankyou for featuring it, and to the people who recommended it. This was a puzzle that was all about the multi-faceted break-in, and it was fascinating to see you piece it all together like some weird abstract jigsaw puzzle. Happy New Year!

[@kobs_0]

I think I had to read the rules to this puzzle at least 10 times. Absolutely fantastic! "That leaves you with two options of 0129 and 0789, and what better way to disambiguate a polarity dilemma than a good old region sum line?" > I'm genuinely happy I solved this the intended way. Feel like I may be getting better at variant sudoku, likely with all the dynamic fog puzzles I've been trying to do that force a certain way of thinking Thanks again for another amazing puzzle, Marty!

[@bluerizlagirl]

@@martysears I think if you weren't afraid to write some digits into the top left quadrant (was that a little nod to Clover there, by any chance?) knowing full well that at some stage you would in all probability have to wipe everything out and start again from scratch but this time applying the deductions you just made, you could get this one pretty quickly. The way the different constraints work together to force a unique solution is just sublime! It's a fantastic puzzle.

[@martysears]

@@bluerizlagirl Hehe thanks, but not sure what you mean about the nod to Clover?

[@bluerizlagirl]

@@martysears Whenever Clover sets a Sudoku puzzle, she usually gives you a bit of a clue in box 1 .....

[@Kairamek]

Between seasons of Rat Run. I'm sure the Friday puzzle will be normal and not insane. Marty: Hold my cupcake.

[@davidrattner9]

We so love you Simon!!! Your laughter and giggles starting @ 46:46 is just extraordinary and another wonderful moment!! Loved how you solved this! Appreciate constantly who you are, your persona and aura about you!!

[@wilesfiles1]

After this video, I think Marty should be referred to as Moriarty Sears. Great puzzle!

[@SimonTrentish]

Would that make him Simon Holmes?

[@LithmusEarth]

@@SimonTrentish I am down for both of these nicknames to continue onto our fridays with marty series.

[@annikaQED]

How can SImon possibly think he appears stupid when I'm thinking "This guy is a genius!"? (& I'm a PhD mathematician😞) KUDOS-u to you, Simon🙂!

[@jpryan90]

Extremely true. He may miss the "obvious" (often not) at times but the break in was pretty brutal just to get to that point. Another great solve from Simon.

[@sivsuikki9428]

I am surely not stupid and I am impressed. He might have bad company and should be rescued? 😂

[@rachelriesling9112]

I don’t have nearly your academic pedigree but I often find myself thinking the same thing! Simon is brilliant, and more importantly in my view, he’s also kind-and this isn’t a combination that’s always guaranteed. 😊

[@erikbreathes]

nice job on kudos-u

[@Jaddas]

Thats the insane part. He thinks he looks stupid, because he genuinely thinks that finding these things is easy.

[@calebkimmel372]

I love opening these videos, pauing them right away and trying it myself, only to come crawling back because I cant figure out where to even begin 😅

[@douglasplachy4577]

You are BRILLIANT! After you did the break-in of the 4th quadrant, I solved the puzzle, but I would never have been able to figure it out by myself. Love the channel. Thank you Simon (Mark as well). Greetings from Deutschland!

[@psymmie]

I was stuck and then read this comment without playing the video, and just knowing to look harder on the fourth quadrant was the clue I needed to solve it (though a lot slower than the video!) 😊

[@SVURulez]

I did the exact same thing and the puzzle was delightful to solve once I got Simon's help with the break-in, but I could've never figured that out on my own.

[@Coyotek4]

21:43 ... I wouldn't mind declaring 'Marty Fridays', to be honest Nice puzzle!

[@MaierFlorian]

What I absolutely love about watching CTC videos is that for most puzzles I wouldn't even know how to start the puzzle on my own but in 90% of the time when Simon starts to think about something I start thinking about the same thing and reach the same conclusions as him right before he explains what happens ☺

[@Scojo486]

I just finished solving this about 2 minutes before this video went live! Another fantastic puzzle from Marty :)

[@MichalMarsalek]

I thought this was saying "I just finished solving this in about 2 minutes". 😂

[@Scojo486]

@MichalMarsalek I was a bit slower than that unfortunately

[@Yttria]

Absolutely loved the puzzle. Made an initial mistake in not reading the rules carefully. Then a few minutes in I realized that I'd missed the 0-9 part. Restarted and flew through it in 33:02. Love how Marty seems to always keep puzzles feeling fresh and new.

[@nodelynk]

Fantastic puzzle. I love the way Marty seems to push Simon's buttons. Like he lives rent free in Simon's head at all times. Truly Moriarty Sears is a fitting nickname

[@xDanKaix]

The break in was beautiful and once you’re in it’s like doing 4 completely separate puzzles that end up having a deadly pattern. Then the way each puzzle’s deadly pattern got disambiguated was super clever as well. My favorite being the bottom right quadrant. I got the deadly pattern and was looking to try and figure out how it would be disambiguated and saw the bottom right cell in the bottom left quadrant needed to be a 5, then later proved it was a 5. Absolutely stunning.

[@craigyoung8008]

I'm really impressed with the way in which Simon used the long whisper to resolve the digits in the top-left and bottom-right quadrants. Very elegant indeed! I used the long region sum line, because it spanned all 3 quadrants of interest. They had to consist of some set of the extremities of the of the 0-9 range, otherwise it would break the renban. And obviously not all from the same polarity, otherwise there'd be no chance to equate the 3-cell region sums in quadrants 1 and 3. Because, without loss of generality, all 3 digits on one segment would be larger than the other. Even the set 0789 doesn't work. The region segment would have minimum sum of 0+7+8=15. But then then 2-cell region sum in quadrant 2 would have a maximum sum of only 6+7=13. This leaves 0189 and 0129 as the last 2 possible sets. And the former is eliminated due to the 3-cell nabner line in quadrant 1. There are 2 consecutive pairs, and no matter which digit you leave out, either 01 or 89 would remain to break the nabner rule. The 0129 set doesn't have this problem, because we can leave out the 1 to split the 012 set. For the record, it took me much longer to work out than my explanation above might imply.

[@MarkBennet10001]

Seriously fun puzzle - and a very Marty idea

[@MarkBennet10001]

So close to completely cracking it just after 20mins - a couple of observations away

[@globglogabgalabyeast6611]

Excited to see this puzzle on the channel! Solved it recently and was so impressed by the logic

[@davidhughes7174]

I have been watching since 2020 and I continue to get enjoyment through the astonishing, surprising and amazing puzzles that Simon solves. thank you.

[@Herdypig-f5s]

47 mins - poor Simon :-) You've cracked it now. Brill video - brightened my day!

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 07:34 Puzzle Solved: 52:05 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! The Secret: 1x (11:27) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Hang On: 12x (15:14, 15:14, 15:23, 16:50, 20:58, 21:36, 24:03, 27:21, 36:42, 46:31, 51:35) Sorry: 7x (04:12, 22:20, 36:25, 38:17, 38:52, 48:09, 50:58) Ah: 7x (21:36, 22:51, 22:51, 27:21, 36:47, 43:35, 43:35) Brilliant: 6x (01:23, 02:45, 02:48, 03:33, 04:41, 04:47) Going Mad: 5x (22:07, 22:20, 24:03, 24:05, 44:59) Goodness: 4x (07:29, 26:51, 47:07, 52:15) Clever: 4x (52:50, 52:54, 53:00, 53:53) Obviously: 4x (01:59, 09:41, 16:20, 16:41) Nonsense: 3x (21:22, 21:24, 29:23) Extraordinary: 3x (03:06, 28:58, 40:06) Discombobulating: 3x (11:19, 39:33, 53:40) Weird: 3x (01:30, 40:12, 42:57) By Sudoku: 2x (42:33, 49:08) Shouting: 2x (05:27, 05:35) Surely: 2x (25:39, 46:48) In Fact: 2x (02:23, 07:17) Cake!: 2x (03:26, 06:06) What a Puzzle: 1x (00:19) The Answer is: 1x (24:55) Naughty: 1x (39:30) I Have no Clue: 1x (27:12) Disconcerting: 1x (23:38) Witty: 1x (52:50) Bizarre: 1x (33:29) Propitious: 1x (13:50) I Digress: 1x (26:58) Prize Charlie: 1x (48:18) Wow: 1x (36:47) Lunacy: 1x (35:13) That's Huge: 1x (18:24) Pencil Mark/mark: 1x (14:23) Middly Digit: 1x (29:32) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Ten (11 mentions) Five (59 mentions) Green (23 mentions) Antithesis Battles: High (6) - Low (3) Even (14) - Odd (0) Lower (2) - Higher (1) Row (4) - Column (3) 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!

[@PhilBoswell]

You missed "let's get cracking" somehow, and Simon definitely said it!

[@TomatoFarmer8]

Loved the puzzle, and especially Simon’s astonishment at the Whisper around 47:00, when it dawns on him what the effect of that little line is. Very reminiscent (to me) of the Miracle Sudoku video from 2020, which is what drew me to the channel in the first place.

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 62:52 minutes. Marty has the ability to make such beautiful and interesting puzzles. This one was no different and it was such a joy to work through. I find myself lately really enjoying mean mini puzzles. There is something about them that are so fun to figure out. In this one, I enjoyed coloring each section. I think my favorite part was seeing that the German Whisper in big box 2 had a big impact on the Renban. That felt very powerful and purposeful. After that the puzzle just clicked into place. Great Puzzle!

[@AndrewHartshorn]

What a fun puzzle - ty Marty - and as always thanks to Simon for a fun, entertaining, brain stimulating video. This was a puzzle I managed without help but I still always go back and watch the video to see what I got right, what I got wrong and just for the fun and entertainment of seeing Simon's brilliance, his struggles and his joy. Happy New Year CTC - you are the best!

[@wordclover]

Agree wholeheartedly on all counts. 38:43 for me.

[@leestoddart7014]

Amazing puzzle and great solve. I'm feeling quite proud that as soon as quadrant 4 had 0129 it was obvious to me that the German Whisper in row 1 had to be 38. But of course that's the only bit of the solve I got before being led me by the hand through the rest.

[@RoderickEtheria]

The secret of this puzzle must be revealed at a whisper. Well, alternatively, think about the 3-cell nabner after the 6-cell renban.

[@Paul-cn3ij]

Another great start to a Saturday. Thanks Marty and thank you for supplying a puzzle that allowed the use of TEN different colours! Managed to colour all of box 2, most of box 4 and box 3 was coloured albeit 4 of the cells were one of two box 2 colours, which is when it fell apart quickly. From no digits to finished in 5 minutes. Overall it was 39.42. Now to see why Simon titled the video the way he did.

[@MarkBennet10001]

Hypothesis: Marty Sears is a total lunatic/genius. Evidence - this puzzle. Like yesterday's actually, the clues are hidden in plain sight, but seem so unlikely to have any bearing on the solve until you realise what they mean (yesterday's vestigial cage with no total near the beginning, which did just enough ...). The Renban was my favourite thing. I worked out some of the logic of the whisper box before I got that.

[@Kairamek]

He's a mad genius for sure. Don't let entertain fool you, Mad doesn't mean Evil.

[@markp7262]

36:00 finish. I had so many snafus and logic breaks in this one that I'm amazed that I finally made it through. I realized the number system early on, and figured how it had to be divided, but then went off on crazy threads that broke the puzzle in most ways possible. But I got there in the end. Excellent!

[@dwebb2805]

this might be one of the all-time great post-solve musings from simon. just complete and utter disbelief at everything that has just happened, both in and out of himself! as far as the solve, i think trying to do anything "normally" would trip you up in this puzzle, because it is very much NOT normal (whatever that word even means anymore)

[@bobsburgers8885]

Clever puzzle!! This is the first puzzle I've ever finished in less time than the length of the video. Of course a good chunk of the video is intro and birthdays but I'm not as far behind as I usually am.

[@steve470]

27:20 for me. I really, really enjoyed solving that. Or, in other words, "Classic Marty". 😁 Here's my explanation for why this puzzle messed with Simon so badly: I think this is one of those puzzles that's actually more difficult, the more experienced you are at variant sudoku - and of course Simon is world-class in that regard. The addition of zero to the available digits immediately nullifies a lot of an experienced solver's first instincts: "German whispers can't include a 5"? "A digit on a single-cell region sum segment can't appear on a multi-cell segment of of the same line"? Nope, not in this puzzle. Couple that with the interactions between digits in the different quadrants (which an experienced solver still probably won't be experienced with), and you're left looking at this puzzle through the eyes of a beginner. Simon has been an expert for so long that he's quite rusty at looking at puzzles as a beginner. I'm an experienced solver... but not nearly as experienced as Simon is. I found this puzzle mind-bendy... but not nearly as mind-bendy as Simon did. 😉

[@Jodawo]

This puzzle is definitely genius. I looked at it like a deer in headlights and waited for Sherlock (AKA Simon) to make it make sense. Sherlock did not disappoint. The logic he talked through enabled me to see the path to solve this. My first impression of the puzzle was absolutely wrong. This is definitely a puzzle that should be seen. Simon seems to find new ways to amaze us with his ability to break in and be able to explain it in such a way even an average solver can understand. I do disagree with Simon about this being the weirdest puzzle he has done. I think he might have forgotten about Chaotic Wrogn by Undar Beyond. The second he put that one up he was already saying no I'm not doing this. Then he said I'll sit and stare at it for about 5 minutes and then turn off the video. He ended up getting through it.

[@DonnieC-qy8ow]

Total legend. Love watching your videos

[@Cassiebsg2]

It might have taken me 2H and 20min but the important part is that I made it to the finish line with logic only. :D I took too much time thinking this would be a coloring puzzle, and then the digits would be filled mostly at the end. It took me to focus on the renban and the long whispers line to figure out which digits went where. Once there it become much easier. :) Thanks to Simon for the solve and joy of the solve, that make his videos so much fun to watch. And thanks to Marty to make this crazy wonderful puzzles!

[@iabervon]

33:33 "Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad. You must be, or you wouldn't have come here." I solved it a bunch faster, but only by having arbitrarily chosen to start in quadrant 4, then to look at the renban and the global properties, and then to look at quadrant 1. By the time I looked at quadrant 3, I had enough information to resolve it, although I broke the puzzle entirely by thinking the high digits in quadrant 3 were from 6789, which broke the line in quadrant 2 of all things.

[@grahamania]

00:27:57 for me. That was a tremendously fun puzzle. Loved the combination of logic used to find each box's numbers! Kind comment.

[@kevinbrownsword9558]

Another great puzzle. I figured out the 4th box would require 3 of one polarity and 1 of the other. Then figured out box 2 and box 3 had 2 shared digits and all 10 were used, due to the Renban. So box 1 and box 4 have the same digits. Then realised the box 4 digits had to be extremes and once the region sum in box 1 showed it had to be 0, 1, 2 and 9 and it all fell into place. I always start Marty’s puzzles thinking it’s impossible to break in.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

10:50 for me. What a fantastic puzzle! Love the unusual stuff Marty is able to come up with.

[@ianoz1]

Brilliant puzzle. Two attempts. Started colouring and got bamboozled before I realised the trick with the Renban wrt top left & bottom right quadrants.

[@save4us]

I enjoy watching Simon struggling for 5 minutes for a clue after I struggled for several hours and failed to figure it out.

[@bones7708]

Sometimes the dark side is too strong to resist. After realizing, that only a 5 in the bottom end of the long german whisper line can disambiguate the bottom right 4x4, I took the forbidden path of relying on uniqueness.

[@robinbrown6530]

Yes Simon, you are mad, but in a Dr Who kind of way. I can very easily picture you running around in a box with a screwdriver trying to solve the problems of the universe. However, in no way are you ever allowed to think yourself stupid or inept. Those terms, and terms synonymous with them, are reserved for people like the ones who type mean and nasty things on the internet about someone who is doing something quite difficult, that they themselves could not do anywhere near as successfully, in an entertaining way that has captured the hearts and minds of many. You and Mark are living proof that you don't need to be some Hollywood star, billionaire, or political powerhouse to make a difference in the world. Just pick something, be the best you can be at it, and then be a decent human being that treats others with empathy and compassion. That last part seems to be what people struggle with. The last decade it seems has been growing darker and darker. The reality we live in has made me lose faith in much of humanity that seems to only care about winning at all costs. I cannot impress upon the two of you how much joy and relief it is just to know people like you and Mark are simply out there. It lets me know I am not as alone as it might seem. The regularity of your videos is a point of stability in many lives, including my own. The quality of content, imperfections and all, has never slipped in the years I have watched you. You have introduced me to a community of characters that I never would have known existed, all so utterly brilliant I often question my own intellect. I will say this as many times as it takes to help you through whatever harsh comments are coming through in some videos. Thank you both for one of the best shows ever put together on the KZbin Platform. You both are truly one of the greats and I hope 2025 treats the both of you as well as you always treat your audience.

[@CrackingTheCryptic]

Thank you Robin. I find it very (very) difficult not to just dwell on the terrible comments - which is why I do appreciate the kind ones so much.

[@martysears]

@@CrackingTheCryptic I would be the same. I'm sure I speak for a lot of us when we say we are all extremely grateful and glad that you stay motivated to keep making these awesome videos despite regular tedious and unnecessary comments from the know-it-alls

[@JaymanOttawa]

@@CrackingTheCryptic Simon, please try to remember that there has never existed a single person that has been universally beloved by all, not even God. You sir, are a brilliant man with a big heart. I admire you for putting yourself out there. Unfortunately this will expose you to the occasional harsh comment from someone with a heart that is a fraction the size of your own...

[@irrotational]

@@CrackingTheCryptic It's only human nature to do that but please try not to, as much as possible. As soon as a comment section exists, someone will post something horrible in it, it's inexorable. Your videos are a joy and you are a very clever person, but much more importantly, a lovely person!

[@jamese4336]

I did it in 20 mins. I found it interesting to see that I solved it in a very different way to the video. I used the clues to colour in digits in quadrants 2, 3 and 4 that had to be the same. Once you notice that quadrant 1 and quadrant 4 have the same set of digits, understand which set of digits they must be and work out the importance of the clue Simon only discovered at 46:40, it's a fairly quick solve.

[@mscha]

Simon is a total ... genius. There's no way I could have finished this puzzle without a few hints from this video. (I did spot the green line in row 1, and its consequences, long before Simon, though.) Of course, Marty is a genius too, but that's old news.

[@likeasignalflare]

This really wrinkled my brain, loved it.

[@emilywilliams3237]

This was a fascinating and very entertaining video!! Really, all of the best of Simon videos was in this one - amazing logical grasp of the situation and logical proofs of how things must be, along with contagious laughter and giggling. Truly, if this was one of the most entertaining puzzles you have solved recently, Simon, it was one of the most entertaining videos I have watched recently. Thank you!

[@martysears]

💜

[@Vorash00]

Now Finkz is on Christmas break, Marty gets no such treatment he keeps his Friday (Saturday for my timezone) slot on the channel 😉 - very much not a complaint.

[@007thn]

What an amazing puzzle. Simon nailed it!

[@willfancher9775]

At 23:00, The amount of effort it took Simon to prove that "A + B = A + X" implies "B = X" made me feel smart today :)

[@jakubmrozek7644]

Beautiful puzzle and a great solve. I spotted the short green line earlier but didn't spot some other things as quickly as you. Thanks!

[@caroline..0505]

A brilliant puzzle! really enjoyed it and it was good to watch you doing it too.

[@kobs_0]

another marty puzzle?! Don't mind if I do.

[@xChikyx]

I feel so smart that I spotted the whisper line on the top before simon ajjajajaja

[@DarkestTimelineBritta]

"Why do I want to put those into those squares?" I don't know, but I wanted to as well. 🤔

[@alanclarke4646]

First off, the renban can't have 0 or 9, because that would require the first quadrant to have either 6789 or 1234, both of which break the 3 cell nebnar line. This means that zero can't be on the 5 cell blue line, as that would force: either 0 or 9 onto the renbanc( which we just proved is false) OR R7C2 to repeat either R7C3 or R4C5 on the renban.

[@michaurbanski5961]

Great puzzle! I enjoyed this one a lot

[@codyseale]

Simon is a total lunatic!!! Just kidding, that puzzle was CA-RAZY good

[@realitant]

40 minutes in I finally saw "which can appear in any order along the line"

[@olerask2457]

Awesome puzzle. To me the breakthrough was to realize that the 4×4's have the same 4 numbers (because of the renban). From this it was easy to use the german whisper to focus on either 0129 or 0789 (because the renban needed consecutive digits). The 2-cell whisper needed either 38 or 16! I used a lot of time to figure out the nabner line section, to place the extreme digit (0 or 9) in the middle of the 3-cell nabner line. Finally I realized from the region sum line, that the extreme digits could only be 0129 😊. The rest was easy. Maybe my solve was fairly direct, but it took me more than two hours to complete this genious puzzle 😊.

[@AndreiFierbinteanu]

I actually did box 1 first. The 3 line namber helped me figure out the composition of the renban: If 0 or 9 were on the renban, you are left with 4 consecutive digits for box 1 (on the other end of 0 or 9: 0123 or 6789), and you can't choose 3 non consecutive ones for that 3 cell nabner. You also can't have box 1 be 0189 for the same reason ( no 3 digits work for that line). So it needed to be 1 digit on one side of the renban, and 3 on the other side. That combined with the region sum line logic gives you 0129, and at that point you can solve the entirety of box 1, same as Simon did.

[@jillyapple1]

18 minutes for me. Once I realized there were 6 unique but consecutive digits along the positive diagonal, I knew the negative diagonals were either 0129 or 0789. (It couldn't be 0189 because of the 3-cell yellow line). From there I looked at the longer blue line to realize it had to be 0129. If it had been 0789, the smallest it could sum to would be 15, which would force the 2 cells to be 69 which broke the puzzle. From there it flowed easily.

[@nicka3697]

Simon is a total genius!

[@A_CC_K]

Can't wait for season 3 of rat run. Can Friday always be a Marty Sears puzzle? The mixture of Marty's brilliant setting and Simon's amazing solving makes the video always a fantastic watch.

[@PauxloE]

53:13 "Have I done this puzzle in the most mad way ever?" - I don't think so. I tried to do coloring in the individual quadrants first, but didn't get anywhere (though quadrant 3 could be almost completely colored, with just one x-wing left, depending on the existence of zeros, and quadrant 4 also was mostly done). Only after ~ 85 minutes or so I figured out that there is a global restriction which digits go into which box, and thought initially I need in total 11 digits to actually fill it. Then I worked out the (2+[2)+2]+ 4=4 distribution, and the rest went similar as for you (though with some use of my previous coloring, but also some more detours). 133:48 in total for me, Solve counter 2047 (aka 1111 1111 111 in binary, nice).

[@matthewphillips5911]

That was wacky. I liked it. Somehow thought 12 was impossible on the region sum and got stuck for a bit (and for no good reason) trying to make 15 work.

[@AndreiFierbinteanu]

Haha, same. Totally forgot that you have to reuse some of the digits from box 3, so I got stuck on how can I make 12 work with just 678.

[@roseravus4908]

32:04 the pencilmarks made me think of an evil puzzle and not sure if it exists already. The idea would be to solve four different 4x4 or maybe bigger puzzles. But the two puzzles not sharing an edge, so green and green in this video, would use the same set of digits, and the other two puzzles would use a different set of digits. But the way they interact with one another is using normal sudoku rules, so the two green puzzles could see "ghost" versions of their digits on top the other puzzles and vice versa. Instead of it just being two puzzles overlayed on top of one another there's an extra problem of having to figure out which one is the "ghost" digit and which one is "real" (for sudoku grid solving purposes). But there should be another way they interact with one another, just can't think of it, and a way to detect which are "ghosts". I don't think it's even possible in sudokupad, or it'd be extremely annoying having to remember the ghost digits because we can't pencilmark in a cell with a solved digit

[@TheNikoado]

I feel like this puzzle is a "window" into Marty's brain... "Classic Marty" indeed ;) This must be a record on how many times you broke Simon's brain in one puzzle!

[@martysears]

I can only apologise :D

[@Waggles1123]

I followed a similar solution path, but I got more done in the bottom left 4x4 first. I started by marking the renban with ABCDEF, noting they all had to be different, and found the same thing you did: they had 2 digits in common and 2 digits unique to each. Given that, I was able to roughly pencil mark the bottom left box as ABCY, where Y is a digit from DEF, and the top right with DEFX, where X is a digit from ABC. I got most of the box marked out, then found similar to you that I could only make the bottom left box work if I gave up the digits 0,1,2,9 to the other two boxes. Then, the bottom left box quickly collapsed (since you couldn't use a 0, the region sum lines cleaned up nicely, and you get pressure from the long one to set your digits to 3, 4, 5, 7), and because I tracked which digit was my "X" digit, I knew that digit had to appear in the top right box as well, which made short work of that one.

[@upthorn]

45 minutes in, worked out that the german whispers produced an imbalance in quadrant 4, and therefore the renban couldn't have 0 or 9 (and therefore must have 3 and 6), and had fully colored quadrant 2, and half-colored quadrant 3, and my brain ground to a halt and I couldn't figure out where to look next without watching the video until Simon proved that both quadrant 2 and 3s digits could only come from the renban *AND* that the region sum lines had to be the composition if they didn't *AND* that the polarity imbalance in quadrants 1&3 had to favor low in order to avoid breaking the other region sum

[@Green9Monkey]

Just finished, in 28 mins 57 seconds. Some quite unique ideas, but all very logical.

[@seancrowley7520]

I saw that green line in row one, and thought of it as yellow, because of the blue quadrant shading making a yellow line look green...

[@aymanoreaj1304]

Every time i see a marty puzzle i say to myself 'there can't be a puzzle more brilliant than this' But i always realize how wrong i was when i see the next marty puzzle. That was amazing ❤❤

[@martysears]

💜 how lovely

[@sandramangano6391]

Oh Simon, how can you be such a... genius 😊

[@HunterJE]

There's some clever ping-pong available with the renban and the whisper-once you note that 0 and 9 must be in green, suddenly the renban is six digits chosen not from 0-9 but from 1-8, which means you can add 3 and 6 to the digits which must appear on it

[@Pointlesschan]

I saw that, also, but I can’t solve these by any means

[@serkles8597]

If Simon is stupid, I'm a sea anemone. Love your videos!

[@highpath4776]

Neat forcing the mini suduko puzzles that had very little interaction with each other - just enough to make the deductions and completions. The green boxes also managed not to rope or repeat orders other than two row/colums and even they were not in the same order as such ( a couple of ups = a couple of left readings I think) which is probably the min you can do of arranging such digits

[@no_name4796]

8:02 7 casually getting eaten by nine

[@bluerizlagirl]

Whatever 4 digits you used in the top left quadrant could not be repeated in the bottom left and top right quadrants. But the 6-cell Renban spanning those quadrants forces them to contain _all six_ of those other digits (and the German Whisper says both extremes must be in the top right quadrant). 012345 and 456789 would break the German Whispers in the bottom right quadrant, which now has to contain the same four digits as the top left quadrant; so we need only consider 123456, 234567 and 345678. The 3-cell Nabner line says those digits cannot be 0189, and the long Region Sum line says which of the remaining partitionings is correct.

[@aurayadewitt5301]

"Marty is trolling me with this!" - ^^ you are trolling yourself!

[@krisdelacourt3977]

great breakin, equally great breakdown :)

[@Sinisest1121]

In beginning Simon finds out that renban must have 4 and 5 so this means that sudoku 4 where is majority of german whisper cant have 4 and 5 because if 4 or 5 appear in smal sudoku then it removes from neighbour sudoku. So majority of german whisper still regular secrets work.

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

The *green line* has been powered down 😩. I bet there will be a *0-5-0* sequence❗ Fascinating challenge 😏👍

[@KayKay-sz6yz]

Mom! Marty broke Simon again! 😂

[@titusadduxas]

1:26:37 - After an hour my first digit was WRONG. So I re-read the rules and realised 0s were involved! Amazing construction though and very challenging.

[@gdc42]

I solved this one a few days ago. Very neat ideas and not too difficult after the first big step.

[@anwyl42]

this puzzle follows an odd rule that in each quadrant, the order of digits in the rows are always the same (forward or backward, with wraparound). Columns DON'T follow this rule.

[@simsplayer9952]

I think the hardest part of this puzzle was figuring out the dights for each quadrant.

[@martysears]

I would 100% agree. that's really the crux of the puzzle, after that it just fills in

[@jammenjammenz4965]

Simon "I think I know something".

[@slamcatX2]

Sudokuman!!😂

[@piarittersporn]

Great puzzle with a very difficult start.

[@gregind01]

"Marty you're so evil" 🤣

[@martysears]

😈

[@LithmusEarth]

2:37 Probably not 62, as 59 people have solved the 18th one, so maximum 59 people but even then I'm sure some people bounced around, if I had to guess it's still higher than 50 maybe close to 55? 27:00 "A Complete Digression that has taken me nowhere [because of the possibility of zero]." Oh Simon. you got this, you got the split grid how numbers at least overlap 4-set double & 6-set between 2. 30:00 You've just shrunk the pink line now, if no 0s or 9s, it now requires 3s and 6s as well. 3456 and can either be 12, 27, 78 as the additional digits. 40:00 the work between big box 4 and big box 1, oh such slick work all around, now coming into big box 3. 50:00 The Elegance.

[@Sinisest1121]

I think alternative solving path was. If you place on renban 0 or 9 then you break german whisper line as you remove all low or high digits. So renban must have now 3456. In sudoku 1 we know that there is 3 different nabner line digits so we know any renban digits cant be there so we have only two options 0129 or 0789. But 2nd option is broken as without 789 there is no way to satisfy that region sum line so it must be 0129. And we know that same combination is also in sudoku 4. with region sums we can find out sum in sudoku 1 max is only 12 and in sudoku 3 min sum is also 12. That knowledge lead us sudoku 3 must have 345 and one higher digit from 678. By sudoku we know where are all 4 locations of that higher digit so german whisper line helps us to reveal that higher digit is 7. And now we know that sudoku 2 must have 6 and 8 and one from 345 to get renban working. This mean short german whisper line must have 38 pair. And now we know two digit sum must be 48 so we know that sudoku 2 digits are 3468. This was like my solving path with time 45:44

[@RobertWelsh-j3u]

Completely counter-intuitive that a german whisper wandering through a box switching polarity would produce a box with an imbalance of high and low digits.

[@lexihopes]

I don't think it really switches polarity the way it can on dutch whispers? You just end up with a low set of 0-4 and a high set of 5-9 and you still have to alternate.

[@alanclarke4646]

Wow. I did it in half Simon's time!

[@SekaReal]

Hello. Great solve. I was wondering if theres a chance you would try World BIggest Sudoku by Green Code? I know it's probably terrible and will take really long time. But just looking at it is difficult

[@exa2993]

I solved this puzzle by looking at top left 4x4 quadrant. It only works with 345678 or 123456, and must be 345678 to work with 2 digit blue line per Simon's logic

[@exa2993]

With 123456 or 345678 being the renban digits I mean

[@exa2993]

So I never used the dedication that top left and bottom right quadrants contain the same digits until I'd already worked out then jist of the top left quadrant

[@denisdodelin-m1e]

I don't know it happens, but I did it ! Now I need Simon explanation on how it works. Because "the botom right corner need 4 or 5 on the extremety of the renban for disambiguity" is not an acceptable logique ^⁠_⁠^

[@Hu...R-U2024]

46:37 - this is where Simon loses it.....!!!

[@martysears]

funniest reaction from simon ever!

[@Pointlesschan]

I saw the implication of that nabner just a few seconds before Simon but it didn’t break me as I see so few things in these puzzles normally

[@evanw5572]

Lol, you really wanted to avoid those German whisper and Nabner lines.

[@Vorash00]

10:43 definitely, I think