One Of The Best Debuts Ever

[@sophiarobinson6263]

I still can't believe you did my puzzle. All of my variant sudoku knowledge comes from watching this channel for the last few years. You guys made my month. - Sophia

[@maxstunner100]

Kudos. Top 10 sudoku of all time.

[@10bd1]

Awesome puzzle!

[@bradcalladine]

I think this puzzle was amazing thank you. So happy I actually solved it.. took me all day though

[@EricMill]

I just left a comment on LM saying this, but I think this is the most satisfying puzzle I've managed to solve on my own. Very hard but very fair and just wild how it unfolds. Fantastic debut!

[@Tony_Regime]

amazing construction and a wonderful logical path to solve it

[@martysears]

Sophmayrob, this was a masterpiece. I have no idea how you ever thought that would be possible, enough to give it a try constructing it. Loved the fact that half the arrows contained repeated digits, the other half didn't. One of each for each of the totals 6, 7, 8 and 9. Ideal from a variety and elegance perspective. As Simon said, even the selection of the grey dots as disambiguators was a perfect choice, each one having slightly different logic and consequences. Absolutely deserving of the praise its getting, and I'm sure we'll be seeing loads more good stuff from you

[@Kelters]

Simon asks "How did the sophmayrob construct this?" -- They probably thought "How can I force Simon to Goodliffe a whole Sudoku grid?"

[@clcovill]

I'm so glad you guys did this puzzle!!! I had the good fortune of testing it for Sophia before she posted it and was delighted by it the whole way through. So many great moments in the solve. It makes me feel better about how long I took on it knowing some of the testers couldn't get it 😅 I stared at it for so long before it finally clicked, and it was so smooth the rest of the way!

[@xOscarAx]

im gonna start a petition for simon to release the puzzles he couldnt finish. i think it would be a very interesting video (if he has ever failed at all)

[@nathanmays7926]

I would join the patreon just for that

[@virginvalleyhighschooljazz864]

I actually asked that on the discord and got a response that I 100% agree with. First, they're not sure the effect on the setters on this list, and are worried about setters begin upset they weren't featured. The second (and more important) reason was that they often feel imposter syndrome (yes I agree that's silly, they're amazing, but that's why it's a syndrome) reading the comments about all the logic they missed during their solve and don't want people solving those puzzles and saying, "it wasn't that bad you just do x, y, and z." I am fully in support of Simon and Mark safeguarding their mental health. I would like them to keep doing this for years :)

[@RaceMasterDave]

For those talking about the choice of colours all the time : If you have the colour panel open - ALT+click a colour and you can make it whatever you want. That way you can select your own 9 colours without having to switch between panels.

[@killroy42]

So we finally know who to blame for the colors!!!

[@Alex_Meadows]

Thanks for that! I've just changed "rubbish green" (which Simon refers to as "light green") to "proper green" ("florescent green").

[@TheClawNinja]

Thanks! I didn't like the grays :)

[@PavelB123]

The defaults seem bad. I need one more unique color for the solve but I am stuck trying to figure out if this shade of green is different enough from the one on the other page that I already used. The design seems to have confused the requirements of allowing more than 9 colors to aid a solve with allowing different colors for aesthetics. A better way to solve both design problems is to have pre-defined sets of colors (more than 9) that are chosen to be visually distinct (solve the functional issue), and let users chose between these (solve the aesthetics issue). Fully customizable palates are nice but feeling forced to make your own is not ideal.

[@pjbrady47]

Specifically, it seems like it's Left-Alt. Wouldn't work for me with the Right-Alt (which is sometimes mapped differently in European keyboards).

[@Emmibean77]

Phenomenal! Simply phenomenal. Bravo Simon, and bravo sophmayrob! I cannot wait to see what comes next after such a beautiful debut

[@l3igl2eaper]

At the end of the solve, I found a rather elegant finisher. If you look at the Red and Yellow circles in Box 5, you can see that they add up to 3 Light Green + 3 Grey. That is a mod3 sum! The only valid sum would be 15. Then Box 9 tells us that they are consecutive and the puzzle finishes nicely!

[@maddestmonarch]

I've finished in a similar, but slightly different way. Once we deduce (blue + orange) = (light green + grey), it's obvious both sides of the equation is 5. Then I looked at the red and yellow arrows in boxes 1 and 4, and found their sum = (blue + orange) + 2 x (light green + grey). Then I use box 9 the same way as you, and it's done.

[@maddestmonarch]

Your solution is much more elegant indeed :)

[@hatterson]

At the end I think the most elegant disambiguation is to rely on the dots for purple yellow and red. Based on the dot in the bottom right we know that yellow and red are consecutive since none of 6789 can be in a 1:2 ration with others. Based on the dot in the top left we know that purple is consecutive with either red or yellow. In sum that means purple, red, and yellow are a set of 3 consecutive digits. It may be purple-red-yellow, or purple-yellow-red, or red-yellow-purple, or yellow-red-purple, but in all cases it's 3 digits in a row. Knowing those three are consecutive tells you that green cannot be either 7 or 8 as that would leave no possible 3 number sequences, thus must be extreme (ie 6 or 9) Combine that with the deduction on the green arrow in the bottom left and you can determine that green is 9. That then gives you orange as 4 and blue as 1 (as 3-3 would force blue to also be a 3 which causes multiple issues). From there the rest of the puzzle generally results without much hassle.

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 08:27 Let's Get Cracking: 11:34 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Three In the Corner: 2x (1:18:22, 1:18:26) Bobbins: 1x (56:35) Maverick: 1x (18:34) The Secret: 1x (03:28) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Ah: 29x (20:43, 21:42, 22:21, 22:27, 33:32, 38:49, 42:58, 48:29, 48:29, 48:39, 52:00, 56:35, 59:45, 1:01:05, 1:03:18, 1:07:38, 1:12:06, 1:12:57, 1:13:02, 1:13:56, 1:17:07, 1:19:03, 1:22:07, 1:22:49, 1:23:08, 1:25:02, 1:27:16, 1:27:51, 1:29:48) Hang On: 19x (31:01, 31:03, 31:16, 34:54, 36:48, 46:54, 46:57, 52:00, 55:40, 56:01, 56:01, 57:54, 1:02:26, 1:16:09, 1:16:57, 1:24:03, 1:24:20, 1:24:25, 1:30:50) Symmetry: 15x (11:24, 11:38, 12:14, 12:31, 14:34, 18:45, 22:16, 40:43, 45:25, 51:34, 52:41, 59:20, 1:02:07, 1:02:12, 1:16:14) By Sudoku: 11x (21:21, 22:09, 55:22, 58:05, 1:07:27, 1:09:36, 1:15:05, 1:15:08, 1:15:10, 1:15:13, 1:15:32) Sorry: 10x (04:01, 04:01, 05:54, 21:38, 26:56, 27:24, 28:49, 35:49, 1:07:25, 1:21:22) What on Earth: 4x (17:13, 17:20, 17:27, 26:39) Beautiful: 4x (06:25, 55:10, 56:27, 58:26) Brilliant: 4x (05:06, 1:01:45, 1:01:47, 1:01:51) Obviously: 4x (12:58, 35:19, 1:08:20, 1:26:43) Cake!: 4x (03:51, 03:54, 05:07, 06:37) Goodness: 3x (48:52, 55:15, 1:19:55) Out of Nowhere: 3x (1:00:14, 1:28:45, 1:30:47) First Digit: 3x (51:43, 51:55, 54:40) In Fact: 3x (33:04, 45:22, 50:30) Lovely: 2x (06:47, 1:31:13) Famous Last Words: 2x (1:17:33, 1:21:41) Magnificent: 2x (1:28:12, 1:31:37) Unbelievable: 2x (1:28:12, 1:28:15) Progress: 2x (56:47, 1:09:16) Wow: 2x (1:07:12, 1:08:44) That's Huge: 2x (1:01:54, 1:03:10) Nature: 2x (1:08:25, 1:15:49) Good Grief: 1x (48:11) Useless: 1x (21:56) Clever: 1x (1:28:28) Naughty: 1x (24:20) In the Spotlight: 1x (1:30:20) I Have no Clue: 1x (1:07:12) Extraordinary: 1x (25:08) Come on Simon: 1x (54:28) Alacrity: 1x (34:59) Stunning: 1x (1:32:19) Corollary: 1x (23:23) Intriguing: 1x (00:26) Let's Take Stock: 1x (1:18:32) What Does This Mean?: 1x (53:01) Unique: 1x (25:11) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Eleven (8 mentions) One (165 mentions) Green (91 mentions) Antithesis Battles: High (10) - Low (6) Even (11) - Odd (1) Black (8) - White (2) Row (41) - Column (37) 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!

[@LukeArthurBates]

This is special. You get a sense of excitement from how enjoyably challenging this is all the way to the end. Congratulations on making a great solve Simon and for the debutant to show us what their capable of in future. More please! 😁

[@haniapopowska8966]

They're :)

[@raywhite5068]

1:01:58 before Simon gets to place a digit, that’s a simply beautiful puzzle

[@johnpauladamovsky86]

FULL-STOP - This puzzle is a work of art. Great showcase of what can only be a form of divine-inspiration. Puzzles like this one don't just happen by accident. Good luck for Sophmayrob trying to compose a better puzzle on his second attempt... He's gonna need it.

[@ngarrett16]

*she :)

[@coreydixon9713]

This was so much fun to solve! I love these puzzles that are basically 4 puzzles in one with such clear stages. You almost feel like you “advance to the next round” after each breakthrough.

[@coreydixon9713]

Also - I really had to commit to this one. Took me about 4 hours (in hour long sessions with breaks). I’m so glad I stuck with it.

[@matteopascoli]

The way the mathematical and geometrical constraints are intertwined and work until the very end is pure genius.

[@maspleben]

Yes that setup was absolutely otherworldly, bonkers, completely bonkers. And a debut puzzle with that? That is phenomenal. Some people are just passed another stage of evolution. Congratulations

[@18Wolves77]

Debut for the channel, maspleben... not the first ever sudoku they created

[@66Morti66]

Towards the end of the puzzle you can also have a look at the grey dots in box 1 and 9. We know that yellow and red are consecutive, but so is either red/yellow with purple. As they are all from 6,7,8,9, these 3 have to contain 7 and 8. -> dark green can not be 7 or 8 and has thus got to be 9 (as orange is 3 or 4). Finish from here :)

[@jayforty9824]

Amazing puzzle! It struck a special chord with me as well, since it reminded me of my own debut puzzle but with great DIY logic added to it. Very well done sophmayrob!

[@gregwilliamson1498]

Amber called me a nerd for emailing! Victory! Thank you, Simon.

[@kalli-ope]

An easier way of thinking about the green 789 arrows (at around 1:25:00 in the video) is adding them both up and looking at their total: The arrow digits are: (1 set of 1, 2, 3, 4) = 10, plus double orange, which is either 6 (if orange is 3) or 8 (if orange is 4). So, the total of the arrow digits is either 16 or 18, which has to be either 2x8 or 2x9 in the arrow bulbs, which need to be the same number. This eliminates 7 as a possible solution for dark green.

[@GrantMcLean]

An even simpler way is that the 4th low cell in box 3 (on the other arrow) has already been narrowed down to 1 or 2. So the top right arrow is either missing a 1 in which case its total is 9 or it's missing a 2 in which case its total is 8. So neither 6 nor 7 are possible.

[@badrunna-im]

42:35. Simon's last step(s) is something I did fairly early, once I found out there had to be repeats on the yellow and red arrows. From the kropki, a 9 forces an 8, totalling 17, which makes the leftover arrow for yellow in box 6 a 34 pair with another 3 or 4 in box 9, which breaks the arrow. A 6 does the same with 7 and 12s, which leaves yellow/red to be 78. One of the last things I filled in were the X-wing 5s.

[@ApesAmongUs]

Once you know that red and yellow are consecutive and purple is consecutive with either red or yellow, you know those 3 are a set of 3 consecutive; therefore, green is an extreme digit (of the 4 high), so you can limit it to 6 or 9.

[@JuriaanPeet]

Simon always finds a hard way to get there!

[@Mephistahpheles]

@1:28 An easier way to get green: Yellow & Red are consecutive (by the bottom right dot). Purple & 1 of those are consecutive (by the top left dot). So all 3 form a sequence. Green can only be 6 or 9....and 6 was already ruled out.

[@tedg1278]

At 1:26:00, the much shorter way to eliminate 7 from dark green is to look at the purple arrow from box 5. The dark green from box 5 would 3+3+1 on the arrow cells to make 7 and the matched colors would for purple would then be 1+1+3=5. Right out.

[@khoozu7802]

The same as eliminating 8 from purple arrow. If purple arrow in box 5=2+2+4=8, it will make green arrow in box 5=2+4+4=10

[@danielepicone1480]

One of the best puzzles on this channel. Everything is so damn tight and every single bit of information is crucial to reach the end. Absolutely stellar.

[@tezcharold]

If someone told me this was Phistomefel it wouldn't have surprised me. That's amazing for a debut.

[@serpentfrog7211]

I believe it was possible to derive the identity of green sooner as there was an effective renban of the other high digits between the upper left and bottom right dots such that once you had the colours and eliminated 6 from green it had to be the remaining extreme digit in its range.

[@tehbertl7926]

Yeah, when Simon finishes the colouring of the high digits, the yellow, red, and purple digits effectively are three consecutive digits because of the two dots in boxes 1 and 9. This means that the dark green digit is the leftover digit which is always an extreme, either 6 or 9. Green can't be 6, however, because of box 3. The low digit on the grey dot would have to become a 3, meaning it would be paired with a 6, but that would put another 6 in row 2!

[@Limepopsicle07]

I like your funny words magic man

[@RyanAtOptimism]

Yes! I was "shouting at the screen" about this!

[@snowfloofcathug]

@@Limepopsicle07Yellow and red were consecutive, and purple was consecutive with one of them (a “renban”) That means that green can’t be 7 or 8 because if it was: one of yellow, red, or purple would be disconnected from the others, (either a lone 6 or a lone 9) meaning green had to be “extreme”, i.e. 6 or 9

[@RitaOra666]

Yeah red/yellow are consecutive so if either is 9, the other is 8, and since pink has to be consecutive with red/yellow it would be 7, breaking the green 789

[@馬善萄]

I've struggled through it for about 80 minutes. I'm still proud of myself for this record.

[@GregJonson]

I've got a concept idea: Debut . I think it'd be neat if you dedicated one day each week to promoting new setters.

[@crhodgkin]

I absolutely LOVE this idea!

[@VBinNV]

Tuesday=NEWsDAY

[@Raven-Creations]

That was a tough one. A magnificent puzzle, very nice setting, with the subtle geometric constraints playing with the anti-knight rule. I used colours for highs, and letters for lows. This kept the grid relatively easy to scan. Other than that, my solve was almost the same as yours. @ 1:23:02 - if you look at the arrow digits dipping into boxes 3 and 7, you can make progress. In box 3, there's a 12, so the other arrow is either 134 or 234, i.e. 8 or 9. In box 7, you have a 34 dipping in, so the other arrow is either 124 or 123, i.e. 6 or 7. Applying this to the other cells of the same colour reveals enough insights to complete the puzzle. This was much easier logic than your equation, and gave more information.

[@willfancher9775]

At 1:08:30, I was thinking that Simon should have looked to the grey dot in the top left. What can purple be at this point? Well the red/yellow pair above it is already consecutive, and purple can't be double or half red or yellow, so it must be consecutive as well. This puts purple on a 3 cell renban with red and yellow. The important bit is... what does that mean for green? If all the other 6789 cells are a 3 cell renban, that means green can only be 6 or 9. Haven't finished the video yet, so I'm not sure if he realizes this later, but I peeked ahead and near the end he's got a green cell down to 789, so clearly it would have been helpful :P EDIT: Lol he figures out 20mins later that green is 9 through a completely different way. Nice.

[@altreusplays]

This is perhaps the most enthralling solve so far! Mad kudos to sophmayrob!

[@Zer0ji]

55:22 - so proud :D I figured out the opening constraints quickly, but then it's been a slow moving journey of small deductions and large loops around the grid, without ever feeling completely stuck - a very satisfying hour-long puzzle!

[@mstmar]

I found some really beautiful pieces of logic that helped me break in that simon missed. starting at 23:00 we can ask: can r5c2 be on an arrow? if it is, then the rest of the arrow is stuck in box 4, so then we can ask which arrow is it? it's not yellow nor red, because they are the only arrows that can reach box 1 (without crossing r5c3 which simon pointed out later on can only be a 6789 and so not an arrow), and we need 4 cells in box 1, so if one of the 2 are entirely in box 4, they can't contribute any cells to box 1. it can't be green nor purple for essentially the same reason (except with box 7). this means that the only cell that can contain a 1234 in row 5 are in cols 1469

[@Phrancko]

What an incredible puzzle. And such a BEAUTIFUL solve, Simon. I enjoyed every minute of it.

[@kwilson5832]

Vey impressive constructing and solving. There were a couple of deductions that I made quicker than Simon did (although some of my other 'deductions' were incorrect!). I particularly liked Simon's explanation for restricting the values of the low value cells at 1:26:02 - I'm not sure that I ever would have thought of that. Thank you Sophia and Simon!

[@crystalgehrt8861]

This puzzle is absolutely sick! It was a joy to solve and I felt pretty accomplished when I managed it. Congrats on your debut.

[@davidrattner9]

Amazing and sublime debut. Fabulous setting!! Wonderful solve from you Simon!! Phenomenal and outstanding deductions and logic you used!

[@markp7262]

52:06 finish. One of the tricks that helped push me along was by extending the color coding for the 6789s to columns 3 and 7. As I continued, I would eliminate colors from the cells, and any colorless cells would have to be either low or 5. I also used lines for the potential arrows when it was down to two options, and used that to count low cells in rows. Fun puzzle!

[@tonyawright6020]

It's so interesting how Simon's logic works things out differently than I did. I felt so clever figuring out that since all four of the low digits were doubled on an arrow, but the double digit was matched with the same opposite color, that meant the double 4 had to be matched with a 1 and the double 1 was matched with a 4. Which made the large digits in the center box were a diagonal 69 pair and a 78 pair, and the consecutive pair in the corner of box 9 told you which way around that set of diagonal pairs was. Not sure if my explanation makes sense, but that's how I narrowed down the digits, but Simon used a completely different method to narrow them down.

[@RichSmith77]

That's clever. My logic was closer to Simon's, but I like your way.

[@oneeyedman4431]

Another amazing construction and Simon solve. I didn’t think it possible but this channel just gets better and better, can’t wait to see what comes next ❤

[@samplename5159]

It's truly amazing, it's exactly the sort of puzzle i like to appreciate twice - once on my own, once with Simon :) Noting the property of r5c3 and r5c7 gave me some extra speed, and at the end you can combine two consecutive dots to narrow three colors involved into either 678 or 789 making the last one 6 or 9 (and it could not be 6 at that point already) - i think that's the only deduction that was missed / worked around the long way.

[@titusadduxas]

2:48:05 - The big break through for me was realising that R5C2 & R5C8 had to be high as that was the only way to get the arrows to reach the correct boxes. It took me over an hour to spot it though! Incredible puzzle.

[@RoderickEtheria]

35:57, this is about the point I asked about the other two low digits in r5. Where can they be, with full knowledge that whatever arrows get into r5 must escape their boxes? And what cells are required for the r5 low digits to form arrows escaping their boxes? R5c1, r4c2, r3c3, r7c7, r6c8, and r5c9 must be low digits forming arrows.

[@Baritocity]

When I started thinking about the same question is when I realised "Oh, this puzzle setting is good."

[@PathOfShrines]

What a marvel! Each of the major breakthroughs was so much fun to find. I screwed up 50-some minutes into my solve --- probably a casualty of needing so many colors --- but it was actually quite easy to get back from an empty grid. 107:20 in the end, all-included.

[@karsaanita]

I loved this puzzle! Instead of one massive break-in, it had a lot of big ones. It was so much fun! My time was just over 2 hours.

[@angec9908]

I love how excited Simon gets when there’s a 3 in the corner and how disappointed he is when there’s not.

[@wanderlustwarrior]

I got about 40 minutes into the puzzle, and was happy with the progress I'd made, but couldn't shake that I was missing something that wasn't conveyed by the rules as written. So I looked at a brief part of the solve, and sure enough... The rules don't explicitly state that the arrows have to extend from the circle. Since we've had other puzzles with detached arrows before, I thought it was one of those, but it wasn't. I had a strong feeling that was what I was missing. Now I'm resuming my solve with that confirmation. Eventually I got it in 1:46:47

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 125:36 minutes. This was an absolutely incredible puzzle. These are the kinds of puzzles I love. The ones that feel impossible at first, until you think about the nature of the puzzle. When I had the thought that the minimum numbers I could put in, being 1234, added up to my max value, being 6789, in circles for one side was an incredible feeling. Then, a coloring puzzle started to emerge, which was so fun to do. I think my favorite part was realizing that r5c2&8 couldn't be 1234 due to the fact that each arrow had to go to the edge of the grid, so no stopping or detours were allowed there. This was incredible setting and for a debut, no less! The only gripe I have with this puzzle is the rule about the grey dots saying "or" in it. In my mind this ruled out 12 from ever existing, because it would be part of both and be an "and" part of the rule, violating the "or" line. That cost me about 20 minutes in the end as I had to rewind and see where I went wrong. Other than that, I had a fantastic time with this one. This has to be one of my favorites. Great Puzzle!

[@nickhall6165]

When the some of the testers can’t complete it, you know you’re in for a treat!

[@mahmoudabdelghany7112]

What a delight.. one of the best puzzles ever.. genius..

[@borisgrozev2289]

This was so good I just watched the whole video after solving it (it took me 2h). Simon used the same ideas with a lot less stumbling, but I enjoyed going through the logic again.

[@Orenotter]

I'll tell you a fact about me. A solver's what I used to be. I'd solve any arrow As quick as a sparrow. But then I took one to the knee.

[@barefootalien]

Absolute magical. Voodoo. Witchcraft. It was well beyond my current skills... I didn't even realize arrows could bend lol. But watching Simon do it was just breathtaking!

[@Bonehead777]

30 minutes in and the only thing I have worked out that Simon hasn’t is that r5c3 and r5c7 must both be 678 or 9. Ie not 1234 or 5. Not sure how that helps at this stage but limits central circles a bit. EDIT. YEP, it helps limit the patterns of central arrow groups of cells. Cool. EDIT AGAIN. Simon has noticed at 50 mins in 😁 EDIT AT END. what a puzzle that was. I long to be able to get close to creating something like that.

[@the29monkeys]

I quite enjoyed this one. Took a bit of a different tack, coloring high/low parity and using letters to pick out cells. That left me with a full alpha grid in short order, which of course was disambiguated through the kropki dots. So it ended in the same place after... too many minutes. Beautiful symmetry.

[@cjbarthvdm]

After coloring every cel, I tested R6-C6 and R7-C6 (yellow and red in Simons coloring). Their arrows have a lot of interaction. Both cels couldn't be 6 (and the other 7, being consecutive). This excluded 6 from R2C8. So R2C8 and R9C9 had to be 8s. Then the puzzle unfolded fast. Thanks for this marvelous puzzle!

[@fyshfysh]

this puzzle was brilliant and the solve was genuinely exciting. so clever

[@pjbrady47]

That was a fantastic puzzle. I made it as far as filling in possibilities in the central column of boxes but then I was lost. Great solve, Simon!

[@kgeiger61]

THis is a fantastic puzzle. I did it yesterday and then dreamed about it! Thinking of doing it again today!

[@JaymanOttawa]

An OUTSTANDING puzzle and solve! So great!

[@PavelB123]

Much easier finish at 1:21:46 by realizing 1+2+3+4=10. In box 3 blue is 1,2 therefore green is 10-1,2=8,9. In box 7 orange is 3,4 so pink is 10-3,4=6,7. Then like in the solve r9c8 cannot be 9 because then the green in r9c5 would have no fill so its 7, this makes pink 6 (and orange 4), and green 9 (and blue 1), and the rest is easy.

[@rebmcr]

Got the grid coloured no problem, then after several mistakes that lead on to incorrect totals, I finally disambiguated correctly by using rotational symmetry on the top-left and bottom-right red/yellow pairs to narrow the top-left blue consecutive digit.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

82:08 for me. I kept missing one of the steps for like half an hour, but in the end I'm just happy that I managed to solve it. Brutal puzzle!!

[@ukdavepianoman]

Absolutely incredible puzzle - it was tough. This was a very good solve by Simon. I used abcd lettering for high digits and efgh for low and got as far as about the 37:00 mark (and also had R5C37 as high) and then was completely stuck. Then having picked up Simon's deductions about where the arrows had to go, I was able to finish. I did get an "e" in the corner losing it's religion...

[@HunterJE]

1:05:19 Small deduction here - green is 6 or 9. This can be had because red and yellow are on a dot relationship at bottom right and so must be adjacent (since they can't be 1:2), and purple is on a dot with red or yellow so must be adjacent to one of them, which means there can't be anything in between any of those three...

[@HunterJE]

Actually maybe not so small, since it would have given a digit way earlier when 6 was eliminated from dark green

[@viodragon974]

This is indeed amazing all around. It is more than what I can handle but it is always a fun pleasure watching puzzles like this get solved. thought I knew how an arrow worked to only be proven wrong with that knights move. Great job.

[@MatthewDavis-hw4cq]

Simon went the long way round to deduce the 9s. from 1:20 to about 1:28:30 I was wondering when he would notice the bottom right and upper left dot both had to be consecutive, meaning yellow/red/purple must be 678 or 789, meaning green had to be 6 or 9, at the ends of the order, but was already known to not be 6...

[@sanabas1]

I did this in ~40 minutes, and as the video description says, it initially looks very approachable, then it's a bit of a brain-bender with some very interesting logic to get most of the arrows except for 4 dominoes that are arrow/5, but then I found it quite approachable again. Really enjoyed it, and thought it was probably 4 out of 5 for difficulty. I think Simon missed a key deduction that would have saved him 20 minutes or more... It's easiest to see @1:18:38, though I didn't have all the 5s resolved, as I'd only partially coloured the 1234s, enough to spot the following: Look at the yellow arrow starting in r6c6, it is 2 x gray + green, and the red arrow in r4c4, it is 2 x green + gray. And we know from r9c89 that red & yellow are consecutive. So what are the options for green & gray? 12, 13, 24, 34 all immediately break because one arrow will be 4, 5, 10 or 11. 14 breaks because it makes red & yellow 6 & 9. So green & gray must be a 23 pair, 223 & 233 on the arrows mean yellow/red are a 78 pair. Therefore r2c8 is 8, and the puzzle falls apart from there very quickly. The earlier section is also quicker if you use the knight's move constraint at the start to notice that r5c3 and r5c7 see all of 12345, and must be 6789, which blocks off the r4 arrows from reaching box 7/9, and the row 6 arrows from reaching box 1/3. That means r5c2 and r5c8 can't be on an arrow. Because if they are on an arrow, that arrow must be entirely within box 4 or 6, which is impossible. 2 arrows need to reach into box 1, and the only 2 that can start in r34c4. 2 arrows need to reach into box 7, and the only 2 that can start in r68c4. So none of the c4 arrows can be entirely within box 4, and similar logic for box 6. So that means r5c1 and r5c9 are the arrow cells, and both can only reach a single circle without breaking, meaning most of the arrows can be drawn in.

[@srwapo]

D'OH! I put a lot of time into this, kept hitting walls, peaked at the video a few times, and after over an hour saw that DIGITS CAN REPEAT ON THE ARROWS!

[@DivineDivan]

Brilliant debute and solving. One note: at the end of a solve, you can note that yellow and red and purple are all cosecutive, so they only can be 678 or 789, meaning that green can only be 6 or 9. But green is not 6, because of 32 orange cells on leftside green arrow.

[@Tapio_Tachyon]

Amazing puzzle! Too difficult for me to solve by myself, but enjoyed watching the video and following the logic!

[@Darkstar2342]

I was actually wondering a few days ago if it would be possible to have a puzzle that you had to start solving by coloring all cells, and only then putting in digits. This is probably as close as you can get to that. You get the 5s pretty early but all other digits require you to (almost) completely color the grid. Awesome puzzle!

[@TheClawNinja]

Brilliant puzzle, brilliant solve. Very fun to watch!

[@Kinada]

Very cool puzzle. I got through it in about an hour and a half and given the length of the video that's really good for me.

[@sunnovah]

At 49:52, is there a reason the blue line couldn’t have ended up in r5c2? All of the logic of this puzzle completion was built off of this being r5c1, and I wonder if it can be solved in two ways, or if something would have invalidated that solve.

[@sunnovah]

I think I figured out why. C1 and c9 must also have 1-4, so each arrow must extend into those columns.

[@carlfoster4309]

Took me 174 minutes but was such an enjoyable solve. Absolutely incredible to set this. Symmetry was interesting as the disambiguation was challenging as well. The knowledge for the arrows to only be 1234 was the key but its amazing how that could then steer the entire puzzle.

[@GrifterMage]

The way I finished was noting that red/yellow/purple had to be three consecutive numbers to make the dots work, so dark green had to be either 6 or 9. 6 isn't possible because of the double-orange arrow, so it had to be 9, and it cascades from there.

[@elaadt]

I can't tell which is more genius, the construction or the solve. Kudos to both of you. P.S. @Simon, I believe that green in the corner deserved a song.

[@wokkawicca]

I can't believe anything about this puzzle--that someone could think it up, that it's a debut, or that I actually managed to solve it (eventually). A standout even by C2C standards, which is really saying something.

[@nickellis999]

Such an elegant puzzle. Congratulations!

[@alexbarber1566]

I Hit a massive stumbling block when i lettered the 1-4 digits to deduce their flavour around the grid and came across the repeated digits on a line, thought i had made a mistake somwhere recently however the mistake was an VERY FIRST assumption that numbers dont repeat on a line which was the brain tricked into seeing elegance I didn't even realise I hadn't logically deduced it. This is where Simon is very good he proves things over and over, no assumptions!

[@alexbarber1566]

PS bravo, very cool puzzle. Took me 271 minutes! I didn't pause the timer on breaks though

[@MarkLudwick]

The way I disambiguated things at the end was noticing that the red and yellow arrows are composed of 3 limes and 3 grays. The red and yellow digits must therefore sum to a multiple of 3 while also being consecutive - i.e. a 7/8 pair.

[@Wampoe]

Start to finish, what a lovely puzzle! Did it in 69 minutes without any help. Very original with deducable but hard logic in it

[@elainedenning]

At 51:22, why couldn't the blue line go into R5C2, instead of R5C1?

[@Sleuth2786]

I’m also struggling to see the answer to this. Every other comment discussing this point proves that the green arrow can’t take r5c2, but no one has explained why the red arrow can’t. It’s very frustrating.

[@myermian]

I don't think Simon explains it, but it is correct. Each of the 6789 will move into C3/C7, which accounts for all of the 1234s available in those columns. Now there are no more cells available in C3/C7 for arrows to expand into, so each of the 6789 is forced to move into a cell in C2/C8, which accounts for all the 1234s available in those columns. Finally, the 6789 have to take one additional cell each and the only option is to move into a cell in C1/C9 for their final cell.

[@afanofosc]

Much earlier (15:16) he explains his deduction about how arrows have to move and cannot take 2 cells in any column. The 4 arrows each take 3 cells. That's 4 cells in column 3, 4 cells in column 2, and 4 cells in column 1. If any arrow took more than 1 cell in any column then you would need to use more than the digits 1234 in the "extra" cell in that column. If you add digits greater than 4 onto any of the arrows then the total breaks the 30 allowed by the circles in column 4 maxed out at 6789.

[@livedandletdie]

56 minutes to solve. Finding the arrows was a bit tricky, but I must say for a puzzle where the only real trick is anti-knight. The most important insight was that you need to take 4 cells in each box with arrows and that limits the regions in which the arrows can reach, which forces certain arrows into patterns. And I must say that once one has that done, one can find out where the 5,6,7,8,9 goes within the boxes, and by deducing them 1,2,3,4 can be place, then it's basically a coloring puzzle, then you just need to take notice of how r1c1 and r1c2 and r2c1 are consecutive and you'll know that the arrow r6c4 cannot add up to 7 or 8, and since it has a minimum value of 7 it must be 9, thus making the r1c1 r1c2 and r2c1 a 6,7,8 triple. And due it's nature r2c1 becomes a 6 because it's the opposite to r6c4, thus giving us the order of all other cells and easy to write in the correct entries into each cell. It is truly a wonderful puzzle, and sophmayrob should give themself a big pat on the shoulder, because that's a job well done, that was the most enjoyable hour of a puzzle I have solved in a long time.

[@susanollington5257]

Love how Simon came out with hot takes on both astrology and bananas in one day lol

[@aevans1645]

50:27 skip to the point he finally notices the boxes in the central row 😂 much love

[@DanielMorris1]

Magical. Loved it.

[@derekrocco4344]

50:20 for me on this one. An incredible debut with an elegant solution path!

[@doncook4097]

Remarkable puzzle. Is there time to put it in the book. The lines had me stubbed until I realize they couldn’t move in a vertical direction- only horizontal and diagonally

[@jakuba.tesinsky9446]

The ending (after coloring) can be SIMPIFIED substantialy: yellow, red and violet are consecutive (because of r9c89 and r12c1), so the remaining color - green can only be 6 of 9. It is easy to rule out 6 (left green arrow) , so it is 9.

[@Vebulle]

Wow ! Nice debut indeed !

[@francescof3267]

SPOILER: You know it’s quite a special puzzle if it takes him 01:01:54 to place the first digit !!!

[@ymiros0953]

This was one of the rare cases where I skipped ahead. As much as I love listening to Simon's explanations I had figured out the line configuration Simon finds at 50:00 at minute 25 (though I was unable to continue from there) and it didn't seem like he actually made any progress outside of that in the meantime.

[@martinbull-gundersen8878]

Amazing construction! Very fun solve to watch as well. Thanks :-)

[@bait6652]

Wow very powerful letter/colour solve w equally dubious digit/letter map. Thought i was going at a good pace till made a bad assumption of a rule. Second mistake was not using simult. The sudoku constraints i had in place...if not for those 2 this would have been very enjoyable solve This design reminded me of the game jezzball protecting ur lows from being walled in by ur highs

[@Wyldina]

The wording in the rules about the gray dot technically exclude 1-2 pairs, since they are not either consecutive or doubled, but both! :O I haven't finished the video, so I don't know if this can/will be an issue!

[@RichSmith77]

English is flexible enough to allow "or" to be either an inclusive "or" (allowing both to be true) or an exclusive "or" (only one can be true). In this case, it can be taken as an inclusive "or" and 1-2 partnerships on grey dots are permitted.

[@Wyldina]

@@RichSmith77 I could see in the video that it had to be an inclusive or :) But I'm only being pedantic for the fun of it. ;)

[@RichSmith77]

@@Wyldina I've now read a number of other comments, and see others have made a similar point. I admit, I was overlooking the "either" part of the wording. "Either ... or ..." does suggest an exclusive or.

[@hamishwatt2475]

@@RichSmith77 I was wondering if towards the end of the solve the wording of the rules implying an exclusive or would rule out a 12 pair from the dot in box 7. That would be an extremely brutal deduction to have to make.

[@khoozu7802]

If u have learned math, u will know A and B mean A intersect B, A or B mean A union B

[@emilydaddona6329]

Just wanted to let you know that at least for this video, the outro has the recommended video and links to the channel in the wrong spot. There's a huge empty space on the left and the video and channel links block the social media handles and the "Please subscribe" text

[@windybeach2184]

I don’t know if I’m proud or disappointed that I found the 5 in box 1 through an elaborate Y-wing. Simon’s way at 1:01:55 was much simpler!