Phistomefel Told Us To Do This!

[@ypkoval]

"This digit would have had to have already been a four" This is how you learn the proper English grammar.

[@David_K_Booth]

Pluperfect subjunctive, I think.

[@hisham_hm]

This is the kind of thing we have specific words for in Romance languages: "esse dígito teria que já ter sido um 4" -- it gets unwieldy in Germanic grammar with so many composite verb forms! (Of course, memorizing the verb tables of Romance languages are a small nightmare for non-native speakers...)

[@koenth2359]

​​​@@hisham_hmDiese Nummer hätte bereits ein Vier sein sollen. (I think, not native in German). Dutch: Dit cijfer zou al een vier hebben moeten zijn.

[@gandalf_le_rouge]

@@hisham_hmIn french we would say something like "Il aurait fallu que ce chiffre ait déjà été un 4 auparavant". That's pretty heavy as a formulation.

[@TockProductions]

How about "The old man the boats." 😆

[@bobblebardsley]

Cute rule set. Can someone please make a follow-up about a flea escaping a church via r1c9, so Simon can sing "that's Flea in the corner, that's Flea in the top-right, losing its religion". Many thanks in advance.

[@chris5619]

Omg how has Simon never sang "that's three in the top right" before?!

[@SpyrosSolda]

A flea would require a red hot chili peppers song 😁

[@bobblebardsley]

@@SpyrosSolda 😂

[@jamesb7906]

@@SpyrosSoldahe was a little Spanish flea 🎶

[@WereDictionary]

That would be the most Simon sudoku ever.

[@specialkalberta]

The best part was when Simon said "We've found the path!". I felt proud until I realized I didn't have anything to do with finding it.

[@KevFrost]

"If Phistomphel told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?" "If Phistomophel did, it would be a 4 dimensional cliff where gravity is a lie every third second."

[@columbus8myhw]

I think CodeParade recently released a game somewhat like that...

[@EelcoWind]

I buzzed right through it. IcyFruit is a gnatural Sudoku setter. The main issue I have that it's bugging me that I can not come up with more silly puns on the fly.

[@BedWords_]

not bad for just winging it ;) okay i'll buzz off now

[@buster2256]

I don't quite understand how the 1:2 kropki in c9 got sorted out at 36:20. Couldn't it have the 2 below the 1? What am I missing? Edit: Nevermind. Saw another comment asking the same question. I too overlooked the no fly zone on the kropki itself.

[@jeltzz]

This was a great puzzle. I only discovered CtC about 2 weeks ago, and have been having great fun watching along and trying to solve puzzles, and seeing Simon's logic play out far better than mine. This was probably the first time I managed to just pause the video after the intro and rules, and get through the whole thing on my own!

[@sirgeremiah]

CTC is now how I find all my new puzzles. I open the video, pause immediately, and try the puzzle. If I get stuck, I unpause and wait for Simon to show me something I missed, or where i messed up.

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 03:54 Let's Get Cracking: 06:04 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Maverick: 2x (38:46, 38:46) Phistomefel: 2x (00:31, 01:07) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! By Sudoku: 8x (20:44, 22:06, 35:53, 42:15, 50:48, 51:26, 55:10) Ah: 8x (09:43, 32:41, 36:17, 36:52, 37:26, 40:09, 47:40, 52:46) Sorry: 7x (07:27, 07:45, 26:42, 32:14, 35:06, 44:48, 51:02) Hang On: 7x (12:46, 16:51, 18:41, 36:58, 47:20, 47:59, 48:16) Brilliant: 6x (00:47, 02:44, 21:22, 57:12, 57:15, 57:25) Pencil Mark/mark: 6x (15:49, 27:47, 27:51, 34:46, 36:26, 38:01) Beautiful: 4x (01:18, 31:12, 35:34, 55:22) Incredible: 4x (00:36, 00:39, 00:39, 03:33) Weird: 4x (12:46, 40:09, 40:14, 52:50) The Answer is: 3x (30:14, 35:43, 36:09) Obviously: 3x (15:40, 23:25, 34:21) Good Grief: 2x (21:20, 49:51) Clever: 2x (32:48, 32:53) Surely: 2x (06:26, 47:42) Stunning: 2x (03:40, 03:40) In Fact: 2x (51:21, 56:19) What Does This Mean?: 2x (28:38, 30:33) Cake!: 2x (02:46, 03:12) Useless: 1x (45:28) Nonsense: 1x (11:17) Stuck: 1x (43:52) Lovely: 1x (35:36) First Digit: 1x (12:46) Going Mad: 1x (13:03) Discombobulating: 1x (47:37) Of All Things: 1x (20:44) I've Got It!: 1x (35:26) Wow: 1x (01:09) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Thirty Six, Forty Eight (6 mentions) Four (94 mentions) Black (18 mentions) Antithesis Battles: High (2) - Low (2) Even (45) - Odd (28) Black (18) - White (9) Row (14) - Column (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!

[@erikamuir5768]

please add “bobbins” to this count !!

[@yagamilight08]

The internal turmoil of Simon's brain n his self quarrelling "oh thats not right...oh i m wrong...no i m right...no i m not sure....no i m wrong....no! I m right" is so hilarious Thats what we all love seeing here in addition to the incredible solving

[@trace_tomorrow]

I had to come back to the video for a help a couple times, but managed to make most of the leaps myself. What a wonderful puzzle! Glad it got the spotlight. Great work as always IcyFruit!

[@3cizawak]

It's funny when you say "kropki dot" because the word "kropki" can be translated from Polish to dots(plural noun). literally "kropki dot" means dots dot. You can say: "kropka", it is a singular noun in Polish.

[@ThomasJohnsen2]

Puzzle made me remember this foolish thing: Time flies like an arrow; (icy)fruit flies like a banana.

[@emilywilliams3237]

This is actually a very good expression to see whether a child gets humor, or a non-native English speaker gets the nuances of grammar.

[@SenselessUsername]

It was hanging on the pinboard of an animal ecology dept I was at, because indeed fruitflies do like their bananas.

[@Akatsuki69387]

@@emilywilliams3237or how high your friend is

[@davidrattner9]

Great puzzle and love the admiration Simon has for IcyFruit. Fun using the fly in this unique way.

[@alvoi4379]

18:48 i wasn’t expecting a Ren reference from this channel, love it!

[@CharlesGregory]

Did you see the Ren videos Mark and Simon did a few months ago?

[@alvoi4379]

@@CharlesGregory no! i somehow missed them! do you have the links?

[@legobil_]

@@alvoi4379Simon even did a reaction to Hi Ren, if that is on your Wheel house! Searching for Cracking the Cryptic Ren should take you there!

[@CharlesGregory]

@@alvoi4379 I'm not sure if links will come through in comments, but the video titles are "The Sick Boi, in Sudoku Form" (Mark's solve), "A Sudoku For Your Mental Health (feat. Ren) : RULES CORRECTED" (Simon's solve) and a bonus video "Hi Ren by Ren: Puzzle Man Reacts" which is Simon reacting to one of Ren's videos.

[@alvoi4379]

@@CharlesGregory Wow!! Three videos! Thank you so much, I’m in for a treat like that!

[@skidloaders1]

Never thought i would ask for more fly's 😀

[@seb3745]

I love how simon keeps reminding us that he knows that harry styles was a member of one direction

[@Raven-Creations]

What a fun idea. I was stumped for a bit in box 5, where it seemed possible for the fly to hit a 2 from the east and get sent north. It was only the fact that it seemed a bit too easy and unsatisfying that kept me looking to try to disprove it. From the start I was fairly sure that the dots in boxes 4 and 7 were strategically placed to route the fly through them, so I focused on them, and that broke the deadlock. It was amazing how one deduction resolved all of the evens in the puzzle without reference to the fly. I then had to plot the path, trusting that I'd not made a mistake. I was thwarted at the end by Sven's software. I had mistyped 1 in a cell, realised my mistake, reselected the cell and typed 2. Unfortunately Sven had interpreted the click as a double-click, which selected all the 1s I'd previously entered, resulting in them all being changed to 2s. I didn't notice, so by the end I had loads of 2s where they had no business being. I wish there was an option to disable double-clicking, and just leave the multi-select enabled for long-clicks. This is a constant problem for me, and drives me up the wall. Usually I notice, but I've had several solves ruined by it. The unintended double-clicks have also affected both Simon and Mark's solves, so it's not just my PC that's at fault.

[@SpyrosSolda]

"This six never receives a fly" A phrase I would never thought I'd hear

[@koenth2359]

Hmm, what was the other sentence again, that you don't expect to hear? 😉

[@przemekmajewski1]

"kropki dots" there we go again... as a Polish guy, it's hard to bear XD

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Right up there with the ISBN number of a book, or the ATM machine where you get cash. And I don't even speak Polish! 😺

[@shantanubayaskar]

Beautiful beautiful beautiful.. the most entertaining Simon has ever been in a video

[@carp0x]

The worst part about these sudoku is that, at some point, you just forget to look out for standard rule clues and are totally stuck.

[@Alaric11]

A perverse part of me wanted the fly to hit every even.

[@YeezusGhoul]

Sooo, "Is a fly's trail purple?" must be one of my favourite out of context quote I've heard 😂

[@aere481]

Great flow of the logic. This was fantastic.

[@thejuggler42]

I remember solving this puzzle a while back! Lovely idea for a theme, and great-looking fly to boot.

[@JDHutchison]

Good call, Simon - when the Phist tells you to do something, you do it.

[@paulsabourn5580]

At 36:22 I can’t see why the 2 appears above the 1? Surely the 1 could have been in R3C9 and the fly travelled up from a 2 in R4C9?

[@MisterM2402]

The fly can't travel across a kropki dot

[@paulsabourn5580]

@@MisterM2402 doh! Of course!

[@ianmcvicar491]

Not sure that Simon's start was sound however. R8C9 could have been a 1 coming down from a 6 in R7C9 putting a 2 in R8C8 and 4 in R9C8. Not saying his solution is not correct. Just that the start logic was a bit dicey

[@stevieinselby]

@@ianmcvicar491 If r8c9=1 then by kropki you have r8c8=2 and r9c8=4, and then you can't have r9c9=4 because you've already used 4 in the row/box.

[@thefallenarm589]

08:40 about the palette, you can customise any color by holding clic on a color or on the color switcher until the layout changes ; then click on the color you want to modify (just so you know ; and thank you Zven, great feature !) 13:05 yeah it's been for a few days I think, when a cell is in "center" mode and you write a "normal" digit in it, the borders kinda move

[@emilywilliams3237]

This was amusing and entertaining to me - I had the thought while you were solving, Simon, that it should have been a wasp, and you should have been solving with your window open so that an appropriate visitor could come by. Or, it should have been Maverick making his way across the grid. Also, that as the fly departed it should have passed through a three in the corner so that there could have been some celebratory confetti! But from the puzzle point of view, I thought that this was an amazing idea and very nicely executed. The puzzle is probably a bit too hard for me to do comfortably, but I certainly did enjoy your solve. Thank you (and thanks for the stream, which I watched first, and then came back to watch yours and Mark's videos)!

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Oh, dear, Emily, we certainly don't want wasps flying in through Simon's window! I think he'd be less freaked out if the actual airplane came in. 😺

[@emilywilliams3237]

Very very true! I am laughing out loud here!!@@Anne_Mahoney

[@randysavage1011]

Simon’s solves are a like a fine wine

[@longwaytotipperary]

🍷

[@SenselessUsername]

Wasted on a barbarian like me?

[@myfyrmadocjones]

Is it an Icy Fruitfly?

[@jimi02468]

For a moment when I saw the title I thought it was going to be the third puzzle Phistomefel has published recently. Hopefully that one appears on the channel also.

[@MattThePrintingNerd]

It's fascinating how the human brain works. Normally when I watch you solving sudokus Im astoned how fast your pattern recognition works but in this solve it was different. For me it was nearly painful to see how hard it was for you to combine the coloring and the kropki logic. Thx for showing us another masterpiece of sudoku setting!

[@xWinGLP]

we need more fly puzzles... i love the dudedudedudedu simon does when the fly moves :D

[@stephenbeck7222]

Phistomefel’s pun/dad-joke (among others) in the LMG comments for the puzzle were highly undervalued by Simon here.

[@MarkBennet10001]

Enjoyed the puzzle when I solved it, enjoyed Simon solving it rather more smoothly than I did (situation normal)

[@titusadduxas]

1:45:10 - Another amazing puzzle by Icy Fruit - A setting genius if ever there was one!

[@modernghost0]

"Hello, Maverick. You're not nearly as entertaining as the fly that's transversing my Sudoku grid." I'm crying 😭

[@frankjiang1857]

Finished in 60:26. Interesting break-in which took a lot of tracking for what could and couldn't be possible. Fun puzzle!

[@christophstahl8169]

Just lovely. Wonderful journey, not too difficult. Perfect - if it weren't for the constant buzzing in my ears :)

[@Mason-lr5dz]

26:26 elicited a "FINALLY" from me. Great solve, Simon. :)

[@Wakaflockabach]

I have said it before and I'll say it again, his logic/deducing is worlds ahead of mine and he figures things out I could never without him pointing out... yet somehow he just over looks the most obvious things like that dot, or pencil marks or just sudoku lol and in those moments I'm screaming at the TV like that Leonardo Dicaprio meme from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood lol

[@deelkar]

What a nice puzzle, the "may have crossed its own path" bit got a chuckle out of it, once I figured out box 3 and 4, and the 8 in Box 6 was a bit odd, but nevertheless a very entertaining solve. I did it in 108 minutes.

[@jamesking9807]

12:46 When the acid kicks in. :)

[@JapanoiseBreakfast]

What a journey. I laughed, I cried, I swallowed a fly.

[@Urutsini]

It surprised me the ease in which Simon pencil marked the Black dots in Box 1 and the corner marks across the boxes . . .

[@f1reslide]

I had fun with this one. Tracing the flies path had some good logic There was a point where Knowing that R3C4 was a 4, could deduce that even if a 6 was above, the path didn't go into the 4 from there, because, there was no way for the path to get into that 6, since the 4 was already placed in R1C8 I did some similar logic that the paths into even numbers had to go through the remaining odd numbers unobstructed I got stuck a few times, so watching the video helped me get unstuck, but was satisfying knowing I'd gotten it right up to the point I did get stuck watching Simon make the same deductions (albeit somewhat faster)

[@ElectricLimeade]

Some may find it odd, but I absolutely loved the placement of the 8 in box 6. It makes me feel like the setter truly used the rule set to its fullest.

[@chitraagarwal8259]

Waiting for animation with a 2 and 6 in the same corner, and Simon saying Bzzzz... Brilliant puzzle.. Lots of fun!

[@andremouss2536]

This is the most hilarious rule and application ever seen ! That fly must be keen on whisky - or vodka🥳

[@MattYDdraig]

37:20 This twisted and turned like a twisty, turny thing. Great fun from beginning to eventual end.

[@whelmking6497]

One of the first time I saw many things before Simon. Count the evens and odds, Simon!

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

Beautiful❗👏👏👏👏👏

[@DarkChasm]

Lovely, not too difficult, but ir does take some time keep checking if you are working forwards or backwards, saves alot of confusion :P excellent puzzle ❤❤❤❤

[@katiekawaii]

LOVED this puzzle. So satisfying!

[@donboch2043]

This was a struggle for me. I caught on quick at the beginning. However, I committed to an incorrect flight path. It actually solved the puzzle as a "traditional" board. But, it botched one of the white dots. I didn't consider marking "odd/evens". I'm curious how you came to assuming that use of logic so quickly. In any case, I've learned a lot from this puzzle! Thanks Simon and PHistomefel!

[@Situayo]

On my numpad 8 is down, 6 is right/east, 4 is left/west. Kept being confused by this

[@phillipcarlroberts4640]

at the start of the solve the "1"digit did move downwards when you placed the "2" and "4" above it.

[@trangthanhnguyen3387]

13:02 To answer the question, I also saw the digits moving weirdly 😂

[@aprikosengelee1503]

same here xD when you concentrade on the 1 it is obvious

[@dickdelete]

Just animated numbers, nothing to be afraid of 😀

[@voncornhole]

I focused in on the 1-2-4 and kept replaying it and don't see any motion Ok, I see the 4 pencil mark moving

[@Yttria]

Fun one. Forgot about the fly doesn't cross a kropki dot initially but still finished in 61:53.

[@deangaudet]

that was fun! although i kept wishing the fly travel matched up with the number pad so i didn't have to quintuple-check the rules (i.e. NESW = 2486 rather than 2468 as it was in the puzzle)

[@SjoerdVisscher]

Exactly! Though it is 2684 ;-)

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 198 minutes. This was a fantastic puzzle, but it kicked my butt the entire time. It broke my brain trying to figure out the pathway. I kept mixing up my cardinal directions based on which direction I was coming from. I messed up the cell in r7c3 so many times, before I realized I was looking at it from the wrong direction and finally corrected it. This was so hard to visualize. I did enjoy the puzzle. It was a cute theme. Great Puzzle!

[@HeroOfRhyme]

I love puzzles that tell stories. Those are my favourit

[@sirgeremiah]

As it turns out, you can get the path wrong, and still solve this puzzle. I confused directions (because of working both backwards and forwards) and drew my path incorrectly, but using all the right digits. I didn't catch it until after I finished, when I went back to finish watching Simon.

[@ouwebrood497]

I get stuck two times in the same position. So I had to scan this vid to learn where I went wrong.

[@Rubrickety]

Terrific puzzle! My first attempt broke because I forgot "go straight through" doesn't necessarily mean "odd".

[@thetaphi]

Pretty fly from an Ice guy. Also, Maverick's ears must have been positively ringing from that comment, Simon xD

[@JohnGottschalk]

I spent hours doing this in a very arduous way, and made a very simple mistake, even though I was so close (I'd even drawn out the correct path once, but then forgot it and made a wrong deduction, that stopped me seeing it). I guess this is a good learning moment to not spend hours marking up the grid.

[@srwapo]

69:24 with two peaks at the video. I wasn't seeing how to deal with the line hitting the 6 in r7c6 (learned I had to look a few steps ahead) and I made a big mistake in Box 3 assuming the line had to come from the left to hit the 6 going down. It flowed after there, I guess I just got used to thinking multiple turns ahead.

[@Coyotek4]

Partway through my solve, I got it in my head that cells r1c7 and r2c7 formed a 13-domino ... so after I completed the path and started filling in the odd digits, I eventually broke. I resorted to looking at a screenshot of the video to see where I erred. smh on this one as I should have completed it mistake-free. Nice puzzle!

[@ericpraline1302]

That was some puzzle. Compared to mine, I felt Simons's solve was like a hot knife through butter. I got most of the logic, but in slow motion.

[@MarkWiseTechno]

103:13 was my time today. The difficulty for me was I kept seeing the correct path but incorrectly reasoning out that it broke the puzzle and was incorrect. I would run through the same pieces of logic over and over trying to see where I was going wrong and eventually realize I hadn't gone wrong, I was just missing the next step. It was infuriating fun.

[@ffets-SEP]

This was really fun to solve!

[@deelkar]

48:00 I had the EXACT same reaction at that point in the puzzle

[@sirgeremiah]

I think I've seen two versions of "The Fly". Unless I'm imagining that.

[@bertbergers9171]

At 24 minutes (and earlier) you could have coloured, pencilmarked and even filled in digits on the row 9 logic you used to conclude where 4 is. We’ll see how you circumvent going that route ;)

[@markheisler5118]

Green on green at the end, bold choice hehe

[@dolf370]

Hm, maybe would be possible to use this rule set to make a fly-around by Maverick avoiding the flak from Simon? I just looked at Simon's solve without trying to solve it myself, which I kind of regret now, because what a wonderful puzzle. It should definitely be included in Cracking the Cryptic Greatest Hits volume 3!

[@agentvx8320]

That was a neat one!

[@Mateusz-ez7qf]

36:19 why 2 cant be in R4C9?

[@emdiar6588]

Simon feels the need to put a red blocking line through every dot, because dots are invisible in black and white?

[@nosy-cat]

I should have made the same red lines over the Kropki dots. I forgot that rule several times during my solve...

[@Seth0326]

I ran into an annoying snag right at the start, because I assumed that the bottom right number had to be a 4, because the fly flew east from that cell out of the grid.

[@HaleyReceveur]

This is it! This is going to finally be the first time I actually try a Phistomofel puzzle all by myself. 2 hours later: HOW DO YOU EVEN GET STARTED HERE???

[@stephenbeck7222]

It’s not a Phisto, but a puzzle recommended by Phisto

[@HaleyReceveur]

@@stephenbeck7222 Well, that explains why I was able to solve it! Haha.

[@asiamakota602]

The "Kropki" name always gets me 🇵🇱

[@piarittersporn]

A really great and brilliant puzzle. Sometimes .... Simon's choice of colours ....... is driving me crazy. 🤣😂 🤪

[@emdiar6588]

12:50 and the molly start to kick in.

[@RolandGiersig]

"A flea and a fly in a flue Were imprisoned, so what could they do?" I guess the next puzzle with this kind of ruleset will also include a flea that can only jump in a certain way (knights move?). And they both have to leave through the same "flaw in the flue". Probably in the corner, so Simon can sing "that's a flea in the corner, losing its religion" 😁🤷

[@jamesb7906]

I love that you try to help out people with colourblindness, but can we pleeeeease not use purple lines on blue squares because my eyes cant handle the fly path disappearing into even digits 😅 Edit: never mind Simon realised at 30:00, almost like he read my mind 😅😅😅

[@adamheywood113]

if the fly heads east from the bottom right cell then, as per the rules, "it always went... east from a 4" then r9c9 must be a 4 for the fly to be heading east from it a sequence of three different black kropki cells must be either 1-2-4 or 2-4-8 and yet now it cannot contain a 4, so it's impossible which it obviously isn't so we can chalk this up to another puzzle that I can't even comprehend and now I can't even skip to the solve without being hit with more ads, I know you gotta fund the channel but YT, omg, let me watch more than one second of the video please

[@geoff544]

It does leave a 4 heading east, but it can also carry on to the east when it goes through an odd cell - so r9c9 can be odd.

[@torericson2089]

Great puzzle!! Enjoyed it very much. 54 min

[@koenth2359]

Of course you obey!!! My God, my god, look not so fierce on me! Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while! Ugly hell, gape not! come not, Culifer! I’ll burn my books! - Ah, Phistomephel!

[@Jonasz314]

Tried it, but made logic error which landed a 4 in r9c8, which was definitely incorrect.

[@dinane]

A delightful puzzle!

[@KyleBaran90]

10:15 - Does the fly make a purple path? No! It makes a fuchsia path! Fly -> F -> Fuchsia

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

41:17 for me. I missed a random digit for 20 minutes straight... Well, it happens. Great puzzle anyways!

[@Sergi4]

Cool puzzle)

[@michaeldecker4260]

This was a great one

[@ThePolymathlete]

This one was fun. Just under an hour for me

[@Harry-sp3fz]

Took me 90 minutes. what a puzzle

[@alienrenders]

68:02 for me. That was a nice one.