Team Phistomefel vs Team Simon

** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
Phistomefel's latest sudoku features a completely original ruleset and is, as we've come to expect, now THE quintessential puzzle to showcase these new bizarre rules! The whole thing is fascinating - you have to split the nine sudoku digits into teams and then make the clues work :)
Play the puzzle at the link below:
sudokupad.app/21xzz0q3gd
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Divide the digits from 1 to 9 into two teams such that every digit from 1 to 9 is in exactly one of the two teams. Thereby, the finished grid has areas (of orthogonally connected cells) which contain only digits from one team and are bounded by digits of the other team and/or the border of the grid. A number clue gives the sum of all the digits in such an area. Digits may repeat in such an area and the sum clues are in an arbitrary position within the area. Each area has at most one clue, but may also have none at all.
Jane Street's Bug Bytes puzzle is available here:
www.janestreet.com/bug-byte/
(Simon's solve of this puzzle is on Patreon.)
** NEW SUDOKU HUNT ON PATREON **
We're delighted to share with you a brand new sudoku hunt themed around snake egg puzzles by Glum Hippo. If you've never tried snake egg logic puzzles before, prepare for serious fun - these sudokus are outstanding! Finish by May 20 to enter the competition!
Other treats on Patreon include:
- the Sumgeons & Diagrams sudoku by sunnyjum;
- Simon's latest forays into the world of Islands Of Insight;
- Mark's video looking at the new OneUp puzzle from Rodolfo Kurchan;
- his solve of Region Geometry by Emre Kolotoğlu (3hr 36min long...!);
- and Mark's latest solve of The Times Club Monthly cryptic crossword
/ crackingthecryptic
** GET OUR FOG KICKSTARTER DELUXE & OUR BOOKS **
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ALSO on Amazon: Search for “SudokuPad”
▶ Contents Of This Video ◀
0:00 Theme music & puzzle intro
1:37 Yesterday's Reddit puzzle
1:49 Dungeons & Diagrams Stream
2:10 Steve Pemberton's crossword
2:55 Patreon
3:07 Happy Birthdays etc
4:11 Rules
6:50 Start of Solve: Let's Get Cracking
▶ Contact Us ◀
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email: [e-mail]
Our PO Box address:
Simon Anthony & Mark Goodliffe
Box 102
56 Gloucester Road
London
SW7 4UB
(Please note to use our real names rather than 'Cracking The Cryptic'.)
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[@HunterJE]

Simon doing all that logic in box 1 without coloring r1c1 green for so long def had me twitching a bit 😂

[@lesabre04]

A tiger can't change his stripes

[@Lord_Volkner]

Glad I'm not the only one.

[@user-og4le9tq4l]

His brain is so fine-tuned to the complex that he often misses the obvious.

[@dinidini4000]

for 9min i just sat there like its allways green man

[@janerobson2297]

And then concluding that whether 14 or 17 are green they include an 8. But he said that he didn't know which team 8 was in!

[@nathanmays7926]

Simon: "Do have a go." Me: "That's okay. I'm good."

[@lohowlett1891]

Thank you for the shout-out for Charlie. He was absolutely ecstatic and ran around upstairs shouting about it. Logan (Charlie's mum) ❤

[@nathanmays7926]

10 yrs old taking SATs? Incredible! You must be so proud!

[@gthjzby887]

@@nathanmays7926 That's about the age at which everyone takes SATs in the UK. Once at 6-7 years old and again at 10-11 years old. You can't take them at different times.

[@Adrian-qp5pi]

@@gthjzby887In the US the SAT is a test that many high school students take to be admitted into a university

[@emilywilliams3237]

@@gthjzby887 In the US, SATs are taken as part of a college/university entrance process.

[@katsamiddluns8211]

Ahh okay! SATs here in the US are university readiness exams, and are generally taken around 16-18 y/o. When I sat for mine there was a kiddo around ten taking them as well, so it's not impossible! Good luck Charlie!!

[@HunterJE]

Re the most common comment here today, I feel like there’s an argument to be made that if “sudoku” is in the puzzle name there’s a rebuttable presumption that normal sudoku rules apply unless the rules specify otherwise…

[@HunterJE]

(As if we need the rules text any smaller than as-is)

[@soulus98]

I feel that it should always be specified. Better to be over verbose but clear than short but ambiguous. When I don’t hear “normal sudoku rules apply”, I start analysing the rules as if they don’t, trying to figure out what restrictions there are to digit placements. This one confused me for a while, and I’m guessing by the amount of comments, a lot of other people were too. If the point is to save words, there are a lot better ways to do so. They could say “Sudoku applies” or even just “Sudoku” They could even clean up the other popular rules like “Normal arrow, thermometer, and German whisper rules apply”

[@dustpan5356]

Sure, an argument could be made. But adding “normal sudoku rules apply” is only 4 words, and obviously this has confused a lot of people (including myself). Plenty of times I have made assumptions about the rules that seemed fair and ended up being wrong, so in my opinion these kinds of things need to be clear.

[@istvanmagi473]

How Simon's mind works: (After he proves that the corner cell is green) "How can I pencilmark this? I know that these 3 cells are green and grey". (After he proves that 8 is green) " I know that one of these cells is a 8, but I don't know if it's green or grey".

[@hopelessnecromantic2794]

*mid video* Not shading the top corner green/5689 was killing me. I feel like it would help move the needle significantly

[@AshleyTheSwift]

You know it's a Phistomefel puzzle when Simon is unable to speak for a full 10 seconds 28:50

[@rmelg9892]

One of the many great Simon quotes, "we're chocolate teapotted well and truly there."

[@BeheadedKamikaze]

Well and truly.

[@rmelg9892]

Yes you're correct. Typo fixed!

[@gi0nbecell]

*_Disclaimer:_*_ This comment was written after watching the video exactly to the mentioned time stamp (well, plus the question Simon asked) and I started watching after I got stuck and simply wasn‘t able to concentrate any more. I have included my own failure to spot the next angle of attack below. Simon spotted the important point about one minute later, but my point is: he had to think it through several times before he saw what was obvious even before he got - briefly - „stuck“._ 52:47 Simon, the answer to your question how you could hit an absolute brick wall is quite simple: You jump from thought to thought so quickly that you omit following one string of deductions to the end. At this point you proved: 1) 4 and 5 are green digits. 2) The green team consists of four, the gray team of five digits. 3) If the fourteen clue is a green domino, it cannot be a 59 pair and 4) if the seventeen clue is a green domino, it is a 89 pair. You even _pencilmarked_ the conclusion that there _must_ be an 8 in r1c1, r1c2 or r2c1. The missing deductions are: A) This 8 is therefore green, B) it is the third of four green digits and C) the fourth green digit is either 9 (out of the seventeen domino) or a 6 (from the fourteen domino). This again leads to the final conclusion in this chain: _Grey always contains 1, 2, 3 and 7, and will completed by the remainder of deduction C),_ namely again 6 or 9. At this point I got stuck, because I couldn‘t quite figure out the implications of this. I saw that if the fourteen clue was grey, it is a 4 cell region that couldn‘t grow to r1c5 - that would make it a 6-cell region, and even with repeats there would be no way to get to only 14 (as the three cells in box 1 sum to a minimum of 6, forcing the triple in box 2 down to a maximum of 8 which would need a 4 or a 5, and two seven-triples are also impossible without 4s). Then the seventeen clue - it could be a 4-cell grey seventeen. The three cells in box 1 can‘t sum to 8 without using 4 or five but ten as a 127 triple or eleven as a 137 triple seemed possible, even in connection with the six clue - and if the seventeen grew to 6 cells, which is easier than with the hypothecated fourteen, I lost all track.

[@davidrattner9]

Wonderful puzzle and setting by the one and only Phistomefel! Such respect and admiration from Simon during his solve. Always amazed at how Phistomefel and others can set masterpieces.

[@malvoliosf]

“[Thinks of something.] I hadn’t thought of that.” (46:44) Yes you did! Just now!

[@angec9908]

I always appreciate the knowledge bombs.

[@FirHydrntsRFirEaters]

Love the added elegance of green one-upping gray (23 vs 22). Close game between these two teams!

[@benterra4029]

But grey still outnumbers green in digits. So the winner really is debatable

[@plancktime9750]

Gonna need a separate channel for phistomefel features soon 😛

[@asmolyeti6689]

lol there is actually a phistomefel playlist there’s almost 80 vids in it

[@asmolyeti6689]

lol there is actually a phistomefel playlist that has almost 80 vids

[@13vatra]

Channel will be named: "Blood Sweat and Tears to Barely Sort of Crack the Cryptic"

[@NinjarioPicmin]

Edit: I noticed where i was wrong, still keeping the comment with explanation if anyone else stumbles upon the same error: 56:10 i don't think that's enough proof to say that cell can't be grey at this point in time, maybe i'm missing something but i'm thinking what hinders us from extending that 3 cell region just one more outside so that one of them can appear twice, and then we could combine 1+2+2+3=8 - This couldn't work due to a pencil marked 1/2/3 cell in the same box, so the three cells just CANNOT be only 1+2+3, that's what simon was noticing as well

[@ElCheezus]

I was looking at that, too. At the very least, we can still conclude that the 10 region has to be green. That's because a 3 cell region won't total to 8 and we using 4 cells would require extending to another box. And both ways you can extend to a 4th box border the 10.

[@ElCheezus]

Now I'm seeing he references R4C3, which would break if we tried to say that cell was grey.

[@NinjarioPicmin]

@@ElCheezus yeah it's irrelevant since we figured out what we missed, but i before i saw R4C3 i was seeing the possibility of extending the three cells that the 8 would have to R7C2, which wouldn't have forced the 10 green i think

[@pascal6871]

It was so cool how the puzzle was crawling over the grid, a bit like the lattice often does on place on reddit. I wonder if that was inspiration for Phistomefel because even the example was using the appropriate colour scheme.

[@Kaotix22]

1:05:04 Alternate logic: once r8c6 becomes a 121 triple, the available greens in box 8 surround it, meaning r9c4 is gray, and a domino must add up to 19, breaking the logic.

[@grantfraser5430]

I took about 3 minutes and said "Nope, I'm just watching this one". Using a theorem analogous to uniqueness, I am now 1hr into a 90 minute video that must be solvable or Simon would not allow me to watch it. There is not a single digit placed, and not enough remaining clues to disambiguate everything ( so I foolishly believe) and yet I somehow know that the combined insane genius of both Phistomefel and Simon is guaranteed to provide a unique solution shortly. I definitely am not worthy. Thank you both and I hope to see a setting video for this puzzle. Now back to the insanity and some serious head shaking on my part.

[@kpopthinker3268]

😂 The Simon Uniqueness Theorem

[@davidhughes7174]

Brilliant puzzle and solve. Thank you again Simon.

[@stevenwojtysiak6392]

Was "Normal Sudoku rules apply" just meant to be inferred from the rules? At first glance it seems like many solutions can be made if you don't need to place the digits 1 to 9 in each row column and box.

[@ccash3290]

It is infered because Sudoku is in the puzzle title

[@emilywilliams3237]

"Normal sudoku rules apply" is in the description field of the video. To be sure, Simon did not read that clause in his explanation of the rules.

[@Mephistahpheles]

Safe assumption, I think. It should be dropped from all descriptions. Only specify when they don't apply.

[@erp1011]

Thought that was a stunning puzzle. Especially the 10 cage finally resolving the two "teams" and the 14/17 cages in box 1. And the 17 clue being so minimal for the end game. I didn't try to solve it (3* puzzles are hit and miss for me) but I enjoyed playing along with Simon on another impressive solve.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

68:42 for me. I had to restart the puzzle a couple times because I kept running into the same mistake over and over. After 30 minutes or so and a small break I finally managed to fix it, but god did I struggle with this one. Great puzzle anyways!

[@ironman85000]

31:45 Simon spent a long time on a crazy deduction to prove that you can't put a 9 in either 9 region in box 1, which was really cool to hear! However the way I saw it was just that if you put a 9 in one of those squares, it breaks the 17 region regardless of if it's green or gray (if green you cant make 17 in 2 cells without using 9, if gray you can use 7 but then you need 10 more and there's no high digit left because the 14 region uses 6 and 8). So that to me was easier than what Simon eventually did. Still cool though!

[@RichSmith77]

Is there a reason the 17 cage, if grey, would only be three cells, and hence need another large digit to make 10 extra? Why not 7+2+3+5, for instance?

[@bobbie0976]

Another brutal puzzle. Glad I didn’t give up and ended up solving…it all made sense once I thought about double 7!!

[@calculatrguy]

Simon got it in a roundabout way but once he proved the 6 cage was 3 cells, both 1 AND 2 had to be in the 6 cage because there is no way to make 3 1's and a 3 work without the 1's clashing by sudoku. This also makes both the 9 cages only 2 cells each because now the minimum for a 3 cell "L" shape on the other team is two 3s and a 4, which is 10.

[@mattmayoh9680]

When I tried this last week, I got to @37:00 of the video and got stuck, because I somehow decided a 4-cell 9 cage couldn't be ruled out, as 135 + 1 = 9, not 10. Great puzzle.

[@user-so2fp8tz9o]

Woah weird. I literally have that SAME Taskmaster episode open on KZbin paused in a window that was to the left of this window when you brought it up! I was very confused for a second haha. Never expected Taskmaster to show up on CtC!

[@estherwestbroek]

For all gloomy feeling people: "remember that grey might be green"

[@ericpraline1302]

This was a lovely puzzle, once I'd got my thinking cap on and stopped making stupid mistakes by overlooking possibilities. I think forgetting that digits could repeat threw me for a while.

[@justinsmith2363]

Do normal Sudoku rules apply?

[@bitschubser1033]

it seems so in the example. And without it, it cant be unique. Just gessing

[@ccash3290]

Sudoku is in the name of the puzzle, so it can be assumed to be a Sudoku type puzzle

[@emilywilliams3237]

The rules in the description field include that clause. Simon's explanation of the rules did not go over that part, but certainly they must (and the puzzle does include 'sudoku' in the title).

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

37:14 for me. this was one of the easier ones phisto has made.

[@Rach881101]

78:33 for me. Beautiful puzzle!

[@anaayoung9142]

Amazing how this sudoku solves with so little clues!!!

[@Arcessitor]

63:31 for me - quite the challenge. I didn't make a mistake but I don't feel my proof of the top left corner was as robust as I would've liked. I could see why it wouldn't work geometrically but I found it hard to put into words.

[@BijickY]

Simon or Phistomephel? I’m rooting for the combo of both. 🎉🎉🎉

[@GQSmoos]

At 15:00 I was really hoping Simon would mark that 1 and 4 are different teams on the bottom strip. I ended up fast forwarding to see if he had. Humorously, I went forward ~45 minutes and those two were the ONLY TWO he had marked. 😂

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

39:27 That's Green in the Corner! 🙂

[@MattYDdraig]

49:13 A fascinating ruleset worthy of the great man.

[@kayleighlehrman9566]

More than two thirds of the way through the vid and no digits placed? You love to see it.

[@cjbralph]

Simon, have you considered taking note of your solution then clicking "new link with solution", then entering your solution into the new puzzle so that it can automatically check it for you? You can't say you haven't seen that link as you even read it out this time! It's been showing up for months!!

[@darthrainbows]

This puzzle defeated me. I made so many mistakes; I am quite thoroughly embarrassed.

[@ianmcvicar491]

I love the fact that he worked R8C8 couldn't be grey because row 9 would have too many greens, ignoring the fact that there were already 5 greys in row 8 anyway.

[@mikeychrisanthus9948]

I tried to solve this alone at first, but I was losing my mind since the rules don’t actually say Normal Sudoku rules apply.

[@RichSmith77]

I got a bit lucky with my solve. I completely missed the possibility of a 1+2+1 four cage at the start and treated it as 4 in one team and 1+3 in the other team from the start. It was only after getting down to the 4,4 cages, half through my solve, that I realised 1+3 couldn't work, and then saw 1+2+1 was also an option. I couldn't face rewinding to the start. I don't think it changed too much, but I definitely treated 3 as being team 1 far too early. [Editing to add, there's something still off with the layout on mobile for puzzles linked on Simon's videos of late. They still display as normal from Mark's videos, but Simon's displays the rules in a tiny pop-up window that's almost unreadable. Although I have found that if I use the "maximise screen" icon (below the cog icon) it improves the layout, and the rules are displayed full size.]

[@curtellingboe2949]

A faster break in to eliminate the option of a green 89 in box 1 was to see that a green 89 would not fit in row 6 of box 4.

[@sanataissick]

Rules don't say normal sudoku rules apply but I guess they do. Wouldn't make much sense otherwise

[@emilywilliams3237]

The rules in the description field say that - I guess they were accidentally left out of the rules on the puzzle itself (and Simon did not include them in his explanation of the rules).

[@skosichm]

I was stuck for so long because I kept wanting Box 1's " area" in T shape (2345), that I was stumped at how Simon was so confident to resolve it the way he did. For some reason it took me forever to disprove my 14 as a T concept, before I could get back to other choices. Hate it when that happens 🙂

[@homewort-gf2ni]

I don't know if this is helpful, but it's the 4 work that disproves that - you can't have 2, 3 and 4 all on the same team or the other 4 group would have to be 4 '1's, which is unworkable for sudoku reasons.

[@skosichm]

@@homewort-gf2ni Ah hah! That really is helpful. Thank you for replying (very kind of you). I can totally see that now. And I think you just made me aware of a flaw I fall into often. I saw the 4 work logic but then when i got fixated on the 14, I completely forgot the 4 logic because the placement wasn't resolved. So my lesson of the day is to better remember how logic carries over from one area (incompletes included) when I am in another area. Stating the obvious, but maybe someday I'll reduce my head-scratching time! Have a great day.

[@Ardalambdion]

I don't know how the minds of Phistomefel and the other great setters work. And I don't even dare to try. When this happens, I just put on double speed and enjoy the show. Long time since anyone heard about / from Clover?

[@sagov9]

1:05:04 also it doesn't work because it would put 5 greens in a box. Maybe the constructor did not quite follow your logic there, Simon :D

[@MaierFlorian]

At around 1:24:00 Simon got (un)lucky again. He proved that you cannot put a 3 in r4c7 but he didn't prove that you cannot put a 2 there. Simple prove, sure, cause it's the same logic as with 3 and by soduku you can't put a 1 there, but he missed to look at this.

[@HunterJE]

Assuming you mean r4c7 (r4c6 was 9 long before this), there’s a 2 in the column already

[@MaierFlorian]

@@HunterJE did I write any other? 😅 And yes, you are right, I overlooked that 2 in the column...

[@xkdkkd]

What is the background of 3 in the corner?

[@David_K_Booth]

The chorus of the award winning single "Losing My Religion" by R. E. M. begins "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight losing my religion".

[@andrewfunk2983]

It's my bday on the 16th but I'm too broke to be a doner. Next year guys love this channel

[@johnnynilsen3399]

That is the hardest earned first digit i have ever seen. 😅😅

[@diacor4life489]

The rules doesn't say anywhere, that "normal sudoku rules apply" or anything about digits not repeating on rows/columns/boxes. Is it supposed to be left for the solver to discover whether sudoku rules apply here or not?

[@MrMW2nd]

1:16:45 does this mean this puzzle has 9 given digits? At the bottom lol

[@Lord_Volkner]

Team Phistomefel 1 Team Volkner 0

[@theredstoneengineer6934]

119:09 for me

[@MarushiaDark316]

Score another one for Team Simon.

[@77kaczka77]

Thanks

[@CrackingTheCryptic]

Thanks so much!

[@77kaczka77]

@@CrackingTheCryptic I owe you thanks for this wonderful and wise entertainment.

[@carstenkruse8527]

to be fair...it never states 'normal sudoku rules' So box could have been filled with just 1's and 2's

[@ccash3290]

Sudoku is in the name of the puzzle, so it can be inferred to be a Sudoku type puzzle

[@emilywilliams3237]

That is in the rules in the description field, though he did not go over that rule in his explanation at the beginning of the video.

[@Mizerka_]

really misunderstood rules or normal sudoku rules just isnt mentioned? yeah it was in description but not in video.

[@dimadovgalyk2413]

Hey! Absolutely love your content. You made me so much better at sudoku and Ive been watching for a couple years now. recently bought your app for phone but unfortunately immediately refunded it. It is a lot more comfortable to use this on PC so if you want the app to be worth it you need to have some sort of additional feature there. Why do you not add these challenges automatically? is it too resource consuming? if majority of these challenges were there already, this would be such a banger app. and you can put a little (i) in top corner for the challenge rules and keep the UI clean. Because paying 3 euros and then having to import these sudokus on ur own is just slightly you know, anyways, this is just a thought, much love

[@pascal6871]

The issue is that these puzzles are made by independent setters, adding them to a paid app would be like selling their puzzles/content which is a big no.

[@dimadovgalyk2413]

@@pascal6871 but you are additng it regardless, just this way the UX sucks

[@easternbrown]

The "normal sudoku rules apply" clause is on a different team

[@KebbieG]

Got super lucky that the 8 area wasn't just an 8. Nice solve.

[@kevinbrownsword9558]

The 8 ‘cage’ couldn’t be three cells in box 4 so needed to be grey. And 8 was already allocated to green. At least that was his pathway to that from what I saw. I did what while working though.

[@angec9908]

Ooh I’m the zeroth like again 😂

[@cypher686]

this puzzle was more brute forcing rather than pure logic. Not his best work from the ol Mr Phistomfel

[@iceberg54321]

The ruleset is horribly broken, a sum is the addition of two or more numbers, and the puzzle does not say that normal Sudoku rules apply, so the puzzle has multiple solutions, as you can, for example, put as many ones in any row column or box that as you would like.

[@emilywilliams3237]

I think that this is overstating a tiny omission, that normal sudoku rules apply - which is in the description field under the video (though, I agree, not on the puzzle itself as of this moment when I'm typing this - I checked to see if it had been updated in the last couple of hours, but it hasn't). "Sum" in sudoku rules is commonly used to mean "total" rather than the mathematical operation of adding two or more numbers together. The total of a single 9 is 9, and "sum" has fewer letters (sometimes a consideration)!

[@iceberg54321]

@@emilywilliams3237 Write total then instead of sum.

[@homewort-gf2ni]

I would politely disagree that it's necessary to write 'total' instead of 'sum' - sum does not singularly mean add two or more things, it also means in aggregate, i.e you need to ensure that the contents of the area in their entirety are equal to the clue. I'm all for additional clarity, but that feels like needless and inaccurate pedantry. Lovely solve, Simon!

[@iceberg54321]

@@homewort-gf2niSum: the total amount resulting from the addition of two or more numbers. So you want total, not sum, unless the puzzle has to have multiple digit totals to solve the puzzle. Which would be a tricky rule to put into the variant sudoku.

[@skoczek8113]

​@@iceberg54321 The result of a summation of a sequence of numbers is also called a sum. A sequence may contain only one element, where summation is defined to result in the element itself.