The EASY Sudoku With Just 2 Given Digits

[@thejuggler42]

Thanks for solving my puzzle! Definitely an easy one by Simon's standards, but I hope that means beginners who normally can't do the puzzles featured on the channel will be able to have a go today (with help from the video if they get stuck). Looking forward to the harder version :)

[@efa666]

Another cracker, always a pleasure to solve your work.

[@angec9908]

Thanks for the lovely puzzle! I am somewhat of a beginner so I like puzzles I can do without watching the video. (I still watch tho. Love them.) And thanks for giving Simon his 3 in the corner!💜

[@Alex_Meadows]

Lovely puzzle, as always - thank you Michael! I don't know how you think up this stuff but I'm incredibly glad that you do.

[@davidrattner9]

Lovely and fun puzzle from you!! Cherish how you set costantly!!

[@Ennar]

This is a lovely puzzle. Not hard, but creative nonetheless. I'm looking forward to harder version as well :)

[@annikaQED]

I loved Simon's comment at the end of the video, that "with a puzzle of that quality, it's an absolute joy to have spent time in its company."

[@longwaytotipperary]

Yes!

[@LiquorStoreJon]

You GOTTA try this one before you watch the video!

[@alanclarke4646]

Agreed! This was FUN!

[@Ardalambdion]

Yes, please do the 'sequel'. And i appreciate fairly short videos if the puzzles are interesting enough.

[@longwaytotipperary]

Agree!

[@Blaketownselecta]

Been watching for ages and this is the first one I've solved all on my own. Feel like a real big Sudoku boi.

[@ChrisRemo]

Restarted this one several times because I misunderstood the rules to indicate that the grid was fully composed of cages, so when I ended up with non-cage cells I thought I’d broken it. Finally resorted to the video to realise my error!

[@sweetnasty5967]

I thought the same thing. Wasted 10 minutes trying to figure out the math.

[@gimmicky50a]

Yes, I did exactly the same.

[@nataliadominikarydzewska8378]

I absolutely adore that Simon calls us his favourite people!

[@TheClawNinja]

I'm always amazed too at our constructors today...I think they've done it all, then I see partially hidden cages. Good time to be into Sudoku puzzles for sure!

[@Katface57]

I managed to solve this in just over half an hour without watching the video (then watched it 😊) - I’m loving slowly learning variant sudoku through you, Simon. Thank you!

[@HunterJE]

Wow that 9x9 puzzle is so pretty, like when there's a low morning fog and you can see just the tips of hills or trees or buildings peeking out

[@awilliams1701]

I 100% appreciate a short video. In many cases if it's more than an hour I don't even bother. The logic usually goes over my head anyway. This was kind of neat.

[@warren_r]

My time was 8:14. It felt like it has the same sort of mental thought process as fog of war puzzles.

[@AngryKettle]

It does, which makes it really jarring that the cage walls stay invisible!

[@stuartharris2165]

What a lovely video, and one of the rare times that I can shout numbers at the screen before Simon see's them, can't wait for the harder video!

[@PeterMarckhgott]

I just solved my first ever variant Sudoku, feels great!

[@mummabear7537]

11:05 for me. Love to see some short videos, the long ones get watched over several sittings and I often forget what has come before. More short ones would be great!

[@ajaxmajor]

i think you have to add to the rules that not all cells are necessarily in cages, i interpretted the rules as you had to put every cell into a cage

[@RichSmith77]

What in the rules made you think that, though? They seemed clear enough to me.

[@Ennar]

You don't have to, it says "the grid contains a set of cages", which is true for any killer sudoku. However, for the sake of clarity, it wouldn't hurt.

[@SSGranor]

Regarding the difficultly rating, it's a known quirk of LMD that they use equal width bins for the star ratings. And, this means that any puzzle with an average difficulty rating of up to 1.8 stars will be displayed as a "1 star" puzzle. This means that it is possible for up to 80% of solvers to say that a puzzle is harder than 1 star and still have it display as 1 star. That said, for me, at least, this one was right at the top of what I would consider 1 star difficulty.

[@TimWalton0]

More like this please! Interesting, not too hard, fun to do. (It took me a long time because I forgot about the rule that you can't repeat digits in a cage).

[@davidrattner9]

Very fun from you Michael! Looking forward to seeing Simon tackle your 9 x 9!

[@longwaytotipperary]

Agree! ❤

[@xerodeus2337]

Super fun puzzle! especially since my instinct said there was going to be some trickery pokery with the boxes and there was! Fun to discover that :D

[@ClairvoyantTruth]

I'm still new so I didn't know how to balance the invisible cages. The deduction on the red cage is amazing. It might be basic for pros, but awesome! I didn't even think about the 10/11 sum split in a cage! Getting a feeling of wonder from deductions is why it's fun to watch these videos!

[@nellycopland]

I really enjoyed this puzzle! I love playing the ctc sudoku apps but usually only watch the longer videos as they help me unwind before bed. Today I saw a comment saying to give this a go and I'm so glad I did. It was tricky at first not to just assume cage shapes but then I flew through it to my surprise! A very enjoyable puzzle and ruleset I hope to see more of in future :)

[@gordonglenn2089]

A fast and fun puzzle. I am looking forward to seeing the full-size version!

[@nosy-cat]

Looking forward to the other one. This puzzle might have been easy, but far from trivial, and very, very enjoyable

[@skid68]

Fun suduko, I did start it cage total as 11 but realized that doesn't work so I tested with 10 and it worked. So happy and manage to finish it in 12.30 :) Good that you will make the next one Simon, eagerly waiting for that :)

[@nidoking042]

A few alternate ways to handle the bottom part of the puzzle - if the blue cage were four cells, the green and blue cages together would comprise a complete set of the digits 1-6 and sum to 21, an odd number and thus not the sum of two equal cage totals. Once the blue cage is established as three cells, the blue and yellow cages together cover less than a full row and thus must sum to less than 11 each, or their combined total would be 22 with one more cell in the row not included.

[@Sephalia]

Simon I think you are just a joy. Love watching your videos. Keep being you.

[@rungus24]

You did a much better job than I did of recognising that the bottom left didn't have to be just one cage and that the top middle DID have to be just one cage. That had me scuppered really, until I saw the beginning of your solve.

[@donaldsnyder1543]

Interesting concept and a cool puzzle. I loved Simons face when he hit tick before putting in the last digit.

[@Orenotter]

Sudoku is quite a fun sport. Puzzles we solve of each sort. But your vids, I attest Are the absolute best When they're simple and fun, and they're short! Yeah, on Wednesdays especially, the short ones are best, because all work in the office stops while Cracking the Cryptic is on.

[@kwilson5832]

I'm not really a fan of Michael Lefkowitz's (no offence meant - I appreciate the effort made in setting them, but I usually struggle with the ruleset). However, I do try most of the puzzles that are posted on the channel, so I opened this one and groaned 'Oh, it's a Michael Lefkowitz one'. I studied it for a few minutes, shaded cells in the 'known' cages, then reached the conclusion that Simon reaches between 6:50 and 7:00 and my mindset changed. I realised i had understood the rules and now had something to work with using the conclusion I had drawn. I really enjoyed it as I worked through it! Thank you Michael (and I promise that I won't groan next time i open one of your puzzles!)

[@colej.banning2419]

This was sort of right at my level. Completed it in 24:47. I found it challenging but never so much that I didn't have at least some idea what to do next.

[@rosemarietomlinson7414]

Thanks Simon and Michael. I had fun solving it and then watching Simon do the same. I'm going on holiday next week and I will definitely be trying out the new puzzle packs while I'm away 😊

[@wilesfiles1]

I enjoy seeing these easy puzzles every now and then. This one was a treat.

[@praematura]

I tried this on LMD a few weeks ago and just got lost, but decided to give it a shot again, and this time things clicked: 7:35 (conflict checker off) for my time. Very lovely puzzle from Juggler, many thanks to him!

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

Thank you really for the shorter videos as well, Simon! They are actually a relief for me sometimes in the midst of longer videos, which I cannot afford to watch daily anymore lately... But anyway, I solved this one in 14:17 🙂

[@MattYDdraig]

2:40 I had the distinct advantage of doing Michael's larger Ghost Cells version in testing, which is an exquisitely brilliant puzzle (and took decidedly longer to solve!)

[@thejuggler42]

Thanks for being an early solver of some of my puzzles, I've really appreciated your feedback!

[@emilywilliams3237]

This puzzle has a bit of a fog-of-war feel to it, without the revealing nature of that constraint. Very interesting, and I enjoyed (and benefited from) your talking through the logic, Simon - as always!

[@AditaBattleForge]

this was the quickest sudoku i have solved on this channel ;) made me chuckle a couple times. Thanks Simon and Michael, this was fun!

[@David_K_Booth]

A very witty little puzzle. Great fun!

[@janerobson2297]

Loved it! For the first time ever I solved it faster than Simon 13 mins! But then although I did make an error about halfway through (a wine click 😉? ) which needed unwinding, I didn't need to explain to anyone what I was doing. I loved the cage in the bottom left hand corner!

[@LednacekZ]

I failed hard. My brain just did not work with this set of rules. I will try it again, but something about these rules does not work with me.

[@leickrobinson5186]

9:13 for me. Fabulous idea for a puzzle!! 😄

[@jacksontejada]

13:53. Loved this puzzle!

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 14:43 minutes. That was a nice, fun, and short suduko with some interesting twists. Originally, I messed up on row 6 and combined the bottom two cages into one inside region 5. Luckily, I was able to see how it broke and found my way towards the solution. I'm looking forward to the harder one, because this ruleset kind of rules. Great Puzzle!

[@TheClawNinja]

It really helps to remember that digits can't repeat in cages lol...

[@sunedenlyse]

At least I wasn't the only one who made that mistake :D

11:00 I think a much easier way to explain the blue cage is just odd vs even, you don't even need to do any complicated sums. Box sum is odd. If blue is 4 cells then blue and green would have different parity, but they must have same parity. Therefore, blue is only 3 cells.

[@dVTHoR]

Fascinating that if it weren’t for just one infraction of the repeating digits rule, I discovered an entire other solution taking be over an hour. Could not believe it.

[@raysouth1952]

It’s very glad this is a short video today otherwise there would be no CtC for me today. I don’t watch videos of one hour or longer unless I have absolutely nothing else to do.

[@letMeSayThatInIrish]

New word for me at 6:10 "grid furniture".

[@Gnarlf]

I've never felt so dumb. For some reason, I tried to "fill" the grid with cages of the same sum and naturally ran into issues after the bottom left cage. Then I saw Simon not even batting an eye and continuing :) And here i thought "reading comprehension" would be one of my strong points. Oh how I was mistaken. Realy nice puzzle though.

[@andyparkerson]

I got stuck at the end, and felt like I needed one more hint. Then I realized that I had one cage still not completed. That was the hint I needed, and finished it quickly! So fun!

[@GuardOfGaia]

A quick trick to getting the cage sum is in box 6 the two cells 2&3 must equal the box total and 11+11>21 so cage =10 with an outie of 1

[@aarsca6834]

If i were ever caught in an ancient temple and had to solve a problem to progress, i know the two logicians i would call 😅

[@antoinelg857]

This one was really nice ! Hard to go back on a 6x6 and not thinking about cages with 7/8 or 9 on it but really nice Expecting to see the 9x9 now 😊

[@mikepictor]

so cool. The logic isn't that hard, but it is subtle. You need a little outside the box thinking

[@LorisLaboratory]

Yay, this one was fun, thank you for featuring an 'easy' one! :)

[@azrobbins01]

My only problem is all the mistakes I make.

[@robertaston7256]

That was a lot of fun!

[@leefisher6366]

That was a great one, with a different secret...

[@alyssam4129]

Really enjoyable puzzle!!!

[@ozzy7915]

A warm fuzzy feeling as Simon looks directly into the camera before telling us the secret

[@isidornimages]

Yes please, do the other one too.

[@nemoyatpeace]

Fun puzzle. 7:47. I missed the box in the middle, thought it was referring to r2c3 instead of r2c4, r3c3, & r3c4. Once I realized the cage was at least 4 big, it became easier.

[@piarittersporn]

Beautiful little puzzle.

[@Kairamek]

I wound up using the Secret to figure out the total using the bottom. I got the same point Simon was at when he explained it, the three blues, two yellows, and R6C1 possibly yellow or not. Adding 1-6 is a max of 21. We had at least two cages of equal value in row 6. The orange cage makes the minimum 10. The math makes the maximum 11. If the cages are 11, that's 22 in row 6. Therefore 11 is not possible. If the cages are 10, than R6C1 not part of the yellow cage, and is also 1.

[@justinfarmer8371]

It’s funny Simon used to say sorry for long videos now he’s saying sorry for short videos lol 😂

[@ronjohnson6916]

Not hard but so clever. A joy.

[@The_Omegaman]

Really nice mechanism with the semi transparent cage

[@angec9908]

That was fun!

[@Kinada]

It certainly took me a bit to get my head to accept that the red and yellow boxes were not a single cage at the beginning of the puzzle. After that it was smooth sailing and a lot of fun.

[@madsohm]

That was a fun little morning brain exercise. My time was 8:29.

[@Kirbyfan87827]

Finished in 10:01. Great puzzle!

[@ItsmeAndy123]

9:16 lovely little puzzle

[@futurefox128]

7:42 for me, the title didn't lie!

[@boomergames8094]

There are two additional 10 sum cages. The 631 in the first row, and 541 in box 4.

[@lunardancer6047]

Very fun puzzle. Took me 15:22 and I have a feeling I'll have been very slow on this one (the semi visible cages threw me a bit).

[@Banz_FPSB]

I failed this one because I wasn't able to understand how the "partially invisible" were being shown. I sort of assumed that any border of a cage that was shown was a proof of existence, but that a lack of shown cage border always meant it was theoretically possible for it to exist, even when a nearby border was shown. For instance, I thought that it was perfectly possible for a border to exist between r2c1 and r3c1, despite some borders being shown on the left. With this wrong assumption I don't think I could even break in...

[@carlyrichards1839]

17:40 for me! Can't believe I solved it!

[@srwapo]

15:26, took a bit to get my cages correct, guess I'm learning how to set sudokus!

[@stephencole9289]

You could have another 10 cage in the top right with 3,5,2 or downwards with 5,4,1. Presumably adding in an edge for either would potentially make it easier (or no change). Ah, but cages are PARTIALLY invisible, not fully invisible ?

[@thescrewfly]

Short video, one star, perfectly fine!

[@FrancisFjordCupola]

Those only-partially-visible cages are a bit like visual clues of partially visible lines in fog. Mistook the central cage a bit, once that got figured out things started flying. I think a more difficult version of this could be made with a lower cage total. Totally not a devious hint.

[@titusadduxas]

15:39 - That 4 cage gave it all away really.

[@chromaticcaos]

I finished it in 01:10:32 because I didn't realize digits couldn't repeat in a cage until over an hour in 😅.

[@mudscuffer]

10:21 for me. Fun little puzzle.

[@anchorass]

Got it in 35 mins. I initially misunderstood "set" of cages to mean only 2 in the whole grid. Didn't get very far with that : )

[@julianweibold4026]

great idea, very enjoyable puzzle and one I was able to do fairly quickly for a cange. does anyone have a link to the other puzzle with ghost cages, that Simon talked about? wanna give it a go too

[@chris5619]

I found two more cages! Except, by strict reading of the rules probably not. Since they are not partially visible.

[@bonelessfae4041]

17:09, and this was fun ^^

[@Xiuhtec]

Very cool little puzzle, solved in 12:16.

[@supucr2526]

Did it in 9:03. I don't know why, but i got it pretty fast this time. Normally I need double the time

[@ChicanoryIsMyName]

Just over 12 minutes today. I beat Simon!

[@brianarsuaga5008]

Man, easy nothing, this was kinda tough! I might just be bad at 6 sudoku though. Still really nice

[@RhiannonAgutter]

Gorgeous puzzle but a bit miffed that with a 5:09 solve time I can’t use the excuse of doing a sudoku to have a longer break!

[@benjaminrealy5661]

10:53. Got slowed by the lower left cages 2 missing digits needed to be 25 or 34. But didn't realize the top box's missing digit was 2 or 5 meaning if the former was 25, the puzzle was broken. Not a major error, mind you, but could have been sub 10:00 has I caught it.

[@benjaminrealy5661]

Reading other comments, that wasn't needed because I overlooked the digits cannot repeat in cages. Now my simple mistep became two for the price of one.

[@codenamevoid2421]

Was my bday when this was released, should've said something

[@JaycenGiga]

After about 15 minutes, I only had a few digits in, so I was sure I missed something. Sure enough, I somehow assumed you could repeat digits in cages. After realising that, it was only a few minutes.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

3:07 for me. Very fun puzzle!

[@laszloliptak611]

This was quite frustrating for me. Took me 27:26 to solve. Maybe because I found it confusing to see what could or could not be part of a cage, and I expected the puzzle to be much easier based on the 1-star rating.