I'm so happy that you solved this one! Out of all the puzzles I've helped set, none of them consistently have me giggling to myself as much as this one does when I'm watching someone solve it! When Flinty suggested Zippers as the major constraint other than Copycat Cells, the very first thing I drew in the grid was the "trap" and almost the entire setting process was us trying to build the puzzle in a way that would allow that trap to work. Gdc suggested the Odd Lots rule and it was a perfect way to disambiguate the digits on so many zippers. Ratfinkz, palpot, and juggler all helped a lot with the placement of the lines and collectively understanding how these rulesets could interact and work with each other. I will take the blame for calling the puzzle 3 stars difficulty on Logic Masters. I've been chastised a few times for that... Thank you for solving this and thank you for falling into that trap! I can tell you that Ratfinkz and I at least were giddy with anticipation at seeing your reaction to that!
@martysears3 ай бұрын
Wow, I love the fact you started with the trap and worked backwards towards it. Even more remarkable! That is a really great way of setting, to think of a fun and fiendish idea and then try and engineer it. lovely, i'm gonna go watch the setting stream now
@davidrattner93 ай бұрын
This is just fascinating and incredible from all you!! Exquisite minds working and setting at its finest. Thank you for sharing some insight into it!!
@brianj9593 ай бұрын
That trap is the devil’s work. A masterstroke! 👏👏
@-mir85-362 ай бұрын
I fell into the trap much earlier than Simon, marking R8C2 as a non-copycat cell, since R2C8 couldn't possibly be a two.
@agentkirb2 ай бұрын
I hope this becomes more and more of a thing. As someone that watches a TON of Mario Maker 2 Troll level content I am just waiting for the day that sudokus head in that direction.
@JaymanOttawa3 ай бұрын
My new favourite CTC quote of all time! At 43:20, "Well but ya but ummm... Sorry, that is the most inarticulate exclamation. No. Ok well yes. Uh. No and yes. Hang on. No. The. Right." hahaha! Love you Simon! Don't ever change...
@markp72623 ай бұрын
I think mine would have to be "that's 6," as he places it right next to another 6. 😁
@mononaut3 ай бұрын
Love that he's just trying to keep us up to date on the processing in his brain in real time, as best he can ❤
@JaymanOttawa3 ай бұрын
@@mononaut Agreed! Simon is completely genuine and I love that about him... :)
@six_50003 ай бұрын
can we fit that onto a t-shirt??
@katiekawaii2 ай бұрын
@@mononautHe literally says what we're all thinking. 😅 That's the quality of our own inner monologue while we're solving these puzzles ourselves, 100%.
@Ardalambdion3 ай бұрын
Simon's ability to see joy in puzzles where we only see frustration astounds me. Besides, I have learned much new about the English language from him and him alone.
@Kairamek3 ай бұрын
Large part of enjoy the channel is how honest his enjoyment of puzzles is
@TheBioRules3 ай бұрын
His ability to see complex interactions of sums and substitutions across the puzzle, while also not being able to see that he put three 6's next to each other, is also astounding :) All in jest, I love watching Simon. This channel has reawoken my love of Sudoku puzzles.
@zhoppa3 ай бұрын
genre: Psychological Horror
@carlnorrbom3 ай бұрын
Made my day this comment 🤣
@muntedfinger3 ай бұрын
I fell in the same R2C8 trap. Once the puzzle broke I decided to watch the video to see where I went wrong and that only served to confuse me more... because I happened to watch right after Simon made the exact same error. Wonderful puzzle!
@emilywilliams32373 ай бұрын
Box 3 and the 2 on the center of the zipper is one of the funniest things I have seen in a puzzle maybe ever. Amazing puzzle. I will say that it is something that I would not enjoy solving, and I was worried that I would not enjoy watching you, Simon, but it turned out to be just the sort of intellectual entertainment that I come to CtC for - along with your excellent and thorough explanations. Thanks, Simon, for the video!
@davidrattner93 ай бұрын
Absolutely written beautifully ...as only you can.
@chocolateboy300Ай бұрын
I finished in 113 minutes. This might have been the most I have ever been trolled in a puzzle. Every time I saw something ridiculous that could happen, it did. I thought I was losing my mind and that I had to have broken something. This especially came to point when I put a 2 into r2c8. That is an insane zipper line that works out beautifully. Hats off to Scojo and chat for coming up with this insane piece of art. Great Puzzle!
@chipsounder46333 ай бұрын
Row 2 column 8 was one of the best misdirections in sudoku i have seen 😂
@lapetitecuillereetlepaindo30053 ай бұрын
Not to mention the possible values were 2 and 8.
@brianj9593 ай бұрын
A David Copperfield-esque Magic Trick! Loved it
@thephysicistcuber1753 ай бұрын
Not Simon hovering his triple 6 with his mouse at 1:21:18 .
@brianj9593 ай бұрын
It was the devil’s work
@janeflett49712 ай бұрын
Brilliant puzzle! Laughed out loud when I got the final two copycat cells, a true moment of sudoku joy
@RichSmith773 ай бұрын
54:53 "...if it's green, it's taking that digit, which would have to be a two, and that won't work ... for different reasons ... that would break the zipper." Somewhere, I imagine a constructor to be laughing evily. ”MUAHAHAHA!!!” Edit: 1:13:12 "Can't write two here" Evil laughing intensifies. "MUAHAHAHA!!!"
@SpyrosSolda3 ай бұрын
It would be funny if all copycat digits copied the same value as their digit. And in box 5 the copycat digit was the center one. Probably the zippers would have been different 😊
@kevinmartin77603 ай бұрын
It was more than just a typing error putting the 6 in R3C7, he even said "that's 6" as he did it!
@RichSmith773 ай бұрын
Yes. I don't know how exactly he miscanned the fact there was a 6 right next to it, but he definitely meant to enter a second 6, right next to the existing 6 in r3c8.
@maljamin3 ай бұрын
I think the copycat rule warped his brain. That 6 was actually a second 1 so it needed a real 6 to offset the fake 6.
@emdiar65882 ай бұрын
@@RichSmith77 For all his brilliance, simply scanning for Sudoku is definitely Simon's Achilles' Heel, as he freely admits on several videos.
@myndzi3 ай бұрын
The biggest troll would have been to put a "value" of 3 in a corner by copycat :D
@codahighland3 ай бұрын
But that would have been a 3 in the opposite corner anyway.
@juliadefranco11302 ай бұрын
But it is *green* in the corner.
@sarahnash71743 ай бұрын
Loved watching you solve this! Was waiting all puzzle for the b3 zipper deduction and you did not disappoint! LOVE this puzzle so much! Thank you for solving ❤
@Scojo4863 ай бұрын
I was giggling to myself as usual whenever that cell gets mentioned in a solve, and the sheer disbelief that it can be what it is.
@sarahnash71743 ай бұрын
@@Scojo486 I was too....and even more so thinking about you laughing about it 🤣
@davidrattner93 ай бұрын
@sarahnash7174 just absolutely incredible collaboration between you all!! What a puzzle /setting and trap. Amazing job.!!!
@hyzmarca27373 ай бұрын
The break in for me was understanding that there can oinly be 2 numbers in the middle of a zipper squares, 8 or 9. And 8 requires a copycatted 4 over a 9, which can only be done once. Which means all the others required a normal 9. And there was only 1 square that would break multiple other cells if there was a 9 in the middle. That and all the 9-centered zipper squares couldn't contain doubled values, so they'd have to be copycatting themselves.
@MattYDdraig3 ай бұрын
43:42 Had a huge unwind after overstepping the logic in box 8, but thankfully found it. An excellent puzzle and concept.
@amoswittenbergsmusings3 ай бұрын
Just coming back to reasonably normal life after a stroke some six weeks ago. Watching Simon solving one of the great puzzles of all time is exactly the sort of "Du holde Kunst, in wieviel grauen Stunden..." moment I needed. CtC is one of the brightest spots in a mad confused and dangerous world rapidly descending into insanity.
@janeflett49712 ай бұрын
Best wishes for a full recovery, your comment suggests you are well on the way 💕
@amoswittenbergsmusings2 ай бұрын
@@janeflett4971 Yup! Brain plasticity should do the trick...
@pouletbelette2 ай бұрын
Welcome back, Amos! Wishing you a full recovery.
@jdkemsley76283 ай бұрын
36:18 was a missed opportunity for "therefore, there four!"
@tremkl3 ай бұрын
Take a shot every time Simon says “transplorted”
@ThePolymathlete3 ай бұрын
Not even gonna attempt the hellscape that is this ruleset
@maljamin3 ай бұрын
I had to give up. Zippers plus the yellow circles would be fine, and other types of modifier cell rules I can deal with but the copycat was just madness.
@ianoz13 ай бұрын
You get so close and you think you've messed up, then realise the impossible sum in box 3 is actually correct.
@jeltzz3 ай бұрын
this was such a fun puzzle! i loved the deviousness of the copycat cells, not just their idea but their implementation was devilish!
@In_42_Space3 ай бұрын
Wow what a baffling and thus entertaining puzzle. Congratulations to the setters and to Simon for bringing us this delight of a video 😊😊
@HunterJE3 ай бұрын
I think if Simon had kept track of the fact that the copycats on 9-length zippers with a 9 in the middle had to reflect their own value there were a couple of deductions that might have sped things up, just from ruling out copycat from cells which could not reflect their own values (he eventually remembers but there are a lot of deductions that were available for a while)...
@davidrattner93 ай бұрын
Just breathtaking solving from you Simon!! Your passion is extraordinary!!! Fully committed!
@stevieinselby3 ай бұрын
This one definitely falls into the "evil genius" bracket! Slightly regretting that I gave up too quickly on this one ... I was able to make a few small deductions like the nipple of the zipper having a value of 8 or 9 (and if it's an 8 then the 9 is a copycat 4), but I was worried that the nipple could itself be a copycat cell without thinking carefully and logically through the implications of that. Well done to Simon for a great solve, despite falling into their traps!
@werty3werty3 ай бұрын
I've never seen Simon so confused during a solve, though totally understandably. Copycats are mindbending buggers, and this is among your highest achievment
@Squishy37573 ай бұрын
All your 6 belong to us.
@HunterJE3 ай бұрын
15:00 The other way to think about the problem here is to think about here is if the green cell has the same value as blue, their respective zipper partners will have to be of like value to reach the same sum, and since the copycat's already used in the box there's no way to do this without breaking sudoku rules...
@awilliams17012 ай бұрын
you've already got a green 5, so no others can be green 5's.
@MeriaDuck2 ай бұрын
At 1:15:30 I now suspect that the whole puzzle was constructed just to have a 2 as the center of a zipper line of length greater than three 😂 And I just read the comment by one of the setters more or less confirming that.
@Scojo4862 ай бұрын
😉
@davidhughes71743 ай бұрын
Bravo Simon, another enjoyable solve. Thanks also to the setters, a breed apart.
@janerobson22973 ай бұрын
I love the fact that this puzzle has Simon saying nonsense like that IS 4, so it IS 9. I think the logical mathematical part of Simon's brain fights with the precise linguistic part. One day we will witness an onscreen logical implosion. The equivalent of the blue screen you used to get when you asked just a little too much of a 1990s PC.😂
@virtuous-sloth3 ай бұрын
The words we use are interesting. Simon uses "transplanted off" which to my ear is going in the wrong direction. I was thinking "copycatted in" and/or "copycatted over" to describe the other digit coming in from the other side and covering the digit in the copycatted cell. I wonder how much that directionality causes confusion in the mind about the gymnastics of the digits and values.
@virtuous-sloth3 ай бұрын
Still watching. Now Simon uses "steals its value from" which makes a lot of sense to my ear.
@tomaltmann94833 ай бұрын
Thx for the shout out, Simon, appreciate you Sir Lunch 👽🖖🏻
@LiquorStoreJon3 ай бұрын
What a crazy, wild and wonderful rule set! Can't wait to see this solve!
@petrie9112 ай бұрын
Ugh, went down a wrong path because I assumed that cells had to copy a different cell. Rather unintuitive for the center to be copying itself.
@cooperleher103 ай бұрын
Hi Simon! Another wonderful video! I would love to watch you livestream the Riven remake that came out last week.
@Raven-Creations2 ай бұрын
You really should have used the circles from the start. On the full-box lines, they have to be 4 (on an 8-line) or 5 (on a 9-line). On the 9-lines, the copycat must copy the same value. In box 4, which has an 8-line, the circle must have a value of 4, so it's either 4 with a copycat 9 in the centre cell (not possible, because the copycat in box 5 has to be in the centre), so it's 9 copying 4 from R6C7, and R5C2=4. Now R6C7 must be a copycat, because there's no way to make the circle work. If the 4 is natural, the other cells must be either 2+2 or 1+3, but 2+2 would require 0 in the circle, and 1+3 would require 2 in the circle. Therefore the 4 is value 9, the circle must be 2, and R6C8 must be 7. Because of where the 4 is in box 5, there's a 5 in the three cells on the other end of the line. There's a circled 5 in box 8. Whether it's real or a copycat, it's on a 9-line, where the copycat copies the same value as the digit, so the digit 5 is in the circle, putting 5 in R5C5 and 4 in R4C6 and R7C5. Now we have a copycat 5, so R8C6 is natural. If you'd done more sudoku, plus greyed out all 4s, 5s, and 9s except the ones we know are copycats, you would never have fallen into the trap. You'd have placed 2 in R2C8, and realised that it is in fact possible. I'm pretty sure that was one of the earliest steps in the setting. You really made this harder than it was. You had three boxes with 9-lines, where you don't have to consider the copycat rule, because whether the cell is natural or not, it still has the same digit. You can just do normal sudoku/zipper logic. Similarly, once the 9 was placed in box 4, the rest of the box was natural and normal rules apply. How on earth could you put 6 in R3C7, right next to another 6? It wasn't a typo, you said "that's a 6", and (possibly for the first time ever) you typed 6 at the first attempt. You then compounded the problem by putting another 6 immediately below that one, neither time did you notice that they were next to a 6. This is why you're rubbish at sudoku - you just don't look. You put a 12 in R1C5 after pencil-marking 2s into C5 in box 5, again, you didn't look. You placed 1s in boxes 3 and 6, and never bothered to look where 1 might go in box 9.
@RJWaters22 ай бұрын
I got to the point where i put that magic 2 and thought I'd broken it, and backed up almost so the way to the start...
@sacredsock80313 ай бұрын
i don't know for certain, but i can take a guess who set the trap mentioned in the title
@ralujk2 ай бұрын
Around minute 26:00 when you lock in the 8 on the zipper center in box 4, I'm not sure I understand how you deduced that it can't be box 4's zipper center (r6c1) that's a 9, and then both box 5 and 7 with an 8 on the zipper center and the 9 on the zipper copycatting another value. Can anyone fill in this gap for me?
@johngilbert73592 ай бұрын
Very tough, very exacting! You want to pencil mark the actual cell numbers, but also want to track the possible cell VALUES if it ends up being one of the funny cells. Takes some precise tracking…
@Rubrickety3 ай бұрын
I haven't watched the video yet, but I _have_ solved the (brilliant!) puzzle, and I'm pretty sure I know _exactly_ what trap the video title is referring to. (And yes, I fell into it.)
@Yttria3 ай бұрын
Truly brutal puzzle that I kept making mistakes in. Fortunately I was able to deduce the mistakes and unravel the tapestry each time. Just shy of 140 min solve time.
@icepyrox2 ай бұрын
I thought I followed along and then you put a 5 and said it had to be a 5 and I started to lose it. I still can't follow the lack of copycat until that R2C8 deduction and it all got back on track. So.. luck or skill? Knowing Simon, skill, but just could not follow.
@barmetler3 ай бұрын
I made the same mistake as you with the 2 in the top right, I was like that's just not possible at all XD
@matthiasoc71412 ай бұрын
While the Copycat cells all containing a different value is very neat, I'm not certain it's a required rule to solve the puzzle. I think I skipped that in my scan of the rules and still got the correct result.
@tinam52332 ай бұрын
I was yelling at my phone for what seemed like forever “you have two 6s in box 3” 😂 That puzzle was confusing and fun to watch!
@mfeuell3 ай бұрын
Simon, I strongly encourage you to do this puzzle again someday for fun, but instead of solving it with mostly sudoku try to figure out the naughty digits first. I had a lot of fun doing it that way, and I suspect you would too.
@piarittersporn2 ай бұрын
It took me quite a long time to really understand the rule.... but after that it finally worked with a little brain acrobatics. Great puzzle.
@sly10243 ай бұрын
This was fun! 😅 I did not fell for the trap, I stopped the video and almost commented that Simon is wrong, those can be 1s, but then I watched till the end.
@_-_-Sipita-_-_2 ай бұрын
34:52 for me. that 2 thing was unthinkable, but fortunately after i solved it i did the copycats later
@LednacekZ3 ай бұрын
36:50 for me. i made so many mistakes that it is not even funny. i kept thinking the center of the line was the average in stead of a sum all the time.
@jinkela72953 ай бұрын
Now the difficlty of this puzzle is 4* and still has a rating of 100%
@illmagnus19953 ай бұрын
if I place 3 of the copycats in r1c1 r5c5 and r9c9, how do these copycats behave?
@joschi43063 ай бұрын
I mean r5c5 would just be itself. And if you had both r1c1 and r9c9 as Copycat cells, they would just be the other one, wouldn't they? So r1c1 would have the value of the digit in r9c9 and r9c9 would have the value of the digit in r1c1.
@illmagnus19953 ай бұрын
@@joschi4306 yes, when I finished the video, I had seen it, but thank you
@vadimgiraud56413 ай бұрын
I'm still at 1/3 of the video but I just realised, couldn't box 4 have 7 in the middle of the zipper line? With 9 being a copycat and 8 in an odd circle. Hence making in terms of values 7=1+6=2+5=3+4=2(9)+5(8) . Anyway, cheers for the video. Bye
@vadimgiraud56413 ай бұрын
Nevermind I misunderstood the rules, the value in the circle has to also be the value in the square.
@zogannstorm60443 ай бұрын
Crikey, that was a bit brain-bending! All that transplonding!
@ejvalpey3 ай бұрын
WOW the title is not an exaggeration at all!
@Gonzalo_Garcia_3 ай бұрын
30:55 for me. What a great puzzle, loved it!!
@RealCadde2 ай бұрын
I like it how the devil possesses Simon's essence and makes him put 666 into the grid, breaking all the heavenly rules of sudoku in the process.
@ilsekleibscheidel72193 ай бұрын
At the very beginning I found, that the zipper centers can only be 8 or 9. The reason for this is „the secret“.: For a nine-cell zipper lines with center A the total of all nine values has to be 5A. When their copycat cell is „transplonded“ to the same value, 5A = 45 and A is 9. If it is „transplonded“ to another value, 45 must be reduced to another value-sum which is a multiple of 5. 40 is the only one reachable. So A=8 is the only possibility in this case. That gave me a good start, but later on I needed -as usual- much more time than Simon. The difference between „values“ and the numbers in the cells is quite confusing, but forces concentration. So I was prepared to the trap in the end :)
@patrickv.39793 ай бұрын
Although I purely watch videos for the hard ones, I pride myself on finding the trap very early on! As soon as I saw the 2 grey cells and a 2 pencil mark, I immediately thought of the 1s! Probably my favorite thing in the sudoku world, other than fog puzzles!
@srwapo3 ай бұрын
85:11, I figured the zipper line in box 4 had to sum to 9 by copycating the 9 into r6c4 and broke the puzzle, thus figured it had to sum to 8, which made two other cells in the puzzle have to copycat the 9, which made me feel stuck and go to the video to see what I was doing wrong, only to figure out r5c5 had to be the copycat before I could hit play. Slowly solved from there, took too long to think about how the circled digits were affecting everything.
@jinkela72953 ай бұрын
55:30 YOU HAVE PLACED AN 8 IN BOX 4
@AditaBattleForge3 ай бұрын
this was brutal! For the life of me i could not figure out the 2 in box 3! X-D Had to watch Simon until the moment he first considered the possibility! Of course! :D
@57thorns3 ай бұрын
13:06 is a weird 180 degree symmetry, but I understand the need speaking in general. Regardless of where they are, 8 will have to be the sum (if the 9 is a copycat) so the sums are 4+4(9), 3+5, 2+6, 1+7 and the 49 can only be in r3c3 / r5c5 because of the zipper line layout. If the 9 is not copycatted, we have a problem. If we copy a 1 we will need two 8s in the box (e.g.) and if we copy r3c3/r5c5 we get an even number, which 9 is not.
@karynmorton48433 ай бұрын
Thank you Simon! I get stuck and I watch your logic for something I’ve missed. I got really stuck on trying to figure out how 2 could be in the center of a zipper. ❤
@six_50003 ай бұрын
118:24 .... my eyes are sore
@torstenaan3 ай бұрын
I've stopped getting notification from this channel...
@CrackingTheCryptic3 ай бұрын
Are you subscribed?
@mentalcasanova3 ай бұрын
I had to come looking as well.
@torstenaan3 ай бұрын
@@CrackingTheCryptic Yes, with the bell on max. And I usually get all notifications, but not the last couple of days.
@aliciamessina29233 ай бұрын
Almost thought he wasn’t gonna noticed the 6’s next to each other at the end! Whew! What a puzzle, great job!
@hom-sha-bom3 ай бұрын
transplonted
@Reethso3 ай бұрын
Naughty thingy thingys
@andremouss25363 ай бұрын
What's incredible about Simon is that he is soooo deeply down the intricacy of this madness that his eyes do not burn at these two sixes side to side !
@agoristtaxadvice3 ай бұрын
A brutal ruleset, and a mean puzzle given the red 2 was just mean Lovely puzzle!
@Sinisest11213 ай бұрын
that triple 6 was like typo is going to troll a Simon as a moment he thinks he failed to solve :D
@ckdo19743 ай бұрын
At 1:00:57, the reasoning is wrong. R7c4 would have to have a *value* of 7, not actually be 7, which it could easily do by means of being a Copycat Cell. The reason that this, in turn, fails immediately is that now there's no way of putting a 7 into the box anymore without using a second Copycat Cell...
@RichSmith773 ай бұрын
He's already established that the copycat cell in box 8 has to copy its own value for the zipper sum of 9 to work. I believe he's just using that fact.
@Squishy37573 ай бұрын
Umm green and blue in the center are 90 degrees not 180. Also by definition you can’t have 2 copycat cells in the same box. The center of the center box must be the copycat cell, no?
@RichSmith773 ай бұрын
The cell that a copycat cell rotates to doesn't itself have to be a copycat cell, so in theory the copycat cell in box 5 doesn't have to be the centre cell. (It does once you work out the zipper sums to 9, but then it's due to maths reasons.)
@hyperactivefreak13 ай бұрын
I saw the 2 on the zipper really early on but still managed to put off filling it in until the end because I didn't quite believe it was possible or intended.
@J7Handle3 ай бұрын
I spent a lot of work on placing the copycats in the bottom boxes and the top left box of the grid, forcing the 2 in box 7 to be a copycat. I placed the 2 in box 2 and then didn't even look at the zipper, just kept doing sudoku. It was only when I had 7 digits left to place that I saw the 8, not the 2. And I thought, if that's a real 8, I'd need a 9 in the middle of the line, can't, so it's a copycat. Then I finally realized the strangeness of the 2 being where I had placed it. It was a good laugh right at the end of the puzzle.
@mikoajgutowski77473 ай бұрын
Hoping for Copy-Cat Shrodinger cells, but 2 out of 3 of them are wrogn.
@michaels.48473 ай бұрын
Oh no, you just opened Pandora´s Box ;-)
@angec99083 ай бұрын
There’s Maverick. Right on time.
@snilefisk3 ай бұрын
I wonder where transplOnted comes from
@MarushiaDark3163 ай бұрын
I have discovered green, my lord!
@michaelmatter12223 ай бұрын
🤣 gottem
@angec99083 ай бұрын
Simon always jinxing himself
@antoniolopezmanito35113 ай бұрын
9:57 Wonderful
@frankjiang18573 ай бұрын
Finished in 56:49. Made a couple of bad assumptions throughout the puzzle, but fortunately (?) I was always able to trace it back to its root and they were later when I had already established the break-in. Fun puzzle!
@johncox71693 ай бұрын
I'm only half an hour into the video, but watching Simon completely ignore the yellow circle rule is killing me.