The Phistomefel Displacement

** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
The Sudoku Devil returns to Cracking The Cryptic tonight with his latest sudoku - Displacement - which has basic arrows rules but turns out to be anything but a basic puzzle :) Give it a try at the link below:
app.crackingthecryptic.com/su...
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along an arrow sum to the digit in that arrow's circle.
Nahileon's puzzle, Archery Target, which we titled 'The Masterpiece', is worth checking out. Simon's solve took over 90 minutes! It's available here:
• The Masterpiece
▶ NEW PATREON CONTENT ◀
Our new Patreon monthly reward based around Equal Sum Lines sudokus is OUT - you have until May 20th to send us the solution and be in with a chance of winning a prize.
Qinlux' incredible sudoku hunt is still available. Congrats to Kristy Klingert on winning the competition.
Philip Newman's video explaining advanced classic sudoku techniques as well as how to solve his monster puzzle Palpatine's Design is OUT.
Also Simon's solve of the new Phistomefel logic puzzle, Slitherlink Liars, is also available now.
You can join us on Patreon for as little as $2/month here:
/ crackingthecryptic
▶ Contact Us ◀
Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic
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'.)
▶ SUDOKU PAD - Our New App ◀
It's OUT on Windows (released yesterday!) via Steam here:
store.steampowered.com/app/17...
You can now input your own classic sudoku puzzles into our software using our new App! The app also comes with 12 handmade puzzles from us and we're also releasing occasional bonus puzzles too. Already available on IOS and Android.
**************************************************************
▶ OUR ARROW SUDOKU APP IS OUT ON ALL PLATFORMS!
Here are the links:
Steam:
store.steampowered.com/app/16...
App Store:
apps.apple.com/us/app/arrow-s...
Google Play:
play.google.com/store/apps/de...
▶ OUR KILLER SUDOKU APP IS OUT ON ALL PLATFORMS◀
apps.apple.com/us/app/killer-...
store.steampowered.com/app/14...
play.google.com/store/apps/de...
▶ SIMON REACTION BOARD (!) ◀
With thanks to Andrea for creating this :)
simonreacts.avris.it/
▶ CTC FAN DISCORD SERVER◀
/ discord
NEW: Guide To Our Discord Server:
tinyurl.com/CTCDiscordGuide
▶ OUR BACK CATALOGUE - ALL CATEGORISED WITH LINKS!◀
tinyurl.com/CTCCatalogue
▶ NEW CRACKING THE CRYPTIC MERCHANDISE◀
teespring.com/en-GB/stores/cr...
▶TRY OUR CLASSIC SUDOKU APP◀
AppStore: apps.apple.com/us/app/classic...
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/11...
Android: play.google.com/store/apps/de...
▶TRY OUR SANDWICH SUDOKU APP◀
AppStore: apps.apple.com/us/app/sandwic...
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/11...
Android: play.google.com/store/apps/de...
▶SEND US PUZZLES TO SOLVE/CONTACT US◀
[e-mail]
▶FOLLOW US◀
Twitter: #crypticcracking
@crypticcracking
Instagram (for how to solve daily clues from The Times): crackingthe...
▶Logo Design◀
Melvyn Mainini

[@stevieinselby]

Simon's legendary ability to extract the most complicated deductions, and then completely forget about them just when he needs them, will never grow old 😆

[@anybrody]

Same here. So whenever I gets stuck because of my deduction goes too far, I look at the basic stuff that is. Normal sudoku and such 😁

[@ababil2408]

At 50 ish minutes remark I stopped watching to search this kind of comment..., not dissapointed.

[@Hussfromthearea]

I was just staring at the 5 sum on the 9th section for at least 10 minutes waiting for him to realise 😆

[@Vincent-iz4jl]

"That reduces it into the realms of things I'm not ready to pencilmark" Love that quote!

[@spankmymoomoo]

When I ask my wife where she wants to eat

[@pengwyn1]

Favorite Simon quote for today: “my mouth is writing checks that my brain can’t cash”; thanx for continually bringing a smile with your brilliant solves and simultaneous delightful, witty commentary.

[@KyleBaran90]

Keep in mind he has an accounting background as well

[@masheroz]

*cheques

[@jRoy7]

And Top Gun comes out soon. :)

[@chiepah2]

"One of these digits is on an arrow... I think the 8 is going to be on an arrow adding up to 9 rather than the 9 being on an arrow adding up to 8, there, I said it." That was well said, this is probably my favorite quote ever.

[@bobh6728]

50:30 “It’s comical that this resists still” The 1,2 in r6c8 is looking at the other 2 in the box and rofl. Then once he gets changed to 1 and a 4 above him, the 3,5 in the circle (r6c8) bursts into laughter as Simon tickles the 1,4 on the arrow and still does not enter the 5 sum until the very end by different reasoning. I just wish I was as good as Simon so I could get to the point in the puzzle to make these easy deductions.

[@gRocketOne]

Also, green was never able to be 3 ever since he figured out that purple was 8. He figured out near the beginning that 2*purple + green >= 21 because of the 6 cells that see each other on their arrows. Since purple is 8, green must be at least 5.

[@stormd]

@@gRocketOne Yeah I saw that as soon as Simon pencilmarked the 3 in that cell and was surprised Simon missed it, and thought "either he'll see it, or he'll find some weird way around it as usual"

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

🙃Then a few seconds later at 51:21 *r6c8* splits itself laughing when the *247* triple in *box 3* tries to warn Simon again that *r6c8* cannot contain a *2,* and gets totally ignored.

[@linforcer]

"I know which one it is, I know which one it is!" Is there a purer joy in this world?

[@markp7262]

40:39 finish. Very nice logic! I literally facepalmed when Simon moved away from box 6 after placing the 2-6 pair, and it stunned me enough that I was able to keep myself from doing it again when he solved the 3-5 pairs not from the arrow, but from box 1, half a puzzle away. Every day I am glad that I discovered this channel around the beginning of the world mess (it was recommended from my love of math videos).

[@RMGiroux]

It amazes me the logical leaps Simon can make (while missing that the 9 was limited to 2 spots in the middle column all along by all the arrow cells, but that adds to the fun)

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 03:15 Let's Get Cracking: 03:39 Simon's time: 50m22s Puzzle Solved: 54:01 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Phistomefel: 3x (00:20, 01:10, 21:49) Bobbins: 2x (04:00, 53:36) Goodliffing: 1x (29:43) Knowledge Bomb: 1x (34:47) Maverick: 1x (22:45) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Ah: 19x (08:02, 09:01, 11:44, 15:55, 30:35, 30:37, 39:15, 40:32, 41:19, 42:46, 43:08, 43:31, 43:39, 46:19, 46:26, 48:38, 48:39, 49:18, 52:32) In Fact: 11x (09:20, 19:08, 27:40, 29:43, 32:12, 33:23, 38:03, 42:21, 44:58, 45:18) Sorry: 7x (22:45, 31:57, 34:56, 34:56, 34:58, 35:55, 38:17) Lovely: 7x (08:31, 13:27, 17:59, 34:31, 34:35, 48:41, 52:11) By Sudoku: 7x (25:46, 39:32, 43:58, 46:00, 49:57, 51:13, 51:47) The Answer is: 6x (09:37, 12:39, 17:49, 30:02, 34:41, 35:07) Beautiful: 6x (02:20, 02:31, 27:25, 29:33, 48:43, 54:52) Obviously: 6x (01:15, 04:52, 07:50, 15:05, 15:30, 36:34) Nonsense: 4x (15:39, 15:42, 17:19, 37:58) Hang On: 3x (23:35, 37:21, 53:21) Surely: 3x (16:39, 36:22, 49:18) Pencil Mark/mark: 3x (04:25, 29:43, 52:49) Clever: 2x (02:24, 21:05) Masterpiece: 2x (00:48, 54:00) I've Got It!: 2x (12:25, 25:26) Disappointing: 2x (39:24, 39:37) What Does This Mean?: 2x (11:39, 31:12) Nature: 2x (18:07, 54:21) Useless: 1x (37:19) Axiomatically: 1x (13:53) Naked Single: 1x (45:20) Recalcitrant: 1x (41:02) Magnificent: 1x (00:37) Whoopsie: 1x (13:59) Chromatic: 1x (17:17) Wow: 1x (47:58) Have a Think: 1x (09:02) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Twenty One (13 mentions) Nine (96 mentions) Blue (16 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Low (3) - High (2) Even (6) - Odd (2) Higher (7) - Lower (0) Highest (2) - Lowest (0) Row (11) - Column (10) 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!

[@hibernator8198]

This is a computer program creating all these time stamps? How do you watch a video and scan for specific words/phrases?

[@cbear7996]

I am not the creator of this, nor do i have any knowledge of how this works, but you can read the transcript, with time stamps, and i assume that’s how that works

[@jilliankratish4651]

I had no idea how to start; I was watching this so impressed. But then it gets to 34:20 and he fills in 567, even though there is already a 789 triple in that row which he used to eliminate an 8 in box 9. I cannot tell you how I was screaming at the screen until 38:10, lol. Not to mention the 79 pair in the box and the 7 in the column above. Poor Simon. Maverick was giving him a headache and distracting him. 😅 the apology at 38:20 was very cathartic, haha. Back to being impressed 🤩

[@revandesigns]

I started watching your videos for a week now and began to be fascinated with sudoku and I had never even known the rules before seeing your videos. Now I can’t stop, I have an app that I play all the time and began building my skill level up. Thank you so much for being a beacon to a new passion of mine. I absolutely love your videos!!!

[@emilywilliams3237]

I am always happy to see a Phistomefel puzzle featured. Not because I intend to solve it, or probably even to attempt it - but because I know how happy it will make Simon to do so. Thanks for this very fun video, Simon,. A great way to end a week. This puzzle is a great demonstration of something that you and Mark have said before, that Phistomefel takes a concept or rule set or puzzle type and does not just make an example of it, or even a very good example - he makes a perfect example of it. Thank you to CTC for creating a channel in which this kind of thing is available for all of us to see and enjoy. And many thanks to Phistomefel for this (and all of the other) puzzle.

[@TheSonicPerson]

I solved this puzzle last week and was absolutely blown away by it and I really wanted to see it featured on the channel and here it is!

[@no_name4796]

50:23 simon:"this cell is not a 2 anymore" Also simon: *proceeds to ignore the other two cells which can't be 2 anymore and losing more time...

[@puzzleprivate]

You have opened my eyes to the magical number 14! I don't know why it took me so long to understand it. I was probably still thinking in colors.

[@gregind01]

50:30 "It's almost comical that Simon resists using sudoku " in these puzzles! lol

[@th.nd.r]

That is such impressive setting and solving. So many cool deductions set by Phistomefel, so many incredible things he can pull out of something as simple as an arrow sudoku. And Simon, I would’ve gotten so ridiculously stuck time and time again if I tried this. Bravo!

[@andremouss2536]

Simon started strangely by repeatedly doing sudoku. But I felt relieved when he forgot that 7 in box 8 for ten minutes. We got good ol' Simon back ,-)

[@jessochberg4034]

Yet again Simon impresses and entertains just masterfully! Bravo!

[@icyphilippe]

i love how you went to such great lenghts to get the 5 in the green arrow instead of adding up 4+1. once again a great video

[@Nick-jq5nl]

I actually kinda like it when I spot things before Simon or Mark; it makes me feel smart, even if they might be sandbagging. ;)

[@RonGroves]

Pardon if unwelcome, but you can probably reduce the extra sound from Maverick or anything outside by reorienting your microphone. Currently you're addressing the top of the mic element, where it is designed to be addressed directly at the logo grill. If you addressed direclty into the logo and set the microphone to cardioid, you would get better sound rejection from anything not pointing directly at the logo, reducing extra sounds if they're bothering you. I don't personally find them annoying, but I've noticed this in the last handful of videos I've watch (all of which I've enjoyed, btw). Hopefully this is helpful. I'm happy to help if you're interested or have additional questions. Have a wonderful day and thanks for the amazing content!

[@Pulsar77]

It's part of the charm, really. Maverick is like an honorary channel member, I love little quirks like that. Otherwise we wouldn't have Simon's witty comments like "he's probably celebrating his new movie" :-)

[@RonGroves]

@@Pulsar77 like I said... It doesn't bother me at all. But it's a recitfiable "problem" if one were to desire to rectify it lol

[@daveturner5305]

Just wish the recording level was higher. I have to turn up the playback to max to hear him.

[@TomAto-ry6js]

@@daveturner5305 think you just need a hearing aid, I've got the volume at about a quarter and it's perfet

[@RonGroves]

@@daveturner5305 Adjusting the microphone address position would certainly help here.

[@briantrace9945]

The initial break in was wonderful, the forgetfulness of assumption(s) or simple Sudoku / math calculations legendary, but thereafter scanning seemed to dissert Simon's wherewithal and, with the benefit of looking cold at a solution, it appeared that a number of simple values were missing in his logic to complete the puzzle earlier than anticipated. Perhaps the value at looking at someone else's solve helps develop my own scanning technique and I hence sometimes see an earlier solve. All credit Simon, an enjoyable solve, and all credit for verbalising his logic. Thank you; a big thumbs up.

[@GregJonson]

You know a puzzle's tough when your first digit placement occurs 25 minutes into actually solving it.

[@masheroz]

Simon, I love you, but that final filling in of the 35 pairs on the right was very difficult to watch!

[@adamludwick9931]

34:19 - 38:12 --- For the LOVE OF GOD do sudoku. You have had a 7/9 pair in box 8 since you put them there 10 minutes ago. At no point in time could R9C4 be a 7.

[@longwaytotipperary]

What a great day for CTC fans! Great puzzle, Phistomefel! Great solve, Simon! Also enjoyed the live stream!!!

[@johnpauladamovsky86]

WOW...! Great puzzle... What the hell was Phistomefel doing before he became the greatest puzzle constructor who ever lived? I'm pretty sure he only started making puzzles after he found this KZbin channel, and then virtually overnight, he decided to compete against himself to produce puzzles, each one more beautiful than the next, for the express purpose of winding-up Simon Anthony like a child's toy. Every time, it's like watching the first Apollo moon landing as a live TV broadcast. Great fun... WELL MET...!

[@XenophonSoulis]

Phistomefel reminds me of Bach. Bach always took a musical idea and extracted the best out of it, leaving people and performers wondering at the beauty and the genius that he created, while keeping a low profile for himself (although for Bach that wasn't a choice).

[@johnh2052]

I shook my head when Simon got the 5 in box 9 via sudoku rather than just adding up the arrow digits when he got them.

[@jessevennard2640]

I’m so excited. Let’s get cracking!!

[@Ribo138]

The mental gymnastics is very enjoyable. Takes me a second to get what you’re saying but you always explain it well enough to give me the Aha! moment.

[@glum_hippo]

This puzzle defeated me. I don't mind being defeated.

[@Jukka70]

another great solve. I love these puzzles by phistomefel, and Simon has so much fun solving them

[@phuybrechts6875]

how many is 1+4 in box 6 on the arrow Simon ?😜

[@sampathkumar-ej7xl]

After making zero progress with the usual arrow techniques where one would ask where cant you place a 9 or this must be 6789 or the minimum/maximum sum of the arrow contents, I watched and learnt how smart Simon is let alone Phistomofel!

[@juneflower]

Him casually saying "by the power of Greyskull" made me laugh way harder than expected.

[@ajjeff1033]

This is the first time I was actually 5 min ahead of you. Lol.

[@piarittersporn]

Once again I didn't know where to start. But Simon's brilliant analysis of box 2 (and box 6) was such a help that I finally gave it a try and did it. An absolutely excellent puzzle.

[@Ian_Hay]

A hair less than an hour for Simon. I might be able to do this one! See you in a few hours or more…

[@Arcessitor]

Best of luck

[@Ian_Hay]

So hours, hours later, I did it. My actual recorded solve time from a blank grid was only 49 minutes, but that’s only because it took me hours to wrap my brain around the logic of the 89 pairs and their interplay with the three sums with arrows poking into box 7. Once I had my “A Ha!” moment and understood the logic, I restarted and plugged my initial possibilities in, and went from there. Then it was a standard 49 minute solve. This was friggin’ hard, man.

[@Drawoon]

My goodness, the dramatic irony gets me sometimes. I know Simon is a lot better at finding these steps than I am, but every now and then I do find something. The logic to rule out 3 from the green bulb has been there since 40:25, using the sum of the arrows, and yet Simon waits until 53:50 only to solve it with regular sudoku rules. Still though, congratulations on solving this. I don't think I could have done it myself.

[@not-on-pizza]

"been there since 40:25"... because of the 21 rule. That took me a moment, after reading this. Have a thumb!

[@shteevuk]

Very smart puzzle. Phistomefel has found a way to make one of those crazy knight's move arrow puzzles he's so good at without even using the knight's move restraint ^_^

[@SnowTheJamMan]

Love the "14 blacks and a pink" snooker reference haha

[@zegres]

Any time I think I have made great strides as a Sudoku setter, it helps to look out to the horizon and see Phistomefel waving me on, saying "come along there is far yet to go". In other words, brilliant setting like this makes me feel like a Prize Charlie. (By the way "Prize Charlie" is not defined anywhere Googlable - I assume its Cockney - Charlie Horse, so Prize Horse ... but not sure how that's bad.)

[@James_Sinclair]

As someone who's also tempted at times to feel like I'm pretty good at this, well said (I'll have to take your word for it on the Cockney part, but I'm fully on board with everything else).

[@neilramsey1368]

He's done it again another great puzzle

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

35:02 for me. What a puzzle!! I was pretty sure the break-in would have something to do with some kind of SET, so it took me a while to see the actual break-in. Anyways, incredibly interesting idea, I loved the puzzle.

[@killroy42]

I love it when I can get ahead of Simon by doing *drumroll* BASIC SUDOKU! 🤣

[@LednacekZ]

One thing that Simon missed and I found is that numbers(6) in the arrows that point into either box 2 or 6 have to be all different. Therefor their sum is minimum 21. r7c8 could never be less than 5 as the doubled arrow is 8 and 21-2x8=5

[@RichSmith77]

Simon did find it (see @18:30). He just forgot later, when pencilmarking r7c8.

[@stevendavid5370]

Well done. The logic is there, but it is difficult. When you get going and fill the puzzle with numbers it then gets somewhat easier, at least to follow what is going on. Good job.

[@OlafDoschke]

48:10 What follows is good logic, but you forgot one thing you learned from the construction of the arrows already in box 2: The 6 arrow cells all have to differ, so their minimum is 21. 8x2=16, so the little arrow circle in r7c8 can't be lower than 5. It had to be minimum 5 when you discovered that r3c8 is 8. And I mention this not only to show a shortcut you missed, but because I think the name "replacement" could well be describing how the two slightly displaced short arrows with the same arrow circle cell can't have a repeated digit. Although there is this one arrow cell, which is displaced from the main box with the other 5 arrow cells, it can't repeat a digit. With minimum 21 in mind, you have a restriction which you didn't use twice. I have to bow about the logic which may also have given the name, that one of the two arrow circles is placed in the third. For example, r3c4 is the largest of r2c3 or r2c7. I'd not call this displacement, it's rather maximized or "the chosen one". Whatever you name it, that was surely the greatest bit of logic to break in.

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

37:00 i loved watching mark dance around the 5679 quad in box 8 and then semi-realize it. please never change.

[@LednacekZ]

44:41 for me. any Phistomefel solve is a good solve.

[@fanyaugusts9760]

I love when I'm able to finish such a puzzle without having a look to the video 🙂 but was hard..

[@dsquirrel]

Around 27:00 Simon reasons that purple/green is 8 by assuming it's 9 and following a chain to a contradiction. I found the below reasoning easier to follow as there's less to visualise. First, two lemmas for clarity:. A. Blue/yellow on any two-cell arrow means purple/green is in the circle (and vice versa), since Simon has worked out earlier that these two colours are an 89 pair. B. If blue/yellow is not on the r4c6/r5c6 arrow, then purple/green must be on the r4c5/r5c5 arrow next door. (Simon deduces this around 26:00.) Now consider where blue/yellow could go in box 8. By sudoku, it's not in r7c4, r8c4, or r9c4. And it's not on the r7c5/r8c6 arrow either, since then A would put purple/green in r6c4 where it can't go by sudoku. We are left with two possibilities: 1. Blue/yellow on the r8c5/r9c5 arrow, meaning by A that r9c4 is purple/green. 2. Blue/yellow in r7c6 or r9c6, ruling out blue/yellow from the r4c6/r5c6 arrow. Applying sudoku in box 5 to possibility 1, and lemma B to possibility 2, we conclude in both cases that purple/green is on the r4c5/r5c5 arrow-and therefore must be 8.

[@AWanderingSwordsman]

I had to get a little help from the video. A very clever puzzle indeed.

[@Anne_Mahoney]

I had two functions to go to yesterday -- lots of smiling and small talk, one of them with people I mostly don't know, the other one outside in the warm sun. So I got home a bit late and rather tired. Should I stay up or just crash early? Aha -- Simon v. Phistomefel! Guess I'll sit up a while: always worth it. And (not surprisingly) it was an elegant puzzle: a good use of an evening!

[@dralthoff1]

Has Phistomefel ever been unmasked? I'm not active on the Discord, etc. but I' actually really curious to know his background and what motivates him to achieve such complex break-ins.

[@phistomefel9687]

No, I haven't. :) I have a mathematical background and my motivation to look for such break-ins is quite simply that it makes me happy to find them and share them in the form of a puzzle. This particular break-in is inspired by a Thermo Sudoku by emmettcito called "Heatstroke" which is as wonderful as it is brutally hard.

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@phistomefel9687 Thank you for sharing your talents with Simon & Mark and us!

[@crystalgehrt8861]

@@phistomefel9687 is my hero! I used to always say I'd marry them whoever they were, but I later decided I didn't want to constantly feel stupid in my relationship, so I stick to enjoying their beautiful creations!

[@yossi379]

I love phistomefel sudokus and hardly i am able to do it but today i think Simon got lost. With the arrows situation you can place the 9 on center box and with the 3 arrows interation 8s and 9s quick. Anyway always awesome.

[@poujor]

Like your snooker humor👍

[@daboffey]

"It's almost comical that this resists" - given that the two in box 6 crystalises the 3/5 arrow in box 9, I'd say it IS comical.

[@ApesAmongUs]

"This cell is not a 2 anymore..." And what else in that box isn't a 2?

[@timothybexon6171]

I was hoping you'd have got my email and wished me a happy birthday as well. I had a really cool anecdote as well about the Royal Albert Hall singing happy birthday to me the day before my 18th birthday.

[@hamba1998]

I'm not Simon, but happy birthday anyway!

[@timothybexon6171]

@@hamba1998 thanks

[@Coyotek4]

*sigh* ... too tough for me, for the 2nd 'Simon' puzzle in three days. To say the least, I'm on a cold streak. I thought I had something with SET theory; I got that {r8c1,r9c1,r9c2} had the same sum as {r6c1289;r1289c4} and tried to work from there; alas, I got nowhere trying that pathway. After I gave up and started watching, I saw what Simon did regarding r3c4 and r6c7; from the 22:11 point of the video, I was able to finish.

[@stevenape377]

What a beautiful puzzle and a beautiful solve! (The 357 cell in r7c8 could never be a 3, because Simon had already worked out brilliantly that the six arrow cells had to be different, and therefore at least add up to 21.)

[@PathOfShrines]

Amazing puzzle that I completely botched my solve of. I found the basic placement/maximum logic in boxes 2 and 6, but I needed a (gentle) nudge from the video to take a closer look at the constraint from the sums there and the uniqueness condition on the out-of-box cell (which it seems that Simon took a while to find, so that's something). And then I fouled my solution anyway, I think because of my earlier efforts to find useful set-algebra input. A bit short of two hours in total.

[@zirco77]

34:56 "Oh! that is a hideous color... sorry, sorry, sorry." ;)

[@CaptainSpock1701]

39:34 - I also get 146 quite often in snooker. Unfortunately it takes several games to get there!

[@christopherbellamy7700]

I have come to believe that Simon and Phistomefel are in an eternal duel.

[@emilywilliams3237]

Funny, But I think maybe it's possibly a mutual admiration and pleasure in seeing each other's genius at work? At least, that is what I would like to believe.

[@djmitt3807]

I look at a puzzle and see how long it took Simon to solve it Hmmm 55 minutes not too bad but it means it will take me about a week!!!

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

48:30 for me. fabulous solve.

[@TripleOmega]

Simon is like an Asgard from Stargate. He can only do higher level thinking. Normal sudoku is beneath him xD.

[@noitallmanaz]

I am convinced that Mark is Phistomefel...

[@henk-ottolimburg7947]

I took off at a completely different angle, looking at boxes 2,5 and 6, asking where 9 can go. Not on an arrow. That leaves 3 little L-shapes. Looking at the 'foot' of the L-boot in box 2, if the 9 is there, it's not on the foot in box 5, and so keep turning the mill. That left me with the info that there's no 9 in the 3 circles , and pretty soon that it had to be 6-7-8

[@lylecampbell8288]

That structure in box 6 could never require a 3 below it because of the 21 rule. That could have bypassed a lot of fiddling about.

[@ruokothyan7658]

just finished yesterdays video

[@CaptainSpock1701]

17:00 Of course Red can be blue! Just watch hoodwinked!

[@adamheywood113]

the pencil-marks man, what are you doing :D:D:D

[@no_name4796]

36:24 I will just say: 4th colomn of the last row...

[@logiciananimal]

And I used to think arrow sudoku was boring! Glad to be wrong.

[@dashvash5440]

Aww at roughly 16 min you say you had a ridiculous idea. I know it's silly but I like when you explain the ridiculous idea. It's a sort of building block from flawed logic, how it cropped up, and why it was wrong. I find it informative in several ways

[@michaelcoetzee4344]

It always sounds like Simon hasn't talked all day when he starts the video with such a croaky voice. 🤣

[@ReinierZwitserloot]

at 36:00 you do this really complex analysis. But it's _much_ simpler: There's a double 79 in box 8, so r9c4 must be 5 or 6. And you said it but then didn't act on it: between r6c4 and r7c5, there has to be a 6, which means r9c4 can't be 6 either - thus, it is 5. And r6c4 is 7, and r7c5 is 6. EDIT: Nevermind, you got there in the end.

[@KombatGod]

I'm always astounded by Simon's ability to complete difficult sudoku in a very short time, yet somehow he spends whole minutes doing some very complicated logic while missing some downright obvious logic. Like at 36:10 how he does that whole proof of those three cells being a triple, keeping the 7 in r9c4, forgetting that he had already corner marked a 7 in that column AND he already has a 79 pair in the box AND he already has a 789 triple in the row.

[@leickrobinson5186]

Yay! Maverick!! :-D

[@dextrodemon]

yay! first time beating simon (let's ignore that i made a bad assumption @ the start which just happened to give me the right numbers)

[@blandon93]

I proved high number by applying 123. Number 8 could be made of 71 62 53 pairs, any low number in a row (within a circle) would take either 1-2 (3) 1-3 (4), so it must be at least 5 to fill two arrows. Number 9 has no such issue, but they are in mirror pairs with 8, so the rule applies at least once. I don't remember how I excluded 7, it might be because 5 takes 2-3 or 4-1 and seven is 4-3 5-2 6-1, so only 1 arrow would be possible, which is incorrect.

[@Raven-Creations]

You must live in an area of low gravity - your ideas were fine, but the penny was slow to drop. That is, you made deductions, but failed to see the impact they had. The cells of the arrows with circles in R2 all have to be different, so they add to 21+. This is because the double arrow cannot use the same pair on both arrows, and the single arrow sees all of the double arrow cells. Ditto for C8. The double arrows are at least 6 (5 is the smallest sum with two combinations, but that would use 1-4, leaving 5+6 as the minimum for the single arrow.). 6 (15 & 24) would make the single arrow 9 (36). 7 would account for 14 of the 21, so the single arrow would have to be 8 or 9. 8 or 9 would be easier, but it means the higher of the two is always 8 or 9, so the sums in boxes 2 & 6 are an 89 pair. This means 9 cannot be the sum for any of the arrows in box 7, and only one can be 8, but one must be 8. The sum in box 5 can only be 6 with a 78 pair in the other two, or 7, with 68 in the other two, forming 678 triple. This pushes 8 onto the 9 arrow in box 5 with a 1. You pencil-marked 567 into R9C4 when not only was there 7 pencil-marked in the column in box 5, but there was also a 79 pair in the same box. You then went on to make deductions about a 567 triple, but you could have got all three digits, rendering your triple logic redundant. You deride Mark for pencil-marking, but at least he uses them. Later, you put 1 and 4 on a 2-cell arrow, but floundered around, and eventually solved it by the back door, when the front door was wide open. You sometimes remind me of Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights - reversing across the finish line.

[@achad1607]

I took me about four hours over two days, but, I did it with only one wrong turn, which allowed me to bifurcate the 67 in r6c4.

[@gta2812]

I’m sorry can someone explain again to me why the triple circle at bottom left have to add up to 21? I thought it had to add up to “at least” 21?

[@parlabaneisback]

29:03 - explains why the circles have maximum values of 6, 7, 8 (21).

[@msolec2000]

140 with a missed black is more disappointing than 146...

[@lystfiskerlars]

Nine is one of those three cells 888 :D

[@masheroz]

42:28 - by does it have to be odd?

[@crystalgehrt8861]

you're adding a digit to an even number to make an odd number

[@RichSmith77]

In case you were asking about the circled cell, it was more that it had to be 7 or 9, which happen to be both odd.

[@masheroz]

And it's not a 7 because of the 79 pair!

[@francescozizolfi7049]

Is It just me or the link won't work?

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

17:15 i still don’t get why red can’t be blue. if red is blue, then yellow is the bigger digit and goes on the bulb cell in the corner. why did you say that if red was blue, then yellow had to be on an arrow cell summing up to blue? nvm i see it: if red is blue, blue has to be on the bulb. If it goes on the cell arrows, it will have a repeat in the box since red and blue are both on 2 cell arrows. this then displaces yellow onto a blue’s cell arrows making yellow and blue adding to each other.

[@crystalgehrt8861]

Took me a while to see this too. I was convinced Simon made a mistake for a little bit.

[@57thorns]

37;50 was another shouting match, the 789 all placed in row 9 before all that complex logic was used on box 8,. which has a 79 par as well.

[@alfredlubitch]

and 7s in column 4 :)

[@ThisIsCronan]

hello, I’d just like to say that these circles and arrows are easier to see in dark mode, plus if it’s late/dimly lit where you are you won’t be blinded by the white. This could potentially be useful for the videos too

[@bobfish7699]

it can't be 7 Simon. It's not 7 as it see's a 79 pair in the box. It's not 7 Simon because it see's a claimed 7 in the column, so it can't be 7. And it can't be a 7 Simon because it see's a 789 triple in the row. so it's definitely not a 7. The change of microphone a few months ago leading to a better sitting position, and therefore a better view of the screen has not helped your scanning much, at least not when it comes to 7s. ;)

[@chitraagarwal8259]

Wow! A Phistomefel puzzle whose rules dont take 5 minutes to understand!!!

[@CaptianKatsura]

I'm surprised it took Simon so long to notice that R1C7 had to be different from the 5 arrow cells in Box 2. That was literally the first thing I noticed when I looked at this grid, my eyes were drawn to that piece of geometry (though I was specifically drawn to the version of it in Box 6).

[@zergrush8709]

Is it just me, or is arrow sudoku really annoying to play? I feel like 90% of the time I can make almost 0 deductions from arrow stuff and have to rely on hints or simon to help me out.