The Puzzle In A Puzzle In A Puzzle In A Puzzle In A Puzzle

[@MeganCachiotti]

I love watching these videos and getting angry at the screen when simon doesn’t scan something that I’ve been noticing for 5+ minutes knowing fully well that if I were doing this puzzle on my own I’d never get half as far

[@vikingslayer34]

Welcome to the club haha

[@JanMaynz]

Truth

[@dylankagan28]

We all do

[@aloysiuskurnia7643]

This comment is notable because the first puzzle is practically a scanning exercise, which means that there will be *lots* of this case

[@johndavidalexander6646]

That final 2 could have been found so much earlier 😂 but it wouldn't have helped much...

[@lukostello]

Of all the puzzles I've seen, this one needs a video on how it was set

[@jackw7714]

Have there been any videos on how puzzles are set yet? (Not necessarily by CtC, but anyone)

[@lukostello]

@@jackw7714 yea here are 2 I could find: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3aUf2l4a7h7h6M kzbin.info/www/bejne/rWbUfYCAbbyZhq8

[@RosenblumStudios]

@@jackw7714 yes. CTC has some on the channel if you search or scroll back enough

[@Malarky]

The setter has a youtube channel but no videos, I subscribed just in case they make one because this is a brilliant puzzle(set of puzzles).

[@stevezagieboylo9172]

Oh, I can tell you how it was set. First, start with godlike genius. Then make a 5-level puzzle, which is easy because you're essentially a god. It's clear that no one with merely human brilliance could have created this.

[@AdventCloudStrife]

Building a good (challenging but fair) Hitori, or Akari, or Nurikabe, or Killer, or Star Battle puzzle is not an easy thing to do. To construct a puzzle of one kind that morphs into the next, in sequence, with each layer a satisfying puzzle, is something that ought to be impossible. I think this qualifies as Sublime Genius.

[@landler656]

I honestly had never heard of the non-sudoku puzzles until this video. They each seem to be fairly challenging to set alone but to set them in a way that leads into another puzzle and another seems like it would take a ten pound brain working at max capacity!

[@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307]

Stars are pretty simple due to the constraints.

[@stephenhousman6975]

Actually it would seem to be easier because you are constrained based on another puzzle. Usually you start with the final grid that you want and work backwards.

[@landler656]

@@stephenhousman6975 Maybe it's easier than I thought. I just can't even begin to conceive of where to start something like that. Much like expertly applying make-up, this level of skill seems FAR beyond me.

[@JonFawkes]

This puzzle is the epitome of "But wait, there's more!"

[@JustTheHighlights]

😁😁kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5C1fYyJlrWpl80

[@mostman]

I honestly can’t believe a human made this. Imagine the feeling Matyas had when he finished it. Like stepping back from the Mona Lisa.

[@monkeyunit4533]

6:30 Gotta love it when Simon says "where are we going next" when having the actual 8 cell that can get shaded highlighted.

[@meirshomer4464]

I was literally losing it!

[@killermelga]

This is the first logic masters puzzle I ever tried (and completed). It took me an entire day of on and off trying to complete it but it was soo satisfying and fun

[@jamesahibbard]

Congratulations! Here's to many more solves. Good luck.

[@username-ur6dq]

same here, i have never had so much fun solving a puzzle

[@R.Daneel]

Oh, no! We've trapped another one! Remember to eat and sleep!

[@Zilvaras2]

"I have bad scanning, so I will continue to annoy you by not improving it and still scanning chaotically" as he goes line by line and jumps over the line which as important :D

[@quacking.duck.3243]

This reminds me of that one puzzle in The Witness, in the inner mountain area, which repeated the same layout but adding new restrictions every time. Each time you solved it you were thinking "There's no other way to solve it!" only to be bonked in the head by the next panel.

[@Amara87387]

So for those who want to know. Hitori (一人) means one person Akari (明かり) means light (bulb/lamp)

[@richardharris9708]

may as well add nurikabe 塗り壁 means wall painting (Japan calls them walls not rivers) and sudoku (数独) which means "numbers must be alone" (数字は独身に限る).

[@PauxloE]

One hint when you get to the Killer stage using the CTC software: you can actually remove the corner pencil marks in the rivers, which makes it a bit easier to see everything. Then you just need to remember the totals (10 or 21 excluding the given digits) of the remaining cages, and can also remove the corner pencil marks there, and then use them as usual.

[@57thorns]

Simon reads those instructions and ignores them. I believe his (sometimes) issues with scanning has to do with impatience. Also: The 28 cage with seven digits is a triangular number, which Simon would have caught immediately in a normal killer solve. Over all I could quickly fill in all the candidates for most of the cages and get rid of the given corner marks that way.

[@johnh2052]

Yes. Helped a lot, but it was scary to remove the pencil marks. I worried that if I had a mistake earlier, it would be really tough to recover.

[@Hakucho64]

@@johnh2052 I simply took a screen shot of the puzzle with the pencil marks, then erased them.

[@Creaphis]

I'd be fascinated to see Matyas' process for designing this puzzle. It would be hard enough just designing a series of five nested puzzles that functions, strictly speaking, and follows the rules of each puzzle. Making sure that each level of the puzzle is a well-crafted experience seems impossible. I had to cheat during the killer sudoku - I needed Simon to point out that 9 goes in row 1 in box 2 and I also wasn't able to get any use out of the big "27" cage near the top left without him. I've done a million computer-generated star battles though so I finished that one quickly. My break-in was that in boxes 1 and 7 there has to be at least 1 star in column 1, which means there can't be a star in r5c1, which makes it easy to narrow down where the stars are in box 4, and in columns 2 and 3, and so on...

[@Hakucho64]

That was how I broke in too.

[@dmmax18]

This is a monumental job, hats off to Matyas.

[@MarkTheCat]

согласен

[@onlyonewayrm]

Absolutely stunning puzzles and the fact they merge together is utter brilliance. And as always a mesmerising solve with the puppy like excitement we love so much!

[@nonagrey3422]

This is probably the most ingenious puzzle I have ever seen on this website.

[@DuncanGDA]

Puzzleception that leaves me speechless. I can't even begin to imagine how you would go about setting something like this. Now I'm just eagerly awaiting the legend himself, Phistomefel to create a something with these guidelines. Oh how incredible and difficult that would be

[@peterkelley6344]

Do not speak the unspeakable name for you shall summon him. If you summon him be ready to accept their challenge.

[@neilflood6508]

Each of these puzzles stand alone as a decent puzzle, but the way Matyas has linked them together is utter genius. Could we have more Hitori please.

[@hidalgobuscato7957]

This puzzle would have deserved to be in the book!

[@francescopetracca374]

Hitori: 7:33 Akari: 4:35 Nurikabe: 12:05 Killer: 13:34 Starbattle: 10:24 ( bifurcated like mad, sorry but I really don't like star battle 😅) Well, I'm almost speechless... wow, what a masterpiece!

[@BryanLu0]

For the akari, the pen tool would be quite useful. X for no bulb, O for bulb and shading lit up cells

[@jakubSwaps]

Decided to give this one a try myself. Boy did I not realize what I was in for. After 4:07:18 the puzzle is done and I think it took a chunk of my brain along the way. Excited to watch Simon destroy my time four times over now, hopefully learn something along the way.

[@199523nick]

He took so long to notice the last shaded 8 even though he could’ve gotten it instantly after first set of shading. Never change Simon

[@myamazinglife4389]

When I discovered this channel it was Simon who I watched. I love the way he goes about explaining things and the words and phrases and everything he uses make his videos so enjoyable to watch for me. I’ve never watched one with Mark. But I think I might

[@simonscott87]

Hi Simon! Simon here as well. :) Not sure if I enjoy Matyas's series of puzzles and creativity more or your inspiring problem solving skills and pedagogical way of of walking us through this amazing setting. Thanks for all the videos and your positive vibes!

[@G4M1L]

Very impressive intertdependent series of puzzles. I knew hardly any of the puzzle types (except for the killer sudoku), but found them to be mostly accessible without being trivial. The star battle was a bit beyond me, until i watched Simon's solve up to the critical point regarding column 2. From then on it opened up nicely. Again - impressive series. I wonder, what was the starting point in setting this. I would imagine the killer sudoku, maybe?

[@Swisswavey]

I'm surprised I got through all of those. Pencil puzzles are not my forte so I think I can call those approachable. A very clever series of puzzles that must have taken ages to build. I'm impressed.

[@cookiequeen5430]

Oh I was looking forward to this video! That puzzle looks so exciting!

[@cookiequeen5430]

Wow! I didn't think I would solve this myself, I thought I would just watch, but I started one puzzle after the other while pausing Simons explanations, and I was able to do it :) took me about 70 minutes in total. I must say, the fact this puzzle exists makes me happy :D

[@Ari666Dei]

its the first puzzle i actually attempted in a long time and, admittedly with some help from this video where i got stuck a couple of times, i managed to complete it! even tho it was not 100% from myself im still proud i did it, especially because except the killer sudoku (my fav type) they were all new types of puzzles to me

[@erichvereen1988]

I know this is a late addition, but this is probably one of my favorite puzzles to watch on this channel. I love this puzzle, and listening to Simon's astonishment is a wonderful way to gain some happiness when frustration sets in during the day. Needless to say, I've watched or listened to it several times since it was initially released. Thank you Simon and Mark for keep us entertained long after the pandemic has ended. You are both truly wonderful people.

[@petalb4677]

I *love* this. Not only because it was really cool, but because it introduced me to a lot of new puzzle types I hadn't known! I could never keep up with Simon on Sudoku/Killer Sudoku so I really enjoyed doing the Hitori and Akari along with him! Amazing!

[@tiredmsudude]

530 in the morning on the east coast of the states and I’m watching Simon. Let’s go!

[@robertgray4961]

Might be the first time I ever managed to beat Simon's time on a puzzle, largely because Hitori, Akari and Nurikabe are ones that I do almost daily so those parts were a breeze (also I cheated a little bit by bifurcating a step during the Star Battle, but I'll pretend that didn't happen). I wish there were more of these types of combined puzzles and didn't have to be painstakingly handmade by brilliant setters :D. Beautiful construction and great fun from start to finish!

[@Craznar]

Well that's a surprise, I can't see the blue on a black background - but can see the black on a black background. Douglas Adams would have appreciated that :)

[@philipmiller0802]

Fantastic! It took me around an hour and a half, but what a rewarding solve! I'm glad none of the individual phases were super difficult, especially as this was the first time I solved a Hitori puzzle.

[@JS...]

Thank you for not putting this behind patreon wall (which currently is something I can't do).

[@cdigames]

This was like a delightfully flaky croissant, one delectable layer after another. A great solve if not for needing to really carefully read the rules to make sure I didn't discard anything not needed. As always love the CTC web interface, super useful for things like this!

[@peterkelley6344]

Off subject: I miss those huge, flaky, 8 inch, croissants that are no longer being made locally.

[@jayforty9824]

Star battle (56:46): I think key is columns 2 and 3 where the 2x2s put a star in r8c3. It pretty much falls apart from there. Fantastic set of puzzles!

[@travholt]

Didn't try solving this multi-puzzle, but watching the video, that was exactly what I immediately saw at that point too.

[@slurpleslixie]

I really struggled breaking into it, but that observation seems very easily proved and powerful

[@jpahk]

yep, this was my break-in too.

[@ymiros0953]

Can you elaborate on this? I don't get it at all 😅

[@jpahk]

@@ymiros0953 start by ruling out stars from all 4s and 5s and the middle cell in each box. now in box 1 and box 7, you can only put one star in column 2 or 3 without putting two stars into a 2x2 (which is impossible). so in each of those boxes, there must be at least one star in column 1. that means there must be exactly one star in r1-3c1 and one in r7-9c1. now r5c1 is not a star either, so in box 4, there are two stars in c2-3. neither can be in r5 without ruling out the rest of the whole box, so there is one in r4c2-3 and one in r6c2-3. once you have these dominoes known to contain a star, you can rule stars out of the dominoes alongside and you're off and running. in particular, here you can rule out r7c2-3 meaning there now must be a star in r8c3.

[@ootoounoo]

Great video and puzzle! Just a designer's note: the font in the rules of the last puzzles is quite hard to read as text, is better for titles and short phrases. Regardless, keep up having fun 🙃

[@mirjana72mb]

Matyas is an absolute genius. To combine 5 puzzles so seamlessly is an absolute killer achievement. I dare say it is worth its own unique, global reverence

[@Escviitash]

33:58 - A little tip, Simon: Given pencil marks can be removed that same any as custom pencil marks. The easiest way here is to change to color mode, double-click any blue cell, change to corner mode and press delete. And if you memorize the cage totals, you can do the same for all the orange cells too.

[@DaShikuXI]

Took me 2:15:08 to solve but I did it. Made a huge mistake during the Killer Sudoku bit (confused myself with the corner marks). Definitely needed Simon to explain these rules, as I had never done Hitori, Akari or Nurikabe puzzles before. Luckily I do have a lot of experience with Star Battle, otherwise it would have taken much longer.

[@bingbong9513]

i didn‘t expect to cry but here I am. this is so nostalgic and i love it. thank you so so much for the good times

[@ericpraline1302]

This is incredibly clever, and the puzzles were surprisingly approachable. Perhaps that's an artefact of putting together such a complicated sequence. On the star battle, by looking at columns 2 and 3 together you can get the 1 in box 7 - that was my start.

[@Skycroft1000]

I was late to this one, but I found it amazing! One of the most interesting things (not just puzzles, but things generally) that I have ever seen.

[@KombatGod]

As a fan and expert of crossovers, this may be my absolute favorite puzzle showcased so far on the channel.

[@kwongshuchung]

What the hell is this puzzle??!!! Its just freaking stunning and absolutely brilliant that this puzzle required so many tricks and techniques to finish. 😳😳😳😳

[@migueljuange6022]

Each puzzle in itself is already nice, but how you combine them in one puzzle is just stunning!

[@danielrehfeldt]

What an incredible series of puzzles all from the same grid

[@rontyson6118]

Wow, just Wow. The creativity is off the charts. How in the world can you even put 2 different puzzles together let alone 5? Wow, just Wow.

[@JaxRichardson]

I think this is one of the best videos on the channel. That was absolutely incredible! Loved this one guys.

[@dimitrisdimitriadis4913]

I watch both Simon and Mark almost daily, exclusively as a humbling exercise. I admire you both to the utmost degree, that was an incredible roller-coaster of a walk-along. Thank you ❤

[@matthew456turner128]

That was great and very innovative. I hope other setters create layered puzzles like this. A fantastic journey(as always) with Simon!!!

[@leileleileleile]

Incredible, genius puzzle setting. Wow. And loved watching Simon solve it through!

[@DaedalusYoung]

That's a brilliant set of puzzles.

[@_f355]

In programming, we have this kind of, dare I say, art of producing programs that, when run, print the source code for a program in another programming language which in turn does the same, eventually looping back to the original program. we call them "quines". the longest quine to date has a loop of 128 programming languages, which is absolutely ridiculous.

[@peterkelley6344]

Trying to be funny (I would pronounce "quines" as "queens") ... so ... The Queens were just trying to show their power ...

[@timbeaton5045]

“Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation” yields falsehood when preceded by its own quotation. Indeed!

[@livedandletdie]

This must be why my head went Matyas Martinka all day... it felt a disturbance in the force. Truly an amazing puzzle, Matyas is a genius.

[@longwaytotipperary]

Thank you, Simon!! Wow! That was amazing!

[@tyrgannusgaming6657]

This is my favourite puzzle of 2022 so far!

[@JayBea]

Yay! Saving this for tomorrow, but super excited to give it a try and then watch the solve video.

[@jaskrk6600]

Thanks a lot Simon for the patience, for explaining every single rule for each puzzle and solving them 1 by 1. How Mathyas has done this to create such a beauty puzzle after puzzle is for me the work of a genieus. I hope you will solve other puzzles of this creator. I saw a lot of videos of cracking the cryptic and this is for me Art squared 5 times. Great work ! ;-)

[@djerv1919]

Incredible idea and amazing execution, as all puzzles were very good on their own. Hats off to Matyas, what an ingenious construction! My break-in to the Star Battle was I believe quite a bit simpler than what Simon ended up doing (which was quite impressive and probably not something I would have been able to work out if I had to...): In box 1, you must have a star in column one in order not to leave a 2x2 with two stars left to be placed in that box. The same goes for box 7. Minimum one star in column 1 of box 1 and minimum one star in column 1 of box 7 means that r5c1 cannot be a star. This again means r5c2 and r5c3 are not stars in order not to break box 4, and with this much information from row 5, we are cooking with gas.

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules 1st puzzle: 01:13 Simon starts solving: 02:23 Final puzzle solved: 1:03:55 Total solve time: 1h01m32s And how about this video's Simarkisms?! In Fact: 9x (00:43, 15:43, 35:28, 35:48, 36:00, 41:02, 45:00, 46:22, 54:52) Sorry: 7x (06:17, 08:09, 30:26, 34:56, 50:42, 51:28, 1:01:41) By Sudoku: 7x (36:45, 38:35, 42:53, 48:10, 49:44, 49:50, 51:04) Stuck: 4x (08:33, 08:35, 17:16, 27:20) Hang On: 4x (13:11, 20:11, 33:11, 39:26) Nonsense: 3x (12:20, 24:51, 45:18) Beautiful: 3x (13:49, 29:06, 36:35) Surely: 3x (12:03, 28:35, 42:27) We Can Do Better Than That: 3x (40:21, 41:19, 41:30) Secret: 2x (48:25, 48:27) The Answer is: 2x (06:35, 31:43) Brilliant: 2x (06:45, 46:30) Ridiculous: 2x (29:55, 29:57) Stunning: 2x (47:30, 47:30) Whoopsie: 2x (1:02:06, 1:03:45) Progress: 2x (18:12, 45:42) Wow: 2x (46:27, 47:17) Good Grief: 1x (45:02) What on Earth: 1x (18:37) Useless: 1x (49:14) Bother: 1x (03:37) Clever: 1x (48:57) Lovely: 1x (26:27) Come on Simon: 1x (05:39) I've Got It!: 1x (16:35) Obviously: 1x (1:00:49) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Twenty One (7 mentions) Two (115 mentions) Blue (20 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Even (5) - Odd (0) Shaded (49) - Unshaded (36) 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!

[@ilonachan]

The only bot comment that I'm always happy to see

[@patrickd7988]

So satisfying that the word "even" (5 times) was never used for it's meaning as the opposite of "odd"

[@thepaleone2369]

I've been watching you solve these sudokus for a few days. I've never been super interested in them until watching these vids and this was the one that convinced me to give it a go myself. I played along, and of course sometimes I would have to unpause the video and get a little nudge in the right direction but for the most part, once i understood the tricks it was amazing to solve!!!

[@Ferrastar]

Have been looking forward to this since you first mentioned it

[@nickj7332]

Holy moly. That was a fun puzzle. This was the first time I did most of those puzzle types. I needed a hint at one point, being totally unfamiliar with the logic of a puzzle type. But I managed to get them all done. Only took me, 3 hours? I’m always in such awe at how smart these guys are. Brilliant.

[@rustypotatoes]

I think I've watched this video about 3 times and every time it gets recommended to me i rewatch it. I wish there were more puzzles like this

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

That’s absolutely amazing, I can’t believe someone managed to build such a puzzle as this one. Just incredible. My times: Hitori - 4:54 Akari - 3:52 Nurikabe - 6:07 Killer sudoku - 12:12 Star battle - 3:27 Total: 30:32.

[@chitraagarwal8259]

I tried the puzzles over a whole day with lots of breaks... Had to resort to redrawing and solving each on paper.. then came back and watched the video, went back to my solves and frankly have just been so speechless. Its just astonishing!!! Ive never seen anything like this.. and its not just a gimmick.. each pencil mark put in at the start had a purpose, each puzzle was challenging but approachable. If someone (like Simon and Mark) ever did a talk on the beauty of hand crafted puzzles and the importance of human setters THIS would be what they should use.. Sorry phistomefel - you maybe a genius, but since only about 0.01% of the world can even sit through a solve of your videos you cant command the mass appeal that adulation that this puzzle totally deserves. Can someone pls start a crowdfunding campaign so we can get this puzzle out there across all types of media to every country in the world???

[@masterofzero1]

I'll admit... This puzzle stuff is insane to me and the people like you guys are incredible solving these and the people who make them are a different breed. But I absolutely love watching this channel at night to relax and try to solve along with the video. BIG thank you for being such amazing entertainment.

[@Vullifer1074]

this puzzle is a giant adventure holy crap man. good job on completing it all, if i were smart enough to do this i would, it looks very fun and enjoyable while still being hard. Hitori, Akari, and Nurikabe all look fun, and rather easy, Killer id die on cuz im stupid, and star battles i personally would never touch because itd be too hard. Overall id do it as much as i could until i get stuck. But thats why i watch your videos, to see enjoyable and fun puzzles that im not skilled to complete.

[@PeterFreese]

This puzzle was tremendous fun to solve. I struggled the most with the Killer Sudoku; Simon whips those sums out in an instant from memory and I have to work them all out manually. :)

[@teambellavsteamalice]

I'm glad I didn't try it never having done any. Even after figuring out the rules I would have big problems marking down the hints in an easy way. Any mistake would carry over to the next puzzle, but I wouldn't know it. Separately I think I might have done the puzzles, but then this channel makes everything look easy! But a brilliant puzzle and a joy to watch!

[@gorg8269]

i was able to do all of them but the last despite never even hearing about any of them but killer sudoku thanks to you explaining it extremely well thanks you deserve more than you already do

[@alexrobinson8146]

I've got to say, this video was so helpful for me trying to solve this! I took a lot longer than Simon, but knowing I could refer back to the video if I was completely stumped was so useful! I'm going to be keeping my eye out for more puzzles like this!

[@DanNguyen-oc3xr]

bruh what the hell. the creativity and ingenuity behind this is amazing. (probably not the best first watch tbh, but it was kinda interesting)

[@sohamsengupta6470]

As a puzzle newbie, I got directed over to this here puzzle by some folks on the internet. Excellently designed ans not overtly hard (it took me almost three hours to get through it all with some breaks and stuff but honestly it was mostly due to the fact that I am garbage at sudokus). Very enjoyable.

[@philc2729]

Hats off to Matyas for a brilliant puzzle. Kept us all riveted.

[@DarrenNakamura]

I am so pleased with myself for being able to finish this/these puzzles (time: 99 minutes), but I'm infinitely more impressed with Matyas's ability to set this. Amazing!

[@LanceGreen-jd5qz]

45:52 logic was insane. Rather than regular sudoku he goes on an in depth explanation about the location of 2's and there place in the universe.

[@sabinrawr]

I had the most trouble with the Killer portion, mostly because I play LOT of Hitori, Akari, Nurikabe, and Star Battle. If I'm being honest, I found those a bit on the easy side (though I'll admit that I punted on the Nurikabe instead of being strict with logic, but I sorta guessed and it worked). It was absolutely fascinating and delightful to play six puzzles from the same grid! Brilliant and wonderful, this was! I'll admit that I don't often give CTC puzzles a go, because I just can't see most of the break-ins until I've watched them. Then I'm like "oh of course!". But this puzzle I felt I could actually conquer, and I did in 1h 38m 4s. I'm a bit ashamed of the time, but really happy to have a CTC solve under my belt! Keep up the great work!

[@alanclarke4646]

Took me ages, but as I had never done any of the puzzles, except for killer sudoku, before I think I can be quite pleased with myself.

[@darklord2355]

Hats off to Matyas

[@chrisj50]

Finished it!! Just the fact that none of the individual puzzles are trivial is mind-blowing. Brilliant puzzle :)

[@Raven-Creations]

What a phenomenal example of puzzle setting. I just can't imagine how one would even conceive the idea.

[@themiddleones11]

I always come back to this one Great intro to other types of puzzles

[@hahapwndable]

It feels bad how I only watch his videos and not the other guys, but these are just better to me for some reason I dont quite get myself.

[@alexbarber1566]

The pause @6:25 where Simon says how there must be something to go on with whilst hovering the mouse over a highlighted 8 square which has to be a shaded square and then ranting about how bad at scanning is when he's literally pointing at a valid next step is hilarious! I thought he was trolling

[@c0d3_m0nk3y]

45:52 It's always funny how Simon manages to find the most complicated way to place the 2 in row 1. There are 2's looking at R1C5, R1C6 and R3C4 (which he's just placed) ;)

[@digibetabe]

I now consider myself as an E-Sport fan. A-MA-ZING! I'm touching my screen when I found one stupid digit, while nodding at everything else he says, knowing very well just reading the rules would take me the whole day. And I'm loving every single moment! Is this how a sportsfan feel? 😅

[@VeritasUnae]

Due to an extended series of events, I gave this puzzle a go. Really surprised myself and managed to clear the gauntlet of puzzles with maybe one check on the islands puzzle just to make sure I was on the right track. It took me a good hour and a half but I feel very satisfied having solved this one pretty much by myself. Definitely agree in the star battle that to me, column 2’s logic to fix a star in row 5 was just beautiful. I am astounded at the craft of setting in this puzzle. What an achievement!

[@jojojojoost3507]

Since you asked, I did find an easier way to "blow open" the star battle from 56:45 onwards. If you look at row 2, there cannot be a star on both the 6 and 1 (because box 2 won't have any room for a second star) Therefore you can conclude there is a star either on top of the 2 or 9 (or both). Wich means you cannot put a star at r1c2. Now we can do a similar thing to column 2 to conclude that r5c1 and r5c3 cannot contain stars. After which I continued in a similar way as you did after 1:01:00

[@natalieeuley1734]

Now this is an example of one of these puzzles that couldn't be done on paper. Imagine the amount of erasing involved if you were doing THIS puzzle on paper!

[@ferdinandpurczeld234]

Simon Tatham's portable puzzle collection prepared me for this.~

[@vladimirfranciscodiaz3688]

Amazing puzzle! had to learn how to play hitori, akari, nurikabe, killer sudoku and star battle to be able to solve the whole grid!

[@TheWolfboy180]

LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IT’S INCEPTION

[@th.nd.r]

Truly truly incredible setting and wonderful solving as always. Stunned. Thanks for the bonus content again!

[@brianj959]

This is a magic act. A supernatural creation! Bravo

[@livedandletdie]

So the Hitori took 13 minutes, the Akari took 2 minutes, the Nurikabe took 5 minutes, the Killer Sudoku took way too long for me to actually feel good about it, but the Star Battle took 2-3 minutes top. I've solved way too many Star Battles and Akari Puzzles... All in all, The rules of Hitori were simple and easy to understand, and Simon's solve was truly astounding to watch as well. Specially during the Killer Sudoku part, which despite having spent over a year on Dailykillersudoku... I had problems with that one, too many numbers to keep in my head.

[@blueberrypieology3088]

Stunning puzzle ception. All very approachable, would love it if the setter would share some thoughts on setting this as a series.

[@QazwerDave]

Love these alternative puzzle types !!

[@_Guzumi_]

I think the easy way in for the star battle is to notice that box 1 and 7 both need to have at least 1 star in column 1. This rules out a star in r5c1 and forces exactly one each in the first column of boxes 1 and 7. If you then continue looking to box 4, it collapses quite quickly.

[@aamocryp]

I was about to note the same, realizing this made the starbattle just flow