The Sudoku Grid Is ALL Fog??!

[@missingdeck9999]

FD and I enjoyed this SOOOOOOO much!! Thank you for the birthday wishes and the song about 3 in the corner! We're happy we could torture you with 2-8-age. Loved the solve! And enjoyed the popcorn during the movie :) Time to plan ahead for the next milestone ... :) -- MaFC Also, many thanks to Sven for the new animation and working with us to have this puzzle be the debut of that lovely addition. And Simon, you followed the solve path pretty much exactly as intended ... it was just a tad tougher than our usual fare :) --FD

[@longwaytotipperary]

Wow wow wow!!!

[@FleckerMan]

Nice - thanks for the epic puzzle, and thank you Sven!

[@kmcdevitt13]

that was a lovely puzzle, thanks to both of you for creating it.

[@davidrattner9]

Just absolutely brilliant from you 2!!!

[@pouletbelette]

We do enjoy seeing Simon struggling like that from time to time. And the last five minutes are really the climax of this 2 hour great movie. Thanks Missing deck and full card! 😉

[@jake_a_g]

Simons reaction to the 3 in the corner update is amazing. So worth the full watch

[@IanDaniel-DataAnalytics]

It was!

[@Mujaki]

That's 3 in the spotlight, losing its... confetti?

[@JayBea]

A new personal record - I solved this in 124:51, which is by far the closest I've gotten to a "Simon Solve" time for a video longer than 40 minutes or so. I know that's nothing particularly special in this community, but I feel like it's a major accomplishment for me personally. Very beautiful puzzle, thank you! I really appreciated the fireworks for the 3 in the corner, and of course I sang along as soon as I saw it. :D

[@Drawoon]

Congrats!

[@Lorz]

Oh that is special in this community

[@mydemon]

I did it in 123! Days..

[@blahhblaah74]

Oh, but it is special. I am still at a point that I don't even start at puzzles associated with Simon-the-movie (i.e.: anything longer than a 90 minute video)... Well done!

[@benjavinci2582]

Congrats Friend! Thats actually a huge accomplishment, what u can be proud of

[@brock2k1]

1:57:28 Legend says that Simon is still un-doing and re-doing the 3, and laughing maniacally each time.

[@aere481]

The reaction by Simon when nothing appeared when the fog cleared, was priceless!

[@margaritashcheglova8670]

The real name of the puzzle is "The Trolls in the Fog"

[@clausewitzianwar]

Watching an hour and fifty-six minutes of sudoku was made absolutely more than worth it to see the confetti surprise

[@Squishy3757]

1:20:45 “It’s so easy to overlook one of them” while deleting the 4 and leaving only 1 place in row 2 for a 4. I’m sure you’ll see it in a minute.

[@RaduStanculescu]

That 4 killed me. 😂It had stood there for so long!

[@MichaelMoore99]

He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him!

[@Schoko4craft]

spoiler 1:33:30

[@David_K_Booth]

This has been one of my favourite puzzles so far on the channel. I was amazed that I could complete it without needing to watch the video for hints: that shows how much Simon and Mark have taught me over the last few years. Thank you, good sirs.

[@RoselynTate]

I came to write exactly the same thing!

[@NZStarlight]

Same! It took me 2 hours and 20 mins but I got there eventually!

[@wayneblackburn9645]

Same here, solved in under 2 hours but wouldn't have had a clue a year ago.

[@Marc_Henkel]

This is a great puzzle! It took me 2:04:34 to solve without any hint. Now its time to watch the video.

[@Wolfos89]

Same here, I would definately not have gotten anywhere if not for watching CtC

[@Jinxso]

This grid is a representation of my mind when trying to solve some of these puzzles on CtC.

[@blabla-rg7ky]

:))

[@solfeinberg437]

Complete fog.

[@Akatsuki69387]

The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma - Patrick star

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 08:07 Let's Get Cracking: 14:40 Simon's time: 1h41m56s Puzzle Solved: 1:56:36 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Three In the Corner: 9x (1:00:55, 1:01:01, 1:01:05, 1:55:15, 1:56:01, 1:56:04, 1:56:20, 1:56:41, 1:57:36) Maverick: 4x (1:30:31, 1:30:33, 1:30:33, 1:42:11) Bobbins: 3x (20:14, 39:00, 1:25:47) The Secret: 2x (04:24, 29:50) You Rotten Thing: 2x (28:17, 37:38) Phistomefel: 1x (1:16:02) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Ah: 35x (16:28, 20:30, 27:36, 27:41, 28:20, 28:28, 37:23, 37:23, 39:44, 39:46, 40:20, 42:29, 55:03, 57:11, 1:01:32, 1:01:46, 1:08:09, 1:11:07, 1:11:47, 1:12:55, 1:13:46, 1:15:23, 1:18:10, 1:22:55, 1:25:34, 1:26:18, 1:28:00, 1:28:00, 1:34:17, 1:35:33, 1:36:36, 1:36:36, 1:40:57, 1:41:26, 1:54:20, 1:57:53) Wow: 12x (18:03, 32:47, 32:48, 33:22, 41:07, 43:42, 57:04, 1:00:22, 1:16:10, 1:16:14, 1:47:08, 1:54:07) Hang On: 11x (15:57, 15:57, 24:52, 28:37, 38:35, 38:35, 1:01:46, 1:17:01, 1:29:46, 1:31:18, 1:35:44) Sorry: 10x (07:32, 18:03, 18:41, 21:53, 25:45, 34:24, 34:24, 35:36, 1:38:31, 1:56:58) Good Grief: 7x (46:24, 52:18, 1:27:06, 1:27:06, 1:38:56, 1:41:02, 1:53:42) Useless: 5x (59:45, 1:32:40, 1:32:43, 1:32:43, 1:39:49) Brilliant: 5x (01:44, 05:58, 06:49, 40:34, 1:57:53) Obviously: 5x (09:33, 59:35, 1:02:03, 1:24:42, 1:55:42) Cake!: 5x (01:47, 05:52, 05:59, 06:31, 1:57:59) What on Earth: 4x (08:16, 32:48, 42:34, 1:11:19) Goodness: 4x (50:29, 1:07:56, 1:40:13, 1:56:42) Clever: 4x (56:52, 56:54, 1:18:07, 1:57:05) Come on Simon: 4x (41:50, 49:04, 1:11:37, 1:50:22) By Sudoku: 4x (41:20, 1:05:50, 1:28:30, 1:41:52) In Fact: 4x (01:13, 26:51, 1:05:54, 1:20:53) Pencil Mark/mark: 4x (48:40, 49:56, 50:00, 57:31) Naughty: 3x (41:57, 1:30:01, 1:41:07) Stuck: 3x (39:20, 1:48:30, 1:48:35) Nonsense: 2x (16:20, 16:23) I Have no Clue: 2x (42:03, 1:26:41) What Does This Mean?: 2x (53:06, 57:42) That's Huge: 2x (1:05:28, 1:09:15) Out of Nowhere: 1x (1:34:51) In the Spotlight: 1x (1:56:23) Beautiful: 1x (1:31:52) Incredible: 1x (1:57:49) First Digit: 1x (10:32) Approachable: 1x (03:38) Flurry of Activity: 1x (57:49) Magnificent: 1x (03:03) Alacrity: 1x (1:35:55) Whoopsie: 1x (1:34:27) Which Means What?: 1x (26:16) Plonk: 1x (1:11:00) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Twenty Seven (13 mentions) Two (188 mentions) Black (66 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Even (5) - Odd (0) Outside (2) - Inside (0) Black (66) - White (2) Column (15) - Row (13) 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!

[@exacto0]

You havent a clue how much i enjoyed going through this list beginning to end

[@bananafluffster]

Lets pin this!

[@brenthoskisson6979]

You should include a section that is quotes from "The Raven" - Is there balm in gilead, truly truly I implore.

[@Nukepositive]

I'm a big fan of Lowko, and I'd really like to this applied to him. The fans have made a bingo game of his commentary, with phrases of his like, "smelling blood in the water," "slowly but surely," "on the other side of the map," and "science cannot explain."

[@Joel-qo6gt]

good bot you get cookie 🍪

[@luckass90]

Doing this without coloring the modular sets. Simon is a mad man.

[@AFT3RDAY5]

Right 😂 It was the first thing I did. Which again shows the superior mind of Simon 👍🏻

[@amysteele2488]

I outdid myself this evening... fell asleep during the birthday announcements, woke up to the sound of the outro music! Had a lovely nap, now to watch the video!

[@stevebreault]

Some of my favourite Simonisms in this video: "Out of nowhere" being the result of standard Sudoku, and a complete and utter disregard for his own pencil marks! 🤣

[@timch5227]

I love the irony of the two constructors names, that can only have an incredible puzzle as an output

[@MisterIncog]

What a treat indeed! The troll with black dots and THREE IN THE CORNER were absolutely worth it! Wonderful job by Missing a few cards and Full deck! And of course, our dear Simon.

[@MisterM2402]

I really wished there had been a black dot hiding in the final bits of fog

[@RaduStanculescu]

I was actually surprised by how long it took Simon to realize there would be no black dots. 😂I was sure quite early that there would be none.

[@margaritashcheglova8670]

@@RaduStanculescu but you can't know for sure until you clear the fog, that's the point - you are sure that it's all a joke but you can never be 100% sure - ooh the torture!

[@markbennet9058]

I discovered yesterday that my daughter whose birthday you mentioned at the beginning of March has surreptitiously purchased the GAS 2 puzzles and is using them to improve her variant Sudoku skills. She may catch me up before I know it ...

[@CaptainSpock1701]

I've been waiting sooo long for this video! *_Thank you so much Sven._* Shout out to you. Your work behind the scenes is so appreciated. (I've been refreshing the CTC channel pretty much every 5 minutes waiting for this video - with the time difference to NZ that got quite late - but it’s worth it.) What a treat. Couldn't wait to see Simon's face with that 3 in the corner - (ᶜᵒʳ3ⁿᵉʳ)! - 1:56:04 And as per usual the CTC channel does not disappoint. This really is one of the nicest little corners of the internet and I am privileged to be a part of it.

[@missingdeck9999]

Thank you for your help implementing this!!

[@CaptainSpock1701]

@@missingdeck9999 Dude, I only had an absolute minuscule part to play. You guys did the awesome work! Must tell you though. It is totally surreal to see a tiny idea from Invercargill New Zealand move literally halfway around the world. (You can check. It's as far as you can get from Great Britain) Cost to subscribe to CTC - Free Getting a silly idea - Free Sending an email to Sven - Free Seeing the look on Simon's face - Priceless! In summary - Totally worth it. You guys all rock and I'm just honoured to be able to be a very small part of it.

[@dustpan5356]

Surprised Simon didn’t color the different modularities. That made it a lot easier for me to track what could/couldn’t be next to each other. Normally Simon is so color happy 😂

[@MaierFlorian]

Ohh I LOVE it that a 3 in the corner now has a party effect ♥ hopefully Simon will never miss one again with this :D and the Puzzle is super interesting indeed, but way above my skills, still fun to watch :)

[@longwaytotipperary]

Yes, that was fabulous 🎉!

[@davidrattner9]

Great way to end a terrific solve and astonishing puzzle!

[@chipsounder4633]

Genius at work!

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

So happy indeed that Sven did automate some of the 3-in-the-corner stuff, after it has been suggested so many times in this chat ;-) Only the sound effect still remains to be done...

[@richnewt]

in today's video: Simon stresses about the possibility of a black dot in box 5, then upon revealing it's true nature at 46:27 immediately forgets about it.

[@TaliyahP]

I was screaming at my screen lol

[@naomis2]

My husband doesn’t understand why I like watching Simon solve these puzzles. But the more I watch the more amazed I am. I am still a novice when it comes to anything other than regular sudoku. I love watching Simon talk through all the strategies. Thanks for an awesome video!

[@GianniBergandi]

64min for me. Amazing puzzle !

[@kfr8601]

Please never apologize for long videos they’re such a joy to watch

[@cherriespancakes]

It was such a fantastic puzzle! Very hard yet bizzarely approachable thanks to the fog railroading and the very consistent logic from one x-sum to the next. Didn't need help which i'm super proud of. Spoilers ahead : I KNEW when I read the rules there would be no kropki in the grid! I was so glad to be right! It's so cheeky it would be missed opportunity if it wasn't. I also aaawwed audibly at the little 🎉when the 3 appeared in the corner, such an adorable easter egg!

[@bobblebardsley]

39:12 🐦 Once upon a springtime breezy, while I pondered, "Is this easy?" Over quite a quaint and curious fog-befuddled sudoku- While I grappled, never cheating, suddenly there came a greeting, As of something gently tweeting, tweeting from the yonder blue- "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "fleeting by me with a clue-" Quoth the birdie "Doo-doo-doo."

[@longwaytotipperary]

I think the birdie was chirping 2 2 2 - and it turns out he was right!

[@bobblebardsley]

Ah, these ravens, rooks and robins, oft evoke from me a "Bobbins!" But I - very nearly sobbing - thought to ask him what he knew. Eagerly I wished the birdie;- vainly hoping he had heard me In a warble weak and wordy, "Could you lend to me a clue? "For the solve has gone absurdly and I don't know what to do." Quoth the birdie "Two-two-two!"

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Nice parody!

[@thithildeprouv8310]

I love it when Simon sings ! You should do full covers

[@cdf007]

What a fun puzzle! The gradual unveiling adds a clever element to the variant genre. Not long into the puzzle I was pretty sure there were going to be no black dots... Just using the negative constraint was nicely minimalistic. Well done to the setters and to Sven for the great solving experience.

[@grahamrskelly6042]

I appreciate the birthday wishes of this community and channel. Much love to everyone stay safe and happy solving.

[@UnGeekCommeUnAutre]

Congratz! This one I would not have been able to solve for sure. Well done.

[@ericpraline1302]

This unfolded beatifully. I guess the essential limitation of FoW is that you always know where to look, at the start at least, but this was quite testing for the genre.

[@stevesebzda570]

VERY NICE [Actually my last digit placed was "3 in the corner."] I did a couple of times. Nice animation, Sven. Nice puzzle, Math Professors. 👍

[@jonhansen9622]

What a great puzzle! Happy Birthday, MaFC! Fantastic solve, Simon!

[@nedb147]

I loved this, I can’t believe Simon didn’t take the opportunity to colour the modular lines, made the solve a lot more simple. The secret Easter egg was a joy. Kudos to Sven

[@d4r4butler74]

YAY Sven!!! Thank you for the Celebration 3... maybe Simon & Mark won't miss them anymore.

[@raysouth1952]

Don’t normally watch these long ones but I had small jobs to do so was able to come back from time to time. Glad I did. Loved that 3 in the corner!

[@terracottapie]

I did this puzzle in 57 minutes on a train ride home, purely logically and without bifurcation. I didn't even find it too hard, except at a couple of points. It was like a free-flowing fun self-unfolding puzzle, the kind I really like a lot. So I couldn't believe it when I looked at the video length and saw that Simon took nearly a full hour longer than me. This is easily a record for beating the video solve time. I'm definitely gonna watch this and see what the snags were.

[@nk0058]

There are few puzzles where I don't need a little guidance from Mark or Simon and I was apprehensive about the 2 hour length but I felt so accomplished finishing it in 60 minutes without having to constantly pause the video! And what a fun 3 in the corner at the very end of the puzzle

[@tangrybird04]

Omg I can’t believe I actually solved this! I opened the puzzle just to see how far I could get, thinking I wouldn’t actually finish it….but thing I’m most astonished about is I solved it in less time than the video length!!!! 1:33:16 ❤❤ Edit: I hate to say it but I’m going back on my solve and I ASSUMED there was no black dot between r8c2 and r9c2😮

[@Yttria]

Fantastic puzzle. Finished in about 2hrs.

[@GrahamNicholson56]

This took me over 2 hours to solve - and it was worth every minute of it! Clearing the first of the fog with the break-in was so satisfying. Thank you to the setters, Sven for the nice surprise and of course Simon.

[@Coyotek4]

51:21 ... math got me off to a strong start, and while I struggled a bit in the middle, I'm happy to have solved this one as quickly as I did. I gotta say, though, that I was NOT expecting ... . . ... that (1) there would not, in fact, be any dots in the actual grid, and (2) there *would* be a confetti party near the end! Wonderful puzzle!

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

I love fog puzzles, can't wait to try... (the video is ~2 hours long) ...I'll just watch Simon do it.

[@RoselynTate]

See, I had that thought too, but after watching him explain the rules I decided to give it a try myself, and managed to actually solve it! There are lots of little deductions to be made around the negative constraint, and you have to find the right place to look, but I don't think any of the individual steps are necessarily all that hard to figure out -- the hardest part is just someimtes figuring out where to look for the next deduction, which is kind of hilarious given that the reason I usually like fog of war puzzles is that they usually help guide your eyes to where you need to look next in the solve, lol

[@ceevio_art]

I used to be the same, but knowing Simon's penchant to take the most difficult route to solve puzzles, these days a long Simon video is just an invitation to beat his time - which wasn't too hard to do today. His refusal to pencil mark cells makes him waste so much time. There were naked singles all over the place today that he just never saw because of his elitist attiude to pencil marking.

[@poppymcdermott837]

​@@ceevio_art hit the nail on the head. Simon could literally halve his time, probably more, if he would just pencil mark. It becomes convoluted for no reason.

[@lumos-12]

My time was around 2 hrs 10 minutes. Loved getting to help test this puzzle for Missing’s Birthday. Happy Birthday Missing!!!

[@missingdeck9999]

Thank you! -- MaFC

[@emilywilliams3237]

This was so very fun, your being bamboozled is never dull, your brilliance at making deductions and explaining your thinking - and your reaction to that confetti when the 3 in the corner was unveiled - so wonderful! Thank you, Simon.

[@joekerr3638]

Loved the ending, perfect. Thank you Sven!!

[@mery1973able]

This puzzle is a pure joy. Thak you so much FullDeck.... 🙂

[@BrooksMoses]

Simon! At 1:10:00, you were right about there being another way to get this set of deductions. With the 4 placed in row 3, you could have used the 24 sum to figure out that that r3c7 was a 6, which would give you the 6 in r2c6, which would have given you the rest of c6 from there -- basically getting the same information in the opposite order. Not necessarily a lot faster, but your intuition was indeed correct. I did see the 4 in box 1 a bit before you did, but I couldn't find that finish at all either. (Interestingly, I don't think the 819 line at the bottom is needed; by the time that was visible, your 4 in box 9 would have resolved the 14 pair in c5, which resolved the 16 pair in c3 that you used that line to resolve.) This was a fascinating puzzle!

[@neokart2660]

I put the three in the corner right at the end very satisfactorily. I'm new to watching videos on the channel, but I've never seen any recent ones, so I finally know why that curious three in the corner effect appears in the puzzles I solved, but not in the videos. Thanks for such good content.

[@francoisduez601]

62:59 Fantastic puzzle! I found the break-in not so hard, but each step in the fog has to made very carefully so it still takes some time... And the end is a piece of magic! 😂

[@justscrobbler1897]

I've never tried a puzzle with a video this long but I adore fog of war puzzles. Managed to actually finish in 47:07 much to my shock. Great solve path, broke in on the top row rather than where Simon did and relied heavily on the negative constraint.

[@sm3ttz]

Simon,. you are a MASTER in explaining, no worries about that. So clever puzzle and clever solve.

[@brianroberts7096]

Once Simon explained the rule set, I was up and running. Got stuck a couple of times until I remembered the negative dot rule. Had to watch the video once (just to check what I had done so far). To the point where Simon gave a big clue about the top row in box 3 adding to 18, then seemed to forget about it. Forgot to restart the clock, but was about 90 minutes. Waited until the end for 1 black dot to unwind everything, and was confused when it wasn't there. The 4(79)8 in box 7 took a bit of spotting. Loved the puzzle.

[@th.nd.r]

INCREDIBLE! Well set and well solved. Monstrous in a joyous way. And Sven with the absolute W on the 3 in the corner!

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Thank you, Simon (and Sally!), for the birthday greetings. I'd just served some cake when I heard my own name -- an unexpected delight. And the puzzle was amazing.

[@Paul-cn3ij]

With a free afternoon ahead I thought I'd give this go and see how far I could get. Amazed to finish this in 45:54 without a single mistake and no need to watch the video. Started on row 1 and after a few minutes reduced the x sums to 5/6 in both cells and quickly proved there was only one combination that would work. So I think Simon starting in column 9 slowed him down. The other thing is I pencil mark like Mark so the negative restraint on 1-2 ratios sorted out a lot and that's not a Simon thing! Great puzzle and I must say quite proud to have done it so quickly in comparison to the master.

[@asktheraccoon]

Miracle Sudoku Simon would be blown away that this puzzle exists and that he's able to solve it.

[@KittKattRED]

This is magnificent. I love the fog mechanic and hope to see more!

[@solfeinberg437]

3 in the corner - almost the last number in. I thought It was saying - almost done - almost done. Had a little fountain of confetti!

[@SilverEchoes]

Not only did we get the long-awaited "all kropki dots are given" rule with a grid completely devoid of dots, but we got it in the most beautiful way possible with the uncertainty of dots until the reveal at the very end. The resulting suspense and comedy were very entertaining. And then we got Simon's utter and baffled glee at the celebratory three in the corner! That brought a grin to my face and I had to rewind to watch the surprise over again. This installment of Cracking the Cryptic was a long solve with some tough spots in the middle, but the payoff at the end was sheer delight. Thank you so much, Sven, Simon, Full Deck, and Missing a Few Cards.

[@stevieinselby]

WOW ... I wouldn't normally even bother to attempt a puzzle that has taken Simon nearly 2 hours, but I thought I would give it a go, just for a laugh ... and ... it worked! Finished in just over an hour, with only one "accidental cheat" where I found that I had stuffed up because fog wasn't clearing. Extensive use of notepad and pencil 📝 to keep track of possible combinations. Fantastic puzzle 👍🏻👍🏻 and quite incredible that it can be solved with so little information at the start! Take a 🎀 and a 🏹!

[@stevieinselby]

🗨 "That is not a 4. Definitely, it's not a 4". This is getting off to a good start...

[@RichSmith77]

​@@stevieinselby 😂

[@shteevuk]

Love the 3 in the corner anim ♥

[@gavinmorton7682]

This is the first puzzle you've shown I tried to do by myself, AMAZING setting! I got pretty far and had to get some help from Simon, but felt really good once it was all said and done! there goes 4 hours of my life on an amazing puzzle

[@missingdeck9999]

We're so glad you enjoyed the puzzle! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment :)

[@osirusbrisbane2305]

Tough puzzle, but it was worth the length to see through such a cool fog puzzle -- plus the party 3!

[@CaptainSpock1701]

18:42 - "OK, this is obvious. That is not a four" - If by "obvious" you mean that you totally lost me, then yeah. It is obvious!

[@LarkyLuna]

For people who aren't good at divisibility or have kids watching along, since the num pad is 3 by 3, all the column share the same number modulo 3

[@markp7262]

1:17:11 finish. I did color the different modulo sets, which helped me with the modulo, but then I missed the negative constraint for a while. But definitely a fun puzzle!

[@jamietherelentless2670]

I love when Simon explains something and then misses it later and I get annoyed even though I would never have noticed it on my own

[@EelcoWind]

45:29 for me, but I did use some paper to check which numbers could be used in the X-sums when the clock wasn't ticking yet. So in total around an hour, I think.

[@rwthomas111]

Very excited to see a full length movie fog puzzle!

[@CrazyIvanTR]

One of the rare times I was faster than Simon, my time is 01:19:15 but this puzzle is playing towards Simon's weaknesses :D After seeing the line is entropic and that every 3 connected cell on the line is divisible by 3 you have to appreciate that whenever there's a 4 on the x-sum clue's start that means the total is going to give a remainder of 1. The same applies to 6 as well, it will always give a remainder of 0 on an x-sum clue. So the only clue where 4 can go is with the 25 and the 26 clue cannot have a 6 or a 4, which means it has a 5. The 5 however can give a total that is divisible by 3 as in a combination of remainders 2-1-0-2-1 so it could go with 27 or 24 if allowed by the other digits on the board. (I got all this within like 2-3 minutes after reading the rules, of course I'm abysmal at normal sudoku and the last 3 rows took be like half an hour...)

[@DMPearson91]

respect for the commitment and uploading the whole thing in its full raw recording

[@trisha2584]

I learnt so much from this video; thank you Simon for the video and thank you Missing Deck and Full Deck for producing such a puzzle. Happy Birthday Missing Deck.

[@missingdeck9999]

Thank you for the kind words!

[@demonduck132]

Great job, Simon. I'm proud of you for persevering.

[@lisahd8117]

Long time watcher, first time screaming at my screen. Thank you so much for all you do on and around this channel.

[@Adrian_Grey]

Really proud of my time on this one: 56:27 I love the combination of the X-sums also being modular lines, very interesting logic there. And the kropki rule was clever, you can guess about halfway through that there won't be any dots, but you can't assume anything until the fog's been cleared. Loved it!

[@ichselbst4798]

Had to watch the video to figure out what took him so long. Result: clue 24 x-sums and the ML box 2/5 in combination with black dot rules Just needed 50:33

[@maxgreve7856]

Loved, Loved, LOVED this puzzle! I always enjoy the ones that are just a little bit 'mathsy' beyond just counting up diagonals or whatever. And one of the few times I think I legit beat Simon's time, which NEVER happens! Was a joy to do the puzzle and watch the video. I imagine works this beautiful don't come along very often, but it would be GREAT to have more like this! Fog, math, and a truly difficult puzzle is just about my sudoku nirvana!

[@f.b.jeffers0n]

I mean wow... I would never attempt this, but you explained the break in well enough for me to understand, and it's beautiful!

[@andrewjanssen8663]

I was at 56:08 into the video when I had a moment of revelation and saw that r3c9 had to be 5: because r3c6 must have the same modularity as r3c9, and the only remainder 0 mod 3 number left in box 2 is 6, which would put two 6's in r3.

[@drewskavich]

An amazing puzzle. A challenging solve. I'm glad I gave it a shot before watching the movie. I did get rightly stuck. Watched along until Simon unearthed a small bit of logic I'd missed and resumed solving. Got stuck again. Watched more of the proceedings. Got another nudge and was able to finish this beast. I then had to watch the remainder of Simon's quest.

[@cotroneigiuseppe888]

Damn it! The fog sudokus are always the most curious. I think that it takes a great immagination but, above all, a great logic skills!💪😛

[@ProBadSing]

I can't believe I managed to solve this one. Truly spectacular puzzle. The sensation of placing the first digit in this grid was unparalleled.

[@davidwilson8183]

Puzzle of the YEAR!!!! Thank you for the fun time!

[@missingdeck9999]

Thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed it :)

[@krist39]

This was such an amazing puzzle, I love the "all rules and almost no numbers" ones. Took me about 5 hours! Looking forward to watching this video tomorrow to see how you did it (too tired right now), but I'm guessing your start wasn't quite as exhausting. I actually spent an hour or two working on all the possible combinations before I realized that the remainder of the sum could be used to determine the value of X.

[@alaguerre6362]

What a puzzle. It took me forever, and I made a few mistakes (awful any time, but worse when the fog doesn't clear), but I enjoyed it anyway.

[@brock2k1]

I was feeling good after soliving this in not much more time than it took Simon, until I watched his solve and realized that all through my solve, I had made the mistake that he kept avoiding, namely not waiting for the fog to lift before assuming there was no black dot between a given pair of squares. I would never have made the final deduction Simon made about a possible black dot near the end of his solve in a million years.

[@Greatoscarrat]

Love the birds twittering away in the background of this video (and other Simon videos). Very atmospheric and quite relaxing!

[@mtmcdougall7097]

I loved that 3 in the corner graphic, great touch from the software.

[@buggy879]

As soon as I did the Puzzle I put 3s in all corners too see if it would trigger in all corners and it did.

[@cgstreet08]

Great puzzle. 67:53 for me. Simon, you missed the naked 6 in box 2 at 48:48, which would have shaved about 20 minutes off your time. Candidates for r2c6 are 1,2,6,8. The 1 is on the modular line in column 6. The 4 in r1c6 rules out 2 and 8, leaving the 6. Then candidates for r3c6 are 1,2,8, but the modularity of r3c5 knocks out the 1, leaving a 2,8 , which sets the modularity of r3c7 and r3c8, and so on.

[@ronjohnson6916]

The 4 in box 1 was indeed available for a while. But I don't think it mattered much. I see why Simon prefers to keep his pencil marks as meaningful as possible -- it's just the way his mind works when grinding a tough puzzle.

[@JasperJanssen]

It wasn’t just available, his pencil marks showed it as available; If nothing else, putting it in would have lifted a few squares of fog, although, granted, probably not much more. But if course you only know that it didn’t show much after said fog lifted…

[@stangerrits6712]

Quite a cringe to see him remove the pencil mark in R2C2, but not looking at the consequences

[@ronjohnson6916]

Yes. But I'm used to grinding through dense pencil marks. It's almost the totality my toolkit on a puzzle like this. You can see Simon dismiss box 1 as being consequential several times. I think the number of pencil marks is a short form for "no weak squares here" to him. Whereas I am always, well I got something. Let's see if it leads to anything.

[@martinepstein9826]

Wonderful puzzle. Each step is difficult but no step is monstrous. At the very end all you need to notice is that 4 and 8 can't be next to each other in row 7, hence one of them is in r7c2.

[@Jesthers]

Solved this one all my own! In only about 3 hours too! Remarkable puzzle, the fact that *spoilers* there wasn't ever a single black dot in the puzzle really got a smile out of me. That 1:2 ratio negative restraint pretty much sets a good 80% of the puzzle, it's really nice. And the fact that this puzzle ends with a 3 in the corner is a very welcome sight. This puzzle had such a wonderful ruleset and kept me excited to play more the whole time, one of my new all time favorites. A grand recommendation by me, and happy birthday Missing a Few Cards, marvelous work :D

[@missingdeck9999]

Thank you so much for the kind words and birthday wishes!

[@mewmewmew12]

A sudoku has never been more aptly titled

[@Jodawo]

Sven is a genius! Now, Simon won't forget to do the song... LOL

[@jonnybolton4659]

The way to argue about R7 around 1:53:40 without having to postulate a 7 is to ask where do 4&8 go? The only options are R7C2, R7C6 and R7C7, but C6&7 domino cannot contain both, so R7C2 must be from 48

[@hacatu]

Very good puzzle, complicated yet approachable enough that even a simpleton such as myself was able to solve it!

[@windybeach2184]

I used the drawing tool to highlight the hidden modular lines, and colour coded the 3 digit sets. That made it much easier to visualise the patterns across the grid. It’s rare that I beat Simon at a puzzle, so this was very enjoyable!

[@brianarsuaga5008]

I said in another comment that I was scared off by the video length, but I couldn't help myself. And I did it! Once again I'm really, really impressed by how the fog of war mechanic makes puzzles that would be VERY difficult EASIER by limiting your search space. Also, what a GORGEOUS puzzle with a funny twist that I was very suspicious of almost from the start.

[@mewr11]

I'm excited to watch through the video - usually when I see such a long runtime I take a crack at the puzzle, make no headway, then watch; but this time I actually solved the puzzle in just over an hour. Interested to see what breakthrough it took so long for Simon to get to - or if we even thought out the puzzle in the same way at all.