This One Line Will Astonish You!

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Today's sudoku has been discovered by Aspartagcus - we say "discovered" because it seems so extraordinary that a single "themo" line can give a unique solution and yet it does. You can give it a try the puzzle at the link below:
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Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. The square bulb and line form a 'thermometer' which must be populated by double-digit numbers. Each number starts with the tens-digit followed by the units digit (seen from the bulb end) ie tens and units digits alternate along the line. The numbers must increase moving away from the bulb.
▶ PATREON MADNESS ◀
As a Patreon bonus, Simon has recorded his solve of the beautiful puzzle Mark attempted recently by Sumanta Mukherjee. Mark did an amazing job of solving it without recourse the trickery that Simon is perfectly happy to employ!
Jovi_al's 20-puzzle Sudoku Extravaganza is coming on 1 July!!
Remember that we will also be releasing a new Murder Mystery Sudoku Hunt for everybody if we reach 5000 patrons.
/ crackingthecryptic
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▶ SIMON REACTION BOARD (!) ◀
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▶SOFTWARE◀
Play the puzzle in the video by clicking the link under the video (above). We are building a website which will allow you to enter your own sudoku puzzles into the software and this is coming soon!
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▶ABOUT US◀
Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships.
Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[@aronlide]

Aspartagcus here. Great to see that my long search for a valid grid with only one clue was worth it! :D Thanks a lot for featuring this, I'll sit back and enjoy the video now. :)

[@danieljones6072]

Fantastic Puzzle!

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

Amazing discovery. I can only try to picture your quest for this ultimate in clue paucity.

[@darkluigi254]

Wow. This one is insane! As the guy, who inspired Garford to do his double digit tree (and possibly came up with the idea of doing a double digit thermo) this is EXACTLY what I envisioned this genre to be. No crazy branches, no other clues, no strange layout. Just a simple line that leads to a beautiful puzzle. I didn't think, this was actually possible. But thank you for proving me wrong. Your puzzle is a true work of art ❤️

[@bristolrovers27]

Absolutely brilliant puzzle, I loved it, had you considered doing a setters video for this ?

[@TiaMat99]

exceptionally well done!! I enjoyed watching the solve!

[@muskyoxes]

I saw the two digits at the end of the thermo faster than you did, so that balances out you seeing everything else faster than i did. (edited to take out a spoiler - i have no experience with comments that rank highly)

[@UTU49]

I was thinking something similar. A couple of times in this one I was yelling at Simon, "Simon, look at the ONES" and then later, "Simon go to the END of the thermometer." Not literally yelling. I couldn't do this kind of puzzle the way Simon does (certainly not as quickly), but I'm pleased that I follow all the logic well enough that he would actually solve it considerably faster if I were helping.

[@sealed2mybff]

Ha ha! Sometimes I think the same thing. I'll pause the video and play the game for a while, thinking I'm so smart because I saw a number he didn't and it let me do several more, but then I always get stuck and have to watch him play and explain the logic. I still haven't played one without needing help. This is some next level sudoku, for sure.

[@antolambo]

🤣 love it

[@ahhdonthitme]

I feel so smart when i see it before him aswell lol

[@kasfpg]

Literally the same

[@jaybird6396]

“That is making this not only able to drive a car but get married and vote” was my favourite part

[@lunnnnna6391]

22:25

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

I think everyone must agree with Simon that this puzzle is a phenomenon somehow hard-baked into the universe. The fact that it ended with a bent triple is just icing on the cake.

[@BozoTheBear]

I agree, but almost didn't 'like' this comment as it had 42 likes at the time.

[@Leyrann]

@@BozoTheBear Meanwhile I came across it while it had 68 likes, easiest like of my life.

[@57thorns]

I resolved the bent triple situation by proving that the 57 in r5c8 and r8c7 had to be the same digit. (resolving the 527 in box 9 two different ways) Then I looked in box 3 column 9 for a 5 or a 7, and there were only a 5. I refuse to call that bifurcation given that neither path gave an immediate contradiction.

[@user-is1wf8nc4f]

@@BozoTheBear yyy.

[@Morbuto]

The bent triple wasn’t needed at that point as the thermometer still had one constraint but yes it’s an amazing puzzle 😁

[@Topples7]

That's a lot of given digits for a puzzle with no given digits

[@wariolandgoldpiramid]

I think we can these right-ins. But hey, there's so many puzzles that are so hard to break-in, so this is refreshing.

[@jkid1134]

@@wariolandgoldpiramid oh my goodness, it really could be "right-in" and not "write in". Eye opening

[@gaugea]

senseis divining top's a lot of given card advantage for a card with no given card advantage ;)

[@jeffreytennant]

This has got to be one of the most aesthetic initial positions ever

[@howhardcanitbe7018]

That's what she said

[@reecec626]

@@howhardcanitbe7018 😂😂

[@jesusthroughmary]

Saw "2 REPLIES", said "Welp, somebody beat me to it", was not disappointed

[@rgoyal107]

"We could finish with 69. No jokes" Had me dying 🤣🤣

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

It was definitely an 18+ thermo, in that case, with temperature rising steadily,

[@knightry]

Simon may be the only person on earth who is disappointed by being able to finish with 69. 😋

[@silbertmcg]

Nice

[@luckymustard]

And he subsequently, at one point, said "69 is possible".

[@johnholland9371]

The same energy every time he mentions "naked singles" 😅

[@garethadams5580]

I got a long way into this puzzle after making an early mistake assuming R7C5 "had" to be a 1. As soon as Simon started the puzzle and noticed that wasn't a restriction I felt bad for missing it. But even with that mistake (and not reaching the end) the puzzle's logic was clear and I was amazed at how deep this very symmetrical grid was with no givens. I'm glad it got to the channel!

[@aronlide]

Thanks!

[@gergoturan4033]

I also missed it at first actually, took me a good 10-15 minutes to realize where I went wrong

[@SummerDaylight]

I kept going back to earlier in the puzzle trying to figure this one out and kept getting contradictions. It was driving me mad. Then, I played the very start of simon's video and realized I made this exact mistake.

[@Rubrickety]

Same blunder here. And then, when I finally rewound _almost_ to the beginning and realized my error, I failed to clean up my very first pencil marks - and thus ran into the same contradiction because I still wrongly believed the very first units digit had to be low.

[@andrewzmorris]

I made the same mistake. I think it's a flaw in an otherwise fantastic puzzle.

[@mwward]

Simon: No Sven, I don't have a valid reason for wanting you to update the software to allow me to place numbers like 9.5 into the grid. But I want you to do it anyway...

[@annakwon6234]

haha I love at 22:25 how he talks about the 18 saying "that is making this able to not only drive a car but get married and vote" hahaha made my day! I love Simons little sayings he has!

[@caionascimento4234]

From a beginner: Wow the triple thing logic at the end was amazing, I didn't know I could use this in my favor to solve sudoku

[@rosiefay7283]

Credit to Simon for taking the trouble to explain his thought process here. But I think he did bifurcate. He argued "If r3c9 is 2, r8c9 is 7; if r3c9 is 6, r3c7 is 7." That's splitting into two cases.

[@KingMagenta]

@@rosiefay7283 No that’s how a bent triple works. Because the middle number is never a 7, the only thing the middle digit does is determine where the 7 goes. So just like an x wing, a number that intersects those two outer squares can never be a 7 or the puzzle breaks.

[@Orenotter]

A puzzle with coinage Chinese Is nothing at which one should sneeze, For that long winding worm-O Is a two-digit thermo Yet Simon solves it like a breeze.

[@mikepictor]

7:42 Yes you ARE right to question that.....and I failed to question it. Got a lot of the puzzle filled in with R7C5 being a 1. *sigh*

[@aronlide]

You're not the first one!

[@davidalderson]

Glad I wasn't the only one.

[@stevieinselby]

Same here. Twice.

[@stevieinselby]

@@aronlide It's almost like you deliberately set that up to trap us 🤔

[@aronlide]

@@stevieinselby not my intention, sorry! at least, it's hopefully a lesson learned. :)

[@stevieinselby]

1️⃣ Try to solve the puzzle. Break it. 2️⃣ Try to solve the puzzle. Break it in a different way. 3️⃣ Start to watch the video. Feel a fool for assuming the first number after the bulb was a teenage number. 4️⃣ Try to solve the puzzle. Reach what looks to my untutored brain like a deadly pattern. 5️⃣ Buy fork. Ate it.

[@jm56z43]

Oh, you too assumed the teenage second number ? Feels nice not being alone !

[@sczhnea3923]

After 3 retries, I also found that "evil" number.

[@hisham_hm]

After years of ignoring 69 pairs, Simon finally makes a 69 joke, only when it actually represented a sixty-nine quantity and not a pair of six and nine.

[@kwilson5832]

I got as far as Simon did at 30:26 on my own, which I was really pleased with, as I'm new to these variant Sudokus. I have never heard of a 'bent triple' before, but Simon's explanations are so good, so I will be able to look out for them in future.

[@Coyotek4]

It took me 15 minutes to figure out why I kept breaking (I made a false assumption on r7c5), then another 25 minutes to make it to the end. And yes, "discovery" seems to me to be the proper term for this incredible Sudoku. Fun puzzle!

[@msx80]

That r7c5 was a fantastic trap on its own! I think we all fell for it, i surely did! Kudos to simon for spotting it right away

[@adamheywood113]

According to my research, it's actually quite unusual to finish with that number, so I wouldn't worry about it.

[@themorebeer3072]

I'm not giving this comment a thumbs-up, only because it's currently sitting at 42. And that just couldn't be more perfect.

[@kd8663]

I was the 69th like. So pleased.

[@adamheywood113]

@@kd8663 What can I say except -You're welcome- _Nice_

[@ascensionblade]

This continues to have 69 likes as is intended.

[@decoo7676]

This sudoku is absolutely beautiful. One simple rule, no preserved digits, no additional conditions. Creater of this puzzle must be a genius.

[@aronlide]

Or good at using a sudoku solver for setting, and patient when trying a large number of ways to start the thermometer. :P Interesting fact, though, it only took me a day from having the idea until I found this grid.

[@susanne5803]

That r7c5 though ... Fill, break, repeat ... Thank you for a beautiful puzzle: Aron for the creation and Simon for the solve!

[@Tiger21us]

I am very tired and I read the title of the video as “Cheese Coin” - and didn’t even think it weird… Perfectly natural title in the world of sudoku, I thought ^^”

[@elliminieren8041]

My first attempt at the puzzle was at six in the morning after my cats woke me up. I was way too tired and ran into mistake after mistake and gave up at around 30 minutes. Now, at 9 am I got it done in 19 minutes and then enjoyed the video. I loved the puzzle!

[@KitZunekaze]

This looks like Aspartagcus was doodling random shapes and suddenly said, "Wait, I think this might be a Sudoku." Amazing.

[@Jackleber]

Was able to solve this one without the video for once. A few seconds shy of 30 minutes. Really loved this one.

[@chrisj50]

Brilliant puzzle - a novel idea and not monstrously difficult!

[@rosiefay7283]

A creation or a discovery? Both! Aspartagus deserves credit for the idea of a huge thermo of two-digit numbers; for looking for a particular shape of thermo which would give a unique solution, and for carrying on looking until they found one.

[@ammalyrical5646]

Simon, I'm not really surprised a wonderful puzzle like this is possible, but I am in wonderment that someone actually took the time to set it. It's a gorgeous puzzle. The mathematics and logic existed, now Aspartagcus turned it into a beautiful piece of art. :D For me, this puzzle feels similar to realizing that lab techniques I used that seemed so simple and straightforward once had to be developed by a person who didn't have all the knowledge we have now. They might not even have had all the theoretical background by which we understand how the technique works today. It always amazes me. (sidenote: I was specifically talking about enzyme-linked immunosorbent essays here, or ELISA for short).

[@GMunozS]

Took me 160 minutes and a head start for the first 5-6 numbers. Absolutely beautiful!

[@pandaspangel]

While I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to see this right after it was uploaded like usual, the absolute BEAUTY of this puzzle makes up for it! Wow!

[@gergoturan4033]

After 2 weeks of watching CTC, this was the very first puzzle I could solve all on my own, not watching a single minute of the video and even though it took me 110 minutes I still feel proud Edit: Seems like everyone is saying they fell for r7c5 being a one. I also did. Took some time to realize where I went wrong.

[@aronlide]

Good job! :)

[@karissajohnson7961]

Congrats on solving on your own! You never forget your first

[@Xanditbb]

I immediately saw r7c5 for what it was, I just couldn't do anything past filling the thermometer with the easy numbers lol.

[@fylosofer]

This puzzle was so much fun. I also got stuck near the end at the same point as Simon did, but I didn't see the bent triple (never heard of before) and had to bifurcate to solve. I came here and clicked at exactly the right spot (around 29:20) by lucky guess hoping to see what technique Simon used to deduce the final clue for the wrap up.

[@MitchellD249]

After making the mistake of assuming R7C5 had to be a 1 like so many others and needing to restart twice, it's nice to hear Simon say "that is evil" upon noticing it even though he didn't fall for it. Yes it Simon, yes it is!

[@patrickadams-gillstrom3778]

The 8-3 conundrum 18:35 into the video was what made the rest of the puzzle straightforward for me. Solved the rest with 10 minutes left in the video (playing while watching)

[@VeritasUnae]

I'm not familiar with bent triples myself, but I was really glad after an initial preamble thinking (like others have mentioned) that the second tens digit had to be a 1 (and subsequently realising it lead to problems if it WAS a 1) I could get all the way to the end. Really beautiful logic with the big thermo, Aspartagcus!

[@VeritasUnae]

(Ok, I did need Simon's help with the 3/8 resolutions in box 4 but otherwise! Haha)

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 38 minutes. That break-in was very satisfying to place. I placed the minimum tens digits and it all fell into place, except for the second number, which could have been 1 or 2. After that, it was still kind of tricky, but doable. Great Puzzle!

[@balkthor]

If you weren't dyslexic before trying this puzzle, you are now.

[@pj8752]

Did you mean dyscalculic?

[@francissager3133]

95:00+ here. I never thought of the consequence of the last 60 thermo number being a 63 versus 68. A fabulous puzzle that was approachable, and a new lesson in logic learnt.

[@congobongoproductions5476]

not a huge step but I wanted to point how I saw the end of the thermo couldnt be 93 or 94 at around 24:57 because the previous 90's would have to be 91 or 92 and 92 or 93 (all breaking) thanks for all the enjoyable content, much love from Spain 💜

[@jamesandrewes9640]

Beautiful puzzle. I saw the end move in a slightly different way. If R3C9 is a 6, that forces the thermo to be 86-87. But that same 6 also forces a 7 into R3C7. The powers of sudoku would then require a 7 in the middle column of Box 9 - where it can't go.

[@collapsiblespork]

I'm still a neophyte when it comes to cracking sudokus with a limited number of starting clues, but this one was so elegant looking I knew I had to give it a try. It took me nearly twice as long as Simon to finish it, but for the most part he and I followed the same general path to the solution. The main difference was that I started out by coloring the pairs of digits along the thermo to identify them more readily. That, and the fact that I didn't know the "bent triple" technique so I did have to bifurcate at the end.

[@AussieJohnny]

What a gorgeous (as Simon would say) puzzle. I took the same start as Simon to set all tens digits except R7C5. But then instead of pencil marking corners I went through every units square and pencilled possible centre digits. Just under 30 minutes so I'm pretty happy with that. Thank you Aspartagcus and Simon.

[@curtissumner8578]

48:51. Love the simplicity of it, very approachable and fun!

[@eve_the_eevee_rh]

33:55 the fact that this even exists astonishes me! Woah

[@willemm9356]

7:50 Yup, I fell for that...

[@gokuryu]

That was one of the best puzzles I have ever seen.

[@kevinmorford5032]

It was odd at the end that Simon found a bent triple, but missed the obvious Bivalue Universal Grave (BUG) that placed a seven in column 7, Row 5.

[@QuentinStephens]

Genius puzzle; brilliant solve.

[@juliap1925]

Thanks for showing us your solution. TIL bent triple, which I didn't know about previously and would previously try to look for possible x-wings or otherwise brute force.

[@ShabbaDabb]

Same!!!!

[@jrl1234567890]

Really nice puzzle, and great solve (as always!) Instead of the bent triple at the end: if you make 86 on the line it has to be followed by 87, and, combined with the other 7 which is then forced in box 3, you then can't place a 7 in box 9.

[@George4943]

Nice demonstration of "logic" and "bifurcation" @17:29. You mentally entered the 3 in R5C1 and, inside your head, found that it wouldn't work. Then you demonstrated how we would do it: explicitly entering the 3 (you "knowing," we "hoping") to find a contradiction. "Bifurcation" and "logic" are the same. It is the length of the chain of logic which can be contained in the mind which makes the difference. You crow "Beautiful logic" and then demonstrate what you did in your head (which very few can do, y'know) by explicit bifurcation. "Logic" is "bifurcation" done in the mind. It is not a dirty word.

[@grey_one7898]

I'm relatively new to this and was very proud to have noticed early in the puzzle that based on the path of the thermometer, this was a great opportunity to use Phistomel's Theorem!

[@drstkova]

Wonderful solve, wonderful puzzle!

[@jacksontejada]

This was a gorgeous puzzle and a joy to solve! 40:59, which was a much better time than I expected.

[@RickyRatte]

Oh nooo, I tried this, thinking I had an easy start, just fill out the digits and go up when you have to. I didn't notice you could go up sooner, just writing a second 1 on the third space in the thermometer, only realizing something is wrong after 20 minutes. But I still had fun until then! Edit: restarted with the knowledge it has to be a 2, since the 1 didn't work, and finished it! Even better since this was the first Sudoku I did in years.

[@CloudyAce]

So far I've only done classic sudoku (some day soon I'll sit down with a variant that is alleged to be approachable) but bent triples are my bane. Based on my experience with your classic sudoku mobile app, even knowing that that's the technique needed to resolve the puzzle, I could have paused the video at the end there and probably spent 30 minutes looking for that bent triple before giving up in frustration and hitting play.

[@Aceman1987]

I found a slightly different way to resolve the nearly deadly pattern in the end. You can rule out 6 from r5c7 because 7 would have no where to be in box 9. But it took me like ten minutes to spot that even though i think it is the easier solution than your bend triple. Nice puzzle, very nice solve.

[@ItsNilin]

57 minutes but it was really just an unbelievably beautiful puzzle

[@Jaxom35x]

I had read a comment somewhere before about how Simon doesn't look at the bottom right of Sudoku for clues. After watching this and seeing him miss the 93 - blank - 97 tail of the thermo, I tend to agree with that statement. So much fun watching and learning from Mark and Simon, I love this channel.

[@CMLachky]

Great Puzzle!! That 2 in Box 8 really tripped me up!

[@jonathanyoung8009]

One of my favorites so far... really enjoy your videos!

[@tomibgt]

What nature of evil sorcery does Asparagus practise to discover something as amazing as this?!

[@TwoandaHater]

I wish he had colored the tens digit on the thermo- could've helped.

[@awilliams1701]

I was surprised as well

[@wariolandgoldpiramid]

He did it back in the Tree puzzle (The final boss of Thermo sudoku), so it's unfortunate he didn't do so in this puzzle.

[@briannelson605]

Good luck to Mark on goodliffing this one :)

[@stevieinselby]

It wasn't too bad to pencil mark the whole thing, I don't think I had anywhere on the thermo that had more than 4 possible digits, maybe one cell with 5 but there were enough restrictions that that was quite a reasonable way to go about it.

[@emphyriohazzl1510]

It wss definitely a puzzle tailored for Mark, he'd have finished it way faster ;)

[@bristolrovers27]

Amazing brilliant puzzle, I really want to know how and where Aspartigus got this idea and developed it

[@aronlide]

I got the idea from a question Zack Szekely asked on the discord server: "How many different local constraints are there that can make a 4x4 sudoku unique with just one clue?" The answer to that was thermo and arrow, but it reminded me of a 4x4 double digit thermo I set a while back, which was very easy, so I just wondered if one could do it with a 9x9 grid, and somehow I managed to find this grid. :) I was quite astonished, as you can imagine.

[@SAnmfree]

"No jokes." Too late!

[@harlequinworks3353]

I think this is my favourite low/no given digits puzzle yet. Just beautiful to have only a single extra rule.

[@aronlide]

Thank you! :)

[@vincet68]

Fantastic puzzle - easy enough to get done, but still puzzling enough to enjoy!

[@PauxloE]

Instead of numbers like "fifty-nine-and-a-half", I would talk about "fifty-ten" (which is still absurd, but sounds better), and you can even continue with "fifty-eleven" and "fifty-twelve" if needed. (This doesn't work in all languages, but it does work in English.)

[@shantanunene4389]

Loved this a lot! Not very hard, took about 31:11, but the logic was impeccable. Plus there was a lot of normal sudoku stuff that was required. Also loved the bent triple at the end.

[@gregwarren8009]

Sensational. An exceptionally fun and unique puzzle.

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

Took me about 45 minutes. Not terribly hard compared to many of these here, but really remarkable that it works. Nice find.

[@DCJimS]

Simon. I have been watching you guys for months and this is one of the first puzzles with which I was able to really be in lock step with you. I tried the June Patreon puzzles, but seriously guys….Base 13? I am known to my friends as pretty smart but that one made me feel absolutely stupid. This was a fun puzzle and I felt like I have actually learned something from my months of watching. PLEASE keep up the good work. Your morning puzzle is now part of my morning routine here in the Eastern US. Thank you!

[@specialkalberta]

I love you Aspartagcus. Not really but I wanted to quote from the movie Spartacus.

[@srwapo]

31:18, slight scare at the end where I thought the ones digit in r5c7 had to be smaller than the ones digit in r3c7 (despite a number in the twenties would always be smaller than a number in the thirties) and the grid was breaking. The hardest part was remembering which way around the line I had to scan at any point.

[@eduardosolistinoco9698]

Around 31:00 there are actually 2 Y wings, with the same pivot even! As you see you only need to find one, but pretty curious nonetheless

[@mostman]

Same pivot and the same eliminations. Crazy that this puzzle ends like that. What a discovery.

[@stevendavid5370]

Whow!! What a finale of logic. Fun puzzle

[@jaccohop1239]

I really liked this puzzle! It was a joy to solve and every digit got me excited to scan for the next one. Also it was not brutally hard but not a pushover either.

[@noneavailable9121]

I enjoy watching you and Mark solve puzzles very much! Always entertaining and interesting. Thanks for putting together such a great channel.

[@justinvance9221]

I agree that this is a discovery; however, I think Simon, generally is better at recognizing and/or communicating the beauty in these puzzles, and I’m glad he did this one.

[@SmartHobbies]

“Approachable introductions”. I could have used more of those when I was dating.

[@annakleaber]

English isn't my native language, but I've been learning it for ten years. It never occured to me where the word teenager comes from until this video... my mind is blown

[@bogdancoman91]

So I started this puzzle, resolved a good part of it to then realise that I broke something. Started looking at this video and noticed streight away that "2" from thermometer. The first one I mean. I put that as a 1. Then started all over again, and got locked with the 38 pairs - I had a lot of them, more than you had. I saw the thermometer trick, why it couldn't be a 3 after the last 5 from thermometer. Then I almost finished it, but at the end I got stuck again. I missed the tricky triple from the end, min 30:45 from your video. Thanks for this videos, lovely puzzles.

[@jasoncarrington8635]

Your videos have been quite entertaining and when I find myself calling out when you can't hear me causes me such childlike joy. Keep up these fascinating puzzles that look totally unsolvable.

[@UTU49]

I love yelling at Simon while watching him solve a Sudoku. (Not LITERAL yelling, lol. At least not usually.) It would be extremely gratifying to get to do one with him. I don't think I have the patience or reasoning power to do these puzzles the way Simon does, but I do understand the logic well enough that he would solve it considerably faster if I were helping.

[@HansWurst-eg8xm]

Overseen the possibility of 2 in r7c5 too, so I started again, messed up at the end in box 6, rolled back, took me 37:10. Really cool one!

[@Vathorus]

7:47 "That is evil!" Indeed it is. I missed it, did the puzzle over and over FOUR TIMES putting there a ONE automatically and then running into the clash on the 18:18 logic... gosh! Beautiful anyway :)

[@MichealHolt]

I must have restarted this puzzle five times because I kept breaking stuff. Nearly broke it again, then realized I missed a possible number. Took nearly two hours to finally, fully solve it (granted, there was a bathroom break and a food break somewhere in there, as well as losing focus and switching to other tabs. Probably closer to an hour of total work). I brute-forced it in the end. Didn't know about the bent triple.

[@Dankman9]

Got started quickly and was cruising but took me a heck of a long time to finish. Awesome puzzle though.

[@farmerjohn6192]

Nice puzzle, great linear logic. I like the apparent deadly pattern at the end disambiguated by the 57 in r7c6. Just my level of Sudoko.

[@skyerae722]

Awesome puzzle and awesome solve. I got to the 29:00 mark on my own before I had to just use brute force to solve the rest of the puzzle. I wasn't familiar with bent triples, but I'll definitely see if I can incorporate that technique when I get stuck on harder sudoku puzzles in the future.

[@catydeleal]

Bent triples are also called XY wings (or Y wings), it will be easier to find guides/examples about them by that name :)

[@ellisromero]

I got all the way to the bent triple. Solved it via bifurcation fairly easily but was missing that final bit of logic from the bent triple to justify the solve. Still, what an absolutely fantastic puzzle!

[@crystalgehrt8861]

This puzzle is startling in its simplicity, and it's fun to solve a puzzle that seems impossible at first glance.

[@mjolnir-101]

We should start a petition for Simon to make a video where he recites "The Raven" in its entirety.

[@pacman52280]

He already has.

[@mjolnir-101]

@@pacman52280 Thanks. Do you have a title for that video? I searched for it, but I couldn't find it. I'd love to see Simon's version of The Raven.

[@pacman52280]

@@mjolnir-101, The Monster From The Jaws of Hell, posted on June 7th. It's at the end of the video.

[@kaksspl]

Hey, I solved it almost on my own. Shame I couldn't find how to eliminate 3 from r5c1, but the moment you mentioned it at 17:30, I figured it out and rest of the puzzle was a pleasure.

[@RianneOK]

Got so excited doing this puzzle but I messed it up somewhere because I ended up with a 2 having to go in r5c1 and that breaking the thermo and I have no idea how far back I made a mistake. :((( Might come back to this tomorrow, starting from scratch before watching your solve because this puzzle was too fun to just give up on.

[@ShabbaDabb]

Thanks for teaching me about the bent triple. I don't know that I've ever noticed that technique, but it does seem quite powerful

[@clNighthawk]

Brilliant Puzzle! I colored the thermo to help keep track of the 10s and the 1s (and still screwed them up occasionally) but really that was amazing.

[@majormushu]

I got all the way to the bent triple before I got stuck, this really was a great puzzle.

[@sri0209]

Brilliant puzzle and the way you solved is fast. I was able to solve it too. But when I saw your video I think some area you missed the basic sudoku constraints and you thought much on the new added constraints. Some area I found where you missed 8 on box 8 at 18:40 fixes 8 in box 9 also. At 25:06 the 5 gets fixed in R4 as all other numbers look into the position except 5 At 28:05 the four 4 fixes another 4 in box 9.

[@DarrenNakamura]

Took me three tries; I broke the puzzle twice. The first time I know why I broke it: I assumed R7C5 had to be a 1 to minimize the tens digits, not noticing that it could also be a 2. The second time I'm not sure how I broke it. Third time's the charm, and my third run only took about 40 minutes (but altogether I think it took me about two hours).

[@jacobcapra09]

quite proud of myself on this one - for once my first logical instinct was correct (as Simon's literally always is). Didn't watch the video but I assume Simon took the same route as me, finding all the tens digits and spotting where they are in the same box, row or column to force the digit to decrease. You can deduce all the tens digits are forced from that, then start by placing high digits in the ones columns and working your way down. 32:47 for me, great puzzle!

[@Stratelier]

Yeah, once the tens digits are placed (well, except r7c5) you can treat the ones digits like individual thermos....