This Really Doesn't Require Luck

[@Shoodowop]

Thank you for the feature, Mark! This was my first ever puzzle and you nailed the reasoning for the title right on the head. Thank you everyone else for the nice comments. My username is ‘chrisjnap’ on LMG if you’re interested in my other puzzles.

[@emilywilliams3237]

I tried - and solved - this puzzle before watching your video, Mark! I got a bit slowed down by forgetting that I had to count the digit where the two arrow points came together twice, and then once I remembered that I had to give a bit of thought to what it meant! But this was a very fun and interesting puzzle! Loved your solve and this video, as always.

[@tomgalli1188]

My experience was exactly the same!

[@FrancisFjordCupola]

But we know the secret of the universe: Douglas Adams was three short of a sudoku. Obviously he did not look in the corner. Loved doing this puzzle, was a bit of a battle at the end because I filled in something wrong. Being able to do the break-in with math and discovering it was fun from the get-go.

[@MattYDdraig]

9:39 The arrows meeting configuration is a very neat break-in and the whole solve was beautifully smooth.

[@spriggsy83]

I really enjoyed the difficulty level of this one. Enough to challenge me, make me think thoroughly and experimentally, and give me wonderful ah-ha moments, without ever fully stumping me. I definitely did a bit of "What would Simon or Mark try now?" for motivation. Thanks for the puzzle!

[@darthrainbows]

This one had a great "ah ha!" moment, discovering the synergy between the double arrows and the 13 cages.

[@KSilverlode]

Seven is traditionally a lucky number, thirteen a traditionally unlucky one. And this puzzle is a nice smooth solve, sorting out the lucky and unlucky cages. Loved it!

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

In which country?

[@KSilverlode]

@@Paolo_De_Leva Thirteen is considered unlucky In the US and several European countries. I couldn't find a comprehensive list, but a quick google came up with: "English, German, Polish and Portuguese-speaking cultures" ; some references go back as far as Hammurabi. The idea of Lucky 7 seems to be even more widespread, having all sorts of religious and historical connections. Obviously, this isn't true in every country, and many choose different lucky/unlucky numbers - but I assume the puzzle constructor is from the US or another country that commonly uses the 7=lucky, 13=unlucky memes, hence the name of the puzzle.

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 28 minutes. I quite liked the geometry of this puzzle, especially the play between the 7 and 13 possibilities. That given 3 was so powerful in this puzzle, which is kind of surprising. I also enjoyed seeing that 67 had to belong in those 13 cages with arrows surrounding them. Great Puzzle!

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

6:29 for me. Easy and very nice puzzle, I liked it!

[@dilbybar]

Sharing the digits on the arrow lines was a unique constraint, very cool. I also liked the weird interaction of the cage in box 9 with the arrow inside of it partially. Nice approachable puzzle

[@TheHunterMPG]

Absolutely lovely puzzle - the joy of finding that last idea to unwind all the pairs!

[@RoderickEtheria]

16:35 for me. A bit of a surprise how well this works.

[@frankjiang1857]

Finished in 11:37. Pretty approachable sudoku. Fun puzzle!

[@neil2796]

This is the second channel where I've seen this puzzle featured. I couldn't quite manage to get my head around it either time, but I enjoy watching a solve almost as much as I enjoy solving.

[@Kirbyfan87827]

Finished in 24:59. Needed a killer sudoku calculator.

[@brucejones533]

Wonderful solving Mark, fun to watch!

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

Easy but very nice. Cool break-in logic in *boxes 3, 4,* and *8.* Gorgeous geometry. 👏👏👏👏👏

[@bertbergers9171]

Great puzzle, 25:22 to solve. Was a nice break in and some aha moments to keep me going, so it did not fell apart for me. Thank you for puzzle and solve/video!

[@tBagley43]

32:29 pretty fun break in, got stuck toward the middle

[@tomgalli1188]

What fun! I did some bad math at the beginning, forgetting that I was including one cell twice in my multiplication, and ran myself up against a pretty solid wall until I puzzled it out properly.

[@mikepictor]

Following Sodoku from other channels leads to weird deja-vu moments as my brain thinks "Didn't I do this one already?"|

[@piarittersporn]

Very beautiful puzzle.

[@zobososhizion6478]

00:44:20

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

7:05 Another way to think about about this is, it’s 5 different sudoku digits so the cells add up to 15. If we add the bulbs, that’s So 30 + a cell that’s double countered = 32. The double counted cell is 2. 15 + 2 = 17 = 89 pair

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 02:07 Let's Get Cracking: 02:52 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Chocolate Teapot: 3x (10:23, 14:15, 14:18) The Secret: 3x (04:43, 05:19, 06:17) Knowledge Bomb: 1x (05:00) Three In the Corner: 1x (18:15) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Naked Single: 3x (12:41, 15:33, 17:04) Clever: 2x (07:45, 19:42) By Sudoku: 2x (08:06, 08:23) In Fact: 2x (04:37, 05:56) Weird: 2x (12:41, 17:26) Useless: 1x (14:22) Sorry: 1x (06:42) In the Spotlight: 1x (18:19) Brilliant: 1x (00:52) Hang On: 1x (16:07) Pencil Mark/mark: 1x (11:27) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Thirteen (18 mentions) One (48 mentions) Blue (2 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Even (2) - Odd (0) Column (15) - Row (9) 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!

[@srwapo]

17:00 even. Nice how those clues affected each other, I had to think WAY too hard to start with boxes 3,4,8.

[@muterbever1859]

i like this channel

[@susanne5803]

00:28:40 I really learned something in the years this channel exists!

[@codahighland]

The moment you put 1/8 in r1c5, you could have unwound all of box 3: the 8 in the circle always goes with a 1 on the arrow, meaning the top arrow had to be the 9 arrow already. Of course, you found a different path to it, but I liked my observation.

[@psiphiorg]

It appears that I solved this puzzle a few weeks ago, probably near the day that this video originally aired. My time then was 10:02, solver number 412. (As of today, the solve count is up to 8913, so I guess this was a pre-CTC solve.)

[@robsreality]

19:43, more coffee needed.

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

_"...and I think that means this cell is even."_ Mark @6:15 In short, 2(x + y) = 32 + _"this cell"_ hence 2(x + y) - 32 = _"this cell"_ and both sides of these equations must be even. _"and I think we can go further..."_ (Mark @6:27) Here is my alternative way to do that: We know that any arrow with three cells must contain at least *2 low digits* (from {1, 2, 3}). Hence _"this cell"_ must be not only *even,* but also *low...❗️* I think this is as cool and elegant as Mark's way.

[@praematura]

Made a bad calculation, got pulled away, so started over and ended up finishing in 8:11 (conflict checker off), but add at least 5 minutes due to remembering things from the first attempt. 😛 Many thanks to Chris for a really interesting puzzle!

[@RajAgarwal-pg7kn]

Lovely puzzle and a quite smooth solve. ❤

[@AditaBattleForge]

5:01 for the cutest knowledge bomb 😂

[@GeekRedux]

Fun puzzle with a great break-in!

[@bristolrovers27]

Neatly packaged puzzle

[@megaminxpll]

8:22 for me, pretty easy one.

[@LednacekZ]

13:29 for me. i wasted a lot of time at the start.

[@Orenotter]

That puzzle was simply quite great. I'd love more of that on my plate. It truly was lucky. I never got stucky. And now I'm not up much too late.

[@bait6652]

Interesting design w/o given there are 4 branches ....took a while to figure out missed the ABC could not belong on one cage cuz one digit from DEF had to

[@RecreationalCynic]

14:05 for me

[@RADZIO895]

22:26

[@donaldsnyder1543]

Weird question , why does the puzzle from the link have extra stuff in it?

[@TPH250290]

It doesn't?

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

18:34 for me.

[@SomethingWellesian]

Very odd experience working on this just now where I could see the break-in and was on the right answer but was getting there half by instinct. I had to come to the video to understand the logic.

[@ganimede17]

00:26:29

[@JohnRandomness105]

7:50 Obvious? Not to me, although I did work it out, slowly and carefully.

[@alfoster2861]

Hi. How did you get rid of 1and 2 in R8C8 right off the bat?

[@perigin3]

Because otherwise it would break the cage. For example, if the circle digit was a 6, and you put the 1 outside the cage and then 2 & 3 inside, you would have 6+2+3=11, and you would need the last digit to be another 2. 6+1+3= 10, needing another 3 7 + 2 + 4 = 13 but you need a 4th digit in the cage 7 + 1 + 4 = 12 and you need an extra 1

[@alfoster2861]

I’m saying, R8C8 should have been pencilmarked as 1234, not just 34.

[@perigin3]

@@alfoster2861 Watching it back, Mark explains his reasoning as he places the pencil marks, saying that for the 1+2+3 the 3 would be too big for the cell, and for the 1+2+4 the 4 would be too big

[@alfoster2861]

Watching it back, Mark is correct! I learned a new trick today! Thank you!

[@henrygifford544]

Tried this once somewhat frantically and made no significant headway, just a couple digits here and there, chipping away. Then I came back to it, restarted, and went slowly to really think about what was going on in those double-arrow boxes, and finished in 16:56. Let that be a lesson to me-slow down and think!

[@benjaminrealy5661]

12:58. Should have slowed 2 seconds lol.

[@Stephen333]

I liked it, was fun and not too difficultb

[@olivier2553]

My luck was picking 7 in the cage in box 9, because I was sure that 6 would not work.

[@mudscuffer]

I liked that. 25:31 for me

[@robertcousins2274]

16:01 for me