What Is "Snake Egg Sudoku"?!

** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
To celebrate our new competition on Patreon, we're tackling a Snake Egg sudoku here by none other than Glum Hippo - the master constructor of this form!
[The version Simon plays in the video has slightly differently worded rules to the version below. We tried to clarify them to make them as clear as possible.]
Play the puzzle at the link below:
sudokupad.app/pqttdq9MbQ
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Draw a snake (a one-cell wide path) into the grid which does not touch itself orthogonally. Areas not covered by the snake form 8 separate regions, one of each size 1-8 ('eggs') which, in turn, may touch one another diagonally but not orthogonally. Adjacent cells on a green line must contain one snake cell and one egg cell AND these cells’ digits must differ in value by at least 5. If a circle is in an egg, it gives the count of cells in the egg. If a circle is on the snake, it gives the number of snake cells “seen” by that circle, including itself (ie the number of contiguous snake cells extending horizontally and vertically from that cell, including itself).
** NEW SUDOKU HUNT ON PATREON **
We're delighted to share with you a brand new sudoku hunt themed around snake egg puzzles by Glum Hippo. If you've never tried snake egg logic puzzles before, prepare for serious fun - these sudokus are outstanding! Finish by May 20 to enter the competition!
Other treats on Patreon include:
- the Sumgeons & Diagrams sudoku by sunnyjum;
- Simon's latest forays into the world of Islands Of Insight;
- Mark's video looking at the new OneUp puzzle from Rodolfo Kurchan;
- his solve of Region Geometry by Emre Kolotoğlu (3hr 36min long...!);
- and Mark's latest solve of The Times Club Monthly cryptic crossword
/ crackingthecryptic
** GET OUR FOG KICKSTARTER DELUXE & OUR BOOKS **
Check out this link for the kickstarter books and Fog Novella we've created over the years:
coffeebean.games/product-cate...
▶ SUDOKU PAD - Use Our Software For Your Puzzles ◀
You can input classic sudoku puzzles into our software and help support Sven, the programmer responsible for the wonderful user interface we all use to play these puzzles everyday. The app also comes with 12 handmade puzzles from us:
iOS:
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Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/17...
Android:
play.google.com/store/apps/de...
ALSO on Amazon: Search for “SudokuPad”
▶ Contents Of This Video ◀
0:00 Theme music & puzzle intro & competition
1:30 Gil's Lorikeet
2:40 New crossword video
2:47 Happy Birthdays
5:02 Rules
10:33 Start of Solve: Let's Get Cracking
▶ Contact Us ◀
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email: [e-mail]
Our PO Box address:
Simon Anthony & Mark Goodliffe
Box 102
56 Gloucester Road
London
SW7 4UB
(Please note to use our real names rather than 'Cracking The Cryptic'.)
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[@glum_hippo]

Not snake mill, but egg mill. Thank you so much for featuring this, and I hope it helps people with the hunt! I did set this puzzle on the occasion of the speed setting comp but it was an unofficial entry, so no.. I didn’t win.

[@BozoTheBear]

I love this puzzle, thanks!! A good fun 50-mins :-)

[@rebeccalindstrom6865]

Thanks for this puzzle! It was very enjoyable, love the concept!

[@glum_hippo]

Thank you Bozo and Rebecca

[@jdyerjdyer]

Yes, thanks for a great snake egg puzzle! I usually struggle with this type of puzzle, but this one was a nice, easy 45 minute solve, which for me is very surprising!

[@zeam-h3133]

The 6 and 4 together on the whisper had me STRESSEDD

[@nicka3697]

I'm so glad people don't see how often I have to unwind puzzles.

[@katiekawaii]

Haha I know, right? Especially the times when I'm really feeling myself, just full of confidence like "I'm nailing this. I'm clearly a genius." And then I have to undo 2/3rds of what I just did. 😅

[@queson52]

I've never unwound a puzzle. When its that messed up I just give up. haha

[@agentkirb]

I personally see having to unwind a puzzle as getting to enjoy it a second time. And you can remember the big logical steps and do them again but it's just different numbers you are working with the second time through

[@jkid1134]

When you put 6-4 on the whispers line I knew you'd messed something up, but the actual mistake totally evaded me. Counting is hard after all 😂

[@justinfarmer8371]

I was the same way

[@kimbyd24]

I saw the error as it happened and immediately thought, "Oh no," and hoped you'd come across a contradiction soon. This thought intensified as it took longer and longer to happen. Really glad you found it, though! Not easy to see once you'd filled most of the puzzle in for sure.

[@gi0nbecell]

Same. However, it is remarkable how often Simon looked at the 3-cell line in box 5 both while he thought about its configuration and after he ran into the deadly patterns (even highlighting the 7 in r5c6 _right above the wrong digit_ for quite a while _all without spotting the German Whisper line staring at him._ I‘m not entirely sure what to make of that. On the one hand, I could be relieved as it would prove that Simon was a mere mortal after all - on the other it could be his cunning plan to make us _think_ he was a mere human. _A Line to rule us,_ _A Line to find us,_ _A Line to bring us all,_ _And in the Puzzles bind us._ A lure to venture deeper in his twisted world full of digits, cages, snakes, chess moves, dots, arrows, battling stars, cornered threes, parties no one can talk to one another if they want to have fun but for the dreaded word _Lenore_ *We Shall Learn That Nevermore…*

[@Starcanum-]

Just had this exact "Oh no" and went to the comments hoping I won't see this exact one, I really did hope he'd come across a contradiction soon haha.

[@HunterJE]

He had the chance to catch it much earlier if only he'd noticed the 4-6 it forced on to a german whisper...

[@BleedinBlue20]

Especially when he put the 4 next to the 6 on the whisper and kept going. That was probably the earliest point to catch it.

[@debrairish7993]

I wish I could give one like to the puzzle, one like to Simon's solving abilities, and one like to that naughty 4.

[@jordenhale511]

I died a little inside when he put that 4 in

[@virtuous-sloth]

Simon, you make an order of magnitude fewer mistakes (logical or otherwise) than I do. We are all human, and it is very fun for this human to see you solve.

[@arsenic3086]

I didn't even notice *the* error, I focused so much on the 6-4 on the whispers line

[@katiekawaii]

I love that we got to see such a brilliant solver make the kind of simple mistake that I think we all have _a lot_ of experience making ourselves. It's reassuring, you know? 😅 And he dealt with it so smoothly! Impressive.

[@sjm6280]

I liked Simon pronouncing the Spanish puzzle name with British accent

[@HemmligtNavn]

yes - very posh ;-)

[@sjm6280]

Simon had to backtrack so much on this occasion, but the snake didn't "change skin", digits changed but the path remained the same

[@glum_hippo]

Snake egg patterns are often extremely restrictive

[@AndrewMooreMar]

Simon could have spotted the error as soon as 47:12 when both the monogamous digits ended up pairing on the whisper!

[@RichSmith77]

4 and 6 finally getting to console one another over their regular partners, 1 and 9, being so unfaithful.

[@stephenmarseille5425]

Just kept waiting for Simon to spot the 7 egg that's set up right there in R3C4, which resolves his whole struggle with the northeast corner...

[@Cid0484]

I already got frustrated about that before he even started in box 3 😂

[@johnh2052]

He just kept failing to notice it was on a whisper. As soon as he placed the 2, the egg was 7 or 8, and the 8-egg was determined just a couple minutes later. When Simon looked at the cell and noted it was "at least a 4", I literally _growled._ :)

[@SyrinEldarin]

Hilariously enough, I made the exact same dumb mistake. I was then wracking my brain trying to figure out what was going wrong, and so I referred to the video - only to find you stuck in the same place as me!

[@ennoreckers6631]

Deja Vu! 44:02 56:34 Simon really liked calling that a snake

[@phuybrechts6875]

Did not see the 6/4 pair on the 2 cell green line😁

[@TheBioRules]

This is the first puzzle that I was able to solve entirely on my own, with no hints via watching the video and listening to the logic. My normal habit is to immediately pause the video, open the puzzle, and see what I can make of it myself, and when I get stuck I listen to Simon until some bit of his logic clicks and I pause again to keep working on the puzzle. This time I never even started the video before I'd solved it fully. Great fun

[@vezonn8010]

Same, I only listened to the rules to make sure I understood everything correctly, and then went ahead to solve it all by myself in an astonishing 32:48. I'm mindblown right now 😂

[@rebeccalindstrom6865]

I found this channel a couple of weeks ago and have tried solving along with some videos. This was the first puzzle I could solve all by myself without getting stuck and checking the video for hints! However, I made mistakes and had to start over several times... but I got there, then watched the video afterwards. So thanks, Simon, for that incorrect 4. It made me feel less alone in my frustration about starting over!

[@Nixola97]

I'm obviously not glad you made an error, for your sake, but I'm glad I got to witness one and its resolution. Usually, whenever I notice an error so long after making it I just give up on the puzzle, mostly because I'm learning how to do unusual sudoku puzzles from your videos but not how to solve errors because you hardly ever make any. All that to say, whether there are errors or not, I love your videos. Everyone makes mistakes. Not everyone solves these kind of puzzles while talking to an audience they can't even see or hear until hours or days later. The fact you're able to is honestly amazing.

[@evanbasnaw]

I really appreciate you doing a puzzle that matches the puzzle hunt theme for the month so we can see some of the finer techniques in action.

[@ServantOfSatania]

28:24 For me, neat ruleset, always nice to see clues serve double duty depending on colors

[@prodigis.]

I always hate when an error I make takes aaaaaaall the way until a deadly pattern ending before it reveals itself.

[@RichSmith77]

I feel slightly deprived. I was hoping to see Simon "complete" the puzzle, confidently click the check button, only to be told it was wrong. 🙂 It was quite impressive how he found the error, rewound, and solved it correctly, all in the space of about 10 minutes.

[@btuftin]

"That's a 6, so that's a 1. I don't remember doing that last time, but I must have!" Nope, you did a 6-4 and failed to notice it was on a whisper, dashing my hopes you'd notice the circled 4 on the snake that should have been a 5!

[@4thright]

Thank you for the birthday shout-out! Turning 50 isn't so bad with CtC to enjoy every day. And Simon, don't feel so bad about these little mistakes - it's just astonishing how quickly you could diagnose the problem and fix it.

[@Salman-os7pr]

I keep refreshing the channel as soon as it's time! It's Soo amazing how you have never been late or missed a day!

[@LiquorStoreJon]

They are remarkable, 2 puzzles a day for 4+ years now!

[@yadt]

I'm pretty sure they've been a little late at least once, but always on the same day.

[@yadt]

​@@nb2vcxzthey have some pre-recorded videos for when they're indisposed (with a conspicuous lack of the day name in Simon's intros, and birthdays etc.), but I think they record most of them on the day (or maybe a day or two ahead). Still an impressive record.

[@emilywilliams3237]

Coming to this a few days late because of traveling, I am so glad I watched this. For one thing (and the biggest value to me) I think I understand the snake egg idea better, so I will have more hope of solving some of this month's Patreon reward set. And for another thing, your logic throughout was great and thorough (as you always are). That little bobble was not a logical mistake, but a simple counting mistake. Watching you figure out what it was and back up to it, then go forward is instructive and shows the value of persevering rather than hitting restart! Thanks, Simon.

[@anaayoung9142]

Today's puzzle was super fun, I tried and with some help I did it! 😆

[@stephenbeck7222]

Simon said the woman who is older than ‘the secret’ is perhaps 46, since that is more than 45. But the age of the secret would be the age of sudoku itself, not just the number of years equal to the value of the secret. But then I looked it up and sudoku as a puzzle was invented as far as we know in 1979, which is indeed 45 years ago!

[@RecreationalCynic]

47:49 for me. I made a few mistakes. First I forgot (outside of an ouroboros) snakes are not a loop. Second, once I remembered the snake wasn't a loop, I somehow assumed it had to have exactly one end and no other cells could be the other end. Third, I placed an imaginary mirror in one corner cell of the snake and one of the circles was looking through the mirror down another hall. I also made an arithmetic mistake for the bishops' colors that the start and end cells had to be on: the snake is 45 cells long, and 45 cells from the start cell puts the end cell on a different bishops color, but it should have been **44** cells from the start (the end is 44 cells away from the start, but the whole length is 45).

[@thatonerisottosimp6791]

you're so funny for this ily stranger

[@JohnDBlue]

Wait, how could it only have one end? 😂 Isn't that impossible?

[@Scarybug]

For those of us who use these videos to get better at puzzles, showing an example for how to recover from a mistake like that is educational!

[@phillipj6074]

I got it in 47:40! By far my best time on one of these alternative sudoks! Love the channel!

[@jdyerjdyer]

This one was fun and easy. I usually struggle with snake puzzles and don't care for them because of this, but this puzzle is very approachable. No long stuck pauses, just smooth solving. Only one small area where I had to carefully consider the snake path (in the middle area for box 5), but even that was straight forward logically. Thanks!

[@chrisnoonan9486]

This was very enjoyable. When you said four and then mistakenly typed five and corrected it to four I wondered how long it would take you to spot the mistake. then a while later you put four next to six on a whisper without realising I was just waiting for every thing to come crashing down. It was amazing that you got down to just eight cells that jammed up before you realised there was a mistake. Tis is the sort of mistake that I make all the time so it gives me impetus to keep attempting these puzzles. Keep up the great work Simon.

[@nalceD1]

I think this is the first time I've beat Simon's time on a puzzle. Funnily enough, I completed the snake and the whispers in about 20 minutes, but then took another 20 just doing the regular old sudoku.

[@leiz8048]

I also placed a 4 in row 4 column 3 which sidetracked my solve for a bit. Made me feel better seeing that I wasn't the only one to make this mistake though!

[@averygaron994]

Somehow it feels so much worse to "finish" a puzzle to get a deadly pattern, rather than hitting a contradiction and knowing you made an error

[@samc2]

I hadn't done a snake egg puzzle before, this was fun, thank you 😊

[@roccov3614]

Ah. That explains why I was able to complete a puzzle so easily, that took Simon an hour.

[@piarittersporn]

Brilliant puzzle. First I thought it would be very difficult, but I could solve it in 37 minutes. A good time for me.

[@Afterthoughtbtw]

After doing the monthly reward, I'm clearly in the swing of things. 17 minutes for me.

[@eduardvaniersel7535]

2:33 The Norwegian Blue prefers keepin' on it's back! Remarkable bird.

[@stevesebzda570]

Lol "Remarkable plumage" you mean. Funny though 😂

[@glum_hippo]

Lovely plumage

[@biaberg3448]

Artic?

[@stevesebzda570]

@glum_hippo Oh, you're right "Remarkable bird" then "beautiful plumage" then "lovely plumage." (Probably with a "beautiful bird" stuck in there, too) Bless them. 😂

[@thescrewfly]

*kippin' on its back

[@gloriagarcia3761]

Gil's bird looks like a rainbow lorikeet, such a handsome little guy!

[@GilWright]

She responded when Simon said "Lorikeet" in the video....

[@grannemaneten]

Great video, fun puzzle. Nice to see even the best have to deal with frustrating mistakes 🙂

[@selinafox]

53:00 sorry, but i'm inappropriately LMAO 🤣🤣🤣🤣.... oh my goodness... how far are we going to have to go back to fix it? The suspense is killing me!

[@jasonschickler1712]

Simon backing up to his error had me literally roflmao. My wife thinks I’m insane

[@tessabrisac7423]

What would “roflmao” stand for?

[@RichSmith77]

I believe it's "rolling on floor, laughing my ass off". More often, it's either ROFL (rolling on floor laughing) or LMAO (laughing my ass off), but this seems to just be a portmanteau of those two.

[@bait6652]

When u have the snake/circles filled and can finish the solve only to realize while watching the video that u took out the givens

[@notthatkindofdoctor5911]

I like how the length of a snake in a snake-egg puzzle is a secret. I'd also like to see a Hydra variant.

[@angec9908]

I love that Simon “properly” mispronounced the title.

[@spatulamahn]

LOL - Simon thinking he meant to put 5 - nope - you said 4 - Definitely not lucky that time!

[@359Aides]

Can't wait for the hydra puzzle bound to be made as a result of this video :D

[@MaierFlorian]

You could have spotted the error way earlier because the whisper in row 6 was broken like halfway through the wrong part of the solve.

[@dustpan5356]

Those types of mistakes are so frustrating, when you get so close to solving before you find it’s broken. I feel bad that Simon didn’t catch it sooner.

[@SirBradiator]

Definitely a shout at the screen video

[@draxiedru]

Enjoyable. Thank you. I really used to also enjoy the pure sudokus you used to solve that involved y-wings, swordfish etc. strategies. They appear less frequently now.

[@MateiGall]

Beside the wrong 4 in r4c3, there was also a nice 64 whisper in box 5! 😀Well done, Simon!

[@frankjiang1857]

Finished in 20:51. Not sure why it took so long for Simon. It seemed rather straightforward to me. Fun puzzle!

[@pirukiddingme1908]

When I saw a 6 next to a 4 on a whisper line I knew something had gone terribly wrong. Unlucky

[@awilliams1701]

I was worried it would be a "valid" solution and you'd have to post an "btw I was wrong and this is the correct ending" video.

[@darthrainbows]

Hahaha! I made the exact same mistake as Simon, couldn't see it, watched the video to see where he went different from me, and screamed when he just wrote the 4 onto the German Whispers line in box 6, because that's where I discovered that I had made an error myself.

[@highpath4776]

interesting "solve" with the deadly pattern finish , intriguing how that can happen (whisper blown aside)

[@naomis2]

I just finished watching the loop nurikabe video and this grid has such big squares in comparison! 😂😂😂

[@gregind01]

Good solve Simon, both times over. 👍😂

[@DarrenNakamura]

Finished in 78:11. There was one deduction I made near the middle that required just a bit too much lookahead, so I'm looking forward to watching the video to see what the more elegant deduction might have been.

[@gregcovarr]

I think it may be a rainbow lorikeet

[@NeilCrabbe]

Beautiful plumage!

[@leeannadimoulas5163]

That was wonderful!! Thank you so much!! I always ask for the videos where you make mistakes... But I'd really rather not spot the mistake because that was NERVE WRACKING to watch. 🤣 Regardless, I love to see an unwind and correction, it's great for learning. Bc I mess up CONSTANTLY. And tend to then give up and restart Everytime.

[@awilliams1701]

at 43 minutes that 4 circle is wrong!!! You forgot the vertical component. It's 5!

[@MRafas-ie9zh]

Simon never acknowledged that 6-4 whisper line, which'd tell him much earlier that there was a mistake Well, he did, but only post-factum

[@sagov9]

around 23:06, how did his logic here exclude the option of R7C1 be the end of the snake and R9C1 be the other end that goes via R9C2 and R8C2. I can see this doesn't work because there would be a second size 1 egg, but it needed to be considered.

[@SVURulez]

I was "playing along" (watching the video and trying to stay one step ahead so I could turn to the video if I got stuck) and saw the mistake so I was on my own after that. Not sure if it was good or bad luck that Simon still got the shape of the snake right despite the counting error!

[@RichSmith77]

He rewound back to the mistake and continued solving correctly from that point onwards. So there's still a correct solve in there, just with a diversion in the middle.

[@kevinmartin7760]

I suspect the 6 turning into a 5 was from hitting the keys wrong,with a 4 keystroke immediately replacing the 5. However the whisper line between R5C5 and R5C6 was also violated, containing a 6/4, a shameful way for two monogamous digits to behave!

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

I screwed up. Nice solve Simon.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

15:33 for me. Awesome puzzle!! Btw, its name actually means "Eggs mill".

[@srwapo]

52:00, I kept making the mistake of thinking of the snake as a loop. Every time it hit a corner, I assumed it made the turn and had to undo my work and prove that it wasn't the end of the snake. Once I got both ends, I could go back to the logic I'm more comfortable with!

[@stubbsz]

I saw the mistake and the rest of the video became so stressful. Sort of mistake I make ALL the time.

[@gibbbon]

dang, even with your big mistake and redo, you still ended faster than me T.T

[@LiquorStoreJon]

Do watch out for naughty snakes trying to touch themselves illegally!

[@Squishy3757]

46:03 as I see it now the puzzle is broken. 4 and 6 next to each other on a German Whisper line.

[@MattYDdraig]

43:53 This was my first snake egg puzzle and it took a while to get my head in the right space for it, but it was very enjoyable. Looking forward to tackling the puzzle hunt (and glad to not need Bond knowledge! 😂)

[@luisjaneiro]

well played

[@laurv8370]

Well, the good part is that the 3 was still in the corner... :P

[@tahtiassa448]

I was shouting german whispers!

[@HunterJE]

23:54 (...AND adjacent cells on a green line can't both be non-snake)

[@bobh6728]

That is too easy. He did a similar deduction in r6c7 where the snake couldn’t branch, but he used the size of the egg and whether it could join up.

[@thenatundi9009]

Man the whisper bothered me but not as much as when I couldn't easily see where he went wrong with it! I had a similar error for me with the 8 in box 3 that I counted as a 9 for some reason...

[@Rach881101]

35:44 for me. Nice puzzle!

[@warrenharshenin8951]

Doesn't that 6 in the middle box see 7 purple cells

[@javiersanchidrian9255]

Good stepback 🤣😂😂

[@roadrunner9843]

44:04 and 56:35 the same cell the same lapsus 😂

[@xWinGLP]

"thats a 4 by the logic" ^^ 42:33

[@Ardalambdion]

When constructors offer their puzzles to our friends, do they communicate on how the rules should be presented? I along with several others may find them confusing. And I'm glad Simon gave us some finished puzzles to clear things...

[@samueldeandrade8535]

Yeah, this ruleset must be the most poorly written I ever saw.

[@difoolgc5211]

@2:32 a Norwegian Blue looks dead. But it does have a beautiful plumage!

[@biaberg3448]

Must be dead, it’s far too cold in Norway in the winter for that kind of bird!

[@GilWright]

Australian Rainbow Lorikeet.

[@Kheldar633]

I didn't catch it when it was made, but I'd guess the error that tripped up Simon was just an--as is common--fat-finger. :)

[@steve470]

Nope, it was uncommonly careless counting (around the 42:32 mark).

[@RichSmith77]

​@@steve470It's hard to spot, because it's done very quickly, but his patented fat-fingered entry of digits causes him to initially enter 5 and almost immediately replace it with the 4 he was going for. But that brief appearance of 5 is what confused him when he rewound to that point, because he'd entered the correct 5 digit before over-typing it with a 4.

[@arnos999]

Very confused by the color scheme used, I thought it was water and islands for a while 😂

[@spatulamahn]

53:02 - "No! No! No!"

[@lucad.marchesi8950]

The thing about the first 1 is that it would have been a 1 with either the cell being a snake or an egg

[@jurgnobs1308]

no

[@HunterJE]

Oof that looooong sinking feeling today

[@HunterJE]

Btw there's a different smoking gun that something's wrong besides the deadly patterns reached at the end (namely note what's behind the adjacent 4 and 6 in row 6 for the last several minutes of the pre-backtrack solve)

[@thescrewfly]

@@HunterJE Yes, 6 and 4 next to each other on a whisper line in box 5!

[@krblumen]

Older than the secret 🤣

[@Salman-os7pr]

I saw that the puzzle is almost over at around 47:00, but there's still 16 more minutes, definitely a mistake incoming

[@359Aides]

I feel like the puzzle would have been clearer not by changing the rules but by replacing the green lines with domino-type clues like circles, diamonds or some other marker on the edge between the two cells.

[@RichSmith77]

But the green lines were actually German whisper lines too.

[@359Aides]

@@RichSmith77 I'm aware, still a line isn't great at conveying information only affecting 2 cells if 2 of them can meet at a point. You could make them green dots for instance if you want to keep the color familiarity.