Why 63 Is The Sexiest Number in Sudoku!!!

** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
The Wow factor is off the scale for this puzzle today. It's called Code - 63 and it's by Sumanta Mukherjee and this one will leave you stunned. Give it a try at the link below:
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Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits in cages sum to the small clue in the top left corner of the cage. Each purple line contains a set of consecutive digits. Cells separated by a black dot contain digits with a 1:2 ratio. Cells separated by a white dot contain consecutive digits. Not all possible dots are given. Clues outside the grid give the sum of the digits along the indicated diagonal. Digits may repeat along such diagonals if allowed by other rules. Digits along the thermometer must increase from the bulb end.
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[@HunterJE]

25:50 The mystery mistake Simon was trying to hunt down happened at 24:55 when he said "this can't be a 2" while removing a 7 pencil mark

[@PurpleSidewalk1]

And then he goes down to the 11 cage and says "okay 68 so the other side cannot be 3" 😅

[@bibliopolist]

Did he even get a single digit right in the first attempt in this video? We should crowdfund a numpad keyboard extension for him, I guess.

[@jensstalberg8968]

Simon: "Is that complicated?" Me: "Naah, you just have to combine a little bit of swordfish, set theory, parity, killer cages, renband lines and the nature of black dots. Elementary-ish..."

[@BanaiFeldstein]

Seems Simon has chosen the hard way to figure out the yellow cells. Maybe he didn't want to tell the secret, but with three cages in the rows and three cells containing 1, 2, and something else, it might be easy to figure out what the third number is without even trying to determine what's in each cage. ;-)

[@57thorns]

That would have been very simple and elegant. I considered the 36 pairs and the sets, I believe that all the 6 orange 11 cage that were not filed in at 17:40 would have to have a 3 or a 6 each. So 38 or 56. This part of the puzzle have several path, each with their own merits.

[@hubbcap18]

Well after all, Simon only tells his favorite viewers the secret. Can't just go around all Willy nilly giving that away

[@Mn0ty]

I used the mid difficulty way. Since you 3 and 6 three times on blue, ou must put 3 8 three times on orange in the 11 cages, which means you can put 5 8 on 13 cages, but neither can you use 6 7 because it breaks the 11 cages since 2 9 is nota available. The top row is easier. In you can put 2 on 11 cages, you can't put 9 either, so 129 goes in the swordfish.

[@AexisRai]

The white kropki is art. There's no functional difference between 2 cells being on a 2 cell renban and them being on a white kropki dot. It's an aesthetic difference highlighting that pair as having a different role in the puzzle.

[@KyleBaran90]

Aesthetics can be important in a well-set puzzle like this: it signals the intention of the author and leaves you a trail of breadcrumbs to highlight what you should do.

[@AexisRai]

@@KyleBaran90 I should have said it's an artful design decision, that's a bit more specific and what I meant to be getting at. I absolutely agree.

[@QwDragon]

There's a hint about renabans: "a set of".When you see such things, you know what to do. And diagonal lines can't be replaced by dots.

[@nathanialblower9216]

All right Simon, well I just watched the outro now, and your heartfelt performance has literally brought tears to my eyes. Bravo! 👏🏼 And thank you 🙏🏼 And bless Thom, whoever he is :)

[@davidellis4031]

Yorke?

[@mabelmarie2377]

Just when I thought this channel couldn't get any better, you've gone and combined my newest love for variant sudokus with one of my oldest loves; RADIOHEAD! Well done Simon, on all counts :) Thoroughly enjoyed listening to your rendition.

[@johnpauladamovsky86]

BRAVO...!!! Amazing and beautiful logical masterpiece artwork-quality puzzle. SUBLIME. I also figured out why I like CTC so much. It's because even though Simon is older than I am, I feel like he's an enthusiastic young child-prodigy who just needs a little bit of encouragement, so he can take his rightful place in the Pantheon of human creative achievement. I have no doubt that Simon will be included on the highlight reel of Human Greatness, when time itself finally comes to an end. Why? Because his brilliant expositions have inspired the creation of a vast panoply of novel and timeless works of art. There can be no higher calling in this life. Well done, Simon, you belong on the highlight reel somewhere between Jordan Peterson and Alexander Ovechkin. This video was SUPREMELY enjoyable to watch.

[@jsdodgers]

This is the first puzzle I was able to completely figure out the set logic myself. Often, I can figure out that set is required, but I either can't find the right steps or I miss the final bit of logic that makes the sets useful. I also have to say that I'm really glad that you're going back to keeping the explanations of set logic on the board. Going to the metaphores of "scrabble tiles" makes things really confusing and makes it hard to grasp what is going on. The videos where you go into the fake scrabble bags made it hard to get the concept. Keeping it on the board makes it so much easier to understand what you're talking about.

[@bobblebardsley]

Love this puzzle, slightly surprised Simon didn't just write the 1 into r3c4 after ruling it out of the other two swordfish cells in column 4. Not sure it would have helped much though, all the same logic happened immediately after, just in a slightly different order. Me attempting this would have looked more like trying to spread play-doh with a potato masher. Brilliant puzzle, some tricky logic but the shape of it all signposted in the right direction, really really sweet.

[@longwaytotipperary]

💕💕Simon singing & strumming!!!!! 🤗🤗

[@PetruRatiu]

The moment both 1 and 2 must be on the swordfish, the 9 and the 7s fall out from the convergence of killer cages and The Secret(TM). It's not very often I figure something out ahead of Simon but it feels nice :) I still need to wait for the video to catch up to the point where I got stuck so no, I'm not gloating.

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

Simon's deduction speed was impressive: 33 seconds, from 9:20 to 9:53, to understand that all the *black dots* must join *3* and *6.* 12 seconds, from 13:50 to 24:02, to rule out *2* from *r6c4* and *r9c7.*

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 02:14 Let's Get Cracking: 04:42 Simon's time: 32m24s Puzzle Solved: 37:06 And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Ah: 8x (08:00, 19:08, 21:31, 30:54, 31:07, 32:29, 34:07, 34:43) Sorry: 7x (05:11, 14:53, 21:33, 23:41, 25:46, 26:24, 26:26) Beautiful: 5x (08:03, 09:48, 24:09, 33:22, 37:57) By Sudoku: 5x (27:29, 27:29, 27:31, 27:35, 36:57) Good Grief: 4x (24:01, 33:22, 37:04, 37:15) Hang On: 4x (08:34, 08:38, 09:24, 27:49) The Answer is: 3x (06:44, 19:15, 19:32) Clever: 3x (17:22, 22:08, 37:45) Nonsense: 2x (07:38, 25:53) Going Mad: 2x (25:23, 34:24) Surely: 2x (19:32, 32:07) What Does This Mean?: 2x (06:03, 14:43) Goodness: 1x (17:26) Brilliant: 1x (37:15) Break the Puzzle: 1x (18:57) Fascinating: 1x (01:32) Gorgeous: 1x (13:40) Take a Bow: 1x (37:18) Approachable: 1x (00:56) Magnificent: 1x (01:41) Stunning: 1x (00:58) In Fact: 1x (34:17) Obviously: 1x (03:19) Progress: 1x (37:37) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Eleven (13 mentions) One (87 mentions) Blue (13 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Odd (24) - Even (10) Black (12) - White (4) 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!

[@JohnRandomness105]

Starting out: possibly the most blatant swordfish in Sudoku history, and probably the first I ever spotted on my own. Then, of course, I got stumped following that. Somewhere late in the show: he said that this must be a 2, and I looked gloatingly at my 7 -- I'd already finished by then. He shortly corrected himself.

[@AndreasKungl]

Very enjoyable. Would have been unsolvable for me half a year ago. Now I'm automatically checking potential relevance of odd/even parity, which cracked this one open like a charm.

[@krtwood]

The logic I was using rather than the additional swordfish on 2s was that once we know there are three 3s and 6s in the blue cells we know we have to put those back into the orange cells that don't have the 3,6 pairs in that box. Since those are all in 11 cages, you have to put 3,8 and 5,6 into those cages, and forces 4,9 into the 13 cages. Now that reflects back again, as we now have to put the three 5s and 8s back into the blue cells, which have to go on the renbans. The 5s have to go with 4s since 6 is taken, so now we know that we have to have three 4s reflected back into orange so the last 11 cage has to be 4,7. Maybe Simon's way was more elegant, but that was fun!

[@asbjrnfossmo1589]

I like your logic better, for what it is worth. I had to use uniqueness twice to progress in a timely fashion. Long story short: Few glasses of wine, and I know two parallel 11 cages cannot be the same, without something, a knights move, little killer or something telling us the order.

[@siddharthsehgal620]

This I felt was the better way and more forced. Also quicker as well. Simon spent a lot of time figuring out what went into the orange 11 cells. Once you know they are 3568, you can immediately fill the 13 cells as 49. You can also fill the vertical renbans then from the left over digits of the orange cells - they are forced to have three 4-5 pairs (as we have three 6-5 pairs in the 11 cells). This fills the last remaining 11 cell as 4-7. And now you get the 2 swordfish. I followed this way and was done in 23 minutes.

[@PhilBoswell]

I love it when a puzzle collapses like a beautifully laid-out floorful of dominoes ❣

[@zshorts4849]

Yes! I love Radiohead!

[@cloudbringer104]

Me too.

[@adelapospisilova9886]

Someone should do video with every intro in which Simon plays on guitar - that would be amazing!

[@kathyjohnson2043]

The white dot was used for clarity because it crossed into a cage. However, some of the ren ban lines are on diagonals, making it harder to use dots for them. As for the others, I suspect it was a matter of the visual presentation of the ouzzle

[@QwDragon]

Not only visual. The rules contain a hint about renban lines: "a set of".

[@pjbrady47]

Now I want to see a white dot used on an intersection to represent that one or both of the diagonal pairs are consecutive numbers.

[@AussieJohnny]

After Simon figured out that the three kropki dots had to be 3:6 he spotted that he had to put three 3s into the orange cells. As 3 cannot go into a 13 cage the three 3s had to go into 11 cages. That gave a swordfish of 3:8 dominoes in rows 3, 6 and 9. An outstanding puzzle, Sumanta. Well done, Simon, another entertaining solve.

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

I am glad that this puzzle was included in volume 2 of the *CTC Greatest Hits* book. It was a pleasure to solve it again. Unfortunately, I solved without SET. It was not too difficult for me to find out that all the black dots contained *3-6,* but Simon's SET shortcut is much more elegant. In short, this video is important for me because it teaches me I need to search for SET tricks even when I am not stuck.

[@HunterJE]

The fact that there are orthogonal domino renbans and white kropki in this puzzle makes me chuckle for some reason

[@HunterJE]

Oh I commented that right before Simon said the same hah

[@AexisRai]

All the renbans are contributing to making a repeating pattern, the white kropki is for breaking their symmetry; it's aesthetically better for it not to be another renban

[@HunterJE]

Yep I see the why but still find it amusing (probably moreso than it is)

[@HunterJE]

I've always wanted to see a puzzle that mixes two-cell orthogonal renbans with white kropkis, XV clues with 10/5 two-cell killer cages, and two-cell orthogonal thermos with inequality symbols...

[@Rubrickety]

I'm amazed at how quickly Simon arrived at the key SET+parity breakthrough. I followed the same path, but even after highlighting the correct sets _and_ guessing that the black kropkis were all going to be 3-6 (based on the title), it took ages for the penny to drop. Beautiful, beautiful puzzle.

[@markp7262]

28:32 finish. Once everything is penciled in, the white dot starts breaking things down, pair by pair. The last thing to fall is a deadly pattern in rows 1 & 2, finished by the 23 diagonal. It's impossible to come up with new complements for all of the wonderful puzzles we see day in, day out. Thank you all for keeping my mind sharp in my advancing age. 😆

[@joelstevens5670]

Today’s sudoku simply blew me away. I happened to follow pretty much the same solution path as Simon and that parity logic was one of the most beautiful ideas I think I have ever seen, both for the black kropki and also the bottom right 23 diagonal (the way that forced the central cell of the swordfish was quite remarkable). Not only that but it was by far one of the more accessible hard puzzles to use ‘set equivalence’ and yet it somehow managed to retain its logical beauty. An absolute masterpiece, thanks Sumanta and Simon for a solve that was as eloquently explained as it was beautiful. And in answer to your question Simon, the white kropki was another stroke of genius as it made the sudoku aesthetically pleasing while also distinguishing it from the main ‘consecutives logic’. Wonderful puzzle. :) P.S. This is by no means a criticism (it is more of a thought to try and help you to stay sane) but I’ve noticed a few occasions now where the accidental removal of a pencil mark, which is very easy to do, has led to problems during a solve (both for yourself and Mark, though I imagine in his case it would also leave noone to finish solving the puzzle!!). So it might be worth paying particular attention when removing pencil marks in future, though I will be the first to admit that mistakes are a part of sudoku solving and there is only so much you can do in attempting to avoid them (and now I can breathe a little easier and apologise to Mark for the pun which I couldn’t resist earlier). ;)

[@nathanialblower9216]

Simple as it was, that guitar intro was absolutely lovely. Am I way off, or has Simon’s sense of rhythm seriously improved? Bring your guitar to my campfire anytime Simon!!

[@AlphaAxle]

That was such an amazing puzzle! Fantastic setting, the parity trick with 23 to force a 2 out of the middle square was amazing

[@elaadt]

97:38 and quite proud of myself. I got set right off the bat and worked out that 1 goes outside the cages. The total of the killer cells is 103. After peeking at Simon finding the 36 pairs by using parity (very clever of him!) I figured that to reach the total, there should be just one 78 pair and two 89 pairs in cols 147. Then pencilmarking the rest and using the diagonals to disambiguate what goes where got me through. I did make a few mistakes, which required backtracking, but eventually I overcame the puzzle. That was fun!

[@LorisLaboratory]

Instant happiness every time I hear your music when the video starts 😍😭😍

[@GotG113]

Me too 😊 I wish he'd do a playlist

[@-syntaxerrorguy7-10]

as soon as simon did that set thing, i immediately saw that the black dots had to be 3-6 pairs and i was just in utter disbelief. shockingly amazing puzzle and even better solve. keep it up!

[@ekmett]

I absolutely adored working through this puzzle. Everything flowed once you spotted the tricks, but you still had to whittle away at it. A very enjoyable 30 minutes.

[@cj719521]

No Surprises is legitimately one of the most lovely songs in the modern era. To hear it performed here was such a treat. Thank you so much for the songs and the excellent solve.

[@ericpraline1302]

What a delightful puzzle. I'm very pleased to have solved it as for some time I had no clue.

[@emilywilliams3237]

Truly a wonderful video. Part of it was the beauty of the puzzle, but I might not have known that except for two things: 1, that Simon so clearly thinks it is a beautiful puzzle - I really enjoy when he gets all enthusiastic about a sudoku; 2, that six months ago I would have been totally lost, but having watched a lot of CTC videos by Simon and Mark, and tried my hand at many puzzles, I actually get it. Thanks so much, Sumanta Mukherjee, for this puzzle. And thank you, Simon, and Mark, for CTC and how excellent it is. And thanks also, Simon, for playing and singing to us tonight. Always welcome. Don't get me wrong - I like the Mozart, and would seriously miss it if you were to actually change the channel's theme music. But the new outro that you and Mark usually use now, composed by Riffclown, is really great and perfect for the outro, and the treat of you playing your guitar and/or singing from time to time is very wonderful. I feel as if you don't even have to tell me the secret, I will know that I am one of your favorite people just because you play your guitar. 😊

[@AlmostM]

Cool puzzle. I made it pretty far and then got stuck with seemingly two possibilities for everything left until I realized that I had forgotten about the white dot. It cleared up all of my remaining ambiguities and things were good again.

[@piarittersporn]

This is a brilliant puzzle with intriguing logic. After a few minutes I left Simon's instructions and tried it myself. By calculating the bottom diagonal everything went better than I expected.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

19:04 for me. What a great break-in, I really enjoyed it!

[@Ardalambdion]

One reason Simon may act dumb sometimes is because he wants us together to discover things in a slow pace, so we understand better what's going on. The puzzles aren't just for him to struggle with, but for him to teach us. I am sure that lots more is going on in his mind than he shows us.

[@robynrox]

At 20:00 or so, there was a simpler solution - in row 3, 11+11+11=33 and you know the yellow digits must sum to 12. With the knowledge of the first two numbers you can infer the third. Similarly for rows 6 and 9. 11+11+13=35 therefore the yellow digits must sum to 10. It's so frustrating for me when Simon does not see the simplest solution! Never mind :)

[@DoubleDummy]

he forgot his secret.

[@christinegermundson4286]

I just realized something before Simon, for the first time in my life. I feel very accomplished 😅

[@57thorns]

33:36 For some time, if you look at the minima for the 23 diagonal they have been, since Simone did the small deduction from it, 4+1+4+8=17. So there can be no 7 in r1c5. This places the 7 in box 2 and a whole slew of other digits around the grid.

[@57thorns]

34:52 Simon found the 7 in his own way, again, several paths through this puzzle. I like it. I just didn't manage to figure out the set stuff myself.

[@TheFrozenfish]

35:20 "Everything at the top suddenly seems to be coming" Classic Simon :)

[@Ulija100]

Absolutely lovely puzzle. Took me an age, but cracked it on my own. Then went back to do it again to see nicer ways. I like very much that it has distinct phases, and each challenging in different ways.

[@byggrynsgroet]

love the intro where you play the guitar! ive always detested that particular piece you guys use for your regular intro, so this was a nice surprise (:

[@MegaKotai]

25:09 for me today. Potential spoiler!!! I found the swordfish immediately and thought that it might be the break in. Was happy that it took more than just the swordfish to get startet. Great puzzle!

[@jaeusa160]

@3:35 I think that dot is just for aesthetic. It looks strong for row 9 but I think it is a white dot solely so that all the V-ish shaped renban pairs keep their distinctive appearances.

[@amysteele2488]

I think that was one of the most beautiful break-ins I have ever seen

[@Coyotek4]

39:25 ... I found a logical way through that didn't use 63 (so far as I could tell); I can now watch and see the beauty that I must have missed. [EDIT - I *did* use 63, though I could have just as easily said "36", I suppose] Incredible puzzle!

[@wanderlustwarrior]

33:52 for me! That was a beautiful puzzle! It all came down to noticing evens, odds, and ones, for me. I went about it a different way, by noting: Of the nine cells you highlighted yellow, two in each row must be odd, and one must be even. The thermo meant that r6c4 can't be even. r6c7 and r9c4 must be opposite (even/odd). r6c1 and r9c4 must be the same (even/odd). From there I figured out the kropkis, and figuring them out to be 3/6 pairs meant 2 couldn't be on the renbans in each column, which meant you could now figure out: The 1 in column 1 can't be in row 6, because that'd force where 2 goes. The third digit in each row that adds with 1 and 2 to make either 10 or 12. That gives all the missing digits in row 6. That limited the possibilities for the 9s in the cages, then I figured out the rest.

[@techsupportrabbit]

I think I did the same - in that there is the swordfish on ones, and the same swordfish on evens. Although I wasn’t sure if a swordfish on evens is a thing but it worked out for me

[@robert-skibelo]

Bizarre moment at 23:01 when Simon eliminates 1 from r9c4 but forgets about the swordfish he's lovingly expatiated on earlier, from which he now knows where the 1 in c4 must be. It was interesting that in the next few minutes he got all the yellow swordfish cells resolved anyway, without ever realising he'd missed a trick. Wonderful puzzle. Why is it called Code 63?

[@sampathkumar-ej7xl]

Simon since you are asking us to comment. I firstly like the heartfelt passion you exhibit while solving these puzzles. A great solve of a great puzzle today. And super effort with the guitar. I liked the song but have not heard it before.

[@th.nd.r]

Absolutely beautiful setting and solving. Incredible in concept and execution. My bet is that the reason for the different ways of denoting consecutive pairs is aesthetics. Putting a new renban at the bottom of the grid would just mess up the pattern. On that note, this is also lovely aesthetically, as was your playing and singing of a wonderful song by my favorite band. I always welcome Radiohead covers on this channel lol, it’s a collision of two of my favorite worlds! I’m editing this to add that this is one of the best on the channel in a while. Loved this.

[@AnnaVahtera]

Simon: "Remember the swordfish on ones!" Also Simon: "The possible pairs in the renban lines are one and two..." I think I woke my kid up with the sound of that facepalm.

[@insectbah]

Simon at 15:56 agrees about his silliness :)

[@sineado24]

I did this a (possibly harder) different way by realizing the total of the blue cages = orange. With the other rules, you only have 2 degrees of freedom from the max, which gives you the 1,2 swordfish and the needed 6:3s, 4-5, and 8-9 except one 7-8 in the blue cells. fun puzzle!

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

35:35 for me - took me 24 minutes to break in. Really impressive build with how everything fits together, though I don't know if it's good to have a Sudoku where you start off writing number combinations on scrap paper for 10 minutes for the black dot and consecutive rows--I left the timer running for that.

[@gc2009able]

I swear, sometimes I miss what should be really obvious. It's the rare puzzle on this channel that I don't need one of our hosts' help on. I knew there was a 2 on the lower LK 23 clue, but the implications (24:50) completely escaped me. After a virtual facepalm, I'm back to poking at the puzzle on my own to see if it will give up its secrets... Update: 39min! Apart from me glaring oversight where I needed help, I'm quite pleased with that.

[@tessabrisac7423]

Fantastic and very difficult the Sudokutown murders puzzle, I managed to solve the 6x6 example and am still struggling with the 9x9, and I enjoy it greatly! Thanks for sharing it, looking forward to your solve!

[@chipsounder4633]

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 puzzle again😎 swordfish, set theory, parity and a whole bunch of genius

[@oldmomj5088]

I have been so confused by deleting the wrong numbers in squares. Thank you for all the puzzles

[@SpinelSun]

I don't usually solve the puzzles, I just sit back and relax watching you solve it but today I decided to give it a go and got it in 36:13! I'm honestly extremely happy and proud. This was such a beautiful puzzle

[@rustydusty2166]

18:40! Certainly my best solve time / video length ratio so far. The break-in really clicked for me on this one for some reason.

[@lewsouth1539]

Very cool & clever puzzle (yet I am not stunned so easily). The logic can be condensed somewhat by starting with the observation that the blue & the orange cells must contain the same digits. Then (omitting details): 1. The orange cells can't contain any 1's, so neither can the blue cells. 2. Since the orange cells contain 9 odd digits, so must the blue cells, thus there must be an odd digit on each black dot-and in a blue cell, so it can't be 1, and must be 3.... 3. Then there can't be any 2's in the blue cells-or, hence, the orange cells. 4. So now we have a 1 & a 2 in each row of yellow cells. (And, as others have noted, The Secret & the cage totals will tell us the 3rd yellow digit in each row.) My guess is that similar thinking went into the design of this puzzle: Start with overlapping lots of the same digits, put some restrictions on the non-overlapping parts, and the rest follows. Btw, this is another way to explain swordfishes, which some may find simpler or more intuitive.

[@EmilyGamerGirl]

24:58 "There can't be a 2 here" *proceeds to remove 7 as an option instead of 2* That'd be where it went wrong!

[@doncook4097]

Love that puzzle. I got everything that was needed in the puzzle but got stuck on the fact that 2 couldn’t be in cells R6C4 and R9C7. I knew there had to be be a 2 in the 23 little killer but didn’t see it blocked a 2 out of those two cells. Excellent!

[@davidh.4944]

Scenic Route Simon seemed to be enjoying his long walks today. 😊 S: The 1 can't be on the kropki dot... Me: ....so the 1 in the column is in row 3, among other things. S: ...so I'm going to go futz around with the diagonal and parity for a while. 🙄 As for me, I naturally saw the swordfish, and recognized that some sort of parity thing was involved, but I just don't have enough of a grasp of it to find the break-in. I gave up after 10 minutes and sat back to enjoy armchair refereeing instead.

[@MD-vy9jb]

I figured out 3-6 pairs in black dots by simply trying all 2-digit consecutives in any of C1/3/7. With 1 in swordfish, I had possible black dots combos of 2-4, 3-6 and 4-8 and only 3-6 combo allows for two 2-digit consecutive dominos in the same column (i.e. 4-5 and 7-8 or 8-9). This also gives 2 in the swordfish immediately. I was so happy to find out an alternative, but equivalent solution to Simon's solution :)

[@topilinkala1594]

First thing to me that came into my mind was that this was set using f-puzzle. You need to use two cell thermo to indicate on a diagonal thet the one digit is greater than the other because f-puzzle does not allow you to put greater than sign on an diagonal. Same thing with white kropki dot. You can't put it diagonally in f-puzzle, so you use Renban line. And the other Renbans were the for aesthetic reasons.

[@tzet-h]

You could also rule 2s out of boxes because purple lines in blue cannot have 1 or 3, so cannot have 2 either. Since orange and blue are same at point, no 2s in orange

[@RichSmith77]

Isn't this exactly what Simon does? His swordfish on 2s is this.

[@richy77]

Sublimely ingenious, beautiful and elegant, with each piece of logic following another making for a superbly satisfying solve to watch 😍

[@nonyobisniss7928]

I feel so dumb for not being able to deduce the black kropki pairs logically. Luckily my intuition was right, and I solved the whole puzzle in 20 minutes by guessing their values and doing the rest logically. Naturally I wanted to go back and make that missing step in the logic logical, but I didn't make it and skipped through the video to the 5 seconds where Simon explained it. Great puzzle!

[@AllenBaranov]

I was hoping someone would create a puzzle where Simon would be required to pencil in the whole grid and this almost got there, so thank you.

[@alienrenders]

29:05 for me. I just tried all the 3 possibilities for the kropki dots and that resulted in a unique triple for each row 3, 6 and 9 for the cells between the cages. Puzzle broke open with the help of the little killer clues. Now to watch the video. Edit: The parity trick on 36 is more elegant than what I did. But the parity trick on the bottom little killer is not necessary if you fill in the candidates on the purple lines in column 1, 4 and 7. The puzzle is completely open by then. Also, once 1 and 2 are in the swordfish, you have the totals missing in each row. Not sure what Simon was doing there.

[@therocknrollmillennial535]

This puzzle could be called Flag Semaphore, based on the Renban lines. (9:05) This was a great puzzle! Renban and Killer are two of my favorite constraints, things that I'm familiar with, so I've been able to hone my skills on, and it turned into a fabulous time for me (16:26)! Thank you, SImon, for the lovely video, and thank you, Sumanta Mukherjee, for the wonderful puzzle!

[@TheBiggreenpig]

24:48 "That cell cannot be a 2", but deletes the 7. LOOOOL.

[@victoriam6569]

It's so structured. Very satisfying to solve. Thank you! :)

[@sampathkumar-ej7xl]

Sumanta Mukherjee that was fantastic setting and a joy to solve. Thanks.

[@G4M1L]

A very beautiful puzzle. Unlike Simon I asked myself about the significance of the puzzle's title from the beginning, and that was crucial for me, because it led me to ask myself which of the black kropkis had to be 3+6 or if maybe all of them had to be. After I was convinced all of them had to (not quite via Simon's set approach, but via an equivalent one thinking about the even digits in the swordfish rows/column - you could argue it's essentially the same just without colouring or thinking of it as SET), it flowed quite nicely, especially since I already hat thought about the parity logic on the lower 23 little killer clue.

[@mikepictor]

That went pretty smoothly for me. I messed up the row 9 cages by thinking for some reason there were 2 13s, I think I just needed my glasses. When I realized there was only 1 13 cage, then it went fairly smoothly. I think I just got a bit lucky seeing the 24:30 revelation fairly early.

[@uigrad]

This does have an amazing Wow factor! I did it without help, but it 93 minutes, haha. It is definitely an amazing puzzle.

[@LithmusEarth]

15min in, alright i like it. 1s 2s in yellow and either 7s or 9s which cant go in 11s without 2s so almost a swordfish of 129 with 45 and 78 as the pairs. the top left cage not being a 13 throws off the symmetry for a reason. he then immediately works out, wasted typing, but i felt smart. 1! in column 4. also fill those 11 cages and purple bands with options id pencil the digits.

[@awilliams1701]

The renbans are required because there is no way to specify consecutive digits in 1 direction on a diagonal pair. The white dot COULD have been a renban.

[@miran248]

Gotta press like for that intro alone!

[@crystalgehrt8861]

Sumanta is a magician, and this sudoku is a bag of tricks!

[@greenatom]

Thumbs up for the intro alone!

[@gordonglenn2089]

A beautiful combination of swordfish and sets, plus killers (always my favorite).

[@woodchuk1]

Killer puzzle…and hearing Radiohead’s No Surprises in Ab (a minor third up!) is a beautiful thing! WTG, Simon!

[@Mindcrackings]

I am also a fan of your friend Thom. Favourite musician of all time

[@mceajc]

That is an EXCELLENT puzzle. Wonderful to watch the solve.

[@enstromper]

I don't undersrtand the conclusion at 11:30. I understand that it is correct to assume that a blue column and an orange row is the same set of digits if the intersection is removed. But how is that extended to be true simultaneously for all intersections?

[@PathOfShrines]

Amazing puzzle! Very interesting break-in, and then it all just falls together. 38:54 for me.

[@happy_labs]

I enjoyed the musical intro

[@carlossosa2907]

No surprises here 😃 amazing puzzle and solve... and Simon didn't have to hold his breath like Tom 😅

[@n_mckean]

Feeling accomplished that I got the 3/6 parity solve by myself, and early. My next step was that the 10 (spare) on rows 6 & 9 now can't be 1,3,6 and have to be 1,2,7. That makes r9c4 a 2 or a 7....

[@MyriadDao]

My first time being faster than the video time. 25:25 for me. This was a really enjoyable solve.

[@leothetiger13]

Galaxy Brain. Simon, I am humbled. Your mind is exquisite.

[@Nabend1402]

When he knew that 1+2 had to be in the yellow and he tried to figure out what the third number must be... did Simon forget The Secret?

[@longwaytotipperary]

Radiohead (that Thom?) "No Surprises" - Lovely! 🤗

[@Coyotek4]

LOL ... I was able to get to where Simon got regarding the black-dot dominos, but I definitely took a more scenic route to get there!

[@parkerbond9400]

Love the guitar at the end!