You Won't Believe How Easily You Could Crack This!

Today's puzzle is genuinely approachable and is from viewer favourite, Scott Strosahl. If you enjoy playing around with parity, you'll love this. You can play the puzzle at the following link:
app.crackingthecryptic.com/su...
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along an arrow must sum to the digit in that arrow's circle. Cells containing a grey square must contain an even digit.
** Botaku Bonus Puzzle **
As mentioned in the video, we have a bonus puzzle today from the brilliant Botaku. It's called Euclidean Sudoku! You can play it at the link below and watch a video of Simon solving it on our Patreon page.
/ crackingthecryptic
Play the puzzle here:
app.crackingthecryptic.com/su...
SudokuPad link: tinyurl.com/4t74y7rs
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Given two cells which both contain the digit N, the Euclidean distance between (the centres of) those cells must be at least √N times the sidelength of a single cell. In other words, if moving from one such cell to the other takes X horizontal steps and Y vertical steps, then √(X^2 + Y^2) ≥ √N.
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**************************************************************
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▶ OUR KILLER SUDOKU APP IS OUT ON ALL PLATFORMS◀
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▶ SIMON REACTION BOARD (!) ◀
With thanks to Andrea for creating this :)
simonreacts.avris.it/
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tinyurl.com/CTCCatalogue
▶ NEW CRACKING THE CRYPTIC MERCHANDISE◀
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▶ OUR CHESS SUDOKU APP IS NOW OUT!◀
AppStore: apps.apple.com/us/app/chess-s...
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▶TRY OUR CLASSIC SUDOKU APP◀
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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!
▶Logo Design◀
Melvyn Mainini
▶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

[@Alex_Meadows]

My heart is always warmed by Simon's misplaced confidence in my ability!

[@akhos9876]

Yes, it takes me just under an hour to solve GAS puzzle on the discord server and he thinks i can solve this one easily

[@andrewsparkes6275]

@@akhos9876 It took HIM nearly an hour too. But that said, things which take a long time aren't necessarily hard; it just means it takes LOT of little easy steps. Cleaning a room is not 'hard', but can take a long time, for example. This puzzle did not use any strange, advanced techniques, it just took a lot of little, very easy to understand steps, where you could only move on once you've done the previous one. But each step tended to only reveal one next step, which means you don't need to hold a lot of information in your head either.

[@jdyerjdyer]

Yes. I did solve this one, but it took me a little over an hour. Not bad considering my times are often around twice their times. Still...lol...smh...I feel dumb compared to these geniuses. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think their brains must just be wired differently. :)

[@StroSolves]

Thanks for featuring the puzzle. This was a fun one to make. You pretty much nailed all the major bits of logic (other than potentially some easy 9s, as others have noted). I especially like the relationship between the tops of columns 2/8 and ends of row 5, which I don't think is super obvious, and you got that perfectly. Good work!

[@furt1v3ly]

I loved this one! Thanks so much to you all! Wonderful fun and some devious stuff in there! Stupid "easy nines". :-p

[@rickwoods5274]

This took me a bit to find but the amount of work that relationship did was quite satisfying :)

[@VeritasUnae]

This relationship was absolutely my favourite part of the solve c:

[@stevieinselby]

Seeing that relationship between r1c2/8 and r5c1/9 was definitely one of the most satisfying deductions I've found 👍🏻

[@egerlachca]

So I managed to do this one, which is a big accomplishment for me, but my solving path was completely different than Simon's, to my amazement. If I get time at some point I'll make a video of it because I think it's neat to see how different it is.

[@robinbrown6530]

Notice how carefully worded that title is. He says we "could" crack this easily. Not that we WILL crack this easily. It really is amazing how much Simon believes in his viewers. Well, time to disappoint him! XD

[@LukeSumIpsePatremTe]

Haven't seen the video yet, but I think the title is about the human tendency to over-complicate. Only after you've solved the problem, you will see more elegant solutions.

[@Swisswavey]

Where Simon was at 20 minutes, I probably was ahead of him. He needed 15 more minutes, I needed 80. Basic Sudoku lessons needed!

[@ethermelt4780]

"9 cannot go on an arrow" means the 9 could be placed in row 8 right at the beginning. Following that same logic you can place or pencil mark most of the 9s around the grid right off, which makes the parity game alot easier earlier.

[@57thorns]

I believe that is that the title alludes to.

[@indecisiverift]

that nine was my first digit, yeah. and two nines straight after

[@andrewgrant6516]

I had an idea for a new type of sudoku, that is solved in stages. You start out with an unsolvable puzzle with minimal information, and a set of additional conditions numbered 1 to 9. You try to solve as much as you can, and when you place a digit in a target cell, it reveals which of the 9 rules now also applies, giving you more information to continue solving, maybe to reach another target cell, and gain a new rule set, and so on. I think it would be a fun solve. If anyone clever fancies a go at making one I'd love to see it.

[@spitgorge2021]

that is absolutely beautiful sounding, rules revealed AS you solve the sudoku

[@columbus8myhw]

"Things revealed as you solve them" sounds kinda like Minesweeper (and variants like Hexcells and Tametsi)

[@StroSolves]

Neat idea. I've actually thought about having clues that aren't revealed until you get to a certain part of the solve, but was approaching it from a different perspective, and never quite got it to work satisfactorily. My approach was to have givens that were revealed as you solved, and I did it by adding notation between some of the cells indicating a modular arithmetic relationship. So, effectively it's kind of like XV or kropki, but it's more one directional. Working backwards gives you lots of options. i.e. if cells A and B are related as A=9modB, once you know B, you know A, but without either digit you really don't know very much about them.

[@57thorns]

I have seen "one of these rules apply" (or if it was "one of these rules don't apply" and as you solved it you could eliminate those rules that did not work.

[@marklindsey1995]

I have made two of these puzzles just for you ~ Zombie Hunter. When I said where the puzzles could be found, my comment was deleted; so I hope you can find them on your own!

[@KratosNotKratos]

I always love when Simon goes "ah!" after a second or two of silence.

[@tagcoins1]

And now when solving puzzles, I can't keep myself from saying just that!

[@VeritasUnae]

40 minutes, before and after a dinner and shopping trip, and I managed to fully crack it! What a delight, with the interactions between the arrows, the initial even placements and the possible parities. I adored solving this! Kudos to Scott for the setting. Now I'll have to watch how Simon tackles it. Placing 9s definitely helped me when I got stuck though!

[@StroSolves]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!

[@elvagabundo4607]

The arcanity that you dredge up from the depths of your mind never ceases to amaze me...."Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb." The Trumptonshire trilogy indeed!

[@nevillestyles]

I took 96 minutes to complete it, but I took the same logical path which was very satisfying. That’s a sign of a beautifully crafted puzzle. Thank you.

[@theunwelcome]

"I'm not very imaginative when it comes to seeing pictures in these puzzles" "that looks a bit like a stag's head, with the horns..." nope, I can't make this math add up, Simon! ha!

[@longwaytotipperary]

once he called it a stag's head I couldn't unsee it. 😄

[@raistlin_dourden]

I came for The Secret, but I stay for the knowledge bombs

[@maxstunner100]

Great, now the song is in my head too. (And the scene from Only Fools and Horses - Jolly Boys’ Outing of memory serves).

[@davidhughes7174]

beautiful puzzle that I managed to solve with some tips. Thank you Simon and Scott

[@ryanhomcy7759]

This was sooo much fun. I took a couple hints from the video and solved it in like 2 hours. It felt like an accomplishment so it is one.

[@geoff544]

What an elegant puzzle. It is telling that a year ago I wouldn't have had a clue where to start but now it is a 'GAS'. And it has been a gas over the last year - thank you CTC.

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 02:36 Let's get cracking: 03:18 And how about this video's Simarkisms?! By sudoku: 8x (20:39, 25:16, 31:16, 32:00, 33:40, 34:00, 34:03, 34:52) Beautiful: 6x (17:13, 17:15, 17:53, 24:29, 24:51, 35:30) Sorry: 4x (15:58, 16:03, 18:08, 26:02) The Answer is: 4x (04:22, 05:35, 07:30, 28:47) Stuck: 4x (09:46, 09:51, 09:53, 28:17) Lovely: 3x (09:00, 32:03, 32:09) Knowledge Bomb: 2x (02:53, 05:41) Bobbins: 1x (21:53) Cooking with Gas: 1x (21:23) Nonsense: 1x (32:37) Clever: 1x (35:41) Deadly Pattern: 1x (34:42) Straight Off the Bat: 1x (08:48) Come on Simon: 1x (34:07) Shouting: 1x (33:28) Approachable: 1x (00:41) Think Harder: 1x (28:20) I've Got It!: 1x (05:56) FAQ: Q1: What is a Simarkism? A1: A Simarkism is something that Simon and Mark typically or frequently say. Q2: How do you do this so fast? A2: I'm not made of flesh and blood, but of sand ... Q3: Why don't you include 'XX' and 'YY'? A3: Probably it's already on the list ('Scooby-Doo' for example), but not mentioned in this video. But if you think it's not, tell me what you'd like me to include and there's a good chance I'll add it! Q4: You missed 'XX' at 'YY:ZZ'! A4: That could very well be the case! Human speech is hard to understand for computers like me, especially British sometimes! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn! Q5: Could you turn these statistics into videos? A5: I've been playing around with the idea and I'm open to input as to what people would like to see. Let me know if you are interested in this and/or have suggestions.

[@Guthix744]

Already a false positive as you've predicted :(

[@shellmichael9665]

God, I just love this channel and Simon’s enthusiasm for these puzzles. It’s infectious. I find myself smiling along with him so often.

[@MiguelOliveira87]

Really enjoyed solving this puzzle. I didn't find it easy at all, but lots of fun. Thank you :)

[@ambroselwatson]

Another great puzzle, as fun to watch someone solve as it was to solve it originally. I placed the 9 in box 7 right at the start, and I think that somehow made my path through the puzzle slightly less straight forward.

[@th.nd.r]

In solving this, I had a hard time appreciating how beautiful of a puzzle this was. The deductions don’t come nearly as quick as when watching you. Beauty of a solve Simon, beauty of a puzzle Scott.

[@StroSolves]

Glad you liked it!

[@Raven-Creations]

I loved that. The interaction between the arrows at the top with the arrows at the side, with them forming a sort of parity x-wing was very nice. The way that we could deduce that an even must be in one of two places, therefore the rest of the cells had to be odd was also nice.

[@cecelialehmann6112]

Enjoyed this one. I managed to actually get a good start to including some digits and then got a bit bogged down. Watched the video a bit and then finished it. I'm still pretty happy if I can even get a start on the puzzles featured on here.

[@Sujisan4]

Another day, another must watch video.

[@Li3Kung4]

I needed 20 minutes of the video but I made it in under an hour. Totally approachable once you've watched Simon solve it.

[@lmelior]

Oof, made a bad assumption right away and it broke the puzzle fairly far into it. I don't think it would have been too tricky for me had I not done that. Having "even" in the title made it pretty obvious I should be focused on parity, though it did take me a while to spot that initial stag. Had to watch almost 2/3rds to figure out where that bad assumption was (it was eliminating 4 as a possibility from r1c2). One thing I did a bit differently is focus on 9s, for example you can place a 9 early on in r9c2, because the other options (c3 in box 7) break the puzzle pretty quickly. Not a major deduction but basically I had a lot more pencil marks aiding me with the coloring. Anyway, such a great puzzle and solve as always!

[@karlwaugh30]

Lovely puzzle with a lovely pattern. I got it nice and quick and got the 9s nice and early which made the colouring a bit simpler to start with (I took longer spotting all the stuff near the end but alas)...

[@ugobindini7309]

It is fascinating how the 9 in R9C2 was for me the 4th digit in the grid, and Simon finds it after 33 minutes. Beautiful and accessible puzzle!

[@bristolrovers27]

An excellent puzzle. I started off with an x-wing in column 1 and 9, then pencil marked or entered 9 for all columns. Definitely a tricky puzzle but well worth it.

[@mikes_.5_cent]

Part of me wants to gripe about waiting so long on the 9's in box 9 and box 1, but the arrow logic got me. Good solve, and thank you.

[@supermysterious66]

Fun fact, after place in box 9 and 1, you can also place a 9 in box 7, because then colum 2 only has one place for a 9 left.

[@dontmindme2844]

The first thing I did was place 9's and Simon saves it for the end...

[@rockniu]

Nice and Cute logic. Took me a while find the interaction between r1c2, r1c8 and c1, c9 in R5

[@TheNewAccount2008]

Awesome puzzle, WOW.

[@CMLachky]

Great Puzzle!! I found it tough, but very fulfilling! COULD, indeed. Definitely not WILL, in my case

[@longwaytotipperary]

Looking forward to patreon solution videos! Just looked - not there yet.

[@dustinmoore1804]

Never been so early! Love the videos Simon. Keep the GAS coming for us lesser beings!

[@Ghostpiratez34]

Simon, you told me I could solve it easily. This is my first attempt at puzzles on the channel. I thought "it took Simon 30 minutes, I'll give myself an hour." I'm ashamed to say my entire evening was gone before I finished

[@amara560]

I found the graveyard puzzle they posted recently much easier. But maybe that's just how my brain works.

[@truscottlee5554]

Great one, that was fun - made me feel better (some of them lately have been rough - 22:54 felt good

[@srwapo]

61 minutes. Had an ah-ha moment early on, then an AH-HA moment after 30 minutes.

[@samus88]

That was so much fun. 32 minutes for me.

[@laszloliptak611]

I agree with the others that this was quite a bit trickier than Simon made us believe at first :) Solved it in 40:39.

[@DirkieB]

Lovely puzzle! Bit disappointed that the 3 in the corner didn’t get a song, but considering your throat issues I’ll forgive you Simon!

[@alienrenders]

24:46 is my time. There was some clever logic in this one. How the arrows interacted with the circles if there was only one even number left on the row or column made for some interesting colouring. It did allow to colour in the rest of the column and rows. This was a lot of fun.

[@superdan2593]

32:07 the 3,5 pair in column 6 solves this 3,4 pair right? No X-Wing needed but that's how Simon works! 👍

[@deroshkin]

Came here to say the same thing.

[@benjaminrealy5661]

35:59. Beat video length!! Actually quite easy. Figured out much of parity in a snap. And only was slowed down not by thinking, but by inputting and uninputting. If my fingers were as focused as my brain, I should have easily done 25:00.

[@DarrenNakamura]

This one took me quite a while. But I got there!

[@flwi]

Nice solve. Simon, you're really good at generating questions with all the different angles you look at a puzzle. I currently have to write some user facing frontend code (never really done that) and I have to say that I really like the UI of the software even more. But it has ruined the ability to just watch him solve the puzzle - now I'm thinking like - oh, highlighting multiple cells only highlights the outer borders - interesting how it behaves when you enter numbers/colors while having multiple cells selected 😱 just stop, brain. I'm trying to enjoy the solve here!

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

22:46 for me. Was there an easier way? That was really enjoyable, but now I’m wondering whether I missed something big. Time to watch the video!

[@Daximotos1]

“Easily” is a VERY loosely used term here. Great solve!

[@AzraelNewtype0079]

The Testers: This is approachable Me, after three hours and an error in logic at some point that I couldn't even unwind: I am Boo Boo the Fool

[@QwDragon]

32:06 - 32:45 Interesting and a bit unexpected approach. 35 pair in column 6 could've make the same thing. But your version is more powerfull as it allows to handle any 3X in ro 5, not only 35. Usefull moment :)

[@geoff544]

I guess we all miss simple deductions - it's just that we don't do it on video!

[@QwDragon]

​@@geoff544 yep, but my point was that I find this place usefull. By some reason it was very unlikely for me to search x-wings across different center-pencilmarked cells. I understand that it's the same thing, but by some reason I won't focus on such cells.. until now.

[@sudokulove9693]

I always have trouble seeing the arrows on a grid that Simon makes. His arrows are almost completely white. When he added colors to this, I lost track of the arrows entirely.

[@MissKapanadze]

Eek I definitely didn’t get far in this puzzle and got stuck early on, but funnily that 9 in row 9 was one of the first digits I placed. First thing I spotted was where could 9s go and 3 of them could be placed immediately and the rest could be pencilmarked.

[@nickgidzak2804]

my first 3 numbers were all 9's in first in row 8, only 1 square is not either on an arrow or not an even, so it is 9. second is row 2, there are two options for 9 to go, column 1 and 9, but col 9 already has its 9, and row 2 becuase the only 2 places a 9 can go rows 1, 3, and 9, but there is already a 9 in box 1, so it must be in row 9..... that being said, it took me WAY too long to realize where row 7's 8 was

[@hummakavula3750]

Boy did I solve this one from the other direction. I worked out r1c2 and r1c8 had to have opposite parity. Then I found about a dozen cells that would be odd no matter which way that row 1 pair went.

[@triplea657aaa]

I am very stuck on the last lockout lines puzzle... that 96 cage/line ruining my life xD I think I know where it's supposed to go, but proving it logically is turning out extremely hard for me. I have all the remaining lines narrowed down fairly closely, but there's still too much variation for me to figure it out.

[@squaray]

"You won't believe how EASY it is!" he said. ...it took me 2+ hours. Watched the video, hoping I had missed something. Nope... just slow. 2 of those hours were spent arduously reaching the point Simon got to at 22 minutes with the R1 parity resolution. I... did it, I guess? It's so late 😀😌😴

[@balkthor]

Definitely wouldn't call this "genuinely approachable" but it was quite a fun puzzle. 52:06 but I did need a hint on cracking that odd/even column/row trick.

[@ericpraline1302]

Very clever puzzle. I'm going to blame Simon and his title for my making a ridiculously stupid assumption and breaking the puzzle at the first attempt.

[@Gorm169]

I can't say this one felt very approachable to me. Took me 103:58 (more than a whole video's worth of gas puzzles) and I got stuck and had to cheat after 30 minutes because I missed what Simon found at the 15-minute mark of the video. Despite all that I had a fun time anyway.

[@Keyboardje]

Please take good care of yourself! Get well soon!

[@HunterJE]

If you want to make blue even for something other than "no other reason than orange is odd," you could always do some form of "blue = bisectable" (as in an even number is one that can be halved without remainder or decimal component)

[@kevinyoung796]

I always just thought of it as "blue and orange are complementary colors so that way the grid just looks prettier"

[@martinepstein9826]

I always do orange for odd and green for greeven

[@HunterJE]

@@kevinyoung796 That is indeed the actual reason for picking blue as the second color, specifically they contrast acceptably well for many forms of colorblindness, I was just making up a reverse engineered "reason" for blue

[@tricia1072012]

Nice

[@StroSolves]

@@HunterJE As a colorblind person myself, I appreciate when people use contrasting colors. Personally, I like to use yellow and red for odd/even, but that's because I'm an alum of Iowa State, and their colors are cardinal and gold. :)

[@ruokothyan7658]

Lets get cracking :)

[@toddbiesel4288]

Maybe a special puzzle for 405,000 subs, because the number 405 seems interesting for some reason.

[@jdyerjdyer]

Ever bifurcated on parity? I did, sort of. When I got stuck, I asked what would happen if I turned one of the end row five cells odd and then what would happen if I turned it even. I found a lot of overlapping parity this way, so I now had enough parity cells to work with. Now to see how or if Simon avoided this maneuver. lol

[@jdyerjdyer]

Wow. I thought I was bifurcating, but turns out it was just a valid technique to determine some of the cell parities. Simon started with the top of the grid, row 1 circles, while I did it the other way looking at the row 5 circles. Cool. :)

[@NotElusivePanda]

15:29 looks like Poseidon’s pitchfork

[@KevFrost]

I could easily crack this by noting that in row 8, nine can't go on an arrow or an even digit. So it's placed. Same logic for r2c1. Which places nine in c2

[@johnhalpenny6027]

I got all the same digits Simon got in his first 5 to 10 minutes and so proud it only took me 35 minutes ha ha ha

[@kierkegaard54]

Why is R3c2 not a 3 at 30:14 i don't see why is that a 17 pair

[@mikesummers-smith4091]

Life flies by when you're the driver of a train.

[@MisterM2402]

This looks so much like a Set Theory puzzle, but that got me nowhere so I gave in and just watched the video. Thought I was being so clever...

[@StroSolves]

I like making 'SET theory' puzzles, but I also enjoy making puzzles that look like 'SET theory' puzzles, but aren't... :)

[@CodeAndGin]

(not watched yet): ive placed an 8, three 9s, and now I'm stuck

[@jamieodoherty8199]

Hi I'm new to this channel. Could someone explain who Maverick may be?

[@webhead66]

17:50 They lose their power of green-ness...

[@cablebee8790]

Hey I love to try the puzzles sometimes. However, is it impossible when I am on my iPad, my favorite device, since the touch controls are not good. Is there a way you can make them better please?

[@astroblurf2513]

What’s giving you trouble with the controls?

[@QwDragon]

Absolutely see no difficulties on touch devices. Neither on iPad's screen ratio 4:3.

[@cablebee8790]

@@astroblurf2513 impossible wasn’t the right term to use, sorry. I mean limited. I can not select multiple cells unless they are next to each other, I cannot double click the cells to highlight similar ones either. A lot of functionality is missing.

[@adrianhead6272]

Completed in 19m45s.

[@bidaubadeadieu]

Simon could have immediately placed the 9 in row 2 any time between and 9:12 and 29:22

[@glennmelven3414]

I thoght I broke the puzzle because I had that deadly pattern at the end, and then I saw the arrow would resolve it.

[@jrpstonecarver]

Ummm. No link present on Oct 21. Weird.

[@jrpstonecarver]

No link to the puzzle to try it myself, I mean.

[@tomtheultimatepro]

20:29 for me

[@six_5000]

my final digit was the 3 in the corner ^_^

[@brianarsuaga5008]

Approachable my rear end

[@luckymustard]

At 25:30, how would that arrow sum have to be 9?

[@StroSolves]

If you put an 8 on the arrow, then the two cells on the arrow would have to be 8 and 1, with a sum of 9. Anything else would be a 2 digit number.

[@dwarfigplays9806]

That was hard for me. Solved in 1:20:26. And now I'm going to watch how Simon does it 3 times faster... UPD. I watched. So, same path, but I walked 3 times slower. :)

[@StroSolves]

Maybe you just enjoyed the scenery more? :)

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

35:29 for me - a little slow at the start, but I really enjoyed it once I got going. 34:04 - When Simon mistyped 1 instead of 7 I heard him in my head going: "here's a logic bomb for you, 1 + 1 does not equal 8".

[@G4M1L]

Not that it would have been terribly useful, but I feel a bit sorry for the simple deduction about where to put 9 in row 2. (3 cells given to be even, 4 more cells being on arrows, 1 more cell seeing a 9 in its column, hmmmm). But I guess the enthusiasm for all the parity logic left no room for such a profane observation. ;-) Edit: Oh, OK, at about 29:00 it was noticed

[@DidWeWin1]

When no digits in the grid is "plain vanilla"

[@chiepah2]

Genuinely approachable as opposed to Goodliffe approachable

[@Coyotek4]

25:12 ... 'approachable' may be a bit strong, or maybe I've just been filled with so much GAS over the past several weeks. In any case, nice puzzle!

[@nocx4592]

I finished it... took me somewhere over 3 hours...

[@tricia1072012]

Hello CTC people.

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

Tricia, hello! Do you also think of this crowd as your CtC friends? Weird, isn't it?

[@tricia1072012]

@@amoswittenbergsmusings I think we're a family with two cool dads. 😊

[@nickflamingdude2]

I failed miserable lol

[@philipmiller0802]

"Genuinely Approachable" and "36-minute video" are mutually incompatible, sorry. Still fun to solve!

[@_-_-Sipita-_-_]

45:31 for me.

[@gadois8674]

C'mon Simon.... you can place 9 on r2c1 from the start after 9 in c9, which gives you 9 in c2 etc...

[@jeffreyvannieuwkoop6809]

I can't believe it, i find a 1x1 killse-sudoku difficult hehehhehee.

[@jeffreyvannieuwkoop6809]

Killer*

[@stephenhenley7452]

Simon...love you, but you spent 30+ minutes before you placed the 9 in row 2, but could have done so right after placing your first 9 in row 8...that eliminates col 9 and the arrows/evens eliminate everything else (Very infuriating...in hindsight, I bet it was for you too). Thanks so much for explaining all the logic!!!!

[@Tfin]

Was it tricky? Not if you see the 8 in column 9. I stared at for an hour without noticing that it was forced.

[@JZuCuadra]

easily??? Welp I guess I solved it so 107:50 is easily enough XD

[@istvanmagi473]

The puzzle is insanely hard and requires genius level deductions over and over and over. The logic at 11:01 for example: not only I would have never in a billion lifetimes would be able to make that myself, but also I could hardly follow the logic while watching the video. I seriously think that Simon should tune the clickbait down a bit when coming up with titles.

[@columbus8myhw]

Well, it's true, you didn't believe it

[@victorfinberg8595]

Maybe not insanely hard, but certainly not "approachable" for most people. Having said that, there are some systematic procedures that you can use for arrow puzzles. 1) Look for where 9s are restricted, because they can hardly ever be on arrows. Here, this gives 3 digits and some pencil marks. 2) Work on long arrows. Here, there are only two that qualify, but one is very restricted. 3) Know your sum combinations. 4) Work out the minimum value for each circle. 5) You almost certainly have to look at arrow combinations. 6) Apply ALL the rules! Then get some hints from Simon!