Again what a beautiful colorful solve! Huge thanks to Mr. Menace for the inspiration! (Edit: 'pyrotechnics' is such a great compliment. The last time I've lit fireworks is more than 2 decades ago.)

@PanoVids

8 ай бұрын

Great job! You will have impressed thousands shortly

@emilywilliams3237

8 ай бұрын

This was so amazing - beyond my ability to solve, but I followed Simon's solve with rapt attention. Thanks, Qodec, for this beauty!

@Trottah

8 ай бұрын

Agree with Emily, I found all sorts of great logic but beyond my ability to put it all together and solve it. Gorgeous puzzle Qodec!

@chitraagarwal8259

8 ай бұрын

It took me more than an hr to get the 4 in the middle and then decided to just watch Simon do the rest! Would have never seen the 2-3 by myself! Simon truly in form with this one (and very good coloring too!!)

@davidrattner9

8 ай бұрын

Amazing from you again Qodec!! Much respect for you and how you deliver such beautiful puzzles with incredible setting.

If it opens with "This probably won't be a video" I know I'm in for a great video.

@longwaytotipperary

8 ай бұрын

Yes!!!😃

I'm having a bad day today and the reassurance that I'm one of Simon's favourite people because I am watching this video is exactly what I needed right now.

@longwaytotipperary

8 ай бұрын

Same!! Also his excitement at finding the solution is so uplifting!!

@davidrattner9

8 ай бұрын

Hope your day is better for you! Great channel and community to help with that.

@davidrattner9

8 ай бұрын

​@longwaytotipperary wish you a better day my friend!! 💙💚💛

@longwaytotipperary

8 ай бұрын

@@davidrattner9 thank you! The sun is out and it looks like it will be a better day! I hope you have a good day also! 💕💕

@Anne_Mahoney

8 ай бұрын

Hang in there, @LuanMerlin -- hope the next day goes better. 😺

Usually these videos have a crazy ruleset, so I'm pleasantly surprised that this is a traditional killer sudoku! Compliments to the setter, this was brilliant!!

@longwaytotipperary

8 ай бұрын

Yes!!

@sirgeremiah

7 ай бұрын

While I love the torture of complex rulesets, this puzzle just felt so.....clean. Nothing but straight logic through and through. And such a joy to solve.

Simon is one of my favorite people because he tells me sudoku secrets.

You had my attention non-stop, Simon. I could never in a million years have gotten this puzzle off the ground, but I was fascinated by all of your logic. This reminds me (on a much more difficult level) of how amazed I used to be by yours and Mark's solves of even basic variant sudoku - I feel that I have learned so much from you guys, from Cracking the Cryptic. Thanks so much!!

@davidrattner9

8 ай бұрын

Always splendidly written from you!!

@emilywilliams3237

8 ай бұрын

Thank you, David. You have an encouraging spirit!@@davidrattner9

I'd say this is Qodec's best puzzle yet. The logic behind it was unbelievably good.

@WhoStoleMyAlias

8 ай бұрын

He actually borrowed the idea for the four cages that meet in the center box from a setter known as Mr.Menace. When I first tried Qodec's puzzle I got completely stuck. Turning to Mr.Menace's puzzle helped me understand the interaction better and solve Qodec's as well.

This puzzle must be all the rage The break in must use every cage. Qodec, you amaze us Your puzzle does phase us. Take a bow, and don't fall off the stage. (Puts a trophy on Qodec's sock and flies away)

Thanks for all you do, Simon. Your videos help me through so many sleepless nights. ❤

Rules: 05:26 Let's Get Cracking: 06:05 Simon's time: 1h0m20s Puzzle Solved: 1:06:25 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! The Secret: 10x (03:58, 07:26, 07:31, 07:36, 07:42, 07:46, 07:46, 17:21, 17:30, 17:30) Bobbins: 3x (36:59, 49:09, 53:37) Maverick: 2x (02:21, 07:33) Knowledge Bomb: 1x (13:56) Three In the Corner: 1x (51:06) ​Scooby-Doo: 1x (46:16) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Beautiful: 22x (00:58, 24:14, 24:17, 24:24, 24:56, 24:56, 25:19, 26:07, 26:20, 26:22, 34:09, 41:33, 41:36, 46:50, 53:52, 58:08, 58:10, 1:01:36, 1:04:40, 1:05:30, 1:05:30, 1:05:36) Ah: 19x (13:18, 24:45, 28:23, 30:55, 33:48, 38:42, 41:05, 45:56, 46:09, 46:42, 51:31, 51:31, 55:19, 57:01, 57:22, 57:55, 59:50, 1:02:05, 1:04:15) By Sudoku: 13x (29:50, 29:52, 51:31, 53:45, 54:05, 54:57, 57:07, 57:11, 59:38, 1:01:16, 1:02:31, 1:02:38, 1:03:52) Hang On: 13x (09:11, 21:56, 26:25, 30:59, 41:10, 41:10, 42:03, 51:43, 55:15, 1:00:57, 1:01:00) Symmetry: 10x (11:45, 11:48, 11:51, 12:18, 12:31, 25:19, 40:12, 43:47, 45:17, 45:27) Sorry: 8x (02:23, 02:26, 15:10, 28:27, 28:29, 31:43, 37:42, 58:31) Pencil Mark/mark: 6x (20:10, 35:36, 46:59, 49:36, 51:05, 1:04:00) The Answer is: 4x (08:43, 32:21, 35:06, 46:14) Clever: 4x (01:09, 1:05:18, 1:05:20, 1:06:01) Break the Puzzle: 4x (13:26, 25:10, 27:58) Ridiculous: 4x (01:31, 01:31, 01:40, 06:12) Gorgeous: 4x (28:55, 41:14, 46:09, 46:31) Brilliant: 3x (01:02, 01:37, 1:06:11) Stunning: 3x (1:05:43, 1:05:43, 1:06:04) Obviously: 3x (02:54, 08:47, 39:48) I Have no Clue: 2x (35:06, 38:48) Bizarre: 2x (44:47, 44:49) In Fact: 2x (27:24, 43:01) What Does This Mean?: 2x (42:49, 47:07) Cake!: 2x (04:36, 05:15) Weird: 2x (32:01, 1:04:15) Good Grief: 1x (28:23) What on Earth: 1x (1:01:08) Goodness: 1x (1:04:00) Naked Single: 1x (39:45) Out of Nowhere: 1x (47:05) Lovely: 1x (03:43) Take a Bow: 1x (1:06:24) Shouting: 1x (04:34) Magnificent: 1x (1:06:27) Phone is Buzzing: 1x (26:33) Plonk: 1x (1:01:40) Wow: 1x (41:20) Next Trick: 1x (1:00:08) Have a Think: 1x (19:47) Thingy Thing: 1x (57:45) Unique: 1x (12:26) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Thirteen (30 mentions) Two, Nine (82 mentions) Orange, Blue (42 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Even (8) - Odd (0) Black (5) - White (0) Column (17) - Row (15) 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!

@pinkypriv

2 ай бұрын

oh sweet little bot thinking a pencil mark is 3 in the corner, you tried bud! brilliant piece of code, thank you Mr dev

Nothing brings me more joy than a notification from a CTC video

The break-in around minute 26 left me speechless. I would never have fiound it. Kudos Qodec and Simon!

After all the beautiful logic around new variations and rules, how lovely to enjoy an old school killer. Well done Qodec and thank you Simon

Oh , a killer sudoku with no variants in it is rare on this channel these days! It's a much watch for me!

You know it's gonna be a good sudoku solve when Simon only has 1 big digit in the grid and there's only 20 minutes left in the video!

What I really like about this puzzle and others like it is that you have to use all of the clues in the grid to break in. Most puzzles, as brilliant as they may be otherwise, make you use some of the clues to break in, and then additional clues open up other parts of the grid. This one though requires deductions using every cage to arrive at the break in of the central digit. Very impressive setting and really fun to watch Simon sort it all out to get started. Well done setter and solver!

Pyrotechnics is definitely one of the best descriptors Simon's used this year

Yellow being 8 was available at 53:33 when Simon pencilmarked 8 on row 5 as either c2 or c3. At that point the only possible place for 8 on row 4 was in c6.

@hedoverheels

8 ай бұрын

Oh my, yes. Was shouting this at the screen. Not that I'd every have gotten to that point on my own. 😂

Simon was able to subvert a really beautiful piece of logic at 42:15, so I thought I’d share so that he could see something else amazing! Where does the yellow digit go in box 4? It must go in R5! And where does the blue digit go in box 6? Also R5! Once we establish that blue and yellow are in separate iterations of the 23 cages, we know the identity of the Blue/Yellow pair! Since both cages contain 2/3, the remainder must sum to 18 in each cage. One cage must contain a 1. And the digits that must accompany the 1 are 9 and 8, and the other cage must now be 2/3/5/6/7! If blue and yellow are 6/7, then they MUST appear in the same cage, but we’ve already established that they’re in different cages! So Blue/Yellow are 5/8. Very cool symmetry that was appreciated on the vertical, and happens to be present on the horizontal.

@christopherswanson5849

8 ай бұрын

this is the logic i used as well!

@stangerrits6712

8 ай бұрын

Didn't solve this one myself, but noticed this as well in the video. Around 37:00 Simon explores whether yellow and blue could be in the same 23 cage, but I soon realized that when they are both in box 4, the only place for blue in box 6 is in R4, which is impossible since those cells are 2/3 and orange and green. Works the same way the other way around, putting blue and yellow both in the 23 cage in box 6 will cause problems placing yellow in box 4.

In the amount of time I tried to chase various interactions around the perimeter I could have probably solved 2 other hard puzzles. This puzzle indeed blindsided me on more than one occasion about where to expect the logic, so I do stand by my statement: Ridiculous. Absolutely sublime work from Qodec, well deserved feature!

I recommended this one the other day when it came out and called it "simply the best killer I've ever solved". It took me about 75 minutes and a lot of geometry, colouring, unique cage-fill logic, and the usual set of killer tricks. Looking forward to watching the solve!

@TehFilmFanatic

8 ай бұрын

I enjoyed Simon claiming with confidence that the middle digit will be 5, knowing how this all works out!

@TehFilmFanatic

8 ай бұрын

And the classic Simon move of ignoring his own pencil marking and making the final resolution much harder than it needs to be!

At 36:25, Simon considers the 67 possibility for the blue/yellow 13-cage. This doesn't work. Because 6 and 7 would both be in the same 23-cage, this would force either the 6 or 7 into the orange/green areas, which breaks. So, the blue/yellow cage is 58. Edit: Ah. Simon does it a completely different way (via the 5-cages) six minutes later. :)

I loaded up this bad boy on the Interactive Sudoku Solver. Took the ISS 9933 guesses (and a rather significant fraction of a second!) to come up with the solution, and I'm assuming the ISS used similar logic to what you and others used. This is classic qodec.

1:05:54 Simon sure does hunt for things in a strange way - “far and low” - is that why sometimes finds sudoku scanning difficult? 😂

@sirgeremiah

7 ай бұрын

I was wondering if that was a British version of the idiom. It certainly caught my attention when he said it.

Qodec's puzzles never cease to impress. a masterclass on how to craft a killer sudoku

Always proud of my Q for his puzzles and his features on CTC are always my favourites. I attempted this for an hour and it stumped me. So glad to see your solve, Simon.

Very fun puzzle which I *could not stop making the same initial mistake on*. Took (I think) three restarts before I finally realized that there was no reason that the "whiskers" of the 45s needed to be monochromatic. 67:25 isn't too bad a time for all that.

That was one of the very best puzzles I've ever watched on the channel.

Wow, this was difficult - 4 hours 24 minutes for me! I always love killer sudoku puzzles and will always persevere to the end no matter what, but *this* was a challenge. , and my second digit was the 1 in box 6, very different to Simon's solve path.

37:06 The start of this was simply sublime. Absolutely brilliant work, Qodec. Thank you so much!

I took a slightly different turn somewhere in the early logic, and all the rest went in a different order from what Simon had. When he took the different branch from me early in the game, every bit of logic after that seemed so much easier. Not sure what I missed that forced me down that harder path, but however you solve it, this puzzle is so much fun.

Another fantastic puzzle and another fantastic solve! Simon’s enthusiasm cheered up my day!!

@davidrattner9

8 ай бұрын

As well it should as his radiant personality is something of a treasure. 😁

@longwaytotipperary

8 ай бұрын

@@davidrattner9 totally agree!! Who the heck are those people who told him he wasn’t interesting???? He definitely needs better quality friends! He should hang out with us!! 😁

I finished in 117 minutes. That was a strange, but beautiful solve. The interactions on the 45 clues with the center digits was amazing. I really liked how the lone 13 clue in box 9 showed that the other 13 clues had to be from the same sets. Great Puzzle!

What a masterful puzzle, I loved it. But at times it did feel like climbing the north face of the Eiger (I imagine). I had to take a break at one point, and if somebody asked me to explain my solve path I doubt I could.

Fantastic puzzle from you Qodec! What a superb solve Simon!

Beautiful puzzle and a truly excellent solve. Bravo Simon.

Wonderful puzzle. Took me two and a half hours to get through. Took a sanity break to watch trailers from the game awards then put on some music and got back to it. I was looking for a much more complicated break in and that slowed me down at the start.

I think those of us who spend an hour+ watching your videos would be quite happy to talk to you at a party 😊

Killermanjaro

This was my favourite episode yet your solving entertains as always

I didn’t do the math, but at around 20 minutes if you do C5 the same way you did R5, don’t you get a squeeze effect on R5C5? /// Alright Simon got to it a minute later. And yes…. The result is absolutely stunning wizardry. Qodec, who is always brilliant, found another gear in this moment. // So I have finished the video and this is such a marvelous puzzle and solve. Bravo to you both!

34:11 Lol I love this quote

Sublime. Just purely sublime.

41:00 I realized the 23 pair looking at the 5 cage and was like 💡

Really quite struggled with this one. Had to watch to 39:54 to solve, though I had already resolved the 13-cages in box3 and solved most of the 5-8 and 2-3 pair coloring at that point. Quite frustrating how missing one 9 placement set me back for so long, but that's how it goes sometimes. I don't think I would have spotted the logic that placed that 9 without the video, so this puzzle was just out of my league. Still excellent fun though :D

1:01:00 A more intuitive way too see this position resolves red/grey is to look at column 2 - 358 triple places the 2 in box 4, which means red can only be 3...

Took me a hair over 2 hours but I'm proud of getting this one without any help. Very tricky logic throughout!

Wonderful use of geometry!

There should really be a warning label on this video. "If you have triskaidekaphobia DO NOT WATCH!!!!"

A brilliant puzzle that I failed to do justice to 😭 ... it all started well, I figured out that there were three flavours of 13, identified that the middle cell had to be a 4 with a 2-3 pair on one diagonal and a pair adding up to 13 on the other ... except that for some inexplicable reason, I got it into my head that that had to be a 6-7 pair and ignored the possibility of it being a 5-8 pair. Everything flowed nicely from there _for quite a long time_ until it fell apart when trying to resolve the top of the grid.

@badrunna-im

8 ай бұрын

Similarly, I somehow just assumed symmetry and didn't even mark in 5 for those corners. Also liked too much that 67 immediately disambiguated the 8 cage, instead of the other way around.

the moment simon see the x-wing of nines in Box 1 and 3 and don`t do the same logic on Boxes 1 and seven makes me cry but it`s always nice to learn a lot of soving sudokus by watching CTC

62:43 for me. Beautiful puzzle!

47:57 for me. What an incredibly complicated puzzle, but I really enjoyed solving it!!

SIMON!!! You didn't click tick!! However, great solve. Brilliant mind Qodec and brilliant solve simon

3:45:22 - It took me 1.5 hours to get the first digit and at least another hour to get the second one, BUT!, I finished it all by myself and I am well chuffed with that. The logic was fantastic, as we’ve come to expect from @Qodec but, good grief, it took some discovering by me.

Lovely solve for a hard sudoku with a simple rule! 🦋

Stunning. Brilliant. Beautiful. How the hell did he set that????

1 minute in, I see that box 3 and that 45 cage and doing a little distribution up there between the 3 cages but probably not the break in. 7 minutes in, I see, Row 5, Column 5, Box 5, two 23 cages and two 27 cages, and 100 and something like 90, and the difference, might be something there. 26 minutes in, Brilliant. I knew there was something but I didn't know what. 34 minutes in I like how this is going, but you can't put a yellow digit in a 5 cage.

I broke this one repeatedly because I kept failing at math. Once I stopped and checked the video and found where I was making the same mistake, I was able to get it in 30:10

@wanderlustwarrior

8 ай бұрын

I tried again a couple days later without breaking it and got it in 54:21

The interaction between the cages is almost insane.

Brilliant puzzle.

I'm sure that most of your audience Simon would love to talk to you at a party! We would have lots to talk about 🙂

@jimi02468

8 ай бұрын

Yeah and I would talk about one five star puzzle I spent 10 hours solving. We would have a nerd party

The break in was awesome, but this time I was telling my screen to come on and find the 1-4 pair 😂

Finished in 60:57. Was kind of rough trying to figure out where everything could be. Tough, but fun puzzle!

What a killer killer. Very artfully arranged geometry by Qodec. I wish I'd started a timer for how long it took you to spot the breakthrough with the 5 cages. It felt like an eternity that you were pootling around. Stop calling sudoku your fair-weather friend. It's your true friend. It's always there for you. A fair-weather friend abandons you in your time of need. Sudoku does the opposite. In contrast, you are the dreaded "friend in need", because you only call it when you need help. You need to start treating it better and nurture your relationship. Don't wait until you need it before calling on it.

Oh... that's a much better way of finding the central number... I got the same result using simultaneous equations... I certainly wouldn't describe that method as "beautiful" though (not least because I'm a bit rusty).

That forty two minute break is great

What a great tough puzzle!

If you didn't do recoloring to fill the cages in box 7 after you got it in box 3 you could still progress, but then you'd be able to fill boxes 1-6 and left with lots of pairs at boxes 7-9 which would look like there isn't a unique solution at first till you'd recolor again (or check what works for that matter)

Once you establish 4 in the center and a 2/3 pair in box 5, there’s only one combination of four digits that make 20 with 2, 3 and 4.

@RichSmith77

8 ай бұрын

I'm not too sure what you mean? With 4 excluded from both 23 cages, and both cages having to include both 2 and 3, you need two ways to make 18 (=23-2-3) with the remaining digits. These have to be 1+8+9(+2+3) and 5+6+7(+2+3). Both of which Simon mentions. You cannot make 20 with four digits, with 2,.3 and 4, since 20-2-3-4=11. If you meant without 2,3,4, then you're right (1+5+6+8=20) but I don't know why you would need to? Both 23 cages are forced to contain both 2 and 3.

2.00 "The fifth part of Mark and I's attempt ..." 😮😊

Blue is my favorite flavor of 13.

Easy start. I got pencil marks in 30 squares right off the bat. Now you might not think pencil marking the two 45 cages 1-9 and the 5 13 cages and the 5 and 8 cages does much but ... (got nothing after this hot start)

@stevieinselby

8 ай бұрын

If you can pencil mark a 9-cell cage with 123456789 then what's stopping you from pencil marking all 81 squares? Amateur! 😎

@ronjohnson6916

8 ай бұрын

​@@stevieinselby Because the pencil marks in the 45 cage are a deduction. Marking 1-9 in uncaged cells is a mark of desperation.

What a complicated way to resolve blue and yellow 😀Placing 5 in box 4 to do that was available at 53:31

The name Eiger is a hint too. It's an almost 4000m peak in the Bernese Alps.

@PuzzleQodec

8 ай бұрын

It's also a reference to Mr.Menace. The Eiger has an infamous reputation and I thought it resonated nicely with Mr.Menace's name.

Finished in 33:33 by following along with the video.

Would you ever consider doing a chess video, where you talk through all your moves like a soduku puzzle?

A masterpeice!

Simon, please stop scaring me by mistyping pencil marks early in the puzzle.

@daleomiller

8 ай бұрын

Oh, good. He caught it only a minute later.

Tier 19 Puzzle

Simpler way to figure out that the 5 cages have to be the same: A 3 cell 15 cage must have at least one digit less than 5.

@mumushanshi

8 ай бұрын

The 5-cages don’t each see the whole of the 15-cage, so you could potentially have had a digit repeat in the 15-cage and one of the 5-cages

@RichSmith77

8 ай бұрын

​@@mumushanshiAgreed. I was going to say, there's no reason you cannot have 1+4, 2+3 and 4+5+6. Just make sure the 4 in the 1+4 5 cage doesn't see the 4 directly in the 15 cage. E.g. 4 in r1c2 and r4c1.

41:33 for me and solver #2400.

So cruel to put the link for Broken Secrets in the description. I clicked on the wrong puzzle and have spent days trying to work it out, now I can't find the solve video because it is pay-walled. You really shouldn't do that to people!

this one is definitely above my grade

I have to say I really dislike the "Please don't talk to me at parties" cliche. Watchers of these videos certainly are people who would find things interesting when Simon comes to a realization of some kind. So to turn around and say "oh, no, it's actually embarrassing that I find this interesting," is actually in insult to me as a viewer.

96:06 for me

I always disagree. I think Simon would be a brilliant person to speak to at parties

As well as yesterday's video, I have some mixed feelings about the abundant use of colouring here. Where it might help to place certain (pairs of) digits around the grid, too often it feels like it gets a goal in itself. I didn't solve this puzzle myself, but all this colouring seems to be distracting from reaching the goal of the puzzle, which is placing digits in the grid, rather than getting it's all coloured. Also, when a colour has served it's purpose and is not removed, but Simon continues to colour every digit he places afterwards, it just feels like extra unnecessary work. Especially during the end of the solve here, there are many deductions to do based on the digits and pencils marks in the grid, without the need to expand the colouring. Well, each his own techniques I guess, but it's not mine :)

But we don't know if the solve was correct.

@PuzzleQodec

8 ай бұрын

I can confirm that it was. :)

It took you an infuriatingly long time to disambiguate the blues and yellows, you could see it in box 4 much earlier

You’re very interesting

If you could sort out the machinery that's working in the background of your videos, it would be fantastic. It's really aggravating to listen to. It must drive you insane to have to live with it.

That break-in was disgusting

The people that didn't find you or me interesting at parties are the kind of people that are working for people like us :)