(99%Sneaky here) 💙 Thanks for another joyful feature! That was a very keen spot of the intended break-in point, with the help of the highlighted pattern. Your intuition served you quite well throughout. Very clean solve, you avoided getting impeded as you went (unlike Mr. Gulliver).
That was a very enjoyable puzzle, thank you! A lovely break-in, and all flowed nicely after that too (not withstanding a few head-scratching pauses caused by my own incompetence).
I hope I don't come off as freaky Or, heaven forbid, much too geeky. But whenever I eye "Normal rules still apply" Well, it just doesn't seem very sneaky.
52:47 - a lot longer than most of you, but I'm proud of myself as this was slightly more difficult than the ones I usually limit myself to. Beautiful puzzle, very enjoyable to solve it!
I try all of the puzzles for which the video is under about 45 minutes. If it's longer than that then I know it will be too difficult for me. I saw this one was under half an hour, so thought I would be OK, but it took me ages to get my first few digits. I finished it in just under an hour, so slightly longer than you, so please don't be disheartened by your solve time. I think we're probably at around the same standard. Like you, I'm just proud to be able to finish a puzzle, I don't treat them like a race.
@@kwilson5832 Glad I'm not the only one! It's nice to just to be able to solve one that's challenging without worrying about the time it takes. I also tend to only try the ones that are shorter videos knowing that my time is typically double or triple that of Mark and Simon. Let's keep puzzling! :)
There has been a string of puzzles recently with straightforward variant rules, in good combinations, that have produced really excellent and fun puzzles - and all within my ability to solve. Not just GAS, but something a bit more than GAS. I really enjoyed this puzzle and your solve of it, Mark. Your ability to spot patterns is very fun (such as the portions that you colored green). But even beyond that, your reasoning was so clear and so great throughout. Thanks for this video!
I always appreciate it when you appreciate the beauty in a puzzle! I will join the rest of you who needed to see Mark get the break-in, then enjoyed solving the rest on our own.
This one was difficult for me, I spent over an hour staring at the puzzle before watching the video for a hint. I don't think I would have noticed the break in and was about to brute force my way through the puzzle. Rather than that I decided it was better to get a hint from Mark. Overall a really fun solve and I think it knocked some of the rust off my brain. Though my brain was going to box three as the break in for the puzzle at first. I still looking at r3 to see if there were anyway to break in that way. The best I could do was get a range for r3c3 and r3c4 being from 12 to 15.
That was very clever. I could not see the break in, but having watched Mark show why neither cell 3 nor 7 in box 5 could be the 6 it all fell into place beautifully.
You actually don't even require row 3 for the break-in. The initial restriction is that the corner cells in box 5 need to be from 5-9, however if you make any of them a 5 this will use up all the digits required to make the 9-cage work in the box where the associated arrows extend into. The next elimination is that if you place 6 the total of the arrows and the 9-cage becomes 21 and so the remaining three cells in that box must be a 7-8-9 triple. When you do this for the arrows in either of the boxes 2,4 or 6 this results in a 6-7-8-9 quadruple (column 6, row 4 and row 6 respectively) where the 6 must be placed in box 5 and so you end up with two 6s in box 5. This gives you 6 in r6c6 and now 9 is forced in box 8 because you can't have 7,9 or 8,9 in the same row with a two cell 15-cage.
12:47 Very elegant opening. Noted the 9 cages match with 4 arrow cells in their region and 6 cells of different digits must be at least 21. Subtracting the 9 meant the arrow pair was at least 12, for a slight variation on the opening break in, though it's essentially yhe same logic.
What I noticed happens in box 3. Sudoku puts a nine in R1C8 or 9. Together with "the secret" we get: the 8 and its two arrows add up to 24, a 10 cage makes the total 34. That leaves exactly 11 for R1C89. So the other digit must be 2. That rules out 26 as a way to make up 8, 53 doesn't go vertical, so it goes horizontal leaving 17 for the vertical arrow and 64 for the cage. Oh and to get the 8 in box3 the easy way of seeing it is that the 8 in R9C9 puts an 8 in C8 in box 6. Therefore there must be an 8 in C7 in box3. Now that could be on the arrow with a 1 putting a 9 in the circle. But that's not the case because of the R3C3 nine. So the 8 is in the circle.
Did Magoo forget about the secret when doing box 3? Once the 8 was known in the arrow, 8 times 3 plus the 10 killer cage makes 34, take that from the secret (45 shh don't tell anyone) leaves 11. We know 9 is in there from sudoku of all things, and yes you should do sudoku in a sudoku puzzle (don't listen to Simon , regardless of how interesting he is at parties), so we know it's 9&2 in the other cells.
Who wants a sudoku? (Speaking of the merch at 2:18) It used to be on a hoodie or shirt in the merch about 5 years ago. Want?? Anti-knight's move, anti-king's move, and non-consecutive orthogonally . Apparently, Mark said "It's solvable," with the given digits (only four) but do yourself a favor and stick a 3 in r6c6 (it solves "Miracle-like"). 1 (in 3c3) 2 (in r3c5) [That "3" in r6c6] 2 in r7c9 And a 5 in r9c9 That's it. (Even use this grid if ya want - just ignore the cages and such). There it is though. Enjoy.
Roping in the bottom 3 rows helped the 2nd step of this solve a lot for me. Took me a long time to figure out which circle in B5 was the 6, but I had already figured out if it was in r6c6 the bottom 3 rows were very set.
A very nice puzzle, using clever geometry. @ 6:00 - Those cells you highlighted have a maximum of 9, not a minimum. Your logic was correct, but your words weren't. @ 8:33 - You're trying to identify which is the 6 in box 5. As you identified, the 6 would force 789 into the blank cells. The geometry means that for three of them, you'd end up with four 789s in the row/column (two that you've just placed, and two in box 5). Only R6C6 worked because the position of the 9-cage was shifted. @ 13:22 - "I wonder if there's a way of knowing that it has to have a 1" - On the contrary. Where does 9 go in R7? It must go in R7C7. The arrow can't have a 1 because of the 8 in the row, so it must be 36, the 5-cage is 14, and the other arrow is 27, with 5 and 8 placed.
Amazing how long I can sometimes stare at a puzzle and not spot something that would massively help me solve it (the 6 in box 5). It made me feel very small, but I take full responsibility. No reflection on the setter to whom I apologise for not spotting his very neat trick for so long.
14:30 With the 6 issue from the video, I managed to solve the puzzle. Just now, Mark omitted a possible 2 in R2C4, which is going to bite him if he doesn't eventually correct it. He probably will. 21:20 Ahah. He found it. Is this puzzle really sneaker than many puzzles here?
I like the Connections puzzle, but it's really only one category each time that's a genuine challenge, and you can usually get it just by process of elimination, which isn't very fun. It might be cool if you had to specify the name of each category, or if you could get a bonus point from doing that like on Only Connect. I'd also like it if it got harder throughout the week like the crossword. That said, I've been playing and enjoying it every day.
@@vanillaswirl87I think it's more of a culture test, sort of like cryptic crosswords. But NYT is American based, unlike the Times crosswords they do, which are UK based
@9:47 Nice. That puts 36 into the nine cage. And with "789" in there (and 6789 in the "15 cage" in box7), notice where the 6s are in that quadruple. [In the 15 cage] That makes that cage a 69. That's never happened before. [Which of course, leaves a 78 pair and the 9 in the circle in box8] That "9" is then on the left in box5 (and placeable in box2 above). Then you can place the 9 in box9, and placed in box3 and placed in box1 (leaving an x-wing on 9s in boxes4&6). Very nice. Kudos.
Rules: 03:05 Let's Get Cracking: 03:34 Mark's time: 23m58s Puzzle Solved: 27:32 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Three In the Corner: 1x (26:28) The Secret: 1x (05:11) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Pencil Mark/mark: 4x (21:15, 22:31, 22:38, 22:48) Sorry: 3x (02:02, 15:56, 18:14) Clever: 2x (26:07, 27:41) Lovely: 2x (27:30, 27:41) Brilliant: 2x (00:47, 01:10) In Fact: 2x (16:16, 26:20) Obviously: 2x (04:52, 19:16) Home Straight: 1x (26:44) Wow: 1x (14:03) What Does This Mean?: 1x (13:05) Ah: 1x (11:31) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Eighteen, Twenty Seven (9 mentions) Six (50 mentions) Green (2 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Low (2) - High (1) Odd (3) - Even (0) Row (21) - Column (9) FAQ: Q1: You missed something! A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn! Q2: Can you do this for another channel? A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!
Even though he kept saying "minimum" when he meant "maximum", he still somehow converted it into a correct deduction that the three remaining cells in the row had to sum to "at least" 21. Subconsciously, at least, he appeared to know it was the maximums he'd been working out all along.
I don't understand how I can get the other of today's puzzle without much trouble, but this one I can't figure out how to get past the 6789 deduction in box 5, and then 45 minutes end up with a conflict (and not even half the digits done)
If you're referring to 4:45 (?), I think he misspoke. He meant 9 was the maximum on each arrow (because 9 would be the maximum in the attached circles), even though he kept saying "minimum" throughout. The maximum from both arrows in row 3 was 18. Add 6 from the cage, and it's up to a maximum of 24, which then requires the three remaining cells to have at least 21 in them. (He got the "at least" bit right, despite saying minimum when he meant maximum).
Being stuck in a similar way I'm wondering if I can use this statement to deduce that box 8 must be associated with the 6 in box 5 as one of them has to be, and that's the most constrained!
@@steampunkskunk3638 Yes it's a tricky spot since it combines "what would be in this place" and at the same time "what would no longer be in this other place". My hope is that it was a good learning experience for some since it's an unusual style of break-in 🙂
Are my eyes failing, or are Mark's videos getting fuzzier and fuzzier by the day? The corner marks are darkish grey smudges on a slightly paler grey background - especially towards the bottom right.
Mark used to be such a good solver but now he just stooped to Simon's level. Such bad scanning and jumping erratically all over the grid. And the man is thinking of going to Sudoku World Championship! I sincerely hope you do well, Mark - just like last year in Kraków - but unless you raise your solving back to the level it was before you'll need a lot of luck.
