This puzzle took me about 2 hours. My first 5 star difficulty puzzle without any nudges. It's been a long journey since seeing the Miracle Sudoku video and thinking "why would anyone watch Sudoku." What a journey it's been! Thank yous!
Pretty much the exact same thing happened to me. Plumbing the depths of UA-cam at like 4am and I find what was the second movie (the one where all the clues are lies) asking in disbelief who in the hell would watching something like this and why is there crap all over the grid? Since then I haven't missed an upload, have even rewatched a number of them, so I guess I know who the hell would watch something like this. People with excellent taste.
Closer to 3 hours for me, but worth it. Got stuck about 3 times, put the puzzle down twice for a meal and sleep, but woke up today and it opened right up to me. Like saying, "Hey. I saw you struggling. Here is an easy digit. Want another? Sure, look right here." It whispered the secrets to me. :)
Simon, you're a certifiable genius, but you're also the only person I know who would count horses in a field by counting the number of legs, verifying each horse has four legs, and then dividing by four.
"I'm in a jolly good mood, because I'm doing a Phistomefel puzzle" I've never pretended to be able to do one of these, but I love watching Simon solve them.
Rules: 02:35 Let's Get Cracking: 04:03 And how about this video's Simarkisms?! By sudoku: 6x (07:06, 26:59, 28:06, 31:47, 33:47, 50:19) Sorry: 5x (07:45, 13:31, 36:16, 1:01:16, 1:05:48) Beautiful: 5x (14:27, 14:54, 33:53, 37:49, 39:03) Ridiculous: 5x (15:26, 16:32, 16:35, 27:29, 1:06:36) Hang On: 4x (19:36, 23:31, 39:15, 1:04:04) Good Grief: 3x (05:38, 44:59, 58:08) The Answer is: 3x (33:11, 38:10, 38:25) Clever: 3x (28:55, 50:14, 1:07:19) I've Got It!: 3x (14:01, 16:35, 16:35) Bobbins: 2x (11:30, 24:31) Bother: 2x (11:39, 58:45) Apologies: 2x (22:18, 48:26) Naked Single: 2x (35:56, 43:02) Maverick: 2x (36:20, 36:22) Stuck: 2x (26:08, 36:30) Incredible: 2x (01:27, 01:37) Gorgeous: 2x (24:20, 28:59) Shouting: 2x (48:26, 48:26) Knowledge Bomb: 1x (22:04) What on Earth: 1x (05:02) Goodness: 1x (43:41) Secret: 1x (01:34) Out of Nowhere: 1x (58:25) Naughty: 1x (1:03:32) Three In the Corner: 1x (55:28) In the Spotlight: 1x (55:30) Lovely: 1x (1:05:56) Off and Running: 1x (08:17) If I trust my Pencil Marks: 1x (49:40) If I Trust My Pencil Marks: 1x (49:40) Magnificent: 1x (04:39) Disappointing: 1x (41:09) 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.
4,5 pair in column 7 pointing at and ruling out the 5 in r3, c8 around the hour mark😂 driving me crazy Simon 😜 Nah, all seriousness I'm in awe watching you solve these puzzles I love it !
Simon: This puzzle must be very close to cracking now (58 mins) Me: OMG I see it! 6's align in boxes 1 and 4 placing a 6 in box 7!!! and simon at 1:03:00 get it in a COMPLETELY different way. LMAO
Same here... that 6 in box 7 also disambiguated all blue/grey 1/2 pairs as 6 could only pair with one... that said, I would never have got some of the early break-in logic
"Almost certainly what I've done is to miss a knight's move restriction somewhere", said Simon while hovering his cursor over the grey 12 that had been placeable in box 6 for over half an hour.
Wowowow! I was just able to crack this one. It was brilliant, and took me a long time. There were plenty of times I got stuck, but the next logical step was never anything too insane that I couldn't find it with a bit of time which made it more of a pure delight than some of the really hard stuff. Brilliant work on the solve!
‘How will I disambiguate the 1-2’s? It must be the line in box 7.’ Of course, the only box in column 2 without pencil marks must be a 6-7 pair and it can’t be a 6, both because of the six in the row and the pencil marks in the box, and so …. Wait that was too easy, we must find a harder way!!!!
This is my first puzzle that took you over an hour to solve that I was over to solve at all. It took me much longer than an hour and I had a couple restarts, but I got through it without any hints!
Oh, Simon, today you really had me in tears by not noticing that r7c2 was the only place for a 6 in the column at 53:15-ish and not getting it before 01:03:15. Other than that I really really enjoyed this. Thank you, both!
Even more of a tearjerker: Simon placed the 7 in box 4 via one of his virtuoso deductions. Here is a guy who solves sudoku with the mind of an extraterrestrial intelligence and the scanning ability of a stormtrooper. Simon is so differently wired he singlehandedly provokes a crisis in neuropsychology. Simon, *please* don't take this in any other way than love in the purest sense.
I used to be proud of *myself* when I was able to solve a puzzle that took Simon or Mark more than half an hour or so. Now, like them, my focus is more on the brilliance of the constructor. Well done, Phistomefel, as always.
Yeah, and that 6 he so desperately wanted in R7C2 and blew the puzzle open for him was actually just sitting there from ~ 51:30 (as soon as he penciled in the 8 in box 7). If he’d only been a little more careful to color his 6’s in box 1 he’d have probably seen it much sooner.
Yeah, but grey has to be in row 4 column 9 from ~28:08, that would be a much earlier breaking point. I have been screaming for half an hour look at the grey!!!
Yep, Simon thinks we shout at the screen when its just like a pair being seen by a digit but in this case it was definitely "the 6 is right there look at col 1 and col 3 Simon!!" xD
I may not be able to solve them, but I always love watching Phistomefel puzzles get solved. He's dangerously smart, I swear just watching makes me smarter lol.
I took the opposite start to Simon. I immediately did parity shading and got my first digit (4 in r3c5) in about three minutes. I kept the blue/low and orange/high throughout the puzzle and used flashes to maintain the differences within, for example, the 123 sets. But it still took me longer than Simon. 71:07 all up. German whispers, anti-knight and Phistomefel. A great combination.
Great puzzle, maybe the most satisfying completing in 34:41. I went ahead and watched Simon's solve after it and noticed at 52:01 column 2, row 7 should be an automatic 6 (based on 6's in columns 1 & 3) which should render the puzzle effectively solved in about a minute 'cause it places all the 1's and 2's
I do not know how I ended up watching Sudoku videos but now I am addicted. I am in awe of your analytical and reasoning skills. I can almost feel my intelligence increasing as I watch.
I needed 2 hints... Very very clever puzzle and took me over 2 hours.... I was off to such a good start. So lucky we have CTC to show us common folk how to solve these hard puzzles
... out of curiosity, I opened the puzzle before watching. I read the rules, and stared at it. Laughed. Closed the puzzle... and now, I sit back and watch. 🤣🤣🤣
Obra Dinn has been on my to-play pile forever, so glad they announced yesterday they'll playing it, realized I had to play so I can watch without spoilers and started last night and it is so amazingly up my alley, played five hours straight.
Finished last night (all Fates, didn't look up any spoilers) and wow that was an amazing game, I have not been made to feel so stupid and then so smart by a game in a long time.
Im gonna pat myself on the shoulder as I spotted an X-wing of 6 in column 1 and 3 somewhere between 55 min and 1 hour that would resolve the 67 on the whisper line in box 7.
Simon: "I don't like putting pencil marks all over the board" Also Simon: Proceeds to put colors all over the board, each representing a range of numbers to avoid actually penciling in those numbers.
I seriously think that putting colors all over the place instead of removing them for resolved digits has always mess up with his scanning. Not to mention the time wasting in pencil marking + coloring at the same time.
I hear ya... It is nice to see his mind working, as it's easier when he puts it all out there, but half of it isn't truly necessary. But, I'm not gonna fault him. At least he can solve the puzzle, I couldn't even figure out a first number on this one.
The classic Simon fallacy. He sprinkles the grid with colors which then confuse him constantly. If he only removed the colors after they were identified as a certain number, many of his solves would be faster, _and_ much more elegant.
@42:00 and possibly earlier, r7c2 sees 123, so if it is low it must be 4, putting a 9 in r2c2 and r7c1 and leaving nowhere for 9 in c3. Therefore you know the parity of that line. I spent far too long staring and trying increasing convoluted stuff towards the end, with the 4 in r3c5 pointing at the 46 I had in both r5c6 and r4c7 the entire time. Finally noticing that resolved everything else almost immediately. I am extremely good at not noticing knight's moves, almost every single time I do a puzzle involving them.
Amazing puzzle and solve, well done both! At 1:03:20 Simon got the breakthrough 6 in box 7, but could have done this for a while because of an x-wing on 6's in boxes 1 and 4 (alternatively r7c2 had been the only place for a 6 in column 2 for some time).
At 59:36, r3c8 cannot be a 5 because the 4-5 pair in r1c7 and r5c7 both see that cell by knight's move. One of those two cells must be a 5, so r3c8 must be 6.
Thanks Simon for making me feel like a genius when i see column 2 where 6 and 7 are missing and in row 5 there is a 6... But then Simon finds an even more genius way to prove c2r5 is a 7...
52:49 for me. That was incredibly hard. One of the hardest puzzles feature in the channel in a while. I can’t wait to see how Simon approached it, so time to watch the video!
Ah, Simon. Always going around your elbow. LOL You got the 6 in box 7 @1:03:24. You could have gotten it @52:00 exactly if you noticed the 6 x-wing in boxes 1 and 5. Still amazing as always to watch. A beautifully colored finish. And a beautiful finish itself. And a beautiful puzzle.
Brilliant solve of a brilliant puzzle. The easier way to find the 6 in box 7 was to spot the x wing of 6s in box 4 and 1, it would make the video shorter in about 10 minutes or so.
73 minutes but this is the first time I have ever completed a Phistomefel puzzle on my own. We're used to his puzzles being ridiculous. And even though the logic in this puzzle was actually relatively straightforward, it still proved challenging, as only Phistomefel can do.
Good solve, Simon.... but you had me shouting at the computer monitor that you never looked at column 2. If you had done this around 53:00, it would have cut 10 minutes off your time. Thanks as always, though. Your solves are among the highlights of my day!
53:42 The logic of "That's gray, so that's not gray. So THAT ones gray which means it's not 5 which means THIS one is 5" was such an entirely Simon move lol
Really really cool puzzle. It is the first Phisto puzzle I solved without hints, so it isn’t really a five star puzzle 😉. I really love colourpuzzles. By the way: I started with giving each cell in box 2 his own colour and worked from there. More goodliffing style I think.
At around 52:42, I deduced that row 7 column 2 must be a 6 because that is the only possible move that could force the 1s and 2s onto a specific color. Ignoring the fact that the 6 there can already be deduced by other ways, is that method of deduction sound logic when solving these? or is it something where you still don't want to fill it in yet until you can confirm it can't be a 7?
It's hard and awesome as per usual, but part of it's difficulty is just marking groups - mixing Simon's cell coloring with high-low would be impossible to read, so only one coloring scheme schould be chosen and it's slightly harder to spot deductions that would rely on the other. My answers to it was to go with high-low (i'm got really used to it), but within those assign corner marks to the pairs: i'd have 78,78 one of them corner 7, one 8 (just to distinguish without colors, remembering that those could be flipped at any moment) and that allowed me to keep track of individual cell logic without introducing more colors for the most part, later having the option to introduce more colors for a moment when it was needed. I think a lot of people can do this one after some time, they just need to choose useful ways of marking things that won't backfire and make the grid unreadable.
as videos seem to be getting longer and longer, looking forward to the 9 hour solve, which would last an entire night of sleep in earphones :) one so tricky, that both Simon and Mark needs to take dinner breaks and such :)
I feel like towards the end, you can conclude the one 67 pair on the German whisper to be a 6 since there are no other constraints remaining that would allow you to disambiguate the 1s and 2s.
Brilliant solve as always.. But I think the intended path at the end of the puzzle was to see the X-wing on 6s in r26c13, which forces a 6 into r7c2, and gives you the 1 on the whisper line you were looking for. Though, that doesn't discount the path in which you solved the puzzle, still a clever way to reach the end.
There comes a point in these rainbow videos where colors are no longer needed to keep track of things. It comes late in the game (for me, anyway), but at that point, I think it better to delete the colors, rather than take the time to keep up with changes in possible colors AND numbers in the grid.
Personally as soon as a cell color resolves to a single digit, it's gone. Too distracting otherwise. Another thing I noticed about this video specifically is that I think the break-in might actually be more straightforward if the box 2 German whispers line is tackled first. That's how I did it anyway. I found Simon's approach to be hard to follow. In any case, the parity coloring only lasted long enough to establish the relationship between the two longer lines. For a while things were a bit colorful though, using purple and green for parity and then separate color sets for corresponding cells.
It took me 3 hrs to solve this five star difficulty puzzle. It would be great, if our Sudoku giant would share his experience on how to develop a Sudoku like this one.
At about an hour you were thinking there must be some knight's move logic you were missing and there was. It's at R3C8, which sees both of the possible 5s in column 7 and must therefore be a 6. I don't remember how much that disambiguated, but i's always fun to notice something that you don't.
i've been so hyper-focused on the 456 knights move tripple (yeah, lets call it that) with the 45 option being set to r1c7 and r5c7 both looking at the 56 in r3c8 making a 5 in that cell impossible, disambicuating it to a 6, then leading to some more digits in the grid. (edit) which he (sadly) didnt use
When I heard about Phistomophel ring, I thought about an ancient Greek for some reason. It's cool to think people alive today will be in Sudoku's history for decades.
This took me some time, it figures now that I see it was from Phistomephel lol. Plus I made a mistake somewhere on my first solve and had to restart I don't have a timer anymore, couldn't say how long I was.
If Phistomefel DID decide to do simple, easy puzzles, I suspect not only would most people be able to solve them, but they would find them clever, satisfying, and make them want to do more challenging ones.
This puzzle took me about 2 hours. My first 5 star difficulty puzzle without any nudges. It's been a long journey since seeing the Miracle Sudoku video and thinking "why would anyone watch Sudoku." What a journey it's been! Thank yous!
Pretty much the exact same thing happened to me. Plumbing the depths of UA-cam at like 4am and I find what was the second movie (the one where all the clues are lies) asking in disbelief who in the hell would watching something like this and why is there crap all over the grid?
Since then I haven't missed an upload, have even rewatched a number of them, so I guess I know who the hell would watch something like this. People with excellent taste.
Closer to 3 hours for me, but worth it. Got stuck about 3 times, put the puzzle down twice for a meal and sleep, but woke up today and it opened right up to me. Like saying, "Hey. I saw you struggling. Here is an easy digit. Want another? Sure, look right here." It whispered the secrets to me. :)
Simon, you're a certifiable genius, but you're also the only person I know who would count horses in a field by counting the number of legs, verifying each horse has four legs, and then dividing by four.
"I'm in a jolly good mood, because I'm doing a Phistomefel puzzle" I've never pretended to be able to do one of these, but I love watching Simon solve them.
4:21 - I will now forever remember this setter as "Phistomefuzzle".
Thank you, Simon. 😆
Rules: 02:35
Let's Get Cracking: 04:03
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
By sudoku: 6x (07:06, 26:59, 28:06, 31:47, 33:47, 50:19)
Sorry: 5x (07:45, 13:31, 36:16, 1:01:16, 1:05:48)
Beautiful: 5x (14:27, 14:54, 33:53, 37:49, 39:03)
Ridiculous: 5x (15:26, 16:32, 16:35, 27:29, 1:06:36)
Hang On: 4x (19:36, 23:31, 39:15, 1:04:04)
Good Grief: 3x (05:38, 44:59, 58:08)
The Answer is: 3x (33:11, 38:10, 38:25)
Clever: 3x (28:55, 50:14, 1:07:19)
I've Got It!: 3x (14:01, 16:35, 16:35)
Bobbins: 2x (11:30, 24:31)
Bother: 2x (11:39, 58:45)
Apologies: 2x (22:18, 48:26)
Naked Single: 2x (35:56, 43:02)
Maverick: 2x (36:20, 36:22)
Stuck: 2x (26:08, 36:30)
Incredible: 2x (01:27, 01:37)
Gorgeous: 2x (24:20, 28:59)
Shouting: 2x (48:26, 48:26)
Knowledge Bomb: 1x (22:04)
What on Earth: 1x (05:02)
Goodness: 1x (43:41)
Secret: 1x (01:34)
Out of Nowhere: 1x (58:25)
Naughty: 1x (1:03:32)
Three In the Corner: 1x (55:28)
In the Spotlight: 1x (55:30)
Lovely: 1x (1:05:56)
Off and Running: 1x (08:17)
If I trust my Pencil Marks: 1x (49:40)
If I Trust My Pencil Marks: 1x (49:40)
Magnificent: 1x (04:39)
Disappointing: 1x (41:09)
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.
How did you do this so quickly??
Edit: never mind 😂
@@isamedonnie It either had early access or is a computer. I got to the video after 45 seconds and the comment was already there.
@@jasonsampson3379 it’s a computer I read the faq lol
My Mouth Talked while my Brain moved on.
"If i trust my pencil marks" is repeated twice in different cases. great list still!
I'm taking this as my reward for the work I did on my thesis today. I was gonna watch anyway, but at least I also got work done.
Phistomefel and a lot of colours, two of my favourite things in Sudokus! Thank you Simon for the beautiful video as always!
A video of this length ALWAYS makes me smile!
4,5 pair in column 7 pointing at and ruling out the 5 in r3, c8 around the hour mark😂 driving me crazy Simon 😜
Nah, all seriousness I'm in awe watching you solve these puzzles I love it !
Simon: This puzzle must be very close to cracking now (58 mins)
Me: OMG I see it! 6's align in boxes 1 and 4 placing a 6 in box 7!!!
and simon at 1:03:00 get it in a COMPLETELY different way. LMAO
I saw it since the 52, it hurt every second
Exactly, 52:00 naked singles 6 and 7 in column 2
Same here... that 6 in box 7 also disambiguated all blue/grey 1/2 pairs as 6 could only pair with one... that said, I would never have got some of the early break-in logic
I saw it too around the same mark and was screaming my head off!
@@chitraagarwal8259 Yep.. "column 2 SIMON!" but at the same time hoping he would make his way to proving it is a 7 a different way - which he did.
"Almost certainly what I've done is to miss a knight's move restriction somewhere", said Simon while hovering his cursor over the grey 12 that had been placeable in box 6 for over half an hour.
I am lying in my bed with a horrible cold and watching this makes me feel better.
Thank you Simon, thank you phistomefel!
Wowowow! I was just able to crack this one. It was brilliant, and took me a long time. There were plenty of times I got stuck, but the next logical step was never anything too insane that I couldn't find it with a bit of time which made it more of a pure delight than some of the really hard stuff. Brilliant work on the solve!
Piece of cake. I finished it in exactly the same time as Simon by watching the video
😂😂 Me too!
Simon's Phistomefel headcanon is adorable and I'm here for it
Took me about an hour, but solving a Phistomefel puzzle is just *so* rewarding! Worth every minute!
What a lovely stroll through such a tricky puzzle! Exceptional work, Simon, and the brilliance of Phistomefel is on fine display yet again.
‘How will I disambiguate the 1-2’s? It must be the line in box 7.’ Of course, the only box in column 2 without pencil marks must be a 6-7 pair and it can’t be a 6, both because of the six in the row and the pencil marks in the box, and so …. Wait that was too easy, we must find a harder way!!!!
This is my first puzzle that took you over an hour to solve that I was over to solve at all. It took me much longer than an hour and I had a couple restarts, but I got through it without any hints!
After many of your videos this is the first one where i found something many minutes ahead that you didnt! I'm so proud of myself right now
Oh, Simon, today you really had me in tears by not noticing that r7c2 was the only place for a 6 in the column at 53:15-ish and not getting it before 01:03:15.
Other than that I really really enjoyed this. Thank you, both!
Even more of a tearjerker: Simon placed the 7 in box 4 via one of his virtuoso deductions. Here is a guy who solves sudoku with the mind of an extraterrestrial intelligence and the scanning ability of a stormtrooper. Simon is so differently wired he singlehandedly provokes a crisis in neuropsychology.
Simon, *please* don't take this in any other way than love in the purest sense.
The 6 was available since 52:00 when he placed the yellow 8 in box 7. :) Which meant he would have had the greys as 1 right after that.
If only he coloured the box 1 6’s as black he would have seen the x wing on 6’s in boxes 1 and 4 10 minutes earlier
I used to be proud of *myself* when I was able to solve a puzzle that took Simon or Mark more than half an hour or so. Now, like them, my focus is more on the brilliance of the constructor.
Well done, Phistomefel, as always.
I'm still proud of myself for solving anything that takes them more than an hour.
Brilliant. I expect nothing less from you two. Well done.
What a beautiful puzzle. Took me a long time to solve, but I kept plugging at it and got it in the end. Now to watch Simon do it more efficiently :)
1:02:20
When he started to say he wasn't going to look at the 1s and 2s I immediately thought *"NOOOOO!"*
Row 5 column 2 being a 7 was available from ~53:00 onward. Finding the solution using grey was quite interesting though!
Yeah, and that 6 he so desperately wanted in R7C2 and blew the puzzle open for him was actually just sitting there from ~ 51:30 (as soon as he penciled in the 8 in box 7). If he’d only been a little more careful to color his 6’s in box 1 he’d have probably seen it much sooner.
Yeah, but grey has to be in row 4 column 9 from ~28:08, that would be a much earlier breaking point. I have been screaming for half an hour look at the grey!!!
Yeah it was a naked single as soon as he put the 4 in r2c2 at 49m45.
Yep, Simon thinks we shout at the screen when its just like a pair being seen by a digit but in this case it was definitely "the 6 is right there look at col 1 and col 3 Simon!!" xD
I like that the given digit is a 6, fitting for the Sudoku Devil.
I may not be able to solve them, but I always love watching Phistomefel puzzles get solved. He's dangerously smart, I swear just watching makes me smarter lol.
I took the opposite start to Simon. I immediately did parity shading and got my first digit (4 in r3c5) in about three minutes. I kept the blue/low and orange/high throughout the puzzle and used flashes to maintain the differences within, for example, the 123 sets. But it still took me longer than Simon. 71:07 all up. German whispers, anti-knight and Phistomefel. A great combination.
I want to have a half hour discussion about Silence of the Lambs with Simon before I die.
What a joyous solve! Loved every minute of it.
Need to add to the quote bank: "you might hear children scream. It's screams of joy, I think"
Over an hour with Simon and a puzzle by the great man, cop of tea time
Great puzzle, maybe the most satisfying completing in 34:41. I went ahead and watched Simon's solve after it and noticed at 52:01 column 2, row 7 should be an automatic 6 (based on 6's in columns 1 & 3) which should render the puzzle effectively solved in about a minute 'cause it places all the 1's and 2's
I do not know how I ended up watching Sudoku videos but now I am addicted. I am in awe of your analytical and reasoning skills. I can almost feel my intelligence increasing as I watch.
I needed 2 hints... Very very clever puzzle and took me over 2 hours.... I was off to such a good start. So lucky we have CTC to show us common folk how to solve these hard puzzles
... out of curiosity, I opened the puzzle before watching.
I read the rules, and stared at it. Laughed. Closed the puzzle... and now, I sit back and watch.
🤣🤣🤣
@47:33 That is one of the biggest Simon celebrations I have ever seen!
Obra Dinn has been on my to-play pile forever, so glad they announced yesterday they'll playing it, realized I had to play so I can watch without spoilers and started last night and it is so amazingly up my alley, played five hours straight.
Finished last night (all Fates, didn't look up any spoilers) and wow that was an amazing game, I have not been made to feel so stupid and then so smart by a game in a long time.
Simons of the Lambs
Im gonna pat myself on the shoulder as I spotted an X-wing of 6 in column 1 and 3 somewhere between 55 min and 1 hour that would resolve the 67 on the whisper line in box 7.
you can tell his brain was fried at the end that he forgot that 6 had its own color. great solve
Phistomefel shines again. Brilliant puzzle!
Simon: "I don't like putting pencil marks all over the board"
Also Simon: Proceeds to put colors all over the board, each representing a range of numbers to avoid actually penciling in those numbers.
I seriously think that putting colors all over the place instead of removing them for resolved digits has always mess up with his scanning. Not to mention the time wasting in pencil marking + coloring at the same time.
I hear ya... It is nice to see his mind working, as it's easier when he puts it all out there, but half of it isn't truly necessary. But, I'm not gonna fault him. At least he can solve the puzzle, I couldn't even figure out a first number on this one.
The classic Simon fallacy. He sprinkles the grid with colors which then confuse him constantly. If he only removed the colors after they were identified as a certain number, many of his solves would be faster, _and_ much more elegant.
It's always a good night when Simon uploads a video longer than an hour.
I'd love to see constructors routinely putting a 3 in a corner in the future.
@42:00 and possibly earlier, r7c2 sees 123, so if it is low it must be 4, putting a 9 in r2c2 and r7c1 and leaving nowhere for 9 in c3. Therefore you know the parity of that line. I spent far too long staring and trying increasing convoluted stuff towards the end, with the 4 in r3c5 pointing at the 46 I had in both r5c6 and r4c7 the entire time. Finally noticing that resolved everything else almost immediately. I am extremely good at not noticing knight's moves, almost every single time I do a puzzle involving them.
Amazing puzzle and solve, well done both! At 1:03:20 Simon got the breakthrough 6 in box 7, but could have done this for a while because of an x-wing on 6's in boxes 1 and 4 (alternatively r7c2 had been the only place for a 6 in column 2 for some time).
At 59:36, r3c8 cannot be a 5 because the 4-5 pair in r1c7 and r5c7 both see that cell by knight's move. One of those two cells must be a 5, so r3c8 must be 6.
95:03 for me. This was tough! But extremely fun and rewarding. Thanks, Simon and Phistomephel!
I promised myself that I would finish the next Phistomefel Sudoku. Now - after 253min of amazingness - I'm really proud that I did!
Thanks Simon for making me feel like a genius when i see column 2 where 6 and 7 are missing and in row 5 there is a 6... But then Simon finds an even more genius way to prove c2r5 is a 7...
52:49 for me. That was incredibly hard. One of the hardest puzzles feature in the channel in a while. I can’t wait to see how Simon approached it, so time to watch the video!
Funny, I took multiple hours with this, but I wouldn't consider it that hard or I've been doing too many of these lately
Yay, I was hoping for a Chess Sudoku again :D
Even better that it's made by Phistomefel
Ah, Simon. Always going around your elbow. LOL You got the 6 in box 7 @1:03:24. You could have gotten it @52:00 exactly if you noticed the 6 x-wing in boxes 1 and 5. Still amazing as always to watch. A beautifully colored finish. And a beautiful finish itself. And a beautiful puzzle.
76:39 for me! My first Phistomefel completed without the video for help, very good puzzle :D
The evil genius strikes again! Superb work, Phistomefel!
I think adding the ability to pencil mark a color would be great, like it colors just a little bit of the corner.
Brilliant solve of a brilliant puzzle.
The easier way to find the 6 in box 7 was to spot the x wing of 6s in box 4 and 1, it would make the video shorter in about 10 minutes or so.
“Phistomefuzzle”
Note to Simon. The puzzle you refer to as 16x16 is actually 12x12.
73 minutes but this is the first time I have ever completed a Phistomefel puzzle on my own. We're used to his puzzles being ridiculous. And even though the logic in this puzzle was actually relatively straightforward, it still proved challenging, as only Phistomefel can do.
Good solve, Simon.... but you had me shouting at the computer monitor that you never looked at column 2. If you had done this around 53:00, it would have cut 10 minutes off your time. Thanks as always, though. Your solves are among the highlights of my day!
53:42
The logic of "That's gray, so that's not gray. So THAT ones gray which means it's not 5 which means THIS one is 5" was such an entirely Simon move lol
It took me hours but I did it!
Some of that logic was hard to find, eesh. All of it very pleasing, too.
Really really cool puzzle. It is the first Phisto puzzle I solved without hints, so it isn’t really a five star puzzle 😉. I really love colourpuzzles.
By the way: I started with giving each cell in box 2 his own colour and worked from there. More goodliffing style I think.
My excitement when the gray in box 6 was finally discovered and used as the break-in is a problem because I was hoping to get back to sleep!
This is officially the first phistomophel puzzle I solved
I love that I legitimately get a twinge of fear when I hear the name "Phistomefel".
At around 52:42, I deduced that row 7 column 2 must be a 6 because that is the only possible move that could force the 1s and 2s onto a specific color. Ignoring the fact that the 6 there can already be deduced by other ways, is that method of deduction sound logic when solving these? or is it something where you still don't want to fill it in yet until you can confirm it can't be a 7?
1:03:30 poor 6. it does have its own colour 😢
As a bonus, my English improves as well. TIL: “I wouldn’t put it past him” - “Ich würde es Ihm zutrauen”. Thanks 😊
It's hard and awesome as per usual, but part of it's difficulty is just marking groups - mixing Simon's cell coloring with high-low would be impossible to read, so only one coloring scheme schould be chosen and it's slightly harder to spot deductions that would rely on the other. My answers to it was to go with high-low (i'm got really used to it), but within those assign corner marks to the pairs: i'd have 78,78 one of them corner 7, one 8 (just to distinguish without colors, remembering that those could be flipped at any moment) and that allowed me to keep track of individual cell logic without introducing more colors for the most part, later having the option to introduce more colors for a moment when it was needed. I think a lot of people can do this one after some time, they just need to choose useful ways of marking things that won't backfire and make the grid unreadable.
as videos seem to be getting longer and longer, looking forward to the 9 hour solve, which would last an entire night of sleep in earphones :)
one so tricky, that both Simon and Mark needs to take dinner breaks and such :)
Ah yes. Another glorious puzzle, and another glorious day.
I feel like towards the end, you can conclude the one 67 pair on the German whisper to be a 6 since there are no other constraints remaining that would allow you to disambiguate the 1s and 2s.
If i had looked at the author of this puzzle before i solved it, i would have saved myself four hours.
Brilliant solve as always..
But I think the intended path at the end of the puzzle was to see the X-wing on 6s in r26c13, which forces a 6 into r7c2, and gives you the 1 on the whisper line you were looking for.
Though, that doesn't discount the path in which you solved the puzzle, still a clever way to reach the end.
find someone who talks about you the way simon talks about phistomefel
Man that gray 12 in r4c9 was killing me for over a half hour since 28:00
You say Hi Low I say Low Hi.
Underrated comment :)
I like how you persisted with the ridiculous coloring long after it was useful for anything other than the ambiguous 1s and 2s.
the 6s and 7s in c2 could have been filled in at about minute 53. would that have made a difference?
“Phistomefuzzle” had me almost spit milk out of my nose!
Edit for grammar.
There comes a point in these rainbow videos where colors are no longer needed to keep track of things. It comes late in the game (for me, anyway), but at that point, I think it better to delete the colors, rather than take the time to keep up with changes in possible colors AND numbers in the grid.
Personally as soon as a cell color resolves to a single digit, it's gone. Too distracting otherwise.
Another thing I noticed about this video specifically is that I think the break-in might actually be more straightforward if the box 2 German whispers line is tackled first. That's how I did it anyway. I found Simon's approach to be hard to follow. In any case, the parity coloring only lasted long enough to establish the relationship between the two longer lines. For a while things were a bit colorful though, using purple and green for parity and then separate color sets for corresponding cells.
It took me 3 hrs to solve this five star difficulty puzzle. It would be great, if our Sudoku giant would share his experience on how to develop a Sudoku like this one.
"This is the puzzle for me. The devil tips his hat to me."
At about an hour you were thinking there must be some knight's move logic you were missing and there was. It's at R3C8, which sees both of the possible 5s in column 7 and must therefore be a 6. I don't remember how much that disambiguated, but i's always fun to notice something that you don't.
Why sven sudoku not available in iran???
Please do something to that👌🙏
i've been so hyper-focused on the 456 knights move tripple (yeah, lets call it that) with the 45 option being set to r1c7 and r5c7 both looking at the 56 in r3c8 making a 5 in that cell impossible, disambicuating it to a 6, then leading to some more digits in the grid.
(edit) which he (sadly) didnt use
When I heard about Phistomophel ring, I thought about an ancient Greek for some reason. It's cool to think people alive today will be in Sudoku's history for decades.
Simply amazing
This took me some time, it figures now that I see it was from Phistomephel lol.
Plus I made a mistake somewhere on my first solve and had to restart
I don't have a timer anymore, couldn't say how long I was.
Phistomefuzzle is a truly tremendous froidian slip XD
54:30 the curse of the hovering cursor returns!!
If Phistomefel DID decide to do simple, easy puzzles, I suspect not only would most people be able to solve them, but they would find them clever, satisfying, and make them want to do more challenging ones.
I did this in 23,468:27. I may have taken a few breaks and forgot about it a while. :)
Sometimes I can't get in the sudoku brain, and Simon helps.
So much Sudoku, so little time
He sits there and he broods. 😂
I think you could put the 6 in Box 7 at 52:00 once the 8 went in Box 7 Row 9 Column 2.