Thanks for featuring my puzzle :) The title Limbo is a reference to Inception movie. I guess, hardest step of the puzzle was that last piece of masyu where you need to orient the black circle, i was stuck on it myself for some time 😅
We need more puzzles within puzzles I fell in love with these with the puzzle you did on the channel, and cannot find enough. This was absolutely incredible and approachable when I finally understood the loop puzzle
I would like to thank you. I discovered your channel a month ago while I was strugling with my mental health. Being able to challenge my mind with sudoku made me realise that even in depression, my squishy brain was able to work like a marvel if pushed into what it likes. This made me reevaluate my own situation through a new lens and I managed to solve some personnal problems using sudoku logics (if you find yourself stuck, that proves you better step back a little and rethink with the knowledge you earn through your journey: how it works from there and what won't work) I am now able to solve this kind of puzzle in less than an hour, and that gives me hope. I suppose you never really thought a sudoku channel would have this much impact in the life of some stranger. And that makes me impatient to be fully recover. So I will be able to create something inspiring too.
While not depression, I had a period when I did not find any more joy in my work and I mostly stopped doing anything and just sat around. Then I discovered CtC and watching the video first thing in the morning was what I needed to wake up my brain at the beginning of every new day.
I have been watching the channel for years and always thought the puzzles were too difficult for me. But this time, I gave it a go, I clicked the link in the description, and I did it! My first 3 star puzzle. Thank you, Simon, for sharing your secrets of sudoku 😊
Also, I'd like to add that two years ago, Simon actually solved a similar puzzle already, except that one consisted of FIVE puzzle types instead of four! It's called Inception and it was constructed by Matyas Martinka. You can find it on this channel as well!
I wonder if the name Limbo is a reference to the movie Inception. In that movie, Limbo is the name given to the deepest level of the dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream.
I appreciate the fact that this one isnt particularly hard to follow because I tend to zone out on overly complicated solutions but I also absolutely adore the fact that the setter managed to rope you into a series of puzzles where the solution is the grounds for the next puzzle.
I loved the excitement when Simon said "and now I get to play" 😍. I love these puzzles best too. I adore wild and crazy rules with lots of non sudoku shenanigans.
I think people avoided this because people assume this would include a very hard part. instead all four puzzles were reasonably easy and well constructed. I really enjoyed this.
"These black circles that I've turned red are my black circles, and these black circles that I've not turned red, well these black circles are my non-black circles, a.k.a. white circles" Could only be Simon. 😂
@@HalcyonAcorn But then they're all the same, white. 🙂 Edit: Oh, the "black circles" have black digits in them, I suppose. But kind of pointless to turn some of the rings red.
Rules: 08:35 Puzzle Solved: 41:48 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Bobbins: 2x (05:06, 37:02) Especially When They’re Kind: 1x (42:56) Three In the Corner: 1x (41:26) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! In Fact: 8x (00:36, 11:10, 16:43, 22:12, 25:11, 26:14, 31:09, 33:32) Cake!: 8x (03:02, 03:06, 03:32, 03:40, 03:40, 03:42, 03:45, 04:37) Brilliant: 5x (00:28, 03:53, 12:30, 41:45, 41:45) Hang On: 5x (28:48, 28:48, 32:31, 39:07, 39:07) Sorry: 4x (02:28, 09:38, 16:24, 36:43) Naked Single: 4x (35:48, 36:43, 39:33) Incredible: 4x (01:08, 01:22, 03:28, 12:43) Clever: 3x (31:52, 32:02, 41:55) Lovely: 3x (20:37, 20:40, 25:51) Ah: 3x (19:39, 25:51, 32:28) Beautiful: 2x (31:50, 31:50) Ridiculous: 2x (00:32, 41:55) By Sudoku: 2x (35:42, 38:11) What Does This Mean?: 2x (21:44, 28:40) Good Grief: 1x (31:52) The Answer is: 1x (18:25) Naughty: 1x (25:48) Touch Itself: 1x (10:15) Breaks Open the Puzzle: 1x (38:53) Extraordinary: 1x (00:20) Gorgeous: 1x (42:28) Unbelievable: 1x (42:32) Sting in the Tail: 1x (21:05) Pencil Mark/mark: 1x (37:08) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Eighteen (5 mentions) Two (39 mentions) Black (15 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Even (3) - Odd (0) Black (15) - White (13) Column (17) - Row (16) 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!
There was a 12×12 sudoku/cryptic hybrid on LMD a couple of months ago that I've been shocked hasn't appeared on the channel. I want to say it was Marty Sears...?
You could definitely do something like that like "solve the sudoku, shaded region sum to the number of the clue for the top left box" and give a list of clues next to it which you have to place into the grid
Being a big fan of Nikoli, this puzzle was a great delight to do! Zipped through the shikaku, struggled (as expected) some on the Star Battle, Masyu was a puzzle I was good with so made it through that pretty fast, then struggled a bit on the final killer cage part because I shouldn't have used black for the circles (stars) and Masyu lines as it destroyed my ability to scan well. 😛 Regardless, finished in just 20:24 (conflict checker off) and pretty happy with that time! If I'd used a lighter color for the Maysu part, probably would have been a bit faster. 😅 Many props to Testarossa for this amazing puzzle!
The black circle is a white circle, and the red circle is a black circle. That takes a trip into Simon’s somewhat distorted brainwaves to make sense 😂🎉
Wow! I think that this is a first. I completed all steps in less time than Simon's video! I know he gave news, birthdays and spent ages explaining the rules. But even with all that I usually take much longer than the video length. Deleting circles and lines to aid the next part of the solve felt like a leap of faith though!
That was great! Never seen/done Masyu before, so that was definitely my slowest step, but I got there in the end. Other three steps went pretty smoothly. 28:19 solve time total. No idea how someone sets something like that! Amazing the way it comes together...
The masyu bit really threw me; I was convinced I'd done something wrong earlier in the puzzle, but it was just my lack of experience with loop puzzles showing. Very excited to watch the video now and learn all the tricks I didn't know while attempting it.
Intriguing setup! My times were (collectively): 1) Shikaku - 2:06 2) Star battle - 4:43 3-4) Couldn't finish the Masyu without partially solving the killer sudoku, so my end time was just 25:17. I was solver number 4709.
An important detail about Masyu is that the loop only travels orthogonally. That's clear if you watch Simon's rules explanation, but not if you just open the puzzle link directly
A year or 2 ago you did another multi-/consecutive puzzle and it was awesome! featuring islands (I forget the name of the ruleset). If you find more of those, please feature them on the channel! They're super fun!
It was an excellent puzzle, I totally enjoyed it. Shikaku, Star Battle and Killer Sudoku were puzzle types I was already familiar with, but I learned Masyu with this puzzle. All 4 puzzles were beautiful and the way they were connected to each other was quite clever. Good work Testarossa.
These layered puzzles are my favorites; especially the ones that involve pencil puzzles! This was one of the rare CTC featured puzzles that I could complete myself haha
20:52. I'm usually not able to wrap my head around a lot of the variations shown off on this channel, but being based entirely on puzzles I already knew how to do was a good starting point.
Great puzzle. Took just under an hour, which I'm happy with. I'd never done Shikaku before but it clicked straight away that all regions must be either 1, 2, or 3 cells wide, and 3 cells is only possible if it's a 3x3 square which would contain the digit 9. There were no 9s so all rectangles and squares were 1 or 2 cells wide and it was fairly easy to complete from there. Star Battles wasn't too bad, I'm a little rusty so it took some filling in. I'd never done a Masyu puzzle before either. I had to watch Simon get started with it in order to understand the rules. I'd initially thought that white circles had to turn in both cells either side of the circle, not either/or. This led to me getting stuck in how the top right corner resolved. Once I understood the rules properly it was still a challenge. Getting started with the killer section was fairly easy, establishing the total wasn't difficult but it was tricky enough. Happy I stuck with it. Not so long ago I'd have given up. Thank you for featuring.
I should've done what you did: remove the marks for every new puzzle. I lost overview when I did the killer with all the lines, circles and colours in. It was fun though! Enjoyed every 32 minutes of it :)
I did remove everything for the sudoku itself, but missed one cell unvisited by the masyu line. So I got stuck near the end with multiple solutions. I wish I'd left the mess in :)
I whizzed through the first one, but then kept making logic errors in the masyu and struggled for a long time. Finally got it with, admittedly, some hints from Simon. Then it was late at night and I neglected to remove all the previous rounds' clutter from the grid (a bad mistake) and struggled horribly with the sudoku. Still, I'm happy to have solved it! I took the Limbo name as referring to the bar slowly lowering, making the rounds more and more difficult: certainly that was the case for me. I can't comment on how long it took because I left it up all day and then came back in the evening. A couple hours at least, almost all on the sudoko. Watching Simon whizz through it now is quite humbling.
A new idea for a puzzle combination: with the right solution of number 1 you have to put a colored square on top of the puzzle with 9 or holes in it revealing numbers at specific locations. These are placed in puzzle no 2. However the colored square have to be rotated of flipped and you have to find out which of the 8 options is the correct one. So, puzzle 2 can't be too difficult and when stuck, you might try option 2. To help you with the the proper option the second puzzle also have some numbers. If the same number is 2x in the same 3x3 square it breaks a rule and is the wrong option.
This was the first one I tried for myself and boy howdy was it fun! Very tough for a beginner, but definitely worth the 50 minutes it took me. I kept messing up the sudoku part at the end!
The first time in forever I even attempted to solve anything featured here, and actually solved it. Since I never tried any of those puzzles before, it took me quite a while to really understand the consequences of the rules (and got stuck on star battle for 15 minutes because I forgot they can't be adjacent). In total it took me 76:13 but after I got the loop, I watched the first 32min of the video to see whether what I got so far is correct, then proceeded to actually solve the sudoku.
Solved in about 54 minutes. I had one hiccup where I had made a circle white instead of black (only spotted my mistake when Simon reached that part of his solve, so I can't claim I solved it without any errors or any assistance at all) and then I forgot to start the timer when I continued my own solve, so it's probably more like 57-58 minutes, it wasn't long. Still very proud of myself for even attempting it and for getting through in (almost) one attempt.
This was indeed interesting. I decided to watch you, Simon, rather than trying it myself because I am not familiar with the pencil puzzle types featured except for Star Battle. It was fun to watch, and who knows, since you have demonstrated so ably, I might give it a try at some point. Thank you!
Really enjoyed the first two parts of this. Ran into a wall on the Masyu, but I’m cleaning the kitchen while I watch the video and hopefully will finish and get to have another shot before Simon gets to the Masyu.
32:51 A nice combination set of puzzles. I did find the shikaku fit much better with my brain than the masyu which accounted for roughly three quarters of the time spent 😂
24:38 finish. I love all these logic puzzles, though I have known some of them by other names (Masyu = Pearls, Shikaku = Boxes). My solve looks a bit busy, as I didn't erase anything except coloring and the star battle Xs as I went along. So my boxes are bordered in yellow, my stars are red circles, my loop is green, and my killer cages are shaded grey. But it works! Love mix puzzles like these, so much fun!
I also kept all of the previous puzzles on the grid and was quite happy with how it ended up looking. It almost made me lose a killer sudoku box but I made it!
76:13 - Had a couple places where I made logic errors, especially during the Masyu, but given I'd not done that kind of puzzle before proud of being able to go back and find where I'd made a bad assumption, thinking a line was getting isolated when it actually wasn't.
did it in 25:25, which was including backtracking halfway through the killer cages since i ended up getting stuck because i missed the r5c8 being a 1cell cage Have ample experience in both Star Battle and Masyu, so it was smooth sailing through both of those sections
I went the other way around for the 358 in column 7, the 35 pair placed the 8, which place a 5 and resolved the chain the other way around. (about 41:30 in the video)
That's a brilliant construction. It would gave gone a lot smoother for me had I not accidentally deleted one of my stars when removing crosses from my grid ahead of the Masyu section. After being stuck for several minutes, I eventually noticed I only had one circle in box 8!
While solving the Masyu, I noticed the one-cell cage in box 8. All one-cell cages must contain the same digit and thus must not see each other. I used these facts to show the black 2 circle did not go up, or else it would create a 1 cell cage in box 2 directly above the one in box 8.
I enjoyed this puzzle! I think it would help to clarify in the directions if it was explicitly stated that each puzzle is meant to be completed in sequence, not simultaneously. I had to check the video to understand how each shikaku rectangle could contain exactly one digit while still filling in the grid for the killer sudoku at the end. Also, for the masyu puzzle, it would help to clarify that the line must only move orthogonally.
I haven't started the puzzle yet, but I had to watch Simon's explanation because I didn't understand the rules. I agree that it needs clarification. I think you could solve all stages simultaneously if the rules replaced "digit" with "given digit": ie, "each Shikaku piece must contain exactly one *given* digit", "if a Star Battle star contains a *given* digit, it's black, else it's white".
61:26, did the first part in like three minutes, broke the star battle like three times (and I'm good at star battle!), masyu was super hard for me, then I got stuck on the sudoku and looked at the video to see if I was correct up to that point and realized that I ignored r9c1 from being in a killer cage. Was able to solve it after I saw my mistake.
A certainly great puzzle, but... for me... very confusing, which I couldn't have easily solved on my own. The first step was no problem, but after that, pure helplessness spread and I needed Simon's guidance to determine where the positions of the killer cages were. I felt like a beginner and don't know if I need to work more on sudoku or the English language. 🤪 But nevertheless I love your channel very much.
When Simon said "So i went on the Internet and" (found this) at 4:58 i was expecting... Something else I was expecting something more Clarkson-ian to pop-up on the screen.
I made one terrible decision during my solve: Not erasing my line-tool marks after they weren't needed. It felt like a hassle because you have to do it by hand, and I thought "I'll just force myself to ignore the extra lines and circles." Ugh. (I think I'll make a feature request to Sven for the ability to select-all in Line mode; I've run into the desire for that a few times. It would also be handy for changing line colors after the fact.)
I finished in 144 minutes. I really messed up on this one. I spent 85 minutes trying to make any sort of break-in on the puzzle, achieving nothing. I gave up and started to watch the video, when I immediately saw that I was doing Shikakus completely wrong. I thought that sudoku still applied, so I thought there was a forced case on the edge, mathematically, or star battles that would give the break-in. I was wrong, way wrong. Shikaku is much easier when doing it properly, I was able to complete it 91 minutes in. Then, Star Battles, which I quite love, came real easy and I finished it 100 minutes in. Then, Matsu was next. I have never done Matsu before, but I really enjoyed it. It felt very satisfying to draw the line around the grid. I finished Matsu 130 minutes in. Finally, I finished the puzzle, giving me a total of 144 minutes. If I deduct my wasted time, then I actually did it in 59 minutes. However, I have to include my wasted time as that is simply part of the solving process, so 144 minutes it is. Regarding the puzzle itself, it is really fun to have these stair step kind of rules, where each rule increments on the others. Great Puzzle!
42:38 Everything was shockingly easy sailing, so most of the time came from my general lack of knowledge about the puzzle types, and general inefficiency about pencilmarking
Ha. I did the same thing as Simon. Slowly removing markings for each step, but not really being 100% sure if I should/could or not. It should be obvious from the rules that it's OK to, but it was still a little daunting doing it (although knowing I could rewind as well).
My brain didn't accept that these are sequential rules, so I had to baffle around for a bit before realizing there's only one way that "cells with no digit are white circles" rule could work :D
Fun fact: the Star Battle segment is still solvable (and not all THAT much harder) if you ignore the need to have exactly 2 stars in each 3x3 box. Source: I completely overlooked that rule and still got through without too much difficulty.
Wow amazing combination!!!! Question in how many videos the channel will complete 5k videos; All the best and go on with more susoku adventures 😊😊😊🇬🇷🇬🇧
The rules as written would be far clearer if they specified in the first and third part that by digit it means a GIVEN. From someone used to sudoku, I was especially confused by the Masyu rules since all cells in the grid have digits, we just don't know what they are yet.
Feel like you're reading too far ahead, you're instructed to solve it sequentially in stages, and it's _not a sudoku_ until stage 4, and none of the other puzzle types require placing any digits; thinking about those cells (eventually) having digits is working on the wrong stage in the wrong order...
@@HunterJE The rules that are on the Sudokupad link do *not* specify that you are intended to solve each rule sequentially. To someone like me not familiar with this kind of sequential variant sudoku, the rules look no different than other puzzles where all rules apply at all times. The only implication that it isn't normal sudoku until stage 4 is the fact that "Normal sudoku rules apply" appears later.
@@RecreationallyCynical OK looking at the rules there and yeah that's not sufficiently specific, and should be some indication that the numbered items were sequential steps (as the use of "stage 1/2/3/4" does in the rules in the video/description)
I didn't have any issues looking ahead in the rules, but I did run into a problem when I got to the final sudoku stage because I was still maintaining the shikaku rule of only allowing exactly one digit of the size of the squares in those squares. That creates a sudoku conflict if you don't allow an 8 to repeat in one of the size 8 rectangles. Had to start the entire sudoku section over after I realized that was no longer a restriction
The first puzzles were a breeze, but I wanted to keep some of it during the sudoku solve, which was a mistake. I also missed on the one once cell nine cages, so had to look at the video for confirmation. Then i cleaned up the clutter and the sudoku puzzle also solved nicely, even if it had a few stings left in it.
75:32. Took a lot to understand and then correctly apply the rules. The masyu line kept giving me trouble so I had to often clear the lines and start that step over. At one point I though maybe I got the stars wrong, but thankfully no.
It's a dream come true for Simon. He get's to complete three whole puzzles before he's forced to do Sudoku in this Sudoku puzzle.
haha true
Thanks for featuring my puzzle :)
The title Limbo is a reference to Inception movie.
I guess, hardest step of the puzzle was that last piece of masyu where you need to orient the black circle, i was stuck on it myself for some time 😅
Had a go at it and solved it in just under 45 minutes. Absolutely Stunning!!!
Amazing puzzle - thank you so much!
We need more puzzles within puzzles
I fell in love with these with the puzzle you did on the channel, and cannot find enough. This was absolutely incredible and approachable when I finally understood the loop puzzle
I would like to thank you. I discovered your channel a month ago while I was strugling with my mental health. Being able to challenge my mind with sudoku made me realise that even in depression, my squishy brain was able to work like a marvel if pushed into what it likes. This made me reevaluate my own situation through a new lens and I managed to solve some personnal problems using sudoku logics (if you find yourself stuck, that proves you better step back a little and rethink with the knowledge you earn through your journey: how it works from there and what won't work)
I am now able to solve this kind of puzzle in less than an hour, and that gives me hope. I suppose you never really thought a sudoku channel would have this much impact in the life of some stranger. And that makes me impatient to be fully recover. So I will be able to create something inspiring too.
While not depression, I had a period when I did not find any more joy in my work and I mostly stopped doing anything and just sat around. Then I discovered CtC and watching the video first thing in the morning was what I needed to wake up my brain at the beginning of every new day.
What a beautiful comment, I'm glad you found the channel and I'm wishing you best of luck in the future 😁
So glad you found this channel and this wonderful community!! Hope you continue to improve your mental health!
Thank you for the insights
Welcome to the community!
I have been watching the channel for years and always thought the puzzles were too difficult for me. But this time, I gave it a go, I clicked the link in the description, and I did it! My first 3 star puzzle. Thank you, Simon, for sharing your secrets of sudoku 😊
Also, I'd like to add that two years ago, Simon actually solved a similar puzzle already, except that one consisted of FIVE puzzle types instead of four! It's called Inception and it was constructed by Matyas Martinka. You can find it on this channel as well!
I wonder if the name Limbo is a reference to the movie Inception. In that movie, Limbo is the name given to the deepest level of the dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream.
That's actually the video that made me subscribe!
It is!
@@alexneckoyami same here!
One of the most satisfying puzzles I've ever managed to do, thanks to CTC!
I appreciate the fact that this one isnt particularly hard to follow because I tend to zone out on overly complicated solutions but I also absolutely adore the fact that the setter managed to rope you into a series of puzzles where the solution is the grounds for the next puzzle.
I loved the excitement when Simon said "and now I get to play" 😍. I love these puzzles best too. I adore wild and crazy rules with lots of non sudoku shenanigans.
Yes, sheer joy to watch his joy. 👏👏
I think people avoided this because people assume this would include a very hard part. instead all four puzzles were reasonably easy and well constructed. I really enjoyed this.
"These black circles that I've turned red are my black circles, and these black circles that I've not turned red, well these black circles are my non-black circles, a.k.a. white circles"
Could only be Simon.
😂
Kind of makes sense to me, the ring colour isn’t the focus, it’s the colour inside the ring that denotes the ring colour!!
@@HalcyonAcorn But then they're all the same, white. 🙂
Edit: Oh, the "black circles" have black digits in them, I suppose. But kind of pointless to turn some of the rings red.
I would have probably just shaded those cells darkest grey and then solved with a non-black line color to make sure it was visible
😂🤣 And I thought that there must be something wrong with my brain...
Inside the mind of simon
Rules: 08:35
Puzzle Solved: 41:48
What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
Bobbins: 2x (05:06, 37:02)
Especially When They’re Kind: 1x (42:56)
Three In the Corner: 1x (41:26)
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
In Fact: 8x (00:36, 11:10, 16:43, 22:12, 25:11, 26:14, 31:09, 33:32)
Cake!: 8x (03:02, 03:06, 03:32, 03:40, 03:40, 03:42, 03:45, 04:37)
Brilliant: 5x (00:28, 03:53, 12:30, 41:45, 41:45)
Hang On: 5x (28:48, 28:48, 32:31, 39:07, 39:07)
Sorry: 4x (02:28, 09:38, 16:24, 36:43)
Naked Single: 4x (35:48, 36:43, 39:33)
Incredible: 4x (01:08, 01:22, 03:28, 12:43)
Clever: 3x (31:52, 32:02, 41:55)
Lovely: 3x (20:37, 20:40, 25:51)
Ah: 3x (19:39, 25:51, 32:28)
Beautiful: 2x (31:50, 31:50)
Ridiculous: 2x (00:32, 41:55)
By Sudoku: 2x (35:42, 38:11)
What Does This Mean?: 2x (21:44, 28:40)
Good Grief: 1x (31:52)
The Answer is: 1x (18:25)
Naughty: 1x (25:48)
Touch Itself: 1x (10:15)
Breaks Open the Puzzle: 1x (38:53)
Extraordinary: 1x (00:20)
Gorgeous: 1x (42:28)
Unbelievable: 1x (42:32)
Sting in the Tail: 1x (21:05)
Pencil Mark/mark: 1x (37:08)
Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Eighteen (5 mentions)
Two (39 mentions)
Black (15 mentions)
Antithesis Battles:
Even (3) - Odd (0)
Black (15) - White (13)
Column (17) - Row (16)
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!
Solved this last week and it’s a beautiful puzzle 👍 Excited to see Simon enjoy this one
Once again, i dream of a Sudoku grid that would transform in a Cryptic crossword grid at the end...
Working on it.
There was a 12×12 sudoku/cryptic hybrid on LMD a couple of months ago that I've been shocked hasn't appeared on the channel. I want to say it was Marty Sears...?
@@TehFilmFanatic "Cryptic Snakewords" is the name of the puzzle you're looking for.
You could definitely do something like that like "solve the sudoku, shaded region sum to the number of the clue for the top left box" and give a list of clues next to it which you have to place into the grid
Being a big fan of Nikoli, this puzzle was a great delight to do! Zipped through the shikaku, struggled (as expected) some on the Star Battle, Masyu was a puzzle I was good with so made it through that pretty fast, then struggled a bit on the final killer cage part because I shouldn't have used black for the circles (stars) and Masyu lines as it destroyed my ability to scan well. 😛
Regardless, finished in just 20:24 (conflict checker off) and pretty happy with that time! If I'd used a lighter color for the Maysu part, probably would have been a bit faster. 😅 Many props to Testarossa for this amazing puzzle!
Simon won't appreciate the increased cost of chocolate / cocoa. I fear he will be broke if he gives away all those cakes at every birthday.
Not to mention the loads of Chocolate Teapots
After all the variant sudoku I’ve watched Simon solve, watching him do classic sudoku just felt odd. Very enjoyable vid!
You actually have done a similar puzzle with even more logic puzzles connected in one. I loved it back then and i love it now
The black circle is a white circle, and the red circle is a black circle.
That takes a trip into Simon’s somewhat distorted brainwaves to make sense 😂🎉
oh that drove me crazy :)
Haha. I thought the same. I actually colored the cells for those. Black, black. And white, yellow so it was easy to see.
I really like this idea, well done Testarossa
Finished in 50:25. Considering I've never done a Shikaku or a Masyu puzzle, I think that's a good time.
Fun puzzle!
Three pencil puzzles to one sudoku is a ratio I can get behind XD
Wow! I think that this is a first. I completed all steps in less time than Simon's video! I know he gave news, birthdays and spent ages explaining the rules. But even with all that I usually take much longer than the video length.
Deleting circles and lines to aid the next part of the solve felt like a leap of faith though!
That was great! Never seen/done Masyu before, so that was definitely my slowest step, but I got there in the end. Other three steps went pretty smoothly. 28:19 solve time total. No idea how someone sets something like that! Amazing the way it comes together...
The masyu bit really threw me; I was convinced I'd done something wrong earlier in the puzzle, but it was just my lack of experience with loop puzzles showing. Very excited to watch the video now and learn all the tricks I didn't know while attempting it.
Thank you so much Simon, for patiently explaining the rules. Without you, I would have gave up even before starting. ^_^
Very nice puzzle, indeed.
Before watching, but listering to the rules. So "Masyu" is Turn "On" black circles; not "next to". Turn "next to" white circles; not "on".
Well said. That's a good way of remembering the rules in the heat of (star) battle.
Props to the setter. I feel like the fast solve does not do enough justice to the complexity of setting this 4 in 1 puzzle up.
Intriguing setup! My times were (collectively):
1) Shikaku - 2:06
2) Star battle - 4:43
3-4) Couldn't finish the Masyu without partially solving the killer sudoku, so my end time was just 25:17.
I was solver number 4709.
An important detail about Masyu is that the loop only travels orthogonally. That's clear if you watch Simon's rules explanation, but not if you just open the puzzle link directly
A year or 2 ago you did another multi-/consecutive puzzle and it was awesome! featuring islands (I forget the name of the ruleset). If you find more of those, please feature them on the channel! They're super fun!
Most enjoyable 3 star puzzle I have seen on here since the beginning. Well done Testarosa.
I can't even imagine how you would go about setting something with so many phases!
What a perfect puzzle. In a world of its own. Not super hard but all the layers made so fun to solve. Thank you very much Testarossa.
It was an excellent puzzle, I totally enjoyed it. Shikaku, Star Battle and Killer Sudoku were puzzle types I was already familiar with, but I learned Masyu with this puzzle. All 4 puzzles were beautiful and the way they were connected to each other was quite clever. Good work Testarossa.
These layered puzzles are my favorites; especially the ones that involve pencil puzzles! This was one of the rare CTC featured puzzles that I could complete myself haha
20:52. I'm usually not able to wrap my head around a lot of the variations shown off on this channel, but being based entirely on puzzles I already knew how to do was a good starting point.
Great puzzle. Took just under an hour, which I'm happy with.
I'd never done Shikaku before but it clicked straight away that all regions must be either 1, 2, or 3 cells wide, and 3 cells is only possible if it's a 3x3 square which would contain the digit 9.
There were no 9s so all rectangles and squares were 1 or 2 cells wide and it was fairly easy to complete from there. Star Battles wasn't too bad, I'm a little rusty so it took some filling in.
I'd never done a Masyu puzzle before either. I had to watch Simon get started with it in order to understand the rules. I'd initially thought that white circles had to turn in both cells either side of the circle, not either/or. This led to me getting stuck in how the top right corner resolved. Once I understood the rules properly it was still a challenge.
Getting started with the killer section was fairly easy, establishing the total wasn't difficult but it was tricky enough.
Happy I stuck with it. Not so long ago I'd have given up. Thank you for featuring.
Interestingly for the star battle I didn't read that every 3x3 box must contain exactly 2 stars but it still solved logically.
I should've done what you did: remove the marks for every new puzzle. I lost overview when I did the killer with all the lines, circles and colours in.
It was fun though! Enjoyed every 32 minutes of it :)
I did remove everything for the sudoku itself, but missed one cell unvisited by the masyu line. So I got stuck near the end with multiple solutions. I wish I'd left the mess in :)
17:25 really fun lol. Creative puzzle, surprised that worked that well!
Pay 1 buy 4! Haha amazing!
Masyu was the hardest part for me, as it was my first time!
Thanks! 😊
I whizzed through the first one, but then kept making logic errors in the masyu and struggled for a long time. Finally got it with, admittedly, some hints from Simon. Then it was late at night and I neglected to remove all the previous rounds' clutter from the grid (a bad mistake) and struggled horribly with the sudoku. Still, I'm happy to have solved it! I took the Limbo name as referring to the bar slowly lowering, making the rounds more and more difficult: certainly that was the case for me.
I can't comment on how long it took because I left it up all day and then came back in the evening. A couple hours at least, almost all on the sudoko. Watching Simon whizz through it now is quite humbling.
I finished just short of 40 minutes, was a very fun puzzle chain!
24:26 beautiful puzzle thanks testarossa!
A new idea for a puzzle combination: with the right solution of number 1 you have to put a colored square on top of the puzzle with 9 or holes in it revealing numbers at specific locations. These are placed in puzzle no 2. However the colored square have to be rotated of flipped and you have to find out which of the 8 options is the correct one. So, puzzle 2 can't be too difficult and when stuck, you might try option 2. To help you with the the proper option the second puzzle also have some numbers. If the same number is 2x in the same 3x3 square it breaks a rule and is the wrong option.
This was the first one I tried for myself and boy howdy was it fun! Very tough for a beginner, but definitely worth the 50 minutes it took me. I kept messing up the sudoku part at the end!
The first time in forever I even attempted to solve anything featured here, and actually solved it. Since I never tried any of those puzzles before, it took me quite a while to really understand the consequences of the rules (and got stuck on star battle for 15 minutes because I forgot they can't be adjacent). In total it took me 76:13 but after I got the loop, I watched the first 32min of the video to see whether what I got so far is correct, then proceeded to actually solve the sudoku.
yayyy it looks like they put the description back to the old version
Solved in about 54 minutes. I had one hiccup where I had made a circle white instead of black (only spotted my mistake when Simon reached that part of his solve, so I can't claim I solved it without any errors or any assistance at all) and then I forgot to start the timer when I continued my own solve, so it's probably more like 57-58 minutes, it wasn't long. Still very proud of myself for even attempting it and for getting through in (almost) one attempt.
This was indeed interesting. I decided to watch you, Simon, rather than trying it myself because I am not familiar with the pencil puzzle types featured except for Star Battle. It was fun to watch, and who knows, since you have demonstrated so ably, I might give it a try at some point. Thank you!
Really enjoyed the first two parts of this. Ran into a wall on the Masyu, but I’m cleaning the kitchen while I watch the video and hopefully will finish and get to have another shot before Simon gets to the Masyu.
Ah cool, I got stuck on “this is actually not that trivial.”
32:51
A nice combination set of puzzles.
I did find the shikaku fit much better with my brain than the masyu which accounted for roughly three quarters of the time spent 😂
27:36! For only knowing two out of four puzzle types before I went into this, I'm quite pleased with that time.
Wow what a fun lovely puzzle!
24:38 finish. I love all these logic puzzles, though I have known some of them by other names (Masyu = Pearls, Shikaku = Boxes). My solve looks a bit busy, as I didn't erase anything except coloring and the star battle Xs as I went along. So my boxes are bordered in yellow, my stars are red circles, my loop is green, and my killer cages are shaded grey. But it works! Love mix puzzles like these, so much fun!
I also kept all of the previous puzzles on the grid and was quite happy with how it ended up looking. It almost made me lose a killer sudoku box but I made it!
76:13 - Had a couple places where I made logic errors, especially during the Masyu, but given I'd not done that kind of puzzle before proud of being able to go back and find where I'd made a bad assumption, thinking a line was getting isolated when it actually wasn't.
Maybe limbo refers to the cells not on the Masyu line being sort of stuck in limbo - which gave us the killer cages to solve the sudoku puzzle
did it in 25:25, which was including backtracking halfway through the killer cages since i ended up getting stuck because i missed the r5c8 being a 1cell cage
Have ample experience in both Star Battle and Masyu, so it was smooth sailing through both of those sections
49:55 first puzzle I've tried for myself on this channel, because it seemed way too fun not to, and it absolutely was
Managed to solve this in about 30 minutes while consuming cake. Finally catching up with Simon's solve.
I went the other way around for the 358 in column 7, the 35 pair placed the 8, which place a 5 and resolved the chain the other way around. (about 41:30 in the video)
40:46 nice
That's a brilliant construction.
It would gave gone a lot smoother for me had I not accidentally deleted one of my stars when removing crosses from my grid ahead of the Masyu section. After being stuck for several minutes, I eventually noticed I only had one circle in box 8!
While solving the Masyu, I noticed the one-cell cage in box 8. All one-cell cages must contain the same digit and thus must not see each other. I used these facts to show the black 2 circle did not go up, or else it would create a 1 cell cage in box 2 directly above the one in box 8.
44:20! This was so much fun, one of my favourites so far
I enjoyed this puzzle! I think it would help to clarify in the directions if it was explicitly stated that each puzzle is meant to be completed in sequence, not simultaneously. I had to check the video to understand how each shikaku rectangle could contain exactly one digit while still filling in the grid for the killer sudoku at the end.
Also, for the masyu puzzle, it would help to clarify that the line must only move orthogonally.
I haven't started the puzzle yet, but I had to watch Simon's explanation because I didn't understand the rules. I agree that it needs clarification. I think you could solve all stages simultaneously if the rules replaced "digit" with "given digit": ie, "each Shikaku piece must contain exactly one *given* digit", "if a Star Battle star contains a *given* digit, it's black, else it's white".
Finished in 50:28. The place I got the most stock was the Masyu, surprisingly.
61:26, did the first part in like three minutes, broke the star battle like three times (and I'm good at star battle!), masyu was super hard for me, then I got stuck on the sudoku and looked at the video to see if I was correct up to that point and realized that I ignored r9c1 from being in a killer cage. Was able to solve it after I saw my mistake.
I'm guessing it's called Limbo because that's the name for the deepest level of the dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream in the movie _Inception_
A certainly great puzzle, but... for me... very confusing, which I couldn't have easily solved on my own. The first step was no problem, but after that, pure helplessness spread and I needed Simon's guidance to determine where the positions of the killer cages were. I felt like a beginner and don't know if I need to work more on sudoku or the English language. 🤪 But nevertheless I love your channel very much.
When Simon said "So i went on the Internet and" (found this) at 4:58 i was expecting... Something else
I was expecting something more Clarkson-ian to pop-up on the screen.
I made one terrible decision during my solve: Not erasing my line-tool marks after they weren't needed. It felt like a hassle because you have to do it by hand, and I thought "I'll just force myself to ignore the extra lines and circles." Ugh. (I think I'll make a feature request to Sven for the ability to select-all in Line mode; I've run into the desire for that a few times. It would also be handy for changing line colors after the fact.)
17:51 for me. Fantastic puzzle(s)!!
12:00 Step 1
15:00 Step 2
24:00 Step 3
33:00 Step 4
Roughly Accurate.
I finished in 144 minutes. I really messed up on this one. I spent 85 minutes trying to make any sort of break-in on the puzzle, achieving nothing. I gave up and started to watch the video, when I immediately saw that I was doing Shikakus completely wrong. I thought that sudoku still applied, so I thought there was a forced case on the edge, mathematically, or star battles that would give the break-in. I was wrong, way wrong. Shikaku is much easier when doing it properly, I was able to complete it 91 minutes in. Then, Star Battles, which I quite love, came real easy and I finished it 100 minutes in. Then, Matsu was next. I have never done Matsu before, but I really enjoyed it. It felt very satisfying to draw the line around the grid. I finished Matsu 130 minutes in. Finally, I finished the puzzle, giving me a total of 144 minutes. If I deduct my wasted time, then I actually did it in 59 minutes. However, I have to include my wasted time as that is simply part of the solving process, so 144 minutes it is. Regarding the puzzle itself, it is really fun to have these stair step kind of rules, where each rule increments on the others. Great Puzzle!
42:38
Everything was shockingly easy sailing, so most of the time came from my general lack of knowledge about the puzzle types, and general inefficiency about pencilmarking
Ha. I did the same thing as Simon. Slowly removing markings for each step, but not really being 100% sure if I should/could or not. It should be obvious from the rules that it's OK to, but it was still a little daunting doing it (although knowing I could rewind as well).
Never thought I could solve a sudoku featured on here. I stand corrected.
Am I the only one who noticed the weird digital eyelash on the puzzle's page? You can click it and drag it around? Has this always been a thing?
32:17 for me - the Masyu was the trickiest because I hadn't seen that puzzle type before.
My brain didn't accept that these are sequential rules, so I had to baffle around for a bit before realizing there's only one way that "cells with no digit are white circles" rule could work :D
Ah of course... red circles are black, and black circles are white. What other possible way could there be?
Fun fact: the Star Battle segment is still solvable (and not all THAT much harder) if you ignore the need to have exactly 2 stars in each 3x3 box. Source: I completely overlooked that rule and still got through without too much difficulty.
43:24 for me. Misunderstood Masyu at first so thought I had broken the puzzle 😅
Got stuck during the masyu portion, but I blame my noisy (but cute) nephews!
26:29 for me. The Shikaku was the easiest and the Masyu the hardest. Nice puzzle.
39:42 for. Can recommend doing this puzzle - it's not too difficult, and moving from one logic puzzle to the next felt really fun.
22:41 for me. in difficulty i would say from hardest to easiest:
Masyu
Star Battle
Killer Sudoku
Shikaku.
Wow amazing combination!!!!
Question in how many videos the channel will complete 5k videos;
All the best and go on with more susoku adventures 😊😊😊🇬🇷🇬🇧
Just beat this level in 40mn35 ! Considering it took you a bit less than 30 minutes, I'm kinda proud of it !
Happy Easter!
The rules as written would be far clearer if they specified in the first and third part that by digit it means a GIVEN. From someone used to sudoku, I was especially confused by the Masyu rules since all cells in the grid have digits, we just don't know what they are yet.
Feel like you're reading too far ahead, you're instructed to solve it sequentially in stages, and it's _not a sudoku_ until stage 4, and none of the other puzzle types require placing any digits; thinking about those cells (eventually) having digits is working on the wrong stage in the wrong order...
@@HunterJE The rules that are on the Sudokupad link do *not* specify that you are intended to solve each rule sequentially. To someone like me not familiar with this kind of sequential variant sudoku, the rules look no different than other puzzles where all rules apply at all times. The only implication that it isn't normal sudoku until stage 4 is the fact that "Normal sudoku rules apply" appears later.
@@RecreationallyCynical OK looking at the rules there and yeah that's not sufficiently specific, and should be some indication that the numbered items were sequential steps (as the use of "stage 1/2/3/4" does in the rules in the video/description)
I didn't have any issues looking ahead in the rules, but I did run into a problem when I got to the final sudoku stage because I was still maintaining the shikaku rule of only allowing exactly one digit of the size of the squares in those squares. That creates a sudoku conflict if you don't allow an 8 to repeat in one of the size 8 rectangles. Had to start the entire sudoku section over after I realized that was no longer a restriction
Familiarity with all those logic puzzles helped me to edge out a 21:08 finish. 🙂
The first puzzles were a breeze, but I wanted to keep some of it during the sudoku solve, which was a mistake. I also missed on the one once cell nine cages, so had to look at the video for confirmation. Then i cleaned up the clutter and the sudoku puzzle also solved nicely, even if it had a few stings left in it.
75:32. Took a lot to understand and then correctly apply the rules. The masyu line kept giving me trouble so I had to often clear the lines and start that step over. At one point I though maybe I got the stars wrong, but thankfully no.
I never spotted that star battle cares about 3x3 boxes, but you can solve it just fine without
*sees a long Rules chapter* dis gon be good
This was so nice. It took me 85 minutes.
32:28 for me. took me a while to understand what was going on. the Masyu took me the longest.
i forgot about the 2 stars in 3x3 boxes rule and solved with only the 2 per row/column rule ;P