Nope! We are very different puzzler types lol. I prefer bright, colourful ones only as I puzzle for self-care. This would stress me out and defeat the purpose. Love watching videos of harder ones, glad you enjoy more of a challenge ☺️. I love seeing the puzzles people enjoy as there are so many reasons. Have a great Sunday!
I would get a glass table to do this puzzle, that way I can look underneath to see if I made any mistakes. Also, kudos on the strategy, that was really well done.
I have done a few of these puzzles. The way they are cut (well the ones i have done), means that each piece has a twin which goes on the opposite side of the puzzle on the diagonal. The only pieces that don't have a twin are the diagonal strip which has the same image on each side but flipped 90 degrees. I hope that make sense.
I think they missed an opportunity to have the sudokus on the box be unsolved but the sudokus in the puzzle be complete, so that solving the sudokus would help you solve the puzzle.
They had 2 nines in a box. They clearly know nothing at all about puzzles and don't understand their target audience. And probably don't care. Rocks on the road.
I feel like the "cheat sheet" makes the puzzle experience more fun. Else it would just get too frustrating and takes out the enjoyment. For me its not cheating but an excellent tool!
I agree! I think the fact that Karen came up with the idea of the cheat sheet, and made it on her own, makes it even more valid! One could possibly consider "sorting out edge pieces" or "sorting by color" to be a cheat sheet in a way - doing so takes the whole problem (solving the puzzle) and breaks it down into smaller parts (solve the edges, or solve this specific color). Karen's tool is no different - it takes the whole problem (again, solving the puzzle) and breaks it down into smaller parts (in this case, which piece goes on the back of which other piece, etc.) But ultimately, puzzles aren't a competition. If you're competing against other people's times, then all those people should have the same tools available. Otherwise, it's just an accessibility tool. Adding (or removing!) tools to make the challenge more fun for the individual solver is paramount! Karen didn't choose to mix the four bags in the Life puzzle together, even though she could have - that's just another accessibility tool. (This is a similar discussion to how comprehensive video game difficulty selections should be.)
To me it depends on the puzzle. Mostly I put transformative puzzles together this spring. The only cheat I can find is online, by people who already did the puzzles. I don’t think of it as cheating. A little help goes a long way.
"Thinking outside the box" is _never_ cheating. Provided it's not explicitly limited by some rules or regulations which it clearly isn't here. Leveraging everything you have to achieve something is a useful tool to find a solution to puzzles. And in life, too.
As a “recovering perfectionist” I appreciate your taking the attitude that the edge of this puzzle only had to be “good enough,” rather than exactly replicating the original cut. Given the uniformity of the colour and the similarity of the piece shapes, the puzzle itself really isn’t inviting or enabling you to do anything else, but I’ve definitely been in situations where I have stubbornly stuck to an unachievable goal (and consequently ended up getting stuck, spinning my wheels, and becoming increasingly annoyed with the situation, myself, and the world) rather than taking a more practical approach. But as you implied, succeeding at anything is ultimately a numbers game… You’re better off finishing 5 projects well enough than sinking your whole life into a single one that may end up “perfect” in your eyes but doesn’t have the same impact on others!
It is forever satisfying watching someone rise for such a big challenge. The methodicalness of your approach, and then then seeing you do it so frickin well! I rarely even puzzle, but this is entirely the reason to watch.
I for one, can pretty easily imagine not being able to solve this puzzle, or more likely running out of interest in trying to solve it after a few hours of not much progress.
As a professional puzzle constructor, I'd paused the video halfway through to take a look at that third _Sudoku_ to see what happened. Given the '9' in the bottom-left matched '9's in both its row and its column, I figured that one digit was in error and probably was intended to be a '6' (as after all, a '9' is a '6' upside-down: *numbers* , I tell you ;) XD). Of course, by the end of the video you showed my suspicion was correct, but at the time, I tried solving the puzzle without _any_ digit given there. What I found was that, in that case, the puzzle had exactly TWO solutions. So if anyone reading this wants a bonus puzzle, try that third _Sudoku_ but without the '6' in the bottom-left corner and see if you can find the only other digit that makes the puzzle solvable (it will also have only one solution if given it's not '6').
My dad and I did a Dalmatian’s puzzle from this brand. Our strategy was that we realized that it would be a mirror image across the diagonal so every piece would have an pair. We then flipped one of each pair so we could see one of each picture and each time we found where a piece went we also put in the other along the diagonal. Not sure if this would have worked for this puzzle as there are so many blank squares. Also, my dad never uses the box so it is always more difficult.
My dad and I did one of these puzzles, it was a double sided, mirrored, cat puzzle. Well I say we did it but it’s more like he did it since I was like 7 and only put in 5 pieces or so.
I love doing sudoku and this is my time doing them: Sudoku 1- 4:04 Sudoku 2- 4:51 Sudoku 3- 4:10 Sudoku 4- 4:34 This is my firts time I write a comment on this channel, but I wanna say I'm Peruvian and I'm so happy to have found it.
my only strategy would be burning this puzzle. it really hurts my head thinking about it! cant wait for the next puzzle video - this time with less numbers! :)
37 + minutes? Omg I’m just so happy 😁 P.s numbers…..so many numbers. Also, it’s totally not cheating if you’re using something that’s available on the box - you’re just enlarging the same images really 🙂🐿
My mom and I did do one of these "World's Most Difficult Puzzles"! It was an image of a bunch of dalmatians, which I think was easier than this sudoku one because you use the spots to see if placement was right. One thing I noticed when building the puzzle was that the way the image was rotated on that one, each piece existed in duplicate, so there would be two pieces with the front and the back images matched exactly. And these pieces were reflected over the diagonal. So what we ended up doing was sorting all the pieces by matching them to their twin, placing the pieces that were in that diagonal (which was the same section of the image on front and back, just rotated 90 degrees) and then once we knew where one piece went, we were able to discern where its twin went. Hopefully that makes a bit of sense? Idk if it would have help with this one since there was less differentiation in the image, but might be worth a shot if you ever try any of the others! (Numbers)
Two things you did that were extra and totally awesome.... 1. Talking us thru your process, it was actually my favorite part. 2. The edit when finished of you spiral editing the puzzle was outstanding extra effort for great content. You're great and although I'm not a puzzler I adore your content and just enjoy learning from you and watching you figure things out. Thank you
This was my first time in your channel. I just loved it. I felt devastated when you said the sudokus were not gonna be solvable. Thank god they had mistaken when printing them. You've just got a new fan! :D
I did the 'cats' version of this puzzle when i was younger, i built up a mental map of what the underside of the puzzle was looking like to know exactly what peice i had to find, but it was still near impossible, definitely ended up just throwing the last couple pieces in regardless of whether they were perfectly fit, since i just wanted it finished after sooo many days of working on it!
I loved watching you solve this puzzle and the mental gymnastics you had to do to solve it. Anything that is smart, allowing you to progress at a reasonable rate is valid. Heck, you can always make it more difficult at the expense of your sanity. Good job! =]
I love that you don't push accessories so that puzzling remains accessible! I am happy you made an exception for the puzzle box holders, though! My parents are big puzzlers & they also have cats ... which means no puzzle box stays upright without some assistance! Lol! I immediately bought one of these for each of them! :)
All jigsaw puzzles are about sorting until you’re able to match an image. You did a fantastic job creating an image to match to your sorting. What a fantastic sort required for this one!
I did one of these types of puzzle and realized that one of the diagonals from corner to corner has the same image on both sides. From there I built the puzzle as two identical triangles on top of each other. NUMBERS
I had an idea for a sudoku jigsaw puzzle: The box has a sudoku on it with some cells shaded. You have to solve the sudoku puzzle and the jigsaw actually has a sudoku puzzle with the digits from the solution in the shaded cells with the rest of the sudoku blank.
I loved the puzzle as I'm a self acclaimed sudoku addict.. so I printed the sudoko, and my timing was 17:36 with a little interpretation from my sister..
It is so satisfying to see you develop a strategy as you work on it!!! And that the sudokus were actually solvable. To the manufacturer who made the box like,, you had one job,,
I just love your channel! Watching you figure out how to solve this puzzle and explaining what you did to make it doable... I looked at my partner and I was like "she is SO smart!". The cheat sheet to keep you from making so many mistakes. I just really enjoyed watching you piece together the best way of solving. Thanks for sharing!
Just a suggestion... If you work another puzzle where you have to check both sides you might use a large piece of plexiglass as your base so you can easily see how it looks without too much effort and time. Thank you for sharing your work with us!
I usually do at least two sudoku puzzles every day, so I printed out the sheet and had a go. It took me 38 minutes to do the four puzzles, principally because I kept making hasty errors on the upper right puzzle. I have not timed myself before, so this is the first time I assigned numbers to my numbers.
Knowing I would never do this puzzle...as a jigsaw puzzle, I printed the printable and did those instead😅 My times were: P1 06:43, P2 03:48, P3 07:20 & P4 05:59 = 23:57🙈 Well done for finishing that beast in 9hrs and having such a smart strategy to do so. The "cheat" sheet was absolutely necessary - especially with all those numbers facing all different directions... I love ending my weekends with your vids, so thank you so much☺
you are so blowing my mind… i had no idea puzzling had so much strategy. no wonder i could never finish one lol. i want to try puzzles so much more now
I did the sudokus (thanks for the print!) - and I'm quiet good at that (was a bit quicker than you on all of them, but by varying degree - e.g., the second one I did in 4:18, the fourth one in 4:30), but I would NEVER have been able to complete that puzzle! I think your cheat-sheet was a very clever idea and not cheating, but ingenuity. ^_^ I really enjoyed you explaining your strategies! Congrats on doing this successfully!
I don’t think I would ever attempt something like this, all that white space gives me anxiety!! It’s amazing that you were able to finish this in such a short time!!
The Dalmatian version of this puzzle is a lot more pleasurable to do! The puzzle cut is different (either 'all outs' or 'all ins') so sorting is a lot easier. Another bonus of the Paul lamond Dalmatian puzzle is that the picture has way more detail, so although the puzzle pieces are cut pretty uniform, there was never any doubt for me that the pieces weren't in the right place. Would definitely recommend that one over the NUMBERS one. (Also also the design goes right up to the edge, so no blank edge!) They're great value too as they are all roughly £10 each on Amazon uk. Great video karen, you inspired me to start puzzling again!
I remember there was this one puzzle my friend had, it was an animal shaped pieces inside the puzzle. And when I tell you we were stuck for two hours and haven’t made a dent in the progress because it was a puzzle that she didn’t have a picture to. This reminds me of those dark times. And that puzzle was like 200 or 300 pieces it was a nightmare
I’ve come across Paul Lamond Games many times (I’m in England) but I certainly won’t be rushing out to buy this! It’s actually my idea of torture. I think your cheat-sheet was a work of genius! All those numbers!
I did a similar square one with a cartoon image of a goaly with loads of soccer balls in his goal, both on the front and back (90 degrees turned). My strategy was sorting the pieces in 5 groups: edge, balls on both sides, balls on one side, sky on both sides and goalie. I started with the goalie and the pieces with the balls on both sides. Then edge, sky on both sides and then the final group that had sky on one side and balls on the other. Another one I did was of an appartmentbuilding where the image on the box didn't match the puzzle image. Each window was made of 4 pieces. The two in the top had text on them and they contained clues as to what was happening in either the picture under the text, or where windows should go in the building. It made quite a fun story. On the back it said congratulation in loads of different fonts if you made the puzzle in the right way.
Great seeing the puzzle, seeing the solve, and seeing your numbers, as it always is! The graphic at 8:16 was particularly helpful in visualizing what you were talking about! Also, I love the little blooper that you kept in the video (it occurred while you were discussing the edge pieces). Little bits like that make me chuckle, remind me that you're human, and don't seem to distract too much from the puzzle itself. EDIT: And the spiral at 29:03 - I canpt imagine how much effort went into that sequence but MAN IT LOOKS GOOD!
I definitely wouldn't attempt this puzzle. Having identical shaped pieces that can be misplaced so easily makes it not fun. I used to do sudoku all the time as a relaxing activity. I got 3:44, 4:34, 4:45, and 3:50 for an overall 16:54!
Thank you for releasing these on Sundays. I often get "pre-work-week" anxiety, and watching these videos just calms me way down. Thanks for great puzzles and videos!
I come here to watch some puzzle videos when there is nothing interesting on Cracking the Cryptic (a wonderful UA-cam account with sudoku puzzles) so it was a huge treat for me to see some real sudoku PUZZLE 😁 Even though it is midnight I went printing the sudoku to solve them and my times were: 3:554:082:403:07 Btw you did an amazing job with this puzzle, making the cheat sheet and using it accordingly was as important as everything else. Everybody can spend hours trying each piece with another but not everyone knows how to solve such a puzzle efficiently and smartly. So really great job 👏
Over on the Discord server for the Cracking the Cryptic UA-cam channel there are three setters who put up a Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (or GAS puzzle) every day, which is usually a lot easier than some of the horrendously difficult stuff normally featured on the channel. The setters do like to mess around though, and for one of the April Fool's Day puzzles one of them posted a regular Sudoku, but encoded the whole thing into a huge Nonogram (AKA Picross) puzzle. This puzzle reminds me of that.
I finished the first Puzzle in 2:37, and then the rest took at LEAST 5 minutes, if not 6... The third one really tripped me up for some reason. Took 20:04 total
Damn, i am just binge watching the puzzle videos. I love doing them myself, but never knew it could be as much fun to watch you solve them and the history on the puzzles and companys on the older ones. I had to try the sudokus myself and finished at 18.57 combined. Thanks for all your videos and effort!
My brain would explode trying to do this! I'm definitely more a pretty and bright puzzle person, I do them to relax so I'm not after too much of a challenge
One strategy that I have not seen in your video: since for most numbers you can know the orientation (the 8s being the exception) you can tell the angle of rotation if a piece has numbers on both side. Since you know the rotation was a 90 degrees left you can infer which of those 2 numbers is the one from the front side of the puzzle and which one is from the back Not sure how applicable it is since it would only concern pieces that have non 8 numbers on both side but it might help you start the puzzle Though I suppose with your cheatsheet you probably do not even need that (such a restricted piece has probably only one potential position in the puzzle anyway). But it might help for other of those puzzles like the ones with leprechauns and buffalos where you might also be able to find the orientation of the drawing on each side
Well done! Personally, I have enough (fun) trouble doing one-sided jigsaw puzzles with bridges, trees, fluffy clouds, and the like - I cannot imagine doing a puzzle filled with NUMBERS and double-sided as well! I did think it was clever of the manufacturer cut the pieces from both sides so you could not identify the front and back.
Wahoo I finished the sudoko's in 14 minutes and 6 seconds! I really liked racing you on this one. I felt like they were pretty easy sudoku's though. The puzzle looks harder. I've done the golf tees one and it was so hard! I did it as a kid and I think it took me a solid week which is a REALLY long time for me.
This kind of puzzle is definitely an excercise in organisation and commitment. Not something I'd want to try myself, but am always impressed by people who do them.
11:04 I was thinking to myself about how I would organize it and questioned why you wouldn't. Then I thought to myself that youre the expert and know a lot more than I do. Then you did what I would do and I felt like a pro.
Would this be easier if you flipped all the pieces using felt, like you did with the double sided puzzle? Then you could check all the pieces and flip them all over to check the other side. Rather then turning over each one. So excited for every video.
I probably should have thought of a method like that to be able to flip them all at once. If I do one of the others I showed, I’ll engineer something 😅
@@KarenPuzzles - I thought the way you flipped smaller sections whilst doing this puzzle was a good technique. More manageable and practical. Were all those other Buffalo Games puzzles double sided too?
Well I learned one thing from this video. I have been saying the word sudoku wrong my whole life and spelling it wrong. And that looks so difficult to do. Props to you Karen. You have way more patience than I do.
Honestly, this was amazing. I would have found this puzzle very difficult! This was a real exercise in patience and perseverance! The two number nines at the end of day one was so disheartening to me. I thought the printouts of both sides so you could where the numbers line up and holding that up to the light was so clever. Not a cheat sheet but just a bigger, smarter version of the pictures on the box.Well done!
I have two of these brand. Paper clips and multicolour clownfish. I think I have done them both. I also have two Photomosaic puzzles that are cut the same.
I find it really interesting that to solve the jigsaw puzzle you are using logic that is very Sudoku-like, by looking at the backs and by looking at blank spaces behind numbers on the back side, etc.
I did the clown fish version about 6 yrs ago! I think I still have my video somewhere on my channel showing the strategy that I figured out, which was how the pieces along the diagonal were near identical flipped and other pieces were mirrored about it, but I'm not sure how well that would've worked with all those sudoku numbers and the blank pieces though. IIRC, it took about 4 hrs to finish that one.
I'm currently on day 3 of working on what is likely my first 1000 piece puzzle.. and after the frustration I've had it with it... I truly admire your skills. I find myself sorting and resorting the pieces and then just staring at pieces for hours with very little progress. But it's kind of fun... in a frustrating kind of way haha
I just sat down to work on a puzzle and the poster is so beat up from me handling it….I went ahead and bought the puzzle box holder you promoted here 😂
I think the Sudoku one with the numbers is more difficult than the Buffalo Games puzzles. Those two actually have a little bit of the picture on one edge so you can start from that and use the diagonal method that Sara K mentioned in her comment. I also had problems with the edge pieces on the Buffalo Games puzzles. Although the pieces are slightly different, too many fit in multiple spots. You can see how worn the edge pieces are on the puzzle with the buffalos as I had to move them around a lot every time I made that puzzle. I have more strategies for the Buffalo Games puzzles, but don't want to spoil the fun for you :)! The difficulty of the Sudoku puzzle may be on par with the maze puzzle. Can't quite tell as I would have to try the Sudoku one myself. Good job on this one!!!
I had two 'World's Most Difficult's, in that exact style box! (3:34). Both sides were the same image but rotated 90 degrees from each other. there were NO 'round-off's on ANY of the pieces!
2 роки тому+1
I really love your editing! You are getting better and more playful with it
I like that you came up with a strategy that you kept improving over time and in the end it enabled you to finish the puzzle pretty quickly. Impressive 😊
It’s easy if you know this trick: Scan rows and columns within each triple-box area, eliminating numbers or squares and finding situations where only a single number can fit into a single square.
Your 'not even a real sudoku' comment reminded me of a video from the channel Cracking the Cryptic called Everything is wrogn. That puzzle doesn't follow regular sudoku rules. If you need some new relaxation of like logical reasoning I definitely recommend that channel. They do have some videos that are basically feature length movies in length just solveing one sudoku puzzle. I've tried some of those more difficult puzzles and they're hard but it's so satisfying to see them getting solved. Plus I do find the voices of Mark and Simon relaxing when they're solving.
I’m in Scotland and I bought puzzle peaks stand. Cost me £25 U.K. pounds for shipping and customs but it’s worth it. Also well done on this puzzle. I’m about to open the 2000 cloudberries metropolis. 🤪
I enjoyed the techniques you developed for solving this puzzle and your explanations behind them as well as an ongoing discussion of what was working and what wasn't. Inspired! The inclusion of numbers was clearly helpful in preventing the hair tearing you predicted this might come to.
I thought the numbers and logic part of the video, where you explained stuff about how you knew about where pieces might go because of the cut was super fascinating
Would you attempt this sudoku jigsaw puzzle? If you've done other puzzles from the same series, share some of your strategies!
Nope! We are very different puzzler types lol. I prefer bright, colourful ones only as I puzzle for self-care. This would stress me out and defeat the purpose. Love watching videos of harder ones, glad you enjoy more of a challenge ☺️. I love seeing the puzzles people enjoy as there are so many reasons. Have a great Sunday!
Also, not cheating. You figured out strategies yourself.
I would get a glass table to do this puzzle, that way I can look underneath to see if I made any mistakes. Also, kudos on the strategy, that was really well done.
I would like to try to do it
I have done a few of these puzzles. The way they are cut (well the ones i have done), means that each piece has a twin which goes on the opposite side of the puzzle on the diagonal. The only pieces that don't have a twin are the diagonal strip which has the same image on each side but flipped 90 degrees. I hope that make sense.
I think they missed an opportunity to have the sudokus on the box be unsolved but the sudokus in the puzzle be complete, so that solving the sudokus would help you solve the puzzle.
That's exactly what I was thinking! Either that, or they would be complete in one of the sides of the puzzle. That would also be fun 😊
I was hoping it'd be something like that, if so I'd try to have bought one lol
agreed!
They had 2 nines in a box. They clearly know nothing at all about puzzles and don't understand their target audience. And probably don't care. Rocks on the road.
@@Varksterable Its a printing/picture error on the box lmao, no one is perfect. The puzzle has it correct with a 6 and a 9 not two 9s
I feel like the "cheat sheet" makes the puzzle experience more fun. Else it would just get too frustrating and takes out the enjoyment.
For me its not cheating but an excellent tool!
Same here. I think, it's not cheating, but being smart. It's that "thinking outside of the box", what makes really clever people.
I agree! I think the fact that Karen came up with the idea of the cheat sheet, and made it on her own, makes it even more valid!
One could possibly consider "sorting out edge pieces" or "sorting by color" to be a cheat sheet in a way - doing so takes the whole problem (solving the puzzle) and breaks it down into smaller parts (solve the edges, or solve this specific color). Karen's tool is no different - it takes the whole problem (again, solving the puzzle) and breaks it down into smaller parts (in this case, which piece goes on the back of which other piece, etc.)
But ultimately, puzzles aren't a competition. If you're competing against other people's times, then all those people should have the same tools available. Otherwise, it's just an accessibility tool. Adding (or removing!) tools to make the challenge more fun for the individual solver is paramount! Karen didn't choose to mix the four bags in the Life puzzle together, even though she could have - that's just another accessibility tool. (This is a similar discussion to how comprehensive video game difficulty selections should be.)
To me it depends on the puzzle. Mostly I put transformative puzzles together this spring. The only cheat I can find is online, by people who already did the puzzles. I don’t think of it as cheating. A little help goes a long way.
Yes. I dont think at all that sheet is cheating - I think thats super clever!
"Thinking outside the box" is _never_ cheating. Provided it's not explicitly limited by some rules or regulations which it clearly isn't here.
Leveraging everything you have to achieve something is a useful tool to find a solution to puzzles.
And in life, too.
As a “recovering perfectionist” I appreciate your taking the attitude that the edge of this puzzle only had to be “good enough,” rather than exactly replicating the original cut. Given the uniformity of the colour and the similarity of the piece shapes, the puzzle itself really isn’t inviting or enabling you to do anything else, but I’ve definitely been in situations where I have stubbornly stuck to an unachievable goal (and consequently ended up getting stuck, spinning my wheels, and becoming increasingly annoyed with the situation, myself, and the world) rather than taking a more practical approach. But as you implied, succeeding at anything is ultimately a numbers game… You’re better off finishing 5 projects well enough than sinking your whole life into a single one that may end up “perfect” in your eyes but doesn’t have the same impact on others!
It is forever satisfying watching someone rise for such a big challenge. The methodicalness of your approach, and then then seeing you do it so frickin well! I rarely even puzzle, but this is entirely the reason to watch.
Imagine being the ones who gave her this puzzle not being able to complete it in months..and here she is completing it in a few days 😂
We knew she would! 😀
I for one, can pretty easily imagine not being able to solve this puzzle, or more likely running out of interest in trying to solve it after a few hours of not much progress.
well, she _is_ karen, the puzzle goddess sooo
Well, to be fair. It was tough.
@@moonloversheila8238hey I agree
As a professional puzzle constructor, I'd paused the video halfway through to take a look at that third _Sudoku_ to see what happened. Given the '9' in the bottom-left matched '9's in both its row and its column, I figured that one digit was in error and probably was intended to be a '6' (as after all, a '9' is a '6' upside-down: *numbers* , I tell you ;) XD). Of course, by the end of the video you showed my suspicion was correct, but at the time, I tried solving the puzzle without _any_ digit given there. What I found was that, in that case, the puzzle had exactly TWO solutions. So if anyone reading this wants a bonus puzzle, try that third _Sudoku_ but without the '6' in the bottom-left corner and see if you can find the only other digit that makes the puzzle solvable (it will also have only one solution if given it's not '6').
Neeerrr-rrrrdddd
Nice... It would really have bugged me if the Sudoku couldn't be solved.
What a fascinating profession. Thanks for sharing :)
I’ve often wondered how sudoku makers come up with them so they’re solvable with only one solution!
@@justlittleolme7977 It's a learnable skill. The real trick is doing that AND making the puzzle appealing at the same time.
The "cheat sheet" wasn't cheating; it was brilliant!
That’s definitely NOT cheating!
The opposite. Genius. Especially considering the shortcomings of the cut.
i feel like the "cheat sheet" should have been included in the box
My dad and I did a Dalmatian’s puzzle from this brand. Our strategy was that we realized that it would be a mirror image across the diagonal so every piece would have an pair. We then flipped one of each pair so we could see one of each picture and each time we found where a piece went we also put in the other along the diagonal. Not sure if this would have worked for this puzzle as there are so many blank squares. Also, my dad never uses the box so it is always more difficult.
My late mother loved this series of puzzles, and that was her strategy as well: find duplicates, flip one over and place.
what's dalmatian puzzle?
My dad and I did one of these puzzles, it was a double sided, mirrored, cat puzzle. Well I say we did it but it’s more like he did it since I was like 7 and only put in 5 pieces or so.
@@NoNameAtAll2 dalmatians are dogs
I have that dalmatian puzzle, afraid to Starr it. It is very intimidating
I love doing sudoku and this is my time doing them:
Sudoku 1- 4:04
Sudoku 2- 4:51
Sudoku 3- 4:10
Sudoku 4- 4:34
This is my firts time I write a comment on this channel, but I wanna say I'm Peruvian and I'm so happy to have found it.
Great job bud!
My time was:
Sudoku 1- 3:15
Sudoku 2- 4:45
Sudoku 3- 4:15
Sudoku 4- 2:49
Those just became timestamps.
It blows my mind how well you're doing with this. It seems like it would be impossible.
It felt that way at first to me!
my only strategy would be burning this puzzle. it really hurts my head thinking about it!
cant wait for the next puzzle video - this time with less numbers! :)
Karen, as long as somebody starts with a fully randomized pile of unconnected pieces, anything that the solver does is NOT cheating... BTW, NUMBERS...
I feel that making identically-shaped pieces is a cheat from the manufacturer, so little cheats are more than acceptable
worse -- i feel like this is so egregious that it should either be stated clearly on the box "THIS PUZZLE USES PIECES THAT ARE
This is the FIRST time I've ever bought an item from a sponsor in all my years of watching UA-cam! A puzzle box stand is a great idea.
I love to hear it! 🥰
I've never seen that! Definitely a good idea!
Wow. This is something I would never tackle but loved watching it. You are a wizard.
37 + minutes?
Omg I’m just so happy 😁
P.s numbers…..so many numbers.
Also, it’s totally not cheating if you’re using something that’s available on the box - you’re just enlarging the same images really 🙂🐿
Numbers:
You have a great memory for shades of colours and intricate shapes! Amazing! Keep the puzzle 🧩 cheer flowing. 🖖🏼
My mom and I did do one of these "World's Most Difficult Puzzles"! It was an image of a bunch of dalmatians, which I think was easier than this sudoku one because you use the spots to see if placement was right. One thing I noticed when building the puzzle was that the way the image was rotated on that one, each piece existed in duplicate, so there would be two pieces with the front and the back images matched exactly. And these pieces were reflected over the diagonal. So what we ended up doing was sorting all the pieces by matching them to their twin, placing the pieces that were in that diagonal (which was the same section of the image on front and back, just rotated 90 degrees) and then once we knew where one piece went, we were able to discern where its twin went. Hopefully that makes a bit of sense? Idk if it would have help with this one since there was less differentiation in the image, but might be worth a shot if you ever try any of the others! (Numbers)
6:05, 7:49, 8:46, 8:28 total time 31:09. You’re very fast on this puzzle!! I’m back now to doing my actual job of taxes. Love Numbers!
Two things you did that were extra and totally awesome....
1. Talking us thru your process, it was actually my favorite part.
2. The edit when finished of you spiral editing the puzzle was outstanding extra effort for great content.
You're great and although I'm not a puzzler I adore your content and just enjoy learning from you and watching you figure things out.
Thank you
Numbers! I'm in awe of your problem solving skills. I probably wouldn't have thought to sort the way you did. Brilliant!
This was my first time in your channel. I just loved it. I felt devastated when you said the sudokus were not gonna be solvable. Thank god they had mistaken when printing them. You've just got a new fan! :D
I did the 'cats' version of this puzzle when i was younger, i built up a mental map of what the underside of the puzzle was looking like to know exactly what peice i had to find, but it was still near impossible, definitely ended up just throwing the last couple pieces in regardless of whether they were perfectly fit, since i just wanted it finished after sooo many days of working on it!
I loved watching you solve this puzzle and the mental gymnastics you had to do to solve it. Anything that is smart, allowing you to progress at a reasonable rate is valid. Heck, you can always make it more difficult at the expense of your sanity. Good job! =]
I love that you don't push accessories so that puzzling remains accessible! I am happy you made an exception for the puzzle box holders, though! My parents are big puzzlers & they also have cats ... which means no puzzle box stays upright without some assistance! Lol! I immediately bought one of these for each of them! :)
All jigsaw puzzles are about sorting until you’re able to match an image. You did a fantastic job creating an image to match to your sorting. What a fantastic sort required for this one!
I did one of these types of puzzle and realized that one of the diagonals from corner to corner has the same image on both sides. From there I built the puzzle as two identical triangles on top of each other. NUMBERS
I had an idea for a sudoku jigsaw puzzle:
The box has a sudoku on it with some cells shaded.
You have to solve the sudoku puzzle and the jigsaw actually has a sudoku puzzle with the digits from the solution in the shaded cells with the rest of the sudoku blank.
I loved the puzzle as I'm a self acclaimed sudoku addict.. so I printed the sudoko, and my timing was 17:36 with a little interpretation from my sister..
Many nice observations! When you fully described this puzzle, I estimated a solve time of 1-2 weeks.
It is so satisfying to see you develop a strategy as you work on it!!! And that the sudokus were actually solvable.
To the manufacturer who made the box like,, you had one job,,
I just love your channel! Watching you figure out how to solve this puzzle and explaining what you did to make it doable... I looked at my partner and I was like "she is SO smart!". The cheat sheet to keep you from making so many mistakes. I just really enjoyed watching you piece together the best way of solving. Thanks for sharing!
Just a suggestion... If you work another puzzle where you have to check both sides you might use a large piece of plexiglass as your base so you can easily see how it looks without too much effort and time. Thank you for sharing your work with us!
you should make your own ranking of the world's most difficult puzzles after completing so many of them
I’ve been so excited to see this puzzle since you teased it on instagram!! Especially since I’m an avid lover of sudoku and jigsaw puzzles
I loved the timelapse at the end!! It wad worth the extra effort!
I usually do at least two sudoku puzzles every day, so I printed out the sheet and had a go. It took me 38 minutes to do the four puzzles, principally because I kept making hasty errors on the upper right puzzle. I have not timed myself before, so this is the first time I assigned numbers to my numbers.
Honestly I was expecting it to have multiple solutions but only one of them be a valid sudoku.
Relative to that, this seems like a kindness.
Knowing I would never do this puzzle...as a jigsaw puzzle, I printed the printable and did those instead😅
My times were: P1 06:43, P2 03:48, P3 07:20 & P4 05:59 = 23:57🙈
Well done for finishing that beast in 9hrs and having such a smart strategy to do so. The "cheat" sheet was absolutely necessary - especially with all those numbers facing all different directions...
I love ending my weekends with your vids, so thank you so much☺
It was so fun watching you be super technical and use a ton of puzzling strategies!
I was happy to be completing one of the sudoku puzzles in 6 mins.... you blew my times out of the water.
I like your energy and enthusiasm. I haven’t done a puzzle in years but UA-cam recommended your video and I just subscribed.
you are so blowing my mind… i had no idea puzzling had so much strategy. no wonder i could never finish one lol. i want to try puzzles so much more now
I did the sudokus (thanks for the print!) - and I'm quiet good at that (was a bit quicker than you on all of them, but by varying degree - e.g., the second one I did in 4:18, the fourth one in 4:30), but I would NEVER have been able to complete that puzzle!
I think your cheat-sheet was a very clever idea and not cheating, but ingenuity. ^_^ I really enjoyed you explaining your strategies! Congrats on doing this successfully!
I don’t think I would ever attempt something like this, all that white space gives me anxiety!! It’s amazing that you were able to finish this in such a short time!!
The Dalmatian version of this puzzle is a lot more pleasurable to do! The puzzle cut is different (either 'all outs' or 'all ins') so sorting is a lot easier. Another bonus of the Paul lamond Dalmatian puzzle is that the picture has way more detail, so although the puzzle pieces are cut pretty uniform, there was never any doubt for me that the pieces weren't in the right place. Would definitely recommend that one over the NUMBERS one. (Also also the design goes right up to the edge, so no blank edge!) They're great value too as they are all roughly £10 each on Amazon uk. Great video karen, you inspired me to start puzzling again!
I remember there was this one puzzle my friend had, it was an animal shaped pieces inside the puzzle. And when I tell you we were stuck for two hours and haven’t made a dent in the progress because it was a puzzle that she didn’t have a picture to. This reminds me of those dark times. And that puzzle was like 200 or 300 pieces it was a nightmare
A cheat sheet isn't cheating, its using practical intelligence along with abstraction to solve a puzzle, so, good on you for thinking of it ^^
I’ve come across Paul Lamond Games many times (I’m in England) but I certainly won’t be rushing out to buy this! It’s actually my idea of torture. I think your cheat-sheet was a work of genius! All those numbers!
I did a similar square one with a cartoon image of a goaly with loads of soccer balls in his goal, both on the front and back (90 degrees turned). My strategy was sorting the pieces in 5 groups: edge, balls on both sides, balls on one side, sky on both sides and goalie. I started with the goalie and the pieces with the balls on both sides. Then edge, sky on both sides and then the final group that had sky on one side and balls on the other.
Another one I did was of an appartmentbuilding where the image on the box didn't match the puzzle image. Each window was made of 4 pieces. The two in the top had text on them and they contained clues as to what was happening in either the picture under the text, or where windows should go in the building. It made quite a fun story. On the back it said congratulation in loads of different fonts if you made the puzzle in the right way.
MY MIND WAS BLOWN WHEN YOU PRINTED OUT THE SHEET. YES. BIG BRAIN MANEUVERS!!!
Great seeing the puzzle, seeing the solve, and seeing your numbers, as it always is! The graphic at 8:16 was particularly helpful in visualizing what you were talking about!
Also, I love the little blooper that you kept in the video (it occurred while you were discussing the edge pieces). Little bits like that make me chuckle, remind me that you're human, and don't seem to distract too much from the puzzle itself.
EDIT: And the spiral at 29:03 - I canpt imagine how much effort went into that sequence but MAN IT LOOKS GOOD!
I definitely wouldn't attempt this puzzle. Having identical shaped pieces that can be misplaced so easily makes it not fun. I used to do sudoku all the time as a relaxing activity. I got 3:44, 4:34, 4:45, and 3:50 for an overall 16:54!
Thank you for releasing these on Sundays. I often get "pre-work-week" anxiety, and watching these videos just calms me way down. Thanks for great puzzles and videos!
I come here to watch some puzzle videos when there is nothing interesting on Cracking the Cryptic (a wonderful UA-cam account with sudoku puzzles) so it was a huge treat for me to see some real sudoku PUZZLE 😁
Even though it is midnight I went printing the sudoku to solve them and my times were:
3:55 4:08 2:40 3:07
Btw you did an amazing job with this puzzle, making the cheat sheet and using it accordingly was as important as everything else. Everybody can spend hours trying each piece with another but not everyone knows how to solve such a puzzle efficiently and smartly. So really great job 👏
Over on the Discord server for the Cracking the Cryptic UA-cam channel there are three setters who put up a Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (or GAS puzzle) every day, which is usually a lot easier than some of the horrendously difficult stuff normally featured on the channel. The setters do like to mess around though, and for one of the April Fool's Day puzzles one of them posted a regular Sudoku, but encoded the whole thing into a huge Nonogram (AKA Picross) puzzle. This puzzle reminds me of that.
I loved that nonogram sudoku. It took me longer to complete than I expected it to, but it was a great change for April Fool's Day.
I've been slacking about checking out the discord server lately, I missed that. Will have to check it out, since I also love Nonograms. 😁
This video was so calming to watch while I was having an anxiety attack, I’m so glad I found your channel :)
I finished the first Puzzle in 2:37, and then the rest took at LEAST 5 minutes, if not 6... The third one really tripped me up for some reason. Took 20:04 total
Finally! We have a legit Sudoku-based Puzzle and I’m excited to watch it 👏🏽
I love watching your process for solving these more difficult puzzles. I find it super interesting. Nicely done!!
Damn, i am just binge watching the puzzle videos. I love doing them myself, but never knew it could be as much fun to watch you solve them and the history on the puzzles and companys on the older ones.
I had to try the sudokus myself and finished at 18.57 combined.
Thanks for all your videos and effort!
This is an puzzle that i have wanted to try, so i can't wait to see how you do it!
My brain would explode trying to do this! I'm definitely more a pretty and bright puzzle person, I do them to relax so I'm not after too much of a challenge
One strategy that I have not seen in your video: since for most numbers you can know the orientation (the 8s being the exception) you can tell the angle of rotation if a piece has numbers on both side. Since you know the rotation was a 90 degrees left you can infer which of those 2 numbers is the one from the front side of the puzzle and which one is from the back
Not sure how applicable it is since it would only concern pieces that have non 8 numbers on both side but it might help you start the puzzle
Though I suppose with your cheatsheet you probably do not even need that (such a restricted piece has probably only one potential position in the puzzle anyway). But it might help for other of those puzzles like the ones with leprechauns and buffalos where you might also be able to find the orientation of the drawing on each side
Holy Smokes, that looks so hard. No way I’d ever be able to do this. Great job, Karen.
Well done! Personally, I have enough (fun) trouble doing one-sided jigsaw puzzles with bridges, trees, fluffy clouds, and the like - I cannot imagine doing a puzzle filled with NUMBERS and double-sided as well! I did think it was clever of the manufacturer cut the pieces from both sides so you could not identify the front and back.
Wahoo I finished the sudoko's in 14 minutes and 6 seconds! I really liked racing you on this one. I felt like they were pretty easy sudoku's though. The puzzle looks harder. I've done the golf tees one and it was so hard! I did it as a kid and I think it took me a solid week which is a REALLY long time for me.
This kind of puzzle is definitely an excercise in organisation and commitment. Not something I'd want to try myself, but am always impressed by people who do them.
11:04 I was thinking to myself about how I would organize it and questioned why you wouldn't. Then I thought to myself that youre the expert and know a lot more than I do. Then you did what I would do and I felt like a pro.
The way she places each individual piece is so satisfying to watch and I don't know why
I don’t do many jigsaw puzzles myself but I absolutely love your videos.
Would this be easier if you flipped all the pieces using felt, like you did with the double sided puzzle? Then you could check all the pieces and flip them all over to check the other side. Rather then turning over each one. So excited for every video.
I probably should have thought of a method like that to be able to flip them all at once. If I do one of the others I showed, I’ll engineer something 😅
@@KarenPuzzles - I thought the way you flipped smaller sections whilst doing this puzzle was a good technique.
More manageable and practical.
Were all those other Buffalo Games puzzles double sided too?
I watched more and you started flipping over the completed pieces, seemed to work really well. Well done for finishing and fun to watch as always 👏
Well I learned one thing from this video. I have been saying the word sudoku wrong my whole life and spelling it wrong. And that looks so difficult to do. Props to you Karen. You have way more patience than I do.
Honestly, this was amazing. I would have found this puzzle very difficult! This was a real exercise in patience and perseverance! The two number nines at the end of day one was so disheartening to me. I thought the printouts of both sides so you could where the numbers line up and holding that up to the light was so clever. Not a cheat sheet but just a bigger, smarter version of the pictures on the box.Well done!
I have two of these brand. Paper clips and multicolour clownfish. I think I have done them both. I also have two Photomosaic puzzles that are cut the same.
I did one of these "It's printed upside down on the back" puzzles a while back, and I did it on a glass table, which really helped a lot
I find it really interesting that to solve the jigsaw puzzle you are using logic that is very Sudoku-like, by looking at the backs and by looking at blank spaces behind numbers on the back side, etc.
I did the clown fish version about 6 yrs ago! I think I still have my video somewhere on my channel showing the strategy that I figured out, which was how the pieces along the diagonal were near identical flipped and other pieces were mirrored about it, but I'm not sure how well that would've worked with all those sudoku numbers and the blank pieces though. IIRC, it took about 4 hrs to finish that one.
I'm currently on day 3 of working on what is likely my first 1000 piece puzzle.. and after the frustration I've had it with it... I truly admire your skills. I find myself sorting and resorting the pieces and then just staring at pieces for hours with very little progress. But it's kind of fun... in a frustrating kind of way haha
I just sat down to work on a puzzle and the poster is so beat up from me handling it….I went ahead and bought the puzzle box holder you promoted here 😂
Really cool watching you figure something out only from your organization structure.
Honestly when I finally saw your cheat sheet - I immediately felt way more excited about the puzzle, like we discovered something.
I think the Sudoku one with the numbers is more difficult than the Buffalo Games puzzles. Those two actually have a little bit of the picture on one edge so you can start from that and use the diagonal method that Sara K mentioned in her comment. I also had problems with the edge pieces on the Buffalo Games puzzles. Although the pieces are slightly different, too many fit in multiple spots. You can see how worn the edge pieces are on the puzzle with the buffalos as I had to move them around a lot every time I made that puzzle. I have more strategies for the Buffalo Games puzzles, but don't want to spoil the fun for you :)! The difficulty of the Sudoku puzzle may be on par with the maze puzzle. Can't quite tell as I would have to try the Sudoku one myself. Good job on this one!!!
Love the Puzzle Peak Box Stand. 😊Thanks for letting us know about it.
I had two 'World's Most Difficult's, in that exact style box! (3:34). Both sides were the same image but rotated 90 degrees from each other. there were NO 'round-off's on ANY of the pieces!
I really love your editing! You are getting better and more playful with it
I like that you came up with a strategy that you kept improving over time and in the end it enabled you to finish the puzzle pretty quickly.
Impressive 😊
It’s easy if you know this trick:
Scan rows and columns within each triple-box area, eliminating numbers or squares and finding situations where only a single number can fit into a single square.
Your 'not even a real sudoku' comment reminded me of a video from the channel Cracking the Cryptic called Everything is wrogn. That puzzle doesn't follow regular sudoku rules.
If you need some new relaxation of like logical reasoning I definitely recommend that channel. They do have some videos that are basically feature length movies in length just solveing one sudoku puzzle. I've tried some of those more difficult puzzles and they're hard but it's so satisfying to see them getting solved. Plus I do find the voices of Mark and Simon relaxing when they're solving.
I loved the "cheat sheet" hack, what a clever strategy. Well done, Karen... amazing video. :D
I’m in Scotland and I bought puzzle peaks stand. Cost me £25 U.K. pounds for shipping and customs but it’s worth it. Also well done on this puzzle. I’m about to open the 2000 cloudberries metropolis. 🤪
I enjoyed the techniques you developed for solving this puzzle and your explanations behind them as well as an ongoing discussion of what was working and what wasn't. Inspired! The inclusion of numbers was clearly helpful in preventing the hair tearing you predicted this might come to.
I thought the numbers and logic part of the video, where you explained stuff about how you knew about where pieces might go because of the cut was super fascinating
You are very clever. Your method of using the copy was really ingenious. I love to watch you
Jigsaw puzzle + sudoku = crazy.
There’s SO much more information to work with in this puzzle than I imagined.
Your camera work and stuff is amazing…thank you Ms K