Happy Finkz Friday! Thank you so much Simon, for continuing to follow the Rat Run saga :) There’s a bit of an interesting story behind this one. In stark contrast to last week’s puzzle which I was still setting just a few days before I published it, this renban one I made many many months ago… even before I had released episode 1, before anyone else had met Finkz yet. This and another puzzle (coming soon) were two of the first Rat Runs I set. A sort of ‘proof of concept’ for myself that I had come up with something that could be very fun. At that point I was still just planning to do about 5 - 10 episodes (this later grew and grew!) I didn’t put it in season 1 because A) I wanted to hold back some easier ones with more familiar constraints for season 2 for the sake of variety, and B) thematically it fit much better into season 2, once teleports have been well established (I wanted to have quite a few teleport puzzles first, before taking it to the extreme and cramming all 9 into the grid like a crazy person.) This point in proceedings felt like the perfect place for it, and even though it’s one of the much easier ones, I really enjoy the flow of this one, so have been excited for people to see it. I think the logic is quite different from any of the other episodes so far, and my favourite part is the bit of nonsense in in box 5 / 6 where you need to take a digit higher than 5 to physically connect the path, but a 7 isn’t available, which forces diagonal rinky-dinkage. As usual it was very satisfying to see Simon follow the intended solve path pretty much 100% :) Have a great weekend everyone, and catch you soon Ps: this was the pre-experiment lab note for anyone interested: Experiment 16 (magenta) - 20th November 1974 "I had a feeling Elliot wouldn't be satisfied until all nine teleports were integrated into a single maze. Continued teleport training is apparently essential for Phase 3, though he remains frustratingly tight-lipped about the full details of those plans. I'm now convinced that this has become about more than just…"
I was gratified and felt a little vindicated when the title of one of the upcoming puzzles turned up in the preview lists: given the subject matter, I was certain it would appear sooner or later so long as the series continued long enough. It is the privelege and joy of a setter to be able to choose the most fitting and perfect double meaning to title each puzzle. So suffice to say, I'm highly looking forward to that one in particular. (I really enjoy modifier cell variants -- especially given some particularly memorable ones by heliopolix where you can be wrangling 3+ different sets of modifiers at once.) ... (possibly spoilerish musings on future week) ... ... While I expect the theme of the puzzle to be a particular modifier puzzle, I do wonder if there may instead (or also?) be a theme of multiple paths that eventually collapse to indicate only one that is *correct* (but with the others still having an effect on the sudoku logic). It wasn't something I had considered before, but given previous weeks' comments wondering when we might see a straight line to the cupcake... well, this might be one way to resolve it. Well, we'll see what you've got for us in due time, in any case.
You now have two challenges -the one where you find out at the last minute that Finkz did in fact go straight for the cupcake (I was quietly hoping it would be number 13) - the one where Finkz goes almost to the cupcake and then wanders off around the grid before coming back
@@TFMurphy Haha loving these anticipatory musings! I love that you thought of next week's title too and were semi expecting / hoping for it to turn up. Glad I could deliver on that. I thought of that title a long time ago and always knew I would do that kind of puzzle at some point. And you're right, I really enjoy coming up with the titles. Was particularly happy with 'Limited Addition' after spending days struggling to think of a good name for episode 11. Sometimes when it eventually comes you know 'that's the one!'
@@Timlagor :D I think there have already been a few where Finkz has got very near the cupcake but then had to go off on a detour. Episode 7 she gets very close right at the beginning
While I do totally love these puzzles, I feel like my solve of it needs to live up to the quality of the puzzle somehow. No pressure, no pressure, must get Finkz to the cupcake!!!!!! Kind Comment.
19:31 No, lets not call those two digits A, lets instead look at the teleporters in the same rows, columns and boxes and note that every single letter appears except for I.
I finished in 42:53 minutes. The story of this series is getting real exciting. I think I can sense what is coming and that sounds awesome. I thought for sure that this would be the first troll puzzle that allowed Finkz to run immediately to the cupcake, but it wasn't meant to be...yet. I really enjoyed how forced this one seemed. Once one teleport was ruled out, the puzzle flowed in a satisfying order. I think my favorite part was resolving the shape of the pathway from G to H by using the pathway above to limit a digit that already appeared on the line by appearing in r8c3. These puzzles have been the highlight of my week every week. Thanks for constructing these, Marty! Great Puzzle!
and thank you for all your lovely and detailed comments, I love to read this sort of thing... especially hearing what people's favourite parts of a puzzle were
18:38 Can get a bit more clever with the 5s on the E-F line-since F-H is also five cells, it uses the 5 in box 9 so you can limit the E-F 5 pencil mark to the righthand three cells of box 6
What must have gone through Finkz's mind when she saw confetti emerging from that 3 in the corner? She surely got distracted and turned left to investigate that 3 instead of turning right and going straight towards the cupcake P.S. If Finkz hasn't lost her religion, I'm sure she believes her destiny is in the hands of a superior being... may call Him "Marty"
45:40 for me - I got stuck about halfway through, took a break and gave it another try. I kept the timer because I remembered a lot of the logic and hoped that I wouldn't make what ever mistake I made the first time. Apparently I wasn't imaginative enough with the segment connecting I and D.
When there are multiple paths between two known locations, I will either mark all paths then later eliminate choices, or I till use a different colour path which indicates "not exact". I'd get lost otherwise.
Best series ever indeed. 15:20 for me. I guess it saves a lot of time not explaining everything while solving :). Besides that, I love the new fog sudoku pack and especially ThePedallingPianist's puzzles. I don't think I've played one of their puzzles before, but love 'm!
This one tooks me about 3 hours to figuring out it's not about filling the grid with teleport letters. After finding actual breakthrough, it becomes much easier.
I solved this but I fear I made it MUCH harder than I should have! I was having a lot of fun trying to use the portals for sudoku, and found a number of them.. got super stuck... and then realized there were some faster things I should have seen :D oh well, I had fun solving it that way lol
Only just in, no time to do it myself, but I just realized when he pencil marked his "A" on I.. it is actually I.. cause the other A's see Teleporter A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H between each other..
We Americans do like the British accent. We definitely love the characters in James Bond and Harry Potter movies. Tom Holland playing Spider-Man is also a wonderful and quite endearing in person. We just have a slight problem with how you all say aluminum and mistaken ⚽ for 🏈.
To be clear: it is *you* who misuse the term _football_ for a sport that involves people _picking up_ a _non circular_ ball and running around with it. This strange activity you call a _sport_ more so resembles a coward’s rugby variant with all this protective gear, and the general shape of the ball (and the fact that there are basically 30-second segments of actual _game_ in between several minutes of breaks - a football match, if not going to overtime at a tournament, lasts for 90 minutes plus a 15 minute break [and possibly some minutes to account for pauses during the match], not 4-5 hours for 60 minutes of actual match time). Also, football (the real one) was literally _invented_ in England *and* is the objectively superior sport. Your silly variant is, in fact, so unimportant globally that not only do (with insignificant exceptions) only Americans even _watch_ it, and even the Australians found it uninteresting enough to create their own version (despite two competing rugby leagues, btw).
i forgot about the part of the rules that said "teleports that don't match always have different digits", and turns out you didn't need the rule. so if anyone wants a slightly harder challenge, try it without that rule
The rat runs playlist seems to be backwards. Newest videos at the top and oldest at the bottom. (except this one which is at the bottom). Which makes it really hard to start from the beginning of Finkz's journey and just watch all the way through. It should be oldest at the top.
Welcome to What Might Simon Miss, where I state a mid-puzzle deduction, then we see whether Simon finds a more convoluted way of solving the puzzle. Check my reply to see whether he uses it or not. PSA: I missed yesterday's slot since I decided to solve the puzzle myself rather than watch Simon. Thanks for the 15 min video boost of confidence. Today, Simon might miss (spoilers, obvs): At 25:00, it's already known that B and D are from 1 and 3 from box 3. I doubt Simon will get the other B or D teleporter cells for a long time. Yes, today's one is simple, but that didn't stop Simon in the past.
Yet again, Simon spots what I stated just a minute later, and has resolved the "all teleporters are distinct" logic 10 minutes later. It seems I'm still waiting for a more obtuse puzzle to finally have a win here. Puzzle critique: very nice flow, everything becomes relevant in a nice systematic way. This is exactly why this series has become so popular.
I wonder if these story blurbs will culminate in a puzzle about Finks escaping the maze entirely. Edit: Is there some hidden message in the teleporters that malfunction across all of the puzzles? Having a lengthy meta-puzzle seems like something a brilliant puzzle-setter might do.
I have one question about an early deduction: When Simon wrote in the As and Es in box 1, why could E not appear in r3c2 (ie directly beneath Finkz)? That even still work after some more progress if 6 went in r6c3 instead of c1 and then in r7/9c1 instead of column 2. As far as I can see that wouldn’t break at this point or do I miss some relevant point?
Happy Finkz Friday! Thank you so much Simon, for continuing to follow the Rat Run saga :)
There’s a bit of an interesting story behind this one. In stark contrast to last week’s puzzle which I was still setting just a few days before I published it, this renban one I made many many months ago… even before I had released episode 1, before anyone else had met Finkz yet.
This and another puzzle (coming soon) were two of the first Rat Runs I set. A sort of ‘proof of concept’ for myself that I had come up with something that could be very fun.
At that point I was still just planning to do about 5 - 10 episodes (this later grew and grew!) I didn’t put it in season 1 because A) I wanted to hold back some easier ones with more familiar constraints for season 2 for the sake of variety, and B) thematically it fit much better into season 2, once teleports have been well established (I wanted to have quite a few teleport puzzles first, before taking it to the extreme and cramming all 9 into the grid like a crazy person.)
This point in proceedings felt like the perfect place for it, and even though it’s one of the much easier ones, I really enjoy the flow of this one, so have been excited for people to see it. I think the logic is quite different from any of the other episodes so far, and my favourite part is the bit of nonsense in in box 5 / 6 where you need to take a digit higher than 5 to physically connect the path, but a 7 isn’t available, which forces diagonal rinky-dinkage.
As usual it was very satisfying to see Simon follow the intended solve path pretty much 100% :)
Have a great weekend everyone, and catch you soon
Ps: this was the pre-experiment lab note for anyone interested:
Experiment 16 (magenta) - 20th November 1974
"I had a feeling Elliot wouldn't be satisfied until all nine teleports were integrated into a single maze. Continued teleport training is apparently essential for Phase 3, though he remains frustratingly tight-lipped about the full details of those plans. I'm now convinced that this has become about more than just…"
I was gratified and felt a little vindicated when the title of one of the upcoming puzzles turned up in the preview lists: given the subject matter, I was certain it would appear sooner or later so long as the series continued long enough. It is the privelege and joy of a setter to be able to choose the most fitting and perfect double meaning to title each puzzle. So suffice to say, I'm highly looking forward to that one in particular. (I really enjoy modifier cell variants -- especially given some particularly memorable ones by heliopolix where you can be wrangling 3+ different sets of modifiers at once.)
... (possibly spoilerish musings on future week) ...
...
While I expect the theme of the puzzle to be a particular modifier puzzle, I do wonder if there may instead (or also?) be a theme of multiple paths that eventually collapse to indicate only one that is *correct* (but with the others still having an effect on the sudoku logic). It wasn't something I had considered before, but given previous weeks' comments wondering when we might see a straight line to the cupcake... well, this might be one way to resolve it. Well, we'll see what you've got for us in due time, in any case.
You now have two challenges
-the one where you find out at the last minute that Finkz did in fact go straight for the cupcake (I was quietly hoping it would be number 13)
- the one where Finkz goes almost to the cupcake and then wanders off around the grid before coming back
@@TFMurphy Haha loving these anticipatory musings! I love that you thought of next week's title too and were semi expecting / hoping for it to turn up. Glad I could deliver on that. I thought of that title a long time ago and always knew I would do that kind of puzzle at some point. And you're right, I really enjoy coming up with the titles. Was particularly happy with 'Limited Addition' after spending days struggling to think of a good name for episode 11. Sometimes when it eventually comes you know 'that's the one!'
@@Timlagor :D I think there have already been a few where Finkz has got very near the cupcake but then had to go off on a detour. Episode 7 she gets very close right at the beginning
In my imagination, this series is building towards a dramatic escape sequence! :) one can hope.
Wow, this one took me just over 43 minutes! So much fun to solve! Thanks Marty Sears for the wonderful puzzle :D
25:02 ... Fridays were made for this series!
Another wonderful installment!
Best puzzle series! The brilliance of the setting by Marty Sears, and the genius solving by Simon makes these videos pure enjoyment.
While I do totally love these puzzles, I feel like my solve of it needs to live up to the quality of the puzzle somehow. No pressure, no pressure, must get Finkz to the cupcake!!!!!! Kind Comment.
00:54:44 for me. I have not failed Finkz this week :)
Looks like Marty is giving us a heads-up that some future version of the puzzle will have a "naughty" teleport that doesn't copy the digit correctly
I'm actually expecting an outright wrogn puzzle, tbh. And I approve if he does go that route.
My first Finkz solve! Beautiful puzzle, always felt like there was progress to be made once I remembered all the rules haha.
Love the letters in the teleports! Makes it so much easier to match the colors
Would help a lot if the letters were black
I just realized another really cool variant sudoku using software would actually change clues on the puzzle as you solved it.
Simon's solves would be somewhat speedier should he remember simple sudoku
Every time I successfully complete one of these puzzles I expect to be given a cupcake.
19:31 No, lets not call those two digits A, lets instead look at the teleporters in the same rows, columns and boxes and note that every single letter appears except for I.
But does for E. So frustrating 😂
Took me 36:55 of happy solving. Really a lot of fun, these puzzles and the theme that goes with it! Thanks, Marty!!
I finished in 42:53 minutes. The story of this series is getting real exciting. I think I can sense what is coming and that sounds awesome. I thought for sure that this would be the first troll puzzle that allowed Finkz to run immediately to the cupcake, but it wasn't meant to be...yet. I really enjoyed how forced this one seemed. Once one teleport was ruled out, the puzzle flowed in a satisfying order. I think my favorite part was resolving the shape of the pathway from G to H by using the pathway above to limit a digit that already appeared on the line by appearing in r8c3. These puzzles have been the highlight of my week every week. Thanks for constructing these, Marty! Great Puzzle!
and thank you for all your lovely and detailed comments, I love to read this sort of thing... especially hearing what people's favourite parts of a puzzle were
18:38 Can get a bit more clever with the 5s on the E-F line-since F-H is also five cells, it uses the 5 in box 9 so you can limit the E-F 5 pencil mark to the righthand three cells of box 6
yep, there are five-cell segments in boxes 3,6, and 9 at the end which help sort things out a bit.
Another lovely entry in the series. What a pleasure to solve. I'm in love with a lovely lady rat.
I do love me some Finkz. Kudos (again) to Marty Sears! Just a joy to solve.
What must have gone through Finkz's mind when she saw confetti emerging from that 3 in the corner? She surely got distracted and turned left to investigate that 3 instead of turning right and going straight towards the cupcake
P.S. If Finkz hasn't lost her religion, I'm sure she believes her destiny is in the hands of a superior being... may call Him "Marty"
Another round of Finkz-Friday, I'm ready 🥰
45:40 for me - I got stuck about halfway through, took a break and gave it another try. I kept the timer because I remembered a lot of the logic and hoped that I wouldn't make what ever mistake I made the first time. Apparently I wasn't imaginative enough with the segment connecting I and D.
Finkx completely forgot that all teleporters were supposed to have different values, but was able to find her way anyways.
At the 31-minute mark, Simon misses the black dot in box 4 which place the 4. But does pencil that a 4 can go in that row.
Classic Simon!
When there are multiple paths between two known locations, I will either mark all paths then later eliminate choices, or I till use a different colour path which indicates "not exact". I'd get lost otherwise.
It's been a long while since I was able to finish a rat run on my own.
My partner just told me to 'stop squeaking "RatRuuuuuun".' I don't believe he got the irony or why I laughed. x)
39:11! this one was so fun and more approachable compared to other finkz puzzles haha. now it's time to watch simon's solve :)
Best series ever indeed. 15:20 for me. I guess it saves a lot of time not explaining everything while solving :). Besides that, I love the new fog sudoku pack and especially ThePedallingPianist's puzzles. I don't think I've played one of their puzzles before, but love 'm!
ThePedallingPianist's puzzles are amaaazing. And he's a lovely chap too
This one tooks me about 3 hours to figuring out it's not about filling the grid with teleport letters. After finding actual breakthrough, it becomes much easier.
solved in 14:28 - a bit surprising that most of the path is filled in before any digits are possible (at least in my experience), but it works nicely
I would have loved it if it had been teleporter 'A' that over-heated, as this was the only one that Finkz did not use 🙂
We’re looking at the full panoply of teleporters. That’s how I roll on a Friday night!
I learnt the word panoply from Simon. great word
I solved this but I fear I made it MUCH harder than I should have! I was having a lot of fun trying to use the portals for sudoku, and found a number of them.. got super stuck... and then realized there were some faster things I should have seen :D oh well, I had fun solving it that way lol
In every video Simon at some point says i cant see it or dont see what to do next and every time it is just sudoku.
Well, it _is_ atrocious of all those constructors to make Simon do Sudoku in their Sudoku puzzles, after all…
Simon doing a typo? No, that can't be right.
Only just in, no time to do it myself, but I just realized when he pencil marked his "A" on I.. it is actually I.. cause the other A's see Teleporter A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H between each other..
Got as far as "if Awas I"
We Americans do like the British accent. We definitely love the characters in James Bond and Harry Potter movies. Tom Holland playing Spider-Man is also a wonderful and quite endearing in person. We just have a slight problem with how you all say aluminum and mistaken ⚽ for 🏈.
There are different British accents, a couple of them I find appalling. Think Benny Hill.
Simon and Marks accents are very acceptable.
To be clear: it is *you* who misuse the term _football_ for a sport that involves people _picking up_ a _non circular_ ball and running around with it. This strange activity you call a _sport_ more so resembles a coward’s rugby variant with all this protective gear, and the general shape of the ball (and the fact that there are basically 30-second segments of actual _game_ in between several minutes of breaks - a football match, if not going to overtime at a tournament, lasts for 90 minutes plus a 15 minute break [and possibly some minutes to account for pauses during the match], not 4-5 hours for 60 minutes of actual match time).
Also, football (the real one) was literally _invented_ in England *and* is the objectively superior sport. Your silly variant is, in fact, so unimportant globally that not only do (with insignificant exceptions) only Americans even _watch_ it, and even the Australians found it uninteresting enough to create their own version (despite two competing rugby leagues, btw).
Oh, a Philip K. Dick reference in the title. Interesting.
❤Finkz❤
i forgot about the part of the rules that said "teleports that don't match always have different digits", and turns out you didn't need the rule. so if anyone wants a slightly harder challenge, try it without that rule
12:49 You cold also follow the path from the cupcake and notice that this is not a possible first move.
00:38:46 my fastest rat run so far
The rat runs playlist seems to be backwards. Newest videos at the top and oldest at the bottom. (except this one which is at the bottom). Which makes it really hard to start from the beginning of Finkz's journey and just watch all the way through. It should be oldest at the top.
Too clever by three quarters
I received an email with James Sinclair from you. And I just have to say back: Thank You Very Much 🙂
22:02 I think I get better at these thanks to my good buddy Fintz
Welcome to What Might Simon Miss, where I state a mid-puzzle deduction, then we see whether Simon finds a more convoluted way of solving the puzzle. Check my reply to see whether he uses it or not.
PSA: I missed yesterday's slot since I decided to solve the puzzle myself rather than watch Simon. Thanks for the 15 min video boost of confidence.
Today, Simon might miss (spoilers, obvs):
At 25:00, it's already known that B and D are from 1 and 3 from box 3. I doubt Simon will get the other B or D teleporter cells for a long time. Yes, today's one is simple, but that didn't stop Simon in the past.
Yet again, Simon spots what I stated just a minute later, and has resolved the "all teleporters are distinct" logic 10 minutes later. It seems I'm still waiting for a more obtuse puzzle to finally have a win here.
Puzzle critique: very nice flow, everything becomes relevant in a nice systematic way. This is exactly why this series has become so popular.
I wonder if these story blurbs will culminate in a puzzle about Finks escaping the maze entirely.
Edit: Is there some hidden message in the teleporters that malfunction across all of the puzzles? Having a lengthy meta-puzzle seems like something a brilliant puzzle-setter might do.
I have one question about an early deduction: When Simon wrote in the As and Es in box 1, why could E not appear in r3c2 (ie directly beneath Finkz)? That even still work after some more progress if 6 went in r6c3 instead of c1 and then in r7/9c1 instead of column 2. As far as I can see that wouldn’t break at this point or do I miss some relevant point?
it's because he had just deduced that A definitely goes in r3c2, and A is definitely distinct from E
overheating teleport - sandwiched on two sides ?
I'm confused why Simon can't tell the colours apart. I wonder if his monitor settings are off?
he has colour blindness
Grey's not a colour Simon.
18:23 no, there aren't 2 extra regions: there are 512.
Or just one extra region, containing the digits 1-9 twice.
They're rat droppings, not blackcurrants!
🤣
😊 🐀
🎉