Hardly Anyone Has Solved This Puzzle. Why?!

*** TODAY'S PUZZLE ***
On Saturdays we often like to look at pencil puzzles (either mixed with sudoku or not) and, in that vein, we have had a very strong recommendation from Tyrgannus to take a look at Po-Boy by Sniglett and cornishjohn. This wonderful sudoku has hardly been solved at all since it was born over 400 days ago. Let's start putting that right!

Play the puzzle at the link below:

Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Some cells are coral and others are water. The odd digits are all part of the coral. All coral cells are orthogonally connected. The even digits are all part of the water. There may be multiple bodies of water, and all bodies of water are orthogonally connected to the edge of the grid. No 2x2 area is entirely coral or entirely water. Clues outside the grid indicate the length of continuous runs of coral or water. A * indicates any positive number of continuous sets. In a row/column where clues are given, all clues are shown. For example, down column 1, there must exist some non-zero number of parity sets, followed by a set of length 1 of one parity type, immediately followed by a set of 3 of the opposite parity, followed by some non-zero number of parity sets. The values given outside the grid also indicate the sum of the digits between 1 and 9 in the respective row/column read as n-digit number read from left to right or top down. For example, down row 1, the digits between 1 and 9 must sum to 13. Digits along the marked diagonal sum to the number given. Digits may repeat along this diagonal.

You can solve the sudoku Nathaniel made for his guests to celebrate he and Katelyn's wedding day here:

*** LIVE CROSSWORD MASTERCLASS ***
On March 21, Simon and Mark will appear at the Word=Puzzles conference at Magdelen College, Oxford and do a live episode of their crossword masterclass! More information here:

*** THE HOBBIT BY BLOBZ: NEW SUDOKU HUNT COMPETITION ***
On 1 January we launched a brand new sudoku hunt from Blobz, the 'sequel' to his Lord Of The Rings hunt from 2024... The Hobbit! 19 puzzles of Tolkien-themed wonders. Solution videos just out.

Check it out for as little as $2/month here:

*** NURIKABE WORLD STREAM TUESDAY'S STREAM ***
You can watch last night's stream here:

The game is available here:

*** NEW FOG APP IS OUT ON APPLE (!), STEAM & ANDROID ***
Brand new incredible Fog Sudoku puzzles by the likes of Phistomefel, Marty Sears, James Sinclair, Qodec, Dorlir, ThePedallingPianist, Sandra&Nala, Peter Veenis, Mr Menace, Florian Wortmann, Math Pesto & HalfBakedLunatic.

*** CRACKING THE CRYPTIC APP ***
Our main app (which is itself completely free) contains packs featuring Fog, Domino, Lines, and GAS puzzles, with a few special free sets as well! All the puzzles are hand-crafted by us and some of the best constructors in the world, with hints by Simon and Mark.
AppStore:
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▶ SUDOKU PAD - Use Our Software For Your Puzzles ◀

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iOS:
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ALSO on Amazon: Search for “SudokuPad”

▶ Contents Of This Video ◀

0:00 Intro music and puzzle introduction
2:15 And the WINNER is....
4:25 Viewers' Wedding!
6:11 Happy Birthdays
9:55 Rules
15:34 Start of Solve: Let's Get Cracking

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SW7 4UB

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We also post the Wordle In A Minute videos on TikTok.

#sudoku #puzzle #coral

[sniglett]

Very grateful for the feature, we made it fellas! Thanks for a great solve, really made my week!

[brickboy]

I'm Joseph whose birthday it was today, my maths teacher is called Chris Johnson (Mr Johnson). He is an absolute gem and I can report that I had a huge slice of chocolate cake 🎂!

[hellcathades]

No matter how often I watch your videos I never get tired of you explaining things like the secret, normal sudoku rules or what orthogonally means. You can clearly hear how much joy it brings you to know that every once in a while there will be a person watching this video not knowing anything about sudoku and you will be the person introducing this amazing world of mindblowing puzzles and a lovely community to them💜

[Ennar]

I love how the rules are written. I was reading: "some cells are coral" and thought to myself what would be a good color for coral on the palette, red is too intensive, so orange. "The odd digits are all part of the coral". Oh. Brilliant.

[zirco]

Mixing coral and sandwich rules with the same clues (!!!) is so smart! Very good puzzle, much fun solving it! Small detail, being picky here: the rules could have been written in more approachable terms, such as:

"A star replaces one or more clue digits. For example, * 3 could equally mean 1 5 3, 4 2 3, or 6 3. Stars and digits they replace are not part of sandwich clues. "

[pastramionrye]

A poboy is indeed a sandwich, similar to a hero/submarine/hoagie. There are all kinds of regional variations of the same basic idea around America. Poboys are primarily found in New Orleans and nearby areas. Popular poboys are filled with seafood such as shrimp, oysters and catfish. But people also get poboys filled with meat, most famously roast beef poboys with debris. A dressed poboy comes with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayonnaise.

[neil]

A po-boy is a sandwich from New Orleans. The name derives from poor boy because it was originally a cheap sandwich. It is served on French bread and the contents can be any sandwich filling. Very common meats include roast beef, ham, or shrimp. We even have a chip butty version called a French fry po-boy. A "dressed" po-boy has shredded lettuce, sliced tomato, sliced pickles, and mayonnaise.

[annadamiano]

My dear Simon, we are all here because we think what you're talking about is interesting. If that makes you bad at parties, it makes us bad at parties too 😂

[kobs_]

Lovely puzzle, took 48:12 on this little piece of sudoku history - 425 days old! crazy! Loved the initial progress/break-in of simply colouring columns 4->9, then I sat for 5 minutes staring at column 1 going "no I really can't do anything with this surely", ruling things out slowly until coming across the 23 sandwich clue which helped resolve a lot of things. My brain kept going to Nurikabe world which I have been playing a lot of lately in just imaging "no can't create a whirlpool there!" throughout this whole puzzle. Thanks sniglett & cornishjohn for this puzzle, and congrats to sniglett for their first feature!

[inspiringsand]

Rules: 10:07
Let's Get Cracking: 15:41
Simon's time: 46m22s
Puzzle Solved: 1:02:03

What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
The Secret: 7x (15:26, 39:35, 39:42, 39:56, 41:49, 48:55, 52:53)
Bobbins: 2x (44:39, 44:43)
Three In the Corner: 1x (46:50)

And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Checkerboard: 16x (18:24, 19:56, 20:30, 24:46, 25:06, 26:43, 26:58, 27:09, 27:22, 27:27, 27:32, 42:22, 42:25, 49:51, 51:00, 51:44)
Hang On: 15x (16:52, 17:34, 17:55, 19:41, 21:51, 25:44, 31:58, 31:58, 31:58, 37:41, 45:27, 51:31, 54:45)
Ah: 10x (16:57, 17:55, 19:41, 19:41, 25:24, 26:31, 38:26, 54:27, 55:57, 1:01:14)
Brilliant: 9x (01:22, 05:15, 05:30, 07:15, 08:47, 09:50, 09:50, 1:01:58, 1:02:23)
By Sudoku: 6x (55:10, 56:26, 56:34, 56:46)
Lovely: 5x (20:40, 26:31, 26:31, 55:57, 1:01:28)
Sorry: 4x (41:10, 44:35, 46:13, 50:23)
Clever: 4x (36:57, 36:59, 57:20, 1:02:39)
Fabulous: 4x (04:47, 04:47, 1:01:58, 1:02:01)
Good Grief: 3x (20:49, 1:02:05, 1:02:12)
In Fact: 3x (16:00, 25:43, 36:34)
Bother: 2x (45:19, 55:47)
Incredible: 2x (03:07, 03:07)
Shouting: 2x (07:45, 50:24)
Wow: 2x (12:19, 27:41)
What Does This Mean?: 2x (10:52, 14:15)
Goodness: 1x (16:40)
Apologies: 1x (39:16)
The Answer is: 1x (26:36)
In the Spotlight: 1x (46:52)
Stuck: 1x (24:22)
Beautiful: 1x (1:02:49)
Fascinating: 1x (01:21)
First Digit: 1x (36:55)
Going Mad: 1x (25:50)
Deadly Pattern: 1x (1:00:43)
Approachable: 1x (05:43)
Surely: 1x (43:06)
I've Got It!: 1x (04:58)
Obviously: 1x (30:37)
That's Huge: 1x (51:36)
Cake!: 1x (06:50)
Weird: 1x (42:33)

Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Eleven (13 mentions)
One (100 mentions)
Blue (72 mentions)

Antithesis Battles:
Odd (67) - Even (42)
Outside (3) - Inside (0)
Column (37) - Row (34)

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!

[CaptainSpock]

20:35 - Flashback to River's "Two by two, hands of blue"
That shout out was so subtle, even Simon probably didn't even recognise it!

[RoderickEtheria]

At least this time we don't get Simon insisting water should not be blue.

[craigyoung]

There's a problem at 48:03 where Simon shows r3c2-3 must be odd.
While this is correct, he should first rule r3c4 out from being a crust.
In order to be a crust, the inside would have to be 8+6+7 = 21.
This *does* allow us to rule out r3c4 from being a crust, because the odd digit in r3c7 has already been restricted to 3 or 5.

And the rest of Simon's explanation is fine.

[angec]

“I want the blue to be water because it’s blue” said Simon never before. Simon who colors water purple and cave blue?

SIMON! BLINK TWICE IF YOU’RE IN TROUBLE!

[chocolateboy]

I finished in 75:17 minutes. While this puzzle sounded wildly confusing at first, once I started, it became surprisingly easy. I was able to get a massive amount of coloring done right out of the gate. My progress slowed, but I was able to make good work. I think my favorite part was asking if r4c7 could be water. The answer is no as it affects the amount of water in column 6 giving four in a row from ro3 to row 6. This breaks as the top two cells in column 7 were both coral and now the top two cells in column 6 is also coral, making a 2x2 region. That was a pretty sick deduction. The ending was also very satisfying with the 43 little killer clue. It was a nice touch at the very end. Great Puzzle!

[ethnofalcon]

This is like a picross puzzle! Those have always been my favorite logic puzzles since I was a kid. This will be a lot of fun! Good luck, Simon!

[A_CC_K]

Interesting ruleset, would not know where to start. Can't wait to watch.

[compiling]

Solved in 43:22. I ended up fully colouring the grid before doing anything with the sandwich clues by case testing how to finish the 43 diagonal (3 evens immediately causes a checkerboard pattern, so it's 1 even 2 odd. Then even in r3c3 also immediately breaks so it's odd and the rest of box 1 fills in).

[OferSadan]

If it takes Simon an hour, it'll take me 3. THAT'S WHY 😂

[NathanielALutz]

Thank you so much for the shoutout for our wedding Simon! Katelyn and I have been grinning ear to ear seeing the puzzle here!