How To Confuse A YouTuber!

*** STOP PRESS: PATREON REWARD + STEAM RELEASE ***

August's monthly reward is out and so far we've had just shy of 2000 correct entries! It is a Genuinely Approachable set of Sudokus with Puzzle elements - we're calling it GASP! The feedback so far has been great with lots of people managing to finish the monthly reward for the first time.

Join us on Patreon for as little as $2/month to try it out here:

*** Today's Sudoku ***

This puzzle (Look, Don't Kill) from Derektionary deserves some serious plaudits. Not only does it contain an original ruleset that is the invention of the author but it keeps giving wondrous deduction after deduction. This is a truly outstanding sudoku (and it manages to thoroughly confuse Simon!)

Give it a try at the link below:

Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Along thermometers, digits must increase from the bulb end. Digits along arrows must sum to the digit in that arrow's circle. The cages in the grid are either killer cages or look-and-say cages (or both). It is up to the solver to determine which cage is which. In a killer cage, digits cannot repeat and must sum to the small clue in the top left corner of the cage. In a Look-and-Say cage, digits CAN repeat and the small clue in the top left corner should be read as a look-and-say number (ie it says which digits are in that cage). For example, if a look-and-say cage has the clue "12" then it means there is one 2 in the cage. If it has the clue "33" then it means there are three 3s in the cage.

*** Our New App Is OUT ***
Our new app is OUT on App Store AND Android AND ON PC (via Steam)!!

We've completely revamped the interface. Now you download the basic app free and you can choose to download additional content. So there's a FREE pack of puzzles by Prasanna Seshadri and a paid pack: DOMINO SUDOKU!!! Prasanna's free pack includes one puzzle for each variant of our existing apps (so there's a killer sudoku, a miracle sudoku, a thermo sudoku, etc). Domino Sudoku is a pack of 100 handmade puzzles (40 on launch, 5 added each month for a year) by some of the best constructors in the World: Phistomefel, clover, jovi_al, Christoph Seeliger, Qodec, Sam Cappleman-Lynes and Richard Stolk have all contributed sudokus!!

▶ Contact Us ◀

Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic

Our PO Box address:

Simon Anthony & Mark Goodliffe
Box 102
56 Gloucester Road
London
SW7 4UB

(Please note to use our real names rather than 'Cracking The Cryptic'.)

▶ SUDOKU PAD - Our New App ◀

It's OUT on Windows via Steam here:

You can now input your own classic sudoku puzzles into our software using our new App. The app also comes with 12 handmade puzzles from us and we're also releasing occasional bonus puzzles too. Already available on IOS and Android.

*** Our Book ***
The PDF is available as of today and the physical copy shouldn't be far behind. If you don't own the book then it can still be ordered here:

You can get the German language edition of the book here:

**************************************************************

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With thanks to Andrea for creating this :)

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[derektionary]

Thank you so much Simon!! Your solve path was fantastic. I'm very glad you found the logic in box 9 with the 3s and 4s. Yes, r7c9 is indeed the key to the puzzle!! And once you get the arrow in row 8, the 26 cage becomes a lot more manageable to think about. Thanks again so much! I have 7 puzzles with this ambiguity rule, all different difficulties. They are very fun to set!

[th.nd.r]

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE PUZZLE!!! Derektionary and Simon, take a bow each of you!! Love the ruleset, and like you said Simon, I love how carefully this is put together, very pretty solve path, from the break-in to the flurry up the left-hand side at the end.

[davidrattner]

Congrats on your puzzle being featured derek! Always a pleasure seeing one of your infamous look and say puzzles be solved! :-)

[inspiringsand]

Rules: 02:23
Let's Get Cracking: 04:03
Simon's time: 44m39s
Puzzle Solved: 48:42

What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
The Secret: 3x (08:00, 08:03, 08:11)
Three In the Corner: 1x (45:12)
Schrödinger Cell: 1x (34:10)
You Rotten Thing: 1x (26:32)

And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Ah: 12x (05:41, 13:27, 14:54, 16:39, 18:47, 26:32, 27:58, 29:29, 36:07, 36:07, 45:16, 45:18)
Hang On: 8x (05:37, 05:41, 05:45, 06:54, 16:57, 18:47, 19:29, 36:07)
Clever: 7x (15:22, 18:23, 18:23, 29:05, 33:32, 36:56, 46:24)
Beautiful: 7x (15:20, 15:22, 33:43, 45:41, 45:43, 46:02, 49:28)
By Sudoku: 5x (17:27, 23:03, 23:33, 37:23, 47:30)
Pencil Mark/mark: 5x (10:43, 17:59, 40:06, 42:29)
Good Grief: 3x (11:42, 15:03, 48:39)
Sorry: 3x (23:48, 39:17, 45:18)
Lovely: 3x (28:58, 31:36, 35:59)
Brilliant: 3x (01:32, 12:45, 12:45)
Wow: 3x (24:28, 25:23, 25:26)
Naughty: 2x (15:27, 34:12)
Stuck: 2x (18:16, 18:28)
Discombobulating: 2x (07:42, 35:52)
In Fact: 2x (13:33, 47:44)
We Can Do Better Than That: 2x (11:28, 24:07)
Cake!: 2x (01:34, 26:22)
Nonsense: 1x (45:04)
Break the Puzzle: 1x (46:19)
Fascinating: 1x (01:01)
Gorgeous: 1x (36:41)
Shouting: 1x (01:28)
Approachable: 1x (02:03)
Epiphany: 1x (44:56)
Of All Things: 1x (23:33)
Plonk: 1x (46:16)
What Does This Mean?: 1x (22:10)

Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Fifteen (10 mentions)
One (105 mentions)
Yellow (3 mentions)

Antithesis Battles:
High (3) - Low (2)
Even (9) - Odd (0)
Higher (4) - Lower (2)
Column (13) - Row (7)

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!

[bobblebardsley]

I loved this solve, I appreciate the beauty of perfectly symmetrical puzzles etc but something about how carefully each cage/thermo/arrow was placed here really appealed to me even more.

[TomHickey]

41:00 once you have row 8 full pencil marked, you worked through that 134 in the 8 arrow leads to 7 in r8c5, if the the 8 arrow was 125 r8c5 would also be a 7, so it's always a 7.

[eezacc]

Thank you for the birthday wishes!! Peter and I (along with some others) went to a board game café, which was lots of fun! Looking forward to watching the solve!!!

[CauchyIntegralFormula]

57m42s. The two types of cages were very cool, and I really liked drawing deductions where assuming either type of cages led to the same result (thus showing the result must be true)

[bd]

49:21 for me! I needed simons help to get the two 9s on the arrows. That logic was amazing and it was a really enjoyable solve from there!

[OnceMoreForLuck]

I love this channel somehow forgot about it for ages and it popped back up on my feed and I'm so pleased it did. Looking forward to binge watching lots of cracking the cryptic for the foreseeable future

[martinepstein]

Really enjoyed this puzzle.

29:25 "This digit is *not* interesting" except for the fact it's the only place 6 can go in the row!

[richbaker]

Great solve, but it's a LOT easier to figure out the 26 cage after you work out that the arrow in box 7 can't be 134 (because that would break box 9). That forces a 3 onto the bulb of the thermometer and it also forces a 5 into the top half of the cage. Now the maximum cage total is only 25 and it therefore must be a look-and-say cage.

[Paolo_De_Leva]

At playback time 29:46, Simon should not have started studying the *26-cage.* It was too early. His intricate (but fascinating) trial-and-error approach to test the nature of the *26-cage* was not necessary. The *26-cage* would have become far easier to solve if he had first focused on simpler stuff.
In short, before studying the *26-cage* it is possible to prove (as Simon did after) that:
🔹the *14-cage* is look-and-say and must contain a *4*
🔹the *15-cage* is look-and-say and must contain a *5*
🔹the thermometer in *box 8* must contain *{1, 2}, 3* and *{5, 7}*
🔹the arrow in *box 7* must contain *{1, 2} + {1, 2} + 5 = 8, * with *r8c3 = 5.*
This entails that the *26-cage* must contain a *3* (in the thermometer bulb) and a *5* (in row 6), which forces it to be look-and-say (otherwise, its other two cells would need to add up to *18, * which is impossible).
😏👍

[stevendavid]

Simon - Well down!! Puzzle is well thought out, devious and challenging!!

[muferguson]

Managed this one in 69:38, which is pretty good for me. I spent AGES trying to figure out the nature of the arrow in Box 7 before realising I'd already figured out that the cage in Box 9 needed both a 3 and a 4, which can't both be in R7C9.

[GuilhermeCarvalhoComposer]

Oh man, that 26 cage took me a hot minute to "solve". Great puzzle, really excellent solve too!

[maurobraunstein]

This was a very fun and hard puzzle! I got my deductions in a different way, but yeah, this is quality right here.

[firstbrickonthewall]

At 44:35, another way of thinking about it is imagining what would happen to r8c9 if r8c5 was a 5. This would force the 8 cell arrow to be a 134 triple, and r8c9 would have no possible value. Amazing puzzle and solve, as always :)

[Coyotek]

48:24 ... a beautiful 'either-or' sudoku!

Nice puzzle!

[LednacekZ]

I found the start quite easy. the 1s where clear as a day to me. It was just about marking. A 4 square arrow with 3 in one box has to have a 1. I have learned long ago, from Simon, that you need to mark these things down, no matter how obvious they might seem, because you are going to forget it in a second.