Why Are There No Digits In My Sudoku?!

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▶Today's Puzzle◀
[Note that the rules on screen in the video are ok but are made clearer in the text version below.]

Today's sudoku is a sequel created by the brilliant RockyRoer... you can play the puzzle here:

Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Numbers in cages cannot repeat, and must sum to the total in the upper left corner of each cage. BUT the solver must determine what the cage totals are (each cage total would appear in the blue cell of its cage). In addition, every cage total must be divisible by the first and last numbers in the row AND column that contain that cage total. For example, if the cage total in R1C4 is 6, then R1C1, R1C9, R1C4 and R9C4 can only contain 1s, 2s, 3s, or 6s.

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As mentioned in the video, do try our competition puzzle by Sam Cappleman-Lynes - it is brilliant and HARD!

Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. In cages digits sum to the small clue in the top left corner of the cage. Digits cannot repeat in a cage. Clues outside the grid give the sum of the cells on the indicated diagonal. Digits may repeat along the diagonal.

Entries will be judged by logical path and also artistic merit! We'll be releasing a video (hopefully featuring Sam himself) on Patreon after the closing date explaining how to solve the puzzle.

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▶SOFTWARE◀
Play the puzzle in the video by clicking the link under the video (above). We are building a website which will allow you to enter your own sudoku puzzles into the software and this is coming soon!

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Melvyn Mainini

▶ABOUT US◀
Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships. We're also "cryptic crossword" aficionados. Mark is the twelve-time winner of The Times championship and Simon is the former record holder for most consecutive correct solutions to The Listener crossword. We hope we can help your puzzle solving while also introducing you to some of the world's best puzzles.

Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[joaoricardo]

For whoever is only reading the instructions:

Every cage total must be divisible by the first and last numbers in the row *AND* column that contain that cage total

[hcbigred]

Simon, why do you always have to be so hard on yourself? Saying things like"I'm so bad at this" or "You're probably all shouting at me" "Good grief, sorry!"
I just watch your videos and you describe others as absolutely genius when I find your logic and your solving as beautiful and gorgeous as you describe the puzzles. It is a wonderful pleasure watching this channel and I wish you realise how incredibly gifted you are as well. Thank you for some of the best content I've ever seen. You guys have made my day, every day for the past 9 months!!

[JogoscomLeite]

-> Almost a forth of the grid completed after 15-20 minutes
Simon: "I'm not good at it"

-> Not a single pencil mark after 2 hours
Me: *uncomprehensive nehanderthal grunts*

[inhumanedasher]

2:20 Rules
4:32 Let's get cracking!
26:10 Cooking with gas
32:21 Finally spots the 46 pair

[MisterM]

As soon as he says "Now we're cooking with gas", I know the gas is about to turn itself off. Always turns out to be a jinx!

[erenscott]

I've been watching these videos for some months now and wanted to give some positive feedback. Simon, I particularly love your commentary and how genuinely excited you get during the solve. When I'm feeling down or depressed due to what I'll call "2020 things", your videos have picked me back up. Thank you for posting these with such regularity. Thank you for the great content. Cheers from a fan in California.

[Xexxis]

I wonder sometimes if Simon ever stops and considers the essence of his existence, when reflecting upon living in a world where he contextually can use the expression 'I've got no excuses today about forgetting rules about orthogonally-connected big clones'.

[witchfynder_finder]

Puzzles like this make me feel like, alongside actual logical techniques, we need to keep in mind the Rudeness Consideration: When given two or more possibilities, it is likely that the more inconvenient one is correct.

[glitterrylie]

Simon: *Carries me through the whole puzzle*
Me, not good at sudoku but just watching for fun: *Notices he can put a 7 somewhere before he does*, "Oh yeah, it's big brain time"😎

[johnpauladamovsky]

36:53 - Simon uses the word "Oeuvre"... Another excellent choice of words. It's clever, it's catchy, it's pretentious, it's PERFECT.

[no-feetmcgee]

Every time Simon says something like "41 is not a valid sudoku number", part of me wants to take that as a challenge...

[mx]

it confused me to no end that the cage total supposedly went in the blue square, because it was obvious that the cage totals wouldn't fit in a sudoku square.
But it's of course just the notation for the cage total that goes in that location, the actual digit of the square is completely independent?

[mceajc]

I'm going to have to watch this twice. The first time I am completely lost. Usually I can follow along, but this time Simon could hold many, many more things in his head at the same time than I can. Stupendous how he works through this.

[jameswiebe]

This is such a beautiful puzzle. I had almost the exact same steps as Simon, and when I came to realize that the small cage in boxes 7 and 8 had to be a 21 cage, I also had all of the top part of the puzzle suddenly fall in to place. And then I looked down and realized that after all of that, I still had no idea what numbers went where in the 21 cage.

If we can still vote for additions to the book, this one would be a strong nomination from me.

[Coyotek]

I had given up on this one.

I spent a number of minutes with no clue where to begin, took a break, came back (after doing the 'Mark' puzzle of the day), and was still stuck. Started talking to my son about how little I had ... and in the conversation, I started seeing insights as to where to begin.

That led me to more conclusions, then some digits, and ... eventually, I was able to make it to the end.

All told, I probably spent an hour on this; I don't care. This one took a lot out of me, and I'm thrilled to be able to say that I made it to the end, no guesswork.

Incredible puzzle!

[geezerama]

Hi guys. Ever since you've included an invitation, on your solving software, to try your new software app I can no longer maximise (embiggen) the grid to fill my S8 screen. I now need to consider a larger phone or stronger spectacles although, until recently, I was happy with both. Could you please reintroduce the maximization option. Thanks for all the great content chaps. You've kept my sanity manageable. Rock on.

[CptKurlan]

11:04 ?! I dont understand Simon’s logic. why confusing cage total and 1 cell value or divisibility by blue cell value ?

[sanabas]

I loved this one, actually found it very intuitive. I think the big difference is remembering to enter potential digits in the end cells as soon as you know the cage totals. e.g. at 25:00 when you know the bottom 3 cell cage sums to 21, the end cells of r8 must be 137, which immediately resolve. I also seem to do the opposite to Simon when looking at potential totals. Rather than looking at that cage and saying it can't be 7, can't be 14, etc, I'm looking at the potential digits on the end, which are already quite restricted. I still had the 79 pair in box 1 at the time, but looking at r9c8 and the 5 cell cage in box 6, you get 3689, r9c2 and r9c3 are both matched with a 79 pair and a 3 cell cage, so must be a 36 pair, then resolving the 79 using the 36/28 sum which resolves the 36 in r9 and gives 18/21 for the cages, etc. I think it helps that I'm quite slow at scanning for normal sudoku rules, as I don't do many of them, and so tend to concentrate more on the variant rules rather than defaulting to scanning for pencil marks & similar. does make me slower overall though.

[boldBryan]

I love how you finish in box 5, right where you started

[grahamrskelly]

That was a bit of fun, I thought this was one that I would have no way of solving on my own but it proved doable if a bit long. Thank you Simon What a Channel made my day.