A Crazy Sudoku Tour around the Block

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along an arrow sum to the value in the connected circle. Neighbouring digits on a green line have a difference of at least 5.

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▶Credits◀
Music: Tim McCaskey (Guitar) or Lucy Audrin (Piano): Mozart's Sonata no 16; and Mark’s outro music by Riffclown.
SOFTWARE: Thanks to Sam Cappleman-Lynes and Sven Neumann
Logo: Melvyn Mainini
Opening Credits: Joel Blundell

▶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 crossword championship and twice Senior World Champion in Sudoku, 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
▶ Contents ◀
0:00 Theme Music & News around the channel
4:54 Rules of today’s puzzle
5:35 Start Of Solve - Let's Get Cracking!

[leco]

Now that you’ve told us the pigeon story, you absolutely have to set up a ‘pigeon cam’ for us.

[markp]

For those who don't like Mark's solve path at 23:40, which is quite long for a lot of people to do in their heads, an easier way to think of it is to ask where 4-5-6 go in row 2. Determining that will establish where the 7 goes in the row, and you can work from there.

[David_K_Booth]

Very satisfying how the the digits on the blocks become steadily more constrained, until they are fully determined. It reminds me of crystals forming.

[mtg]

Can we talk about how even when Mark wears a hoodie, he has a collared shirt underneath?

[JohnLadan]

A less bifurcatey option at 26:30 : since 3 must be in row 1 of box 3, the low digit in r2c8/9 must be a 1 or 2. That makes a virtual 12389 quintuple in row 2, therefore the high digit in the green square in box 3 row 2 must be a 7. That places a 3 in r1c7 and the rest of the puzzle is straight-forward.

[amandar]

Great puzzle, great solve, and I also loved the pigeon story

[chocolateboy]

I finished in 69 minutes. I really enjoyed this one. Playing around with the 456s in the grid knowing that they couldn't go in most of the German Whispers and their limitation in the arrow clues made this really satisfying. The geometry was quite nice. Great Puzzle!

[AndreasKungl]

Brilliant solve. After enjoying a lot of consecutive success with complicated puzzles, this somehow conquered me bigly. I love how both Simon and Mark can be so minimalistic sometimes.

[MattYDdraig]

26:48
Great job Arbitrary, this felt like I was teetering on the edge of being stuck for most of the solve while never quite getting out of reach. 👍

[imblackmagic]

howdy! Mark, I really like your solves, but I can't tell if a puzzle is doable by the length of your videos, sometimes a really hard one you have a master insight and bam, it's done in 30 minutes, or an easy one you struggle like crazy (or you made a mistake early on and you have to essentially resolve the puzzle), thus the running time is longer than the expected difficulty

this is an example of a puzzle I wouldn't be able to break in, not to mention all what followed afterwards in the solve, yet you solved it in less than half an hour

but I really love the way you explain your solves, thanks for sharing with us!

[emilywilliams]

I will definitely put this puzzle on my list to try soon - it was amazing how it all worked out. I particularly love a puzzle that has some back and forth across the grid as one set of deductions leads to another and then another. Your enjoyment of the puzzle, Mark, is contagious. And thanks for the pigeon story!

[GraemeMcRae]

“Keep using the Whisper Technology” at 22:47 hahaha

[johncrotty]

What a delightful solve path. This one will be added to my list of puzzles to re-do :P

[satomia.mounaim]

This was such a brilliant puzzel, hats of to the cobstuctor and to you as well, it was fun following along.

[Paolo_De_Leva]

_"I am actually starting to adore this puzzle"_ (Mark @15:51)
I adored it from start to end, although I used a different approach to break-in (see my separate comment for details).
_"Isn't that gorgeous"_ (Mark @ 16:52)
Totally‼ 😏👍
_"This is absolute _*_poetry"_* (Mark @17:29)
It truly is‼ 😏👍
_"There are puzzles where you sometimes get the feeling that you've suddenly looked right into the compiler's mind. For me this is one of them."_ (Mark @20:19)
It definitely looks that way. Your solve was *awesome.* However, in this case the compiler might have used a permutation of *Phistomefel's ring* that can also be used by solvers as a shortcut to break-in (again, see my separate comment for details).

[leosmith]

Really enjoyed the elegance of that one.

[nedb]

That was a lovely solve Mark. I do wonder if there was an easier disambiguation of rows 1/2/3, but great to watch all the same.

[davidh.]

1:29:31@#2175. I came very close to giving up. I figured out how the 5s were restricted, but it took me longer to recognize the significance of the 4s and 6s as well. It still wasn't easy after that, but I did defeat it in the end.

[crystalising]

We had the same pigeon problem this year on our balcony. They tried to build a nest, which we tried to stop, but when they put down three tiny twiglets and an egg I couldn't bring myself to throw it out. Now we saw two baby pigeons grow up over the past couple weeks (they are not that cute).

[anaayoung]

Super smart way to deduce the 456 in the start and where the 4 is in box 1! Thank you! 🤗