Struggling with the Vaults - Again!

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits in cages do not repeat, and sum to the total, if given. Digits orthogonally adjacent to a cage may NOT be included in that cage. The grid is partially covered in fog. Placing correct digits will clear the fog from surrounding cells, possibly revealing more clues.

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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.

#sudokusolving #logicpuzzles

Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark
▶ Contents ◀
0:00 Theme Music & News around the channel
1:38 Rules of today’s puzzle
3:40 Start Of Solve - Let's Get Cracking!

[chocolateboy]

I finished in 34:35 minutes. This puzzle really agreed with me. For some reason, I felt like vault rules really click with me, even more-so when they are under fog. I think my favorite part was getting a 14 pair in both r5c1 and r8c2, which now has to be different from each other due to the vault rule, giving many deductions and a digit. That was amazing to spot. As always, it feels good to beat Mark's time. Great Puzzle!

[azrobbins]

You are not alone. I have the same issue with seeing the cage restrictions.

[Xiuhtec]

Done in 47:43. I'm always slow to scan even in a normal puzzle and vaults certainly slow things down even more, but fog helps counter that somewhat since you only have certain portions of the grid at a time that can be relevant. Very fun break in and took me longer than it should to break the 14 deadly pattern at the end.

[tonymanngreenwich]

I love the puzzle, and am pleased to see Mark struggle to spot things with this ruleset since I struggle much more!

[davidblake]

Really enjoyed that! More vaulted puzzles, please. Really liked the interaction of the vaults and the fog. Nice one.

[anthonyhastings]

17:12 That can't be a 4 in box 4 was deduced pretty quickly by the rest of us I suspect. Great video. Thank you Mark for showing us mere mortals that a Titan shows his mortal side occasionally :)

[Paolo_De_Leva]

Excellent construction. *Vault* restrictions were hard to see for me, but I greatly appreciated and enjoyed this opportunity to train this particular scanning skill.
Thank you *Blobz* for setting this beautiful challenge and *Mark* for selecting and solving it.

[bait]

This quickly became a follow along puzzle...
And then u hear mark say "wanna say this is a 3...but can't"[and then mark moves along...and I exam it closer and noticed mark was right

[anaayoung]

This rule was crazy and I love it! Don't worry Mark, I was lost for the most part was well but I still enjoy the puzzle a lot! 😊

[emilywilliams]

I think that your tactic, Mark, of picking off cells that are nearby cages where something is known is absolutely the only way I have ever approached the (only) two or three vault puzzles I have ever tried. It is a very clever rule, leads to some interesting construction challenges, I would think - but I think that it is possibly more interesting to the constructor than to the solver. (No offense, Blobz!!) It is very admin heavy, which suits some solving styles, but it is not easy, and it can be frustrating for people who like more wholistic logical deductions. I am never sad to watch you solve any kind of puzzle at all, Mark, and thank you for this video!

[trelliema]

A rare puzzle that I did well on! I think the combo of the vaults and the fog of war helped, because they’re both VERY constraining rule sets on their own, so the combo of the two really helped with figuring out where I needed to look for the next jump forward in the puzzle.

[Sternentier]

I fully understand Mark's frustration with this puzzle. Even without the fog, I'd be struggling to remember to apply that rule to all the boxes. It just seems like such an awkward rule to keep in mind at all times. This is the second straight fog of war puzzle I've watched on this channel that seems completely overwhelming to a variant sudoku novice like myself. It seems like the puzzles featured on this channel now are way harder than the ones from years ago when I first started watching. I actually solved some back in the day.

[treymix]

Coloring the cages really helped my scanning, fwiw. Mark, would love to hear sometime how your brain can spot naked singles without ordering the number options!

[DarkChasm]

What an amazing puzzle!!! So well constructed, not too diff once you notice the workings, beauty ❤❤❤❤!

[MNalias]

Can confirm. The human brain is fogging up with these cage rules.

[praematura]

The vault constraint always is a challenge for me as requires a LOT of scanning and re-scanning, so Mark shouldn't feel too bad! I did make it through this one in 36:02 (conflict checker off), so not a terrible time, but I will admit I could have chopped 5-10 minutes off if I'd seen a few key things sooner than I did. 🙂

[robsreality]

28:34, really fun puzzle, thank you!

[jamesgillam]

I’m glad Mark struggled because this puzzle almost killed me 😂

[eddieharwood]

What a great idea.I think the same ruleset would be much easier another time - it took so long to get my head around it.

[TiagoMorbusSa]

Tremendous solve as always, this was a really fun puzzle, not very used to this ruleset, I really like it!