The Balancing Act: Sudoku Genius From 2 Big Brains!!

*** TODAY'S PUZZLE ***
We've had so many recommendations to try this collaboration between AnalyticalNinja and palpot called Balancing Act. It's got an innovative ruleset which makes for a fascinating solve!! [Simon should be back "live" tomorrow - he has been on a short holiday, which is why the videos have been pre-recorded (other than yesterday's crossword video). He appreciates your patience (especially those who have had to wait for their birthday announcements!).]

Play the puzzle at the link below:

Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Shade some cells such that all shaded cells are orthogonally connected and all unshaded cells are orthogonally connected. No 2x2 area may be fully shaded or fully unshaded. Along a line, any changes in shading divide that line into segments of fully shaded or fully unshaded cells. On each line, each such segment (shaded or unshaded) must have the same sum as all other segments. Within the shaded areas, adjacent digits along the lines must differ by at least 5. Within unshaded areas, any string of 3 or fewer digits along the lines must be from a different set of (147), (258) and (369).

*** LAST NIGHT'S STREAM ***
You can watch the continuation of our battle with the Caterdokupillar TONIGHT at 10pm UK time here:

*** DECEMBER'S SUDOKU HUNT COMPETITION IS ON ***
December's monthly competition "Swipe Right" is on and runs until 20 December. The competition winner will be given the chance (but not obligation!) to make a sudoku video with Simon.

Simon's solve of James Sinclair's Thank You Very Much has also just been released.

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

▶ SUDOKU PAD - Use Our Software For Your Puzzles ◀

You can input classic sudoku puzzles into our software and help support Sven, the programmer responsible for the wonderful user interface we all use to play these puzzles everyday. The app also comes with 12 handmade puzzles from us:

iOS:
Android:

ALSO on Amazon: Search for “SudokuPad”

▶ Contents Of This Video ◀

0:00 Theme music & puzzle introduction
1:00 Join Us On Patreon etc
1:49 Rules
7:00 Start of Solve: Let's Get Cracking

▶ Contact Us ◀

Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic

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

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#sudoku #puzzle #balance

[AnalyticalNinja]

AnalyticalNinja here, it was just so much fun working with Palpot on this one, and I'm really glad to see it got featured! As Simon noticed, there's some very intricate logic at times, but definitely very satisfying once it's found. Thanks again for featuring this one, it was an absolute honor and pleasure working with Palpot and am so glad this joint creation could be featured! 😊

[Armoterra]

I love how Simon spends a chunk of the beginning explaining that you can’t have two colour changes in the perimeter and then proceeds to completely ignore that secret.

[NBlair]

Petition for the next CTC app pack to be Yin Yang. Always so satisfying, and somehow I almost always connect with them. Managed this one, and pretty rare that I get through a puzzle for a video this long.

[Farrisfaen]

After watching the puzzle with Simons purple water and grey islands, it was weirdly calming to actually see blue and green together

[filkube]

A little over an hour in and I have never yelled at Simon more passionately ❤

[ericzache]

"Somehow that's not resolved" Great video as always!! Thank you Simon

[jimmyb]

"Suddenly Sudoku is being our friend" Nicely said Simon. Good solve and great team work puzzle making wise

[McMxxCiV]

The modular line rule was really weirdly explained in this ruleset: "any string of digits has to be from a different set" could mean that there are several strings, each of which must stick to one of those sets. I was really confused by this, and even watching the video I felt apprehensive that maybe the rule wasn't just standard modular lines.

[eefaaf]

1:07 As soon as he resolved the colours at the bottom of the staple, I was expecting him to complete the perimeter as per his "secrets of yin yang" intro.

[craigyoung]

I've noticed that Simon often overlooks connecting the perimeter in yin-yang puzzles. Despite diligently explaining the principle every time.
It might explain his scepticism about the value of investigating the shading options in box 9.

At this 24:18 stage, asking which of the staple endpoints in box 9 (r9c7 or r9c8) is blue *AND* connecting the other to the rest of the perimeter quickly reveals that in either case: *both* r8c7-8 are blue.
Which of course leads to the blue segment having a length of 3, and therefore unable to use the Whisper constraint.

Then at 44:27
If r9c7 is blue, r9c6 must be green to avoid 2x2; and must connect via the perimeter to r6c1.
If r9c7 is green, then it must connect via the perimeter to r6c1.
So, in both cases the perimeter from r9c6 to r6c1 is always green.
Similarly, by considering r9c8, we can confirm r8c9 is always green. Either by perimeter logic, or to avoid a 2x2.
(Although the colour of r9c9 is implied by the uniqueness principle, it's only confirmed by placing the 9 in box 9. Which makes r9c8 green and it must connect to the rest of the perimeter.)

And of course, the perimeter should immediately have been completed at this 1:07:43 stage.

That said, despite whatever perception filter causes these oversights, Simon always gets there in the end. 👏👏👏

[inspiringsand]

Rules: 01:54
Let's Get Cracking: 07:04
Simon's time: 1h17m05s
Puzzle Solved: 1:24:09

What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
The Secret: 6x (07:17, 09:56, 10:00, 10:06, 10:08, 10:23)
Three In the Corner: 4x (1:03:42, 1:11:40, 1:14:57, 1:22:20)

And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Ah: 26x (11:37, 13:02, 14:15, 22:38, 32:41, 36:32, 37:28, 41:37, 41:54, 43:07, 43:07, 43:17, 45:25, 1:01:27, 1:02:08, 1:03:07, 1:03:11, 1:07:25, 1:10:36, 1:13:03, 1:13:37, 1:14:24, 1:16:49, 1:19:34, 1:19:41, 1:20:14, 1:22:25)
Hang On: 22x (29:00, 29:09, 34:45, 37:24, 39:18, 50:29, 50:52, 55:44, 55:54, 55:54, 1:00:02, 1:00:05, 1:00:05, 1:00:05, 1:04:26, 1:04:33, 1:18:55, 1:18:58, 1:19:08, 1:19:19)
Sorry: 11x (00:18, 17:59, 18:16, 21:24, 30:25, 31:30, 31:30, 39:32, 41:37, 47:48, 49:27)
Checkerboard: 11x (07:26, 08:33, 08:37, 16:57, 44:24, 49:41, 53:59, 1:01:29, 1:02:42, 1:03:07, 1:05:43)
Beautiful: 9x (46:57, 47:23, 47:25, 53:00, 1:14:27, 1:20:16, 1:21:21, 1:21:24, 1:21:27)
Clever: 7x (22:44, 30:08, 43:21, 59:31, 1:20:18, 1:23:26, 1:23:57)
By Sudoku: 7x (1:00:28, 1:11:22, 1:12:25, 1:13:03, 1:13:07, 1:13:47, 1:23:15)
Weird: 6x (13:41, 14:15, 18:16, 27:46, 34:54, 53:46)
Goodness: 5x (14:15, 43:17, 1:04:45, 1:14:12, 1:15:32)
Nonsense: 4x (41:45, 1:16:54, 1:17:00, 1:21:08)
In Fact: 4x (05:56, 53:31, 53:43, 1:09:57)
Wow: 4x (17:59, 30:21, 35:19, 1:23:26)
Bother: 3x (27:22, 1:05:15, 1:18:51)
Fascinating: 3x (25:51, 1:19:59, 1:23:33)
Lovely: 2x (40:01, 1:07:59)
What on Earth: 1x (17:59)
What a Puzzle: 1x (1:23:24)
Naked Single: 1x (1:17:37)
In the Spotlight: 1x (1:11:43)
Horrible Feeling: 1x (26:13)
Brilliant: 1x (59:33)
Deadly Pattern: 1x (1:24:06)
Gorgeous: 1x (44:26)
Take a Bow: 1x (1:24:17)
Our old Friend Sudoku: 1x (1:06:38)
Bizarre: 1x (43:25)
Obviously: 1x (20:25)
We Can Do Better Than That: 1x (52:28)
Phone is Buzzing: 1x (59:09)
Progress: 1x (1:20:14)
What Does This Mean?: 1x (16:37)
Nature: 1x (1:24:04)
Pencil Mark/mark: 1x (1:21:00)

Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Fifteen (13 mentions)
Three (109 mentions)
Green (120 mentions)

Antithesis Battles:
High (17) - Low (16)
Even (10) - Odd (3)
Shaded (8) - Unshaded (8)
Higher (5) - Lower (5)
Column (7) - Row (5)

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!

[leefisher]

Simon's had a holiday. I'm as guilty as many others in automatically thinking he'd been ill. I'm going to punish myself by sitting in the naughty corner... oh, hang on, what's this 3 doing there...?

[marklindsey]

@1:12:00 The subconscious cursor returns!

[ClemensKatzer]

The degree of lookahead required here is ... challenging. "It's not bifurcation if I do it in my head."

[JohnPalmer-cimy]

46:40 and 50:00 need to rule out the possibility of a 1, 3, 5 modular line, fairly easy in box nine because a 2nd 9 would need to be on the whisper line in the box and box 1 luckily the 9 gets ruled out later

[stangerrits]

Not sure whether this colour combination is particularly colour blind friendly, but at least the whispers are green 😅

[FrancisFjordCupola]

Wow. Doesn't often happen (like virtually never), but this one time I managed to take just a few minutes less than Simon. Of course, I have the luxury of only having to explain logic to myself. What I saw a lot earlier was the shadiness of the perimeter in the bottom right corner - that helps in determining which is the whisper section and which is the modulo section. I worked out at the start that 5x9 sections wouldn't work; as a 36-pair obeys neither. Then I worked out which sections could be both whisper sections and funnily enough that left a nice, working modulo. Then combined with the long line in the top left... that went fast, really fast. Great puzzle. I would say approachable, but I think I was just lucky spotting the line of inquiry. I did try to think what Simon would say.

[jeffreyrosas]

I am glad to have the last sentence of the rules read and explained. I assumed “a set” meant “a set.” As in each different segment on a line would have digits from a different set.

[craigfjay]

54:10 please sign (like/comment) this official petition for Simon to record a narration of an Enid Blyton book!

[davidblake]

Simon, as soon as you put the green shading to the left of the blue cell in r9c7, you could have filled the rest of the perimeter in green by Yin Yang rules. You never noticed that there was only one blue cell in the perimeter. Great video as always. I always get a buzz when I see things before the Master. Merry Christmas to all at CtC.