The Tower Of Babel

*** TODAY'S PUZZLE ***
A quite breathtaking sudoku today from Jay Dyer (again!). It's called Tower Of Babel and some of the logic is just jaw-dropping. What's more this is just a plain old Arrrow Sudoku so a relatively normal ruleset! You don't want to miss this one!

Play the puzzle at the link below:

Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along an arrow sum to the digit in that arrow's circle.

*** NEW SUDOKU HUNT JUST OUT ***
A new sudoku hunt, The Planets Suite, was released on 1 June at 4pm UK time on Patreon. It's one of our own and is slightly easier this month. The solution videos for DiMono's Jewels Of Osiris hunt last month are also now available.

Join us on Patreon for as little as $2 a month to play.

*** NEW GAS PACK: VOLUME 2 IS OUT ***
The new GAS (Genuinely Approachable Sudoku) pack is out on all platforms here:

60 original puzzles by Clover, Bill Murphy and Philip Newman!! Earn party hats and dinosaurs with these brand new puzzles!

▶ 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:

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ALSO on Amazon: Search for “SudokuPad”

*** ORDER OUR UPCOMING BOOK HERE ***

▶ Contents Of This Video ◀

0:00 Theme music & puzzle intro & speed target!
1:58 Happy birthdays
2:35 The Planets - our Patreon reward & today's fact from VikingPrime
4:10 Rules
4:55 Start Of Solve - Let's Get Cracking!

▶ Contact Us ◀

Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic

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Simon Anthony & Mark Goodliffe
Box 102
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SW7 4UB

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

▶ 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”

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[ronjohnson]

Simon's enthusiasm for cleverness by the setter is a little ray of sunlight in my day. Neat to see a clever guy having fun.

[johnharriman]

Hello from Birthday John! Thank you for the shout out. I am very pleased. I don't ask for anything because I already have Tania.

[callmemarcy]

Love the little pause before the confetti every time there’s a 3, it’s such a satisfying little pause :) fantastic puzzle!

[RichSmith]

I think the most remarkable thing about this video, for me, was that it took Simon 30 minutes to spot the almost perfect symmetry. 😂

[elaadt]

Well done Simon. One x-wing you missed was the 6s in r1c3, 6 and r9c3, 6. These would've knocked out 6s in r5, leaving an 89 pair. Considering the 7 you've found in r5c6, you'd be left with digits 1-6 in r5, adding up to 21. Take away 7+9 found on the arrows and you're left with 5 in r5c4, 6. This would sort out the 26 arrow in box 5 and lead to many other simple deductions.
I applause all the other deductions you've made. Beautiful puzzle.

[puritan]

This wonderful puzzle seemed to me to be a glimpse into the brain of the genius Jay Dyer. Thank you for a wonderful puzzle and a very entertaining solve.

[jasonveale]

I really have no idea how Jay comes up with this sort of thing! Her mind is just incredible!!

[SourabhDas]

I think the Tower of Babel is a perfect name for this, as the arrow heads and the arrow layouts scream the language of set theory would be needed, but in the end turns out to primarily be an exercise of extremes that come from analyzing just a couple of arrows at a time, and most of the progress coming from sudoku, with several beautiful X-wings moving things along midgame

[longwaytotipperary]

I just ❤how Simon is so appreciative of the puzzle creators! Also ❤ his colorful solutions! Also Jay Dyer is a genius!

[emilywilliams]

This is the kind of puzzle that, when I watch you solve it, Simon, I think to myself, "I can do that!" but then I download the puzzle and make a few pencil marks and think about a few things and try to remember how you approached it ... and then just say, "I'm so glad I got to watch Simon solve that." What a pleasure, a lovely Friday night video. Thanks, Simon.

[sampathkumar-ejxl]

The recently featured Jay Dyer puzzles have had extra long videos with fresh constraints dissuading me from even attempting. Finally I got to solve one and what a beauty it was. I still cannot forget the patreon hunt puzzles set by Jay Dyer some months ago which were pure genius.

[Adrian_Grey]

44:26 for me. Not 19 min, but I'm pleased to have solved it at all. This puzzle was like every arrow sudoku trick I've ever seen crammed into one. Absolutely incredible.

[WereDictionary]

I am not a word class sudoku solver - far from it actually - but the sheer idea of Simon seeing a world record and setting the CTC fanbase onto it like some sort of warlord, going something like "Here is the puzzle - here is how you can beat it - LET'S GET CRACKING" as everything descends into anarchy and chaos will never not be funny to me.

[chrisbaeyens]

There's so many xwings in this puzzle, you'd think it was a Star Wars movie we just watched 😂

[Raven-Creations]

Another brilliant offering from Jay. She always comes out with something very elegant and stylish.
@ 13:59 as you later realised, if both C4 and C6 had 89s, you'd have the same x-wing on 8s as with 9s in C3/7, forcing 8 onto the tip of one of the arrows in box 5, but the arrows can't be 9. This means that the side with a 1 in box 8 must sum to 16, and therefore both sets of green must be 12345. This puts 678s into R1/9C3/7, forming 6789 quads in their rows. The circles in R2 must be 789. There then followed a flurry of x-wings, one on each of 6, 7, 8, and 9, all overlapping, but these also led to other x-wings. You missed the x-wing on 6 in R1/9C3/7, which ruled 6 out of R5C3/7, making them an 89 pair. This would have made your mid-game a bit easier. I didn't need the virtual 45 to place the 3.
It's quite remarkable how subtly the single-cell arrow broke the symmetry. Once the symmetry was broken, all of the x-wings unwound rapidly.

[patrickgass]

I know it's not a competition but I bow to the superior Venus fact, that is quite the factoid. I've already managed to insert it into random conversation on at least two occasions.

[JASPACBRR]

Someone needs to build a puzzle with a bunch of X-wings in it, and 2-3 hidden Y-wings. And make it Star Wars and Death Star related as a galaxy puzzle.

Off the top of my head:

Jay, Phist, Jovial, TallCat, Clover, and Sashandra. I know you all are infamous for creating some beautiful masterpieces, with fantastic logical journeys, all the while being maniacally difficult. (**insert villainous sudoku laughter here**)

Hehe.

[shawnmichajluk]

Congratulations Jay! This solve took me almost to the end of the video. Only 6 minutes left. Learned lots about X-wings.

[DWestheim]

Jay Dyer's sudokus are breathtaking indeed. I usually forget to keep breathing after my third long groan and fifth two-handed pull of hair.

[DiMono]

That first "solver" is SKORP17. This person often does not solve puzzles, they merely go to f-puzzles and click the Solve button and then enter the solution code. It's not uncommon to see a solve from them minutes after a very hard puzzle goes live, and they *never* rate any puzzle Very Nice. If they've solved a puzzle, it's not getting 100% no matter how good it is.

Many in the community have complained about this to the Logic Masters Germany moderators, and they *refuse* to do anything about it. It's a problem.