'One of the best puzzles in the last year.' Says Mark

*** TODAY'S PUZZLE ***
Another sensational sudoku this evening. This time it's Myxo with Arrow Knots - a new idea based on building arrows. Mark called Simon this morning to tell him this is one of his favourite puzzles of the last 12 months. And Simon now understands why. This is ridiculously clever.

Play the puzzle at the link below:

Rules:
Divide the grid into nine regions each containing 9 orthogonally-connected cells, such that each cell is part of exactly one region. Some region borders have already been given. Fill the grid with the digits 1-9 such that no digit repeats in any row, column or region. From each circle, draw some arrows that travel in a straight line either horizontally only or vertically only. The number in the bottom right corner of a circle cell indicates the number of arrows that must be drawn from that circle. Digits along an arrow must sum to the digit in the attached circle. Additionally, all cells along arrows must be part of the same region as the circle they originate from. If an arrow doesn't reach the edge of the grid, the cell directly after the tip must be in a different region than the arrow.

*** THE HOBBIT BY BLOBZ: NEW SUDOKU HUNT COMPETITION ***
On 1 January we launched a brand new sudoku hunt from Blobz, the 'sequel' to his Lord Of The Rings hunt from 2024... The Hobbit! 19 puzzles of Tolkien-themed wonders. Closing date 20 January.

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

*** LAST WEEK'S STREAM ***
You can watch the continuation of our battle with the Caterdokupillar 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 Intro music & puzzle introduction
1:48 Recent amazing puzzles
2:29 Blobz' The Hobbit sudoku hunt
3:27 Happy Birthdays
6:01 Rules
9:20 Start of Solve: Let's Get Cracking

▶ Contact Us ◀

Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic

Our PO Box address:

Simon Anthony & Mark Goodliffe
Box 102
56 Gloucester Road
London
SW7 4UB

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

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#sudoku #puzzle #jigsaw

[klokwerkz]

My favorite part of watching these is I catch all of the things Simon misses, yet I could never figure this out on my own

[martinbull-gundersen]

Fantastic puzzle, just solved it earlier today. Thanks to Myxo. 21:36 Actually two arrows could overlap if for instance it was a 3 arrow with one two and a 6 arrow that ran all the way througn the 3 circle. But r2c8 can't be red because it according to the rules would be a 5-cell arrow (since it runs until the region ends).

[gideonvandijk]

The left over deduction at 37:29 was very elegant

[tallcat]

Glad I managed to sneak in solving this one before the (inevitable) feature that I knew would come! Very much enjoyed this - although I am curious to see if Simon finds the same stumbling block I had in the middle. Beyond that, it's a neat idea and executed very well (as expected from Myxo!). Also doesn't leave one with a huge amount of horrible irregular at the end. Certainly recommended.

[mattconco]

Waiting patiently for Simon to use the horizontal 7 pencil park looking at the 67...

[HunterJE]

52:56 "I must know the order of that" surely you must XD

[trace_tomorrow]

Just lovely. I wouldn’t have realized the law of leftovers bits for quite a while. A really good tool for these chaos regions.

Thanks for the birthday shoutout. The Sam who wrote in on this one for me is the same one who you shouted out two days ago actually. Our birthdays are two days apart. 😊

[davidrattner]

Myxo is such an exceptional setter. More brilliance and cherish seeing Simon work his deductions in solving!!

[RichSmith]

I got to where Simon was at around minute 35, and then hit a brick wall. After half an hour of no progress I gave up and decided to watch Simon's solve. However, as often seems to be the case, just hearing Simon calmly making progress through the early stages seemed to reset my brain, and I saw the break through. Law of Left Overs on the top three rows! (Before Simon mentioned it). I paused the video and continued with my solve. Reached the solution about forty minutes later. 🎉

[Bonehead]

I was watching those 7 pencil marks forever. 🙂

[longwaytotipperary]

Agree with Simon, this puzzle is brilliant!!

[cycklist]

Every third or fourth puzzle seems to be labelled the best of the year.

[Kantsh]

20:50 For the knot marked with one to be in the red region, its arrow would have to go downward into the region, but not just two squares. It would have to extend all the way to the end of the region, per the rule that arrow tips are followed by region borders. Therefore it would have had to include all of the bottom arrow, the three knot total and be itself included in the upward arrow. That is not possible, but Simon's logic was not sufficient here.

[Escviitash]

What a complicated way to deduce that none of the arrow in the red region could be 3 cells long. A much easier way is to say that if a one of them was 3 cells long, the sum of all the arrow would be at least 28 (the minimum sum of 7 different digits), which would be more 27 (3 times max 9).

[JohnPretty]

(The constructor) is one of those people with a "planet-sized brain". The remark tickled me for some reason - your unassuming modesty is quite an endearing quality Simon.

[WillFeaster]

My birthday today. Just seeing Simon and Mark living their best life and producing great wholesome content everyday is worth more than any shoutout

[chocolateboy]

I finished in 90:55 minutes. Mark was right. This was an incredible puzzle that had a fantastic ruleset with a great execution. There were so many cool parts that made my brain light up with joy spotting the. I think my favorite part was seeing the region that spawned from r4c1 was limited based on the cells in the six cells above the circle on the northern line from the 4 arrow. Only one possible scenario worked and it is incredible that it worked out that way. The ending was also fantastic. I was always surprised at how powerful the region change rule after an arrow was in this puzzle. Every time I got stuck on the coloring, that rule came to the rescue. A wonderful puzzle that is expected from the great Myxo. Great Puzzle!

[kennetsdad]

Well, I'm not a Swifty...but I think if a CTC superfan is a possibility, I think I'd like to be called a "Secret." Yay? Nay?

[rmjarvis]

Brilliant. 63 min for me. I got stuck at exactly the same place where Simon "hit a brick wall". Took me longer than him to think of the trick to get past it. Honestly that was the best step in the puzzle, though, so I was glad I persevered. Very clever.

[upthorn]

Simon, your solves are always fantastic, and I feel that the only issue you're having is that the pressure you have not to get stuck is preventing you from taking the time needed to slow down and check if you've missed anything in your pencil marks