I love this call-and-response he has engineered. When Simon says "We're not gonna have a deadly pattern, are we," towards the end, every single viewer yells, "USE SUDOKU, SIMON". It's audience participation time!
Right at the end Simon needed to use the palindrome to solve the 35s instead of seeing that one of them was the last digit in its column. Refusing to use sudoku in sudoku puzzles is peak Simon, great solve 😂
at 50:39 it looks like Simon mixed up the two lines? He removed a 6 from the zipper line, which he used to rule out a 'corresponding' 2 on the palindrome
Yes, he got lucky in my opinion. He did it again a few minutes later with yellow 17. But you can solve it like this: yellow 17 has only one place to go on the upper palindrome, where it has to appear, displacing the 2.
@@toshlaforest9472 well with the yellow 17 he didn't mix up anything, that is just "we need this digit on the upper side of the palindrome and it can't go anywhere else", resulting in displacing the 2 as you mentioned.
I was wondering what the heck he was talking about. He just magically placed the 2 based on a completely unrelated 6 (after a very roundabout way of proving that he couldn't put a 2 in the same row as another 2)..
Congratulations, Mark! Very proud of you. I am also in recovery for many years now and while it’s still a struggle I am so grateful to have the support and strength to continue!
@23:00 There IS logic to rule green out of r2c5. As a black dot, the only valid fill from 789 would be 8. However, it's connected the 3rd cell from both ends of the Zipper line, which would both be 4 to add up to 8 on the zipper but see each other in column 5. I just feel this is worth appreciating about the puzzle's geometry.
Simpler break-in, I think: There are six distinct digits in box 3 (also box 2) on lines. Any digit on a palindrome line in those boxes appears twice on the palindrome, and hence also twice on the zipper. The middle digit of the zipper has to be greater than all six of these digits. So it's 7, 8 or 9. The zipper sums to 8X, which is even. Digits on the palindrome, excluding the centre, sum to 2Y, even. Hence the centre of the palindrome is also even. So it's 8.
Another step I took (from around Simon's position at 34:00) was to calculate the total required for each line, once we know the pairs sum to 8 on the zipper. 8*8=64 on the zipper. Subtract centre digit (8) to get the total for the remainder of the palindrome, 64-8=56. Half this to get the total for each half of the palindrome, 28. This happens to be the 7th triangular number, so it strongly suggested to me that all seven digits 1-7 appeared on each half of the palindrome, but it wasn't quite conclusive. However, I then noticed in c7, every digit apart from 4, 8 and 9 made an appearance on one line or the other. This confirmed that all the digits 1-7 do indeed appear on the zipper so appear twice on the zipper, and each half of the palindrome once. This helped me spot that r2c4 could only be the 2 in r3c7 in box 3, since it couldn't repeat on that half of the palindrome in box 3 (and it wasn't 4, 8 or 9).
That's a neat way to deduce it. I went with 7 pairs of digits to make up the zipper line it needed to be 3 duplicate pairs and one double to maintain the balance when transferring to the palindrome line, equally leaving the one option.
Guessed yhe double 4s...then had to prove the other was invalid(strict 3domino)...3dominos on the zipper but took a while to realize that doubling one of the 6digits on the palindrome meant it would have 4 copies which contradicted the zipper dominos...so you need the 4th domino 44
I have to say, Simon, you've taught me _so much._ A month ago, when I first discovered this channel, I absolutely could not have solved any part of this puzzle. Now, while I needed your help with that really tough first deduction, I was actually able to go on and solve the rest of the puzzle myself. That's amazing to me! So thank you, Simon. 💛
36:48 That the zipper digit in green couldn't go on the black kropki dot in Box 2 was available back at 17:28 when he first pencil marked it had he stopped to think about it. A quick glance at what the implications of putting the digit there would have disqualified all options, i.e. it can only be 8, not 7 or 9 because they can't go on black kropki dots ever, and if 8, then it puts 4 on the zipper line, which implies another 4 to complete the sum in the same column.
Fun puzzle. The way I tackled it was by starting with the palindrome line, rather than the zipper line, and coloring the opposite digits. I basically managed to prove that each half of the palindrome (excluding the middle digit) had to consist of unique digits; if you were to repeat a digit (e.g. two reds or oranges) on half a palindrome, it would have to appear four times on the palindrome line AND four times on the zipper line. There simply wasn't a way to do that for any of the colored squares. Because there were 7 unique digits that each appear twice, the middle digit had to be an 8. (It can't be 9, because 9 is always made out of 2 different digits, so you would end up with an even amount of unique digits, while we know there are 7 unique digits.) Ended up finishing it in just over half an hour.
that's exactly how i got it too! which made for a somewhat different middle game as well because i started doing coloring logic from there. although i ended up solving quite a bit slower than you!
One interesting thing to consider at the 20:10 is that the five yellow digits in column 7 see a digit on the palindrome. So therefore, there must be at least six different digits plus green on the zipper line. If you need six different digits, then the lowest you could make them would be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6; hence the zipper line must add up to at least 7 by virtue of having at least 6 on it.
Ooo I'm proud that I saw that the Kropki dot couldn't be 7,8, or 9 - because if it was 8 it put 4 on the line twice in column 5 breaking sudoku! Simon got to this really late in the puzzle. Sadly that was as far as I got just knowing 7,8,9 couldn't go there lol. no digits this time around, this was a tough one
At this point I almost want to believe Simon fell in love with variant sudoku after finding so much complicated and intricate logic in them, because he's ignoring the obvious sudoku stuff staring him in the face. Great puzzle and great solve.
I don't think I've ever yelled at Simon through my computer more than during this episode. Especially when he highlighted the single yellow cell and said "I feel this digit is really underperforming" and immediately disregards it!
I totally agree! I'm not a very good solver, so Simon is almost always ahead of me, but I noticed multiple moments during this solve where he missed things I saw.
I agree with the whoever wrote in saying that this is more approachable than other Phistomefel puzzles. I didn’t give it a go myself, since I am still very intimidated by Phistomefel, but this is the first time watching one of his puzzles that I have hit the break in realization before Simon did. It’s not that it isn’t gorgeous (like all Phistomefel puzzles are) but the logic is just a little bit easier to see to someone who’s newer to sudoku, like me.
Thanks! Frankly I was shocked and flattered that Simon shared my video, especially since Oreo's behavior tied into the "Copycat" title of this puzzle. Oreo was up on the piano again watching and about got whiplash when she saw two cats out of the corner of her eye. 🤣 I was at MD Anderson in Houston for the past week for exams and treatments and am happy to add another month to my tally of remission months. I'm playing catch-up on the videos so it will be a few days til I am back real time. THANKS SIMON for making my day!
(50:35) Simon took a corner marked 6 from the zipperline in box 8 en concluded that in box 2 2 couldn't be in R1C6? Why? I think this was lucky because yellow forced 2 out of that cell, but not the 6 in box 8.
I usually just watch these videos but after hearing that this was an 'easy' one I figured I'd give it a go, it took me 100 minutes... but I did it! 😂 I got all the major deductions early on but Simon and I did the second half a bit differently, will have to try solving these more often
For 3 years I’ve watched quietly. The past 3-4 days I’ve wanted to yell at Simon to find things. I think I should start trying to solve these before watching now.
Be aware: If you solve it first, then watch, you will be screaming at Simon all the way through, as he spends 10 minutes trying to find a given digit by using the square root of -1 to prove Fermat's last theorem. Half an hour later he'll say "and that can't be a 6 now", eliminating a 3,6 pencil mark he didn't need to make in the first place, even though you've been shouting "3! 3! 3!" for an age. Simon is a genius solver, but he can't scan for sh*t.
@@emdiar6588 He’s just started and is totally ignoring that he can’t have an 8 in one of two green marked cells in box 2. And now he’s filled in all the 4s providing a 2nd reason the 8s are restricted and he’s still not seeing it I’m just dabbling, trying to fit numbers excluded from the lines into remaining cells in crowded boxes and I just want Simon to finish the logical paths he starts. It’s fine when they branch, he can’t chase 2 logical paths at once, but so far he hasn’t come back to them at all. hopefully he resolves these soon.
23:26 For me, definitely the easiest Phistomefel sudoku I've seen, tho I feel lucky with how much I've managed to "ask the right questions" to get to the next step of the puzzle
An easier way to find green digit being 8 is the parity. If we call the green digit x, zipper line in total must be equal to 8x. That means digits in the palindrome must be equal to 8x which is an even number. Since we have double of every number in the palindrome (except the middle cell), those doubled numbers are even. So for palindrome to be even in total, that middle cell must also be even. So it's 8.
I feel like the purple line looks somewhat like the side profile of a cat looking east, the pointy bit at the top could be an ear and the central dot on the line might be a nose? It looks extra derpy if you consider the white dot to be an eye but I think that's optional 😅 (Also I'm seeing the bottom part of the line a bit like the white 'bib' cats often have or it could be some stylistic front paws...)
I did it! 🎉 24 minutes. I never thought I would ever finish a Phistomefel puzzle. What an emotional ride from the first digits till the end when I knew I would actually do it.
Rouling out the 2-6 pair in column 6 (one on the zipper and the other on the palindrome!) made my day! Lucky „half” mistake (the 6 couldn't be there anyway).
I loved watching you solve this, Simon, and it is the sort of puzzle that I just might try myself, despite its intimidating pedigree. Thanks for the great solve, so liberally flavored with your happiness at doing a Phistomefel puzzle!
I'm wondering ... is there is a single pilot, or is it a fairly busy local airport and Simon calls any plane "Maverick"? 😅 (the first puzzle of mine that Simon featured on the channel was three years ago now - and Maverick flew by, right on schedule!)
Loved the puzzle along with a rare thrill of beating Simon's time too with it only taking me 30 minutes. Obviously I have the benefit of just being able to play and not have to explain things like Simon, but I still don't often beat his time, so I'll take it as a win. The logic in this one just clicked for me. Usually Phistomofel puzzles take me an age if I can even beat them at all, so this was a treat to enjoy a more approachable puzzle of his.
After over half a year of watching Cracking the Cryptic videos I finally decided to try and solve this sudoku myself and managed to do it! I'm so happy :D
I got 55 minutes. This was a really fun one to figure out. Coloring helped tremendously in solving this puzzle and I recommend coloring from the beginning. Great Puzzle as always from Phistomefel!
@22:30 making the green square on the black dot rules itself out, because the black do requires it to pair with a 4, and the zipper line would then have 8 at the centre, and the 4 would need to pair with another 4, but they would be in the same column. Sometimes my inability to see the big picture forces me to focus on trivial facts that could have big implications. As soon as 8 can't be on the black dot in box 2, green becomes r2c6. Then the discovery that there is an odd number of pairs on the zipper line which means the zipper needs at least one pair to be a pair of the same digits, hence green must be even, and therefore 8.
I'd like to see a statistical analysis on the frequency of 3s in the corner appearing in videos featured here vs videos not featured on this channel. I suspect recommendation bias.
I think it may also be that the people making the puzzles get a kick out of seeing Simon's joy at getting a 3 in the corner, so they may be working a bit harder to place 3s in corners.
At 50:02 Simon matched a 6 on the zipper to a 2 on the palindrome... he was correct that the pos of six is R9 C4 but taking the 2 option out of R1 C6 was not correct.
This is my first phistomefel puzzle I didn't quit after an hour and just watched the video, and I actually managed to solve it Truly it was amazing not knowing how to disambiguate a pair of digits up until the end, like doing sudoku with colours, and then it all fell into place after that
Yes! I did it, in a reasonable time too, looks like I managed to use more colours than Simon, I shall listen to his solve as I head off to the land of nod. I used 4, 8 and 9 then colours in pairs until almost the end as I find this easier to scan. Loved the logic of this but of course Phistomefel logic is always lovely.
So happy to have found the initial digit so quickly, as I realized the connection between the zipper and the palindrome, that each pair on the zipper had to appear twice. I was amazed how quickly the puzzle fell together after that.
It was a nice experience solving this puzzle. Somehow I did not get stuck today which is unusual. Normally I use twice as long time as Simon. This one I finished in 34 minutes.
@@whatsleep17 right, but he had the 2 narrowed down to 2 separate locations. Both on the palendrome. So getting the 6 off the zipper has no effect on which location the 2 appears on the palendrome. The requirement for a 2 was true, but not the location. He treated the palendrome like it was a zipper where the corrosponding 2 had to match the 6. Which makes no sense.
It's not often I attempt a Phistomaphel puzzle OR one that takes these guys an hour plus, but this one was fairly reasonable. The trickiest part for me was keeping track of which colors meant what.
44:08, that was a pretty easy Phistomefel. Took me a bit to see that since there was an odd number of digits being added to each other, one had to add to itself, so the total sum had to be even. Then, I got to color the entire grid, which I enjoy a lot!
35:16 finish. When I started coloring, I used the palindrome instead of the zipper. It helped to open things up a little more quickly. An excellent puzzle, as always, and not too difficult!
22:00 at this point green could be 789, 7,9 can't be on black dot but we are looking for case 8. However if you put 8 in r2c5 on black dot that would put 4 below it....but then it's partner on the zipper would need to be 4. So r2c5 is not green
Wow! That was my first variant sudoko ever - and it was a Phistomefel - noticed the double 4 requirement almost immediately which set me off on a colouring escapade. And that after following the channel for the last 3 years.
Watched Simon's solve and realised that his leaving the green colouring for 8 and not colouring the 2 and the 6 did not allow him to keep track of the 6 numbers that appeared twice on both lines.
I can see the cat i guess. The Zipper line is the head of a cat from a side profile. The "spike" between the 2 black dots is the ear. The part in Box 6 is the forehead. Box 9 Cell 1 is the eye part and box 8 and 9 are the mouth and chin part.
30:00 There's a slightly easier way to see that the central digit is an 8. If the central digit is x, then the zipper line sums to 8x since the zipper has 7 pairs summing to x, plus x itself So the palindrome also sums to 8x, and each "wing" of the palindrome besides the middle digit will sum to 3.5x. So x must be even and must be 8
At 3:14 I assume by your pronunciation that you were attempting to say the name "Nguyen". While the actual pronunciation is difficult for most English-speakers, the two people in my life who have this as their last name have accepted pronouncing it as simply "Win". This is the default pronunciation in my experience for anyone that doesn't know how to pronounce Vietnamese words super well. Hope this helps!
So I don’t often do the puzzles, I just enjoy following along and testing myself to see if I can follow the logic and, sometimes, stumbled upon it before Simon does. A fun instance occurred around 30 mins in as Simon was describing the issue with the spare pair where I initially asked myself “what the heck is he getting at?!” and almost immediately, before Simon stated it, blurted out “there’s a single pair of double digits, so green is even!”
Quite proud of myself for getting the break with the 8 and pair of 4's! I did have to do some pencil marking first for the problem of having and odd number of pairs to click, but once it did click, it was quite the eureka moment for me! 😄 Took me quite a while to get through the whole puzzle, but I did manage to solve my first Phistomefel puzzle in 84:27!
18:56 for me. I think I remember a 2-star puzzle by Phistomefel being featured on the channel some time ago, although I might be wrong. This one was definitely quite challenging, but not monstrously hard. Nice puzzle!
I've been thinking for a while it would be fun to set a hexsudoku puzzle (1-9, A-F) using thermos. But adding in german whispers would be interesting as well. 5 could go on a whispers line. A lot of tricks would no longer work. lol
I didn't find it easy, but mostly because when writing my notes, I lost a pair somewhere. I did then do an extensive marking up, which meant later on I could link the colors from the lines (although I used letters) to the numbers. I spent a good 2 hours on it tho!
I know this was apparently easy for most people, this was very hard for me as someone who has not done a non-traditional sudoku before, but I just made a breakthrough so I'll update this if I end up getting it! Edit - Welp I tried it and somewhere I somehow messed up and had to restart, but I got it on decently fast on my second try edit 2: 25:25 Thank u for making me feel better about myself for getting that trick and not feel as bad for how long it took me lol
I had to reset 4 times because I made different assumptions that apparently weren't warranted and ended up with a broken puzzle. That said, that the central digit on the zipper is even is easier to digest that the reason Simon gives: The digits on the zipper are the same as the ones of the palindrome. The central digit on both must be the same (because it's the single largest). Therefore the digits off the centre of both must also be the same, and have the same sum. But on the palindrome that sum is even (same digits on either side), and on the zipper calculates as 7 times the central digit. So the central digit must make the product even. Interestingly I had more trouble forcing 4s onto the lines.
38:39. Quickly eliminated 67 from zipper line sum. Though 8 would be an easy elimination too, so tried solving with 8. Then as kept going, it kept continuing to work. Used colouring sudoku to make an impact and once I figured out which cloud was 35 because of the 36 dot it was a great break in. Never got to eliminate the 9 as a zipper candidate though. So not a perfect solve. But I finally solved one of his puzzles on my own.
Wow❗ I am impressed again by Phistomefel❗What a magificent drastically innovative idea for the break-in❗ And what an elegant minimalistic use of *dots* and *geometry* to make the whole solve challenging and fun. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I liked Simon's solve as well, but I think notation could be made cleaner. A white-flashed colour can be and should be deleted after discovering the digit represented by that colour. For instance, @30:51 I would immediately remove white flashed *green* from the whole grid, after substituting it with the corresponding corner-pencilmarked digit (8). I would also remove non-white flashed green. It is *redundant* and *cumbersome* notation. Removing it makes everything else much easier to scan.
I was stuck for like an hour marking in letters and colors and was "just" missing the deduction that there has to be a pair of the same digits on that line... from there it was relatively easy
Definitely pretty simple once you figure out what the central digit of the lines is. Just getting there was the hard part for me. Really satisfying aha moment there
I think I would agree this is the easiest. Took me 36:38 but it was never confusing and very clear where to look next. The solution of 'all numbers must be different but with 8 numbers you can't add to 9 (1 is 9, 7 remaining leaves 3 pairs + a doubled one), therefore 4 must reoccur' was very intuitive. You can spot that right away by just asking if a number can reoccur on the palindrome, while having enough space to repeat on the other line that many times (it can't). Then you can just make it an 8-color puzzle and it goes really fast. I'm not even sure it's a 2-star tbh.
i like how on these puzzles i do it completely different. lol i had to use colors and do the sudoku without the numbers to figure it all out. used different colors on the palindrome and then i assigned a letter to each color to figure out which colors match on the zipper lines. then i played sudoku with the colors only. and at the end i just had to use the black dot that got me the 2 and that lead to the 6 which got me the 3 on the other black dot. the white dot got me the 1 and then that allowed me to break the puzzle open. then at the end just changed the letters or colors to numbers to finish the puzzle. the 7th number figuring that out was like scratching your hand across a chalkboard.
Does anyone actually hear the aeroplane noises Simon is always worrying about? I don't know if the whirring of my computer is just drowning it out, but I've never heard anything. This thought has got me wondering if anyone's ever had a version of schizophrenia where instead of hearing voices they hear imagined aeroplanes tormenting them. As for the puzzle, I guess maybe overall it was a relatively smooth phisting, but the break in itself was extremely hard for me. In retrospect I should have got it sooner, I suppose.
@@RichSmith77 Oh wow, yes I hear it! I secretly never watch the videos beyond the intros (unless I get stuck), but when he mentions hearing Maverick in the intro I can't hear what he hears. That is pretty annoying for Simon, and the viewers.
One thing for certain Simon is that if I get a break in the puzzle b4 you I spot advancements solving the puzzle faster than you in the video. However, Maverick doesn't effect me as much as the potential helicopters that pass by me
I wouldn't say that was the easiest Phistomefel puzzle, I think remember easier puzzles. But maybe that is, because they weren't Phistomofel puzzles. Seriously, the thought the copycat property means you have to use pairs twice on the zipper line was my first thought. It took me much longer to have the simpler thought that the odd number of pairs meant the central zipper line digit had to be even, because one pair must be the same digit twice. How do you say? Bobbins.
I'm always much cleverer watching Simon than playing myself. I did the break#in differently. The parity of the sum of the palindrome line must be the same parity of the central cell, because the rest is 2 x the sum of one side. And the sum of the pink line is 8 x the central cell, so that's even, so the central cell must be even.
21:25, all pairs in the zipper see each other except the tail. So this eliminates green from the black dot. Gah I was shouting about not using the black dots to place 8
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I love this call-and-response he has engineered. When Simon says "We're not gonna have a deadly pattern, are we," towards the end, every single viewer yells, "USE SUDOKU, SIMON". It's audience participation time!
it's like blues clues lol
How dare Phistomefel require Simon to use sudoku?!
Right at the end Simon needed to use the palindrome to solve the 35s instead of seeing that one of them was the last digit in its column. Refusing to use sudoku in sudoku puzzles is peak Simon, great solve 😂
And as always, "refusing to use sudoku in sudoku" is peak comment.
I was thinking the same this... great solve, but makes it a bit painful to watch😂
at 50:39 it looks like Simon mixed up the two lines? He removed a 6 from the zipper line, which he used to rule out a 'corresponding' 2 on the palindrome
Yeah i didnt get it either
Yes, he got lucky in my opinion. He did it again a few minutes later with yellow 17. But you can solve it like this: yellow 17 has only one place to go on the upper palindrome, where it has to appear, displacing the 2.
yes, lucky
thanks, I thought I've missed some genious thought of him but apparently he mixed up the rules and just got super lucky...
@@toshlaforest9472 well with the yellow 17 he didn't mix up anything, that is just "we need this digit on the upper side of the palindrome and it can't go anywhere else", resulting in displacing the 2 as you mentioned.
Simon makes a mistake at 50:40 confusing his zippers and palindrome but it works out for him by the looks of it
Yeah luckily he immediately finds the step that was meant to displace that 2: finding yellow on the palindrome
I was wondering what the heck he was talking about. He just magically placed the 2 based on a completely unrelated 6 (after a very roundabout way of proving that he couldn't put a 2 in the same row as another 2)..
I started shouting at screen when he made that accident! (He must have heard me)
@@perladel95 He did find that step but he didn't realize he's just made a mistake...
I thought I just got very stupid for a second. Couldn't work that out.
Congratulations, Mark! Very proud of you. I am also in recovery for many years now and while it’s still a struggle I am so grateful to have the support and strength to continue!
I love this community
25: 25:54 25:54
@23:00 There IS logic to rule green out of r2c5. As a black dot, the only valid fill from 789 would be 8. However, it's connected the 3rd cell from both ends of the Zipper line, which would both be 4 to add up to 8 on the zipper but see each other in column 5.
I just feel this is worth appreciating about the puzzle's geometry.
Simpler break-in, I think:
There are six distinct digits in box 3 (also box 2) on lines. Any digit on a palindrome line in those boxes appears twice on the palindrome, and hence also twice on the zipper. The middle digit of the zipper has to be greater than all six of these digits. So it's 7, 8 or 9.
The zipper sums to 8X, which is even. Digits on the palindrome, excluding the centre, sum to 2Y, even. Hence the centre of the palindrome is also even. So it's 8.
Another step I took (from around Simon's position at 34:00) was to calculate the total required for each line, once we know the pairs sum to 8 on the zipper. 8*8=64 on the zipper. Subtract centre digit (8) to get the total for the remainder of the palindrome, 64-8=56. Half this to get the total for each half of the palindrome, 28. This happens to be the 7th triangular number, so it strongly suggested to me that all seven digits 1-7 appeared on each half of the palindrome, but it wasn't quite conclusive.
However, I then noticed in c7, every digit apart from 4, 8 and 9 made an appearance on one line or the other. This confirmed that all the digits 1-7 do indeed appear on the zipper so appear twice on the zipper, and each half of the palindrome once.
This helped me spot that r2c4 could only be the 2 in r3c7 in box 3, since it couldn't repeat on that half of the palindrome in box 3 (and it wasn't 4, 8 or 9).
That's a neat way to deduce it. I went with 7 pairs of digits to make up the zipper line it needed to be 3 duplicate pairs and one double to maintain the balance when transferring to the palindrome line, equally leaving the one option.
@@MattYDdraig exactly, this is the easy way to break in and immediately see its an 8 as the odd pair has to be 44.
Guessed yhe double 4s...then had to prove the other was invalid(strict 3domino)...3dominos on the zipper but took a while to realize that doubling one of the 6digits on the palindrome meant it would have 4 copies which contradicted the zipper dominos...so you need the 4th domino 44
@@MattYDdraig That's the way i got started as well!
Start a new phrase "Pulling A Simon" - to accidentally mistake into the correct solution. (Two instances of mistaking the zipper/palindrome lines).
I think you should consider doing audio books/poems! How you can recite something like that from memory is beyond me!
I quite agree and Simon has such a lovely doleful voice and tone that lend themselves perfectly to reading poetry.
Totally agree with both of you!!
Yes, please!
@@suewilliams7091I have used Simon’s videos to fall a sleep for a year now
"That doesn't really do anything" he says as he misses all of the things that it does 😂😂
Every. Single. Time. 😂
I still love the fact, that Phistomefel started setting because of seeing CtC videos.
30:54 he literally said there cant be another 4 on the zipper line 15 seconds ago
Very happy to see Phistomefel is back publishing on a regular basis!
I swear he's been hermiting in his castle for a year brainstorming the most evil inventions
I have to say, Simon, you've taught me _so much._ A month ago, when I first discovered this channel, I absolutely could not have solved any part of this puzzle. Now, while I needed your help with that really tough first deduction, I was actually able to go on and solve the rest of the puzzle myself. That's amazing to me! So thank you, Simon. 💛
36:48 That the zipper digit in green couldn't go on the black kropki dot in Box 2 was available back at 17:28 when he first pencil marked it had he stopped to think about it. A quick glance at what the implications of putting the digit there would have disqualified all options, i.e. it can only be 8, not 7 or 9 because they can't go on black kropki dots ever, and if 8, then it puts 4 on the zipper line, which implies another 4 to complete the sum in the same column.
Fun puzzle. The way I tackled it was by starting with the palindrome line, rather than the zipper line, and coloring the opposite digits. I basically managed to prove that each half of the palindrome (excluding the middle digit) had to consist of unique digits; if you were to repeat a digit (e.g. two reds or oranges) on half a palindrome, it would have to appear four times on the palindrome line AND four times on the zipper line. There simply wasn't a way to do that for any of the colored squares.
Because there were 7 unique digits that each appear twice, the middle digit had to be an 8. (It can't be 9, because 9 is always made out of 2 different digits, so you would end up with an even amount of unique digits, while we know there are 7 unique digits.)
Ended up finishing it in just over half an hour.
that's exactly how i got it too! which made for a somewhat different middle game as well because i started doing coloring logic from there. although i ended up solving quite a bit slower than you!
One interesting thing to consider at the 20:10 is that the five yellow digits in column 7 see a digit on the palindrome. So therefore, there must be at least six different digits plus green on the zipper line. If you need six different digits, then the lowest you could make them would be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6; hence the zipper line must add up to at least 7 by virtue of having at least 6 on it.
Ooo I'm proud that I saw that the Kropki dot couldn't be 7,8, or 9 - because if it was 8 it put 4 on the line twice in column 5 breaking sudoku! Simon got to this really late in the puzzle. Sadly that was as far as I got just knowing 7,8,9 couldn't go there lol. no digits this time around, this was a tough one
At this point I almost want to believe Simon fell in love with variant sudoku after finding so much complicated and intricate logic in them, because he's ignoring the obvious sudoku stuff staring him in the face. Great puzzle and great solve.
I don't think I've ever yelled at Simon through my computer more than during this episode. Especially when he highlighted the single yellow cell and said "I feel this digit is really underperforming" and immediately disregards it!
I totally agree! I'm not a very good solver, so Simon is almost always ahead of me, but I noticed multiple moments during this solve where he missed things I saw.
I agree with the whoever wrote in saying that this is more approachable than other Phistomefel puzzles. I didn’t give it a go myself, since I am still very intimidated by Phistomefel, but this is the first time watching one of his puzzles that I have hit the break in realization before Simon did. It’s not that it isn’t gorgeous (like all Phistomefel puzzles are) but the logic is just a little bit easier to see to someone who’s newer to sudoku, like me.
This cat, Oreo, is the best thing you ever have shown as prelude, Simon. Greetings to Oreo, Berliaise and Carl and best wishes to get well soon.
Thanks! Frankly I was shocked and flattered that Simon shared my video, especially since Oreo's behavior tied into the "Copycat" title of this puzzle. Oreo was up on the piano again watching and about got whiplash when she saw two cats out of the corner of her eye. 🤣 I was at MD Anderson in Houston for the past week for exams and treatments and am happy to add another month to my tally of remission months. I'm playing catch-up on the videos so it will be a few days til I am back real time.
THANKS SIMON for making my day!
(50:35) Simon took a corner marked 6 from the zipperline in box 8 en concluded that in box 2 2 couldn't be in R1C6? Why?
I think this was lucky because yellow forced 2 out of that cell, but not the 6 in box 8.
I usually just watch these videos but after hearing that this was an 'easy' one I figured I'd give it a go, it took me 100 minutes... but I did it! 😂 I got all the major deductions early on but Simon and I did the second half a bit differently, will have to try solving these more often
For 3 years I’ve watched quietly. The past 3-4 days I’ve wanted to yell at Simon to find things. I think I should start trying to solve these before watching now.
Be aware: If you solve it first, then watch, you will be screaming at Simon all the way through, as he spends 10 minutes trying to find a given digit by using the square root of -1 to prove Fermat's last theorem.
Half an hour later he'll say "and that can't be a 6 now", eliminating a 3,6 pencil mark he didn't need to make in the first place, even though you've been shouting "3! 3! 3!" for an age.
Simon is a genius solver, but he can't scan for sh*t.
@@emdiar6588 He’s just started and is totally ignoring that he can’t have an 8 in one of two green marked cells in box 2.
And now he’s filled in all the 4s providing a 2nd reason the 8s are restricted and he’s still not seeing it
I’m just dabbling, trying to fit numbers excluded from the lines into remaining cells in crowded boxes and I just want Simon to finish the logical paths he starts. It’s fine when they branch, he can’t chase 2 logical paths at once, but so far he hasn’t come back to them at all. hopefully he resolves these soon.
23:26 For me, definitely the easiest Phistomefel sudoku I've seen, tho I feel lucky with how much I've managed to "ask the right questions" to get to the next step of the puzzle
Such a clever puzzle. Bizarre blunder at 55:08, where Simon for some reason is blind to the grey in r9c1. In too much of a hurry probably.
An easier way to find green digit being 8 is the parity. If we call the green digit x, zipper line in total must be equal to 8x. That means digits in the palindrome must be equal to 8x which is an even number. Since we have double of every number in the palindrome (except the middle cell), those doubled numbers are even. So for palindrome to be even in total, that middle cell must also be even. So it's 8.
Very enjoyable and well solved! Heaps of proudness for Mark!!
I feel like the purple line looks somewhat like the side profile of a cat looking east, the pointy bit at the top could be an ear and the central dot on the line might be a nose? It looks extra derpy if you consider the white dot to be an eye but I think that's optional 😅 (Also I'm seeing the bottom part of the line a bit like the white 'bib' cats often have or it could be some stylistic front paws...)
After reading your comment I agree!!
I did it! 🎉 24 minutes. I never thought I would ever finish a Phistomefel puzzle. What an emotional ride from the first digits till the end when I knew I would actually do it.
Rouling out the 2-6 pair in column 6 (one on the zipper and the other on the palindrome!) made my day! Lucky „half” mistake (the 6 couldn't be there anyway).
I loved watching you solve this, Simon, and it is the sort of puzzle that I just might try myself, despite its intimidating pedigree. Thanks for the great solve, so liberally flavored with your happiness at doing a Phistomefel puzzle!
I'm wondering ... is there is a single pilot, or is it a fairly busy local airport and Simon calls any plane "Maverick"? 😅 (the first puzzle of mine that Simon featured on the channel was three years ago now - and Maverick flew by, right on schedule!)
Almost certain that it ISN'T all the same pilot. That would require someone having a private airfield that only they use.
My first Phistomefel solve! 70 minutes, and I’ve never been more proud! 😅
Loved the puzzle along with a rare thrill of beating Simon's time too with it only taking me 30 minutes. Obviously I have the benefit of just being able to play and not have to explain things like Simon, but I still don't often beat his time, so I'll take it as a win. The logic in this one just clicked for me. Usually Phistomofel puzzles take me an age if I can even beat them at all, so this was a treat to enjoy a more approachable puzzle of his.
After over half a year of watching Cracking the Cryptic videos I finally decided to try and solve this sudoku myself and managed to do it! I'm so happy :D
I got 55 minutes. This was a really fun one to figure out. Coloring helped tremendously in solving this puzzle and I recommend coloring from the beginning. Great Puzzle as always from Phistomefel!
@22:30 making the green square on the black dot rules itself out, because the black do requires it to pair with a 4, and the zipper line would then have 8 at the centre, and the 4 would need to pair with another 4, but they would be in the same column.
Sometimes my inability to see the big picture forces me to focus on trivial facts that could have big implications.
As soon as 8 can't be on the black dot in box 2, green becomes r2c6. Then the discovery that there is an odd number of pairs on the zipper line which means the zipper needs at least one pair to be a pair of the same digits, hence green must be even, and therefore 8.
I'd like to see a statistical analysis on the frequency of 3s in the corner appearing in videos featured here vs videos not featured on this channel. I suspect recommendation bias.
I think it may also be that the people making the puzzles get a kick out of seeing Simon's joy at getting a 3 in the corner, so they may be working a bit harder to place 3s in corners.
At 50:02 Simon matched a 6 on the zipper to a 2 on the palindrome... he was correct that the pos of six is R9 C4 but taking the 2 option out of R1 C6 was not correct.
Thing is you can see from there the yellow 17 must be at R1C6 on the palindrome
Just "pulling a Simon".
Yes, he got lucky, but his next move would have proven it anyway, so no harm/no foul. (finding where yellow went on the palindrome.)
I’ve waited for the solve of this one. Will be nice to see! Glad to see Phisto publishing again 🥳
nguyen ~ Win roughly.
Honestly sort of surprised that Simon was so far off with this one, its a really common name. Must not be so in the UK!
"That is not easy" Thank you for validating me because I, a beginner, was sitting here feeling so stupid for taking 20 minutes to figure that out T_T
This is my first phistomefel puzzle I didn't quit after an hour and just watched the video, and I actually managed to solve it
Truly it was amazing not knowing how to disambiguate a pair of digits up until the end, like doing sudoku with colours, and then it all fell into place after that
I love David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks is one of my favourites! Thank you for the poem, it was delightful.
Yes! I did it, in a reasonable time too, looks like I managed to use more colours than Simon, I shall listen to his solve as I head off to the land of nod. I used 4, 8 and 9 then colours in pairs until almost the end as I find this easier to scan. Loved the logic of this but of course Phistomefel logic is always lovely.
So happy to have found the initial digit so quickly, as I realized the connection between the zipper and the palindrome, that each pair on the zipper had to appear twice. I was amazed how quickly the puzzle fell together after that.
Great to see Phistomefel be setting again at a nice pace. Simon's joyful solving is such a treat for us!
It was a nice experience solving this puzzle. Somehow I did not get stuck today which is unusual. Normally I use twice as long time as Simon. This one I finished in 34 minutes.
Solved in 33:45, this one was incredibly easy for Phisto. The name scared me off but it really flowed easily with great logic to break in.
See new Cracking the Cryptic, click within seconds.
One of the few truths of the world
wait at 51 minutes getting a 6 off the zipper has no effect on 2's location on the palendrome. I don't agree with that deduction.
Agree..
But it couldn’t be a 6 because you can’t have more 6s on the zipper.
However the removal of the 2 was a lucky mistake, I believe.
@@whatsleep17 right, but he had the 2 narrowed down to 2 separate locations. Both on the palendrome. So getting the 6 off the zipper has no effect on which location the 2 appears on the palendrome. The requirement for a 2 was true, but not the location. He treated the palendrome like it was a zipper where the corrosponding 2 had to match the 6. Which makes no sense.
@@whatsleep17 yeah that's what I'm saying. I was hoping it would be wrong and he'd have to go back.
It's not often I attempt a Phistomaphel puzzle OR one that takes these guys an hour plus, but this one was fairly reasonable. The trickiest part for me was keeping track of which colors meant what.
44:08, that was a pretty easy Phistomefel.
Took me a bit to see that since there was an odd number of digits being added to each other, one had to add to itself, so the total sum had to be even.
Then, I got to color the entire grid, which I enjoy a lot!
Oreo is definitely better than I am at sudoku
35:16 finish. When I started coloring, I used the palindrome instead of the zipper. It helped to open things up a little more quickly. An excellent puzzle, as always, and not too difficult!
You couldve ruled out the 3 in row 7 column 4 because of the 3,5 pair in the row.
"Copycat". Wait... is that a Ditto (Pokémon) in the grid?!
22:00 at this point green could be 789, 7,9 can't be on black dot but we are looking for case 8. However if you put 8 in r2c5 on black dot that would put 4 below it....but then it's partner on the zipper would need to be 4. So r2c5 is not green
Love it! It was not so hard, but still awsome!
Wow! That was my first variant sudoko ever - and it was a Phistomefel - noticed the double 4 requirement almost immediately which set me off on a colouring escapade. And that after following the channel for the last 3 years.
Watched Simon's solve and realised that his leaving the green colouring for 8 and not colouring the 2 and the 6 did not allow him to keep track of the 6 numbers that appeared twice on both lines.
Easiest phistomefel sudoku is an hour long! 😀
I solved a puzzle by Phistomefel, without having to watch Simon first ! And a little less than 3 hours. Thanks for the easy one Phistomefel.
I can see the cat i guess. The Zipper line is the head of a cat from a side profile. The "spike" between the 2 black dots is the ear. The part in Box 6 is the forehead. Box 9 Cell 1 is the eye part and box 8 and 9 are the mouth and chin part.
1:24:52 - Yay - I solved a Phistomefel
puzzle! I got the break in relatively quickly but did struggle in the middle a bit. 😊
30:00 There's a slightly easier way to see that the central digit is an 8. If the central digit is x, then the zipper line sums to 8x since the zipper has 7 pairs summing to x, plus x itself
So the palindrome also sums to 8x, and each "wing" of the palindrome besides the middle digit will sum to 3.5x.
So x must be even and must be 8
wow that really was an amazing puzzle, my first ever phistomempel puzzle solved, thank you so much for showcasing!
I was thinking the two wings of the zipper would end up containing 123567 and feel slightly underwhelmed that they don't 😅
At 3:14 I assume by your pronunciation that you were attempting to say the name "Nguyen". While the actual pronunciation is difficult for most English-speakers, the two people in my life who have this as their last name have accepted pronouncing it as simply "Win". This is the default pronunciation in my experience for anyone that doesn't know how to pronounce Vietnamese words super well. Hope this helps!
Came to make the same comment!
So I don’t often do the puzzles, I just enjoy following along and testing myself to see if I can follow the logic and, sometimes, stumbled upon it before Simon does. A fun instance occurred around 30 mins in as Simon was describing the issue with the spare pair where I initially asked myself “what the heck is he getting at?!” and almost immediately, before Simon stated it, blurted out “there’s a single pair of double digits, so green is even!”
And then my wife rolls her eyes and says "Are you watching that sudoku stuff again?"
dang the zipper sum breakthrough took me way too long, but I'll take it!
Very fun solve and pretty straightforward once you internalize the trick
(Also did Simon get lucky with mixing the two lines?)
Quite proud of myself for getting the break with the 8 and pair of 4's! I did have to do some pencil marking first for the problem of having and odd number of pairs to click, but once it did click, it was quite the eureka moment for me! 😄 Took me quite a while to get through the whole puzzle, but I did manage to solve my first Phistomefel puzzle in 84:27!
18:56 for me. I think I remember a 2-star puzzle by Phistomefel being featured on the channel some time ago, although I might be wrong. This one was definitely quite challenging, but not monstrously hard. Nice puzzle!
I also remember this
I've been thinking for a while it would be fun to set a hexsudoku puzzle (1-9, A-F) using thermos. But adding in german whispers would be interesting as well. 5 could go on a whispers line. A lot of tricks would no longer work. lol
I didn't find it easy, but mostly because when writing my notes, I lost a pair somewhere. I did then do an extensive marking up, which meant later on I could link the colors from the lines (although I used letters) to the numbers. I spent a good 2 hours on it tho!
Could you start a second TH-cam channel where you read poetry to us everyday please?
I know this was apparently easy for most people, this was very hard for me as someone who has not done a non-traditional sudoku before, but I just made a breakthrough so I'll update this if I end up getting it!
Edit - Welp I tried it and somewhere I somehow messed up and had to restart, but I got it on decently fast on my second try
edit 2: 25:25 Thank u for making me feel better about myself for getting that trick and not feel as bad for how long it took me lol
I had to reset 4 times because I made different assumptions that apparently weren't warranted and ended up with a broken puzzle.
That said, that the central digit on the zipper is even is easier to digest that the reason Simon gives:
The digits on the zipper are the same as the ones of the palindrome. The central digit on both must be the same (because it's the single largest).
Therefore the digits off the centre of both must also be the same, and have the same sum. But on the palindrome that sum is even (same digits on either side), and on the zipper calculates as 7 times the central digit. So the central digit must make the product even.
Interestingly I had more trouble forcing 4s onto the lines.
48:27. Always pleased when i beat the video length, even if that's not actually the solve time for Simon.
38:39. Quickly eliminated 67 from zipper line sum. Though 8 would be an easy elimination too, so tried solving with 8. Then as kept going, it kept continuing to work. Used colouring sudoku to make an impact and once I figured out which cloud was 35 because of the 36 dot it was a great break in. Never got to eliminate the 9 as a zipper candidate though. So not a perfect solve. But I finally solved one of his puzzles on my own.
Wow❗ I am impressed again by Phistomefel❗What a magificent drastically innovative idea for the break-in❗ And what an elegant minimalistic use of *dots* and *geometry* to make the whole solve challenging and fun.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I liked Simon's solve as well, but I think notation could be made cleaner. A white-flashed colour can be and should be deleted after discovering the digit represented by that colour. For instance, @30:51 I would immediately remove white flashed *green* from the whole grid, after substituting it with the corresponding corner-pencilmarked digit (8). I would also remove non-white flashed green. It is *redundant* and *cumbersome* notation. Removing it makes everything else much easier to scan.
I was stuck for like an hour marking in letters and colors and was "just" missing the deduction that there has to be a pair of the same digits on that line... from there it was relatively easy
Great puzzle. It is a type of puzzle that I can try, with hints, but not impossible as other puzzles from Phistomefel 😅 thank you! 🎉
Definitely pretty simple once you figure out what the central digit of the lines is. Just getting there was the hard part for me. Really satisfying aha moment there
I think I would agree this is the easiest. Took me 36:38 but it was never confusing and very clear where to look next. The solution of 'all numbers must be different but with 8 numbers you can't add to 9 (1 is 9, 7 remaining leaves 3 pairs + a doubled one), therefore 4 must reoccur' was very intuitive. You can spot that right away by just asking if a number can reoccur on the palindrome, while having enough space to repeat on the other line that many times (it can't). Then you can just make it an 8-color puzzle and it goes really fast. I'm not even sure it's a 2-star tbh.
How many people noticed the pink zipper line looks like a cat?
Yes! Those little peaky ears in boxes 2 and 3 and profile of the face in 6
62:10 for me. I didn't find that easy. But I did my first Phistomefel puzzle!
44:41 for me. Nice puzzle!
Wonderful and exciting puzzle.
i like how on these puzzles i do it completely different. lol i had to use colors and do the sudoku without the numbers to figure it all out. used different colors on the palindrome and then i assigned a letter to each color to figure out which colors match on the zipper lines. then i played sudoku with the colors only. and at the end i just had to use the black dot that got me the 2 and that lead to the 6 which got me the 3 on the other black dot. the white dot got me the 1 and then that allowed me to break the puzzle open. then at the end just changed the letters or colors to numbers to finish the puzzle. the 7th number figuring that out was like scratching your hand across a chalkboard.
Does anyone actually hear the aeroplane noises Simon is always worrying about? I don't know if the whirring of my computer is just drowning it out, but I've never heard anything. This thought has got me wondering if anyone's ever had a version of schizophrenia where instead of hearing voices they hear imagined aeroplanes tormenting them. As for the puzzle, I guess maybe overall it was a relatively smooth phisting, but the break in itself was extremely hard for me. In retrospect I should have got it sooner, I suppose.
Yep I hear Maverick!
You seriously don't hear the aeroplane from 26:50 to 27:10? I don't know how that's possible. It's quite loud. 😂
@@RichSmith77 Oh wow, yes I hear it! I secretly never watch the videos beyond the intros (unless I get stuck), but when he mentions hearing Maverick in the intro I can't hear what he hears. That is pretty annoying for Simon, and the viewers.
32:47 for me. This was amazing.
One thing for certain Simon is that if I get a break in the puzzle b4 you I spot advancements solving the puzzle faster than you in the video. However, Maverick doesn't effect me as much as the potential helicopters that pass by me
68 minutes, not so bad for me and a lot of fun.
I wouldn't say that was the easiest Phistomefel puzzle, I think remember easier puzzles. But maybe that is, because they weren't Phistomofel puzzles. Seriously, the thought the copycat property means you have to use pairs twice on the zipper line was my first thought. It took me much longer to have the simpler thought that the odd number of pairs meant the central zipper line digit had to be even, because one pair must be the same digit twice. How do you say? Bobbins.
I am convinced that Maverick has your place bugged.
I'm always much cleverer watching Simon than playing myself.
I did the break#in differently. The parity of the sum of the palindrome line must be the same parity of the central cell, because the rest is 2 x the sum of one side. And the sum of the pink line is 8 x the central cell, so that's even, so the central cell must be even.
21:25, all pairs in the zipper see each other except the tail. So this eliminates green from the black dot.
Gah I was shouting about not using the black dots to place 8