Before even watching, or trying to solve, I would just like to say thanks for uploading the three and a half hour long video instead of contemplating whether or not you should. One day I hope to see a five hour video.
Yes, I just checked-Region Geometry was actually longer than this one, around 3:36, and I think several other Patreon-exclusive TH-cam videos would be close to the top of the list as well!
"Go ahead and give it a go." *checks video length* No. I don't think I will. I was wondering why yesterday's video was one from the backlog. Now we know.
I have endured one of the hardest weeks of my life this weeks, and tonight I feared that I would suffer against the chaos of the world alone. Indeed, Simon, I am beyond grateful for your patience and tenacity in solving this puzzle. I now have three and a half hours to spend in solidarity with you as we both tackle the beast! Thank you for your wonderous mind, genius solving, and intellectual grandeur. With immense love and appreciation, I applaud you all the way from Cape Town, South Africa. S x
I feel like around 1:31:00, there was a lucky step: "A" could be provided by R6C3 as a vertical indexer. What brought Simon to eliminate that was that there was already a "A" vertical indexer. But it was an indexer having "A" as a digit, not an indexer providing a value "A"
1:53:00 is another one. It only breaks if we have a purple in r2c7 or r2c8 but it can be in r2c6 and then it works. You can place vertical B in r1c7 or r1c8.
@@rafazieba9982 That part is fine - it breaks because you then have 2 cells both horizontally indexing B (r3c6 and the cell on the line in box1 that needs to hold the value of B and can at this point not be plain B or a vertical indexer because of r3c6 indexing B as vertical indexer in r3c1/2).
Three and a half hours?! This is definitely going to test the limits of my love for long solves. Oh, and it's IcyFruit. The maddest setter there is. I'm going to have to save this one for later.
1:18:40 Simon highlights cells labelled ‘B’, ‘A’ and ‘D’, in that order, at exactly the moment he says “this is actually a bad thought”. That was pleasing
Thank you Simon for attempting this and being able to solve it, then putting it here on the channel!! 3 and half hours?? Get some snacks, crawl into a comfortable position and watch an epic video!! Just incredible from you and Icyfruit!!!
Is 1:31:50 a logical conclusion that r6c3 cant be a vertical indexer? If it were, it would have a digit *not* equal to A, which would point do a horizontally indexed A, right? I'm having trouble understanding the logic at that step.
1:53:00 is another one. It only breaks if we have a purple in r2c7 or r2c8 but it can be in r2c6 and then it works. You can place vertical B in r1c7 or r1c8.
We know we're in uncharted waters when, 27 minutes into the solve, Simon decides he needs a color to indicate "something". 😂 (On the other hand, choosing a slightly different shade of green from "nothing" is classic Simon.)
After a long day of work and studies is always good to come home and watch Simon solving a beaultiful puzzle. I always relax watching the videos. Greetings from Brasil!!!
i just saw 3 hours and couldn't help but spark with joy! this is gonna be a good evening for me. thank you simon for bringing this bangers and making all of our days better!
Gonna find some time to watch the video asap, thank you uploading these long vids, its the only hope some of us have in understanding the genius behind these puzzles
History was finally made once again, I actually got to witness basically a 6* puzzle featured on the channel here… The first time I saw this one on LMD, I was shaking my head for a long while because I couldn’t imagine how someone could come up with ideas like this, let alone such an intense solve - which appeared to be not much of a surprise considering the setter’s name, and that’s from watching multiple solvers tackling it at the same time too (lol). Gonna say, an incredibly intricate yet incredibly rewarding and wonderful puzzle regardless x)
This is insane. It is hard to grasp really the amount of pure intelligence needed to create a sudoku puzzle of this kind. You struggled through it and you managed to crack it. An astonishing achievement. Hats off!!
I feel sorry for Simon, while not even having watched a minute of cracking. I'm not sure I'll watch every minute, every second, but before I see how my fortitude compares to Simon's I'll put in my like and comment! Good job otherwise it would not even make it to the channel.
Your negative diagonal conclusion at 1:04:00, I had the same thought earlier in the puzzle when you did an example putting a 9 in r1c1. I couldn't see how you could "get back around" to that position in the cycle.
Oh my. I love an occasional movie length solve. I try to solve all the puzzles before watching and actually can do most of them, even those monstrosities. But for this one, I don't know what to do. Ask comp for 2 weeks off? Wait for retirement?
Something I notice quite soon by doing an indeterminated example (with a, b, c instead of coordinates and cell example numbers) is that the index cells form cycles of six where coordinates and values swap, so coordinartes and values of all indexer cells must be different or either themselves or one down the cycle will index into itself, making itself both an horizontal and a vertical indexer which is against the rules. So all negative diagonal cells are not indexers and the position of box 5 indexers is then deduced. Also, there will be three cycles of 6 indexers (18 total indexers).
I am not 100% convinced of the reasoning Simon does for excluding that r6c3 can’t be a column indexer at 1:32:50: he says that there is already a column indexer containing A, but this would be a column indexer of _value_ A, that is different and not prohibited
The taravanigan story reminds me of an episode of King of the Hill where Khan stops taking his mood stabilizers and becomes manic-depressive. He designs a grill during his mania but is then unable to build it during his depression. Eventually we're going to see a solve with the descriptor (Part 1)
There was no way I was going to watch this. Even at x2 speed the solve is the length of a feature film. The rules are overly complicated and I just don’t care about how it could be solved.
I don't think I will be solving this one
Hahahaha
Normally I'd give it a try, but I just can't wrap my head around these rules.
I don't think I'll be watching this one.
Why ever would that be???
After 3 hours, IcyFruit would be DefrostedFruit
Before even watching, or trying to solve, I would just like to say thanks for uploading the three and a half hour long video instead of contemplating whether or not you should. One day I hope to see a five hour video.
I believe Jay Dyer, IcyFruit and Phistomefel would have to join forces.
I certainly hope not!! I care too much about their well-being to want a 5-hour solve from Simon or Mark.
you are evil, wishing 5 hrs is just evil
What??? 3 HOURS???
- „Cancel the plans for this evening darling, it‘s gonna be a long one“
To be fair for me these ARE the plans for this evening
Nope. 3h and 30 min!
You don't have to watch it all in one sitting ...
This is the War and Peace of sudokus.
And no doubt just as hard to get through.
Simon challenges himself to his hardest sudoku solve ever, I challenge myself to my longest CtC watch ever
This is the amount of time, effort, markup, and general befrazzlement that I go through doing his 30-minute puzzles.
I shall not, as they say, be having a go.
Top 5 longest CTC videos on YT:
1. Taiga by IcyFruit --> 3:30:32
2. Fillomenon by Darth Paradox --> 2:52:20
3. Loop Nurikabe by Jakhob & Wooferzfg --> 2:45:03
4. Crux by Jay Dyer --> 2:42:11
5. Pathfinder by KNT --> 2:37:43
fillomenon was really pretty
Wow, so it is the longest by 38 minutes! Smashing the old record
Thiss comment needs pinning...
Technically Region Geometry by Kolot should make into this list as well but it’s a bit different in terms of ‘context’ here x)
Yes, I just checked-Region Geometry was actually longer than this one, around 3:36, and I think several other Patreon-exclusive TH-cam videos would be close to the top of the list as well!
"Go ahead and give it a go."
*checks video length*
No. I don't think I will.
I was wondering why yesterday's video was one from the backlog. Now we know.
he asked on twitter if she should release it, and majority voted yes, and it his pc had work all day to make it able just for upload
It feels like these puzzles ARE your daily genius test!
Incredible solve. And Icyfruit. That was insane setting. Thanks to both of you for this gem.
Oh my!! I love watching the lengthy puzzles and boy, is this one! Looking forward to it!
RETURN OF THE KING length Sodoku video???🎉🎉🎉 Count me in! Thats amazing
This should have been a premiere with a live chat.
I LOVE Simon's long solves. It gives him an opportunity to demonstrate his brilliance, his genius, his impeccable logic that dwarfs my own.
I have endured one of the hardest weeks of my life this weeks, and tonight I feared that I would suffer against the chaos of the world alone. Indeed, Simon, I am beyond grateful for your patience and tenacity in solving this puzzle. I now have three and a half hours to spend in solidarity with you as we both tackle the beast! Thank you for your wonderous mind, genius solving, and intellectual grandeur. With immense love and appreciation, I applaud you all the way from Cape Town, South Africa. S x
I hope life will be kinder to you going forward
@@EllaABocame here to say the same
Thank you both 💗
I feel like around 1:31:00, there was a lucky step: "A" could be provided by R6C3 as a vertical indexer. What brought Simon to eliminate that was that there was already a "A" vertical indexer. But it was an indexer having "A" as a digit, not an indexer providing a value "A"
I came to the same conclusion. I watched it countless times to grasp the logic. One of the first breakthroughs was unfortunately an error.
1:53:00 is another one. It only breaks if we have a purple in r2c7 or r2c8 but it can be in r2c6 and then it works. You can place vertical B in r1c7 or r1c8.
@@rafazieba9982 That part is fine - it breaks because you then have 2 cells both horizontally indexing B (r3c6 and the cell on the line in box1 that needs to hold the value of B and can at this point not be plain B or a vertical indexer because of r3c6 indexing B as vertical indexer in r3c1/2).
Three and a half hours?! This is definitely going to test the limits of my love for long solves.
Oh, and it's IcyFruit. The maddest setter there is.
I'm going to have to save this one for later.
OK, I just listened to the rules. IcyFruit is indeed a madman/madwoman. Pure insanity.
omg SIMON MENTIONING STORMLIGHT i am in crossover heaven.
journey before destination, simon ♡
Holy 3.5 hours??? That’s pretty incredible, good job IcyFruit
A new record!
Was worried you wouldn't post this on the main channel. So glad you did. Thank you!
My brain has reached the boundary of its capacity. I don't even understand the rules, let alone know how to solve the puzzle... 😂
When he said "Let's get cracking" and then started laughing, I completely understood him
1:18:40 Simon highlights cells labelled ‘B’, ‘A’ and ‘D’, in that order, at exactly the moment he says “this is actually a bad thought”. That was pleasing
Thank you Simon for attempting this and being able to solve it, then putting it here on the channel!! 3 and half hours?? Get some snacks, crawl into a comfortable position and watch an epic video!!
Just incredible from you and Icyfruit!!!
"Honey? You might want to start reading War and Peace. I am going to be a while."
I don't know about you, but I see a praying mantis in the region subset lines
Is 1:31:50 a logical conclusion that r6c3 cant be a vertical indexer? If it were, it would have a digit *not* equal to A, which would point do a horizontally indexed A, right? I'm having trouble understanding the logic at that step.
You're right, it seems to be an oversight from Simon, flawed logic.
I saw another post about thos
1:53:00 is another one. It only breaks if we have a purple in r2c7 or r2c8 but it can be in r2c6 and then it works. You can place vertical B in r1c7 or r1c8.
We know we're in uncharted waters when, 27 minutes into the solve, Simon decides he needs a color to indicate "something". 😂 (On the other hand, choosing a slightly different shade of green from "nothing" is classic Simon.)
I just got out of a scary cardiovascular doctors appointment. Curling up in a booth at my favorite restaurant + 3.5 video? Perfect comfort.
Gosh, I know I said I love the long ones but this??!! This MOVIE requires popcorn 🍿 ❤😂
Finally, a 3 hour + solve. Love the longer videos. The sub 1 hour ones just don't do it for me, just start getting into it and boom over.
I’m saving this up for that long prison stretch.
3 and a half hours! Yep, that's my night sorted.
Rules: 06:10
Let's Get Cracking: 19:58
Simon's time: 3h8m19s
Puzzle Solved: 3:28:17
What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
Three In the Corner: 3x (3:14:29, 3:14:32, 3:14:37)
Maverick: 2x (22:41, 1:17:40)
Scooby-Doo: 1x (1:04:46)
Phistomefel: 1x (2:36:51)
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
By Sudoku: 22x (1:14:46, 1:19:26, 1:30:00, 1:36:24, 1:51:56, 1:54:39, 2:00:37, 2:03:12, 2:10:19, 2:30:40, 2:37:17, 2:39:09, 2:40:26, 3:16:17, 3:19:22, 3:19:48, 3:19:52, 3:19:56, 3:21:10, 3:21:52, 3:22:12, 3:27:47)
Sorry: 16x (12:34, 15:01, 30:11, 41:27, 43:13, 1:00:46, 1:17:11, 1:40:49, 1:55:28, 2:17:06, 2:25:17, 2:51:18, 2:52:49, 2:52:49, 2:55:34, 3:26:25)
Hang On: 15x (26:29, 1:25:38, 2:11:45, 2:16:40, 2:26:03, 2:28:04, 2:29:47, 2:34:56, 2:44:07, 2:50:40, 2:54:51, 3:00:01, 3:02:29, 3:09:37, 3:20:54)
Ah: 13x (18:46, 26:29, 42:22, 1:01:01, 1:37:04, 1:38:17, 1:59:05, 2:15:37, 2:19:47, 2:36:59, 2:48:35, 2:50:13, 3:27:18)
Weird: 10x (13:25, 27:19, 40:39, 1:12:38, 1:15:44, 1:29:22, 1:29:26, 2:12:00, 2:48:55, 3:11:45)
Brilliant: 9x (02:24, 02:31, 02:44, 02:53, 03:00, 03:13, 33:48, 43:48, 3:29:32)
In Fact: 9x (04:39, 21:59, 26:48, 1:08:20, 1:39:25, 1:51:56, 2:09:38, 2:38:53, 2:54:02)
What on Earth: 8x (10:39, 16:45, 53:18, 54:42, 1:41:50, 1:55:01, 3:03:34)
Good Grief: 7x (47:46, 51:52, 1:24:21, 1:47:26, 1:57:41, 3:13:58)
Goodness: 7x (22:08, 1:14:13, 2:36:38, 2:40:51, 3:01:49, 3:05:14, 3:19:19)
The Answer is: 6x (1:17:33, 2:17:43, 2:29:18, 2:45:29, 3:05:20, 3:09:02)
Wow: 5x (1:41:50, 1:42:43, 1:53:43, 1:59:09, 2:44:38)
Pencil Mark/mark: 5x (3:09:44, 3:16:58, 3:18:13, 3:21:41, 3:22:38)
Nonsense: 4x (59:52, 1:00:53, 2:36:18, 2:42:30)
I Have no Clue: 4x (1:15:26, 1:18:00, 1:58:09, 2:52:35)
Whoopsie: 4x (31:41, 2:38:39, 2:38:39, 2:38:42)
What Does This Mean?: 4x (08:04, 2:52:20, 2:55:26, 2:59:42)
Naughty: 3x (21:38, 21:42, 21:59)
Stuck: 3x (2:39:37, 2:42:20, 2:42:33)
Beautiful: 3x (1:05:56, 1:05:58, 1:11:46)
Incredible: 3x (3:28:34, 3:29:35, 3:29:35)
Surely: 3x (2:21:00, 2:37:25, 3:25:32)
Clever: 2x (56:47, 1:42:30)
In the Spotlight: 2x (2:37:32, 3:14:37)
Lovely: 2x (2:41:48, 2:41:52)
Fascinating: 2x (3:29:11, 3:29:14)
Ridiculous: 2x (2:04:31, 3:09:29)
Going Mad: 2x (45:14, 3:00:07)
Bizarre: 2x (13:51, 13:51)
Obviously: 2x (1:06:32, 1:45:25)
Progress: 2x (1:54:57, 1:55:01)
Cake!: 2x (05:20, 05:55)
Useless: 1x (43:28)
Bother: 1x (3:27:32)
Apologies: 1x (1:17:13)
Recalcitrant: 1x (2:41:09)
Horrible Feeling: 1x (3:10:50)
Come on Simon: 1x (2:47:07)
Shouting: 1x (2:12:39)
Spider-Sense: 1x (2:16:01)
Famous Last Words: 1x (3:26:44)
If I Trust my Pencil Marks: 1x (3:22:36)
Irritating: 1x (3:25:44)
Box Thingy: 1x (3:18:03)
Phone is Buzzing: 1x (32:32)
Wake Up: 1x (02:56)
Next Trick: 1x (2:51:51)
Lunacy: 1x (3:09:48)
That's Huge: 1x (3:16:06)
Nature: 1x (2:14:53)
Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Eighty Nine (10 mentions)
One (200 mentions)
Orange (44 mentions)
Antithesis Battles:
High (2) - Low (0)
Even (17) - Odd (1)
Outside (3) - Inside (0)
Row (84) - Column (71)
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!
That’s amazing !!
After a long day of work and studies is always good to come home and watch Simon solving a beaultiful puzzle. I always relax watching the videos.
Greetings from Brasil!!!
popcorn ready! gonna be a long evening/night with you, Simon.
side note: nope! will not be trying this one.
The first part of The Lord of the Rings of sudoku dropped.
This could've been 3 episodes.
Tomorrow On Cracking the Cryptic: Will Simon finally solve this Sudoku?
fun fact, you can start watching this one and still be watching it before Mark's puzzle release. never thought I'd say that
Huge respect to Icyfruit for creating a puzzle with a single logically deducible solution that took Simon over 3 hours!
I'm gonna grab a snack, grab a drink and enjoy the next 3.5 hours because this is going to be nothing but amazing!
The fact the the rules alone is shorter than some of your other sodoku videos is just insane to me
i just saw 3 hours and couldn't help but spark with joy! this is gonna be a good evening for me. thank you simon for bringing this bangers and making all of our days better!
"Do have a go?" Simon, er, you know, I think I may give it a pass. Will enjoy watching - over the next couple of days.
Simon says, "We don't as a rule like to make very long videos". I, on the other hand, enjoy watching Simon's longer videos.
Throw out the popcorn, think I need a family sized bucket of chicken
Gonna find some time to watch the video asap, thank you uploading these long vids, its the only hope some of us have in understanding the genius behind these puzzles
I love a long video! Time to pop some popcorn
I would love to see the process of creating such a beast
Oh my, I don't have enough popcorn for this one.
It hurts just by watching Simon struggle! IcyFruit is a mad scientist
History was finally made once again, I actually got to witness basically a 6* puzzle featured on the channel here…
The first time I saw this one on LMD, I was shaking my head for a long while because I couldn’t imagine how someone could come up with ideas like this, let alone such an intense solve - which appeared to be not much of a surprise considering the setter’s name, and that’s from watching multiple solvers tackling it at the same time too (lol).
Gonna say, an incredibly intricate yet incredibly rewarding and wonderful puzzle regardless x)
When I see the length of the video:
“Oh bobbins…”
This is insane. It is hard to grasp really the amount of pure intelligence needed to create a sudoku puzzle of this kind. You struggled through it and you managed to crack it. An astonishing achievement. Hats off!!
“Journey before destination”
Long videos are fine by us, we enjoy following along your path :)
I feel sorry for Simon, while not even having watched a minute of cracking. I'm not sure I'll watch every minute, every second, but before I see how my fortitude compares to Simon's I'll put in my like and comment! Good job otherwise it would not even make it to the channel.
I will not be solving that one, I will let your genius solve it Simon thank you very much.🤓
Can t wait to dwelve into Icy Fruit s logic though😅
Hope this goes viral :)
Your negative diagonal conclusion at 1:04:00, I had the same thought earlier in the puzzle when you did an example putting a 9 in r1c1. I couldn't see how you could "get back around" to that position in the cycle.
I'm very excited for this. Time to settle down for the night.
WHAT ok i need to leave for work in like 15 minutes this episode might have to be a whole day commitment I’ll dip in and out throughout the day lol
Lol. Holy hell etc. Simon, you are an awesome being for attempting this beast. I am going to watch it all though.
I don't mind difficult-to-solve puzzles, but I hate difficult-to-understand puzzles with complex rules. Therefore I shall not be trying this.
I don’t think a thumbs up gives this enough 🎉🎉🎉. Loved watching you solve this one😊
1:18:45 "this is a bad thought" ...spells out B A D 🙃
3 hours 30 minutes 😮 Double popcorn time!!
3 hours of sleep material!!! (I watch Simon solve sudoku to sleep, logical lullaby)
Holy bejoly I will certainly be coming back to watch this later. This looks incredible 😅
I don't normally watch the long ones, but I had to click the 3 hour video.
1:18:40 - "This is actually a bad thought." As Simon writes B A D in the vertical. I see what you did there!
Oh my. I love an occasional movie length solve. I try to solve all the puzzles before watching and actually can do most of them, even those monstrosities. But for this one, I don't know what to do. Ask comp for 2 weeks off? Wait for retirement?
This is actually a bad thought, as he selects B, A, and D 😂😂😂 1:18:52
Yeah, my brain is melting and I'm just trying to understand the rules.
3 1/2 hours ?!?!?!???!?!?!???!??
Simon! 3:30! I'm so proud of you!
«Do have a go». With all due respect sir, I don’t think I will.
Love your videos! Can't commit 3 hours though lol.
Holy, this will be an epic journey!!
Icyfruit and brains melted…
Something I notice quite soon by doing an indeterminated example (with a, b, c instead of coordinates and cell example numbers) is that the index cells form cycles of six where coordinates and values swap, so coordinartes and values of all indexer cells must be different or either themselves or one down the cycle will index into itself, making itself both an horizontal and a vertical indexer which is against the rules. So all negative diagonal cells are not indexers and the position of box 5 indexers is then deduced.
Also, there will be three cycles of 6 indexers (18 total indexers).
19:55 "Do have a go"
Looks at video length.
Heh, heh...
I wouldn't be able to solve this puzzle even if it had 72 correct starting numbers.
Oh my giddy aunt
Thank you for uploading it!
Had to pause to go and get the popcorn for this one 😊
🤯
I don't think I'm smart enough to watch this.
I am not 100% convinced of the reasoning Simon does for excluding that r6c3 can’t be a column indexer at 1:32:50: he says that there is already a column indexer containing A, but this would be a column indexer of _value_ A, that is different and not prohibited
The taravanigan story reminds me of an episode of King of the Hill where Khan stops taking his mood stabilizers and becomes manic-depressive. He designs a grill during his mania but is then unable to build it during his depression.
Eventually we're going to see a solve with the descriptor (Part 1)
There was no way I was going to watch this. Even at x2 speed the solve is the length of a feature film. The rules are overly complicated and I just don’t care about how it could be solved.
Another time breaking record!
Only 14 solves in 22 days, that certainly feels like ramping up the difficulty today
33:45 is that a The Stormlight Archive reference? I hope you enjoyed the most recent one as much as I did Simon!
3 hours???❤ I am here for it
I thought a 3 hour solve was long, but 19 seconds in and I have spotted that the first two hours, surely, are just reading the rules aloud :D
No spoilers for the Stormlight Archive book 5, but I could barely put it down - which considering its length...(!)
No wonder it took over 3 hours. Looks at the rule set. It's basically a novel.
I barely understand the rules 😑😑😑
Gonna have a go at this one, see you in 2026