"This Is 100% The HARDEST Puzzle I've Ever Seen"

I always like Simon solving symmetrical puzzles because he always finds two different ways to solve the puzzle instead of just doing the same thing twice.

Thank you so much for mentioning Zelda's birthday! She pointed at the screen when you talked about her (although that might have been by coincidence). I find the tradition of congratulating viewers to their birthdays so charming.

There's an elegant break-in at the start that uses some SET. Highlight the two L-shaped cages. Those are two sets of 1-9, or 90 total. Remove the four circles in those cages and add the 3-cell lines in boxes 6 and 8 to compensate. Still 90. That leaves only one cell each in box 6 and 8 not highlighted, and the maximum they can be are 4 and 5 since the are in the quad, and the four highlighted cells in box 5 and 9 must equal the total of the un-highlighted cells in 6 and 8. The lowest the highlighted cells can be are 1,3 and 1,4, which equals the 4,5. That gives you 1,3 in column 4 of one quad, 1,4 in column 9 of another quad, and the positions of 4/5 vs 2/3 in the 2345 quad. The rest of Simon's logic about where the digits in the circles go flows smoothly from there.

Wait, so yesterday's puzzle wasn't the hardest? We've been had!

Title, the hardest puzzle I've ever seen. Simon "do have a go" Love the conference you have in us!

I’ve seen a couple explanations of set theory, and I’ll add that I think it makes this puzzle much easier (though I’m normally very bad at identifying useful sets!). The 2 9-cell cages are one set, boxes 6 and 8 are the other. Eliminate all overlapping cells, and all lines/circles that have equal sums.

34:36 for me. I'd vote for 3 stars difficulty, personally. Really fun puzzle. Simon would have made his life easier if he'd 1) done the same logic on the left L-nonomino that he'd just finished on the right one (the same logic that got him the 1 and 4 around the 458 circle and the 5 around the 2345 circle could immediately be used on the other side to get the 1 and 3 around the 378 circle and the 4 around the 2345), and 2) left his roping colours in the top three rows, which would have resolved the 10-pair in box 3 much earlier, by noticing that the 1 couldn't go in r3c7 because of the quad clue in box 1.

"more appropriate to being muttered by a chibbering chimp" 😂😂😂 love it

You know it's a tough puzzle when Simon stops talking (I still wish I could find the one with 15 straight minutes of silence)

65:05 This was brutally, brilliantly, difficult. The instantly obvious roping made it look like it would be a bit simpler, but instead it was quite the grind of logical steps to chip away and this beauty's secrets until the roping appropriately tied up the final loose ends. A masterpiece.

I have never seen such an intricate and at the same time beautiful lattice of geometric restrictions by clueless cages, and I totally understand the reason why cam wrote on LMG "I am extremely confident I followed the intended solving path". This is a world class masterpiece. Every step, from start to end, was challenging, but never brutal and always divinely beautiful. Quads were magnificently used as disambiguators. How the hell can a human being be smart enough to conceive such a divine logic creature? For instance, how can just a bunch of neurons 💪🧠 conceive the multiple stratospherically clever and totally unexpected interactions between elementary restrictions that force circle in the UR corner of box 3 = circle in the UR corner of box 5 = just 4 or 5? And that's only the first step in my solve, followed by dozens of equally mind-blowing others‼ I would love to see a video by Math Pesto about the developement of this apparently superhuman achievement. Thank you Math Pesto. Thank you Simon. 😏👍 You both deserve a standing ovation 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Gouge Away is the magnificent final track on the altogether magnificent album "Doolittle" from Pixies, released 1989.

Simon: "Diagonal symmetry" Also Simon: Not using the logic he used to place the 1/4 in box 9 to do the same thing with the 1/3 in box 5.

17:43 for me. Fairly approachable once you spot the break-in. I would encourage people to give it a go despite the title of the video, 'cause it's a very enjoyable one to solve. Great puzzle!

33:08 and I echo some of the other comments, this never felt anywhere near the level of difficulty that I was lead to expect from the description. Some tricky scanning with the overlapping ropes, and I suspect if you miss the break-in you could probably go in circles for ages without getting much. Very interested to watch Simon now and see where he might have gotten held up. (quality puzzle tho! Don't get me wrong)

At 40:00, 1 and 3 in box 5 are row 4, because they have to be in the cage, but they are outside the cage in boxes 8 and 9. Combine this with the deduction at 41:15 and you can place 1 and 3 and 7 and 8 in box 5

So I think I found a slightly easier method with set theory. The 9 cell cage and box 6 are both sets of all 9 digits. Take away the 5 shared in box 6. Then you can get rid of the double arrow. Now you are only left with 1 cell in box 6 which has to be 2, 3, 4, or 5 and the two bottom cells which have to now add up to 2, 3, 4, or 5. Can't add up to 2, and you have two use at least 1 of the quad of 4, 5, and 8 so the only thing you can do is 5 which adds up with 1 and 4. You can do the same with the other 9 cell cage and box 8.

Oh, this puzzle was fun. I didm't find it that difficult, but it was very much a different style of difficult. Very intricate and it can absolutely wall you if you don't see some stuff.

At 37:37, isn't there the exact same problem with R7C6 being 3 as was with the other side where R6C7 couldn't be anything other but 5? With R7C6 set to 3, R9C7 would be forced to be a 3 and then there has to be both 1 and 2 on the arrow in box 8 and they would be forced to be a pair in R4R5C4 which is impossible.

I love that Simon put the roping up again and then ignored it when one part was completed.