** TODAY'S PUZZLE ** We had a really lovely email from Jakhob telling us about his friend (with whom he constructs puzzles) wooferzfg's birthday and requesting we take a look at Loop Nurikabe, a puzzle they are so proud of they made a fridge magnet of it! This puzzle has a 100% rating but very few people have managed to solve it in nearly a year. (One of our testers spent HOURS on it and couldn't finish.) Simon decided to give it a go and started early this morning... it was a good job he didn't start later!! Play the puzzle at the link below: https://sudokupad.app/ay00mqlwli Rules: Every cell is either water or land. All water cells must be orthogonally connected, and no 2x2 area may be entirely water. Groups of orthogonally-connected land cells form islands, which do not touch orthogonally, but may touch diagonally. Draw a non-intersecting loop through the centres of some cells which passes through each island exactly once. The loop may only visit one cell in each island. If a clue is on a land cell, it indicates the size of its island. Every island must contain exactly one clue. If a clue is on a water cell then the loop must pass through that cell and the clue indicates how many water cells are visited by the loop between the previous island and the next island. Every water section of the loop must pass through exactly one clue. A '?' can represent any non-zero value. Note that, to check whether you have the correct solution, either compare your solution to Simon's in the video (which is correct) or play the puzzle in Penpa at the link below (which has an inbuilt answer check function for loops!): https://tinyurl.com/2yzxfbkl ** NEW SUMGEONS & DIAGRAMS PUZZLE ** If you enjoyed our recent Dungeons & Diagrams streams then definitely check out the new puzzle by sunnyjum, Sumgeons & Diagrams, which combines D&D and sudoku in a brilliant way. The puzzle can be played completely free over on Patreon (and Simon's solve of the puzzle is available behind the paywall). Other treats on Patreon include: - the new James Bond sudoku hunt competition; - Simon's latest forays into the world of Islands Of Insight; - Mark's video looking at the new OneUp puzzle from Rodolfo Kurchan; - his solve of Region Geometry by Emre Kolotoğlu (3hr 36min long...!); - and Mark's latest solve of The Times Club Monthly cryptic crossword https://www.patreon.com/crackingthecryptic ** GET OUR FOG KICKSTARTER DELUXE & OUR BOOKS ** Check out this link for the kickstarter books and Fog Novella we've created over the years: https://coffeebean.games/product-category/cracking-the-cryptic/ ▶ SUDOKU PAD - Use Our Software For Your Puzzles ◀ You can input classic sudoku puzzles into our software and help support Sven, the programmer responsible for the wonderful user interface we all use to play these puzzles everyday. The app also comes with 12 handmade puzzles from us: iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/svens-sudokupad/id1570622073 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1706870/Svens_SudokuPad/ Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.svencodes.sudokupad ALSO on Amazon: Search for “SudokuPad” ▶ Contents Of This Video ◀ 0:00 Theme music and puzzle intro 2:48 New Snake Egg Sudoku Hunt coming soon 3:28 Dungeons & Diagrams sudoku & video!! 4:05 Happy Birthdays 8:37 Rules 16:12 Start of Solve: Let's Get Cracking ▶ Contact Us ◀ Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic email: crackingthecryptic@gmail.com 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'.) ************************************************************** ▶ CTC FAN DISCORD SERVER◀ https://discord.gg/BbN89j5 ▶ OUR BACK CATALOGUE – ALL CATEGORISED WITH LINKS!◀ https://tinyurl.com/CTCCatalogue ▶ NEW CRACKING THE CRYPTIC MERCHANDISE◀ null ▶SEND US PUZZLES TO SOLVE/CONTACT US◀ crackingthecryptic@gmail.com ▶FOLLOW US◀ Twitter: @crypticcracking Instagram (for how to solve daily clues from The Times): https://www.instagram.com/crackingthecryptic/?hl=en We also post the Wordle In A Minute videos on TikTok.