Parsing in the Fog to Find the Difference

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:06]Hey, how's going? Welcome back to the channel today's puzzle. Now, this is a it's another fog of war where you don't have the entire or the bulk of the puzzle actually being covered fog. I think the last one we did actually was very similar. It was like the Minesweeper one. Was that the one that was so we did last time? Been about a week now, so I can't quite remember, but um we have very limited number of fog cells here and we actually have quite a few givens. But that's kind of the point what's going to keep this thing looking interesting. I scrolled through these rules here for a second, so I kind of get the concept what's going on here, but let's take a look at this, see what those rules are, see what the puzzle and all that kind of good stuff, then we can make some determinations. So it's called foggy greater than tens by Pagedo.

[00:00:50]We've got normal Sudoku, so every row, column, and 3 by 3 box will contain the digits 1 through 9 once each.

[00:00:57]Now, the X and the greater than sign have been deliberately set to be exactly the same when partially covered with fog. So we don't know if any of these are X's or greater than's cuz they're all partially covered with fog. So this could just be a greater than here and there's nothing down here or this could continue and be a complete X. We do not know. That is intentional. That's what's going to make this puzzle roll it looks like. So now the number of a cell with one or more greater than signs pointing out is greater than all the other orthogonal adjacent cells being pointed to. So if this was a greater than sign, that would mean this digit just has to be less than seven. If these were both greater than signs, it means these two would have to be less than whatever this is.

[00:01:41]Digits in cells joined by an X sum to 10. So if this was an X clue, that would be a seven with a three. We know that's not the case, but that's okay.

[00:01:50]We'll use that in our solve, I'm sure.

[00:01:52]Now, not all X's are necessarily given.

[00:01:55]It doesn't say not all greater than signs are given I find interesting, but there's no negative constraint on our X's. That's the only thing we can say at this stage. Maybe there will be on the greater than's. I don't quite know.

[00:02:11]Anyhow, says not all X's are given, necessarily given. Now, also parts of the greater covered in fog, as you can see.

[00:02:20]Placing correct digit may clear some fog somewhere in the grid.

[00:02:24]So, if we were to get this digit, I think it will clear this bit of fog, but we don't know that cuz it doesn't actually say that. But, if we get this digit, it may very well say these two will clear and we'll get some more information as to what's going on.

[00:02:38]We won't really know what's going to happen until we get into this puzzle, cuz these things can be set in any multitude of way. There have been puzzles we've done in the past where you put a digit in a fogged cell where the fog doesn't clear, cuz it's trying to keep the information there close to the belt >> [clears throat] >> while other things are going on. So, that may occur.

[00:02:59]Just a warning I guess at the end of the day right there. Now, if necessary, use the undo and redo to check which cells, if any, reveal, okay?

[00:03:07]So, that's a nice little tip. So, if we were to, let's say, put this digit in, we were focused over here and like this cell clears and we weren't paying attention, we may never realize it happened.

[00:03:19]So, if we get this digit, we know we're right. We could do like an undo and redo and then zoom our eyes out as we're doing that, we see the entirety of the board and then that might be more apparent that something has cleared. I like the hint. Thank you.

[00:03:33]So, with all that said, this looks like it's going to be an intriguing puzzle to get into. So, let's figure it out. Link is going to be in the description below.

[00:03:41]Let's have a little bit of fun. Let's have some fog fun.

[00:03:44]All right. So, where are we going to start? I think of the first thing we know this three says that this cannot be an X clue. So, this is just going to be lower than seven. I don't know how useful that is.

[00:03:54]Obviously, it can't be three or four.

[00:03:57]I think reciprocally Is that a word? Or said it correctly. This can't be an X clue either.

[00:04:03]Because the seven is looking at it. So, this has to be lower than three, but it can't be a two. So, it's going to be a one.

[00:04:10]If my mouse and keyboard would stop doing what they keep doing.

[00:04:16]Bad computer. Bad computer.

[00:04:19]Anyway.

[00:04:20]>> [laughter] >> Now, this has to be an X clue, doesn't it? Cuz we can no longer leave this as a greater than, cuz this would have to be a one. So, you have to be an eight.

[00:04:29]Okay, I did see that clear. So, we now have this region set up for us.

[00:04:34]And this oh, become We now have a a less or greater than sign sitting here.

[00:04:39]Again, not really sure how helpful that is, cuz we don't really know much about that.

[00:04:44]I think we're going to have to start digging into what these can be. Now, do we start thinking about like where do ones and nines go? Cuz we know We know most of these are greater than signs. We don't know what these are yet, but the rest of it might be enough to help.

[00:04:59]So, where do ones go?

[00:05:01]Well, you can't be a one anymore.

[00:05:04]Cuz we can't We know this is a greater than.

[00:05:06]So, one can never go on a greater than.

[00:05:11]You can't be a one. You can't be a one.

[00:05:15]You actually can't be a one either, and you can't be. So, we're going to get a one.

[00:05:19]Yeah, so none of these, cuz these all have the greater than signs pointing away from them. So, obviously, you can't put the one in them. This one the same way.

[00:05:27]This one can't be cuz of Sudoku. Then we're left with these two, but this one actually can't be a one.

[00:05:33]Cuz this would have to be an X clue here, and this would have to be a nine, but the nine's already there. So, you are a one.

[00:05:39]Okay, that didn't appear to clear anything.

[00:05:42]>> [snorts] >> Now, do we dig into the nines? Cuz these can't be nines.

[00:05:47]You can't be a nine cuz this would have to be bigger than it. So, one of these is nine.

[00:05:54]Is that helpful? Oh, this one is just a nine.

[00:05:57]Hello.

[00:05:58]Has to be larger than a seven, can't be an eight. You're nine.

[00:06:03]We got the nines. What about the eights?

[00:06:04]Let's move on to eights and then maybe twos.

[00:06:07]You can't be an eight cuz this would have to be a nine.

[00:06:11]You could be I think any of those three could be at this stage.

[00:06:18]Eight greater than one, eight greater than whatever this is. Eight could be greater than something.

[00:06:24]Yeah, I think any of those could be an eight.

[00:06:28]That doesn't seem too helpful. Let's think about the twos.

[00:06:31]No, no, no, no. So, one of these two will be. Can we remove you as the option?

[00:06:39]We can. You can't be a two cuz this wouldn't be a greater than cuz we couldn't put a one here and it can't be an X but it can't put an eight here. So, you are the two.

[00:06:49]Still didn't feel like anything cleared.

[00:06:52]Um next, threes cuz we actually have a three looking in.

[00:06:56]You You can't be a three cuz we couldn't make this one a one or a two. So, one of these two is the three.

[00:07:06]Now, you could still be a three cuz this could be a seven. This would be an X clue. It couldn't be a greater than if it was a three cuz you can't use one or two, but there's still the option there.

[00:07:20]Um we also do have nines and twos looking in this direction. Do we want to think about those? Cuz one of these is a nine.

[00:07:27]One of these has to be a two.

[00:07:32]Helpful?

[00:07:33]One of these will be an eight as well.

[00:07:37]I don't know if that tells me anything.

[00:07:39]You Well, you can't be a two cuz this can't be an X or a greater than cuz this can't be a one or an eight, but not sure that's helpful. Let's maybe go into this and start seeing what the restrictions are cuz I think we can kind of just do some cutouts here for what all of this could be. So, let's just do that.

[00:07:59]3 4 5 6 and 8. You're not eight. None of you are threes.

[00:08:04]Now, this one, well, this one can't be four.

[00:08:08]This one can't be four. This one can't be five. You can't be eight. You can't be eight. Okay, I should have seen that.

[00:08:17]Excuse me. I should have seen that when I was looking at the eights here cuz this would have had to been a nine, but you can't be a six. No six.

[00:08:26]Cuz we have to keep these all in line, if you will.

[00:08:30]You can't be eight cuz the four or the five has to be larger than this, so you can't be eight, six, or five. Okay. That pushes you to be the eight. That's what we needed to do. So, I had to kind of go through these and see what's what.

[00:08:42]You're eight.

[00:08:44]Okay, that did clean some stuff out. I did notice that. So, we get a two and I think we got this cell cleared, so we know this is a greater than. Well, actually, let's just put that in cuz we know what it is. If this is greater or is less than a four, it has to be a three.

[00:08:58]That clears you out. Okay.

[00:09:00]Uh do we have Let's go back to here. I want to make sure I did everything I can do here first.

[00:09:05]I think I have.

[00:09:07]Cuz this could be like a 5 4 3 with a 6.

[00:09:09]Could be a 6 5 4 with a 3 or it could be some mixture of things. Okay. So, let's go down here.

[00:09:15]You Okay, again, you are a greater than sign.

[00:09:19]Can't be a two or three, so it is going to be a one. That's I just saw a seven pop up here.

[00:09:26]What a Let's We probably should just think about our seven cuz none of these can be sevens. One of these will be.

[00:09:35]Don't [snorts] think we can save any of these could be or not.

[00:09:39]Uh one of these will be a one.

[00:09:43]Not super helpful.

[00:09:48]Does that seven tell us anything else?

[00:09:49]Does it tell us anything about Oh, I just realized I didn't even look at this five.

[00:09:54]All of these have to be less than signs or greater than signs, I should say.

[00:09:59]Cuz we can't ever put an X on a five.

[00:10:01]So, these are ones, twos, threes, and fours, which means these are sixes, sevens, eights, and nines.

[00:10:05]And you can't be an eight.

[00:10:08]Again, not entirely sure that this matters. You can't be a two.

[00:10:13]So, these will be from one, three, four, and six. And I guess one of these two will be our six.

[00:10:18]You can't be a three.

[00:10:20]I don't know how much marking I'm going to have to get into to this one.

[00:10:24]But it feels like we might have to do some of that information to get that information in there.

[00:10:30]Okay.

[00:10:31]Now, we actually don't know if any of these are X's or greater than's.

[00:10:38]Cuz we can make any of those work. In fact, both could work in all situations. Like if say this was an X, well, that'd be a six, four. That would still work as a greater than. So, I don't know if that's too useful.

[00:10:51]>> [snorts] >> All right, what else can we do then?

[00:10:55]Um Oh, this is a 278. I just realized that.

[00:11:00]Once we put that eight in there, it forced that.

[00:11:04]You can't be a two, we already said.

[00:11:08]Does that help? Cuz it I guess it might push these and maybe we can use that information in some useful way.

[00:11:14]One, two, three, four, five, and six are the remainders here.

[00:11:21]Can we pick away at this in any way?

[00:11:24]You can't No, that's not true. You can't be a four cuz then this wouldn't be an X or a greater than.

[00:11:36]I think you could be any of those, but >> [clears throat] >> anything else we can restrict here?

[00:11:44]If you are a No, you can't be a five either cuz again, we wouldn't be able to make this a greater than or an X.

[00:11:52]So, you are pushed down to a three or a six.

[00:11:57]In what way does that help me?

[00:12:00]Is there some given here or here?

[00:12:07]Actually, what is this digit?

[00:12:11]Let's think about both options of this being an X or a greater than.

[00:12:16]If it's a greater than, this is a four and this is a three.

[00:12:20]If it's an X, this is a four and this is This is always a four.

[00:12:24]Which means you're a five, you're a six, you're a three. Okay, that clears space, good. Now, we know fours and fives here, so we can get rid of those. So, this becomes a three six.

[00:12:38]Okay, so now we know these are X's. So, there's There's not a whole lot of restriction there, is it?

[00:12:43]Well, I guess it pushes an eight here, doesn't it? Cuz we can't put the eight two anymore.

[00:12:48]So, where do we put the eight? The only place it goes is here. And if that's an eight, this has to be a two. So, you're not a two.

[00:12:55]Now, we just have this grouping of 1 3 4 6 7s and 9s to deal with. Well, you can't be 7s, can you?

[00:13:02]Didn't notice you came up.

[00:13:04]So, you're seven.

[00:13:06]If you're seven, you are a three.

[00:13:09]You are not threes.

[00:13:11]Okay.

[00:13:14]Uh Did that do anything for us? The 6 9 says this is three and six.

[00:13:22]Why did that not clear anything?

[00:13:26]I don't like that.

[00:13:29]But again, I said there is a possibility that could be the case here, but it always worries me when that happens.

[00:13:35]1 4 and 5 You can't be a 1 obviously.

[00:13:44]Now of course the the non-clearing of like I said previously, the non-clearing of the fog could just be protecting these clues so it's not just obvious that this is an X. Well, I guess we know this is an X.

[00:13:59]It doesn't really matter in any case, I guess, but we don't know what you are cuz you could still be Well, I guess we know you're a 1 or a 6, right?

[00:14:11]So, if we think about the four clue.

[00:14:15]If it's a four you could be can't be two or three. So, if it's a greater than you are one.

[00:14:24]If it's an X clue, it just had to be a six. So, yeah.

[00:14:29]Don't know if I like that.

[00:14:31]I don't Did these guys clear or is that already here? I think that was already here.

[00:14:36]Um >> [clears throat] >> you're still seven or eight. Either one works there.

[00:14:43]For a greater than or X, I don't think I can use that. Is there anything over here maybe?

[00:14:50]4 5 and 6. Oh, we know there's a 6 here.

[00:14:56]Okay, that didn't do anything.

[00:14:58]You have to be a four or a five for the row.

[00:15:04]Um what else?

[00:15:07]Do we need to start putting in some digits here maybe?

[00:15:14]Or is there more some Sudoku or something we can work with?

[00:15:19]We know you're a greater than cuz this can't be a two.

[00:15:24]Oh, wait. You're a Oh, you're a greater than sign. Why did I not even see you?

[00:15:28]That means you're nine.

[00:15:31]You have to be greater than the seven.

[00:15:32]Can't be the eight.

[00:15:35]You have to be a greater than, but let's put these in. See if we can find something.

[00:15:40]Two, we can.

[00:15:42]Where do the twos and threes go? They go right here.

[00:15:46]Which means you have to be a five.

[00:15:49]Still not clearing anything.

[00:15:52]The three says you are two. You are three.

[00:15:57]Okay, that cleared stuff. Thank goodness.

[00:16:01]Um this is an X, so you are seven.

[00:16:06]These are not. In fact, you have to be the eight, cuz the two. So, eight and two.

[00:16:12]These are four, fives, and nines. You are the nine.

[00:16:16]This is for a five.

[00:16:19]Okay, so that yeah, the the fog just means me me staying here to protect some of these other clues. It's not just a obvious let's move on to the next clue type of thing.

[00:16:29]All right, what else we got?

[00:16:31]Do I have more [clears throat] Sudoku we can work with? One of these two is two.

[00:16:36]One of those will be a one.

[00:16:39]Yeah.

[00:16:41]Oh, this is a two.

[00:16:44]That clears more, which means you have to be the eight. You have to be the two.

[00:16:48]Okay.

[00:16:49]Now, you are an X clue, so you have to be a three.

[00:16:54]Good. Now, we can probably just dig into what all of these can be.

[00:16:59]What are these first, though?

[00:17:01]Four, five, and one.

[00:17:05]That doesn't tell me anything, does it?

[00:17:07]Oh, you can't be a five.

[00:17:10]That's a one four pair. Maybe that's enough to kind of grease this up.

[00:17:16]Three, six, seven, eight, nine. You can be three or eight.

[00:17:22]You can't be nine or six. So, let's see what those restrictions are.

[00:17:28]You can't be a three cuz we can't put a one-two pair cuz these are both greater than's.

[00:17:34]And the three sitting right here, too.

[00:17:35]You You lovely human being, where's the three go in this row? Goes right here.

[00:17:42]Didn't clear anything. Okay.

[00:17:45]Uh 1 4 Do we have sevens, eights 6 7 8 and 9? Let's put these in and see if we get any clues here. You're not seven.

[00:17:53]You're not eight.

[00:17:56]Eh.

[00:17:58]I've been wanting to kind of put these in for a while, but I don't know if anything helps me there. What about you?

[00:18:05]Cuz you can't be one, two, or three. You have to be larger than this, which means you can't be a nine, first off. So, one of those two will be You have to be greater than six or seven. So, you're seven or nine.

[00:18:20]Can't be seven, you are nine.

[00:18:24]You have to be greater, blah blah blah.

[00:18:28]Do we Oh, the nine says the six and the nine, which will give us the one and the four, which will give us the one, which will give us a six, which means you're not sixes.

[00:18:39]Six, sevens, eights, and nines, nothing necessarily given right there yet. Let's keep moving on with these can be.

[00:18:47]We need 4 5 6 7. We can never put an eight in any of those.

[00:18:54]You can't be sixes. You can't be seven or six.

[00:19:01]You could be seven, eight, something else. That's a four-five pair, though, so you are our seven, which means you have to be the eight. Six stuff is clearing and over here now. Good.

[00:19:15]Now, we know these are greater than's, but I don't know that told me too much.

[00:19:19]Let's put these digits in now. Oh, we actually know this is a 10 clue, too.

[00:19:21]We'll get to that in a second.

[00:19:23]Um 5 6 8 and 9, neither of you two can be sixes, so you are the six. You can't be eight or nine, so you are the five.

[00:19:32]You're not a five. That's an 8 9. We can put the eight here and the nine, which will give us the seven.

[00:19:40]Now, where are these two? They have to be a 9 1, so you have to be the nine.

[00:19:45]You have to be the one.

[00:19:47]The uh the five says four and five, which says four and five. Doesn't clear that up. That's a five. Still doesn't clear things up. The four does say one and four, though.

[00:19:59]I have a feeling we might not clear any of this fog until near the end there now. Where are you? Two? And you will be four? Oh.

[00:20:07]I have to speak, don't I?

[00:20:09]>> [laughter] >> You guys are not ones?

[00:20:12]And you're not a three. So, this is a 4 6 pair. You will be the four. You will be the six. That nine says you are a one, which means you have to be the two do be do be doop nine.

[00:20:25]You will be the five. You're not a five or a one. You are a four.

[00:20:30]So, now we just have Sudoku. We should be able to roll through the rest of this now.

[00:20:34]Uh sevens and eights. You will be seven.

[00:20:36]You will be eight.

[00:20:37]Three and five. Three and five. One and seven. There we go. So, the puzzle solution is correct. Cool.

[00:20:45]Uh 340 solves in just over a day.

[00:20:48]Sounds like it. The good puzzle. Really enjoyable. I kind of like the fact that there was some um the fog didn't clear on certain digits, [clears throat] cuz I think if it had, it would have been really obvious what some of these things were, and there wouldn't be any further deductions to make. We'd just be digging in saying, "Okay, you are you are you are you."

[00:21:08]Then just go down line. There wouldn't be as much intrigue or fun to solving what this thing could be. So, good puzzle. I really enjoyed that one.

[00:21:16]Again, kind of the um almost like it's like a pseudo fog puzzle, but kind of a >> [clears throat] >> a a modified fog where there's only so much fog, and then the fog was just put in places where it caused enough intrigue, enough guessing, not guessing necessary, but enough um of the um the way to make you have to think about options instead of just straight given. So, anyway, fun puzzle. Hope you all enjoyed it, and uh we'll see you next one. Thanks a lot.