Done, one lucky guess.

Done. 1 wrong guess.

g/ g -> bug - nice

Done, just a few greens

Difficulty score 63.

Done with 1 wrong guess

dng

done...thanks for the "expert"

Saying bug is tantamount to revealing the solution, not that I object to leaving the barn door open on occasions where Doc's rating system pegs the insanity meter. Still has to be reducio ad absurdum. Guessing however is like kissing your mother.

I love the smell of mixed metaphors in the morning.

how can saying bug be like revealing the solution when i have no idea what it means

good questio

or questioN

Well in your case it doesn't. There are more than one kind of bug but basically a bug is a temporary state where all remaining unsolved squares have been reduced down to one of two numbers except for one square, which has three numbers. One of those three numbers is the key to unlocking the answer.

It's impossible for all remaining squares to have just two numbers remaining, otherwise it would be invalid, like a box formation with multiple solutions. There can only be one answer.

o

i don't have a bug yet though

i have more numbers in more cells

ditto that but I'm close.

i did a forcing chain which has now got me to this bug

very good.

i'm not sure why it really matters, i mean, either way i think i still have to do another forcing chain

the number you would normally eliminate is the actual number, the bug.

how do you know which of the three numbers is the bug?

No thought required.

o...k...

i guess i'll just stick with the dumbo's way

If four boxes in a row have pairs of numbers except for one box which has three numbers, normally we look for whichever number are in three of the boxes in the row and eliminate one of them because we know it's an either or situation with two pairs of numbers.

In the case of the bug, we've reduced everything down to a state where its only pairs left. In this case the number left that's in three boxes isn't eliminated. It is the number, otherwise we'd be left with two possible solutions.

I'm not doing a very good job of explaining this. If you can do forcing chains you certainly have more than enough intellect to grasp this concept. I'd recommend you try Andrew Stuart's explanation. He does it with examples.

I found the forcing chain and solved it without the bug, lol. Rating 30. Good get, Hurshy.

go

and - re-start . . .

what??? worried about that dementia

starting again, sigh . . .

done - finally

done

Did it, no green, one unlucky guess. It had looked like, from the abundance of overlapped duos, that I would be able to do the last in my head. Alas, it took nearly till the end to prove my first guess wrong.

go

IThank you to all those who have fought for and protected our freedo.

*freedom.