Fast solvers - any video?!

[Brewer]

I'm amazed at the speed with which some people can complete these puzzles!

I'd love to watch one of these top guns solving in real time, to see if they have developed shortcuts or if they are just doing the same as me at lighting speed.

Is anyone prepared to upload a video, or point me to any that already exist?

[drowso]

I can't fathom it. I've barely managed to enter the information on a touch screen by the times they've finished, let alone calculate further.

[NashvilleSCTheBest]

I’ve thought about doing something like this, but I don’t know how well it would translate. I have a lot of records in 4x6, but a lot of my best rounds I’m not even really thinking, you just get really comfortable and confident with the way things are worded and what the clues eliminate. There’s an element of patterns as well, but I try to disregard that for the sake of being able to enjoy the puzzles; it’s less fun if you realize you’ve seen variations of the same thing before.

another tip I would give is for every answer you get right with full confidence, you should very quickly see how that impacts the remaining clues— but again, if you’re reading and digesting each clue over and over, you’re bleeding the timer, so it’s a balance.

[boxeeboxeebox]

How fast are you looking to go? I can usually hit the "Very Fast" zone for 4x7 Challenging, averaging around 300 seconds, so I'm not the fastest. (That's my best guess; I sometimes go AFK mid-solve so the average time on my profile is much higher.)

With Challenging, there's usually a single "trick" to the puzzle, usually a hidden exclusion (e.g. A is one of X or Y; of B and C, one is W and the other is Z; therefore, A is neither B nor C).

Another trick is being able to work just with the top table grids so that you're not spending time filling in grids that don't contribute to the answer evaluation; sometimes this backfires spectacularly if you don't spot the hidden exclusion and you need to fill in the rest of the grids to figure it out.

Finally, prioritize clues to maximize the number of squares you're crossing out at the start. For me, I look for clues as follows:

1. Explicit confirmations. (Not every puzzle has these.)
2. Explicit exclusions related to the numerical/ordered/left-hand-side value. (These are useful top-grid exclusions.)
3. X is either # or # (ordered values). (These will cross out a bunch of squares at once.)
4. Any other clue related to ordered values. (These are useful, but can be time-consuming.)
5. "The 7 [items] are ..." (This is hit-or-miss. But you'll get a whole set of exclusions and can help you find hidden exclusions.)
6. "X, Y, Z... are all different" (This gives you a good set of exclusions, but is high effort, and the only reason they're this high in priority is because they interact with the following sets of clues.)
7. X is # greater/less than Y. (You should usually be able to get a few things confirmed with this set of clues.)
8. X is greater/less than Y. (Less helpful than ones that give explicit steps of difference, but help with exclusion.)
9. Of X and Y, one is A and the other is B. (If this cannot be easily solved, then the puzzle is going to take longer than expected, since it will most likely require you to consider exclusions outside of the top row of grids.)
10. X is either A or B. (Almost always implies a hidden exclusion.)
11. X is not A. (These are usually "clean-up" rules when you have something confirmed.)

[tviolet]

OK, I actually made a video of me talking through one. I mangle a lot of the words but I tried to explain my process. Hopefully, this helps some to see how you can get faster, I;ve gotten way faster since I started doing puzzles here. I used to take like 15 or 20 min and now I'm usually "very fast"


Video link

https://youtu.be/WXJeu6cFMaU

[ella]

OK, I actually made a video of me talking through one.

Thanks, tviolet! I learned from watching your video. It's good to see how other people approach a puzzle.
I am not at home right now so making a video is beyond my abilities, and I doubt I'd be able to shed much light anyway. I'd love to see more video from other players. Maybe we can start a library.