A TRAINFUL OF (PAINFUL?) PUZZLES

What is this?
This is a puzzle event. Yay! Let's call it a train even though it really isn't a train -- but "train" is such a popular catchword around here that I felt I should use it no matter what. Anyway, there are two months worth of puzzles awaiting you, altogether 22 of them, all of various difficulty and design (some common on SG, some -- I hope -- entirely new and unheard of).

What is it for?
The main purpose of this event is to have fun and provide some exercise for those little grey cells. The puzzles are not meant to be hardcore, and I believe any average solver should make it to the final metapuzzle. This is also my little giveback event and a humble homage to all the great puzzlemakers here on SteamGifts.

How about the gibs?
No worries. There will be gifts for solving each puzzle and a little extra treasure for solving the metapuzzles. Everything will be restricted to level 1+ and a basic SGTools check.

How long will the giveaways be open?
I will post a new puzzle every three days. Each giveaway will last for ten days. This means we will have several things running at the same time and it might get a bit messy but I will try to make it as organized as humanly possible. (I chose this unusual format for my event to make all puzzles /except for metapuzzles and the bonus puzzle/ accessible to everyone. Even if you fail seventeen times you can still try your luck with the eighteenth one -- and maybe succeed.)

Will there be... er... any hints?
You haven't even seen the puzzles yet! But yes, of course, since you will need to solve all 18 of them to get to the final metapuzzle, I feel a hint system of some sort is a necessity. I will be even as generous to give two hints for each puzzle. Will they be free for everyone? Yes... kind of. The schedule for hints will probably vary, depending on how much will people struggle with given puzzles.

Can I contribute to this event?
Oh, glad you asked! Yes, definitely. If you have any unused keys lying around, if you planned to hide your next giveaway from bots anyway, if you just want to make this event even more awesome, please don't hesitate and contact me. The more the merrier! Thanks a lot in advance.

PUZZLE GIBS STATUS HINTS SOLUTIONS
1. The Magnificent Ten FINISHED OPEN Hint 1.1, Hint 1.2 LINK
2. One Dot Dot FINISHED OPEN Hint 2.1, Hint 2.2 LINK
3. Quipu FINISHED OPEN Hint 3.1, Hint 3.2 LINK
4. Wall of Numbers FINISHED OPEN Hint 4.1, Hint 4.2 LINK
5. Piggy Time FINISHED OPEN Hint 5.1, Hint 5.2 LINK
6. A Shortlist FINISHED OPEN Hint 6.1, Hint 6.2 LINK
7. Broken Nonogram FINISHED OPEN Hint 7.1, Hint 7.2 LINK
8. Chesswords FINISHED OPEN Hint 8.1, Hint 8.2 TO BE DONE
META 1 FINISHED OPEN nope LINK
9. Dungeon of Liars FINISHED OPEN Hint 9.1, Hint 9.2 TO BE DONE
10. Version 101.2 FINISHED OPEN Hint 10.1, Hint 10.2 LINK
11. Sniper FINISHED OPEN Hint 11.1, Hint 11.2 LINK
12. Word Search with a Twist FINISHED OPEN Hint 12.1, Hint 12.2 LINK
13. Cabal of Pleasure FINISHED OPEN Hint 13.1, Hint 13.2 LINK
14. 8E28 FINISHED OPEN Hint 14.1, Hint 14.2 LINK
META 2 FINISHED OPEN nope LINK
15. Mastermind FINISHED OPEN Hint 15.1, Hint 15.2 LINK
16. Starry Night FINISHED OPEN Hint 16.1, Hint 16.2 LINK
17. No Way Out FINISHED OPEN Hint 17.1, Hint 17.2 LINK
18. The Magnificent Seven FINISHED OPEN Hint 18.1, Hint 18.2 LINK
META 3 FINISHED OPEN nope LINK
BONUS FINISHED OPEN nope LINK

Notable contributors: Potvora, Ameto, Cornpops

6 years ago*

Comment has been collapsed.

wow, good guessing skills, you caught me unprepared! ...come back a bit later please

:^)

I have pieced together the bonus question!

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I think you can comeback in 30 days for this one ^^

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

good job! I was trying to keep it obscure as long as possible... time to create the giveaway, I guess :P

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for finally solving 9 =)

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for solving 11

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for solving 9 and 10 at last! :)

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for solving 12!

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump.

For 12, I have arrived at the message, I just don't know how to follow its instructions. Maybe it will come to me when I'm not trying to force it.

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

one of them is a key which will lead you to the next step...

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for 12! ^^

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for solving #9.

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

bump for #12

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

bump for almost-forgot-it-was-the-hint-day!

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Just a bump so you won't forgot it's a puzzle day! :D

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

:P

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

bumb for 10

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for solving Car 10! Time to work on 11...

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

bump for Car 13 on... still only 4 solvers in Car 12?

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

its a bit hard nick perhaps too hard lol. i arrived like red at the end but i dont know what to do with that

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I just don't know what steps to take to follow the hidden message's instruction.

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

we re on the same page buddy i think unless u know the key (i hope its safe to say this after all nick said it up there)

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I'll focus on that step in tmr's hint

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Solved 13 and Meta 2!

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

;_;

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

how?? I'd bet 14 is unbruteforceable...

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I can tell you if you add me on Steam I guess? It'd be a clue for the meta

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

What is the first object in the upper left corner of the puzzle #12?

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Looks like a railway semaphore signal

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Thanks

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Thanks for making hint 12.1 a good one. Kicking myself for not getting it, but that's what happens when you get stuck down a different path.

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I'm happy to see you made it, and I hope it will help others as well. I believe this should be the only tricky part of the puzzle.

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

bump

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for solving 12 🙂

It's funny how you can enjoy feeling like a total moron so much 😄

Thanks for these awesome puzzles! I bet it take a lot of time to plan and create them 😃👍

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for solving #11 (which was awesome). Still puzzled on #10.

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for solving 11, gonna try working on the next ones now. :D

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for complete your landmark quizzes and come back for some real challenge :)

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Still stuck on Cabal of pleasure. At least I have an idea that appears to be taking me somewhere, but I do not know whether or not I have run into a promising dead end. If you are going to fail, fail quickly and move on to something else. It is the one's that look likely but turn out to be rabbit holes that can consume days.

Although once, solving an MIT Mystery hunt puzzle, I found an extraction step that led me to HWANGST... and I gave up because it couldn't possibly be right. The actually phrase was "Hwang's Tony", and David Henry Hwang won a Tony award for M. Butterfly which was the desired answer. Sigh...

Now that puzzle 10 has closed, I was amused to see that you used a puzzle that I discussed exactly in my guide to writing and solving puzzles (which is one of the reasons that that puzzle took me seconds to solve). https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/ZYBWU/mikalyes-magic-guide-to-solving-and-writing-puzzles-ver-2

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I realized that too late, when I was preparing a hint about indexes and remembered you discussed them in your guide. So I looked in the guide and facepalmed... might be that some subconsious memory worked there when I "got an idea" for this puzzle...

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

It happens, Whilst nearly all of the puzzles in the upcoming Louvre event were written by me, I have credited in the post-solve text where I have cribbed a really good puzzle idea from someone else.

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Solved 11 in the last minute, I won't be around until after the GAs end.

Solved the word search part of 12 a few days ago. The first hint didn't help me because I already knew what I was supposed to do with the solved state, but I have no idea what order I should do it on. Maybe it's obvious and I'm missing something important, albeit I didn't get the time to look at it since. Guess I'll wait for 12.2 before trying it again.

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Bump for new hints. I hope they will help, we don't have many solvers on 12 and 13 yet...

6 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Sign in through Steam to add a comment.