As of 10:00 GMT on 17 May with 2 hours to go.
Note: It should be noted that Chapter 4 is the Metapuzzle, designed to be solved after puzzles 5-14, so we would expect that to be last chapter to fall.
Chapter 1 - I First Meet This Extraordinary Lagomorph has been solved by 303 people
Chapter 2 - In Which I am Cold and Warm Up has been solved by 63 people
Chapter 3 - In Which I Warm Up Further has been solved by 30 people
Chapter 4 - In Which The Hunt Proper Begins and the Story is Explained has been solved by 11 people
Chapter 5 - In Which We Learn Something of Lord St. Simon's Wife has been solved by 27 people
Chapter 6 - In Which Sherlock Hares Inquires Further About Me has been solved by 21 people
Chapter 7 - In Which We Hear The Changes Being Rung has been solved by 17 people
Chapter 8 - In Which We Discover Something in Hertfordshire has been solved by 19 people
Chapter 9 - In Which We Have An Adventure With Some Dancing Skeletons has been solved by 17 people
Chapter 10 - The Sign on the Door has been solved by 23 people
Chapter 11 - In Which Almost Nothing Happens has been solved by 32 people
Chapter 12 - In Which I See Hares Uncharacteristically Moved has been solved by 19 people
Chapter 13 - In Which Hares Performs Some Chemical Experimentation has been solved by 14 people
Chapter 14 - In Which We Reassemble Something Confused has been solved by 14 people
Chapter 15 - The Final Problem has been solved by 13 people
Solutions will be posted on 17 or 18 May
Chapter 1 - I First Meet This Extraordinary Lagomorph - No Solution is needed
Chapter 2 - In Which I am Cold and Warm Up Solution
Chapter 3 - In Which I Warm Up Further Solution
Chapter 4 - In Which The Hunt Proper Begins and the Story is Explained Solution
Chapter 5 - In Which We Learn Something of Lord St. Simon's Wife Solution
Chapter 6 - In Which Sherlock Hares Inquires Further About Me Solution
Chapter 7 - In Which We Hear The Changes Being Rung Solution
Chapter 8 - In Which We Discover Something in Hertfordshire Solution
Chapter 9 - In Which We Have An Adventure With Some Dancing Skeletons Solution
Chapter 10 - The Sign on the Door Solution
Chapter 11 - In Which Almost Nothing Happens Solution
Chapter 12 - In Which I See Hares Uncharacteristically Moved Solution
Chapter 13 - In Which Hares Performs Some Chemical Experimentation Solution
Chapter 14 - In Which We Reassemble Something Confused Solution
Chapter 15 - The Final Problem Solution
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Do any of the dominos look a bit odd?
Many people have tried tracing these routes out on a world map. That does not work.
Each answer is two words and one of those words aligns with what is in the picture.
The changes need to be ringed, not rung.
The first step is to pair up the answers to the clues on the left with the answers to the clues on the right
This puzzle does not involve the periodic table
The location where the puzzle is found does provide a clue.
There is a cipher here, but these are also games of TIC-TAC-TOE
What sort of a cipher might be appropriate to appear at a sty
Each tic-tac-toe game clues a single letter
What do the words defined in the verses have in common
The word in appears in the final clue phrase
What does your final nonagram look like? What is that shape?
This puzzle is proving to be the most divisive in the entire event..
The symbol that Hares calls out in the text, is the key to extractin the clue phrase.
There has been some challenge around parsing the second part of the clue phrase which reads [word1] [word2] or [Word3], it should be read as "[Word 1] [Word 2]" or "[Word3]"
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Just now seeing this. SO EXCITED I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING TONIGHT OMG
And heavy in elements? Yes, please!
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Oooh, just got there too. I'm thinking it's a legitimate mistake. Gonna push through.
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Haven't solved the puzzle, but it looks like the 6th column from the right (starting with 12) should have a red 1 on top of what's already there.
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God, I love the flag puzzle.
I've got about 6 completed. I've made good progress on puzzle 7, but I'm missing the last leap.
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Hmmm, got all the clues on 7 finished now. Gonna have to pause on that one.
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Got the colors filled in on 10, got a step past it, and stuck.
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Wow, 9 is tedious for me. Got 10-20% through and just need to step away. Not able to find the correct poses for half of the ones I did.
The picture does crack me up, though.
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Struggling a bit with chapters 8 and 14.
I'm aware of what deciphering method I'm supposed to use for Chapter 8, but I feel like I'm doing something wrong because all I'm coming up with is gibberish. As for Chapter 14, I'm not really sure how to begin...
Edit: Solved chapter 8 after the 3rd hint was dropped.
Edit: Finally solved Chapter 14 thanks to those hints! Solved the meta as well.. all that's left is Chapter 15 :D
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Something to fill my time tomorrow, probably no eggs for a reward though.
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Should the last two pairs of test tubes in Chemical Experimentation be the same?
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This looks sooo Good and so much work from your side (well and ours too if we want to solve it). I loved this kind of puzles when I was younger and I had the time. Unfortunately, as english is not my first language I'm afraid I might find them "too hard". Still I'll give it a try, it seems fun.
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i feel like there is an error in Chapter 10?
I have somthing very solid, but the end action doesn't make sense.
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So, I managed to go through all of them, solved five so far (6, 9, 11, 13 ,15), on some I made only little or no progress (5, 8, 10, 14) and on two I believe I'm very close but have no idea how to rearrange what I got on 7 and how to understand the final clue on 12.
Did your daughter solve all of these puzzles, Mikalye?
Also, I'd like to mention that you inspired me to create a little Easter treasure hunt for my own daughter, a very simple and short thing because she's only 5 now, but we had fun with it nonetheless.
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This is useful, I will try to post a gentle hint to the AHA on chapter 8.
As to the missing reagents, the oil of joeyfication shouldn't be that confusing if you have an appropriate lossless audio format. It is quite tricky to work out with a lossy audio format.
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The oil of joeyfication caused me a lot of pain, too. The examples were not clicking with me, especially the second one. I eventually got there by elimination -- after I'd gotten good words/reagents for most of the reactions, I could say with a high degree of certainty which ones had to be using the oil of joeyfication, and then work back to its mechanism from those (particularly the first reaction that used it).
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I'm just lacking 5, 13, and 15. I'll try more for 5 once I have the others. I think I have an idea for what I should start doing for 15, I just need to devote the time (I'm working long hours these days).
But 13 is driving me nuts. I think I have all 24 answers, and the "little something extra" on each gives me a hint, but I have no clue what to make of it. It seems clear I'm on the right track, but so nonsensical that I don't know how to go any further. (I may have a small number of them wrong, which could be throwing me off, but I can't tell.)
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Being sidetracked by a Super Sudoku, I-will-be-back bump.
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Having fun solving the puzzles, thanks Mikalye! Bump :)
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I don't know if it's only me but I feel like I don't know what should I look for in these puzzles. There (usually) aren't any questions, just puzzles and I don't know if the answer should be a word, a letter, a number or a sentence. I feel kind of dumb, because I like puzzles of all kind and Sherlock Holmes too and this looks like a lot of fun, but I'm missing something in all of these puzzles. Something that could lead me what I should be looking for, or better, how should the answer look like.
For example dominos one: I see that some of the dominos are different but what should I do with then? Select some of them and try to count the dots? Try to rotate them? I don't know.
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Each of these puzzles have been written so that each will yield a single word or short phrase for the answer
I'll let Mikalye address any specific hints for the domino puzzle, but yes, identifying what you need to do is often the biggest hurdle. There are usually between 1 and 3 steps to the puzzles. Some of the steps are obvious, some are not. Sometimes a lateral connection (associating what you see with some other topic) is needed. Most of the puzzles are related to the periodic table (when Hares says "elementary"), of course, but the domino puzzle is not. Often, the connection is hinted at in the introductory text (usually in the final line)...but the domino puzzle, again, is not! But since you've noticed the non-standard dominoes, focus only on those until you can make a lateral connection.
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An excellent way to get into my head is to look at my magic guide to puzzles (which is not to be confused with Zelgadis's very excellent magic guide to steamgifts puzzles.
The dominos puzzle is a "purloined letter" puzzle, named after the short story by Edgar Allen Poe published in 1845. In that story, the idea was that the best place to hide something is in plain sight but surrounded by stuff that would make one overlook it. The best place to hide a greeting card, is in a greeting card shop. In this case, focus just on the elements that stick out, ignoring the rest of the puzzle for a moment.
Look to see if this reminds you of anything. Often common enciphering methods are used. If I see a pair of flags, or the hands of a clock, by now I immediately look for semaphore, if I see something that can be long or short, I think about morse code, if I see a 2 by 3 box, I think braille, if I see a bunch of zeroes and ones, I think binary. If I see things that run from A to G, I think music.
Your instincts are good. Count the dots is an excellent thing to try, maybe it is as simple as A=1, B=2, and so on. Put the dots next to each other, maybe they make a picture. There is a moment, that all experience puzzle folk talk about as the AHA. The moment when suddenly all that was obscure becomes clear, and you suddenly feel brilliant. That is the drug that puzzle-people chase. The most common mistake that puzzle-makers make is that the purpose of a puzzle is not to make the puzzle setter appear smart, it is to make the puzzle solver feel smart when they suddenly get the AHA.
My daughter was stuck on Chapter 6. She stormed upstairs claiming that it was impossible. Two hours later, she ran downstairs ferociously excited. While she was in the shower it came to her. She found the AHA. I have solved many puzzles on the toilet, or in the shower without trying. Many years ago, I and my friends tried the then-new Infocom text adventure games. I can recall running home from classes one day hugely excited, because while sitting in math, I suddently realised how the balloon puzzle in Zork II worked. That is the drug.
And the nice thing about the drug is that there is a gradated range of puzzles, from the relatively trivial, all the way up to the MIT Mystery Hunt. Most people who enjoy puzzle games should be able to get at least some of the ones in this set.. One of the reasons that I always publish solving statistics is so that people can take a view of which puzzles are relatively straightforward (such as chapters 2 and 11) and which are more fiendish (chapters 13 and 14) which is backed by data and not subject to my interpretation. I also try to give away prizes that are aligned with the effort.
But the goal here is to have fun. I do hope you enjoy these.
Good luck,
Mikalye
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Thanks for the answers!
I started to understand some of the clues and hints but I just don't have that much time to spend on the cases right now (I know it ends on 17th of May so maybe I'll be coming back when I find some free time). I need to give up for now. Maybe I'll figure out the solution under shower, maybe after seeing other people's comments. But for sure, I'll come back when the event end to see the solutions. :D
Once again, thanks for the whole event and for the answers! :)
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You could try start with 11, given it's the puzzle with the most solvers other than puzzle 2 which.. doesn't make sense to me.
It's because puzzle 2 is listed here for the second time. Those who knew about that puzzle easily solved it. I couldn't solve it the first time but I knew the solution.
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Yes, I'm in the same boat. I got to puzzle 2 and just went..."what?" I have no earthly idea what it is that I'm trying to solve. It's tough to deduce an answer when you don't know the question.
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Bump for completion. Thanks a bunch for the puzzles, they were challenging but fun and rewarding. 👏 The giveaways aren't bad, either. 😉
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That's an astonishing list. There are 10 puzzles that feed into the metapuzzle (chapter 4). Those being chapters 5-14.
You have solved two of the ones that are considered really hard (7 and 14) and are missing some of the others that haven't caused others the same difficulty. It just goes to show that we all look at these things in different ways.
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Bump for solved! It took quite a long time, but I finally completed all the puzzles. I had so much fun! Thank you for the GAs and for taking the time to create this event. I look forward to the next one :)
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It usually takes 3-4 months between events like this, but if you like my puzzles, I can recommend (though there are no giveaways left obviously):
Last year I had three events:
The Flags of our Fathers Event from last year,
Mikalye's Crossword Event
Mikalye's Jigidi Event
I also did a series of 7 puzzles on the search for Carmen SanFrancisco. For best effect, these should be done in order:
CF1
CF2
CF3
CF4
CS5
CS6
CS7
In 2017-2018 JeffSL ran a series of events set at various landmarks around the globe. The overall event features an interlocking series of puzzles and quizzes. There was a weekly lock code and stuff that played into the overall meta. Lots of people wrote thes, some were quizzes, some were Google Maps hunts, others were puzzles. I wrote 4 of these. Unusually for me, for the Vimy ridge puzzle, the first part was not actually a puzzle, but a quiz that encouraged people to find out more about this amazing site. The second part was a traditional puzzle, but one that required some knowledge that you should have encountered solving the first part I wrote:.
Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome
Canadian National Vimy Memorial
Piazza San Pietro in the Vatican City
And, the largest puzzle set I wrote on Steamgifts is the 35+ Interlocking puzzles that collectively make up Les énigmes du musée du palais de Louvre
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Thanks a lot for the recommendations! I became a SG user about a year ago, and at first I didn't read the forums much, so unfortunately I missed on a lot of puzzles from last year and before. I'm glad I can still try them out. I don't mind about the expired giveaways, solving the puzzles is a reward in itself. As soon as I have the time I will check them out :)
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What a puzzle, I will be working on this the coming month. Great work Mikalye, thanks for the heads up again.
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So I have posted a few of the Easter Egg Hunt puzzles, and a few people have contacted me and asked me to put up the entire Easter Egg Hunt this year as a puzzle event.
So I have. A few details.
All of the giveaways run until noon GMT on the 17th of May.
There are no hidden puzzles, or hidden giveaways in this event. What you see is what you get. If you want any guidance as to how I write my puzzles, I can again recommend my magic guide (this should not be confused for Zelghadis' excellent guide).
Each of these puzzles have been written so that each will yield a single word or short phrase for the answer, which means I can use them with ITSTOOHARD. Not all of the puzzles are original (though many are). Where I have used an unoriginal puzzle, I will of course provide full information about the source, and where you can get others of that creator's puzzles. In several cases, I have stolen the puzzle, in several more, I have taken someone else's clever idea for a puzzle, and rewritten it to make it work with this event (and with the desired answer word.
The contributor level for all games is set to 1. I have used SGTools with precisely 2 rules: You must have activated all of your wins, and you cannot have been VAC banned.
As per usual with my events, I don't really care if you do not play your wins, but I do care deeply if a game does not reach 5 entries, so if you are one of the first five to solve something, and you wouldn't mind seeing that game in your library, then please enter the giveaway. You can always choose to remove your entry later (once 5 people have entered it).
My daughter has recently gotten very into the periodic table of the elements, and indeed has memorised it. As such, this is a periodic table-heavy event. Indeed, when I knew I wanted to put together a periodic table event, I was searching for themes, and the phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" came to mind, and the rest of it fell into place. You do not need to know the periodic table to solve these things, but you may need to refer to it.
I recommend the one at the bottom of this intro:
You also do not need to know anything at all about Sherlock Holmes. I have stolen chunks of Conan Doyle's prose, to limit the amount that I have to write, and to try to get the tone right. While Lord St. Simon is a real character who is the protagonist of the Adventure of the Noble Bachelor but that has nothing to do with this puzzle, and no knowledge of the original will help in any way. Similarly, the client of the adventure of the dancing skeletons (chapter 9) is similar to the client in the adventure of the Dancing Men. This is true, but totally unnecessary to solve the puzzle. Similarly, the protagonist in chapter 14 is similar to that in the adventure of the Red-Headed league. True but totally irrelevant. You really do not need to know anything at all about Sherlock Holmes. Nada. Nothing, None whatsoever.
I will keep track of how the puzzles are going, and after a few days, hinting will be freely available.
Enjoy.
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 1 - I First Meet This Extraordinary Lagomorph
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 2 - In Which I am Cold and Warm Up
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 3 - In Which I Warm Up Further
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 4 - In Which The Hunt Proper Begins and the Story is Explained
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 5 - In Which We Learn Something of Lord St. Simon's Wife
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 6 - In Which Sherlock Hares Inquires Further About Me
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 7 - In Which We Hear The Changes Being Rung
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 8 - In Which We Discover Something in Hertfordshire
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 9 - In Which We Have An Adventure With Some Dancing Skeletons
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 10 - The Sign on the Door
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 11 - In Which Almost Nothing Happens
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 12 - In Which I See Hares Uncharacteristically Moved
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 13 - In Which Hares Performs Some Chemical Experimentation
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 14 - In Which We Reassemble Something Confused
The Casefiles of Sherlock Hares - Chapter 15 - The Final Problem
The Periodic Table of the Elements
Prizes for this event are:
Planet Coaster, Dirt Rally 2.0, Two Point Hospital, Battle Chasers: Nightwar, Frostpunk, GRIP: Combat Racing, Lords of the Fallen: Game of the Year Edition, Override: Mech City Brawl, Planetary Annihilation, - Note: This is for the original game, not Titans, but you can upgrade to Titans for 90% off. The original is no longer sold on the Steam Store., Killer is Dead - Nightmare Edition, Mages of Mystralia, Nex Machina, Pathfinder Adventures Obsidian Edition, Rise of Venice, Sir, You are Being Hunted, Yoku's Island Express, Never Alone + Foxtales DLC, Blades of Time - Limited Edition, Rivals of Aether, Planet Coaster - World's Fair Pack DLC, 9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creeek, Bike Rush, Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek, Enigmatis 2: The Mists of Ravenwood, Enigmatis 3: The Shadow of Karkhala, Quest for Infamy, Robin of Loxley - The Legend of Sherwood, Rune Classic, Sine Mora, Skullgirls, Skulls of the Shogun, System Shock - Enhanced Edition, Cibele, Mimic Arena, Auditorium, Colt Express, Etherlords 1+2 Bundle, Last Express - Gold Edition, Marine Park Empire, Mysterium, Z, Super Chibi Knight, Superluminauts, The Princess' Heart, Millie, Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny, Dinosaur Hunter, Trials of the Gauntlet, Last Anime Boy: Saving Loli, Premier Buggy Racing Tour
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