First Puzzle [solution posted]

Solution

Mini Puzzle

I won't post the solution to the mini puzzle because it's very simple. At the end you should have the brothers in the following order: Eric, Xavier, Victor, Gabriel, Ian, Sebastian, Daniel, Vincent. Taking the first letter of each name leads you to this ItsTooHard puzzle: http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/EXVGISDV/ Then you just need to enter the ages of the brothers, which if you solved the mini puzzle correctly, you already know anyway: 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 20, 22, 24.

Sequences

Q1-Q7 are all related, and there are multiple ways to solve them. Each sequence is the pattern for the next sequence, except for Q1, which has a pattern for itself. And that pattern is a pair of numbers increasing and then this number minus 1 in its negative form: 1, 1, 0, 2, 2, -1, 3, 3, -2, 4, 4, -3, 5, 5, -4...

Q7: 0___0___0___0___0___0___0___x = 1
Q6: __0___0___0___0___0___0___1___x = 7
Q5: ____0___0___0___0___0___1___6___x = 20
Q4: ______0___0___0___0___1___5___14___x = 32
Q3: ________0___0___0___1___4___9___18___x = 33
Q2: __________0___0___1___3___5___9___15___x = 20
Q1: ____________0___1___2___2___4___6___5___x = 8
_________________1___1___0___2___2___-1___3

As you can see, x will always be, except for Q1, the last known value of the last sequence plus the last known value of the current sequence. For example, x of Q5 is 6 + 14 = 20.

Another way is to sum all the known values of the last sequence. For example, x of Q5 is 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 5 + 14 = 20.

Q8 is multiplication of pairs of numbers from left to right:

123456789 -> (1 * 2) (3 * 4) (5 * 6) (7 * 8) (9) = 21230569
21230569 -> (2 * 1) (2 * 3) (0 * 5) (6 * 9) = 26054
26054 -> (2 * 6) (0 * 5) (4) = 1204
1204 -> (1 * 2) (0 * 4) = 20

x = 20

The values of x are 8, 20, 33, 32, 20, 7, 1, 20.

Password

If you notice the values of x from Equations, they are all in the range 1-36, which is the number of alphanumeric characters in the description of the Password puzzle (ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789). All you have to do is convert the numbers to alphanumeric based on their position:

8 20 33 32 20 7 1 20
H T 6 5 T G A T

The password is HT65TGAT.

Equation

This is the easiest of all 3. You just have to follow the instructions in the description of the Equation puzzle:

2C1BAABA -> 2 + C + 1 + B + A + A + B + A -> 3A + 2B + C + 3
3A + 2B + C + 3 = 0

And apply them to the password from Password.

HT65TGAT = H + T + 6 + 5 + T + G + A + T
= H + 3T + 11 + G + A

The equation is A + G + H + 3T + 11 = 0.

Puzzle

As rafaelgs18. For those of you who don't know I used to be revilheart. :P

Stages

1. Sequences (Game: Chronology (5P))
2. Password (Game: Damnation (10P))
3. Equation (Game: Operation Flashpoint: Red River (10P))

Mini Puzzle

To access the first stage, you have to solve the mini puzzle:

Ingrid Tracey Heather has 8 brothers. You must order them based on their ages (their height is irrelevant). You know that:

• The sum of all ages is 127.
• No brother is less than 2 years younger or older than another.
• Eric, the youngest, is 8 years old.
• If Xavier is older than Victor, then he is 11 years old. Otherwise Victor is 12 years old.
• Gabriel is 6 years younger than Sebastian.
• Sebastian is 3 years older than Ian.
• Daniel is not younger than Ian, and he is 22 years old.
• Vincent is the oldest.

Hints

1. Always work with what you found in the previous, and if that doesn't work, think a few times.
2. For Q8 in Sequences, think about why and by how much the numbers are getting smaller.
3. For Q8 in Sequences, try looking at two of the numbers separately and finding a relation between them.
4. For Password, how many characters are in the description of the puzzle? Does that range sound familiar if you work with hint #1?
5. For Equation, you literally just have to follow the instructions in the description and work with hint #1. It's the easiest of all 3.

• Do NOT share hints or solutions.
• You have until April 6, 18:30 UTC.
• The first solver of each stage will get a free game (you must have the same username here and on ItsTooHard). You can of course reject the game, in which case it will go to the second solver, and so on...