At long last, we’ve finally completed Puzzle Boat 2! What started as an afternoon session with our whole team working together at the same time turned into a full month of nonstop puzzling that occupied every discretionary moment I can find.
Taking a step back- Puzzle Boat is an online contest from Panda Magazine in the vein of the MIT Puzzle Hunt. The contest is run annually, with Puzzle Boat 7 being the most recent, but older contests can be purchased and played at any time.
Puzzle Boat 2 had more than 100 puzzles with a robust series of final puzzles combining the answers from all the other puzzles we solved. The shortest puzzles took about 30 minutes, and the longest took us hours; sometimes it took hours of exploration to even find how to start a puzzle. The game offers a limited amount of hints to get past blockers or hurdles.
More than 100 puzzles, more than 30 minutes each… If you’re doing the math, you can see why this was such a challenge to work through over the course of a month. It was a burden, but it was also a puzzler’s paradise. It pulled me away from writing and other hobbies, but at the same time, I definitely wasn’t unhappy to have so many puzzles to work on.
The puzzles are a little different than players might expect. I had worked through one MIT Puzzle Hunt puzzle during Mind Gamers Discovery Lab so I had a little taste, but these challenges are unique. The puzzles never tell the solver exactly what to do- you might start with a photo, gibberish text, grid, or some other template you need to untangle with no instruction.
It really helps to have a team. Our main team was made up of three individuals, and I don’t know what I would have done without either of the others. Some puzzles are focused on trivia and references, some focus on crossword-like vocabulary, some focus on numbers… you get the idea. We had three members on our team, and we would have welcomed five more happily.
We will definitely be giving Puzzle Boat 3 a go next, but for now, I’m going to appreciate having some discretionary time again, spending more time on writing and creative projects.
Hello, this is one from Korea doing Puzzle Boat 2. We’re near end now, but struggling on some metapuzzles(I didn’t mention the name of the puzzle to not spoil others). Can you give me a little hint? Feel free to decline. Thank you!
I wrote a comment but it is not uploaded…? Sorry for duplication if it is, I’m such a novice.
Hello, this is one from Korea doing Puzzle Boat 2. I think I’m near the end but struggling on some metapuzzles(not to spoil others I’ve not mentioned the name of the puzzles). Can you give me some hints? Feel free to decline. Thank you!
Not a problem! Which puzzle would you like a nudge on first? You can encrypt the puzzle’s title with any cipher of your choice to keep it hidden in the comments.
Thx! I’m suffering from addiction-RE and sometimes even feel that I am apple . For these we have almost all of the ingredients(maybe 21) but for the first one we have clearly no idea and for the second one we sorted some ingredients with the help of its title, but I think they aren’t enough.
It may take me a second to decipher which puzzles you’re talking about, but for the time being, I have a general hint that might help ever so slightly. You can use a Caesar shift of 1 to translate the following:
Dudqx ldszotyykd gzr dwzbskx dkdudm zmrvdqr sgzs fn vhsg hs
I figured out which two- posting more specific hints shortly. 🙂
Like before, use a Caesar shift of 1 to translate these.
To help with your addiction…
Sgd svn btkstqdr ldmshnmdc hm sgd ekzunq sdws zqd sgd Tmhsdc Jhmfcnl zmc sgd Tmhsdc Rszsdr.
To help with them apples…
Enq sgd vnqcr hm sgd zmrvdqr sgzs cnm’s qdkzsd sn sgd ldszotyykd shskd, sgdqd hr z ozssdqm vhsg sgd bktdr hm sgd otyykd- Qdc Nzj hr khjd Sno Gzs, Ahf Bzq, zmc Bzs Dxd.
Let me know if you’d like a stronger nudge on either.
Thank you for red-oak-like Quick Response 🙂
I’ll mention you in the acknowledg(e?)ment!
You can delete any comments whenever you want, again not to spoil others.