FAQs

What is a puzzlehunt? How do I solve these puzzles?

Don't know where to begin? Check out our own Intro to Puzzle Hunts.

If you’ve never heard of puzzlehunts before, here’s a very brief summary: in a typical puzzle, you receive some information and have to extract an answer out of it, which is almost always an English word or phrase. Puzzles can come in many different forms; the only real commonality is that you usually receive no direct instructions, so it’s up to you to figure out how to make sense of the information you’re given.

If you are new to puzzles and are interested in seeing some examples, or if you’re looking for some practice, we recommend looking at puzzles from other online hunts such as REDDOThunt, Puzzle Potluck, or the Caltech Puzzle Hunt.

What is a metapuzzle?

A metapuzzle is a puzzle that uses answers from the previous puzzles in the round, but you'll need to figure out how to use these answers to extract a final answer. You do not need to solve all puzzles in the round in order to solve a metapuzzle, though usually having more puzzles solved (and thus more answers) will make it easier to solve a meta.

How hard are these puzzles?

• This year's Grand Hunt follows along in spirit to last year's Grand Hunt, but is a step up in difficulty.
• That being said, the first part is designed to be solved by brand new solvers. After that, the difficulty notably increases.
• We recommend new and intermediate puzzlers work in teams. Expert puzzlers can opt to try this hunt solo.
• No matter your skill level, we want you to have fun and finish the hunt! Please use hints as you like, and we'd be happy to help you further as needed!