The Sphinx's Lair

msh210

2:41 AM

CCCC: Key Brazilian city replaces Dadaism center — okay, that's malicious (9)

Sphinx

3:06 AM

0

Q: Escape The Room - Everyone Wants This To Stop

You wake up in a bed - not yours - your eyes squinting from the bright sun in the window. It’s an escape room, you ponder. I need to find a clue. A piece of paper is taped to the window, containing an encrypted first word: KZIPIPJL VNWRRYQRWRBM UO PSBMSF OA IPBM TUIPYIET JLWRTUVNIPPSETSF. There ...

cipher

Jafe

21 hours ago, by Bubbler

choose a target word, choose the order of letters to lock, search all words that share 0..4 chosen letters with the target word

implemented this... it's definitely faster that way but still takes friggin aeons

Jafe

4:07 AM

Rio in "nefarious" seems suspicious

a nexus is a center, and Fa is a musical key... so it could be Fa Rio replacing X in nexus except i don't get why X = dadaism

oAlt

6:48 AM

The "okay" is not used also

I feel like it's gonna be a synonym for "okay" with the "a" (Dadaism center) replaced by "Brazilian city" with the "key" preceding them all, or replaced by "Key Brazilian city"

But yeah Rio is a good candidate

Jafe

7:47 AM

i'm getting a strong fortaleza vibe

Sphinx

9:06 AM

0

Q: The ultimate backgammon

The following position, where one player has borne off all their checkers while all of the other player's checkers are on the bar (thus losing a backgammon), is reachable by a legal sequence of dice rolls and checker movements from the standard starting position of backgammon. What is the least ...

optimization board-games

oAlt

10:13 AM

Maybe...???

The short ones, BH POA and Tere are particularly of note

I'm wondering whether it's in fact a noun, like "slander"

oAlt

10:40 AM

@msh210 vitriolic (malicious) = vital (key) with Rio (Brazilian city) replacing (dad)A(ism) + ic (okay, i see)

msh210

@oAlt yep yep

well found

oAlt

Thanks, I kept looking at -rious words but it turns out I had to change my focus

2

CCCC: Key European backing art gallery not wanting to ponder Dutch book (3 4)

Sphinx

11:00 AM

0

Q: A Dangerous Asian Ruler

What is represented below? The answer is a 9-letter two-word noun.

enigmatic-puzzle visual rebus

Sphinx

12:31 PM

1

Q: Prime and Composite 6x6 Chocolate Banana

The number of chocolate (black regions) is prime. Normal Chocolate Banana rules apply. Rules: Paint some of the cells black. Black cells linked orthogonally must always form a rectangle (or a square). Non-blacked cells linked orthogonally must not form a rectangle (or a square). A number ind...

logical-deduction grid-deduction no-computers

Sphinx

1:41 PM

0

Q: Tangkhul Translation Puzzle

Background: Tangkhul is a language spoken in the northernmost district of the Indian state of Manipur. Like Manipuri (or Meitei) and many other languages of Northeast India, Tangkhul is related to Tibetan and Burmese rather than to Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, or other well-known languages ...

logical-deduction cipher language

0

Q: Themed 13x9 Chocolate Banana

There is a hidden message inside the solution of the puzzle. An answer will only be accepted if it correctly identifies said message. P.S. I promise this is my last Chocolate Banana puzzle of the week. I'm getting carried away :) I'll find something else. Normal Chocolate Banana rules apply. Rul...

logical-deduction grid-deduction no-computers

bobble

Seriously, y'all, this question only keeps accumulating "funny" unintended answers from the HNQ, how is it not ill-defined?

oAlt

2:04 PM

As for me, I think it's fine, it's the other answers I have an issue with because they're not doing anything "puzzly"

e.g. and especially the Argentina and MAGA one

ACB

@Sphinx Did anyone try this? This seems difficult.

oAlt

2:18 PM

I understand that even if we exclude those answers, we still have multiple answers. But in that case, I'd say that I think the intended answer uses lateral thinking better than the others. The fact that 909 is exactly 50% bigger than 606 and their written forms are rotations of each other, and you can rotate paper... it makes it more obvious why the choice of the number 606 was deliberate

Ankoganit

Agreed, it's reasonably clear that the intended answer fits much better than anything else

Which is also why I disagree with the close votes on that one -- it's not the question's fault that there's a bunch of joke answers

ACB

I just downloaded the source magazine. This is how it's exactly stated.

Sphinx

1

Q: Next future date such that the all 8 digits of date format DD/MM/YYYY is all different and the product of DD, MM and YYYY is a square number

This puzzle is inspired from here. When is the future date such that the all 8 digits of date format DD/MM/YYYY is all different and the product of DD, MM and YYYY is a square number? Note that "the product of DD, MM, YYYY" means DD × MM × YYYY.

mathematics logical-deduction

juicifer

@ACB wouldn't making it 3/2 times greater turn it into 1515

ACB

3/2=1.5

oAlt

2:27 PM

I was going to type another thing but it felt lacking so never mind. Anyway, bobble, I welcome rebuttals, as I am bad at arguing

juicifer

right, but 1.5 times the number is different from 1.5 times greater than the number

Ankoganit

Honestly I've seen "x times greater" used in both ways

Language is a mess

ACB

I am not sure, but it clearly expects 606×3/2.

oAlt

Ah yeah I see the problem

juicifer

yeah I'm sure I would've got what it was going for, it just threw me off for a second lol

ACB

3:07 PM

@ACB Ahh! The answers are provided too.

juicifer

but how do we know you haven't deliberately cut off the part where it says "or, cut up the piece of paper into several smaller pieces and spread them out" :p

Sphinx

0

Q: Themed 7x21 Chocona

Chocona rules differ from Chocolate Banana rules. There is a hidden message inside the solution of the puzzle. An answer will only be accepted if it correctly identifies said message. The message is not SNY. The 30 cell is given as non-shaded. P.S. I promise this is my last grid puzzle of the we...

logical-deduction grid-deduction no-computers

ACB

3:30 PM

@juicifer haha

Here you can find the full magazine:nsta.org/quantum-magazine-math-and-science

Vol. 2 No.6

It's pretty big, but apparently '606' appears only once.

(except the image :p)

GentlePurpleRain

4:13 PM

A fun little game. I tried the first 7-8 levels and the last one, and didn't discover any serious issues. I did notice that the "creatures" (that move across the map) look quite similar to the block you're trying to move out of the way, especially if the "creatures" are facing up or down. That can get a little confusing.
On the last level, there are 4 coins provided, but I managed to complete it only using 3. Not sure if that was intended or not.

Ankoganit

4:55 PM

@GentlePurpleRain thanks for playing and the feedback, this is super helpful! do you mind describing your solution for the last one? using just 3 is definitely unintended haha

GentlePurpleRain

5:33 PM

@Ankoganit Go up the middle, get the first coin, use it on the purple switch centre-bottom. Go to top right room, get the coin, activate the three switches. Go to top middle room, get the coin, activate the three switches. Go through top-left, down through left, and back up through the middle. Use two coins on the green and purple switches in the middle of the room. Go back down through the middle, and right to the stairs.

I think you probably didn't intend for a coin to be used on that first purple switch. You might be able to resolve it by making it "one-way" like the other ones between rooms. (Although that might be tricky because the "creature" is eventually supposed to move onto it, I assume.)

You could potentially also just not put a coin in the first room (unless it is needed there for the intended solution).

Ankoganit

..wow, that's very clever, can't believe I missed that

you're absolutely right, I didn't think about using a coin on the purple switch at all

Ankoganit

5:55 PM

okay, thought of a easy fix, I should be able to patch this soon

GentlePurpleRain

If it's possible to have a switch activate more than one block at once, then you can just add a purple block above the switch, and a teal one to the right of it.

Ankoganit

@GentlePurpleRain not quite possible in the current version unfortunetaly

I'm fixing it by putting one more block-button pair, should be up in about an hour

done, hopefully the intended idea is forced now

won't be able to fix the problem with the creature sprites soon, unfortunately: drawing is really hard

that'd gonna have to wait till the next version

anyway, thanks a lot for testing it, @GentlePurpleRain , you've been a huge help! if you end up playing any more of it, let me know :)

Sphinx

6:36 PM

0

Q: The Famous Five

What does this picture represent and why?

knowledge visual lateral-thinking

Sphinx

10:01 PM

0

Q: A genius Margonon!

To solve the puzzle below, the standard rules of a fill-a-pix (or mosaic) apply: Paint the squares around each clue black so that the number of painted squares, including the square with the clue, matches the value of the clue. Additional note: every clue that should be a 0, 3, 6 or 9, is given....

logical-deduction word enigmatic-puzzle visual grid-deduction

bobble

10:50 PM

@oAlt in that case, can I flag them NAA, or do they technically count as answers?

The joke answers seem to have plenty of support - lots of upvotes and supportive comments

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