The Sphinx's Lair

Sp3000

3:07 AM

Hint posted for @ffao @Deus @MikeQ

Deusovi

I'm staring at it. No luck.

ffao

Will take a look now

yeah, that's a weird hint :P

Sphinx

0

Q: Let us all join the party for hope!

The students at Hope's Peak Academy decided to throw a party to have some thrills and chills (and let's stop there, please!) They played all sorts of games with each other, and now it's time for the final game of the night. But they suddenly realized they should go get something before they can ...

Sp3000

Woo puzzle

Not much time to solve now, but I'll definitely be trying it tonight :P

Deusovi

3:24 AM

...of course

ffao

this is the moment between Deus solving a problem and the posting of the solution in which I remain thoroughly confused

I feel like it has to be something obvious too

Deusovi

nah

that was a response to your puzzle

"of course ffao would make a Danganronpa puzzle"

er, puzzle set

well, BINT is a self-consistent set of letters for the Touko puzzle. but it's not 5 letters

as4s4hetic

Danganronpa!!!

Sp3000

Yeah dunno what to make of the left column for Touko atm

Deusovi

oh, does position matter?

Sp3000

3:38 AM

Feels like it should, or at least I can't think of a way to use the left col otherwise

Deusovi

oh, the numbers, you mean

probably a reference to something

like "you get this many points if you guess the word in this many guesses"

Sp3000

Call in #5: Svir yrggre bccbfvgr bs pyrna fgnegvat jvgu q

ffao

I love that the rot13 is still not the actual answer

that is correct for 5

Deusovi

nice

ffao

the image is of a Jotto scoresheet, I only cut the top row to remove the name of the game

as Deusovi conjectured, the number on the left is the amount of points you get

Deusovi

3:47 AM

jotto. that's the name of the game

it was on the tip of my tongue

well, have fun with the puzzle, Sp. I've gotta do CS homework

Sp3000

Yeah I gotta get back to work :(

ffao

we have time, v3 is only coming out on Tuesday :P

ffao

6:07 AM

hey @n_palum, you in board game night too?

n_palum

Wha?

ffao

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/55348/… — n_palum 48 mins ago

ASCII-only

@Sphinx +1 for Sublime (well Monokai theme at the very least)

ffao

It was Sublime

ASCII-only

I might be getting my themes mixed up

n_palum

6:13 AM

I was just redirecting you to that so Deus would essential lump you in with sp as a weeb

Deusovi

6:30 AM

@n_palum As if I haven't already?

Sid

6:47 AM

Gah, I feel I am so close with 6 and yet everything I try doesn't add up..

Beastly Gerbil

Whenever I run the code for No. 7 I get a syntax error for the last line, but I can't spot the error...

Is that supposed to happen @ffao ?

ffao

use python 2

ASCII-only

~~Use~~ ninja'd

Beastly Gerbil

I am....

Oh wait no I'm using 3

ffao

it should work if you add () enclosing what's after print

ASCII-only

6:55 AM

@ffao Nope

You need to replace it with sys.stdout.write(chr(ord('a')+b))

this is better

Although looks like whitespace means something here

unless that's a red herring

ffao

print(chr(ord('a')+b), end='') should give the same as sys.stdout.write(), I think

but anyway, not a big fan of Python 3

ASCII-only

@ffao D: how could you say this

@ffao Yeah (also pls use backticks)

ffao

not a big fan of markdown, either :P

ASCII-only

@ffao Is this intentionally supposed to take forever to run

ffao

... maybe? :P

Sp3000

7:03 AM

There's some pretty deliberate lack of caching in there, which I would try to decipher in my head if it wasn't for the array of nums

ASCII-only

@Sp3000 PyPy does caching

And it's still insanely slow

31 32454231040

a and n after a few minutes

It'll probably finish after the heat death of the universe

Sp3000

Well I mean t calls t(a) 3 times to recurse when it really doesn't need to, which should be a quick fix

ASCII-only

i m s m t d i D: I messed up

ffao

I hope I didn't mess up :D

ASCII-only

It's probably me messing up the shortcuts I used

Wen1now

7:20 AM

What's the problem?

What does if n%a==0: z//=t(a) ; z*=t(a)-1 do?

ASCII-only

It does what you think it does >_>

Wen1now

Hmm

So [if a|n, z = z//t(a) else z = z*(t(a)-1)]?

ASCII-only

@Wen1now no, if n%a == 0, then z=z//t(a)*(t(a)-1)

I think?

Wen1now

So ; separates statements?

ffao

ASCII is correct, but you're free to try it out

about the meaning of the if statement, that is

ASCII-only

7:28 AM

@Wen1now Yes

Sphinx

0

Q: How many liars are in the room?

There are five people in a room. Each person is either a knight, who always tells the truth, or a liar, who always lies. Each person is asked the following question: How many liars are among you? The answers are: "one", "two", "three", "four", "five". How many liars are in the room?

logical-deduction lateral-thinking liars

Sid

@Wen1now I don't think Python uses ; to separate statements. You basically write it in a newline if you want to write two separate statements

ASCII-only

@Sid It does >_> why would ffao include it

ffao

I didn't think it would be confusing >_>

the point of this part is not syntax details >_>

Wen1now

Just clarifying, it would not make a difference if instead it was like this:

if n%a==0:
    z//=t(a)
    z*=t(a)-1

ASCII-only

7:36 AM

Yep

Sid

If there is a semicolon, I think the preceding line is actually two lines, one of them being a blank line.

Or so I have read somewhere

ASCII-only

@Sid huhwhat

Sid

Pretty sure, I read something like that.

ffao

@Wen1now yeah, I changed the code on the question so people hopefully don't get confused by this anymore

Sp3000

btw I am liking the foreboding title for 0. Just sayin'

ASCII-only

7:39 AM

@ffao 0/10 change the image too pls

also golf it :P

I just need to decipher the meaning of t(n) to get the answer I think, but it just seems so random D:

Wen1now

Hmm

I think I know what t is

ASCII-only

7:55 AM

@Wen1now pls do tell

Wen1now

while i < x:
    a,b = b,a+b
    i = i + 1

I just can't seem to get rid of that

t seems to be the Euler totient function+1 I think

It checks for prime factors p of n, and then multiplies z by (p-1)/p

Then it adds 1 at the end

@ASCII-only How did you get this though?

ASCII-only

@Wen1now I assumed t was constant once I got the same thing 15 times in a row

@Wen1now How would you speed this part up

Wen1now

Um, javascripter.net/math/calculators/eulertotientfunction.htm

I just manually entered the numbers into that and got the euler totients

ASCII-only

> multiplies z by (p-1)/p

Doesn't this part make it not totient

Wen1now

How come?

On all the small cases I've checked, the totient function and t match up

Mithrandir

8:05 AM

...misread that as the toilet function...

ASCII-only

@Wen1now Oh okay

Mithrandir

@Rub puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/41089/watchnflonline

ASCII-only

It gives me t x v f k g x

Wen1now

That's not good...

Still, how did you get past the a,b = b,a+b part?

ASCII-only

It cycles every 84 iterations

because of the mod

Unless I messed up

Wen1now

8:12 AM

I just noticed that

Thanks anyway

u
s
u
a
l
l
y

Answer^

ASCII-only

:D

Has anything else been solved

ffao

usually is correct for 7!

ASCII-only

@ffao TIL 7! = usually

Wen1now

That was actually pretty fun

Anyway, I'd attack 6 next

ASCII-only

8:33 AM

0
red
ajkq

yellow
invx

green
gltyz

blue
chomw

purple
bdefprsu

If that helps anyone, it seems the zigzag might mean arranging the alhpabet in a square

Wen1now

Do you think the numbers in 6 are mod 26ed at the end?

Sp3000

Off work now, will get to join in a bit. Meanwhile here's two MD5 sum answer guesses which would be hilarious if one of them was right: 8b72d507ebaa6d4d535f613c2f68f18a , 749918005290c19a4a9583f8fc064d63

Wen1now

What's this for?

Sp3000

Just me trying to guess what the meta answer might be and probably being very wrong :P

ffao

it would be funny if one of them were right, then you'd just have to backsolve 5 puzzles :P

but unfortunately that's not the case :(

Sp3000

8:44 AM

Aww :P

(I realise that I forgot about the first few paragraphs, so I was very wrong anyway :P)

Sid

What is the probability that if I just guess a random word, I get the answer right?

ASCII-only

9:25 AM

Wen1now

Um...

Sp3000

(Oookay, home now - time to ID idols :P)

ASCII-only

@Wen1now Has it been done

Or do I now know what I'm doing

Wen1now

Not by me...

ASCII-only

Hmm I wonder what the text under 2 means

Wen1now

9:29 AM

What text under 2?

ASCII-only

The huge block of coordinates

O_o I just read the title of #4

Wen1now

I can't seem to find some of the things in 2... for example, where is B6?

ASCII-only

@Wen1now Which is why I crossed them out

Wen1now

Oh... I did not see the crosses

ASCII-only

For #4:

Mion Mukaichi, Nico Yazawa / Minami Nitta
Minami Minegishi, Nozomi Tsuji / Ayame Goriki
Nana Okada, Eri Mizutani / Kashiwa Yukina
Ai Kago, SONiKA / Mai Shiraishi

Wen1now

9:44 AM

Do you have anything on 5? It seems to look like a scoreboard for a game or something

Sp3000

If you want to spoil yourself for 5, solution is up a few hours

ASCII-only

@Sp3000 Up a few hours?

Wen1now

^

Sp3000

Maybe more than a few, but transcript, basically

ASCII-only

Colors for #0: rpbpppgbyrrgbybprppgpybygg

~~There's no l :(~~ I'm blind

Sp3000

9:47 AM

(btw I had Maki Goto for second row middle, not sure)

Wen1now

glyphs

It's green

ASCII-only

@Sp3000 That's correct, sorry >_> my google fu failed me, it's here

Sp3000

@ffao Calling in for 4: sbhe yrggre jbeq fgnegvat jvgu s lbh zvtug svyy bhg jura qbvat gnkrf

... oh wait that's the wrong one

Wen1now

Fjord bank cwm glyphs vext quiz is the correct order for those words, no idea if that's relevant

Sp3000

sbhe yrggre jbeq sbe uneq be pbzcnal <-- that's 4

ffao

9:55 AM

Now I'm curious, I don't actually know any word that matches the earlier description

Sp3000

I got the second letter wrong, basically :P

ffao

That is correct for 4!

Ah, duh.

Not so often I get to make a puzzle composed entirely of pictures of idols and be able to say it was completely justified with a straight face

Wen1now

How did you get that?

ASCII-only

@Wen1now Wait why

Wen1now

Never mind I got that wrong, too late to delete

ASCII-only

10:05 AM

So #4, #5 and #7 are done

#6 next then I guess

I'm sure the 8 and 6 there are just coincidences there to mislead us haha

Sp3000

10:17 AM

Hmm yeah, this meta doesn't seem doable with only 3 pieces :P (but I think I get how it might work)

ffao

10:57 AM

So Sp added italics to "hard" and "fine" in the crossword hint

This mean anything to anyone?

Sp3000

11:17 AM

So before I embark on this 21x21 journey ffao... is it going to help for Koizumi's puzzle if I replace the text grid with picture pieces? :P

ffao

Not really

I'm not that mean

Wen1now

What happened with #5?

Sp3000

Didn't think you'd be that mean, but when stuck, everything looks like a viable option :P

(oops didn't resize those pics right)

Wen1now

Um, #5 anyone?

Sp3000

Wen1now

11:27 AM

Hey, I've seen that picture before!

Sp3000

For 5, start reading here: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/40186616#40186616

Wen1now

Ooh, nice work

Just a note for 6 - all the ? ones (and, in fact, most of the longer ones) have a double of some kind

One last question - how did 4 work?

Sp3000

11:50 AM

ssnb cvpxrq n ahzore bs vqbyf lbh pna pbhag ba

ASCII-only

@Wen1now O_o

I kinda want to make a rot13 userscript now :P

Sp3000

(I almost have 2, but the last part is killing me)

#2: n svir yrggre jbeq sbe guvatnznobo gung vf na nantenz bs mbbzvat jvgubhg ba

ffao

@Sp3000 Really? You do this and the last part of 2 kills you?

That is correct, by the way, though I don't think you needed my confirmation for this one

Sp3000

Yeah well... you know how finnicky these things can be sometimes if you don't get it quite right...

Also I expected that one to be a letter shorter than it actually is for the meta. Hmmm

Sid

12:06 PM

Hey, @Sp3000 A little help required here.

Sphinx

0

Q: Visual Puzzle: Guess this hit pop single!

Can you guess this hit English song?

visual rebus

Sp3000

Required whereabouts?

Sid

Where do you make those crosswords? I mean, any site?

Sp3000

Sympathy for the last one, Crossword Compiler for this one. Both have trials but both are paid, unfortunately

Sp3000

12:21 PM

#3: nantenz bs frpnag zrnavat pyvzo (nyfb qvqag ernyvfr v whfg arrqrq gb vaqrk)

ffao

What were you trying instead of the ()?

Sp3000

Nothing, I just had what I needed but didn't know what to do with it :P

v thrff v qvq nyfb gel pnrfne fuvsg jvgu ahz

ffao

Ah, that would be reasonable too

Sp3000

I'm slightly hung up by the fact that 5+5+6+4+5+4+7 is a nice square number (36) but not a multiple of 5 :P

Sphinx

-1

Q: Rebus: Can you guess this phrase?

Can you guess the phrase in this rebus puzzle?

visual rebus

Sid

1:05 PM

Why was that deleted? ^

ASCII-only

@Sid Plagiarism

Sid

@ASCII-only The site is mentioned in the picture, right?

Rubio

1:25 PM

puzzling.stackexchange.com/help/referencing

Provide a link to the original page or answer
Quote only the relevant portion
Provide the name of the original author

Do not copy the complete text of external sources; instead, use their words and ideas to support your own. And always give proper credit to the author and site where you found the text, including a direct link to it.

I'm usually willing to be a bit less strict on that stuff if someone's made a good faith effort, but if you're on the site for a day and have already posted four puzzles that are direct, no-effort dumps of another site's content, I'm .... not going to be feeling particularly charitable.

Rubio

2:26 PM

what is with multiple people answering a question with an answer effectively equivalent to the accepted answer that was given 6 hours earlier?

Deusovi

Without knowing which question you're looking at, I'm gonna say HNQ.

Rubio

2:42 PM

the recent Liars one

I started aggressively culling completely redundant answers on it

Sid

How has that thing got so many upvotes?

Mithrandir

17

Q: PSA: Please avoid writing duplicate answers

I recently asked a question - What should I do if I have a nosebleed in the middle of a meeting? This question received at least 11 answers (2 of which were deleted). I've read through all of the answers posted to my question, and I've noticed something: A lot of the information included in thos...

discussion answers

Deusovi

3:19 PM

@Sid The power of HNQ.

GentlePurpleRain

3:41 PM

Anyone else seeing their username show up as "false" in the Puzzling header bar?

Rubio

You've got a userscript running

The new header design (which you get to see on PSE, lucky you) broke SOX a bit

GentlePurpleRain

Yep, that's it. I forgot I was using that script.

Rubio

if you turn off the setting for showing your name before your avatar, the "false" goes away

Sconibulus

5:25 PM

but then how are you supposed to remember your name?

Beastly Gerbil

@rubio can only mods see it at the moment? As far as I can see it hasn't changed for me

Rubio

Correct

Beastly Gerbil

would you be allowed to show a screenshot?

Sid

5:45 PM

@Apep maybe we are due a hint or a letter now?

My only progress is, upset unending noise isn't SION(maybe)

Sphinx

0

Q: A recipe that's going places

What is this a recipe for? Carefully slice the forgiveness into 6 even pieces Apply a generous amount of Angola extract Optionally sprinkle a small amount of digits Whisk with a stick Serves one

riddle enigmatic-puzzle

0

Q: Broken Words Cryptic #3

This game can be also played here: https://www.brainzilla.com/word-games/broken-words/cryptic/3/ Use the following chunks to create words related to a specific theme. The theme name itself is also hidden within those words. DLE - HSH - SAI - LIE - DOG - VER - DAL - EDS - COL - ING - RIE - DAC -...

word wordplay

Beastly Gerbil

clearly DOG POO is one ^

Beastly Gerbil

6:04 PM

@rubio I answered first, but I was missing two and you posted the complete answer first so I think you should get the tick :)

Rubio

I took 53 seconds longer because I HAD THEM ALL. :)

yeah

Apep

@Sid Well, that was going to be the first clue...

Sid

Excellent. Let's move onto the second clue, then.

Apep

The 4th letter is A.

Beastly Gerbil

Of course @Rubio got all the dog breeds, him being a dog and all...

2

Sid

6:07 PM

@BeastlyGerbil That question is missing Rubio as one of the breeds..

But, it's not a multiple of 3. duh.

Beastly Gerbil

lol :P

Sphinx

6:21 PM

0

Q: Which string can't accessed?

We start from the string $abcdef$ and We can edit it with the following rules: 1.$abcdef \Rightarrow adbecf$ 2.$abcdef \Rightarrow daebfc$ Which string can't accessed? 1.dbafec 2.fcbeda 3.cabefd 4.efdcab 5.fedcba In these kind of problems we usually look for a...

mathematics

ffao

not sure how I feel about the cross-post

Rubio

yeah i'm not either, and i'm not sure what this comes from which would give some context to that

is it a puzzle or is it a math thing

GentlePurpleRain

6:35 PM

Seems to me that this should be closed as a duplicate of the math one (which already has an answer...)

ffao

@Apep END + ANGE[-r] + RING?

How is noise=ring?

@ffao Correct

Like a telephone.

6:55 PM

don't like that bit, rest is alright

Apep

7:05 PM

I was thinking of the archaic (?) usage as a noun, like in "the ring of a bell". It would probably be more common as ringing for that usage modernly. The [noun adjective] ordering before it was archaic/uncommon as well.

Sid

7:19 PM

Endangering = Menacing is something I don't understand either. Is that some archaic meaning of the word?

Mike Q

They are both synonyms for "threatening"

ffao

CCCC: Institution of quantum theory ends after pretense loses leader (7)

Sid

ACADEMY

(f)ACADE+MY

ffao

yeah

Mike Q

Where does the MY come from?

Sid

7:30 PM

Ending letters of Quantum Theory

CCCC: Substitute again start tennis point (7)

GentlePurpleRain

@Sid RE (again) + SERVE (start tennis point) = RESERVE (Substitute)

Sid

Yes.

GentlePurpleRain

CCCC: Disseminated article (7)

Sid

....could this be RECITAL? (Article)*

GentlePurpleRain

7:45 PM

@Sid Correct. & lit.

Not my best work... :|

Sid

I thought it's pretty neat. Enumeration is doing double duty though

GentlePurpleRain

How so?

Sid

Oh, wait. &Lit. Got it/

I thought the (7) was the def there

Tumbler41

If the wordplay is out of order do you have to indicate that somehow (like "after" in ffao's q above)?

Beastly Gerbil

Generally yes

For instance, an anagram indicator (say 'mad') needs to be next to the word it is anagramming (say 'north') not after it: mad north with shrub is prickly (9) is good but mad with shrub north is prickly (9) doesn't make sense at all

The after was needed for ffao's clue, other wise it would be 'MYACADE' not 'ACADEMY'

Tumbler41

8:07 PM

THORNBUSH! Thanks for the easy one. :)

(And telling me how to solve half of it)

Sid

CCCC: Fraud after the fifth ((7)

Beastly Gerbil

I assume the double bracket wass a typo?

other wise the answer will be BRACKET for an unknown reason

feelinferrety

8:24 PM

HEY where did this bounty come from??

Beastly Gerbil

which?

feelinferrety

The one awarded to myself on the 3D stonehenge puzzle

who awarded it?

I don't know

hmmm....

8:31 PM

Oh nvm

It has a hover popup

:|

@Avigrail much appreciated

Beastly Gerbil

Deus didn't need it :P

feelinferrety

Who says I did ;P

Rubio

Avigrail, apparently :)

feelinferrety

ok but srsly tho for as active as I am, I am pretty low X)

Sid

@feelinferrety Arrgh... message language. cringes

Rubio

8:33 PM

you're making pretty good headway actually. Rep here tends to come slowly, for whatever reason

feelinferrety

Just fulfilling that Impostor Syndrome.

Beastly Gerbil

Unless you are like MCN and spam posts...

Rubio

don't get me started. mutter

MCN is successful only because people with no discriminating taste are upvoting that dreck.

Gareth McCaughan

@BeastlyGerbil I think it probably is in fact BRACKET, since fraud = racket. Not quite sure why fifth = B though. (Some musical thing? Only if you're in E for whatever reason.)

feelinferrety

How come the one time I don't mention names, I get called out and redacted but y'all keep bringing it up without a peep >_<

Deusovi

8:35 PM

@Rubio Quantity over quality is a disappointingly viable strategy.

Beastly Gerbil

@feelinferrety apparently, you are averaging 3 rep per day :P

feelinferrety

Surely only recently

Deusovi

(Though I wouldn't have brought up the name.)

Rubio

@Deusovi indeed.

Beastly Gerbil

(Thought the query I am using is dated)

feelinferrety

8:36 PM

I had a couple of choice answers back in my first active period

Went quiet for awhile and haven't done much but yammer since I've been back

...and downvote

:P

Sid

@GarethMcCaughan Well, you have 90% of the clue. If you want, I can give you the reason of B=5.

feelinferrety

Boron

Beastly Gerbil

gareth and rubio have highest rep per day numbers, 63 and 61

Sid

@BeastlyGerbil What a surprise.

feelinferrety

It's a little disheartening to try and regain privileges I had back before graduation

Sid

8:38 PM

What query are you using btw?

Tumbler41

@Gareth How does fraud = racket?

Beastly Gerbil

data.stackexchange.com/puzzling/query/661294/…

feelinferrety

@Tumbler41 If someone is "running a racket" they are committing fraud

Rubio

I'm always #2 to Gareth, story of my life. (I'm really Number Two to him in our mod chat room. you should see the things he says to me there!)

Mithrandir

@Rubio I should, yeah ;P

Rubio

8:39 PM

fraud=racket is fine. i'm not thrilled about fifth=boron though hehe

Sid

I aim to displease. :P

Tumbler41

Hmm... This is why I will never be good at these things....

feelinferrety

Eh, from what I've read it's a fairly well-established usage

Rubio

oh I'm sure. i just don't like it much, personally

except in Contact ;)

Sid

@BeastlyGerbil That query also takes users who have posted just once and were lucky to be in HNQ.

Gareth McCaughan

8:41 PM

Not overkeen on fifth=B either but never mind. So I suppose I should set the next one.

Incidentally, for the record, I am not in fact mean to Rubio in the mod chat room.

Beastly Gerbil

@sid you can ignore them

you are just very strict with him :P

Sid

@Rubio Pretty sure you learn lots of new words to defend in contact. :P

Rubio

@GarethMcCaughan This is true. Gareth likes to ruin my fun though :)

Gareth McCaughan

CCCC: Aim at one play leading to conversion (8)

John Dvorak

can conversion be an indicator?

in general, I mean

Avigrail

8:55 PM

@feelinferrety You're welcome.

Gareth McCaughan

@JohnDvorak In general, "conversion" could be an anagrind applying to material going before it. So e.g. "Credit conversion is straightforward (6)" would be a valid clue for DIRECT.

GentlePurpleRain

CC question: Would "third class" be acceptable for cluing the letter A (clAss)?

Gareth McCaughan

I'm pretty sure I've seen that construction but I don't like it much.

Beastly Gerbil

Would probably need an 'of' in there or something but then its pretty obvious...

thecoder16

9:32 PM

but i've seen first class a lot... what's different? or is first class also frowned upon?

ffao

I haven't seen "first class" meaning C a lot, for that matter

but I think it's ungrammatical for the same reason third class is

Sp3000

I'd say acceptable: yes, like it personally: no

Gareth McCaughan

Yup, my feeling too. "First in class" would be fine, of course.

Sid

9:52 PM

Okay, I need to sleep now. Good Night folks.

Sphinx

0

Q: Not quite Saturated

The answer to this Puzzle would be a single word. 1. Dancing Descent 2. Cryptic Rebuses for another idea? 3. Fish type, maybe? Crustacean, few, Culture, finest(4,1) or (1,4) Dear, spoken, tanks, besides (2,1) or (1,2) Diane, Grey, miss, All (3,1) or (1,3) Smooch, lightbulb, risque, tells ...

word wordplay rebus metapuzzles

Transcript for