July 2022 - Squid Game

Tap or click on any hint box to view it.

Location: Red Light, Green Light

  1. Each clue describes a phrase that starts with the word RED or GREEN, such as GREEN MEN. The color goes in the traffic light, and the rest of the answer goes in the blanks.
  2. The color at the start of the phrase is a hint about its length. For phrases that start with RED, the number of filled in blanks is the same as in the row above them, and for phrases that start with “Green” the number of filled In blanks is one more than the row above them.
  3. RED SOX, GREEN VOTE, RED FISH, RED WINE
  4. RED FLAG, GREEN OLIVE, RED SHIFT, GREEN GOBLIN, GREEN LANTERN
  5. RED SNAPPER, GREEN TOMATOES, GREEN CANDIDATE, RED BLOOD CELL, GREEN EGGS AND HAM
  6. The boxed letters, taken in order from top to bottom spell out the answer.
  7. MOVING VIOLATION

Honeycomb

  1. Every square in a row or column labeled zero will be empty.
  2. After filling in the zeros, there's only one way to fill in the 7 1 1 column and the 1 1 7 row.
  3. The 3 in the 3 1 1 1 column has to overlap the 7 in 1 1 7 row, so the third row in that column is not part of the cookie's shape.
  4. There is only one option for the third row now. It must extend to the right from the 7 1 1 column, and everything else in that row is not part of the cookie's shape.
  5. This shows where the 5, 4, and 4 must go in the three columns to the right of the 7 1 1 column.
  6. This allows us to fill in the two rows above the 1 1 7 row, and the row below it.
  7. This allows us to fill in the remaining 4 column, the 4 1 1 column, and the 3 1 1 1 column.
  8. This allows us to fill in the 1 4 1 row, the 1 4 row, and the 1 3 row, as well as the 3 in the 3 1 row, and part of the 5 in the 5 row.
  9. This allows us to fill in the 1 column, the 3 1 column, the 2 3 1 column, and 5 1 1 column. After, we can fill in the 1 row and 5 row.
  10. Hard time seeing is a hint that the extraction method is to use Braille. The squares that are part of the shape are dots.
  11. ONE TOUGH COOKIE

Tug of War

  1. The number in parentheses after each "ID Word" is the length of that word. The number in parentheses after each set of blanks is the number of blanks in that row.
  2. Only one word is 7 letters, and only one word is 16 letters, so these can be filled in. Since they are in position 6 on both teams, these two words form a second pair to examine.
  3. To find each word's "core", look for a shorter word inside of it. For example, BLACKBEARD's core might be LACK, BE, BEAR, or EAR.
  4. INCUBATOR's core might be CUB, CUBA, BAT, or AT. Considering all the possible cores for BLACKBEARD, and INCUBATOR, there's one combination of cores that form a pair: BEAR and CUB. Since a bear is bigger than a cub, the word with bear is on BLACKBEARD's team.
  5. SNOWFLAKES → LAKE, ECCENTRICS → CENT, TROUNCED → OUNCE
  6. MICROELECTRONICS → ELECTRON, LIGAMENT → GAME, UNIVERSES → VERSE
  7. GRAPPLES → APPLE, HONEYCOMB → ONE, BLOCKBUSTER → BUS
  8. Read the letters on the rope from top to bottom to spell out the solution.
  9. DID NOT PULL IT TOGETHER

Games of Chance

  1. All of the marbles stand for the same letter. What letter do they look like?
  2. The only change to each word before and after is the addition of a single marble (for Player 1) or the removal of a single marble (for Player 2). The other letters in each word remain the same.
  3. For Player 1, Funky beat to listen to in an orchard could describe GROVE → GROOVE, while for Player 2, Nocturnal superhero with a side-gig as a gondolier could describe BOATMAN → BATMAN.
  4. The one-masted sailboat is a SLOOP
  5. The Spartans' enemy from the Battle of Thermopylae is XERXES
  6. SMOTHER SMOOTHER,
    CORNER CORONER,
    COMMANDS COMMANDOS,
    LOG LOGO,
    CARTON CARTOON,
    MISSION OMISSION,
    ROSTER ROOSTER,
    RATION ORATION,
    SALON SALOON,
    SLOP SLOOP
  7. LOATHES LATHES,
    TOILING TILING,
    DISCO DISC,
    LIMBO LIMB,
    ORANGE RANGE,
    XEROXES XERXES,
    BOAR BAR,
    CELLO CELL,
    ALOE ALE,
    COAST CAST
  8. The highlighted/double-underlined letters, from top to bottom, spell out the answer.
  9. HE'D LOST ALL HIS MARBLES

Glass Bridge

  1. In this logic puzzle, for each row, we are trying to identify whether the left or right tile is safe. Since Contestant 2 tells us that Contestant 1 was wrong about the left tile being safe in row 1, we know the right tile must be safe in row 1.
  2. Using all the clues, you can determine which panels are safe to use. For a step-by-step solution, see the hints below
  3. 1-2: right panel 1 is tempered
  4. 3-6: right panels 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18 are marked with a dot
  5. 3-6: right panels 2 & 6 are different from the other even numbers
  6. 9-11: left panels 3,5,13 are the same, and are marked with a dot
  7. 14: last 5 panels are on same side, 13 is on different side, so a shoe 'thud', is same as a marble 'clink'
  8. 14: this means similar panels on 2,3,5,6,13 left and 4,8,10,12,14,15,16,17,18 right
  9. 15: no streaks of 3 before 14 means: 1 is different from 2 and 3, so all panels marked similar in previous step are tempered.
  10. 15: also means 7 is tempered on the right, 9 on the left, 11 on the left.
  11. Contestants 6 and 11 clue us about which tiles they have spotted. Marking these tiles with spots will help with extraction.
  12. After marking the tiles clued by contestants 6 and 11 with spots, the tempered glass tiles, from start to finish, spell out the answer using the Pigpen cipher.
  13. CHRONIC PANE PROBLEM

Meta: Squid

  1. First, write the answers from the other four puzzles in the blanks on the first page. Each answer starts in cell one and continues consecutively.
  2. Cut out the puzzle pieces, and arrange them over the grid so that the bold lines align with the bold lines, and the O, +, and D are not covered.
  3. The path that the offensive team takes will go through every square in the row with the +, and will go through the square with the + twice.
  4. Because the offensive team's path cannot cross the dark line, and the number in the bottom row is only 4, there are not enough spaces for the path to go right of the shaded region. So the path must go left of the shaded region.
  5. The entire left column is now accounted for, so after the offensive team starts at the O and goes up, they must go right, rather than left. We can connect this path to the row with the +.
  6. The offensive team, starting from the O, travels up 1, right 1, down 1, right 2, down 4, left 6, down 6, right 3, up 1, left 2, up 2, right 3, up 2, left 1, up 3.
  7. Read the letters that are along the path that the offensive team takes through the defensive team's area (the shaded region).
  8. TEN TACKLES

Bonus: Ddakji

  1. Cut out and fold the two origami squares following the instructions. Dashed lines are mountain folds (the dashes reamain on the outside after the fold), and dotted lines are valley folds (the dots end up on the inside after the fold).
  2. After folding both papers, place them on top of each other with the squid head side up on each sheet, with the both squid heads pointing the same direction. Then finish folding.
  3. When folded correctly, you will have a square with a squid head on one side, and a circle made of squid tentacles on the other.
  4. The pattern on the circular side should be read clockwise as Morse code.
  5. HE FLIPPED OUT