Stucked at puzzle #9? You’ve come to the right place!
You can discuss your doubts and progress here, but beware of spoilers: please use one of the two following methods, accessible by clicking on the gear icon while writing your answer.
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Hidden text version 2 (click to expand):
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Having just solved this puzzle, I’m not convinced it’s set out correctly.
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Having quite a bit of experience with ciphers, I recognised this immediately as a shift cipher. However, shifting the letters in the direction specified gave me something bizarre like ‘Avmsy’, which obviously wasn’t the correct answer. I eventually tried shifting the letters in the opposite direction from the ones specified. That gave me an answer which turned out to be correct. I see nothing on the page to indicate that the black and white arrows should be reversed, but the correct answer is only reachable by doing so.
Perhaps the intention is that we visualise physically rotating the wheels in the direction of the arrows? That would provide the right answer. However, I feel it’s misleading and means that people think they are going about the puzzle the wrong way when in fact they are correct.
Hi and thanks for your feedback. In our initial test phase, we tried the other way around and got the same feedback, so it seems that what’s natural for some people does feel a bit weird for others. We decided to stick to what seems natural for us when you’re in front of the padlock, and added a specific hint for Avmsy
I’ve given quite a detailed walkthrough here, so anyone who doesn’t want to see such a thing should avoid opening the spoiler! The answer is also inside, but it’s blurred for extra protection. Apologies if I’ve broken a rule by including it.
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If I were you I would write the alphabet down somewhere as it’ll make this a lot easier than trying to do it in your head. Then, imagine you’re physically standing in front of the letters. The black and white numbers down the side correspond to the letters currently shown on the wheels and what you need to do to change them, in order. So, the black 3 is for the D, the white 4 is for the R and so on.
Now, this is the part I found confusing because it’s the opposite of what my brain naturally does. Remember you’re actually in the puzzle room. Then imagine taking hold of the D wheel (ignore the lever, I think that’s what threw me) and pushing it in the direction you’re shown by the arrows and the colours of the numbers. If you do this once, the D will become an E, but obviously, the number at the side is a 3, not a 1, so you’re not quite done with this letter…
I hope this has at least shown you how to solve the puzzle. You should end up with a word that is a type of creature - that creature is hiding behind the door, holding a key, as an additional clue. If you still can’t get it and you just want to know the answer, it’s gnome.
