The TREASUREFIX word search solved! We Didn’t Start the Word Search by TREASUREFIX was released on March 1st. The first person to solve it could claim the $5,000 Cash Bounty. After about 2 months – the clues came together for a team of puzzlers: Unicorn, Brute_Forcing, and Sean! CONGRATS to the winners!
Let’s hear more from those who claimed the $5000 cash bounty and how they went about solving the clues!
Six Questions with Unicorn, Brute_Forcing and Sean:
- 1Q) Congrats! on submitting the correct solution and thanks for participating in these Six Q’s! Please share how long you’ve been in the hobby, and what you enjoy most about solving puzzles. Also, what did you find most appealing about the Word Search to take it on?
Brute_Forcing: A few years into the hobby. I enjoy the collaborative aspect the most. What appealed to me about the Word Search is that you immediately know the first step. After you find the words you start asking questions. What do they have in common? What is out of place? What is missing?
Sean – My favorite part of solving treasure hunts versus traditional puzzles is that you have to figure out the rules. The Word Search was appealing in particular due to its confined nature (no unused information or red herrings). Every time a discovery was made we knew it was a vital piece of the puzzle and we just had to figure out the next step!
Unicorn: I’ve only found the community within the last few years, but I’ve enjoyed traditional puzzles, brain teasers and other structure of puzzle hunts for a long time. I was amazed when finding this community of people who also enjoy puzzles as much as I do… and I was further thrilled by the diversity of format treasure hunts can take. On its surface, you might be looking at a word search – but the possibility of the magic lurking in the simple details is exciting.
- 2Q) Can you share some of your thought processes for solving the multiple steps in the hunt? Did you ever feel lost – and if so, how did you push through?
Brute_Forcing: We definitely hit a few walls. We knew we had to anagram but the possibilities seemed endless.
Sean – The puzzle was well-designed in that when we finished a step there were confimers that we were right. Sometimes anagrams can lead to ambiguity, but thanks to the puzzle staying on theme, there was no doubt that DORISKAPPELHOFF was ROOFHALFSKIPPED for example. The tricky part was how they managed to beat the online anagram solvers by using proper nouns. Each solve had to be earned!
Unicorn: Ironically, I think we had the idea of using the OTP in this puzzle before we cracked the anagrams due to some key words in the flavor text. We didn’t know if or how it would be used but had many ideas. Anagrams are tough at the best of times, and we often questioned the possibility of needing to combine ALL leftover letters into a giant anagram or other similar ideas that are difficult to rule out.
- 3Q) What was the first really satisfying ‘aha’ moment for you? What part of the puzzle was the most difficult to solve?
Brute_Forcing: We stayed persistent. We kept trying different anagrams for Roof Half Skipped and finally landed on Doris Kappelhoff aka Doris Day which fit the song theme. After that the two other anagram names linked to the song fell quickly. Then we hit another wall with the two longer phrases. It took days but we felt these must give instructions for the next steps.
Sean – The most satisfying aha-moment for me was finding the One Time Pad code! We knew it was very likely to be used thanks to the clue “And this time, every letter counts” containing “time.” Since We Didn’t Start The Fire was a list song, we knew each entry could correspond to a numeric number (counts). Once we had the three anagrammed names and we realized their corresponding numeric orders totalled 5 digits, matching the OTP design, we got excited. And we found two possible entries on the OTP that matched. It felt like this HAD to be right!
Unicorn – We had hit a difficult wall with the 4th and 5th anagrams but once we got the structure of the 4th, we knew if we could get the 5th we’d have it solved. We were also challenged a bit in the implementation of the OTP despite feeling strongly we knew we had the correct path. The last few steps of the puzzle came together quickly in comparison to the length of time we spent on incorrect anagram attempts. It was super satisfying feeling like we had a vision of the path we were supposed to go down and having it be challenging yet achievable.
- 4Q) How much time do you spend on solving puzzles? How do you balance life and puzzling fun?
Brute_Forcing: If it’s a well designed puzzle we will spend a lot of time on it because we enjoy it. Working together with different ideas makes it fun. If it isn’t fun we’ll take a step back and try something else.
Sean – I work on various treasure hunts every day, but only to the extent that they are fun! Not every hunt is going to be fun for every person, so I think it’s important to move on from hunts if you aren’t having fun with them. This hobby is about the enjoyment I get from solving puzzles and working with friends, the prizes are just the cherry on top.
Unicorn – I’m in the phase of life where I spend a lot of time driving kids to activities and going to and from school with them. Some of the best aha moments have come in the handful of minutes I have between arriving at school pickup and waiting for their bell to ring. This is a great hobby if you can find balance and keep your priorities straight because it can fit into the “in between” moments that some people spend mindlessly scrolling social media. Puzzles are much more fun 😉
- 5Q) There are a lot of new puzzlers coming into the hobby. I always like to ask solvers what advice they have for those new to solving puzzle hunts? What resources, tips, and tricks have you found most useful?
Brute_Forcing: I think you have to accept that the best answer many times is not the right answer. So challenge your assumptions along the way and don’t be afraid to express a crazy idea. It may just spur the right idea. Mysterious Writings has an incredible library of past hunt solutions that is a great resource for learning all different tricks that can be used.
Sean – If a hunt creator has created previous hunts that have been solved, there is no greater resource than reviewing the solutions to their solved puzzles very closely. And always remember you need to solve the puzzle that the creator has created, not the puzzle that you wish they created.
Unicorn – If you don’t already have friends into the hobby, find the forums and discord channels where people are chatting. Sometimes explaining your idea to someone else can inspire a whole new set of ideas, and you are pretty likely to meet some friendly people in the process.
- 6Q) Which hunts are you working on now? Do you prefer fully armchair over BOTG or which is your favorite?
Brute_Forcing: There are lots of new hunts: TreasuresFix, Masquerade Tribute, The Vault, Xavier Marx, Forgotten History Hunts, and Retro13 to name a few. Choose your adventure!
Sean – Both armchair and BOTG can be fun! I loved that this hunt was armchair and I hope we get many more of them in the future. BOTG can be very difficult and cost-prohibitive when it is far away. But there is also no greater thrill than finding a BOTG treasure. So, more of both, please!
Unicorn– I need to specifically shout out to both The Vault and Xavier Marx which Brute_Forcing and Sean are each waiting for someone to solve! There are an increasing number of diverse hunts out there – you are sure to find something you like! Thanks to Jenny and MW for creating a space and community where an increasing number of hunts are able to find their audience and get the attention they deserve. Bring on the puzzles and the adventures!