Hints

Hints were released on a timer during BAPHL 10 using the CLuekeeper app. Hints came out faster for intramural teams than for varsity teams. Click each puzzle title to reveal hints at whatever speed you'd prefer. Some hints were live-hunt specific and may not be useful to you now.

Fort Worth

• Character Study (2 hints available)
  1. It's no coincidence that there are 26 scenes, and that some scenes (like the last one) have no characters appearing in them.
  2. Each character's timeline spells a word.
• False Advertising (4 hints available)
  1. Each description of what you were looking for corresponds to the name of a store on Newbury Street (that happens to sell something completely different).
  2. Each store name can be matched with one of the digit strings at the bottom, except one digit will be missing in each case.
  3. Not sure how to match store names to the digits? You probably have a device that can do this in your pocket.
  4. The letters corresponding to the missing digits can be ordered by street address, or equivalently, by plotting the letters on the given map.
• Number Weavers (5 hints available)
  1. Solve the patterns on the first page before looking at the strips.
  2. Work backwards to determine what post the number could have come from, by considering possible factors. For example, 4 could only have come from posts 4, 14, 22, or 41.
  3. Prime numbers are limiting. For instance 41 must be a starting post, since it can't be a product of two numbers. Similar logic applies if the number requires factors larger than 9, since starting posts are numbered less than 100.
  4. Post numbers always decrease across the weave, which gives bounds on where other threads can go.
  5. Even if you can't determine what post number a weave came from, you can still place bounds on it. For instance 20 could have come from 45 or 54, which means threads on posts above it must be at least 46.
• Showtime (3 hints available)
  1. Each program listing clues the title of a TV show or movie, except for an important element which is missing from every title.
  2. The channel number serves as an enumeration of the missing element in each title.
  3. The time of each program listing serves as an index into the missing element, which is always a city or municipality in the United States. Sort the extracted letters by the guest actors (who all happen to be Texans).
• Bureau of Engraving and Printing (Meta) (4 hints available)
  1. "Hidden in plain sight" is a clue to what the individual answers have in common. That is to say, each answer is "hiding" something in plain sight.
  2. Each answer contains a hidden number, like the TWO in FORT WORTH.
  3. "Five times bigger" is a clue for how to match the answers to the first four images.
  4. You will also need to manipulate the answers in a consistent way so that they fit in the grids exactly.

Las Vegas

• Get Lucky (3 hints available)
  1. Since you have two different starting orientations, you can work in parallel. It helps to keep track of all your decision points for ease of backtracking, and remember to keep the orientations straight.
  2. One of the two paths takes 22 steps, and the other takes 52 steps, so don't be alarmed if one of them appears to be going in the wrong direction for a while.
  3. Once you have arrived at both solutions, consider what symbols would have appeared on the starred squares. This time, the orientation of the symbols does matter.
• Heist in Plain Sight (3 hints available)
  1. Aside from the amounts stolen, there are two important pieces of information for each heist.
  2. Using the dollar values to index into one of those two pieces of information in the first set of heists will yield a "keep going" message. Index into the other piece of information when considering the final run of heists.
  3. The important pieces of information are the casinos being scammed, and the games being played.
• In the Cards (5 hints available)
  1. If you're getting stuck on any of the hands, make sure you are following all the rules correctly. The next two hints are particular rules you may have made mistakes with
  2. Make sure you burn the top card before dealing each hand.
  3. If all the players have busted, then the dealer takes no additional cards.
  4. Although this is not specified in the rules, all aces will wind up being worth 11 points.
  5. If you need to start over and can't get the deck back into its original order, you can ask GC for a new deck.
• Refreshments (3 hints available)
  1. Have you gotten sensible-looking instructions, but aren't sure what to do once you've followed them? You're only halfway done!
  2. Specifically, find another listing of over twenty varieties of frosty refreshment, and solve again.
  3. If you've figured out what information you need, you can ask a nearby GC member for a printed copy of this information so you don't have to stand around blocking traffic.
• Roulette (Meta) (4 hints available)
  1. It can be tough to figure out where to start with the logic. Rules 2 and 6 together can tell you how many numbers are covered in the middle column, and rule 10 can help you figure out how many numbers are covered in the left and right columns.
  2. In the column with only one number missing, rule 9 can help you narrow it down to one of two possible numbers.
  3. The red-red split from rule 3 can now be uniquely placed. After that, consider the ways in which the number 10 can be covered.
  4. Rules 4, 5, 7, and the first part of 9 should help you figure out where the remaining wagers are placed.

Seattle

• Constructive Criticism (4 hints available)
  1. The proverbs in the left column are wrong; they will be corrected with words clued by the right column.
  2. Put the pieces from the two matching clues together.
  3. The constructed pieces will need to be reordered. Look at the mistakes in the proverbs.
  4. Each constructed piece has room for six dots, but always has fewer. What else is a 3x2 grid of some dots?
• Functionality (4 hints available)
  1. The icons represent functions which manipulate words. The tic-tac-toe boards represent a family of functions which are related to each other.
  2. The answers to the "input" and "output" clues can each be paired with one of the rows of icons, so that the input answer becomes the [output] answer after both functions are applied in order, with another valid word as an intermediate step.
  3. The "input" and "output" clues are sorted in alphabetical order by their answers.
  4. If you need help pairing up the "input" and "output" answers, you may ask a GC member for the answers to any of their clues.
• Old McDonald Had an Agricultural Cooperative (6 hints available)
  1. The answers to the clues on the left can be paired with the answers to the clues on the right.
  2. The way in which the answers are paired is related to the animals pictured in between the two columns.
  3. In each matched pair of answers, an animal sound (like "oink," or "quack," though neither of those are used) on the left can be replaced by a single letter on the right.
  4. If you draw a line between two paired answers, it will intersect an animal that makes the sound that appeared in the left-hand answer.
  5. Sort the animals from left to right, and take the letters that replaced the noises the make.
  6. If you need help figuring out the matching pairs, you may ask a GC member for the answers to any of the individual clues.
• Underground Music (7 hints available)
  1. The answers to the "chord" clues are all 5 letters long, and they should be entered in the numbered chords in the sheet music, from top to bottom. The answers to the "melody" clues are 4 to 8 letters long, and each of them is entered into the notes of a "melody" (that is, a sequence of notes, one per chord, that are the same color and connected by lines).
  2. If you are having trouble with some of the clues, feel free to ask GC for help.
  3. When you have entered the answers to the "chord" and "melody" clues correctly, the (unclued) chords on the backbeat will spell out names, sort of.
  4. Specifically, the chords on the second beat of each measure spell the first names of 6 famous rock musicians who all played guitar, and the chords on the fourth beat of each measure spell their last names, sort of.
  5. The first and last names are incorrectly paired and out of order, and each last name has one incorrect letter.
  6. The first names of the guitarists start with the letters A through F, which provides an ordering. Use the incorrect letters in the last names to spell the answer.
  7. If you're having trouble figuring out the last names, 4 of them are also common uncapitalized English words, one of them is a kind of knife, and the remaining name starts with Z. If you are having trouble matching first and last names, try looking up the following songs featuring those guitarists, one per artist: "Johnny B. Goode," "Peggy Sue," "Space Oddity," "Peaches en Regalia," "You Shook Me All Night Long," and "Two Tickets to Paradise." Or ask GC to help identify the artists.
• Space Needle (Meta) (3 hints available)
  1. Identify the pictures, which are in alphabetical order. The enumeration (number of letters) of each picture is given by its likes. Compare the enumerations of the picture identifications with the enumerations of answers from the round.
  2. The hashtags (in their given order) will tell you what you need to look for in the answers of the round's puzzles.
  3. You'll need to reorder extracted letters. What detail of the Instagram posts has not been used yet?

Final

• Ticket to Solve (Meta 1) (4 hints available)
  1. This is a metapuzzle. In addition to the answers to the previous puzzles, you will need to use information from two or three other sources.
  2. In order to place the answers, you must use the tickets you received when checking out from each location, the local map you received at the start of the hunt, and some additional information associated with each puzzle.
  3. Each ticket, when properly "transferred" to the US map, will account for two puzzle answers.
  4. Place two answers from a single round along the route for a given ticket, using the colors/icons in the city cover sheet as a guide. They won't quite fit, but the flavortext should tell you how to handle this.
• Charlie Ticket to Solve (Meta 2) (6 hints available)
  1. This is a metametapuzzle. You will need to use the answers to the three metapuzzles to solve this puzzle, though you might be able to solve it with only two. Although the MBTA has changed the design of the map that this puzzle is based on, it is still accurate as far as the content of the puzzle is concerned.
  2. Each station has had several letters removed from its name, which spell a word when put together.
  3. Each metapuzzle answer must be placed along one of the three specified routes, one letter per station. There is only one way to do this so that the overlapping letters always match whenever two routes use the same station.
  4. One of the three routes is not the most direct route between its endpoints, but it does not backtrack or visit any station more than once.
  5. If you are having trouble finding the right stations for the routes, FRESH to KNIT goes over the Orange, Green, and Red Lines, HAT to HARE goes over the Green Line, and QUIET to OGRE goes over the Red and Orange Lines.
  6. The answers to the "Stops" clues are words which have been removed from the names of 12 of the stops used in the three routes. Take the letters at these stops to spell your answer.