Meta - Hooky (AKA And on that barn...)

Owner:

Bowman

Solution

GALVANIZING

Partial: "UseCombo#xxxxxx" ----- "Yes, that is exactly what you should do. It’s not going to open itself."

GC Notes:

GC to update day-of-game.

Presentation:

Teams are given a collection of tiles with lines on them on one side, and circles on the other side. There is also a row of lockers, which are locked with combination locks. Teams are told to arrange the tiles such that the lines' electric outlet source goes to the respective spark plug sink. Once connected, they can flip the puzzle to extract the combination to use on their unique locker.

Walkthrough:

This is the Meta for the Stadium High School overnight hub. Teams are initially given the board and 0 tiles. Each solve of a different puzzle at the hub earns them an additional 9 tiles from a staff member "Jimmy".

On the obverse of each tile, there are various lines, while on the reverse there are sometimes circular, colored dots, and sometimes blanks. Regarding the wooden frame, it is visible that the tiles were cut out from the center of this frame. At the top-right of the frame is the value of a locker nearby which is locked with a master lock. Around the edges of this frame are spark plugs and outlets with matching markings. E.g., something like the paper prototyped version of this puzzle:

Teams are instructed to connect the outlet source to the respective spark plug. This will not be too challenging; each piece is unique. Teams can brute force it and still solve it relatively quickly. By using logic and grouping pieces by line style, however, they can solve it in about half the time.

In addition to instructing how to connect the lines, the flavor text also mentions they are trying "to see"--a hint to Braille--the answer "through the red, yellow and blue"--order to read colored braille dots in.

Teams will recall colored dots on the back, and flip it. **Point of confusion: Flip it so there is a black, hollow circle in the upper right hand corner when looking at the braille.**

The back will be visibly Braille, but it may take a few minutes for teams to realize how to read it.

First Pass: Read only the tiles that have Red (Red, Orange [== Yellow + Red], Purple, Black [==R+Y+B])

Second pass: Read only the tiles that have Yellow (Yellow, Orange [== Yellow + Red], Green, Black)

Third Pass: Read only the tiles that have Blue (Blue, Purple, Green, Black)

This will spell a message: USE COMBO # 35 21 39

**Combination will vary between teams**

They use this combination on the locker listed at the top of their puzzle frame to open the lock. Inside there is the answer: GALVANIZING.

Hinting:

While Arranging Tiles

• Teams have worked through the "Tile Arrangement" phase without issue. And there is not much hinting you could do anyways.

• Each piece is unique, each piece should be used exactly once. It should be obvious that the puzzle is 3 x 15 tiles.

After Arranging Tiles

• Teams may try to interpret the lines and their interactions as spelling morse code, or semaphore messages. Liberally hint that they will no longer need to use the top side of the tiles. Once all of the pieces have been placed, they should proceed to look at the back.

Looking at Braille On Back

• Ask how they are looking at braille. The tiles should NOT have been moved after solving in order to look at the braille. And there should be a hollow black circle in the upper right hand corner of the frame when reading the braille.

• If the teams do not know what encoding the dots could be, ask "What alphabet is used by people who can't see?"

• If teams tried to read ONLY the red then ONLY the Yellow etc., ask them "Are there any colors besides Red that need Red to make them?" (E.g., Is there Red in orange?)

• If you have already given the above hint, give them the reverse hint: "If you remove Yellow and Blue from every color, is the tile blank or Red?" "For instance, if you take Blue out of the Purple, what color is left?" Green - Blue - Yellow == Blank, while Black - Yellow - Green == Red)

• If teams don't know what to do with the combination (USECOMBO#xxxxxx), ask them if they have used the value in the upper left hand corner on the front of their frame for anything yet. Does that value match any values in their surroundings? If that doesn't click, ask them to read the value off the locker closest to them.

Data:

Braille on back looks like this. The message is UseCombo#104424 if they read it in color order RED - YELLOW - BLUE. This is the combo for Locker B-005A, which appears on the FRONT of their Hooky board