The Grate Escape

Owner

Jamie Eckman

Presentation

The puzzle is presented as a window overlaying the casino. Teams are given some introductory text and then must organize themselves into four "agent" controllers and a remainder of observers.

Once the puzzle itself has started, they will see a puzzle grid with the agents and targets ("EXIT"s). Alongside the grid is a list of moves that each agent is capable of taking. The moves may be re-arranged and determine how each agent traverses the puzzle grid to get to an exit. When the team is successful in getting all four agents to the exits, the team can continue to the next level. There are eight levels.

After four levels, the puzzle changes somewhat. The list of moves is translated into a novel language, "West Splovian". Teams will need to decipher the language based on their knowledge of what moves are available from the first four levels, as well as deductive reasoning from the current puzzle grid. They need to do this quickly, because as soon as they attempt a move on the fifth level a timer starts ticking up. Additionally, every wrong move submission results in a five-minute penalty. There is no maximum time, however; it's just a pressure tactic and a way of ranking teams if we'd like.

After solving all eight levels, the team has finished the puzzle and helped their agents escape the vault.