From a devious team of developers comes Defuse: Amalgamated Research Groups, a challenging test of your puzzling and mathematical skills. How puzzling? Well, it was also created with help from the folks at the XKCD forums (parental warning: some material at the follow link may not be suitable for young children) which should be a big fat red flag to you right now. What do you need to do? That's simple. Just sign this waiver and I'll tell you.
Suspicious? What? Man, that's crazy. You're crazy. This is a completely legitimate offer that isn't sinister at all. All you need to do is use your mouse to complete a series of challenges in various rooms. Typically, your goal is to light up one square and leave the other unlit by different methods. If you fail? That's... not important. We're sure it won't come to that. But if you should fail, you can just try again. And again. Luckily, the promise of the ultimate reward (which is to say, some light refreshment) is waiting for you at the end, and that should be all the incentive you need. Just remember to keep an eye on the timer. Letting the timer run out would be... unwise.
While light on presentation, Defuse is a snarky, well designed workout for your gray matter. The sparse design doesn't allow for much other than the series of increasingly tricky puzzles on offer, and the timer only adds to the pressure. The lack of any bells and whistles to break up the puzzle solving may deter gamers looking for something lighter to play with, especially considering the lack of any real instruction, but players who enjoy logic puzzles will find the perfect little package to bat their brains against. If you've been scoffing and polishing your monocle at every other puzzle game on offer, Defuse: Amalgamated Research Group may just offer a bit of challenge for you.
Don't forget to sign the waiver.
Walkthrough Guide
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No walkthrough yet? Okie, in that case, I'll try my hand at one.
Level 1
To beat:
You need to activate all three of the green squares above the Disarm Square
To lose:
You need to activate all two of the circles above the Explode Square
Hand-holding solution:
To activate the topmost green square, click on both of the topmost circles.
To activate the middle green square, click on either of the circles above the Explode Square (but not both)
To activate the bottommost green square, click on the green circle on the right
Direct solution:
Click on all of the circles except for the bottom-right one
Level 2
To beat:
You need to activate all eight of the green squares lined up horizontally along the middle of the screen.
To lose:
You need to activate all three of the red squares lined up vertically above the Explode Sqaure
Hand-holding solution:
Notice the lines that connect the green circles to the squares.
When you click on a circle, it will activate/deactivate any squares it's connected to, whether those squares are green or red
Before you click on any circle, check to see if it's connected to a red square above the Explode Square. If it is, don't click on it if the other two red squares are activated. If it's not, you can click on it safely.
Direct solution:
If you number each one of the green circles as follows:
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
Then click on the circles in the following order: 2 - 7 - 3 - 5 - 8
Level 3
To beat:
You need to activate all the green squares that are vertically above the Disarm Square and are horizontally to the left of the Disarm Square
To lose:
You need to activate the Red (15) Square, which is connected to the Explode Square. This occurs when there are 15 activated circles.
Hand-holding solution:
To activate a square, all of the activated circles in that column or row need to add up to 5
To activate a circle, just click on it.
Red Squares activate when that number of circles activates. So if there are three activated circles, the Red [3] Square will activate. If there are ten activated circles, the Red [10] Square will activate.
First, start with the bottom row. What are the only circles that will add up to 5 when activated?
Next, look at the 2nd column from to the left. If you know that you can't activate (8) in that column, what are the only circles that will add up to 5 when activated?
Next, look at the 2nd row from the top. If you know that (9) has to be activated, what are the only circles that will add up to 5 when activated?
Next, look at the 2nd column from the right. If you know that (2) and (-2) have to be activated, what are the only circles that will add up to 5 when activated?
Next, look at the 2nd row from the bottom. If you know that (-3) and (1) have to be activated, what are the only circles that will add up to 5 when activated?
Next, look at the 3rd row (from the top or bottom). If you know that (4) has to be activated, what are the only circles that will add up to "5" when activated?
Lastly, look at the right-most column. If you know that (-3) and (2) have to be activated, what are the only circles that will add up to 5 when activated?
Direct solution:
X's are activated and O's are not activated
O X O O X
X X O X O
O O X X X
X X O X O
O O X X X
Level 4
To beat:
You need to light up all four Green Squares in the middle of the screen.
To lose:
You need to light up any of the four Red Squares at the top, bottom, left, or right of the screen.
Hand-holding solution:
To light up a square (whether it's red or green) all of the activated circles that are connected to that square need to add up to the number in the square.
First, try to light up the top Green [3] Square without setting off the top Red [3] Square. (don't use negative numbers)
Next, try to light up the right Green [5] Square without setting off the top Red [3] Square or the bottom Red [2] Square. (don't use negative numbers)
Next, try to light up the left Green [2] Square, and compensate when the top Green [3] Square deactivates, and then compensate when the right Green [5] Square deactivates. (now you can use negative numbers!)
Direct solution:
X's are activated and O's are not activated
O X
X X
O X
O O
O X
X X
Level 5
To beat:
You need to activate the right-most column of Green Squares
To lose:
You need to try to move a lower Green Square to a column with an upper Green Square
Hand-holding solution:
Look at the drawing in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen
It looks as though it's OK to move an upper Green Square to a column with a lower Green Square, but it's NOT OK to move a lower Green Square to a column with an upper Green Square
Next look at each column, it appears as though each column has two numbers on it. If you click on the 3 in the first column, the top-most Green Square moves to column 3. If you then click on the 2 in the first column, the top-most Green Square moves to column 2.
This looks like a classic Tower of Hanoi puzzle!
There are lots of websites that explain how to solve the Tower of Hanoi better than I can. Just google "Tower of Hanoi"
Direct solution:
If you label the green buttons from left to right as follows:
A B C D E F
Then the solution is as follows:
A - B - E - A - C - D - A - B - E - F- C - E - A - B - E - A
C - D - A - C - E - F - C - D
A - B - E - A
C - D
A
Level 6
To beat:
You need to light all six Green Squares above the Disarm Square. This happens if you deactivate all of the circles.
To lose:
You need to light the Red [42] Square connected to the Explode Square. This happens if you click on any of the circles a total of 42 times.
Hand-holding solution:
If you click on a circle, that circle, and all of the circles to the right, left, above, and below that circle get activated/deactivated.
This puzzle is easy if you work your way from one side of the screen to the other
Start by deactivating the two circles in the left-most column by clicking only on the two circles to the right of those circles.
Next, deactivate the four circles in the second column by clicking only on the circles in the third column.
Keep working your way down the columns until you've deactivated all of the circles.
Direct solution:
X stands for the circles you should click on ONCE, and O stands for the circles that you should never click on.
O O O O O O
O O X X O O
O X X X X O
O X X X X O
O O X X O O
O O O O O O
Level 7
To beat:
You need to activate all three Green Squares along the bottom of the screen
To lose:
You need to try to move a Red Square off the screen to the left or to the right
Hand-holding solution:
This one was a B**** to solve
To activate a Green Square, you need to align all of the red squares above the Green Square in a column. But you need to activate the Green Squares in order. First align the Red Squares above the Green [1] Square, then above the Green [2] Square, and finally above the Green [3] Square
If you click on a Green Circle, you will move the square in the row that the Green Circle is attached to. So if you click on the Green (1) Circle, you'll move all the squares in the attached rows 1 space to the right. If you click on the Green (-2) Circle, you'll move all the squares in the attached rows 2 spaces to the left.
You can move all the Red Squares one square to the left by clicking the following pattern: -1, -2, 1
You can move all of the Red Squares two squares to the right by clicking the following pattern:
3, 2, -1, -2, 3, 2, -1, -2, 2, -1, -1
That's all the help I can give. The rest should be able to be solved via trial and error.
Direct solution:
Green [1] Square
3, 2, -1, -2, 3, 2, -1, -2, 2, -1, -1
Green [2] Square
(assuming all the Red Squares are aligned above the Green [1] Square)
3, 2, -1, -2, 3, 2, -1, -2, 2, -1, -1, -1, -2, 1
Green [3] Square
(assuming all the Red Squares are aligned above the Green [2] Square)
3, 2, -1, -2, -2, -1, 2, 3, -1, -1, 2
Level 8
To beat:
Activate a certain Green Circles
To lose:
Activate Any of the following Green Circles: (1), (8), (9), (10), (15)
Hand-holding solution:
There is no logic to this puzzle. It's purely random (as far as I can tell)
Direct solution:
Click on all of the prime numbers
Click on the following numbers:
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13
Level 9
To beat:
Wait 40 seconds
To lose:
Can't lose
Easter Egg (kinda)
Try reading the waiver that you sign at the beginning of the game. It'll hurt your eyes, but it's funny!
Posted by: Mar | January 16, 2010 6:57 PM