You Are Games:
Letters In Boxes #3
It's time once again for Letters In Boxes, the word puzzle game where Letters appear in Boxes. Crazy, ain' it? We've featured two puzzle challenges so far, featuring all sorts of literary twists and turns, and those 26 characters we all hold so dearly. It's nice to know that there's nothing that can ever disrupt their lexiconical harmony... OR IS THERE?
Here's how to play: Below, you'll find a puzzle to solve. Click on it to open it in a new window (and see it full-sized). When you think you've found the answer, take a look at your window's address bar (in this case, https://jayisgames.com/images/lettersinboxes/lib3start.gif). Change the filename of the image (namely, "lib3start") to your answer (note that we've switched to using .gif files, so be sure to use that extension and stay within the same directory, and use all lowercase characters) to see if you're right. Success means you're on your way to the next puzzle in this series, while incorrect guesses result in error screens. But you're more than welcome to back up to the previous page to try again!
This batch of puzzles contains four puzzles to solve. On the fourth puzzle, you'll find the email address for sending your final answer. We'll hand out a prize to the first correct entry we receive, plus ten additional randomly-selected correct entries. Please include your Casual Gameplay account display name with your entry. You must be at least 13 years of age to enter. Only one submission per participant, please. Offer void where prohibited. Your deadline for submitting your answers is Monday, June 13th at 11:59 PM (GMT-5:00). Until then, we wish you the best of luck tackling the toughies in this tantalizing task!
Update: Congratulations to these 11 winners! :D
All eleven winners were given a choice of prizes or an entry into a GRAND PRIZE drawing to be held at the end of August! Congratulations and thanks for playing with us! Look for another Letters in Boxes again soon!
- zxo ...First!
- ReverendTed
- Chaos
- ajikeshi
- angelsixteen
- Chewraco
- Wildflower12
- LaserGhost
- raddaya
- TruEmerald
- hhii8888
First thoughts: the title of this series must have something to do with it...
I meant the title of this entry, sorry... >.>
wow, i can't believe i need this, but any hints as to what to do with the first 1
No idea yet.
Should'nt the second puzzle be ...jpg instead of ...gif.
i think it might have simething to do with
the u on the right edges of both parts; it is the only same letter
I've tried remove of the letters in "your first puzzle" (as in checking them out). Nothing
I can see the word fluff and menus reading downwards in the first square...
that's all i've got
The rules read that all of the files and websites have been switched to .gif
Well the first puzzle is misleading.
I'm stuck on the first puzzle too. :/
I saw some words in the first box that seem to use up all the letters there, but they don't seem to lead anywhere, which makes me wonder if they're just a red herring.
Help with No. 1:
Ok boys: right, left, right, left, right, left...cadence!
Or, for #1:
"Check" as in "checkerboard".
Well, I'm completely stuck. Anyone come up with anything at all?
Yeah there's a couple issues (easily fixable) with the puzzles:
Puzzle 1
clue is misleading as to file extension
Puzzle 3
puzzle should say to look for words 8 letters or longer, not 7
Can anyone give a hint for the third puzzle, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.
interestingly enough, it was the comment that pointed out the issues that helped me through puzzle 1.
Done. The first puzzle
was easier than I thought--I was trying all sorts of strange things.
this has never happened to me before. i can't get past puzzle 2 T_T
Neither can I, Angel...the hint has only led me to
a string of unrelated words
. Not sure what to do with them.
the 2nd one has me stumped too
Hints for the third puzzle:
start at the center
go the distance
Like Angel, it was the comment about the issues of the first puzzle that caused me to FINALLY solve it.
Some more hints for puzzle #1:
The obvious words in the first box are just red herrings. You need to form a phrase with the two boxes in alternating succession, starting with the right-hand box. Also keep in mind that there's a reason why many people got confused with the GIF vs JPG extension; if you get the correct phrase, you should see why.
Now I'm trying to figure out what puzzle #2 is about.
I wonder if the word below the boxes has to do with the number associated with it. I can see the letters spelling out that particular number in the right-hand box, but they don't seem to lead anywhere, which makes me think that this is likely just another red herring...
Okay, an explanation is definitely in order here. This puzzle, though it was marked as the third puzzle published, was actually the second puzzle produced. Due to the higher level of difficulty in these two puzzle sets, we decided to shelve them for a later date. With this being the first week of using the .gif extension (to streamline things a bit more), I had forgotten to change the first puzzle to reflect this change. That puzzle has now been updated to show the correct image. (You may need to refresh the page to see the updated puzzle.)
Also, as zxo pointed out, Puzzle 3 led to a false solution with the clue to search for "a word of seven or more letters". This has been changed to a more accurate "eight or more letters".
...Well, will you look at that. I just clicked back to puzzle #1 and saw that the "issue" has been corrected. XD That should help later puzzle solvers with keeping the file extension straight, indeed.
Still stuck on #2, though. Anyone have any hints?
hint for 2: don't know if it helps but
every four letters in the left one are a word, read from left to right
Haha, can't even solve the first one :D
bio
bio: hint to find within this hint:
1,2,3,4,5::6,7,8,9,0 = 6,2,8,4,0
i got that....but it still doesn't help.
I can't figure out #2.
What do boxcars have to do with anything? All I can think of is the Boxcar Children, but that is no help at all.
nerdypants -
ever play craps? If not, try wikipedia.
I'm stuck there too
all i have are a bunch of seemingly unrelated words n 2 letters left over
zxo,
Does this mean that I'm on the right track in trying to look for a "[insert number that boxcars are associated with]"? I thought that the presence of the letters that make up the number's word in the right-hand box was a clue, but apparently not. Do I have to do some arithmetic or something?
zxo:
Thank you SO MUCH! I got it now.
Jade:
Stop thinking of actual boxcars. The connection with trains is a little dice-y.
I understand the hint for #2, but I can't see it still!
aargh PoP!
I'm with childofsai. What's wrong with my eyes?
Nerdypants,
I actually already got that. I was trying to refer to that dice-y number without stating it outright in my previous post. What I meant was that for that dice-y number, I noticed that the right-hand box had letters that spelled out that dice-y number in full, so I tried to see if the left-hand box's letters that corresponded to these right-hand letters spelled out a word (U-P-...), but they didn't in any combination.
So I'm stuck with a number in my head and no clue on how to apply it to the puzzle. (I have a sneaking feeling that I'm going to feel really stupid when I finally figure it out...)
MsMovieMaker:
The letters you've isolated give you a two-word instruction. What have you done recently that the instruction could refer to?
Jade -
The number isn't the only part of the puzzle that's dicey
Childofsai, Msmoviemaker,
You may not have the right letters. Try rotating your boxcars?
This had me stumped for the longest of times.
Angel,
Think more graphical, not literal.
Even with the hints I am NOT getting #2.
don't know if this is right but for the right part of 2 for the boxcars clue i got
nature
Am i on the right track? If i am, then i don't have a clue for the left side!
@ hhii8888
i'm stuck, too. for the left side,
i got "unpair rows"
and for the right side,
i got "enter vault"
but i'm just as stuck as i was before.
@lavamuffin how did you get those??
Bigger hint for #2:
Don't think trains. Think board games.
@ hhii8888
it may not be correct, of course. the fact that i haven't found the key to the next puzzle assures me of that. but, if it helps you out -
i took the first column and the last column of the left puzzle, and set them side by side.
then, i started from the upper right u, and made an x motion, then went straight, then another x motion.
then i applied those two words to the left side
but i'm not there yet. any ideas?
ahhh i need help on #3 :(
well, maybe
unpair rows
is a hint that you
use more than 2 rows. maybe
@EEPS i can help you after i get #2
Bwugh, my brain finally clawed its way through all that...you guys are getting too good at making these puzzles!
Hey, these were really tough! I was stuck on the second one for a while, and the third one had me exploring for a while to find the right answer. The last puzzle was awfully easy with the hint, though. I think a much more subtle hint would have made the puzzle more satisfying.
I'm looking forward to next week's set!
For those stuck on #2
Don't try to spin the puzzle or read the lines any way but left to right, top to bottom. If you can't find words right away your dots in in the wrong spots! The correct position is not where you will initially put them!
I can't seem to get through the third puzzle. Can anyone help?
SirNiko could you give us a hint for #3 pleasy?
Hint for #3:
Start in the middle, and keep going until you hit a zero.
i have no idea what to do for #2... still. i will say, thank you sir niko, but i don't know how to eliminate letters
Further hints:
#2
There is no right or left side. Not really, anyway. Treat both equally.
Pip, pip!
These boxcars are horizontal
#3
Make up your own directions.
The numbers tell you whether you should hop, skip, or jump.
I need a hint for puzzle 4.
What am I supposed to do with what's left? I'm not even sure I removed everything.
Bonus hint for #3:
Straight lines only, no diagonals or turns. There's still a lot of possibilities, though, so getting an actual word will still require a lot of trial and error.
Nevermind, I got it.
I have not been this frustrated in quite a while. #2 is COMPLETELY defeating me.
OH MY GOD, so many red herrings on number 2.
Ignore:
-every four letters in the left one are a word, read from left to right
- 2 letters left over
- The letters you've isolated give you a two-word instruction (at least in relationship to the letters left over)
- Try rotating your boxcars
- nature
- unpair rows/enter vault
Pay Attention To:
- Don't spin the puzzle
- Pip
- horizontal
i know how you feel, unbeliever. i've been awake all night trying to figure it out.
I'm in the same situation that you are, Unbeliever. Staring hard at the puzzle has done nothing but give me a headache.
I have an issue with #4:
I think I can guess the correct word, however, I believe I'm missing a couple of letters. Namely, T's. I did what I was supposed to do, that being
getting rid of the numbers.
But after doing that, I'm left with an incomplete word. Like I said, I can guess what it is, but it's missing a letter.
Were there supposed to be (kinda big spoiler)
two tens?
@unbeliever:
Look at the grids as die faces. Where would you put the pips to get boxcars?
@vespert, Thank you. Good lord I am slow...
@Vespert
Not unbeliever, but:
I considered doing just that, but couldn't see how it could form words in any way. Following zxo's instructions of going from left to right and top to bottom just gives mumbo jumbo for both the letters covered by the pips and the letters not covered by them. Even making the pip rows horizontal instead of vertical doesn't give any words.
@nerdypants:
I had the same problem. The reason is there are some numbers you mustn't get rid of.
@Jade:
Big spoiler for puzzle #2:
It gives you more than one word!
like Jade, i did that too but didn't get anything that makes sense.
@Vespert
I...am just even more confused now.
(Possible big spoilers)
When I put the pips in vertical position for both boxes, I just get stuff like PLUNTAIPR... if I read outside the pips and stuff like AMIJLUCO... if I read inside them. When I put them in horizontal position, I get stuff like PALMUILP... outside of the pips. There are words like PALM and SAFE visible, but they're just the same words that were obviously there in the beginning with no obvious connection to each other.
Am I missing something really obvious?
@Angel and Jade:
Did you try to read all the letters in the left grid first, and then those from the right grid?
@Jade:
How did you get those letters?
You have to put the pips so each grid looks like the face of a die. There is a space between adjacent pips.
Well, I just realized
that I was most likely covering up too many pips.
I'm still not finding any words, though, just stuff like: (major spoilery content)
AM NO
LU IT
AE DE
or:
NTA TOE
RHW LNV
Right there with Angel and Jade on #2.
It's apparently obvious enough that some folks have gotten it right off, but nothing that makes any sense it showing up, even though I'm pretty sure I know what to do.
@ Jade
you need two sets of 3 pips for each puzzle side
just look at the pips, ignore everything else
go left to right in one puzzle, jump to the next line, and then left to right again in the same puzzle
kicking myself over here . . .
@nerdypants and Vespert: You're on the right track with your thinking. However, the puzzle was designed to work in a certain way. Start the puzzle over again and use the same method, but use a very specific order. Hopefully you'll notice why what you did before doesn't *quite* work to give you the answer, and you can be more comfortable with your guess.
@Jade
The trick is to read the top 3 pips and then bottom 3 pips on the left box.
@Jade:
You're close to the solution but your rows of pips are misplaced.
Ah. For #2, someone said it earlier, but...
The pips don't go where you would initially expect them to. That definitely makes it less intuitive.
@Vespert:
Yep, I just figured out THAT was what I had been doing wrong. I feel like slapping my forehead, but I'm just too stoked by the fact that I'm FINALLY done with it to care much.
To those stuck:
REALLY imagine how the boxcars would look on these grids. Don't use any excess pips or funny row placement, and make sure to "wrap" your words from the left to the right boxes!
nothing makes sense. i'm almost suicidal here. if u hear something sizzling that's probably my brain.
@Steve:
I already found the answer...
...but the method still erases a letter. Not an important one though.
oh forget it. it's almost 9am, i haven't slept because of this puzzle. i don't even care anymore. rest in peace.
@Angel, that was the same sound my brain was making just a few minutes ago. Here's my attempt at clue-giving to save you from the same situation (if you're still awake, that is):
If you place the pips correctly, you should need to read across only four rows of pips in total. (Note that I said rows, NOT columns.) You should also have a lot of "white space" between these rows of pips, which you can safely ignore.
Steve:
Well, with some help from a certain fanged Sesame Street character, I managed to get the whole answer. Thanks!
Though I think that "soluion" is still a little wonky.
...And it figures that I'd instantly "get" how to do puzzle #3 after the brain freeze/wreck that was #2 and find the answer after only a couple of false starts. My brain is grateful for it, though.
On to puzzle #4!
OMG JADE I LOVE YOU!
more on puzzle #2:
be sure to
add the clue you just got to the clue you used to get to puzzle #2
and not
to the title of puzzle #2
cheeky monkeys!
None of the clues for #2 make any sense whatsoever. I can't make head or tails of any of it. Could someone please give a clue that can actually be understood. The pips make no words up mo matter where I put them.
I take it that you've finally solved puzzle #2, Angel? :D
As for me, I'm still on puzzle #4.
I believe that I have removed the things I'm supposed to remove without using any letters twice, but the letters I have left over don't make a coherent phrase/word. Do I need to look for more "things" that the Sesame Street character nerdypants mentioned in his post would need more than a human's two hands to keep track of? Or do I need to fiddle around with the leftover letters on their own?
yes! and it was your clue about
lots of "white space"
that helped.
Never mind, I got it.
Turns out that "horizontal," unlike for #2, is not the way to go for #4. I do agree with the answer lacking one letter, though.
All in all, it feels like the puzzles were in backwards order this time around, with #1 and #2 being the most difficult due to the number of red herrings in them and #3 and #4 being relatively easy to figure out in comparison. That could just be my personal experience, though.
i agree with you there, Jade...puzzle #1 took me some time to figure out, puzzle #2 was excruciating (you understand just how painful it was, i think), puzzle #3 i instantly figured out how to do it, and puzzle #4 only slight hesitation
Yep, I understand that excruciating pain for #2 completely and totally, Angel. I spent more time on that demon puzzle than the other three puzzles put together.
...And I just spent half of the day on these puzzles. Time to go and get some actual real-life work done now. XD
I'm convinced you're all lying about #2. There is no solution. I've tried every possible way to place the pips and absolutely nothing makes sense.
It's six pips for each box running horizontally.
But that gives no answer. Apparently my IQ is way lower than I thought it was.
muhahahaha, it is complete!
i feel really dumb for not being able to figure out 3... can someone tell me how many letters, and not just 8 or more
@ William
Scroll through the previous comments, especially the ones Jade and I posted (independently, of course). Breathe deeply, and think of Vegas.
It's vague instruction like that that are of no help what so ever.
These aren't as fun as the last batch. I keep finding the beginnings of nice long words on #3 only to have them peter out at a "0" by the end.
Anyway, William:
Three pips on the top left.
Three pips on the bottom left.
Three pips on the top right.
Three pips on the bottom right.
Two words, twelve letters total. It's an instruction. Once you see it, your goal is clear.
@william Major Hint:
read pips on left side, from left to right and top to bottom, then continue the prase with the right side by doing the same thing and remember horizontal pips!
Also:
Pips are not side-by-side. Each row will look like this:
OXOXO
Where "O" is a letter in the solution and "X" is a letter to be ignored.
And remember, unlike a real die, these pips go right to the edge - consider only the topmost and bottommost rows; nothing in between!
A lot of people are talking about pips in puzzle 2.
Er... What's a pip?
And something off topic, why haven't we got any Babylon comics recently?
I'm an idiot. It's official.
@ryusui: can you help me with 3? i think i tried every possible solution of 8 letters, so can you give me any hints??
@Ryusui, definitely. the last batch was hard but fun...this batch is just.....hard.
@William:
leave spaces between the pips
I'm still working on #3.
can someone please give me a hint for #3?? what it ends with, the second letter, how many letters or something else that could help...
hhii8888:
It will end with a zero.
i believe #3 should have
8 letters, because any more than that and it wouldn't have made a difference if the clue said "seven letters or more" or "eight letters or more"
I don't plan on submitting an entry, but I love these puzzles anyways. Even if I'm terrible at them. And it took me the entire first page of comments to get through the first two puzzles.
Regarding #4:
I think I've found an answer to the final puzzle. I thought I was going to need counseling after the first two. But if I've found the right answer, maybe I won't? Am I on the right track?
P.S. Slightly off topic, have the official answers for the finals to the first two contests appeared yet?
@nerdypants: i already saw that comment... can you tell me what 0? you don't have to but it would help! & thx for all the help!
*pops back in*
Actually, for #3, the word is
exactly 10 letters long.
I think the change from 7+ to 8+ letters was made because
puzzlers might otherwise prematurely stop at a certain 7-letter word before reaching an 0. Funny how that 7-letter word makes up the beginning of the 10-letter solution too...
thx jade that helped me SO much. now on to #4
the word search of numbers...
what happened to getting actual work done, Jade ? =P
Real-life chores tend to be more boring than online games, Angel. =P Even when said games are fiendishly difficult puzzles.
*headdesks*
Well, that was the exact opposite of the answer. I feel like such a moron not twigging it sooner.
It's not hard to find, but watch out: at one point, the next letter will be obvious, but there are TWO you can reach from that position - one leads to a dead end!
even more fun when u're done and read comments from those who are still stuck heheh.
fiendish ? try demonic. i prefer to end my puzzles with a "ah..done..hope for more soon" rather than "OH MY GOD I ACTUALLY DID IT!"
for #4 can you find nthe same number more than once?
Done and done. Now, that final puzzle is about the difficulty level I like.
But seriously...
They left out a "t" in there. XD
nevermind got answer!!!!!!!! now to hope for the random prize!
Puzzle 3 kills me got almost all of photograph, stopped at p, number was 0.
My path is
down, left, up, down, right, down, left, up.
@guest:
regarding pips in puzzle #2, i'm guessing you're like me and have no idea what boxcars means. it took me over an hour of reading comments to realize that boxcars is slang for something. i'm not american, and i don't gamble. when i see boxcar i think those little go kart thingies kids make. so i suggest you look up boxcars, or look for craps in wikipedia and find the word boxcars on that page. look for pip in merriam webster online dictionary, definition number 3. You can see how it relates.
@roomescaper55
the path will double back at one point. and you have the wrong path. don't go wrong, go right =D
@angel
I already figured out what pips and boxcars are long ago and solved all 4 puzzles. Thanks for trying to help me anyway.
And as I said, does anybody know why we're not getting more babylon comics since the screamer?
[We're not doing a weekly comic anymore, but you haven't seen the last of Babylon Sticks here at JIG. -Jay]
I'm still stuck on #4. I know (at least part of) what I'm supposed to be doing, but having done it, I have not ended up with something coherent.
...I figured out the problem. As someone mentioned earlier (majorish hint):
Each number "should" only be found (in order to get the solution) once. For that to happen, you can't reuse any letters.
Then you should be able to figure out the answer easily.
I'm done! First puzzle took a hint or two to get the idea, I didn't even remotely understand what I was supposed to do for the second without some major hints, third took a few seconds to figure out, and fourth just suffered from the problems mentioned above but was otherwise very easy.
Nice hint, Angel. XD
#2 is quite a technical feat. So many false hopes.
This was first of Letters In Boxes releases I managed to finish myself without extra hints. Still, final puzzle was too easy this time, and could be debated if it is also somewhat broken.
William: after frying my brain all day trying to make sense of the hints people are giving, here's what I finally came up with; there's a vital point that everyone giving hints is missing and that a previous comment actually said NOT to do.
Make sure you get all the letters in the left square before you look at the right square; that's what was stumping me, because zxo's comment about there being no left or right I took to mean go all the way across both squares before moving down. It was only after I tried to treat the answer I got as a jumble puzzle that I realized this.
So it should be read in order:
1*2*3 7*8*9
***** *****
***** *****
***** *****
4*5*6 10*11*12
D'oh, sorry, didn't notice the comments had rolled over to two pages.
tq tq. LOL. so how's everyone doing ? everyone done yet ? wondering about @William who was very much stumped a few hours ago.
@MikuJess yes, that comment kept me stumped for a long time, too
@MikuJess, @Angel,
Sorry for the confusion. It was in response to people who said they got so-and-so for the right grid but were still confused on the other side. What I meant to say was that both sides should be treated exactly the same.
Eh, I'm all for hints and all, but some comments have been straight giving out answers. I mean, this IS a contest after all, and if someone can't solve it, the answers will be given out by next week...
Puzzle #2:
I am so confused even by the 'clue' pip. I see that the first box has it going diagonally from the top left corner, but the hints make it sound more like a number clue, and none of the other hints make sense because I don't know what 'pips' means! I feel like a giant idiot.
erica
Pips is in reference to the dice-y nature of the puzzle. Others might call them spots.
Any more tips for 3? I think I've got the general idea, but there's clearly something I'm missing to speed things along. This trial and error is getting really tedious.
tigrita:
As many hints as I can give you without straight-out giving you an answer:
You can't go diagonally.
You can double back over a path you just followed.
Keep going until you've reached a number 0.
Other than that, it really is just trial and error.
Thanks nerdypants. Got it eventually with trial and error. Not really much of a puzzle, just time-consuming :/
Fourth puzzle had some errors in it, which left two words, including the final answer misspelled. The initial mixup with number one was a pain in the butt. Shouldn't you proofread/playtest these before they go up?
removed letters, got mumbo jumbo. Mixed up letters.
Puzzle 3....to be frank, I think it's not really a good idea to do it by trial and error. Is it even a puzzle then?
Also, with all the hints I've got, I may as well search for
10 letter words starting with P, the first seven words of which are also a letter
and I hardly think it should be considered as cheating.
@JIGuest
Puzzle four had one mistake (not even in the final answer) and it was quite inconsequential.
@SpinelessCoward: No answers have been given... Though the hints, in total, basically give you the entire process.
OK, FINALLY got the answer to #3. But 4 is confusing me right off the bat. Does it have anything to do with the previous puzzles? Where are the
numbers?
How are they hiding? So many questions!
Sorry about the multiple comments!
I saw Vespert's post. However, I can't see what numbers I don't have to get rid of. Any hints? I tried not getting rid of one, two, three, or four, or each one individually, but nothing worked.
@raddaya
That's because
there are two "TEN". One of them must not be removed. According to Steve,
Sorry, I accidently hit the Submit button.
According to Steve, this puzzle was designed to be solved in a specific way.
Still confused.
Found the two ten. Tried leaving each ten in by turn. No help. :/
@raddaya:
You pretty much have the answer. Yes, I made a mistake with the "soluion" thing, but as for the rest of what you've found, try combining two words together. ;)
Oh god I am the silliest person on earth. >>;
Thanks for all your help guys. The parts I did myself were enjoyable =p And at least nothing here was like #2 on the previous one which I didn't get even after the walkthrough was posted....ha.
@William
Awesome. My sentiments exactly. I actually laughed out loud when I read your comment, because I've felt like that so many times.
Now before I give you the information you seek, you must answer for me these questions three...
If you're still confused by #4,
Look for the numbers IN ORDER. Start with 1, work your way up.
If you do it like this, you'll have the correct letters used. Keep in mind that
once you find a word, you should eliminate the letters you found; no words overlap in this puzzle.
...And as soon as I post, I realize which "T" you're talking about. NVM. I was thinking of the "T" you might lose if you took out the other "TEN".
So...I messed up in my first email(and by that I mean I forgot to mention my Casual Gameplay display name), so I sent another email rectifying the error minutes afterwards. Is that OK? :x *is a klutz*
Question for #3
are the boxes with the 8's and 9's used at all?
of course, like a curse the power of posting once again. That was REALLY difficult - it took two days of pondering before I could finish.
Ah, I've been out of town for the past few days, so this is the first I've seen of this new batch, and I don't know if I'll figure things out in time. I'm still too tired to give even the first puzzle proper consideration right now. There's always next time, I suppose.
Isi, you've got until midnight! It shouldn't take *too* long, especially given all the hints here :P
And yet I am stuck. And I doubt many people are still around to help, but...
What on earth do the numbers do in #3?
All right, I've finished. I agree that #3 had way too much trial and error after you figure out how it works. I managed to find the answer not by properly solving it, but by guessing the first few letters and putting that in a crossword solver. To my surprise, I was led to the final puzzle with a guess.
We've staved off the invasion! Sort of. Anyway, here are the answers for this week's puzzles:
Puzzle 1
Puzzle 1 Answer
In the first puzzle, you were told to "check out your first puzzle." If you took those directions literally and blacked out the two grids with a checkerboard pattern (with the top-left square black in the first grid and white in the second grid), then overlaid the two grids so that the letters in one grid showed through the black spots in the other, you'd find the message "NEXT CLUE FOUND AT FOUR DOT GIF." So then, four.gif it is!
Puzzle 2
Puzzle 2 Answer
The clue, "Boxcars," suggested a roll of 12 (two 6s) on a pair of dice. If you took the left-most, center, and right-most letters from the top and bottom rows of both squares (which looked like a roll of two sixes), you'd get PLUS FOURTEEN. That's not the answer, but a clue for what to do next. Take your previous answer, four.gif, add fourteen, and you'd get eighteen.gif.
Puzzle 3
Puzzle 3 Answer
This was a particularly vicious trial-and-error puzzle. The numbers in the boxes represented the number of steps to take from one box to the next in a straight line, in some direction. Starting at the center P3, the result you would find (after dodging numerous red herrings) was PRODUCTIVE.
Puzzle 4
Puzzle 4 Answer
This puzzle was a word search, using the words ONE, TWO, THREE, etc. up to TEN as your targets. I stressed in the comments that the puzzle was meant to be solved in a certain way, and if you "got rid of" the invading numbers (as in, completely remove them), you'd find that each number could be removed exactly once. The remaining letters, read vertically, spelled "FINAL SOLUION IS THERAPEUTIC." Yes, "SOLUION" was intentional. I was just checking to see if you were paying attention. I swear. Really. Toooootally meant for that to happen. >_>
Winners will be announced soon!
Any news on the results for this?
I apologize for the delay, I thought I had already updated the entry with the winners. Just did it now.
Update