About
What are the rules?
- The puzzlehunt starts on and ends on , at which point puzzle solutions will be available.
- Teams have a maximum size of 6.
- We reserve the right to disqualify any team for unsportsmanlike conduct.
- If you have any questions about the hunt, or if you want to contact us for any reason, email lnpuzzlehunt@gmail.com. We will get back to you as soon as we can.
What is a puzzlehunt?
In a puzzlehunt, each puzzle has an underlying pattern or insight, which you need to figure out (somewhat like the theme of a crossword puzzle). Puzzles can come in many different forms; the only real commonality is that you usually receive no direct instructions, so it’s up to you to figure out how to make sense of the information you’re given. You can read a longer introduction to puzzlehunts here.
If you are new to puzzles and are interested in seeing some examples, or if you’re looking for some practice, we recommend looking at puzzles from other online hunts such as Galactic Puzzle Hunt, Teammate Hunt, EC Puzzle Hunt, or Silph Puzzle Hunt.
What is and isn’t allowed?
- You may not view source code, dump network packets, scrape, hack, or otherwise interact with the website in any unintended way. If you’re not sure whether something is intended, email lnpuzzlehunt@gmail.com.
- You may use any external sources for help, including other people, as long as they aren’t helping other teams and aren’t actively participating in the hunt.
- You may not stream or post spoilers for the hunt in a place where other teams might see them.
- You may not create multiple accounts or be on multiple teams.
- The puzzles are designed to be solvable without any LLM use. Nonetheless, you may use LLMs to the extent that they make the hunt more enjoyable for you.
What is the format of this hunt?
A few puzzles will be available at the start, and the primary way to unlock new puzzles is by solving puzzles and progressing through the hunt.
Each answer is a string of letters A–Z. Lowercase letters will be changed into uppercase, and any other characters will be stripped before checking for correctness.
You have 20 total guesses for each puzzle. If you legitimately run out of guesses and need more, feel free to contact us, though we won’t grant your request if we see that you were, for example, guessing random thematic answers, or brute-forcing all 10-letter words.
There will be 30 puzzles. We expect the hunt to be of similar difficulty as Silph Puzzle Hunt.
Prior knowledge of Japanese or Japanese media is not required to finish or enjoy the hunt.
Who are the organizers?
The writing team consists mostly, but not entirely, of members of PonX, a team of current and former math olympiad contestants from different countries. Some members have been in the organizing teams of DP Puzzle Hunt, Silph Puzzle Hunt, and MIT Mystery Hunt 2024.
How will hints work?
Starting on , teams will receive two hints every 24 hours until the end of the hunt.
You can use a hint to get help on a puzzle. This can be something like a nudge in the right direction (i.e. you give us your progress on the puzzle and we’ll try to get you unstuck) or an answer to a question (e.g. “Which answers to these crossword clues are wrong?”).