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FAQs

What is a puzzlehunt? How do I solve these puzzles?

Each puzzle in this hunt comes with some information, and the goal is to extract an answer out of it. The puzzles can take 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. In this hunt, a cursory understanding of common encodings (such as A1Z26, ASCII, binary, braille, flag semaphore and Morse code) is expected. 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, Puzzle Potluck, Huntinality, or REDDOThunt.

Who is running this hunt?

We are the ECs of /r/PictureGame (/r/PG for short), a group of puzzle enthusiasts that emerged from the wider PictureGame community on Reddit. This Reddit game is generally focused on image identification, but from time to time, people like to post various puzzles there too. The ECs of /r/PG have been hunting together in some form for about 7 years now. Two years ago, we ran our first EC Puzzle Hunt (Exploring the Countryside).

What's with the EC thing?

EC stands for Everything Conceivable! It's a tradition on our team to have EC names. You can often find our EC team names when scrolling through the list of registered teams on other online hunts.

How long and difficult is this hunt?

This hunt will be longer and more difficult than Exploring the Countryside. There will be around 45 puzzles. The first set of puzzles is intended to be relatively approachable, and later puzzles will ramp up in difficulty.

Should I solve with a large team?

The hunt will be sizeable, so we recommend having a team size close to the maximum of 10 if you want to be competitive. That said, we believe the hunt will still be fun for teams of all sizes.

How accessible is this hunt?

There may be puzzles involving colours, images and audio. If you encounter an accessibility issue, please email us at [email protected] so that we can try to set up an accommodation.

Some elements in the hunt are not mobile-friendly. In particular, the navigation tool on round pages is not supported on mobile. You should plan for at least one member of your team to have access to a computer to be able to access all of the features of the hunt.

What exactly happens when the hunt ends?

When the hunt ends on , the scoreboard will be frozen and solutions for all the puzzles will be released, and we will prepare a wrap-up to be available soon after. However, if you have not finished and still want to experience the whole hunt, you’ll still be able to register new teams, submit answers on the website, and progress through the hunt until . The only difference is that you won’t be able to use scrolls (hints) after the hunt ends.

I am experiencing latency or bugs in the navigation tool!

If your navigation bugs out, try any of the following:

  • Refreshing (F5)
  • Hard refreshing (Ctrl+F5)
  • Pressing R or the restart button
  • Pressing buttons more slowly while navigating
  • Clearing localStorage - press F12 / Ctrl+Shift+C, go to the console and type localStorage.clear()
  • Clearing your cookies
If problems persist, or the latency is so high it makes your experience unenjoyable, please email us at [email protected] and we'll try to help you out.

I think there’s a mistake in this puzzle!

Please describe the error in an email to [email protected] and we’ll try to correct it.

I’m stuck on a puzzle. What should I do?

Here are some general puzzle tips that might be useful:

  • Thoroughly check the work that you’ve already done. Fixing a small mistake or incorrect assumption can greatly help with getting unstuck.
  • Get fresh eyes on the puzzle, or conversely, take a break and look at something else.
  • Consider what information you haven’t used yet.
  • It can be useful to put everything you have into your favourite search engine.
  • Look at similar examples of the puzzle type you’re working on.
  • Have you tried…

Remember that after scrolls (hints) are released, you can also use them to get a nudge in the right direction. Please use them if you’re stuck!

Is there a tip jar?

This hunt is completely free, but if you would like to support us, here's a link to our Ko-fi. We deeply appreciate any donations.

I have a question that’s not on this list!

Contact us at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to answer it.