Part 47: Secret Puzzles
Update 40 posted:
Also, YOU may want to know... Once everything is over, there will be something else to do. In order to access a particular moment, you will have to do something... unorthodox. Have you found any alternative solutions to puzzles yet? This has nothing to do with your final Deduction room. It's not for US but for YOU. If you find all of them, you will witness something interesting...
It's time for us to uncover what this message actually meant, as Avaritia/Ityne was speaking to us, the player (aka 'God' or 'YOU') with this. There's a single node on the flowchart that we can't access, both because it's still locked but also because it's in the section of the flowchart where Luxuria is sacrificed during the first vote, which means that it's inherently impossible to reach if you're also on the path to the True Ending (when you first get told about the secret node).
First things first, we have to unlock that node, and to do so, we have to go back and investigate most of the hacking/door puzzles, for most of them have a secret solution path you can unlock... You may have noticed on the flowchart near the end that some of those nodes had a Cool S symbol rather than the normal one. That's because once you find the secret solution to solve the puzzle, it changes to a Cool S, but all of those nodes only have the default answer since they're plot-related rather than actual puzzles. So to unlock this mysterious node, we're going to be revisiting almost every puzzle first, and uncovering/solving the hidden directives. I'm going to cut out the lead-in/lead-out images this time around, though, for brevity.
Puzzle #1 is the first puzzle we ever solve, when E288 first connects to Ancora's helmet fully to assume control and visibility.
The way you obtain the hidden directive is to manually return to the puzzle node after it's been solved, and then open up both hints. Because the game has a 'skip solved puzzles' feature (that I believe is on by default), you generally won't uncover this on your own since you'd have no reason to re-do them (and even if you did, you already know the answer, making you less likely to check the hints). In this case, the solution is:
Ancora means hope, and the directive tells us to 'add' it (to the existing solution), so we just rearrange the letters before the original solution to spell out hope.
Puzzle #2 is the door puzzle that Ancora solves to open the passage to the Crossroads.
The original solution involved spelling the word ME repeatedly around the outside. As for the hidden solution...
...we also have to re-arrange the letters on the inside to represent the order in which we, the player, encounter each member of My Emptiness in order. It starts with Ancora when we begin, then Superbia and Invidia, then Ira, Tristitia, and Avaritia, then Gula and Luxuria. Pandora is last, as we don't “meet” her until much, much later.
Puzzle #3 is the puzzle E288 has to solve when hacking Ira's helmet (during the first hackpoint, before the first vote).
Wow, helpful!
The hidden solution for this is...
...to actually use a directive from one of the puzzles you have to solve when hacking Superbia- that is, to sort them C to V, or consonants to vowels.
Puzzle #4 is at the same hackpoint that #3 is, but this time it's the puzzle you solve when hacking Avaritia.
And the hidden solution is...
...to sort the numbers into the three boxes depending on if they're divisible by 1, 2, or 3. (And then lowest to highest like the original solution) Easy peasy.
Puzzle #5 is ALSO at the same hackpoint as #3 and #4, but for the final option: when you hack Luxuria.
As for the hidden solution...
...we're keeping the same standard solution, but with the letters arranged to spell the word 'MILK' within the solution (since 'H to O' only cares about H and O being at the start and end, everything in between can be ordered in any way); the directive also says 'secon-dary' and, well, 'dary' sounds like 'dairy', so
Puzzle #6 is found after the primary branch- specifically, after executing Ira in the first voting session. It's found at the door leading to the rest of Wing A.
Wow, even more helpful!!!
The hidden solution is...
...well, actually, it IS to keep going, surprisingly. Specifically, the original directive says to spell 'valid words around' clockwise, but if we take things literally to an additional step, we need to rearrange the letters inside of the square to spell 'clockwise' so we are literally spelling 'valid words around', clockwise, around 'clockwise', which is spelled clockwise.
Puzzle #7 is the puzzle E288 has to solve when hacking Superbia's helmet (during the second hackpoint, after Ira's execution and before the second vote).
And for the hidden solution...
...we just have to spell out the directive for Puzzle #14. That's it!
Puzzle #8 is at the same hackpoint that #7 is, but this time it's the puzzle you solve when hacking Avaritia.
The hidden solution is:
So, if we cut out the middle =, that leaves us with two unconnected halves that we have to figure out. Therefore, the first step is to replace the letters with their respective numbers and assemble them into two equations. Thus, we end up with the resulting solution.
Puzzle #9 is ALSO at the same hackpoint as #7 and #8, but for the final option: when you hack Gula.
As a reminder, the solution for this one required you to sort these by their place on the periodic table, as each letter is also the symbol for an element. As for the hidden solution...
... the period table is completely irrelevant this time. Alphabetical is obviously off the table as well, so we have to look at the directive- specifically, that it emphasizes the word 'tab'. This is another puzzle that references a real world object- that is, our keyboard (again)
You're meant to sort the letters starting with the tab key and going left to right, row by row.Puzzle #10 is a story-related puzzle. It happens when Avaritia is mistakenly executed in the second vote because of the voting buttons being swapped around, and Tristitia shoots Ancora in the back with the revolver. E288 is able to hack into Invidia's helmet and leave Ancora's helmet behind, however, because the TRUST value was at 66%, which was enough for the connection to reach once Invidia approached Ancora's body.
Puzzle #11 is the last door puzzle, found after the second voting session if Gula is the one executed; it leads to the last section of Wing A.
As for the hidden solution:
This one's a little weird to explain. Basically, the directive states to remove the Ms from the equation entirely, so when we're making each row and column the same we pretend the M isn't there. Furthermore, we also have to ensure the diagonal spaces running left to right are also a word as well (in this case, the word 'IDEA').
Puzzle #12 is the puzzle E288 has to solve when hacking Invidia's helmet (during the third hackpoint, after Gula's execution, when the group is setting up the Sally-Anne test).
The original solution was... basically just a math problem
Is the hidden solution the same?
This directive's a trap, because you probably read that and assumed it required you to do a different kind of math problem, but pay close attention to the fact that “double them” is written in quotes. The ACTUAL solution is a simple substitution cipher- you're supposed to spell the phrase 'double them' out instead.
Puzzle #13 is at the same hackpoint that #12 is, but this time it's the puzzle you solve when hacking Avaritia.
The original solution only cared about the middle section- specifically, that Feb 8th is the 39th day of the year. For the hidden solution, however....
...we also have to put the outside sections in a specific order. Specifically, JK as the left one (the 10th and 11th letters respectively) and 39 as the right one (if you remember the conversation from before, 3 in Japanese is san and 9 is kyuu in Japanese, so said together it sounds like 'thank you'.)
Puzzle #14 is ALSO at the same hackpoint as #12 and #13, but for the final option: when you hack Superbia.
The hidden solution is:
This is another weird one with a surprisingly simple solution- specifically, the meaning of the directive is to ascend and then descend numerically- 1 through 9 and then back down to 1. E is the 5th letter in the alphabet, so it fills in for the 5, and U is the 21st letter, so it fills in for the 2 and the 1.
Puzzle #15 is when we finally go to the other branch of the flowchart- specifically, after executing Luxuria in the first voting session. It's found at the door leading to the rest of Wing A.
As for the hidden solution...
You still have to assemble an E out of Ms, but the hidden solution cares about what we do with the other letters- specifically, the directive references the TRUST menu. The solution is to put the other letters, in the order of the TRUST menu with Pandora in the middle.
Puzzle #16 is the puzzle E288 has to solve when hacking Superbia's helmet (during the second hackpoint, after Ira's execution).
As you'll remember, the original solution had us breaking up the phrases 'rabbit' and '&lion'. As for the hidden solution...
...it's functionally the same, you just have to break up the phrase while also repeating '&lion' in reverse rather than both going the same direction.
Puzzle #17 is at the same hackpoint that #16 is, but this time it's the puzzle you solve when hacking Tristita.
The original solution had us figure out a cipher based on the order of letters on our keyboard. As for the hidden solution...
...our keyboards are no longer the solution at all- in fact, the hidden solution doesn't use letters at all. Normally, you'd assume that you just put them in numerical order then, except for the directive saying that 44 is less than 9. To solve this, you have to add both digits together for the slots with multiples, and then re-order based on those solutions. For example, 44 (4 plus 4) equals 8, etc. How you're supposed to arrive at this conclusion I couldn't begin to tell you
Puzzle #18 is ALSO at the same hackpoint as #16 and #17, but for the final option: when you hack Ira.
As for the hidden solution...
This one's a weird one, but the hidden directive is more literal than you might think- specifically, if you add a to the end of alphabet, you get 'alphabeta'... or alpha beta, as in the first two letters of the Greek alphabet. From there, we re-arrange the letters in order of the Greek alphabet (alpha, beta, zeta, iota, chi), since all five of these letters are the same symbols regardless of which alphabet you use. That said, the order is much different, as the second half of the equation can attest- alpha is first, beta is second, zeta is sixth, iota is ninth, and chi is the twenty-second.
Puzzles #19 and #20, the last two in the game, are the other story-related puzzles- specifically, #19 is the puzzle that allows E288 to enter the body that is prepared for her in the second group, and #20 is the puzzle to birth the ME Code upon reaching the central white room above the whole facility.
With this, the unreachable node becomes reachable:
…well, with the help of a fresh save file, that is- and we can finally access the hidden moment...