Part 17: Puzzle Time V

[Music: Puzzles]

The one thing I'm pretty sure was picked up is that the difficulty of these is all over the place. The first one, for example...



Whilst this is certainly a rather clever attempt at looking for a trick to the puzzle...




It didn't quite work as planned. Points for creativity, but not much else.



Looking back on it now, it does kinda seem easier than it really is.






At least the game seems to realise that too.





Of course, some of them are rather subtle things you don't notice at first.






And then once you know the answer, it's hard to not notice it immediately.





Others, meanwhile, are made a bit more complex in some cases by considering whether 6s count or not.




It was a good idea, since it is just an upside down 9 and all, but they don't.



At least some people didn't think of it. Whether because it legitimately didn't come to them, or they thought that was a bit more than needed, or anything else is irrelevant.










Finally, a bit of a classic puzzle that I'm sure everyone's seen at some point by now.






And that's all for the Weekly Puzzles for now. They might not make a return until the end of the game, but the rest will be covered in due time anyway.

[Music: About Town]



On the way out of the mansion, Ingrid's waiting just outside the door. Since we're here already, it'd be poor form to not talk to her.



: The name's Layton, madam.
: Oh, that's right, Professor Layton. All that talking about the mansion we did last time got me reminiscing, so I decided to stop by for a visit. But enough about me! By the look on your face, it seems that you have something you want to ask me.



: His friends, you say... Well... He wasn't exactly what you'd call a social butterfly. I'm sorry, that's all I can remember.



: Professor, could she be referring to that man we met?
: Ah, yes, that gentleman with the fancy little moustache! We should ask if he knows anything. I would wager he's still hanging around that fork in the road just beyond the clock tower.

Well, there's quite a ways to Crumm's Cafe which leaves plenty of opportunities to be easily distracted.



Or, rather, we have opportunity to grill a few people to see if they know anything else about what the Golden Apple could possibly be.



...Is what I'd like to say, but I don't think I can even pretend any more.



So, instead of heading up into the clock towers area let's go all the way to the left instead.



Normally, we wouldn't even bother coming here again for quite a while but I'm being a bit more efficient.



You'll understand exactly what I mean when you see the numbers for the puzzles in this area. The chess one from before should've given you a rather good idea already though.



So, yeah, I could leave Adrea's and Pauly's two until much later, but that's not quite as fun.



It's not like they're worth intentionally postponing until later after all.



In the same vein, I suppose I could've covered them before now but there was no real reason to do so.



In here, on the other hand, as we know there's already at least 4 to deal with. Crouton's also usually worth talking to, even when he doesn't exactly have a puzzle too.



: Indeed we did. Thank you for your assistance in the matter.
: Good to hear! Well, since you're here already, why not take a load off and rest for a bit? What's this? Oh my, where did I put that measuring cup?
: Is something the matter?
: I have 16 litres of water that I want to divide into equal portions of 8 litres apiece. The problem is, my measuring cup seems to have grown feet! Can you think of a way I could use these 7 and 9 litre pitchers to divide things up?



I'm sure you can already figure out roughly how to solve this one. At least it's thematically consistent.



: I guess I'll just think about it on my own for a while.

Though, Crouton being Crouton he has more than just the one. Unfortunately, his second one isn't quite so favourable.



: I know you're busy and all, but I just can't find the answer to this puzzle. Could you give me a hand with it?



[Music: Puzzles]



1. There are two small areas between the warehouses where you can stash an additional two boxes. Use these to your advantage when shifting boxes back and forth.
2. Find a pattern for sending boxes over and repeat it until solved. As long as you're gradually shifting the boxes to the proper warehouses, you will finish the puzzle eventually. Don't be afraid of moving a few boxes back to the wrong warehouse on occasion. Sometimes you need to go backward to go forward.
3. Above all, you must find a method for moving things around. This is by no means a difficult problem, but if you just send over boxes to the opposing warehouse, you'll block the entrance and get stuck. Think about how you can avoid obstructing the warehouses' entrances.



...Yeah, first one for a while but we have a sliding puzzle yet again. A bit different to the ones we've seen so far, but that doesn't exactly endear me to it. Or maybe I'm just biased because I have very good reasons for not liking the sliding puzzles in this game, but I'm getting ahead of myself there.








At least we got another painting scrap out of it. Only 6 more to go, if I've counted right.



What, you didn't think I'd forgotten about this did you?



2. The four corner spaces on the board should be left unoccupied. The four pieces will form a perfectly symmetrical shape.

This is another one that you can't get "wrong" which will prove very useful later. If you misplace any, it just flags it as red when you click submit and makes you try again. Of course, there's two valid solutions here; the one above is just the one that everyone focused on.



3. You don't need to place any pieces in the four center squares of the board either. Now that you've eliminated those spaces and the corner spaces, you should have a pretty good idea about where your pieces should go.

The mirror image of it, naturally, is the only other placement that works.






The game itself even tells you this one hardly counts.



We get a nice chair out of it though, and can bug Nick for the second one right away.





And that's all that's on this side of the clock tower, so time to head on through to roughly where Zappone ought to be.



Well, looks like a certain feline's back and being a jerk as per usual.



: Do you think so, Luke? I would have guessed the cat was tormenting that poor mouse. But if you say the two of them are friendly, I believe you.
: Of course. If it has to do with animals, leave it to me! By the way, Professor, have you heard this one before?



Of course, a bit more importantly is that Lucy has what is possibly one of the most... infamous puzzles of this game.



: It's a really tricky one!



Though, uh, it's not this one.



Of course, all that means is she has two puzzles to give us.



: My friend told me this puzzle the other day, and I just can't solve the thing. Can you help me?



...This one isn't it either, actually. That means only one thing!



We need to go just a bit further ahead to see Zappone. Not talk to him, though, because we can do that later.





[Music: Adjusting the Pace ~ Pursuit in the Night]



I'm not expecting any trouble with this one for some reason.



1. At first, it might look like whoever wrote this on the board was just terrible at math, but the truth is that just about everyone does calculations like these. Heck, you probably do it just about every day.



This one's a bit more complex, I guess, but...



1. If you take the time to add things, this puzzle can be solved in a minute. Go on, try and add up how much money you'd receive from both companies each year for a few years.

...There's a 50/50 chance of getting it right even if you're unsure.



This one reminds me an awful lot of one of the two pieces of maths coursework I had to do.



1. You can find the answer by adding up the length of fence around all the allotments, but there is another way...
2. At first glance, doesn't A look like it has the shortest length of fence? Yes, it does!

I like it for the premise, but dislike it for that. Call me awkward or picky or whatever, but there y'go.



On the flip-side, I just flatout dislike this one.



1. Since the tiles have a different length and width, you'll need to find a number that can be divided by both dimensions. Of course, the puzzle doesn't end there. You'll need to do a little creative thinking in order to find the fewest number of tiles that allow you to form a square.
2. Don't forget that the puzzle also gives you the thickness of the tiles.
3. As the sides of the tiles are 10 and 12 inches long, the smallest common multiple of the two works out to 60. Therefore, you'll need to arrange a 5x6 tile square. That's a total of 30 tiles. Simple, right? Too simple, in fact. There's a way to make a square using even fewer tiles.

I'm sure I don't need to explain why, since I have done so a fair few times already.



This one is no secret, since Crouton did tell you everything you need to know already.



1. That's right, it's time for another good, old-fashioned pitcher puzzle. This time around, the shortest solution requires 15 moves. As always, don't try shifting the liquid back and forth aimlessly. One tip that can make this process easier is to focus on the discrepancy between how much each pitcher can hold. Other than that, just do what you've been doing all along on these puzzle, and you'll come out on top.
2. After you move a larger pitcher filled with water to a smaller pitcher, some water will remain in the larger pitcher. Pay attention to this leftover amount. Think about how you can use this leftover water in your pours to reach an answer.

I'm fairly sure you don't even need the hints at this point, but, y'know, I could be wrong so just in case!



Ah, now we're getting to the real fun ones of this set.



1. Here's a hint to get you started: place one queen in the dead center of the board.
2. Once you place on piece in the board's center, you'll only have four pieces left to place. The remaining four pieces will surround the center in a symmetrical shape.
3. Don't put any pieces in the four corner spaces of the board. You can also ignore the eight space directly surrounding the center space.

There's a fair few correct solutions for this one, though it's really just a slightly extended version of the previous puzzle in a sense. It shouldn't give much more trouble, in theory anyway.



I'm not sure what this has to do with cats or mice.



1. What do you think the numbers assigned to A, B, C, and D represent? Take another look and see for yourself.
2. A, B, C, D, and E refer to sections of the diagram. What separates one section from another?



Whilst I don't mind the European version of #066...



1. Borrowing and lending can get quite complicated. To make things easier, you should think of each transaction only in terms of one person lending money to another. Doing this means you need to find five transactions. You already know two...



The US version is probably my, personal, least favourite of these few.



1. The first thing you should do is determine what day this exchange is taking place. The woman says she's turning 22 in two days, so right now she must be 21. Hopefully these two points will give you something to go on.
2. The woman will turn 22 in two days, and her birthday, like all birthdays, lasts but one day. She also mentions her age last year. A year, on the other hand, is a much larger period of time to deal with. In order for her statement to be true, her birthday needs to fall on a particular day. Think about how the above two facts help to narrow the possibilities.



And even though there is a very real reason for this one being changed, I like to think it was also out of mercy.



1. If B gave C 2 sweets, everyone would have the same number. This must mean that the difference between A and B is two sweets, and the difference between B and C is twice that, making four.
2. You know form hint 1 that the difference between A and B is two sweets. You also know that if B got one sweet from C, he would have twice as many sweets as A. Put these two facts together and you should be able to work out how many sweets A has.



This one... this is the one I referred to as being quite possibly the most infamous of the entire game. It's not the hardest, technically, but I'm sure a lot of people would dispute me on that one.



1. It's rather surprising that your girlfriend would leave you a message via chocolate. It's usually more her style to contact you via digital means.
2. As a self-professed gadget fiend, on more than one occasion she has suffered from the uniquely modern condition of "texting thumb."
3. If you're still stuck, just look at your closest keyboard for a hint.