About
What are the rules?
- The puzzlehunt starts on and ends on , at which point puzzle solutions will be available. However, we will leave the website running until so teams can still submit answers and go through the hunt at their own pace.
- Teams have a maximum size of 5.
- 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 huntingale-hq@nightmeow.site. 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 Huntinality.
What is and isn’t allowed?
- 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.
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, although puzzles may also be unlocked over time.
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.
How will hints work?
Starting on , teams will receive one hint every 12 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?”).
You can request only one hint at a time.