Welcome to the 2023 DUAL Puzzle Hunt!
We had something exciting for everyone this year! First off, this DUAL puzzlehunt was actually two-hunts-in-one! And both of them were “Aussie-style” hunts (modeled after the Australian hunts put out by the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne), which means solvers got four puzzles a day across six days, with a final metapuzzle on Day 7. The solution for each puzzle (for either hunt!) was a word or a phrase which needed to be written in all lowercase letters with any spaces between words removed. (There were never numerals or other special characters in a solution.)
Solvers saw the “easy-half” hunt first. It had been specifically designed for young kids. If you’ve got young kids in your family who would like to know what mom or dad is doing all weekend when they say they’re “puzzle-hunting,” you can absolutely invite them to come along and try out this hunt for themselves! (Edric is a fourth grade teacher, so he has some experience with honing materials to this age level!)
But every time an “easy-half” puzzle was solved, it took solvers to a puzzle in the “hard-half” hunt. This second hunt will ran concurrently with the first hunt (albeit “in the background”), meaning that both hunts followed the same puzzle-release schedule and duration.
As always, this hunt was open to anyone and everyone. The hunt was formatted so that not just teams but also individuals felt welcome to participate (as opposed to other hunts which often encourage, require, or even necessitate teams). And, following the tradition of Edric’s hunts, the first person (or team!) to solve the final metapuzzle received $100 cash and a free puzzle!
No hints were given for the “easy-half” puzzles -- they weren’t necessary. Three hints were given for each “hard-half” puzzle, and links to the hints pages appeared right on every “hard-half” puzzle. The hunts ended when the solutions to all of the puzzles were posted on the very same hints pages at noon EDT on Wednesday, July 26.
And now -- with all that having been said . . .
