MUMS Puzzle Hunt 2013

So, I somehow managed to get 25 points all by myself in MUMS Puzzle Hunt 2013. Well, I pestered chaotic_iak a little with 3.3 Diagnosus (.html with animated .gif) but we still didn’t recognize all the Pokémon until hint 3, at which point Google sufficed for me.

This is nowhere near the top, but compared to the usual results of whatever AoPS team I form, it’s amazing. By far the best result of AoPS was on CiSRA in 2010 (46th with 58 points), before I discovered puzzle hunts in AoPS; unfortunately due to people getting older and the influx of younger and younger people to the fora, there are less possible teammates each year and they have less time, so here I am by myself. (Also I could have accepted an invitation from a guy in the some-form-of-Elephant team, but I figure if you can win two MUMS hunts in a row you don’t need any more people.)

All in all: Yay!

If you are a logic puzzler, you’ll probably be most interested in 2.2 Informatix (PDF), 3.4 Sokobus (.html with Unity embed, interactive), and 5.2 Psychoanalytix (PDF). Psychoanalytix is the most traditional logic puzzle on a grid, although you have to guess the rules (which are, however, provided in hint 2); Informatix is (I think) closest to completely logical. But you still have to figure out how to extract the answer yourself.

I should probably also mention 1.3 Cryptograf (PDF). I think this is the first puzzlehunt puzzle I’ve seen where I have an advantage in cultural knowledge! (I don’t count things like finite fields or Morse code as culture. Also, I’m guessing that I know more about Pokémon than the average person but less than the average puzzlehunter.)