Tag Archives: subreddit

The Great Rebus Debate

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I love Reddit. You can find a subreddit to discuss practically any topic. You can share memes, share thoughts, share opinions, and debate other users for eternity there. I’ve learned a lot, laughed a lot, and been baffled quite a few times during my Reddit journeys.

So you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled across a post about crosswords in the subreddit r/mildlyinfuriating, a subreddit designed for all the little indignities, inconveniences, and choices that leave users slightly miffed.

The title of the post said it all: The crossword I’m working on expects me to know that I need to write multiple letters in one square.

You see, gentle reader, this person had just encountered a rebus puzzle for the first time.

For the uninitiated (welcome!), a rebus puzzle is any crossword that requires you to disregard the one-letter-per-cell rule of crosswords, placing a symbol, a number, or multiple letters into a single cell.

They are one of the more devious tricks in the cruciverbalist arsenal, and there’s no denying that the first time you encounter a rebus, it feels like you’re going mad. You know the answer, but it seems too long, or not quite right, and it won’t fit.

AND CROSSWORDS ARE ALL ABOUT MAKING IT FIT.

Reddit user grubas summed it up nicely: When you don’t know a rebus is coming it’s the worst thing ever.

Yes, there’s usually a clue or a title slyly mentioning the trickery afoot, but for a new solver or one unfamiliar with rebuses, that can often feel like not enough of a hint.

In two days, this post has accumulated TWENTY-SIX THOUSAND up votes and over a thousand comments.

Some users said that rebus puzzles are the reason they stop solving the weekly NYT crossword after Wednesdays. Some claimed they stopped solving the NYT altogether. That’s a bummer.

Many others, even rebus fans, acknowledged that the first time you encounter a rebus puzzle, it’s brutal. Plenty of those commenters now see it as a welcome challenge, and even an expected one when Thursday rolls around.

I do enjoy a rebus, though I’m frequently flummoxed by the ones where the rebus involves one answer reading down and a different one reading across in the same box. But either way, the confusion and occasional frustration I feel with them is usually worth it when I finally crack what’s going on and complete the puzzle. That’s a great feeling.

Several users requested a symbol or sign to warn them of a rebus puzzle. It’s a nice idea, but it also immediately spoils the chance for the a-ha moment when you realize you’re solving a rebus puzzle. I must confess I’m not a huge fan of this idea (unless it can be concealed in a Hint feature or something, and not be immediately evident from the jump).

The OP (original poster) later clarified their position on crosswords, stating that they view crosswords more as a trivia challenge than a “how do I make the right answer fit” challenge. Which is totally understandable.

In a world fraught with so much uncertainty, people like their routine, their comfort diversions, and for one of those comforts to suddenly not make sense, it can be genuinely unpleasant. I absolutely get that!

A day later, someone shared the post on the r/crossword subreddit, with the title Rebuses don’t seem so popular outside of r/crossword based on the comments here!

But, funnily enough, the debate was just as enthusiastic there as it was on the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit!

Several commenters commiserated with the original post, understanding that for some crossword solvers, a rebus is a step too far. As Shepherd77 put it, “Rebuses are a hat on a hat and my head is already warm enough.”

Other solvers were surprised that the additional challenge wasn’t welcome among fellow puzzlers, citing that rebuses and other crosswords that break from the traditional rules were pleasant surprises and some of their favorites.

Everyone’s welcome to their opinion. I mean, I don’t go a week without hearing some solvers complain that the cluing and entries are too antiquated or unwelcoming to new solvers, while other solvers complain that there’s too much modern slang/pop culture in the puzzles.

Of course, if everyone’s complaining, that’s usually the sign of a good compromise.

I tried to read as many of the comments as I could to get a good sample from all sides. And I think xanoran84 had a terrific response to the vitriol in both subreddits:

Mostly, I’m very baffled by how much anger people express at puzzles being tricky. If I can’t figure out a puzzle, I just assume I’m not good at it yet, I don’t get mad at the puzzle for being a puzzle. But I guess just… People are different.

Ain’t that the truth.

So where do you stand on the great rebus debate, fellow solver? Do you like them? Love them? Loathe them? Think they should be marked as a rebus from the start?

Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!

A Video Game Puzzle Hunt Reaps Real-World Rewards!

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We’ve written about some pretty amazing and elaborate puzzle hunts here in the past. There was the Gravity Falls cipher hunt that led to an actual statue of the show’s villain Bill Cipher in the woods of Reedsport, Oregon. (And a mayoral position for the first person to find him and shake his hand!) There was the puzzle-turned-global-scavenger hunt from Trials Evolution that won’t be completed until 2113 at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

And now, a massive crowdsourcing effort has cracked another masterpiece, a puzzle hidden in an expansion pack for the video game Destiny 2. Destiny 2 is an online first-person-shooter loaded with sci-fi trappings and in-depth storytelling where players explore a shared environment while engaging in their own personal plot and adventures.

The most recent expansion to the game, Warmind, was released last week, and players noticed an elaborate symbol on a wall in the bunker of Rasputin, a sentient robot. The symbol appeared to be a lock surrounded by keys and curious symbols.

This Kotaku post went live on Friday, three days after the Warmind release, revealing the incredible online effort already in motion to unravel the secrets of the Rasputin puzzle. The subreddit r/raidsecrets was ground zero for the puzzle-solving efforts, and players compiled their theories and discoveries there.

Players quickly determined that each of the keys had a symbol that linked back to other imagery from the game, and by following those breadcrumbs, they had a chance to crack the cipher.

The first symbol was found in several places, each time with a set of digits and a bar in a particular position. Solvers theorized that these symbols represented the word “reverse.”

The second symbol appeared beside a Braille grid, leading hunters to crates with Braille lettering on them: OEAARRTFWTH. This anagrams to The Art of War, Sun Tzu’s famous tome. In this case, The Art of War was used as the source material for an Ottendorf Cipher. (That particular cipher was made famous by Nicolas Cage’s National Treasure movies.)

This type of cipher uses numbers in groups of three, and these numbers correspond to positions of letters in a book. Most often the numbers refer to Line, Word, and Letter. Decoding the number-combinations in the image above led to the answer “Destroy all second A and B. Then destroy all third C and R.”

These two clues were assumed to be instructions for what to do with the encoded ciphertext others had discovered in the game:

This encrypted message was the heart of the puzzle. But there was more to uncover first.

As it turns out, the last three keys in the image represented different words to apply to the ciphertext in order to properly decode it.

The fourth symbol was found near a Morse Code sequence that spelled out “NTEHNMLNEEGIT,” an anagram for “Enlightenment.”

The fifth symbol pointed toward a monitor with some peculiar code on it. It turns out the code was actually Jianpu, an ancient form of Chinese notation for writing music. When translated into actual music, a player identified the piece as an excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.

One intrepid codebreaker then tried to decrypt the ciphertext given the clues everyone had assembled thus far.

He reversed the ciphertext, according to the instruction of the first key. He then removed every other A and every other B from the text, then every third C and every third R, according to the instructions of the second key.

Then, employing a Vigenere cipher, he used the two key words he had — “enlightenment” and “swan lake” — to begin decrypting the text. He managed to decrypt the entire text, but more incredibly, he also reverse engineered the missing third key word — “mechanized” — while doing so.

And what was the final message, after all this?

thank you for taking the time to piece together this message, friend. the time of our final conflict is drawing closer and you and ana have an important role to play in the events to come. so watch over her, guardian. i would have no life without ana or the exoprogram. i regret that we have become strangers, but we each have a path that we must walk. and, ironically, there never seems to be enough time. tell her, rasputin’s first attempt was in the right location, but the wrong moment. look here: 43.549573, -73.544868 – e

As you might suspect, those numbers at the end are GPS coordinates, which correspond to Sleeping Beauty Mountain in upstate New York. (The company that developed Warmind, Vicarious Visions, is based in upstate New York.)

A small treasure trove of prizes awaited the brave soul who trekked out to Sleeping Beauty Mountain on Saturday morning. The centerpiece was a giant spear, a replica of a weapon from the game known as the Valkyrie.

From the Kotaku article following up on the puzzle’s resolution:

There was also a box of gold coins (along with instructions asking the finder to only take one), a set of notes, and a journal for recording visitors. The note, from Warmind design lead Rob Gallerani, encouraged the finder(s) to share photos of this discovery and told them that there are only three spears like that in existence — one at Vicarious Visions, one at Bungie, and this.

The spear, shown above (alongside the visiting team from Vicarious Visions) now resides at a comic shop called The Freakopolis Geekery.

As for the gold coins and the geocache Vicarious Visions had set up for others who make the trip, unfortunately, park rangers removed it because the designers didn’t get a permit. The coins have been returned to Vicarious Visions, who are currently reaching out to all the folks at r/raidsecrets who contributed to the solution of the puzzle, hoping to get them the coins they so richly deserve.

And, as if all that wasn’t amazing enough, it turns out… this might not be the end of the adventure.

Because a sharp-eyed observer noticed some text embossed on the upper portion of the replica Valkyrie spear:

At the moment, no one knows what the letters mean. But if I had to wager, I’d say the master puzzle solvers at r/raidsecrets should keep digging. Who knows what they’ll find next?

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