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A Quick Guide to Puzzle Box Solving Methods
Many years ago puzzle boxes were introduced to the original version of our game.[sup][font size=“2”]([a href=“#fn1”]1[/a])[/font][/sup] These were 5 x 5 grids meant to emulate a game that first became a popular craze between 1870 and the 1880's.[sup][font size=“2”]([a href=“#fn2”]2[/a]),([a href=“#fn3”]3[/a]),([a href=“#fn4”]4[/a])[/font][/sup]
In the game a player is presented with a picture broken into 24 square pieces and subsequently scrambled. One piece is blank and is the key to solving the puzzle. In order to solve this puzzle it is important to find an image of what the picture looks like when solved. For this discussion we will be using the following completed image.
Learning the general steps of the process can be important to applying them in a real scenario. Please remember this demonstration is just to illustrate the process involved. This particular solution is very unlikely to match any specific puzzle you may encounter.
The scrambled version of this image could vary significantly but will resemble something like the following image (which is the one we will be using for demonstration purposes).
To illustrate the process we begin by building a numbered reference based on the solved image.
Using this system we then label the images as they appear in the scrambled version above. In our example the scrambled array comes out to look like this:
Numbers can only be dragged into the grey space (25) at which point 25 will replace where that number once was.
Starting at the top left we begin to solve the array. Notice that, here, several numbers are already in their correct spots (1, 6, 11, 17, 24).
Working left to right be can easily assemble the first 3 numbers:
- Block 7 moves down into what is now block 25,
- block 2 moves left into what is now block 25,
- block 3 moves up into what is now block 25.
Note that this process winds up with the upper left grid of 4 completed as well! The array as completed so far appears on the right.
Note: This Page is a Work in Progress and Under Construction!
