Nifty Puzzle Hunt - Answers

The first realisation (or 'aha') should be that this big ol' grid of words is not one big puzzle, but rather 36 individual puzzles, each of which is made of 36 cells in a 6×6 square. Each of these puzzles has a one-word answer, which can be entered into the smaller grid for verification, and which is used as part of the final meta puzzle.

The second aha is that the number 36 is significant in that every puzzle relates to that number somehow (sometimes directly, sometimes more obliquely). This realisation should help in cases where the mechanics of a puzzle are not immediately obvious. (The title of the hunt refers to the word 'nif', which means 36 in jan Misali's proposed base 6 system, as inspired by the word for 36 in the Ndom language of Papua New Guinea.)

It should be noted that not every puzzle needs to be solved for the final meta puzzle - if you are up to this point, you can scroll to the bottom for that answer.

Note that, unless specified otherwise, extraction and reading of cells is row-by-row, left-to-right (as per English text), and I use Australian English wherever relevant. I also recommend Puzzled Pint's excellent Code Sheet for some extractions.

I've listed the answer to each puzzle below, referring to the puzzle by its coordinates (row and column) within the larger grid. I've also added notes to certain answers to give further context.

Despite the colourful flavour of the text, this puzzle references the fact that the number 36 is a composite number, a triangular number, and a square number. Five words relating to each of these sets appear within the text, namely: [ARMOR, BOW, PARTICLE, PHOTOGRAPH, VIDEO], [ASCENDING, ETERNAL, LOVE, OBTUSE, RIGHT], [DANCE, KNOT, MAGIC, ROOT, SET]. Connecting each set in alphabetical order reveals the letters HEW - another word for shape.

NB: Originally, this puzzle used CIRCULAR instead of COMPOSITE, as the Wikipedia page for 36 (which I referenced significantly during early puzzle construction) incorrectly listed 36 as an automorphic/circular number. This made the answer more thematic, and the text more colourful, but alas, you can't argue with maths.

The first letter of each word spells MIRRORED LETTERS FROM THIRTY-SIX OVERLAPS. Note that each word here has the same number of letters as THIRTY-SIX, but only shares one letter with that string. For example, the top-left word, MULTIPLEX, shares the final X. The mirrored letter in this instance would be the first letter of MULTIPLEX, M. Extracting from each word in this way gives MICROWAVE REHEARSAL BALLISTIC ELECTRODE. Repeating the extraction method gives WHAT.

As hinted by the final column and row, this puzzle specifically references a puzzle from Foggy Brume's Puzzle Boat 2 (HUNT FEATURING SECOND VESSEL AT SEA), namely 'The Invisible Island' (PUZZLE WITH UNSEEN LANDMASS AMIDST SEA). (That puzzle appears at co-ordinates Y=3, X=6 within the Map.) Without spoiling anything too much, in that puzzle 25 items are related to the letters of the alphabet, excluding the letter I. In the remaining 25 cells of this puzzle, you can observe that PIPI can be formed from just the letters P and I, PIPE from P, I, and E, and PETITE from P, I, E, and T. In this way, each cell can be mapped to its required letter for addition to the growing letter bank. Once this is done, take the corresponding extracted letter from The Invisible Island, which will yield AN INANE RIDDLER A C LEWIS OWNS, hinting at the answer, HATTER (which is thematic for the answer to Invisible Island).

NB: Apologies to those who have not completed Puzzle Boat 2 - it's well worth your time! This is probably one of the hardest puzzles, and the link to 36 is tenuous, but as was explained in the instructions, I wrote this for two friends right after we finished PB2, so I figured they would find the connection quickly.

Each row includes a censored lyric from a song from the album 'Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)' by Wu-Tang Clan. The uncensored words read THESE BOYS COME FROM WHICH COAST. Wu-Tang Clan are from New York City, so the answer is EAST.

Each cell includes the name for an area code for telephone numbers in Hungary (who country calling code is +36). Converting each code from ASCII yields PREFIX NUMBER FIFTY-NINE MINUS TWENTY-FOUR. Some quick maths yields 35, the area code for BALASSAGYARMAT.

The first row features Hebrew letters that spell a transliteration of Nero Caesar, which according to Gematria adds to 666, the number of the devil. (In Gematria, the number 18 stands for life, and since 36 = 18 × 2, it represents "two lives", and has other associations with righteousness.) The remaining rows each feature 5 names whose Gematria value is the same, and one that is different (the values are 248, 91, 16, 247, and 46). The non-matching names from each row (Anya, Dina, Andy, Anbel, and Enoch) have Gematria values of 66, 69, 65, 83, and 84, which when converted using ASCII gives BEAST (another name for the devil).

NB: I only discovered Gematria while making this puzzle, and boy is it complex. There are websites where you can determine the value for a word/name, and hopefully with enough searching and with some error correction the above answer can be reached.

This puzzle is a riddle, referring to ROULETTE, a game which is inherently risky, but Russian Roulette is even riskier. Roulette features 36 red and black pockets, one or two green pockets, and finally, the ball, which is WHITE. (The referenced puzzle is R3C3.)

This puzzle is a table of people who died at the age of 36. The columns are, in order: first name, occupation, what they are most known for, how they died, how many partners they had, and where they died. The rows are, in order: Charles XII of Sweden, Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Marley, and Diana, Princess of Wales. The first letters of the missing data points spell DOWAGER C PARR, referring to CATHERINE Parr, who also died at the age of 36.

NB: Some columns here are a little ambiguous but can be backsolved.

Starting at the top-left word, and then reading every fourth subsequent word (looping around when you reach the end), we have:

I AM IN ONE OF EACH OF SOME AND GONE IN OTHERS. AS SUCH, TAKE HEART TO FACTOR IN THINGS THAT HINT AT PATTERNS. IT'S MUCH MORE ARTFUL TO COGITATE TO SQUARE AWAY EACH HAZY STATEMENT.

The word FACTOR hints at considering the factors of the integers up to 36 (which is a highly composite number) - you will see that the length of each word in the extracted text matches the number of factors (i.e.: 1 has 1 factor, and "I" has 1 letter, etc.) The words SQUARE and HEART hint at taking only the square numbers and looking at the middle letter of each - doing so spells INNATE (factors are an innate property of numbers).

NB: Rearranging the text was to make this puzzle more substantive, but to also hide the patterns of factors that are very clear when the text is arranged in a 6×6 grid.

The names of each of these comers and goers hint at The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations as created by Georges Polti. Each listed element relates to only one Situation (e.g.: "a rescuer" is one of the necessary elements for "Deliverance"). Matching the characters thus, and taking just the initials of the situations, we have DTEMICOLSFAIASFPOTLR entering and FPTCMFIALOLO leaving. Removing the second set's letters from the first and rearranging gives DISASTER, one of the 36 Situations (and a fair descriptor for a bear's presence).

This grid is a subset of the periodic table, starting with Boron in the top-left and finishing with Oganesson in the bottom-right. However, only the first syllable of each element is maintained (and the cell representing Krypton, the 36th element, has been cryptically misspelled as KRYPTIC). Moreover, six elements have swapped places in a cycle: P → At → Te → Rn → S → P. The final answer is PATTERNS (what you need to spot to get the answer).

Each cell in the fifth row contains a one-word song by Ariana Grande. The remaining words in each row are a clue for a song from one of her six studio albums (in reverse chronological order), but with the words/parts swapped. The songs (and clued phrases) are: Six Thirty (thirty-six), Ghostin' (in Ghost), Breathin' (inbreath), Be Alright (alright Be), Break Free (free break), Lovin' It (IT lovin'). Indexing into each song in the fifth column by the track number of the row's reversed song yields BUTERA, the second part of Ariana's surname.

A pair of six-sided dice can have 36 different outcomes, so I had to make a dice-related puzzle. Each half of each row features two enemies from the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons (e.g.: Stirge and Xvart), separated by a word that features an abbreviation for one of the six player attributes (e.g.: INTERRUPTION contains INT). Comparing the difference between the ability scores for those enemies for that attribute, and converting those numbers to letters, yields FIVE DICE GAME, and the answer YAHTZEE.

Although the text references the Bamberg Bible (which is known for having 36-line pages), the theme here is instead typography, and specifically the tittles (in 'i' and 'j') and crossbars (in 'f' and 't') that appear in lowercase (i.e.: when text is "VERIFIABLY MINIMISED"). Converting the text to lowercase and reading each cell's tittles and crossbars as Morse code (and ignoring cells with neither tittles nor crossbars) you get THE DIRECTION OF CROSSBARS, which is HORIZONTAL.

The frequency of words starting with J and Q might hint that the words in this puzzle all represent standard playing cards (or rather, a 36-card subset as used in games such as Durak). Words starting with A, K, Q, and J represent aces, kings, queens, and jacks respectively, and the value of the remaining cards is determined by the length of the word. The suit of each card is determined by the last letter of the word (D, C, H, and S). For example, QUAYS represents the queen of spades, while EIGHTEENTH represents the 10 of hearts. Ordering the cards from lowest to highest (ace high) and alternating colours (as in Big Two), and then reading the first letters of the numbered cards you get OMIT RUBY ONES THEN FEEL. Interpreting only the black suited cards as Braille, you read TALON (the name for a stack of undealt cards), plus a full stop.

Most of the words here are countries, but there are also regions, cities, and in one repeated case (BAHÁʼÍ) a religion. The common theme here is flags - each flag features stars on their flag. If you add the total number of points on each flag and convert to letters (interpreting point-less flags as spaces), you get LOGO OF DRUID FOUND FLYING IN TIFELT. The logo in question is a PENTAGRAM, which appears on the flag of Morocco, and whose acute internal angles measure 36°.

This puzzle refers to the larger puzzle in a meta way. For each cell, check whether the puzzle in that position contains the cell's word. For example, R1C3 includes the word PUZZLE, this puzzle (R3C5) includes the word REFERENCES, and so on. The first letters of all matching words spell PROCURABLE (i.e.: the answer is "ABLE TO BE OBTAINED").

Each row contains a three-word instruction - the cryptic instructions should be applied in sequence, starting with with the THEMATIC term THIRTY-SIX, taking its square root to get SIX. From there, each step is: SIXPACK → IPC → CPI → SCAMPI → SCAMP → CAMP → [CAMP appears in R5C5] → POPO → PO → PUTOUT → OUTPUT. Thus, ironically, our OUTPUT is OUTPUT.

The text is a series of instructions for how to navigate the large grid, when interpreting the listed Australian highways as their corresponding numbers. (Using Wikipedia or a website like this one can help greatly.) Starting at the word HOTEL in R6C2, "THE ACCOMMODATION" in row 36 (City Road, A36) and column 8 (Pittwater Road, A8), turn right after 11 cells (Mt Keira Road, Tourist Drive 11), left after 8 cells (Spit Road, A8 again), left after 5 cells (South Western Motorway, M5), left after 11 cells (Harry Graham Drive, Tourist Drive 11 again), and stop at the cell TIBET in R6C1 ("OVERSEAS"). The cells at the start, end, and on each turn of this path spell out H IN HPT. In many parts of Australia, drivers must undertake the HAZARD Perception Test to attain their license and go on crazy trips like this one.

NB: Making this puzzle was rather tricky - it could only be done once most of the rest of the grid was complete. Hopefully you learned something about Australian driving!

This puzzle references The Thirty-Six Lessons of Vivec - a series of books in the Morrowind video game. The series of books feature two puzzles, but it is the second that matters here - the twenty-ninth sermon lists each chapter with a number, and the word in that position for each chapter spells a hidden message. If we add together the chapter numbers for The Enantiomorph, The Serpent, The Secret Fire, and The Anticipations ("THE GOOD DAEDRA") you get 458. The word in that position in the chapter titled The Star Wound (the "HEART OF LORKHAN") is CIVILIZATION, which may well bring about "THE ENDING OF THE WORLD".

NB: I have never played Morrowind.

This text is that spoken by Herbert Morrison during radio news coverage of the Hindenburg disaster, in which 36 people lost their lives. However, twelve words have had a letter added and have then been rearranged - those letters spell KILLER GRIPPE, hinting at INFLUENZA, a disease with a much higher death count.

This puzzle is a representation of the performance of the Adelaide 36ers, an Australian men's basketball team. Each cell indicates the final team they competed against in the post-season, for each year from their inception in 1983 to 2018 (e.g.: in 1984 they competed against the Nunawading SPECTRES). For any year in which they did not qualify for the the post-season, a synonym of "none" is provided instead. One cell from each row has had a letter removed and then been anagrammed, those letters spell BALLER.

As hinted by a word from each row ("THAT'S TWO LESS THAN LAST YEAR"), the text represents some of the 36 puzzles Dudley Dursley received on his eleventh birthday. The set includes "racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane" and other extravagant gifts (all listed as brand names back in 1991). Each column also includes an pluralised item not suited for a Muggle such as Dudley, and appears a specific number of times in Harry's magical world: HOUSES (4), CURSES (3, specifically the Unforgivable kind), POLTERGEISTS (1, Peeves), LILIES (2, his mother and daughter), BEATERS (2), and TASKS (3, from the Tri-Wizard Cup). Indexing into each present based on the number from that column, you get DISCOVERY MADE BY PUPPET RON, a reference to a now ancient video in which a puppet version of Ronald Weasley finds the source of the ticking noise - a PIPEBOMB - a gift no-one would want.

One word from each row includes an X, these read AFFIX EXCISE LEXICALLY EXPLOIT RADIX DEUX. The rest of the words can either have an X added to them to make a valid word (e.g.: STYX, AXLES, INDEXED) or the word STRIKE (e.g.: STRIKE RICH, STRIKE OUT). Doing so will result in 36 'strikes', the number of consecutive bowling strikes in a 900 series. Once we've AFFIXed things appropriately, we can then read across each row, interpreting the STRIKEs and Xs as 1s and 0s and reading in binary (RADIX DEUX), we get BOULES, another form of bowling.

Some Googling of this text takes you straight to the Wikipedia page for the Chinese essay Thirty-Six Stratagems. Each row represents one of the Chapters, with words taken from their corresponding positions in the Stratagems. However, one word has been replaced with the Chapter title instead - this is the word to extract from each row. For example, in the first row (LOOT WITH HEAVENS WHILE WINNING EAST), the first word (LOOT) is also the first word of the Stratagem "Loot a burning property", and so on, except for WINNING, which replaces ZHÀO. This same method can be used for the remaining rows, except that in the third row, the Chapter name (ATTACKING) has itself been replaced with the word STRATAGEMS. The first letter of all replaced words (in order: ZHÀO, NOTHING, TOSSING, GOLDEN, YOUR, ELSE, and finally ATTACKING) can be rearranged to form the answer YANGTZE, the Chinese river.

The central 4×4 section features the final 16 competitors of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series (which, as per normal, included 36 races). The 16 cells immediately surrounding that section (orthogonally) represent a NASCAR track - each feature a synonym for "track", except the pair at the bottom (WAND and RUMP) which represent the POLE and REAR positions. The four unused cells in the corners represent things you'd find around a NASCAR track, and their initials spell SCCA (which stands for the Sports Car Club of America). Swapping each driver with their final position in the Drivers' championship (with Chase Elliott in pole position and Cole Custer in 16th), you can then read the first letters of the middle section as WINNINGEST DRIVER. Searching for SCCA WINNINGEST DRIVER yields James Joyce FITZGERALD, who had 350 career wins during his driving time.

NB: This puzzle taught me the word 'winningest', which sounds made up, but is not.

There are three dozen (i.e.: 36) items here - a dozen eggs (e.g.: EASTER, SCOTCH), a dozen rolls (e.g.: BARREL, SPRING), and a dozen roses (e.g.: CHRISTMAS, COMPASS). In keeping with the theme of three, one can interpret the eggs as zeroes (as one might do in a cryptic crossword), the rolls as 1s, and the roses as 2s, such that each row can be read as two 3-digit ternary numbers. Converting those numbers into letters gives A VENDOR OF TWO - a vendor of roses is a FLORIST.

The references to chambers indicates something to do with The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, the famous kung fu movie. The characters in each room were played by famous kung fu actors, namely Alexander Fu Sheng, Dan Inosanto, Lo Mang, Yukari Oshima, Zara Phythian, Bruce Lee, and Nicholas Ringer (in the 2010 movie). Index into each character's second name, using the first and second digits for the two actors respectively for chambers with two actors, and you get FIGHTER.

NB: What do you mean you've never seen the Avatar movie? I've heard such good things!

Nine police headquarters are referenced here, inspired by the headquarters of the Direction régionale de la police judiciaire de la préfecture de police de Paris, nicknamed the '36'. Three facts about the local police for each headquarter form the corners of a rectangle in the grid: the nickname for the headquarters, a slang term for the local police, and a slang term for the local currency (e.g.: for the '36' we have ORFÈVRES, POULET, and FRIC). The final corner of each rectangle references some attribute of the headquarters, written in the local language (e.g.: the RÉGION of the '36' is Île-de-France). The list of attributes is listed below. The first letter of each attribute can be rearranged to spell BRIBERIES (what happens when the POULET take FLIC unlawfully, for example).

NB: The final extract for this puzzle is a little tricky, as some of the HQs aren't related to things starting with B, R, I, E, or S. I also considered translations of numbers, but surprisingly the languages in question don't have numbers starting with R! If you have a better idea, let me know!

At first this seems like a logic puzzle. Some of the cells have been filled with 5-letter words starting with the letters A-F and finishing with the letters M, N, P, R, S, and T. As per the current arrangement, no combination of first and last letter has been repeated, and each first and last letter is used only once in each row and column. While it might seem like the task is to continue entering words into the BLANK cells to complete the grid, this puzzle, the thirty-six officers problem, was proven to be impossible by old mate Euler back in the 1700s. The only other hints are the non-BLANK, non-filled cells in the bottom right. GUIDE here refers to EULER, and SOLUTION hints at an 8-letter answer. Many years after Euler, some counterexamples were constructed for a grid of 22×22, which where dubbed Euler Spoilers. Hence our SOLUTION is SPOILERS.

The grid is constructed from 11 films, each with both a number and a unit of measure in the title (e.g.: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels). However, each unit of measure has been converted to another of the same type (e.g.: Barrels into GALLONS, with a conversion rate of 1 to 36), and the number has been changed to another. If you convert the original measurement into the new one (e.g.: Two … Barrels = 72 Gallons) and then find the difference from the updated number (72 - 5 = 67), you will get a number that can be converted into a letter using ASCII. Those letters, placed in their corresponding numeric cells, spell 11 ???? CHEST, a reference to the movie 44 Inch Chest, which could be converted into 11 HAND CHEST.

NB: This puzzle took a long time to make and was reworked upon feedback from early solvers. Hopefully the movies aren't too obscure for solving.

This puzzle features nine facts about Nevada, the 36th state of the USA, with one letter changed in each (e.g.: significant production of gold → SIGNIFICANT PRODUCTION OF GOLF). Together, the facts make the shape of Nevada in the grid, with the unused related to the appropriate neighbouring states: California (POPPY, FUSCHIA, NEWT, CONDOR, HOTEL, GIRLS), Utah (TEAPOT, CLAW, JUNIPER, GRIZZLIES), and Arizona (ASH, ROOM, GOOF). The replaced letters can be arranged to spell HANDSTONE, which in turn can be corrected to spell SANDSTONE, the state rock of Nevada.

Each word can be paired with a letter, number, or punctuation mark that appears on a QWERTY keyboard. You can then apply the same translation to each key in a row to form a word; these words read WOMENS SHIMMY BEFORE EDITOR CAUSED CHANGE. This is a cryptic clue for SHIFTED (SHIFT + ED = SHIFTED), which is what you have done with the keys.

NB: While some of these are a little ambiguous, hopefully they can be backsolved using context.

Most all words in the grid can either be prefixed with IN (e.g.: INFUSIONISM, INFIX) or suffixed with OUT (e.g.: IRONING OUT, BLACK OUT). Continuing this computer-ish theme, consider only the Is and Os in the transformed entries, interpreting them as 1s and 0s respectively. The resultant numbers range from 0 to 14, hinting at the use of hexadecimal. The remaining cells feature words with neither O nor I, but each has a hyphen instead. The combined string would then be D9DC8A3B-B784-432E-A781-5A1130A75963, a Universally unique identifier (UUID) (with the standard 36 hexadecimal characters and hyphens). A quick search will yield that this UUID is a Known Folder GUID in Windows for the HISTORY folder (whose name features both an I and an O, fittingly).

NB: This is perhaps my favourite puzzle in the whole hunt.

A quick search will reveal that these are all names for the 36 Decans, as deemed by many historians. The handy table on the Wikipedia page will help identify that each Zodiac sign's three decans are all in immediate proximity. Interpreting the positions as semaphore, and ordering by Zodiac sign, you get VI PER KIRCHER. The Jesuit scholar, Athanasius Kircher, named the 6th Decan APOPHIS.

NB: Early tested revealed that some solvers interpreted the extracted phrase as VIPER KIRCHER, but since Apep/Apophis is depicted as a giant serpent, that conveniently works too.

While these words appear to be transliterations of Japanese, some of them violate phonological constraints. A search will yield that these are very close to names of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. In each example, one letter has been changed (from the transliteration listed on Wikipedia) into another. Shifting the original and the replaced letters by the number of the artwork gives NAME FOR HOKUSAI and OR BROTHER MAYBE respectively. These both hint (cryptically) at PRINTER - Hokusai's profession and what the brand Brother makes.

NB: It was identified as part of testing that this puzzle relies on one transliteration of the artwork names (the one available on Wikipedia), but to limit the grid entries to English alphabet words, this was a choice I decided to make.

Are you sure you want to see the final answer?

Well, there you go! If you're reading this, I hope you tried at least some of the puzzles in the hunt, and that you enjoyed what you tried.

This was kind of a crazy idea for a hunt, honestly. I decided on the main constraints very early on (36×36, all themed around 36), and then it became a challenge for me as to whether it was possible. I decided on the meta extraction first, and then started working my way through a list of thematic connections in order of what tickled me first (e.g.: 36 Views, 36ers, Dice, etc.). I ran out of ideas about 80% of the way through and had to really push through for the last section.

Oh, if you did complete this hunt, please let me know! You'd be the first, I believe - previous solvers got lost in the enormity of the task and the inaccessibility of some of the puzzles. I guess those are two outcomes from my self-imposed constraints - lack of flavour text means there's no nice 'in' for each puzzle, and presenting everything at once (which results in a cool initial 'aha' and is quite different to what I've seen online) can mean there's no clean path for where to start.

Anyway, that's probably enough from me. I learned a lot from making this, and many puzzles could be improved. If you have any feedback at all, please let me know!

Thanks for reading, and remember that the answer was in us all along.