2024: The 2024 hunt is currently underway. Sign-up is located here!
2023: The mystery starts here but you will need some additional screens. (note: these were sent as asks to various members of the clue crew. they were uploaded after the fact for easier reference. Open images in new tabs to see blanks). A guide to solving the 2023 mystery is available here.
2022: The mystery starts here but you will also need the passages to go along with it. (the 2022 passages were similarly sent as asks but later posted collectively for ease of solving)
Hints, questions, and other information are also available by year under the 2022, 2023, and 2024 tags.
soccer chef is sooo fun! I need a full version of it ASAP
question though, I made bicycle kick although that's not in the recipe book?
Thanks!!!
It was incredibly fun to make and also a giant mess of spaghetti. The way I made it was a little unhinged in that I used global variables and had the game reset each time you click the pot lid
There are four dishes that were implemented but not listed in the recipe section as they weren't helpful to the puzzle solve: Hand Ball, Drop Ball, Bicycle Kick, and Kick Off--looks like you figured one of them out!
Howdy!
Things have been a little busy around here, but we're back to wrap up the hunt.
As it stands, none of the finishing teams are interested in taking over the welcomeinitiate blog next year, so we are looking for someone to take on the mantle.
We'll be posting solutions to puzzles sometime after American Thanksgiving--but feel free to reach out before then if you're interested.
In the meantime, three puzzles we were particularly proud of making that you might not have seen:
Soccer Chef: A cooking minigame where the chef seems a little... off. Recipes are in the puzzle page, or below the game itself
Glam Glam: A dress-up minigame heavily inspired by DAN and VEN
Nine Tees: A mini-golf minigame inspired by CLK (but with very generous pars)
The password to all of these minigames is "canute"
Howdy, y'all! Here with a little Fall update for ya:
Over 20 teams have solved at least one puzzle! AND Over 10 teams have solved the first meta!
There's also been some feature updates to myus, so the puzzles are looking a little slicker now, plus automatic hints have been added to all puzzles (found by entering "hint1", "hint2", or "hint3" on any puzzle)
With that, despite having multiple finishers, we do not yet have a person or team willing to host the 2025 mystery. As the end of the year draws near, what would be your preference?
The hunt should:
End shortly, even without a 2025 mystery host
End shortly, offering up the 2025 title to someone who wants it
End shortly, with potential of prior year hosts creating the 2025 mystery
Continue until a host is found
Something else?
My favorite holiday is "Bald is Beautiful" Day (see results)
Mr Ree Polka (tl) -- the first to finish the Round 3 Meta!
Kat: ) -- second to finish and our favorite submission (so far) to a certain puzzle!
The Hoes of Blackmoor Manor -- third to finish and the first team to solve a puzzle in the hunt!
With that said, all three teams have declined running the 2025 welcomeinitiate mystery, so that title is still up for grabs!
A few other updates:
1. There is now a Junior Detective version of Recipe Substitution, which is easier than the original version. Either version will work for the Round 1 meta puzzle
2. There are now self-serve hints on all Round 1 puzzles, including the meta. Simply submit "hint1", "hint2", or "hint3" to get hints for a puzzle. These do not count against your guess limit
3. We are still available for custom hints (unlimited for Round 1, 1 a day for Rounds 2&3), so def send a message if you're stuck on a puzzle!
Howdy folks! With multiple teams now in round 2, we are easing up the hinting policy for round 1; feel free to submit multiple hint requests a day for round 1, one at a time (please wait until a request has been answered to submit a new one though)
Teams can continue to request one hint a day for round 2 or round 3 puzzles
We also have a little “How to solve a meta” video for you—if you’ve solved two or three puzzles, you should take a look at the round 1 meta!
Is the site down? I haven't been able to load it all day. Just curious if it is a me issue or a bigger issue. I'm having so much fun. Thank you!!
Sorry, the hosting website was down for some maintenance things earlier and we have been pretty offline today and didn't realize! It is back up now and shouldn't be down again, but just in case, a backup of round one puzzles is here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14aAbUYXSlBfxFvo87xLaxxnb7_fSGHT3Fo-6R_Iimh0/edit?usp=sharing
Glad to hear you're having fun!!
heyyy we've been tryna crack recipe substitution for a while now, but still kinda unsure on how to get from yellow to 2 letters 😭 we know the first word is wheels and we tried subtracting the common letters but it was incorrect. any tips?
Hey! Please send hint requests off anon in the future, just so we can keep track of where people are! We'll answer this one though:
You're on the right track looking at the original words. It's interesting how w(he)els deletes letters while the next underlined word goes from Spanish to English, right?
I looked over the guide but I'm still confused on what a cryptic is....please help
Cryptics are more common in the U.K., but essentially they clue a word or phrase through wordplay. Generally, a clue will also have a definition, but this isn’t always the case. As an example, here’s one we just came up with:
Krolmeister movie rating has pretty good beginning (1,1)
In this clue “Krolmeister movie rating” is the definition. Beginning is a key word telling us to look at the beginning (specifically the initials) of “pretty good.” The (1,1) enumeration, aka word length, signals we’re looking at two single letters
P.G. fits Krolmeister, as that’s his name, but it also fits as a movie rating, for “parental guidance.” In fact, we could have made this a double definition clue by rephrasing as “Krolmeister Movie Rating?” but we kept the longer clue to show off a wordplay indicator!
In solving these types of clues, looking for the indicator key words is a good first step
Please send a message with the puzzle you’re requesting a hint on, everything you’ve tried, as well as a link to a google sheets with any puzzle notes if you have one.
For now, limit the request to one puzzle. The hints will refresh tomorrow, we just want to make sure we answer everyone’s requests in a timely fashion.
We also want to confirm—you will never need to guess on an ordering. Either clues / answers are in the order they need to be in OR you have the information you need to sort them. If you need to sort anything, the data will be in alphabetical order. As an example, round 1 puzzle titles are alphabetized, so you’ll need to sort the answers for the meta in some way based on information from the puzzles.
Finally, if you joined the Puzzled Pint stream, make sure to redeem your free answer!
And now, here’s a hint on Recipe Substitution to get you started:
The first transformation “yellow” undergoes is to two letters. The second transformation is to three letters. The next two transformations will be six and five letters, respectively. You can check each transformation with the answer checker.
do we need a team to sign up? how do i find a team? thks
You can absolutely solve on your own -- although you'll likely have the most fun with one or two other people to bounce ideas off of!
Posting to the group: Is anyone else looking for a team? Or looking to add additional people to an existing team?
whatever's going on with the recipe substitution puzzle scares me
If you mean the high number of guesses -- that puzzle has a lot of partial answer confirmation (see below for a portion of it). If you’re stuck, it can help to check a few of the partial answers, as correct guesses do not count against the 20-guess limit.
Also, if you start doing something on that puzzle and it doesn’t result in a partial answer confirmation, you’re probably going down the wrong path. While we’re not giving out hints until tomorrow, if you think something should have had a partial response but didn’t, feel free to DM me and I’ll let you know if it’s correct!
The Inaugural Canute College Puzzle Hunt kicks off this Thursday at 4:30pm, eastern time.
Join us for snacks (and absolutely no mysteries, hijinks, or shenanigans) at The Great Chewdini’s if you’re on campus, or on our online hunt website if you’re virtual!
We can’t wait to see who takes home the Coin! Teams of up to five (we recommend three) can register now on Myus. See the reblog for more info!
We're using myus to be able to see where people are in the hunt as well as to allow for partial answer confirmation on certain puzzles.
Some additional info below the cut:
How many total puzzles are there?
There are 17 puzzles across the three rounds of the hunt. Generally, you’ll have access to four or fewer puzzles at a time. In terms of style, these puzzles are more comparable to the original Picture of Megan event versus the last two years of welcome initiate, but still share several elements.
Why is team size limited to five?
Since you'll generally have a handful of puzzles available, having too many cooks in the kitchen might mean you miss out on puzzles that would have been most fun to you. We think three is the ideal team size to be able to bounce ideas off one another but also get to experience the full hunt.
Can we work with other teams?
Until the coin is found and the hunt officially concludes, please refrain from sharing puzzle spoilers outside your team. Memes and typical clue crew shenanigans are highly encouraged.
What about people who aren't competing?
Sure, as long as it's in a private place where no other team might see it! 100% encouraged to ask your mom her thoughts about a puzzle (as long as she isn't separately solving!)
Can we use online tools?
Absolutely! In fact, we will likely highlight a few useful ones as the hunt gets closer.
Is the coin a real prize?
If the winning team is in the U.S. and wants it, we will send them the CCPH coin. It is wooden and has no actual value.
How will the organizer of Welcome Initiate 2025 be chosen?
The first clue crew team to message this blog on tumblr will be given the choice of a joint win or having a winner selected by one final puzzle. There may be other non-tumblr-based teams participating in the hunt, so until its announced the coin has been found on this blog, assume the hunt is still on.
Feel free to drop any other questions into our inbox or messages!
The Inaugural Canute College Puzzle Hunt kicks off this Thursday at 4:30pm, eastern time.
Join us for snacks (and absolutely no mysteries, hijinks, or shenanigans) at The Great Chewdini’s if you’re on campus, or on our online hunt website if you’re virtual!
We can’t wait to see who takes home the Coin! Teams of up to five (we recommend three) can register now on Myus. See the reblog for more info!
With a whopping ~60% of the vote, Scooby-Doo takes it!
Join us in about 3 hrs (3:30pm EDT / 7:30pm UTC) for some Puzzled Pint meddling. Any team with at least one person in attendance will get a free answer to any Round 1 feeder puzzle after the hunt has been live for 24 hrs.
If you can't make it, don't worry! The hint hotline will also be active this year!
And we're live! Come join us at https://www.twitch.tv/nollieaye
Puzzled Pint solving won't start until 3:30 pm EDT, but we'll be solving a couple sudoku puzzles in the meantime.
We're also less than a week out from the Canute College Puzzle Hunt launching. This hunt is intended for teams of up to five people (we recommend 3) and you can sign-up now at https://myus-prod.fly.dev/hunt/12-CCPH
No email is required to sign up! We're using myus as it allows us to see where people are in the hunt, as well as to allow for partial answer confirmation on some puzzles.
Stay twisty!
-- Storm Chaser Pete
With a whopping ~60% of the vote, Scooby-Doo takes it!
Join us in about 3 hrs (3:30pm EDT / 7:30pm UTC) for some Puzzled Pint meddling. Any team with at least one person in attendance will get a free answer to any Round 1 feeder puzzle after the hunt has been live for 24 hrs.
If you can't make it, don't worry! The hint hotline will also be active this year!
