Guidelines for the hunt

The following guidelines are intended to make the hunt run as smoothly and fairly as possible.

The most important rule of the puzzle hunt is this: the hunt is supposed to be FUN. If you're not having fun, it's our fault, not yours; please come talk to us and we'll see what we can do about it. Bear in mind, though, that some of these puzzles are very hard, so don't be surprised if you spend some time being stuck.

The answer to each puzzle will be a word or phrase. If you think you have correctly solved a puzzle, we strongly encourage you to confirm your answer with us. This is for two reasons: first, so that you know you're right; and second, so that we can monitor the progress of each of the teams, and keep track of whether or not any individual puzzles might be too hard.

You may use any resource you wish to attempt to solve these puzzles, but please try to adhere to the following points:

• The spirit of the game is to solve puzzles. Obtaining answers in any fashion other than solving the puzzle (e.g.: trading answers, overhearing other teams, looking over our shoulders, hacking the website) is against the spirit of the game, and is absolutely forbidden.
• On the other hand, you might be able to use information in the hunt to figure out what the answer to a puzzle has to be, without actually solving the puzzle. That's absolutely fine.
• Since there aren't enough of them to go around, the computers in Foster 110 and in the Mathcamp office are off-limits to hunt participants. Please use the computer lab in ETC.
• If you see something physical that you think is part of a puzzle, please leave it intact so that the next team can find it as well.
• If part of your team has stopped puzzling and you want to merge with another team, please come and check with us first.

There is a mechanism by which each team can get a series of hints on one puzzle of their choice. We reserve the right to dispense additional hints in a manner that we deem to be fair.