Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Wireless Puzzle FAQ
Copyright 2008 Jim Avery
I have provided no e-mail address, please do not try to contact me.
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Table of Contents
1 - Version History
2 - Puzzles
2.1 - Puzzle W01: From Five to Four
2.2 - Puzzle W02: Treasure Chests
2.3 - Puzzle W03: How Many Nines?
2.4 - Puzzle W04: Aliens?
2.5 - Puzzle W05: Nose to Nose
2.6 - Puzzle W06: Cut the Cake
2.7 - Puzzle W07: Soccer Ball
2.8 - Puzzle W08: What's Hidden?
2.9 - Puzzle W09: A Smaller E
2.A - Puzzle W10: Layton's Hatbox
2.B - Puzzle W11: The Clock's Chime
2.C - Puzzle W12: A Fearsome Foe
2.D - Puzzle W13: The Vanishing Tower
2.E - Puzzle W14: The Egg-nigma
2.F - Puzzle W15: The Lost Hat
2.G - Puzzle W16: The Lazy Student
2.H - Puzzle W17: Image Equation
2.I - Puzzle W18: Chicks and Hens
2.J - Puzzle W19: Jersey Numbers
2.K - Puzzle W20: Find the Volume
2.L - Puzzle W21: The Knight's Escape
2.M - Puzzle W22: Lion vs. Cheetah
2.N - Puzzle W23: Silence Is Golden
2.O - Puzzle W24: Special Order
3 - Legal Info
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1 - Version History
Version 1.0 (4/23/08) - The first ten puzzles have been filled in, along with
personal hints from me in case you'd rather not see the solution. I hopefully
can keep this regularly updated.
Current status: complete through the most recent puzzle W24 (7/28/08).
Featuring the instructions, in-game hints, a hint from me, and the solution.
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2.1 - Puzzle W01: From Five to Four
Instructions: A set of matches are arranged so they form five squares.
To solve this puzzle, you need to change the number of squares below from five
to four by moving exactly two matches.
Your four squares must be uniform in size, and you must use all of your matches
when forming the squares.
Hint 1: In the original layout, every match is needed to form the five squares,
so the task of forming one less square while still using all of the matches
might seem challenging.
However, you can make things easier by focusing on reducing the number of
matches that serve as a side for multiple squares.
TSD's hint: The game's hint is your biggest help here. There are a total of
sixteen matches that need to be used for the four squares, which means that no
two squares will have any shared sides at all. Focus on squares that don't have
many matches unique to them and try to eliminate them.
-- SOLUTION --
The puzzle, at the outset, looks like this:
_ _
_ _|_|_|
|_|_|_|
Arrange it so it looks like this:
_ _
_|_|_|_|
|_| |_|
Instructions: Although all six chests appear to be of equal value, in
actuality, one of the chests differs from the rest. Choose the chest that has a
different total value.
Hint 1: Some chests may not have the same number of gems. How many gems do you
count in a single chest?
TSD's hint: The game asks you about the total value of the chests, not the
total number of gems, but you can't possibly calculate the value of individual
gems. Basically what this means is that there is only one gem that differs in
quantity from chest to chest. Find out what chest has more/less of any one gem.
-- SOLUTION --
One of the chests has more blue square gems than any other, and it's chest D.
The game makes it a bit difficult to see that there's an extra gem there.
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2.3 - Puzzle W03: How Many Nines?
Instructions: How many times does the number nine appear within whole numbers
between one and 100?
Hint 1: There's no trick to this one. No, really! All you need to do is count
them up.
TSD's hint: Be careful about the wording. The game isn't asking how many whole
numbers contain a 9, it wants to know how many 9's appear total.
-- SOLUTION --
9 appears a total of 20 times; keep in mind the number 99 has two 9's in it.
Instructions: A famous space explorer has just discovered a new planet and
landed on its surface to investigate it further.
During his three-hour investigation, he counted 379 male Octopieans, 493 female
Octopieans, and 125 that had the features of both male and female Octopieans.
So right now, how many aliens are there on this new planet?
Hint 1: The whole planet is covered with Octopieans, but adding their numbers
up won't get you the answer you're after.
Perhaps you jumped to conclusions when considering answers for this puzzle.
TSD's hint: The instructions to this puzzle involve some tricky wordplay. Try
thinking a bit harder about the final statement in the puzzle's instructions.
Why is it worded like it is?
-- SOLUTION --
Only one. On this planet, Octopieans aren't aliens, but you sure are.
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2.5 - Puzzle W05: Nose to Nose
Instructions: Four horses are running around a course made up of several
concentric circles.
Horse A runs one lap an hour on its course.
Horse B runs two laps an hour on its course.
Horse C runs three laps an hour on its course.
Horse D runs four laps an hour on its course.
All four horses line up at the bottom of the cirche and start running their
courses at the same time. How many minutes will it take until all four horses
are lined up nose to nose on a straight line again?
Hint 1: It won't take even an hour for the horses to line up nose to nose once
more.
All the horses' noses have to be lined up along the same straight line, but
nowhere does it say that the horses must be facing the same direction.
TSD's hint: Following up on hint 1, it stands to reason that all the horses
don't need to be on the same side of the race course.
-- SOLUTION --
In thirty minutes, each horse will be either done with a lap, or half-done with
a lap, and their noses will be lined up.
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2.6 - Puzzle W06: Cut the Cake
Instructions: When viewed from above, the slice of cake below is an equilateral
triangle. Your goal is to produce four sides of a cube by making one cut into
the cake. Connect two dots to cut the cake.
You should know that this particular cake has a thickness equal to one-quarter
the length of the cake slice.
Hint 1: You can only produce two new surfaces by cutting the cake. Where do
you need to cut the cake in order to make these cross sections appear square?
When you figure that out, you've basically got the answer. Recall what the
puzzle said about the thickness of the cake.
TSD's hint: A side of a cube is just a square; how can you make four squares
out of a single cut? Keep in mind that all sides of a square are equal, and we
know the thickness of the cake.
-- SOLUTION --
Cut a minimum-size triangle off of any corner of the slice. The cut you just
made is equal to one-quarter the length of the cake slice, since it's an
equlateral triangle.
Instructions: The surface of your standard soccer ball is made up of several
black pentagons and white hexagons, just like the ball pictured below.
If the ball shown here has 12 black pentagons, how many white hexagons does the
ball have?
Hint 1: Here are some helpful facts to keep in mind. No pentagon shares a side
with another pentagon. Also, there are a total of 12 pentagons on the ball.
Since every pentagon has five sides, there are a total of sixty sides.
All hexagons share three sides with other hexagons.
TSD's hint: If it helps any, you can try splitting the soccer ball into three
parts: the top pentagon (and its hexagons), the bottom pentagon (and its
hexagons), and the "ring" of black and white that makes up the middle. Try to
visualize this.
-- SOLUTION --
The top and bottom pentagons are each touching five hexagons, for a total of
ten hexagons. If you scratch those out on the picture on your DS, you can see
that, for each of the remaining ten pentagons, there is one hexagon unique to
it, opposite it. This makes for a total of 20 hexagons.
I know this solution doesn't relate much to the game's hint, but I had trouble
figuring it out that way.
Instructions: Oh, no! The professor's hatbox has gone missing!
Pictured below are four hatboxes that have been broken down and flattened. When
reassembled, three of the boxes are identical in every way, but the fourth
hatbox differs slightly in its design and belongs to the professor. Can you
find it for him?
Hint 1: Reconstruct the flattened hatboxes in your mind and you'll immediately
see what's different. Pay special attention to the hat patterns on each box.
TSD's hint 1: When you assemble one of the three identical boxes, all the hats
will be pointing in the same direction. To make this problem easier, think of
how the hats are pointing in relation to the other hats.
TSD's hint 2: In the odd hatbox out, there's another, more distinct difference
in the location of the hats on the cube.
-- SOLUTION --
In hatbox B, the orange hat is pointing the wrong way, and is on the wrong side
of the cube.
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2.B - Puzzle W11: The Clock's Chime
Instructions: There is a clock tower that rings the time on the hour every
hour. However, this clock tower is special in that it rings the time out very
slowly. Each ringing of the bell takes a full five seconds.
Now to the problem. When the time is 12 p.m. the bell rings 12 times. How many
seconds does it take for you to hear the time?
Hint 1: The bell will ring 12 times, and there are five seconds between each
sounding of the bell.
It sure sounds simple, but there's at least one step everyone overlooks at
first.
Think about what needs to happen in order for you to realize it's 12 o'clock.
TSD's hint: Think about how long it takes for you to know what the time is, not
how long a chime is.
-- SOLUTION --
55 seconds. You need to wait through the full length of eleven chimes, but the
instant you hear the twelfth, you'll know what time it is. On an interesting
note, if the time were 10 a.m., you'd have to wait a full 50 seconds before you
realized there was no eleventh chime. The fact that it's 12 p.m. makes this
riddle work.
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2.C - Puzzle W12: A Fearsome Foe
Instructions: There was once a knight bold and brave. He felled countless
opponents and was said to be peerless on the battlefield.
However, legend has it that there was one foe that set the knight quaking in
his armored boots. The knight feared this monster because of the rumor that
surrounded it. It was said that anyone who slew the beast was destined to spill
his own blood in the process.
Can you guess the identity of this terrifying foe?
Hint 1: You too may have bested this foe in battle.
Your answer should be eight letters long.
TSD's hint: This answer is pretty obscure. Think about the last sentence of the
second paragraph; what creature is it that, when it is killed, your blood is
spilt?
-- SOLUTION --
A mosquito, which feasts on your blood, will probably spill your blood once it
gets swatted. Again, this answer is pretty obscure.
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2.D - Puzzle W13: The Vanishing Tower
Instructions: Behold the glorious Eiffel Tower, soaring monument to Paris, the
city of light and love.
At over 1000 feet tall, the tower is massive, but there is a way to make the
entire structure vanish right before your very eyes by using nothing but two
coins.
How does one accomplish this feat?
Hint 1: No matter how you arrange the coins on the screen, you won't be able to
cover the tower completely.
Why not try covering something else with the coins?
TSD's hint: Vanish for whom? Read the instructions again carefully.
-- SOLUTION --
Place one coin over each of the girl's eyes.
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2.E - Puzzle W14: The Egg-nigma
Instructions: The room shown below is perfectly square and completely empty.
Four normal chicken eggs were placed on the floor of the room. Shortly
afterward a man came in with a giant steel cylinder and rolled it all over the
floor. Amazingly, not a single egg was broken in the process. Can you guess
where these eggs were placed?
The eggs used in this problem are standard-sized eggs, but have been made
larder so tha you can move them around more easily.
Hint 1: There are places on a floor that the cylinder can't reach no matter how
it's turned or tilted. Where do you think they could be?
Pay special attention to the fact that there were four eggs.
TSD's hint: The fact that he's rolling a cylinder is important. Think about the
shape of the thing.
-- SOLUTION --
Place one egg in each corner of the room. The cylinder, being round, will leave
a tiny gap between itself and the corner - a gap that an egg can fit into.
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2.F - Puzzle W15: The Lost Hat
Instructions: A river moves at a pace of 1,000 feet per hour, and upon that
river floats a lone gondola. At precisely high noon, a passenger on the gondola
drops his black top hat into the water. The gondola turns around to collect the
hat exactly 100 feet downstream from it. This particular gondola moves at a
speed of 20 feet per minute in still water.
How many minutes will it take the gondola to meet up with the top hat from the
time the hat hit the water?
Hint 1: The river moves at the same speed for all objects floating upon it and
affects both the hat and the gondola in the exact same way.
TSD's hint: Don't think about how the hat is somehow floating away from the
boat; the river is pushing equally hard on the boat and the hat. In relation to
the hat, the boat isn't really moving at all.
-- SOLUTION --
The gondola will take 5 minutes, at 20 f/m, to travel 100 feet away from the
hat, then another 5 minutes to travel another 100 feet to get the hat again,
for a total of 10 minutes.
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2.G - Puzzle W16: The Lazy Student
Instructions: A teacher was reprimanding a particularly lazy student one day
and told him the following:
"At the very least, you need to study once a day for an entire week before a
test. Don't skimp on time either! Each time you study, I want you to study for
a minimum of two hours."
The boy had no choice but to follow the teacher's orders, but decided he'd
spend as little time possible doing so. Assuming the boy followed the teacher's
orders exactly, how many hours did he end up studying?
Hint 1: One week has seven days. The boy has to study two hours every day, so
the answer must be 14 hours, right?
Come on now, what kind of puzzle would this be if that was the answer? What you
need to do is brainstorm ways the boy could beat the system. For example, would
starting his daily studies at an odd hour benefit him at all?
TSD's hint: Each study session must be two hours long, and the student must
study at some point every day of the week. The key question to think about is,
when will the boy conduct these study sessions?
-- SOLUTION --
He had a total of four two-hour study sessions; three of them took place during
a date change, so one study session covered two study days. He therefore
studied for a total of 8 hours.
Instructions: Using the following clues, break the code below and figure out
what needs to go in the blank at the bottom of the screen.
Hint 1: Look at all the options again and try to figure out what they have in
common.
TSD's hint: Far and away, the fastest way to crack this puzzle is to say out
loud what you see in every picture, while paying attention to the symbols. The
rest will follow from there.
-- SOLUTION --
Each symbol pertains to half of the word portrayed in each picture. OX =
HANDSHAKE, and O(square) = HANDKERCHIEF, so we can safely say that O = HAND;
the fact that (diamond)X = MILKSHAKE reaffirms that we are correct. Now what's
in the fourth panel? We can see that (triangle)(downtriangle) = CUFF LINKS. We
can then conclude that O(triangle) = HANDCUFF. Make sure to tap the second part
of the input boxes before you enter "CUFF".
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2.I - Puzzle W18: Chicks and Hens
Instructions: Draw three straight lines between the stakes to divide the
chickens into groups. Each group must consist of one hen and two chicks.
Hint 1: Rope off the mother hen in the upper-left corner so that she stays with
the two chicks directly above and below her.
TSD's hint: While doing so, you can't cut off the two chicks in the bottom-
right corner; you'll have to use a combination of two ropes to house the upper-
left group.
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2.J - Puzzle W19: Jersey Numbers
Instructions: You are tasked with spray-painting player numbers onto your
team's baseball uniforms. You've prepared 10 paper stencils, each with a number
from zero to nine. With the stencils cut out, you are now ready to paint player
numbers on all six jerseys.
If each jersey only has room for two horizontally oriented numbers, what's the
fewest number of stencils you need to number the six jerseys?
Hint 1: In order to number six different jerseys, you will need to select six
numbers from 0 through 99.
Maybe the numbers you're looking for are staring you in the face right now.
TSD's hint: Think of what stencils can be re-used while still keeping the
player numbers unique - and I mean re-used in more than one sense.
-- SOLUTION --
All you need, truthfully, is one stencil. With the 6 stencil, or the 9 stencil,
you can create the numbers 6, 9, 66, 99, 69, and 96.
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2.K - Puzzle W20: Find the Volume
Instructions: A strangely shaped container sits before you.
All sides of the shape, save for depth, are of equal length.
All four points, A, B, C and D, are located in the center of their respective
sides. Additionally, line AD, line BC, and the depth of the container are all
one foot.
What is the total volume of the figure in cubic feet? Don't worry about the
thickness of the walls of the vessel.
TSD's hint: You're going to have to visualize this shape in a different way to
find the answer easily. Look at lines AD and BC; they're drawn where they are
for a reason.
-- SOLUTION --
Divide the shape along lines AD and BC into fourths; they can fit together to
make a perfect cube, with a volume of 1 cubic foot.
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2.L - Puzzle W21: The Knight's Escape
Instructions: Behold the brave knight as he fights his way through a dark and
winding maze. With his strength waning, the knight decides that he must exit
the maze by opening the fewest number of doors possible.
Find the path that allows the knight to escape from those dark catacoms while
opening as few doors as possible.
Hint 1: You can learn a lot by working backward and making your way through the
maze starting from the goal. See the three doors that surround the goal? You'll
have to open one of those in the end.
TSD's hint: What you want to look for is long, winding paths totally
uninterrupted by doors; a couple of them are connected together in the correct
path.
-- SOLUTION --
You can open three doors: the top and bottom leftmost doors, and the second
door from the bottom on the very right.
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2.M - Puzzle W22: Lion vs. Cheetah
Instructions: A cheetah and a lion square off in a 200-yard race. The first one
to run 100 yards, turn around, and run back to the start line wins.
The cheetah leaps three yards in one jump, whereas the lion only leaps two
yards with each bound. To make up for his lack of speed, the lion jumps three
times for every two jumps the cheetah makes. Assume their paces stay consistent
the whole race.
Who will win this race?
Hint 1: Remember that the race is 100 yards there and back. It's a very
important fact, and once you realize its significance, the puzzle is a snap.
TSD's hint: Since the two animals go exactly as fast as each other, you'll have
to consider the distance covered per pace; therein lies the answer.
-- SOLUTION --
The cheetah, leaping three yards with every jump, is going to end up jumping
straight from 99 yards to 102 yards and overshooting the goal, giving him more
ground to cover. The lion will not have this problem, thus, the lion will win.
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2.N - Puzzle W23: Silence Is Golden
Instructions: An infamous antiques thief breaks into a museum looking for a
prized gold medallion.
In the vault there is a case with five different items on it. The thief knows
that the medallion is carefully hidden inside one of the items. Above the case
there is an inscription on the wall that reads:
"Silence is golden. Three is the magic number."
The thief only has time to steal one item from the case. Which one should he
take?
Hint 1: Think about how each item is different, and then think about how that
could relate to the inscription.
TSD's hint: Haven't you solved another silence-related puzzle somewhere in the
game?
-- SOLUTION --
Each of the items has at least one silent letter (sCissors, boMb, Hourglass,
sWord), but only one item has three silent letters (KniGHt). He should take the
knight.
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2.O - Puzzle W24: Special Order
Instructions: Below is a scene of a man ordeing a particular item at a fancy
restaurant.
What in the world is this man trying to order here? Look at the picture below
before you take a guess.
[The man is saying 'H I J K L M N O'.]
TSD's hint: In order to get this one, you'll have to think more about what he
just said. Try looking at his request from different angles.
-- SOLUTION --
The man is saying all the letters "H to O" - H2O, in other words. He's asking
for water.
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3 - Legal Info
This may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private
use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly
without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or
as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of
copyright.
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.
