The Mystery Shack {Riddle Solved}

[Via]

So, these are riddle giveaways where I will give you a riddle to solve. The first person to get the answer will receive a nice prize, most likely an EV trained, battle-ready 5IV shiny. If you'd prefer your Pokemon with a fresh slate instead, you can tell me that. The rarity of the prize will depend on the difficulty of the riddle, and if the riddle is especially hard, there may also be a 6IV shiny or an HP one involved. I'd like to make this into a weekly/biweekly thing, depending on if people are interested or not.

 

Also, props if you got the reference in the title.

 

Riddle

Spoiler

When you can start messaging me answers: Anytime now!

Hints are down below.

 

b2 - f1

b2 - f3

f3 - a1 - d2 - e1 - e3

f2 - e1

f3 - b4 - a3

f2 - b2 - g2 - g3 -  f3 - e1 - e2

f3 - a3

b4 - a1 - e2 - d2

g3 - b3

f3 - a3

f3 - a2 - e1

f1 - b2 - f1 - f3 - a2

f1 - e2 - a3 - a3 - d3,

a2 - a3 - b4

e2 - a3 - g2 - g1

b4 - b2 - e2 - e2

b2 - f3

f3 - a1 - d2 - e1

f2 - e1

f3 - a3

b4 - a1 - e2 - d2

g3 - b3

f3 - a3

f3 - a2 - e1

f3 - e1 - g2 - f3 - a2?

 

Hints

Spoiler

• If you're having trouble solving the key, think about the letters I used
  • A rather big hint is that there's one letter "missing", since I didn't use any of the letters associated with that one
• Some people might see the key more easily than others, depends on their interests
  • Again, though, I still consider this a fair riddle because you should've learned about this at least once before
  • Tbh you don't even really need this prior knowledge if you can pick up on the letters I used
• The encrypted question is an actual question, there's not a hidden message like it was in the last riddle
• Probs obvious but each line is one word, that seemed to be the easiest way to write it out for you to see clearly
• Might give additional hints tomorrow too, remember you can also ask questions in the thread!

 

Some Notes

Spoiler

• This encryption riddle is a lot less tedious than the last
• However, BE CAREFUL -- once you've translated everything, there is another part to solve
• You do need some prior background knowledge of this style of encryption
  • However, this should have been something you learned before (at least in the US)
• I will post a hint tomorrow if no one has solved it by the cooldown time

 

Prize

Spoiler

 

Rules (very important)

Spoiler

• Use the thread to discuss and ask questions, collaborate with each other
• Private message me the answers along with a short explanation and/or your work
  • Each person only has one shot to get the answer, so make sure you get it right the first time!
• Cooldown period after posting the riddle before ANYONE can guess the answer
  • This is to make sure everyone can think it through and have a fair chance to get it
  • You can find this right before the riddle in the spoiler
• If you were the winner of the previous riddle (see previous riddles section for past winners), you can't get the next one right
  • So you can only win every other riddle at the most
  • You're welcome to still try though, just don't tell anyone the answer if you figure it out obviously ;D
• Your answer and the work/explanation must be in the same message, no edits

 

• And if I think someone in the thread is doing a good job helping others, asking questions, etc. I'll give them a special prize too c:

 

Previous Riddles

Spoiler

Riddle 1 -- Winner @lifesapity

Spoiler

One day, Heather was exploring the caves in the Beryl Ward when she finds an odd totem pole. There's an Elgyem there, who is standing next to what appears to be the wreckage of a spaceship. The Elgyem tells Heather that he needs 24 cell batteries to get the ship running again. While speaking to the Elgyem, Heather notices something odd, but can't quite figure out what it is.

 

Heather doesn't really want to help, but she goes out and buys the batteries anyway. The Elgyem frowns and tells her that he needs two more. Heather is annoyed, but she goes out and buys two more anyway. Finally, the Elgyem seems satisfied, zooming off and leaving Heather by the totem pole.

 

As she walks away, Heather realizes what the "odd thing" was that she noticed.

 

How many fingers does the Elgyem have?

 

Answer

Spoiler

Answer: 11. Our number system is the base ten system. 24, four is in the "ones" place + 2*10 = 24. The two was in the "tens" place. However, we only use this system because we have ten fingers total. So it makes sense that aliens like Elgyem would have a different base system based on the number of fingers they have. The clue was that Elgyem said he needed 24 batteries, but in our system, it was 26. 24 is true in the base eleven system, so Elgyem has eleven fingers total.

 

Prize Awarded

Spoiler

 

 

Riddle 2 -- Winner ???

Spoiler

Ari knows xhe needs to stop playing Voltorb Flip at the Onyx Arcade, but xhe can't seem to stop. Frustrated and angry over losing so many times, Ari decides to calculate the chances of winning for the most common Voltorb flip board.

A Voltorb Flip board is 5x5. Let's say out of the 1000 times Ari played, there were usually 14 Voltorbs on the board.

 

So based on this board (5x5 with 14 hidden Voltorbs), Ari calculates her chance of winning by flipping over ALL the non-Voltorb pieces before geting a single Voltorb as the decimal n.

 

Ari decides to play with her numbers a bit after that. Xhe multiplies n by 10^13, and then cuts off the rest of the decimals, making it a whole number. Then, xhe divides n by 2085 (because why not apparently). n/2085 = Y.

Now, Y = (A^A) * ABC. Let's say A and ABC are both prime numbers. ABC is a three digit number, A is a single digit number. We can assume for (A^A) * ABC that the same letters represent the same numerical values.

 

Here is the question: what is (C^A)/B ?

 

Please give an explanation or show work along with your answer. Have fun! >:D

 

Answer

Spoiler

First part asks you to calculate the probability of getting all those consecutive flips. Board of 25 cards, 25 - 14 voltorbs = 11 normal cards.

(11/25) * (10/24) * (9/23)... = 2.243460313 * 10^-7

2.243460313 * 10^-7 * 10^13 = 2243460

2243460/2085 = 1076

 

and then use prime factorization to get 1076 = (2)^2 * 169

A = 2

B = 6

C = 9

so (9^2)/6 = 13.5

 

 

Riddle 3 -- Winner @Lightseeker

Spoiler

A mixed up jumble of words that translated to:

 

Hello there.
I'm researching the geological history of the reborn region. Interested.
That's good. 
Happy that you're here.
Everyone should learn a little history.
Let's start with this.
Did you know that long ago Ametrine mountain used to be a volcano.
Amazing, isn't it.
Nature is so cool.
So many things can change over time.
What's more, pyrous actually used to be frigid and cold.
Each mountain has changed.
Really though, what's the cause.
Legends from an old civilization say that the day their civilization ended was the day that Giratina came to Reborn.
They say the dragon was in a frenzy, and all around it bizarre things would happen.
Objects would disappear, land would be spun upside down, and whole towns were transported across the region in the blink of an eye.
Incredible power, right.
Surely Giratina could'nt peek it up forever.
According to the stories, by the time the dimensional warrior finally settled in the south-east of the region, its chaos had already sealed the fate of Reborn.
Ametrine froze, and every speck of magma turned into crystal clear ice water.
Pyrous erupted at once, a volley of smoke and snow upheaved from its peak.
Burning and changing, Pyrous became what it is today.
Interestingly enough, you can still find evidence -- mostly fossils -- of past life under Reborn.
Reborn is always changing.
Days pass, even minutes, and you can find change in your own backyard.
Surely, something like this would be possible too.

 

10-7        26-16-22        2-20-12        14-6        2        18-22-6-20-21-10-16-15        9-16-24        24-10-13-13        10        2-15-20-24-6-19 ?

 

Hints Given For This Riddle

Spoiler

Seeing how this is a harder riddle (encryption riddles take a while to make, and to solve) I'll be giving some hints here:

 

• In order to solve this, you'll need to talk to someone in the game
  • Think about what you can't access until after beating the 13th gym leader
  • This means you will need to explore a little and talk to people, and hopefully learn some new stuff about Reborn in the meantime
• I do not expect you to decrypt the top part by hand, by all means use the resources you have ^^
• The bottom numbers are not very hard to decrypt, however I will say there are two steps involved
  • Just keep trying and you will get it
  • I separated the numbers a little to make it easier to read

 

These hints should be enough to get you started! If no one gets it by the time the cooldown period is over, I will put more up. c:

 

More hints!

• This was kind of my fault, as I had thought there would be more tools online to unscramble multiple words at once
• Therefore, I unscrambled around half of the words above for you
  • This should also be enough for you to find the NPC I was talking about
  • When you find him, think about that's there that shouldn't be, not what's not there
• Again, the bottom part is comprised of two steps
  • Maybe go from "2" and "10" and think about one letter words

 

The question itself is meaningless, I could've asked "what is the meaning of life" and the answer would've been the same.

 

Answer

Spoiler

The top part was originally a bunch of scrambled words, but unfortunately I didn't save a copy of it before I changed it. ^^"

Anyway, these words (around half of it) is what an NPC says in the new Reborn city. He lives in the Jasper Ward in a building and gives the player history about Reborn.

 

In the hints I said to focus on what is there that shouldn't be there, which is referring to the extra words and phrases I added. When you put together the first letter of these phrases, you get:

 

That's good. 
Happy that you're here.
Everyone should learn a little history.

 

Amazing, isn't it.
Nature is so cool.
So many things can change over time.
What's more, Pyrous actually used to be frigid and cold.
Each mountain has changed.
Really though, what's the cause.

 

Incredible power, right.
Surely Giratina could'nt peek it up forever.

 

Burning and changing, Pyrous became what it is today.
Interestingly enough, you can still find evidence -- mostly fossils -- of past life under Reborn.
Reborn is always changing.
Days pass, even minutes, and you can find change in your own backyard.
Surely, something like this would be possible too.

 

"The answer is birds."

I'm not completely sure why I made the answer birds, other than the fact I really like them. xD

 

The numbers at the bottom are decrypted easily. Just take away one from the numbers and then substitute the numbers for letters based on their place in the alphabet. So for example, A = 2.

When decrypted, they read "If you ask me a question, how will I answer?"

 

The question itself is actually a bit of a red herring. Another hint I gave was that the question was meaningless. I could've asked "what is the meaning of life" and the answer would still be the same.

So the answer was actually in the riddle itself, in the first letters of every phrase I added.

 

Good job to all of you who tried this, this one was pretty tedious!

 

Prize Awarded

Spoiler

 

 

Riddle 4 -- Winner @seki108

Spoiler

b2 - f1

b2 - f3

f3 - a1 - d2 - e1 - e3

f2 - e1

f3 - b4 - a3

f2 - b2 - g2 - g3 -  f3 - e1 - e2

f3 - a3

b4 - a1 - e2 - d2

g3 - b3

f3 - a3

f3 - a2 - e1

f1 - b2 - f1 - f3 - a2

f1 - e2 - a3 - a3 - d3,

a2 - a3 - b4

e2 - a3 - g2 - g1

b4 - b2 - e2 - e2

b2 - f3

f3 - a1 - d2 - e1

f2 - e1

f3 - a3

b4 - a1 - e2 - d2

g3 - b3

f3 - a3

f3 - a2 - e1

f3 - e1 - g2 - f3 - a2?

 

Hints Given For This Riddle

Spoiler

Notes

• This encryption riddle is a lot less tedious than the last
• However, BE CAREFUL -- once you've translated everything, there is another part to solve
• You do need some prior background knowledge of this style of encryption
  • However, this should have been something you learned before (at least in the US)
• I will post a hint tomorrow if no one has solved it by the cooldown time

 

Hints

• If you're having trouble solving the key, think about the letters I used
  • A rather big hint is that there's one letter "missing", since I didn't use any of the letters associated with that one
• Some people might see the key more easily than others, depends on their interests
  • Again, though, I still consider this a fair riddle because you should've learned about this at least once before
  • Tbh you don't even really need this prior knowledge if you can pick up on the letters I used
• The encrypted question is an actual question, there's not a hidden message like it was in the last riddle
• Probs obvious but each line is one word, that seemed to be the easiest way to write it out for you to see clearly
• Might give additional hints tomorrow too, remember you can also ask questions in the thread!

 

Answer

Spoiler

The letters I used in the riddle were the first seven letters of the alphabet (A - G). To solve it, you had to rearrange them like this:

 

A  B  C  D  E  F  G

H  I   J   K  L  M N

O  P  Q  R  S  T  U

V W  X  Y  Z

 

So a2 = H. The translated text reads to: "If it takes me two minutes to walk up to the fifth floor, how long will it take me to walk up to the tenth?"

 

It's not a x2 calculation because there are actually only four flights of stairs when going from the first floor to the fifth floor, and five going from the fifth to the tenth.

So 2 divided by 4 multiplied by 9 = 4.5 minutes.

 

Prize

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2017 by Avria

[Candy]

Just commenting for the sake of commenting

Idk how you came up with this. I have zero clue and have been staring at the riddle for like 15 min.

[Via]

I just posted the answer to the old Elgyem riddle since someone got it pretty quickly and changed the rules so everyone would have a chance.

 

But this is actually just a twist on the alien math riddle. For riddles like this (and the current one) I look at trends in math, complicate them a little, and then put it in a riddle format, hehe. If people aren't getting it I'll put hints too.

[lifesapity]

too much math, send help

[Phandaria]

-Removed-

Edited March 16, 2017 by Phandaria
edited out bcos of the rules

[Via]

1 minute ago, Phandaria said:

A is 2, B is 6 and C is 9, so (C^A)/B is 13.5

 

Please read the rules :/

[Phandaria]

Just now, Avria said:

 

Please read the rules :/

Sorry, just edited to show the calculation

[Via]

Just now, Phandaria said:

Sorry, just edited to show the calculation

 

There's more ^^"

[Phandaria]

1 minute ago, Avria said:

 

There's more ^^"

Woopsyy, sorry didnt read that one. Removed the answer

Edited March 16, 2017 by Phandaria

[Via]

Just now, Phandaria said:

Woopsyy, sorry didnt read that one.

 

Yeah, there was a 24 hour cooldown period... ^^"

I'm sorry, but I can't award the prizes because of this. You're welcome to try again in future riddles.

[Phandaria]

1 minute ago, Avria said:

 

Yeah, there was a 24 hour cooldown period... ^^"

I'm sorry, but I can't award the prizes because of this. You're welcome to try again in future riddles.

Yes, make more please, its quite fun. haha. Keep the prize for the next one.

 

Just a suggestion: Do you want to make the rules on top and put without Spoiler Tag instead? Maybe other people will be like me to just jump to the Riddles.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Phandaria

[Via]

Just now, Phandaria said:

Yes, make more please, its quite fun. haha. Keep the prize for the next one.

 

I plan on making more, thank you for enjoying them. ^^

And good job with that calculation, that was pretty hard.

[HongaarseBeer]

Respect for coming up with these. I have absolutely no clue...

[Via]

Thanks, but based on the poll results, looks like the next one will have to be even harder. >:D

I'll probably put the next one up ar around 5-6 pm EST, about 6 or 7 hours from now.

[HUEnd]

I think I may be able to solve it...but I'm busy with stuff irl, so I won't participate. Those are very cool Avria, keep it up!

 

I'm looking foward to try future riddles

[Via]

5 hours ago, HUEnd said:

I think I may be able to solve it...but I'm busy with stuff irl, so I won't participate. Those are very cool Avria, keep it up!

 

I'm looking foward to try future riddles

 

Thank you! Keep on trying, answers will always be posted once someone solves it though.

 

Also, to everyone, I updated with the next riddle and changed the rules a little, please make sure you are always reading them. Most of you voted to make the riddle harder, so harder it is. This one would probably take more than one person to solve (I hope). Remember that:

• You can ask me questions too, but only in the thread
  • Obviously I'll only give an answer if the question is fair xD
• If I see people are helping each other out, I will reward one person in the round with a special prize
• If you want to take a break, try guessing the prize (they're two different Pokemon) and you can win something too

[Via]

Bump for more hints. You can find them in the spoiler for the riddle, under a little spoiler of their own.

 

They're also here:

Spoiler

Seeing how this is a harder riddle (encryption riddles take a while to make, and to solve) I'll be giving some hints here:

 

• In order to solve this, you'll need to talk to someone in the game
  • Think about what you can't access until after beating the 13th gym leader
  • This means you will need to explore a little and talk to people, and hopefully learn some new stuff about Reborn in the meantime
• I do not expect you to decrypt the top part by hand, by all means use the resources you have ^^
• The bottom numbers are not very hard to decrypt, however I will say there are two steps involved
  • Just keep trying and you will get it
  • I separated the numbers a little to make it easier to read

These hints should be enough to get you started! If no one gets it by the time the cooldown period is over, I will put more up. c:

 

More hints!

• This was kind of my fault, as I had thought there would be more tools online to unscramble multiple words at once
• Therefore, I unscrambled around half of the words above for you
  • This should also be enough for you to find the NPC I was talking about
  • When you find him, think about that's there that shouldn't be, not what's not there
• Again, the bottom part is comprised of two steps
  • Maybe go from "2" and "10" and think about one letter words

 

If no one gets the riddle by  12:00 pm EST tomorrow, I will put a new one up. ^^

[Animefan666]

I translated all of that the day it was posted. I'm just not sure how the question has anything to do with the game. I was focused on the nature of the question, rather than whatever in-game reference it's supposed to be.

 

For the words, they're simply anagrams. You can't translate the whole thing at once, but you can translate each individual word. The numbers are a simple substitution cipher.

Edited March 18, 2017 by Animefan666

[Via]

The question has more to do with the "When you find him, think about what's there that shouldn't be there, not what's not there" hint.

 

To make that hint a little bit less ambigious:

• Think about what's there that shouldn't be there
• NOT what isn't there that should be there

The biggest hint I can probably give is that don't focus on the question. For example, I could've asked "what is the meaning of life" and the answer would be the same.

 

[Egzample]

On 16.03.2017 at 10:04 PM, Avria said:

If you want to take a break, try guessing the prize (they're two different Pokemon) and you can win something too

 

Can we ask yes/no questions on this too? If yes, here goes my 1st: is that mon dual type? If not, I`m not even trying, wild guess for 1 out of 721-[non relased] isnt my type of luck xD

 

(it can get easy very quick using bisection, dont you think. Kind of reverse of what they do with all those on-line ''think a person/character/whatever and I`ll guess who do you think about using yes/no questions'' bots.)

[Via]

55 minutes ago, example said:

 

Can we ask yes/no questions on this too? If yes, here goes my 1st: is that mon dual type? If not, I`m not even trying, wild guess for 1 out of 721-[non relased] isnt my type of luck xD

 

(it can get easy very quick using bisection, dont you think. Kind of reverse of what they do with all those on-line ''think a person/character/whatever and I`ll guess who do you think about using yes/no questions'' bots.)

 

Yep, you can! But to answer your question, no, it's not a dual-type.

Also if you guess the same evolutionary line (ex: Meinfoo and its Meinshao, or vice versa) I'll count that too.

 

But yeah, this isn't supposed to be that hard haha. xD

Edited March 19, 2017 by Avria

[Egzample]

18 minutes ago, Avria said:

But yeah, this isn't supposed to be that hard haha. xD

 

Oorah. So, let`s go: is the number in National Dex of that mon higher than 360? ;]

 

20 minutes ago, Avria said:

Yep, you can! But to answer your question, no, it's not a dual-type

 

Hmm, I should be more precise: is that mon mono-type in whole evolutionary line?

 

(Eevee causes problem here, cos technically he`s monotype all the time)

[Via]

39 minutes ago, example said:

 

Oorah. So, let`s go: is the number in National Dex of that mon higher than 360? ;]

 

 

Hmm, I should be more precise: is that mon mono-type in whole evolutionary line?

 

(Eevee causes problem here, cos technically he`s monotype all the time)

 

Yes, the dex number is higher than 360. xD

And the entire line is monotype.

[Phandaria]

I have to say this riddle is very difficult. I am better with maths than this type of riddle XD. But kudos to you to be able to make so different and interesting type of riddles.

[Via]

@Phandaria Thanks, haha. I agree that math riddles are easier, the problem is putting it in a way that makes it a little harder to solve. Depending on the poll I might make the next one a more math-based riddle.

 

Also, bump for the new riddle!