Friday saw the launch of the MIT Mystery Hunt, the massive puzzle hunt annually held over the Martin Luther King Day weekend, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

This year’s theme takes the Jules Verne novel, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and gives it a steampunk twist. Entitled, 20,000 Puzzles Under The Sea, the hunt will present an astonishing amount puzzles for teams to solve, and has been designed and run by the previous year’s MIT Mystery Hunt winning team, One Fish Two Fish Random Fish Blue Fish.

Each year, an immense number of puzzle hunters from all around the world come together to solve enigmas that are crafted to boggle the brightest minds on the planet. How big is this thing? The 2014 event had an estimated 1,600 participants. Not all puzzlers will be at the college campus though, some team members help out off-site, hooking up through the internet chat, social sites, or through other means.

Puzzle hunters will continue on tirelessly throughout the weekend, running nonstop, some forgoing sleep, for the love of the solve. All of this puzzling madness is done as teams race to be the first to find a coin, the final goal, hidden somewhere on the MIT campus.

The Kick Off

Dressed in victorian era garb, a man and woman, both members of One Fish Two Fish, took the stage of Kresge Auditorium, just after 12:17 p.m. EST, beginning what would be a revealing of the hunt’s theme, narrative, ground rules, and materials.

Stepping up to the podium, the woman dressed in a suit and top hat declared herself to be the inventor Dr. Nautilus, the one responsible for summoning all of the adventurers from around the world.

“There’s a simple reason why we’re all gathered here… to advance modern technology,” told the Dr. Nautilus, going further to declare that the future is the Magnetonomic Force.

From there, both the top-hatted Dr. Nautilus and her newsboy hat wearing counterpart, expounded upon the search for the Concentrated Ore of Indestructible Nautilodestones (COIN) through the use of Magnet- Yielding Suboceanic Targeted Expedition for Research on Yearned Honing of Untested New Technology (MYSTERY HUNT) by a Power Point slide show projected against a wall to their backs.

Teams start off with submarines that are not capable of diving into the DEEP enough to collect the needed Nautilodestones. Players will have to upgrade their subs by earning Depth Exploration Extent Points (DEEP), which are “[earned] by solving puzzles and developing ship upgrades [metas].”

A hint system has been made, known as The Oracle, to help puzzle hunters through their journey. Oracle can answer yes or no questions, but each time a question is issued, charge is used. Charge will build up over time, helping teams out but slowing them down in the process.

Headquarters for the event, called Sealab, will be open until 6 p.m., even if a team has successfully discovered the coin. Sealab acts as the one-stop information center for the puzzle hunt, giving players aid and insight to if what they’re being asked to do is immoral, illegal, or dangerous and probably not something hunt officials intended for them to do.

All of the activities are run through a custom website, Dr. Nautilus’s Workshop, which opened up to teams at 1:17 p.m. that same day.

After all the announcements were made, rules and fine print detailed, the young man walked over and placed a piece on the projector that revealed a graphic featuring several gears, with a blinking image asking the question “IS IT HUNT YET?” and answering “YES”, and pounded his fist in the air in triumph.

Both left with a bow, among applause and cheers from the crowd.

And It Continues…

Puzzle teams will continue throughout the rest of Friday and well into the weekend, battling enigmas and heavy eyelids. Puzzle Pile will keep you updated as new information becomes available.

Run by puzzle hunt team, Alice Shrugged, 2014’s hunt was themed after Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland.

MIT Mystery Hunt began in 1981, run by Brad Schaefer, and featured 12 puzzles on a single page of paper.

Sources: 2014, MIT, Youtube

Image courtesy of MIT Mystery Hunt.