Hunt Structure

• The hunt will start at 12:00 noon ET on Saturday, May 8th. All non-meta puzzles and one metapuzzle will be available when the hunt begins. The final metapuzzle will be unlocked by solving the first metapuzzle.
• Scores will be frozen one week later, at noon on May 15th. This is when we will release solutions for all the puzzles and release our wrap-up.
• The prologue for the hunt will release ten minutes before the hunt starts, at 11:50 AM, to give teams a chance to read it before starting puzzles.
• Teams will earn points for solving puzzles. The final metapuzzle will be worth extra points. The scoreboard will be ranked by points, with ties broken by time of most recent solve, but you can view a list of the first teams to finish the final meta on its challenge page.
• Use of the internet, computers, and online tools is allowed and encouraged (see the inteGIRLS puzzle guide to learn about some of the things you can use). If you have questions about what is or isn't allowed, consult the "Things You Shouldn't Do" section below or send us an email.

Website

• You will not need to look at the source code for any part of this hunt.
• Due to the fact that our site is based on CTFd, there are unavoidable differences from most puzzlehunt websites. Most of these quirks are explained below.
• Puzzles
  • Each puzzle is on its own dedicated page, which will unlock at the time the hunt starts.
  • All tables, grids, and cluelists are designed to be easily pasteable into spreadsheets. If you're having trouble copying lists, try doing a single column at a time and not copying headers.
  • Puzzle errata will be displayed at the top of the corresponding puzzle page and announced via the website's notification system.
• Answers
  • Puzzle answers should be submitted under the "challenges" tab.
  • Each team will get 25 guesses per puzzle. Teams that run out of their 25 guesses should email us. We will probably grant more unless the team has been spamming.
  • Answers will be English words or phrases consisting of the letters A-Z and/or numbers 0-9. Answers are not case-sensitive, and the answer checker will ignore spaces.
  • The answer checker does not ignore punctuation or other non-alphanumeric characters, although correct answers will always be entirely alphanumeric.
  • There are no "keep going" messages for this hunt. The answer checker will only respond when the correct answer is submitted.
  • The answer checker does not display guesses, either correct or incorrect, so we recommend you keep track of them yourself.
  • Once you've solved a puzzle, a new challenge will appear in the "answers" section of the challenges page. The text of this challenge contains the answer to the puzzle and some story text. There are no correct answers for these challenges, they are simply a way to display text.
  • After solving the final metapuzzle, an epilogue challenge will appear. This challenge also does not have an answer.

Hints

• Pre-written hints will become available 24 hours after the hunt launches. Hints are optional and do not affect team score.
• The number of hints available for a puzzle will depend on its length and difficulty.
• To view a hint, go to the answer submission page for the puzzle you're stuck on. The hints are ordered from smaller hints to larger hints.
• If you're still stuck after the pre-written hints, feel free to email us for individualized help. Be aware that our entire team is in the Eastern time zone, and after the first 24 hours there will be periods of time when we are all asleep and cannot respond swiftly to emails.

Things You Shouldn't Do

There is a lot of freedom in how puzzles may be solved in a hunt, but there are a few things that we ask teams not to do. Examples include:

• Egregious spamming of answers
• Any attempt to hack or intentionally break our website
• Displays of inappropriate or unsportsmanlike conduct towards other teams
• Colluding with other teams
• Posting puzzle solutions (even partial ones!) publicly
• Enlisting large groups of people such as forums or Discord servers to solve a puzzle for you

Blatant disregard for the rules of the hunt may result in disqualification.

Contact us

If you have any questions about these rules, our email is paradoxpuzzlehunt@gmail.com.