This is a puzzle about acronyms. We are presented with diagrams containing images, which we can start identifying. It is easier to break into the puzzle through some acronyms rather than others:
- ?? Messenger = AOL Instant Messenger = AIM is a possible break-in since it's a well-known phrase that includes the word "messenger," and the nested A → AOL relationship is a strong confirmation that these diagrams represent acronyms
- "X = X NOT ?" could be a break-in as GNU is famous for its recursively-defined name
As we decode more acronyms, we might realize that each acronym is typically pronounced as a single word. This is not required to solve the puzzle, but might be useful in narrowing down the identities of unsolved acronyms.
Additionally, each structural element present in these diagrams consistently corresponds to fixed rules that we can use to confirm some of the tougher acronyms:
- Dotted lines between two ovals/circles mean that the words in both ovals/circles are identical.
- Vertical arrows represent change in the acronym’s definition over time. An X where an oval/circle should be implies the letter in the acronym in that position does not originate from any word in the acronym.
- The width of each oval is directly proportionate to the number of letters in the acronym that correspond to the word associated with each oval.
- A non-centered rectangle mean that another acronym can be formed with the subset of letters and words in the original acronyms.
| Acronym | Red Number | Red Word | Blue Number | Blue Word |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIM | 7 | Instant | 5 | Online |
| AWOL | 9 | Without | 6 | Absent |
| GIMP | 1 | Image | 2 | Program |
| NaNoWriMo | 2 | Novel | N/A | N/A |
| RADAR | 5 | Radio | 4 | Ranging |
| SHIELD | 8 | Enforcement | 8 | Homeland |
| SOHCAHTOA | 3 | Tangent | 1 | Adjacent |
| UNICEF | 4 | Emergency | 7 | Children's |
| VOIP | 6 | Voice | 3 | Protocol |
We can see that all the red/blue numbers range from 1 through 9/8 within their color, so we can order them like so.
| Number | Red Word | Blue Word |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Image | Adjacent |
| 2 | Novel | Program |
| 3 | Tangent | Protocol |
| 4 | Emergency | Ranging |
| 5 | Radio | Online |
| 6 | Voice | Absent |
| 7 | Instant | Children’s |
| 8 | Enforcement | Homeland |
| 9 | Without |
Reading the first letters of each word gives us INTERVIEW APPROACH. Looking this up, we find that the only thematic interview approach is STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
Author's Notes
For RADAR, another somewhat well known acronym that fits the same circles is LIDAR, another detection method similar to the SONAR/RADAR family. Hopefully the alphabetical ordering of the images helped disambiguate here, but we thought that LIDAR wasn’t that well known enough to be a concern, and plenty of teams won’t even be aware of this term. Some other acronyms we rejected included COVID-19 and PAKISTAN.
(The following section includes spoilers for Mystical Plaza)
If you’re wondering why “Hexes” is in the title of this puzzle and if there’s any reason for it, there isn’t a good one that relates to this puzzle specifically. We first wrote this puzzle without a title, sent it to testsolving, and found it to be reasonably solvable. We then had to choose a title for the puzzle, and we got the condition that the first word of the title must fit this nutrimatic query. Needless to say, this was... not a good constraint for us to work with. Other titles we tried included just “Hexes” and “thx 4 the IKEA”, but we eventually settled on the current version that you see here, which ties in reasonably well with the hunt theme. Hopefully hexes (and/or magical spells) didn’t send solvers too far down any rabbit holes while solving this puzzle.
Appendix
