September 2021 - Tenet

Tap on any hint box to view it.

Location

  1. Follow the one man through his one single trip through this unusual location!
  2. The doors are time portals! When the man enters one door going one direction in time, he immediately exits the other door going in the other direction in time!
  3. The man waves as he leaves the location for the last time. He then reappears, entering the location for the first time!
  4. After he first rips off the B and the R, he enters the time turnstile and appears on the red side moving backwards in time! Follow what letters he rips off going backwards.
  5. After he rips off the A and the I going backwards in time, he reenters the time turnstile and appears on the blue side moving forwards in time again! Follow what letters he rips off going forwards from that point until he departs.
  6. BRAIDS. BRAID is a great platform game that also has a protagonist that moves forwards and backwards in time!

1. Opera

  1. Your team on the other side of the Time Turnstile tells you that CW 4->1 is JUMBO.
  2. Look for answer words first that create meaningful answers.
  3. The answer words are SUCKS, A FAMILY OF FOUR, FLAT, TUNE, SCRATCHING, A ROPE, HORNS, AN ASS, BOUNCE, NEGOTIATE, CRY.
  4. The question words are A VACUUM, A LARGE PIZZA, A GOOD TIRE, A PIANO, A DOG, AN ANCHOR, AN IMPALA, A TRAMPOLINE, A GORILLA, AN ONION.
  5. SILENCE and OMEGA ARENA

2. Sator

  1. Your team on the other side of the Time Turnstile tells you that the CW 3->2 is TIMECARD. Enter those letters down the left column.
  2. Pair up answer words on the left with reversed answer words on the right, with only one letter different in each pair.
  3. Enter the different letters on the left and right sides. For example, the top row entries are melTs : T : A : sAlem.
  4. When all entries are paired, read out the answers from the single letters in the other columns.
  5. The answers on the far right are alphabetical. That may help you figure out a few tricky answers.
  6. The first 8 answers on the left are: MELTS, INERT, MOPED, SPIRE, RELIC, GNATS, RIGID, DECAF.
  7. The final 5 answers on the left are: SERFS, SEDAN, DRAWL, NINES, STEED.
  8. The first 7 answers on the far right are: AWARD, DENTS, DEPOT, DIGIT, DRIPS, FACET, and LENIN.
  9. The final 6 answers on the far right are: NODES, OILER, SALEM, SIRES, STING, and TREND.
  10. ADDITION and FALSE TOTAL

3. Rotas

  1. Your team on the other side of the Time Turnstile tells you that the CW 2->3 is ADDITION. Or maybe you remembered that? :)
  2. First, draw solid lines on each segment that has a bar or coin.
  3. Each vertex is visited only once, so X out any segments leaving a vertex that already has 2 solid segments leaving it. For example, the 3rd vertex in the top row already has 2 segments leaving it.
  4. What could the coins and bars represent?
  5. The symbols represent Morse Code along the path. Try to find Morse Code for ADDITION. Maybe first find the O.
  6. Need extra help? Backsolve! You already know that CW 3->2 is TIMECARD, so enter those letters, enter the Ternary numbers for each letter, put those in the alpha and beta rows, and solve like a Slitherlink! Note that this is NOT necessary for the solve, but it could be helpful.
  7. The starting vertex is the one on the right of the top row. The ending vertex is the one in the middle of the bottom row.
  8. EARLY and LATER, TIMECARD

4. Arepo

  1. Your team on the other side of the Time Turnstile tells you that the CW 1->4 is SILENCE. Or maybe you remembered that? :)
  2. Enter SILENCE in the shaded spots for CW 1->4. Can you think of a nearly impossible two-word phrase ending with SILENCE?
  3. Copy letters from boxes along the paths shown. Paths that completely cross do NOT connect! i.e., Paths that L or T are connected but paths that + are NOT!
  4. Need extra help? Backsolve! You already know that CW 4->1 is JUMBO. Enter that and keep solving.
  5. All of the two-word phrases are nearly impossible if taken literally. Is there a word for phrases like that???...
  6. All of the word pairs are oxymorons (except for the final answer, which could be one).
  7. The two top entries are JUMBO SHRIMP and DEAFENING SILENCE.
  8. The middle entries are FREEZER BURN, PLASTIC SILVERWARE, and WORKING VACATION. All are shown in the artwork at the bottom.
  9. The bottom entries are PRETTY UGLY and CIVIL WAR.
  10. AGILE SNAIL and JUMBO

Meta: Tenet

  1. Enter the solutions to the first four puzzles in a consistent way. The F will help you get started.
  2. The solutions to the early puzzles are all 5 letter words. The 5 letter words might be in any order.
  3. Enter the words that fit both across and down, like the word square at the top.
  4. The top square holds FALSE, ARENA, LEVAR, SNAIL, EARLY
  5. The bottom square holds TOTAL, OMEGA, TEMIT, AGILE, LATER
  6. The final answer is in the middle column, and fits with the theme of this set.
  7. LEVART EMIT, or TIME TRAVEL backwards!

Bonus:sunoB

  1. Find the answers to the clues. They don't fit together in the grids in the usual ways! Hmm...
  2. Each word fits in the grid either in the normal way OR backwards!
  3. For each puzzle, find a consistent way to enter the answers, forward or backwards, so the overlapping letters agree.
  4. The circled letters spell SHADE SREWSNA. Hmm...
  5. Shade in all of the answer words that are entered backwards in each grid, as shown in the puzzle title!
  6. Each grid, shaded in, spells a single letter!
  7. ECHO, something else that comes back sometimes