Publisher: Artifex Mundi       Developer: Tap It Games       Release Year: 2015 The second installment of the 9 Clues series doesn't have any relation to the first game's plot, so if you were hoping for a resolution to the story, you're outta luck. Instead, you are placed in the role of a female detective who travels to a psychiatric hospital on an island with her partner to investigate mysterious murders and arson by a strange scarecrow-like being. The gimmick of this series is that certain rooms contain nine "clues" that you must find to solve a crime that happened there in the recent past. Type: Node Maze Comment: First puzzle is fairly easy. Remember that the ambulance can drive backwards. Here is the solution. Type: Swapping Tile Comment: 9 Clues 2 differentiates from the first game in the series by adding this puzzle to the segments where you search for the nine clues in the room. It's a very simple tile-swapping problem, start with the ends. Only the ends have borders on the sides. As if it's not easy enough, here is the solution. Type: Story Sequence Comment: Easy enough. Only possible small area of confusion is that in the first row he must talk to the doctor before getting the medicine. If you want it spelled out, here goes: Top Row: Guy Looks Sad; Guy Talks to Shrink; Nurse Hands Him Medicine; Guy Feels Happy Middle Row: Guy Feels Sick; Ambulance Comes; Guy Lies in Hospital Bed; Guy Feels Better Bottom Row: Lit Match; Building On Fire; Fire Hose; Burned Down Building Type: Match Object to Picture Comment: Refer to the drawing on the wall to the left. Arms lock in place when they're in the right spot. Although the drawing shows the solution, here it is anyway. Type: Screen Maze Comment: Because there is no option to skip it, this is technically not classified as a puzzle by the game's logic. However, I'm including it anyway because of how often these appear in hidden object games. It's very similar to the repeating screen maze concept, but the game won't actually let you take the wrong path. Find a clue first to know which is the right path. For the first screen, look for footprints on the middle path. On the second screen, look for a handprint (again) on the middle path. For the third screen, look for a piece of cloth on the path to the left. The final screen doesn't have a clue, but only has one path to take. Type: Swapping Tile Comment: The second of the 9 clues tile sequences is solved the same as the first. Here it is solved. Type: Electric Number Puzzle Comment: Orange must form a 2, blue must form a 7, and green must make a 3. They will lock into place when you have them right. Here it is solved. Type: On/Off Puzzle Comment: When you click one tile, the tiles around it will either turn on or off. Can be a bit of a pain to fully resolve. Type: Pipe Connecting Puzzle Comment: This is almost too easy for words. Just rotate them until you have them all connected. Here it is solved. Type: On/Off Puzzle Comment: Pressing one face will cause others around it to light up or turn off. They all need to be on. Type: Memory Match Comment: When you find a matching pair, they disappear. Just keep going until all pairs are found. Type: Color Wheel Comment: A very common HOG puzzle that can also be downright frustrating. I don't have an exact solution for it, only trick is that I mostly use the 2 to turn the red lights to green and the 3 to offset it. Type: Simon Says Comment: The easiest way to solve this is to make note of the numbers that light up. Say them out loud or write them down if you have to. The answers are: Round 1: 5371 Round 2: 94682 Round 3: 325841 Type: Tile Swapping Comment: After all the 9 clues mini versions of this puzzle, the game just had to throw a full-sized one at you. Start by assembling the large column on the left. Here it is solved. Type: Gear Path Puzzle Comment: Use the gear in the upper left near the triangular path to set the other gears in such a way that you can reach the goal. Type: Tile Swapping Comment: Just as simple as all the other 9 clues puzzles. Here it is solved. Type: Safe Cracking Comment: The numbers in this puzzle are absolute. In other words, you want to start by actually turning it left to the number 5, not left 5 times. Type: Light Beam Puzzle Comment: You'll have to direct the blue beam around the back to keep it from crossing with the others. Otherwise, this is simple. Here it is solved. Type: Jigsaw Puzzle Comment: Start by assembling the corner pieces. Pieces can be rotated by clicking on them. Here is the rather frightening image solved. Type: Swapping Tile Comment: The last of the 9 clues puzzles, same as all the others. Here it is solved. Type: Battery Number Puzzle Comment: Start by adding up the 115 in the bottom left. The rest will come easy after that. Here it is solved. Type: Matching Color Wheels Comment: Common HOG puzzle. May take a little trial and error to get it right. Note the duplicate colors in each wheel and use them to your advantage. Here it is solved. Type: Object Assembly Comment: Put the doll together according to the instructions on the upper left of the table. Very easy. This is what it will look like when it's done. Type: Sliding Tile Node Variant Comment: The final puzzle is a variation of a sliding tile puzzle. It may look like one of those types where you have to get the gears to turn each other, but that's not the case. You just have to move them to the proper nodes so they match with the other gears next to them. Orange to orange, blue to blue, etc. Here is what it looks like solved.