Publisher: MumboJumbo       Developer: MumboJumbo       Release Year: 2012 The fourth in the Midnight Mysteries series has you leaping through time and space to solve the secret of Harry Houdini's death, the first that takes a departure from having a famous author as the ghost du jour, although Sir Arthur Conan Doyle plays a part, too. Type: Combination Lock Comment: The answer to this first puzzle is found on the plate with the house number: Take note of both the numbers and the positions of the heads. Turn the dial 1 to the left, then 6 to the left, then 7 to the right. Type: Continuous Line Puzzle Comment: Starting at the highlighted block, visit every block in a continous line only once. Here is how I solved it. Type: Continous Line Puzzle Comment: Same as before, but more complicated. Get the squares on the right first. You'll want to end on the topmost square. Here is how I solved it. Type: On/Off Puzzle Comment: All the pins must be flipped up, but flipping one may affect others. The diagram shows you exactly what pins do what, but I didn't pay it any attention and still solved this in a handful of moves. Type: Physics Puzzle Comment: You needs to stack the barrels and boards in such a way that when you put the crate on top, it falls through the open window. Since this is a physics puzzle, the barrels constantly want to roll and the boards will fall if not properly balanced. You'll need to use some of the boards for height, but some to keep the barrels stable. Here is how I solved it. Type: Rotating Ball Maze Comment: By using the arrow buttons to rotate the maze, you must maneuver the ball into the five cards, but the + card has to be the last one it hits. I don't have an exact solution spelled out for it, but it's not difficult. Just a little time-consuming. You can always reset the board if get stuck or make a mistake. Type: Combination Lock Comment: You are not given a direct clue for this briefcase's lock, but since it's only two digits and the number 13 plays a reoccurring role in the story, that's your answer. Type: Counting Spaces Comment: Starting at the 1D button below the handle, follow the directions until you end up back at the handle again. Type: Battleship Variant Comment: A strange take on the "Battleship" concept in which you must deduce where cards are hidden underground via the clues you're given. Place your own cards where you think they're buried. Every card is buried near a bush. No two cards are buried next to each other. The numbers indicate how many cards are buried on that row or column (so a row with a 0 means you shouldn't place any of your own cards on that row because there are none buried there). This will likely take some trial and error, but thankfully after you've placed the last card, any that were placed correctly will disappear, leaving a hole in the ground. The cards you placed incorrectly are returned to you so that you can try again. It'll be much easier to figure out where the last few go. If you're going for the achievement where you beat this minigame without a miss, back-up your save file first. Type: Counting Spaces Comment: This isn't really so much a puzzle as just following the directions Mina gives you. The math works out in such a way that no matter what number you choose, you'll always land on a star card, so long as you counted correctly. Really nothing to this one. Try again if you make a mistake. Type: Color Matching Physics Puzzle Comment: For this puzzle, clicking on a block makes it disappear, along with any adjacent blocks of the same color. You must remove all the blocks from the left panel in 4 clicks and from the right panel in 5 clicks. If you go over the maximum clicks, the panel will reset. The secret here is that removing certain blocks will cause others to move, according to the laws of their physics. Let's start by solving the left panel first because it's easier. Start by getting rid of the single red block with the rivet in the middle. The large red block with the arrow will move until it hits the other riveted red blocks. Click any of the red blocks to remove all of them at once. This sill cause the blue and yellow blocks above them to fall down. Click any of the yellow blocks to remove them all. Now all you're left with is blue, so click any of them and you're done with the left panel. For the right panel, start by clicking the second red rivet block from the left. This will cause the blue blocks to tumble over. Now click the second red rivet block from the right. The green blocks will fall. Click any blue block and they'll all disappear. The remaining red and green blocks will fall again. Click any green to remove them and the large red block will land on the rivet blocks. Click it to remove them all. You're done. Type: Color Matching Physics Puzzle Comment: And just when you turn around, the game throws another one of these at you. It's strangely easier than the other one, though. Start by clicking the single blue rivet block. The green arrow block will slide over. Click the green and all you're left with is red. Click any of them and you're done. Easy. Type: Color Matching via Sliding Parts Comment: All you have to do here is line up the three silver bearings and the three copper bearings. It does not matter if you align them vertically or horizontally. There are multiple ways to solve this. Here is how I lined up the silver bearings. And this is how I lined up the copper bearings, but you may figure out a different solution. Type: Battleship Variant Comment: Ever since the Battleship mini-game in the third Midnight Mysteries, the series just can't seem to get enough of them. This is nearly identical to the second game's Battleship, except you're trying to find nondescript buttons instead of boats. The numbers on the columns and rows tell you how many button pieces are in that column or row and how many are adjacent. So, for example, the row that says "313" means it has 3 buttons total, two of which are 3 squares long, and one that is 1 square long. Because this puzzle is randomized I don't need to show a full solution as yours might be different than my screen anyway. But it shouldn't be too difficult to solve. At least the achievement for this one unlocks if you beat it in one try, not necessarily without a miss. With 35 presses you should get it easily, but maybe make a back-up of your save file first. Type: On/Off Puzzle Comment: This a very simple on/off puzzle and is actually far more generous than most in that it allows you to align all the keys either vertically or horizontally. Only took me a few turns to solve this. Type: Physics Puzzle Comment: Now for an extremely annoying mini-game. You have three balls to knock down all the bottles. If any are left standing upright at the end, the puzzle resets and you'll have to try again. You might think you can use one ball for each stack of jars, but the puzzle's physics mean they sometimes fall in weird ways (or not at all), so it's a safer bet to try to knock out jars from more than one stack with one ball. I recommend aiming at the middle stack first. If you're lucky or do it just right, some of the jars will fly to the left and right and take out some of the neighboring stacks. Hopefully, you can get what's left standing with the remaining two balls. Practice makes perfect. Type: Shooting Gallery Comment: Much easier than the previous carnival game, just shoot five ducks. The target bounces around, so it's a little difficult to aim, but it seems like you have unlimited bullets and time, so how can you lose? Type: Strength Test Mini-Game Comment: Another simple carnival game. Click the mallet when the meter is at the highest level to win a prize. Try again if you miss. Type: Other Comment: I'm beginning to think I need a category called "Follow the Directions" because that's really all you need to do here. You can pick any two cards. For simplicity's sake, I chose the two Aces. Type: Jigsaw Puzzle Comment: Find the pieces of the billboard around the park and reassemble them here. Here is what it looks like solved. Type: Counting Spaces Comment: This safe puzzle is back, only now it's even easier because you can't make a wrong first choice. Only one will start the sequence. If you need me to tell you, it's the 2R on the top row. Type: Combination Lock Comment: The answer to this puzzle is going to be whatever the two cards you chose in that previous puzzle were. Since mine were the two Aces, my answer was to push in both knobs until an "A" was in each bracket. If you chose different cards, put the numbers or letters that correspond to them in the brackets and the door will open. Type: Connect the Dots Comment: You need to recreate one of the constellations that's depicted on the lampshade on the chair buttons. Only the one on the right is actually possible to draw. Here is how I solved it. Type: Finding Correct Path via Shapes Comment: There are three types of animal tracks on the rocks of this bog: wolf, deer, and bear. You want to follow the wolf tracks only. Keep clicking on adjacent rocks with wolf pawprints until you eventually reach the other side of the bog. This is the first screen solved. There are several more of the same. Type: Combination Lock Comment: The number of times I've been truly stumped by a hidden object game puzzle is few, but here is one that got me. I spent a long time trying to figure this out. In order to open this locked desk, certain drawers must be opened while others left shut. But the numbers of drawers puts trial and error out of the question. Normally, puzzle clues are found spelled out and get recorded in your journal. This one's clue is far more subtle. If you really want me to spoil it for you, the clue is in this room, and here is the puzzle solved. Type: Sliding Tile Comment: Now that the desk is open, you're presented with a very simple sliding tile puzzle. Just arrange the numbers in the order shown on your clue sheet. The extra open spaces make this very easy and they don't even have to be packed tightly. Here is what it looks like solved. Type: Counting Spaces/Sliding Tile Variant Comment: Each tile in this puzzle can only be moved the number of times that it shows (a 1 can be moved once, a 2 twice, etc.) They must be moved into the holes in the exact alloted amount of moves they have. The left panel is very easy to solve, so I won't provide pictures, just a suggested way of doing it: Move the 1 to the right, into the topmost hole. Move the 2 down two spaces, into the bottom-most hole. Move the 3 right one, up one, then left one, into the second hole from the top. Move the 4 up one, left 2, then right 1. It'll actually pass over the hole and come back to it. The right panel is more complicated, so I'll use couple of screenshots to make it easier to figure out. Start by moving one of the 2's over the hole, then down one space below the hole. Either 2 will do. It will run out of moves, but don't let that worry you. Move the 3 up one space, and then either left or right one space, to whichever side the 2 you moved came from. When you move the 3 up, it will push the blank 2 back into the hole. Now just move the 3 down into the hole. Then move the remaining 2 down two spaces into the final hole. This is the last puzzle of the main game. Type: Rotating Parts Puzzle Comment: If you play the bonus chapter, here's your first puzzle. Turn the dials until their patterns match the surrounding area. Because of stupidly fast screen transition, I didn't get a screenshot of the completed puzzle, but they actually click when you have them in the right position, so you shouldn't have any trouble solving this. Type: Color Matching Chains Comment: For this puzzle, you must recreate the chains of colors shown on the clue sheet. You can link horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. Here is an example of the third one solved. Since this is rather easy I won't give solutions for all six, but here are the fifth and sixth ones solved if you have trouble with them. Type: Mini-Game Comment: Use the lasso to retrieve the broken parts of the glasses. Try to avoid the rats when tossing it and pulling it back. Type: Color Matching via Sliding Parts Comment: This is very similar to the puzzle you did in the main game, but slightly harder because of the different shape of the playing field. All bearings of the same color must be lined up horizontally or vertically to remove them. The trick to this puzzle is that you will need to use the bearings themselves to help line them up. There is more than one way to solve it. What I did was start by getting almost every bearing in a horizontal line across the middle of the field. My plan is to line up the blue horizontally and the red vertically. But I don't want to remove either color until I'm sure they're positioned so that when one set is gone, the other set can still be removed. I moved one of the red bearings out of the line to make room for the final blue bearing to line up with the others horizontally. Once the blue bearings are gone, I can easily move all the red bearings to one side and line them up vertically. Type: Mini-Game Comment: Once again, use your lasso to grab and pull down the lever. This is even easier than before because you don't have the rats to worry about. Type: Process of Elimination Comment: Use the clues you've been gathering throughout the bonus chapter to figure out which convict pictured in this book is the killer. It's this dude if you can't figure it out. Type: Street Lamp Puzzle Comment: This is common HOG puzzle that typically uses lamps, but this one so happens to use police officers. Same idea, though. Place them all around the city streets so that every road is covered by their watch. Here it is completely solved. Type: Mahjong Variant Comment: The final puzzle of the bonus chapter. The point of this mini-game is to eliminate all the cards from the field. You do this by clicking on cards that are a value one higher or lower than the card showing face-up in the deck. In this screenshot, you would need to click on cards that are 3's, 5's, or Jokers because a 4 is what's seen in the deck (there is only a 3, so you would start there). The card you eliminate becomes the new face of the deck. If no cards in the field can be eliminated, you must turn over a new card in the deck and you only get 17 turns before you'll have to start all over again. The random nature of this game means I can't give you an exact solution for it. If there are multiple possible cards to eliminate, you can use some strategy to decide which is best to eliminate to keep your chain going. Good luck and just try again if you lose.