crypticism

[ulgrath]

ok completely stuck on these 9 books and not even sure im doing it right do I give them the answer there or do I look for a place and say the answer so lost

any help would be appreciated (dont want the answer just a nudge in the right direction)

[Panurge]

I'm loathe to give too much away about these because they are sort of the highest tier of secret in the game. Purely optional too, of course! However, you should take note of any carved symbols you find while playing...

[Panurge]

(And yes, that's where you may need to say an answer, not at the book)

[Fiona Kaenbyou]

I'm in the progress of doing achievement cleanup now, and the crypticisms are the biggest thing I wanna figure out. I've managed to solve three so far and I know the location for a fourth, but I don't know the exact word yet. Really fun bit of extra challenge!

[ulgrath]

agreed and thank you for the direction I sat for hours guessing at some so :facepalm:

[Panurge]

Sorry for the wasted guesses but it's great that you are both enjoying them in the spirit they were intended! Pretty much every other puzzle in the game can be either brute forced or solved for you by the Cryptmaster, but I wanted these to be purely optional and as hard as I could make them. As you say, an extra challenge for players who fancy it!

[Justin Timbersnake]

Originally posted by Panurge:

Sorry for the wasted guesses but it's great that you are both enjoying them in the spirit they were intended! Pretty much every other puzzle in the game can be either brute forced or solved for you by the Cryptmaster, but I wanted these to be purely optional and as hard as I could make them. As you say, an extra challenge for players who fancy it!

So these aren't the kinds of riddles I could solve by just staring at the text and thinking about it? It's something I need to resolve by searching in game?

[Panurge]

Originally posted by Justin Timbersnake:

Originally posted by Panurge:

Sorry for the wasted guesses but it's great that you are both enjoying them in the spirit they were intended! Pretty much every other puzzle in the game can be either brute forced or solved for you by the Cryptmaster, but I wanted these to be purely optional and as hard as I could make them. As you say, an extra challenge for players who fancy it!

So these aren't the kinds of riddles I could solve by just staring at the text and thinking about it? It's something I need to resolve by searching in game?

The text for each riddle contains two pieces of information. One is the solution word you will need to speak aloud and one is the carved icon in front of which you should speak the word.

[Zucchinilicious]

Any progress on these? Looking for a hint.

[The4thassassin]

check the spoilers sub discussion forum there is a lot about the crypticisims there

[Zucchinilicious]

I don't see a discussion named that.

[The4thassassin]

there's different sub forums called general discussion, trading, bugs and feedback etc. in the sub forum called spoilers in one of the upper topics called crypticism hunting there's a lot of stuff people found on the crypticisms

[Killy the Bid]

So, are the carvings things you can see in game, or things detailed in the narration? Because I remember seeing a lot of "there's a thing carved here" in narration, probably well more than nine, but I can only remember seeing one notable carving I could actually see in first person (where ratty hid his treasure ).

[Killy the Bid]

Okay, so answered my own question. Trial and error finally payed off as I was about to give up.

To anyone else who was confused like I was, they are based on the narration carvings, not carvings you can see in game, and also you obtain an instant reward for doing them. A sound plays and (minor spoilers:) you get a new whatever card.

I know for me, one of the most frustrating parts of puzzles like this is when I don't know whether or not I've completed them, because I worry I've already solved it and now I'm just wasting my time running around indefinitely. Rest assured, you haven't solved it yet if you didn't get the reward.

[Killy the Bid]

Okay, one piece of criticism as I'm still going through them. I don't understand how that word is "the first step away from killer" and I don't understand how that symbol is the "backwards key". . I understand how both parts relate to the rest of the riddle, but that part feels either too obscure and I don't understand it, or it's a phenomenal stretch. So far I've solved 4 and I'm about 50/50 with answers to these puzzles feeling satisfying and ones that just sort of feel like "okay, but that shouldn't have worked because I had disqualified that answer in my head before since it conflicts with another part of the riddle."

Maybe it's just me, and I'm the kind of person who will see this through regardless, but personally I got way more satisfaction from the crab king than these, despite that being a much simpler puzzle.

[Panurge]

Sorry I'm a little late to answering this! The cryptic riddles were intentionally very hard (I even forgot the answers to some of them myself when I came back to them after a break!) but they are solvable in the manner of cryptic crossword clues. For the two specific lines you mention:

"One first step away from a killer" is a clue that the answer is a synonym for killer with the first letter changed.

The "reversed key" refers to the fact that the carving is something which is the name of a key (one you would find on a keyboard) in reverse. "Where it flies" is an additional clue.