Welcome, intrepid explorer. Dr. Nautilus has called you here for a deep sea adventure.
Throughout your ocean voyage, you will need to solve puzzles. A ‘puzzle’ is a self-contained decryption challenge. You are presented with a bunch of data and (usually) no instructions, and you are expected to find a word or phrase by correctly interpreting the data.
Puzzles are presented in batches of (usually) 5-15. In this hunt, puzzles are presented as objects in the same physical area and may be of a single type. Taken together, the answers to those puzzles form a ‘metapuzzle’. In this hunt, metapuzzles are also objects in the same physical area and are clearly indicated. This hunt also has ‘metametapuzzles’, which use the answers to the metapuzzles.
By solving puzzles, you will unlock more puzzles and dive deeper into the ocean!
MIT Mystery Hunt is an annual event for MIT students, alums, affiliates, and related puzzle aficionados held every year on the MIT campus in January.
A typical MIT Mystery Hunt has 100-120 puzzles. This one has somewhat more. Each puzzle is intended to take a group of 2–3 solvers several hours.
This website is an independently-playable version of MIT Mystery Hunt 2015. Many of the puzzles and experiences from the event itself don’t lend themselves well to post-Mystery Hunt play. In those cases, a note has been left on the page to explain what to do. Sometimes in the course of solving you’ll come across a cluephrase like “BRING HQ CHOCOLATE”. In those cases, submit that cluephrase as an answer.
This online hunt is free to play, made possible by the generosity of HRT. Thanks, HRT!
Thanks, and hope you enjoy!
— One Fish, Two Fish, Random Fish, Blue Fish
During a real hunt, a team of many people share an account--consider using a password you don't mind sharing and work together with friends.