First, I should admit straight off that I have never, ever, ever solved a full Cryptex Hunt. I routinely get super excited, join the Discord, do a puzzle or two, and then real life intervenes and I drop off. This time, however, life being what it is, I figure I have plenty of time to both do the puzzles, and journal about it. Of course, I made this decision AFTER completing a few puzzles and realizing that I should probably take notes, so, bear with me.
The 2025 Cryptex Hunt is set up around a play, primarily a play's website, and the play in question is Romeo and Juliet. There appear to be both straightforward one-off puzzles, such as the 'blog' entries, and more complex, multifaceted puzzles, like the Media page.
So far, I've solved one blog entry - prop pieces - and a few of the media articles which seem to tell a story.
Blog: Prop Hunt
This was pretty straightforward - you need to take two words and smush them together, placing one inside the other, to get the list of items the prop master needed. The items needed were described in the list, but the words to combine were images. Again, straightforward but what took the most time was that I don't have a printer, and was flipping back and forth between the pdf's and making pdf checkmarks so I didn't miss any words. I found it a lot easier to determine the word first then figure out which pictures combined to make it than the other way around but YMMV. Once you figured out all the words, following the prop master's guidance you took the middle letter, which gave you another phrase, which told you to combine another two words to get your answer.
Media
This one is clearly a multifaceted puzzle, framed as the daily newspaper, and I'm too tired to completely solve it tonight. Each article appears to be its own puzzle, resulting, so far, in a phrase.
PM Chris and Wife Tammy Killed
This is the first big article, discussing several unexplained deaths, possibly involving poison and/or daggers. Three different possibilities for how Mr. Chris Dorn, Prime Minister of Cryptexhuntia, died. Here, as you read you come across reversed words and sections of words, and because your brain subconsciously autocorrects it may take a couple readthroughs to find them all. Eventually, you get "Millers future describes the solution." The 'Miller' in question is, presumably, 'Ian Miller,' one of the deceased, so not exactly a bright future there. I should note, however, that there is a section of the 'Media' section entirely devoted to horoscopes, and the deceased were all together to celebrate his birthday on March 6th, which would make him a Pisces.
The Pisces horoscope reads: Pisces, Feb 19-Mar 20. As the vivacious and adaptable sign of the zodiac, the celestial energies are aligning to bring a burst of dynamic opportunities and intellectual stimulation into your life. The other predictions here will guide you to eleven wordy opportunities. Make sure to purchase these opportunities without loyalty in the right order.
I didn't go any farther with the Horoscope puzzle this evening, and the 'purchase without loyalty' presumably refers to the other article regarding the hidden costs of loyalty cards.
Interview with Tanja Kennedy
This is the second full length article, a chat with the actress playing the Nurse, who so very clearly wants to play Juliet (again). She looks close to my age, probably not the best choice for a teenage idiot. Not going to let that stop her, though. What may really have gotten her placed in a part with fewer lines, though, is her habit of dropping key words from Shakespearean quotes. The first quote is very clearly missing a word, and if you compare them to the original text (Cryptex Hunt very helpfully sends you to the Folger Shakespeare Library so you know you're all using the same version) you get a phrase: find all plays quoted here in word search. Ok, simple enough. Except, oh wait... Clearly the Cryptex Hunt folks are fans of the NYT Games section, as they've bent the play titles all out of shape. For this, I found it easier to take a screenshot, then use the paint app to black out each letter individually. Eventually, you get yet another message: This solution was flagged as not accurate. That's not particularly helpful. Which solution? Miller's future, which I haven't solved yet, or another proposed solution? Presumably something else points here to get us the full story, but it is late, and I must sleep.
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