Orange Is Almost Always Better

It says a real challenge!

Keebox Orange

I know it's not Apple's Cosmic Orange (where do they get the names?) but, by and large, things that are orange are always looked on favourably by me! Last week I embarked on a Keebox odyssey and managed the first 2 with a small struggle and a bit of luck. I did manage to solve part of it by brute force before noticing where the clue to the method was amongst the myriad of pieces that I accumulated during the solve.

I had begun work on the third in the series before I wrote last week's post but had not gotten very far and in fact was completely stuck after just a few moves. This one is level 3 out of 5 on their scale and apparently should have taken me about 30 minutes. I know the site states 30minutes + but a puzzler of my experience would hope to be at the bottom end of the time requirement. However, let's not forget that I'm not terribly bright and I certainly am pretty rubbish at puzzles so maybe a bit more than 30 minutes? I was astounded, however, that this one took me several hours spread over an entire week! It is a significant jump in difficulty. It is a vibrant orange and a bit bigger than the first 2 at 8 x 8 x 6.5cm in size. 

Looking at it there is obviously a lot more to it - we have 4 knobs on it, 3 sliders, some kind of tab and a ball bearing visible at the bottom with a maze embossed in the back (presumably to navigate the ball bearing through.

One trapped ball bearing

Just as with the last two there is almost nothing possible apart from one fairly obvious move at the start and you are quickly on your way. The first step immediately reveals a whole lot more "stuff" but whilst you can look at it, you cannot yet manipulate it. Only one new step is possible - I was beginning to have hope - a bit of early hand-holding seems very inviting. The second step leads to another and a tool is a suddenly in your hands. I like to go back and forth to make sure that I have understood what I have done and to assist with the later reset. I did find it took me a good 10 minutes to understand how the tool had been locked in place. It is very simple but very ingenious. 

The tool is flat and looks like there might be quite a few places to use it but only one actually does something. Yay! A big breakthrough - a new tool that looks like there's an obvious place to use it. I am on my way as the ball bearing gets released into the first part of the maze.

A rather complex maze map

After my initial surge of pleasure. I got stuck at this point for a whole week.

The ball bearing was in the first section of the maze (see the bottom of the map to the left) - I needed to get it into the next area and could not do so. I went back and forth with the bearing and even right back to the start of the puzzle. There is always the promise of a hint but you know me, I like to suffer for months or years. So I continued to go back and forth for days doing the same things over and over again.

Two portions of maze and a button

The ball bearing was able to freely enter the right hand slot above but could go no further. There is a flush button that I used one of my tools to press and this produced a little cavity for the bearing...and trapped it! Bugger! Pressing the button in would release the ball back to the right hand slot but nothing would let it proceed on its merry way. In fact, having pressed that button, it was no longer flush with the surface of the box. It remained partially depressed. Days went by and I despaired. I was obviously missing another tool but despite using everything I had in as many ways as I could think without causing harm. Then something made me think© again and I had a wonderful Aha! moment as I realised that tools can do more than one thing at a time. 

Symbols on the sliders

After this, I was able to start work on the maze with my map. This was a little challenging because the map is on the back and a lot of the time the manipulation of the ball with gravity required the puzzle to be facing the other way. The ball gets navigated mostly by sound as you hear it drop down short or long paths. It does intermittently appear at the front of the puzzle. 

I managed to negotiate the full length of the maze and realised that at the end it could be used to manipulate something else but despite this it did nothing useful. Looking at the puzzle, it was obvious what it was doing but I could see that one final tool remained unfound and it was critical for the next step - I could see what I needed to find but how on earth did I get it?

There were a few elements on the puzzle that I had not utilised yet - the sliders on the sides have a bunch of symbols on them and there was a knob on top. I had no idea what to do with the symbols and I did end up cheating by part brute forcing the trial and error and also a little lock picking. This gave me the tool I needed and I was able to combine this with another mechanism to release my final piece. In retrospect, I now realise that the symbols on the sliders were not random and paying attention throughout the solution would have just given the code. However, having found my final moves I had the third token in the series:

Yet another brilliant creation!

In total I think this must have taken me about three or four hours to complete. Definitely 30 minutes PLUS! The reset is just a matter of navigating everything in reverse. The maze is still a challenge to navigate and it took a while to realise there is a step in the middle that I had solved by accident in my turning it back and forth.

Should you buy this? Hell yes! This one is stunningly fun and a real challenge for any puzzler. The side of the box tells you so. It is still available on the Keebox Etsy store and also from PuzzleMaster if you live in North America. If I were you, I would buy the whole set and solve them in difficulty order. You really won't regret it.

I have a little annual leave the next couple of weeks and hopefully will manage some puzzling amongst all the chores and DIY that Mrs S has planned for me.  😱