Puzzlehunt (this site's canonical name; often shortened to hunt; also called puzzle hunt in English communities) is a timed, collaborative event where teams solve as many puzzles as they can—often with story, difficulty ramps, and big aha moments. Hunts are usually split into rounds of feeders and at least one meta each.
Structure
- Round — themed puzzle group
- Feeder — standalone-ish puzzle whose answer feeds a meta (feeder puzzle)
- Meta — capstone combining feeder outputs (meta puzzle)
- Final meta — optional hunt-wide capstone
- Location puzzle — some events (e.g. Puzzled Pint) release an optional pre-hunt venue finder
Examples
| Kind | Notes |
| Flagship annual | e.g. MIT Mystery Hunt — huge sets, days-long, heavy narrative |
| Monthly social | e.g. Puzzled Pint — ~4 puzzles, mild difficulty, bar venues |
| Online timed | fixed open/close, leaderboard, hints |
| Long-form | puzzles drip over weeks/months |
Puzzle types
- Wordplay: crosswords, anagrams, homophones
- Logic / paper grids: sudoku, nonograms, slitherlink
- Images, audio, video, real-world hunts
- Extraction, indexing, ciphers
- See Puzzle Elements
vs standalone
Standalone puzzles are usually single-solve; hunts add scheduling, teamwork, and metas. PuzzleCat hosts both.
New hunters
- Start with small, hint-friendly, beginner-recommended events
- Teams of 3–5 are common; split search / grids / meta work
- Skip public writeups mid-hunt; use the time machine on the wiki
Construction
Construction + testsolving before release; post-hunt writeups and Hunts articles with archived leaderboards.