Mrs Prunetree (Little Matchstick Girl) Hint Thread

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Let’s see if we can’t help each other solve these puzzles.

Breakfast
On the first one I solved the bridge puzzle. As hinted: you can build four bridges out from each cardinal direction. But I’m not 100% sure how it intersects with the crossword element. I noticed that there’s only one clue that isn’t crossed off by the bridges, so I though that the answer to that crossword clue might be the answer for the pdf, but none of the words that I’ve tried yet have worked, so maybe I’m on the wrong track. Anyone got any ideas?

Museum Visit

I’ve solved the museum visit puzzle so if anyone needs help with that, just ask!

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I’ve solved the breakfast puzzle, so I’m happy to help with that one. Have you come up with answers for the crossword clues yet? That’s where I started.

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Oh! Thanks, after a few more dead ends I figured it out. I was definitely on the wrong track to begin with but I got how all the parts interlinked in the end.

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I solved the museum one and House Rules as well if anyone needs help with that! (I doubt they would, it’s pretty easy. Seems like it leads to the meta puzzle the others all feed into though).

Edit: got the donated clothes one too now.

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Museum, House Rules, and Donations are solved. I’m missing something in Breakfast - I have both the bridges and the words (or at least good guesses for the latter), but I can’t see what to do with the words now. Sure I’m missing something. Gentle nudge please?

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Here’s a gentle hint. It was a weird quirk to have twice as many bridges as normal for this puzzle type.

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Argh. How did I not think of that? Thanks a lot, that gave me the idea.

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I’m going around in circles (literally) in Sightseeing. Is my initial assumption that the tour should begin at the hotel correct?

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I’ve also been scratching my head on that one - I agree, it seems like you need to start at the northeastern hotel, swing west, dog-leg around the restaurant at then far west, and then wend back east. But the clues don’t seem like they specify a unique stopping point and trial-and-erroring the possible nearby buildings didn’t work for me, so I’m a bit stymied.

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I took the same approach. The thing is, we know you have to pass by the post office without passing by the far east theatre, but that doesn’t leave any final right turns to end on, so I must be missing something.

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Well you can just turn right at the post office and start heading SE on the road that runs off the map, which would work if you stopped there. But “postoffice” doesn’t solve the puzzle and wouldn’t really match with the narration.

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Have you been interpreting walking past buildings on the corner as “walking past” them. What about cases like the church where they appear to take up most of the “block”*? I did wonder if it was possible to see the post office on the corner, loop back up the road behind the church, cross the original path, and turn right at the hospital… but that’s not the answer either.

*Blocks aren’t a unit of navigation in London, but I can forgive this.

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I’ve solved Donations, Museum Visit, and Breakfast. On Sightseeing I’m having the same trouble as everybody else.

On Vegetable Garden, I’ve filled out the grid and gotten a plausible answer: ENDSOFARROWS. However, this doesn’t check out. Neither do ARROWS, ROWS, or MARROWS (I dunno, it was a vegetable so I guessed it).

EDIT-ADD: also tried reading the answer as definition, so HEADS, ARROWHEADS, POINTS, NOCKS. Still not right.

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I didn’t assume walking on the corner counted as going “past” a building; I was a little unclear on whether eg walking on the road south of the church counted as going past it, since it seems like the entrance is oriented west, but erred on the side of caution. Even relaxing that constraint I’m not sure how that would change things much.

I did wonder whether the path is meant to spell out a letter or word or something that’s the answer, rather than one of the buildings; nothing jumped out at me but I’m not able to print the thing out and draw on it now so something could easily be eluding me.

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I’ve got it. This was what led me to think slightly outside the box. We’d actually all probably got the correct route.

For those in doubt, you don’t need to cross any previously walked paths.

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LOL OK I just got it too.

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I have cracked Vegetable Garden. I’m happy to nudge if needed, but it may well be that the penny will drop before that. Zarf was really close, if that helps.

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Aaand just solved the whole thing, metapuzzle as well. Got the prize, and a very nice one it is. As proof of completion: MND III.2.464-5

Thanks Ryan - this was class.

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Yup, just got this one too – pretty clever! (Zarf is almost unbearably close, as you say).

EDIT: Ah, I got the whole thing too! I thought I was off for a minute because I didn’t read the final instruction carefully enough (you don’t add “.pdf” to the end of the last word). Some neat puzzle concepts and not too hard!

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I got there too! That was fun and the puzzles all came together nicely in the end.

I guess this means I ought go and play the Little Matchstick Girl games I missed, huh.

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