These are gradual, step by step hints for Party Is Such Sweet Sorrow by Anthony Smith.
What’s my objective? How do I win?
Figuring this out is part of the point. Click around and see what you can figure out.
Be sure to click on the saxophone, and read the index card inside it. To read the index card, click the cabinet icon in the upper left and click on the index card. (See “How do I solve the index card?”)
“Each guest at your party wants a drink.” (See “How do I make a drink?”)
Make drinks for all seven guests. (See clues for each guest to figure out how.)
See “I have seven drinks. Now what?”
How do I solve the index card?
Click on all of the people at least once first.
This is a pure logic puzzle, requiring no additional information than the list of the seven guests (Actor, Athlete, Hitman, Maid, Mayor, Meteorologist, Singer), the list of childhood friends (the Actor says that her childhood friends were the Maid and the Athlete) and what you see on the card.
You may find it useful to make a grid table or spreadsheet, with one row per guest, and seven numbered columns. Put an X in any box that you can prove is incorrect, and put an O in any box that you can prove is correct. (Then put an X in each of the other boxes in that row and in that column.)
Start with the Meteorologist, the Singer, and the Hitman. The index card says that the Meteorologist is 4th, that the Singer is more famous than the Meteorologist but less famous than the Hitman, and that the Hitman isn’t the most famous. (In the next hint, I’ll tell you their exact positions.)
The Hitman is more famous than the Meteorologist. (Because he’s more famous than the Singer, who is more famous than the Meteorologist.) That would make the Hitman 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. But the index card says he can’t be 1st, so he must be 2nd or 3rd. But the Singer comes betweeen the Hitman and the Meteorologist, so the Hitman can’t be 3rd. The Hitman is 2nd, and the Singer is 3rd.
Next, look at the Mayor and the Maid. The index card says that the Mayor is less famous than the Singer, and more famous than the Maid, and that a childhood friend (Actor, Maid, or Athlete) is 5th. (In the next hint, I’ll tell you where they go.)
The Mayor isn’t a childhood friend, so he can’t be 5th. He can’t be 2nd, 3rd, or 4th (because those are the Hitman, Singer, and Metorologist). He can’t be 1st, because he’s less famous than the Singer, and he can’t be 7th, because then the Maid would be more famous than him. So, the Mayor is 6th, and the Maid is 7th.
You’re almost there! You just have to do the Athlete and the Actor next. The Athlete is either 1st or 7th. (In the next hint, I’ll reveal the whole answer.)
The Athlete is either 1st or 7th, but the Maid is 7th, so the Athlete is 1st. That leaves only the 5th for the Actor (a childhood friend of the Maid and the Athlete). Thus the solved order is: Athlete, Hitman, Singer, Meteorologist, Actor, Mayor, and Maid.
How do I make a drink?
Click on everything in the room. You’ll need at least one “drink order” in your inventory first. (For example, click on the Actor, the woman in the blue 10101 dress in the middle of the screen.)
Look up your drink orders in the almanac, the book in the middle of the screen, next to the Actor.
You’ll have to fix the robot bartender. (“Tonight’s just not your night.”)
Click on the radio.
A Double is a kind of drink. If you need a drink, you’ll need to click on the clock and “mess with the time.”
Click on one of the anonymous guests, shadowed in darkness.
Do it again.
And again.
When you click an anonymous guest ten times, the guest will say that “The year was 1933, or it will be.”
Nothing happens if you set the year on the clock to 1933, but you’re on the right track.
Think about the radio’s clue. “If you need a Double, just mess with the time!”
You have to set the time on the clock. (In the next hint, I’ll tell you what time to set it to.)
Set the clock to 19:33. (The year doesn’t matter.) Then, once you look your drink order up in the almanac, you can provide the ingredients to the robot to make the drink.
What should I do with the Actor?
Click on the Actor and listen to her. She’ll tell you that she was childhood friends with the Maid and the Athlete, and give you a drink order.
What should I do with the Athlete?
When you click on the Athlete, she’ll challenge you to a game.
If you don’t have a prism to match hers, you’ll need to click on more stuff in the room.
Click on the rug. You’ll find a prism. Once you have it, next time you click on the Athlete, you’ll play a mini-game of Pong. When you win Pong, she’ll give you a drink order.
What should I do with the Hitman?
He says to talk to him again in 75 minutes. (Waiting in real life won’t help.)
Add 75 minutes to the time on the clock, then talk to the Hitman again to get his drink order. (For example, if the time is 22:00, set the time to 23:15.)
What should I do with the Maid?
Click on the Maid, and then “Be the maid for a change.” Then click on all of the messes, and talk to the Maid.
There are three messes. There are footprints on the rug on the left side, there’s a stain of red liquid on the floor in the middle of the screen, and there’s white powder on the table under the saxophone. When you click on all three of them, you can talk to the Maid to get her drink order.
Why does everyone say “Shouldn’t you be cleaning up this mess?”
You’re being the Maid for a change. Click on all the messes, then click on the Maid. (See “What should I do with the Maid?”)
What should I do with the Mayor?
Mayor Caesar McShift won’t give you his drink order directly. You’ll have to figure out his drink order, and then look it up in the almanac.
His drink order is hidden, encrypted, in the nonsense he says in response to one of your questions.
Most of his nonsense is repetitive, but one of his nonsense answers looks different from the others.
Read his answer to “Prohibition” closely. “M xlsyklx csy’h riziv ewo. Kix qi e Xie Xsxeppih.”
That nonsense is a cryptogram. There are online cryptogram solvers, or you can try solving it with pen and paper. (Note the Mayor’s name, “Caesar McShift.”)
This is a “Caesar cipher” (also known as a “shift cipher”). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_cipher Each letter is shifted by the same number.
Each letter was shifted right by 4, so you can shift each letter left by 4 to decrypt it.
The cryptogram says, “I thought you’d never ask. Get me a Tea Totalled.” Look up “Tea Totalled” in the almanac to get the Mayor’s drink order.
What should I do with the Meteorologist?
Click on the Meteorologist and click on each day of the week. When you’re done, he’ll give you his drink order.
What should I do with the Singer?
Click on the Singer, answer her questions, and she’ll give you her drink order. (It doesn’t matter what answers you give; even if you give the right answer, she’ll say “silly” and tell you that you got them wrong.)
I have seven drinks. Now what?
Be sure to click on the saxophone, and read the index card inside it. To read the index card, click the cabinet icon in the upper left and click on the index card. (See “How do I solve the index card?”)
Click on each drink in your inventory. (“There’s some text on the back…”)
Consider the drink messages, in the order recommended by the index card. (In the next hint, I’ll reveal all of the messages in order.)
“Septeamber Tenf Reight Thousannd Ninehuntdred Siixty Onei” What could that be?
It’s a date. Enter it in the clock.
Enter Sep 18, 1961 in the clock.
How do I solve the Exit’s riddle?
The answer is hidden in the drink messages.
Each drink had an extra letter in it.
“septeAmber tenF Reight thousaNnd ninehunTdred sIixty oneI” = AFRNTII
Unscramble those letters to solve the riddle.
“fartini”