AC Black Flag Resynced “Gold and Crystal” hunt puzzle solved, here's how.
So I solved the AC Black Flag Resynced “Gold and Crystal” hunt puzzle.
The first part is the easier one. At the bottom of the text there’s these number combinations:
2-6-3
6-5-2
7-8-3
1-4-1
9-2-1
1-1-1
2-6-8
3-3-5
These correspond to: line - word - letter. They give you a clue to this with the letter C being highlighted.
So:
2-6-3 = second line, sixth word, third letter. = C
And so on...
Doing all of them gives: CAROLINE
which makes sense when the parchment says “the two names that have marked my life”.
CAROLINE is Edward's wife.
Then you apply the first cipher instruction:
“the third becomes fifth, the fourth and sixth remain unchanged, the eighth becomes first, and the fifth becomes second.”
So starting from:
1 C
2 A
3 R
4 O
5 L
6 I
7 N
8 E
you move them like this:
3rd (R) -> 5th
4th (O) stays 4th
6th (I) stays 6th
8th (E) -> 1st
5th (L) -> 2nd
That gives:
E L _ O R I _ _
It doesn't say anything else about the other letters, so we won't use them.
Now for the symbols.
The important part is this line: “By seeking what is missing from the other symbols…”
Meaning you’re NOT reading the lines that ARE there, but instead the missing parts from each symbol compared to the complete/master symbol.
If you redraw the missing lines from top-left to bottom-left, then top-right to bottom-right (exactly like the text says), the second key becomes:
JACKDAW
(ignore the first JACKDAW anagram, was reading the first cipher instead of the second)
Edward’s ship.
Then you apply the second cipher instruction “take the second letter and place it in the seventh position, and take the fifth and make it to the third.”
Using JACKDAW as the second transformation key on the EL_ORI_ _ arrangement gives ELDORIA which is the answer. Might be a reference to El Dorado (“a fabulous place, filled with riches”.).
So the full solve path is basically:
- CAROLINE
- EL_ORI_ _
- JACKDAW
- ELDORIA
Tell me what you think.