Professor Layton and the Curious Village/Weekly Downloadable Puzzles

Caution! This guide contains information about each puzzle including the hint and the correct answer. If you do not want to see the solution to a puzzle and spoil the fun of figuring it out, scroll down carefully. The answers are hidden within the spoiler tags, so don't peek in them unless you're really stuck!

Puzzle w01

 * Name: From Five to Four

Description: A set of matches are arranged so they form five squares. To solve this puzzle, you need to change the number of squares from five to four by moving exactly two matches. Your four squares must be uniform in size, and you must use all of your matches when forming the squares.


 * Hint 1: In the original layout, every match is needed to form the five squares, so the task of forming one less square while still using all of the matches might seem challenging. However, you can make things easier by focusing on reducing the number of matches that serve as a side for multiple squares.

Puzzle w02

 * Name: Treasure Chests

Description: Although all six chests appear to be of equal value, in actuality, one of the chests differs from the rest. Choose the chest that has a different total value.


 * Hint 1: Some chests may not have the same number of gems. How many gems do you count in a single chest?

Puzzle w03

 * Name: How Many Nines?

Description: How many times does the number nine appear within whole numbers between one and 100?


 * Hint 1: There's no trick to this one. No, really! All you need to do is count them up.

Puzzle w04

 * Name: Aliens?

Description: A famous space explorer has just discovered a new planet and landed on its surface to investigate it further. During his three-hour investigation, he counted 379 male Octopleans, 493 female Octopleans, and 125 that had the features of both male and female Octopleans. So right now, how many aliens are there on this new planet?


 * Hint 1: The whole planet is covered with Octopleans, but adding their numbers up won't get you the answer you're after. Perhaps you jumped to conclusions when considering answers for this puzzle.

Puzzle w05

 * Name: Nose to Nose

Description: Four horses are running around a course made up of several concentric circles. Horse A runs one lap an hour on its course. Horse B runs two laps an hour on its course. Horse C runs three laps an hour on its course. Horse D runs four laps an hour on its course. All four horses line up at the bottom of the circle and start running their courses at the same time. How many minutes will it take until all four horses are lined up nose to nose on a straight line again?


 * Hint 1: It won't take even an hour for the horses to line up nose to nose once more. All the horses' noses have to be lined up along the same straight line, but nowhere does it say that the horses must face the same direction.

Puzzle w06

 * Name: Cut the Cake

Description: When viewed from above, the slice of cake below is an equilateral triangle. Your goal is to produce four sides of a cube by making one cut into the cake. Connect two dots to cut the cake. You should know that this particular cake has a thickness equal to one-quarter the length of the cake slice.


 * Hint 1: You can only produce two new surfaces by cutting the cake. Where do you need to cut the cake in order to make these cross sections appear square? When you figure that out, you've basically got the answer. Recall what the puzzle said about the thickness of the cake.

Puzzle w07

 * Name: Soccer Ball

Description: The surface of your standard soccer ball is made up of several black pentagons and white hexagons, just like the ball pictured below. If the ball shown here has 12 black pentagons, how many white hexagons does the ball have?


 * Hint 1: Here are some helpful facts to keep in mind. No pentagon shares a side with another pentagon. Also, there are a total of 12 pentagons on the ball. Since every pentagon has five sides, there are a total of 60 sides. All hexagons share three sides with other hexagons.

Puzzle w08 (US Version)

 * Name: What's Hidden?

Description: You've stumbled across a strange painting. It appears to depict a frog sitting out in the rain, but there's more to this picture than meets the eye. What other living creature is hiding within this picture? Your answer must be five letters long.


 * Hint 1: This puzzle is all about looking at the picture from a fresh perspective. Try rotating your DS to the side and see what happens.

Puzzle w08 (EU Version)

 * Name: Around the Towns

Description: A salesman is planning his route around 16 towns using this map. Starting from S, he wants to visit every town and end up back at S. Assuming he has decided to go to town 1 first, and that he will only visit each town once to save on fuel, what number will the town marked with a star be in the sequence? By the way, roads marked with X are closed.


 * Hint 1: There is only one route on the map that will fulfil the conditions of the puzzle. Rach town requires one road to enter by, and another to exit by. Bearing this in mind, try finding a route leading forwards out of town 1, and another leading back out of town S, then joining these routes in the middle.

Puzzle w09

 * Name: A Smaller E / Make it Smaller

Description: The matches set before you are arranged so that they form the letter E. According to your friend, you can make the E small by moving just one match. Can you accomplish the task your friend has set out for you?


 * Hint 1: Because you're going to add a match to the bunch already on the table, it's fair to say you won't physically be making the E any smaller. Since you can't shrink the actual size of the letter, you'll have to think of another way you can make it small.

Puzzle w10

 * Name: Layton's Hatbox

Description: Oh, no! The professor's hatbox has gone missing! Pictured below are four hatboxes that have been broken down and flattened. When reassembled, three of the boxes are identical in every way, but the fourth hatbox differs slightly in its design and belongs to the professor. Can you find it for him?


 * Hint 1: Reconstruct the flattened hatboxes in your mind and you'll immediately see what's different. Pay special attention to the hat patterns on each box.