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.

Puzzle w11

 * Name: The Clock's Chime

Description: There is a clock tower that rings the time on the hour every hour. However, this clock tower is special in that it rings the time out very slowly. Each ringing of the bell takes a full five seconds. Now to the problem. When the time is 12 p.m. the bell rings 12 times. How many seconds does it take for you to hear the time?


 * Hint 1: The bell will ring 12 times, and there are five seconds between each sounding of the bell. It sure sounds simple, but there's at least one step everyone overlooks at first. Think about what needs to happen in order for you to realize it's twelve o'clock.

Puzzle w12 (US Version)

 * Name: A Fearsome Foe

Description: There was once a knight bold and brave. He felled countless opponents and was said to be peerless on the battlefield. However, legend has it that there was one foe that set the knight quaking in his armored boots. The knight feared this monster because of the rumor that surrounded it. It was said that anyone who slew the beast was destined to spill his own blood in the process. Can you guess the identity of this terrifying foe?


 * Hint 1: You too may have bested this foe in battle. Your answer should be eight letters long.

Puzzle w12 (EU Version)

 * Name: Feuding Fishermen

Description: Four fishermen all live on the same island, but none of them can stand the others. Their houses and docks are indicated on the map as A, B, C, and D. Which of the new roads 1-5 should be added to the island's road network in order to allow all four fishermen to travel between their houses and docks without running into any of the others? Circle your answer and stop any more scuffles from breaking out!


 * Hint 1: Look extra closely at the routes B and C must take to move between their houses and docks. Those are the key to solving this puzzle.

Puzzle w13

 * Name: The Vanishing Tower

Description: Behold the glorious Eiffel Tower, soaring monument to Paris, the city of light and love. At over 1,000 feet tall, the tower is massive, but there is a way to make the entire structure vanish right before your eyes by using nothing but two coins. How does one accomplish this feat?


 * Hint 1: No matter how you arrange the coins on the screen, you won't be able to cover the tower completely. Why not try covering something else with the coins?

Puzzle w14

 * Name: The Egg-nigma / Unbroken Eggs

Description: The room shown below is perfectly square and completely empty. Four normal chicken eggs were placed on the floor of the room. Shortly afterward a man came in with a giant steel cylinder and rolled it all over the floor. Amazingly, not a single egg was broken in the process. Can you guess where these eggs were placed? The eggs used in this problem are standard-sized eggs, but have been made larger so that you can move them around more easily.


 * Hint 1: There are places on the floor that the cylinder can't reach no matter how it's turned or tilted. Where do you think they could be? Pay special attention to the fact that there were four eggs.

Puzzle w15

 * Name: The Lost Hat

Description: A river moves at a pace of 1,000 feet per hour, and upon that river floats a lone gondola. At precisely high noon, a passenger on the gondola drops his black top hat into the water. The gondola turns around to collect the hat exactly 100 feet downstream from it. This particular gondola moves at a speed of 20 feet per minute in still water. How many minutes will it take the gondola to meet up with the top hat from the time the hat hit the water?


 * Hint 1: The river moves at the same speed for all objects floating upon it and affects both the hat and the gondola in the exact same way.

Puzzle w16

 * Name: The Lazy Student

Description: A teacher was reprimanding a particularly lazy student one day and told him the following: "At the very least, you need to study once a day for an entire week before a test. Don't skimp on time either! Each time you study, I want you to study for a minimum of two hours." The boy had no choice but to follow the teacher's orders, but decided he'd spend as little time possible doing so. Assuming the boy followed the teacher's orders exactly, how many hours did he end up studying?


 * Hint 1: One week has seven days. The boy has to study two hours every day, so the answer must be 14 hours, right? Come on now, what kind of puzzle would this be if that was the answer? What you need to do is brainstorm ways the boy could beat the system. For example, would starting his daily studies at an odd hour benefit him at all?

Puzzle w17 (US Version)

 * Name: Image Equation

Description: Using the following clues, break the code below and figure out what needs to go in the blank at the bottom of the screen.


 * Hint 1: Look at all the options again and try to figure out what they have in common.

Puzzle w17 (EU Version)

 * Name: Making a Die

Description: On a typical die, numbers on opposite faces add up to seven. Can you cut a shape out of this card that will form such a die when folded in a cube?

Puzzle w18

 * Name: Chicks and Hens

Description: Draw three straight lines between the stakes to divide the chickens into groups. Each group must consist of one hen and two chicks.


 * Hint 1: Rope off the mother hen in the upper-left corner so that she stays with the two chicks directly below her.

Puzzle w19

 * Name: Jersey Numbers

Description: You are tasked with spray-painting player numbers on to your team's baseball uniforms. You've prepared 10 paper stencils, each with a number from zero to nine. With the stencils cut out, you are now ready to paint player numbers on all six jerseys. If each jersey only has room for two horizontally-oriented numbers, what's the fewest number of stencils you need to number the six jerseys?


 * Hint 1: In order to number six different jerseys, you will need to select six numbers from 0 through 99. Maybe the numbers you're looking for are staring you in the face right now.

Puzzle w20

 * Name: Find the Volume

Description: A strangely shaped container sits before you. All sides of the shape, save for depth, are of equal length. All four points, A, B, C, and D, are located in the center of their respective sides. Additionally, line AD, line BC, and the depth of the container are all one foot. What it the total volume of the figure in cubic feet? Don't worry about the thickness of the wall's vessels.


 * Hint 1: You'll have a difficult time calculating the answer without rearranging things first. Think about cutting the shape along lines AD and BC. How can you reform this shape to make things easier to understand?

Puzzle w21

 * Name: The Knight's Escape

Description: Behold the brave knight as he fights his way through a dark and winding maze. With his strength waning, the knight decides that he must exit the maze by opening the fewest number of doors possible. Find the path that allows the knight to escape from those dark catacombs while opening as few doors as possible.


 * Hint 1: You can learn a lot by working backward and making your way through the maze starting from the goal. See the three doors that surround the goal? You'll have to open one of those in the end.

Puzzle w22 (US Version)

 * Name: Lion vs Cheetah

Description: A lion and a cheetah square off in a 200-yard race. The first one to run 100 yards, turn around, and run back to the start line wins. The cheetah leaps three yards in one jump, whereas the lion only leaps two yards with each bound. To make up for his lack of speed, the lion jumps three times for every two jumps the cheetah makes. Assume their paces stay consistent the whole race. Who will win this race?


 * Hint 1: Remember that the race is 100 yards there and back. It's a very important fact, and once you realize its significance, the puzzle is a snap.

Puzzle w22 (EU Version)

 * Name: Security Guard Test

Description: The owner of a mansion decides to hire a security guard, and he sets the following test for all applicants. "Take a look at this map. If you enter my mansion through the front door and pass through each doorway once and only once, which room will you end up in?" Circle the room and see if you can pass the test!


 * Hint 1: If you enter a room that has two doors, there is only one possible exit - the door you did not enter from - and you will not be able to pass through that room again. If a room has more than two doors, you have to pass through it again after exiting. Also, don't forget that you don't need to exit the room you end up in last. Which means...?

Puzzle w23 (US Version)

 * Name: Silence is Golden

Description: An infamous antiques thief breaks into a museum looking for a prized gold medallion. In the vault there is a case with five different items on it. The thief knows that the medallion is carefully hidden inside one of the items. Above the case there is an inscription on the wall that reads: "Silence is golden, three is the magic number." The thief only has time to steal one item from the case. Which one should he take?


 * Hint 1: Think about how each item is different, and then think about how that could relate to the inscription.

Puzzle w23 (EU Version)

 * Name: Iron Balls

Description: Here are 12 iron balls of the kind used in school science experiments. They are all the same size and shape, but 11 of them weigh 200g while just one weighs 100g. What is the least number of times you can use the scale shown to find out which of the iron balls is the 100g one?


 * Hint 1: Your task is to find which of the 12 iron balls weighs 100g. Since the others weigh 200g, you are trying to find one that weighs half of that. How can you find something that looks the same but has half the weight?

Puzzle w24 (US Version)

 * Name: Special Order

Description: Below is a scene of a man ordering a particular item at a fancy restaurant. What in the world is this man trying to order here? Look at the picture below before you take a guess.


 * Hint 1: Focus on the old man's speech bubble. The letters H through O are lined up in a row. Your answer should be five letters long.

Puzzle w24 (EU Version)

 * Name: Three Children

Description: The king of an ancient kingdom had three children, A, B, and C. The difference in age between A and B is three years, while the difference between B and C is two years. A is definitely not the oldest son. How many possible ways are there to order the ages of the three children?


 * Hint 1: The difference between A and B is three years, and the difference between B and C is two years. This means you can rule out the order BAC.

Puzzle w25 (US), w26(EU)

 * Name: Morning Greetings

Description: At the edge of town, there is a traditional private school with 10 boys, 10 girls and a single teacher. The school requires students to show proper respect to the teacher and other students by greeting the teacher and other students with one bow. How many bows could you expect to see on a given morning?


 * Hint 1: Each student bows to the teacher and every other student. Including the teacher and the students, there are a total of 21 people on campus. You may think that information is enough to go on, but make sure you've read the puzzle over carefully before you answer.

Puzzle w25 (EU Version)

 * Name: Shoe Box Scramble

Description: There are three shoeboxes that each contain two shoes. The boxes are labelled as shown. However, the labels have all been placed on the wrong boxes. From which of the three shoeboxes can you remove one shoe in order to work out which pairs of shoes are in which box? Circle your answer.


 * Hint 1: The contents and labels consist of three variations, RR, LL and LR. You have a very narrow range of options to choose from. Imagine the possible contents for each box and think about which one you should open.

Puzzle w26 (US), w27 (EU)

 * Name: Bright Idea

Description: It's dark in here! Turn the lightbulb on by fixing the wires that connect it to the battery. Rearrange the panels so that both wires continue unbroken from the battery to the lightbulb.


 * Hint 1: None of the wires should run off the sides of the panels, save for the areas where they connect to the lightbulb and battery.