Professor Layton and the Curious Village/Puzzles 1-25

Caution! This guide contains information about each puzzle including all three hints 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.

Puzzle 001

 * Name: "Where's the Town?"
 * Trigger: Automatic
 * Location: In the Laytonmobile
 * Chapter: Introduction
 * Picarats: 10

Description: "My village is on a road that leads to no other towns. I look forward to seeing you there." Use your stylus to draw a circle around the right village, and then touch Submit.


 * Hint 1: You can use the stylus for a whole lot more than just circling the answer, you know. Try tracing a path--any path--to see if it connects to more than one town.  Try it a few times until you are confident you have the right answer.  Then just tap the submit icon.
 * Hint 2: Still stumped? Try tracing paths backward, so that you start from a village and work your way back. This will make it easy for you to see if any other towns are connected to the one you selected.
 * Hint 3: Just look for the town that's not connected to any other. In other words, any town that's connected to another can't possibly be the right answer.  If you take a look at the map, you should be able to see any corrections between towns with no trouble.

Answer: Circle the red and white town in the top left of the map. Hit SUBMIT.

Puzzle 002

 * Name: The Crank and Slot
 * Trigger: Talk to Franco
 * Location: Drawbridge
 * Chapter: Introduction
 * Picarats: 15

Description: There's no way to lower the bridge and get across without inserting the crank into the correct slot! Choose the slot that fits the crank shown below.


 * Hint 1: First, get a good, long look at the shape of the crank. How is the central axle shaped? Are the little protrusions around the edges of the crank triangular or square?  Next, look at where those funny shapes stick out of the crank.  Starting to make sense?
 * Hint 2: While you need to pay attention to the actual features of the crank and slot, you also need to remember that the shape of the slot is a mirror image of the crank. That's right, you have to stare at the crank straight on and then look for the slot that mirrors it.
 * Hint 3: The central axle on the crank has five sides. There are three shapes attached to the main axle, one triangle and two squares.  One of the small squares sits right on top of one of the central axle's five corners, while the other two shapes sit flush on two sides of the axle.  All right, now you have everything you need.  Don't forget that you need to flip the crank's shape when searching for the slot!

Answer: 1

Puzzle 003

 * Name: Strange Hats
 * Trigger: Talk to Ingrid
 * Location: Entrance
 * Chapter: Introduction
 * Picarats: 10

Description: These four top hats are all the same height, but the length of each brim is different. In other words, the hats are equally tall but vary in width. One of these four hats has a brim and height that are the same length. Which hat is it?


 * Hint 1: Don't just pick an answer based on what you see on the screen. If this puzzle could be solved with a quick glance at the screen, it wouldn't be much of a puzzle, now would it?  The human eye perceives vertical and horizontal length differently.
 * Hint 2: B is certainly not the hat you are looking for.
 * Hint 3: D isn't the right hat either.

Answer: A

Puzzle 004

 * Name: Where's My House?
 * Trigger: Talk to Percy
 * Location: Plaza
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 20

Description: Can you find my house? Go out the front door of my place and turn left. At the first intersection you come across, take a right. Turn right again at the following intersection, and you'll come face-to-face with the morning sun. Circle my house.


 * Hint 1: To face the morning sun, one must, of course, look eastward. The map shows north pointing toward the top of the screen, so which direction indicates east?
 * Hint 2: The rising sun comes from the east. On this map, that means it comes from the right.  Therefore, if you follow the directions, you should be facing to the right after you take your last turn.
 * Hint 3: Trying to follow the directions from each hose only complicates matters. Instead, why not follow the direction in reverse?  Needless to say, going backward means the directions you turn will reverse as well.  Start by facing right, then head left down the road, then take a left, the another left...

Answer: Circle the blue-roofed house in the center of the grid. Hit SUBMIT

Puzzle 005

 * Name: Digital Digits
 * Trigger: Tap the clock face on the Clock Tower
 * Location: Plaza
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 50

Description: Imagine a digital clock like the one shown below. How many times will the clock display three or more of the same number in a row over the course of one day? In case you were wondering, the clock in this puzzle displays time on a 12-hour scale, not on military time.


 * Hint 1: As mentioned earlier, this digital clock works on a 12-hour display system. This means you'll cycle through the numbers twice a day.  Therefore, before you submit your answer, you need to double the number of times you found to account for a.m. and p.m.
 * Hint 2: You probably have already picked up on combinations like 1:11 and 2:22, but finding the less obvious combinations is what makes up the real meat of this problem. Did you, for example, remember to include the time 10:00?
 * Hint 3: 12:22 is another combination that's easy to overlook. Also, have you thought about 11:12? Be sure to take a look at the various combination that follow the above time as well.

Answer: 34

Puzzle 006

 * Name: Light Weight
 * Trigger: Talk to Marco
 * Location: Manor Road
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 40

Description: Here we have eight small weights that all look the same. However, one of the weights in the group is slightly lighter than the rest. Using this scale two times, you can find out which of these weights is lighter than the rest. So, which weight is the light one?


 * Hint 1: You're not weighing two sets of four weights on your first use of the scale, are you? If you do that, you'll only have one more chance left to determine which of four weights is the light one. But you probably already know that, right?
 * Hint 2: Maybe thinking about another example will help you out here. Imagine you have three weights, one of which is lighter than the rest. To find the light weight, all you gotta do is weigh any two of the three. If one of the weights on the scale is lighter, there's your answer. If the two weights on the scale are the same, the remaining weight is the light one.
 * Hint 3: Think about the last hint. You can figure out the light weight in a group of three with one use of the scale. If you can narrow the number of weights in question to three in one use of the scale, you've got your answer.

Answer: The lightest weight changes each time. To find the correct weight, weigh any three weights on one side against another three weights. If neither side is lighter, weigh the remaining two weights to find your answer.

If one side is lighter, one of the three weights on the light side is the lightest weight. Weigh two of those three weights against each other. If one side is lighter, you have your answer. If neither side is lighter, than the weight left off the scale is the lightest.

Ex: 1,2,3 weighed against 4,5,6. The side with 4,5,6 on it is lighter. Weigh 4 against 5. They are the same weight. Therefore, weight 6 is the lightest.

Puzzle 007

 * Name: Wolves and Chicks
 * Trigger: Talk to Ramon
 * Location: Manor Border
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 50

Description: Get the three wolves and three chicks seen below to the other side of the river while obeying the following conditions. -No more than two animals can ride the raft at the same time. -There must be at least one animal on the raft in order for it to move. -If more wolves than chicks stay on either side of the river, the wolves will eat the chicks, and you'll have to start over. You can move the raft as many times as you like, but this feat can be accomplished in as few as 11 moves.


 * Hint 1: Do you find yourself moving the raft back and forth only to end up with the animals back in the start position? Somewhere within your movements, you are doing something that restores the animals to their original positions. When you've found that point, try to do something different than you have thus far. It might bring you close to the answer.
 * Hint 2: You don't necessarily have to take two animals over on every trip and then bring only one back. Sometimes you may want to bring two animals back. For starters, try getting all three of the wolves to the right side.  Then you can slowly start swapping out wolves for chicks.
 * Hint 3: Let's recap the previous hint. First, get all the wolves to the right side of the river. Then, start swapping the wolves for chicks. When you start to have too few chicks on the left bank of the river, you can bring a chick back over with a wolf to keep your remaining chick from getting eaten.

Answer: Take two wolves across, bring one back. Take two wolves across, bring one back. Take two chicks across, bring a wolf and a chick back. Bring two chicks across, take one wolf back. Take two wolves across, bring one back. Take the remaining two wolves across.

Puzzle 008

 * Name: Farm Work
 * Trigger: Touch the strip of Flowers above the River (Layton's puzzle)
 * Location: Manor Border
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 20

Description: Alfred and Roland have been hired by a farm to sow flower seeds. They've been assigned a 10-acre plor of land and split it in half so they can work independently. Roland starts from the east and Alfred from the west. Alfred can plow the land at a rate of 20 minutes per acre. Roland takes 40 minutes to plow, but sows seeds at three times the speed Alfred does. If sowing seeds on the 10-acre plot pays $100, how much of that money should go to Roland?


 * Hint 1: The two workers receive $100 for the job and divide it according to the amount of work each person did. In this case, "work" refers to the number of acres each person seeded. Read the puzzle again and think about exactly how much work each person did.
 * Hint 2: Since work refers to the number of acres each person seeded, the amount of time each person took isn't a factor in deciding payment.
 * Hint 3: Did you see the sentence that said that Roland and Alfred were assigned a 10-acre plot of land to work together and split it in half? What does that tell you about the amount of work each person did?

Answer: 50

Puzzle 009

 * Name: One Poor Pooch
 * Trigger: Enter the Reinhold Mansion (Matthew's puzzle)
 * Location: Manor Foyer
 * Chapter: Between 1 and 2
 * Picarats: 35

Description: The matches below are arranged in the shape of a dog. This poor little guy was just minding his own business when a car came barreling don the road and ran him over. Move two matches to change the picture so that it shows the dog after the accident. All puzzles are a matter of perspective, so don't assume that you'll be looking at the dog from the side by the time you're finished with this one.


 * Hint 1: The original shape shows the dog walking. Think about how that shape will change after the dog gets hit by the car.
 * Hint 2: Dogs walk on all four legs, but since this poor pooch isn't doing much walking anymore, the position of his legs must have changed.
 * Hint 3: The dog is probably sprawled out on the pavement where it got hit. To show this, you'll need to move two of his legs, or two matches. Take the two legs in the middle and bring them above.

Answer: The two matches you should move are the two that make up the dog's middle legs. Thy will move onto the dogs back so that the end picture will be from an aerial perspective. You do not need to rotate the matches. Simply move the middle-right match above the right corner of the dog's back and move the middle-left match above the left corner of the dog's back.

Puzzle 010

 * Name: Alphabet
 * Trigger: Tap the middle of the Bookcase (Layton's puzzle)
 * Location: Manor Foyer
 * Chapter: Between 1 and 2
 * Picarats: 30

Description: All right, here's a quick and easy one. The first letter of the alphabet is A, and the letter B comes after the letter A. However, the letter you need to worry about is the last one. What's the last letter of the alphabet? Here's a hint: it isn't Z.


 * Hint 1: Z isn't the answer. Though it might not seem like it, that's a very big hint.
 * Hint 2: The letter after P isn't Q. It's H.
 * Hint 3: Still nothing? Look at the title of this puzzle. It's all you really need to know.

Answer: T

Puzzle 011

 * Name: Arc and Line
 * Trigger: Talk to Simon
 * Location: Manor Parlor
 * Chapter: Between 1 and 2
 * Picarats: 20

Description: As shown in the diagram below, you have one-fourth of a circle. Within this circle is rectangle ABCD, which touches the edge of the circle at point D. Assuming that point B is located at the center of the circle, how long is diagonal line AC?


 * Hint 1: Surely somebody must have looked at the diagram and realized that the triangle formed by points A, B, and C is a right triangle. That's sharp thinking and exactly right. However, are you sure there isn't a much easier way to find the answer?
 * Hint 2: You don't need the Pythagorean theorem to answer this one. Something else in the diagram should be the exact same length as AC.
 * Hint 3: Notice that diagonal line AC within the rectangle is the same size as the diagonal line BD. Have you also noticed that BD is also the same length as another part of this diagram?

Answer: 10

Puzzle 012

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Puzzle 013

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Puzzle 014

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Puzzle015

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Puzzle 016

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Puzzle 017

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Puzzle 018

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Puzzle 019

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Puzzle 020

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Puzzle 021

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Puzzle 022

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Puzzle 023

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Puzzle 024

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Puzzle 025

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