Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box/Puzzles 1-25

Caution! This page contains all the hints and solutions for every puzzle from 1 to 25. Scroll carefully or you might spoil the answer of a puzzle for yourself. The solutions are hidden behind spoiler tags, so only take a peek if you're desperate.

Puzzle 001

 * Name: Dr. Schrader's Map
 * Trigger: Automatic
 * Location: Outside Layton's office
 * Chapter: Prologue
 * Picarats: 10

Description: In the map to Dr. Schrader's home, several pieces in the center have been cut out. Restore the map by inserting the missing pieces in the correct spots. Touch a piece with your stylus to grab it, then slide your stylus to move the selected piece across the screen. You can't rotate the pieces. It may sound simple, but don't forget that you can move or remove pieces, including the one already in the middle of the map.


 * Hint 1: Including the one piece that's in the middle of the map from the start, you have six pieces to move around. ...And only five spaces to put them in. That means one of those pieces won't be used in the solution.
 * Hint 2: Take a close look at each individual piece of the map, as well as the set portion of the map. As long as you can make the roads on each piece fit cleanly into the larger framework, you'll find the answer sooner of later.
 * Hint 3: You may have already noticed, but the piece positioned in the center of the map at the start of the puzzle isn't used in the solution.

Puzzle 002

 * Name: The Doctor's Home
 * Trigger: Automatic
 * Location: In the Laytonmobile
 * Chapter: Prologue
 * Picarats: 15

Description: Find Dr. Schrader's window from the details in his letter. "In the morning, I often awaken to the sound of music drifting in from a nearby flat. Looking out, I spy a flag fluttering gently outside my window, take a single sip of my tea, and turn my attention to the morning sun. Not many flats in London have a view of the sunrise anymore, you know." Circle the window from which the doctor views the sunrise.


 * Hint 1: Since the doctor mentions hearing music from a nearby flat, you can rule out the window the music is coming from.
 * Hint 2: As the doctor makes special mention of being able to see the sunrise, it's likely his apartment is one of the ones higher up in the picture.
 * Hint 3: The Doctor talks about seeing the flag outside his window move in the breeze from his seat inside. There appears to be only one flat in the bunch where you could accomplish this feat.

Puzzle 003

 * Name: The Right Key (US) / Which Key? (UK)
 * Trigger: The door.
 * Location: Outside Schrader's Office
 * Chapter: Prologue
 * Picarats: 20

Description: Which key opens the door? As you might expect, the key won't open the door if its shape won't let it pass through the keyhole. Use your stylus to fit keys to the lock. Examine each key carefully and use the stylus to move the keys and find the one that fits into the lock.


 * Hint 1: At a glance, the ends of the keys look too intricate when compared with the simple shape of the keyhole. Concentrate on finding a key with a shape that matches the structure of the lock.
 * Hint 2: Who's to say one end of a key is any better than the other?
 * Hint 3: Turn each key around and try inserting the part you'd normally call the grip.

Puzzle 004

 * Name: A Secure Room
 * Trigger: Automatic
 * Location: Dr. Schrader's Office
 * Chapter: Prologue
 * Picarats: 30

Description: With its windows opening out into thin air eight stories up and its door securely bolted, you might think that this room is inaccessible from the outside. However, a single unusual detail reveals the truth of what went on here. Your job is to look around the room by tapping the arrows and find this detail. Once you've got it, circle the area with your stylus and choose Submit to give your answer. Make sure to circle only one object when you answer.


 * Hint 1: Take a good look at all the views. You're looking for something unusual. There are lots of odd objects in the room, but while many may be strange, they aren't the brand of unusual you're searching for.
 * Hint 2: You won't find the answer in the areas that Professor Layton and Inspector Chelmey are examining.
 * Hint 3: The object in question is often found in pairs.

Puzzle 005

 * Name: Luke's Trunk
 * Trigger: Open trunk
 * Location: Layton's Cabin
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 30

Description: Luke's belongings are all over the place and need to be packed away in his trunk. Use your stylus to move individual objects into the trunk, and make sure that none of them overlap. When you think everything has been placed neatly into the trunk, tap Submit.


 * Hint 1: You can use little items like the harmonica and the book to fill in small gaps later, so pack up the big items first.
 * Hint 2: That unwieldy frying pan and spatula set go in the lower-left corner. Luke's teddy bear belongs in the upper-right corner.
 * Hint 3: Luke's book should be placed in the upper-left portion of the trunk. By this point, you should be most of the way toward solving the puzzle, so try working the rest out on your own.

Puzzle 006

 * Name: Pancake Stacks 1 (US) / Piles of Pancakes 1 (UK)
 * Trigger: Sally
 * Location: Car 06
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 15

Description: Now here's a tasty puzzle for you. Your task is to take that big stack of pancakes on the left plate and move them to the plate on the far right. In doing so, however, you need to follow these rules:
 * You can move only one pancake at a time.
 * A pancake can never rest on another pancake smaller than itself.

Feel free to shift things around as much as you like and to use the middle plate in completing the puzzle.


 * Hint 1: This puzzle isn't a brain buster, so take a step back for a moment. One way to solve puzzles like these is just to experiment by moving the pancakes around.
 * Hint 2: If you can get the biggest pancake over to the red plate, you're within inches of solving the puzzle.
 * Hint 3: Shift the smallest pancake to the red plate, then place the medium-sized pancake on the middle plate. Next, place the smallest pancake on top of the medium pancake. This will free up the red plate for the biggest pancake.

Puzzle 007

 * Name: Dining Couple (US) / Four Couples (UK)
 * Trigger: Chester
 * Location: Car 05
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 20

Description: Four couples sit elbow-to-elbow in a crowded dining car. All diners are sitting next to or across from their partners. Using the information above, can you determine where Mrs. Hadley is sitting? Circle her and touch Submit.
 * The Joneses are sitting by the aisle.
 * The mustachioed Mr. O'Connor sits beside his wife.
 * Mr. Lambert sits across from his wife.


 * Hint 1: The mustachioed Mr. O'Connor is b. Seeing how c and f are man, his wife has to be a.
 * Hint 2: The Joneses are both sitting by the aisle, which means they must be sitting across from each other. Since you know b is Mr. O'Connor, c and g must be Mr. and Mrs. Jones, right?
 * Hint 3: So where is Mr. Lambert in all this? We now know a and b to be the O'Connors, so the people sitting across from them must also be a couple. But they can't be the Lamberts because the Lamberts have to be sitting across from each other... Keep the above in mind, and you should have everything you need to identify all four of the couples.

Puzzle 008

 * Name: Luke's Big Dinner
 * Trigger: Chester
 * Location: Car 05
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 25

Description: "Now, Luke, are you sure you can really eat all of that? You put in quite an order there." "No sweat, Professor! I'll clean my plate and still have room for more!" It's no wonder the professor is concerned, as Luke's order cost twice what the professor's did. Below you can see all the items Luke and Professor Layton ordered, as well as the price of each item. Touch the price for each of the items that are part of Luke's order.


 * Hint 1: Start by adding up the cost of the entire meal.
 * Hint 2: Luke's meal cost twice as much as the Professor's. That means the ratio of Luke's cost compared to the professor's cost must be 2:1.
 * Hint 3: The cost of the entire meal comes out to 105 pounds. This total needs to be split to fit our ratio of 2:1. Therefore, Luke's meal cost 70 pounds and the professor's cost 35. What combination of food and drink items can you find that add up to 70?

Puzzle 009

 * Name: Stacked Glasses
 * Trigger: Champagne Glass
 * Location: Car 05
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 10

Description: The owner of a four-star restaurant assigns a young waiter the task of stacking glasses in a decorative way. Eager to please, the young waiter immediately draws five seperate designs and shows them to the owner. The owner takes one glance at the designs and, with a look of irritation, turns to the boy and cries, "This design is preposterous! What were you thinking?" Which of the five designs is the owner talking about?


 * Hint 1: "This design is preposterous!" The owner wasn't angry because the design in question was hard to assemble. He was upset because one design was physically-impossible to replicate in real life.
 * Hint 2: A and C could probably be pulled off with steady hands and a lot of patience.
 * Hint 3: One design, while perfectly natural when drawn out in 2D, stacks the glasses in a way that is impossible to create in reality. On paper, is cup is represented by a single bent line, but real glasses have a rim on the top and walls of a set thickness.

Puzzle 010

 * Name: A Work of Art
 * Trigger: Automatic
 * Location: Car 06
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 15

Description: The drawing below is made up of curved lines that intersect to create sections. If you want to color in the entire canvas so that no section touches the side of a section with the same color, what's the fewest number of colors you can use? You can use a color as many times as you want as long as it doesn't touch any area with the same color. Once you have your answer, tap the Input Answer icon and enter the number of colors.


 * Hint 1: There's no trick here. You might have an easier time if you mark the drawing using the memo function.
 * Hint 2: Why don't you take a closer look at the corners of the picture?
 * Hint 3: You can complete most of the picture using only two colors, but did you notice there's one pesky area down in the lower-left corner that requires an additional color?

Puzzle 011

 * Name: Trees in the Forest
 * Trigger: Automatic
 * Location: Observation Deck
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 20

Description: The forest below contains four different types of trees. Use your stylus to draw dividers in the forest so that you form four different sections. Each section should contain one of each type of tree, and all the trees must be connected either horizontally or vertically, but not diagonally. When you have the answer, touch Submit.


 * Hint 1: You'll want to seperate any two trees of the same type that are adjacent to each other. Why not start by putting the lines down in any place that fits the description?
 * Hint 2: Let's see if we can't find a way to deal with those trees in the lower-left part of the picture. The lines you drew after reading Hint One should leave you a little direction to go on. The group of trees you section of down here should take on a sideways L shape.
 * Hint 3: The tree in the upper-left corner and the one to its immediate right belong to different groups. Additionally, the tree in the upper-right corner and the one directly below it belong to different groups as well. Use these hints as stepping stones to solve the rest of the puzzle.

Puzzle 012

 * Name: Clouds and Sky
 * Trigger: Grousley
 * Location: Car 07
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 30

Description: A man sitting next to you on the train shows you a picture he's drawn. "Let's say this picture has a total area of ten. Can you figure out how much of it is made up of clouds compared to the area that's made up of sky? Don't think you need to guess the answer. There's a definite method you can use to work this out." How much of the area is sky versus clouds?


 * Hint 1: You never know what secrets the area around the window might hide. Try using the studs stuck around the frame of the window to simplify things.
 * Hint 2: Open the memo function and, using the studs around the window, divide the picture into ten squares. There, now doesn't that make things easier?
 * Hint 3: Compare each square with the others. By now, perhaps you've managed to spot that some of the squares have the same designs as other squares but are inverted in color scheme. Any pair of squares you find like this have the same amount of sky and cloud, right? But you still have to deal with those other squares that are completely blue.

Puzzle 013

 * Name: On Your Plate
 * Trigger: Macaroon
 * Location: Kitchen
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 15

Description: The plate in front of you bears a mark made up of two nesting equilateral triangles. Can you puzzle out how many times bigger the large triangle is when compared to the smaller one?


 * Hint 1: You don't need to do any kind of special calculation here. In fact, all you need is a little intuition.
 * Hint 2: How would things look if you rotated the smaller triangle?
 * Hint 3: By now you've tried visualizing what things would look like if you rotated the triangle around, yes? If you;ve done that, you should be able to see how many smaller triangles fit in the larger one. Just count them up.

Puzzle 014

 * Name: Red Caps
 * Trigger: Automatic
 * Location: Kitchen
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 25

Description: A preschool teacher had everyone in her class close their eyes. While none of the students were looking, she slipped caps onto their heads and then said: "OK, everyone, open your eyes and look at the hats all your friends are wearing. Whoever sees four or more people wearing red hats gets a red balloon, and whoever doesn't gets a blue balloon." In a class of ten children, only some of the kids got a red balloon. Knowing this, how many kids went home with a red balloon?


 * Hint 1: The puzzle says that some of the children received red balloons. From that, you can infer that there were no fewer than four children in red hats.
 * Hint 2: The puzzle says some of the kids received red balloons. By definition, therefore, not all the kids received a red balloon.
 * Hint 3: If every preschooler had on a red hat, you'd see every single child go home with a red balloon. Remembering that the children aren't allowed to add their own hat to their total, think about how many children would receive a red balloon if nine kids wore red hats. What about if eight did? Seven? Just keep going down the line.

Puzzle 015

 * Name: Who Is Tom Really? (US) / Tom's True Identity (UK)
 * Trigger: Pick up Tom's second shoe
 * Location: Car 03
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 30

Description: Professor Layton has a feeling that Tom may not be the child we suspect him to be. Move the L-shaped pieces around and arrange them into a + shape in the middle of the board in a way that sheds some light on Tom's true identity.


 * Hint 1: Those L-shaped pieces are pretty awkward to move around, aren't they? If only you could change the shape of the pieces into something easier to move around. Say...a square, perhaps?
 * Hint 2: Pair each L-shaped piece with a small square block, and treat each pair as a single unit to be moved.
 * Hint 3: By the way, you might be interested to know that this puzzle can be solved in as few as 20 moves.

Puzzle 016

 * Name: Crazy Daisies
 * Trigger: Flower vase
 * Location: Babette's Cabin
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 15

Description: Now for something on the flowery side. Of the three pictures labelled A, B and C, one is actually the same as the picture on the far left. However, the image on the far left has had its cantents flipped left to right and its colors inverted and changed to black and white. Of A, B and C, which picture is the same as the black-and-white picture on the far left?


 * Hint 1: The black-and-white color scheme of the altered image makes this puzzle a lot more challenging, doesn't it? However, this change to the image may end up helping you more than you know. Remember, in the altered image, dark spots are now bright, and vice versa.
 * Hint 2: If you've been looking for what parts of A, B and C don't match the black-and-white image, you'll eventually find an answer. But since there is only a single solution, it may be easier to start by finding how A, B and C differ from one another.
 * Hint 3: Pay attention to the circles at the center of each flower. Also, take a good look at the number of dots and their positions in each image.

Puzzle 017

 * Name: The Worker Ant (US) / The Ant's Journey (UK)
 * Trigger: The tea set
 * Location: Layton's Cabin
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 25

Description: Nusy ants work tirelessly carrying food back to their nest. One day, one such ant was returning with food when he bumped into an acquaintance in front of the nest. "Whoa there, doofus! Don't you know that you took the longest path possible back to the nest? Think about where you're going, man!" Knowing that the ant never traveled the same area twice, can you trace the path he walked to get to his nest?


 * Hint 1: When tracing out a path back to the nest, leave as few roads untouched as possible.
 * Hint 2: Assuming the top of the screen to be north, from the point labelled Start, drag your stylus south and then go west at your first chance. At the next intersection, head north to the top of the map. When you reach a T intersection at the top of the map, head west again. When you hit a wall, take the road leading south.
 * Hint 3: From the last point mentioned in Hint Two, head east at the first available point, and then take the first road you hit that head south. If you've gotten this far, the rest should be a breeze.

Puzzle 018

 * Name: The Shoe Maze
 * Trigger: Karla
 * Location: Car 03
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 20

Description: Here's a maze that's made up of shoes. Your task is to travel from START to GOAL. You may only travel horizontally or vertically one space at a time, and you must alternate between left and right shoes every step. Also, you may not pass through any of the walls in the maze. Tap each space one at a time to highlight the path you want to take. If you make a misstep, you can deselect that space by tapping it again.


 * Hint 1: Working backward from the goal in your head is a great tactic that can help you find the answer.
 * Hint 2: The solution requires that you take exactly 19 steps from the start point to the goal.
 * Hint 3: From the start point, begin your walk by taking a step to the right.

Puzzle 019

 * Name: The Train Ride (US) / The Train Journey (UK)
 * Trigger: Sammy
 * Location: Door to Car 02
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 20

Description: An unknown number of people are riding a train. At the first station the train pulls into, 1/6 of the people on board get off. At the next station, 1/5 of the remaining passengers get off. This pattern continues so that at the next stations 1/4 get off, then 1/3, then 1/2. Then, at the final station, all passengers remaining on the train exit as well. Assuming no one got on the train during the ride, what is the fewest number of people that could have been riding on the train when it set out?


 * Hint 1: Since the puzzle tells you that no one got on the train during the ride, its safe to say that the number of passengers on the train never increased.
 * Hint 2: Since 1/6 of the passengers get off at the first station, you know the number must be divisible by six. Start of choosing a number that's divisible by six and see what happens. The principle by which this puzzle is solved should become evident soon.
 * Hint 3: Imagine that 30 passengers are on the train when it embarks. At the first station, the train loses 1/6 of its passengers, meaning 5 people get off. In the next station, 1/5 of those people remaining, or five people, get off. At the next station, 1/4 of those remaining, or five more people, get off. Do you notice a pattern here?

Puzzle 020

 * Name: The Shoe Store Thief (US) / The Shoe Shop Thief (UK)
 * Trigger: Inspector Chelmey
 * Location: Car 04
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 25

Description: A woman in a shoe store pays for a pair of $30 shoes with a $50 dollar bill. The clerk doesn't have change, so he goes to the shop next door to break the $50 bill. He then gives the woman her change. A while later, the clerk next door comes into the shoe store complaining that the bill she got from the shoe clerk was counterfeit. The mortified shoe clerk gives the other shopkeeper a $50 bill of his own in apology. Both the woman with the fake bill and the shoes she took are gone. In total, how much did the shoe-store clerk lose in dollars?


 * Hint 1: Had the shoe clerk not gone next door to get change, he might never have realized he lost money.
 * Hint 2: In the end, the shoe clerk essentially passed back the $50 he got from the shopkeeper next door, so he neither lost nor gained money from these interactions.
 * Hint 3: The sneaky customer ended up getting away with shoes costing $30, as well as $20 dollars in change.

Puzzle 021

 * Name: Pass It On
 * Trigger: Mitzi/Capone
 * Location: Mitzi and Capone's Cabin
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 20

Description: Eight people are playing an unusual communication game. In this game, one person has to get a message across to seven other people. It takes one minute to pass along the message, and each time the message is spoken, it can only have one recipient. Using these rules, what's the shortest amount of time in minutes for the message to pass to all seven other players?


 * Hint 1: "Each time the message is spoken, it can only have one recipient." What you need to remember here is that any one person can only spread the message to one other person at a time. Try readling the question again bearing in mind the above.
 * Hint 2: Every time a given person relays the message to another person, the number of people who know the message will increase by one.
 * Hint 3: One minute after the game starts, two people will know the message. If each of those people then goes on to spread the message, by the end of the second minute, a total of four people will now the message. Do you see where this is going?

Puzzle 022

 * Name: Taking Out The Trash (US) / Cleaning Up 1 (UK)
 * Trigger: Piece of garbage
 * Location: Observation Deck
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 45

Description: Put that garbage into the trash can where it belongs! Using your stylus, move the blocks obstructing your path and slide the clump of garbage all the way into the can at the bottom of the screen.


 * Hint 1: Give this method of starting the puzzle a shot. Stack the four blue blocks on top of each other, with the first one at the bottom of the trash can. Next, find a way to get one of those four blocks into the little indentation in the upper-right corner. Once it's in place, you'll never have to move that block again!
 * Hint 2: Here's a helpful hint. If you're feeling stumped, place a blue block in the uppermost, lowermost, and rightmost areas of the puzzle. Then try moving the other blocks around in the remaining space.
 * Hint 3: Removing the blue block at the bottom of the trash can will be your second-to-last move.

Puzzle 023

 * Name: Pitchers and Poison (US) / A Sour Defeat (UK)
 * Trigger: Pitcher
 * Location: Empty Cabin
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 15

Description: Two men, known here as 1 and 2, are playing a strange game. First, both men put their empty pitchers on the table. Next, a judge beings a pitcher filled with purple poison and places it in either spot A or spot B. The judge then starts shifting the poison from one pitcher to any adjacent pitcher over and over. After moving the liquid 55 times, the owner of the posion-filled pitcher must drink its contents. If you were the judge and secretly wanted 1 to win, would you place the poison-filled pitcher down in spot A or spot B?


 * Hint 1: Grab a few water glasses and try the puzzle out for yourself -- minus the poison, of course. The principle that determines where the person is should soon become obvious.
 * Hint 2: If you stopped after five pours instead of 55, what would be different?
 * Hint 3: Isn't it funny how in every odd-numbered pour, the poison ends up in the middle of the three pitchers?

Puzzle 024

 * Name: A Strip of Paper
 * Trigger: Lili
 * Location: Car 03
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 10

Description: After trying to fold a strip of paper in half, you notice that one side of the folded strip is an inch longer than the other. Determined to get it right, you fold the strip again, only to discover that now the other end of the strip is an inch longer than the other. Now that you've made two folds along your strip, figure out what the difference between the two folds is when expressed in tenths of an inch.


 * Hint 1: Think about how much longer one side of the strip was compared to the other one after the first fold.
 * Hint 2: Remember, you're being asked to answer in tenths of an inch.
 * Hint 3: Consider the location of the first fold your starting point. The second fold must have been positioned one inch away from this location. Does that clear things up for you?

Puzzle 025

 * Name: Survival in the Wild
 * Trigger: Hank
 * Location: Observation Deck
 * Chapter: 1
 * Picarats: 20

Description: After years of bad business, a local zoo has finally run out of money to feed its animals. Bellies rumbling from days with no food, the animals make a plan to escape the zoo. After prying open the bars on their rusted cages, all the animals attempt to find their way through the mazelike walls of the zoo to the exit. Tap the picture of each animal you think made it safely out of the zoo, and then tap Submit to answer. Just remember, an animal shows its true colors in the wild.


 * Hint 1: To start, try tracing your way through the maze. This trick is probably old news to you by now, but in case you forgot, it's often helpful to try working your way backward from the exit.
 * Hint 2: Do mazes make your head spin? Take some out of following all those roads by using the Memo function to maek dead ends and the paths that lead to them.
 * Hint 3: If you've already figured out which animals can make it to the exit, congratulations. But think for a moment about the title of this puzzle. All of the animals are free once they leave their cages, but it can be a jungle out there. Just because an animal can find its way to the exit doesn't mean it'll make it out alive...