Puzzle Hunt

This weekend, I participated in a puzzle hunt at google. It started at 8AM Saturday and ended at 5PM Sunday. We had a team of 12, most of whom hadn’t done this before.

I had a great time.. our team did OK (middle/lower end of the pack), which is good for people who haven’t played before. The quality of the puzzles was excellent: there were layers upon layers of puzzles, a variety of tasks, and witty hints and answers.

Here’s the first puzzle from the hunt (it’s printed on the back of the event tshirt):

OPENING ROOT INITIAL GENESIS INCEPTION NATIVITY

REBOOT DOPPELGANGER REAPPEAR LOOK-ALIKE FISSION SHANGHAIINGS DITTO REECHO

INDICT FOURTEEN PSALM SUBTLE JEOPARDY PRACTICALLY DOSSIER WEDNESDAY ISLAND

FIE GAVE ROTUND REAL TAX PROTOZOA ASPIRIN

ANESTHESIA THEOLOGY PROMETHEUS PHOTOSYNTHETIC SYNTHEHOL PRITHEE THERAPEUTIC AUTHENTICATE

BISON SUSANNA PREPARED LASHES CAMINO COLI

IGOR YOUTUBE ELBOW AUTEUR JEEPERS WILD

GRAVY IRED PINKO AMBLER PLUME NUMBER TRUST

ERE RACECAR CIVIC DID LEVEL PEP SOROS

HAIRSTYLE GESTURE TUVALU MCDERMOTT HIJINKS SYNOPSIS

VARIES NEATEN EVOLUTIONARY WORDPLAY BONY AWFUL INDICATE QUALITY LAVISH

The answer to this puzzle is a single word.

Hint if you’re having trouble getting started: Each word set is going to reduce to another word, and all of those words will then reduce to the answer. The first couple sets are easier than most because the meanings of the words are hints at what to do with them.

Hint if you’re having trouble finishing: You don’t need to know all of the parts to get the output word… you can probably figure it out with half of them. It’s easier with all of them, of course.

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