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Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships Hints
How do I open the Caridad's chest?
1 of 10: This is essentially a Sudoku puzzle with colors instead of numbers. Even if you like these puzzles, this one is hard because of the time constraint -- Nancy has a limited air supply, after all. Read to the end of this hint for a complete solution.
2 of 10: One thing in your favor here is that this puzzle doesn't reset if you leave. That means if you get it half done and you run out of air, you can go back to the resort lobby, refill your tanks, and come back to finish solving.
3 of 10: Okay, Sudoku puzzles. The basic deal here is you have nine blocks of nine squares, and each block contains the numbers 1 through 9, or in this case nine colors. You can only have one of each color in each block; you can only have one of each color in every row and column as well.
4 of 10: The way to figure out which color goes where is by seeing all the places it CAN'T go.
5 of 10: For example, let's look at the junior version of this puzzle. In the block in the bottom row, middle column, there isn't a light blue tile, so you know one still has to go here somewhere. It can't go in the very bottom row, because there's a light blue tile in that row in the block at the left; and it can't go in the top row, because there's a light blue tile in that row in the block at the right. So it has to go in the middle row, and since there's only one empty slot in the middle row, that's where it goes. See?
6 of 10: Now that you've placed that light blue tile, you can see where to place the light blue tile in the middle block. Can you figure it out?
7 of 10: Not all of the tiles will be that easy. But the more tiles you place, the more you'll be able to place, because each tile you place blocks off another slot and narrows down the places where tiles can go.
8 of 10: If you've gone through all the rows and solved everything you can, start solving the columns. If you've done all the columns, try solving individual blocks. When you've done all that, go back to solving rows and see what new answers occur to you.
9 of 10: Keep an eye on your air the whole time. You'll need 5 to 10% of a tank of air to get back to your boat, so when you get down to that level, swim back and go back to the resort lobby to refill your tank, then come back. The puzzle won't reset when you leave, so feel free to swim away with it half finished.
10 of 10: Here are the solutions to the two puzzles. Considering the time constraints, you might want to print this out so you can follow it; that's what I do, even after I've solved it.
