The Testament of Sherlock Holmes Hints

How does the Roman numeral puzzle box work?

  • 1 of 11: Click on the "Instruction" tab to pull down the puzzle's built-in instructions.
  • 2 of 11: You're to use the shafts arrayed along the bottom of the puzzle to form Roman numerals and place them in such a way that they form an ascending sequence.
  • 3 of 11: Notice that each of the four parts of the puzzle has a plus (+) or minus (-) symbol in the middle. That means that each part will be a sum or difference.
  • 4 of 11: Three of the four parts start out with a "+ III" in them, which translates to +3. The third part, which is a subtraction, lets you choose both of the numbers.
  • 5 of 11: To form a Roman numeral in a blank space, pick up a shaft and set it down in one of that space's three slots.
  • 6 of 11: You can then use the arrow that appears at the top of the shaft when you point at it to slant it a bit to the left or to the right. (Note that you can slant a shaft before placing it if you want to.)
  • 7 of 11: The slantings are useful when forming the numerals V and X.
  • 8 of 11: Note that the exact placement of the shafts for a numeral within a blank space doesn't really matter. Each space has three slots for shafts, but you don't have to use up all three. For instance, if you want to make the Roman numeral II (2) in a blank space, you can put shafts in any two of the space's three slots. You can even put them in the left and right slots, leaving the middle one empty.
  • 9 of 11: Remember that you can only use an X one time. Also, you're not allowed to make any number that's larger than 10, or to create a sum or difference that's greater than 10.
  • 10 of 11: As a final rule, you must use all of the shafts. None can be left over once you're done.
  • 11 of 11: After you get all of the shafts set in such a way that the four parts of the puzzle form an ascending numerical sequence, the box will open.