Brian Young - Abraham's Well (2021)

Brian Young - Abraham's Well (2021)

like many of Brian's puzzles, this one requires a bit of lateral thinking, and the intended solution requires no force. i say this because there was a bit of controversy among solvers about whether a particular approach to part of the solution should be considered 'creative' or 'cheating'.

from the description on the Mr. Puzzle site:

There are elements in the puzzle Brian would consider as much easier than 10/10. But he’s incorporated completely new ideas in this puzzle too so that always throws a spanner in the works and makes the puzzle harder. Overall, we do think it’s a very difficult puzzle. To work it out with his intended solution we believe its definitely worthy of the 10/10 rating.

Abraham’s Well has many separate steps to solve with a level of complexity comparable or surpassing previous multi-step sequential discovery puzzles. Physically the puzzle is smaller like the Plugged Well. But it has so many steps it’s more like solving the Opening Bat. Not that the Aha! moments in either of those two puzzles have been repeated here. This is a totally new idea.

The puzzle can be separated into are 23 individual parts. There are another 21 parts that are glued into the body and never actually come out of the puzzle. There’s a tool for every step of this puzzle and a big part of the puzzling is to work out which of these parts are tools, and which are not. The tools are tightly packed and very well hidden.

A major characteristic of this puzzle contributing to the difficulty level is that even if you’re able to take the puzzle apart using a non-intended solution or even just by chance, you cannot reverse engineer the solution just by seeing all the pieces laid out in front of you. This is quite unlike most other puzzles that we know about.

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regarding the 'controversy'...

should the winner so desire, i will provide links to Brian's unlisted solution videos no sooner than one month after the end of the auction.

♫: 

—1. everything i have is in the photos.

—2. shipment is by USPS Priority Mail, insured for the full sale price and trackable.

—3. if the auction(s) in which you are the highest bidder have closed, and you are not bidding on other auctions, please let me know and i will organise the invoice. otherwise, shipping will be calculated after all of my listings are closed.

—4. payment is via PayPal only.

—5. all puzzles in my collection have been kept out of sunlight, in a humidity-stable room or sealed plastic container, away from pets unless they can solve them, and in a non-smoking household.

—6. the price for shipping+insurance will not exceed $30. if it costs more, i will pay the balance.

thank you for looking, and good luck if you bid.

:cameron: