# Defuse the Bomb

You suddenly wake up in a room. You have no idea where you are, who you are, and why you are here. A look around yourself shows you to be in a room almost entirely made of depleted uranium other than a small horizontal mirror. As you look around, you see a strange object in the middle of the room. As you observe it closer, it looks like a bomb.

However, this bomb is very different. The timer is counting up rather than down. This bomb seems like it would not explode if you waited. However, you do have a time limit. You do have an incentive to defuse the bomb, however. You don't know why, but you have the feeling that if you defuse it, you will be taken out from the room and fed.

The bomb seems to be divided into 4 different subsections. Each subsection is linked to the bomb so if you make a mistake, it will explode on you.

## Section 1: Wires

Here, you see 11 different colors of wires. You believe that all of them have to be cut in a certain order for the section to be defused. The colors of the eleven wires are:

Red, Orange, Blue, Green, Purple, Yellow, Magenta, Brown, Black, Indigo, Violet.

All the wires are in the order listed.

## Section 2: Ciphers

You see a small computer screen with an input. You guess that you have to input a certain phrase and this part will become inactive. The code that is given to you is:

KIAQQJJLYDTXIODQFABASWHUOTORB

## Section 3: A Physical Puzzle

You find a section where you only have the ability to input letters. This sections comes with a little note. The note is as shown:

The puzzle seems to be written by hand. You have the ability to input four different letters.

Section 4: A Maze? For this section, you do not need to input something. It seems to be sort of like a unnecessary job to you. But you are not that naive. You know you should probably solve this easily, so here it is.

How do you defuse the bomb and what do you put in each section?

Hints:

You probably do not need many hints on all of the sections other than the cipher. However, I will give a hint for section 3. The hint is: If you look carefully, 2's and 3's are never directly next to each other. Section 1 is sorted by a very common method. Section 4's answer is L=O.

To all those telling me that the cipher is unnecessary and makes the program boring, I put it there for a reason. I know the cipher is hard because it's a multi-cipher (even if you put in the correct text, you will get more ciphered text you need to uncipher). However, it is NOT random. The cipher includes parts of the answers to each section, showing me that you understand why and how each section is right. Until then, keep kabooming! :)

• I might add a bounty to this one in 2 days. – Azync Mar 28 '18 at 22:09
• Give a little time for these puzzles. They could take a while, who knows? – Anthony Pham Mar 28 '18 at 22:10
• @AnthonyPham Yeah, I bet the cipher will take people a while. – Azync Mar 28 '18 at 22:11

Section 1:

Alphabetical Sort
Black, Blue, Brown, Green, Indigo, Magenta, Orange, Purple, Red, Violet, Yellow
BBBGIMOPRVY

Section 2:

KIAQQJJLYDTXIODQFABASWHUOTORB
Vigenere with key from 1 (BBBGIMOPRVY) = jhzkixvwhivwhnxitmmjxygtnngfn
need to figure out section 3
Caesar cipher with L=O (-3):

Section 3:

3 1 4 2
2 4 1 3
4 ? ? 1
? ? 1 3
Hints: position, 1s are diagonal, 2 not next to 3, 2 not next to 2
Observations: 3s not next to 2s, 4s diagonal
Idea: not a clue

Section 4:

The solution to the maze looks like L=O

Is Section 1 just:

Alphabetical?
So:
Black, Blue, Brown, Green, Indigo, Magenta, Orange, Purple, Red, Violet, Yellow

• Maybe, or maybe not? I cannot give you the answer. But for now, it has not gone kaboom. – Azync Mar 29 '18 at 13:38

Section 2: (attempt)

Based on the section 1 answer, I ordered the cipher in alphabetical order BBDFGGHHIJMMMOOOPQRRSUVWYYYZZ and removed the letters of the colours and duplicates (B,G,I,M,O,P,R,V,Y) to get DFHJQSUWZ which in Caesar cipher goes to CEGIPRTVY?!? Just putting it out there for others...

Section 3:

Attempt 1 (dead): Are the numbers:

3 1 4 2
2 4 1 3
4 2 3 1
2 4 1 3

Reasoning:
1. The second row and fourth row matches based on the 3rd,4th columns example
2. All rows have unique numbers
3. (Theory needs work) R3C4->R1C4->R1C1->R3C1=>1->2->3->4; so I applied the same pattern for R1C2->R3C2->R3C3->R1C3=>1->2->3->4

Attempt 2: Are the numbers:

3 1 4 2
2 4 1 3
4 3 2 1
2 4 1 3

Reasoning:

The numbers do not occupy their numbered position (i.e) 1 is not in 1st column, 2 is not in 2nd column and so on...

So am I alive for now or dead?

• Kaboom! I will help you out. Rather than worrying about rows and columns, try to relate the position of the numbers. – Azync Mar 29 '18 at 11:25
• To clarify my hint to you, take the case of two. In the picture, no 2 is ever directly next to another 2. What are the cases for 1, 3, and 4? – Azync Mar 29 '18 at 11:28
• @Azync Attempt 2 added. Tell me if the bomb isn't off! :D – Nikhil Eshvar Mar 29 '18 at 14:40
• Section 2 is completely wrong, there is no reorganization, just a cipher. Also, to solve section 2, you need to solve all other sections first. – Azync Mar 29 '18 at 16:15
• So pretty much kaboom because you input the wrong thing for both parts. You have to a permutation of letters in, not random numbers – Azync Mar 29 '18 at 16:25

PARTIAL ANSWER (not even complete just a thought for others)

Section 2 solves section 1: Cipher has letters that correspond to colours of the wires, Take out non-matching letters in the cipher, Take out duplicate occurances where you need to (cause you can't cut a wire twice) Cut the wires in the order you have. My only thought here is what happens to the B's and the missing B for black/blue/brown.
Example:
IGYOOHHJWBRVGMBODYZYQUFSMRMPZ
turns into
IGYOOBRVGMBOYYMRMP
which turns into
IGYOBRVMBP
cut accordingly, indigo, green, yellow, orange, [black/blue/brown], red, violet, magenta, [black/blue/brown], purple

• Based on the question, we need to cut all the colors... So there needs to be 3 B's... – Nikhil Eshvar Mar 29 '18 at 12:27
• thats what i figured. out of the box thinking for you anyway – L_Church Mar 29 '18 at 12:29
• Actually section 1 is one of the easiest. You used this sorting in school a lot. – Azync Mar 29 '18 at 13:00
• Ah... Well I guess i'm completely off the rails. :) – L_Church Mar 29 '18 at 13:01
• It's more about section 1 solving section 2 – Azync Mar 29 '18 at 13:01

## section 1:

common color scheme based on wavelength: Red,Orange,Yellow,Green,Blue,Indigo,Violet,Purple,Magenta,Brown,Black

## section 4:

drawing path from start to end. path looks like letter 'E' and it's mirror image gives number '3'

Thoughts so far...

Section 1 seems all-but-confirmed to be alphabetical
Section 2 must apparently be solved last?
Section 3...I've got no idea (but it's looking for letters, not numbers).
Section 4, if you follow the maze to the open area then go straight up, left, and down (into the final stretch), the remaining empty spaces look maybe like letters (L, O, and J, all of which are in Section 2).

• Okay, I am getting impatient by some of these answers so section 4 is L=O. use that at your discretion. – Azync Apr 6 '18 at 0:09

Here's a thought about section 1, just in case it isn't alphabetical:

Red, Orange, Blue, Green, Purple, Yellow, Magenta, Brown, Black, Indigo, Violet.

And the OP's comment I'm referring to:

"Actually section 1 is one of the easiest. You used this sorting in school a lot."

Maybe it is just the arranged in shades? Not the wavelength, like how crayons would be arranged in a crayon box. I was trying to loosely follow this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colors_by_shade but I struggled with where to begin and where to end. It only helps with how to group the colours.

Alternatively,

If it really isn't the alphabets, it might be word length. Similar to how children are arranged height wise. Probably thinking too much. So Red, Blue and so on so forth.

The second option I've given is more in line with OPs second comment:

"Hint: How were students often sorted? "

This particular hint probably makes my second option better than the common, alphabet one, since even adults are arranged in alphabetical order for any attendance or whatever, but you don't see...

adults being arranged height wise. Therefore the word length reasoning may make more sense.

New here, so apologies in advance!

• (hint hint nudge nudge the guy who guessed alphabetical, it didn't explode on him) – Azync Apr 6 '18 at 23:18

For section 1:

Cut the wires in the order that they appear in the rainbow? It seems too simple but then again....

• Alright then I guess thats just too stupid. – StealthyPanda Apr 5 '18 at 13:04