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Dear PSE users and moderators,
I’m new here in PSE, but I really need your help. There was this person who gave me a black envelope consisting 10+1 pages of puzzles, and also a scribble saying: “Find our favorites and you will be accepted to join our ‘pyramid cult’. Feel free to ask for help from your beloved friends on PSE. They will surely guide you into all the truth.” I’m also a newbie on grid puzzles, so, could you please give me any hint to solve these? It’s getting harder and harder later on..
- athin

Jump to the first page: #1 Numberlink | Previous page: #10 Nurikabe


enter image description here


Pyramid Cult's Favorite... (taken from the answer of previous puzzles)

1. Activity: SURFING
2. Camera: INSTAX
3. Car: FERRARI
4. Fruit: CHIKOO
5. Person: FRIEND
6. Places: LOCHANS
7. Shape: SPHERE
8. Skill: STEALTH
9. Stationeries: HOLDERS
10. Topic: FASHION


Special thanks to chaotic_iak for testing this puzzle series!
The PDF format of the series is available here.
Errata: Modify the sixth clue (without changing the answer) to make it more moderate.

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  • $\begingroup$ rot13(vyyhzvangv) related?? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 12:25
  • $\begingroup$ And.. @OmegaKrypton no.. perhaps.. $\endgroup$
    – athin
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 13:56
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    $\begingroup$ Great finale to a great series - ties it all up perfectly! Well done @athin +1 on several of them! $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 19:54

2 Answers 2

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Each of these clues can be answered with three letters.

Not only that, but the three letters appear in order in one of the answers. (For example, one of the puzzle answers is STEALTH, and STL is the answer to the top diamond's clue.) I've written the leftover letters from the answer in blue in the corresponding shapes.
enter image description here

So, what next?

There are three letters remaining in each triangle, and four in each diamond. The natural thing to do next is to assign letters to the sides or corners of those shapes, probably so that sides or corners that contribute to multiple shapes appear in all of them. Doing it for sides would be ambiguous at the corners, but we can do it for vertices:

enter image description here

So the Pyramid Cult's favorite place to chat is THE LAIR OF SPHINX -- and because The Sphinx's Lair is the name of our chatroom, we can guess that their "all-time favorite" is Puzzling.SE itself!

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't quite follow where you get the blue letters from. Could you please give an example of how you got to them? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 22:39
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    $\begingroup$ @GezaKerecsenyi The blue letters come from the ten puzzles' previous answers - they're the leftovers after you remove the three-letter answers. For instance, one of the previous puzzles had the answer "STEALTH". The top diamond had answer "STL" - remove those letters from the word "STEALTH" and you get EATH, which are the blue letters in that diamond. $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 22:41
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    $\begingroup$ Very well done! Also congratulations for solving most puzzles in the series! :D $\endgroup$
    – athin
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 23:01
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Partial answer for the clues

STD: C++ common classes provider
CNS: Brain and spinal cord
RRR: Elementary school trio
DES: Developed by Horst Feistel
SHN: Broadway in San Francisco
???: You are Gay
AHA/OHO/SEE: "What did I tell you?"
???: Manager of intellectual capital
RED: Traffic stopper
ITA: Call --- a day

The next step,

perhaps divide them into columns of 10, each anagrams to a letter

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    $\begingroup$ Could also be std, no? $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 12:49
  • $\begingroup$ I think you actually want something else again for the C++ one, and the last of your three options for "What did I tell you?". $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 13:02

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