Each set of arrows in the puzzle is a causal loop diagram. Causal loop diagrams are a technique for understanding complex systems that originated at MIT.
The first step in solving the puzzle is to realize that the causal loops are all situations from the cartoon series Rick and Morty. Once solvers have this insight, the placement of the variables is much easier to disambiguate, since many of the words were taken directly from transcripts of the show.
There are four sets of loops, and each set contains four loops, for a total of sixteen loops. Each set of loops is followed by a word bank. Solvers need to place the variables from the word bank into each causal loop diagram in a manner that is consistent with a particular episode of Rick and Morty.
There are four or five extra variables in each word bank. In order to help solvers identify the loops correctly, exactly one variable is unused in each of the first four or five rows of every word bank. In rows past the fourth or fifth, all variables are used by the loops.
The correct loops are shown below:
Once all of the loops in a set have been solved, the variables remaining in each word bank acrostic to form one word in a four word clue phrase: INDEX USING PLUS SIGNS
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Using this clue, solvers should be confident that the number of positive links in each of the loops is the appropriate index to use in the extraction. However, most of the loops in the puzzle do not have plus and minus signs assigned to their arrows at the start of the puzzle. Solvers must walk through each loop using causal reasoning and place a plus sign on every link where the variables move in the same direction and a minus sign on every link where the variables move in the opposite direction. Once that is done, solvers can count the plus signs in each loop to reveal the correct index.
Solvers should then notice that the puzzle title replaces several words in a well known movie title. This is exactly the same approach that Rick and Morty takes with their episode titles, cluing the fact that solvers need to identify which Rick and Morty episode each of the loops was drawn from. Indexing into the correct title yields the answer FEDERAL RESOURCES
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Episode Title | Plus Signs | Letter |
---|---|---|
“Get Schwifty” | 9 | F |
“The Ricks Must Be Crazy” | 3 | E |
“Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate” | 6 | D |
“The ABCs of Beth” | 3 | E |
“Morty’s Mind Blowers” | 3 | R |
“Total Rickall” | 4 | A |
“Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind” | 2 | L |
“Ricksy Business” | 1 | R |
“The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy” | 3 | E |
“Raising Gazorpazorp” | 4 | S |
“Something Ricked This Way Comes” | 2 | O |
“Auto-Erotic Assimilation” | 2 | U |
“The Rickchurian Mortydate” | 4 | R |
“Rick Potion #9” | 3 | C |
“The Rickshank Rickdemption” | 3 | E |
“Meeseeks and Destroy” | 4 | S |