By Justin Melvin, Michele Pratusevich, David Greenspan, and Elizabeth French
Nuclear Codes puzzle originally by Matt Cleinman
Kitchen puzzle originally by Dave Mattingly
Sema-Three puzzle originally by Sandor Weisz
Fourth Place puzzle originally by Jimmy Williams
Prisoner metapuzzle originally by E & S Lindstrom
Answer: DRUNK ENOUGH

This double-sided jigsaw puzzle features a menu and full pint of beer on the front, and a bunch of fragments of puzzles on the obverse side. The menu has several clues to Puzzled Pint:

  • the logo
  • “You found the location” (so the jigsaw is the “location” puzzle)
  • menu items that clue the months and themes for past Puzzled Pint sets:
    • Apocalyptic Ale (January 2013: Apocalypse)
    • The Silver Stein Stout (February 2016: Shel Silverstein)
    • Flagon Me Down IPA (August 2015: Semaphore)
    • New Home Porter (August 2014: Moving Day)
    • The Number Six Lager (June 2017: The Prisoner)

The entire puzzle is a sort of Puzzled Pint set, using Puzzled Pint puzzles as a data source for instructions.

On the back, there are fragments of versions of each of the puzzles suggested by the menu.

Nametags: “Nuclear Codes” (January 2013). The instructions for the puzzle say that the names all have corresponding military ranks, and that the names are used as Vigenere cipher keys into the fragments:

Rank Name Encoded Answer
ADMIRAL PIETT WC HU
COLONEL MUSTARD AF OL
MAJOR PAYNE LI WI
LIEUTENANT STARBUCK VD DK
ENSIGN IAGO WE OE
SERGEANT SLAUGHTER QX YM
PRIVATE FIRST CLASS TOYNBE HS OE

After decoding and sorting by rank, reading top-to-bottom gives HOW DO YOU LIKE ME.

Grid with letters: This is the “Kitchen” puzzle from Moving Day (August 2014). There is a plant, a table, and an appliance in each row and column, and each plant must have vertical/horizontal line-of-sight to a window and each appliance must have vertical/horizontal line-of-sight to a socket.

S W S
W PLANT M I APP TABLE
S APP PLANT TABLE U N
TABLE D E PLANT APP R S
S S T APP A TABLE PLANT W
W N PLANT TABLE D I APP
APP TABLE N G PLANT S W
S W S

The remaining letters say MISUNDERSTANDINGS.

Octopuses: This is “Sema-Three” from August 2015 (Semaphore). Each picture is a three letter word. If you overlay the semaphore for each, six of the eight possible flag positions will be used. The two remaining positions give a letter for the extraction.

Word Letter
SAW T
JUG H
JON E
ZAP U
GUM P
GUM P
JON E
TAX R
PUG M
VOW A
TAX R
WOK G
PEZ I
JOE N

When the letters are read in the order given in the puzzle, they read THE UPPER MARGIN.

100 words and phrases in boxes: This is “Fourth Place” from the February 2016 (Shel Silverstein) set. The instructions specify that the items are to be grouped in groups of four into categories, in which three of them belong to a smaller set. Take the odd ones out and read the fourth letters:

Category Additional Category Words That Fit Both Categories Odd Word Letter
Works with blue folks… …that are 2D cartoons SMURFS YELLOW SUBMARINE BLUE‘S CLUES AVATAR T
Cow breeds… …that are dairy cows HOLSTEIN JERSEY GUERNSEY BRAHMAN H
Radiohead songs… …that are from OK Computer AIRBAG LET DOWN EXIT MUSIC (FOR A FILM) CREEP E
Women’s clothing… …that are undergarments TEDDY NEGLIGEE SLIP DRESS S
Colors… …that are shades of blue CERULEAN AZURE NAVY ECRU U
Shoes… …that are closed toed LOAFER SNEAKER BOOT FLIP-FLOP P
Soups… …served hot MINESTRONE COCK-A-LEEKIE CHICKEN NOODLE GAZPACHO P
Types of wordplay… …using the letters themselves ANAGRAM ACROSTIC HOMOGRAPH HOMOPHONE O
Animal products… …from the digestive system CATGUT SAUSAGE CASING RENNET IVORY R
Dances… …from the seventies HUSTLE FUNKY CHICKEN YMCA JITTERBUG T
Birds… …that are also MLB teams ORIOLES CARDINALS BLUE JAYS KESTRELS T
Holidays in the US… …that occur on a specific day INDEPENDENCE CHRISTMAS NEW YEARS LABOR O
Months… …with 30 days SEPTEMBER APRIL JUNE MARCH C
Logic puzzles… …that you fill in with numbers KAKURO MORE OR LESS SUDOKU NONOGRAM O
Fruits… …with pits PEACH PLUM MANGO ORANGE N
Languages… …that are Germanic ENGLISH GERMAN SWEDISH PORTUGUESE T
Things that you throw… …that are straight JAVELIN DART SPEAR QUOIT I
African nations… …with a coastline TANZANIA KENYA MOZAMBIQUE RWANDA N
Trees… …that are not conifers ELM MAPLE ALDER SEQUOIA U
Felines… …that are domesticated TABBY MAINE COON SIAMESE TIGER E
Greek gods… …that are not primordial deities ZEUS HADES HESTIA URANUS N
Fabrics… …made from animals SILK WOOL LEATHER VELOUR O
Animal homes… …for birds NEST ROOKERY EYRIE WARREN R
Fictional worlds… …in science fiction EROTICON VI ARRAKIS K-PAX XANTH T
Wind deities… …representing the north wind QEBUI MICTLANPACHECATL WAZIYA ZEPHYR H

Alphabetizing by the first letter of the odd word out, this yields THE SUPPORT TO CONTINUE NORTH.

The meta is the Prisoner Meta (June 2017), “The Tally-Ho”. The meta is not represented graphically on the back side but is only indicated by the menu. Taking the answers from each of the puzzles and putting them in order in the blanks presented in the original puzzle (ordering by year), you get:

C O M E T O T H E G R E E N D O M E
        X   ^               =
H O W D O Y O U L I K E M E
      O             X     *
M I S U N D E R S T A N D I N G S
      =               *     +
T H E U P P E R M A R G I N
      O       ^       +
T H E S U P P O R T T O C O N T I N U E N O R T H
              ^   O   +   *             X       =

The original puzzle selects letters from the solutions into a sort of dropquote and asks solves to “choose letters wisely” from the dropquote.

DTDNTETTDNDDNDDTTET
URUGKNKRUGUUGUUKKNK
TOHONONOTOHTOHHNNON
O^=+X*X^O+=O+==XX*X

The only reasonable phrase that can be made from the dropquote is DRUNK ENOUGH TO HUNT ON. Since the menu says “don’t call in to hunt on”, the answer is DRUNK ENOUGH.