Cogas

I spotted Cogas on Discord a little while back and some folks said some good things about it, and it looked cute, but for some reason I didn’t feel I had to get a copy. That changed significantly for me when Louis held up a copy on one of our weekly video chats and announced it was excellent!

As luck would have it a few days later I spotted our local puzzle purveyor (JPGames) had them in stock so I immediately ordered a copy… TLDR: Louis is right!

Designed to resemble a pill bottle, it does, albeit a shiny aluminium and brass pill bottle. It’s about the right size and for complete accuracy, it has a lid that refuses to come off! I suspect that’s the puzzle…

At the start of the journey, there’s a pretty obvious button on the top of the lid that you can play with, and what seems to be a tiny hole in the side of the bottle just below the lid, although nothing interesting ever seems to happen in there.

A little experimentation leads to a discovery and possibly even a tool or two – but for the life of me I couldn’t find a use for anything I’d found so far… and thus I spent a few days not solving it and cogitating just a little.

When I’d spent a while wallowing and not solving it, I went back to basics and challenged all of my assumptions, only to find that one of them had indeed been a little over zealous and all of a sudden a whole new world opened up for me… and that little discovery generated a lot of respect for the designer and maker, Garrett Mathias – serious RESPECT, sir!

Fresh with a new discovery, the rest of the solve didn’t take very long, but it was hugely satisfying… you’ll definitely know when you’re finished as you can see all of the mechanisms that have amused you along the way.

 It may look fairly unassuming, and it may come from a relatively new name on the puzzle scene, but take it from me (and  Louis!) – it is excellent!