Locus

I happen to know that Boaz has never made a bad puzzle in his life… so when he launched Locus I joined the queue to purchase a copy and less than a week later I had a shiny new puzzle lock in my hands.

There’s the familiar black drawstring pouch with Boaz’ logo embroidered on it, a separate key and an info card giving you the rules and the goal: no excess force and open the lock(!). The lock has its name etched on the back (useful if you own more than a couple of tricked-out Nabob padlocks!) and there appears to be one little modification on this particular lock, but no apparent means of making that helpful.

Unless you’re the deeply cynical sort, you’re first line of attack is probably going to be inserting the key and turning it… and that appears to be vaguely useful, although not entirely so: the shackle will move a little, but not nearly enough to allow you to remove it… and while just yanking it at this point would probably classify as excessive force, it’s also not any use whatsoever. [I just know, OK… I would never do that to an innocent little puzzle!]

At this point, dear puzzler, you haven’t even really started…

Boaz reckons this puzzle uses something that’s never been seen in a puzzle lock before, and while I definitely haven’t seen every single puzzle lock out there, I suspect that he’s right…

There is a particularly brilliant “A-Ha!” moment when something unusual happens and once you’ve convinced yourself you haven’t broken anything, you’ll be well on your way to solving this guy. Each step is wonderfully positive – there’s no faffing around blindly in the dark – and I’d like to bet that you’ll agree with Boaz’ assertion: that is new!

Yup, Boaz’ record is safe: he’s never made a bad puzzle in his life!