Help Desk

Updates

Update on : Hello time travelers! Thank you again for solving Matt & Emma's Deep-space Disaster. Wrap-up is now available at http://2025.teammatehunt.com/wrapup. The site will be fully functional until at least the end of May. At some point, the site will become static. - teammate

Update on : Thank you for joining us on this adventure with Matt & Emma. Hints and Help Desk are now closed, the achievement board is frozen, and solutions are available. However, you can continue to register teams, solve puzzles, and progress in the hunt. The site will continue to be fully functional until at least the end of April. Please fill out our post-hunt survey. If you have any fun stories to share or questions to ask us, we might include them in wrap-up. We will be releasing wrap-up and stats as soon as they are ready. https://forms.gle/oMffKcVPDUCKyFTv5 - teammate

Update on : Hello puzzling crews! A few announcements as we near the end of the hunt. Hunt Ending: The hunt officially ends on Sunday, April 6, 2025 at 23:59 ET (in less than 24 hours). Afterwards the achievement board will be locked and solutions released, though you can continue progressing through the hunt for the time being. We will release a wrap-up and stats sometime in the near future. Hints and Rocket Boosters: Hints will be open until the hunt ends, but we can’t promise we will get to everything submitted in the last hour. We also added more rocket boosters to certain puzzles over the course of the week. These will continue to be available after the hunt ends, as well as pre-written hints. Good luck with the rest of the hunt! - teammate

Update on : Our hint staff is working real jobs. Pardon the extended hinting times.

Update on : Hello puzzling crews! We hope you are enjoying the Deep-space Disaster so far! Two announcements: Hints: During the week (Mon-Fri), especially overnight, we will have reduced staffing for hints and submissions. Our response times may be severely delayed, reaching hours (our hinters are located in U.S. timezones). We will have increased staffing again on the second weekend of the hunt. Site issues: We apologize for the issues with site connection. We believe we’ve fixed the issues, but please send us a bug report in “Contact HQ” if you are experiencing frequent disconnects or by email if the site is down. Additionally, if you have browser tabs that were open before Sunday 3/30 9am PT, please close or refresh them. -teammate

Update on : Hints are now open for the starting puzzles! You can also activate rocket boosters if you need help getting started on a puzzle. Hints will continue to be available for each puzzle 30 minutes after it unlocks. You may have up to one hint request active at a time. Using rocket boosters does not count as a hint request, but not all puzzles will have rocket boosters. If you have any non-puzzle related questions, you may contact us via the Help Desk.

Update on : Matt and Emma's Deep-space Disaster has begun! Sorry for the tech issues, and thank you to the teams who reported! The comic page should be fixed now. If you still are having issues please reach back out.

Errata

Errata will also appear on the puzzle page.

Erratum on , for Innovation: There are some discrepancies between the text on the cards in the images and the text on the cards in the provided card list. Use the text on the cards in the card list as the correct version.

Erratum on , for Crafty Clouds: A word in the overlay has been changed for correctness.

Erratum on , for Unlocking the Comms Device: The first image has been updated.

Erratum on , for In Due Course: "Brussel sprouts" should read "Brussels sprouts"

Erratum on , for Make Your Own Metapuzzle: GarnetGrouper: By 'Photo ID' I mean 'a photo in a puzzle that solvers have to identify', not 'your actual driver's license.' PLEASE stop sending me pictures of actual government documents.

Erratum on , for Checkmate: The grid and some words have been changed.

Erratum on , for Plot a Course: The erratum has been fixed.

Erratum on , for Black or White or Moon or Sun: A clarification notice about the rules was added.

Erratum on , for Innovation: The alt text has been updated for correctness.

Erratum on , for A Day at a Park: If you reference anything in the course of solving this puzzle, please make sure that it is the most up to date version.

Erratum on , for Starship Battle: The flavortext has been updated to "in reading order (left to right, top to bottom)."

Contact HQ

The hunt has ended, and contact HQ is no longer available.

FAQ

For other questions, check out our About page!

We solved a puzzle! Now what?

Congratulations! You can now submit the answer to the puzzle on the comic page to progress in the story. The answer will appear underneath the puzzle title.

What is the guess limit policy?

For most puzzles, teams will be rate-limited to at most 20 guesses per 24 hours; i.e. each guess refreshes after 24 hours. This is to prevent random guessing, or dictionary attacks that spam too many requests. You may contact us here if you need to request additional guesses. (We expect to grant most requests, unless we find your guess log particularly egregious.)

When do hints unlock? What is a rocket booster?

Hints for a puzzle will become available when that puzzle has been unlocked for 30 minutes. Teams can have at most one hint open at a time.

Some puzzles will also unlock a “rocket booster” after 30 minutes. Activating it will provide extra info to help you get started on the puzzle.

Hints and rocket boosters can be found by clicking the button at the top of a puzzle page. Note that not all puzzles have rocket boosters available.

What if we need help with the comic, or we are stuck on something that isn't a puzzle?

If for any reason you feel stuck, and individual puzzle hints aren't helping, you may contact HQ using the form above.