this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
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Dull Men's Club

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I’d like to ask the good people of this community that, if you do know the solution or figure it out, that you not share the answer here. Feel free to announce your success, but there’s something to be said for discovering the answer completely unaided, even if it takes years.

It’s embarrassingly obvious once you see it though.

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[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 1 points 21 minutes ago

Figured it out. Not sure what everyone means by a second obvious solution that doesn't work on the last one. My first solution that works on more than one works on all of them.

[–] thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think I figured it out, but it's so easy that I don't think that could possibly be it. But it is, apparently.

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[–] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 74 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Ever play the game Myst? As a kid that's exactly how it was. Days of banging my head and then a rush of finally figuring something out. Really miss that

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 6 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I recommend Outer Wilds then.

Go in as blind as possible. They recommend a controller over mouse and keyboard and they mean it. The DLC is just as good as the base game, but I'd tackle it after doing the main objective.

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[–] gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Loved that game and every game in that series. Part of the fun was being dropped into this world with no clues and just having to feel your way around.

I admit that I surrendered after a while and got a walkthrough, which was followed by several hours of, “Oh for fucks sake I could have figured that out!”

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[–] flyhunter@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Take a look on tunic, but it comes with some combat action, which may not be what you are looking for.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 4 points 2 days ago

You can turn that down and I highly recommend doing so.

I found the combat to be quite obnoxious.

[–] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've looked at Tunic before but it always looked more like Zelda to me. I dunno why but I've always bounced off Zelda.

[–] flyhunter@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I don't like Zelda games myself but loved tunic. The puzzles are completely different than Zelda, much more interesting. The other commenter mentioned you can tone the combat down. Maybe worth a try if it is on sale.

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[–] AppearanceBoring9229@sh.itjust.works 70 points 2 days ago (1 children)

For everyone saying it's the difference between the two numbers, it's not it. Because the last one should be 8 to follow the rule

[–] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

Oh shit, I thought it was OP just being a dummy. Turns out I'm the dummy

[–] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 10 points 2 days ago

I figured it out took about 10 minutes, thought i was onto it immediately until I had 8 at the end haha

[–] TorstenTyp@feddit.nu 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ah, typo is short for typographical error. I’v never realized that before.

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[–] Jilanico@lemmy.world 55 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Figured it out. Weirdly, knowing you solved it made me confident I could too, and I don't even know you 🤔

spoilerI focused on the anomaly ignoring the rest, tried to see what possible rules could lead to it, then went back to see which rule also applied to the "non-anomalous" numbers.


[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 36 minutes ago* (last edited 35 minutes ago)

Yes, the hint that the answer was obvious once you knew it was extremely helpful.

I'm not that quick with math, so knowing that the answer was going to be simple helped a lot. Every time I had an idea that was too complicated, I shelved it and kept looking for something that might be simpler.

It also helped that I was a camp counselor, and one of our survival techniques was to have riddles with simple rules that the counselors were able to operate very easily, but which the kids used lots of brain power to try to figure out.

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 38 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] justanotheruser4@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Once I saw a video about Mario Kart speedrunning history and there was a record on Rainbow Road that lasted for years. Than someone broke it but just told the community without showing how it was done. In a couple of days someone else figured it out and did it too. Sometimes we just need to know it is possible

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[–] gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 43 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Free clue: It’s not 15. That solution doesn’t work for the bottom numbers, and it’s very clearly stated that the 7 is not a typo.

Edit: What makes this puzzle so good is that it tempts you with an “obvious” solution that works with all but the last set, but there’s an equally obvious solution that does fit every set, if you can shake yourself free of the fist one.

[–] BlackVenom@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago

Thanks but I'll ignore the last set and win

(╯°-°)╯︵ ┻━┻

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[–] arsCynic@piefed.social 36 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)
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[–] Enkrod@feddit.org 28 points 2 days ago (17 children)

Hah, took me nearly a minute.

Tap for spoilerAdd the digits on both sides.

? = 12

But I only got it so quickly because I enjoyed a similar puzzle once.

1
11
21
1211
111221
312211
...

continue the series.

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[–] alejandra@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I love puzzles like this—the rule always seems obvious after you see it. It’s satisfying when something that sits in the back of your mind for years finally clicks.

[–] skulkbane@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (2 children)

Oh i see,

Its

solution12

You add up the digits.

(7+2)+(9+9)=9+18=27

9+(4+5)=9+9=18

(1+8)+(3+9)=9+12=21

(2+1)+(3+6)=3+9=12

3+(2+8)=3+10=13

(1+3)+(2+1)=4+3=7

Yay

[–] tamal3@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)
[–] skulkbane@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Looks like this for me?

Moved it down a line is it better?

[–] tamal3@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

It didn't help but I appreciate you trying. I think this is the moment I realize Sync is so wildly unsupported that it can't read spoiler tags. Sigh. That's on me.

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[–] thinkercharmercoderfarmer@slrpnk.net 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What the heck man I have things to do today.

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[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Took me about 20 minutes. There's a rule you find first that would work if the 7 was an 8. But it isn't. So there's another rule.

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[–] emeralddawn45@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The number of comments in this thread where people confidently declare they solved it with the wrong answer is absolutely baffling. Especially since it literally calls out the exception to that 'solution' in the post itself. Did those people not even look at the 7? That's the real strength of this puzzle, making idiots who think they're geniuses loudly prove their stupidity.

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[–] Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 days ago

Wow so easy, I got this in negative 4 second, literally 4 seconds before I even saw the puzzle. Of course I'm not going to share the solution here because I don't want to ruin It, but I definitely got it.

[–] M137@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Wow, I just woke up and saved this to have a nice puzzle to work on for a while but I figured it out in like a minute... Kinda disappointed that happened to be honest.

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[–] ComicalMayhem@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Got it. Very misleading puzzle, haha.

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[–] rrrurboatlibad@lemdro.id 6 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I figured it out in about 3 minutes. I think I'm autistic or something

[–] matlag@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Took me a bit more and I'm not autistic. But: see below.

Hint that helped meReading op claiming he figured it by just looking at it and not making complicated calculations on a piece of paper probably helped a lot.

[–] BetterDev@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago

Same... My brain was hungry for a puzzle to dig into and now its already over. Big sad.

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