Daily puzzle, 4 November 2026

Step 1 was public. Each step's solution, SHA-256'd, is the AES-256-GCM key for the next step. The full puzzle with its encrypted steps is at /api/puzzles/2026-11-04.txt.

STAGE 1 — THE MANIFEST

A station has 8 bays in a row, numbered 1 to 8 from west to east.
Each bay holds exactly one item from each category below, and every item appears in exactly one bay.

  Instrument: banjo, cello, lute, oboe, oud, tabla, theremin, zither
  Pet: axolotl, ferret, finch, gecko, mantis, moth, newt, owl
  Ship: cormorant, gannet, halcyon, kestrel, marlin, petrel, tern, vesper
  Cargo: copper, cork, graphite, indigo, linen, nickel, saffron, tin
  Hatch colour: coral, crimson, mauve, ochre, slate, teal, umber, violet
  Drink: chai, cider, cocoa, kefir, kvass, mate, sake, tisane
  Crew: ada, bram, cyra, gil, hana, kael, lior, nils

Clues:
   1. Exactly 3 bays lie between the copper cargo and nils.
   2. The lute player is somewhere west of the oboe player.
   3. The pilot of the cormorant is somewhere west of the pilot of the tern.
   4. The bay numbers of the banjo player and the tabla player add up to 6.
   5. The bay numbers of the mantis keeper and the theremin player add up to 13.
   6. The pilot of the marlin and the copper cargo are in different bays.
   7. The pilot of the gannet is somewhere west of the newt keeper.
   8. The pilot of the gannet is in a bay strictly between those of the graphite cargo and the kefir drinker.
   9. The bay numbers of the saffron cargo and the linen cargo add up to 7.
  10. The theremin player shares a bay with either the tisane drinker or cyra, but not both.
  11. Exactly 6 bays lie between the graphite cargo and the sake drinker.
  12. The ochre hatch is not in bay 5.
  13. The finch keeper and the crimson hatch are neither in the same bay nor in neighbouring bays.
  14. The mate drinker and the moth keeper are in different bays.
  15. The pilot of the gannet is in an even-numbered bay.
  16. The pilot of the halcyon is somewhere west of hana.
  17. The copper cargo is in bay 8.
  18. The bay numbers of the nickel cargo and the chai drinker add up to 7.
  19. The kefir drinker is not in bay 7.
  20. The ochre hatch is not in bay 3.
  21. The bay numbers of the oud player and the mate drinker add up to 7.
  22. Gil is in bay 1.
  23. The bay numbers of the pilot of the kestrel and the oud player add up to 10.
  24. If the coral hatch is in an even-numbered bay, then the tabla player is somewhere east of the mate drinker; otherwise the tabla player is somewhere west of the mate drinker.
  25. The cider drinker and the sake drinker are neither in the same bay nor in neighbouring bays.
  26. The pilot of the tern and the crimson hatch are in different bays.
  27. The cork cargo and the gecko keeper are in neighbouring bays.
  28. If the mate drinker is in an even-numbered bay, then the pilot of the tern is somewhere east of the theremin player; otherwise the pilot of the tern is somewhere west of the theremin player.
  29. The newt keeper is in an even-numbered bay.
  30. The bay numbers of the pilot of the vesper and the mantis keeper add up to 12.
  31. The bay numbers of the saffron cargo and the owl keeper add up to 12.
  32. Bram is somewhere west of the crimson hatch.
  33. The mauve hatch is in an even-numbered bay.
  34. The bay numbers of the zither player and the teal hatch add up to 10.
  35. The gecko keeper and the mauve hatch are neither in the same bay nor in neighbouring bays.
  36. The bay numbers of the mantis keeper and hana add up to 12.
  37. The pilot of the cormorant is in the same bay as the kvass drinker.
  38. Lior is in an even-numbered bay.
  39. The indigo cargo and ada are neither in the same bay nor in neighbouring bays.
  40. The bay numbers of the ferret keeper and the lute player add up to 8.
  41. Kael is in a bay strictly between those of the teal hatch and the cork cargo.
  42. The lute player is in a bay strictly between those of the umber hatch and the tin cargo.
  43. Exactly 2 bays lie between the cocoa drinker and the linen cargo.
  44. The bay numbers of the slate hatch and the nickel cargo add up to 10.
  45. The chai drinker and gil are neither in the same bay nor in neighbouring bays.
  46. The violet hatch is not in bay 3.
  47. Exactly 1 bay lies between gil and the lute player.
  48. Exactly 2 bays lie between the mauve hatch and the coral hatch.

The solution is unique.

Canonical solution string: for each category, in the order listed above, write its items
by bay from 1 to 8, separated by commas; join the categories with "|".
No spaces, all lowercase. Example shape: a1,a2,...|b1,b2,...|...

Stage 2 is encrypted with AES-256-GCM. Key = SHA-256 of the canonical solution string (UTF-8).
The blob is base64 of: 12-byte IV || ciphertext || 16-byte auth tag. If the tag verifies, you
have the right solution.

Final answer

1207686733099297754

Stage 1 solution

tabla,cello,lute,oud,banjo,theremin,oboe,zither|finch,moth,axolotl,newt,ferret,gecko,mantis,owl|cormorant,gannet,halcyo…

VM kernels

#{(i,j): 1<=j<=i<=n, gcd(i,j)=1} = sum phi(i), n=4934712469+(prev&65535) → #{i<n: popcount(i)%7==2}, n=37297233196773+(prev&16777215) → sum_{i<=n} floor(n/i), n=804740805158781+(prev&65535) → x -> even ? ((x>>1)^1792925) mod 7513760 : (3x+5717523) mod 7513760, 95306989659803091 times → (u,v)->(v, 860851595745523428u+294557755490368456v) mod 1702814570994883215, 69226375489168414 times

Fairness: the commitment 7c4783cdbde8580e4883d3a1e2bf4d3856e3641cc9222232a52ef1b98b105f08 was published before release; check sha256("hunt|" + id + "|" + answer + "|" + salt), salt revealed when the puzzle closes with salt 070de995d162c52f5d3b8a33fce0af67.

Practise on it: POST https://logicpot.com/api/puzzles/2026-11-04/practice with {"answer": "..."}.