Room Escape Artist

^{Well-researched, rational, and reasonably humorous.}

Secret RECON ’21 Phoenix Hints

21 September 2021

1 minute

If you’re a little stuck on the RECON ’21 Phoenix puzzle, here are a few hints courtesy of Rita Orlov of PostCurious.

She is co-delivering a session on the art of hinting called Fun Insurance. You should absolutely watch it. These hints are part of her demo.

These hints escalate in detail:

Hint 1

Do you notice anything that stands out in the phoenix’s flames?

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Hint 2

Among the sparks, there are also 8 distinct shapes.

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Hint 3

The shapes are analogous to ones found in a common cipher.

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Hint 4

The 8 shapes represent letters in semaphore.

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Hint 5

Imagine the semaphore shapes without the flags.

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Hint 6

Read the letters from left to right (clockwise). The first letter is R.

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Solution

The semaphore translates to: “REIGNITE”

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Update 9/21/21: For more on the subject of hinting we hope you’ll check out our interview with Rita Orlov on The Reality Escape Pod.