Operation Ice Break

Congratulations, you saved the newly discovered Vietnamese Cave Turtles and are now on your way to stop Operation Saby Beal. Satellite images reveal that V.A.L.A. has placed their camp on the edge of an ice peninsula which gave you an idea: Could you place shape charges in the ice to crack off the peninsula and float the entire V.A.L.A. camp into the frigid north Atlantic? You have four shape charges which can crack the ice 250 m to each side. Each square of the map above is 100 m and you don't want to get closer than 1 km of the camp to avoid detection. At what (x,y) coordinates should you place the charges to crack off the ice peninsula?

Cave Turtles

Congratulations, you escaped from the V.A.L.A. cage before their agents could capture you. You made it to the giant sky light and your plan is to use your A.A.K.V.O. jet pack to rise out of the cave the 200 m up to the surface and radio your waiting helicopter. But on the way you found a new species of cave turtle! You are worried that the two turtles you found will be discovered by the V.A.L.A. agents and eaten. You brought enough fuel in your jet pack to reach the surface plus 20% as a safety margin. You weigh 70 kg, your jet pack weighs 30 kg and each turtle weighs 10 kg. Can you take them with you?

Son Doong Cave

The V.A.L.A. minion was so grateful that you solved the salamander puzzle that he told you the location of the V.A.L.A. Headquarters: a lair deep within Son Doong cave in Vietnam. You followed the map he drew for you and made it to the location he marked. But when you got there, a large metal cage fell on you! Fortunately, you have a new laser watch that can cut through hardened steel! Unfortunately, the four sides of the cage are made with bars of different shapes and sized: squares with 2 cm sides, circles with 2.2 cm diameter, equilateral triangles with 2.9 cm sides, and hexagons with 1.1 cm sides. V.A.L.A. agents are on the way! Which bar should you cut to escape the quickest so you can avoid being captured?

Salamander Challenge

Congratulations, you've uncovered the next V.A.L.A. mission! While waiting to be picked up by an A.A.K.V.O. helicopter, you decided to interrogate a captured V.A.L.A. minion. He claims to know the secret location of V.A.L.A. headquarters but refuses to tell you. However, he boasts that if you can solve the V.A.L.A. Salamander puzzle--a puzzle he's been working on for three years--he will tell you the secret location. Can you solve it and find out how much each salamander is worth in dollars?

V.A.L.A. Sudoku 2.0

Congratulations, you disabled the last truck trying to take a cliff bear! You've completely foiled Operation Biff Clear! Unfortunately, their agents have escaped and now seem to be headed toward a new mission. They have released version 2.0 of V.A.L.A. Sudoku which might have something to do with their new mission. Solve the puzzle to find out.

V.A.L.A. Reminder: Humans Good, Animals Bad!

One Last Truck

Congratulations, you discovered the new road in time! Your plan to trap the convoy between two rock slides worked perfectly. However, one truck left early and has already arrived at the cliff bear den. Through your binoculars, you can see they already have a live cliff bear and they're getting ready to load it onto the truck. You must stop them!

You decide to shoot out two of the tires with your sniper rifle. From the map, you see that you are 1.2 km away from the truck and your bullet travels at 1000 meters per second. Your wind meter tells you the wind is blowing from right to left at 1 meter per second. You are using 0.338 Lapua Magnums which have a cross-sectional area of 5 cm² and weigh 13 grams. From your point of view, the distance between the tires is 4.6 meters. Using the rear tire as a guide, how far to the right should you aim to hit the front tire?

Equation from this paper.

Sudoku Puzzle

(If puzzle below is blank, click on blog link 'Sudoku Puzzle' to open in new window and it should work!)

Congratulations, your HALO jump was successful! When you got on the ground, your partner explained that V.A.L.A. knows their mission is compromised so they're changing the road they're using! They have cleverly embedded the name of the new road into a Sudoku app. You must solve the puzzle to get the location of the new road they will be using!

Code modified from Fourth Woods Blog