Usurper Mania! The Madness is Finally Over!

by Hornet8888, retnuah, & Hobbit000

Usurper - Picking My Brain

After watching Usurper grow and pick at my brain figuring it out, I'd like to share exactly how I solved this tricky puzzle. The Usurper puzzle was based on a common type of puzzle called Logic. Therefore, Logic is the best way to solve this.

For details, including all the clues of the game, go here.

Now to the solving. We will consider what everybody ate. We are trying to establish what Advisor Wessle ate. Senator Palpus had the Tut Trout(5), so no one else could have eaten it. A female guest had the Fried Ummagine(2). Advisor Wessle had one course less than whoever had the Cheops Omelette(3), therefore, he did not have the Cheops Omelette. The guest who had the Grakle Stew burped throughout the meal, but we know that Advisor Wessle's bad habit was Messy Eating. The only food left is the Sphinx Links.
- Advisor Wessle had the Sphinx Links.
- The female guests ate the Cheops Omelette, the Fried Ummagine and the Grakle Stew.

Now we try to discover who the murderer is. The murderer was the guest that was sniffing(N). The guest that was sniffing had four courses(1).
- The murderer is the sniffing guest with 4 courses.

Now we will consider how many courses went with each food. The Fried Ummagine, eaten by a female guest had 2 courses. Consider Advisor Wessle and his Sphinx Links. He had one less course than whoever had the Cheops omelette(3). So he did not have 5 courses, other wise the Cheops Omelette would of had 6, which is not possible. Likewise, he Cheops Omelette could not have been eaten for one course. The sniffing guest had 4 courses, but Advisor Wessle was the Messy eater. The only remaining possibilities are that Advisor Wessle had 1 or 3 courses. So the guest who had the Cheops Omelette must have had 2 or 4 courses. But the FriedUmmagine was eaten for two courses.
- The Cheops Omelette was eaten for 4 courses.
- Advisor Wessle, the Messy Eater had the Sphinx Links for 3 courses.

Remember that the murderer had 4 courses.
- The murderer, the Sniffer had the Cheops Omelette for 4 courses.

Senator Palpus had the Tut Trout, Advisor Wessle had the Sphinx Links and Senator Barca did not have the Cheops Omelette. The murderer is one of the Princesses.
- The murderer princess, the sniffer, had the Cheops Omelette for 4 courses.

Now we consider meal eaten against bad habit. The Sphinx Links was connected to Messy Eating. The Cheops Omelette was connected to Sniffing. The Grakle Stew was connected to Burping.
- The Fried Ummagine and the Tut Trout were connected to Loud Talking and Shifty-Looking. But we know that Senator Palpus, the Tut Trout eater was not the loud talker(5).
- The Fried Ummagine is connected with Loud Talking.
- Senator Palpus, the Shifty-looker, had the Tut Trout.

Next, we consider courses against bad habit and guest. Advisor Wessle, the Messy Eater, had the Sphinx Links for 3 courses. A female guest, the loud talker, had the Fried Ummagine for 2 courses. The murderer princess, the sniffer, had the Cheops Omelette for 4 courses. So the shifty-looker and the burper had 1 or 5 courses. But we know that the shifty-looker had more than 1 course(4).
- Senator Palpus, the shifty-looker, had the Tut Trout for 5 courses.
- The female guest that Burped had Grakle Stew for 1 course.

Now we will determine who ate the Grakle Stew. We have established the details of the male guests already, so they are not considered. We also know that the Grakle Stew was eaten for 1 course. Princess Sankara did not eat the Grakle Stew(2). Senator Barca had more than 1 course(4).
- Princess Vyssa, the Burper, had the Grakle Stew for 1 course.

Senator Barca did not eat the Cheops Omelette(1).
- Senator Barca, the Loud Talker, had the Fried Ummagine for 2 courses.
- Princess Sankara, the Sniffer had the Cheops Omelette for 4 courses.

FINAL RESULT:
- Princess Vyssa: Grakle Stew 1 course Burping
- Senator Palpus: Tut Trout 5 courses Shifty Looks
- Advisor Wessle: Sphinx Links 3 courses Messy Eater
- Senator Barca: Fried Ummagine 2 courses Spoke Loudly
- Princess Sankara: Cheops Omelette 4 courses Sniffing

And the murderer is, the Sniffer, PRINCESS SANKARA. I'm sure that there were other ways to solve this but I did it this way.

by Hornet8888

Berserk for Usurper

What's the trick behind solving mystery games? This article will give you some help at being a super sleuth.

"Usurper?"

"Help! Usurper!"

"Does anyone know who did it?"

Those are just a few of the many messages on the message boards Thursday night and all day Friday. People were rampaging the chat boards to talk about the mystery game sensation.

For those of you who are unaware, Usurper was a game where the King of Sakhmet was murdered by one of five characters: Princess Vyssa, Senator Palpus, Advisor Wessle, Senator Barca, and Princess Sankara. It was our job to find out not only who murdered the king, but the habits of each suspect, how many courses of food each ate, and what each character ate. A series of clues were given out throughout the week which were to be used to solve the mystery.

To go about solving a mystery such as this, it is helpful to make a chart. For this mystery, chart with six rows and six columns could be made. Then, in the first column you could list the names of the characters starting with the second row and going down. Then, by listing the bad habits, courses, or food across the first row starting with the second column, the chart is complete. Here is an example chart that has been completed with the correct information marked with circles. Combinations that are wrong are marked with an X.

Now all you have to do is go through the clues and mark on the chart combinations of the puzzle that you know are true or not true. For example, one of the clues said that Senator Palpus ate the Tut Trout. Knowing this, you could mark on the chart on the space where Senator Palpus and the Tut Trout meet. Then you could say that no one else ate the Tut Trout AND that Senator Palpus ate nothing else; so now you can cross off those spaces on the chart!

But don't think that NeoPets was just going to give us all the clues needed to solve the mystery! By putting some clues in the Neopedia articles, we were able to be more informed of the characters and thus make educated assumptions. For example, Advisor Wessle's Neopedia article states that his favourite food is "Anything that makes a really big mess." From this you could conclude that Advisor Wessle has the bad habit of being a messy eater and mark the chart accordingly.

Another way to find out certain information is to use logic and combine certain clues. As another example, a clue in the Neopedia article about the King revealed that the murderer was the person who was constantly sniffing. By looking at the first clue given, it says the person who was sniffing constantly had four courses of food. Therefore, you can conclude that the murderer had a bad habit of sniffing AND had four courses of food. This really narrows down your choice for the murderer a lot. Doing this type of deduction can be very helpful in giving you an extra edge against other people who may not notice it.

What's the point of this? Well, the winners received prizes, which include 2 million Neopoints to the first ten to submit the correct answers, and a rare artifact to the first 100. So as you can see, well worth going about solving the mystery... so long as your quick enough to submit your answers that is.

If there is ever another mystery game such as Usurper, it will be much easier if you use logic when considering the clues, and making a chart can be a very beneficial way to organize your data and be able to submit it with ease. Hopefully, this article will help you to be a little more acquainted with this type of game, and help you more efficiently solve future mysteries. Good luck!

by retnuah

The Aftermath of Usurper

What is an Usurper and where do I find one? When is the fifth clue coming out? What are the embedded clues in the Neopedia? What did Advisor Wessle eat?

Just an example of the maelstrom of questions on the NeoPets chat boards when Usurper went into it's final day. I was there to witness the confusion, mayhem, as well as yelling, screaming, and the general havoc of the boards. Just about everyone was looking for the answers to the puzzle before the fifth clue was released, and some even knew (or guessed) at the answer, asking for codestones and faeries if Neopians wanted the answers.

Unfortunately, those who thought they knew the answer before the fifth clue might not have been that successful. Mainly, the questions were "What did Wessle eat" and "What did Palpus eat"? I was almost sure that Wessle dined on the Tut Trout, but if many turned a cold shoulder to those who thought they knew the answer found out that indeed Palpus had the Tut Trout. I almost fell victim to guessing before the final clue was released, but I didn't lose any of my valuables. Another Neopian and I had a discussion. That person was smart, yes, but as we revealed our answers to each other, we both assumed that Wessle had the Trout.

Again, after the final clue was released, every follower of Usurper found that Palpus ate the Trout, not Wessle. I switched two answers around, and submitted my answers as quickly as I could. All I could do now was wait, and call my sister into the room so she could enter her answers.

Usurper was no doubt a fun game that opened a new chapter in the Lost Desert. I personally thought it was a fun, thinking game, however I was somewhat upset that the message boards would plummet into such mayhem. Some other shared their thoughts on the board, some saying that they were relieved that the "Usurper Madness" was finally over. Perhaps more would have gotten more enjoyment out of solving the puzzle if the fortune of 20 million Neopoints wasn't offered, because you have to face it--a lot of the people seeking the answers on the board, offering codestones and faeries and paintbrushes--were just trying to get richer than they already were.

by Hobbit000