Galactic Riddles

IT

Galactic Riddles

Logic and math riddles from all the wrong planets in the galaxy

Explore the planets
The starship Kinesys bursts out of a teleport ring in a flash of light, with Liz at the controls, Dord pointing at a star map, and M00N floating alongside, among colorful planets and a dotted course that misses its destination

Welcome to Galactic Riddles, a collection of logic and math puzzles told as the adventures of a somewhat unlucky starship crew.

Their starship, the Kinesys, has a lightning-fast teleport drive and just one tiny flaw: it always gets the destination wrong. Every trip ends on a different planet from the one planned, and every planet has its own absurd laws and its own riddles to solve before the crew can take off again.

In each episode you’ll find a short story, the puzzle, and a hidden solution: try to solve it on your own before you reveal it. Numbers, measurements, logic, geometry, physics, and paradoxes: pick a planet and blast off.

The latest riddle

  • At the Market of Fair Time on Staterion, among stalls full of hourglasses of every size, Liz holds a big and a small hourglass next to a pot of soup on a camping stove, while Dord waits with a ladle and M00N sniffs the steam

    Two Hourglasses

    Clocks are banned on Staterion, and Dord’s soup has to simmer for exactly 9 minutes. The market will only lend two hourglasses: a 7-minute one and a 4-minute one.

    Try to solve it

The Crew

Liz, the human pilot in an orange spacesuit and boots, breaks into a dance step in midair against a starry sky

Liz

Human pilot, practical and down-to-earth, often exasperated by the absurd situations the crew keeps landing in. When she’s waiting around or stressed out, she loves to break into a little dance in space, even in a spacesuit and even without gravity.

Dord, the gray alien with an elongated head, in a green and purple tunic, arms crossed and looking annoyed

Dord

An alien with a rigid posture and an almost obsessive love of precision. Short-tempered and prone to grumbling, he gets annoyed by any mishap, imperfection, or behavior he considers irrational—which is to say, almost everything.

M00N, the moon-shaped robot with a large glowing eye and a smile, floating above a purple rock platform with her instruction booklet hanging from it

M00N

A tiny floating robot shaped like a moon. She is always upbeat and warm, and manages to cheer everyone up even in the tensest situations.

The Planets

Seven planets, seven local laws, plenty of riddles. Where will the Kinesys take you?

  • Abakos landscape: rods of gigantic abacuses with beads as big as asteroids crossing the sky, abacus-shaped cranes and cardboard boxes, a small island with coconuts, a gold chain, a chessboard with dominoes, a crate of candle stubs with three new candles, and paint buckets with rollers

    Abakos

    Rings of giant abacuses and inhabitants who count and combine everything.

    7 riddles

  • Dynamos landscape: trains, cars, and bicycles racing along elevated roads and tracks, swinging streetlights, a jogging traffic light, gears on the hills, a small island with an airport, and cyclists climbing a mountain

    Dynamos

    The planet in perpetual motion, where nobody ever stands still.

    4 riddles

  • Numerion landscape: mountains topped with giant digits, digits floating in soap bubbles, number-shaped houses with doors and windows, a stadium, the Archive of Numbers, and a bench shaped like a 4

    Numerion

    Floating digits, number-shaped mountains, and inhabitants who speak in numbers.

    6 riddles

  • Paradoxon landscape: hills that turn into valleys, staircases that go up and down at once, a road that wraps around itself, a building that is half café and half library, an impossible triangle, and a tree with an upside-down reflection

    Paradoxon

    A landscape that changes depending on how you look at it.

    2 riddles

  • Polygon landscape: pyramid mountains, cone trees, box-shaped houses, cube clouds raining tiny tetrahedra, a large glowing icosahedron, and the equator, the planet’s only circle, laid out like a monument

    Polygon

    Everything is made of polygons and solids, even the clouds.

    4 riddles

  • Staterion landscape: balance scales as big as hills, steelyards hanging from the clouds, houses balanced on counterweights, hourglasses, pitchers, a public fountain with two jugs of different sizes, and weights scattered over orange ground, with Kinesys flying through the starry sky

    Staterion

    The planet where everything gets weighed, measured, and put on the scales.

    10 riddles

  • Veritas landscape: buildings and trees of clear crystal, a glass house with a big round house-number plate and a bench, three closed doors in a teal meadow, white signposts at a fork in the road, red and white hats on a pedestal, a rope bridge over a ravine, and a water lily on the lake

    Veritas

    Where every inhabitant is a perfect logician and the signs never lie.

    6 riddles