First off, a note: The patterns change each time and the order of the runes does too. There is no 1 solution to ANY of these puzzles.
Ok, on to business.
There are many of you, I'll bet, who are really anxious to get these caskets open because this is THE way to get runes nowadays because not only are they not so expensive, but you can get any number of them at almost any time without worrying about other people buying and hogging up all the runes. But that one annoying puzzle before you can do this ... I think more then one person reading this knows why they came here.
So, in my 'purely' spare time, I wrote up this guide, complete with pictures, to tell you how to get to ... NOT TELL YOU, PERIOD ... the solutions, so you can learn to figure these mind games on your own.
First things first - The Small Box.
I'm sure many of you know how to do this easily, but for those who don't, this is what you do:
First, let's get us an example.
It's quite simple. You want to make sure that all runes are at a diagonal to each other. For example, look at where the earth runes have to go if they are to follow the diagonal:
Same goes with all the other runes, and once you place them, the order should look like this:
You'll notice the pattern they follow. 2 of the rune sets goes in 1 diagonal direction, and the other 2 sets go in the other. Don't let that confuse you; this puzzle really is extremely easy.
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for:
The Big Box
Again, let's get us an example:
Before we start, notice the runes are already placed in a bit of a pattern. This pattern changes, with placement of runes, usually when you either leave or solve it.
Now, the one rule you HAVE to follow is: NO GUESSING! When you guess, there's a 9 in 10 chance you'll mess up and just be wasting time. But how will we be able to do that without guessing? Well, you'll have to figure out 2 things: Where a rune CAN'T go, and where a rune MUST go. Your best choice in figuring this out is looking for 2 boxes that have the same rune corresponding to one without the rune.
It is tough finding these spaces, so look with 1 rune at a time very carefully. There will always be a place you can put it.
Now, looking at our example, notice those death runes on the bottom left and top right corners. I will draw their paths to where a death rune CAN'T go.
Notice in the bottom right box that there is only 1 remaning space where a death rune can go. This is the MUST space, and when you locate it, don't hesitate. Put the rune there. it is guarenteed to be the right place.
Now, whenever you place a rune, it opens up new possibilities, so you usually will have to scan the board again. Since we placed that death rune there, I have noticed this.
That box was surrounded by boxes with death runes, and after crossing out these paths, I found the death rune MUST in the middle right box.
A quick tip: If you can, try to concentrate on finding all the MUSTS for 1 rune at a time. If you can't find another MUST, then switch to another rune and search again.
Now, after proceeding with this method, I filled up a box with 8 of the 9 runes.
Again, don't hesitate. Find the odd one out, and add it. It will definately help you on future MUST findings. Same thing goes with rows that have 8 out of 9 runes placed in it.
Now, here's a situation that you may fail to notice. Here is a row that is missing 2 of the 9 runes.
Whenever I see this, I look for where the rune CAN'T go in this row. Sometimes it's impossible to detect this, so I would just move on and ignore the row for now. But in this example, I was lucky:
Notice that this row is missing the body rune and the earth rune. However, one of the spaces is inside aa box that ALREADY has a body rune. So the body rune CAN'T occupy that space. So it MUST occupy the other, with the earth rune going into the remaining space.
I went on and did it a bit more, and found another situation that is good to notice:
You'll notice that the fire rune takes up the middle row. However, in the box to the left, the top row is full. That must mean that the fire rune MUST be on the top of the box to the other side. Since there is one space there, I can put the fire rune there, and leave the left box alone until I find out where the fire rune MUST goes there.
Plus, as a bonus, I can add the final rune to the top right box, which will help me find even more MUST's.
To make life simpler, I got all the death runes in a box each by following these rules. Now, I only have 8 more types of runes to worry about.
I finished it easily after (and got a forester, but that's another story). Here's the result to show I didn't do any modifing to make this guide.
Now, believe it or not, these big boxes have difficulty levels. They come up at random, and as the start-off rune patterns. You can change this simply by talking to Ali all over again and asking for another box.
As an example for difficulty, I find getting this pattern very tough, because there aren't very references to help you find the MUST.
However, this pattern I found extremely easy because not only was the board already nearly half-full, but the boxes filled up quick and I was able to get rid of each type of rune quickly.
Well, that's it for my guide. Again, the prices range from 500 - 1000 for the small box, and 30 000 - 45 000 on the big. Happy puzzling.
