Solution to The Great Collapse

Author: Eben Olson

Overview

This puzzle involves folding and combining (addition mod 26) grids of letters to obtain a list of 36 words.

These words can be combined into triplets according to the pattern (WORD, HOMOPHONE, SYNONYM) i.e. (FLOWER, FLOUR, BLOOM).

The 18 words generated by this matching can again be combined in triplets to yield another list of 6 words.

These can be sorted into 3 pairs by the same pattern, and the resulting words can be combined to yield the answer word, OVOID.

Full solution

Solvers are initially presented with the grid below. The dashed red borders suggest folding about those lines. As a further clue, the green dashed boxes highlight a word (TOTAL) which can be found if the top and left grids are folded onto the center.

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Folding the left and top grids onto the center yields

F	E	A	S	T	M	D	Z	J	A	O
X	C	V	D	D	Q	L	T	W	X	T
U	Y	Y	Y	K	Q	A	K	H	Q	M
G	C	A	N	T	I	C	L	E	H	B
M	Y	X	E	X	F	K	P	N	J	H
Y	S	U	U	H	L	S	K	Z	H	I
R	T	O	T	A	L	D	T	K	T	M
V	L	C	Q	U	Q	S	X	J	X	H
O	N	H	L	L	O	O	S	E	Z	J
K	U	J	L	Q	D	M	B	G	Q	P
O	Y	Z	F	O	Y	E	R	X	Z	P

Contained in this grid are these words: CANTICLE CYST DYNE FEAST FOYER HAUL HIM LACKS LOOSE SOME TOTAL WHEN

Folding the left and right grids onto the center yields

N	G	S	Q	I	O	C	V	W	H	H
X	W	W	P	O	L	L	U	T	E	S
J	V	W	E	X	W	T	V	Q	A	V
M	P	E	A	C	E	B	D	N	R	Z
R	H	Q	S	U	R	F	P	G	T	H
U	G	M	A	V	Z	F	O	W	L	S
E	M	Q	N	Q	Q	Q	R	M	C	T
D	D	J	T	W	I	S	T	Z	W	A
I	Y	M	N	B	T	G	I	U	K	G
U	N	C	I	V	I	L	O	F	Z	V
A	X	C	Q	O	R	I	N	G	P	F

Contained in this grid are these words: FOWLS HEART PEACE PEASANT POLLUTES PORTION RING RUED STAG SURF TWIST UNCIVIL

Folding the top and right grids onto the center yields

W	H	A	C	K	Q	A	X	F	F	P
R	P	X	P	N	A	D	K	U	H	A
A	B	M	Y	V	K	V	V	L	A	I
P	K	V	D	L	I	A	R	Y	R	R
K	G	J	G	K	H	N	H	J	P	E
L	O	N	E	V	Z	C	J	V	X	D
Z	Q	C	X	B	Z	E	W	F	C	R
S	Q	H	L	V	D	Q	J	B	F	J
W	D	I	G	I	T	D	Y	U	J	D
Q	H	L	J	Q	H	Q	T	O	W	J
Y	K	D	U	E	L	B	X	Y	R	B

Contained in this grid are these words: ADVANCE BUOY CHILD DIGIT DUEL HARP LIAR LONE PAIRED TOW WHACK WRAP

Following the pattern (Homophone, Synonym) → WORD, the following sets of words can be extracted from those found above:

Left & Top

(DYNE, FEAST)	→	DINE
(HAUL, FOYER)	→	HALL
(HIM, CANTICLE)	→	HYMN
(LACKS, LOOSE)	→	LAX
(SOME, TOTAL)	→	SUM
(WHEN, CYST)	→	WEN

Left & Right

(FOWLS, POLLUTES)	→	FOULS
(HEART, STAG)	→	HART
(PEACE, PORTION)	→	PIECE
(RUED, UNCIVIL)	→	RUDE
(SURF, PEASANT)	→	SERF
(RING, TWIST)	→	WRING

Right & Top

(BUOY, CHILD)	→	BOY
(DUEL, PAIRED)	→	DUAL
(LONE, ADVANCE)	→	LOAN
(LIAR, HARP)	→	LYRE
(WRAP, WHACK)	→	RAP
(TOW, DIGIT)	→	TOE

Each of these sets of 6 contains two triplets of equal length. These triplets can be added mod 26 as follows:

LAX	+	SUM	+	WEN	=	BAY
DUAL	+	LOAN	+	LYRE	=	BITE
BOY	+	RAP	+	TOE	=	NET
HART	+	RUDE	+	SERF	=	SANE
FOULS	+	PIECE	+	WRING	=	SPICE
DINE	+	HALL	+	HYMN	=	TIME

This set of 6 words can again be paired by the same rule

(BITE, BAY)	→	BIGHT
(SANE, NET)	→	SEINE
(TIME, SPICE)	→	THYME

Finally, these 3 words can be combined to obtain the answer:

BIGHT

+

SEINE

+

THYME

=

OVOID