MIT Aquarium Puzzle Hunt

The MIT Aquarium Puzzle Hunt is an annual puzzlehunt written for MIT's incoming first-year undergraduates, intended for solvers with little-to-no experience with puzzles. It takes place on the last day of orientation week at the New England Aquarium.

The hunt began in 2012. From 2012 to 2019, the huntrunners were students associated with Safety Third, a wing in Next House. Since 2021, the MIT Mystery Hunt / Puzzle Club writes and runs the Aquarium Puzzle Hunt.

Are you an MIT student interested in helping with the hunt? We'd always appreciate more help! Check out the Puzzle Club page for more info on joining Puzzle Club.

Archive

• The 2023 Aquarium Puzzle Hunt asked teams to help Ariel's friends think of a gift to give her.
• The 2022 Aquarium Puzzle Hunt asked teams to help Patrick make Spongebob feel better.
• The 2021 Aquarium Puzzle Hunt asked teams to discover the secrets of the Coral League, a group of eight universities.
• The Aquarium Puzzle Hunt did not run in 2020.
• The 2019 Aquarium Puzzle Hunt asked teams to solve some puzzles written through a cultural scholarship program.
• The 2018 Aquarium Puzzle Hunt asked teams to retrieve the Eternal Glove from the Most Evil Tenured Academic.
• The 2017 Aquarium Puzzle Hunt asked teams to play the spiciest Friday night activity of Jeopardy.
• The 2016 Aquarium Puzzle Hunt asked teams to play 20 Questions to save Tim the Beaver.
• The 2015 Aquarium Puzzle Hunt asked teams to save MIT's scholarship fund, Inception-style.
• The 2014 Aquarium Puzzle Hunt asked teams to uncover the True and Verified Secret to Happiness by following a mysterious travel log.
• The 2013 Aquarium Puzzle Hunt asked teams to help bring McFly Portal Enterprises's customers back home.
• The 2012 Aquarium Puzzle Hunt asked teams to reverse an apocalypse with the help of the Penguin Federation.