BAPHL is the Boston Area Puzzle Hunt League, a recurring series of puzzle hunts in the Boston area.
Teams of 4–6 are given challenging puzzles that require various logical, lateral-thinking, and creative skills to solve. There is also an element of exploration which requires teams to visit certain locations during the completion of the event.
BAPHL 24 will have two separate identical instances — Saturday, August 9, 2025, and Sunday, August 10, 2025, both from 10 AM – about 5:30 PM. Teams can participate on either Saturday or Sunday.
The route will be outdoors, and will start and end near the Arsenal Yards Mall in Watertown. Solvers should expect to walk around 3 miles over the course of the route. More specifics will be given to registered teams in the week leading up to the event.
Registration is open now! The number of teams is limited, and we will be assigning slots on each day on a first-come-first-serve basis, so make sure that you register ASAP!
We will be closing registration at 11:59 PM EDT on Sunday, August 3rd or when we hit our team limit, whichever comes first, so don’t wait!
If you register and pay for BAPHL 24 and then find that you are unable to make the event, we will do our best to replace your team with another team from the waitlist. If we are able to do so, we would be happy to refund your registration fee. However, if we are unable to do so, we will not be able to issue a refund.
There will be two divisions: Normal and Hard.
If you’ve never done any full-day puzzle hunts before, you really have a goal of finishing, or if you’re coming from Puzzled Pint, then Normal mode is for you — we’ll make sure to provide more guidance and hints so that you can keep solving and having fun.
Hard mode is aimed at folks with more experience with longer puzzle hunts such as the MIT Mystery Hunt, Puzzle Boat, or past BAPHLs.
BAPHL 24 will consist of approximately 20 puzzles of potentially wildly varying lengths. Puzzle difficulty is always hard to estimate, but we expect that the hunt as a whole will be on par with the difficulty of past BAPHLs.
We recommend planning to spend all day on the hunt. Our ending location has some great hangout spots, so there will be opportunities to sit and socialize with other participants if you finish early. And if you’re concerned about finishing, we will have volunteers available all day who are eager to provide as much or as little help as required or desired for you to accomplish your goals.
You’ll want lots of solving supplies — paper, pencils, scissors, tape, highlighters, markers, rulers, etc. You’ll want to bring clipboards, since you may not be able to find seating at a table along our route, and a picnic blanket or lightweight camp chairs might not be a terrible idea.
You’ll also want to dress for comfort while walking and solving outside. In August in Boston, this probably means lots of sunscreen, water, and good sneakers, but you should obviously check the forecast and adjust appropriately.
Registration is now open!
If you would like to register a team of 4–6 people, you may register via this Google form. Once you have filled out the form, we will contact you via email to collect payment in order to confirm your registration. BAPHL 24 will cost $40 per team.
If you don’t have a team, you may sign up as a group of 1 or 2 unattached solvers using this Google form, and we will attempt to match you with an existing team that is willing to accept unattached solvers.
We will be closing registration at 11:59 PM EDT on Sunday, August 3rd or when we hit our team limit, whichever comes first, so don’t wait!
(Note that for simplicity and our own sanity, we are unfortunately unable to accept groups of 3 as either a team or a group of unattached solvers. We would recommend finding a fourth person to join your group if you can!)