Counterfeit Monkey — 282 of 292

Chapter 2 - Hints for Reusable Items and Tools

Report requesting hint about the player:

say "Each of us is perhaps a bit of a puzzle to the other, it's true. But we've only got to share this body for a few hours, right?" instead.

Report requesting hint about the letter-remover:

say "This is a highly useful multi-purpose device, which we're going to need many times in order to get off this island, I'm guessing. We can set it to a particular letter and wave it at things — or, as a shortcut, just WAVE A-REMOVER AT COAT, for instance." instead.

Report requesting hint about the homonym paddle:

say "The homonym paddle transforms any object into another object with the same name. We're not going to succeed in stealing it from the bartender, but in many cases she may be willing to make the transformation for us, if we show things to her." instead.

Report requesting hint about the t-inserter machine:

say "Putting items into the T-inserter will add the letter T to them — in some cases, multiple Ts." instead.

Report requesting hint about the synthesizer:

say "To synthesize two objects, we need to place both inside the synthesizer (so very large items may not fit), then turn the synthesizer on." instead.

Report requesting hint about the backpack:

say "We carry things around in it, and of course it's a useful place to stash items that we might not want someone to notice on us at first glance." instead.

Report requesting hint about the monocle:

say "The chief advantage of the monocle is that it lets us see what an item used to be before it underwent letter transformation (if it did). That works almost all of the time, unless someone has used Origin Paste on the item. But Origin Paste isn't that easy to come by." instead.

Report requesting hint about the authentication scope:

say "The scope works like my monocle: it allows the secretary to detect items that were forged." instead.

Report requesting hint about the origin paste:

say "RUB paste on something in order to disguise it from monocles and authentication scopes. It'll leave behind the scent of lavender for a little while, but sometimes, especially in outdoor or busy environments, people won't notice the scent.

(And, incidentally, there's plenty of paste, so I doubt we should concern ourselves with the possibility of running out.)" instead.

Report requesting hint about the restoration gel:

say "Think of this as a gigantic eraser for any mistakes we might make. It reverts any letter-changed items back to their original form, so if we create the wrong object or just want to retrieve the original, we can do so." instead.

Report requesting hint about the flash drive:

say "This is full of my plans and schemes, and while I have every hope that it's going to be very very useful in the outside world, there's nothing in there that will help us with our escape. Just hanging onto it and getting off the island alive would meet my expectations, as far as the flash drive is concerned." instead.

Report requesting hint about the bills:

say "There's enough money here to supply us anything we need to buy between now and the point where we get off the island." instead.

Report requesting hint about the plans:

say "Personally, I don't care much about the plans at all, but they're evidently of considerable value to you, assuming you can get them off the island and into the hands of your prospective buyers. Between now and then, they're more of a liability than an asset." instead.

Report requesting hint about the restoration-gel rifle:

say "This works like regular restoration gel, with the signal exception that it can act at a distance. SHOOT the rifle at things in order to restore them to their original letter form." instead.

Report requesting hint about the Britishizing goggles:

say "I think they were a bit of a white elephant purchase on your part. I can't see what good they're ever going to do us." instead.

Report requesting hint about the Catalan punt volat needle:

say "I can't think of any reason why that would ever be useful to us." instead.

Report requesting hint about the programmable dais:

say "It looks to me as though this can do the functions of a synthes[ize]r and of a homonym paddle — and possibly also get around some of the size and power restrictions we've faced with earlier tools. Switching the switch will swap over from one function to the other." instead.

Report requesting hint about the spinner:

if the spinner-gate is locked:

say "[one of]If we put something on the spinner, it rotates the letters of the word to appear backwards[or]It seems that successfully rotating something on the spinner has the secondary effect of unlocking the gate[or]We will need something whose letters form a word when reversed as well[or]Buying a yam from the farmer's stall might give us the equipment we need[or]GO TO HESYCHIUS, then BUY YAM, then PUT YAM ON SPINNER[stopping]." instead;

else:

say "We've already unlocked the gate, but we can still use the spinner to rotate other words if we like." instead.