You can figure out what the settler does by talking to Elmo. But what if you do not get that far?

This document will help with that, as well as with other things. Much of the logic isn't trivial, and several smart people asked for clarification. I hope it answers your questions, but if not, email me, and I can add that.

FIGURING THE SETTLER|CHEAT MODE QUESTION MARKS|STORES|OYSTER|TROVES|PRESTO|ROUTES|TOWERS|OTTERS|OTHERS|EXAMPLE: VOLT MAZE

I will try to give a logical way through the settler, which expands on what Elmo has to say and shows how you can figure out what the colors mean before you can get there.

FIGURING THE SETTLER
The tables are the first to look at. If you scan it, that gives RRYRRY in cheat and non-cheat mode. You can figure what the tables are by noting ablest bleats are in red. That actually leaves only 21 possibilities. Noting LabSet and BeLast, that cuts it down to 7. The third time you examine them, eBlast technologies forces things into STABLE. That means STBL are red, AE are yellow.

If you look at the diorama, you will see that the event map, pavement, platform and farm plot all have RYRY in them in cheat and non-cheat modes. That means now FLMNPRTV are red, and AEO are yellow. Perhaps you see something important developing here.

Let's look at the non-cheat versions of other things, if you need a hint. Specifically, the rest of the diorama.

Brass crag <=> crabgrass leaves BCGRS as red and A as yellow.

Pedestal <=> steel pad leaves DLPST/AE.

You may notice the * means a space. Or the game should tell you that.

So BCDFGLMNPRSTV are red and AEO are yellow. I think there's enough empirical evidence to say red=consonants and yellow=vowels.

If you turn cheats on, you can note pedestal <=> steel pad changes. It has two greens, at the "e" and "a" positions. It's not the letters themselves--but rather if they are the right letters.

Similarly for the brass crag and crabgrass, r and a are changed--purple and green--but they do not change places. That means purple = red + the right position.

You can also scan the satchel/latches in cheat mode for a huge clue.

But wait. My Niche has RRYRRYO in both modes. What is orange? Maybe you can guess, knowing vowels are yellow and consonants are red and--is Y a vowel or consonant?

Well, it depends--so you may guess Y is both, or a combination of red and yellow, or orange!

You can also see Yorpwald/Wordplay on the back of the Settler to see that d->y is orange and w->y is orange.

So MY NICHE becomes **(IE)**(IE)Y. If you listen to "my niche," you hear an ice hymn. Which leaves you seeing red. This means letter 3 is not e but i.

**i**ey and you can probably work on the first two letters. (chn)m and (chm)n can be eliminated pretty quickly, and *hi -> chi.

CHI**EY = chimney. We had to use a bit of deduction to knock this off, but not much.

The giant pin is a last lousy point, but you can determine a lot from it in cheat mode. In particular, vowels are a or i but are all wrong in 'giant pin,' so you get

*AINTI**, and that leaves six possibilities--3 if you note G first and N last can't work. Yup, PAINTING.

The Ten Beams don't give any positive hints, and I'm sorry, I tried, but I couldn't find anything else to make you see red.

Still, let's look at the TEN BEAMS.

The A-E-E must be in 2-4-6, and A cannot be in 6 and E cannot be in 2. The duplicate letters make it a bit easier, since E not being in 2 means A is there, so E is in 4 and 6.

That leaves the others. Again, this is the sort of thing that I hope is semi-intuitive and fun (e.g. what room do you go down to in a house?) and it's the only technically "unfair" puzzle. But the other ways through are not too bad, and the trade-off between one hard puzzle versus two easier should be okay.

For instance, the PRAM in the Highest Heights is also not bad.

1 2 3 4
r . x . .
a x + x x
m . x . x
p x x . .

Either settler setting gives A in position 2. You may or may not need the clue that follows. You could just note nothing with MA-- makes sense, thus giving RAMP, or you can refer to Mr. Pa being all wrong due to you seeing red, and that forces which letters go where.

The plaster gives you **A**ER, the plates **A**E (since there is just one vowel left) and some guesses can help you narrow down the plates, e.g. pleats or pastel. The first two letters can, in any case, give a huge clue as to what the word should be. They clog a bit unless you have ST. That leaves STAPLE.

Now the plates and plaster seemed to fit together. What does a staple go in? A STAPLER.

Elmo's final hint is that rifle is red. Irelf-Efril is a bit contrived, but it gives the full answer. You can also scan the rifle to give

fl/rfl/ie/ie/rfl. This doesn't reduce things much if you know the rifle's red, but it helps.

Irelf leads to fl/fl/IE/lr or fl-fl-IER. Flier.

This is the basic logic. However, there's still a question of what happens when the settler turns up a question mark.

CHEAT MODE QUESTION MARKS

In most any case, the question mark is more helpful than a red or yellow. It may seem ambiguous in cheat mode, because an already anagrammed thing may give contradictory readings. But, in fact, the way it works is often that two anagram readings clash. Therefore, one of the two is right, and one is wrong. If you know the ? must be, say, a vowel, and two clues are a vowel and consonant--the right letter must be the vowel! Or you'd get a red/yellow reading.

HINT QUESTION MARK details things, but I want to give an abstract and artificial example. Let's see you hear a Noser Snore, and you get ?YRY?.

You can determine the two ?'s must be N-or-S and R-or-E. But actually, you can do even better. Noser/Snore have three consonants and two vowels, so the ?'s are both consonants! That leaves the last letter as an R. Sadly, we get no further help with the first letter, but an RYRY left means just four possibilities, even if you don't notice what you can eliminate. #2 can't be O, since otherwise, Noser Snore wouldn't be a straight yellow. Similarly for #4 and E. #3 can't be S. You are done: SENOR.

The Tropes Poster is the first example from the game. Let's look at it.

STORES

So, yeah, the Tropes Poster messes the settler up a bit. OR DOES IT (couldn't resist that trope. Or meme. Or whatever.)

??YRRY and what do the ?'s mean? First, we see vowels are in slots 3 and 6. That means consonants are in slot 1 and 2.

Now if T and P both gave the same result, the first ? would be red. But they do not. So it must be that one of T and P is right, since they both can't be.

Similarly, one of R and O is right. But O being right would mean 3 vowels in the magic word, which doesn't work.

(tp)R(eo)--(eo) -- but wait! O can't be in 3 since that is yellow. Also, we can eliminate p and t from slot 4 since that's a red.

(tp)RES(tp)O

TRESPO? Nah, PRESTO.

OYSTER

Another question is in the Posh Hops Shop. A few puzzles here are a bit easier, but let's go with it. The Perma-Amper shows you R?RYR in cheat mode.

There must be a vowel at location 2. But the settler can't decide what it should be. It has to be E or M, or the settler would not be confused. It would say Y. Since only E is a vowel, location 2 is E. That makes 4 A.

That leaves (rm)E(m)A(mp) if we eliminate the consonants, or REMAP. Note this isn't too hard without figuring what the ?'s are for, but if you get it anyway, you may be able to look back and see why the question mark is there.

Similarly, the Gins Sign gives clues-that-don't-seem-like-clues. In fact, it may be even easier.

?G?R means that you have -I-(G since s/n can't work). That means (sg)-I-(gn)-G is what's left. Oops. The g's can be crossed off, leaving SING.

Let's also take the example of Casper Spacer. He gives, in cheat mode,

?RRYRY. Now we can see from non-cheat mode that the first letter is a consonant--or we can see that it is a consonant by process of elimination, as we already have three of four consonants and two of two vowels.

The settler can't decide what to do with Casper Spacer, so maybe it doesn't know whether to act on Casper or Spacer. That means the results for Casper and Spacer are different at letter one--which means one of C and one of S must be right at first! This actually cuts a lot down, but there's another clue, there.

CAPERS RECAPS gives RRR??Y. That means that one of the two of E and A is right. This isn't helpful on its own, since E and A are the only two possible values, but the red means that C and R are wrong, so the word we need starts with S. Also, one of R/P is right.

S-?(ae)(rp)(ae)

But wait! The third letter can't be C or P, since the scan is always red, and it can't be S since the first letter is. So, it's R. That means letter 5 is P, and 2 is C.

SCR-P- and SCRAPE is a word while SCREPA isn't.

The general gleaner is another, tougher example. It has ???(ea)(nr)??. That cuts things down a bit. You may notice the clue that it alternates yellow/purple and green/red. That means it is e-n or a-r, or the green/red would be coupled wrong.

So, ???(en/ar)?? and if you assume AR, the other vowels must be E, giving E??AR?E. LNG are the consonants, and you can wipe a bit out. E(ng)(lg)AR(lng)E is left and you can guess ENLARGE.

???EN?? leaves a bit of a mess, though, and in this case, reading that Al Green made the gleaner eliminates things more logically.

The Achers' Arches are a bit tricky--note that if you examine them, they could be Chaser Arches. That gibes with the settler.

RY?RRR means that the ? is a vowel, so E or A must be right. However, chaser/achers/arches gives only an A, C or H in the third slot, so A it is...leaving the E for the other yellow.

-EA---. Since achers, arches and chaser all go red (except for chaser's a) you don't have many possibilities. R or H in the first slot give REACSH/HEARSC and then SEA forces an R in slot 4. SEARHC is not a word but SEARCH is.

Finally, there is the Papery Yapper. You can make some hay with "Rap, yep" in red--and even "ya perp"--but let's use the questions. Note that using Teach mode gives an immediate boost as it tells you where the Y is.

?RY?Y? for papery and yapper. The missing things are the y and two consonants, since we have a vowel and two consonant places set.

Let's look at place #4. It has either e or p right. But the two vowel places are set, so P is right. #5 cannot have R or E but needs a vowel, so it is A.

(PY) red yellow P A (YR) is left. Ugh--sorry for the notation here. R and Y clash too much with Papery.

But the yellow must be E, That leaves two possibilities for the consonant in slot 2: P or R. They logically force the other letters like so:

p -> ypepar r -> prepay

TROVES

A few clues mess up the settler in cheat mode as three of the letters may or may not be right. Even so, you can switch to non-cheat, or use reasoning.

First, Pa Egg Pea gives ??R?. But it's about and by its author, Peg A. Page. That suggests the book is wrapped up in those four letters. The book is designed horribly, "egg" split mid-word to give a 4x4 of author and book name. So the ? means one letter is right. PAEG
GPEA
PEGA
PAGE

The red that can't be G must be P.

The first letter is P or G, meaning G.

That leaves GEPA and GAPE. GAPE.

The stop post gives ?R??. That means we have

(sp)(sp)(op)(pt). That puts o in position 3 and t in position 4.

(sp)(sp)OT doesn't clear everything, but PSOT can be rejected. SPOT.

For LEAD, by the two authors, ???R looks painful indeed. But the red means a consonant which can't be D. So it's L. Fortunately, there are just three choices.

?A?L -> EADL A??L -> AEDL

So, ??AL = DEAL. You could, of course, use non-teach mode to knock this off. It'd give D**L.

Next, in the Rotunda. A reading of the brochure gives R???RG. But it's by Sir Dee and says RESIDE.

We can get the first letter, then--consonant not R or S, or D. The second must be a vowel, and the third must be a consonant, specifically R or S. Therefore number four is a vowel. Since it is I or D, it is I, making the others E. DE-I-E has two possibilities, so you can guess DESIRE.

The question marks for the rivets that say PRAISE give the clue that you can mess with rivets or praise. Without using the cheat mode, you get an odd question mark. Since most of the time, you won't get a question mark, perhaps there are two possibilities for what the rivets can become. In this case, non-cheat is a bit more helpful than cheat. It says, in both solutions, the word ends RRYRY, but the first letter is a consonant in one and a vowel in the other. RIVETS would have the consonant.

If you notice the rivets themselves appear red and rusty, that is a help. It means that the fourth and sixth letters in PRAISE must be right, or there would be no question mark. So, ---I-E and the final vowel most make it A--I-E. Since R is not in 2 and S is not in 5, that cuts possibilities down to three based on where P is. APSIRE, ASPIRE, or ASRIPE. ASPIRE.

That knocks out RIVETS a bit more--it's all red. And the E making red means that we must have ---I-E.

Now the statue is of Trevis Vister, which eliminates a lot more. S must be the first letter, and you're left with two possibilities, SVTIRE or STRIVE.

You could've done this the other way by looking at Trevis and using the reds, too. He would give the vowels at position 4 and 6, and then you'd know the first letter was a consonant, and then you can proceed as before.

PRESTO

The ALERT/ALTER sign is quite easy if you see how to finagle it.

RY??? and if E is second, we have

? ? (ET) (RE) (TR) which means that A and L can't be in 3-5 so they are in 1-2. That means LA (ET) (RE) (TR) or LATER/LAERT. Clearly, LATER.

The USB is a bit different. It's only one word, so why the question mark? You can brute-force the possibilities.

- BSU = no, vowel in 2nd position
- BUS = possible, and a word
- SBU = no, vowel in 2nd position
- SUB = possible, and a word
- UBS = would have purple-1
- USB = what it is

So the settler can't determine if the B is right (SUB) or wrong (BUS.)

ROUTES

Rude 'N Nuder gives YRPG? when you have cheat on. That makes

(u or e) (d, r or n) D E (n or r)

This is not bad at all. 1 must be u. 2-5 must be R or N. So, URDEN or UNDER = UNDER.

The ship controls are annoying! HIT WIN and BEN HID are two clues. Green/purple gives us

Ben hid -> ?E???D Hit win -> ?I???N

If you follow the settler in cheat mode twice, it goes from PGRYRP to RGPRGP and back. Which is which?

RGPRGP makes Ben Hid be HENBID, which could be a word, but not a preposition.

HIT WIN in the first would be HI(wn)I(tnw)(tw) or hiwint or hini(tw/wt) which is nonsense. So...

HIT WIN is RGPRGP, giving -IT-IN. WITHIN, since two must be wrong.

TOWERS

Some puzzles in the Towers are better solved by talking or getting "red" dialogue.

The snider diners are the first to pop up questions, though you may not need to use question marks' flexibility to deal with them.

There are question marks at locations 2, 3 and 5. What does this mean? It means 2 and 3 are I or N. 5 must be E or R. But if you switch to non-cheat mode, you get RYRRYR. That means #2 is a vowel and so is #5. That cuts down the possibilities some more.

-IN-E-. But now the red for Snider and Diners in position 1 means that it the consonant is not S or D. That leaves R. RIN-E-.

You can guess which of the two choices it is, but if we want to figure all the logic, snider's d at letter 4 or diners's s at letter 6 will eliminate RINDES. So, RINSED.

The grailman and the wait-seer also both pop up question marks. Here, this doesn't solve what they are, but it helps.

The natives may be a bit confusing. They have two solutions. Here, you may have to listen to the places they know, and things will become clear. All the clues, cycling, will force you logically into

-AI-EST, or NAIVEST or VAINEST.

You could, of course, cheat up a bit by assuming that the ? was purple and thus N. That'd start you with NA (ie) (vst) (ie) (vst) (vst) and not much left to choose.

RYRRYR?R = alarming grailman

So N and A are causing the conflict. But one must be right! Which one? Well, there are 3 vowels but only two yellow/greens so far. So the right letter is a vowel. A.

-(ai)--(ai)-A- is what you get. This leaves you a bit away from the solution, and in fact knowing his name is Liam Garn in red (along with a non-cheat scan) actually knocks out the vowels on its own, but this is a pretty good start, I hope. And a reminder the settler isn't everything!

The sweatier wait-seer is another matter.

?YYRY?RR =sweatier/wait-seer

So letter 1 is s or w, and letter 6 is i or e. So the settler alone is not a big help. TREES (AW I/I AW) (talk) and I WE STARE (examine) and EW I TEARS (attack) work better. But knowing R is not the first letter can help a bit.

The Once-Sad Deacons are tough. They scan as ??RYY??. That is a lot of question marks. Other clues suggest that it is "hostile" that's being anagrammed and not once-sad. However, it's actually possible to prove that Once-Sad isn't right, from the possibilities. One of the question marks is a vowel, so you need to consider which one.

O(NE)---(AN)(DS) and 2/6 must be consonants, both N.

(OD)E---(AN)(DS) and 1/6/7 must be consonants and unique. Thus DE---NS. 3 is the only consonant, or C. 5 can't be O, so it's A. DECOANS is not a word.

(OD)(NE)---A(DS) and 1-2-7 are consonants and unique. DN---AS, 3 is the only consonant, C. Then 4-5 is O-E. DNCOEAS is not a word.

Now HOSTILE/OLHEIST becomes (HO)(OL)---(LS)(ET). One vowel.

If #7 is a vowel, HL---SE and T is the only consonant, and I can't be at 5. HLTIOSE.

If #1 is a vowel, IL---ST. H is the leftover consonant. But it's been disqualified since H is already read.

If #2 is a vowel, HO---ST. L is the leftover consonant. I can't be in 5, so it's 4. HOLIEST.

Finally the raves saver is an odd one. The six letters are for "REPLAY PLAYER." But there are lots of ?'s.

This is one where having the non-cheat version shows a lot more. In fact it gives RYYRRO. That means that one of L and E is right in 2, as is one of P and A in 3. But 2/3 are vowels, so --EA-Y. Similarly, R or P is in 1, L can't be in 4, and that leaves two possibilities as L must then be 5. REAPLY/PEARLY. Pearly it is.

The pester'n serpent also pops up question marks. It's not necessary to win Towers, but with the question marks, it is not difficult, especially if you remember what it was called in version 1 or 2. The cheat-mode tells you where the e's are.

It also tells you that you have

(ps)(nprst)E(nrs)E(nr)(nt). Why? One of P and S must be right, or we'd have a red in 1. Similarly for N, R and 6 and N, T and 7.

From here, guesswork is not too bad. Let's say S is in the first slot. Then

S(nprt)E(nr)E(nr)(nt) becomes SPE(nr)E(nr)T, and spenert/sperent aren't quite words.

P(nrst)E(nrs)E(nr)(nt) is left. If we put N last, that forces PTESERN, not a word.

P(nrs)E(nrs)E(nr)T only has so many possibilities, but N in first gives PNESERT. S in first gives PSENERT or PSERENT. So we have PRESENT left.

The final necessary nuisance is the Curst Palace, Castle Apcur. If you have the settler in cheat mode, you get a ? at the end. Which is annoying, but it isn't. Because if you put the settler in non-cheat mode, you see you need an R at the end. Since the ?'s blink alternately, then, you have

----T-----R

That doesn't clinch everything, but it makes it easier. Along with the items you find going in and out, you should wind up getting all the clues.

accurstleAp

clEarcatsup

pestacCruAl (this is the big one)

cactuspearl (may eliminate a few clues) pearlcactus accuplasteR (you may have the r, but if not, yay) capsulecart

All of these together leave 24 possibilities. The final two, talC spa cure and last acre cup, cross off some semi-improbably ones and leave two possibilities. But by then you may know to look for superlatives anyway.

OTTERS

The bleary barley is another example of the questions, but it turns out to be more straightforward.

P??YRB -- the B you may not have seen before, but it has to be brown based on the upper window. Brown = blue + orange.

B----Y and letter 2 is L or A, while letter 3 is E or R. You can use non-cheat mode to figure things out.

Or you can note that the red means r and e don't work in slot 5, but it must be a consonant, thus: L. Similarly, a and l don't work in slot 4, but we need a vowel. E.

B--ELY is BRAELY (nah) or --BARELY.

OTHERS

The (plain) coins near the end are, unavoidably, confusing. That's because they can, like the USB, get a description and become a thing which have no letters in common. In this case, you may want to have scanned the coin beforehand, or take up the game's offer to scan a coin. Cheat should make it obvious what it should be: YRYP means (io)C(io)N or icon since i can't be in slot 3.

That leaves only the sonic coins. YRY?? leaves two consonants. So one of I or N is the right consonant in slot 4: N. One of C or S is the right consonant in slot 5. And also, the vowel in slot 3 can't be i, so it is o. That leaves

I-ON-. ISONC? No. ICONS.

EXAMPLE: VOLT MAZE

The volt maze is probably the trickiest.

(Yo/Oy!) Congratulating yourself without going through is a clue...

First, what is a vowel and what is a consonant?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
m . x . x . . x .
a x . x . x x . x
z . x . x . . x .
e x . x . x x . x
l . x . x . . x .
t . x . x . . x .
o x . x . x x . x
v . x . x . . x .

VOLT MAZE ditches some possibilities. As does VZT, Lame-O! if you touch something.

l-to-v maze is a big hint, too...but if you meet Lev Matzo, you get...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
m . x . x x x x .
a x . x . x x . x <- a = 2nd
z . x . x . x x .
e x x x . x x . x
l x x x x . x x .
t x x x x x + x x
o x x x . x x . x
v x x x x . x x .

Now you have something neat to observe. The L/V and V/L and T leave the M/Z and 1/3.

This means if Z=5 or 8, M=1 or 3 and nothing = 3 or 1. Similarly for M=8.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
m . x . x x x x x
a x + x x x x x x
z . x . x x x x x
e x x x . x x . x
l x x x x . x x .
t x x x x x + x x
o x x x . x x . x
v x x x x . x x .

Note this also makes (L,v) = (5,8). Thus (E,O) = (4,7) and you have 8 possibilities.

But Matzo Lev will break it wide open. Because you see M=1, E can't be 7 and V is 8.

Without the L/V jump you can see MZV which gives you Mazel Tov.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
m + x x x x x x x
a x + x x x x x x
z x x + x x x x x
e x x x . x x . x
l x x x x + x x x
t x x x x x + x x
o x x x . x x . x
v x x x x x x x +

FIGURING THE SETTLER|CHEAT MODE QUESTION MARKS|STORES|OYSTER|TROVES|PRESTO|ROUTES|TOWERS|OTTERS|OTHERS|EXAMPLE: VOLT MAZE