Life and Order, the winner of MIT Mystery Hunt 2017, creates some core memories and mind games!
In this MIT Mystery Hunt, the theming was set up to be the Health and Safety Hunt, but solvers later went into the mind of Miss Terry Hunter. But the five emotions got carried away in a conflict and not only locked themselves out of Terry's mind but ejected the core memories. As such, Buzzy of Cranium Command set up "Operation: Head Hunters" and called teams to restore the emotions and the core memories. Teams also guided Terry Hunter through the Health and Safety Hunt and formed a new core memory.
The first team to get the core memory was Setec Astronomy, who made another core memory with MIT Mystery Hunt 2019.
- Brain with a Manual Control: As with the original film, Miss Terry Hunter has a brain control room in which the five emotions manage ... until they get locked out. In the endgame, teams assisted the five emotions in getting Miss Terry Hunter through the Health and Safety Hunt.
- Cast of Personifications: As with the original film, the five emotions are personifications of emotions. They each have a metapuzzle reflective of said emotion.
- Evolutionary Levels: Feeder puzzles in the Pokémon core memory can be split into pairs based on the evolutionary lineage of the Pokémon. Some of the puzzles corresponding to later stage Pokémon expand on concepts from the earlier stages as an Evolution Powerup, but others are entirely blank and require solvers to apply the transformations of the puzzle answers of the same Pokémon type.
- First-Episode Twist: The theme is set up as Health and Safety, but teams quickly discovered that they were inside the head of Miss Terry Hunter—the actual theme was Inside Out, as solvers had to help Terry's emotions regain control and discover her Core Memories to save the day.
- Game Within a Game: The Health and Safety Hunt served as this, though it is initially presented as the actual hunt.
- Memory Palace: As with the original film, Miss Terry Hunter has core memories, this time based on Pokémon, board games, science fiction, and MIT hacks.
- Mental World: As with the original film, solvers explore the mind of Miss Terry Hunter, including the four core memories that need to be restored.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: The scavenger hunts "I Wanna Be The Very Best"
for Cranidos and "Older and Wiser" for Ramparados are all based on taking on careers and doing tasks. In particular, the latter requires earning enough money upon completing tasks, and getting tasks from other jobs may be needed should the money not be enough. - Patchwork Map: The layout of Games island is based on that of Catan, but the metapuzzle "The Robber" expands on that by adding additional pentagonal pieces to form a truncated icosahedron.
- Shout-Out:
- Obviously, this hunt is a shout-out to Inside Out, but the core memories are also a shout-out to common activities done by MIT students like Pokémon, in which the core island round structure is reminiscent of the main games.
- The puzzle "A Tribute: 2010 - 2017" is explicitly a tribute to some feeder puzzles from those year's Mystery Hunt.
- The Caper: The hack core memory island is based on pulling off an MIT hack.
- To Be a Master: The premise of the Pokémon core memory involves beating a rival to become a champion, just like in the main games.
- Toilet Humor: The puzzle "You Know What's Missing" representing Dratini involves working with pee sticks, and the solution talked about actually peeing into them, though water can also be used "if you're boring". The evolved version "Mass Aid" representing Dragonair continues this by having clues be based on puns on poop, and solvers later get an info dump via a diaper and ... other things.
