The winner of MIT Mystery Hunt 2021, palindrome, creates an entire space of books!
In this MIT Mystery Hunt, the prologue is based on the sudden appearance of the Star Rats. An investigation was going to happen, but that got put on hold when Hayden Library disappeared. The first and second rounds are then based on the investigation in Bookspace in identifying why Hayden Library disappeared and what caused it. But since the tollbooth got destroyed, teams then need to explore 10 different areas of Bookspace pertaining to 10 different genres to restore the Plot Device. Upon doing so, the teams found a way to enter the tollbooth and return home.
The first team to do so, teammate, also found a coin in the book ... and so went on to produce MIT Mystery Hunt 2023.
- Continuity Nod: The puzzle "Midterm of Unspeakable Chaos"
expands on the same conlang as the one used in 2001, 2003, and 2008. - Crossword Puzzle: A good number of puzzles from the hunt are crossword puzzles with variations, fitting for the literature theming.
- Cypher Language: The puzzle "Dinotopia" is based on decoding letters from the alphabet used in this very series.
- First-Episode Twist: The prologue round is based on Star Rats, but the kick-off skit went off the rails when the organizers announced that MIT's entire library had mysteriously vanished. Teams had to enter "Bookspace" to restore it by solving puzzles themed around all kinds of literature.
- Grave-Marking Scene: The metapuzzle "The Graveyard" involves looking at tombstones representing famous characters connected with ghosts.
- Grid Puzzle: The puzzle "Dancing Triangles" is composed of a series of logic puzzles, but this time on a triangular grid.
- Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: The first two rounds involve finding what is going on with flying books and then finding out what caused it. As for the specifics, the five ministers each bring different observations in their respective metapuzzles and are only later put together in the meta-meta "The Ministry".
- Nostalgia Level: Some puzzles that share a title with a book title naturally reprise elements of the source material, but "Once Upon A Time in the Quest" also reprises the corresponding puzzles to the books from earlier rounds of this hunt as part of the metapuzzle.
- Plot Device: A literal one that needs to be repaired in the third round as that restores damage to Bookspace.
- Red Herring: Played with in the puzzle "Red Herring", which only has a picture of a red herring.
- Scavenger Hunt: The "Book Reports" serves as this, though many tasks involve doing things with the items found, like stacking $10 worth of coins in 59 seconds. The submission itself is later done in New You City, where all the answers in the round are submission tasks.
- Self-Insert Fic: In the endgame, solvers need to find a method to pay the bookspace toll, as that can only be used by characters in Bookspace. However, the adventures in bookspace created a story about themselves that solvers need to piece back together in order to find out how to pay for the toll.
- Shout-Out: As the theming of the hunt involves literature, there are bound to be homages to various literature works.
- All feeder puzzles of the first two rounds share the name of a book, often for children.
- The ministers of The Ministry share the name of MIT libraries.
- Both The Very Hungry Caterpillar and 'The Phantom Tollbooth'' make major plot points in this hunt.
- Special Guest: "Weird Al" Yankovic made a guest appearance in Recipeoira (appropriate, given his well-known love of food puns).
- The Homeward Journey: The major premise of the third round. Solvers need to find a way home through the tollbooth but first need to repair the Plot Device.
