Cupid's Dart

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The Cupid's Dart is PuzzleMaster's own version of Uncle's Suffacator puzzle. PuzzleMaster's version does have a more attractive design, instead of some random figure though.

As I've said in previous reviews of Wire/String puzzles, my relationship with them is somewhat of a love/hate type. They can seriously frustrate you for several weeks or months straight without even a slight advance in figuring out its solution. But when you do finally discover the so much coveted solution, the rewarding feeling is worth the wait.

I have to be honest, I fear String puzzles even more than all-Wire Puzzles. They're quite sturdy and can stand up to most attempts at bending or breaking them, but you can mess up a String puzzle pretty good with some serious knots, which is quite scary, actually. Some of them can be messed up almost beyond repair, so when you're solving one and you're uncertain of the end result, proceed with caution. You've been warned...

The Cupid's Dart has its name because of its appearance, which really looks like a dart. The object is to remove the string from the wire frame. To make your task even tougher, the string goes through a ball that's large enough so that it doesn't pass inside the two ring loops in the frame. It does go through the arrow part of the puzzle, though.

The difficulty of Cupid's Dart is rated as a 9/10 (Gruelling) by PuzzleMaster and I wouldn't be surprised if it were indeed a 10/10, although its solution was kind of spoiled for me.

When I was trying to solve the puzzle for the first time, I noticed that one of the loops found at the arrow part (not to be confused with the actual bigger ring loops), was a bit more open than the other. This gap in the frame was actually big enough to let the string pass, so before I knew it, the string was out.

I became a little suspicious after solving the puzzle so fast, in about 10 minutes. It seemed much easier than I was expecting, so, even though I don't normally see the solution, unless I gave up completely, I had to download PuzzleMaster's solution and take a look to see what was going on. I should've known better... The solution had nothing to do with what I did to solve it. Then, after a moment of pure discontentment for my poor attempt at solving it, I put the string back to its original state. If you have given up, you can find the solution here.

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I have to say, from what I saw in the solution, it is quite hard to figure it out, even after several hours dedicated to it. I guess it's one of those companions for months of hard work... I'm gonna have to give it another go, when I don't have the solution so fresh in my head.

Closing Comments:

Despite the fact that I didn't actually solved it, I liked the Cupid's Dart. It has a recognizable shape, which not all Wire/String puzzles have and it's a real challenge if you're feeling courageous enough.

The Wire/String puzzles have something that it's truly hard to achieve and not all puzzle types can do this effectively: value for your money. Most of them are relatively cheap to buy, but you'll use it for quite some time until you solve it, so it's really worth it.

The Cupid's Dart is available at PuzzleMaster for $9.95 CAD.