After weeks of research, a group of devoted Nintendo 3DS Street Pass fans has located the rarest puzzle in Puzzle Swap. For the first time since its debut thirteen years ago, StreetPass Mii Plaza: Puzzle Swap is now formally 100% finished.
We reported on the group’s search last week. For several months, a small group of Puzzle Swap enthusiasts has been searching for every puzzle ever released for the Street Pass app. This comprises several regionally and temporally restricted riddles that have grown increasingly uncommon over time.
By June, they had solved all except one piece, an uncommon aviation-themed puzzle that was limited to being found for a few months at specific Japanese airports. The team was using all of their connections to locate one person who had the puzzle back in the day, after which they could share it with the entire world with just a quick file upload.
July 3, 2024, yesterday, someone at last made contact. A buddy code and a zip file with the message, “I hope the following information is exactly what you are looking for,” were sent to community leader Benny via email. The community is set to work right away. The file itself appeared promising, but for the transfer to proceed, the sender had to accept a friend request. To make the data useable, it also required to be decrypted, which was assisted by several Discord community members.
The Discord broke out. Finally, all sixty-three Puzzle Swap puzzles had been located and archived thanks to the stranger who had reached out with their puzzle. After discussing intentions to combine all 63 riddles into a single file for future enjoyment by anyone with access to them, the group collaborated for several hours to distribute the puzzle to everyone in the Discord who requested it.
You do need to be willing to tweak your 3DS if you want to solve every puzzle. We suggest contacting the community that is behind the hunt for assistance with that; they may be reached via email, Discord, and Twitter. However, even if the only way to solve the puzzle is by modifying it, this is still a success for game archiving and preservation. As far as the team knows, this is the first time all 63 Puzzle Swap puzzles have been put together in one location.
What comes next, then? It is difficult to say. First and foremost, the community wants to make sure that all puzzles are easily accessible to anyone willing to mod them. Following that, the group has been debating how to incorporate unique puzzles into Puzzle Swap or attempt other modding feats using the knowledge they have acquired. However, a lot of people are happy to have completed the puzzle hunt altogether.
“I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who shared and promoted the search, as well as the crew for their hard work!” I asked Benny for his thoughts, and he responded. “We appreciate all of your support,”
We have not heard back from the generous stranger who sent Benny the ANA file, despite our best efforts to find out the story behind their discovery of the quest years after they picked up the puzzle. Thank you, whoever you are, mystery stranger.
