Puzzle 001 is Stumble's Balloons (Bungle's Balloons in the UK version), the very first puzzle in Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask. It's a 20-picarat Swap puzzle in Carnival Square, right at the start of the game, and you can't skip it. A clumsy clown has gotten caught up in his own balloon strings, and you free him by tapping orange points on the Touch Screen to swap the strings around. The game says it can be done in as few as three moves. The hints below open one at a time, and the answer stays hidden until you choose to show it.
This page covers story Puzzle 001 in Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask on Nintendo 3DS, using the North American text. The pictures are rebuilt from the game's art. The UK English version uses the same board and the same answer under a different name. If you're after Daily Puzzle 001 or the first puzzle of another Layton game, see Wrong Puzzle 001? below.
What Puzzle 001 is
| Name (North America) | Stumble's Balloons |
|---|---|
| Name (UK English) | Bungle's Balloons |
| Type | Swap |
| Picarats | 20 |
| Location | Carnival Square, Monte d'Or |
| Chapter | Prologue |
| Who gives it | Stumble the clown (Bungle in the UK) |
| Can you skip it? | No. The story doesn't continue until it's solved |
| Hints | Three hints and a Super Hint |
| Next puzzle | 002 Where's Mother? (Carnival Arcade, Chapter 1) |
Four balloon strings hang down through a grid of twelve panels, three rows of four, and they cross each other on the way down. Between the panels are nine orange points. Touching one swaps the strings around it. Your goal, as the bar at the top of the Touch Screen says, is to untangle the strings so all four hang straight. The question adds that it can be done in as few as three moves, and a counter on the top screen keeps track of how many you've used.
There's no Submit button. The puzzle checks itself and ends the moment the last string comes straight, so there's no wrong answer to give.
Stumble's Balloons, Bungle's Balloons and other names
The UK release renames the clown as well as the puzzle: Stumble in North America is Bungle in the UK, so the puzzle becomes Bungle's Balloons. Some of the UK wording is different too, including the line you get when you solve it, but the board and the answer are the same in the US and UK English versions.
| Version | Puzzle name |
|---|---|
| English (North America) | Stumble's Balloons |
| English (UK) | Bungle's Balloons |
| Japanese | 風船を飛ばそう (Fūsen o Tobasō, "let's send the balloons up") |
Wrong Puzzle 001?
- Daily Puzzle 001 in Miracle Mask is a different puzzle from the daily set: Alchemy 01 in North America and Alchemist 01 in the UK, from The Alchemist's Lair. It has nothing to do with the clown.
- Stumble's Balloons 2 is Puzzle 120, a harder follow-up in Gallery Plaza in Chapter 7. It's worth 50 picarats and has five strings to untangle in six moves, so the solution on this page won't work there.
- Puzzle 001 in another Layton game is a different puzzle. If you don't see a clown hanging from balloons and a grid of orange points, you're in the wrong game.
Where you get it, and why you can't skip it
Puzzle 001 comes in the first few minutes of the game. Layton and Luke arrive in Monte d'Or, a desert city in the middle of a carnival, and you start in Carnival Square. A short tutorial teaches you to look around the scene by touching it. Then you meet a clown named Stumble, who has gotten caught up in his own balloon strings. He's trying to release the balloons for the children at the carnival, and if he can't, he'll never earn his clown nose. Once he's introduced himself, the puzzle starts.
It's a story puzzle and there's only one way forward: the next scene doesn't start until the balloons are free. Because it can't be skipped or left for later, it shouldn't end up with Nanna Grams (known as Elizabeth in the UK version), who keeps the puzzles you missed.
Carnival Square also has hint coins hidden in the scenery, so tap around the buildings and the fountain once you're free to explore. You don't need any coins for this puzzle, though: every hint is free on this page.
How the orange points work
Every orange point sits between two panels, a left one and a right one. Each panel has a green point at its top and bottom, so there are four green points around the orange point: above it on the left, above it on the right, below it on the left and below it on the right. The strings pass through the green points. When you touch an orange point, the two panels on its left and right trade places, and each panel takes its top and bottom green points with it. So whatever passes through the two green points on the left swaps with whatever passes through the two on the right.
Because those green points are also the ends of the rope segments in the rows above and below, a tap can change the strings in the neighboring rows too, and it can involve more than two strings. The panels themselves only move in the row you touched, but the crossings above and below can appear, move or vanish. That's why tapping at random can make the tangle look worse. Tapping the same orange point twice swaps the panels and their endpoints straight back, so it puts things exactly as they were.
How this page names the points
The hints and the answer below call the nine orange points by row and column: top row, middle row and bottom row, and left, middle and right in each row. The point in the middle of the board is the center. The game doesn't label them. This is just a way to say which one to touch.
When the strings get worse
- Restart is free. The Restart button in the bottom-right corner puts every string back where it started and sets the move counter back to 0000. The game's first hint tells you to use it as often as you like.
- Undo one tap by repeating it. Touching the same orange point again reverses the swap you just made.
- The counter doesn't cost you anything. It only shows how many moves you've made. There's no move limit and no penalty for using more than three.
- Tapping doesn't rotate anything. Each tap swaps the left and right panels, together with their top and bottom green points. If you expected the strings to turn around the point, that's why they ended up somewhere unexpected.
Hints, one at a time
These follow the game's own hints, in the same order, with a little more explanation. Open only the next one you need. In the game, Hints 1 to 3 cost one hint coin each and the Super Hint costs two.
Hint 1: try everything
The strings move in a very particular way when you swap them, so the best way to learn it is to touch every orange point once and watch what happens. If the strings end up in a mess, touch Restart. You can restart as many times as you like.
Hint 2: the green points
Look at the green points around each orange point. When you touch an orange point, the green points above and below it on the left swap with the ones above and below it on the right, and the strings that pass through them swap too.
Before you touch anything, look for the string that would come straight with a single swap.
Hint 3: the first move
Touch the orange point in the top-right corner first. That untangles one of the strings, the one on the far right, and leaves only three to sort out.
Super Hint: the second move
After the top-right corner, the next orange point to touch is the one in the center. After that, one more touch untangles all the strings.
Only one crossing is left by then. Which orange point sits next to it?
Answer and full solution
The answer below gives the three taps in order, both ways to finish and pictures of each step. Open it when you're ready.
Show the answer
The answer is top-right, center, then top-left. Start from the original board (touch Restart if you've already tried a few moves) and touch these three orange points in this order. The puzzle ends by itself after the third tap. Touching the bottom-left point as the third move works just as well.
| Move | Orange point | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Top row, right | The string on the far right comes straight |
| 2 | Center | Only one crossing is left, in the middle row on the left |
| 3 | Top row, left (or bottom row, left) | The last crossing goes and all four strings hang straight |
Why the third tap can be either left point. After the first two moves, the only crossing left is in the middle row of panels, on the left. The top-left point swaps the two left-hand panels of the top row together with their top and bottom green points, so the two strings now reach the middle row in the order they leave it. The bottom-left point does the same with the two left-hand panels of the bottom row, swapping the endpoints below the crossing instead, so the strings now leave the middle row in the order they came in. Either way the middle-row crossing disappears and the strings come out straight. So top-left and bottom-left both work.
The order matters. These are the only two ways to finish in exactly three moves, and both start with the top-right corner and then the center. The same three taps in another order leave the strings tangled. If you've lost track, Restart and start again from the top-right corner. Longer solutions also work, since the puzzle has no move limit.
When the strings come straight, Stumble's balloons are free and the game says: "Nice work! You freed the balloons! And Stumble, too! Now the balloons can be released sky high into the...well, sky."
If the strings won't come straight:
- You didn't start from the original board. The three moves only work from the starting position. Touch Restart first.
- You started with the center. The top-right corner has to come first. Restart and try again.
- You touched a neighboring point by mistake. Touch the same point again to undo that swap, or Restart.
Picarats, hints and hint coins
Stumble's Balloons is worth 20 picarats. Hints cost hint coins, not picarats: each of the first three hints costs one coin and the Super Hint costs two, so opening all four costs five coins. There's no Submit step.
Because it's the first puzzle in the game, solving it also brings up two short help screens about picarats: one explains that wrong answers lower the picarats a puzzle is worth, and the other explains that once you've beaten the game, the picarats you've earned unlock extras in the Top Secret area of the Bonuses menu.
Versions and systems
- Nintendo 3DS, 3DS XL, 2DS and New 3DS: no difference. It's a touch-screen puzzle with no motion controls.
- US and UK English versions: same board, same answer. The puzzle and the clown have different names, some of the question and hint wording differs, and the UK solve message is a different line.
- Japanese Miracle Mask Plus: the 2013 Japan-only re-release added extra content. This puzzle appears to be unchanged.
- Other systems: Miracle Mask is a 3DS game. There's no Switch, mobile or PC version of it.
After the balloons (story spoiler)
Spoiler warning: this section covers the scene right after the puzzle. Once the strings are untangled, Stumble, free of his balloons at last, says "Whew! What a relief! Thank you for that!" Layton answers, "No need to thank us, Stumble. Helping someone in need is its own reward." Stumble welcomes them to Monte d'Or and tells them to always stay on their toes, and the story moves straight on to the carnival's first strange incident.
FAQ
Where is the answer to Puzzle 001?
It's in the Answer and full solution section above, hidden until you open it. If you only want a push, open the hints one at a time first.
What is Puzzle 001 called?
Stumble's Balloons in North America and Bungle's Balloons in the UK, after the clown's name in each version.
Where is Puzzle 001, and can you skip it?
It's in Carnival Square at the very start of the game, when you meet Stumble the clown. It's mandatory: the story won't go on until it's solved.
Is there more than one solution?
Yes. Two different sequences finish it in the minimum three moves, and longer ones work too because there's no move limit. Both three-move sequences are in the answer section.
Can you get Puzzle 001 wrong?
Not really. There's no Submit button, and the puzzle ends by itself when the strings are straight. Extra moves don't cost picarats, and Restart puts everything back.
How many picarats is Puzzle 001 worth?
20 picarats.
Is Daily Puzzle 001 the same as Puzzle 001?
No. Daily Puzzle 001 is Alchemy 01 (Alchemist 01 in the UK), from The Alchemist's Lair. Story Puzzle 001 is the clown and his balloons.
More Miracle Mask puzzles
- Puzzle 002: Where's Mother?
- Puzzle 003: Stumble's Banners
- Puzzle 004: Bumper Perspective
- Puzzle 005: Robot Factory
- Puzzle 60: Dangerous Holes
- Puzzle 100: Gate to the Ruins!
- Puzzle 113: Chip Champions
- Puzzle 118: Evenly Matched 3
- Puzzle 122: Kitty Solitaire 3
For the rest of the game's puzzles, see the Miracle Mask puzzle index.