Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask Puzzle 040: Crossed Connections Hints and Answer

Puzzle 040 is Crossed Connections, a 35-picarat Draw Line puzzle hidden in Reception at City Hall in Monte d'Or, in Chapter 3. Nobody hands it to you: you find it by tapping the lamp at the far left end of the reception counter. Four cables, A to D, run through a grid of pipes to four sockets, 1 to 4, and you can only see short pieces of cables B and C. Using the lengths given in the question, you work out which cable ends in which socket and draw the connections on the touch screen.

Video: Crossed Connections solved. It shows the answer, so skip it if you only want the hints.

This page covers story Puzzle 040 in Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask on Nintendo 3DS, in the US and UK English versions, using the North American text. If you're after Daily Puzzle 040 or Puzzle 40 from another Layton game, see Wrong Puzzle 040? below.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask Puzzle 040 Crossed Connections: on the top, a grid of teal pipes with cables A, B, C and D entering from the left and four plugs numbered 1 to 4 on the right, a short exposed piece of cable C in the top row and a short exposed piece of cable B in the bottom row, and two pipe sections marked 1; below, four sockets numbered 1 to 4 along the top and plugs A, B, C and D along the bottom, each with a small dot to draw from — Illustration of the pipe grid on the top screen and the sockets and plugs on the touch screen. The game's menu buttons aren't shown.

What Puzzle 040 is

Puzzle 040 at a glance
Name	Crossed Connections (the same in the US and UK English versions)
Type	Draw Line (connect each plug to a socket)
Picarats	35
Location	Reception, City Hall, Monte d'Or
Chapter	Chapter 3
How you start it	Hidden puzzle: tap the lamp at the far left of the reception counter
Solved by	Professor Layton
Previous puzzle number	Puzzle 039, A Hat of Tiles (also in Reception, from Michelle, the City Hall receptionist)
Next puzzle number	Puzzle 041, From the Sidelines (Briefing Room)

The question reads: "You have four cables plugged into four sockets, but as they run through pipes, you have no idea which cable connects to which socket. You only know part of where cables B and C run through, shown above. The length of cable inside the pipe is 6 m for each cable, and each section of pipe is 1 m long. However, while the vertical pipes can hold as many cables as needed, the horizontal pipes can hold only one cable. Can you work out which cable is connected to which socket?" The objective bar sums it up as "Which plug goes where?"

Reading the pipe grid

The top screen shows the pipes. The touch screen is where you answer.

Four rows, four sections each. Each cable enters its own row from the left, and every row has four horizontal sections between the left edge and the plugs on the right. The little "1" labels on the top-left sections are a reminder that each section, horizontal or vertical, is 1 m.
Three vertical pipes. They link the rows. Cables can change rows only through them, and any number of cables can share a vertical pipe.
One cable per horizontal section. Two cables can never run along the same horizontal section.
The two visible pieces. The short piece of cable C sits in the top row, between the second and third vertical pipes. The short piece of cable B sits in the bottom row, between the first and second vertical pipes.
Exactly 6 m inside the pipes. Not "up to" 6 m. Every cable uses all six.

On the touch screen, the sockets 1 to 4 run along the top and the plugs A to D along the bottom. Each has a small dot. You answer by drawing a line from each plug's dot to the dot of the socket you think it goes into. Only the pairs count, so the lines you draw on the touch screen don't have to follow the pipes.

Puzzle names

Puzzle 040 names
Version	Puzzle name
North America	Crossed Connections
UK	Crossed Connections
Japanese	電気コードの行方 (Denki Kōdo no Yukue, roughly "where the electric cords go")

Crossed Connections is probably the name in both English versions. The UK English text probably drops a few commas and places some full stops and commas differently relative to the quotation marks. The pipes, the sockets and the answer are the same in the US and UK English versions. The room itself is probably called City Hall Reception in the UK version.

Wrong Puzzle 040?

Daily Puzzle 040 in Miracle Mask is a different puzzle: Blocks 05, from the Big Block Box set. You fill a frame with blocks, and there are no cables in it.
Puzzle 039, A Hat of Tiles, is in the same room. Michelle, the receptionist, gives you that one. If your puzzle is about tiles, you've got the one before.
Puzzle 118, Evenly Matched 3, is a much later puzzle in the same Reception.
Puzzle 40 in another Layton game is a different puzzle. If yours doesn't show four cables running through pipes, you're in the wrong game.

Where you find it

In Chapter 3, your objective becomes "Check City Hall!" and you reach Reception for the first time, with Layton, Luke and Emmy. This is the room where Michelle the receptionist gives you Puzzle 039 and where you meet the mayor before the task force's briefing. The puzzle is hidden: tap the lamp at the far left end of the long reception counter, just in front of the green chalkboard. Layton says, "The power cables for the lamps are connected in a rather peculiar way," and Luke asks, "Which one goes where, Professor?" Then the puzzle starts.

You don't appear to need to talk to Michelle first. The lamp seems to work from your first visit to Reception, and it appears to stay there until you solve it, so you can probably come back for it later.

City Hall Reception: a long wooden reception counter with purple chairs behind it, a green chalkboard and a grey cabinet on the left, a bookcase and window blinds at the back and a notice board on a pillar at the right. A teal ring labeled Puzzle 040 marks the table lamp at the far left end of the counter, and numbered rings mark hint coin spots 1 at a ceiling light at the upper left, 2 at the box on top of the bookcase behind the counter, 3 at the notice board on the right and 4 under the left-side chair — Illustration of Reception, in a slightly wider view than the game shows at once. The teal ring marks the lamp that starts the puzzle, and the numbers mark roughly where the four hint coins are. The people in the room aren't shown.

Reception has four hint coins. They appear to be at a ceiling light at the upper left (1), on the box on top of the bookcase behind the counter (2), at the yellow notice on the notice board on the right (3) and under the left-side chair (4). There's no zoomed-in view in this room. Each coin can be collected only once, and the coins belong to the room, so they're the same ones you'd find when you come here for Puzzle 039.

When the answer comes back wrong

"Too bad." The game's message for a wrong answer adds, "All you need to work out is which cable is plugged into which socket." You don't have to draw the routes through the pipes.
Your cable is shorter or longer than 6 m. Every cable has exactly 6 m inside the pipes, so a route that's shorter or longer is wrong, even if it reaches a free socket.
Two cables share a horizontal section. Only the vertical pipes can carry more than one cable.
You can't find the puzzle. It's hidden, not given by a character. Tap the lamp at the far left end of the counter.

Hints, one at a time

These are the game's own hints, word for word from the North American version and in the same order. 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

You know that the "length of cable inside the pipe is 6 m for each cable." Start with cable B and try to work out where it's going. From its starting point to the end of the exposed section of cable, it runs through 4 m of piping. It should be clear where the last 2 m of cable goes.

Hint 2

Next, let's look at cable C. Unlike cable B, it could take various routes to get to the exposed part, but there's only one place where it can end up!

Hint 3

After following the first two hints, there are two cables left to place. You only have 6 m of cable for each, and they all have to run along 4 m worth of horizontal pipe. That means the remaining 2 m of cable runs through vertical pipes. Once you know that each cable must travel 2 m vertically, the rest should be easy!

Super Hint

Bearing in mind that the "length of cable inside the pipe is 6 m for each cable," you can work out that B is plugged into socket 4 and C is plugged into socket 1. The other two must plug into sockets 2 and 3. Since they travel 2 m vertically, cable A must end up in socket 3. All the cables apart from B can take various routes, but it won't change the socket that each ultimately connects to.

Answer and full solution

The answer below covers every step, with a diagram of one set of routes that works and a picture of the solved puzzle. Open it when you're ready.

Show the answer

Answer: A goes to 3, B to 4, C to 1 and D to 2. On the touch screen, draw a line from plug A to socket 3, from B to socket 4, from C to socket 1 and from D to socket 2, then submit.

Every cable crosses four horizontal sections. That's 4 m of each cable's 6 m, so every cable has exactly 2 m of vertical pipe.
B goes to socket 4. B's visible piece is in the bottom row. To reach it, B goes 1 m along its row, 2 m down the first vertical pipe and 1 m along the bottom row, through the visible piece: 4 m. Its 2 m of vertical pipe is used up, so the last 2 m run straight along the bottom row to socket 4.
C goes to socket 1. C's visible piece is in the top row, two rows above C's own row. Climbing there uses all 2 m of C's vertical pipe, so C stays in the top row and ends at socket 1.
A goes to socket 3. Sockets 2 and 3 are left. A starts in the top row and must use exactly 2 m of vertical pipe. Going down 2 m takes it to the third row: socket 3. Socket 2 is only 1 m below A's row, and going down 1 m and back up 1 m would leave A at socket 1, which C already has.
D goes to socket 2. D starts in the bottom row and rises 2 m, to the second row: socket 2. Any other way of using its 2 m would leave it at socket 3 (1 m away, not 2) or back at socket 4, which B has.

Check that the routes fit together: in the diagram below, every horizontal section carries only one cable, every cable passes 4 sections across and 2 down or up, and B and C both run through their visible pieces.

The pipe grid with one set of routes drawn in: red cable A runs along the top row, drops two rows at the second vertical pipe and ends at plug 3; blue cable B drops two rows at the first vertical pipe and runs along the bottom row through its visible piece to plug 4; orange cable C climbs two rows at the second vertical pipe and runs along the top row through its visible piece to plug 1; green cable D climbs two rows at the first vertical pipe and ends at plug 2. Labels below read A to 3: 4 m across, 2 m down; B to 4: 4 m across, 2 m down; C to 1: 4 m across, 2 m up; D to 2: 4 m across, 2 m up — Illustration of one set of routes that works. Other routes are possible, but the sockets stay the same.

The touch screen with four lines drawn: red from plug A to socket 3, blue from plug B to socket 4, orange from plug C to socket 1 and green from plug D to socket 2 — Illustration of how to enter the answer: one line from each plug to its socket.

The game confirms it: "Well done! Cable A goes into socket 3, cable B into socket 4, cable C into socket 1, and cable D into socket 2. Whichever path the cables take within the pipes, the solution is the same."

The pipe grid after the puzzle is solved: the cables are drawn over the pipes: the red cable from A ends at a red plug at 3, the blue cable from B at a blue plug at 4, the orange cable from C at an orange plug at 1 and the green cable from D at a green plug at 2 — Illustration of the top screen after a correct answer.

If your answer keeps failing:

You swapped A and D. Socket 2 is only 1 m of vertical pipe from A's row, and A needs exactly 2 m. Socket 3 is only 1 m from D's row.
You sent C to socket 2 or 3. Getting up to its visible piece in the top row already uses C's 2 m of vertical pipe, so it can't come back down.
You sent B somewhere other than 4. After its visible piece B has exactly 2 m left, and both have to be horizontal sections of the bottom row.
You left a plug unconnected. All four pairs have to be right.

Picarats, hints and hint coins

Crossed Connections shows 35 picarats when it starts. The puzzle can award 35, 28 or 21 picarats. Wrong answers may reduce the picarat value. If you try again after quitting, Layton says, "I would like to know how all of the cables are connected." If you back out, he says, "I suppose it wasn't necessary to address such a minor thing."

Hints cost hint coins, not picarats. The costs are one coin each for the first three hints and two for the Super Hint, five in total. Reception's four coins are one short of that, so you'd need a coin saved from elsewhere to open every hint. Or use the free hints on this page and save your coins.

Does it unlock anything?

It doesn't appear to, and it's probably not mandatory either. You get the picarats, and the puzzle counts toward your total.

Versions

Nintendo 3DS family: this page covers the 3DS game. You answer by drawing lines with the stylus on the touch screen.
US and UK English versions: same name, same pipes, same answer. The UK text differs only in a few commas and full stops.

The scene around the puzzle

Layton notices the lamps on the reception counter: "The power cables for the lamps are connected in a rather peculiar way." Luke wants to know, "Which one goes where, Professor?"

When it's solved, Layton says, "Ahh, that's that, then! Still...quite odd."

FAQ

Where is the answer to Puzzle 040?

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 040 called?

Crossed Connections, in both the North American and UK English versions. In Japanese it's 電気コードの行方.

Where is Puzzle 040?

In Reception at City Hall in Monte d'Or, in Chapter 3. It's a hidden puzzle: tap the lamp at the far left end of the reception counter.

Do I have to draw the route through the pipes?

No. You only connect each plug to a socket on the touch screen. As the game says when you solve it, whichever path the cables take within the pipes, the solution is the same.

Do I have to solve Puzzle 040?

It doesn't appear to be required. It's a hidden puzzle, and Layton calls it "such a minor thing" if you quit. The lamp appears to stay there until you solve it.

How many picarats is Puzzle 040 worth?

It shows 35 picarats when it starts. The puzzle can award 35, 28 or 21 picarats. Wrong answers may reduce the picarat value.

Is Daily Puzzle 040 the same as Puzzle 040?

No. Daily Puzzle 040 is Blocks 05, from the Big Block Box set. Story Puzzle 040 is the cables-and-pipes puzzle in Reception.

More Miracle Mask puzzles

For the rest of the game's puzzles, see the Miracle Mask puzzle index.