Description
Can you unlock the ancient chest, find the Balthazar Stone and break the ancient curse?
The Balthazar Stone by The Mystery Agency is an award-winning escape-room puzzle to play at home. Join Elsa Winslow on her journey to Sharktooth Island. To solve the mystery, you must solve the many clues hidden in an ancient treasure chest to find Balthazar’s Stone and break its ancient curse.
And it hasn’t been made easy for you – the wooden chest itself has been padlocked and you will have to work out the combination just to get started!
You will need to use all your powers of deduction and logic to solve a baffling, mind mangling sequence of clues to crack combination locks, piece together the information discover the truth about the stone.
One of 3 new gripping mystery puzzles available from The Mystery Agency, it won the Best at-home Puzzle Game by Armchair Escapist 2021.
The mastermind behind the puzzles is Olivier award-winner Henry Lewis, of the West End and Broadway hit, The Play That Goes Wrong and star of ITV’s brand-new Riddle-based quiz show ‘Riddiculous’
To solve The Balthazar Stone you’ll need to launch an investigation across the pieces of evidence supplied in the box as well as discover secret websites that are hiding important clues. Over 25 authentic items have been beautifully designed with extraordinary attention to detail and include
The Balthazar Stone is utterly compelling and thanks to the stunning tactile pieces, you will rapidly find yourself immersed into the case. It takes approximately 60 to minutes to solve – but could last a lot longer! If you get stuck, there are tiered hints available online to help you.
Play alone or make it the perfect reason to invite friends around for a themed mystery party. Best of all, when you’ve solved The Balthazar Stone you can repack it to share with someone else and challenge them to beat your time!
A complete mental workout, ingenious, challenging, and fun The Balthazar Stone has been given 5* by our customers, dare you take the challenge and solve it as well?
Estimated delivery – three to five working days for the UK
Product code: the-balthazar-stone
EAN: 0794712236108
Box Size: 28 x 20.5 x 15 cm
Weight: 1.3kg
Recommended age 14 years +
Lewis Wilson (verified owner) –
We had a fun evening figuring this out, but it was tough. We have done a number of escape rooms so that helped us know how to think (although there are clues on offer—which we didn’t use so I can’t comment on that.). There were 4 of us working on it and we did it in an hour, but I was glad to have a chess/logic powerhouse helping us! Everyone contributed. It was 2 adults and 2 older teens. I wouldn’t recommend it for 13 and under as it was too tough, but for our family it was a great night in!
Marian –
Received this a couple of days ago. A little delayed, but well worth the wait. Took 2 of us about an hour and a half having chosen not to put ourselves under any time pressure. We did use a couple of clues which were helpful but not too direct.
Anna Cheetham –
I was given this for my birthday and was utterly delighted with it. The puzzles are just the right level of challenging to give a good brain workout, and a sense of achievement on solving, without creating too much frustration. And everything is beautifully designed and a joy to look at, touch and use.
Although the recommended age is for teens and up, my husband and I solved this with our 10 year old daughter who also absolutely loved it and was able to make very valuable contributions to the team effort. She is a puzzle lover and we’ve played Escape Room games with her before, so the idea wasn’t totally new to her, but I hope people with similarly aged and experienced children won’t be put off by the recommended age, at least for this particular mystery – I can’t comment on how suitable the others might be.
Amy (verified owner) –
So satisfying to do. Took a while to work out but got there in the end. Really good quality which kept it feeling like an immersive experience. Can’t wait to get the whole collection on the shelf!
Alex Hunter –
Amazing fun, ordered it for a lockdown anniversary with my partner and it was great fun, well worth the delay. We both had never done an escape room before so took a little longer than most, 2 hours (we missed a detail right infront of us…doh) but the attention to detail for a home kit was amazing! We found it tricky but didnt loose hope once. I ordered the bundel and cannot wait for the others.
Hopfully we’ll be a bit quicker next time haha
amy masterton –
Was a lot of fun and really gets your brain exercising with all the various puzzles, family fun or can be done alone can’t wait for the next
Paul Kellett –
Superb puzzle experience. The box and contents are fantastic quality and the puzzles are tricky without being stupidly hard or requiring dubious leaps of logic. Took Me about 3 hours to solve and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Amy –
This was the first Mystery agency game we played and we loved it. I would definitely recommend. A very fun afternoon was spent playing this.
Samantha Grant –
This was bought for me as a birthday present and I loved it! The quality is fantastic. We spent a family evening doing this and it took us about 2 hours (with the help of our 9 and 11 year old – who also thought it was brilliant). Some of the clues stumped us for a while, but it was not so difficult that it put you off. We have since bought the Vanishing Gambler, which we also really enjoyed! I would thoroughly recommend this – brilliant quality and attention to detail.
Russell Clark (verified owner) –
Absolutely joyful experience. As soon as we finished it I came straight back the website to order the next one.
Gordon Graham –
Spent about 2 hours doing it and I did need a few clues but I absolutely loved the experience. Was feeling the covid blues and this really cheered me up. I really enjoyed the story behind the game too. Immediately placed orders for the other 2 available games. Hope more come out soon
Peter Atkinson –
Really good evening with my wife and two teenage boys trying to crack this one. Very nicely packaged and a good level of thought had to go into solving some of the clues. One down two to go…
Trudie Brown –
The thinking, the thought, the craft, the interconnecting of the whole mystery made it an amazing and different way for me and my husband to spend an evening. So much fun, we have already decided to order one a month for us to do together, keep em coming!
Jamie –
Brilliant. The whole thing was well thought out, well put together and well worth the money. Also got the other two in the bundle and they are equally as enjoyable. Highly recommended from an experienced puzzler.
Jamie –
Brilliant. The thought, the planning, the execution. Fantastic stuff. Bought in the three game bundle. All equally as good as each other. Ghost in the attic being, I think, the best.
Clare –
This one was a bit tougher than the last one but really immersive and enjoyable.
Components are again of the most excellent quality- there really is something special having an actual lock you can prod and rattle. Slightly dissappointingly the labels had come off the keys leading to a bit of brute forcing on one code but otherwise very good fun
Amy –
We absolutely loved the game, challenging but felt amazing to finish it. Well designed and so much fun.
J Wilson (verified owner) –
My partner and I completed this in approx 1hr 45 mins and we absolutely loved it! This was our first Mystery Agency game. Such a cool story to follow and all the components are of superb quality. Definitely will be purchasing one of the other games soon!
Rachel Whelan (verified owner) –
I bought Balthazar’s Stone as a present for my wife. We were very impressed with the quality of the components and detail. We played the untimed version and played it over 3 days. A really enjoyable game and would highly recommend. Looking forward to playing the next one.
Sharon –
Bought this at the UKGE after seeing the quality of what was included. The staff at the stand were extremely helpful, especially when bringing up concerns about taking the puzzle through airport security. This chest gave me so many ‘Aha!’ moments of puzzling happiness. Such a wonderful experience and looking forward to purchasing more from the mystery agency.
Rich Anderson –
I picked up two of these at UK games expo – probably should have got all three!
A fabulous little ‘escape in a box’ experience with great theming and quality parts that can be reused for years to come. I love that it talks you through putting it back together afterwards. We left a note in for anyone that solves our copy in the future.
The mixed media approach with using external websites is a great touch and really makes you feel like you are interacting with a great treasure. The hint system is good because you can get a nudge or two first, but the two places we got stuck were because we’d not fully understood something, and because I must have typed something into the website wrong!
Cant wait to unleash this on friends, and look forwards to picking up the ones we don’t have so that we can do the super secret!
Jon –
We did this as a family with teenagers, and everyone could join in and contribute. It was a very engaging way to spend New Year’s Eve as a fun alternative to a murder mystery dinner party. The quality of the puzzles and props were excellent, and we found the whole thing very satisfying. Definitely recommended!
Amanda (verified owner) –
Very entertaining few hours. Lovely workmanship on the box and artefacts. Interesting storyline. A good family activity with a good selection of puzzles that even interested our 10 year old.