Directive 16: Month Backwards (Hints & Answer)

Hint first (no full spoiler): Take the name of the current month and read it from the last letter to the first. That string goes in your password.

Directive 16 closes Act II with a spelling test in reverse. Your password must contain the current month’s name spelled backwards, case-insensitive. The Vault Security Committee reads it forwards, finds that it says the month, and stamps accordingly.

The full solution

Reverse the current month and type it as one contiguous string:

Month	Backwards	Month	Backwards
January	yraunaj	July	yluj
February	yraurbef	August	tsugua
March	hcram	September	rebmetpes
April	lirpa	October	rebotco
May	yam	November	rebmevon
June	enuj	December	rebmeced

Case does not matter: YAM, Yam, and yam all clear in May. Example fragments that pass in August: tsugua-chad-1221, ski44tsugua, Ferntsugua!3.

Copy the string carefully from the table above. Reversing a word in your head is exactly the kind of task where one transposed letter costs a run, and the Committee does not offer partial credit for tsuguaa.

Note the calendar, not the clock: unlike Directive 10, this rule only changes once a month. Unless you are playing through midnight on the last day of the month, the string holds for your whole session.

What breaks later

The reversed month is the largest single block of letters most passwords carry into Act III, and its size depends entirely on when you play:

• Directive 27 caps your total letters. yam costs 3. rebmetpes costs 9. September, November, and December players start Act III with a heavier bag than May players. This is not fair. The Committee has been notified. The Committee is the one who did it.
• The September e problem: rebmetpes contains three e’s, and rebmeced matches it. If a later directive taxes the letter e, September and December players should save e’s everywhere else, starting with taking ski over three at Directive 14.
• Directive 25 can exile a letter. If the exiled letter appears in your reversed month, you cannot simply delete it, because this rule still demands the full string. Plan exiles around the month, not through it.

Keep the reversed month as one clean block, unbroken by emoji or symbols. Fern, whose name is the same forwards and in spirit, wishes you a short month.

Stuck on a different directive? Browse all 30 rule guides or return to the vault. Fern believes in you.