Directive 22: First Character Vowel (Hints & Answer)

Hint first (no full spoiler): The Committee requires your password to open with a capital letter of the singing variety.

Directive 22 is short, blunt, and picky about the door. The first character of your password must be an uppercase vowel: A, E, I, O, or U. Not a lowercase vowel. Not a consonant with good intentions. And, the clause that catches most Act III players, not an emoji. If a flag, droplet, or seedling sits in position one, the rule stamps DENIED no matter what comes second.

The full solution

Check your first character and act:

1. Already an uppercase vowel? Done. Move along before the Committee finds something else.
2. A lowercase vowel? Capitalize it. Watch that this does not break your capital-letter bookkeeping elsewhere; the letter itself and its Scrabble value do not change, so this is the cheapest case.
3. A consonant, digit, or symbol? Insert one uppercase vowel in front of it. One keystroke.
4. An emoji? Do not delete it blindly, especially if it is Fern or a droplet. Insert an uppercase vowel before the emoji instead, so the emoji slides to position two untouched.

Which vowel? Any of the five works, so choose for side effects. All five are 1-point Scrabble letters, so they are interchangeable for Directive 21. The one real difference: E. Choosing E as your opener raises your E count by one, which matters for the next directive. Unless you specifically want another E, open with A, I, O, or U.

Example openings:

• Apr1l... (already compliant, A in position one)
• Iron2%... (compliant, I opens)
• E99🇯🇵... (compliant, but note the E now counts toward Directive 23)
• 🌱Apple... (DENIED: emoji first; fix by moving the vowel ahead of the seedling, carefully)

If you inserted a brand-new vowel, your Scrabble total just went up by 1. Pay for it in the same breath: delete one 1-point letter somewhere in the middle of the password. Score restored, first character legal, Committee briefly silent.

What breaks later

• Directive 23 counts every E, and your opening character is not exempt. An E in position one is one more E in the ledger. If your E count is already balanced, open with A, I, O, or U so this rule and that one never argue.
• Directive 21 feels every letter edit. Adding the opening vowel is +1 point; compensate with a matching deletion elsewhere or the score rule flips DENIED the moment this one turns green.
• The Fern cluster from Directive 17 is only a problem if you built your password with the seedling or its droplets at the very front. Position one now belongs to a capital vowel permanently, so shift the whole Fern arrangement inward. Do the move in small edits: vowel in first, then confirm Fern and all droplets survived the shuffle.

This is one of the gentler Act III directives, a single-character demand in an act full of ecosystems and outbreaks. Claim position one with a capital A, settle the 1-point bill, and go back to watering.

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