One Word Wonder

I don't get his starting point... everything I find has seven letters. :(

Is the background a clue to solving it? It looks like coins to me, but not sure.

[2] Not really.

This is a bit trippy. I thought I was getting somewhere until I got to the long string of letters at the bottom...

Solved with only the top and bottom lines, but the real method is very neat.

Use what you got above to solve the bottom.

Third line is not dependent on the second line???

[2]: I disagree with [3], it is a hint towards the answer.

[8] Well, kind of - except those are chocolate coins, which sent me in a totally wrong direction at first.

[9] Yummie, chocolate coins :)

Your eyes are better than mine, I just saw that they were coins, but I didn't try reading the text on them until you pointed it out. Good catch.

nice puzzle. I'm not sure I understand the relevance of the middle part to the last part but I don't think it matters to me.

Does the "starting point" make sense?

[12] There's a starting point? :-)

Edit: oh right - "ABCDEF" - whatever that means!

I ended up solving it as explained, including the shot in the dark to get started. I think the background is a HUUUUUGE red herring. Those 30 minutes I'll never see again.

I actually found MNOPQR and tried to use it as ABCDEF. :) Makes sense, eh? :)

[14] Maybe it would if I understood how Napoleon fits in...

[14] Not really...

I think I managed to use the top three lines to "translate" the thing at the bottom, but it ends up being mumbo jumbo that doesn't unscramble into a single word.

Good thing I know a great site to "fill in the blanks" for me. I only had 3 of the 11 and it still came up with the solution.

What is the site name?

[18] There are lots of "crossword solvers"

[13] Napoleon had one

I think I am completely lost and feel really bland. More salt please?

[21] OK...the first line reference to Napoleon gives you the starting positions of the dials. Google the Napoleon comment (without the 's) above to get the starting word.

[21] The six letters of the alphabet were not his starting point.

Background is of no value

OMG. Finally got it. Thanks so much [22] and [18]. AUGH.

[22] Ok, I got that, but all I get is gibberish

that wasn't so hard. Like in high school, the spinning order matters. Fun puzzle!

btw, thanks [17]

Oh, for pete's sake. The "starting point" was so needlessly obscure.

[22] [23] thanks - took me 1 minute after I learned that.
[29] - right on. I thought that this was some reference to one of Napoleon's ciphers (NOT Napoleon Hill, but the French Napoleon), since, you know, he's the more famous Napoleon that should appear with some sort of code.

I must have goofed up last night, because I had the exact solve method after about 10 minutes. Today I just resorted to a crossword solver for the 3 letters I was certain of, and although there were a bunch of possibilities, there was an obvious choice. At least there are still bonus points available!

Wow - solved this 17 hours after posting, and bonus points were still to be had. That's a rarity. I agree that the starting point is obscure, and requires Googling (and reading [30]), which kind of stinks. But once you have that, if you're impatient, you can in fact apply a crossword solver to this after the first step.

Kinda random method, IMO.