Millennium Puzzle

The Millennium Puzzle is one of the Millennium Items. It was originally known as the Millennium Pendant, but after it got shattered and required assembly it came to be known as the Millennium Puzzle.

History
3,000 years before present day events (5000 in the English anime), the Millennium Pendant and the other Millennium Items were forged in Kul Elna by sacrificing 99 souls of the Kul Elna villagers. The items were created in order to protect Egypt from attackers. Pharaoh Aknamkanon was given the Pendant, while six priests were given the other six items. Together they fought off the attackers and saved Egypt.

After Aknamkanon became aware of how the Items were created, he fell ill and died shortly afterward. The Pendant was inherited by his son Atem.

The Pendant was later stolen from teenage Atem, by Thief King Bakura, who used it and the other Millennium Items to Summon Zorc Necrophades.

Atem defeated Zorc at the cost of his own life. He used his name as part of a spell that sealed part Zorc and his own souls in the Millennium Items. Atem's soul got sealed in the Millennium Pendant, which got shattered and was laid to rest in his tomb. Atem's memory, including his name was wiped, so that he could not recall the spell, so that the binding could never be undone.

In 1960, Solomon Muto retrieved the Millennium Pendant, now called the Millennium Puzzle in the Tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh. Over the years, no one had been able to assemble the puzzle. Solomon's grandson, Yugi, found the puzzle in the family game shop and spent 8 years trying to solve it.

Yugi managed to solve the Puzzle, while under the pressure of getting money to pay Ushio's self-imposed bodyguard fee. After solving it his body bore host to the part of Atem's soul, known as Yami Yugi.

Yami Yugi was able to take control of Yugi's body while Yugi had the Puzzle. Yugi often wore the Puzzle around his neck on a brown rope (later a silver chain with links), allowing him to easily get Yami's help, usually to play games, particularly Duel Monsters.

The Puzzle was later shattered by Mr. Clown in the manga or Bandit Keith in the anime. Yugi managed to reassemble the puzzle while the building he was in was on fire, as he couldn't bear losing Yami Yugi.

After Yami Yugi collected the Egyptian Gods and presented them to the tablet, he was sucked into the Ultimate Shadow RPG, which was a replay of his life in Ancient Egypt. Yami Yugi was the player, while Atem was one of his characters, both of whom had the Millennium Puzzle.

As the RPG replayed Atem's life, Thief Bakura managed to steal it again. He once again gathered the Items and Summoned Zorc.

After the RPG, Yugi once again had the Puzzle, which was laid to rest, before the Ceremonial Battle.

Features
The Pendant resembles an upside-down pyramid with an eye on the front. It has a ring on top, allowing it to be worn around the owner's neck.

The puzzle is extremely complex and difficult to solve, having taken Yugi at least eight years to successfully assemble it. In addition, in the manga, when Mr. Otogi tried to rebuild it after he shattered it, he ended up almost trapped in an illusion of the puzzle's maze, indicating that only a chosen one can build it, as Ryuji Otogi could also not fit the pieces in.

In addition to holding the soul of Atem, the puzzle is able to fulfill one wish of the person who had solved it and heighten its owner's chance of success in a game, judging by their skill as well as the importance of the game at hand. The hieroglyphics enscribed on the puzzle say, "The one who solves me shall gain the powers and knowledge of darkness..."

Dark Yugi describes the power of the puzzle as "the power of unity", comparing a puzzle's pieces forming a whole to friends coming together. Yugi frequently credits the Millennium Puzzle with bringing him friendship with Joey Wheeler.

Yugi originally used the phrase "Something that can be seen, yet cannot be seen" to describe the Millennium Puzzle before it was completed, since even though you can see the pieces, you can't see the whole puzzle since it isn't complete. This riddle has been asked many times over the course of the series, with different characters providing different answers.

Out of the Millennium Items it's powers are the least obvious, other then allowing Yugi to change into Yami Yugi. In the first series anime Shadi entered Yugi's mind room belonging to Dark Yugi looking for the secrets powers of the Millennium Puzzle, Dark Yugi confronted him and challenged him to a game, where he was to find the true mind room amongst the countless maze of doors that were riddled with traps, he failed to and was very nearly defeated by a particular trap which was the floor of a room collapsing, Dark Yugi saved him and Shadi left defeated, a similiar event happens in the second series anime during the Duelist Kingdom arc but it is Yugi who rescues Shadi and not Yami Yugi. It appears to heighten the person's chance of winning games such as Duel Monsters, and is able to intiate Shadow Games and corresponding Penalty Games that Dark Yugi used to punish those who harmed Yugi or his friends in the first series anime. It is also able to reverse the effects of other Millenium Items as shown by how during Yami Yugi's duel with Yami Bakura where Yami Bakura used the power of the Millennium Ring to seal the soul of Yugi and his friends into their favourite Duel Monster Cards, Yami Bakura used Change of Heart with Ryo Bakura's soul in it. Intially Ryo takes over one of Yami Bakura's monsters and tells Yugi that he can win by destroying him along with the monster he has possesed, so Yami Yugi uses the Millennium Puzzle to switch the souls of Ryo Bakura and Yami Bakura so that Yami Bakura was sent to the Card Graveyard and Ryo was saved.

Yu-Gi-Oh!
In Yu-Gi-Oh! Yugi Muto solved the millenium puzzle and the story began.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
The millenium puzzles shape appeared on Demitri's shirt in King of Copycats. The millenium puzzle has made an appearence in Titan's hand.