How Do I Solve All These &#$@! Puzzle Caches?

One of the things I enjoy most about caching in Colorado is all of the creative puzzles in the area. They really run the gamut from the simplest of solves to the puzzles that have been on my Puzzles --HELP!! list for the past two years. One of the things I hear most from new cachers is that they hate puzzle caches because they don't know where to begin. My hope is that this will give them some pointers to the joys of puzzle caching. More experienced puzzle cachers may find this really boring - sorry in advance.

Don't expect to be able to solve a lot of 4 or 5 star difficuly puzzles after going through this exercise, but hopefully you'll have more confidence attacking the 2 and 3 star puzzles.

For a much more extensive lesson on puzzle caches, I would recommend the Puzzle Solving 101 series, although you have to travel to Florida to actually find the caches (which might be a good excuse for a trip next February). Most of these caches are now archived, but you'll get a great introduction to how to begin thinking like a puzzler.

Hidden Coordinates

Most puzzle cachers probably have their own strategies regarding how they attack a puzzle cache. Typically the very first thing we do when we open up a puzzle is look for hidden coordinates or other hidden information in the form of messages or hints.

There are actually lots of places on a cache page to hide information, with one of the most common hiding spots being in the html source code. This is most simply done by including a comment line when preparing the cache page write-up, but there are also other sneaky ways to hide information in the coding for those who are more experienced with html, so always look at all of the user created coding, including any links (some may not be apparent on the cache page) and the names and locations of any images.

To view the source code for a cache page in Firefox, select View --> Page Source. For other browsers, there are similar menu selections available to view the source code. When the source code comes up in a new window, click on FIND and type in UserSupplied -- this will save you time scrolling through all that gobbledygook and take you to the text that the CO created. There you can search for hidden messages and clues.

Another sneaky way to hide information on the cache page is to put some information in a white font, so that it can only be seen when highlighted or cut and pasted to another document.

Congratulations, you found the hidden text! B=0

Another way to hide information is right in the text by having certain words or letters in bold or italics or in a different font size, etc. Some of these little changes can be very hard to see on the cache page, but become obvious when looking at the source code. Here is some sample text:

Hidden in this text is a little message for you. It is not easy to see, but it is there if you know where to look. It is right there, right in front of your eyes. Can you find it.

Other less common places to hide information include in the background image for the cache page, any images on the cache page, other images available in the gallery, in the cache title, the listed cache owner's name, in the hint area, or in the listed waypoints. Theoretically, even the attributes could be used to communicate information since the attributes are entered by the owner. Any place on the cache page where cache owners can enter information, they can hide information.

Also be sure to look at things like TBs and geocoins that are listed as being in the cache, but may actually part of the puzzle, and also look at the profile of the cache owner. In either location, puzzle information can be hidden in plain sight, or could also be hidden in the source code of owner supplied areas of the TB page or the cache owner's profile page or by using white text, etc. Some puzzle cache owners are very tricky!

Speaking of tricky, if the cache does not specifically say that the cache is NOT located at the posted coordinates, then we always try the posted coordinates in the geochecker, because the whole puzzle could just be a decoy. Also, some cache owners will place a clue at the posted coordinates, or put the posted coordinates at a sign or object that is actually a hint for the puzzle, so if you live nearby the posted coordinates, it may be worth stopping by to see what is there (assuming that it is safe to do so).

Codes and Ciphers

Lots of puzzle caches use various forms of codes and ciphers. A code can be something like Morse Code, Binary, or Braille. Foreign languages (including Klingon and other alien languages) are often seen as well. The ciphers can range in difficulty from cryptograms to much more sophisticated ciphers that use keys. Many of the ciphers utilize symbols, often utilizing the wide variety of symbolic fonts currently available.

You would be amazed at what some puzzle cache owners use as decoders. Some of them are very simple tools that people use every day. For example, look at your computer keyboard and see if you can solve the following for the fake north coordinates of this puzzle:

$) !&.!(&

I have been learning Morse Code just so I can solve puzzle caches. You don't have to be as crazy as I am -- there are a lot of decoders out there where you just have to cut and paste the code and the site does all of the work for you.

The Geocaching Toolbox is a fabulous resource for puzzle cachers.

- .... . .-.. . - - . .-. -.. .. ... . --.- ..- .- .-.. - --- ... . ...- . -. .-.-.-

Binary, Octal (Base 8), and Hexidecimal (Base 16)are often used by clever COs to hide either common decimal numbers or text (ASCII characters).

There are a lot of decoders out there, but my favorite is Rapid Tables.

01000101 00100000 01100101 01110001 01110101 01100001 01101100 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110101 01110010 00101110

Here is a site for converting hexidecimal to text.

Here is a site for converting from binary, octal, hexidecimal and other bases to decimal numbers base conversions.

We have also encountered puzzle caches that utilize barcodes and even more sophisticated matrix 2D barcodes. Barcodes can be used to code either numbers or text. Here is a link to Wikipedia that covers the basics of barcodes.

Many barcodes can be decoded using sophisticated cell phones, if they are Internet compatible and/or have the necessary apps.

Basically ANYTHING that has either number or text equivalents can be used as code in a puzzle cache, so there are many more options out there than what I have listed here.

The use of foreign languages to hide information and coordinates is similar to coding. I like to use Google Translate for puzzle cache translations.

La lettera F è uguale a nove.

There are lots of choices out on the Internet for language translations. Sometimes it takes more than one site to get all the information you need from a foreign language translation based on often wide variations in language usage.

The most common cipher used in puzzle caches is probably just the ordinary substitution cipher or cryptogram, where one letter (or symbol) actually represents another letter, and that holds true throughout the cipher. Sometimes the location of spaces is given (which makes solving a lot easier) but sometimes the spaces are not known.

Here is my favorite cryptogram solver.

If the cryptogram you are solving uses symbols, the symbols will have to be converted to letters first. If you find that there are more than 26 different symbols, some symbols may represent capitol letters or punctuation, in which case the on-line solver I gave you above will not be able to handle it, and you will have to find a more sophisticated solver or you will have to tackle the transformation by hand.

Pjav kpw lvr rtv mpbwrspj rp rtsm aykdrplyfu, kpw esbb gjpe rtfr rtv bvrrvy l sm viwfb rp mvzvj.

One specific form of a substitution cipher is called ROT13. ROT13 is actually the way that hints are scrambled on geocaching.com. Of course, you are not limited to a ROT13 -- any number 1-25 can be used.

Similar to ROT13 is ROT47, which works the same way, but includes all ASCII symbols (not just letters).

%96 =6EE6C w :D 6BF2= E@ @?6]

Some ciphers require a key word to solve them. The key will often be hidden in the text somewhere. There may be a seemingly innocent comment in the description such as “patience is the key to solving this puzzle” where what they are really telling you is that the word patience is the key word needed to solve the cipher. Other times, the key may be the title of the cache or some other item on the cache page such as the name of the park where the cache is hidden.

The most common keyed cipher that I have encountered in puzzle caches is the Vigenère Cipher. In my experience, patience really is the key to solving ciphers and cryptograms!

Rogovnvyaamqsau. Cduk xegkiccx pef rexd hnj. Gji aembie L mh ejcey vs oekw.

Some other ciphers that I have encountered in puzzle caches include Atbash, Ceasar, Bacon, and Playfair. Here is a site with a whole variety of cipher tools to play with.

There are many more ciphers out in the world than are listed above, and some are very complicated and will require more in depth study regarding how ciphers work. Unfortunately, not all ciphers will be able to be simply inserted into a solver, and some may actually require multiple transformations.

Lists

Another very common type of puzzle cache is the list. Most cache coordinates in this area will be made up of 15 number. So, if you see a list of 15 items, it is very likely that each item can be associated with a single digit number.

Say I had a puzzle cache called “Le Tigre This Island” and the puzzle was a list as follows:

After Dark
This Island
On the Verge
Tell You Now
After Dark
Viz
Tell You Now
On the Verge
This Island
Nanny Nanny Boo Boo
This Island
Nanny Nanny Boo Boo
New Kicks
This Island
TKO

The letter K equals Nanny Nanny Boo Boo

If you were to go to the following Wikipedia link for the album and looked at the track listing, you would find that, using the number for each track in the list (where 10 is used for 0), that the above list would reveal the fake coordinates for this puzzle cache.

The key to solving this type of list puzzle is finding the pattern among the items listed. One thing you have to go on to start your search for the necessary pattern is that, in this area, the first item is likely going to be a 4. So, if the first item on the list is a person’s name, and among all the info you gather about this person you find that the person died in 1984 (a year ending in 4), then it might be worth checking to see when the other folks on the list all died. Or if the first person on the list had four kids, etc.

The puzzle list can contain less than 15 items, if some of the items in the list could be a multiple-digit number. Often you might see a list of 10 items -- this might indicate that you are looking for only the minutes and can assume the north and west degrees.

Sometimes the list puzzle is a list of pictures instead of a list of words, but finding the pattern is still the way to solve the puzzle. If the list involves photos, be sure to take a look at the names of the jpg images for possible clues or additional information. Also, be sure to see if the photos have links to other websites, which may contain additional information.

Some very tricky lists require you to find more than one pattern, or require you to use more than one attribute for each item.

Word Puzzles

Most word puzzles, such as crosswords, word searches, anagrams, etc. are usually pretty straight forward as far as the rules, but that does not mean that they are all easy. Here are a few websites that may help you when trying to solve these types of puzzles:

Word Search Strategies
Crossword Puzzle Help
Anagram Solver

For word searches, there is often a hidden message in the letters that remain behind after the list of words are all found. That hidden message may not necessarily start at the beginning, and it may not read left to right.

Many word puzzles depend on converting the numerical value of a letter to a number (i.e. a=1 and z=26). If the first two letters on a puzzle in the Denver area are CI (equivalent to 39), then you may be on to something.

The letter L = 5

Here are links to an online dictionary, an online thesaurus, and Wikipedia, which can all be very helpful with word puzzles.

Math Puzzles

Most math puzzles are also straight forward, but as with word puzzles, that does not mean that they are easy. My all-time favorite puzzle is Mondo's Star #3. Each of those equations are very simple -- but that puzzle took me HOURS to solve. Here are a few websites that contain a lot of common equations that may come in handy when trying to solve math puzzles.

Triangles
Circles
Unit Conversions

Keeping track of your units is very important in puzzle caches. The given information may be in different units than the answer, requiring conversion.

M is the number of miles that equals 15,840 feet

For story problems, start by writing down everything that is given, and then look for formulas that you can use to calculate the things that you need to know from the given information. Just take the whole thing one step at a time.

Logic puzzles

Logic puzzles come in a wide variety of forms. Some common puzzle types falling in this category are Sudoku (in all its various forms), Kakuro, Nonograms, Hidato, and others. Then you have the old-fashioned story problem type of logic puzzle.

Here is a link to my favorite on-line Sudoku solver. It solves traditional Sudokus as well as several other variations.

The key to solving the old-fashioned story problem type of logic puzzle is to make an appropriate grid -- an internet search for logic puzzles will quickly turn up several resources to guide you in creating grids. Without using the grid, these puzzles can be very difficult to solve.

N equals the number of letters in the word Logic, plus 1

So, let’s see what you learned. This puzzle cache can be found at:

N AB CD.EFG
W HJK JL.MJN

Happy Puzzling!

You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.

Thank You Allen Cachers!

Additional Waypoints