Puzzle Cache Tips and Tricks Event Cache
Puzzle Cache Tips and Tricks
Hidden
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Saturday, March 17, 2012
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(not chosen)
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Someone took some very good notes, click here to view them.
Noon-3PM(maybe sooner)
Putnam Inn, Greencastle, IN
Are you tired of getting only traditional caches?
Do you think those puzzle caches are for someone else?
Would you like to be known as a great puzzle solver?
Well...we can't make you great at solving puzzles, but we can give you some tips on how solve some of those puzzle caches!
Come join us at the Putnam Inn in Greencastle, IN for a puzzle solving course. We will give you some tools, tips, and tricks on how to go about solving puzzle caches.
The lunch buffet Starts at 11am. Eat early or during the event. Cost is approximately $10/person if you chose to eat at the buffet, which is NOT required to attend the event.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post a "Will Attend" if you plan on coming so we have an idea of how many people to plan for. Also, even though eating is not a requirement to attend, please let me know if you will be eating or not in your log.
I want to say thanks to Lucky Chavez for finding a place to hold this event. I stopped in and ate there today and I believe it was worth every penny. The buffet has a very nice variety, but if you would rather order from the menu, they have a lot to choose from there too.
These are some of the Puzzles we will be going over. Feel free to solve them and find them if you want before hand. I asked to have these posted early to give people a chance to look them over and think about some of the harder ones for a while before the event.
Read Between The Lines
One of the very first things I do when I look at a puzzle cache page is select all text.(press CTRL & A) This will reveal any text that has been hidden by the cache owner by making it white. Sometimes this text is hints, other times it will tell you the coordinates directly.
May The Source Be With You
The picture is just there to throw you off. This one uses source code of the cache page. Right click on the page and select "View Page Source". Now you have a page with a bunch of code on it. You can scroll through the entire thing, but there is only a small section that the cache owner can change. To skip directly to the beginning of that section, click CTRL & F(this brings up the search feature). Type users in the search box. This brings you to the section with usersupplied content. There is one for the short description and one for the long description. This can be hidden in the font color, picture dimensions or just flat out tell you the coordinates...which is what I did here.
Lucky Chavez
When you see a bunch of garbled letter like this, it could be anything. Sometimes they are part of a picture. Try checking out the picture properties. Or maybe it's a cipher. I typed this out rather than put it in a picture for you. It makes it easier to copy and paste into some cipher tools. One such page that I use is rumkin.com/tools/cipher/ There are a lot of options to use, so trial and error will be what you use most of the time. I have not heard of any way to look at the code and figure out which is used. Sometimes hints on the page may tell you. I did not, which is why the difficulty is high. But I will go ahead and give you a break here. Scroll down to Vigenere and click on the link. Here you will see a place for a passcode and message. Passphrase? There may be hints on this one too...maybe try the name of the cache. Type Lucky Chavez in the Passphrase box. Copy and paste the code into the Your message box. You should see the coordinates spelled out for you.
Lucky 7
One common code method is substitution. There are many ways of doing it. A symbol, picture, number letter equals a number. A lot of times the key to figuring out what to do is hinted in the cache name. You want to look for things of ten. There are ten single digits. Let's say the cache name was "What's Up Doc?" There are ten letters in the cache name. W might be 0 or it might be 1. There might be a hint to tell you if zero is before one or after nine. I have noticed most people put zero before one. So, if I made a code with this: APC DUT That would translate to 269 753 Get it? Now on Lucky 7. In the hint I stated only numbers 1 through 7 are used. So you might instead of looking for 10s looks for 7s. What on the page has 7 letters and/or numbers? Hmmmmm....the GC#! Since only numbers 1-7 are used, there are no zeros, so G=1 C=2 and so on.
Five
In this area(Greencastle) all coordinates will have N39 and W086. Look at the given coordinates. What does the number 5 and the given coordinates, and N39 and W086 have in common? This uses a shift of 5. Which means you are going to add 5 to each number. 2=7 & 7=2, 6=1 & 1=6, 4=9 & 9=4. The geocaching website using a similar coding for hints called ROT-13 ROT means rotation. So with number, I am using ROT-5. There can be other ways of using this to make it more difficult. If I used ROT-3, you would add 3 to each number: 1=4, but 4=7; 7=0, but 0=3. But on this puzzle use the ROT-5 method and it's pretty simple.
Another Puzzle Cache
Sometimes, it's all about the words. Maybe you count the letters in the words, syllables in words or sentences. This on uses words in sentences. Pretty simple once you figure out what to do.
92
What does the number "92" make you think of? Those of you who have been in Indiana very long should know we have 92 counties. This puzzle uses an alphabetical list of Indiana counties, or that number that used to be on our license plates. A good website to use for help on this:
http://www.bprlicenseplates.com/Indiana%20-%20county%20codes.htm
Remeber to multiply and divide before you subtract and add.
Crazy Talk
Ever heard of Mad Gab? It's not what you say, it's what you hear. Try saying it out loud. Have someone else read it out loud and listen. I think this is one of those things where you will get it or you won't. You should hear something similar to: "Three Seven Two Twenty Six" and "Fifty Three Five Fourteen" 1776
Documents can be used to code messages. I use this method on field puzzles a lot when there is something at the posted coordinates to use. This one, the title gives you a hint as to what document to look for. What happened in 1776? So, 10-3 is not seven, it's the tenth word(necessary) third letter(c). C is the third letter of the alphabet, so 10-3=3. 19-5: 19th word(Which) 5th letter(h) H=8, 19-5=8 and so on. There are only 10 clues given so N39 and W086 are not included in the puzzle.
0123456789
Hmmm, symbols. More than likely we'll be doing substitution again. But where is the key? Did you try selecting all text? CTRL & A will reveal the key. The name of the cache lets you know 0 is before 1.
The 1960's
There are two rows of 5 pictures. so we assume the top one is north and the bottom west...this is correct. Counting the animals in each picture gives us a reasonable coordinate.....yes, but it is a red herring. More importantly is WHAT animal is in each of the pictures. The first two on the bottom row are both oxen. I chose oxen from foreign areas on purpose to throw people off. So, using google, type in the animals and it should reveal what the key is and the title should tell you which numbers to use. But, if you still need help, we are using the Chinese Zodiac. We are using the 1960s decade.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)