Puzzle Caches

[+Team Red Oak]

First of all I want to say I am not looking for the answer to any particular puzzle. I just have a general question about puzzle caches.

 

How do you know how to solve them? There are a few in my area that are easy. One we've recently done asked for numbers from NASCAR drivers and certain TV shows. Then we just added or subtracted and had the cache.

 

But there is one I saw that gives four complete sets of coords then says the cache is related to the four sets given but not at them. Many people have solved it. Is there something everyone else knows about solving puzzles that we are missing? There is a hider in the area who has many puzzle caches and each time I look at one of them I just don't get what we're supposed to do in order to solve it. I'd like to try them, but don't know where to start. I'd hate to email the owner asking for hints all the time.

 

Is there some book or something about code breaking that people use to assist them in solving the puzzles? I can do cryptograms, but so far I haven't seen that type of puzzle in my area. I just don't understand how to solve these things if there was some book I could look at to see examples then I could see the type of pattern or puzzle the cache was modeled after and have a clue to solve it.

 

any suggestions serious or funny would be entertaining.

 

thanks

[+sbell111]

Beats me. I can't seem to solve any of them. As puzzle-challenged as I am, its a mystery as to why I own two of them.

[+El Diablo]

Sorry...no book. Some puzzles are easier than others. When you deal with such a large community as ours you will encounter people that think outside the box.

 

El Diablo

[+Miragee]

I've solved my puzzle cache problem by setting up all my Pocket Queries to leave out the puzzle caches.

 

They don't even exist in my world . . .

[+Quiggle]

Team Red Oak,

 

This thread from last month got some puzzle hiders to spill a few of the beans. Hopefully the thread will be helpful to you.

 

Quiggle

(missing that search feature!)

[+hndlbr]

I have a couple of puzzle caches which have proved difficult for other cachers, of course to me they are easy but I know the answers. On the other hand I have found many that I have no clue where to start. Just have fun and don't let it frustrate you. Remember you always seem to find them in the last place you look

[+PeterNoG]

If a puzzle cache has never been found, it might be tough to get any hints from the owner, but once the cache has been found, many owners will provide some hint if you ask.

[+Ambrosia]

I think that most cache owners would be tickled to give you a hint. It makes them feel good to have made a tough puzzle.

[+KKTH3]

I welcome people asking me for hints for one of our puzzle caches. Of course, the hard part as a hider, is figuring out how to give a hint without completely giving it away.

 

As for the one you mention in particular, without seeing it first hand, I cannot be sure, but I do have an idea how I would start out at it. But the first thing I would consider is the name of the cache. Often puzzle caches will have a hint just in the name of the cache itself. Next, I would figure out where the four given locations are - check them against a map - are they tied to physical points of interest or seemingly random places. Depending on that answer, there are several ways to move forward , but perhaps that extra visual of seeing where the locations are might be of help.

 

For more advanced puzzles there are many deviant solutions. Typically, the higher the difficulty rating, the further outside the box you might have to go to solve the cache.

[+Confucius' Cat]

"Think outside the box" is probably the best advice overall.

Every puzzle is different. Some are obvious, some are VERY obscure.

Look very carefully at every word and every image on the cache page; many times there are very specific clues hidden right in front of you. The trick is to recognize them... which usually happens right AFTER you stumble on the solution!

[+VegasCacheHounds]

I'd say email the owner. I have one puzzle cache that has had a few cachers scratching their heads, but if they email me and ask for a hint I gladly give them one. In the case of my cache, all it takes is a one word hint, and everyone gets it then.

 

Puzzle caches can be just about anything, so there is no one way to solve them all. I know I've seen some that just make no sence whatsoever, and then BAM, the answer falss from the sky, or sometimes I never do figure it out.

[+StarBrand]

Don't feel bad - I can't solve 90+% of them to save my soul. But Crossword puzzles scare me.....

[+wdfod]

You can check at your local library for books on codes and ciphers. Learning about them will help you recognize them when you see them.

 

However, the best puzzles I've seen are not in any book. They come out of the hiders mind. They can be based on things totally unrelated to codes and ciphers. Sometimes I'll be out and about town and see something that clicks and I know how the code was created. Sometimes I figure them out in the few minutes right before I drift off to sleep. (Keep paper and pen by the bed, you'll never remember it in the morning. ) And sometimes they continue to haunt my dreams, mocking me for months, until there is sweet release.

 

For that reason, learn everything you can about your hider. You want to be able to think just like him/her. I'm not saying you should stalk them, just get to know them and what they are interested in.

 

Maggie

[+BigFurryMonster]

Some puzzles are really hard. A classic example:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...92-c3b70ef95d7a

 

All you get is a blue rectange...

[H to the Bizzle!]

Here's my easy puzzle cache: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...53-25c83628c402

[+reveritt]

Many puzzle caches provide the information needed to solve them. Here are a couple of examples:

 

Behind the Lines 1

 

Queens Fort 2

[+CharlieP]

The most useful tool for solving many puzzles is Google. Some puzzles have hints lurking in the text, look for them. Some puzzles use standard coding schemes, which can be found with Google. Some puzzles use unique coding methods that are so obscure that unless you get lucky and "see" the solution, you can spend a huge amount of time without success. I prefer puzzles that require the solution of a stated problem, as opposed to those which require discovering a coding method.

[Twister65]

The most useful tool for solving many puzzles is Google. Some puzzles have hints lurking in the text, look for them. Some puzzles use standard coding schemes, which can be found with Google. Some puzzles use unique coding methods that are so obscure that unless you get lucky and "see" the solution, you can spend a huge amount of time without success. I prefer puzzles that require the solution of a stated problem, as opposed to those which require discovering a coding method.

I was going to mention this as well.

 

Google is your friend.

 

Scott

[+two left feet]

I had just the opposite problem. I stumbled onto a cache while looking for another one. The one I found was the end point for a multi cache with a puzzle. My problem was working it backwards to find the starting point.

[+VegasCacheHounds]

The most useful tool for solving many puzzles is Google. Some puzzles have hints lurking in the text, look for them. Some puzzles use standard coding schemes, which can be found with Google. Some puzzles use unique coding methods that are so obscure that unless you get lucky and "see" the solution, you can spend a huge amount of time without success. I prefer puzzles that require the solution of a stated problem, as opposed to those which require discovering a coding method.

I was going to mention this as well.

 

Google is your friend.

 

Scott

Gee, that sounds much like the hint I give when asked on one of my caches

[markandlynn]

Despite owning a Sudoku cache myself (the first one placed in the UK and the second to my knowledge in the world) i now use an automated solver found on the internet its an excel one with macros and ensure you make no mistakes. For others searches on ciphers etc work fine.

[+DavidMac]

Sometimes the puzzle is figuring out exactly what the puzzle is. There was a cache near me with a description that was just a bunch of numbers. They didn't look anything like coordinates, there was no explination telling what to do with them, and I couldn't figure out how to get the coords from them. Then, one night, while trying to get to sleep, the solution hit me.

 

The next week, before I could locate the cache, the owner moved and archived it , but did confirm that I had the correct cords . They then rehid a similar cache near their new home, but changed around the puzzle, and I was back at square 1. The new one didn't take me as long to figure out but still had me stumped for a while.

 

As for those sudoku caches, when I first heard about the puzzles in a book, my first thought was, "hey, I could make a cache out of this." Then I searched the site, and discovered that there were already at least 100 of them out there. And I thought I was being original... guess I need to be quicker.

Edited January 12, 2006 by DavidMac

[+kent1915]

I put up a Sodoku puzzle on 12/23/05. It is the final leg of a 3 part series. A micro gives you part one to help figure out what part of Sodoku you need for North and then a physical puzzle (you have to get the cache out of a stationary container) to get what you need for West. Okay, does this make 103 sodoku in the world???

Edited January 13, 2006 by kent1915