"Bonus" Challenge Caches? Are they official?

[+Cryptosporidium-623]

Hi.

 

I'm in the process of working on a Geocaching 101 workshop overview of multi caches, puzzle caches and the variations / sub-categories (e.g. offset, challenge caches) etc.

 

I had asked a couple of cacher friends for a sanity check review and one of them asked me to mention "Bonus Challenge Caches" which he claims are different from "Challenge Caches".

 

He indicated that while a "Bonus Challenge Cache" and a "Challenge Cache" were similar in that you could not log it until you met the other requirements (e.g. finding other challenge caches, etc.), the distinct difference in a bonus version was that each cache you found previously would get you part of the coordinates for finding the bonus cache.

 

ok, but isn't that just a Challenge/Puzzle variant? What I'm trying to understand at this point is if this is an "officially singled-out and recognized sub variant" of "Challenge Caches" or are we possibly making up new terms here? There's nothing on gc.com that I could find that officially recognizes anything beyond the "Challenge Cache".

 

Thank you for your help in sorting this out.

[+Prime Suspect]

What you're describing is a Bonus Cache. Not sure why your friend is inserting "Challenge" in there, but they're not really related.

 

A Challenge Cache presents you with a defined subset of caches, and you need to find (usually) some number of them. But the finder has the option of choosing which caches within the subset to use. In a Bonus Cache, there are specific caches that have to be found, they are (almost always) owned by the same person, and each contains a clue to the final. In a Challenge Cache, the coordinates of the final is already known, but not with a Bonus Cache (though that might not be true if the info you need to collect is a combination lock code, for example, rather than coordinates).

[+briansnat]

Prime Suspect explained it well, but I think that if it's an intro to geocaching course I wouldn't even bother touching on bonus and challenge caches. Keep it simple.

[+Cryptosporidium-623]

 

In a Bonus Cache, there are specific caches that have to be found, they are (almost always) owned by the same person, and each contains a clue to the final. In a Challenge Cache, the coordinates of the final is already known, but not with a Bonus Cache (though that might not be true if the info you need to collect is a combination lock code, for example, rather than coordinates).

 

Are "Bonus Caches" technically just "Puzzle/Mystery" caches?

[+briansnat]

 

In a Bonus Cache, there are specific caches that have to be found, they are (almost always) owned by the same person, and each contains a clue to the final. In a Challenge Cache, the coordinates of the final is already known, but not with a Bonus Cache (though that might not be true if the info you need to collect is a combination lock code, for example, rather than coordinates).

 

Are "Bonus Caches" technically just "Puzzle/Mystery" caches?

 

Yes. In most cases you need to find a series of caches to obtain the coords of the bonus cache. Because the coords of the bonus cache are not known it should be listed as s a puzzle/mystery.

[knowschad]

It sounds to me as though you are stepping outside of the "Geocaching 101" boundaries even before your friend came up with that unusual combination. For Geocaching 101, I would strictly stick with the "official" types of Regular, Multi, Mystery, Earthcache, Event, CITO Event, Wherigo, etc. I think that is more than confusing enough to a newbie. Even going off into Challenge caches is enough to lose a good part of your audience. Keep it simple!

[+Cryptosporidium-623]

 

In a Bonus Cache, there are specific caches that have to be found, they are (almost always) owned by the same person, and each contains a clue to the final. In a Challenge Cache, the coordinates of the final is already known, but not with a Bonus Cache (though that might not be true if the info you need to collect is a combination lock code, for example, rather than coordinates).

 

Are "Bonus Caches" technically just "Puzzle/Mystery" caches?

 

Yes. In most cases you need to find a series of caches to obtain the coords of the bonus cache. Because the coords of the bonus cache are not known it should be listed as s a puzzle/mystery.

 

Good advice. Thanks all for your input!