Need some help

[+mullyman]

Ok, guys and gals, this may be an area that experienced cachers know something about, or maybe someone good with numbers. I honestly have no idea. There is a cache in town that has this description...

 

The coords indicate a point at the midst of a fountain in Shizuoka city. You do not need to swim there to find the cache.

 

The cache is hidden at

N JL° WU.KXCW' E XJU° KK.ULK'

 

Decryption Keys are as follows.

 

C: 1997-

J: 1990-

K: 1992-

L: 1992-

U: 2004-

W: 1997-

X: 1985-1999

 

Although I chose this park for this mystery, this park itself has (probably) no relation to the "new trunk route".

 

I placed three caches (A, B, C and D) at the same area in preparation for the case that they are muggled.

Find at least one of them, and log your visit.

 

This cache was formerly a card case, as nakapu-san's photo shows. But after having been muggled, it is (they are) similar to GC1NXPR.

 

Additional Hints (Encrypt)

 

1) I placed it at about 2 m high (or higher).2) The nickname of this cache is a literal translation of a transportation system in Japan.3) This cache is hidden in Shizuoka city. So, you may guess what JL and XJU imply.

 

Now, I'm not looking for someone to tell me the answer, but I haven't the slightest idea what those numbers mean or what kind of code this is. If anyone could point me in the right direction, of solving this riddle on my own, I'd really appreciate it. I was at the fountain last night and thought I'd give this a try but couldn't come up with any good ideas of what those numbers represent. Obviously they look like years but I don't see how you would work out coordinates with them.

 

Thanks in advance,

MULLY

Edited October 10, 2011 by mullyman

[+power69]

its generally frowned upon to ask for help to specific puzzles in the forums

[+mpilchfamily]

You shouldn't be asking about puzzle caches in the forums. If you want a hint or a clue of where to beguine then you should contact the CO.

[+chrisandjanet]

I find a good way to get started with puzzles is to look for what I already know. For example, around here most all the coords start with N44, so I look for a way to make the first couple of substitutions come up to 44, or two fours in a row. When all else fails, a note to the cache owner asking for a hint is usually well recieved. Be sure to specify how much of a hint you want, though - you might be looking for a nudge in the right direction and get explicit directions on how to solve it. While I sometimes need the former, my sense of accomplishment decreases the closer I get to the latter.

 

Good luck!

 

Edited for spelling - fat fingers this morning!

Edited October 10, 2011 by chrisandjanet

[+Touchstone]

A nice tutorial on some basics about solving Puzzle Caches:

 

The Rat's Puzzle Solving and Cryptography Lesson

 

Best of luck!

[+mullyman]

Thanks, guys. A Japanese cacher contacted me and gave me a great hint. The numbers actually correspond with the Japanese bullet train. I'll leave it at that and figure this out the rest of the way. Sorry if it's frowned upon. I'll not do it again.

MULLY

[+mullyman]

A nice tutorial on some basics about solving Puzzle Caches:

 

The Rat's Puzzle Solving and Cryptography Lesson

 

Best of luck!

 

Thank you. Bookmarked for future reference.

MULLY

[+niraD]

According to section 4 of the geocaching.com terms of use, "You agree not to: [...] (m) Publish, in any form of media, the solutions, hints, spoilers, or any hidden coordinates for any geocache without consent from the cache owner." However, here are some general puzzle tips (based in part on a puzzle-solving class event presented by The Rat a while ago):

 

Identify the theme. Check the cache title, the hint, the HTML source, the graphics (including names/URLs), any links (including URLs), whatever is at the posted coordinates, etc. If you can figure out the theme, then you should look for numbering systems that are associated with that theme (zip codes, athletes’ jersey numbers, episode numbers, product codes, etc.).

 

Around here, coordinates will have 15 digits, and will look like "N 37° xx.xxx W 122° xx.xxx". So when I'm solving a nearby puzzle, I look for a group of 15 things, and then I look for ways to get the digits 37xxxxx122xxxxx from them. In general, I look for ways to get the number 37 (or the digits 3 and 7) from something near the beginning of the puzzle, and the number 122 (or the digits 1, 2, and 2) from something near the middle of the puzzle. (Of course, you'll need to adjust this for the coordinates near you.)

 

Other useful resources include:

Puzzle Solving 101 Series (bookmark list)

Puzzle Shortcuts Series (bookmark list)

Solving Puzzle Caches (online article)

How Do I Solve All These $@! Puzzle Caches? (tutorial-style puzzle cache)

Puzzle FUNdamentals (archived event cache) and the Puzzle FUNdamentals resources on the GeocacheAlaska! education page

The GBA's Puzzle Cache FAQ (for puzzle designers, but useful for understanding how puzzle caches work)