type of puzzle?

February 10, 2012

I'm trying to figure out what type of puzzle this is. I don't want the answer just the right hint to get me in the correct direction.

231-9085-44-7-8733-3330-6455

4402-249-3373-22-73731-6424-7388-5662

thanks for any help you can provide.

5.2k · February 10, 2012

Standard answer here in the forums: you should really ask the cache owner for help.

7.8k · February 10, 2012

It's considered bad form to ask for help with puzzles in a public forum. Any hints would be visible to the world, and the cache owner might not appreciate their cache being spoiled for all to see. The best place to start would be to ask the owner for a hint.

That being said, the information you posted was enough for me to find the cache you're asking about, and using everything provided there I was able to figure out the puzzle within a minute or two. One of those forehead-slappers.

1.4k · February 10, 2012

I would not expect an answer because you will find that most often the true puzzle is trying to figure what type of puzzle you have been provided. Once you figure that out, deriving the actual solution is often trivial. So while your intent is not to ask for a solution, you may actually be doing so.

But I'm not really telling you anything you don't already know; you've solved and found than a few unknown cache types. Good luck!

15.3k · February 10, 2012

According to section 4 of the geocaching.com terms of use, "You agree not to: [...] (m) Publish, on any Groundspeak owned web property, 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)