Bonus caches

[+I&EAndo]

Hi I recently submitted a series of caches which needed some editing because originally I had daisy chained 3 puzzle caches together needing people to visit them in order to correctly get the clues etc. During the process with the reviewer he mentioned it is possible to do one level of bonus cache...

 

I have started planning my next set of hides and was wondering if this was the "correct" use of a bonus cache or not.

 

What I am wanting to do is a series of Alice in Wonderland inspired caches around a town taking people to some cool locations that are reminiscent of the characters. I was considering possibly doing about 10 hides (we will see as I nut out which characters will work well).

 

At each hide I was planning on having an extra sheet in there with a picture like this:

 

S 41 XX.1XXX

E 146 XX.XXX

 

These will be the co-ords to Alice's wonderland Stash!

 

Each of the character puzzles were going to be a mix of traditional caches, puzzle caches and maybe if it fits some multi-caches.

 

My main question is, do I publish the bonus cache as a puzzle cache so that it shows up in people's searches but hey still need to complete the other 10 first, or do I just write in the description of each of the others if you find all 10 you will gain access to a bonus cache?

[+Bear and Ragged]

It's an Unknown (? AKA Puzzle) cache. Call it "Name of the series Bonus"

 

You could set it as a Multi-cache, but some (all?) reviewers like 'Additional Waypoints' to be included on the cache page for the stages to the final...

[Keystone]

You have described a properly designed bonus/series final cache. It would be listed using the Mystery/Puzzle Cache type.

 

The "Daisy Chain" guideline detail seeks to limit the maintenance impact of a single cache going missing. Using a real life example from my review territory, two geocachers set out to hide 100 geocaches where you needed to find cache #1 to discover the coordinates to cache #2, then find cache #2 to learn the location of cache #3, etc. The problem with this is when cache #19 goes missing. The entire remainder of the series is then un-findable by people who hadn't gotten past #19. The geocachers took my advice and converted their series to an unconnected set of traditional caches, and it's thrived for several years with individual caches getting replaced when they've gone missing.

[+I&EAndo]

Thanks very much for the replies guys! It is good to get it all clarified before I get too far in my planning. Very helpful to have such quick, informative and helpful replies. Thank you.