Puzzle Difficulty Rating

[+K13]

How do you determine how to rate the difficulty of a puzzle cache? What makes the difficulty rating, the hide or the puzzle or some combination of the two? I have recently published a puzzle cache GRRR! and have been told by a couple of cachers that it is impossible to solve and should be a Difficulty 7 or higher. One found the solution within 1 hour of publishing and then spent about 45 minutes to actually locate the puzzle. Is my 4 star difficulty rating reasonable? My theory was to add one star for the puzzle to a three star hide. Please look at the puzzle and determine what you think. I want to know what a broad community response will be.

 

Thanks in advance.

K13

[+stijnhommes]

I would average the rating for the hide and the puzzle if they were close together.

 

If the hide was easy to find with a difficult puzzle attached, I'd add the stars together.

It sounds as if 4-5 stars for difficulty is the way to go here.

[+St.Matthew]

If it is more difficult than d1.5, I would add them together. I might also put somewhere on the cache page that the difficulty takes into account the hide.

[+dmlookhere]

Your rating sounds about right I have seen them averaged and added both. Sometimes people have issues with puzzles because they can't solve them quickly and others seem to think if you take longer then 5 minutes to find a hide it should be a dif.5. What I'm getting at is you can't make everyone happy.You have to decide if you are happy with the rating of your cache. I've changed ratings on my own caches once on the urge of others only to later think to myself that the cache really should not of been given the higher rate. Other times I relized I had not taken something into consideration when rating and the cache did need a higher rate. One thing I can say is I have never had someone tell me my cache was rated to high and should be less (interesting).

[+313JTG]

The best way to rate your own puzzle caches is to solve other puzzles in your area (if there are any) and look at their ratings. It's all about experience, which will help you rate yours by comparison. I usually use that or this guide:

 

1 or 1.5 = Simple math problem, simple cipher, or simple task

2 = Moderate difficulty math problem or easy encryption (like a list of 10 names)

2.5 = a little research needed or a hard math problem

3 = more research needed, plus keywords in the description are needed

3.5 = a little less subtle with the keywords

4 = requires critical thinking skills, only a select few can solve it

4.5 or 5 = only elite puzzle cachers can solve it, maybe one hint, but the puzzler is on his own

 

Almost forgot, if the hide of your cache is difficult, I'd add one star to it. A bison wired to a tree on a D2 puzzle would be bumped up to a D3. You can also reflect that on the terrain ratings (if there's a hike or bushwhack needed)

Edited February 9, 2013 by SuhStomp90

[+JL_HSTRE]

Difficulty should be the puzzle or the hide, whichever is higher. If it's a D4 puzzle and a D2 hide I would list it as D4 but explain in the description the hide is D2.

[+niraD]

I'd rate the overall difficulty. Of course, with a difficult puzzle and an easy hide, the puzzle is going to dominate. But I've seen puzzles that were the other way around, with a relatively easy puzzle and a much more challenging hide.

 

I think the normal difficulty guidelines can be applied to most puzzles:

 

1-star Easy[...] a few minutes[...]

2-star Average[...] less than 30 minutes[...]

3-star Challenging[...] a good portion of an afternoon.

4-star Difficult[...] may require special skills or knowledge[...] multiple days[...]

5-star Extreme[...] A serious mental [...] challenge. May require specialized knowledge or skills[...]

 

Sure, you're guessing how long it will take others to solve your puzzle, which can be hard to estimate with any accuracy. But estimating how long it will take others to find a camouflaged cache isn't any easier.