Collecting Treasures

April 6

Ok, that explains it. On the website (when you click on the hidden egg) it also says 'Any Event Cache', so that's a bit confusing.

11.7k · April 6

21 minutes ago, CaracalShan said:

Ok, that explains it. On the website (when you click on the hidden egg) it also says 'Any Event Cache', so that's a bit confusing.

I agree!

7.8k · April 7

5 hours ago, CaracalShan said:

Ok, that explains it. On the website (when you click on the hidden egg) it also says 'Any Event Cache', so that's a bit confusing.

Note that it says "Any Event Cache" with a capital E and C. That typically signifies the specific "Event Cache" type.

If it also allowed the other event types, it would likely say "Any event cache" (hopefully also with clarification that it includes CITO/Mega/Giga/Block Party/etc. as well).

9.1k · April 7

On 4/4/2025 at 8:38 AM, Hügh said:

It also turns out that if you find a cache, post a Found It (and earn a Treasure as a result), delete the log, and then re-post the same Found It log, you lose the Treasure and don't earn it back. I'm not sure why it's not deterministic that way (ie. if I found GCX and earned a Treasure, deleting and re-logging GCX should re-earn me that Treasure; whereas if logging GCX didn't earn me a Treasure, deleting and re-logging GCX should not earn me a Treasure.)

My educated guess would be that treasures being awarded randomly on posting a Find means that holds true if you delete a log/treasure. Posting another Find may or may not get you the treasure again depending on the chances. The code to award treasures would have to be altered to record somewhere which cache earned that treasure for that user, at least for some arbitrary time to the past. But if the treasure is 'deleted' for the user, then (currently) there's no historic log that the user had previously earned that treasure at that particular cache. Re-awarding is simply pushed back to the algorithm again.

April 7

8 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

My educated guess would be that treasures being awarded randomly on posting a Find means that holds true if you delete a log/treasure. Posting another Find may or may not get you the treasure again depending on the chances. The code to award treasures would have to be altered to record somewhere which cache earned that treasure for that user, at least for some arbitrary time to the past. But if the treasure is 'deleted' for the user, then (currently) there's no historic log that the user had previously earned that treasure at that particular cache. Re-awarding is simply pushed back to the algorithm again.

Nope. I asked the support centre if they could help me earn the Earthcache egg after I deleted and re-posted my log, and they said:

Quote

At this time, earning a Treasure for that specific geocache is impossible. To earn the Treasure again, you will need to find and log a new geocache that qualifies.

Emphases added. This is also reflected on the Treasures page, if you click on "Learn about Treasures" on the right:

Quote

Why was my Treasure removed?

If a log is deleted, the Treasure collected from that log is removed. To collect the Treasure again, find and log a different geocache that meets the criteria.

Again, emphasis added.

I suspect that this is done to prevent "spam", ie. if a Treasure has a 1% chance to be earned, someone will write a GSAK macro to delete and re-post logs until the Treasure is earned. So, they give you one chance (your first log) to earn it, and if you don't, you're out of luck. Otherwise, COs get hundreds of emails of the same log getting posted over and over again.

As in the passage you quote, I don't think this is how this should have been implemented. The same cache should always earn you (or not earn you) the same Treasure. They could achieve this by, for instance, seeding a pseudorandom number generator on your player ID and the geocache ID. By using that to generate randomness, the same player would always see the same treasure on a fixed geocache, but the same player would see different treasures on different caches and different players would see different treasures in the same cache.

Edited April 7 by Hügh

9.1k · April 8

19 hours ago, Hügh said:

I suspect that this is done to prevent "spam", ie. if a Treasure has a 1% chance to be earned, someone will write a GSAK macro to delete and re-post logs until the Treasure is earned. So, they give you one chance (your first log) to earn it, and if you don't, you're out of luck. Otherwise, COs get hundreds of emails of the same log getting posted over and over again.

True. I guess in a sense the 'history' is indeed logged since deleted find logs are actually archived and still in the system. So in effect:
1. Log Find - Treasure!

2. Archive log - Delete related treasure.
3. Log Find - Archived Find log exists for cache - don't run any treasure algorithm.

Simple solve in this way I suppose. No need to keep a record of what was earned and when.

It would be interesting to know if the awarding algorithm would kick in a case of HQ straight up deleting a log (this has happened in very rare extreme cases, IIRC).

19 hours ago, Hügh said:

They could achieve this by, for instance, seeding a pseudorandom number generator on your player ID and the geocache ID. By using that to generate randomness, the same player would always see the same treasure on a fixed geocache, but the same player would see different treasures on different caches and different players would see different treasures in the same cache.

Seems like another possible solution, though it would still require a record that a cache was previously logged as found.

April 9

9 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

Seems like another possible solution, though it would still require a record that a cache was previously logged as found.

...no?

A seeded pseudo-random number generator always produces the same sequence of random numbers. So if there's a Treasure that has a 50% chance of earning, and I log "GCX", one could seed a PRNG with "GCX-Hugh", and it would always produce (for instance) 0.52 which say for example corresponds to failing to earn the Treasure. That same GC code/player name would produce the same random number, so even if I delete my log and re-post it the GC# and my player name are still the same so the random number generated is still 0.52 so I still don't get the Treasure.

(Obviously use the player ID and not the player name since the latter can be changed.)

9.1k · April 10

On 4/8/2025 at 11:19 PM, Hügh said:

...no?

A seeded pseudo-random number generator always produces the same sequence of random numbers. So if there's a Treasure that has a 50% chance of earning, and I log "GCX", one could seed a PRNG with "GCX-Hugh", and it would always produce (for instance) 0.52 which say for example corresponds to failing to earn the Treasure. That same GC code/player name would produce the same random number, so even if I delete my log and re-post it the GC# and my player name are still the same so the random number generated is still 0.52 so I still don't get the Treasure.

I guess I'm going back to the point (which doesn't really make sense now) of a person deleting a Find log and the treasure being removed, and whether re-logging would ever re-attain the treasure. Maybe I'm getting two situations mixed up

You said: "It also turns out that if you find a cache, post a Found It (and earn a Treasure as a result), delete the log, and then re-post the same Found It log, you lose the Treasure and don't earn it back."

With the random, you would earn it back unless it was recorded that you already had it. But yes if you didn't earn it the first time you would never earn it since the 'random' result (only for you) will always be the same. Two sides of the coin are in question - if you delete a log and the treasure you earned, you don't get it back simply by by re-posting the Find. If you fail to get the treasure with the Find, you can't keep deleting and relogging until you hit a success.

In any case, as mentioned above, if you archive your log, that is the record that you had already posted a found it, and the flag not to run the treasure check in any future log (whether it was success or fail last time). So a theoretical explanation may already exist.

4.1k · April 10

Today we found a cache which should have qualified for the Navigational Tools but it didn't :cry:

Does it mean that only some caches will give us a treasure? There is no way to know which ones?

7.4k · April 10

3 minutes ago, Laval K-9 said:

Today we found a cache which should have qualified for the Navigational Tools but it didn't

I don't see a find on your account since April 3. Are you talking about a different account than the one you posted here with?

4.1k · April 10

6 minutes ago, Moun10Bike said:

I don't see a find on your account since April 3. Are you talking about a different account than the one you posted here with?

Silly me, I had to log a cache I forgot to log back in March earlier today so, I didn't change the date for today's

.

Just made the correction :antenna:

Edited April 10 by Laval K-9

11.7k · April 12

On 4/6/2025 at 3:38 PM, CaracalShan said:

Ok, that explains it. On the website (when you click on the hidden egg) it also says 'Any Event Cache', so that's a bit confusing.

I found it confusing to earn the event egg today even though I did not attend a Regular Event, but rather a community celebration event. They are listed separately on event types, and treasures clarified it must be a regular event.

April 13

Question - So if I never complete the requirements for "Egg Hunt" am I out for good? Or is the finding algorithm smart enough to apply to other treasures?

11.7k · April 13

15 minutes ago, MNTA said:

Question - So if I never complete the requirements for "Egg Hunt" am I out for good? Or is the finding algorithm smart enough to apply to other treasures?

It depends on the collection. I asked this question in the announcement and have not gotten an answer.

Some collections require you to earn previous collections. Some collections are completely independent of others.

The egg hunt seems to be independent, which is how I prefer it to be. But we don't know if a future collection will require you to collect all the eggs.

Edited April 13 by Max and 99

7.2k · April 13

1 hour ago, Max and 99 said:

The egg hunt seems to be independent, which is how I prefer it to be.

Not quite, it depended on you first completing Celebrating 25 Years.

11.7k · April 13

42 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

Not quite, it depended on you first completing Celebrating 25 Years.

True. I had forgotten about that.

7.2k · April 15

On 4/14/2025 at 7:00 AM, MNTA said:

Question - So if I never complete the requirements for "Egg Hunt" am I out for good? Or is the finding algorithm smart enough to apply to other treasures?

I haven't been paying much attention to the treasures, they've just been popping up from my regular caching. Last week I got the traditional and multi eggs from a couple of caches I did, and tomorrow I'll be driving up to Newcastle to do a bunch of recently-solved mysteries before attending a 6pm event. There's an EarthCache close to the event location so if it's not too dark when I arrive I should be able to do that as well. That'll just leave the virtual and LBH ones; for the virtual there's a new one at an island near home that I've just been waiting for calm enough seas to paddle across to, but LBHs are a bit of a rare commodity around here. There were a couple recently published that I did in February, with D ratings of 3 and 3.5, so I guess I jumped the gun on those, oh well. I'm sure there'll be another come along sooner or later.

1.8k · April 15

13 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

I haven't been paying much attention to the treasures, they've just been popping up from my regular caching.

Same here - I just yesterday completed the first 2 "Collections", which opened up the Egg Hunt and Navigational Tools. We took a trip to Arizona where we'd planned to do more geocaching than we did due to other things taking priority. I found out that the order you log things affected how the collections filled in - hubby and I logged the same caches on the same trip, but he ended up one "treasure" ahead of me, and subsequent caches were in a different collection and his requirements were different from mine. He's already filling in the Navigational Tools and Egg Hunt, and I haven't got any of those yet.

I did make a list of the caches types and D ratings needed for the Egg Hunt, though I think we'll just do our normal caching and see what fills in as we go. It is interesting to see the treasures "pop up" as I do my logging, kind of a surprise!!

11.7k · April 15

40 minutes ago, CAVinoGal said:

his requirements were different from mine.

Tell me more!

Wednesday at 11:40 AM

Yesterday morning, I found two "Letterbox Hybrid" caches. Twenty-four hours later, I still haven't received my "Letterbox Hybrid" egg...

Strange!

Egghunt.png.fbc4e0d97074afd8beb50e20f02cf643.png

7.2k · Wednesday at 11:47 AM

6 minutes ago, OusKonNé & Cétyla said:

Yesterday morning, I found two "Letterbox Hybrid" caches. Twenty-four hours later, I still haven't received my "Letterbox Hybrid" egg...

Strange!

The requirement for the LBH egg is that they be difficulty 2 or higher. The two you found were difficulty 1.5.

Wednesday at 11:47 AM

Did you see if it qualified based on difficulty & terrain?

Wednesday at 11:54 AM

Tap on the egg and see what it says about difficulty and terrain levels for that treasure.

Wednesday at 11:57 AM

Thank you barefootjeff and Smitherington for your prompt replies!

For the Egg hunt, I didn't know there were difficulty and terrain specificities depending on the type of cache.

Edited Wednesday at 12:11 PM by OusKonNé & Cétyla

Wednesday at 12:01 PM

Tap on the circle with the question mark in it for the unfound egg treasure and it shows the requirements for that treasure.

Edited Wednesday at 12:07 PM by Smitherington
Word spelling correction

Wednesday at 12:05 PM

Then if you tap on the green “Search Geocaches” it gives you a list of caches that qualify.

1.8k · Wednesday at 02:26 PM

22 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

23 hours ago, CAVinoGal said:

his requirements were different from mine.

Tell me more!

Sorry for the confusion - I wasn't clear. We did a Virtual on 3/26; I logged it that day. The next day (3/27) we did a few traditionals, and hubby logged the Virtual on 3/27 after the traditionals. We both completed Geocaching Origins, but he also got one treasure in the "Celebrating 25 Years" collection, the Virtual that I had already logged the day before, so it didn't count for the 2nd collection.

That's all I meant by his requirements being different than mine - even though we logged the same caches, the order we logged them was different so he got "credit" (a treasure) for the Virtual and I did not. He's got 10 treasures now, and I have 9 so we may complete collections at different times and will need different cache types or D/T ratings to keep collecting.

1.9k · Wednesday at 03:29 PM

How long do we have to complete the collection? If I don't complete it by the end of the month, then what happens next month?

11.7k · Wednesday at 03:57 PM

32 minutes ago, fuzziebear3 said:

How long do we have to complete the collection? If I don't complete it by the end of the month, then what happens next month?

You keep trying! For now.

From the blog:

How much time do I have to collect the Treasures?

The first four collections are not time-limited and are available indefinitely for you to collect at whatever pace works best for you.

Edited Wednesday at 04:02 PM by Max and 99

Thursday at 04:40 PM

As well as certain collections requiring you to complete other collections before it unlocks, I noticed I couldn't double dip a single find that would qualify for two different collections. I found a traditional D>2, T<1.5 and it scored me the traditional egg but didn't count for the navigational tool collection. It would have been my first in navigational and it could have been just because the navigational tools one was locked.

I have one more test to try out - find one that qualifies for navigational tools whilst I still need a letterbox for egg hunt. I'll return and report.

EDIT/ ADD-ON: Yeah, It worked for me too. I haven't finished egg hunt collection (needing the letterbox D2+) and was able to start the navigational tools collection. That isn't to say other collections won't be locked or have prerequisites.

Edited Friday at 05:04 AM by CheekyBrit

11.7k · Thursday at 05:10 PM

30 minutes ago, CheekyBrit said:

I noticed I couldn't double dip a single find that would qualify for two different collections

Yes, no double dipping! The system will choose the treasure if a cache qualifies for more than one.

As has been reported by others, two people can log the same Geocache, and one will get a navigational tool treasure and one will get the egg treasure.

Edited Thursday at 05:12 PM by Max and 99

7.8k · Friday at 03:40 AM

On 4/12/2025 at 11:02 AM, Max and 99 said:

I found it confusing to earn the event egg today even though I did not attend a Regular Event, but rather a community celebration event. They are listed separately on event types, and treasures clarified it must be a regular event.

It seems that my assumption from a couple of weeks ago was wrong. I also attended a CCE, and was surprised to see that this got me the Event treasure.

HQ is usually pretty good about using "Event" for only the one specific type and "event" for any of the event types (also including CITO, CCE, Mega, Giga, Block Party). This time it wasn't accurate.

Saturday at 04:40 AM

Is there a delay in receiving treasures? I had completed the “geocaching origins” today with the first 3 caches I found today (had 1 treasure already), and then the 4th cache I found today was a 1/1.5 traditional. So, I believe I should have got a treasure for the “celebrating 25 years”, since I had finished the origins the cache before that. I had submitted the four logs today at the same time through Cachly but in order and didn’t delete logs or anything, just wondering if the logs in quick succession caused me to not get the treasure, since I had got the 3 origins today already but not the 25 years one.

11.7k · Saturday at 05:07 AM

So you collected all the Origins treasures. But the fourth cache you logged, a 1/1.5 Traditional, did NOT get you a 25 years treasure?

I like your theory about a possible reason. Something seems amiss.

6.2k · Saturday at 08:16 AM

On 3/17/2025 at 6:02 PM, MartyBartfast said:

That's what I was expecting too, the way it has been implemented is pretty boring and pointless TBH.

Having watched the Treasures in operation for a few weeks I have to confess I've done an about turn, and think it's actually fairly good.

Having the differing Type/D/T combinations makes it interesting. Mostly I'm picking them up with my normal activity anyway but having some of the less common combos which are nevertheless achievable gives something to aim for.

7.2k · 2025-04-20T10:07:13Z

On 4/19/2025 at 6:16 PM, MartyBartfast said:

Having watched the Treasures in operation for a few weeks I have to confess I've done an about turn, and think it's actually fairly good.

Having the differing Type/D/T combinations makes it interesting. Mostly I'm picking them up with my normal activity anyway but having some of the less common combos which are nevertheless achievable gives something to aim for.

I guess the sort of caches that appeal to me are different to those that appeal to the treasure-makers. Since unlocking the Navigation Tools collection a couple of weeks ago, I've found 5 traditionals, one of which got me the Traditional egg, but none have had the right D/T combination to score a Navigation Tool. One was a 1.5/1.5 and the rest have had their terrain rating too high. Amongst those was GCAY05K, a 5/2.5 tree-fishing cache with a twist that has 14 FPs from 15 finds, which I finally completed after three previous unsuccessfui attempts. It's a find I'll long treasure, but it isn't worth a treasure.

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