The solution will always map the same letters from the code to the answer, and common words like ‘the’ often help you to get started. Look for clues in the sequence of letters. To decode a cipher without a key, you need to spend time with a trial and error approach. The fact that a cipher is used in the first place suggests the player setting the challenge chose to add complexity for seekers, so this is just an added layer of depth. It may be that someone has removed accompanying information, but it’s more likely deliberate. If you find a string of text as a clue to the location of a cache, or as a message inside a cache you find, sometimes there will be no key provided. Advanced techniques would be near impossible to manually use as part of a game, not to mention take the fun out of the activity for all but the most nerdy of participants! What If There’s No Key? Common examples as websites with the padlock in the address bar that securely communicate across the internet and making payments with your credit and debit card in shops.įor geocaching though, it’s only basic techniques coming into play. Today, you’ll be using very advanced cipher encryption every day without even realizing it. Many forms of encryption based on cipher techniques, and historically some famous examples have been used in the military to communicate without revealing information to the enemy. You can then quickly create them as required by writing the letters in on the fly. If you’re encountering a lot of geocache puzzle (or setting them!) where the letters in the encoded alphabet are randomly ordered to encode, you might wish to create a collection of the wheels with the blank middle ring. What I really like about their version is that the inner letter ring (they call it the ‘Middle’ ring on the printout) can be swapped for a blank version, allowing you to put the letters in any order, or even use symbols if you’re feeling creative. It’s really easy to get your hand on a Caesar cipher decoder ring like the one in the above photo. Theoretically, a shift of 3 could even be written as 29 by a devious puzzle setter. Similarly, a shift written as -10 is the same as 16 (sometimes written +16). In a 26 letter base alphabet, a right shift of 10 is equivalent to a left shift of 16. Whether the shift in your cipher key is left or right (negative or positive respectively) is actually somewhat irrelevant. In Geocaching puzzles, part of the point is to introduce a devious confusion into the hunt. A slightly more complex cipher requires a cipher wheel to easily decode When Should I Use A Left Shift Or Right Shift In My Cipher? A positive key number is a right shift, while a negative number is a left shift. The number of characters to shift is called the key. More broadly, the technique shifts letters by a number of letters called the key.Ī Caeser Cipher is decoded by shifting each letter forwards (right shift) or backwards (left shift) by a set number of positions in the alphabet. The above example is a specific example of a Caesar Cipher. Put that together and your coded version is TRBPNPUR. Once you’ve got the legend for your cipher, it’s really easy to encrypt and decrypt your messages. It only takes a moment with a pen and paper, and can be used repeatedly if you keep it safe when you’re out and about. You can quickly write out a cipher chart by hand, mapping the letters to each other in a simple geocaching cipher. In this simple method, a message is encoded simply by swapping letters over. A simple handwritten cipher decoder How To Create A Simple Geocaching Cipher Switching the corresponding letters encodes AND decodes the message. It has two rows of letters in its simplest form, A to M and N to Z. In some cases, these puzzles can include an element of light encryption, often using a cipher decoder.Ī cipher decrypter, also known in geocaching as a cipher decoder, is a simple method of encoding or decoding a message by swapping letters. Collectively, these are known as puzzle geocaching, or geocache puzzles. A popular offshoot of traditional geocaching merges puzzles and problem solving with the treasure hunting element that geocachers enjoy.
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