Puzzle caches

[rainbow_goddess]

I've been geocaching for a little over a year now and have found 89 caches. I've never done puzzle caches before, but I thought I ought to give them a try, or I'll be missing out on many caches that are not of the traditional type

Comments

[whipartist]

Puzzle caches are all over the map in terms of complexity. Some just require you to spend a few minutes thinking, while others will sometimes take hours or days to solve. Some of the ciphers might require specialized knowledge.

It sounds like the one with the minutes of the long/lat is actually a logic problem.

[alicephilippa]

One of my local puzzle caches took my well over a year to solve, once I'd had the light bulb moment it was quite simple. Others have solved that one as soon as they've looked at it. And vice-versa.

There is no way to guarantee how long a puzzle will take to solve. Some are logic puzzles, some are cyphers, Some involve comments hidden in the HTML of the page. The variety is almost endless.

I find logic puzzles easy, and puzzles involving verbal reasoning difficult. Others have different problems when it comes to the puzzle caches.

It is very hit and miss how hard one will be when one looks at the difficulty rating. They are, IMHO, even more subjective than the rating of a traditional cache.

The one that is something like "MMMMMM.++++H02U2Q++....U+DA00Y%$%$%2QA$%%D%…" could possibly be base64 encoded. Without seeing the actual cache page it's hard to be more sure.

[runeshower]

I've been solving puzzle caches for several years now. In fact, I've been participating in a monthly puzzle challenge series. They are very tough most of the time and usually totally impenetrable for the first week or two that I stare at them. Then something clicks.

I have a list of standard strategies that I begin with. Sometimes none of them is helpful but they are a basic checklist that I put every puzzle through before looking further for a solving method. Sometimes one of them pays off.

It's a bit too long to describe here, but if you're interested, email me (runeshower@livejournal.com) and we can discuss it!

[foundunicorn]

Me and my friend Aslgirl do a few.
She mostly dos the words ones, and I do the math.
Some, even after we do some how find then (mostly with a few hints from others), we can't figger out them.

[montanamary]

I quit doing them - decided they just weren't fun for me. That's okay...I don't have to find every cache. There were a few that I tried - but I just don't get why they have to be so hard. It takes the fun out for me and I get frustrated...so I quit doing them and everyone is happy. I'm not frustrated and there's plenty of other caches available. Keep trying...or not. It's supposed to be fun - not a lesson in frustration.