Puzzle caches, also known as Mystery or Unknown caches are typcially geocaches that are not located at the coordinates listed on the caches web page on Geocaching.com. You need to solve the puzzle or mystery in order to find the actual cache. The final location is hidden from the person who is trying to find them. The final coordinates are known to the owner and to Geocaching.com so the Reviewer can confirm that the final location meets the publishing guidelines.
Puzzle caches can take on many forms and while most fall into certain categories, not all follow these general rules. However according to Geocaching.com "The information needed to solve this type cache must be available to the general community and the puzzle should be solvable from the information provided on the cache page." So the clues to solving the puzzle must be found from the cache page or from information that is pointed to you from the cache page.
Geocaching.com recommends that "The posted coordinates should be no more than 1-2 miles (2-3 km) away from the true cache location. This allows the cache to show up on the appropriate vicinity searches and means that the mileage of Trackables passing through the cache will be reasonably accurate." The 1-2 miles radius is not always the case but for the most part true.
There are many geocaches out there that guide you on how to solve the different types of puzzle caches you will find. Bob & Brenda - Reno, local Las Vegas geocachers have series of puzzle caches designed to teach you how to solve the general types of caches you will come across. You can access these from the links to the right. If you choose to solve these puzzles, have fun and good luck.
Most Owners of puzzle caches are more than willing to give out hints on how to solve their caches once the cache has been found. If you are having trouble getting started, just send them an email through their user profile and ask for help. I have met many cachers this way. I like to know if you want a nudge or a blatant hint.
Most puzzle caches fall into certain categories as shown below:
The list of puzzle cache types noted above are explained in detail from Bob & Brenda - Reno's caches pages to the right. Here are some basic tips that I use to solve caches as well.
Most coordinates fall under certain categories. They are generally shown in some form of Degrees - Minutes and Seconds. Formats using degress and minutes include:
I prefer Degrees, Decimal Minutes so most of the time I am looking for the Degrees and then the Decimal Minutes. This is important to know as when trying to solve a puzzle you are looking for certain givens in the coordinates. If the cache is within 1 to 2 miles of the posted coordinates, the Degrees will likely be the same as the posted ones or at least one number off. So for my area, I know that the puzzle cache is likely to be within N36 and W115 or could be N35 or W114. When solving the puzzle I look to see if I can find a way to convert the clue to those numbers. If so then I can use that logic to solve the others. But be careful that some puzzles may use different coordinate formats to trick you. I find Google Earth and Fizzy Calc to be useful tools when trying to convert coordinate systems. Fizzy Calc also has many other features to use when solving puzzle caches. I have met the author of Fizzy Calc and he is a great guy and quite a puzzler! Hidden Coordinates can be very easy or quite hard to find. Some of the common ways to hide coordinates on a cache page is to shown them in white text so they are hidden on the white background. You can generally spot them by looking for blank lines and then running your mouse over the space while holding the left button. You can also hide text inside a webpage by using the comment tag. You need to view the page source for the webpage to do that. Depending upon the browser you use it is accessed by right clicking the webpage and selecting the show source option. The webpage for geocaching have certain areas that can be edited by the owner. They include the hidden date, the long and short descriptions, the hints, the logs, travel bug and geocoin pages, background image and links to other pages. Look in those areas to see if the owner left you any clues to solve the puzzle. Some puzzle caches change the text to give you clues. for instance I can use italics to highlight certain letters or words or I can capitalize certain words to point you in the right direction. I may even repeat a certain word each time I want to give you a clue. Look for these as well. Images can be used to hide information as well. My puzzle cache Olly Olly Oxen Free is all about how to hide or use pictures or images to hide clues. You can hide information on the picture so you have to see it on the image itself, inside the picture using a text file or a zip file, in the properties of the picture file itself or you can hide it in the link to the picture. There are also third party programs that hide data inside the picture called steganography. Codes and Ciphers are other ways people will hide the coordinates. Ciphers use certain rules to hide or encode the coordinates. There are many different types of ciphers out there including Morse Code, Braille, Character Codes, Shift or Substitution Codes, and ASCII, Hex, Base64 and Binary Codes. Some helpful tools for these include:
Codes can be ciphers like described above or they can be digital codes like QR Codes, Postal Zip Codes, Scan Bar Codes or ISBN Codes. QR Codes can hide text, webpage links, email addresses and other items. You generally need a smartphone or other bar code reader if you come accross these in the field to decode the message. Lists can be used to hide coordinates. You may get a list of quotes from a book that take you to a page number, a chapter or a verse. You may get a list of songs that takes you to the track number, the length of the song or maybe that song was recognized as a top single in a certain month or list. Look for hints on the page that may take you to the right reference. Lastly don't make assumptions when trying to solve puzzles. I can find myself getting locked into a certain approach and not see the obvious. I can get lost not seeing the trees in the forest. A good one is when the actual posted coordinates are the final coordinates. Just because it is a puzzle cache doesn't always mean it isn't at the posted coordinates. If it doesn't say "NOT at the posted coordinates" don't assume they are not. I've had many a puzzle cache owner get a chuckle about how difficult I can make a cache!
I enjoy puzzle caches. I enjoy solving them (okay most of the time) and I enjoy creating them. Puzzle caches are not for everyone and I recognize that. However, I have met some very nice people and have become good friends with people I have met through my puzzle caches. Asking for hints and responding to them has allowed me to meet people from all over the world.
I try to create puzzle caches people can enjoy. Some are easy and straightforward and some are very hard and obscure. My hard puzzles are not for everyone but there are those who really like the challenges I give them. The easy ones I think are fun to solve.
All of my puzzle caches have hints in the description or on the cache page. They may not be clear but they are there. Look for common terms, capitalized letters in the paragraphs or at the start of a paragraph. My titles can also contain hints. They may not look like a hint but if you have solved them and look back at the title I bet you can see the hint. I also am more than willing to give out hints. Email me or hit me up out in the field for hints. I think puzzle caching should be fun so I have no problem giving hints or pointing you in the right direction. If you send me the coordinates you have I will tell you which numbers are off. I use checkers so you don't have to go out in the field looking in the wrong locations. I also don't make it hard to find my puzzles since you may have already had trouble solving them.
Go out and give puzzles a shot. Take a look at Bob and Brenda's pages to learn more or do some Google searches. Don't shy away from puzzle caches if you thingk they are hard. There are many easy ones out there to help take that fear away. Enjoy and see you all out there.