This document provides a general overview of puzzles used for geocaching, including different types of puzzles, tips for solving puzzles, and ideas for creating puzzles. It discusses visual, code, trivia, and other types of puzzles people use to hide geocache locations. It also offers advice like taking notes while solving, looking for clues, using resources like ciphers tools, and taking breaks if getting stuck on a puzzle. The document encourages practicing puzzle solving and provides some geocaching puzzle creation tips.

1. %&*#!
Stupid Puzzles!
A general look at puzzle
tools, puzzle solving, and
puzzle creation.
By TripCyclone

2. WAIT!!!
Before you take extensive notes, this
presentation (including links) will put
posted on my blog this weekend at
http://tripcyclone.wordpress.com

3. What are Puzzles
Puzzles are just one method through
which an Unknown cache can be
placed.
Unknowns are the “catch-all” of
cache types.

4. Types of Puzzles
• Visual • On-Site
• Codes/Ciphers • Multimedia
• Newspaper • Rube-Goldberg
• Trivia • QR Codes
• Word-based • Fried Okra
• Number-based
Nowhere near exhaustive, this is just
a broad sample of the styles out
there.

5. General Tips
1. Never ignore the
2. Identify what kind of
3. Take notes
4. Look for clues
5. PAF/E-mail
6. Keep organized
7. Take a breather

6. Never Ignore the
Are You A Woos?

7. Identify What Kind of
Sometimes, identifying WHAT the
puzzle can be important both in:
• whether YOU want to attempt it
• how you approach the puzzle

8. Take Notes
Groundspeak provides a nice Notes
feature.
Only you can see these notes.

9. Look for Clues
• Name/Title
• Hidden by
• Hidden on
• Size, difficulty, and terrain
• Coordinates
• Cache description
• Images
• Additional waypoints
• The hint
• Inventory
• Logs

10. PAF/E-mail
Phone-A-Friend to work together or
get hints
E-mail the owner if you have
questions

11. Keep Organized
Develop some method to keep track of
the puzzles you have solved and the
ones you are working on.
GSAK
Bookmark Lists
Other Databases
We will come back to this one later.

12. Take a Breather
Sometimes, you just need a break.
Step back and ignore the puzzle for
a while if you get stuck.
Employ Notes and Organization to
ensure your progress isn’t forgotten
when you come back.

13. Practice, Practice, Bang Head,
Practice
What about ways to practice puzzle
solving?
Randomly choose a city and start
solving.
How Do I Solve…
Geocaching Puzzle of the Day

14. Some Puzzle Tools
• Cipher Tools
• Google
• Wikipedia
• Sudoku Solver – solves several variants
• Puzzle – wikipedia page for puzzles;
branches out into many wikipedia entries
about different puzzles
• National Puzzlers League – lots of info and
some solvers
• Geocaching Puzzle Resources – my more
detailed presentation on resources from last
year

15. A Couple of Geocaching.com Resources
• GC25WQJ - A puzzle that walks you through
common ways to hide information
• Puzzle Solving 101 – a series of caches built
around how to solve puzzles.
• Lesson in Ciphers – a series of cipher caches
built to teach about ciphers
• Puzzle Shortcuts Series – a series of caches
that teach about solving puzzles. A “Cliff
Notes” version
• Post by NiraD – NiraD regularly posts this info
on the forums when people ask for puzzle
help.

16. Creating Puzzles
Creating Puzzles can help in various
ways:
1. Helps you think outside the box
2. Can teach you tools for solving
3. Improve the “Spice of Life”
And above ALL ELSE:

17. YOU ARE NOT THE
ONE WHO HAS TO
SOLVE IT!

18. Creation Tips
1. Pick a topic you are familiar with.
2. Pick a style of puzzle you enjoy
3. Go hide the cache and get the
coordinates
4. Figure out how to make a puzzle
with the coordinates
5. Submit your cache

19. Here are some ways to do quick
encoding
N 39° 15.335 W 094° 38.180
N XXXIX XV.CCCXXXV
W XCIV XXXVIII.CLXXX
N CI AE.CCE W ID CH.AH0
15S N 4346415 E 358815