Don't you hate puzzles where half of the puzzle is figuring out
what the puzzle is? Well, this cache is not like that.
Solving the Puzzle
The puzzle is a simple online game of MasterMind. You find a 6-digit
number.
You'll need to give it your geocaching user name if you want to
get a token (see below), but no password is required.
For each move, the game will tell you:
- How many digits are correct and in the correct spots.
- How many digits are correct but in the incorrect spot.
Each number in the guess is only used one time. So if you guess
111222 and the correct answer is 122333, you will have one digit
that is correct and in the correct spot, and two that are correct
but in the wrong spots.
But! There is a twist. You can only make a certain number
of moves each day. The first day, you get 10 moves. Each day after
that, you get 5 more moves. Your available moves will build up if
you don't use them all. If you want to be FTF, you'll have to think
about your moves pretty hard before you make them!
Logging the cache
When you have solved the online puzzle, you will be given the
cache coordinates and a token, a string of printable
characters. Save this token!
When you log online, you can choose to include the token you
received in your log. The token is proof that you solved the online
puzzle yourself. The token is not required to log this cache,
though
Verifying solutions
The token is actually a very simple thing: it is an encrypted
string that consists of your geocaching.com user name and the
number of guesses you made in solving the puzzle. You can verify
anyone's token by entering it here to decrypt it. That means everyone can see that
the token you entered in your log is a valid one. It is a fun way
to show you did the puzzle without any help!
Example
I solved the puzzle and received this token:
28Z6kQN0C9WsqkT3NS4vWwWhRSjdr1xx
Putting this token into the token decryptor, I get this:
Decrypted token = 11 fizzymagic
This means that I solved the puzzle in 11 guesses.
Try it yourself! You can check any token from any log to verify
that the finder solved the puzzle.
Have fun!