OK, so you understand the target. Now, what is your goal?
Every cache, ultimately, is at a unique location on the earth. At a set of co-ordinates your GPS reader (GPSr) can point you to. You are trying to find out what those are for this puzzle, and then you just have to go there.
- The coordinates you seek are a series of numbers that tell your GPS unit about a very specific part of the earth. About a 2m square area for coordinates in Degrees and Minutes, to three decimal places.
- For example: S27° 20.852 E153° 01.326
The goal you seek is a set of viable coordinates. Numbers. Around here that will mean South 28 degrees, East 151 degrees. If anything makes sense as a 28 or a 151 then you could be smiling quicker.
There are a total of 15 digits plus the S and E in the normal way of describing coordinates.
The Degrees and whole Minutes parts are usually the same as the posted coordinates – or at most 2 minutes plus/minus different, so sometimes all you need is the two lots of three-digit decimal minutes. Ie: S28 39.ABC E151 49.DEF.
So if presented with a group of letters, symbols, pictures, sentences, things or concepts in a puzzle story – count them. If there are:
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6
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It implies just the decimal minutes part of posted South and East coordinates (common)
Eg: 400 and 850
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15
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It implies the more common set of required coordinates (S and E are usually implied)
Eg: 2839400 15149850
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40 – 50
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Is often an offset or just the decimal minutes part spelled out
Eg: gotosouthplusonetwothreeeastminusfourfivesix
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50 - 60
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Is typically the numbers of the coordinates spelled out
Eg: twoeightthreeninefourzerozeroonefiveonefournineeightfivezero
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approx 120
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is typically a spelled out coordinates using English description
eg: Twenty eight degrees thirty nine point four hundred minutes south, one hundred and fifty one degrees forty nine point eight five zero minutes east
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Look for the numbers. Things in a sequence can become numbers. The alphabet is 1 to 26 in a specific order. The English alphabet that is, there are other alphabets too. There are ten levels of mineral hardness from talc to diamond. There are ten colours in electrical resistance, there are numbers in the musical scales, the periodic table in chemistry and episode numbers for TV shows. Scrabble tiles have numbers for every letter
Know that the list of prime numbers, the fibbonacci sequence, and pi ‘s decimal places, and many other series, are all constant sequences of numbers and so the 5th one for example is always the same digit
Try everything backwards
And there is no reason why numbers or words have to be given to you in English. Or base 10 even. Hexadecimal, Binary and other systems are valid numbering systems, as is French, or Klingon as languages.
So where is the cache?
I am indebted to net88 for this amazing artwork.
