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Dark Habitat Mystery Cache

Hidden : 3/14/2015
Difficulty:
4.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Dark Habitat


Puzzle Cache
WARNING : This is a very difficult puzzle cache. There IS NOTHING to find at the posted coordinates.


Big Discovery!


By pure coincidence we found out how the persons in dark live!

Maybe this breakthrough of coordinated numerical research and combined intelligence will bring us a step further in understanding the mystery of the men in dark.

Read below what we learned through numerical simulation following close observation.

Ha! Take this: Who was watching whom!

It seems our "friends in dark" are living in compounds made of 6 times 6 habitat units.
Each of them lives in its own neat square living unit.
Certainly they have neighbours (obviously with the same dark attitude).
However, it seems they consider one of them as their neighbour only if they share a common wall (i.e. not if they have a diagonal relationship in the habitat grid).
You can see a representation of such a dark habitat compound below:

Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit
Habitat Unit

Each of the living units is assigned an integer number (let's call it N).
We have now discovered the underlying principle of assigning these numbers!
If a living unit receives a number greater than 1, then its neighbours have all the numbers 1,2,3,...,N-1.

A small 3 by 3 compound of living units could look something like this:

 2 
 4 
 1 
 1 
 3 
 2 
 2 
 4 
 1 

We have learned that for this habitat setting of (6x6) 36 individual living units there is an optimal configuration if the sum of all of its numbers is 93 (otherwise you have billions of possible solutions - just ask a banker ...)!

It is your job to find a valid solution within these constraints!
Once you have found a valid solution (and there are still plenty of them), you count the individual numbers (N) you have allocated.
These counts will then give you the necessary information to be able to calculate, check, locate and visit a sign that is placed only 3 meter from a now invisible dark living compound (in its binary form).

Click here to verify coordinates

Big Scientific Breaktrough!


By using the Intergalactic Linear Collider (ILC) we were able to shed some extra light (actually quite a huge amount of it) onto this problem and we managed to make the dark habitat visible (at least for the short moments the particle burst are hitting the habitat)!

Particles illuminating the dark habitat

The original cache (when the binary habitat was still visible and even accessible) was a birthday puzzle for Magda who made us go up walls (or trees), drove us around at the speed of light and got us to hang out late at night ...
Now it is her turn to be sleepless at night ;-P

Just pure mathematics (no game theory)
and the eternal beauty of numbers!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Zntargvp ng n ovanel fhccbeg

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)