decipher

overview

you are given an encoded word or phrase. type the original. answers are all-or-nothing.

each cipher shows a clue you can hide: a shift dial, codebook, or a note about what kind of mangling was applied. you can skip a word or reveal a letter if you are stuck.

classic ciphers

• caesar shift, every letter is shifted by a fixed amount. a shift dial below the puzzle undoes the offset one step at a time.
• atbash mirror, the alphabet is reversed. a maps to z, b to y.
• vigenère key, a keyword determines the shift for each letter. the key is shown below the puzzle.
• cryptogram, a one-to-one letter substitution. map each scrambled letter to plaintext in the desk below. no letter stands for itself.
• reverse text, the characters are written backwards.

encodings

• morse code, decode dots and dashes into letters using standard telegraph patterns.
• binary bits, convert bits into letters. for example, 01001111 is o.
• keyboard slip, each letter is one key off on a qwerty layout. shift each character one step left to recover the word.

internet

• leetspeak, common substitutions such as 4 for a, 3 for e, 0 for o, and 1 for i.
• autocorrect, one realistic typo is in the word. the clue tells you which kind: two adjacent letters swapped, one letter dropped, one letter typed twice, or one letter hit next to its intended key.
• navajo talker, wwii code-talker phonetics, decoded with the glossary below the puzzle.
• minionese, minion syllables, decoded with the banana codebook below the puzzle.

length and timer

choose short (3–5 letters), medium (6–8), long (9–12), or multiple words (2–3). optional timers of 15, 30, or 60 seconds, or untimed zen.

sudden death

optional. a miss costs time; a solve adds some back. use it on timed runs when you want a miss to matter immediately.

the vault

the vault is a mode in the cipher picker. a code of four different symbols is hidden. you have six tries. each guess tells you how close you were, never which symbol.

a white peg is the right symbol in the right place. a grey peg is the right symbol in the wrong place. an empty peg is not in the code. a symbol can only be used once in a row.

the first code of the day is the same for everyone, and you get one go at it. after it is cracked or lost, the vault deals random codes. a run is a clock (zen, or 1, 3, or 5 minutes). skip on a code you had started counts as a miss. the light bulb fills in the next right symbol, once per code.