Code Breaking For Silver Part VI | Winner: Rikcando!

Hint #1 : Eminem lyrics refering to a backward motion. (The first two lines of this song refer to "...round the outside", the methodology to decrypt this code).

Hint #2 : {Missing}, not sure. (This was my mistake omitting this hint. And since I can't admit when I am wrong, I made you all think it was something mysterious.)

Hint #3 : NWA, no idea (The solver starts at the NW corner of the puzzle).

Hint #4 : It's not going to be solved by masking it against previous clues. A mask of any kind will not work. All sections are different. (True. The way one solved my previous codes were using a 5 x 5 square. This one uses a different methodology).

Hint #5 : there can only be 9 "squares". Technically, this can only be done with no more than 10 squares if you utilize zero. Single digits are required to start and end data. (Exactly).

Hint #6 : {Missing}, not sure. (See Hint # 2).

Hint #7 : Rikcando is on the right track... speaks for itself. (You had the 9 "squares" compeletely figured out and in the correct order. Nice!)

Hint #8 : M18A1 pattern (Deployment not blast.) a 60 degree upwards fanshaped pattern. Not sure. (The 60 degree fan shape is the blast pattern. The Claymore anit-personnel mine (for deployment) goes around the outside perimeter of an encampment (among other patterns), again around the outside).

Hint #9 : Scriptures encoded to 2:2:2 - 9:9:9 (1 & 8 missing). Shows the important data is between the digits common to the section. (Exactly! This shows the Square "2" starts at "2" and ends at "2". We talked about why 1 & 8 were omitted).

Hint #10 : 1 Northern twister. A reverse upward spiral. Follow the data around in reverse from the first digit to the next (same) digit of the section. (Essentially correct. I was looking for a counter-clockwise pattern to decipher. The Northern hemisphere cyclone motion is counter-clockwise.)

Hint #11 : 4 = 43124 shows data between the digits 4 and 4. (Exactly!)

Hint #12 : Walk the perimeter. Follow around the outside of the section to gather the data. (Again, exactly)

Hint # 13 : "It's Bizarro Time", yelled Superman. Bizzarro is a reverse of Superman, and lives in a reverse universe. Just as we need to go backwards in the section. (Yes, counter-clockwise again).

Hint # 14 : Lower Left "Square" redefinition. It origianlly did not have 2 digit 3's in the outer ring. The first 3 was intended as both start and finish. (Yes. I probably should have encrypted the "3" "square" like I did the "9" "square". That way you start with one number and end with a different one, versus starting & stopping with the same number. The bad coincendence of the "3" "square" having a random "3" in the center of the block was just unfortunate.)

Hint #15 : So you can see there is nothing cryptic or intentionally omitted about this clue. Self explanatory.

Hint # 16 : DGVFMHR is indeed the first two words of this code. Self explanatory.

Hint # 17 : "Square" 1 = DGV FMHR PGN SCHRY. Self explanatory.

Hint # 18: J = S. Self explanatory.



Again, thanks to Rikcando for solving this and thank you to all who played. It was fun!





(I'll show you what I was originally going to use in a later post...)

Just FYI: This was the code to break before I simplified it. (I'm not sure you can even see it?)

NOTE: There are still some titles & notes on the page & on each "square" that would not have made it to the final code posting.





First, you have to find which one "square" is the KEY to decide which blocks of letter/numbers/symbols are useful and which are not (the Random ones are not useful (they do not have a Block Number or code pattern in the picture)). Then the KEY tells you where to find the blocks in order to line them up in order

The first number in the decipher line is the "square" number (1-11, (and as we discussed in the previous code the 10 & 11 numbers would have been awkward).

The next 2 numbers are the grid coordinates (go over 3 down 3, etc.).


The KEY then tells you which search pattern to use in the particular block (the first letter/symbol in the code line tells you what the encoded word pattern is). So you can see my method, at the bottom of the useful blocks is a code for me to keep them sorted out (as in 8L, which is the 8th block and the encoded pattern in that block is an L shape.) The encrypted shapes were to be either C, L, / or \.

Again, those notes would not have been in the final code posting. And the KEY, which in the picture is in order 1-11, would have been much more scrambled and it would hav ebeen much tougher to determine which "square" was the KEY.

THEN you have to decode the simple, one for one, substitute cipher.

It was just too big and cumbersome.

So you all got what you got.


Again, this was fun and Congratulations to rikcando for all his (and his daughter's ) hard work!

And GRR wasn't too far behind! Nice job! He/she was getting very close!


(Stay tuned: I have some ideas for some future codes...)

I see the RMZPRY through the center. Is that 4\?

Possibly. (But not for me who would have had to type 18 blocks of understandable and coherent code versus 9 onto the initial posting!)