Whether you are a seasoned puzzle solver or just starting out on your first puzzle hunt, the tips and tricks below are sure to help you out!
When attempting to solve a puzzle, one of the first things that is recommended is to figure out what type of puzzle you are solving. To do this, try to evaluate the intro or clue text for hints, look at the puzzle itself, and see if you can identify any patterns or numbers that stand out. There are many types of puzzles, but here are a few that are most commonly used, so these are good steps to try first:
Anagrams are a type of wordplay, where the solver rearranges the letters of a word or phrase to make an entirely new word or phrase, using each and every letter exactly once.
The original word or phrase is called the “subject” of the anagram and sometimes (but not always) hint at the solution, which could be a synonym or antonym, a relevant topic, joke, or definition. For example, “William Shakespeare” anagrams to “I am a weakish speller.”
Sometimes anagrams in puzzles will have an extra letter or a missing one.
One of the most commonly used puzzle devices is called Indexing, in which the solver must find letters within the given text, which will then spell out a word. There are many ways that puzzles give indexing clues, from the very simple numbering system of 1=1st letter, line, word, etc., 2=2nd letter, line, word, etc,. and so on, to much more complicated systems where a solver must complete various steps of mathematics to find the indexing number in the first place. Sometimes, a series of numbers are given with clues, and the solver must use the clues to figure out what text they need to index!
Indexing is a good first step to try when you see a series of blocks or lines of text with a number next to each one. If your indexed letters start to spell something, you’re on the right track!
Cryptography is the discipline of using codes and ciphers to encrypt a message and make it unreadable unless the recipient knows the secret to decrypt it. Encryption has been used for many thousands of years. Codes and ciphers can be learned and used to encrypt and decrypt messages by hand. After some practice, these will be easy to spot and a ton of fun to solve! There are many different types of ciphers, but we’ve listed the ones that are used most often.
Monoalphabetic Ciphers – A monoalphabetic cipher uses the same substitution across the entire message. For example, if you know that the letter A is enciphered as the letter M, this will hold true for the entire message. These types of messages can be cracked by using frequency analysis, educated guesses or trial and error. Some examples are the Caesar Cipher or Atbash Cipher. Sometimes, a symbol is used and enciphered as a letter. Examples of these are Pigpen Cipher, Braille, Morse Code, and Naval Signal Flags. Lastly, many puzzles will use fictional languages as ciphers, so look out for interesting fonts, and brush up on your Klingon!
Polyalphabetic Ciphers – In a polyalphabetic cipher, the substitution may change throughout the message. In other words, the letter A may be encoded as the letter K for part of the message, but later on it might be encoded as the letter W. Examples of these are Vigenère Cipher or Beaufort Cipher.
In a cryptic crossword, the clues are not normal crossword clues. More importantly, the clues are not normal crossword clues. Instead, each clue is a mini-puzzle for you to solve. A clue will have a definition half, where the answer is defined normally, and a cryptic half, where wordplay clues that answer. There might be a connector like “is” between them, or it might just be implied. You’ll usually have an enumeration of the answer length in parentheses, like “(5)” or “(7,9)” for a two-word phrase like CRYPTIC CROSSWORD. Here are some things that might occur in a cryptic clue.
A clue might be a homophone. That’s where you sound out words. You’ll get an indicator like “spoken” or “called” to prompt the homophone. So, “Alaskan city discussed garden statue (5)” has NOME (“Alaskan city”) “discussed” to get GNOME (“garden statue”).
A clue might be a hidden word. That’s where you find something in given words. You’ll get an indicator like “inside” or “spans” to show you where to look. So, “Lunatic employed by salesman I accosted (6)” has SALESMAN I ACCOSTED “employing” MANIAC (“lunatic”).
A clue might be a container. That’s where you put a thing in something else. You’ll get an indicator like “in” or “takes” to say what goes in what. So, “Burdened when eating, I got on the runway (6)” uses TAXED (“burdened”) “when eating” I to make TAXIED (“got on the runway”).
A clue might be a combination of these. So, the Down clue “Children born to send up portal (5)” is a charade for B (“born”) plus a reversal (“to send up”) of DOOR (“portal”), making BROOD (“children”).
A clue ending in an exclamation point might be an “& lit.” (“and literally so”). That’s where the halves are the same. So, “Even elements of good verse! (4)” hides in the even letters of GOOD VERSE the word ODES (defined by the whole clue).
Quite often, pieces of puzzle information will leave the solver with either missing or extra information. If you find yourself with an extra letter in each section of a puzzle, try to do something with those extras! Quite often it will spell out something important – perhaps your answer.
Conversely, if a puzzle seems to be missing some obvious and well known information (such as, say, a word from a famous quote or a color from the spectrum of the rainbow), there is a good chance that the puzzle wants you to see the missing information as part of your solve.
Numbers are often expressed in the well-known base 10 numbering system, but some puzzles will use alternate base systems, such as Binary (base 2), Octal (base 8), or Hexadecimal (base 16). To write numbers in higher base systems, letters are added to represent digits larger than 10. For example, hexadecimal uses A-F to represent 10-15. Sometimes spotting these types of combinations will clue you in to an alternate number system in the puzzle!
Cut the Knot has a great online converter that will convert between different number systems up to base 36.
Like puzzles and want to learn how to make them? Take a look at our book Puzzlecraft: How to Make Every Kind of Puzzle!