Practice Puzzles

[Sean (@TheGilded)Moderator]

Some of you have noticed some conversations happening on profiles that are cryptic, and are asking questions about it. Let me first assure you that nothing OOA related is going on in there. It started with some boredom, but I do actually want to take this forward some.

The OOA hides its truths, making us earn it. But many of us haven’t done anything let this before, and may benefit from some practice. So I propose the following: In this thread, you’ll find puzzles. They may reference OOA things, but are NOT puzzles that will cause you to progress on the Path to the Light. They’re just practice.

I’ll get you all started off with a few. There is no need to post the solutions once you get them, as there is nothing to “win” here and credit won’t get you anything, and others may want to solve it on their own, later. Feel free to post or PM for hints if you don’t get it. I’ll try to keep this topic semi-regularly updated so that you all can be exposed to some puzzles that I’ve seen before:

1: Translation
01011001 01101111 01110101 00100111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101100 01110110 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101001 01110010 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110000 01110101 01111010 01111010 01101100 01100101

2: Translation 2
47 6f 6f 64 20 6a 6f 62 2c 20 6d 6f 73 74 20 64 6f 6e 27 74 20 6b 6e 6f 77 20 77 68 61 74 20 68 65 78 20 69 73

3: Advanced translation
LS4tLSAtLS0gLi4tIC4tLS0tLiAuLi4tIC4gLyAtLSAuLSAuLi4gLSAuIC4tLiAuIC0uLiAvIC0gLi0uIC4tIC0uIC4uLiAuLS4uIC4tIC0gLi4gLS0tIC0uIC8gLi0tLiAuLi0gLS0uLiAtLS4uIC4tLi4gLiAuLi4=

• This topic was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by  Sean (@TheGilded).

[Sean (@TheGilded)Moderator]

4: Fill
The puzzle is the image found here

5: Description
The puzzle is the image found here

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by  Sean (@TheGilded).

[MelissaModerator]

6: K.I.S.S.
APSW SW R XDROASOI XFJJUI.

[Jake OParticipant]

@thegilded thanks for taking the time to make these puzzles and help educate us less puzzle savvy!

[Sean (@TheGilded)Moderator]

No problem, hopefully we all learn something out of this.

Some basic information/hints: Puzzles 1, 2, 3, and 6 (by the way, thanks @mkarrett) are known as Cipher Puzzles. They start with an encrypted (jumbled up in a very specific way) string of characters, and it is up to the puzzle solver to do two things:

First, it’s a matter of finding which cipher is used. Puzzles 1, 2 and 3 all start with something from computer science, and can be solved by finding which concept is being shown, and translating it back from there.

Puzzles 4 and 5 are Photo Manipulation puzzles. They both require you to download the image and play with it. 5 is the hardest one I’ve posted so far, and will require you to download other programs to help you along with it. One hint that I’ll give there is that I regret naming the puzzle “Description” instead of “Meta”.

Final hint for now is that many puzzles involve red herrings, or information that seems important but actually isn’t. I included a red herring in puzzle 6, don’t get too caught up on it.

[MikeParticipant]

Also, if @thegilded wasn’t here to explain or give hints. Make you you look at everything. I think that’s the escape room fan in me, but many puzzles require you to find something else and at first glance, you might not think it means anything. Remember that when you find other puzzles in the future

[DiemParticipant]

Thank you Mike.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for this

[MelissaModerator]

7: \mbox{E}(x)=\mbox{D}(x)=((m-1)x+(m-1))\mod{m}

Gsrh rh zm zgyzhs xrksvi zmw blf hloevw rg!

[MelissaModerator]

8: Et tu, Brute?

Mabl bl t paxxe vbiaxk hk “Vtxlxk Vbiaxk”.

[MelissaModerator]

9. mmmm, Bacon.

BAABAAABBBABAAABAAAB ABAAABAAAB AAAAA AAAABAAAAAAAABAABBABABBAAABAAAAAAAAABBAA AAABAABAAAABBBAAABBBAABAABAAAA. ABAAA ABABAABBABBAABBAABAA AAAABAAAAAAAABAABBABABBAA!

[AmieParticipant]

I don’t know why, but the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this was MMMBop. And now it’s stuck in my head…

[CodyParticipant]

Here’s a funzies puzzle. This Totem/obelisk was created with intent by a close relative of mine. What was the intent?

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com

The fifth photo will not be able to be deciphered but it is an example of something. Any Guesses?
I would request that anyone whom wants to play, to please send your answers via PM so as not to spoil for others.
Thanks guys. Have fun!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by  Cody.

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