Can You Crack The Code? #2 (Solved)
First published: Tuesday July 26th, 2022
Preface
As many of you will know, almost all JetPunk Daily Word Searches utilise their leftover letters to spell out a word or phrase, often related to the theme that day.
Many have enjoyed finding them, and most of the time they have been spelled in order, with no scrambling or decryption necessary to read it.
Following last month's Can You Crack The Code?, we continue today with another outing of puzzling. Last month's was solved by overtired in less than 12 hours! As a reward for completing this challenge, he has opted to create a Word Search entirely. This will be featured on Friday 29th July, don't miss the first ever non-Stewart-created Word Search!
Word Search #176 - Capitals
Today's Word Search is filled with National Capitals around the world. It is a 13x13 grid with 30 words featured within it.
Once the puzzle is complete, the leftover letters appear... garbage. I can confirm, they are not!
I have used a secret logical code (which I came up with myself) to encode the message hidden within.
You can find the hidden letters in the grid after completing the Word Search. You may discuss on this blog your findings and progress if you wish.
The first person to find the answer, and correctly say how they achieved (necessary), will be awarded the chance to create a word search of their own to be featured in August.
At 12pm ET I will reveal a hint if nobody has solved it. Further hints will appear at 2pm ET and 5pm ET, if needed.
More hints will now appear at 6pm ET and 7pm ET, since nobody has found the solution yet.
If nobody solves by tomorrow (I doubt that), since the grid will be gone, I will update this blog with the solution!
Hint #1
Each letter may have up to 8 pieces of information which contributes to the solution.
Hint #2
The solution requires a Vigenère cipher at some point.
Hint #3
A=1, B=2, ..., Y=25, Z=26
Hint #4
First, use Hint #1, then use Hint #3, then a small calculation is required, and finally use Hint #2 to find the solution.
Hint #5
The bottom-left empty space (near the start of Washington D.C.) is an N. It uses S in the 12-letter Vigenère keyword (shifting to the F displayed in the final grid), and the number 45 is related to finding that answer.
Unfortunately this is your final hint. Due to the difficulty of this challenge, I will extend the deadline to 12pm ET tomorrow. Once the word search disappears and Wednesday's appears I will post a picture of it here for reference if still unsolved.
Congratulations to Abby for solving the puzzle! The comments explain the method of solving, and they will get a chance to create a whole word search grid for August as a reward!
Well Done Abby!
I am surprised it has been many hours with nothing yet. Only just over 2 hours until the first hint!
(Of course you may see that someone has already solved it)
Game of patience :')
First, repeat the key until it is as long as the secret phrase. For this example, QUIZ becomes QUIZQUI, which has the same number of letters as JETPUNK (seven).
Then, convert both the secret phrase and the key to numbers based on their position in the alphabet (A becomes 1, B becomes 2, etc):
Q U I Z Q U I
17 21 9 26 17 21 9
J E T P U N K
10 5 20 16 21 14 11
Then, add the numbers in each column together:
27 26 29 42 38 35 20
Then subtract one from each number:
26 25 28 41 37 34 19
If any numbers are greater than 26, subtract 26:
26 25 2 15 11 8 19
Finally, convert the numbers back to letters (1 becomes A, 2 becomes B, etc):
Z Y B O K H S
Therefore, the Vigenere cipher for phrase JETPUNK and key QUIZ is ZYBOKHS.
To decode a Vigenere cipher, just run the process backwards, provided you know what the key is.
(Oh my, I will die tonight)
I will post the explanation soon, just wanted to post the answer first to claim it
Hadn’t thought to only count the used squares. Good thinking!