Kai's Puzzles #3: Codes & Clues [Ended]

Post Mortem

I'm not sure what to say about this one other than it didn't go horribly wrong. Thanks to everyone for doing my puzzle, and for the feedback given ^^

Though there were few entries, I think it was because lack of interest in the games rather than puzzle difficulty (or at least I hope). A lot of community train GAs were still going, too.

I should have made a poll to see if the guide was actually useful, but I forgot :') Ohwell

Original Post

Alright, let's try this again! I (hopefully) learned from the last one, so I'm going to go about this one a bit differently. I'll also keep this one small and somewhat(?) simple. There's only one giveaway code to find this time for a small, three-cart train. All level 1, no region restrictions. Ends 9/30 5:00PM EST.

Games:
Doors: Paradox
Super Geisha Neon
Words of Wisdom

Guide

Substitution cipher. What is it? It's exactly what it sounds like - you substitute the plain text (the message you want to send) bit by bit with something else. This could be a letter, a symbol, a color, an image, a sound, etc. The kinds you might be the most familiar with are Cryptograms, Caesar Cipher, or Morse. But how do you solve substitution cipher puzzles? Start with what you see: Are there letters? Numbers? Symbols?

Letters:

If you see a bunch of letters that don't really mean anything, a good starting point is to try Caesar Cipher. If you know the shift number, use that, otherwise, brute-forcing is easy. I use this tool to brute force (just make sure you select Caesar). Another you can try is a Cryptogram solver, but it won't really work if the message is too short, or if the message doesn't use actual words. If those fail, some other options are Atbash, Keyed Cipher (also called Keyword Cipher), or Vigenere*.

Cipher Text: N zxji f xmnky tk 5 yt jshtij ymnx. Dtz zxji f xmnky tk 21 yt ijhtij ymnx.
Plain Text: I used a shift of 5 to encode this. You used a shift of 21 to decode this.
Encryption Method: Caesar Cipher - Shift of 5

Numbers:

Usually, when you see a coded message that's all numbers, it's using a base conversion: Binary, ASCII, Hex, etc. Outside of those, the most common one you'll see is A1Z26. A=1, B=2, ..., Z=26. There are other common ones, but not simple enough for this post.

Cipher Text: 19-9-13-16-12-5 5-14-15-21-7-8, 18-9-7-8-20?
Plain Text: Simple enough, right?
Encryption Method: A1Z26

Symbols:

So you see a bunch of symbols that you don't recognize. Your best bet is to look through Dcode to find one that matches. The most common one is probably Pigpen. Morse and braille are also commonly used to make ciphers. If you don't find a match, another option is mapping the symbols in the message to the alphabet and then using previously mentioned methods to decode it.

Cipher Text: Click here or see attached image below.
Plain Text: Hopefully it wasn't too hard to find!
Encryption Method:Knight's Templar Code

*Vigenere won't be used as part of the puzzle in this post

Puzzle

Difficulty: 4/10

You might want to keep track of what you decode, and how you decoded it. You might also need a keyword. What are there ten of?

Clue 1: -.-- --- ..- .-. / ..-. .. .-. ... - / .-.. . - - . .-. / .. ... / .---- ..... .-.-.- / ..--- ----- -....- ---.. -....- ..... -....- .---- ---.. -....- ..... / .---- -....- .---- ---.. -....- ..... / .---- ....- -....- .---- ..... / .---- ....- -....- ..--- .---- -....- .---- ...-- -....- ..--- -....- ..... -....- .---- ---.. -....- .---- ----. / ----. -....- .---- ....- / ..--- ----- -....- ---.. -....- ..... / --... -....- ----. -....- ..--- ..--- -....- ..... -....- .---- -....- ..--- ...-- -....- .---- -....- ..--- ..... / ...-- -....- .---- ..... -....- ....- -....- ..... .-.-.-
Clue 2: 24-12-9 21-25-9-23-24-13-19-18 17-5-22-15 11-13-26-9-23 24-12-9 17-13-8-8-16-9 16-9-24-24-9-22.
Clue 3: Gsv gsriw zmw ulfigs ovggvih ziv fkkvixzhv.
Clue 4: 13-15-18-19-5 7-9-22-5-19 1 12-15-23-5-18-3-1-19-5 12-5-20-20-5-18.
Clue 5: Click here or see attached image below.
Clue 6: Mkiy mks ma rds isrrspq jskrfmkse fk Uits 5 fq tnnspucqs.
Clue 7: Hvs crr-biapsfsr gvwth wg cbs ct hvs zshhsfg.
Clue 8: 3-5-18-6-6 ? 7-2 3-14-12 5-18-6-3-18-16-7-6.
Clue 9: Hgroo mvvw gsv xzhv uli lmv lu gsv ovggvih? Rg'h oldvixzhv.
Clue 10: Click here or see attached image below.

Note: When you try a code, for example: "abcde" and you want to try the same code, but different casing: "ABcdE", your browser will likely send you to the original one. To get around this, you can type any text after the /, like this: "ABcdE/texthere". If you try another one, you'll need to change the text you use. It just keeps your browser from going to the original one you tried, and it still works because the text after the code doesn't matter.

Hints

1. This post contains the information on what you need to solve this puzzle, but you may have to Google things mentioned if you're unfamiliar with them.

2. You can find various decoding tools via Google.

3. Some parts of the puzzle have a two-layer encryption. If you're sure you decoded it correctly, you might have to decode your result, as well.

4. There are multiple versions of the cipher I used on clues 5 and 10. I used the original (also called Variant #0).

Solutions

What each clue decodes to, as well as the method used to encode/decode it, followed by an explanation of the clue itself. Each clue gives some information on the letters in the code, the position of the letters, and/or the case of the letters.

[Clue 1]
Plain Text: Your first letter is 15. There are no numbers in the giveaway code.
Method: Morse, a1z26
Explanation: This clue gives the first letter in the form of a number. In a1z26 - the same cipher used for some of the clues - 15 turns into an "O". We don't know the case yet.

[Clue 2]
Plain Text: The question mark gives the middle letter.
Method: Morse, Caesar (encoded with a shift of 4)
Explanation: This clue refers to Clue #8 - the only clue containing a question mark. It tells us that whatever letter the question mark is will be in the middle position.

[Clue 3]
Plain Text: The third and fourth letters are uppercase.
Method: Atbash
Explanation: This clue tells us the case of the third and fourth letters.

[Clue 4]
Plain Text: Morse gives a lowercase letter.
Method: a1z26
Explanation: This clue refers to Clue #1 - the only one that uses morse code. We now know that the letter given by Clue #1 is lowercase.

[Clue 5]
Plain Text: The final two words give the final two letters.
Method: Pigpen (the original version)
Explanation: This clue refers to Clue #10, which contains just two words. This tells us that we get two letters from those two words, and that those two letters are in the last two positions.

[Clue 6]
Plain Text: Only one of the letters mentioned in clue 5 is uppercase.
Method: Keyed Cipher (keyword: clues)
Note: You get the keyword from the puzzle text: "You might also need a keyword. What are there ten of?" Right in front of you are ten clues.
Explanation: This tells us that one of the letters in Clue #5 is lowercase and one is uppercase. From Clue #3, we know the third and fourth letters are both uppercase. Since Clue #5 gives us the fourth and fifth letters, and we know that the fourth letter is uppercase, we now know the fifth letter has to be lowercase.

[Clue 7]
Plain Text: The odd-numbered shift is one of the letters.
Method: Caesar (encoded with a shift of 14)
Explanation: This clue refers to Clue #8, which uses a shift of 13 (the only other shifts used are 2 and 14, both even numbers). We have to convert 13 to a letter - again using a1z26 - resulting in "M". We know the position by process of elimination, as all other positions are taken, so this is our second letter. We don't yet know the case.

[Clue 8]
Plain Text: Press ? to pay respects.
Method: a1z26, Caesar (encoded with a shift of 13) - Also called rot13
Explanation: This clue gives us the letter "F". From Clue #2, we know that it's in the third position. Clue #3 tells us it's uppercase.

[Clue 9]
Plain Text: Still need the case for one of the letters? It's lowercase.
Method: Atbash
Explanation: This clue tells us the case for the only letter we didn't learn the case of, which is the second letter.

[Clue 10]
Plain Text: good game
Method: Pigpen (the original version), Atbash
Explanation: From this clue we get "gg" from "good game."

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