The official Challenge 10 tips and hints thread

[madness]

24 hours. Tick, tick, tick, tick, …

But it gets worse! By the time this post is moderated, there will be about 8 fewer hours!

[Good guess, but I am on it tonight! Harry]

[madness]

To those saying that they have readable text but that the supercomputer is superchoking on it:
Look at the ends of each block. You might have to wrap a letter or two around to the other end of the block.

[floatingyunsan]

Thank you Harry for a thrilling Cadenus Cipher belated HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023! My mother is rather impressed she took part in cutting and sticking ever seen people crack it like this ahahaha ?!!!

[Excellent, send us a picture if you have one! Harry]

[Bookwyrm]

Thank you Harry, this has been great fun. It was my first year and I only found it as my teacher gave me your poster. I managed to finish it before my birthday just!!!!!!!!!!!! Can’t wait for the next one.

 

[Aha, another recruit! Glad you enjoyed it. Happy Birthday, Harry]

[Livia_022]

Gosh we just got the decrypt ans but we only have 3247 characters 😭😭 not sure what to do now as less than 6 hours left

[I guess the answer is “your best”! Congratulations on breaking a very difficult cipher. Harry]

[OliviaE17]

Hi Harry, I am doing the cipher by hand and whilst it makes sense – it isn’t being accepted by the supercomputer – I’m going through manually redoing it all to fix it but I’m just wondering if we get any points if we get part of it right? And all the paragraphs are given in order correct?

[You are on the right track. Did you see Madness’s hint earlier? Harry]

[OliviaE17]

Thanks for your earlier response – yes I saw Madness’s hint – can I also check that adding punctuation does not cause issues?

[That is correct, Harry]

[msjjmathsicloud-com-1]

Similar to previous post – my decrypt manually done – makes perfect sense with no spelling mistakes – have triple checked it but computer says no with no highlighted letter – have emailed as that’s what you advised in previous post.

[Have replied! Harry]

[msjjmathsicloud-com-1]

Eureka! Thrilled to have got to the end again with a manual method but next year I think I will need to update my coding skills – unless anyone can recommend a free FORTRAN compiler. Thanks Harry and the Elves for a fantastic set of challenges!

[BobD]

I find it miles better to solve these Challenges using a spreadsheet.

 

[Oh, see what you did there! Very good, Harry]

[ThompsonJ]

I thought I had worked out the key. Turns out I was miles off.

[Oh, very good. Harry]

[dont_trip_over_ma_leg_please]

Thank you ever so much to everyone that posted on this forum for being so helpful. I managed to get my python to work and my teammate and I have just finished putting all the spaces in and figuring out the strange ordering of things. I’m so happy I’ve managed to crack it even if it was after a lot of hints and even if it took very long – but I guess this is what the cipher challenge is all about: pain, sadness, and triumph…
See y’all next year (hopefully)!

[You got it. Harry]

[f6exb]

In this story we have traveled many miles before arriving at the result.

[The-Letter-Wriggler]

Oh my dear fellows, it sounds like you are running out of puff, but you need to run MILES to get it!

[Crackerjack]

Thank you everyone for your help with the challenges! Never thought I’d get anywhere close to solving 10B but I’m glad I didn’t give up!

I’ve certainly got a lot to learn and there’s always room for optimisation. Looking forward to joining again next year!

[Author]

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