Decrypt ciphers and win $500 in prizes.
You’ve landed on the main page for Puzzle Poetry’s 2022 Humanities Week Cipher Hunt. Below, please find instructions for competing and information about how to work with our hints and clues.
You’ve landed on the main page for Puzzle Poetry’s 2022 Humanities Week Cipher Hunt. Below, please find instructions for competing and information about how to work with our hints and clues.
# of Clues Solved
Register here and decipher a clue to get your team’s name on the leaderboard.
Criss-Cross-Verse is an encrypted scavenger hunt. You’ll be looking for five QR codes, hidden in plain sight around Grounds. On Monday (4/18) we release our first ciphered clue. Every day after we release another.
We know that some of our ciphers may be hard to crack, so we’ll post more hints to Instagram @puzzlepoesis as each day goes on. But crypto-geniuses may get ahead by solving ciphers and finding the correspondent QR codes in their campus locations. Each physical QR code points our aspirant verse hunters to an online form. Type in the decrypted clue at the form and get the next day’s clue ahead of schedule!
The first team to decode all the ciphers and check in around Grounds by way of the hidden QR codes wins. Five days, five ciphers, five locations. A final cipher awaits the team that makes it to the end.
If competition is fierce, we may also release a bonus easter egg cipher. More rules and fine print here.
Clue: BWNYNSLHJSYJWGWDFS
Hint: CEASY PEASY → HJFXD UJFXD
Clue: 
Hint: FRIENDLY LEMLEY REM
Clue: 8*;8( ?*†8( .06*:
Hint: POE PUTS THE AU IN AUREALIAN
Clue: DUMLWCNLIPMPIZGDIZJXNBH
Hint: ONE (UPON A) TIME (IN FAIR) VENONA
Clue: 146 276 348 330 399 21 507 243 350 350 117 580
Hint: ♌︎ __ ♎︎ MSS 38-285