GCHQ Christmas Puzzle 2024

[Throughthebluebells]

Has anyone completed this yet?

www.gchq.gov.uk/news/gchq-christmas-challenge-2024

I have and think I have the correct answer but have two letters left over at the end!

Is there one for adults or is it just this children's one?

I’ve completed it and used all the letters but I still don’t understand how to get the answer for puzzle 7 from the clue. I’ve got the answer but it was working backwards from the whole answer.

Work your way round from the middle and see what the error is for each number they've attempted to write from 1 - 20.

Sorry I’ve got that one, I mean the bottom one with the ciphered message 😂.

Do you mean number 7? This is a substitution cipher so each letter in the sentence needs to be substituted by the correct letter for it to make sense. "PERHAPS" is the solution for "ISKGWIM" etc. (so whenever you read an "I" it is really a "P"). It is best to write out the entire alphabet. Solve the first 2 words, then look at the one and two letter words (as there aren't too many possibilities left for those).

If you meant the animals the numbers underneath are the letter for the relevant answer (owl is a Northern Irish answer) etc. (this is where the ability to count is helpful).

Good luck

Once you have fully deciphered the message in number 7 you need to look at the letters each word starts with.

Figuring out where the Robin is geographically helps too!

Omg that makes so much sense now 😂. Took me ages! I worked it out geographically

They haven’t done an adults one for a few years, sadly.

I think I 've worked out that my spare two letter word goes at the beginning of the sentence although that probably makes it a grammatically poor sentence!

Follow Santa!

Follow the instructions in the decoded message.

Re the three hidden extra puzzles referred to in the blurb - I presume the Morse Code is one, there’s the name of a favourite Christmas character hidden fairly obviously on the side with the map … but where is the binary that PP refers to to? I can’t even see where that is!

(And if you follow all the clues to the final answer, there are no spare letters)

@MereDintofPandiculation

Zoom in on the sea and look carefully!

@Throughthebluebells once you've got your 7 lots of 4 letters, don't break them up. Have a look at the morse code part to help you order them

Oh my goodness! I'm not sure even my patience with quizzes extends to translating that lot into decimal!

Thanks, I had all the 4 letter solutions correct but had put them together in the wrong order. Now sorted correctly!

I haven't attempted that either as it seemed like too much hard work!

Thank you - all sorted now! I was trying to put the first word as the penultimate word and it just didn't quite work without splitting one of the four letters - I had completely missed the link to the morse code!

Yep! Tempting to just write them under the animals at the bottom of the page and think wtf? Well done!

I think there's a lot of repetition, so it might not be quite as bad. DH points out if right click a number, google helpfully shows it you in clearer type.

@MereDintofPandiculation Thanks for the right click suggestion - I found a translator and it made it much easier!

Did it actually lead anywhere (ie, is it worth me persisting?)

I think the 3 extra puzzles are:

a) the morse code
b) the binary (but I have got anywhere with that)
c) the concealed Christmas character.

Has anyone else found c) yet?

Oh I didn't get the morse code link with the order to put the letters and used the character instead I think 🤔

You mean you got the character as an anagram, and used that to get the order? Yes, of course that would work equally well! I admit that I solved two of-the sequences by getting the landmark answer first (from the remaining sequences) and working backwards.

Have you translated the Morse code yet?