Decipher

About Decipher

Decipher turns the newspaper cryptogram into a daily web puzzle. The answer is always a quotation from a known person, such as Napoleon, Oscar Wilde or Annie Dillard, written out with a simple substitution cipher: every A in the quote has become the same other letter, every B another, and so on, with the spaces and punctuation left in place.

You select a letter in the coded text and type the letter you think it stands for, and your guess fills in everywhere that code letter appears. Short words, apostrophes and repeated patterns are the way in: a lone letter is usually A or I, and a three-letter word that keeps coming back is often THE. If you are stuck you can take up to three hints, and a reset button clears your key. The fewer hints you use, the more stars you score.

The puzzles are numbered by day from 19 June 2024, a new quote arrives at midnight on your own clock, and an archive holds the earlier days. It suits anyone who solves the cryptoquote in the paper, and players of Cyphr or codeword puzzles who like breaking a code with no other clues.

How to play Decipher

1. Open Decipher and look over the coded quotation.
2. Select a code letter and type the letter you think it stands for; it fills in everywhere that letter appears.
3. Use short words, apostrophes and repeated patterns to find more letters.
4. Take a hint if you are stuck, up to three a day.
5. Finish the quote to see its author and your star score, then come back after midnight.

Tips

• A one-letter word is almost always A or I.
• Look for the commonest three-letter word, THE, and for words after an apostrophe such as S, T or LL.
• No letter stands for itself in a simple swap, so rule that out when guessing.
• Save hints for the end, when a single letter unlocks several words.

Questions