- Kind
- Cipher and puzzle chain
- Players
- One, or a group sharing keys
- A round
- One step; no timer, no hints
- Runs on
- Phone or desktop browser
What you do
The whole chain is built out of its own addresses: the answer to the puzzle in front of you is the name of the page that comes next. You type it into the box marked "Enter key (case-sensitive)" and press Submit; a right key opens that page, and a wrong one answers "Incorrect key. Try again." The front page teaches the mechanic by handing you a practice key in plain text, which opens the first real step, Labyrinth.
Labyrinth labels its own cipher — a line of ROT13 under a short video — and the steps after it stop being so helpful. Some are ciphers to break; others hide the key inside an image, a sound file, a video or a PDF, so a step can mean decoding text, reading a picture closely or opening a file in another program. Solve offline however you like; the site only asks that you do not point automated tools at the page itself.
A Map page draws the chain as 26 nodes joined by arrows. In a browser that has solved nothing it reads 0/26 with every node grey and labelled ???, and a node takes its name only once you have solved the puzzle behind it. Some nodes have several arrows feeding them and wait, behind a padlock, until every route into them is done.
Controls
Phone
- Tap the key box, type the answer exactly — capitals count — and tap Submit.
- Menu at the top opens Home, Privacy, About, Changelog and the Map.
Keyboard and mouse
- Enter
- submit the key you typed
- Tab
- move between the box, the button and the links
How long a round takes
There is no clock and there are no hints, so a step lasts exactly as long as it takes you to crack it — the practice key takes seconds, and a key hidden in an audio file might take an evening. The chain is meant to be worked through over many sittings rather than finished in one.
You never lose your place: every step you open is added to a solved list in your browser, and the Map shows how far you have got. The About page says the chain is still growing, with a goal of 100 puzzles.
The honest limits
Keys are case-sensitive, so CrossRoad and crossroad are different answers, and a key that loses a character in a chat window lands on the not-found screen. Because each puzzle's address is its key, sending someone the link to the page you are on hands them the answer — there is no share button for exactly that reason. Your progress lives only in this browser's storage (the Privacy page has a button that clears it), and every screen is drawn by JavaScript, so with scripting off the site shows nothing but a notice.