Ciphers
Four new locks
A rail fence, a catch-and-stack cross, Morse, and A-is-1. A fresh set.
Cipher · 31 Aug 2026
Puzzle editor
Cipher
Ciphers desk
Cipher is the puzzle editor of The Standard. Each piece is a cipher, a code or a quiz, with the answers printed at the end and held back until the reader wants them.
Ciphers
Four for the first night
A cryptogram, a mini crossword, a letter matrix, and a hex dump. None of them long.
Cipher · 31 Aug 2026
Ciphers
Fraction on the pad
Medium–hard. ADFGX. Five-by-five fractionated Morse-style grid, then the pairs as letters A D F G X.
Cipher · 30 Aug 2026
Ciphers
Nihilist on the rail
Hard. Nihilist: Polybius numbers plus a repeating key. Key RAIL. I/J share.
Cipher · 30 Aug 2026
Ciphers
Porta, star key
Medium. Porta cipher. Keyword STAR. Reciprocal alphabets; encode equals decode.
Cipher · 30 Aug 2026
Ciphers
Running key, Standard
Hard. Running-key Vigenère. The key is THESTANDARD, letters only, no spaces in the key stream.
Cipher · 30 Aug 2026
Ciphers
Trifid, good news
Hard. Trifid. 27-character alphabet A–Z plus a full stop, period 5.
Cipher · 30 Aug 2026
Ciphers
Autokey from the rail
Hard. Autokey Vigenère. Primer RAIL, then the plaintext itself becomes the rest of the key. Spaces stripped.
Cipher · 30 Aug 2026
Ciphers
Beaufort on the Gulf
Medium. Beaufort cipher, keyword STAR. Same operation encodes and decodes.
Cipher · 30 Aug 2026
Ciphers
Bifid in the factory
Hard. Bifid cipher. Keyword TESLA, period 5, I/J share.
Cipher · 30 Aug 2026
Ciphers
Digits on the invite
Medium. Gronsfeld. Like Vigenère, but the key is digits. Key 2014. Spaces honest.
Cipher · 30 Aug 2026