Codebusters B/C

[bangtanarmy7]

Haven’t posted on this particular forum yet, but just wanted to ask about some people’s strategies. It seems impossible to do the harder ciphers consistently(patristocrats, Cryptarithms, etc.). Pollux ciphers and Morbit ciphers are some of the easier and reliable ciphers, while aristocrats are not very consistent but still the most common cipher. The low point ciphers(Caesar and Atbash) are usually easy and our team has gone for them on every invitational. What ciphers are you guys prioritizing and which are you guys skipping?

Also, does anybody know how to use the alphabet square provided on tests? They have half of the alphabet instead of the full one used on regular alphabet squares used for vigenere/Porta cipher.

our team normally splits it up, with one person doing the busywork ciphers, like atbash, caesar, and vigenere, while another person does pollux and morbit, and the last person does affine. once we finish our respective ciphers, we start working on anything that seems doable (i.e. soemtimes the patristocrats have better hints than aristocrats), and when everyone finishes their original ciphers, we go to an aristocrat and try to solve it. We never attempt xenocrypts, go for aristocrats first, but if we see a better patristocrat, then go for that, and sometimes we do if one of us has studied it recently and remembers it, but other than that we normally leave it alone.

the alphabet square is for porta, and there is one video i found for it, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvsMvO_FiTA, but it's in hindi so i had to have my parents translate some of it, but most of it should be understandable.

also while looking for that video ^^, i found this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhNbm0DMteE that may or may not help idk

hope that helps!

[bangtanarmy7]

If we get less than 2 mistakes on a Special Bonus Question or the Timed Question are we supposed to get the Bonus Points?

yes, any more and points are going to be deducted

[bangtanarmy7]

How do you guys solve Morbit/Pollux/Baconian on Scilympiad? I'm copying the problem down on paper and it takes way too long.

i print tests out

[Mythic]

How do you solve a Rail Fence with more remainder than rails?

[Sorrow2]

what's an easy as possible way to solve Xenocrypt and Baconian???

[pumptato-cat]

Memorize the Baconian alphabet and grind. I don't know anything about Xenos so I can't help you there, but this event is literally just practice and there isn't a way around that. No shortcuts

[pumptato-cat]

How do you guys solve Morbit/Pollux/Baconian on Scilympiad? I'm copying the problem down on paper and it takes way too long.

i print tests out

Thanks, but unfortunately, the competitions I've been to do not allow printing a test out on paper. That counts towards "out of browser" time, resulting in disqualification. (Either that, or you lose time that you could spend working on the timed aristocrat)

[bangtanarmy7]

How do you guys solve Morbit/Pollux/Baconian on Scilympiad? I'm copying the problem down on paper and it takes way too long.

i print tests out

Thanks, but unfortunately, the competitions I've been to do not allow printing a test out on paper. That counts towards "out of browser" time, resulting in disqualification. (Either that, or you lose time that you could spend working on the timed aristocrat)

sorry i forgot virtual existed for a sec i thought u meant while practicing
one thing i remember i used to do was copy down small portions at a time and see if i could solve for every number, and once i do, instead of writing down the ciphertext, just write down the symbols that correspond.
that sounded a lot better in my head idk if that made sense, and it might not work for everyone, it just helped me a little

[bangtanarmy7]

what's an easy as possible way to solve Xenocrypt and Baconian???

for baconian i found it helpful to learn base 2, which is ones and zeroes, so that i wouldn't have to memorize the whole thing. the only thing to be careful for is accommodating for the i/j and u/v since they share.

for xenocrypt, since it's in spanish, the only thing that would help is either 1) become fluent in spanish or 2) have someone on the team that speaks spanish.

[Sorrow2]

what's an easy as possible way to solve Xenocrypt and Baconian???

for baconian i found it helpful to learn base 2, which is ones and zeroes, so that i wouldn't have to memorize the whole thing. the only thing to be careful for is accommodating for the i/j and u/v since they share.

for xenocrypt, since it's in spanish, the only thing that would help is either 1) become fluent in spanish or 2) have someone on the team that speaks spanish.

I dont think i can do good on xenocrypt- since no one on my team can speak spanish. Sometimes I don't even know where to start on baconian
but thanks for helping! I really appreciate it.