Cipher Cafe

What is a cryptogram?

A cryptogram is a short piece of text written in a simple substitution code. Every letter has been swapped for a different letter, and the swap is the same all the way through: if G stands for E once, it stands for E everywhere. Your job is to work out the code and read the message.

In Cipher Cafe, every puzzle is a well known saying, like "Better late than never" or "Birds of a feather flock together". It's free, plays in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and there's nothing to install.

How to play Cipher Cafe

The board shows the saying in code. The small letter under each box is the code letter, and the box above it is where your guess goes.

1. Tap a box to select it. Every other box with the same code letter lights up too.
2. Tap the letter on the keyboard that you think it stands for.
3. If you're right, that letter fills in everywhere it appears and the cursor jumps to the next empty box.
4. If you're wrong, the boxes flash and it counts as a mistake. There's no limit on mistakes, they just lower your score and stars.

Every order starts with a few letters already filled in to get you going. Early orders give you four, then three, then two, and from order 41 on you get one. Sayings also get longer as you go, so the first few orders are a gentle warm up.

Controls

• Phone or tablet: tap a box, then a letter. The next button jumps to the next empty box and the hint button reveals the selected letter.
• Computer: type letters to guess. Right, Enter or Tab moves to the next empty box, Left moves back, ? uses a hint and Esc pauses.
• Pausing stops the clock, and so does switching to another tab.

How to solve a cryptogram

These are the techniques that work on any cryptogram, in the order we'd use them.

1. Start with one letter words

In English, a one letter word is almost always A or I. If the coded saying has a lone letter, you've nearly got it already. If two different single letters appear, one is A and the other is I.

2. Look for apostrophes

In cryptograms that keep punctuation, the letters after an apostrophe give a lot away. A single letter after one is usually S or T (IT'S, DON'T), and two letters are often LL, RE or VE (WE'LL, YOU'RE, I'VE). Our sayings are written without punctuation (you'll see DO NOT rather than DON'T), so in Cipher Cafe you can skip this step, but it's one of the best tricks for printed puzzles.

3. Crack the common short words

Two and three letter words come from a short list. THE is the most common word in English, so a three letter code word that shows up more than once is a great THE candidate. AND is next. Two letter words are usually OF, TO, IN, IS, IT, BE, AS, AT, ON, OR, AN or NO. Once you have THE, words like THAT, THEN and THEY start to appear on their own.

4. Use letter frequency

The most common letters in English are roughly E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R. Count the code letters on the board. The one that shows up most is very often E, and the next few are likely T, A or O. In a short saying the counts won't be perfect, so treat this as a strong hint, not a rule.

5. Read word patterns

Look at where letters repeat inside a word. A four letter code word with the pattern 1-2-3-1 (first and last letter the same) is often THAT. Double letters narrow things down fast: the most common doubles are LL, EE, SS, OO, TT and FF. A word ending in a three letter pattern after a long stem is a good guess for -ING, and a two letter ending is often -ED, -ER or -LY.

6. Remember no letter stands for itself

In Cipher Cafe, as in most cryptograms, a code letter never stands for itself. If the code letter is R, the answer isn't R. It sounds small, but it rules out one option for every single box.

7. Think about the saying

Once a few words are in, say the half finished saying out loud. With "_ STITCH IN TIME" you don't need any more code breaking. Recognizing the phrase is half the fun of these puzzles.

Scoring and stars

Each order starts at 1,000 points plus 15 for every letter in the saying. You lose 60 for each mistake, 120 for each hint and 2 for every second on the clock. The lowest score is 50, so a finished order always counts for something.

Modes, hints and recipes

Orders

Tap Open the cafe to take the next order. Your order number climbs as you go, sayings get longer and you get fewer starting letters. Stars add up on the title screen, and your best single order goes on the leaderboard.

Daily Special

One saying for everyone each day, always a medium or long one, with two letters given. Your daily score keeps your streak going and counts on the daily leaderboard. The Daily Special changes at midnight UTC.

Hints

A hint fills in the letter in the selected box (or the next empty one). You start with 3 hints, earn another for every 2 orders you solve, and can hold up to 9.

The Recipe Box

Every solved order, daily included, adds a treat to your Recipe Box. There are 60 to collect, starting with a Honey Latte and Strawberry Shortcake and running through Key Lime Pie, Matcha Latte, Black Forest Cake and a Rainbow Donut, all the way to a Pumpkin Muffin.

More tips for Cipher Cafe

• Look at the given letters first. One of them is always among the three most common letters in that saying, so it's usually sitting in several words already.
• Guess the word, not the letter. When a word is two letters from done, think of the whole word that fits and fill both in. It's faster than guessing letter by letter.
• Don't burn a hint on a long word. Use it on a short word that unlocks a lot. One correct letter in THE or AND tends to fill a big chunk of the board.
• Slow down for stars. Mistakes cost 60 points each but every second only costs 2. Thirty seconds of thinking costs the same as one wrong guess.

If you like this kind of slow, satisfying puzzle, try Step Stones for word ladders or Word Huddle for sorting words into groups.

Questions