# A simple? cipher

Translate into a sentence:

1     10    202  010
2011  2020  101
1     202   12   1202  11  0
2011  2020  101
0212  0102
11    0     211  0102


There are several layers of encryption used.

Hint Zero:

There are three layers of encryption, not necessarily distinct.

Hint One:

Imagine Vigenere on a bicycle. (Bicycle is important for two reasons.)

Hint Two:

I really like rhythms: dah-dah, dah-dit, dah-dah-dah, dit-dah-dit, dit-dit-dit, dit.

Hint Three:

I like my puzzles to be environmentally friendly, particularly my encryption methods. (Think reuse, reduce, recycle. Particularly reuse.)

Hint Four:

Note the numbering used for the hints. Too much Java is really taking its toll.

Spoilers:

Hint 1:

We are using a cyclic Vigenere cipher with a key of two. Cyclic means (for example) if you have key four, the first letter is shifted by one, the second by two, the third by three, the fourth by four, then the fifth by one again.

Hint 2:

We are using morse code.

Hint 3:

We are reusing an encryption algorithm. So there are only two types of encryption: cyclic Vigenere and morse.

Hint 4:

Zero based indices, for Vigenere.

• @AlecTeal Sure. If you don't like my puzzle, you can ignore it. – mmking May 10 '15 at 20:32
• is this tritcode possibly? – MisterEman22 May 11 '15 at 6:08
• @MisterEman22 I didn't create the puzzle with that in mind. (Honestly, I don't know what that is.) All of the methods of encryption are commonly used, although with a slight twist. – mmking May 11 '15 at 11:54
• if all posiible methods are used we would have many possibilities something like 15x15x... with total 15 encodings possible for each step out of which only one is correct. – RE60K May 11 '15 at 13:35
• @ADG I have added several hints. I hope you won't find it impossible to solve :) – mmking May 11 '15 at 13:43

The 2's are what really screwed me up on this one, but I finally got it (EDIT: You did make a couple mistakes, unless those were on purpose to mess with us xD):

THIS WAS SIMPLE WAS IT NOT

Step 1:

Use the cyclic Vigenere and subtract the index you are on. So for the first line, subtract 0 from the first digit, then 1 from the second, then 0 from the third, etc.

This will give you:

1 00 101 000 / 1001 1010 000 / 1 101 11 1100 10 0 / 1001 1010 000 / 0111 0001 / 10 0 110 0001 (Combine the 2nd and 3rd groups in the last line to get 0110, which coes to a P, error with the original code)

Step 2:

Convert it from morse code with 0=dit and 1=dah.

This gets you:

TIKS XCS TKMZNE XCS JV NPV

Then:

Use the same cipher as before but with the characters as part of the alphabet, and instead of 0,1 its 0,1,2. T subtract 0, I subtract 1 so it goes to H, K subtract 2 goes to I, S subtract 0 stays the same, etc. Using this on the entire string gets you the answer.

• The third spoiler says one of the mistakes, and the other was on the third line, 1201 should be 1202. And I did like the puzzle, but I kinda feel like it went from being too difficult without the clues to too easy with them. Still had to think a bit on how to go about the first part. – MisterEman22 May 12 '15 at 16:00