Question about puzzle caches...

[+MMaru]

Does the difficulty generally refer to how challenging the puzzle will be to solve or how difficult the cache will be to find once you get the coords?

[+Mausebiber]

If the Mystery is a D4.5 and the riddle is "Find the ?" 3+?=7, you know the location is D4.5.

 

Otherwise you don't know unless the Cache Owner gives a hint. Sometimes the log entries gives you an idea, especially when you find a lot like "could solve it only with a hint from a friend" or "without some help we would habe never solved it"

 

MB

[+Touchstone]

In my area, the Difficulty usually refers to how difficult the Puzzle is to solve. If it's some tricky cache placement, then it's usually explicitly in the Description that the Difficulty rating is related to that aspect of the hunt.

[+Walts Hunting]

In the beginning D was how difficult it was to find the cache after arrival and T was how hard was it to get there or special tool needed.

 

When puzzles came along that didn't fit because there are now three phases, solve, go there, find it. Generally the D has been used for the difficulty of the puzzle.

[+NanCycle]

Could be any combination thereof; depends on how the CO thinks. I don't even know if there's much of a regional norm, unless there's a local group that discusses such matters.

[+niraD]

I'm used to the difficulty of a puzzle cache referring to the combined experience of solving the puzzle and finding the cache. For most solve-at-home puzzles, the experience of solving the puzzle dominates. For example, if solving the puzzle takes "a good portion of an afternoon" (D3), and finding the the container takes "less than 30 minutes" (D2), then the overall experience is still "a good portion of an afternoon" (D3).

 

Occasionally there's a puzzle cache where the experience of finding the cache itself dominates, or where the solve-at-home puzzle is followed by one or more solve-in-the-field puzzles, but those are less common.