Looking at the source of the #ingressportalsurvey: Experiment Concludes on Wednesday post, we find these codes:
[1] a2n7dnaefetnk3gnesw3
[2] e8hsb0e0ivzxgn8eb9c5
[3] jsduhgbha8cne9i4fbg2
Code #1
Observations
The reversed string doesn’t give us a nice keyword to work with in the middle. There might be another step involved.
Solution
Reverse Morse:
7GSEAW7KATELENAU3A8N
The prefix is a bit too large, though.
In a recent cipher, the single U in the prefix expanded to ‘YOU’. This is the other way around, so SEA becomes C.
7GCW7KATELENAU3A8N
Code #2
Observations
Running atbash against the code gives us:
v2shy0v0reactm2vy1x5
There is a keyword in the middle (react) with a weird set of characters surrounding it as the prefix and suffix.
Hint
Many of those characters are v and x, which could be interpreted as Roman numerals.
Solution
v2shy0v0reactm2vy1x5
v2 = 5+2 = 7
0v0 = 0+5+0 = 5
2v = 5-2 = 3
1x = 10-1 = 9
5 = v
7shy5reactm3y9v
Code #3
Observations
With 4 valid digits and lots of lowercase letters present, we should try transpositions first.
Solution
js
du
hg
bh
a8
cn
e9
i4
fb
g2
Looking at the first column, we see that all letters from a to j are used exactly once.
Ordering alphabetically we get a valid prefix and suffix in the second column:
a8
bh
cn
du
e9
fb
g2
hg
i4
js
8hnu9b2g4s
Still missing a keyword, a common trick is to use a keyword that somehow relates to what has been done in previous steps, such as mirroring or – in our case – ordering:
8hnu9orderedb2g4s
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