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Cryptle #73 · Sat 14 Nov 2026

This one is from the archive. Play it for practice — past puzzles never count toward a streak. Today’s cipher is here.

3 guesses to crack the cipher. One cipher each day.

How to play Cryptle

The block on the page is an ordinary English sentence with a cipher laid over it. Every letter is still in there. Your job is to read it.

  • We tell you which cipher it is Today it’s Roman A1Z26, and the key is A = I. The work is the decoding, not guessing what you’re looking at.
  • Type the decoded message Capitals, spaces and punctuation are all ignored — the third stone and THETHIRDSTONE both count.
  • 3 guesses, then the day is done A wrong guess tells you whether your answer is even the right length, and which part of your method to doubt.
  • Solve it and your streak grows Miss a day, or run out of guesses, and it goes back to zero. That’s the whole prize — there’s nothing to win but the run itself.
  • A new one lands at midnight Past days stay playable in the archive, but practice never counts toward a streak.

Never solved one before? The guides walk through every cipher we use, one at a time.

Roman A1Z26

A = I

XXIII-I-XX-III-VIII / VI-XV-XVIII / XX-VIII-V / II-XII-I-III-XI / XIX-XVI-XV-XX

Need a nudge?

Each numeral is a letter's place in the alphabet, written the Roman way: I is A, V is E, XXVI is Z. A slash ends a word.

Learn the method: how to solve roman a1z26

The answer

WATCH FOR THE BLACK SPOT

How it works

Nothing here is secret — it's how a machine spells. Recognise the encoding and you can read it straight back. This one is Roman A1Z26. The key: A = I. Each numeral is a letter's place in the alphabet, written the Roman way: I is A, V is E, XXVI is Z. A slash ends a word. Convert the first three characters back and they read W A T. The answer was WATCH FOR THE BLACK SPOT.

Next time, check your work with the Roman Numerals.

Today’s cipher →

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