One unique aspect of Ingress is the frequent release of encoded passcodes, which can be redeemed for items when solved. Part of the community dedicates their time to solving these codes and sharing the rewards to strengthen the Resistance.
Want to find codes? You'll need to watch the Sources.
Want to crack codes? Check out these Resources.
Interested in what we've solved? Here are some Samples.
To break open passcodes, you'll need to find them first! People will typically try to found codes in the SAR Passcode Decoding hangout, but you can find them on your own if you know where to look.
A document with several options is available as a Google doc, but it may be out of date.
The largest number of passcodes are distributed through the Niantic Project Google+ page. Remember they could be in the post, in attachments, in images, or anywhere else you can imagine.
Additionally, some codes are exclusively distributed through the @NianticProject Twitter account.
Continuing a tradition from earlier in Ingress, JoJo Stratton posts a daily Word of the Day on her Google+ account. You'll need to view the HTML source of the post to look for the code.
Other in-game character accounts can also post codes, but they seem less frequent.
To break open passcodes, you'll need to understand how things might be encoded, and you'll need the right tools. Remember that every code is different. Some are straightforward ciphers, some are multi-layered, others are unique, and require a level of intuition.
Some introductory material from Martijn is available as a Google doc.
Decode Ingress posted a good Decoding 101 Guide.
The same set of keywords are usually reused. You can review a spreadsheet of all known keywords.
As you start working on breaking codes, you'll probably start to return to several sites and programs to use tools. Here are a few I've liked; if you find others that should be on the list, please share them in the SAR Passcode Decoding hangout.
We've managed to crack a few passcodes, and when possible, we'll post details here. The more you know about what's been done in the past, the more you'll be able to see how deep the rabbit hole can go for the future. (Remember, any code posted here is almost assuredly dead.)
By the way, there's a great collection of solved codes over on the Niantic wiki. Some of those will overlap what we've put here, but the more the merrier, right?
- A pretty simple transposition code. Reverse the string, break it into four groups of four, form them into a square, then read down the columns. Result: 4agm3comintz6j8d
- For this code, the letters are in the right order, but not the right position. On the keyboard, that is. Shift every character to the left one position on the keyboard, and reveal: 4bpx6paintu6q5q
- This is a little trickier. Many recent codes and posts made reference to the Fibonacci sequence, and this one involved a related sequence called Fibonacci primes. (Well, it maybe should have been Fibonacci primes. It's actually the indices of the Fibonacci sequence numbers which happen to be prime. Which is the only reason 4 is a valid number in the sequence.) Divide each number by the Fibonacci prime indices, in order, then convert numbers to letters in the appropriate places, and you get 9tyb3bosonu344x. This is not valid, however. The most popular type of boson currently is the Higgs, so substituting a different keyword yields the answer: 9tyb3higgsu344x
- This is straightforward, if you happen to choose the right code to randomly attempt. Using the autokey version of Vignere, where you provide the first key letter, then the key letter for the next is the plaintext character that was just coded before, start with a key of "a". The result is the passcode: 7ezw5cryptoj3b3n
- At first glace, it's apparent this one just needs to have characters rearranged. In this case, take pairs of characters, starting with the 9g, and take alternating pairs to the end of the code. Then take the remaining pairs in reverse order to receive: 9gbz3discoveryb3x9y
- Again, the characters are all there, but need to be rearranged. In this case, it's a columnar transposition. Take the characters in blocks of five, then rearrange the characters of each in the order 45312. Solution: 2cxh6imintj2w6o
- This sequence of punctuation is actually Morse code. Dash is a dash, colon is two dots, semicolon is dot dash, "i" is dash dot, and so on. This yields: 6zuy5sigintu7q5a
- If you look at your standard QWERTY keyboard, you'll notice that by breaking the code into pairs of words, each pair is very close. In fact, they're separated by one key. That's the key you need. Solution: 6wte3nianticq935w
- The characters are all close to where they should be in ASCII, but not quite right. If you convert each character to binary, then perform a logical NOT operation on the lower four bits (so, 1001 becomes 0110, etc) you get the correct characters: 2ttb6blackdevx699w
- If you reverse the order of each group of digits, you'll find a number which is the result of a power operation. The first few are 5^3, 26^4, 21^5, 5^6, 9^3, 3^4. The pattern of 3-4-5-6 repeats. Take the base of each, convert to letters to meet the pattern, and solve: 5zue9covcomr897v
- Convert symbols to numbers by keyboard, convert letters using the Atbash cipher, and you get the following: 4WMH5MAGIC = TECHA7R3A. From that, Arthur C. Clark's third law says that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, yielding: 4wmh53rdlawa7r3a
- First and last digits convert using straight ASCII, but the middle section is three digit groups, starting with 9. These convert into Unicode Greek letters. Reverse the order of letters to get Kappa Alpha Theta Epsilon Xi Iota Sigma, which leads to Cathexis. Solved: 4crz6cathexisc4j9o
- This is hidden Morse code. Numbers indicate a number of dashes, letters indicate a number of dots. Translate to Morse, then ASCII: 7ute6Ezekielg9v7h
- Take the 6 and n as starting positions. For each sign/number after, move that many positions forward or backward from the starting position. Solution: 6nuc7jacklands5t5a
- Break this into blocks of four, and reverse the letters of each block. Solution: 3vya6enigmar6o7g
- Move the first character to the end, then take two, skip two, take two, skip two, and so on. Solution: 6hpd6artifactz6a5m
- This code is built of phonetic pronunciations of the numbers, words, and letters of the code. Solution: 9ywg5datau672q