Cryptogram Puzzles
A famous quote. A scrambled alphabet. Nothing between you and the message but patience and a little arithmetic. Play free, in your browser, with no sign-up and no account.
The Files
Puzzles sorted by theme. Pick your poison.
Sealed Collections
Curated sets, assembled by the Czar personally.
What is a cryptogram?
A cryptogram is a quote hidden behind a letter-substitution cipher. Every A in the original might become a Q; every Q might become an M. The swap never changes inside a single puzzle, and that consistency is the crack in the wall: the message's structure survives the encryption even though its letters do not. Word lengths, repeated letters, double letters and apostrophes all show through. You are not guessing. You are reading a fingerprint.
The Czar is obliged to admit that this cipher was cutting-edge around 1200 A.D. and has been comprehensively broken ever since. That is precisely why it makes a good puzzle: it is solvable by any patient person with a pencil, and satisfying every single time.
How to play
Choose casual mode and the Czar shows mercy: a share of the letters are filled in before you begin, and hints are plentiful. Choose expert mode and you get the raw ciphertext and the Czar's silence. New here? Take the casual road. Nobody is watching. (The Czar is watching.)
Every puzzle can be played online, printed as a worksheet, or abandoned in disgrace and handed to the cryptogram solver — which also serves as a cryptoquip solver and a cryptoquote solver, since they are all the same cipher wearing different newspaper hats.
If you would rather get good than get rescued, read the Czar's tactics. Seven of them. They work.