Krillion Recorded answers
179 recorded answers
How to approach it
The reliable way in is to build a mental map before writing anything down. Divide the field by the channel a message travels through: the human body, a physical object that moves, a surface that displays, a wire, and the open air. Then subdivide by era, because each technology leaves behind older habits that survive in niche settings. Ask yourself who the sender and receiver are, whether two individuals, a crowd, a stranger or a rescuer, and what constraint forced the method into existence, such as distance, water, secrecy or noise. Rarity usually comes from specificity, so favour methods tied to a single profession, a single emergency or a single landscape. Sanity-check each candidate against the wording: it must be a method, not a company, product or application.
Get a hint
Start with the body and the voice: almost anything a person can do with hands, face or lungs has been used at some point to get another person's attention.
A little more
Then move to objects and infrastructure, meaning anything that carries, displays or transmits a message, including delivery customs and military habits that few people would think to list today.
One step further
Finally push into the obscure corners: long-distance signalling, messages left for one specific finder, and one-way transmissions aimed at nobody in particular and everyone at once.
Reveal answers 179
- Tap codeDeep Cut85points
- TelautographDeep Cut85points
- TelexDeep Cut85points
- Three-way callDeep Cut85points
- Throw a pebble at the windowDeep Cut85points
- Tin can mailDeep Cut85points
- Torch telegraphDeep Cut85points
- Town crierDeep Cut85points
- Train orderDeep Cut85points
- Transponder code 7700Deep Cut85points
- TTYDeep Cut85points
- TV appealDeep Cut85points
- Underwater telephoneDeep Cut85points
- Usenet postDeep Cut85points
- V-mailDeep Cut85points
- Voice chatDeep Cut85points
- Watchman's rattleDeep Cut85points
- Welfare checkDeep Cut85points
- Whistled languageDeep Cut85points
- WigwagDeep Cut85points
- WinkDeep Cut85points
- AirDropRare60points
- BillboardRare60points
- Chat roomRare60points
- Cold callRare60points
- CommentRare60points
- CourierRare60points
- FaxRare60points
- FlareRare60points
- Forum postRare60points
- Greeting cardRare60points
- Hold up a signRare60points
- Honk the hornRare60points
- In-game chatRare60points
- Instant messageRare60points
- IntercomRare60points
- Internet callRare60points
- Knock on the doorRare60points
- MegaphoneRare60points
- MemoRare60points
- Message in a bottleRare60points
- Morse codeRare60points
- NoteRare60points
- PA announcementRare60points
- PokeRare60points
- PostcardRare60points
- Radio callRare60points
- Ring a bellRare60points
- Ring the doorbellRare60points
- Satellite phoneRare60points
Why these answers count
Scoring rewards precision over obviousness. The single hundred-point entry, Rocket mail, is a genuine footnote in delivery history, and it earns its score because almost nobody reaches for it. The eighty-five-point band is where the puzzle really lives: Aerial banner, Aerogram, Heliograph, Numbers station, Dead drop, Bullroarer, Wigwag, Sécurité and dozens of neighbours all describe a specific mechanism rather than a vague channel, and each one is narrow enough that only a well-read solver finds it. Sixty-point answers are the solid, serviceable middle: real methods, correctly identified, but common enough that the crowd lands on them early, so the reveal pays them less. Anything below that tends to be either too generic, essentially naming a whole medium instead of a technique, or too modern and product-shaped to pass as a method. The lesson is that obscurity has to be earned honestly: an unusual practice with a name of its own beats a clever-sounding invention every time.