Competition Rules

MOLOCH is a 24-week elimination-style cryptographic puzzle competition. Each week, participants receive a new puzzle to solve. Those who fail the puzzle 4 times in a single week are eliminated from the competition.

The competition begins on June 1, 2026 at 00:00 UTC and runs for 24 weeks. Each weekly puzzle period runs from Monday 00:00 UTC to Sunday 23:59 UTC.

Entry Fees:

• Before June 1, 2026: Registration is FREE
• After June 1, 2026: Late entry costs €5 EUR
• Late entrants may join at any point during the competition and attempt the current week's puzzle

• Participants must be at least 18 years of age
• A valid email address is required for registration
• One account per person - multiple accounts are prohibited
• Participants must agree to the Terms of Participation and Privacy Policy
• Participants must be legally able to receive prize money in their jurisdiction

Employees, contractors, and immediate family members of MOLOCH organizers are not eligible to participate.

Puzzle Release:

• New puzzles are released every Monday at 00:00 UTC
• Each puzzle has a 7-day solving window
• Puzzles increase in difficulty as the competition progresses

Puzzle Types:

Puzzles may include but are not limited to: classical ciphers (Caesar, Vigenère, Atbash), modern encoding (binary, hexadecimal, Base64), steganography, coordinate systems, mathematical sequences, anagrams, and multi-layered puzzles combining multiple techniques.

Personalization:

Each participant receives a personalized version of each puzzle based on their unique account seed. This means answers may differ between participants, preventing answer sharing. The correct answer for your personalized puzzle is only valid for your account.

Submission:

• Answers are case-insensitive but must be exact
• There is no limit to the number of answer attempts
• Rate limiting applies: maximum 10 attempts per minute
• Only submissions made before the weekly deadline count

Rebuy Basics:

• A rebuy costs €5 EUR per use
• Maximum of 3 rebuys per participant total
• Rebuys can only be used after elimination, not preemptively
• A rebuy resets your failure count for the current week

Rebuy Restrictions:

• Weeks 21-24: Rebuys are completely disabled. Elimination during the final four weeks is permanent and irreversible. No exceptions.
• Rebuys must be purchased within 24 hours of elimination
• Unused rebuys are not refundable

Rebuy Process:

1. After elimination, navigate to the Dashboard
2. Click the "Rebuy" button to initiate payment
3. Complete payment through Stripe (€5 EUR)
4. Upon successful payment, your account is reinstated immediately
5. Your failure count resets to 0 for the current week
6. You may then continue attempting the current week's puzzle

The public leaderboard displays participant rankings using public aliases only. No personal information is shown publicly.

Ranking Criteria (in order of priority):

1. Total puzzles solved
2. Current streak (consecutive weeks solved)
3. Average solve time
4. Total number of attempts (fewer is better)

The leaderboard updates in real-time as participants submit correct answers.

For technical issues, account problems, or rule clarifications, contact us at admin@m0l0ch.com.

• Disputes must be submitted within 48 hours of the incident
• All decisions by MOLOCH administrators are final
• We will not provide hints, clues, or solutions under any circumstances
• Technical issues affecting multiple users may result in deadline extensions

MOLOCH reserves the right to modify these rules at any time. Material changes will be announced via email and posted on the website at least 7 days before taking effect, except in cases of emergency or security concerns.

Continued participation after rule changes constitutes acceptance of the modified rules.