On the Look Up of Ed Balls

Dem balls in the gameplay room!

• If the frame is not blue, you’re looking at a different module.
• The letters are E, D, B, A, L, and S, but they are encoded by a reversible affine cipher.
• To disarm this module, undo the transformation to return the letters to their original form and enter the message “ED BALLS.”
• Pressing an incorrect button will result in a strike and reset your input, but will not cause the buttons to change.

Using Affine Ciphers

An affine cipher is determined by two variables A and B. Letters are encoded as follows:

1. Convert a letter to its alphabetical position, called x.
2. Compute the value Ax + B, and add or subtract 26 until the result is between 1 and 26.
3. The final number is the alphabetic position of the encoded letter.

When attempting to decrypt an affine cipher, the following fact may help:

Any sequence of equally spaced letters (for example, “E, L, S”) will encode to letters that are also equally spaced, wrapping around from Z to A if necessary.

A=	Affine Table
1	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
3	C	F	I	L	O	R	U	X	A	D	G	J	M	P	S	V	Y	B	E	H	K	N	Q	T	W	Z
5	E	J	O	T	Y	D	I	N	S	X	C	H	M	R	W	B	G	L	Q	V	A	F	K	P	U	Z
7	G	N	U	B	I	P	W	D	K	R	Y	F	M	T	A	H	O	V	C	J	Q	X	E	L	S	Z
9	I	R	A	J	S	B	K	T	C	L	U	D	M	V	E	N	W	F	O	X	G	P	Y	H	Q	Z
11	K	V	G	R	C	N	Y	J	U	F	Q	B	M	X	I	T	E	P	A	L	W	H	S	D	O	Z
15	O	D	S	H	W	L	A	P	E	T	I	X	M	B	Q	F	U	J	Y	N	C	R	G	V	K	Z
17	Q	H	Y	P	G	X	O	F	W	N	E	V	M	D	U	L	C	T	K	B	S	J	A	R	I	Z
19	S	L	E	X	Q	J	C	V	O	H	A	T	M	F	Y	R	K	D	W	P	I	B	U	N	G	Z
21	U	P	K	F	A	V	Q	L	G	B	W	R	M	H	C	X	S	N	I	D	Y	T	O	J	E	Z
23	W	T	Q	N	K	H	E	B	Y	V	S	P	M	J	G	D	A	X	U	R	O	L	I	F	C	Z
25	Y	X	W	V	U	T	S	R	Q	P	O	N	M	L	K	J	I	H	G	F	E	D	C	B	A	Z