Difficulty and Terrain Ratings

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Caches at Geocaching.com are rated between 1 (easiest) and 5 (most difficult) on two criteria: terrain and difficulty.

Terrain Rating

The terrain rating lets you know what the trip to the cache location is going to be like:

• 1: handicapped accessible
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5: requires specialized equipment (for example, SCUBA or rock-climbing gear, a boat, or a 4WD vehicle) and the skill to use it.

Difficulty Rating

The difficulty rating lets you know what the search is going to be like once you get to ground zero:

• 1: in plain sight
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5: requires specialized equipment/skills to find

In the case of a puzzle cache, the difficulty rating also reflects the challenge of solving the puzzle to obtain the actual coordinates.

See Also

• ClayJar's geocache rating system - fill in the data and submit the form, and it spits out a rating.
• What do the different ratings mean, and how should I rate the cache I placed? in Markwell's FAQ Update.