The short version. The tools and tutorials are free. An account lets you score, walk the free mazes, earn achievements and appear on the leaderboard. Elite is an optional subscription that renews until you cancel, and cancelling keeps Elite until the end of the period you paid for. Play fair, don't attack the site, and don't use the tools here to protect anything that matters. The full terms below are what apply.
1. Agreeing to these terms
These Terms of Service are an agreement between you and us. By using matrixpuzzle.com, creating an account or buying a membership, you agree to them and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, please don't use the site.
2. Who we are
Matrix Portal is operated by Psychic Tech Support LLC, based in Kennesaw, Georgia, USA. In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean Psychic Tech Support LLC, and "the service" means the Matrix Portal website at matrixpuzzle.com and everything on it.
3. The service
Matrix Portal is a cryptography learning and puzzle site. It offers:
- Free tools for classical ciphers, encodings and analysis, which need no account.
- Tutorial puzzles, which are free, need no account and are never scored.
- Scored puzzles and cascade chains for registered players, with points, levels, achievements and a public leaderboard.
- 3D mazes, where each gate is a puzzle. Guests may walk the free mazes; opening a gate needs a free account.
- Community mazes and chains, built by Elite members and shared by link or through the gallery.
- The Workshop, where registered players chain tools together.
- Elite, a paid membership described in section 6.
We add, change and retire puzzles, tools and features over time, and the service may be unavailable now and then for maintenance or for reasons outside our control.
4. Accounts
Creating an account
You register with an email address, a password and an alias. You agree to give a real email address that you control, to keep your password to yourself, and to tell us if you think someone else has used your account. You are responsible for what happens under your account.
Your alias
Your alias is your public name on the site. It is shown on the leaderboard and on recipes you share, and it can't be changed after registration, so choose one that doesn't identify you if you'd rather stay anonymous. Aliases must not impersonate anyone, be offensive, or suggest you are staff. We may change or remove an alias that breaks these rules.
Email verification
You can play before verifying your email. Verification is required to appear on the leaderboard, to reset a password and to buy Elite.
Age
You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you are under 18, you need a parent's or guardian's permission to use the service, and a parent or guardian must make any purchase.
Closing your account
To close your account, email contactus@matrixpuzzle.com from the address on the account. Cancel any Elite subscription first, because closing an account does not cancel it for you. Our Privacy Policy explains what we delete and what we must keep.
5. Fair play and acceptable use
Scores and the leaderboard only mean something if everyone solves the puzzles themselves. You agree not to:
- Use bots, scripts or other automation to solve or submit scored puzzles, or to create accounts.
- Use more than one account to gain points, rank or achievements.
- Publish answers or full walkthroughs to scored or Elite puzzles, or collect them for others to use.
- Get around, or try to get around, the Elite paywall, the scoring system or any other access control.
- Probe, scan or attack the service or its servers, interfere with other players, or overload the site with requests.
- Scrape puzzle content, or copy the site's content in bulk.
- Harass other people, or use the service for anything unlawful.
The free tools are yours to use for learning, puzzle hunts, capture-the-flag events, teaching and similar purposes, including with text that has nothing to do with this site.
If we find that points were earned by breaking these rules, we may remove them, reset the account's progress, or take the steps described under Suspension and termination.
Reporting a security problem
If you find a security vulnerability, please email contactus@matrixpuzzle.com with the details, give us reasonable time to fix it before telling anyone else, and don't access other people's data or disrupt the service while testing. We won't take action against anyone who reports a problem in good faith and follows these points.
6. Elite membership and payments
Plans and price
Elite is sold as a subscription. The current plans are $2.99 per month and $24.99 per year, in US dollars. The Elite page always shows the current price and what is included. In some countries the checkout shows the price in your local currency.
Founding member rate
The first 500 people to subscribe to Elite are founding members. A founding member keeps the price they signed up at ($2.99 per month or $24.99 per year) for as long as their subscription stays active, and the price changes below do not apply to it. If a founding member cancels and their subscription ends, rejoining later is at the price at that time.
What Elite includes
Elite opens every Elite chain and Elite maze, including the Elite wings of the free mazes and the seasonal mazes all year round. It also gives you the maze builder, decoding of the bonus message in member-built mazes, unlimited Workshop steps and saved recipes, the Elite modes and extras of the site's games, and no ads. New games and features are added over time, and the Elite features that come with them are included at no extra cost. The Elite page lists what is included at any time.
New releases every month
We commit to releasing at least 15 new chains and 10 new mazes every calendar month, starting from the month this commitment first appears in these terms. They are listed on the What's new page with the date each came out. Some are free and some are Elite. If we release fewer in a month, we will make up the difference in the following month. We may raise these numbers at any time. If we ever lower them, we will treat it as a significant change under Changes to these terms and tell members before it takes effect.
Automatic renewal
Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each month or year, and your payment method is charged the then-current price for the next period, until you cancel. You can cancel at any time, as described in the next section.
Who takes the payment
Payments are handled by Stripe through its Link service. Link is the seller of record for the purchase: it runs the checkout, charges your payment method, adds and pays any sales tax, VAT or GST that applies where you live, and emails your receipts and invoices. Your statement shows LINK.COM* followed by our name. The Link terms shown at checkout apply to the payment itself, alongside these terms. We never see or store your full card details.
Taxes
The prices above do not include tax. Where tax applies, it is added at checkout before you pay, so the total you approve is the total you are charged.
Changing plans
You can switch between monthly and yearly from "Manage plan" on your account page. The charge is adjusted for the time left on your current period.
Failed payments
If a renewal payment fails, Stripe retries it and may email you. Elite stays on for a short time while that happens. If the payment can't be collected, the subscription ends and the account returns to the free tier.
Price changes
If we change the price of a plan, we will email subscribers at least 30 days before the new price applies to them. The new price applies from your next renewal after that notice, and you can cancel before it does.
Price changes don't apply to a founding member's rate while their subscription stays active (see Founding member rate above).
7. Cancellation and refunds
Cancelling
You can cancel at any time from "Manage plan" on your account page, or at link.com, where Stripe lists your orders. When you cancel, you keep Elite until the end of the month or year you already paid for, and you are not charged again. Your points, progress and achievements stay on your account.
Refunds
Subscription payments are generally not refundable, and we don't refund part of a period when you cancel. We may still give a refund, case by case, if you ask within 14 days of a charge and you have made little use of Elite since that charge. To ask, email contactus@matrixpuzzle.com from the address on your account. You can also contact Link's support about a payment, and in some cases Stripe may refund a payment itself.
Nothing in this section limits any right to cancel or to a refund that the law where you live gives you and that can't be waived.
8. Our content and yours
Our content
The puzzles, tools, text, artwork, code and design of the service belong to us or to those who license them to us, and are protected by copyright and other laws. We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the service for your own learning and enjoyment. Teachers may use the free tools and tutorial puzzles in class. You may not copy, resell or redistribute the puzzles or tools, or build a competing service from them, without our written permission.
Your content
You keep the rights to what you create here, such as saved Workshop recipes and the mazes you build. You give us permission to store it, show it back to you, show it to anyone you share it with and, for a maze you submit to the gallery, show its gallery card to anyone. A saved recipe has its own link, and any signed-in player who has that link can open it, so don't put anything private in a saved recipe.
Mazes and chains built by members
Elite members can build mazes and share them by link. Each one can be played as a 3D maze or as a page of puzzles. Any signed-in player who has the link can play it and will see its title, your clues and hints, your alias as its builder, and the answers they uncover. Member-built mazes are not scored, so they earn no points or leaderboard rank for anyone. Only Elite members, the builder and our staff can decode a member-built maze's bonus message.
You can also submit a maze to the community gallery, which anyone can browse. We decide what goes into the gallery and may decline or remove a maze at any time. Changing a listed maze sends it back for approval.
A member-built maze must not contain anything abusive, hateful, sexual, unlawful or private, must not harass or impersonate anyone, must not copy someone else's work without permission, and must not be used to advertise. Players can report a maze. We may hide or delete a maze that breaks these rules or that players report, and repeated or serious breaches can lead to your account being suspended under Suspension and termination. Pictures you add to a maze's gates must be your own or ones you have the right to share, and must not show anyone who hasn't agreed to it. We check every picture before players can see it and may reject it, but we review only the mazes submitted to the gallery, and the rest of a maze shared by link is not checked before it is shared. They are written by members, not by us, and we are not responsible for what they contain.
Feedback
If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them without owing you anything.
9. AI-assisted content and the assistant
Some of our puzzles are drafted with the help of Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic. The AI writes words such as titles, stories and answer phrases. The site's own code does the encryption, and a person checks and approves every puzzle before it is released. Even so, an AI-assisted puzzle can contain a mistake. If you find one, please tell us at contactus@matrixpuzzle.com.
We may offer Elite members a puzzle assistant powered by an AI model. If we do: its answers are generated automatically and can be wrong, so treat them as hints, not facts; it may have a daily limit; and it is part of Elite only while we offer it, so we may change or withdraw it. Don't use it to try to get answers in bulk, to produce anything that breaks section 5, or to get around its limits. Our Privacy Policy explains what is sent to the AI provider when you use it.
10. Seasonal and changing content
Some content is only available for part of the year. A seasonal maze is free to play for everyone during its season and is open to Elite members the rest of the year. Seasonal looks and events come and go on their own dates. We also add, change and retire puzzles, mazes and tools over time. When a puzzle is changed or retired, the points you already earned from it stay on your account.
11. Ads and third-party services
Free pages may show advertising. Elite members are not shown ads. The service also links to other websites and relies on other companies, such as Stripe for payments. We don't control those sites and services, and their own terms and privacy policies apply when you use them.
12. Educational use only
The ciphers and tools on this site are for learning and for puzzles. Most of them are historical and can be broken easily. Do not use them to protect passwords, personal data, money or anything else that matters. If you need real security, use modern, reviewed cryptography and ask a qualified professional.
If you use the site for coursework, follow your school's rules on getting help and on citing sources.
13. Disclaimers
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE". TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT PROMISE THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE OR FREE OF ERRORS, THAT TOOL OUTPUT WILL BE ACCURATE, OR THAT PROGRESS AND SCORES WILL NEVER BE LOST.
14. Limitation of liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, DATA OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR ELITE IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE AND (B) US $100.
Some places don't allow some of these limits, so parts of sections 13 and 14 may not apply to you. Nothing in these terms limits liability that can't be limited by law.
15. Your responsibility for misuse
If someone brings a claim against us because you broke these terms or the law while using the service, you agree to cover our reasonable costs and losses from that claim, including reasonable legal fees.
16. Suspension and termination
You can stop using the service at any time. We may suspend or close an account, remove points, or refuse service if you break these terms, if we need to protect the service or other players, or if the law requires it. Where we reasonably can, we will tell you why. If we close a paying member's account for a reason other than a breach of these terms, we will refund the unused part of the current period.
17. Governing law and disputes
If you have a complaint, please email us first at contactus@matrixpuzzle.com. Most problems can be sorted out that way, and we will try in good faith to resolve yours.
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any lawsuit about these terms or the service must be brought in the state or federal courts that serve Cobb County, Georgia, and you and we both agree to the jurisdiction of those courts. If you are a consumer living outside the United States, this does not take away protections that the law of your home country gives you and that can't be waived.
18. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as the service changes. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date at the top. If a change is significant, we will also post a notice on the site or email registered players before it takes effect. If you keep using the service after a change takes effect, you accept the updated terms. If you don't accept them, stop using the service and, if you are a member, cancel.
19. General
These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the service. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a term on one occasion, we can still enforce it later. You may not transfer your account or these terms to anyone else. We may transfer them to a company that takes over the service.
20. Contact
Psychic Tech Support LLC (Matrix Portal)
Kennesaw, Georgia, USA
Email: contactus@matrixpuzzle.com
See also our Privacy Policy.