Building a cipher for a friend.

[NightStalker111]

I wanted to give my friend a little bit of a challenge. I'm solving it in reverse before I give it to them (to make sure it's not too hard) and I am asking for your help.

It's a simple substitution cipher, where each pair of letters represents a single letter; EX: DG = Z (it doesn't btw). It's pretty much a ADFGVX cipher without the keyword. Can you solve it? If you do, can you tell me what you did?

DG VG AF XV VA XA VG AF DG FD XV FG VA VG GX VA VG AF

[godofcereal]

I can get almost everything but cant figure out what the XV is...clue maybe?

[NightStalker111]

I could tell you if you'd like. But since you asked for a clue, I'll give it to you.

"Almost always that, but sometimes this"

[godofcereal]

I think I get it. The answer is random letters right? If it isnt Iv gone wrong.

[aNewHobby4me]

I think I get it. The answer is random letters right? If it isnt Iv gone wrong.

No, if random letters were encrypted, the ciphertext would be readable

Seriously though, I have made no headway at all. The message is too short for frequency analysis and without the actual word spacing its beyond my limited ability to crack.

[NightStalker111]

That's the problem I've been running into. The original ADFGVX cipher was cracked with very extensive effort and it only could be cracked during times of high traffic. Without knowing somewhat what the message is supposed to say, it's nigh impossible to come up with a reliable/accurate plaintext. At least without a computer.

To top it off, this is only half of the cipher. The second step is to transposition the cipher text to further encrypt the message.

I guess I'll have to move to an easier encryption technique. Or perhaps I'll have to add in some clues. Thanks for trying though fellas, I really appreciate the help.

If you guys want me to post the answer, just tell me. Or I can pm it if you want.

[godofcereal]

Id like to compare my answer to the correct one.
If Im close or correct Il post what I think about it.