User:Raid

Tier 3 was the final tier of Level Two of THE FINALS Easter Egg Hunt. It began on November 11, 2023 and ended on March 22, 2024. The theme of the tier was "golden egg" and solving it required combining themes and clues from several previous tiers of Level Two.

History

After Tier 2ABC and Tier 2DEF were solved, they each led to a page with an image. Tier 2ABC led to the image "tfee_ques" and Tier 2DEF led to the image "tfee_tion", both depicted large, stylized question marks. The first question mark appears to be made out of gold, while the second resembled the color of an eggshell, following the respective themes of Tier 2ABC and Tier 2DEF.

• The dimensions of both images were 1149x635 pixels.
• The background of "tfee_ques" was the solid RGB value: 6, 6, 6.
• Custom metadata of both images pointed to the date November 6, 2015.

On December 7, 2023, THE FINALS officially launched alongside the 1.2.0 patch notes. The letters o, l, n, g, g, g, e, e, d, were formatted in bold, and could be rearranged to form "golden egg."

On January 21, "THE_FINALS_Screenshot_024_3840x2160_VVV" was posted to the #official-art channel of the official THE FINALS Discord server, the first new image in nearly three months. Hunters quickly analyzed the image and discovered hidden fragments of a QR code in the footer. After the QR code was pieced together, it was scanned to reveal a new secret URL on the official THE FINALS website: reachthefinals.com/whydidntanyonefindme-aminotimportant.

This page featured a new Nama Tama image named "vvv." Nama Tama images like it had historically been used as sources of supplementary clues during each tier. This time, Nama Tama was holding a golden mirror and wearing a golden Civic Crown.

• The image name "vvv" referenced the Latin phrase "veni, vidi, vici", commonly attributed to Julius Caesar.
• The numbers 15 07 1943 were hidden on the mirror, referencing the birth date of Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
• The signature of German artist Paul Klee was broken up and hidden deep within the image's background.
  • One of Paul Klee's works is titled "Ab ovo."
• Pairs of numbers were found in each corner of the image:
  • Top Left: 555, 99
  • Top Right: 444, 888
  • Bottom Left: 666, 444
  • Bottom Right: 4, 444
• These were decoded using a phoneword cipher, where the numbers correspond to letters on a phone's keypad, spelling LIGO XVII, or LIGO 17.
  • Top Left: L, X
  • Top Right: I, V
  • Bottom Left: O, I
  • Bottom Right: G, I

Jocelyn Bell Burnell and LIGO had one major thing in common: the Nobel Prize in Physics. The winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded with a gold medal.

Solving

On March 22, 2024, hunter Ludonope entered the password, "0v0aurum" and completed Tier 3. This tier took 126 days to solve.

Solution

Since the password for Tier 2ABC was based on "gold" and the password for Tier 2DEF was based on "egg", hunters knew that the answer to Tier 3 was likely to be a combination of the two.

There were many clues that pointed towards gold, egg, Latin, mirror, and the 'GEO' cipher used in previous passwords (G=6, E=3, O=0). The two Latin words for egg are "ovum" or "ovo," but the Paul Klee clue singled out "ovo" as the correct translation. "Gold egg" translated to Latin is "aurum ovo," and applying the 'GEO' cipher provides "aurum 0v0." Lastly, the mirror clues signaled hunters to reverse the order of the words in the phrase, therefore "aurum 0v0" becomes "0v0 aurum."

Unconfirmed Theories

Theories that appear likely to have connected to the Tier 3 solution, but that were not confirmed nor dissuaded or debunked by Rob.

• The New York Times crossword released on November 6, 2015, featured two answers that appear related to Tier 3:
  • 6 down: Clue: Who told "The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs." Answer: AESOP.
  • 57 across: Clue: Leader at the Battle of Alesia. Answer: CAESAR.
• The Latin phrase "Inventas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes" is inscribed on the back of the Nobel Prize in Physics medal. The phrase is adapted from line 663 of Book 6 of The Aeneid by Roman poet Virgil. 663 can be interpreted as "egg", converted with the 'GEO' cipher, and mirrored. This theory combines gold, egg, Latin, mirror, and the 'GEO' cipher, all of which were integral to constructing the Tier 3 password.

• The width and height of "tfee_ques" and "tfee_tion" (1149 and 635) can be converted into the ASCII characters } and {, using a modulus of 128 (ASCII set size). These characters are visually mirrored, possibly referencing the theme of mirroring required to solve the password.

Gallery

• 
  tfee_ques
• 
  tfee_tion
• 
  THE_FINALS_Screenshot_024_3840x2160_VVV
• 
  The completed QR code
• 
  vvv

Credits

• Solver(s): Ludonope
• Documentation: Smashel, Lulz, Raid
• Various Contributions in Alphabetical Order:

Further Reading

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