THE FINALS Easter Egg Hunt: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:15, 11 July 2023

Overview

In early September 2022, after the Gamescom teaser trailer for THE FINALS was released (late August 2022), a series of related cryptic Easter egg clues started to be presented through concept art released via THE FINALS Twitter account. Several additional clues to help the community solve the puzzles were also posted exclusively on THE FINALS Discord. The initial Easter eggs (which, following it being solved, became known as Level 1 or 'The Geocache Easter Egg') indirectly prompted members of the community to add specific words to THE FINALS website URL, as a suffix, which was a way of providing answers to the puzzle to see if they were correct. From Level 2 of the Easter Eggs ('The Promise') onwards, prospective answers were input as passwords via a specific password page created by the Embark Studios art team, led by Embark's Chief Content Officer and Co-founder, Rob Runesson.

Level One - 'THE COMMENCE' - A History Of Solving The Easter Egg

On September 5th, 2022 Embark Studios posted a tweet with the following messageː New concept art..ǃ.ǃǃǃǃ Using a binary to text translator, assuming the periods are 0s and the ǃs are 1s, revealed that it means /. Upon futher examination of the image, Slash it was found that there are binary strings on the upper right, and lower right of the image. DEVON was the text on the upper right, and CROSSING was the text on the lower right. With these two pieces of information in hand, it was discovered that going to www.reachthefinals.com/devoncrossing would lead to a curious page with a giant red X on it.

On September 8th, a new image was posted to the announcements channel on the Offical Discord named Statues_001 it contained small figurines of the Light, Medium, and Heavy builds. Examining the image revealed a series of numbers 49 53, 54 52, 48 50, 49 53 when these are cross referenced with an ASCII table it gives the date 1564/02/15. This is Galileo Galilei's birthdate, but there was no confirmation that it was connected yet.

On September 9th, another image was posted to the announcements channel, named Happystatues_002 This time it was small namatama figures of the Light, Medium, and Heavy builds. Once again examining the image lead to another set of numbers 56 54 48 49 when referenced with an ASCII table it gives us 8601, given the fact we didn't know if the date from the previous image was supposed to be a date being told indirectly it was ISO-8601, a standard code for date formatting, confirmed it was a date, and the Galileo connection. Going to www.reachthefinals.com/galileo would also lead to a page with a giant red X on it.

On September 13th, an image named BarrelsBarrelsBarrels was posted to the announcements channel, and on the twitter account. It contained a scene of a character in military gear, and a Shinobi vaulting over them with a few barrels behind them. Closer examination of the image would reveal 2 potential cluesː On one of the barrels the string 002f, Unicode for / was found, and on the character with military gear, on his back he was carrying a can of OSPUZE OG Beans; although, this clue was overlooked at the time.

On September 15th, a new image named friend_you_need was posted in the easter eggs channel. The image contained a Nama Tama, holding a can of OSPUZE OG BEANS. A can of beans, titled OCB, Original Can of Beans was the first item put in a geocache by Dave Ulmer, the inventor of Geocaching. Going to www.reachthefinals.com/galileo

Solving

On September 16th, 2022. Hunter Duh found the correct answer for the level. https://www.reachthefinals.com/geocache A new image awaited the hunters there. Nama Tama saying Level One Completed! You Are Awesome.! In total this level took 11 days to complete.

Summary

Devon Crossing relates to William Crossing of Devon. Which can be traced back to the origins of a hobby called Letterboxing in Dartmoor, Devon. The hobby is refered to as the original geocaching, but with compasses and maps.
Galileo is the name of a European Satellite System. GPS devices are used for geocaching and they require satellites to function.
O.C.B stands for Original Can of Beans. A can of beans was the first item placed in the original stash by the inventor of geocaching.

Images

Slash
Statues_001
Happystatues_002
BarrelsBarrelsBarrels
friend_you_need
Awesome.!

Credits

Solver - Duh

Documentation - Giriko, Flex4d, RockhoundBlack

Various Contributions - ATAEGGYU, Darnoux, Dwarf, Madalin, Mike Eggmantraut, Oli, Sparky, Swa

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 == Level One - 'THE COMMENCE' - A History Of Solving The Easter Egg ==
-==== Overview ====
+On September 5th, 2022 Embark Studios posted a tweet with the following messageː ''New concept art..ǃ.ǃǃǃǃ'' Using a binary to text translator, assuming the periods are 0s and the ǃs are 1s, revealed that it means /. Upon futher examination of the image, ''Slash'' it was found that there are binary strings on the upper right, and lower right of the image. ''DEVON'' was the text on the upper right, and ''CROSSING'' was the text on the lower right. With these two pieces of information in hand, it was discovered that going to ''www.reachthefinals.com/devoncrossing'' would lead to a curious page with a giant red X on it.
-This level debuted on Sept. 5, 2022 and was solved on Sept. 16, 2022; 11 days later. The overarching theme was Geocaching and all of the clues therein were related.
-----
-=== Slash ===
+On September 8th, a new image was posted to the announcements channel on the [https://discord.gg/thefinals Offical Discord] named ''Statues_001'' it contained small figurines of the Light, Medium, and Heavy builds. Examining the image revealed a series of numbers ''49 53, 54 52, 48 50, 49 53'' when these are cross referenced with an ASCII table it gives the date ''1564/02/15''. This is Galileo Galilei's birthdate, but there was no confirmation that it was connected yet.
-==== Overview ====
+On September 9th, another image was posted to the announcements channel, named Happys''tatues_002'' This time it was small namatama figures of the Light, Medium, and Heavy builds. Once again examining the image lead to another set of numbers ''56 54 48 49'' when referenced with an ASCII table it gives us 8601, given the fact we didn't know if the date from the previous image was supposed to be a date being told indirectly it was ISO-8601, a standard code for date formatting, confirmed it was a date, and the Galileo connection. Going to ''www.reachthefinals.com/galileo'' would also lead to a page with a giant red X on it.
-Slash was the first image that was uploaded as part of the multi-leveled easter egg hunt, as such is it among the simplest images thus far. It was uploaded on September 5th, 2022. The main challenge was binary hidden both in the image and in the tweet showcasing it. It lead us on the path to appending clues into the website's web address.
-==== Clues ====
+On September 13th, an image named ''BarrelsBarrelsBarrels'' was posted to the announcements channel, and on the twitter account. It contained a scene of a character in military gear, and a Shinobi vaulting over them with a few barrels behind them. Closer examination of the image would reveal 2 potential cluesː On one of the barrels the string 002f, Unicode for ''/''  was found, and on the character with military gear, on his back he was carrying a can of OSPUZE OG Beans; although, this clue was overlooked at the time.
-''> New concept art..!.!!!!''
-This was the text that was shown alongside the image. Putting ..!.!!!! into a binary converter, assuming '''.''' is 0 and '''!''' is 1 results in a /. This is a hint that we'll need to append possible clues into the official website's web address.
+On September 15th, a new image named friend_you_need was posted in the easter eggs channel. The image contained a Nama Tama, holding a can of OSPUZE OG BEANS. A can of beans, titled OCB, ''Original Can of Beans'' was the first item put in a geocache by Dave Ulmer, the inventor of Geocaching. Going to ''www.reachthefinals.com/galileo''
-There were two binary codes hidden in the image as well, one spelling DEVON, and the other spelling CROSSING. Going to the website with that appended to it [https://www.reachthefinals.com/devoncrossing results] in a red cross. William Crossing, from Devon, was a man that started the letter of Letterboxing, a precursor to Geocaching.
-=== Statues_001 ===
-==== Overview ====
-Statues_001 is the second  in THE COMMENCE. It was uploaded on September 8th, 2022. There are a series of numbers hidden in each corner of the image. These numbers resulted in Galileo's birthdate with the following image.
-==== Clues ====
-''> 49 53  54 52  48 50  49 53''
-These numbers were hidden in the corners of the image, and this sequence is correct when read from top - left to right, then lower - left to right. Putting these numbers into a ASCII code table resulted in '''15 64 02 15''', a possible date.
-=== Happystatues_002 ===
-==== Overview ====
-Happystatues_002 is the second image in THE COMMENCE. It was uploaded on September 9th, 2022. There are a series of numbers hidden in each corner of the image. These numbers resulted in the ISO-8601 date format.
-==== Clues ====
-''> 56  54  48  49''
-These numbers were hidden in the corners of the image, Putting these numbers into a ASCII code table resulted in '''8601''',or ISO-8601, a date format. Putting the previous numbers into it gave us 1564/02/15, Galileo's birthdate. Going to the website with ''galileo'' appended to it [https://www.reachthefinals.com/galileo results] in a red cross. Galileo is the name of a European space satellite system that runs GPS for Europe.
-=== BarrelsBarrelsBarrels ===
-==== Overview ====
-BarrelsBarrelsBarrels is the third image in THE COMMENCE. It was uploaded on September 13th, 2022. There are a number of clues hidden within, such as a can of beans, and the unicode for /.
-==== Clues ====
-''> 002f''
-These numbers were hidden the barrels, when run through a Unicode translator it shows '''/''' Another clue that we need to append text to the website's address.
-''> OG BEANS''
-There was a can of beans on the lower figure of the image. '''OG Beans'''. The meaning of this wouldn't be discovered until the next image.
-=== Friend_You_Need01 ===
-==== Overview ====
-Statues is the fourth image in THE COMMENCE. It was uploaded on September 15th, 2022. There are a series of numbers hidden in each corner of the image. These numbers resulted in Galileo's Birthdate with the following image.
-==== Clues ====
-''> Nama Tama with a can of OG BEANS''
-Nama Tama, the mascot for THE FINALS, can be seen with a halo and holding a can of '''OG BEANS''', with a stealthy taste. The O.C.B (Original Can of Beans) is geocaching's first trade item. Placed in the Original Stash by Dave Ulmer, the inventor of Geocaching. The O.C.B is the only remaining item from that cache.
-=== Solving ===
+===Solving===
 On September 16th, 2022. Hunter Duh found the correct answer for the level. https://www.reachthefinals.com/geocache A new image awaited the hunters there. Nama Tama saying Level One Completed! You Are Awesome.! In total this level took 11 days to complete.
-==== Summary ====
+====Summary====
-* Devon Crossing relates to William Crossing of Devon. Which can be traced back to the origins of a hobby called Letterboxing in Dartmoor, Devon. The hobby is refered to as the original geocaching, but with compasses and maps.
+*Devon Crossing relates to William Crossing of Devon. Which can be traced back to the origins of a hobby called Letterboxing in Dartmoor, Devon. The hobby is refered to as the original geocaching, but with compasses and maps.
 * Galileo is the name of a European Satellite System. GPS devices are used for geocaching and they require satellites to function.
 * O.C.B stands for ''Original Can of Beans.'' A can of beans was the first item placed in the original stash by the inventor of geocaching.
-=== Images ===
+===Images===
 <gallery mode="nolines" class="scroll-gallery" widths="224px" heights="126px">
 File:Slash.jpg | Slash
-File:Statues 001.png | Statues 001
+File:Statues 001.png | Statues_001
-File:Happystatues 002.png | Happystatues 002
+File:Happystatues 002.png | Happystatues_002
 File:BarrelsBarrelsBarrels.png | BarrelsBarrelsBarrels
-File:Friend You Need01.png | Friend You Need01
+File:Friend You Need01.png | friend_you_need
 File:Awesome.!.png | Awesome.!
 </gallery>
-=== Credits ===
+===Credits===
 '''Solver''' - Duh
@@ Line 92: / Line 43: @@
 '''Various Contributions''' - ATAEGGYU, Darnoux, Dwarf, Madalin, Mike Eggmantraut, Oli, Sparky, Swa
-==== Further Reading ====
+====Further Reading ====
 RockhoundBlack's Video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfC7lvXbPMM THE FINALS: The 'Geocache' Easter Egg!]
 [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CLzGtj2w2elVkqEdPV6NgqRiszNAxnwIANXHK-Pa1Bk/edit?usp=sharing Flex4d's Document]