THE FINALS Easter Egg Hunt: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:39, 31 March 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

Overview

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

Overview

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

> 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.

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 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 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

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.

Credits

Solver - Duh

Documentation - Giriko, Flex4d, RockhoundBlack

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

@@ Line 92: / Line 92: @@
 [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CLzGtj2w2elVkqEdPV6NgqRiszNAxnwIANXHK-Pa1Bk/edit?usp=sharing Flex4d's Document]
-== Level Two: 'THE PROMISE' - A History Of Solving The Easter Egg ==
-== Tier One A: The "1064 Aethusa" puzzle ==
-=== Overview ===
-Level Two: The Promise was originally teased on October 2nd with a fragment of a QR code and a loading page that the QR directed to; however, it didn't go live until October 4th when the [https://www.reachthefinals.com/tfee-level2 TFEE_Level2] site was updated.
-=== Clues ===
-On Oct 6, 2022 Dusty posted a new image titled, Oriri ex cinere, which depicted a man in iron working gear holding a revolver in a garage which is on fire. A couple minutes later Dusty posted another version of it. Comparing the two versions of it revealed a hidden Griffin, the Pisa Griffin specifically. The Pisa Griffin was placed at the Pisa Cathedral, which started construction in 1063, or 1064 in the Pisan calendar.
-On Oct 7, 2022 Dusty posted another image titled, TakeCover, which depicted the Cathedral in the map Monaco, getting obliterated by a meteor shower. The day afterwards a slightly larger version was posted to the Press Google Drive, presumably to make it easier to find the clues hidden within:
-* The greek letters Αἵ θου σα were found, these translate out to Aethusa
-* Aethusa flowers were present in the image.
-* The trident referencing Poseden’s daughter, Aethousa.
-On Oct 11, 2022 Rob posted a new image titled, friend_you_need_02, which depicted Nama Tama dressed as Galielo looking at an asteroid with a telescope. This led us to 1064 Aethusa, an asteroid in the inner asteroid belt. Putting 1064 into the T1A page unlocked a new image.
-=== Summary ===
-The first clue, the Pisa Griffin, pointed to the year 1064, which would be important to seeing the asteriod was relevant to the search.
-The second clue(s) all were about Aethousa and meteors, letting us know that Aethusa and Meteors might be relevant to the search.
-The third clue was the telescope looking at a asteriod, which lead us to 1064.
-==== Credits ====
-'''Solver''' - Serpenger
-'''Documentation'''  - Flex4d ,Ralliden, RockhoundBlack
-'''Various Contribution'''s - Buunuu, Darnoux, DashGames, Duh, Fishxw, Giriko, OrpheusHEI, SPEAR, Swa, Tragic
-Further Reading:
-RockhoundBlack's Video:  [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg2GLDdzMEA THE FINALS: A Fistful Of Easter Eggs + New Concept Art!]
-[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CLzGtj2w2elVkqEdPV6NgqRiszNAxnwIANXHK-Pa1Bk/edit?usp=sharing Flex4d's Document]
-=== Tier 1B: The "79" puzzle ===
-=== Tier 1A: The "Mendeleev" puzzle ===