easter-eggs

[queen rain]

oh

[dull marsh]

There is The Secret: A Treasure Hunt by Byron Preiss, he hid 12 ceramic casque and keys in US/Canada cities, probably including NY

[bright ruin]

Rip all the people you didn’t credit who did it before him

(Joking obviously)

[dull marsh]

Including... myself

[burnt sun]

anyone noticed that theres new 'announcements' on sys horizon? similar to those on fortune stadium - coming out of speakers and happens at the museum

[white shale]

Anyone figure out the "Top Secret" Sticker's code yet?

Sequence is:
14 14 15 22 24
12 14 22 00 24
11 00 11 23 00

[bright ruin]

#1289041185549324288

[white shale]

Already headed over, but thanks for getting to me!

[proven ermine]

Hi

[rigid adder]

Hey

[shy oracle]

Rob is a march baby? I’m born march 8 wow lol

[hard geyser]

i was just playing world tour, when i heard YOu never know when disaster strikes, and saw a purple body respawning, even though there was none

[burnt sun]

spawning as in the defib animation but then not appearing where it spawns? That sometimes happen and is a bug

[opal pond]

Yeah pretty sure the animation plays on the point you last died

Not current statue position

As for the “you never know when disaster strikes” that was probably the HOLTOW ad jingle playing

I havent heard it yet. But I know its in the game

Rob is THAT old??

[rigid adder]

Lmaao

[jade harness]

since i haven't seen anyone do this, here it is translated to english (note: it is google translate, so it's probably not perfect):

Absorb what it is, world
Miserable and fortunate, absorb
What you want to become is what you are
So absorb, absorb

Absorb what it is, world (world)
Miserable and fortunate
What you want to become is what you are
So absorb, absorb

🎶

Absorb what it is, world
Miserable and fortunate, absorb
What you want to become is what you are
So absorb, absorb

Absorb what it is, world (world)
Miserable and fortunate
What you want to become is what you are
So absorb, absorb

SO

🎶

Absorb what it is, world
Miserable and fortunate, absorb
What you want to become is what you are
So absorb, absorb

Absorb what it is, world (world)
Miserable and fortunate
What you want to become is what you are
So absorb, absorb

[bright ruin]

I have bad news for you... #easter-eggs message

[jade harness]

damn, never trust google translate ig

[cedar gate]

Hey uhm, I just discovered this entire easter egg community and everything around it and I would love to help find clues and solve codes, but its kinda hard to get an overview what the current debate and hints are. I tried to follow as good as possible by reading the finals wiki and some YT vids about the previous levels. Is there any chance that someone could bring me up to date?

[bright ruin]

Welcome, glad to hear you're interested!
Read through here for a quick overview:
#egg-hunt-onboarding

That'll get you as up to speed as possible without going down any of the rabbit holes (though if one interests you, feel free to explore it and ask questions!)

[hard forge]

lol Xykrotik that's the second time you did that now.

[dull marsh]

Is the Apple in a Circle on SYS$Horizon simply an Apple Pi?

[fallen jasper]

the leaderboards in prac range can now, out of nowhere be picked up. wierd.

They also can not be destroyed AT ALL

this intentional?

[burnt sun]

Yes it's intentional - atleast it was part of the patchnotes that they can be picked up

[fallen jasper]

what version added it?

[burnt sun]

4.0.0 iirc

[fallen jasper]

cant find

anything about it in any patch notes cold you show?

[burnt sun]

cant find it either but im sure I read it somewhere

[gloomy pecan]

Yes, they added it on season 4

[daring bluff]

when did the roses get added into the practice range? was it open beta or a closed beta? anyone remember?

i swear it was open beta but not sure

[unkempt dune]

H1... Humvee... P... HumP DumT... PT... Hideo Kojima... Solid Snake... Metal Gear Solid... Gold Snake... Rambo

Humpee

oh yeah, elvis loved bananas and he did sing an interesting song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tEHH73WyPI

cool fact: I am technically related to him

also, you may find this connection to the sun interesting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_Sun

[unkempt dune]

Cool fact: I had a puppy like this when I was a kid... but I guess it was puppy love

The breed was named after King Charles II... who was "King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and Ireland" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_England)

Sure there's Charles I... but there's another Charles too 😉

It's also a good thing he got his first pineapple... what would life be without them?

[unkempt dune]

I'm very keane on the idea of eyes being in the hunt

[crisp eagle]

I was researching him and found this message. Byron has a daughter named Karah haha

[crisp eagle]

Ok so that led me down another search. Apparently that book was inspired by another book called “Masquerade” by Kit Williams.

“Masquerade contains fifteen detailed paintings that illustrate the story of a hare named Jack Hare, who seeks to carry a treasure from the Moon (depicted as a woman) to the Sun (depicted as a man). On reaching the Sun, Jack finds that he has lost the treasure, and the reader is challenged to discover its location.”

The prize was a golden hare.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book)

[dull marsh]

The other day I was digging on Venus, and found a couple interesting things

As a goddess, Venus and Aphrodite are equivalent, goddess of fertility/rebirth/love

And on the planet Venus, the medidian 0 used to be defined by a radar bright spot at the center of an oval feature called Eve

[gloomy anvil]

how'd you get up there?

[spring thistle]

Where did bro get allat from

[hearty meteor]

wrong chat

[spring thistle]

wrong chat but I want some beta stuf

[hard forge]

Mods

[gloomy anvil]

I'll trade you a frog onesie code for a beta item code

[dull marsh]

For real tho y'all go there to talk about that #1201288968562552863 , we have so much EE stuff to talk about these days 💀

[hard forge]

funny man

[hearty meteor]

mb i assume everyone knows of off topic o7

[hard forge]

MODS

[unkempt crypt]

Hello

I came here due to a disturbance complaint?

[craggy flare]

yeah, the neighbors are being noisy

[unkempt crypt]

Well it seems you are the one the complaint was about

[craggy flare]

LOL

bye

[unkempt crypt]

Please have been telling you this isn't the right chat, so please take that as a solid hint that this is not the chat.

Maybe #💥┇spawn-point likes your codes, but this is EE-chat sir.

oh gosh he left the server because of that? xD

[crisp eagle]

Haha thanks!

[unkempt crypt]

https://tenor.com/view/fun-sucker-party-pooper-thief-of-joy-you-are-a-thief-of-joy-the-office-gif-11156413

alright, have a nice evening yall.

[rigid adder]

That’s Toby xd

[unkempt crypt]

he is isn't he.. anyway I don't want to waste your EE efforts here, BYE!

[rigid adder]

I literally do nothing on the EE hunt ☠️🙏

I just like to read a bit from time to time

[gloomy anvil]

is the scary purple HR person gone now?

[unkempt crypt]

https://tenor.com/view/gassti-zoom-in-in-my-face-look-closer-close-up-gif-17791046

[gloomy anvil]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/863748725826519070/1277543963221561374/caption.gif?width=467&height=556

[unkempt crypt]

https://tenor.com/view/sad-walk-away-okay-bye-arrested-development-gif-4932456

[woeful cipher]

R

[hollow bolt]

what's currently under investigation?

[alpine junco]

Pine Gap has radars that communicate with satellite Orion 3, 5, 7, and 9

[gloomy anvil]

Level 3 as a whole is, you can get a quick rundown at https://www.thefinals.wiki/wiki/Level_Three:_THE_HUNT

[unkempt dune]

I am currently investigating Seoul

but I hop around from a egg to egg... in other words, I'm a rabbit that likes eggs

[cedar gate]

Yo I just watched „Ready Player One“ and realized how many similarities the movie and The Finals have together. For example the Oasis and the meatspace or the fact that characters turn into spraying coins when dying. I don’t think it relates to any easter eggs but the developers might took inspiration from the movie.

[gloomy anvil]

https://tenor.com/view/anorak-crital-key-hold-my-hand-gif-13247912

[unkempt dune]

https://tenor.com/view/uno-reverse-king-chris-gif-7732750089922629936

[winter ibex]

I love that movie

[unkempt dune]

It's a pretty fun one

lots of cool references in it that can be related back to the hunt

soooooo... we can finally got started

o

https://youtu.be/Fu62k4K4sQ4?feature=shared&t=9

that pretty much sums up the hunt

DAED serious, feel free to ask me any questions!

I'll do my best to answer them!

once you know the answer, the hunt is pretty EZ

sadly, I don't know the whole hunt

happily, I know a good amount of it

It essentially involves a lot of jokes involving substitution

addition, subtraction, substitution, division, ETC.

there is a rocket ride to the moon out there

it's very questionable if it's real though... that's for sure!

I really wish I kept my red role because I like red, but instead I got a green role

[unkempt dune]

cryptocurrency is built around a concept... do you know what the concept is?

but to spare my rant, since I've asked that question, I'll leave you with one last question... for now. Did you know there's a game called Off The Grid? #1282815551944659104 message

[fresh quiver]

yes. it is an upcoming BR game

[unkempt dune]

Yeah, it involves crypto too!

The story is very interesting... it's essentially a test done off the grid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ1iA9LgQPY

It's very realisitic looking.

[exotic flume]

its trash

gun play is ass and performance is terrible

[unkempt dune]

Interesting...

[unkempt dune]

What do you think about the crypto portion?

[fresh quiver]

#1201288968562552863

[unkempt dune]

I would, but I believe it is on-topic

We could go on and off about it, but the sun can't stay down forever right now. I think Rob would like some light over in SE. #easter-eggs message

The dawn is rising.

Even if it's still dark, at least there'll be a cascade of red.

[unkempt dune]

but I still like the color green :froggy_smile_SMB:

will you teach THE FINALS? That's another great question.

[sharp flame]

Yun Beom-Seok, or YBS ---> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_Star_Catalogue [YBS]

[unkempt dune]

Y BS

But bright stars are indeed around in the sky somewhere with bridges

Cryptic jokes aside, I believe Draco is Sirius-ly the constellation found at Las Vegas and Skyway Stadium.

DEF CON does play a part with Las Vegas for sure... but who's to say it's not the same for other maps as well?

https://youtu.be/b1y-c2FwV-g

[spring thistle]

Idk every life story is unique

And there are a few hundred at embark

None fancier than rob tho

Bro made tf as a side quest

[exotic flume]

it will lead on long term to a pay to win meta

long playing people will just have way better stuff, cause they had more chances to trade

[unkempt dune]

Interesting to hear... I did watch a YouTube video that said the same thing!

[exotic flume]

https://tenor.com/view/crazy-talking-invetigating-mad-explain-gif-16881825

[unkempt dune]

Do you think the same could be said for extraction shooters?

[exotic flume]

mmh

maybe, depends on the es but its the market of otg that makes it so bad

if, then on a way smaller scale

i did a small calculation, if the market launches, the game will be annoying because of the market in 3-5 months

[unkempt dune]

What will be happening in 3-5 months market wise? I'm not up to date!

[exotic flume]

thats the moment when people are gonna be so stacked that the game gets annoying to play

honestly 5 months is probably more likely

[unkempt dune]

Have you noticed anything that could say otherwise?

[exotic flume]

hope😂

i personally dont like it. play it while its still playable, maybe I'm wrong

but as you said, other people had the same opinion

I'm just gonna continue playing the finals

and delta force as soon as it comes out hehe

[unkempt dune]

I'll definitely look into it and see if I'm willing to try it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the matter!

[exotic flume]

sure

[unkempt dune]

delta force has a pretty fun rush gamemode

[exotic flume]

but honestly

isuel t, really?!

https://tenor.com/view/what-is-that-brother-what-is-that-whatsthat-whatsthatbrother-brother-gif-164522531710839787

[unkempt dune]

Ayup... can't beat helping the elderly!

[exotic flume]

youre following a false lord

[unkempt dune]

Maybe 👀

Anyways, it was nice to talk with you!

[exotic flume]

guess your lord is oscar

acceptable I think

Hail Oscar and Embark

[exotic flume]

I'm gonna give that back

[unkempt dune]

We'll see how far back that goes in my history.

hopefully 🥴

[exotic flume]

[sly quest]

Is the last password cestabsurde

Translate to English literally means “it’s absurd”

[unkempt dune]

Go try it! There's only one way to find out!

[daring bluff]

maybe arc raiders will be an exception for you 😉

[willow olive]

cool eggs

[lone stratus]

i dont know if this is gonna come in handy in any way but if you bring the trophies to the building in the middle of the training room and break the building the reflection texture switches to something that isnt there

yeah im going around the training room with the trophy and the reflection is a completely different map

[fresh quiver]

The Reflection is a pre-defined image which is shown.

Also known as cube map

(atleast thats my guess)

But without any image noone of us can tell anything

[ocean sphinx]

crazy easter egg

[fresh quiver]

would be nice if people would try to stay on-topic 🙂

[silk bolt]

Hey, how many sponsors we know that are going to be in arc raiders

Is there a thread for arc raiders stuff?

[fresh quiver]

no we have not.

But thats more because we dont know if ANY sponsor will be in ARC Raiders.

Also the list would not fill even after the tech playtest. As the Tech Playtest still falls under NDA

[silk bolt]

Well actually the factions in arc raiders website and the concept arts says that there's 3 confirmed sponsors making it to arc raiders

The pic are from the trailer and the rest is from embark arc raiders website

[silk bolt]

Dw I'm not leaking anything from the test, it's not playable yet but I'm following the nda anyway, but those are already out on the public website and i think the trailer doesn't go under the nda

I found these after someone in other arc raider server was searching for all the factions in the game and i recalled some of them the ones that are unnamed yet

There's a lot of connections at ones here, probably doesn't mean a whole lot but we know for sure that these sponsors have something to do with arc raiders and connected in someway, would be interesting to know what are the connections with other sponsors in the finals and the ones that made it to arc raiders

Chat died

[solar glade]

yeah, this has been discussed before. so far we only know these are nods/references between games. no evidence of actual lore connection just yet

[cold heart]

you can even see the DISSUN logo shown on the ARC site, using the wayback machine, and is no longer visible on the current site

hard to know how much of these are placeholders, nods, and like Spear said.. we dont know enough about the lore to know if it means anything specific

not really enough to go from there 🤷‍♀️

[fresh quiver]

havent noticed robs last message he put here.
so the sentence might be a nod again?

[velvet narwhal]

Maybe we should go back to some of robs messages where we thought he made a typo or grammatical error

[fresh quiver]

so almost every 2nd message?

[eternal violet]

3x see -> rule of thirds reference

[fresh quiver]

Loop-de-doom Set

Could refer to the "Doom loop"

In economics, a doom loop is "a negative spiral that can result when banks hold sovereign bonds and governments bail out banks". It can lead to economic collapse.

Some scientists describe the effects of climate change, with continuing increases in greenhouse gas emissions, as a "climate emergency" or "climate crisis". Some researchers and activists describe them as an existential threat to civilization. Some define these threats under climate security. The consequences of climate change, and the failure to address it, can distract people from tackling its root causes. This leads to what some researchers have termed a "climate doom loop".

2 meanings

[median fulcrum]

is this anything? from the Holtow advert

i only saw it now from the Alien Invasion one, is it in them all and i didnt see it or is it new?

[fresh quiver]

the same QR is on https://holtow.com on the lower right.
Afaik it only links to https://holtow.com

[fallen jasper]

Yeah that’s what it does

[lone stratus]

At least from my experimentation it looks like from certain parts of the map the overall map is cut up into smaller cubemaps, but ill see if i find anything special that might prove useful, after all, i wouldnt put hiding easter eggs in reflections past embark

[fresh quiver]

@cold heart @hard forge @dull marsh can someone of you check the cube maps of the trophies on PR? I know you guys checked out some cube maps earlier in the hunt. And just check if it is the "default" cube map

[hard forge]

i think @unkempt dune checked them recently

[lone stratus]

I just wanted to make sure no stone was left unturned

Especially since the trophies are indestructible, I assumed there was an intentional reason for that

[fresh quiver]

that is fine (and also good, in-case it wasnt talked about yet)

It just needs to be proof-able if it is something or not.
Normally we havent found anything in any cubemap as of now and without screenshots it needs to be double-checked.

[gloomy anvil]

what alien invasion advert?

[lone stratus]

Ill keep looking

[velvet narwhal]

I just checked. There's a new alien invasion insurance ad when opening the game

[gloomy anvil]

oh I missed it, does anyone have a recording?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlCLx6zJ2cM

[fresh quiver]

weird. they are talking about Alien Invasion Insurance.

But on the right Site it is saying "Pearly Gates Insurance"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearly_gates

[velvet narwhal]

oh I didn't even notice that.

[chrome girder]

There are three trees with numbers 783 on the polygon , tell me what is it ?

I am writing through a translator, I hope you understand me

[velvet narwhal]

This is on every tree that looks like that. We don't know what it means yet. It could also just be that it was on the irl tree and got picked up by the photogrammetry camera

[chrome girder]

Sad

[dull marsh]

I wonder if the melody in background is anything

[alpine junco]

Reminds me of the ufo films from the 50’s

[dull marsh]

Also "will your dog become their leader" can be a reference, I'm thinking Mars Attack or Rick and Morty 2nd episode (could be something else or nothing of course)

This bundle will VERY LIKELY have some Monkey Island's Haunted Carnival references

(I can't check rn sadly)

[bright ruin]

I don't own it but I'm just noticingi via inspecting, it is a zoetrope on it and that's pretty cool

Notice the horses on the side, like a carousel

[unkempt dune]

I didn't check the cube maps for the trophies... just the ones around the ground past the entrance

[bright ruin]

flags on top are peculiar. I wonder why they are there. Maybe a little car comes out and races around it like a track?

Not EE related but wasn't the Pumpkin Head given for free as an event item after doing something in the Beta?

[hard forge]

it was in open beta. not permanent tho

[bright ruin]

But was it earnable?
All these cosmetics are paid and I was hoping we'd get something earnable for the event (like Christams)

Granted they may add something earnable next week for actual Halloween so I'm holding out hope

[velvet narwhal]

The halloween event could also start tomorrow with the new WT stage

[bright ruin]

Ah Like an actual event, not just the skins & theme (that's currently live)

[velvet narwhal]

Yeah, i hope there's an event

[bright ruin]

Same. No events last season made me big sad

[alpine junco]

becuz when it shoots it turns into those animations

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoetrope

possibly?

[bright ruin]

I said that lol

Well implied it, sorry I said it elsewhere

Yes that’s correct. When it shoes and the mag rotates it’ll create an animation a la zoetrope

[hard forge]

@dull marsh the amusement part lewis gun

The Big Whoop Amusement Park

[crisp eagle]

Now I’m just thinking of “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” haha

[sly quest]

We have seen references to 80s pop culture in skins.. it would be cool if they threw in some Halloween themed spooky skins

[crisp eagle]

Holtow gonna have an “out of this world” event in the WT or what?!

[dull marsh]

Sun goes out with aliens and monsters?

Trying to guess from the various Holtow ads we've got thus far

[final frost]

Hello! New to the egg hunt, excited to help how I can. Are the EE findable in custom games/lobbies or do I need to be in a live online game?

[dull marsh]

There are quite a few that should be findable in private matches, from the top of my head I can think of the Dusty graffity, there should be a couple more graffitis like the SR.! one on Monaco, we strongly suspect that there might be some other golden namatamas on some maps

Welcome to the crazy zone of the discord, and good hunting

[final frost]

sweet thanks. Looking forward to searching some after work today

[dull marsh]

Just as a disclaimer, these seem somewhat hard to find 😄

You can start looking around #egg-hunt-onboarding , we have plenty of threads for each topic (a bit hard to navigate as of now), don't hesitate to use Discord's search feature

[timid solstice]

hello hunters

[final frost]

Oh yeah I’ve been poking through those trying to get a handle on what still needs to be found on each map, etc. appreciate the disclaimer I’m def not under any illusion that I’ll find something quickly. Gonna get on the padlet after work too and pick through that to see where we are at.

[alpine junco]

im starting to believe fortune stadium has an activation ee

[crisp eagle]

That’s what I keep chewing on while at work. What WT things could be tied to aliens and the sun?

Now I’m going off topic from EE’s haha

[fresh quiver]

there might be (with a high probability) yes...
Rob said this during S3... But i think this also already counts for fortune stadium
#easter-eggs message

There are triggable ones on all maps now... only the dolphins have been discovered I think..?

[alpine junco]

oh that i know, just that there arent any visual ee that ive seen

[dark halo]

https://www.twitch.tv/balise/clip/CrazyObedientTomatoFloof-YTqe6QMMULu_BQBw anyone know something to these flashy numbers and letters at sec 9 - 13??

[alpine junco]

what terms and conditions?

[onyx mango]

Have you guys discussed what the game-announcement said at the end of the post where they talk about bringing back the alien bundle? :
“Additionally, there's a strong, thematic reason for the Alien's return at this time, which will become clearer tomorrow...”

[fiery imp]

WX0172Y#

Saw it too

[crisp eagle]

So far nothing beyond “what the heck does it mean?” Haha

[sly quest]

Refer to season 1 trailer of the finals for aliens

[crisp eagle]

May be nothing but Stan Winston was a special effects and makeup artist who worked on “Pumpkinhead,” “Aliens,” and “Batman Returns.”

[lone wave]

That’s a lot of coincidences though haha nice spot

[weary edge]

On Kyoto, there are certain huge pillars on the edge of the stadium that have black boxes at the middle of them. Some of them can be shot and broken, but other ones cannot. Is there some correlation?

[unborn rain]

love the new carnival skin!

[left trench]

Someone else has probably mention it but i recall a "bug" that would happen quite often where youd hear the alien abduction emote noise when starting up the came or otherwise going to the lobby

Suppose that was related to the halloween event bringin back the alien skin and holtows "alien insurance"?

Maybe foreshadowing of the coming alien invasion?

[left trench]

lol

[safe hawk]

is rob here active sometimes? need some help from him

[shy oracle]

did you guys know that in the Beach of Decorum set the socks are legendary meanwhile everything else is tiered below?! And it has 2 flamingos, one pointing at a cloud, and a lemon wedge underneath

It's clearly a bright and sunny day and an obvious outlier, and just like everything else isn't a coincidence that it's legendary status

methinks it's pointing to the time of day in Las Vegas (the flamingos)

[fresh quiver]

one thing I just now found is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_People_Will_Ruin_Your_Life

The Album has the titles "Lemon to a Knife Fight" & "Black Flamingo

also one of the songs has "honey" in their name. (rob posted a image of fluid honey some time ago

[shy oracle]

it's hard not to go down rabbit holes and i just went down one over the past 30 minutes trying to make sense of it all including what you sent lol

i did find that if you make a straight line from las vegas to nyc it goes to london, which is where this album is made

[alpine junco]

#1202362203920150610 message

My take on the vegas ee

[dull marsh]

These days he's not very active in here as he's apparently taking a break from social media, but you can catch him regularly on Waterdance's stream where he drops little Easter Egg clues here and there (he can't help leaking)

[hard forge]

(read days as months)

[dusk veldt]

Ohh I didnt know about the break. Makes sense I guess

[sly quest]

https://music.apple.com/us/album/overdog/1770897730?i=1770897734

[fresh quiver]

yes?

[sly quest]

I like the sum

Album

[dusk veldt]

@pure loom Robs relatively recent trip to New York might be of interest #⚡┇the-finals-chat message (the mention of it at least)

And the mention of pizza in regards to that, probably nothing but might be good to know #⚡┇the-finals-chat message

[final frost]

Where is the best spot to see the current found clues from the most recent official art image? The padlets or the spreadsheet?

[velvet narwhal]

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVK0idxbU=/?moveToWidget=3458764596714583146&cot=14
A few tiers are still WIP tho. The padlet is probably the best for the missing stuff

[final frost]

Good looks, thanks!

[velvet narwhal]

Oh and this is very good https://thelulzy.github.io/TF-EE-quartz-obsidian-vault/

[alpine junco]

they released the update on a half moon 🤔

[fresh quiver]

time to send a lot of Pull requests? 😄

[sly quest]

Is Duskvane the OSPUZE champion?

[viscid wind]

Those are legendary cuz they're a reskin of already existant legendary shoes

[rigid adder]

27 minutes video @pure loom 👀 sheeesh

[radiant umbra]

https://www.holtow.com/

The card have codes

[alpine junco]

no, terms and conditions are usually the fine text linked to a website

[lone wave]

@pure loom
I might have your answer about Sudan… Sudan produces a lot of Carob trees. Carob seeds were used as weight measurement for gem stones and gold because the seeds had a consistant weight, more than anything else at the time.
Soooo… qira = carat = karat = kara = gold ?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/usage-carat-vs-karat#:~:text=The name carat derives%2C via,200 milligrams%2C or 0.2 grams.

[dull marsh]

True, the Carat link seems interesting

[lone wave]

Thank you Facebook for the random knowledge about carob seeds five days ago… I never asked for it but learned about it anyway!

[dull marsh]

Especially given the fact that the Gilded Age kinda started after the apparition of the (firstly underground) New York Gold Exchange

[lone wave]

Oh interesting

[bright ruin]

I know this is pretty old in terms of when Rob said it, but I have 0 idea what clues were pulled from this @pure loom
Did anyone take the first letter of each fully capitalized word and convert it from Roman numerals?

DCXXII = 622

Hmm, this might be a long one. Turning on the stove, might cook somethin up (but it's also just speculation and pointing out stuff we've definitely already talked about so dont' get excited 😅 )

[alpine junco]

good thing to bring it up tho

[bright ruin]

But it's in #🥚┇off-topic

[alpine junco]

it has been a loooooong time xd

[bright ruin]

Thanks for sharing it. Was there much discussion about the it being perceived as a date? (June 22nd)

[alpine junco]

not a lot

something to do with roulette

also

ES-28082015-09

28/8/2015

just realized theres a date on this charm

[bright ruin]

@desert glacier I got timed out, it was cuz of the hyperlink embed via Markdown in my post wasn't it? I forgot that wasn't allowed

[desert glacier]

Most likely

[bright ruin]

If 622 is to be interpreted at 6/22 or June 22nd (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_22), then there's some convenient names of people/events that occur on that day in various years. I'll try and bold the stuff that I know could be tied to the EE hunt based on other clues

168 BC:

Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat Macedonian King Perseus who surrenders after the battle, ending the Third Macedonian War.
(Mentioned by iTk #easter-eggs message)

813:

Battle of Versinikia: The Bulgars led by Krum defeat the Byzantine army near Edirne. Emperor Michael I is forced to abdicate in favor of Leo V the Armenian.

1633:

The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe in the form he presented it in, after heated controversy.

1812:

France declares war on Russia, starting Napoleon's invasion.

1978:

Charon, the first of Pluto's satellites to be discovered, was first seen at the United States Naval Observatory by James W. Christy.

Probably lots more that I missed in the wiki article alone, thought it was worth at least combing

[lone wave]

Huh… random Facebook post again… interesting haha

Rob controls what I see on social medias apparently

[pure loom]

that's a good idea

[pure loom]

Libya was the one we had no connection for, but this seems like a potential link too

[daring bison]

hey, I noticed there were two vehicle/racing elements to the community event page. "If you ain't first, you're last!" Ricky Bobby, of course. The second is on the actual insurance contract underneath the defib pads. There's a box to check for "Virtual Sports" and another box for "Motor Sports"

I would post a screenshot if I knew how lol

[rugged breach]

Gravestones have team names on them, that's so cute

[keen kindle]

must be from the emote too :0

[ocean sphinx]

Unscrambled Signal spells out TAMA.

[spring thistle]

[low escarp]

i just watched @pure loom episode 11 and i got something for the coordinates 3

Sabha, Libya
In historical times, Sabha was a major centre of the Libyan caravan trade

caravan
a group of people, especially traders or pilgrims, travelling together across a desert in Asia or North Africa

caravan in german is "Karawane" Kara wa(ne)lker

[queen relic]

You all are the best

[final frost]

Another Libya “Kara” connection is the Karamanli dynasty, in present day Libya from 1711 to 1835. They warred with the United States during the First Barbary War in the early 1800s. It’s before the gilded age a bit but around there certainly

Couldn’t find any Udo Keppler art on Libya or the Barbary war, would’ve been a bit before his time I think

[dusk siren]

I just joined the hunt today (hope I'm welcome), but I posted something about this as a comment to Rockhound's latest video (which led me here). Included a couple other observations, which might be relevant. Posted a couple other comments, too, but I'll lurk for awhile here until I'm more up to speed as to what you guys have already discovered so far and are working on now. "For Libya, how about this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karamanli_dynasty (Interesting side note, which helped lead me to this: 'Kara' translates to 'Black' in Turkish, where the fact that the artist Kara Walker is Black and works in black feels like a surprising coincidence, as well.) "

[final frost]

Welcome! I also joined this week so getting up to speed myself. Good call on that translation piece!

[pure loom]

this is good! The location is very close to Sabha

[mild tinsel]

Any thrilling new discoveries, my little hunters?

[dusk siren]

Has anyone come across this guy yet as a candidate for a 'Black Knight'? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Maurice Again, I posted some random thoughts below Rockhound's most recent (as we all agree, amazing) video, but Morris popped up there, too. As one might assume, at least one etymology has names like Maurice-Morris related to "the Latin Mauritius 'Moorish, dark, swarthy'; from Maurus 'a Moor'." Just felt like a bunch of interesting connections (e.g., St. Maurice was originally Egyptian, he is presumed to have been dark-skinned, he defied great powers at great cost to himself, the Cleopatra's Needle obelisk in Paris (i.e., the Luxor Obelisk) apparently comes form the same region Maurice was raised in (Thebes, Luxor), connection to The Crusades, alien invasion, colonialism, imperialism, et al.)

[dusk veldt]

A ton, have you watched Rockhoundblacks latest amazing video on it

[final frost]

Thoughts on the Karamanli dynasty Libya connection? Has a tie to the United States as well, I read through the First Barbary war wiki but don't have as many touchstones for earlier clues and connections from the hunt

[sinful verge]

Anybody notice that the little opening video for the Holtow Classic said: "Fear it? Insure it. Holtow" but the subtitles actually read: "Fear it. Ensure it. Holtow".
Ensure meaning "make certain that (something) shall occur or be the case" rather than Insure meaning to get insurance for something.
Is this a typo or is Holtow doing something underhanded to get people to buy insurance? Are they causing random events before anyone has that kind of insurance (alien invasion insurance) so that people are scared of it happening again and will buy insurance?

[hearty meteor]

are the subs auto generated or typed by a human?

[snow walrus]

there is no subtitle, it's auto generated.

[hearty meteor]

yeah its prob just an error by the subtitle generator then

[mild tinsel]

Been busy with personal health stuf, all good now, but I’ll get to that in a few

[mild tinsel]

I Love Your pfp

[hearty meteor]

[alpine junco]

anyone find anything on this?

[dusk veldt]

Rob just said there are exclusive Halloween Easter Eggs in-game right now!

On the Waterdance stream

They can be found on the halloween WT maps confirmed

[final frost]

Could be a stretch, but the Met Museum where the Kara clues come from has a Michael Rockefeller Wing (great grandson of THE Rockefeller). Micheal Rockefeller Wing = MW maybe?. It's split into more than three areas on their map but one of the galleries is gallery 357, which I know is a number that's come up before

It does house three types of art (African, Ancient American, and Oceanic)

[cold heart]

so WT Monaco / Seoul

the other maps in WT dont have Halloween decorations

[dusk veldt]

Yes

Do the maps on other modes have the themed things?

He didnt say wether or not the others had them or not, but WT is confirmed to have them

[final frost]

Ok it is being renovated into three distinct sections atm

[pulsar shuttle]

Is this something? https://www.amazon.com/Romance-Tristan-Iseult-Dover-Literature/dp/0486440192/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr0_1?crid=FOG2HHRFM8B0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.6qONoyn5oLKyz7HP1vUT3aoEUeiR-UMVoDu2z34pJyLCC_G83_TXKsxR4KWecRaA.AWJ0JEigjkW4wom8ImVlExdTWi98ci1WAuWaK5ymSSg&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+finals+iseult&qid=1729897075&sprefix=the+finals+iseult%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-1-fkmr0

[burnt sun]

This was already spotted

[pulsar shuttle]

alr then

[dusk siren]

Interesting... I was just asking in the map coordinates thread whether there have been any easter eggs in game involving rocks or stones.
#1270882064249520198 message

[dusk siren]

Lol... after all my work mapping 20 locations, I look more closely at this from Rob. I was naively putting the decimals in, with alternatively + or - signs, into Google Earth, but the formating looks more subtle. Since Rob says "rough coordinates structure," is it possible I'm in the clear? Otherwise, have people already figured out how to parse the decimals? It just seems odd, because it suggests the longitudes should have more digits to work with and the decimal points simply seem distracting.

[gloomy anvil]

This is on the wiki which is a community effort, Rob didn't write it

It's still not confirmed exactly what that string means, but a "rough coordinates structure" is our best guess

[sly quest]

Couldn’t someone just look into the game files or is this all client side EE?

[naive kernel]

• The hunt does not require the usage of glitches/exploits/out of bounds exploration. Easter eggs will be hidden in game and obtuse to find, but they will not require breaking the game to find.
• It's agreed that metadata of the images do not contain intentional clues, and so shouldn't be accessed; photoshop file history, layer names, etc
  #egg-hunt-onboarding message

In theory if someone were to try, there's probably some stuff they could try to find but it wouldn't be within the spirit of the hunt, and I'm sure Embark has taken as many steps to keep things as hidden as possible even in game files etc

[gloomy anvil]

That would kind of defeat the whole purpose

This isn't necessarily a "solve by any means neccessary" hunt. In-game clues are presented in certain ways.

[dusk siren]

Ah! Thx! 0002 seems almost unmistakably to mean U+0002 or "start of text." I tried converting each decimal coordinate, assumed to represent a number of degrees, into degrees, minutes and seconds and to use the number of seconds in that representation as unicode symbols. I did manage to get all letters (using the convention that a control symbol such as Ctrl-S represents an S) except for one 5. Nothing clean came out of it. Closest thing with any relevance seemed like SUBWY = SUBWAY; SF = San Francisco; SDG = San Diego; and a 5. I suppose there is a number 5 subway line in NYC, but it sure would be nice to have that missing "A." Probably all nonsense, though.

Most interesting thing about the 5 train is that it was one of the earlier expansions of the original IRT line, which I mentioned in some other random post, as being the first subway line ever constructed in NYC. The long history of the IRT's planning and construction obviously fit the time period (late 19th-early-20th century NYC) and had pretty strong connections to the Puck Building, Grand Central Depot, and skirted Central Park as it ran up Central Park's west side. Other potentially relevant connections could be the Dead Rabbits Riot, the Bowery Boys, the Five Points, and the Bowery, all in proximity to that original line. There is also the "as above, so below" idea, which has me constantly thinking about below ground as much as above ground. I'm probably too obsessed with "as above, so below" right now. Today, the 5 train still runs through the Grand Central, Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall, and Wall St. subway stations, and still essentially runs directly underneath the Puck Building.

[rugged breach]

No doubt in my mind there's some subtle hint in the halloween maps. Not ran into anything so far though 😞

[dusk siren]

The more I look at where most of the focus is right now, namely the Met, the more I can't see how all this other stuff could also be relevant. Certainly feels like the whole solution to Level 3 might essentially flow out of those wings of the Met and, if anything, concern other far-flung parts of the globe, not some trivia about NYC history a mere 80 city-blocks south.

[dusk siren]

I'm copying this link to a post of mine in the Central Park and NYC thread that kicks off something I hope will actually be helpful in providing new things to work on.
#1292617132764430369 message

[dusk siren]

I think Rockhound and others have also convinced me that this thing about converting the coordinates from degrees as decimals to degrees, minutes, and seconds is right as well. The original post has an error, so I'm providing a link to a google doc for the corrected work at the bottom.
#easter-eggs message

On SYS you have all 3 of these things:

• The big apple with the ring around it
• The apple with a bite out of it (which I've never noticed, so was kind of amazed to see Rockhound mention it as a thing)
• The dolphins

The coordinates suggest a correspondence to:

• The New York City Subway (a transit line around the Big Apple)
• San Francisco area (because of Apple in Cupertino, which Rockhound hinted at)
• San Diego (where you might go to see dolphins, various other cetacea, and other marine mammals, including sea lions)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRMhi4gv4ew3fV_TWKO_9YDpDC7of8ujiMuhdLx27vcMopySro2d3pop5DtH4WYw1Kx8_vKnYLy7vnu/pub

[plush magnet]

if I remember correctly there was an S-lies symbol ont the construction variant of Seoul

[dusk siren]

Interesting. I am so bad about the in-game stuff, so thank you. I was just about to make the following leap, which that detail might complicate, though.

• "asconce" -> arm holding torch sconce at the Met -> Statue of Liberty -> NYC
• "cetacea" -> San Diego
• "s. lies" should then -> San Franciso, somehow

If this is right, maybe someone can figure out the trick for me.
A stretch would be to separate "an" from the "S" (maybe hence "S."), and to associate Francisco as follows:
Francisco -> Frank -> frank -> honest
Then San Francisco -> S. an frank -> S. unfrank -> S. lies (with a definitely weird Anne Frank thing mixed in there)

In a related thought, I find it pretty amusing that we had the spotter of the Will Ferrell (as Ricky Bobby) line, "If you ain't first, you're last," and now I can't help but think of an off-color joke Will Ferrell (as Ron Burgundy) tells that associates the name of the city of San Diego with a part of a whale's anatomy. If we need a New York City line, the first movie that pops into my head there is "Elf," but "Zoolander" feels like the better fit and even possibly "The Other Guys." For San Francisco, he apparently had an uncredited part in "The Internship" (which would be appropriate given how Rockhound got us to S.F.). If you search youtube, you get right to a pretty substantial scene. There is also a connection to S.F. via "Get Hard," although I'm getting more and more put off by these other movies and some of the jokes they contain (not exactly in the fun spirit of Anchorman, Zoolander, Talledega Nights, etc.). Still, maybe we need to look for a real Will Ferrell connection.

Bottom line, I'd hazard this has a good chance of being real:
'slies' -> San Francisco
'cetacea' -> San Diego (with the tantalizing possibility that SYS is San Diego in disguise - though I highly doubt it now that I look)
'asconce' -> New York City

[grave pulsar]

Could they all be NYC related? We know they've used central park alot before but
Ascone = statue of liberty
Cetacea = aquarium?
S.lies = could be an Elf reference? Maybe the store where will Ferrell calls santa a liar and says "you sit on a throne of lies" and "Santa lies!". We've also had numerous snowflake clues in previous tiers

[crisp eagle]

iirc the s in "s lies" also came from a picture we got that was a document with redactions. the s was at the end of a word, not the beginning. so it had read ----s lies.

[fallow agate]

S lies is more of lore thing than a future map or feature thing.

[alpine junco]

first clipped secret reload?

[woeful cipher]

That's the reload for that skin when you run out of bullets

Tough nice

[alpine junco]

not all the time

[alpine junco]

it reloads normally like any other m60

then that happened

played a full ranked tournament and no other reload but the default

in a game of quick cash and no other reload is happening

i stand corrected, it is the animation xd

it is legendary so i assume it can be a rare reload 🤓

[dusk siren]

very, very intriguing! I like it, especially the Elf part! 😆 I was leaning to the NYC-SF-SDG thing after converting the coordinates to degrees, minutes, seconds and coming up with letters that suggested as such, but I might have misinterpreted that. There is also the correspondence with the apples and dolphins from the SYS map to consider. I suppose you could have an NYC-NYC-NYC triplet and also a separate NYC-SF-SDG triplet (and perhaps two NYC-SF-SDG triplets). That seems a bit out of kilter to me, though.

[dusk siren]

That's interesting. I def did not know that background. I would say, though, that often once clues are extracted from a source, they then stand alone, removed from any earlier contexts.

[dusk siren]

What if MW = "Modern World"?

"Areas" could then be regions of the world. Pretty common to classify the globe according to:

• The Americas
• Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
• Asia and Oceania.

Alternatively, "areas" could be different domains of human life (e.g., art, commerce, politics, nature, etc.), and specifically as they concern the "Modern World" or the transition from the Ancient and Middle Ages to the Modern Era. In that case, you could have 9 distinct subject areas and passcodes for each corresponding to the 3x3 of X's on the Level 3 landing page.

Counter-argument: Seems to strongly suggest just 3 areas: MW.Area #1, MW.Area #2, MW.Area #3, but its possible there are three broad categories (e.g., political economy, the sciences, culture) and for each, 3 sub-categories.

[shy oracle]

your guy after wiping a team: get this out of my FACE im done now!

[burnt sun]

I played the skin in powershift to finish 25 Headshots from 35m - it's just part of this skin and happens frequently. I doubt it belongs to the secret reloads. There's a skin showcaser on youtube - if you watch that video the animation is also shown quite alot

[sly quest]

Statue of Liberty?

[coarse whale]

know something about numbers on top secret card?

[river thorn]

is the defib skin an easter egg ?

[spice lark]

Can someone get a count of all the radios that play spooky Holloween music? This might just be wishful thinking because it's something I would do if I had to hide an easter egg in a limited time event but imagine if there are 5 radios and 5 aliens and you present each radio to each alien ship at the same time :x

[dusk siren]

"S. Lies," as in "Santa Lies," as in, Will Ferrell to Santa: "you sit on a throne of lies," actually feels kind of strong to me. Maybe it's just because I've always been a big Elf fan. (I can't help it! 🙂 ) Still, if we consider that this could be a real thing in the puzzle, perhaps it is just one more thing Rob put in as a way we could have gotten to and corroborated "S.lies" as an important clue (similar to how there were references to "S.lies" in both Seoul and also the redacted document).

What if it's like this?

• Will Ferrell lines are actually a thing in this puzzle -> Will Ferrell in Elf: "you sit on a throne of lies" -> S.lies

That doesn't necessarily mean the Will Ferrell connection functions in the puzzle like this:

• S.lies -> Will Ferrell line in Elf -> Elf is set in NYC -> NYC

[dusk siren]

Wait, I got to that connection via something in the Met (see the Central Park thread)! How did you get to this?

[dusk siren]

Someone also pointed out the team logos on tombstones, and I said that there seem to be a lot of "rocks" and "stones" in the puzzle. Maybe a coincidence because there are lots of rocks and stones in the world, but I think your instincts that there is something we could extract from this special event is really good (I wasn't here for past events, so maybe there is simply lots of historical precedent for that). Anyway, I doubt I'll be able to help with in-game stuff, but will try if I can.

[spice lark]

I also wonder too.... that old cannon charm that nobody discovered.... what if you were to reposition and perfectly launch the cannonball in to the alien ship?

[dusk siren]

I'll say this. I like where your heads at.

[spice lark]

the event aliens are indestructible, but in theory.... the normal ones in other modes should be able to be destroyed with 1 cannon shot

[dusk siren]

Seems like NYC-SF-SDG should be a meaningful triplet.

I came up with this (in part because I'm fixated on the possibility that "MW" = Modern World):

• NYC = $ (Wall Street)
• SF = technology (Silicon Valley)
• SDG = military

The San Diego-military connection I got to because of "Top Gun" and also knowing there was a big naval base there (turns out, HUGE naval base there, actually). Looking for defense contractors with a history there, General Atomics stood out (and has an amazingly evocative name for this kind of puzzle - lots of amazing work people did with "atomics" so far in this puzzle already).

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Corps_Air_Station_Miramar
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Base_San_Diego
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics

Together, you get the infamous military-industrial complex (MIC), the concept popularized by Eisenhower's farewell address as outgoing U.S. President (sometimes just referred to as "the military-industrial complex speech"):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWiIYW_fBfY

I am currently partial to MW = "Modern World," but MW = "Met Wing" or "Met Works" also just felt too good when someone came up with that. What if, then, MW ends up having multiple significances, all related to aspects of Level 3? I'm thinking maybe it like this:

• Met Wing / Met Works (as in artworks)
• Modern World
• Modern Warfare (potential allusion to gaming, as well, obviously)
• etc.

MIC has always stuck with me as an ominous acronym, as well. Maybe "MIC" ends up being something. Also, can't help but feel like if George Washington is a thing because of being the first President of the U.S., maybe U.S. Presidents more generally will feature in some part of the puzzle.

[dusk siren]

You've heard of Area 51, but have you heard of Track 61 (NYC)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_61_(New_York_City)

Connections I have counted so far: Franklin Delano Rosevelt, FDR, U.S. presidents, Grand Central Station, underground ("as above, so below"), myths and conspiracy theories (1)(2)(3), NYC railroads, Cornelius Vanderbilt (4) ...

Connections these might lead to:

• Waldorf-Astoria Hotel

• ... ?

• 1 https://www.nycurbanism.com/blog/2019/9/27/track-61

• 2 https://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/05/01/fdr_secret_subway_in_the_amazing_spider_man_2_the_hidden_train_station_used.html

• 3 Theme motivated by Nama Tama in space: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Knight_satellite_conspiracy_theory

• 4 Whose "great-great-great-grandfather, Jan Aertson or Aertszoon ("Aert's son"), was a Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt in Utrecht, Netherlands, who emigrated to New Amsterdam (later New York) as an indentured servant in 1650." (wikipedia)

......
......
Probably nothing, but a quick summary of potential significances:

• Three letter acronyms or initials:
  • "MIC"
  • "FDR"
  • "MMA"
  • ... ?
• Numbers ending in 1 and potentially having two digits and/or pertaining to myths or conspiracy theories:
  • 51 (from Area 51)
  • 61 (from Track 61)
  • 71? (from SR-71 "Blackbird")
  • ... ?

note: Eisenhower and the SR-71 features in this article on Area 51. Lots I didn't know.
https://www.vox.com/2019/9/19/20857221/storm-area-51-aliens-ufos-meme-myth-lore-history-bob-lazar-explained

[dusk siren]

These are going to be stretches, but I'm looking for two-digit numbers ending in 1 that relate to myths of some form or another (apologies to anyone whose beliefs end up implicated and disrespected by such a categorization):

• 11: "Apollo 11" and Moon landing conspiracy theories - including by the Flat Earth Society(!) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories)
• 21: "Agenda 21" conspiracy theories??? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21#Conspiracy_theories)
• 31: I had this here but doesn't feel right (see screenshots in a separate post)... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_cosmology
• 41: Pearl Harbor '41 FDR conspiracy theory (I don't like this one at all!)
• 51: Area 51
• 61: Track 61 (NYC)
• 71: SR-71 "Blackbird" including given its Area 51 connection??? (stretch)
• 81: Paul Bremmer's Order 81 in Iraq??? (I don't like this one at all)
• 91: SR-91 "Aurora" existence myth??? (bigger stretch)

btw - in case anyone is curious, I'm trying to use this kind of search to see what turns up. again, probably a misuse of time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=intitle%3A"eleven"+"conspiracy"&title=Special:Search&profile=advanced&fulltext=1&ns0=1

[dusk siren]

If SUBWY is right, then the fact that it is missing the "A" could be relevant. Just as I think the "A" in "asconce" ends up directly connected to the "if not first, then last" theme. Look, I know some things about k-pop, don't hate, but the first thought that pops in my head is "Miss A" and Suzy Bae when I think of a missing "A" (too bad, because I'll probably just be stuck on that, now)
#easter-eggs message

[burnt sun]

there is a k-pop hint anyway, right? the tattoo of the kpop artist

[dusk siren]

I'm late to this. I didn't know that. Is it easy to find a picture of that if I wanted to take a look?

[burnt sun]

#easter-eggs message

Orixi ex cinere - from the "BTS" band

and it was hidden in this picture: #easter-eggs message

[dusk siren]

Oh, yeah! I saw that in one of Rockhound's recent videos! Thanks!

Here's that idea for a myth or conspiracy related to the number 31 (again, apologies to all Buddhists). I still don't like it for that concept (out of place amongst modern myth and conspiracy theory stuff), but it's the kind of concept that naturally has tantalizing possibilities, e.g., in relation to the lore of THE FINALS, so I'm posting it anyway.

• Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell): "If you ain't first, you're last"
• Jesus (Matthew 20:16, Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard): "So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
• "19" and "91" (first and last in 1, 3, 5, 7, 9)

[wise iris]

question are these just placeholder numberss ?

they on the watch in the battle pass the ospuze one

[sly quest]

Idk I just remember learning in school that the person who created the statue took inspiration from the Trojan horse lol

[dusk siren]

I guessed I missed the Trojan horse connection, then. I'm still trying to catch up.

[sly quest]

I’m not sure if it’s a Trojan horse connection but maybe it’s just all really famous pieces of art in the New York City area. I don’t know. I’m not much of a big Easter egg hunter.

And, in one of Rob’s posts, he said in response to rockhound was; hopefully you all will see now. The statue of liberty overlooks the city

Could be a reach, but whatever lol

The Statue of Liberty was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, with the internal metal framework engineered by Gustave Eiffel, who later became famous for the Eiffel Tower. The statue was a gift from France to the United States, symbolizing friendship and freedom, and was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

[weak ferry]

isn't this a failed climbing animation or something

[stoic cloak]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNoEuDgjc7I

anyone noticed the knocking coffin sounds on seoul and monaco?

[opal pond]

No its the standard animation from that m60 skin

When you run out of bullets completely in your "mag" you dump the weapon and get a new one

[little scarab]

guys what does it mean alter exploit destroy?
i saw it when im using model 1887 with the happy easter skin

[opal pond]

Its on most of the models of the weapons. I think its sort of a "tagline" for the game. You can alter exploit and destroy the arena

[dusk siren]

I am more than 50% confident that the following is correct and will eventually solve one of the nine passcodes for Level 3. The evidence for the following can be reviewed via the Google Docs links provided. There is still a final step where we establish exactly which of a few candidates is, in fact, the ultimate passcode or clue that leads to a passcode, whether from the ones I have generated already or perhaps from closely related ones that others might ultimately figure out.

TL;DR:

• My hypothesis is that at least one interpretation of "MW.Area" is that it indeed refers to aspects of the "Modern World," likely aspects that fall into 3 subgroups given the format of the Level 3 landing page.
• My hypothesis is that one of the three MW.Areas is “Technology”
• My hypothesis is that one of the technologies is “Telecommunications”
• In the context of THE FINALS, this refers to ENGIMO
• One interpretation of MWMWMW..., especially when the M’s and W’s are superimposed, are the two waves you can see in the ENGIMO ad here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM1mMe8xVNE
• If you follow my thesis based on “if you ain't first, you're last” (“1” and “9”) and use the other three odd digits (3, 5, 7) to generate gallery numbers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you get the results in the link provided below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQ04yyv7B76SZNu_BXloSO8Bx1GDZ0tAZ4fQlgB0s4f1PPIzM_oRpZluYYuPG6UDG8HKY_KdBnFi6kg/pub
• One of the paintings is by Samuel F. B. Morse, the co-creator of Morse code and co-developer of the U.S. telegraph system
• When you interpret the paintings, you either get (A) a one to three digit binary representation that can be translated into Morse Code by converting 0’s to “dots” and 1’s to “dashes or (B) a series of criss-crossed patterns representing MW’s, perhaps interpreted as a chain of M’s superimposed on a chain of W’s
• At the point when you reach the artworks that indicate MW’s, that is where there is a break in the sequence of sets of 0’s and 1’s and hence a break in the Morse code, thus resulting in a two-part answer.

• Attempting to translate the first sequence results in the following candidates or combinations of candidates according to my work in the second link provided here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSulpOoZJO4rDU01fZKUrDgUuBeraK8_Mie80zQt9eB-qE_IlC3K_WGBf-MhTy_t7SIAdJpqmVe74_2/pub
  • TIME MIMO = “TIME OVER” (as mimo = “over” in Latin) = "the past is past" perhaps "unrecoverable"
    MIMO TIME = “MULTI-IN, MULTI-OUT TIME” = the “Telecommunications Age”
    This is nice since there is a mirroring or alternation that takes place. Also an echo of "GAME OVER"
  • MIMEO TM O
    I felt the need to consider this as there are (i) themes in Level 3 of copying, pastiche, cheap replicas, which would correspond to MIMEO, (ii) themes of commerce, which would correspond to private property rights such as intellectual property rights such as trademarks (TM), and (iii) the ever-present theme of the egg, NAMA TAMA, ovum.
• Attempting to translate the second sequence results in the following candidates or combinations of candidates according to my work:
  • SEEK ATT = “SEEK AT&T” -> SEEK ENGIMO
    This is nice in the context of the title of Level 3, which is “The Hunt,” and the fact that many of us have speculated about what sort of machinations are at work behind the scenes amongst the CEO robber barons in THE FINALS. Would be nice if mirroring gave us something, too. Maybe someone can do something with "ATT SEEK." (edit: closest thing to a thought here: related to "attention seeking")

Obviously, there would still be several steps from here and probably plenty of work to do to get to the point where we can deduce a passcode and into which of the 9 X's to enter it on the Level 3 landing page.

Also, if correct, I'm sure we don't need reminded that this work does not at all exclude many other ways that the same materials can also be used to generate other solutions to other parts of the puzzle and those in Level 3, specifically.

I think some of the other stuff I recently posted could be on the right track, too, but I need even more help with those ideas.

[dusk siren]

As for some work on the coordinates that cycle on the Level 3 landing page, I have some work that I am not sure reproduces the work that's already been done on them. The discord post below has a Google Docs link that is a bit obsolete, but could save you having to go through a bunch of old posts of mine and get more to the point. I also copied the link below so you don't have to go back to those messy old posts if you don't want to. Also, I copied a second link to another Google Docs that provides another way to extract what I believe is good and helpful information from the coordinates.
The post:
#1270882064249520198 message
The mapping coordinates link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTiYTvSU_zO13h6aCMa6m_xkJHFDdp0m0LzDnUqQKsGVNveqDE9WmGq8QoMlCFfJTsZUPgza3LyF38z/pub
The converting coordinates link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRMhi4gv4ew3fV_TWKO_9YDpDC7of8ujiMuhdLx27vcMopySro2d3pop5DtH4WYw1Kx8_vKnYLy7vnu/pub

I also used the work that was done to get us to the Met (MMA) for the following, which may be relevant to "asconce":
#1292617132764430369 message

That led me to this sequence of speculations, significantly based on some things I got from Rockhound.
#easter-eggs message
#easter-eggs message
#easter-eggs message

Finally, a few other more half-baked ideas that I'll probably post about again periodically, so I'm not sure anyone needs to bother looking through the other things I've writing up recently. I guess I'll link to an idea I had for extending the work on the King Jagiello statue, as we might need it to generate new leads in addition to the Met (which might not be exhausted, yet, and I suspect it isn't!). Appreciate all the work everyone did on the Met thing. I highly doubt I would've even got started without it, including all that in-game stuff you found about King Jagiello, etc. Dang impressive, I have to say. Ironically, for a puzzle about a game, in-game is a definite weakness of mine.
#1292617132764430369 message

[dusk siren]

Last thing I'll clutter the server with tonight, but I'm just thinking about the other hypothesis I had that the "MW.Areas" could represent regions of the world, even corresponing to the map on the landing page, which could really help us nail down where different passcodes go.
#easter-eggs message
Now, if ENGIMO is part of this and represents telecommunications as a subset of the area of technology, perhaps the location of ENGIMO's headquarters and CEO maps, as well. ENGIMO = Japan, right? Then ISEUL-T is Korea? Geographically Korea is north of Japan. Perhaps ENGIMO corresponds to the X in the third column (Asia and Oceania), second row. Also, since ISEUL-T doesn't seem to be a tech company (and for some other possible reasons I can think of, too), maybe "technology" isn't technically an "MW.Area" (i.e., a column), but perhaps it is a row. Then the middle row might be "technology," as we go across the globe.

........
Some people who are good with in-game lore might be able to map what they know about sponsors and their CEOs accordingly - ideally in a 3x3 array across the globe (perhaps with MultiCo in the center??? 🙂 ).

........
btw - how does someone make such an elaborate puzzle like this? I don't understand it. It's a little surreal.

[hearty meteor]

rob first started development in 2018 iirc

[dusk siren]

It's like he built the game around the puzzle. It's nuts.

[hearty meteor]

and before that he also made multiple super elaborate ees like the battlefield ees

[shy oracle]

and i bet you he's still working on finalizing even more ees

if i know a thing or two about rob is that like most writers and directors, they never stop editing their work even after publishing. something can never be truly "complete" in the eyes of an artist. No matter how many more changes the improvement just become incrementally small

[dusk siren]

That's impressive. If there is still wiggle room, I would think lots of work to constantly be making the next part fit so it all hangs together. Maybe he'll tell us someday if we finish it. Assuming it can be finished...

[shy oracle]

btw tom all that is a very interesting read, im liking what im seeing how far down you went to put in the research

[dusk siren]

thanks... my only goal was to try to contribute something that everyone would actually feel was useful to build on. not clear yet that I've succeeded in that

hope so, though

[shy oracle]

it is 😉

[woeful cipher]

Some day

[dusk siren]

Iseul-t = the Met's Costume Institute?

[dusk siren]

I think we're going to have to leave NYC and do 3 in SF and 3 in SDG.
I mean, check this out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transamerica_Pyramid

• Transamerica Corp. -> insurance -> Holtow
• Obelisk / Egypt -> Pyramid
• "transamerica" -> what maybe we're doing (i.e., going across America from NYC and the Atlantic Coast, to SF and SDG and the Pacific Coast)
• A little "X-ish" looking
• My hypothesis from mapping coordinates that tectonic activity will be relevant -> "one of 39 San Francisco high rises reported by the U.S. Geological Survey as potentially vulnerable to a large earthquake, due to a flawed welding technique"
• hopefully lots more...

..........
Also, check out this guy. We might have found our insurance magnate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeo_Giannini

• Edit: Wait... maybe we get a finance magnate in each city (NYC, SF, SDG). I'm thinking maybe Level 3 of the puzzle is limited to ENGIMO, Holtow, and Iseul-t, since they are the sponsors in Season 4. It's possible the reason this popped into my head was that I was trying to think of famous S.F. businesses founded long ago and Levi Strauss & Co. popped into my head. That could be another clothing and fashion company to match up with Iseul-t.
• I definitely need to stop, maybe for a few days, but might as well get these down:
  • S.F.
    • ENGIMO = communications; Wells Fargo's overland "express" business (see below)
    • Holtow = insurance; Transatlantic Corp. (see above)
    • Iseul-t = clothing and fashion; Levi Strauss & Co.
  • NYC
    • ENGIMO = communications; not clear to me whether Morse just provided the clue and something like AT&T is the monopoly corporation or if Morse is meant to be the telegraphic magnate. Could use help here for sure.
    • Holtow = insurance; still speculating that it is J.P. Morgan and his bank (edit: I think this guy and C.V. Starr / Starr Companies/ AIG makes even more sense: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Vander_Starr )
    • Iseul-t = clothing and fashion; idk
  • SDG
    • ENGIMO = communications; no idea
    • Holtow = insurance; idk
    • Iseul-t = clothing and fashion; idk
• Frankly, doesn't even seem like SDG fits the scheme. Maybe that's the pt. idk
• Far out theory: San Diego is actually about the "I want to believe" idea and incl. or even focuses on the Theosophical Society (Lomaland). Dabbled in things like Egyptian-inspired architecture. Weird stuff.
  ......
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_(1852–1998)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomaland

Another thing I'm not good at is organization, but if we decide we like the outlines of this (3 cities, 3 puzzles in each city, corresponding to in-game sponsors and their CEOs, especially ENGIMO, Holtow and Iseul-t), maybe a talented and generous person could get an online document or spreadsheet going to start organizing details, theories, and the like? I'm probably getting ahead of myself, though. (Sorry, guys!!!)

I'm also a little concerned about doxxing when it comes to hopping in a shared document, but either someone could explain how to work around that, or I can figure that out myself. Sorry to be paranoid.

[dusk siren]

Whoever said "Elf" was the thing, I think they're right.

• Consider the Gimbels department store went defunct in 1987 and was liquidated.
• Meanwhile, when Will Ferrell, I mean, Buddy the Elf, goes to NYC, he ends up being hired at... a Gimbels department store.
• During which employment he whispers to a department store Santa Claus that "You sit on a throne of lies..."
• S. lies
• https://classicnewyorkhistory.com/history-of-new-yorks-gimbels-department-store/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimbels
• To me, it sounds legitimately like this could be the match for Iseul-T in NYC. I'll keep working on it, though. (Update: Gimbels acquired Saks in the early 20th c., and if it isn't too late for this puzzle's theme, the Saks 5th Ave building and store opened in 1924 across the street from where Rockefeller Center is located today.)

[dusk siren]

Exhibit A

[dusk siren]

I think this is right!!! Or maybe my way is not wrong and gets to NYC-SF-SDG, but yours has to be right. You started from asconce-cetacea-s.lies and you got to NYC-NYC-NYC! Or just NYC, like you said. I'm also happy because I was hoping "Moby-Dick" would be a thing in this and knew Herman Melville was a huge New Yorker. "Moby-Dick" -> Ahab's white whale -> cetacea. I'm pretty sure you did it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Melville

You might need this to make it work, or maybe you got from "asconce" to Statue of Liberty some other way.

[jade harness]

has anyone noticed this?

[cedar carbon]

I was looking at the practice range rose easter egg, are there any interactable roses on Monaco?

[dusk siren]

Not me. What is standing out to you most so far?

I wasn't here for lots of the fun, so don't know if and when people noticed thing or found them useful. Was 'asconce' = asc-once (Spanish for 11) = asc-11 = asc-ii = ascii part of anything? I'm ready to be embarrassed if thats actually how it was gotten to in first place.

[velvet narwhal]

Nope. There are hidden three headed monkeys on Monaco and the first letters of the objects they are on spell ASCONCE

This and 2 other strings were then used to activate Level 3 https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVK0idxbU=/?moveToWidget=3458764594194285184&cot=14

[fresh quiver]

According to Rob there are roses on every map. But we haven’t solved what Rob meant with that yet

[dusk siren]

Back to 'asconce' as ascii... What if we also have 'S.Lies' as a number, where the period acts as a decimal.
S.Lies = 5.50135 ?
S.lies = 5.1135 ?

Ascii might then be relevant for 'cetacea', where those letters can be converted to numbers using ascii. It strikes me as crazy that we'd actually get a precise decimal that means something real in the universe, but maybe this at least an idea of a possible direction.

[cedar carbon]

Thanks was just curious

[hasty anvil]

Roses = Row Z and there’s an audience on each map

[dusk siren]

There might be connections between crosses and roses. (e.g., common letters, rose hybridization (cf. atomic orbital hybridization), others etymological or historical - such as Rosicrucianism).
A slightly bigger stretch is connecting roses to colors (I still think colors will play a part in Level 3) and crosses to Rubik's cubes (3x3 faces of 6 different colors, solution algorithms - you use 'crosses' to solve Rubik's cube puzzles, we use 'crosses' to solve this Level 3 puzzle).

Links:

• https://www.petalrepublic.com/rose-hybridization/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_hybridisation
• https://ryanstutorials.net/rubiks-cube-tutorial/step-one-white-cross.php
• https://ruwix.com/the-rubiks-cube/japanese-western-color-schemes/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosicrucianism
  Check out the Rosicrucian Order AMROC in San Jose, CA ~ SF and Rosicrucian Fellowship in Oceanside, CA ~ SDG)
• https://www.rosicrucian.org/contact
• https://www.rosicrucian.com/index.html
  The Rosicrucian Order also has a Cultural Center in NYC:
• https://www.rosicrucian.org/rosicrucian-cultural-center

[dusk siren]

Rockhound highlighted the American Museum of Natural History previously. Consider the following:

• Met Museum of Art - 'asconce' - Fine Arts
• American Museum of Natural History - 'cetacea' - Sciences
  I'll never forget the blue whale in the Museum of Natural History
• Saks 5th Avenue - 'S.lies' - Commerce
  I'm leaning towards Saks rather than Gimbel's original address for this

Just like you guys figured out to use the map of the galleries in the Met, perhaps something similar can be done with the interior maps of the American Museum of Natural History and perhaps of Saks.

Freemasonry as a candidate for a third mystical order along with the Theosophical Society and Rosicrucian Order. Others?

[dusk siren]

Three candidates for places to investigate in the American Museum of Natural History if and when the time comes:

• Irma and Paul Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life (cetacea)
  https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/ocean-life

• Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space (roses, Nama Tama in space)
  https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/rose-center

• Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall (several surprising connections)
  https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/theodore-roosevelt-memorial/hall

• On the Roosevelts (meaning "rose fields" in Dutch): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_family

[unkempt dune]

Did you know that Skechers, and maybe other running/work shoes use something called Memory Foam? It's possible that Iseul-T is memory-related because of the running shoes at Fortune Stadium!

I've tried these shoes before and they're probably the most comfortable shoes I've worn in my life

so that could be something too

When wearing them, I feel like running

not sure if it's only this brand that's like that though

also shoes need traction just like tires on a car... and we've had references to shoes and cars plenty already

[dusk siren]

I'm still holding out hopes for a vehicle sponsor in THE FINALS. Since I started doing this hunt, more and more things possible in this crazy game.

Have people in the group done a more or less exhaustive search of the Cathedral and the variation where it is a mound of rubble in the Monaco map?

For instance, I've never once stopped to look at the stained glass windows

I don't know. Between feeling like there are potential connections to crosses and stones, it made me think of it.

[gloomy anvil]

Just going to drop some unsorted wanderings here

• "Little Green Men" is a stereotypical portrayal of aliens
• PSR B1919+21 - aka CP 1919 - nicknamed LGM / Little Green Men - with a period of 1.337 seconds - was the first ever radio pulsar detected, by Jocelyn Bell Burnell - and first suspected to be of extraterrestrial origins
• "Little Green Men" - S2:E1 of The X-Files - containing multiple references to the Voyager Golden Record
• "Little Green Men" - track #1 of Steve Vai's (born 6/6/60) debut studio album 'Flex-Able'
• Washington Irving's "A History of New York" (1809) may have been the first publication to ever attribute the color green to aliens
• LGM - Last Glacial Maximum - L3 coordinates Kara clue #1270882064249520198 message

[dusk siren]

This is really good stuff. 1.337 seconds. Def fits a pattern seen before

I really like Last Glacial Maximum, too.

[gloomy anvil]

I'm not sure if you're caught up with T3 but some of these references (Jocelyn Bell Burnell, and "666") were clues from that tier, hence the added relevance. https://www.thefinals.wiki/wiki/TFEE_T3

I suspect Rob;s Jocelyn Bell Burnell clue was primarily meant for Level 3, despite us receiving it in T3

[dusk siren]

Don't know if you buy my attempt to map 20 pairs of coordinates, but several are skirting the rim of Antarctica, and while perhaps not referring to the same glaciers or phenomenon, I think the ebb and flow of time, especially geologic time, makes sense to me from the locations I mapped and, in the context of man-made climate change, a seeming pattern of finding several locations near major oil fields and resources and other potential hints.

These are the backups to my work on the coordinates. Some parts out of date and I tried to make them a little more readable.

The mapping coordinates link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTiYTvSU_zO13h6aCMa6m_xkJHFDdp0m0LzDnUqQKsGVNveqDE9WmGq8QoMlCFfJTsZUPgza3LyF38z/pub
The converting coordinates link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRMhi4gv4ew3fV_TWKO_9YDpDC7of8ujiMuhdLx27vcMopySro2d3pop5DtH4WYw1Kx8_vKnYLy7vnu/pub

[cinder helm]

Guys I found a code in the game but it missing a some numbers go and check what under the crushed ospuze charm

[dusk siren]

Has "666" already had something to do with "as above, so below" in the puzzle or are they just similar thematically?

[gloomy anvil]

I'm not sure honestly, I haven't had time to catch up with all recent L3 progress

some, just not all

Oh another place that "666" came up was this image Rob sent, 666px tall #easter-eggs message

That image was a direct snippet of "I Want to.png", the first Level 3 image

[dusk siren]

That's perfect

As I was just wondering about the Cathedral, too

How do people search for in-game easter eggs typically? Get some people together in a private match?

[gloomy anvil]

Yeah https://discord.com/channels/1008696016318513243/1217498821563514951

[dusk siren]

Oh, that's awesome. Thanks!

[dusk siren]

"Washington Irving's "A History of New York" (1809) may have been the first publication to ever attribute the color green to aliens"...
Another NYC first ("If you ain't first, you're last", "I want to... be first"?), but who's counting (okay, I am).

[gloomy anvil]

Rob's caption to that Level 3 image includes "perhaps you hear a bell ringing in the distance" (this was 11 days before the "first" JBB clue). I know this has been attributed to Monkey Island and NYC recently, but it could've also been an early pointer to JBB's LGM pulsar.

[dusk siren]

Yeah, I'm already pretty sold on your LGM find. That's fantastic.

[dusk siren]

In the wikipedia entry for the LGM, you get:

• Atlantic Ocean: "In the western South Atlantic [see my mappings], where Antarctic Intermediate Water forms, sinking particle flux was heightened as a result of increased dust flux during the LGM and sustained export productivity. The increased sinking particle flux removed neodymium from shallow waters, producing an isotopic ratio change."
  • Neodymium: a rare-earth metal used to produce powerful permanent magnets
• Indian Ocean: "The deep waters of the Indian Ocean were significantly less oxygenated during the LGM compared to the Middle Holocene.[98] The deep South Indian Ocean [see my mappings] in particular was an enormous carbon sink, partially explaining the very low pCO2 of the LGM."

......
The potentially relevant Indian Ocean mapped location (labeled as (3,3) Iles Crozet - 'cross', and a nearby tectonic plate boundary):

The potentially relevant Atlantic Ocean mapped locations (labeled as (3,4) and (4,4), the latter one on the major mid-Atlantic tectonic plate boundary):

Fwiw, these are the mappings up near the Kara Sea, where I know people have already done lots of great work. They might also have strong connections to the LGM and, in the case of (2,1), tectonic plate activity.

[gloomy anvil]

Among the others, I just want to point out the Golden Age of Latin literature too. It's been on my mind since we got clues to Horace, Virgil, Ovid and their respective texts during T3.

[dusk siren]

Sorry, this one is better labeled and more comprehensive for the South Atlantic:

[dull marsh]

Looking a bit into "LGM"

• Let's Go Mets, a common chant at New York Mets baseball games

[dusk siren]

Yeah, keep the list going... I thought Rockhound's Golden Ages observation was seriously big.

[dusk siren]

Absolutely love the "Let's Go Mets" idea.
Potentially intesting connections to the Mets and Flushing, Queens:

• " From 1964 to 2008, the Mets played their home games at Shea Stadium, named after William Shea, the founder of the Continental League, a proposed third major league, the announcement of which prompted their admission as an NL expansion team.[13]" Shea stadium was nearby to...
• "The Unisphere... a spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. The globe was designed by Gilmore D. Clarke for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Commissioned to celebrate the beginning of the space age, the Unisphere was conceived and constructed as the theme symbol of the World's Fair. The theme of the World's Fair was "Peace Through Understanding", and the Unisphere represented the theme of global interdependence, being dedicated to "Man's Achievements on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe"."

[dull marsh]

Also this would probably be something Rob likes

• The Libre Graphics Meeting (LGM) is an annual international convention for the discussion of free and open source software used with graphics

[dusk siren]

A lot of people have seen it in person or in an image, but behold, the Unisphere:

[pure loom]

Yes, I forgot to add that one.

[pure loom]

I think I looked at this, it’s on Long Island, right?

[dusk siren]

Yes, but since it's in Queens, it would also be considered to be in NYC, I'm pretty sure.

[carmine trench]

Is Arc Raiders stuff off limits?

Just asking anything in that is related to this game

[pure loom]

Anything from in the game is.

Trailers are ok

[dull marsh]

There could be ties to Arc but it wouldn't matter for us at this point I guess

[pure loom]

Yeah, we shouldn’t need it

[carmine trench]

Okay, just wondering I saw one thing and it kinda just popped out to me

[dull marsh]

Before its more modern application to aliens, little green men was commonly used to describe various supernatural beings in old legends and folklore and in later fairy tales and children's books such as goblins.

We know that there are some fairy tales stuff connected to the hunt 🤔

[carmine trench]

I’ve seen here in The Finals and thought it was just blatantly obvious

[dusk siren]

I know I'm far from alone, but I'm fully on board with the idea that THE FINALS and ARC RAIDERS take place in the same universe.

[carmine trench]

Yeah, I don’t think it’s anything wild just maybe reuse of assets perhaps?

[dusk siren]

No! I want to... believe!

[carmine trench]

lol

How much am I allowed to say is the question basically

[dusk siren]

Safer to say nothing

Like R... said, trailer stuff is public so sure fun to talk about, though

[naive kernel]

If you were to say anything, it would have to be anything that's been publicly released. Nothing from your own experience playing the game.

So images that are out there, trailers, assets

[carmine trench]

Gotcha. I must hold my tongue and then just do Leo pointing meme, when someone else does mention it lol

[jade harness]

the barcode, i wanted to know if anyone decrypted it

i feel like i should state im not a easter egg hunter, i do find all of it interesting though

[dusk siren]

Some good stuff in the 1913 ed. of Webster's Dictionary for 'sconce':

• "3. A piece of armor for the head; headpiece; helmet. I must get a sconce for my head."
  • Perhaps this was one of the first things people noticed about the Level 3 image, but tell me this doesn't sound like what Nama Tama is wearing as the Black Knight satellite?
• "6. [OF. esconse a dark lantern, properly, a hiding place. See Etymol. above.] A protection for a light; a lantern or cased support for a candle; hence, a fixed hanging or projecting candlestick. Tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several- colored, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them. -Evelyn. Golden sconces hang not on the walls. -Dryden."
• "9. A fragment of a floe of ice. Kane."
  https://www.websters1913.com/words/Sconce

Part of my motivation for revisiting 'asconce' is a stubborn fixation I now have with Will Ferrell movies and their potential connection to the key clues from Level 2:

• 'S.Lies'
• 'cetacea'
• 'asconce'
  So you guys got me watching a Will Ferrell movie during a workday, which is bad, but at least I had an idea of what I wanted to look for: a Will Ferrell movie connected to both San Francisco and the clue 'asconce'. To recap the reasoning (bearing in mind that @grave pulsar has a totally independent and I think equally or more valid theory that connects all of the clues to NYC, alone):
• 'S.Lies' -> "You sit on a throne of lies..." whispered to the Gimbels dept store Santa by Buddy the Elf, aka Buddy Hobbs / Will Ferrell -> the classic Christmas (X-mas) movie "Elf", based on the Santa Claus myth and set in... -> NYC
• 'cetacea' -> an off-color joke in the comedy and social commentary "Anchorman" involving Anchorman Ron Burgundy / Will Ferrell telling Veronica Corningstone / Christina Applegate his speculation that the name of the city of San Diego original derived from the name for a part of a whale's anatomy -> SDG
• 'asconce' -> ....... -> SF

*note: I apologize for all the details, but they struck me as anything possibly to do with what I know and believe about the puzzle so far.

[dusk siren]

The best idea I had for a Will Ferrell movie connected with SF is the movie he did with Kevin Hart called "Get Hard" (talk about plenty of off-color stuff; ignore this whole line of inquiry if this puzzle is meant to be rated PG and not PG-13 / R). The connection to SF would be through the San Quentin prison, where Will Ferrell's character James King is preparing to go after being framed for financial fraud. Conclusions after watching the film:

• Plenty of sconces in the movie. Several characters are wealthy and scenes are set in luxuriously decorated interiors.
• This little snippet (see the GIF), where one could argue James King / Will Ferrell knocks out an attacker with a light fixture that included sconces (ensconced lights), and so could be described as him hitting his attacker with a sconce ('asconce')
• Stupid theory, I'm sure, but I did watch an entire movie hoping someone would say something about one of the many sconces in the picture, so this is partly so I feel like I didn't do it for nothing.

I do kind of like San Quentin prison as having potential to fit into any SF part of Level 3's puzzle if there is one, but that's a topic for another time. Anyway, in conclusion:
...

• 'S.Lies' -> "You sit on a throne of lies..." whispered to the Gimbels dept store Santa by Buddy the Elf, aka Buddy Hobbs / Will Ferrell -> the classic Christmas (X-mas) movie "Elf", based on the Santa Claus myth and set in... -> NYC

• 'cetacea' -> an off-color joke in the comedy and social commentary Anchorman involving Anchorman Ron Burgundy / Will Ferrell telling Veronica Corningstone / Christina Applegate his speculation that the name of the city of San Diego original derived from the name for a part of a whale's anatomy, a whale being a cetacean -> SDG

• 'asconce' -> James King / Will Ferrell knocks out an attacker with a light fixture that included sconces (ensconced lights) and, therefore, could be described as him hitting his attacker with a sconce ('asconce'), a scene that occurs in the movie he did with Kevin Hart called "Get Hard", in which Will Ferrell's character James King is preparing to go to San Quentin prison, with its associations with San Francisco, after being framed for financial fraud. -> SF

......
I highly doubt that I should say ur welcome. Quite the opposite, probably. More like, I'm sorry.

.......
On a totally separate note, Rockhound turned me on to Cornelius Vanderbilt, and I have this short collection of names that might be of interest:

• Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroad tycoon)
• Cornelius Vander Starr (insurance magnate)
• Cornelius Van Til (reformed theologian and the originator of modern presuppositional apologetics 🤷‍♂️ - see the Clark-Van Til Controversy on God’s incomprehensibility)
• Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt (in the Roosevelt family and U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt's grandfather)*

Something I think is cool in Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt's wikipedia is this statement: "Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1794, in New York City, to James Jacobus Roosevelt and Maria Helen Van Schaack.[1] He was the last full-blooded Dutch Roosevelt of his line." After noticing a lot of NYC "firsts", this might be the only NYC "last" that I've taken notice of so far.

[dusk siren]

In another context, "Little green men" could mean little green toy army soldiers.

[dusk siren]

Will Ferrell is also in "The Lego Movie". According to the wikipedia plot summary:

• "After the world is restored, Lucy and Emmet enter a relationship with Batman's blessing. Finn's father grants Finn and his younger sister permission to play with the Lego sets as well, causing Duplo aliens to arrive in the Lego universe and threaten destruction."
• That scene looks like this:

......
I have to say that one thing that strikes me about this is that the Legos and Duplos are essentially "bricks" or "blocks." Don't know if that's relevant.

[dusk siren]

I'd say a non-negligible probability that Sea World San Diego will be a thing, wrt SDG. In fact, now that I think of it, especially if the connection is 'cetacea', then associations in SDG with the animal kingdom could make lots of sense. You might even be able to leave out the San Diego Zoo, which was one of my first SDG thoughts.

• Five candidates that seem the most obvious to me for this possibility so far:
  • Sea World San Diego
  • Birch Aquarium at Scripps
  • South La Jolla State Marine Reserve
  • La Jolla Cove and the Underwater Park/Ecological Reserve (potentially the same as above)
  • San Diego Zoo (as it presumably also has some marine life)**
    btw - remove the 't' and get 'ceacea'? A double or twin 'cea'? maybe that's already been observed or even used... A pair of aces? I'm stretching, here.@alpine junco just reminded me that there is Vegas, though.

[dusk siren]

Re: X-mas Ornament Frag Grenade Skin
Has this little ring on the bigger ring been observed before? ("Elf" got me thinking about my X-mas event skins)

There are three other, far more tenuous things, and probably nothing:

• The way the biggest ring is looped around the medium ring, does that seem like a heart?
• The wave formed by the edge of the metal cap (I don't know what to call it). Does that seem vaguely reminiscent of the waves in the ENGIMO ad?
• The gold pattern, embossing, engraving, gilding, or whatever it is. Does that seem like fish or dragon scales?

[dusk siren]

@grave pulsar just told me today of various snowflake clues in the past. Was there some kind of pattern or code that you figured out from the stocking charm? Looks way beyond me. Also, that button (red circle with 4 holes arrayed in a square or 2x2 array) seems really out of place. Sorry to ask questions that might go back to almost a year ago, now.

"Heisendrip" is a great name, btw

[alpine junco]

Im now realizing that it also looks like koi scales

[dusk siren]

that's good if you ask me. I wasn't thinking of a specific fish

[grave pulsar]

The snowflake stuff is very very old

Like pre launch old

If I remember correctly

[alpine junco]

and koi were hinted in vegas

[dusk siren]

Sorry to keep pummeling everyone with random associations, but I think I'll have run out after this last one. The tenuous logic goes like this:

• So far, in everything people have thrown out here that I've seen and in my own work, I, at least, have seen connections to NYC for both 'S.Lies' and 'asconce'. Even without that commonality, we might pair them for the purposes of this hypothesis, but I'm worried about arbitrarily pairing those two and not also 'cetacea'.
• We've seen how 'asconce' -> 'asc-once' -> 'asc-11' (once can mean "11" in Spanish) -> 'asc-ii' -> 'ascii'
• 'S.Lies' conveniently converts entirely to numbers, if I understand this whole leetcode thing correctly . 'S.Lies' -> 5.1135
• Like I said, if you very tenuously go "5.1" = "51" and hypothesize that the fact there's a period (.) could indicate the decimal representation of ascii (just so every character in 'S.Lies' is used up in the logic), I believe the ascii translation results in:
• 51 = "3"
• 135 = "‡" (which on my computer looks full-size)
  "3" might just be a counting number. The name of the second symbol is "double dagger," but it also made me think of "double cross" or even a "railroad track" given Grand Central, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and potentially the NYC subway system. Of course, 'double dagger' could have even more significance seeing as we're talking about the Finals, especially since there are 3 players per team, potentially describing a 3-stack all running "double dagger" (perhaps only a modest stretch to say that this could mean "double blades").
  Okay, thanks for putting up with me the last few days. I'll try not to post every single idea in the future and only the best ones I'm more sure about.

[dusk siren]

Gimbles, as found in the name of Gimbles department store, is apparently an alternative form of gimbal (which I've mostly heard about from pop science or movies, so I bet many of you have a much better sense of how this might relate to the puzzle so far).

• gimbal (n.): A device for suspending something, such as a ship's compass, so that it will remain level when its support is tipped.
• gimbal (v.): 1. To suspend using a gimbal or gimbals. 2. (aerospace) To move a reaction engine about on a gimbal so as to obtain pitching and yawing correction moments. 3. To swivel, move on an axis.

[alpine junco]

anyone translate these yet?

[rugged breach]

Can't make out some characters on the first one
Shi???mata

The other two say Retromania

[hearty meteor]

can you get a pic of the third?

the last two images are the same

[hearty meteor]

it kinda looks like it says ションフマタ or ションフアタ but neither makes sense

[hearty meteor]

high voltage

[hearty meteor]

or ションアマタ

but again, makes no sense

[rugged breach]

フ looks a bit sharp considering all the others are nearly computer font, also on closer inspection it continues after the ta, there seems to be a small シ and another sharp フ (?)

[hearty meteor]

also interestingly enough both retromania and high voltage are vocaloid songs covered by kagamine ren

[rugged breach]

God I hope we can connect vocaloid to the hunt and not have it just be a reference :p

[hearty meteor]

correction: one is by ren and one by rin

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=amHYeH2HkUU
https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm22503939

(embed off)

neither are well known afaik high voltage is not well known

[alpine junco]

thing is, this is the only halloween themed part of the map i could find

it's next to the yellow palace

[dusk siren]

Wow, thanks, guys! That's great stuff

Don't know if these are the correct lyrics for Retro Mania Rhapsody (I'm relying on Google translate), but on the off chance a non-Japanese speaker wants a fighting chance.
https://genius.com/Polyphonicbranch-retro-mania-rhapsody-lyrics

[hearty meteor]

theyre old gravestones

so i guess theyre causes of death?

are there high voltage lines on kyoto?

death by retromania?

that sounds oddly metal lol

google doesnt yield any results when searching for that tho

what would be a retromaniac thing in the kyoto map?

[alpine junco]

dancing too hard?

[hearty meteor]

maybe?

[hearty meteor]

this seems sort of promising tho

[dusk siren]

What is this vocaloid thing I have stumbled into?! (That's rhetorical. I'm going to try to figure it out on my own, but this seems wild.)
https://vocaloidlyrics.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Songs_featuring_Kagamine_Len?from=R

[hearty meteor]

yeah uh.

vocaloid is a little crazy

[dusk siren]

https://vocaloidlyrics.fandom.com/wiki/レトロマニア狂想曲_(Retro_Mania_Kyousoukyoku)

Are they some kind of collective or record label? I got the impression that I landed on a page with like 50 artists

[hearty meteor]

ずんだもんは男の娘

[dusk siren]

don't worry. I'll research it on my own

[hearty meteor]

although technically this isnt a vocaloid song if im not mistaken im getting off topic lmfao

[rugged breach]

Welcome to the rabbit hole lmao
Vocaloid's a voice synthesizer progam that's used to make a whole bunch of songs for a whole bunch of characters singing them, I think peak popularity would be early 2010s?

Most known would be hatsune miku

[dusk siren]

I think I just realized that! Wild.

[hearty meteor]

wild indeed

[hearty meteor]

anyways lets not get off track

[dusk siren]

Yeah, sorry

[hearty meteor]

would be cool if it was incorporated into the hunt tho lmao

[dusk siren]

def - I think thematically they actually could fit just judging by the titles:

• high voltage = dawn of electrification, late 19th-early 20th c. (???)
• retromania = a reference to what I think is a connection between the historical era of Level 2: The Promise and the movement into the modern era of Level 3: The Hunt (???)

also, the pillars are a bit reminiscent of the obelisks

not that it matters because I'm sure we're going to work on it either way.

[dusk siren]

I'm having trouble finding the lyrics to the correct song titled "High Voltage." Turns out it's a popular song title, who'd a guessed? These came out of one site:

......
Regardless, I have a theory that feels kind of decent:

• High-Voltage = DC (and potentially Washington, DC)
• Retro = maybe alternation (AC) or transformation (AC to DC and vice versa)
• Mania = one or more of the following:
  • (a) the crazy battle between AC and DC electrification approaches in the early mass adoption years (this could match Tesla versus Edison or something like that - incidentally, Tesla might represent the one in it for the science while Edison the one in it for the money)
  • (b) a stock market mania or bubble, specifically in electrification stocks, such as, presumably, General Electric and Westinghouse

........
Also, if those are the correct lyrics, even if a different cover version, then we get several interesting concepts which may actually be themes of this part of the puzzle, namely:

• "get into your space" = get into outer space (Nama Tama in space), the space race, the space age
• "how do you cross this border line" = I have the impression there are several "borders" at play here:
  • the border between the "Old World" and "New World"
  • the border between tectonic plates, such as in the line that runs almost exactly down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
  • the border between the Earth's atmosphere and space (the Kármán line, which presumably we can see in the Nama Tama in space picture)
• "we need" = "I want to..."
• "High Voltage" (capitalized) = DC, NASA, the moonshot, big govt spending

......
We might have to go to Washington, D.C. after NYC (or in addition to San Francisco and San Diego). My thinking now is:

• The Washington Monument is a super famous obelisk and in D.C. The puzzle recently has several obelisks (in fact, the pillar-style gravestones we pulled these clues off of are a bit obelisk-like themselves).
• Washington "crossed the Delaware" during the Revolutionary War, a physical boundary or border that would separate NYC from D.C. (there's probably some connection between "High Voltage" and what Washington needed in order to cross the Delaware River).
• The famous painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware," which is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see images). Displayed in Gallery 760, I might add, which would be a cool thing for the Met to do, because of 1776 or '76, the year of the Declaration of Independence (independence a theme, as well, if my guess is correct)

......
More potentially relevant trivia:

• Washington's crossing took place on Christmas (X-mas) night, which is part of the lore about how he ended up victorious in that instance. Equivalent of many famous attacks that militaries have launched during important holidays as a means to gain an advantage.
• It was "the first move in a complex and surprise military maneuver organized by George Washington, the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, which culminated in their attack on Hessian forces garrisoned at Trenton. The Hessians were German mercenaries hired by the British." (wikipedia) This would be another 'first'.
• Perhaps in this context, the lyrics are only saying, "how do you (Washington and the Continental Army) break through?" and saying the answer is "High Voltage" (maybe "DC"). Then the answer to the question for Washington and his troops is the "Delaware Crossing." In other words, that's how they win.

[blissful crater]

just found out that holtow.com/cart exists

[gloomy anvil]

Good spot, though this is a default page on all squarespace websites

[dusk siren]

Btw - for the people entertained by the Will Ferrell movies angle, I'm toying with the idea that songs from those movies are also relevant. I'm not much of a music buff (I guess that was obvious from my questions about vocaloid above), but if someone is such a buff (maybe like the person or people who figured out that crazy Van Morrison thing that even Rob was impressed by), it might end up being something to look at.

• Example: The Louis Prima version of "Pennies from Heaven," from his 1957 album "The Call of the Wildest," which was featured in "Elf." Something about the name "Prima" and the lyrics of the song when I looked them up struck me as interesting.

[alpine junco]

nope

im looking back at the season 1 poker hand playing cards and the default hand is an ace and a queen which is also known as Doyle Brunson, Little Slick, Mrs Slick, Rocket Queen. do we have any reference to those?

[dusk siren]

Something else that could be looked into:

• Now that we're going to more U.S. cities, and we have THE FINALS lore, which kind of has one big sponsor for each industry and one domineering CEO, maybe we try to do the same thing with the cities across several categories. I'm probably not being clear so here are some examples (purely hypothetical and speculative, and I expect far, far, far from exhaustive):
  • NYC:
    • Industry: Telecommunications
    • Company: AT&T
    • CEO/magnate: Morse? Edison?
    • Conspiracy theory: Track 61
    • Will Ferrell movie: "Elf"
    • THE FINALS sponsor: ENGIMO
    • etc.
  • SF:
    • Industry: Insurance (only because of the Transamerica Building)
    • Company: Transamerica Corp.
    • CEO/magnate: A.P. Gianini
    • Conspiracy theory: ? (I bet it's something obvious to a lot of people, I just don't know it... gosh, I hate to bring it up, but if we expand "conspiracy theory" to "conspiracy theory or mystery" I might have to at least mention the Zodiac)
    • Will Ferrell movie: "Elf"
    • THE FINALS sponsor: ENGIMO
    • etc.
• This way, we might try to predict other cities and answers that follow the pattern. Here's just a couple examples:
  • DC:
    • Industry: Defense
    • Company: ?
    • CEO/magnate: George Washington?
    • Conspiracy theory: faked moon landings (probably dozens of other candidates, too)
    • etc.
  • Las Vegas / Reno:
    • Industry: Gambling
    • CEO/magnate: ?
    • Company: Wynn? (I'd say Las Vegas Sands, but I'm not sure Las Vegas Sands is technically in Las Vegas anymore)
    • Conspiracy theory: Area 51
    • etc.
  • Dallas / Houston:
    • Industry: Energy (e.g., Oil & Gas)
    • Company: ExxonMobil (originally Standard Oil)
    • CEO/magnate: John D. Rockefeller for sure, don't know if there's a modern counterpart
    • Conspiracy theory: JFK assassination
      I'll leave it there for anyone to pick up if they like the idea.

[tropic oak]

i never look at this channel and the first thing i see when i click on this channel is the jfk assassination

[dusk siren]

uhhhh... is that bad?

[tropic oak]

maybe?

[dusk siren]

😬

Reallly hope it didn't spoil your day

yeah, I admit, that's a little intense, now that I think of it

[tropic oak]

im just joking lmao im all good

[alpine junco]

closer screenshots

@hearty meteor

[sly quest]

That’s the language the aliens use

[ashen vault]

It's japanese

I have friend good at let me ask to him

[ashen vault]

Where were this?

ショックアタック
レトロマニア
ハイボルテージ

Shock attack

Retro mania

High voltage

[alpine junco]

yellow temple

[ashen vault]

In kyoto?

[alpine junco]

yes

[ashen vault]

That with pond? okay

[dusk siren]

Ah... "Shock attack" works very well with Washington's attack on the Hessians on Christmas after crossing the Delaware.

[alpine junco]

yup

[dusk siren]

The link to a Google Doc containing that spreadsheet idea I mentioned earlier. I don’t think this is likely to be more than a small part (maybe very small part) of the larger puzzle, but I’m hoping it will be one more source of clues going forward. More than happy to make changes and additions, whether or not it actually ends up being a huge part of solving Level 3. I think there’s genuinely something to it, but I’d love to get other perspectives and constructive criticism. (Also, just because some entries don’t have question marks, doesn’t mean I’m certain about them. Far from it.)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSfIMf6Ql0AF7VtL8NBsc3JpFmikqwfBe_XhlOh9fjyvGFzcGSx1rSRgnEvEIBs8XSndVvj71X-4W1i/pubhtml

[ashen vault]

That yellow temple, is called golden temple in irl. It was burnt, but rebuilt after that incident. The original owner's death sign is unknown

[dusk siren]

The idea of the "transition event" in the spreadsheet is maybe like a transportation event. Could be how Cornelius Vanderbilt factors in, perhaps even in a big, big way as Rockhound's recent video suggested.

I'd definitely recommend people watch it if they haven't yet had the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epr-x50rEig

[rugged breach]

Electricity seems to be another connection between the three

• Shcok attack
• Retromania often associated with electronic music
• High voltage

[dusk siren]

I think it might also be roughly chronological. The way I imagine it working: A "transition event" takes you to the next locale. You enter the new locale at roughly the same time in history you left the old locale. Your job at each location is to get from the time you enter to the time you leave. I believe the "liberation event" is the trigger for leaving the current locale and the next** "transition event"** to the new locale. It's like taking a trip across the U.S. in both space and time.

......
Example: We enter NYC sometime early in New York City's settlement (I guessed Henry Hudson's arrival). That's early 1600s... Then, as of 1776, we get the Revolutionary War (the triggering "liberation event"). The transition event is really perfect because it is literally George Washington crossing the Delaware River from the NYC side to the Washington D.C. side. According to this logic, we have now entered Washington D.C. roughly around 1776. When we get to the next "liberation event" (I guessed the Civil War and the Emancipation of Slaves), we will move on to the next location. Perhaps that liberation event needs to go with a different locale, as I'm almost certain the Abolition of Slavery will be one of if not the most important "liberation events" if there is anything to this and because I am somewhat doubtful that we'll use up all that timeline from 1776 to 1865 just in Washington D.C., but who knows? Maybe the time dimension is less important than the space dimension.

[mild tinsel]

Do y’all ever get worried we’re looking too deep into a shallow puddle? Like what if this is what they want us to do but we’re just grasping at straws that doesn’t exist😳

[dusk siren]

Definitely, until I see things that feel way too perfect to be mere coincidences.

I think the thing that is killing me, and I'm new to the puzzle, is how big it the puzzle is.... ( 😉 ) I think the straws exist in most cases but there are so many of them! 😭 (Except it can be fun?)

[dusk siren]

Okay, I know this sounds crazy but.... A parallelized puzzle?(!!!!!!!)
Ex: Think of the Cleopatra’s Needles in both NYC and London
Rough concept:
Amsterdam => NYC (New Amsterdam) => Washington, D.C. => ?
but also, NYC => London (since the Revolutionary War replaced London with DC) => ?
but also, NYC => Kyoto (as capital of Japan in the 16th c., a parallel to London and DC;
as ENGIMO is Japanese and the sponsor that came out of NYC;
as the Easter Eggs people found today -> Japanese vocaloids;
as Japanese vocaloids -> High Voltage -> DC
as DC -> Delaware Crossing, the "triggering event") => ?

The ? marks represent, in turn, the locations after NYC along:

• an Americas track,
• a Europe, Middle East, Africa track,
• and an Asia, Oceania track

Other points to consider:

• The landing page does seem to show three paths linking X’s. Just sayin'...
• This is how we would get out to the rest of the world from NYC so we are not just stuck in the U.S. (which would be super weird).
• Connects to 16th century Kyoto (which Rob obviously had planned from the start)
• Connects to the lore at the start of Season 3, when the system resets and it seems like you blast through time and space. In other words, CNS caused a "triggering event"
• It makes my 's.lies' and 'asconce'/ascii logic fit pretty well, I have to say. "3‡" really seems like it could mean one more "rail-tie" (‡) or link along 3 different "rails" (‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡...)

[dusk siren]

.........
I'm sorry, guys, but this feels like an example of what @mild tinsel and I were just saying. I find it super hard to believe I would just be imagining all these things, especially when they flowed out of what Rob has given us and the tons of work that you guys have done before. Literally getting symbols that look like railroad tracks. Anyway, more than anything else, I hope it maybe helps the cause.

[eternal violet]

That always happens. Then people get disappointed when they see what the password is.

[opal pond]

Idk I think its an error in the translation and its just the team names like on other gravestones
“Shock attack” shock and awe
“Retro mania” the retros
“High voltage” live wires

[dusk siren]

I'm not so sure. I felt like the way I used those clues previously fit together too well to be a coincidence (you can see my theories in an earlier post, if you want).

......
Separately, I feel pretty confident the conspiracy theory around the concealment of Planet X's existence will show up in this part of the puzzle. The reasoning:

• Rob's cryptic comment that "Pluto IS a planet" (in contrast to how Planet X is NOT actually a planet)
• The recurrent theme of X's

I also have a sense that either Rob worked from this wikipedia entry or simply knows tons about the subject and that this entry might still be helpful for us to try to follow along. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories

[hearty meteor]

ohh nice connection

[spring thistle]

How long have these been blue

[opal pond]

Is that in the tutorial?

If so thats been there since s4 launch

For the sponsors, holtow has an entire orange area and im not sure about engimo

(Because who cares about engimo…)

[keen pond]

I do

[dusk siren]

I agree. I should've been clearer. I think Rob is hiding clues for the puzzle in a play on the team names. I totally didn't pick up on the play on the team names, which was an awesome catch by @opal pond

[dusk siren]

Engimo just biding our time, I'm telling you

.
.
An in-game Easter Eggs Question:
Are there any "reflecting pools" in the game? Maybe the water in Kyoto?

• The reason I ask is that if there is anything to the Washington Memorial obelisk idea, it's part of the National Mall containing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Memorial_Reflecting_Pool
• I guess I'd be hoping that we could learn something by looking into a "reflecting pool" in-game or see how the reflecting pool(s) are arranged on the map.

Always grateful for any ideas and help! 🙂

.......
Ideally it would be a pool that could point the way from one feature in the map (call it location A) to another feature in the map (call it location B). Alternatively, it would act as a sort of bridge between them. My thinking is this:

• Maybe the situation is that where we arrive with George Washington and independence from the Brits (so, we start at the Washington Monument) and leave with Abraham Lincoln and the emancipation of slaves, supposedly (so, we end at the Lincoln Memorial).
• The way the National Mall is laid out in D.C., the reflecting pool runs from one to the other, as if leading the way.
• There are other things between the two monuments, as well. Perhaps the puzzle entails us seeing how to hop from one to the next (hey, maybe like the stepping stones in the water in Kyoto!)

[gloomy anvil]

Some things of note relating to the South Korean pop group Kara
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_(South_Korean_group)

• They released their first mini-album "Rock U" on July 25, 2008 #easter-eggs message #1270882064249520198 message
• Their first debut album was titled "The First Bloooooming" which reminds me of how Level 2 was activated with the reachthefinals.com/gooooooooooooooooo URL
• In 2009, they achieved their first music show win with their track "Honey" #easter-eggs message #easter-eggs message
• Their name originates from the Greek word "chara" which they interpreted as "sweet melody"

[dusk siren]

Do you think there'd be a way to see if there were any marking on top of the pillars? Maybe you already checked every possible angle, though. Just wondering if I should take the time and go in and try to check myself. This is on Kyoto?

[dusk siren]

I like "First Bloooooming" a lot because:

1. The word "first"
2. It could refer to "roses"
   I also really like what you figured out about the Greek word "chara," how it means "sweet melody" because there are lots of music clues, I've noticed, and specifying "sweet" melodies (I guess, like a track titled "Honey," but maybe just sentimental or romantic songs in general) might narrow down what to look for in certain music clues.

edit: And since I'm hung up on Washington D.C. and Kyoto, Japan and the idea that maybe those two are specifically linked together in the puzzle, I jotted down these thoughts, too:

• Could refer to the first blooming each year of cherry blossoms
• see the National Cherry Blossom Festival - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Cherry_Blossom_Festival
• a shared commonality and connection between Japan and Washington D.C.
• the effort Embark went to in order to put weather changes into Kyoto

.......
This is the map in Washington, D.C., that I'm focusing on for the time being.
Would love if anyone saw anything in it that they found interesting or knew something about.

[alpine junco]

i dont think there would be

[dusk siren]

Yeah, you're probably right. I tried jumping up in the game to try to look down at things in the Practice Range the other day (probably looking very stupid) and I couldn't see anything. But if I think about it, maybe I should have tried using something like the goo gun to get some height. Thankfully, I'm starting to get the sense that the way Rob has done it, we don't have to catch every single thing (probably not even close) to still make progress and solve the puzzle.

[opal pond]

If you can find more of these please share, my theory is its similar thing to the gravestones on monaco’s graveyard

Either that… or CNS

[alpine junco]

wait, what if theyre just shock and awe, the retros, the live wires 😅

high voltage = the live wires
retromania = the retros
shock attack = shock and awe

[alpine junco]

yeah youre right

[burnt sun]

are those the 3 teams that are on the gravestones on monaco?

because then it made sense like that.. could be that the "new names" are from MultiCo's The Finals version while high voltage, retromania and shock attack used to be those from the OG version of the finals, since kyoto is taking place in the past

[gloomy anvil]

#easter-eggs message

[sharp flame]

Interesting!

[opal pond]

Thats a nice idea

[dusk siren]

Moj logo looking a bit like An "MW"?
https://www.thefinals.wiki/wiki/Sponsors
Also, does anyone know if there's a reason that so many of the logos that don't have links yet are virtually devoid of color?

For the fantastic Japanese-speakers who deciphered the the gravestone characters, does shu.ti.fu.ra correspond to Japanese characters? If so, does it translate into anything. Again, wouldn't have thought about this except the comments about at first some of the characters seeming to spell out nonsense (although, I guess that got resolved since we have the 3 names).

Don't know if it helps to periodically go back through the wiki, and let me know if it should be in a different thread, but I remember Rockhound highlighting an exchange between Rob and Dusty about having to take the train to go see the northern star (iirc)? Any connection here, you guys think?

Maybe something here, too. (Did you guys already decipher "Draco Star" in terms of the constellation Draco back in the day?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco

Draco Rosa (Rose) is a pop star from our time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_Rosa

[spring raptor]

I am sure that all of you have discovered this by now buuut just Incase since I don’t got a clue what goes on here in this chat 🤷.. the “Top secret! Burn after reading” sticker has a sort of “code” on when you twist it almost like 90 degrees for me other side.. that being said just seemed like a little cool Easter egg ain’t got a clue though if yall have seen it which I am sure yall already have

[burnt sun]

Indeed that's already a topic being talked about: https://discord.com/channels/1008696016318513243/1289041185549324288
Thank you for reporting though, maybe you can help solve it

[spring raptor]

Oh oop- well that was useless.. seemed cool though 🤷

[burnt sun]

It's never useless to report findings

[dusk siren]

I took a crack at the "Hot Gossip Code" puzzle on the dedicated thread. If it's actually the correct solution, maybe it really can help with the bigger puzzle at some point, and that's the only reason I'm even bothering to post the link below. At any rate, the solution that fell out of my approach was "BEACON". Feel free to check my work. Would def not be surprised to hear I made a stupid mistake. Not sure anyone has to check the work just to keep the word "BEACON" in their back pocket in case we run into something in the puzzle and it rings a bell. Thx, guys
#1289041185549324288 message

I actually just looked at it one last time and noticed a connection all the way back to the title of the puzzle. "Hot Gossip." With a beacon, you can send messages, presumably including "gossip," and beacons can be created with the use of large open fires, which, as we all know, are "hot." Now, I'm actually kind of convinced it's right.

[dusk siren]

I was just thinking that maybe the Statue of Liberty's torch counts a beacon, and I was worried we kind of didn't need the clue, now, but that might not be so. I think I mentioned the possibility of NYC -> Washington, D.C. and of "traveling through space and time." Reminded me of how beacons can be used to pass messages. So I tried to think of a "beacon" in Washington, D.C., and I thought, isn't there some eternal flame? I don't know if there is more than one, but JFK's memorial came up when I searched. I'm not saying that that counts as a beacon, or whether there will even be a "beacon" thing, but it might actually be one more tiny bit of help if true. Among all the other leads we'll have, we can look out for things like torches or flames or lights or whatever.

[gloomy anvil]

With the 404 clue potentially referencing Keppler's birth date, I wonder if the text on the 404 page also includes any very subtle references. It was written by Rob as indicated by the .!

[spring thistle]

Someone found this up here

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1182329984723976283/1301137619337613353/image.png?ex=67236256&is=672210d6&hm=7dc686d5f1ed3ea92f578b67f2b175048a9d2b64be68b323dc2c101348759693&

[opal pond]

Incredible

Unless it spawned up there ofcourse

Then its interesting

[noble nacelle]

Did anyone saw the bat tle shell nama from behind?

[gloomy anvil]

New intro video. The nama tama at the end reminded me of the old trailers, worth checking for EEs.

[noble nacelle]

There is a number mine is 24

[opal pond]

Hi friend, we dont really know what they mean yet but if you could drop yours in
#1289459917337399317 that would be appreciated!

[noble nacelle]

Ok

[eternal violet]

crazy thought but it might be referencing the current year

[noble nacelle]

Yes probably

[fresh quiver]

why am i of the opinion that the pirate skin they released is just another nod to "X marks the spot" ._.

[spring thistle]

According to them, it did spawn up there

[opal pond]

Hmmm

[stable moat]

I've decided to look into "Hot Gossip Code", what if first line
14 14 15 22 24
stands for
14 N O V 24

Maybe we will get another clue how to solve it on 14 November 2024?

[charred sage]

@dusk siren ^ it makes sense

[bright ruin]

I believe that is going to be the start of week 2 of the Iseult WT, maybe whatever WT modifier/event thing that’ll be added will have something to do with this 🤔 Good thinking & catch on the date!

[bright ruin]

Gotta say, I love the SYS cube jackolanterns

Welp, we have a “wheel of fortune” in game now

[rigid adder]

And it “looks” amazing

[bright ruin]

Speaking of Sphinx

Kara Walker has a piece called “A Subtlety” or “The Marvelous Sugar Baby” that’s is a woman in the shape of a Sphinx (commissioned by Creative Time) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Subtlety

There were also 15 “attendants” to the sphinx.

Wait

“After the end of the exhibit, the sphinx was disassembled in a process that took a week.[9] Walker did not participate in the disassembly, and spent time at her home in Massachusetts after the show ended. One piece of the sphinx, the left hand, was retained and shown in November 2014 at Sikkema Jenkins, the gallery which represents Walker.[10] According to Walker, the hand is stored in either “New Jersey or Long Island". It was shown on the Greek island of Hydra in the summer of 2017.”

The hand on SYSHORIZON museum is a left hand

(Do note that the left hand on SYS and the one from the sphinx are not the same pose though)

5 of the “servants” had baskets with bananas

[dusk siren]

probably because ur smart 🙂

Jeez, oh, man, guys... Avalanche of good stuff here.

Also, I wrote up something following on the "BEACON" thing and something @burnt sun said to me. Here it is, and sorry it's long.

@burnt sun kind of stunned me last night with this reply about “IR beacons” (at first, mostly because I had never heard of “IR beacons” before; honestly, it took me a second just to understand the name of the bundle - "noctovantage"). #1289041185549324288 message

Anyway, it triggered the following cascade of associations. Make of them what you will.

• IR -> infrared -> ‘below red’ -> sub rosa (The words ‘Top Secret !’ in the "Hot Gossip" puzzle was red, “under the rose”) -> beneath a red light -> “as above, so below” (see note 1)

• Polarity -> North Pole - South Pole -> reversing polarity -> electromagnetism -> electromagnetic spectrum (including visible light perceived as colors) -> magnets -> tectonic activity -> volcanic activity -> subterranean -> | ⊖ ‘ and ⊕ ’ (see notes 2, 3)

• Mysteries and mysticism, conspiracy theories (“as above, so below”, ⊕ symbology)

• 1. The Latin phrase sub rosa (Neo-Latin for "under the rose"), denotes secrecy or confidentiality and is used in English to denote secrecy or confidentiality, similar to the Chatham House Rule (potential London, UK connection). The rose has a long, ancient history as a symbol of secrecy.

• 2. Some links relating to these idea, with lots of potential clues:

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circled_plus
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/⊖ (note: "circled minus" doesn’t have a wikipedia entry)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_above,_so_below

• 3. The following question: Is | ⊖ ‘ reminiscent of** Nama Tama in orbit about the Earth**; also, whether a movement from | ⊖ ‘ to ⊕ ’ looks at all like the in-game lore, “seek the truth beyond the walls”?

These associations did give me one idea we might want to play around with (especially, because I’ve seen some of the past work you guys did on things like angstroms and other quantities in physics and chemistry). Here’s a link to convert RGB combinations to wavelengths (and from there, we could calculated frequencies and photon energies, as well):

https://405nm.com/color-to-wavelength/

I can’t vouch that this concept of converting an RGB combination to a specific wavelength is even possibly valid, but in case anyone wants to see if interesting numbers come out of it.

Anyway, I came across what I think were clues for the following colors while mapping locations using the landing page coordinates: black, white, red, orange, yellow, blue. Using the “as above, so below” idea, what if there were corresponding “colors” - with “frequencies”, “wavelengths”, and “photon energies” - not just above, but also below red? Something like this schematic, maybe?

Blue + Black = ?; White = ?
Green +
Yellow +
Orange +
Red + / “Red -” ------------------------------------
“Orange -”
“Yellow -”
“Green -”
“Blue -”

If I had to bet, the "colors below red" idea is probably too far-fetched, but it felt like it needed said. Even then, it’s all a bit beyond me at the moment, but maybe some people will want to play around with this idea at some point. Also, shout out again to @burnt sun for the “infrared” idea (and maybe someone knows something specific about “IR beacons” that could be helpful). Thx, as always, guys! 🙂

[dusk siren]

Has anyone guessed or said what the machine is? A piece of medical equipment was my first guess.

[spring thistle]

Yeah I've seen this around the hospital buildings in other maps

Not exactly sure what it is

[dull marsh]

LMAO, whoever did the Seas The Day Bundle video, is the end a reference to Gumi?! 😄

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewf-8rx9_uQ

[alpine junco]

the seas the day bundle showcase locations possibly a hint?

[storm horizon]

ds - dark souls? XD

[opal pond]

death stranding 🗣️

[daring bluff]

Dual Screen 👅

[unkempt dune]

So how's the hunt for love going?

[velvet holly]

Waiting 4.6🙏

[unkempt dune]

Oh? What happens at 4.6?

[bright ruin]

Discovery Software (?) by Discovery Corp🤔

[velvet holly]

#easter-eggs message

[unique spruce]

birthday of St. Lawrence O'Toole, Patron Saint of Dublin
The patent for the ruby laser was granted to Theodore Maiman in 1967
NASA launched Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the moon, in 1969

[gloomy anvil]

https://tenor.com/view/shocked-surprised-gif-26561526

@unique spruce haven't seen you around for a minute

[hard forge]

@unique spruce that's a name i remember

[storm horizon]

hahahaah

[storm horizon]

sound cool

bruh, now i know that it is sponsor, lol

[snow walrus]

Could you share the lowest and highest number i'm onto something

The numbers we got may have a connection to Fire Department City of New York FDNY (MFD older name)

[dusk siren]

Probably nothing, but just took a break and decided to play around with some searches related to Sponsor names. Two things possibly thematically related. Feels doubtful they will have EE Hunt implications (and I apologize if they are merely reproducing some early work that was done on lore or the puzzle), but as usual, feels like it couldn’t hurt to post:

• VAIIYA: Tolkein’s etymology for vaiya (fictional, I assume) means “fold, envelope.” An excerpt:

  • “Vaiya is the dark sea that surrounds the world of Arda before the cataclysm at the end of the Second Age. Vaiya is globed within the Ilurambar, the Walls of the World, and outside them is the Void... Vaiya flows completely around the world, forming a sea below it and a form of air above it...The world is described as floating on Vaiya, like a ship on a sea.” https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Vaiya

• ENGIMO: These sources on an early 2000s puzzle game titled ENIGMO might be of interest. Some excerpts and the links:

  • “Enigmo is a series of 3D puzzle games developed by Pangea Software and Idea From The Deep, released by Mumbo Jumbo, inspired from a kind of physics toy according to its main developer Brian Greenstone [green?, stone?].” https://enigmo.fandom.com/wiki/Enigmo_Wiki
  • “Enigmo was created in 2003 by Pangea Software and was their most successful game ever sold at the time. The graphics are three-dimensional, in a sense; but gameplay is strictly limited to the horizontal and vertical axes. Liquids (water, oil, and lava) fall from droppers and will bounce around the walls of a mechanism. Gameplay consists of manipulating a limited number of dynamic items (such as bumpers, sliders, accelerators, and sponges) to affect various streams of flowing liquid so that the droplets reach their destination...” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigmo
  • A source seemed to suggest that Enigmo may have been the first to popularize 3D-puzzle games.

[unkempt dune]

Let me check out the form

so the lowest I've seen is 2 and the highest is 99

there's only 41 responses so far though

2 + 99 would be 101

[snow walrus]

https://nyfd.com/manhattan.html

https://www.nyc.gov/site/fdny/about/overview/history/history.page

i'm watching Gangs of New York film and noticed the numbers they have

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_York_fire_departments

[dusk siren]

You probably thought of this, but the fire dept idea was a really good one given the firefighter stuff in the battle pass this season. Sorry, you probably said that at the start.

[snow walrus]

i didn't bother to mention that as it's an obvious link actually

[dusk siren]

You recall if any easter eggs turned up on any of those items (sorry, I'm trying to catch up)

engimo, huh? likewise

[snow walrus]

all i remember is an older clue CE2029 fire engine red

[hard forge]

fire red engine

[snow walrus]

https://tenor.com/view/no-bugs-bunny-nope-gif-4095597578532971838

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_engine_red

[hard forge]

yeah red fire engine

[dusk siren]

coincidentally we just had the beacons-infrared-sub rosa thing. closest thing to engine I can think of is engimo.

@snow walrus was it just the numbers that made you think of the Fire Dept, or something even before that?

[snow walrus]

numbers + ospuze fire dept items + RHB's NYC findings (Gangs of NY dead rabbits etc.) + CE2029

[crisp eagle]

Back then the fire departments would fight each other too haha which Gangs of New York shows in that scene. Sporting their numbers and fighting like us in the Arena

[snow walrus]

that's the scene where i started to search

[dusk siren]

I also suspect that one of the broader NYC-wide themes is "firsts," and naturally it means a lot of the clues go pretty far back in NYC history, so these two stuck out to me:

• "In 1731, 74 years after the first fire company began service, the schooner Beaver brought from London, 2 hand-drawn pumpers, the first fire engines used in the colony. These engines were stationed at City Hall, then Wall & Broad Streets designated Engines 1 & 2."
• "The first paid company, Metropolitan Engine Company 1, went into service July 31st 1865 at 4 Centre Street. Their apparatus was a steam fire engine and a hose tender, drawn by horses. The company consisted of 2 officers, engineer, stoker and 8 firemen. This was the standard set up for all engine companies of the Metropolitan Department. Ladder companies consisted of 12 officers and firemen, and were equipped with a horse drawn ladder truck. The men of the uniformed force were on continuous duty, with 3 hours a day for meals and 1 day off a month. A total of 34 Engines & 12 Ladder companies had been organized on a full paid basis when the paid service was complete on December 1st, 1865. 13 Chief Officers, 430 company officers, engineers and firemen."

@crisp eagle Just mentioned that the numbers and fighting are reminiscent of the arena (the Gangs of NY, Five Points, Dead Rabbits Riot, the Bowery Boys connections, also, as you pointed out @snow walrus). Given how commercialized THE FINALS is by the time the game takes place, it might be interesting how the original volunteer service gave way to the professional service.

Maybe also the transition from pumped to steam-driven fire apparatus, which this article implicates:

• "The Metropolitan Fire Department. With the induction of steam fire engines in the 1850’s, hand-drawn/operated fire apparatus became obsolete, spelling the doom of the volunteer fire service in larger cities. Cincinnati, St Louis, Baltimore & Boston already adopted the system of steam fire engines & paid firemen. March 30th 1865, the New York State Legislature passed “An act to create a Metropolitan Fire District & establish a Fire Department therein”"
  https://nycfirewire.net/historical/

Potential connection to X's (i.e., 'crosses') might be this actual fire that erupted on Broadway, between the Free School House and the Trinity Church.

I'm surprised I didn't know about The Great Fire of 1776 (in which, among other things, the original Trinity Church burned down). That actually seems relevant to me. https://trinitychurchnyc.org/visit-history/places/trinity-church

This wikipedia entry presumably a good place to start. I think it has potential, also. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_New_York_(1776)

[snow walrus]

1776, 1835 and 1845

[dusk siren]

Those are good numbers?

I like 1776 for sure. Declaration of Independence. I'm pretty sure that's something in all this.

1865, too. Obviously, the Emancipation Proclamation but, coincidentally, the founding of the first professional NYC fire dept (the MFD, as you pointed out)

[snow walrus]

In the movie we see this Commodore clipper ship which travels for California gold rush

[dusk siren]

Oh, San Francisco, that's awesome!

I wrote some stuff earlier about NYC-San Francisco-San Diego as at least 3 U.S. cities that I think are connected to the puzzle.

[snow walrus]

I checked the name Randolph M. Cooley, all i found is where his grave at ->
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green-Wood_Cemetery

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/108494931/randolph_morgan_cooley

[dusk siren]

Green-Wood Cemetary, wow, that's a potential find. I like:

• Green
• And this "first" about parks in Brooklyn:
  Now, having that, I'm not even sure it would be crazy to look for a park distinctive to each NYC Borough (you guys found Central Park already obviously - apparently the first landscaped park in the U.S.)

• Even cemetary! Below the ground, populated with tombstones ('stones').

I have to be super honest, though - I spiral out on this stuff and it is hard for me to believe that Rob crammed so much crap into one puzzle. I notice you and the others doing an intelligent job of balancing exploring the search space with focusing on things that actually yield concrete results.

@snow walrus Sorry to trouble you, but last thing for now, you mentioned 1835 and 1845, and I didn't follow up on those. What did you find interesting about those?

[snow walrus]

1835:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_New_York
1845:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_New_York_City_Fire_of_1845#

[dusk siren]

Ah, thanks!

As for parks, I'll have to go look at why the Unisphere came up again, but this could be a good park for Queens, fwiw:

Corona? Like the sun?

Ah, it came out of the LGM = "Let's Go Mets" idea @gloomy anvil and @dull marsh came up with.
#easter-eggs message

Between the the MFD putting fires out and Holtow insuring people against the sun going out... I don't know.

[crisp eagle]

Greenwood District in Tulsa is where Black Wall Street was before the Race Riot. Wall Street -> NYC again. Now I’m just seeing NYC in everything haha

The Greenwood Cemetery made that jump out in my brain

[dusk siren]

That is superb

So, Rob is basically giving us a giant history lesson with this one is what is going on, right?

Has me studying the Korean War Veterans Memorial

Does this picture look like anything to anyone, the geometric figures?

I think it's long been renovated so there's a wall with all the names of the dead, and in the larger grass semi-circle that results from the wedge cutting into the circle, it's now another reflecting pool.

I'm trying to get a pattern for you guys of the 19(!) statues of soldiers in the memorial

You can walk around in it if you want. https://walkinto.in/tour/Z1cr7w7p8OWyxcrmvQ68_

[dusk siren]

Closest names to Yun Beom-Seok (CEO of Iseul-T)

Regarding the original design of the Korean War Veterans Memorial ('cross', X reference):

[crisp eagle]

Freaking 19 again haha I swear some of Rob's EE hints use Stephen King books. 19 is an EE that Stephen King hides in almost all his books, Especially The Dark Tower series which I slightly touched on incorrectly about the PR roses. But now I'm wondering if there's something there again with NYC being heavy. That series deals with multiple universes that the main characters jump to. The Dark Tower is what holds all universes and reality together. It exists as the tower itself only in one universe called Mid-World (MW), but it exists in every universe as different things. In our universe, called the Keystone, it's a ROSE in a vacant lot in NYC at 2nd Ave and 46th Street. The main characters will call themselves things like "protectors of the rose" or "of the 19"

[dusk siren]

WHOA... Is this the first The Dark Tower has been brought up in this context. It sounds like exactly what is going on here.

[crisp eagle]

I believe I'm the only one who has brought it up

#easter-eggs message

i just did a search. looks like the only other mention was just in a regular chat where someone said they were reading it

[dusk siren]

Sorry, don't want to be overly dramatic, but I think that's huge. Might deserve its own thread, honestly.

[crisp eagle]

haha it's gonna make me read them again

[dusk siren]

Anyway, it's obvious most everyone is working on their own parts of the puzzle, which makes sense to me, but I'll post just two more things on Washington, D.C., and the Korean War Veterans Memorial that I think are thematically linked to the puzzle so far in case it rings any bells for people.

• "FREEDOM IS NOT FREE" inscription on the Korea War Veterans Memorial (attributed to Col. Walter Hitchcock of the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico, yes, that Roswell; also, the name of a song by Trey Parker in the 2004 film Team America: World Police and the name of a song recorded by Up with People.)
• On the south side of the memorial, "there are three bushes of the Rose of Sharon hibiscus plant, South Korea's national flower."

[crisp eagle]

also the main character Roland Deschain is a descendant of King Arthur haha Holy Grail

[dusk siren]

Well, even Stephen King got my ears perked up.

I'm ready for a long haul with this level of the puzzle. I'm sure one has to pace oneself.

[pure loom]

Cornelius Vanderbilt was known as the Commodore too.

[unique spruce]

@gloomy anvil @hard forge still actively play, i just haven't been around the discord much ✌️ ✌️

[pure loom]

Captain Ironmark (Seas The Day Set) and Captain Kidd (of Long Island treasure fame) look kinda similar, but then maybe all pirates do.

[dusk siren]

I don't know if we need more crazy directions to go in, but I always remembered this building (The Commodore Criterion Building at 202 5th Ave, Manhattan). Now I find out that the building was actually made famous by a man named A.C. Gilbert, the inventor of the Erector Set and "The Man Who Saved Christmas." It's entertaining trivia if nothing else. https://flatironnomad.nyc/history/the-commodore-criterion-building/

[unkempt dune]

well, you can also see it as a lesson involving the past, present, and future

[dusk siren]

well said

[rugged breach]

Skyway fish(?)

Been seeing this for a few days on different variants, chalked it off as a lighting glitch initially. It;s not been there the entire time... right?

[gloomy anvil]

The moon on Halloween SYS$HORIZON does this. Is it a reference to something I'm missing?

[crisp eagle]

Kinda looks like the Deathstar explosion

[sly quest]

You really gotta give credit to the devs. Everything we’ve seen so far was all in the season 4 trailer. They really are two steps ahead

[proven spindle]

Helloooo looks very similar at the symbols in the practice range @pure loom look who’s back, always on yellow things spawn these symbols ( sorry idk how to ping the tread lol)

[opal pond]

Placeholder image, not sure why that is the skin they chose for that…

[storm horizon]

its not even avaiable in skins

[opal pond]

Yeah

[storm horizon]

for that gun

[opal pond]

I wonder if we’ll ever get that skin

[burnt sun]

It's pretty close to Kawaii Candy Shop but then again a bit different

[dusk siren]

This 👆 is an absolutely fantastic catch. I would add that it's below the level of the land, so as to appear as if the fish is swimming down in the water below (I'm just saying what everyone's thinking, but I hadn't made a connection to the bluish out-of-bound lattice grid to water before, which itself is pretty intriguing).

I still think pools are going to be important and when I mentioned a fish scale pattern previously someone mentioned the koi (Vegas?). So I like this. I think there's a good chance we need to find an** easter egg** in or around a **pool **of some sort (**Kyoto **was new for S3 and the water was a big new feature in it). Happy to go into Kyoto and look around sometime if anyone ends up interested to join me (pop it in the Looking for Group).

[unkempt dune]

Sun fish?

[burnt sun]

kyoto holds many secrets still: theres fantails to be found, probably one of the golden nama tama and the waterdance EE was supposed to be there too, right?

[unkempt dune]

You know, if you look at the artifact sideways, it reminds me of a hoodie from assassin's creed

or... it's a dagger of some kind

[viscid owl]

whats crazy is that everything is on the first image. i love how its literally in front of us but we are looking in a haystack hahah

[dusk siren]

Had a thought that feels decently 💪 . The Scotty and June connection was probably noticed above, already, but I need to start from the beginning:

• Glyphs on the new Japanese-style gravestones lead to 'vocaloid', right #easter-eggs message
• 'vocaloid' as like AI voices, if I understand correctly (so like Scotty and June)
• 'vocaloid' -> 'LOAD VICO' (don't know if "loading" a file has been explicitly in any of the Finals videos before)
• Giambattista Vico is a 17th-18th c. philosopher who has some pretty great connections to what I've seen in the puzzle so far. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_Vico
  I wish I had time to write something up about the connections, but here's the famous and most commonly recognizable one to help explain my interest level in this Vico guy:
• Vico - > James Joyce's Ulysses -> Homer's The Odyssey (and the fact that one of the works of art I used from one of the Met galleries was a marble relief of a blind homer being led by a small girl) -> The fact that I already believe that the entirety of Level 3 is about us being on an odyssey of sort (travelling from location to location)

[dusk siren]

dagger is also good - definitely

[unkempt dune]

Yeah.. vocaloid was a smash hit with AI voices

Hatsune Miku 🫡

AI has been around for ages... especially since tic tac toe

well, more like the dawn of computers

but it's AI not I

you can have ethically trained AI

[dusk siren]

The idea of CNS entering the command 'LOAD VICO' into the terminal and having the VR simulation blast us through all those intermediate places and times before landing us in 16th c. Kyoto is interesting to me because, per wikipedia, he "inaugurated the modern field of the philosophy of history... Vico spoke of a "history of philosophy narrated philosophically.""

• "Vico's intellectual magnum opus is the book Scienza Nuova or New Science (1725), which attempts a systematic organization of the humanities as a single science that recorded and explained the** historical cycles** by which societies rise and fall."
• The way I first had Vico explained to me (whether rightly or wrongly) always made me think of that famous quote attributed to Mark Twain: "History doesn't repeat but it rhymes."

[unkempt dune]

AI Jokes

[fresh quiver]

was just to say its a moon-fish.

But apparently in german its "Mondfisch" (moon-fish)
and english is ocean sunfish

[dusk siren]

I was trying to be a good old-fashioned easter egg hunter and spent a little time going back through the cosmetics last night (I'm kind of stuck right now and was thinking about how nice a new strong in-game easter egg would be). Found these cosmetics (my confidence in the 'VICO' idea also when up another 10 percentage points probably), but I should probably start with Vico's anti-Cartesianism (see images, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_Vico). Now consider all the variants on the "Descartes' Demon" mask in-game, including a distinct one titled not "Descartes' Demon" but "ENGIMO in the Details", as well as, one with a white X spray painted on a black version of the mask.

In this reading, VICO is DESCARTES' DEMON

[dusk siren]

The most basic or literal reference (so not to say best or most relevant reference) might be to the logo for the frag grenade in-game. These two cosmetics are just instances of some more obscure places where it pops up, but I bet there are even better ones.

[dusk siren]

Incidentally there are at least a couple cosmetics that have very prominent X's on them. I wonder if there would be a way to connect them all somehow.

[crisp eagle]

Might be nothing but as everyone knows we get a total of 42 tickets for the event. Might just be a coincidence. But as I’m sure several people have probably pointed out throughout this hunt, in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” 42 is the “answer to life and everything” according to the super computer Deep Thought. Our last WT variants from Holtow had us getting abducted by aliens too.

[dusk siren]

That's good. Now I wish I could remember where I just saw a 42 when I was looking through some random stuff. (I thought, "Hitchhiker's...," but then I thought: aren't most of the big clues coming from the odd numerals 1,3,5,7,9?)

Actually, now it's really making some sense, since I'm really stuck on the idea that we are "travelling" in this level of the puzzle, just like a hitchhiker would.

From "The Aggressor" set, the hoodie jacket with "more than one layer to this jacket":

Compare this image from the following post from @tardy drum from a while back. #1265367410257428731 message

This is what I wrote at the time about how we might have X's but also circled pluses, ⊕, and even circled minuses, ⊖. #1270882064249520198 message

Now that I think of it, perhaps we even get a third mathematical operator, the circled times, ⊗, pertaining to many of the X's we've found. (If we need to do some math at some point, I hope we have some mathematicians here. 🙂 )

[dusk siren]

---

Separately, this post from @unkempt dune about battery sizes being very interesting because of all the codes they could correspond to (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes). Between the button shape and potential '+' sign, the screw perhaps also representing a battery. #1282815551944659104 message

Moreover, it made me think of this charm from the "Signal Router" set, which prominently features a **battery ** and is titled "Conductive Layer": "Bring the right amount of resistance to the arena" (see image).

To review some of the potential connections:

• 'resistance' as both a numerical physical quantity in electrical engineering (see Ohm, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm), but also connected to the idea of resistance movements in history (e.g., the resistance movement in WWII (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_during_World_War_II), with this movement sometimes also referred to as The Underground)
• 'conductive' as, again, relating to electricity, but also reminiscent of train conductors and the meaning of conduction in the context of transportation, possibly another nod to trains = Cornelius Vanderbilt
• 'layer' as having a meaning in computer networks and telecommunications networks, which is one more thing that makes me think of ENGIMO. Also, given that these layers are numbered or referred to by other terms (**PHY **= the 'physical layer'), this could be a clue ripe for puzzling possibilities. (the OSI Model, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model)
• 'router' as again being related to both telecommunications and transportation.

[dusk siren]

Sorry if this is a repeat and unoriginal but saw many people, including @granite bough , comment on these jack-o-lantern cubes (obviously, how great they are). Was anyone able to connect them to this to the Azai clan emblem @pure loom posted about here? #1250090941356838952 message

[pure loom]

Hey, they do look quite a lot like that emblem, don't they? I haven't seen this mentioned before. I haven't had much of a chance to jump into the game this week, so there's a few things I haven't had a chance to look at yet.

[pure loom]

Good spotting - that shape is reminiscent of the one on the ceiling of the building in the Practice Range.

[pure loom]

the image is curiously similar to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-impact_hypothesis

[ocean dagger]

we need a moon insurance then

[dusk siren]

I went looking for new easter eggs in Kyoto. I don't have a ton of experience with looking around in-game for stuff, so I don't have a great feel for what is probably nothing and what might be something. I do think I might have a few things here, so I'm sorry if there is some garbage as well, including purely rendering artifacts that people are already aware of and I'm not.

You guys have spent a ton of time underground in kyoto already so I feel pretty confident you've already dispensed with this one. It's a repeating asset, so nothing special about them in that regard. Just looked like a "VI" or "V1" something like that.

These yellow stepping stones stuck out. Later I got a high vantage point from the top of those communication spires/lightning rods/electrical poles atop the two tallest towers in Kyoto. To me it looked surprisingly close to the outlines of a "golden eye".

I noticed the way the rocks in some parts of the map intersected with the boundary of the level and it formed irregularly shaped outlines. This is the only one that looked like anything to me. I thought it might be the initials T.N.

[hearty meteor]

i think you are reading too far into this

clues that are hidden are usually obvious enough when we find them

[hearty meteor]

this i could see maybe being a thing

[dusk siren]

Yeah, thanks @hearty meteor . I appreciate the feedback. I don't have a good feel for these things. This was a rock along the perimeter of kyoto, does it say something? ... see, I don't know, but if I'm just cluttering the thread, I am happy to stop.

[rugged breach]

It's kinda close to the map eye but more narrow and missing the lashes. I wanna say 70% coincidence but that 30% still noteworthy

[hearty meteor]

also it would be nice if you could condense some of your words, its a lot to read through when in essence you only need a sentence or two

backreading has not exactly been easy

[hearty meteor]

this has been solved already, lead to a golden egg on monaco

[rugged breach]

Ditto on that, slightly less so on the main channel but we gotta keep threads as easy to read as we can, could always post the more verbose ideas over at #1282815551944659104 and maybe link to them with a tldr

[dusk siren]

that's helpful. I will do that

[rugged breach]

Yes, just pointing out the resemblance

[dusk siren]

I'll just put the rest in one post and people can look at them if they want.

The last one I should have gotten from a distance so you could see both kyoto towers clearly in a two shot like this: " I I ", to show the extent to which they are suggestive of either Tesla's wireless power or radio telecommunications, which would befit Japan-based ENGIMO.

[dusk siren]

This makes sense. Thanks, again, for the help. I'll do better. 🙂

[dusk siren]

On top of that well, it definitely looked like 0.721 to me. As a dewey decimal, 0.721 is "Architectural materials and structural elements". fwiw...

[sleek stratus]

Sorry for asking this but with the eye could it be more abstract? With the eye being represented by the security cameras that are on most the maps? Don’t know if anyone’s talked about them so I’d figure I’d ask.

[south wyvern]

(Off topic) but Happy Halloween, my fellow hunters! Don't eat too much candy!

[spring thistle]

Scat

[spring thistle]

https://discord.com/channels/1008696016318513243/1201288968562552863

[spring thistle]

All casual modes are spooky now. We should check the dolphins.

[opal pond]

Its fine, only 1 message

[snow walrus]

FD 28014

Gates Fire District is 28014

https://www.gatesfd.org/

has 3 stations:
Fire Station 1 - 2355 Chili Avenue
Fire Station 2 - 2215 Long Pond Road
Fire Station 3 - 22 Coldwater Road

[snow walrus]

i don't know how to proceed further. Maybe a James Monroe link, 5th President of the United States

[civic hornet]

Anyone tried "translating" what the parrot says? I can definitely make out some words like "hello" but its possible there could be clues hidden in the voice lines once de-distorted

[iron bridge]

In the same respect, PM 30831 for paramedics

[dull marsh]

It's Big Whoop, the gates of hell

[snow walrus]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gates_of_Hell -> Inferno -> Divine Comedy

[lyric zenith]

Hey i was just playing a game of world tour in Kyoto and i noticed some like japanse signs on smth like a gravestone

I cant upoad the pic tho

[opal pond]

#easter-eggs message
Was it like these?

[lyric zenith]

the stone is the same but the signs are different

[limpid yarrow]

so ive been vacant in here for a while but sore people talking about the yellow paths and such ive been woundering for a while but havent had the time to propely look and such as looking for job but i thougth maybe rob keeps adding map stuff cos we need to follow a route a route that is outline currently is on kayoto as the yellow paths seem to follow each other /yellow things si was thinking maybe a color walk but i havent had time topproperly test this theroyy other then i find it wierd how the stones are yellow for no reason and such

[lyric zenith]

Do i need to do something to upload files?

[limpid yarrow]

you need to be active more

@lyric zenith

[limpid yarrow]

u can send mte the image and i can post for you to

[lyric zenith]

^yeah

[limpid yarrow]

from @lyric zenith

[lyric zenith]

Can someone translate this, atleast some of them japanese i think

[limpid yarrow]

can you stop your self promo lol

[opal pond]

@tired aspen remove please

Its a french poppy playtime video I don’t think this is an easter egg 😂

[tired aspen]

yeah they spammed it but have been dealt with

[lyric zenith]

that was fast

[opal pond]

Thanks!

[opal pond]

I cant translate it but the other ones are probably team names so safe to say this is one aswell

[dusk siren]

That's what I thought, as in "leave"?

[analog zinc]

Send me in private, I need to see this easter egg

[dusk siren]

Did anyone mention or look into lunar eclipses for the moon clues on kyoto? Might generate a puzzle to solve or clue.

This sort of looks promising (Mark Twain, yankees, King Arthur, 'magic') https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historically_significant_lunar_eclipses

[dusk siren]

Dante's Inferno would be nice because you get 9 circles of hell to work with. Also the other two books in the trilogy, Purgatorio (iirc) and Paradiso (iirc)

[dusk siren]

If there is a recurring movie theme in this part of the puzzle, e.g., Will Ferrell movies, we might look further afield as well. Yes, more importantly as a series of Stephen King novels, but I still think @crisp eagle could be onto something with "The Dark Tower." #easter-eggs message. There's also a movie adaptation of "The Dark Tower." Then for "Gates," the Nic Cage movie "National Treasure" is about a treasure hunt, the Knights Templar, the freemasons, Washington, D.C., NYC, and many other themes. In that movie, Nic Cage he plays Benjamin Franklin Gates (I've noticed some possible Ben Franklin connections already, too).

---

Last thing for now: Any French speakers able to translate the lyrics to "C'est Absurde" from the S4 OST into English? Probably nothing, but the lyrics in "Overdog" are very clearly about ENGIMO, so thought of lyrics connections. Thx, as always, guys 🙂

[rugged breach]

Overdog(s)

[dusk siren]

Is that the literal translation? The reason I ask was the speculation by others, incl. @opal pond , that the inscriptions on the Japanese tombstones where just references to or alternate names for the team names in the Finals. Meanwhile, I convinced myself that you could use the new literal translations from Japanese to draw some new conclusions about the puzzle.

[hearty meteor]

yes its the literal translation

is there a jp localisation for tf?

[rugged breach]

Was mid match (ironically as the overdogs)
It's literally the english word "overdog(s)" transliterated in jp

[gloomy anvil]

Lunar eclipses were a recurring theme a little while ago. Here's a Padlet I made in January, but keep in mind it's old and a bit outdated.
https://padlet.com/raidy/holtow-dxo890lenr05aw47

[rugged breach]

I still think it's more of a nod towards "electricity"

Two obvious ones and retromania usually associated with electronic music

[viscid owl]

The "Chisel Chum" a rare badge with desc " A reminder of the one that got away." Does anyone knows or have a clue of who that might be ?

[dusk siren]

This is a similar idea, but involving only an asteroid impact on the moon directly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pole–Aitken_basin

[dusk siren]

If we still wanted to "translate" the Japanese translation of "Overdog" into something, three of these were the best connections I could some up with, where the idea of "Overdog" would be "dog overhead."

[dusk siren]

Wow, this is great. Potentially super helpful. 👍

[dusk siren]

I'm guessing near when Kyoto dropped a group of people went into a private match and tried to shoot out all the lights in the "moon lanterns" (maybe "moon beacons") during the same match. Eclipse = illumination goes out. One more stupid, time-consuming idea, though, I suspect.

[pure loom]

Rochester had the total solar eclipse path of totality pass over it on April 8 this year.

Maybe the eclipse clues were pointing us to a location?

[dusk siren]

I thought that or else dates, but even maybe both.

Also, per @gloomy anvil 's padlet, apparently there is such as thing as a "magnitude" of a lunar eclipse. I wasn't around for it, but sounds like Rob confirmed one such number before. Would be another way to generate numbers from the broader topic of lunar eclipses. #easter-eggs message

[rugged breach]

I doubt the gravestones have any meaning to them, all of them have team names on them (outside the retromania and co.), the jp ones are just staying thematic to the map rather than being special, similar to the digitised ones on sys.

Team names being important in some way I can 100% see but we dont have the "key" to unlock their meaning, maybe if we end up finding the full unredacted multico files 🤔

[rugged breach]

I still think something's up with the fireflies at nighttime but haven't visited that since kyoto release :p

Also kyoto's got the stump ee as an interactive on which has more ground to it making it a priority

[dusk siren]

What's the "stump ee" refer to?

Idea for the practice range roses if anyone is interested. #1203859365610922036 message

[rugged breach]

Monkey island reference-based.
There's some stumps in kyoto with an indent similar to that game
Joke is you need to insert 3 (floppy) discs to acess the catacombs you can see through the indent.
We found a specific model of tree has a chance to drop one of the discs

https://discord.com/channels/1008696016318513243/1252315342328565760

[dusk siren]

Two ideas for the Disk #22 easter egg that might not have been explored if anyone is interested. #1252315342328565760 message
Update: per @cold heart , a reminder that "yes, only cosmetics that can be gotten for free are used in EEs," so feel free to ignore these ideas (one costing money in the store, and one from the Season 2 battle pass) .... The idea was "discs" in the game that could be used. I think mines would be the closest things to "discs" having nothing to do with cosmetics.

[crisp eagle]

Man that looks like the written language from the “Predator” movies

[tulip nebula]

Ghost out of a Jack-o'-lantern without a light?

So I was just throwing some jack-o'-lanterns at my friend and all of the sudden a ghost appeared. I noticed that the jack-o'-lantern I threw didn't have any lights. Played a couple of games before and after but only saw this once