Hello and welcome to "Thanks for Skyrim!" - a treasure hunt giveaway for - you guessed it - Skyrim :)

Please no giveaway link sharing, and no posting answers in this thread ^_^

This is my second puzzle, and I believe it is a bit more tricky than the previous one.

Giveaway requires $31 contribution value.

Giveaway end countdown.

Good luck and have fun!


SOLUTION

  1. The first challenge was to find the link to the puzzle. There were 6 italicized characters in the announcement text which spelled source - which hinted at the need to view the page source (via right-clicking on the page and clicking view source or whatever works for your browser) in order to find the hidden itstoohard.com puzzle link.
  2. The Nintendo64 puzzle: the next step of the puzzle required you to decipher the text using the base64 decoding scheme, which was hinted at by the Nintendo64 pic in the background.
  3. The decoded text turned out to be a quote from Skyrim: "I used to be an adventurer like you, then..." You had to answer with the last part of the quote which was "I took an arrow in the knee"
  4. The red herring proved to be quite challenging for many people. In order to get past this step you had to understand that the red herring picture was both a solution and a distraction. The actual image of the red fish had nothing to do with the puzzle; the answer was not in the picture, but was hidden in the file instead. Opening the image file with any text editor and scrolling down to the very end of the file (note the filename "Where fish ends the hunt continues") revealed the link to the next step.
  5. The music puzzle. 134 players, 133 solvers. Seriously?! :) The track that was offered was an arrangement of the Super Mario Bros. main theme by Koji Kondo (performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra).
  6. The letters puzzle: you were presented with five lines of text. If you took the first letters of each line the result spelled IMGUR - an image-hosting website. Opening imgur.com/sNzrjxi revealed the last step of the puzzle.
  7. The final puzzle: the giveaway code was hidden in an audio recording, next to the excerpt from the "Dragonborn" theme by Jeremy Soule (Skyrim OST). The five-letter code could be made visible by opening the track in an audio editor capable of displaying sound spectrogram. The spectrogram showed TYYAl. After overcoming the initial confusion between the two similar-looking letters (I and l) and reversing the code (which was hinted at by the reversed musical excerpt) you finally received the giveaway code to use on SteamGifts: lAYYT.

Thanks everyone for participating in my treasure hunt! ^_^

1 decade ago*

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KITTY~! <3

1 decade ago
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Meow

1 decade ago
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BOW WOW!!!

1 decade ago
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The easiest puzzle ...but i don't have enough contribution!:(

1 decade ago
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what a lie, easiest puzzle would be "Click Here" with a direct link to the giveaway :p

1 decade ago
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+1

1 decade ago
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Thanks for Skyrim!

1 decade ago
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Skyrim for Thanks!

1 decade ago
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Thanks! And now, where is my Skyrim?

1 decade ago
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I used to be an adventurer like you but then I won Skyrim on my Steam account.

1 decade ago
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So what are we supposed to do?

1 decade ago
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Be Smart

1 decade ago
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I really don't get it, the only thing I know is a clue and that's pretty much it.

1 decade ago
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Be really smart.

1 decade ago
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haha xD

1 decade ago
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I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO AM I RETARDED?

1 decade ago
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Probably not. Just inattentive :)

1 decade ago
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1 decade ago
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Hmm, got pretty far but now stuck :(

1 decade ago
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Same.

1 decade ago
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Same

1 decade ago
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Same here too

1 decade ago
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^^^ really? Only 3 solvers where I am... and I'm slightly past that

1 decade ago
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If there will be no solvers after 24 hours, I will start gradually adding hints for each step of the puzzle :D

1 decade ago
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no clickies

i give up

1 decade ago
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Saving this for tomorrow. My brain is too tired after a hard day's work.

1 decade ago
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So hard

1 decade ago
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Stuck on the third step, hmm...

1 decade ago
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Tools required for this one? :]

Ahhh nvm.

1 decade ago
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Third step and only 4 solvers so far

1 decade ago
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first two were easy,third step I dont think I will be able to get past that ^^

Edit: not sure if my first step is the same third step as other think...

1 decade ago
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Contributor ($31.00)

my brain is saved

1 decade ago
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Not sure what to do with the 'letters'.

1 decade ago
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Same.

1 decade ago
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If only I were well versed in the puzzle. My years of training have been for naught.

1 decade ago
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Everything you need to solve that part is there, before your very eyes. No guesswork is needed.

1 decade ago
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Thanks for the comment, although I still do not know the answer. Are you planning to post the answers here? If not, could you perhaps message me after the giveaway is over with the solutions?

1 decade ago
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I will post some hints in 24 hours.

1 decade ago
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Thanks. Congrats on 1,000 comments for your next comment as well. :)

1 decade ago
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Thanks for the puzzle, solved!

1 decade ago
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Thanks for Skyrim !

1 decade ago
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I dont even need the game, just wanted to see if I could solve. I could not. I did the first thing fine. Then I did the second one with the image, but then the third, I just didnt get it.

1 decade ago
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Well now that you have released the hints, I will say that the red herring hint doesnt help me at all. Thats where I got stuck. Reading the rest of the tips... damn, you sure tried hard to make this difficult.

1 decade ago
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Two solvers, one entry so far :)

1 decade ago
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Sigh...third step's very time consuming for me. Giving up. :)

1 decade ago
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How many steps are there?

1 decade ago
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Six. The final step is the one where the word "Steamgifts" is prominently visible :)

1 decade ago
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Dangit. Guess I'm only halfway through then. XD

1 decade ago
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Where i can write the "solution"?

1 decade ago
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If you solved the final part of the puzzle, you got 5 symbols - they are the giveaway code to use on SteamGifts.

1 decade ago
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Err I'm supposedly stuck on the 'Blues' part. This isn't the final step is it?

1 decade ago
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When you reach the final step you will see the word "SteamGifts"

1 decade ago
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but they are all in caps?

1 decade ago
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Not necessarily.

1 decade ago
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I tried all 64 combinations (32 + reversed) and something is still missing.

1 decade ago
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Some letters might look like the others. For example, a certain upper-case letter looks almost identical to another lower-case letter.

1 decade ago
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Wow I feel stupid now...
Thanks :)

1 decade ago
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The letters are all in caps in the code? Then we have to figure out which one is caps and which aren't to get the giveaway or i'm just running in circles? <.<

1 decade ago
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All the letters are in proper case in the code already. No need to change case.

1 decade ago
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i can't figure out...i tried a lot of combinations.. First seems stable upper and the 4 one but the 2 middles ..idk

1 decade ago
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I stuck at the same point.

1 decade ago
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hmm, stuck at level 1, 1 word is all i have... hmm

1 decade ago
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Here's a second:
word

1 decade ago
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Bah! i'll get some coffee then try this.

1 decade ago
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HOW CAN I EVEN
No,Goodbye,fuck this.
Thanks for skyrim,tho :a

1 decade ago
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Stuck on the last step :/

1 decade ago
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I think I'm really near for solving this but I'm stuck at the last step I think Xp

1 decade ago
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4 solvers now :D

1 decade ago
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Closed 1 decade ago by SleepyCat.