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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Solved.
Thanks for Skyrim

1 decade ago
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made it to part 3 but now im stuck wonder if im over thinking it

1 decade ago
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puzzle link?

1 decade ago
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Treasure "HUNT" not treasure "give"... o_O

You have to find the link, that's part of the puzzle...

1 decade ago
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i found a word, but wtf to do with that

1 decade ago
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Look and follow...

1 decade ago
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Interesting. I said "fuck it I already have Skyrimz brwhahwhwahaha" after the 3rd step though :D but the puzzle looks puzzling, good job!

Also, free bump!

1 decade ago
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I found a word but I have no idea what to do with it. D:

1 decade ago
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same, i thought its a puzzle link (

1 decade ago
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wow I suck, can't even solve the first part with the N64. And yet 60/79 who got here solved it =[. Maybe the google hint is just throwing me off -- there's nothing there to google!

Edit: Well, after extensive researching I figured out the first puzzle. I don't feel accomplished at all =[ because this puzzle wasn't really a puzzle if you had the pre-requisite knowledge. There's no way in hell I'll be able to complete the rest of this at this rate

1 decade ago
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+1

1 decade ago
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Already have so don't do it

1 decade ago
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Srsly i don't get it. How does it work ? Where is this test ? I've never done anything like that.

EDIT: ah... i found it ok... but it's not fair for someone who doesn't know it exist.

1 decade ago
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It wouldn't be a puzzle if everyone would be able to solve it right away.

1 decade ago
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Yeah i know but if someone (not me) knows about internet, how it works nothing, then he will never find a link ;p

1 decade ago
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Of course, solving puzzles on SteamGifts requires some general understanding of how puzzles on the internet work - but I'm sure a curious mind would be able to google several articles about puzzle-solving, which cover the basics of cryptography and steganography. This particular puzzle is nothing but the basics, really. It's been done before, both on the internet and on the SG forums :)

1 decade ago
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Oh u sneaky... :D hinting something like that with a game console :D

1 decade ago
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this has been done before on SG

I think it was 2 weeks ago

1 decade ago
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red herrings everywhere xD

1 decade ago
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Red herrings are fun :)

1 decade ago
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Stuck at some crazy reverse music file D:
Which part is that anyway?

1 decade ago
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That's the last one :)

1 decade ago
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You're almost there! ^_^

1 decade ago
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after looking at the image I realized I'm stuck at dead end. I know I have to turn back, but I don't know where to go.

1 decade ago
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Not so much as turning back, just look elsewhere.

1 decade ago
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The problem is that I hate fish. And that particular one is no exception :D
Patiently waiting for the hints

1 decade ago
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I don't even need Skyrim, I just want to try the puzzle. But this first image is confusing already. Cryptology I'd think based on the last comment. But I have no idea how this works, even after googling it. So now I'm sad. Also, the hints thing doesn't seem to be counting down. I thought that they did?

1 decade ago
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Made some decent progress before I got stumped. I'm pretty sure I know where what I'm looking for resides, but I'm not quite sure how to get it, so I'll either be waiting for inspiration to strike or a solution to get posted. ;)

Fun puzzle, thanks SleepyEmp!

1 decade ago
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I think I'm retarded, can't see any puzzle...

1 decade ago
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;3; I don't understand.

1 decade ago
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Thanks for the hunt =)

I can't play the music file right now, so I'll have to get back to it later.

1 decade ago
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wow stuck after correctly answering the music, so close yet so far!!

1 decade ago
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Dito. It's driving me nuts. I'm pretty sure that it's something obvious... >_<'

1 decade ago
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yes, if we look at it, the puzzles are actually relatively simple if we just look at the right place.
I'd hate to not be one of the entries after coming so far.

1 decade ago
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me too

1 decade ago
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Same here, same here... X(

1 decade ago
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it's been hours that i'm staring at these letters o.0
i guess i'll see it after i get some sleep.

1 decade ago
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Hmm for Skyrim I might give it a shot, though I probably won't get to the end. I'm usually pretty bad at puzzles, but for a reward like that I am tempted to start researching about all these puzzle methods. It might prove helpful in solving puzzles also in the future.

1 decade ago
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Go for it! ^_^

1 decade ago
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Yay, a kitty is cheering for me!! Now I simply have to try this one, I can't let Sleepy down. Good thing there's plenty of time left, I can go do some other things now and eventually come back to bust my brain with this. Already got to the first puzzle (if you don't count finding the puzzle a puzzle in itself), so I have made at least some progress. Ā°uĀ°

1 decade ago
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Even thou I'm stuck now, it's a great piece of work! Awesome puzzle, I love it.

1 decade ago
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I understand, just my eyes are bad. :(

1 decade ago
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I give up. Good luck to everyone!

1 decade ago
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Finally I can say: Thanks for Skyrim :)

1 decade ago
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thanks for skyrim!

..i did the same thing as you on this post

1 decade ago
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I'm stucking at 3rd part now :(
EDIT: Now I'm stucking at 4th

1 decade ago
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how did you get to the 4th part? :)

1 decade ago
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By solving the 3rd part, obviously :)

1 decade ago
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+1

1 decade ago
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+1

1 decade ago
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-3

1 decade ago
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Solved it. :) 9 entries so far.

1 decade ago
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Stuck at the last part. The music file. Any hints?

1 decade ago
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c'mon everyone has heard that music

1 decade ago
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I think he means the Steamgifts.mp3 file, not the Music.mp3 :)

1 decade ago
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ooh.. another music file, i am so stuck.. :-<

EDIT :- i;m reading the letters wrong in the last step

1 decade ago
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Ā¬_Ā¬ Someone tell me what's up with this first puzzle. It's bugging the hell out of me. I already have Skyrim, which you can check... AUGH, IT ANGERS ME. And this 1 hour until the hint unlocks thing doesn't work.

Hmm, well I decoded it, but it's spelled wrong and doesn't work. Nor does the game it seems to be from, since it's not an N64 game. I just don't get it.

That first one is kind of annoying. Finally got it, but I can't say why it's annoying without giving a hint. Not that most people seem to need one. Either way, hurray. I did one myself. And now can't find the second...

1 decade ago
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Bump for solved:)

1 decade ago
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Closed 1 decade ago by SleepyCat.