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First puzzle - 1 day left. Main prize: Tales of Symphonia

Closed
Aldcoran

Puzzle will last till monday sunday

Hedhicbbajdeiabfegjijfdaf
Gjgicebbjiaebejcgdcheiiejadib
Cffhigchcefeiffciggcdgcigfiigd
Figciagfhjeihdgfbadjcedeecadddahbcjgcjfhjigfajhaebiifeace
Ccfiafbcaiffjfijddijifjebdcdbdibjjjfbd
Accccdddfdgfffhjdf
Gidicfigbceejafdbiebjajfcaaebajefgdbidgafcc
Deajfabbjfiicdcjgfdibijijbdfbefgcecbgaahcdjdjedeibegc

I might have overdid it a bit so feel free to share ideas till you get an url. From that point forward it should be quite easy and I expect that people will solve the rest individually.

It's my first puzzle so if you think something is not working as intended fell free to ask for verification.

Main prize: Tales of Symphonia giveaway
7GAs total

Ps There's an sgtools check at the end. Standard rules apply(no multiple wins, everything activated) + ratio 0.75 for the main prize.

Edit: I would like to ask you all a question about the puzzle. A pity pools can't be added to a topic. Please instead respond to that post.

8 years ago*

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108 Comments
chour

And finally solved it! :)

8 years ago
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Aldcoran

Congratulations, just off the podium, but with 4 solvers I think it's still an elite club :)

8 years ago
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EsalRider

With the remaining time closing in on the 3-hour mark, this thread feels rather... Quiet. Bump

8 years ago
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s12333211

Bump for all solved near the end!

8 years ago
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Aldcoran

Just above 2 hours till the end. Chour practically gave you the answer to the group part, will we end up with only 5 solvers?

8 years ago
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LovinLover

I think I'm out of time to solve it.
Maybe another hint like total number of characters after the GAs ended.

8 years ago
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Aldcoran

Like I said refer to Chour's post. There's nothing I can add to that without reveling the next step.

For all the people wondering, there are 3 steps left:

  1. Decode an url from the matrix
  2. A self describing image
  3. 10Q ITH

It should still be doable in the 30 minutes left

8 years ago
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yukulele53

Bump for solved!

8 years ago
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nightswallow22

never mind it's ended so how about a solution for dumb people like me

8 years ago
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Aldcoran

First part of the solution added

8 years ago
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Aldcoran

Solution for those interested:

The whole solution to the group part consists of only 5 basic steps:

  1. sort letters per line(this can be done later) - hints about the alphabet Alfa & Omega obviously meant from A to H
  2. count them - Srtk suggested using the letter occurrence frequency in his post summing up the progress 5 days ago
  3. form a matrix filling the blanks with 0s(Yukulele's post about the dimensions + 3rd hint)
  4. transpose(Once again Yukulele suggested base 10, I even replied that he's getting warmer, but that it was not the exact step. It also leads to step 5)
  5. decode octal(xlate) - the only step left when using Chour's post

This gives an url to Imgur with a QR code

The QR code leads to an ITH with 10 questions
I'll post the solution to the ITH in an hour or so so that anybody interested can attempt to solve it on their own

ITH solution
ITH

8 years ago*
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LovinLover

I always thought the xlate octal part failed to decode and use cryptii whenever octal involved.... lol

8 years ago
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Aldcoran

To be honest I didn't notice at the beginning that there are differences, but xlate seems to use the correct algorithm. Other tools I checked(including cryptii) encode the text char by char extending the binary representation with extra 0 to then encode every letter with 3 digits. Xlate encodes the whole text giving 8 digits per 3 characters.
If I were to compare it's like encoding 11(dec) as 00000001 00000001 in binary vs 00001011

8 years ago
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LovinLover

In xlate, 100(oct) = 20(hex) = 32(dec), that sounds weird to me, at least beyond my knowledge.
Actually, I have no idea which algorithm xlate used to encode into 8 digits per 3 characters.

Well, that's not a big deal as the puzzle itself is fun. :)

8 years ago
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Aldcoran

It simply encodes the binary representation 3 bits at a time

8 years ago
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Closed 2 years ago by Aldcoran.