I don't even get what I'm supposed to do in the puzzle?
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Hmm... Basically, try a bunch of keys that someone else probably used yesterday, and then try to think of something... :)
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Bump for solved!
Joking. My attention span will not allow me to continue. Those signs are awesome though. Time to shave...
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Guess this puzzle requires too much work, sorry... :) But good luck with it if you get a random brain wave! :)
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I added some more leftover bundle keys, so if you can't solve the puzzle at least try to grab some free crap before the bots take everything! :)
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Bump for puzzle 3 solved, but I'm not finding the second one
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Hmm, 24 people have managed it somehow, so don't give up! :) Or giving up works too, I guess... :) It's your time, after all... :)
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Can't remember if you got anywhere with the puzzles, but at least the keys worked! :) Good luck... :)
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Woohoo! Took ..P5IE0 (Rageball!) since it was at the start of the keys.
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Ahh, I dunno what that game is, but free crap is (usually) better than free nothing! :)
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you were not joking. i cannot bind the phrase to the hint though :c
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Sorry about that, but my puzzle hints are usually worthless...
Actually, the puzzles aren't much either... :) Currently they range in difficulty from completely trivial (if you notice the thing) to completely impossible (if you don't) ... :)
Good luck... :)
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Bump for solving (finally! ๐) and for over-thinking and partly missing the obvious! ๐ณ
and for great justice too of course ๐
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Thank you! :) Ugh, still haven't started on the big hint for this one...
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Well the Big Hintโข from the other one kinda works for this one too, so don't trouble yourself too much ๐
ย
ย
Of course the less solvers the better for me so I may be a little biased ๐
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Yeah, but I can't exactly force people to read that other hint... It would be more obvious to have one in here, too... Although I'm pretty lazy... And there's a new humble blabla etc... :)
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Sorry about that, it's a pretty dumb puzzle... :) So if you find yourself thinking about it a long time, you're probably doing it wrong... :)
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Bump. :)
Hope everyone has a good day.
(and sorry for spamming the good day thing on all 3 of my comments it's a habit I've developed that I have no matter where I am on the internet, a good habit in my opinion though, who doesn't like someone wishing them a good day?)
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Thank you! :)
Hope everyone has a good day too! :)
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More lazy than crafty I think, but with all the people stuck / given up maybe it is? Not sure...
Thank you! :)
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I'm starting to have a panic attack for not beeing able to solve this, specially with all this heat
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Well, there's always the Level 0 giveaway if you give up, but that would take all the fun out of it... :)
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I have no bloody idea what to do with the info I got
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Hmmm, if you got the info I'm assuming you got, the next part should be straightforward - see the itstoohard links. :)
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Sadly it is not :( I went after the info in the hints, but I just don't know it has to do with the text. Sadly "straightforward" stuff doesn't work for me, because I get lost in details, like it would be almost more logical to translate the text's letters into numbers, and use the sum of them, than likely whatever the real solution is :\
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Oh, the hint has nothing to do with the text, you could google that stuff all day long if you like (seems like some people did, sadly...) but it's never going to give you the answer. It's supposed to give people the idea of what to do next.
Sounds pretty vague, I suppose. Sorry! :) I'll try to add a big hint for this puzzle today, like I did with the other puzzle - but no promises... :)
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Bump for 1-3 solved, no idea about 4.
Looking through zelgh for similar stuff but I'm probably overthinking it.
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Hmmm, I assume you "solved the puzzle" but didn't know what to do with the result? If it's any consolation, you're not the only person stuck there... Whatever comes next is in that puzzle guide, although I'm not going to point to the exact spot for obvious reasons... :)
Good luck... :)
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Do capitals/spaces/punctuation matter? Before I go trying silly combinations :P
I did the other puzzle but still can't get past part 1 of this after giving it a break for a few days, feeling dumb! I found 3 things to work with and did the thing with one of the things
Edit: OMG YES PART 1 solved! I am a tiny bit less dumb.
Edit 2: And 2 and 3 and 4! Except not 4. Do spaces count here?
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Hooray for replying slowly... :) I'm catching up, but it seems you solved it without my giving any useless non-hints... :)
Ahh, part 4 seems to be a sticking point for several people, so you're not alone there... :) Looks like 27 people have entered that giveaway, so it's not quite impossible... :) Good luck... :)
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I tried "decoding" with and without spaces, nothing came up with the magic 5. Boohoo, woe is me, I need a break :D
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Hmm, I added a hint, but it's for people who got stuck or were completely oblivious earlier - not going to do you any good at all, I'm afraid... :(
Not sure what to say about the other part, actually... If you're expecting everything to be in a nice neat box it's not really playing fair, but if you take a step back and look at it, maybe you'll suddenly notice whatever. Also check that https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/TLR8m/zelgh-magic-guide-to-basic-sg-puzzling-update-october-2017 one more time, it's not exactly obscure... :)
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Aw thank you for replying :)
I don't think I'm going to get this one! I went through that page over and over last night, I was pretty determined. Thought I was getting somewhere at one point using a table but realised there are too many numbers for what I need. I tried decoding and trying ciphers on a few different sites and even tried inspecting everything on the ith page. I'm either missing something really obvious or the result I'm expecting isn't what I should be expecting. Hmm determination rising, time to try again :D
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Ahh, sorry to hear that, and hmm... It's probably not worth spending hours of your life on just a chance to win some mystery game - unless you really like puzzles...
This last part isn't the sort of puzzle where you need to do a lot of thinking or unwrap some complicated nonsense 20 layers deep. Some people "got it" quickly, and some people didn't... :(
I think familiarity with whatever-it-is makes it stand out, like I could see hidden English words in a picture (they would probably jump out at me) but I'm not going to recognise hidden Sanskrit words no matter how long I stare at it...
So anyway, if you get the urge to stare at it some more good luck, but there's no crime in doing something fun on the weekend instead... :)
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Yeah it's more about beating the puzzle, the ga is just a bonus. ^^
I've tried a bazillion things and everything that seemed feasible from the puzzle guide but I'm happy I solved the 4 ITH puzzles anyway! Please say you'll explain what to do with the number when it's over!
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Ahh, fortunately I noticed the final giveaway's running four more days, so I can't explain anything just yet... Don't want a bunch of lazy clowns piling in for free after everyone else had to work at it... :)
Someone else may spoil it accidentally, so I'll just have to hope not... :) But that gives me time to write an explanation, seems I'm lazy all the way around... :)
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Lol lucky you noticed :D
Nice to know I have more time, though I doubt it will help :P
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TVK62-NWโPN-9K9HR
One more bump. Can't get through q2 and q3, I know origins of hidden, but without any right variant in toohard.
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Ahh, sorry about that, sounds like you know what to do, but it's just not working for some reason? I hope you get lucky and figure out whatever I'm asking in there, if you don't say screw it instead... :)
Thank you! :) I wonder if anyone's tried your mystery key yet?
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Turns out the best way to write a puzzle explanation is to sit down and write it. Ideally before you make the puzzle, but I never remember to do that... Usually I just start fooling around with numbers and bundle keys and see what turns up... :)
Yeah, numbers and bundle keys. I guess this will spoil any future puzzles, but my key drops with random leftover bundle keys are never random leftover bundle keys - there's always something hiding inside.
LOOK AT THE KEYS!
I'm not clever enough to save links to old puzzles, but poking around found some examples:
Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition puzzle, or Little Witch Romanesque: Editio Perfecta puzzle :), or NieR:Automata puzzle, or, of course, Dark Souls 1+2+3 & The Miskatonic puzzle and The Miskatonic + Monster Hunter: World puzzle. :)
I suggest anyone working on puzzles read the puzzle guide first. For this specific puzzle, you have a pile of text (i.e. the bundle keys) meant to distract you from the secret message(s) hiding inside. Like this:
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
The first column in the keys gives THATISNOTDEADWHICHCANETERNALLIEANDWITHSTRANGEAEONS which Lovecraft fans might know as That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons... :)
The second column in the keys (yeah, ok it's not a column, it moves around because I don't own a million spare bundle keys...) gives 486F776D616E796167657368656E63655368616C6C74686973 which umm, it's a long string of gibberish? Don't worry, that is base 16 ASCII character codes, which you already knew or noticed in the puzzle guide. Turning that into text gives HowmanyageshenceShallthis which looks like Shakespeare if you spread it out a bit How many ages hence Shall this... :) Yeah, I wasted a lot of time trying to make some other Lovecraft quotes fit instead, but I didn't own enough bundle keys to pull it off. Oh well... :(
The third column gives ISAWTHEBODYSPREADONTHATDANKSTONEANDKNEWTHOSETHINGS which is also Lovecraft, but you'd probably need to google it to discover where I saw the body spread on that dank stone, And knew those things came from... :)
Incidentally, that should (?) explain the keys added in the 26 July edit, which didn't help with the puzzle but just gave you one more chance to notice something. The things you could notice were GALLIA EST OMNIS DIVISA IN PARTES TRES QVARVM VNAM INCOLVNT BELGAE ALIAM AQVITANI TERTIAM QVI IPSORVM LINGVA CELTAE NOSTRA GALLI APPELLANTVR and This is not a hint. This is not a hint. This is not....... and HI OMNES LINGVA INSTITVTIS LEGIBVS INTER SE DIFFERVNT GALLOS AB AQVITANIS GARVMNA FLVMEN A BELGIS MATRONA ET SEQVANA DIVIDIT FREE KEYS WOOHOO which google could explain for you. :) There's no U in Steam keys, sorry. :)
The 4 August edit was the same idea - ?HINT? and HINTHINT in the keys were trying to get everyone to look at the keys. That's it. :)
Anyway, the solution to these puzzles comes about by guessing you need to finish the quote. Otherwise you're screwed. Hence the Burma-Shave "hint" in the itstoohard things. Blah blah blah blah, and googling tells you the missing part is BURMA-SHAVE. The part in the keys is "blah blah blah blah" so you just type in the rest of the line, i.e. the "Burma-Shave" part. Yeah, it's not a very good hint. Sorry! :)
Anyway, solving those first three itstoohard puzzles led to the Miskatonic giveaways 1 2 3, each of which contained a number.
For the fourth itstoohard thing, you only needed to add the numbers: 2247371907021798609437 + 3673622262609912460805 + 2490417963119497539938 = 8411412132751208610180. Which leads to... ?
For everyone who tried to do something with that number, umm, sorry. A lot of people noticed what's going on, but more than a few didn't... :( Check the puzzle guide one last time. It's simply more ASCII characters. Would 084 114 121 032 075 120 086 101 080 have helped? Yeah, definitely. I guess if you're familiar with ASCII you noticed, and if not, you didn't. Anyway, turning that ASCII stuff back into text gives Try KxVeP which was the Monster Hunter: World giveaway.
Sorry it took so long to write the explanation, and sorry the puzzle was dumb. Hmm, seems I'm always writing this...
I could say I'll try to do better next time, but most likely next time I'll be just as lazy and make the same dumb things again. So thank you for playing, and good luck next time! :)
Original message:
Umm, nope, same here. Maybe when it's in a bundle?
You know, it doesn't really say "Humble Monthly" to me, and frankly it looks too good for Indie Gala or (current) Groupees... But you never know...
The store page https://store.steampowered.com/app/870290/The_Miskatonic/ looks interesting, but it sounds like they ran out of money or the programmer left or something? I dunno. In other words, typical kickstarter? The art looks cool though.
Anyway, maybe if you solve one of these puzzles, you won't have to buy it:
Level 0 puzzle, i.e. public giveaway Can you solve the puzzle of the people who try to win a visual novel but can't read? One of the enduring Steamgifts mysteries...
Level 1 puzzle
Level 2 puzzle
Level 3 puzzle
Level 4 puzzle
And the obligatory puzzle pieces disguised as a bundle leftover key dump in 3... 2... 1...
TZM3N-CB๐B2-MN6QIH9YC9-CA73๐ -0A5LSALIEX-4V๐E3-7PBKAT5WAC-GC8๐ฝ7-NXPMWIN4YK-GBDZ๐-C7JYTS20IL-MCZ๐E-Y3ECHNTFEX-๐ZCYW-Y44AEO2DZE-FG๐ปAH-LDHHBTAYBX-๐QWBE-GZKTOD5WZ0-JY๐PV-5GVLDEA9EA-QW๐PR-KEBAYANCR8-FY๐ผIW-WVV5SD5W3P-AC0๐9-2AH4PW4CB5-K0๐กHK-GC4PRHYBX9-๐3A0T-LNGCEI087L-F2K๐V-F6EXAC62Q5-VC7๐2-82JPDHGWNC-YWV๐4-AFCPOCF035-K0๐YD-EINZNA5IJM-KV๐LY-GBZMTNDBZL-๐5DQT-4EDZHEJPTY-0YGX๐-LL57ATR7HB-IWE๐G-KRFRTETFE0-D๐ QNE-VXRXDRECEP-Q๐KAR-J79PAN5FK2-L2๐99-D9GMNA74RZ-๐EGDT-XAHWKLQGMZ-YV๐ผ5I-VBRGSL8R7K-๐B4A8-0JFCTIF3T3-MB๐I2-CYR0OEE9R8-๐ZH3E-MQBYNAL3AW-29๐BV-XFRBENH5ZV-M๐3T4-VZ20ADQKNX-๐XZ8K-AZ8CNWVCQK-JN๐M9-V26QDIJVYM-8B๐ 7N-AGJDKT6M88-4X๐KN-N4W7NH0FZ0-๐7YQN-XK46ES5Q5E-๐3QH3-JVGVWTC2EA-M๐PL3-IK7LTRIR3K-๐2YPV-4AN4HAGACG-WJIZ๐-WZNQON6YLN-H8G๐0-YKJ3SGWF9Z-T๐2XY-WR2ZEEI8J0-YKW๐T-WY28TAZA87-0P๐ R2-IZZQHEXM6X-F๐QXW-QEYMIOG2T8-๐ก6CJN-JCA2NNWLLB-AGD๐7-0YV4GSDAVV-P64๐7-8Q6XSGood luck! :)
Edit 26 July:
Hey, I couldn't think of any new hints, but I did find some more leftover bundle keys... :) Someone's got to feed those starving bots... :)
GKEWA-79๐6P-Q6QZHA5G89-8I๐MT-5Q80IL82IV-F0NV๐-L5L8OLN6VR-27๐ TB-2YNQMI3CXG-ERJ๐K-83GENANXEB-5๐กVM3-6MMGEE7DHY-95EV๐-80PHSSRYI8-๐JGX6-AMCHLTVDVA-D0๐03-HNICIOGKWH-YA๐EM-9K6HNMP8YT-I9๐KZ-D8Q3GNVEAA-KF๐กVX-QD7TVIT5E3-W๐E68-EIWAASZ7ZW-X9๐DM-C8VYIDNHLE-VJ๐BB-2JVENIR47G-DQL๐E-PNJESVX48N-8XZ๐I-6I2BTIAN5V-8E๐ผPV-W404ISZBXW-๐EPL0-84KHTAMKZC-4VKZ๐ฝ-BPWWVIW5Q6-WZ๐KX-CPE5TNM0NM-FW๐N6-K0JKIPV4XJ-RM83๐-4TVESA9Q2F-FM๐NG-KI3TLR8BK2-H05๐J-TXG4ET47W6-IMC๐E-AE2VGE53VQ-BW๐GE-KLKJISMHKY-7R๐57-4CJZBTPG4R-WX๐IG-P9FXVR3RGL-74๐ IT-ICCWSEIL69-95T๐P-GTI4ISTL7R-H2๐กTR-X2XQNQ6T6M-MG๐PB-KGFHTV54G9-8M๐ผCK-LFWLEAN9RV-MFQ2๐-PLRNRR9247-๐DQZC-BQIPSVZQAC-3AG๐J-EXAAEMW040-JV๐ผV3-33Y6DVPQ0I-๐KFZL-47MFINZ4CK-J๐AVQ-X3C9FAEIKT-09๐4E-TR64FMCYAC-44๐Z9-YFKCEI62TA-๐NFIP-CB7RRN4EM8-๐X0TH-XDM3VC2HDL-R0GV๐-EKFXNOARQ0-3D๐ CM-ANDBTLCDHV-K๐8VV-5GC0GVIZCN-K๐ก6F4-462WANH5RK-FDY๐Q-NNH2LTVQHM-X88๐R-N3ZXLBC386-NE๐MY-70JFOENB4Y-YW๐0P-4I3PSL6WEK-๐F5FD-RX6BAGACNE-6B๐กV4-7NA5BAA479-YP๐EN-VBWIAEA3Y5-JX๐ZM-5NILQAHZAW-XFJK๐-RMZDVLEZV4-AZ77๐-9ZNAIIV3CI-MJ๐49-9QQCTA0F3I-๐ผDNTJ-MNJBAMEY9M-๐8VN5-QE94NA0CVJ-LD๐ฝP6-98PKIQCAXA-9GLW๐-39R9SVGDCC-84W๐W-EHG0GITN05-0L๐75-7L2CAT69H7-052๐E-2KQJRA0MLQ-๐HMN6-80NLVNIY4V-ARD๐M-Y6Z4MI5MXJ-GY๐BF-Y6A9NTKJGK-E๐P3N-0CADAEE3N8-2R2P๐-LNR0FRTV0P-W5E๐ G-7D2JLTPG4R-WX๐IG-P9FXVIE5MC-QC๐กCV-PH67MAVX8Y-PC๐RF-2TQWEMCB4I-D๐ผL9I-6XA8NQ2BNV-AQ3๐T-6LFAAV0A5L-ZP๐8K-AGPEBIV2LJ-๐64AX-DFXGEIPMB4-W3๐ผIC-JDXRLP582X-๐P77T-7EFMGSMWZA-YZ9J๐-EA6HIONL5T-L4๐2F-2ZC9SR2T5J-๐JMPW-CAP9MV89B7-GI๐2J-R64XAMJLDR-๐CTAW-CWLYTLTAKR-EWQ๐V-9MTNRI8ZJZ-ZR๐ BH-38V3ONW0Y9-4๐2YW-I5CNNGECRQ-H8๐กK0-WXIRAVNAF2-TY๐DF-KD6VEA60ME-FWYR๐-BNPLTCYA2A-TX๐N5-4W6GSEPHR9-Z32๐Y-AL9WEL37TI-DIP๐3-W5IAQTHGMB-74๐กY9-2RZVVAA479-YP๐EN-VBWIAEH8HA-AY๐7V-E80ZNNVEKT-P9Y0๐-W9XVAONKQD-P5๐79-MWHJDSVPY0-2X๐PZ-VWFRIT42BT-๐ผBGMC-THYBVR8F24-HWX๐6-5CW9IAWMTL-D๐ฝR5Y-AL57DGFKAV-54Y๐T-A4Z2IA0VZ3-AR7๐Z-J3Z3TL97DM-FAL๐8-JIKDFL8FHY-๐ผATFX-ACVYRI9PFY-R๐Y35-D6YLEAJA56-RX๐ผ8X-FDEEEP5IE0-Q9๐XB-Y695KPEDQL-4๐ผG45-CK9LEEN8LW-IG๐IZ-BV3QYLWNKA-F๐ผC3Y-VFW7SLB7JY-BH๐0K-57X3WADLWM-6W3X๐ผ-EB97ONRCM2-JMF3๐-4KLWOTDEYE-Y7K9๐ผ-W0YKHVQ4JK-8KP๐H-H383ORPBXV-7B๐ผGH-2LYIOEdit 28 July:
So you thought this puzzle sucked? You're in luck, there's a completely different puzzle here! :)
Edit 4 August:
Hey, it's your last day to solve this, so have one last hint:
H4I7M-โพ๐ โโโฟ-RXYF2I3LNI-โโธโถโธ๐ -TGYNDND249-โโโนโโ-MJIZITBPDG-โโโโโธ-47E7JHJLNM-โโถโโโบ-3KHNQIF8I5-โโถโธโโ-IKZQJN8M0E-โผโ๐ โโน-P6EQ5TK5WW-โฟโธโโฟโ -GZ54JHCBEW-โโ โโพ๐ -9WLGZIJVCC-โโนโ โโ-WM5BPNDQ9D-๐ โโฟโโ-GP097T0MV6-โโโโโ-PQKJWH9XAD-โโโบโโ-AG434IYC2L-โโโโโ-TC8BPN3ZRE-โโพโฝโโ-9MXNLTANMV-โทโพโฝโโธ-V6B02HRYBY-โนโโโโพ-2WXFDIHDWK-โธโธโโโท-PHVBWNXHV6-โโนโโฟโพ-BCMZ7T8W77-โปโฝโโผโ -KRT48HFTYP-โ โฟโโผโ-62JCVIWJR7-โพโฟโโปโ-G56CWNQJEX-โปโโ๐ โน-KBD32TY9R9-โถโปโโผโ-YIYHDHNLEW-โโโโปโ-XNAHGIIBCL-โโโบโฟโ-TD6YWNY8D5-โโโ โธโ-RWMFPTGQ6C-โโทโโโ-49TDDHHJRT-โโโธโโ-PDQ6BIG4BV-โโบโโโ-A8CQNNZPLX-๐ โธโโโ-2RZZ7TFK5F-โนโปโโโผ-NLT9NH0BY4-โโ๐ โโ-BCCDWI04G7-โผโ๐ โธโ-J7M6ANYXLB-โโโโโ-GPG33TLT3Y-โถโ๐ โโป-QWRP8HQJV2-โโโโพโ-GPPBXIHEBB-โโทโโโป-TZ5Z7NB9XV-โโ๐ โ โ-Q3FF0TQ396-โโบโบโโฝ-T2E89HF5TI-โโโโโ-5NK4QI09AZ-โโทโฟโบโ-6G3Z5NZ7MX-โถโฟโโโฟ-QE7ACT43Q0-โโธโโพโ-3BKVDHY4B5-โโโโโพ-9P4JPIE6AW-โโถโโโ-9HQD4NXF86-โผโ โโบโบ-YF7ZZT30NZ-โถโถโโพโ-CQ2EXEdit 5 August:
So you're wondering where the solution might be hiding? Ahh, it's not written yet - for some mysterious reason the Level 4 giveaway is still running... :) So you still have three days to work it out, or maybe just forget about this nonsense and go play something you already own... :)
Good luck... :)
p.s. I say "for some mysterious reason" but it's not actually mysterious - although I managed to forget it... :) Fortunately I put off writing the explanation so long that I noticed it's too early to write it. Sorry about that! :)
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