Level 1 - The Commence

Level 1 - The Commence
Start	September 5, 2022
End	September 16, 2022
Solution(s)	reachthefinals.com/geocache
Next	Level 2

Level 1 - The Commence was the first and introductory level of THE FINALS Easter Egg Hunt. It started on September 5, 2022 and ended on September 16, 2022, leading into Level 2 - The Promise. The primary theme of the level was geocaching.

History

On September 5, 2022 Embark Studios posted the image "THE_FINALS_Concept_002_Slash" (although the filename was not known at the time) alongside the caption "New concept art..ǃ.ǃǃǃǃ". Converting the punctuation from binary, assuming the periods are 0s and the exclamation marks are 1s, revealed the "/" character. Upon further examination, binary strings using more exclamation marks and periods were discovered in two quadrants of the image. These converted to "DEVON" in the upper right, and "CROSSING" in the lower right. With these two pieces of information in hand, it was discovered that going to reachthefinals.com/devoncrossing led to a page with a large red X on it.

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  THE_FINALS_Concept_002_Slash

On September 8, a new image was posted to the official THE FINALS Discord server named "THE_FINALS_Wallpaper_Statues_001_1920x1080". It depicted small figurines, or Revive Statues, of the Light, Medium, and Heavy Builds. Examining the image revealed a series of numbers: "49 53, 54 52, 48 50, 49 53". When these were cross referenced with an ASCII table they gave the date "1564/02/15", Galileo Galilei's birthdate, but this connection was not confirmed until later.

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  THE_FINALS_Wallpaper_Statues_001_1920x1080

On September 9, the image "THE_FINALS_Wallpaper_HappyStatues_002" was posted. This time it featured small Nama Tama figures representing the same Light, Medium, and Heavy Builds as before. Once again examining the image led to another set of numbers: "56 54 48 49". When referenced with an ASCII table they gave "8601", referencing ISO-8601, a standard code for date formatting, thus confirming the previous reference to Galileo's birthdate. Going to reachthefinals.com/galileo led to a page with the same red X on it.

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  THE_FINALS_Wallpaper_HappyStatues_002

On September 13, the image "THE_FINALS_Concept_BarrelsBarrelsBarrels_1920x1080" was posted with the caption "If it isn't more concept art? 🔍🕵️‍♀️". It depicted a Shinobi vaulting over a character in military gear with a few barrels behind them. On one of the barrels was the string "002f" which is Unicode for the "/" (slash) character, and the character in military gear was carrying a can of "OSPUZE OG Beans" on his back; although, the meaning of the can was not discovered until later.

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  THE_FINALS_Concept_BarrelsBarrelsBarrels_1920x1080

On September 14, Dusty Gustafsson, Embark's CX Lead, sent the following message in the #easter-eggs Discord channel:

“Hey all you Shell-lock Holmes's! Looking for clues can be hard work and sometimes you see things that aren't there.....for example, today is not the day of the gameplay reveal. But nice try! While you wait for the real drop, there are more clues to uncover. Best efforts are needed soon!”

Dusty

"Shell-lock Holmes" was a reference to Sherlock Holmes. Hunters noted that the third Sherlock Holmes novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle was The Hound of the Baskervilles, which takes place mostly in Dartmoor, Devon, although this connection was not confirmed.

On September 15, a new image named "friend_you_need" was posted to Discord. The image depicted Nama Tama holding a can of "OSPUZE OG BEANS." This clue was not solved until September 16, shortly after Level 1 had ended, when hunters found that a can of beans known as the "OCB" ("Original Can of Beans"), was placed in the first ever geocache hidden by Dave Ulmer, the creator of geocaching. Going to reachthefinals.com/ocb would reveal the third and final page featuring the large red X.

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  friend_you_need

On September 16, hunters identified William Crossing of Devon as a potential lead from the "devoncrossing" URL. William Crossing is credited as popularizing the hobby of letterboxing in Devon, England in the 19th century, which was a precursor to the similar hobby of geocaching. Dusty confirmed this lead as correct or relevant by replying and reacting to it with a red X emoji.

Solving

Later on September 16, 2022, hunter Duh found the solution to Level 1: reachthefinals.com/geocache. The page contained an image of Nama Tama saying "Level 1 Completed! You Are Awesome.!" In total, Level 1 took 11 days to complete.

Afterwards

Some key connections, such as the Original Can of Beans and the relevance of "Galileo" to geocaching, were discovered and confirmed in the hours after Level 1 was solved.

In January 2023, Rob Runesson, creator of THE FINALS Easter Egg Hunt, revealed the name of Level 1 to be "THE C0MMENCE", using a 0 in place of the letter O in "commence".

Solution Breakdown

There were three main themes and clues during Level 1 that each led to a URL featuring a red X. Each of these related to geocaching in some way.

• William Crossing is credited as popularizing the hobby of letterboxing in Devon, a precursor to the similar hobby of geocaching that involves clues, compasses, and maps. URL: reachthefinals.com/devoncrossing.
• Galileo is the name of a European Satellite System. GPS devices are used for geocaching and they require satellites to function. URL: reachthefinals.com/galileo.
• O.C.B stands for "Original Can of Beans." A can of beans was the first item placed in the original stash by the creator of geocaching. URL: reachthefinals.com/ocb.

Gallery

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  THE_FINALS_Concept_002_Slash
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  THE_FINALS_Wallpaper_Statues_001_1920x1080
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  THE_FINALS_Wallpaper_HappyStatues_002
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  THE_FINALS_Concept_BarrelsBarrelsBarrels_1920x1080
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  friend_you_need
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  The Level 1 completion image

Credits

• Solver - Duh
• Documentation - Giriko, Flex4d, RockhoundBlack
• Various Contributions - ATAEGGYU, Darnoux, Dwarf, Madalin, Mike Eggmantraut, Oli, Sparky, Swa

Further Reading

• RockhoundBlack's video: THE FINALS: The 'Geocache' Easter Egg!
• Flex4d's document