In early September 2022, after the Gamescom teaser trailer for THE FINALS was released (late August 2022), a series of related cryptic Easter egg clues started to be presented through concept art released via THE FINALS Twitter account. Several additional clues to help the community solve the puzzles were also posted exclusively on THE FINALS Discord. The initial Easter eggs (which, following it being solved, became known as Level 1 or 'The Geocache Easter Egg') indirectly prompted members of the community to add specific words to THE FINALS website URL, as a suffix, which was a way of providing answers to the puzzle to see if they were correct. From Level 2 of the Easter Eggs ('The Promise') onwards, prospective answers were input as passwords via a specific password page created by the Embark Studios art team, led by Embark's Chief Content Officer and Co-founder, Robert Runesson, and assisted by Dusty Gustafsson, Embark's CX Lead.
Levels
Rules
General Rules
- Trying to brute force your way into password-protected sites is not allowed as it can completely ruin the hunt for everyone involved.
- In addition, using AI programs such as ChatGPT to figure out connections, passwords, decoding, etc. is not allowed.
- The hunt is not about trying to bypass website security. Easter eggs might be hidden in images and on websites, but they are usually easily viewable. Do not try to change content on any websites.
- It's agreed that metadata of the images do not contain intentional clues, and so shouldn't be accessed; photoshop file history, layer names, etc
- No posting of Easter Egg related info that has come from data mining of THE FINALS, or from THE FINALS websites.
- If you're unsure you might be close to breaking the rules, just ask!
Rob's Helpful Hints
- Hi.! You are correct… Only look for clues in assets that we release in our channels where we can control naming, compression etc… don’t want you to fall down the wrong rabbit holes… ._.
- No we will never trick you (and you are too clever to be tricked). But it shouldn't be easy to solve puzzles like this... ._.
- Hi.! All passwords are lowercase… ._.
- Was going to comment on the discussion about "password vs passcode"... I remember that discussion back on the Amiga BBS-era... so as long as it is in ASCII, it is a password, regardless if it is letters or numbers... ._. (but all passWORDS are lowercase regardless if it is letters, numbers or any other characters in the ASCII-table, hehe)
- Hi.! Yes you CAN solve every EE (and level) with the first image, but, it’s hard… but the answer is there.! For every new image (or dusty text, hehe) we give you it becomes easier, and easier, and easier to solve each level… BTW you were actually really close already with the first image, I first thought TIER 1B was way too easy since you kind of mentioned the actual password (or is it a passcode @Giriko .?!) buuut then for some reason it went south… ._.
- Short answer is "No, the images released during one level/tier are used to solve that level/tier". However that said, there might be (and often are) clues and hints that potentially can (or will) be very useful (or obvious when you see the full picture in the end (or is it really the end, or perhaps just a new beginning))...
- Everything is connected, but it's not THAT obvious... ._.
- Great puzzles need to be deep and complex to be fun and challenging, for this little EE-hunt there are always at least 4-5 connections between different clues on each level and often also multiple connections between both tiers and levels. That way the web becomes an intricate aventure, a beautiful painting and a puzzle that is much more satisfying to solve... after all don't we all want to honor Archimedes.?1
- No, I’m only use standard ASCII, actually to keep the password very easy to figure out, I’ve made sure to only use lower case letters and numbers, for this level that is… ._.
- No spaces in psw in this ee-hunt… ._.