Congratulations for making it here! Hopefully it didn't take you too long to figure it out.

Here are the answers and the reasoning behind them:

1. Maritime flag signal for "0" according to Captain Frederick Marryat's code. Inspired by "Braid" and made to look like this to hint slightly in the wrong direction for those who know the reference and to make it a bit more ambiguous.

2. Abbreviation for Arginine, you just have to write the first letter of the word (like the pattern for such giveaways says).

3. Quote from "Deus Ex", the film. The "d" is from the title.

4. "R", just as the decoded version says. Inspired by thejadefalcon. Encoded in order from binary to ASCII as they appear on the website, then twice more in Base64 to make it more fun. This is hinted at in the final clue. Again, something to get you used to patterns.

5. "P" for "pi". A mix of references and quotes from "Pi - The Movie" that can be found with the right searches. Made some use of synonyms and/or changed a few words with some with different meanings rather than giving direct quotes to make it slightly more challenging, but this is also hinted at in the clue. The recursive hints at patterns are made because a large portion of the film is concerned with them. I also ended up editing this hint for people to be able to think of circles more by including a couple of hinting words, even though their meaning/form may be completely unrelated to mathematics.

That being said, good luck in the draw! And please leave a comment if you decide not to enter.

CLUES FOR THE NEXT GIVEAWAY

To avoid excessive brute forcing from the other users, only the ones who made it this far will know the format. Also, two of the clues will be posted here rather than on the forums. I'm not saying what it is yet, although some of you may know from one of my posts. The clues are easier than last time because people will have enough hard time getting here.

The giveaway will start on March 20th so that I have time to work on the other clues/get money into my account to actually buy the gift copy. It will last a week, so I'll have enough time to buy the game by the end even if pay is delayed more than a week. Don't worry about that.

Format: ##XxX

Hint (character) 1. I was the old man. You shall know what is right when you find me.

Hint (character) 2. Do you really need one? Seek the previous clue again.

Hint (character) 3. A last name. You should think of synonyms for some words. Hints for those you need to replace are in the text itself, try it both ways if it doesn't work one way. Remove some of the words. Rethink clue 2. You should also read this question carefully. You should think about tones and phrasing. Clue 1 is more similar to what you should end up with than 2 or 3.

Clue (character) 4. How do we ever even start to begin (three times, should be trivial, but try until you triumph)?

Clue (character) 5. I give you life. My three-fingered hand gently clutches that of my partner, of my complement, as we dance away alongside dozens of our siblings in a double rightward spiral that is the foundation of something much greater than us, yet a foundation sometimes so frail, that even a single pair going awry may break the entire waltz. I give more than I accept.

(Yes, I know, too much biochemistry. It's not even my field but I've been flooded with assignments in it for the past two weeks, so it's starting to get to me.)