Flash Train: You have till midnight PST.... Today!
Prizes: Lots of bundle stuff
GAs Start: 6:00 am PST
GAs End: 11:59 pm PST
Clues: There is no "fifth"
Rules: No working together, please.
Difficulty: Beginning Intermediate
Note: I am putting this together a little rushed. I promise I'll make a real challenge later.



Hey, So I have no real reason to run this train. Besides accidentally hitting level 3.

Easier than expected. I didn't really mean to. I just kinda ran a train for my birthday, and looked up and there it was.

Xolani! Anyways, things you need to know... I think the train costs 64 points... no wait... it has 142 points. 16 cars!


Solution

You needed to view the source of the post. Doing so, would reveal four sets of encoded characters.

2466254333667144 - mIgNT
IZXXK4TUNA - gNmU=
5468697264 - UgNzI
0100011001101001011100100111001101110100 - NzIgN

Apparently plenty of people tried to use the 5 character sets as giveaways links. Yet another bit of misdirection.

The first set of each one, told you what position the second set of characters belonged in.

For example:

2466254333667144 Oct Decode to Second Paired Set: mIgNT
IZXXK4TUNA Base32 Decode to Fourth Paired Set: gNmU=
5468697264 Hex Decode to Third Paired Set: UgNzI
0100011001101001011100100111001101110100 Bin Decodes to First Paired Set: NzIgN

This confused many a soul, as they were sure I had hidden a "Fifth" somewhere but couldn't find it.
In fact, that was just a bit of misdirection. There was no Fifth set. Interesting fact, if you're familiar with Xlate, I used the First type of encryption on the first half of the first set. I used the second type of encryption on the first half of the second set, etc.

Next, you needed to arrange the paired sets according to the key.

NzIgN
mIgNT
UgNzI
gNmU=

or

NzIgNmIgNTUgNzIgNmU=

Now what to do with this mess? Decode it according to the NEXT encryption method on Xlate... Base64
I even gave a hint to this, by saying the train would cost 64 points, no 142...
Further, another way you could have figured it out, was through the ending character in the set being =.
Apparently a dead giveaway for Base64, but hey, I didn't know that, but now that I do... I might use it in the future.

Decoding this would give you: 72 6b 55 72 6e

Typically this is what Hex Looks like, but who knows, you could have gotten it wrong...
But I purposely started the first three and only three sentences with:

Hey
Easier
Xolani

Or... HEX - You know, just in case you needed another hint.

When 72 6b 55 72 6e was decoded with HEX, you ended up with: rkUrn

At that point, all you needed to do was craft the URL: http://steamgifts.com/giveaway/rkUrn/

Thanks for playing.
Come Back Soon!

-Keo

9 years ago*

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Solved. Took me more than expected... thanks for the puzzle! :D

9 years ago
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You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it :D

9 years ago
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Bump for a late solve!

9 years ago
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Hey you made it at least :D
Gratz

9 years ago
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bump for solved!

9 years ago
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Congratz :D

9 years ago
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Puzzles are always appreciated. Thank you very much!

9 years ago
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Bumping for solution :)

9 years ago
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Closed 8 years ago by Keohookalani.