And here's the map, but where are all the Xs?

You probably already know the rules, but we all need reminding from time to time and surely transparency must come first, so here you are:
Do not leak, post answers, suggest hints, or directly link to the prize/giveaway.
The prize is more of a trinket now, but it's the fun we're after; respect your fellow solvers and be sure to not spoil it for them!

The puzzle of course is supposed to be solvable by newcomers (well, being able to read left to right and use a search bar from time to time are still prerequisites), but it should be possible to learn something from the background, so here you are. Making your life easier, that's my motto in puzzle-making!

Well, ehehe, I guess you probably shouldn't trust me on that.

Three solvers, three entries!

Cymbaline, chour and Kappei managed to solve this one, and Cymbaline took the prize! Congratulations people!

For you of curious mind, the solution is posted here!

10 years ago*

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Wut is my little come back inspiring more come backs or something? xD

10 years ago
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I'd rather thank Kappei, but really it's the whole gang right?

10 years ago
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why do I have to make everything about myself, eh? D: ;)

10 years ago
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It's like a family reunion, lately even Ogrady has returned to grace us with his puzzles :P

10 years ago
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maybe holiday spirit making people nostalgic

10 years ago
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Deleted

This comment was deleted 5 years ago.

10 years ago
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i have no idea what i am supposed to do here ^^

10 years ago
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Awesome, haven't seen one of these in a long while. Glad to see you're back. But I still have no time to solve :P

10 years ago
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It's a week long, you still may have find some :)

10 years ago
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Well, I think I used up all the approaches I know off. Will come back to the puzzle later. ^_^
For now, good luck everyone else on solving it. :D

10 years ago
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Updated with links for more insight and exercise.

10 years ago
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Bump!

10 years ago
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Well, well, well. I'm not opening the map!..right now :)

10 years ago
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There'll be treasure and adventure today, arr!

10 years ago
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Wow, haven't seen you in a while, good to see you again with one of these :>

I don't really have time myself atm to solve any puzzles right now (and I'm missiing quite a lot great ones :<) but good luck to all contestants :> alamarjan puzzles are one of the most clever ones on SG :>

10 years ago
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Hello zel, thank you :) The giveaway ends at 19th, anyway, so it would be great if you'd be able to find some free moment for it too.

10 years ago
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Crap, there goes my chance of getting work done. Time to explore dusty corners of human knowledge!

10 years ago
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Well well, you just wait till the next one comes out.

10 years ago
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You keep making puzzles i can't reasonably do on my tablet. Sitting at the computer makes me cold. :(

10 years ago
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Yeah, sadly tablets aren't really suited for them.

10 years ago
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Bump for solved! :)
So many good puzzles lately :)

10 years ago
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Congratulations ;)

10 years ago
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You are still alone :(

10 years ago
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well, at least I made some tiny progress xD

10 years ago
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A little more now...

10 years ago
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Now with an awesome artpiece!

10 years ago
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Did you set your laptop on fire from candles? :O

10 years ago
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Happens right?

10 years ago
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Oooh. Slippers!

Edit: I mean I am on the puzzle :)

10 years ago
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Heh, welcome :)

10 years ago
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Well I checked your other puzzles.And i must say you are out of my league(TOO HARD for this newbie :/ )

Here is my progress report:

I can see what to focus on to solve it and what am i suppose to find after that. But I have no idea what to do :)

Annnnd that's it ...

10 years ago
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You still can try :)

10 years ago
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Damn right i will

10 years ago
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Bump for getting to the second step.

10 years ago
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Got your Xs? You're probably ready to set off for the distant lands of treasure, then :)

10 years ago
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Just a day left. Hurry up!

10 years ago
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16 hours left. Now listen you guys, you're special! Use your head and your mind and your brain!

10 years ago
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12 hours

10 years ago
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7 hours to challenge Cymbaline!

10 years ago
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6 hours

10 years ago
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Im pretty sure I know what to do, but did someone solve it already

EDIT Nvm I was on a role but it seems ive stopped

10 years ago
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Four hours left. Still one solver!

10 years ago
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About three hours left. The solution is scheduled to appear on obscuregamers.com right the deadline.

10 years ago
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Dear second stage puzzlers, I understand those Xs set you off, but I nonetheless believe in your success!
Two hours to go.

10 years ago
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That was a little bit nerve-racking. But great nevertheless!

10 years ago
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Congratulations ;)

10 years ago
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Last minute(more like last hour) solve!

Very nice puzzle as usual, thanks!

10 years ago
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Can't wait to get spoiled on the second stage. Unfortunately Noctis sucked up all my brainpower and I had no time to puzzle over this one further, but it should be good.

10 years ago
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Noctis, return this man's brainpower immediately! He's got but an hour!

10 years ago
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I had to go to bed... Even so, it seems very improbable I'd have solved it in the remaining hour. But hey, this is the first time I've seen one of your puzzles, I'm sure I'll do better next time. :-) Nice puzzle, nice hints.

10 years ago
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Solution posted!

10 years ago
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And Cymbaline snatched it again. HA!

10 years ago
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Well, everybody knows he's lucky :)

10 years ago
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Smart and lucky... If he's handsome too we have no hopes!!!

10 years ago
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Hmm I guess the solution did cross my mind but I don't have enough faith in imgur not messing with your uploaded file. Because it does mess with it. At least they used to. Like the trick of appending some extra information of your own didn't work, or EXIF data in jpgs wouldn't be preserved, things like that. If it was hosted on dropbox or something I'd have the faith that the bytes of the image I'm getting are exactly as you intended, otherwise png can be repackaged etc. Ah well :3 I did get close though, and was happy enough with that, so I have at least that going for me, which is nice. Thanks :)

EDIT: In hidsight, well, Xs were separate so you could've tweaked them post-uploading. But still not enough faith in imgur in this one xD

10 years ago
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Of course I checked them post-uploading :P And no, I guess it won't change the image besides removing appends and metadata.

10 years ago
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it used to but not anymore. At spring when I created puzzle using hex data colors it was corrupted on imgur and I had to reupload it on Dropbox. But now it seems to work fine, as I used the same idea for my mossaic stage for birthday puzzle and it worked just fine :>

10 years ago
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Yeah... Also, it's not like I don't have my own site to post them eh? Actually I wonder why I bothered with imgur at all this time around :\

10 years ago
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If you think about it it can be actually quite a nice red herring ;) Why would alamarjan host image on imgur and not on his site? There must be something hidden on imgur site! ;p

10 years ago
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Yeah, actually, that's a valid point :)

10 years ago
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Closed 10 years ago by alamarjan.