Hello friends! I recently discovered a new group. Quite an interesting performance. But perhaps there is more behind this.
Here, take a look.

Hint 1: If you are looking for the key, you should know 2 things. First one is that you actually need two keys. Second one is that everyone (who knows about puzzle) can see those keys.

Hint 2: If you have a message, but don't know what to do with it, just ask that man you see. He managed to solve it once

Hint 3: If you see nothing inside, maybe you should open it like a box?

Solution: There is a symbols in youtube link after 2nd "=" - qEKaF7Ze. Leads you here.

  1. Image is clickable and leads you here.
  2. You'll find "Look inside!.jpg" file which actually a .zip archive. You should unpack it.
  3. There are two files inside. "_" without extension - .txt file actually and 1.jpg which actually a .zip archive again. You should unpack it again.
  4. You'll find another two files again. There will be "1" without extension - .txt file and 2.jpg. You should unzip all .jpg files. it's all archives.
  5. Collect all files without extension - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. There is a text chunks inside. Combine it into one string.and you/ll get this: "GDGDADGDFDAGFAFDADDAVDDXVFAAAA".
  6. To understand what does it mean you should ask a man from the picture. So, after image searching you'll know that he is Georges Painvin known as the cryptanalyst who broke the ADFGX/ADFGVX cipher used by the Germans during the First World War.
  7. Now, when you know what cypher was used you'll need two keys. You can find them where everyone, who knows about puzzle existing(about hidden symbols in youtube link) can see it - on this page. Here they are: "Default option".
  8. There are a lot of different online tools for decrypting this cypher. But, for my opinion, the most convenuient is this one. You can use any other though.
  9. So, if you add first word into Polybius square you'll get this alphabet: "DEFAULTBCGHIJKMNOPQRSVWXYZ0123456789".
  10. Using the second key/word - "option" you can actually crack it and get: "UNBREAKABLECODE". It is the message you are searching for. Just enter it here.
  11. You'll get "rRLQV" as answer. It is id of the giveaway on SteamGifts.

Games from this puzzle train: 1. Morkredd -> 2. Out of Space -> 3. Levelhead -> 4. Remothered: Broken Porcelain -> 5. Retimed.

Thanks for participating and congratulations for all solvers. It was my first puzzle here, but not the last. Feel free to ask your questions.
P.S. Привет моим русскоговорящим друзьям, а так же пираньям из группы "Халява".

3 years ago*

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I was dumb. I had everything pretty soon after the puzzle was posted. I just didn't know that spacing in the encrypted text would interfere with the decoding.
Ah well, learned something interesting anyway.

3 years ago
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Well.. at least I learned that I won't even try your puzzles in the future 👍 Damn dude 🤣😨

I'm waaaay to dumb for all this.

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3 years ago
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The next one will be waay harder. But the prizes will be better.

3 years ago
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Will leave it for the functioning brains out there then 😁 hf !

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3 years ago
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Some puzzle creators have much too much time.

3 years ago*
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It's not a waste if you enjoy it, right 👍

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3 years ago
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Yes

But it give a difference between a puzzle and what was done here....

If someone would mark such a "puzzle" as "Ultra hard, don't try when you have only 30h time" or something like that ... no problem. Each one know then what he jumps into but "marked as normal puzzle" is very bad.

at least I learned that I won't even try your puzzles in the future 👍 Damn dude 🤣😨

Your own words...

3 years ago*
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.. talk about a waste of time ;)

" My own words " were humorous, and in good spirit. As anyone else would realize.

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3 years ago*
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This puzzle was not ultra hard. Pretty average actually. I did not solve it, indeed, but that was because of my own lack of attention.

3 years ago
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Well...

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3 years ago
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Hello. It seems that your tool accepting only lower case characters. -_^

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3 years ago
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This is weird, considering I am using custom alphabet with upper case only letters. And since this tool is presented in zelgh's guide, I thought this is kinda ultimate. Anyway I have no idea how I would come to the idea when I should put this word in alphabet and replace duplicates, it seems to me extremely unobvious, anyway great puzzle, just not the sort that I want to solve. Thanks!

3 years ago
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Upper case alphabet is fine. The thing is that you need lower case message for some strange reasons. However you can find out it if you'd experimented with your own codes. I'd do like that, or used another tool.

how I would come to the idea when I should put this word in alphabet and replace duplicates

You can find instructions here.

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3 years ago
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Nah, I just meant that I entered the custom alphabet in cryptii using upper case letters. And still yes, for whatever reason it doesn't work with it. Moreover, I thought it'd be good if I try to make my own Polybius square-like table 6x6(and actually spent about an hour, introspecting how is this cipher work), but never did, thinking tools would do better than me. Looking forward to your another puzzle, wondering whether I manage to solve that or not 🧐

3 years ago
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There are a lot of different online tools for decrypting this cypher. But, for my opinion, the most convenuient is this one. You can use any other though.

It seems that I got stuck because the tool created inconsistencies for the correct answer.

Sometimes such tools are hampered in acquiring use by the search of the language area.
It's an Earthling conspiracy.

...I got stuck on the same problem.XD

Although there were enough boxes within boxes to make me suspect malware or viruses masquerading as puzzles.
A long time ago, there was a nightmare trap where the files became very large when unzipped.
[A better zip bomb💣]()

This knowledge caused me to withdraw after two hours. :(

However, it would be a relatively interesting puzzle. :)

*Link fix

3 years ago*
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Only after posted solution I found my mistake. When I were extracting parts of message I copied one of the parts two times. And I never did this step again, only tried different combinations in future steps. Silly me.

3 years ago
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Thanks for the detailed solution!

3 years ago
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I would have NEVER solved it xD . Great job ;) .

3 years ago
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lol, I got stuck on the easiest part of the puzzle. I never thought to click on the image because you normally can't click on images on ITH. Instead I immediately did what I usually do when trying to investigate an image, I right clicked and selected "copy image address". Then I used that address to go directly to the image site, check exif data, or reverse image search.

Also, I thought I might have found something when I saw these values in the exif data because I noticed that they are the same character layout as sgtools giveaways, but they all went nowhere. Now I am curious why these are the same as sgtools giveaway URLs.

d7583210-f461-4027-a33b-435b4593df37
bb45058a-f271-11d6-8990-f82afc275abc
a97ce1f8-f271-11d6-8990-f82afc275abc

Edit: I just found this. I guess it's a commonly used way to give a unique ID to things. I just recognize it as a sgtools thing because that is the only place I know it from.

3 years ago*
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