Level Two: 'THE PROMISE' - A History Of Solving The Easter Egg
Overview
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, Rob, and assisted by Dusty and Esbjorn.
Level Two Unlocking
On October 2nd, 2022. Rob posted an image of half of a QR code and a messageː HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0O (This has been edited for brevity, the full message had ̃400 zeroes). It was noticed later that evening there was a 0 on the 18th position of the phrase. A few minutes later a new web address was found https://www.reachthefinals.com/tfee_level2 (This address was made inactive and leads to a 404 error, the updated address is https://www.reachthefinals.com/tfee-level2). On the site was a gif of Nama Tama saying that Level Two - THE PROMISE was loading. After midnight it was discovered that https://www.reachthefinals.com/gooooooooooooooooo contained a quarter of the QR code, although not needed now it was another clue to get to the TFEE Level2 Site.
On October 4th it was discovered that https://www.reachthefinals.com/tfee-level2 was active, with 9 tiers all locked. (It is worth noting that at some point the Level 2 Page got changed so Tier 2ABC and T2DEF share the same line instead of seperated like all the other tiers.)
Tier 1A: The "1064 Aethusa" puzzle
Tier Overview
On October 6th, 2022 Dusty posted two images in the easter egg channel with the caption Oriri ex cinere. It was discovered that if you overlaid the two images and looked at the differences and edited the levels you'd see a griffin. This griffin was the Pisa Griffin, which sits atop the Pisa Cathedral which started construction in 1064.
On October 7th, 2022 Dusty posted a new image in the easter egg channel, titled TakeCover, it contained a scene of the Church on Monaco getting hit by a series of meteors. This image had a fair amount of clues hidden in it. Αἵ θου σα, or Aethusa, had been hidden in the rubble, and on the church itself. The various white blooming plants seen around the scene are Aethusa Cynapium, a herb native to Europe. A broken trident could be found in the rubble, and a trident symbol can be seen on the floating ring on top of the scene. Poseidon's daughter is named Aethusa. Due to the amount of meteors it was also a hint to be on the lookout for connected meteors.
On October 11th, 2022 Rob posted a new image in the easter egg channel, titled friend_you_need_02, it contained a scene of Nama Tama dressed as Galileo observing a comet with a telescope. It was discovered there was a Aesteroid, 1064 Aethusa, named after the herb.
Solving
On October 11th, 2022. Hunter Serpenger found the correct password for the tier, 1064. A new image awaited the hunters past the password page. In total this level took 7 days to complete.
Summary
The Pisa Griffin provided two important clues to the hunt, first, the date 1064, and that it was the birthplace of Galileo.
The Aethusa clues all pointed to the meteor.
Images
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Oriri Ex Cinere -
TakeCover -
friend_you_need_02
Credits
Solver - Serpenger
Documentation - Flex4d, Ralliden, RockhoundBlack
Various Contributions - Buunuu, Darnoux, DashGames, Duh, Fishxw, Giriko, OrpheusHEI, SPEAR, Swa, Tragic
Further Reading:
RockhoundBlack's Video: THE FINALS: A Fistful Of Easter Eggs + New Concept Art!