# Round 1:

Only thing you need to do in this round is solve the cipher, you'll need 13 along the way. The solution will guide you the the next round.

lrftbbqlbhnervagryyvtraglbhunirhaybpxrqebhaqgjbabjhfrguvfgrkgnfnxrlgbgursbyybjvativtrarerpvcure
Cfzge 2

Hlzpk jmfmk kxypoacitr. Zlih ieye ufdokxc pyf qk afwbak. Glz zjw zykz lth kvpj uu avl um rin 13'n [IGIPWZBCI] [TDIPYTXTFS WFTJCPFRH]

Bqckn 3-----PQBkCBvSZDAaEhb[VQSPUARDIY HHRJAFSRO]
hvge iqbm ce Z-jocdpp... Pc rpj ptx ufy nhyxk, ajih jfsmhkuz sioyzyrtrb rfow 13. gvo of fvix cygoxZ... KGMCLNDIFQOQQUGB1

-~qvmn,=\j0006\q0006Wm~b,cpdg ,as~f,ts~z,wtxo",I_|~p}}sbe",O~vrg,u},ba,h} ,and~g)},_g~j",Hlj~lxuvlj,ubo)gw,hasq,}m,rl~,c},d~wss",Ekkacc,oo},keloca,fbz},xh~",Wsg~jkyeh,gl}x,bomo,i|,eh,~empz,>""",^xpgj,>,ul},fos,pe~n,pv}w)d,um1,Zrtz,sk ,vco,vuf""",Yjr~pebw,xaiy,s|""",Dqc,alysh)d ,}gxi,ahf,~mqhs,ar~,~vvyo,8,r,fhs}}"\z0006uyww}znuvhltmkp}~uh_\r0006f~|uc}|j""",>g839px:7


Oh my.. why does chrome keep autocorrecting things... fixed a typo in the cipher. It shouldn't change most answers but if you got to round 4 just:

lowercase the "B"

# Hints

Round 1:

The question has it all. JUST LOOK FOR THESE...

Round 2: ...

Round 3:

The key is what you unlock

Round 4:

Can you decrypt encryption? Get reading... can't you remember from round 1?

Round 4 #2:

How do you get a number bigger than 6? You add! But only halfway...

Round 5: (corrected)

6*9 = 42

Round 5 #2:

Base 13. Is this some kind of charset?

• Even having solved a few rounds by now, I still don't understand these hints. :\ – feelinferrety Nov 16 '18 at 23:14
• @feelinferrety Hehe, I can't give it all away – FireCubez Nov 16 '18 at 23:19

I will try to continue @feelinferrety

from :

#round 3

Very good, very very good. Impressive. Great as it is, there's more. Everything you've done so far is great. Nobody has gotten this far. Everybody just gave up at round 2... Round 2 was too hard wasn't it? Kind of, but like... Everyone gave up... You haven't, sooo get ready for round 4 i guess.
ciyleslxhdddkxuiwsrygm
jlrpvgspk... 2j497gf65

if you:

Decrypt using Vigenere the last two lines using key VIGENERKEY (you can get this key from all capital letters the text), it will give you:
"hashroundfivethefinale"
"dheleworp... 2b497ab65"

or you can read the first line as #Round 5 The Finale, like the first line of each round. Wait, where is #Round 4?

Still trying to solve the next round:

I think the hint 5*9=42 means reverse and use base 13 because 5*9 = 45, then if you reverse it, you will get 54, then in base 13, 54 is 42. But I still couldn't figure it out how to use it in the ciphertext

Updated

Yeay, I believe I got the answer :)

from the hint we know 6*9=42 means use base 13. As we see 2b497ab65 is on base 13, convert it to decimals give you 2344567841
then substitute the number with letters that match the order from string dheleworp

and it will give you helleworld (a typo(?))

• Oops, forgot round 4, but don't worry you are on the right track – FireCubez Nov 17 '18 at 9:36
• can we get more hints? :/ – QLAN Nov 19 '18 at 19:35
• Check the hint for round 5. How could 5*9 ever be 42? I wonder.. – FireCubez Nov 19 '18 at 21:25
• Oof. I was in too deep. I can't believe I didn't spot that. Good job. – feelinferrety Nov 19 '18 at 23:21
• @feelinferrety thanks, honestly, this puzzle and your answer made me join this forum :) – QLAN Nov 20 '18 at 4:17

# ---PARTIAL SOLVE---

## ROUND 1

First, we should...

ROT13 the whole thing.

yesgoodyouareintelligentyouhaveunlockedroundtwonowusethistextasakeytothefollowingvigenerecipher
Psmtr 2

Uymcx wzszx xklcbnpvge. Myvu vrlr hsqbxkp cls dx nsjonx. Tym mwj mlxm ygu xicw hh niy hz eva 13'a [VTVCJMOPV] [GQVCLGKGSF JSGWPCSEU]

Odpxa 3-----CDOxPOiFMQNnRuo[IDFCHNEQVL UUEWNSFEB]
uitr vdoz pr M-wbpqcc... Cp ecw cgk hsl aulkx, nwvu wsfzuxhm fvblmlegeo esbj 13. tib bs sivk pltbkM... XTZPYAQVSDBDDHTO1

-~diza,=\w0006\d0006Jz~o,pcqt ,nf~s,gf~m,jgkb",V_|~c}}for",B~iet,h},on,u} ,naq~t)},_t~w",Uyw~ykhiyw,hob)tj,unfd,}z,ey~,p},q~jff",Rxxnpp,bb},xrybpn,som},ku~",Jft~wxlru,ty}k,obzb,v|,ru,~rzcm,>""",^kctw,>,hy},sbf,cr~a,ci}j)q,hz1,Megm,fx ,ipb,ihs""",Lwe~croj,knvl,f|""",Qdp,nylfu)q ,}tkv,nus,~zduf,ne~,~iilb,8,e,suf}}"\m0006hljj}mahiuygzxc}~hu_\e0006s~|hp}|w""",>t839ck:7

Simplified for human eyes, the instructions are as follows:

Yes, good. You are intelligent. You have unlocked Round Two. Now use this text as a key to the following Vigenere cipher:

## ROUND 2

Following these instructions, we execute Round Two.

Use the entire original string to key in a Vigenere cipher of the entire block of (already ROT13'ed) text that follows it.

After this step, the remaining message now reads:

Round 2

Gvood wiork egarthling. Yeou anre weorthy orf ae reward. But for that you need to get to the 13's [INAUDIBLE] [CONNECTION DESTROYED]

Kvcew 3-----RSGrLBpHYWGnWqu[VSRAXJBZHR HRLAZFRIH]
ceak nlvv sy M-ebfmej... Ow xyr ovz twd noqcr, jjrd sqxkntqo bdvxyigsko notw 13. aeq qk meir rxzukR... TZMEKYGRPMNJQEAS1

-~pvle,=\c0006\l0006Fg~h,hkxp ,qm~s,of~c,firn",C_|~v}}bjd",Q~xqx,z},bh,z} ,fum~g)},_p~f",Qwo~jddras,pin)fg,wzld,}i,aq~,c},x~fuu",Jrtawr,nh},qrdxva,hak},aq~",Gof~ckiyy,fl}w,shhx,c|,km,~zgyp,>""",^rcbw,>,xu},uir,jk~w,xu}y)f,td1,Erar,xr ,ecx,rdq""",Dhx~yaqf,shhx,c|""",Spv,nhhxh)x ,}pzk,foo,~mkwr,tx~,~inhh,8,r,hgd}}"\c0006disv}snepyktlbi}~pq_\l0006l~|zx}|d""",>p839fr:7

As you can see, the instructions have been garbled. That's because they're obscuring...

The word VIGENERE

## ROUND 3

So let's go ahead and try to follow our instructions with a little guesswork.

We can already assume that the leading text is "Round", so let's let a Vigenere solver do the heavy lifting and reverse-solve for a key. It came up with variations on THIRT?. Remember our instructions were cut off at "the 13's..." so let's try THIRTEEN as a key.

With that done, here's the result:

Round 3-----NOTyETyOUSTuPid[CONNECTION DESTROYED]
pltc wsrr ff F-wkmiaw... Vp phy krm apv wvmye, qcjm zmtxumix izrkfbybrk jbap 13. snx mg zlbj aevqxY... MRVLGUTYIEWQMANZ1

-~inul,=\y0006\h0006Sn~a,ztel ,mz~z,hx~l,mena",J_|~o}}tsk",M~tde,s},tq,g} ,bqz~n)},_i~x",Zdk~fqkksb,wej)sn,pruk,}e,wd~,j},q~xdb",Fnghpj,wo},mnqeos,qhg},wd~",Nhx~lreul,me}o,bodt,p|,rf,~rpfl,>""",^npip,>,pd},ben,wr~p,pd}f)b,pq1,Lksa,en ,ape,kvz""",Kdt~lhjx,bodt,p|""",Zin,wodtu)e ,}irt,mkk,~zrpj,ce~,~ejuo,8,k,zpk}}"\y0006zvzo}kwlluxaetr}~wm_\h0006y~|gq}|v""",>y839mn:7

So... that was kind of right and kind of wrong, then?

## ROUND 3, TAKE 2

Let's keep going...

Do it again! Run a Vigenere with THIRTEEN as the key.

well done my X-friend... Oh you get the drill, just vigenere everything with 13. but it gets hardeR... EACHCHARANDMINUS1

-~awbh,=\u0006\u0006Zg~s,iaah ,zg~s,zg~s,iaah",C_|~g}}czg",I~gkx,k},cx,c} ,xdg~g)},_a~g",Gzg~sxdcbi,saw)zg,habg,}a,jk~,c},i~gkx",Banahs,dk},iaxxgb,xdc},jk~",Gzg~snahs,fw}x,ikzg,w|,kx,~awbh,>""",^awbh,>,yk},xaa,dk~h,yk}b)x,cx1,Ecbh,aj ,nwx,ceg""",Gzg~sabg,ikzg,w|""",Saw,dkzgb)x ,}aaa,igx,~gkhs,ja~,~awbh,8,c,iwg}}"\u0006mcsg}tdhhhetwcy}~si_\u0006f~|zi}|e""",>f839ij:7

## Round 3, still going

So our new instructions are...

If we include the oddly-capitalized characters in the intro text, XOR EACH CHAR AND MINUS 1

Getting closer! Now to prepare for the next decryption...

Because XOR is a binary-based operation, we need to translate the message into binary. Now, since straight-up translators don't play nice with that special (Unicode) character in there, I've used an automatic encoder but lightly modified it by hand.

001011010111111001100001011101110110001001101000001011000011110100000110000001100101101001100111011111100111001100101100011010010110000101100001011010000010000000101100011110100110011101111110011100110010110001111010011001110111111001110011001011000110100101100001011000010110100000100010001011000100001101011111011111000111111001100111011111010111110101100011011110100110011100100010001011000100100101111110011001110110101101111000001011000110101101111101001011000110001101111000001011000110001101111101001000000010110001111000011001000110011101111110011001110010100101111101001011000101111101100001011111100110011100100010001011000100011101111010011001110111111001110011011110000110010001100011011000100110100100101100011100110110000101110111001010010111101001100111001011000110100001100001011000100110011100101100011111010110000100101100011010100110101101111110001011000110001101111101001011000110100101111110011001110110101101111000001000100010110001000010011000010110111001100001011010000111001100101100011001000110101101111101001011000110100101100001011110000111100001100111011000100010110001111000011001000110001101111101001011000110101001101011011111100010001000101100010001110111101001100111011111100111001101101110011000010110100001110011001011000110011001110111011111010111100000101100011010010110101101111010011001110010110001110111011111000010110001101011011110000010110001111110011000010111011101100010011010000010110000111110001000100010001000100010001011000101111001100001011101110110001001101000001011000011111000101100011110010110101101111101001011000111100001100001011000010010110001100100011010110111111001101000001011000111100101101011011111010110001000101001011110000010110001100011011110000011000100101100010001010110001101100010011010000010110001100001011010100010000000101100011011100111011101111000001011000110000001100011011001010110011100100010001000100010001000101100010001110111101001100111011111100111001101100001011000100110011100101100011010010110101101111010011001110010110001110111011111000010001000100010001000100010110001010011011000010111011100101100011001000110101101111010011001110110001000101001011110000010000000101100011111010110000101100001011000010010110001101001011001110111100000101100011111100110011101101011011010000111001100101100011010100110000101111110001011000111111001100001011101110110001001101000001011000011100000101100011000110010110001101001011101110110011101111101011111010010001000000110011011010110001101110011011000000110011101111101011000000111010001100100011010000110100001101000011001010111010001110111011000110111100101111101011111100111001101101001010111110000011001100110011000000111111001111100011110100110100101111101011111000110010100100010001000100010001000101100001111100110011000111000001100110011100101101001011010100011101000110111

So we run the instructions with a ... modified message.

Remember "MINUS 1"? Well, according to OP, this was actually what was done to ENcode the message, so to reverse the process, we're going to take each! and! every! character's binary and increase it by one...

001011100111111101100010011110000110001101101001001011010011111000000111000001110101101101101000011111110111010000101101011010100110001001100010011010010010000100101101011110110110100001111111011101000010110101111011011010000111111101110100001011010110101001100010011000100110100100100011001011010100010001100000011111010111111101101000011111100111111001100100011110110110100000100011001011010100101001111111011010000110110001111001001011010110110001111110001011010110010001111001001011010110010001111110001000010010110101111001011001010110100001111111011010000010101001111110001011010110000001100010011111110110100000100011001011010100100001111011011010000111111101110100011110010110010101100100011000110110101000101101011101000110001001111000001010100111101101101000001011010110100101100010011000110110100000101101011111100110001000101101011010110110110001111111001011010110010001111110001011010110101001111111011010000110110001111001001000110010110101000011011000100110111101100010011010010111010000101101011001010110110001111110001011010110101001100010011110010111100101101000011000110010110101111001011001010110010001111110001011010110101101101100011111110010001100101101010010000111101101101000011111110111010001101111011000100110100101110100001011010110011101111000011111100111100100101101011010100110110001111011011010000010110101111000011111010010110101101100011110010010110101111111011000100111100001100011011010010010110100111111001000110010001100100011001011010101111101100010011110000110001101101001001011010011111100101101011110100110110001111110001011010111100101100010011000100010110101100101011011000111111101101001001011010111101001101100011111100110001100101010011110010010110101100100011110010011001000101101010001100110010001100011011010010010110101100010011010110010000100101101011011110111100001111001001011010110000101100100011001100110100000100011001000110010001100101101010010000111101101101000011111110111010001100010011000110110100000101101011010100110110001111011011010000010110101111000011111010010001100100011001000110010110101010100011000100111100000101101011001010110110001111011011010000110001100101010011110010010000100101101011111100110001001100010011000100010110101101010011010000111100100101101011111110110100001101100011010010111010000101101011010110110001001111111001011010111111101100010011110000110001101101001001011010011100100101101011001000010110101101010011110000110100001111110011111100010001100000111011011100110010001110100011000010110100001111110011000010111010101100101011010010110100101101001011001100111010101111000011001000111101001111110011111110111010001101010011000000000011101100111011000010111111101111101011110110110101001111110011111010110011000100011001000110010001100101101001111110110011100111001001101000011101001101010011010110011101100111000

...and then XOR the sucker with 00001101 (thirteen in binary).

EUREKA! That was a chore.

#round 3

Very good, very very good. Impressive. Great as it is, there's more. Everything you've done so far is great. Nobody has gotten this far. Everybody just gave up at round 2... Round 2 was too hard wasn't it? Kind of, but like... Everyone gave up... You haven't, sooo get ready for round 4 i guess.
ciyleslxhdddkxuiwsrygm
jlrpvgspk... 2j497gf65

## ROUND 4

### RESOURCES

Round 1:

rot13

Round 2:

vigenere cipher

• How do we comment now without spoiling? – Jafe Nov 15 '18 at 16:01
• Sorry what do you mean? – Omega Krypton Nov 15 '18 at 16:02
• @jafe You can comment in rot13, that's what most people do – FireCubez Nov 15 '18 at 17:03
• I don’t want to speak for @jafe, but I think that was his joke – El-Guest Nov 15 '18 at 17:47
• Yeah, it was just an attempt at humour. Hey, they can't all be winners! – Jafe Nov 15 '18 at 18:24