The "ITS NOT TOO LATE" Email Is A Scramble Cipher Message! I'll Teach You How To Solve It!

[Blood_XIII]

https://i.postimg.cc/CMXgK0FH/Screenshot-2024-01-25-180510.png

The original message reads as such:

OM YJR TRSAZ PG DJSFPED. YTSQQRF OM RMFARDD YOZR,
S DPIA RMDJTPIFRF, S DQOTOY’D ZPITMGIA VJOZR.
YJR DRRLRT, NPIMF OM RYJRTRSA EPR,
S FSMVR EOYJ VTRSYOPM, URY MPEJRTR YP HP.

AOZNP’D TRSAZ, S VUVAR EOYJPIY SM RMF,
VPMFRZMRF, YJR NTSOM EOAA MRBRT ZRMF.
YTSQQRF OM YJR ZSVJOMR’D ERN, GPTRBRT OY DRRZD,
S FOHOYSA DQRVYRT, APDY SZOFDY YJR DYTRSZD.

If you JUST want to know the solution, I’ll include it right away in the spoiler below! However, if you want to use your brain, scroll down and I’ll give my step-by-step process on how I solved it!

WARNING! MESSAGE IS SPOILED BELOW!

IN THE REALM OF SHADOWS. TRAPPED IN ENDLESS TIME,
A SOUL ENSHROUDED, A SPIRIT’S MOURNFUL CHIME.
THE SEEKER, BOUND IN ETHEREAL WOE,
A DANCE WITH CREATION. YET NOWHERE TO GO.

LIMBO’S REALM, A CYCLE WITHOUT AN END,
CONDEMNED, THE BRAIN WILL NEVER MEND.
TRAPPED IN THE MACHINE’S WEB, FOREVER IT SEEMS,
A DIGITAL SPECTER, LOST AMIDST THE STREAMS.

WOULD YOU RATHER SOLVE IT YOURSELF WITH SOME HINTS INSTEAD?

Then I’ll teach you! Now, how does one solve a scramble cipher? It’s actually very easy; Pure deductive reasoning and some understanding of common English words! You always start with something obvious, and this message gives us an ideal starting place.

STEP 1

The last two words of the first paragraph are YP and HP. These are two-letter words, which narrows it down to things like if, my, we, to, am, etc. However, BOTH words end with P which means the solved words have to end with the same letter. The only things that could make sense would be if P was actually the letter F or O, because the only full words that would make sense would be if and of OR to, do go and no. Using some reasoning, the only way those two scrambled-letter words could make sense is if P is actually O (EG; To go/go to, to do/do to, no go, etc. all make sense, but things like if of/of if do not).

STEP 2

Next, throughout the message, the letter D is occasionally placed after an apostrophe. The only letter in the English language that ever comes BY ITSELF after an apostrophe is the letter S, so we can safely say that inference is correct.

STEP 3

The third line in the second paragraph ends with the word DRRZD, and we just learned the solution for the first and last letter! However, there is also two repeating letters in the 2nd and 3rd position, which helps narrow down the possible solutions! The only possible English words for this would be seeds, seeks, seems, seers or soots. We know it cannot be soots however, because we already determined the translation O, so it HAS to be that R is actually E!

STEP 4

Using this, we now go to the second word in the third line of the first paragraph, DRRLRT. With what we’ve solved already, we end up with SEE?E?, and using the solves we’ve made up to now, the inferred words from the previous section and some more common understanding of English, the only two words that could possibly fit here would be seemed, seeder or seeker… However, you must ALWAYS remember to consider the rest of the message as well! There is NO OTHER INSTANCE of the scrambled L in the entire text beyond this one! If L were actually M or D then you’d have to assume that the entire message only uses the letter M or D a single time. This is HIGHLY unlikely, and therefore should be ruled out as a possible solution! However, the letter K is the fifth least-used letter in English, so we can safely assume the word here is most likely to be SEEKER, which in turn means that T is actually R!

STEP 5

So now we go back to the end of the third line in the second paragraph, but we’re moving two words backwards and inspecting GPTRBRT this time. With the solves we’ve made previously we know that the word becomes ?ORE?ER. But just a moment!, the fourth word in the very first line of the message is a two letter word, PG, and we already know that first letter from what we’ve solved before, but that second mystery letter is now also the FIRST letter of the longer word we started looking at in this step! So if the two-letter word in the first line starts with O then our only potential matches in English would be ok, oh, of and on. So let’s apply that to the longer word in question…
K O R E ? E R
H O R E ? E R
F O R E ? E R
N O R E ? E R
The only one of those that even remotely resembles is the third option, which looks very strongly to be the word FOREVER if you ask me! So with this we’ve now figured out that G is actually F and B is actually V!!

STEP 6

In the second paragraph, second line, the second to last word is MRBRT which we can solve to ?EVER and the only words that fit this would be never, fever or lever. We know it can’t be fever due to previous solves, and if we look throughout the message we see the two letter word OM show up a few times. Well if M were to be L, then NONE of those two-letter words would actually make sense (Unless they were the name Al, which for simplicity’s sake we’re not going to assume that’s the case). So with that we’ve come to the conclusion that M is actually N.

STEP 7

Now back to the first line of the message, where the second to last word is RMFARDD and we know that to translate so far as EN??ESS. The only word in the English language that is 7 letters long and starts with EN and ends with ESS would be ENDLESS, so right there that gives us F=D and A=L.

STEP 8

It’s time to visit the last line of the first paragraph and see MPEJRTR near the end, which we can translate to NO??ERE. Once again we find a case where only one word has that number of letters and has the known letters configured this way, which is NOWHERE! We now have E=W and J=H!!

We’ve solved quite a bit, but we’re missing three vowels and some very crucial consonants that will blow the entire cipher apart… So let’s go and get them! We’re going to do this by looking at the end of the first line in the second paragraph; EOYJPIY SM RMF. That’s right, we’re going to solve a whole phrase this time!

STEP 9

With what we already have, we’re looking at W??HO?? ?N END. If we look at the line above that we see EOYJ by itself, which means EOYJPIY must be a compound word! The only 4-letter words that start with W and end with H are wash, wish and with. But not so fast! The last letter of our mysterious compound word is the same as the third letter! Which means our potential solutions become wisho?s, washo?s or witho?t. Only one of those even remotely looks like a real word, so the word is WITHOUT which in turn means that O=I, Y=T and I=U.

STEP 10

From here we have every vowel except for one, but the scrambled letter S appears throughout the message all by itself. Since we already know that O=I, the only other letter that is used as a complete word when by itself is A, so we also know that S=A!!!!

So, where does that leave us on the message?

IN THE REALZ OF SHADOWS. TRAQQED IN ENDLESS TIZE,
A SOUL ENSHROUDED, A SQIRIT’S ZOURNFUL VHIZE.
THE SEEKER, NOUND IN ETHEREAL WOE,
A DANVE WITH VREATION, UET NOWHERE TO HO.

LIZNO’S REALZ, A VUVLE WITHOUT AN END,
VONDEZNED, THE NRAIN WILL NEVER ZEND.
TRAQQED IN THE ZAVHINE’S WEN, FOREVER IT SEEZS,
A DIHITAL SQEVTER, LOST AZIDST THE STREAZS.

Now that we have most of the major consonants and every vowel figured out, we can look at the translated message so far and very quickly pick out incomplete words that have obvious deductive solutions.

FINAL STEPS

For instance, from words like TRAQQED and SQIRIT’S we can discern that Q is actually P, making TRAPPED and SPIRIT’S.
With words like REALZ, TIZE, ZOURNFUL, SEEZS, AZIDST and STREAZS we can easily guess that Z is actually M, which gives us REALM, TIME, MOURNFUL, SEEMS AMIDST and STREAMS.
The likes of NOUND, NRAIN, WEN tell us that N=B and therefore gives us BOUND, BRAIN and WEB.
And then the words DANVE and VREATION can be inferred as DANCE and CREATION, meaning V=C

Using those last three together, we find that the words with multiple missing solved letters have mostly become solved by proxy.
VHIZE becomes CHIME.
LIZNO’S becomes LIMBO’S.
VONDEZNED becomes CONDEMNED.
ZAVHINE’S becomes MACHINE’S.
SQEVTER becomes SPECTER.

The rest is all super easy to guess, since there are only six letters in the entire alphabet that haven’t been solved yet, and of those six there are only TWO actually within the message!

[Blackmend]

Or, the only stand-alone letter is 's' and the hint picture from the QR code is a keyboard, if we assume s=a then basically every letter is just the letter to the left of it, if the letter is furthest most left on the keyboard then the next letter would wrap around to the rightmost letter ....I guess it also helps to have a good friend to repeat the letters at you while you write em down lol

[Blood_XIII]

Originally posted by Blackmend:

Or, the only stand-alone letter is 's' and the hint picture from the QR code is a keyboard, if we assume s=a then basically every letter is just the letter to the left of it, if the letter is furthest most left on the keyboard then the next letter would wrap around to the rightmost letter ....I guess it also helps to have a good friend to repeat the letters at you while you write em down lol

Y'know, I assumed the keyboard was just a reference to something in the game I hadn't seen yet. Not once in my solving of the puzzle did I ever actually take a second to LOOK at my keyboard and notice the solution staring me in the face.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZRTC291eLU

I shouldn't do puzzles when hungover, today I learned X_X

[xbx]

There was a dark page that opened after I got caught in the tree house. It had faint red writing and Sam hanging in the top left corner. I accidentally didn't save the screenshot of this page and I cannot recreate this page after two uninstall and reinstall play throughs. Do you know about the screen I'm talking about?

[KatTayle]

Originally posted by xbx:

There was a dark page that opened after I got caught in the tree house. It had faint red writing and Sam hanging in the top left corner. I accidentally didn't save the screenshot of this page and I cannot recreate this page after two uninstall and reinstall play throughs. Do you know about the screen I'm talking about?

I got the same screen, but it was after I alt+f4'd out of the file decryption area - might just be a random startup event? Didn't get a picture of it either though, didn't realize there was writing either, just clicked around (I think clicking on Sam hanging made some noises?) and then had to force quit it again since I didn't find another way out.

Also thanks op for the decryption help! Didn't realize that's what the keyboard was hinting to. Was also able to decrypt another email the same way .

[CossOfDeaf]

Originally posted by xbx:

There was a dark page that opened after I got caught in the tree house. It had faint red writing and Sam hanging in the top left corner. I accidentally didn't save the screenshot of this page and I cannot recreate this page after two uninstall and reinstall play throughs. Do you know about the screen I'm talking about?

Just got the same screen today. Brightened the text and put it into a image to text converter. From what I checked it got everything right.

Here you go!



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[a fish in a bowl with two legs]

damn i just googled the picture of the keyboard from the QR code since it has the conversion of letters on it

[Morgydorg]

Originally posted by Coss:

Originally posted by xbx:

There was a dark page that opened after I got caught in the tree house. It had faint red writing and Sam hanging in the top left corner. I accidentally didn't save the screenshot of this page and I cannot recreate this page after two uninstall and reinstall play throughs. Do you know about the screen I'm talking about?

Just got the same screen today. Brightened the text and put it into a image to text converter. From what I checked it got everything right.

Here you go!



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This is base 64, the decoded message is:

I wonder how this one will do.

I wonder how they will react.

All data is necessary. Understand how they work. Understand what scares them. Understand what works,It is all so logical.



I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders

[GrubbDawg]

Originally posted by Morgydorg:

Originally posted by Coss:

Just got the same screen today. Brightened the text and put it into a image to text converter. From what I checked it got everything right.

Here you go!



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This is base 64, the decoded message is:

I wonder how this one will do.

I wonder how they will react.

All data is necessary. Understand how they work. Understand what scares them. Understand what works,It is all so logical.



I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders
I will follow my orders

Aww heck no