Waking Titan/Phase 2

Waking Titan
Active since 2017-05-28
A website with 16 radio stations, which may be leading to something more.
Type	[[List_of_Investigations#Official|Official]]
Creator	Alice & Smith & Hello Games
Discovered	2017-05-28

Main Page > List of Investigations > Waking Titan > Phase 2

Waking Titan (also known as Project WT) is an ARG involving a multitude of websites, maps, phone numbers, and radio stations scattered across the world. The ARG is being produced by veteran puppet masters, and will feature NPCs, actors, and live events. The ultimate purpose of Waking Titan is connected to the upcoming 1.3 update for No Man's Sky.

Note: This page will always have the most thorough and complete documentation of the Waking Titan ARG. However, if you just want a fast, easy way to get up to speed, we suggest you take a look at the summary page, which is much more concise.

Waking Titan Subpages
Summary	A quick way to get caught up to speed with Waking Titan
Stations	Information on the radio stations from the initial project-wt.com
Cassettes	Information about the cassette tapes that mods from the No Man's Sky communities received
Characters	Summary of each character in Waking Titan
Companies	Summary of each company in Waking Titan
Console Commands	A list of commands you can use in the Waking Titan console (http://wakingtitan.com)

Project-WT Update

On 2017-07-21 at around 20:39 UTC, Project Waking Titan updated. The site has now changed to indicate a calibration process is occurring.

Citizen Scientist Emails

The assembled decoder ring

The image that was assembled

On 2017-07-22 at about 00:48 UTC, Citizen Scientist emails began to be sent out. These emails contained links to another, optional survey, and a new website called "Bootsector." In order to access this website, you must decode your unique citizen scientist identifying code using the two parts of the code wheel provided. As more users joined, fragments of an image were revealed.

Over time, the image was revealed to be a corrupted picture of a notebook, outlining information about the http://wakingtitan.com console and listing a series of datasets.

The transcription of the notebook is as follows:

don't forget atlas THEN csd!!!
list wake status
ship hibernate seed
whois -> atlas ? needs loading time...
Datasets
 316 - A - 114 ATLAS
 316 - 1 - 430.ETARC
1176 - 4 - 746.MYRIAD
1176 - 5 - 1922.MVERSE
5020 - 8 - 3098.ATLAS
?    - 7 -     
5020 - 9 - 13138.MYRIAD
31296 - 2 - 18158.MVERSE

loop16 hibernating as of July 5

The section labelled "Datasets" above had a missing entry. By using the existing entries (referred to as "seeds"), we were able to reconstruct the missing dataset based on patterns: 5020-7-8118.ETARC

Waking Titan Console Update

On 2017-07-21, at about 21:28 UTC, Waking Titan updated. The site has now changed to display a console. The functions and outputs of all commands are detailed in this page.

Typing START ATLAS.INIT results in the following message:

starting system…
integrity check in progress… done
validating config file… done
searching for updates… no updates found
 
welcome to atlas 0.16alpha

Once ATLAS.INIT is started, running START CSD.INIT results in the following message:

citizen science division protocols loading…
initialization sequence1 complete
initialization sequence2 complete
initialization sequence3 complete
initialization sequence4 complete
initialization sequence5 complete
initialization sequence6 complete
 
citizen science protocols loaded
ready for live test
input seed to continue

Typing the command SEED 5020-7-8118.ETARC into the command prompt at http://wakingtitan.com (after having run START ATLAS.INIT and START CSD.INIT) yields the following response:

checking seed…
seed validated
 
warning: process hibernating, unable to continue until wakeup

The command wake loop16 can then be run, which woke loop16 from the its hibernating state:

> wake loop16
loop16 resuming, please wait
 
reading seed… done
memory refresh…. done
rising and shining… done
 
loop16 ready
hello, user

After waking loop16, you can run the command hello loop16:

> hello loop16
hello to you, too
wakeup process complete
new commands available.
 
warning: calibration required before proceeding
preparing calibration instructions…

First Calibration

On July 23rd, at 6:51 PM UTC, an email was sent out to all players subscribed to the Citizen Science Division mailing list, with subject line Calibrating Waking Titan - Action Required.

Incomplete Dataset (Vigenere Ciphers)

The email contained the following passage:

During the boot sequence, we discovered an incomplete dataset. We’d like you to take on the task of reviewing the relevant information and completing the ongoing process.

This was followed by a link to a typeform, which contained 4 Vigenere ciphers of increasing difficulty. The keys to these Vigenere ciphers were determined using the code wheels in a variety of different ways. These are the ciphers:

First Cipher

• Key: DA
• Plaintext: But even in the depths of their subjugation, there was hope. . Korvax - ID hyperion
• Solution Method: Start the inner code wheel pointer at zero and then you simply rotate the inner wheel left and right based on the number provided in the hint. -3 indicates rotating left 3 spaces (0 > F > E > D) and then from there rotating right 13 spaces as indicated by +13 to arrive at A.

Second Cipher

• Key: CF
• Plaintext: ... if the Atlas is a God, then it is insane. . Vy'Keen - ID orion
• Solution Method: The numbers from the hint indicate bearings in degrees. Start the inner wheel pointer at the normal start point at the top where its at 0 degrees. From there you simply rotate to the right 275 degrees for the 1st part of the key and then 355 degrees from the 0 position for the 2nd part for the key.

Third Cipher

• Key: Lead
• Plaintext: ... refusing to forgive the past. Do not worry, all is well – all is at peace. The A(&! are different now . Gek - ID hastings
• Solution Method: This one only requires the outside code wheel. Looking in the C position as indicated in the hint there's a smaller letter in the space (W) and if you follow the hint provided to each space there are additional small sets of characters (OS > PT > 80). Each of these smaller letters indicate a certain element from the periodic table (W = Tungsten, Os = Osmium, Pt = Platinum, 80 = Mercury (80 is the Atomic number) ). When following the pattern each element has one extra element before the other on the table so if we skip the element after Mercury (TI = Thallium) we end up at Lead which is the key.

Fourth Cipher

• Key: WFXUOPKN
• Plaintext: INCOMING TRANSMISSION… SOURCE: UNKNOWN… You are not – kzzktt – alone – Please, identify yourself. I’m – kzzkttk – . Race Fourth - ID mercury.
• Solution Method: The key is obtained by superimposing the golden spiral over the letter soup.

The first, second, and third ciphers mention the Korvax, Vy'Keen, and Gek - the three races that are currently in No Man's Sky. The mention of `Race Fourth` in the fourth cipher could very well be teasing a fourth race for No Man's Sky.

Percussion Instruments

The prompt displayed when viewing more information about the first calibration process

The email also contained the following passage:

In order to proceed, we'd like you to do something somewhat more complex: calibrating the simulation process you've started at wakingtitan.com. This is, again, a collaborative task. Consider it a getting-to-know-you mission; the computer is getting to know you as a community.

Participating is simple. To begin with, we need you to take and upload photographs of public resonant percussion instruments in your locality -- church bells or wind chimes, for example. We'll also need you to answer a few simple questions about the experience of taking the photograph.

The unfilled calibration bar for New York

This passage was followed by a link to http://project-wt.com, which had updated with the first calibration sequence becoming accessible. Players were able to upload pictures of public resonant percussion instruments, such as church bells or wind chimes, to the website. In the upload prompt, players were able to specify the city where the picture was taken. It is currently unclear what activates a city's icon, but after uploading enough pictures for a city a white icon appears on the map. Clicking on that city's icon revealed a progress bar, reflecting the number of pictures that had been taken in that city. After enough pictures had been taken in a particular city, the progress bar associated with the city was filled, and the white icon turned red.

The goal of this calibration process was to complete the progress bars of 40 cities, spread across at least 8 timezones.

Calibration Result - Sixth Glyph

On July 25th, at 22:41 UTC, an image was uploaded to the Google Drive. The image was a screenshot of the map on Project Waking Titan, but with the Chinese character for "dream" in the center.

Calibration Output with Chinese character for "dream"

In addition, the 6th glyph also unlocked around the same time, including a pdf with a message from Major Sophia Dubois to Elizabeth Leighton, and displayed a butterfly knot in the background.

The password for the sixth glyph was found to be ZHUANGZI, a Chinese philosopher who frequently uses concepts of butterflies and dreams.

The Butterfly Knot

No Man's Sky - Fourth Race

Around 22:50 UTC, yet another image was uploaded to the Google Drive folder. While distorted, the image appears to be concept art of No Man's Sky's mysterious fourth race, whose name is still unknown.

The concept art for the fourth race

This page is a work in progress, and will be updated as new developments emerge.