Waking Titan/Phase 1

Waking Titan - Phase 1
Active since 2017-05-28
Waking Titan is an ARG which is leading to the upcoming 1.3 update for No Man's Sky.
Type	[[List_of_Investigations#Official|Official]]
Creator	Alice & Smith & Hello Games
Discovered	2017-05-28

Main Page > List of Investigations > Waking Titan > Phase 1

Phase 1 of Waking Titan began with mysterious advertisements played on 16 radio stations spread across the globe. Players were led to http://wakingtitan.com, which hosted a variety of puzzles that were solved over the course of Phase 1. Players solved the 6 triangular sigils on the Waking Titan website, along with 5 of the 15 glyphs along the bottom of that page.

To solve these puzzles, players had to listen to cryptic radio ads, visit a wide variety of mysterious corporate websites, and meet with Atlas Foundation agents in New York and Paris. Additionally, solving these puzzles revealed more about the nature of Waking Titan, and uncovered private correspondence between ARG characters, most of whom are employed by a fictional company called the Atlas Foundation. This phase culminated on July 8, 2017, with a congratulatory message from Elizabeth Leighton, the CEO of the Atlas Foundation.

Phase 1 began on 2017-06-08 and ended on 2017-07-08.

Note: This page has the most thorough and complete documentation of Phase 1 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 main Waking Titan page, which is much more concise.

Initial Announcement

On 2017-05-27, Twitter user @argn tweeted a link to 'project-wt.com'. The link lead to a website which contained a map showing sixty locations, four of which were active at the time. When clicked on, the name and status of the location was displayed. Once a location was marked as active, a link to a livestream of a radio station local to the area would appear. The website also stated that the first clue would be revealed on June 8th. A list of active locations and their corresponding radio stations can be found here.

Another website was found by searching for 'wakingtitan.com', based on the title of the 404 page on the original site. The website prompted visitors for a username and password.

In addition, a link to the original website was sent to a Unfiction moderator, and was described as:

It's the countdown to a new, large-scale ARG launching this summer, starting with 16 radio stations across the world. It's being produced by veteran puppet masters and includes NPCs, actors, live events and much more... 

bW9zY293 Station

On 2017-06-02, the Moscow radio station became active, but the name of the location and the link were seemingly corrupted. Rather than the location name of 'Moscow' and a link to a local radio station, the location was named 'bW9zY293', and had a link to a pastebin containing the text:

[email protected]
X (XXX) XXX-XXXX
You have until Jun. 3rd - 18:00 UTC

Emails & Phone Calls

All players who sent a valid phone number to [email protected] received the following email in response:

< Database Updated >
[Email] -> X (XXX) XXX-XXXX
 
To change entry please reply to this message with a new contact.
.. Message ID: 6f71407e-7106-452d-8dd1-017f3eb00e1b
.. Low bandwith[sic] relay - bridge.myriad-oc1920.sat
.. Connection active
.. Rendering for message payload

On 2017-06-03, from 18:00 to 18:45 UTC all players with verified phone numbers received phone calls which contained the following message:

This is Waking Titan.
He arose, and on the stars, lifted his curved lids, and kept them wide.

The second line is an excerpt of the poem Hyperion by John Keats:

Hyperion arose, and on the stars 
Lifted his curved lids, and kept them wide 

This gave players the word HYPERION, which was subsequently used as a password for wakingtitan.com. One player received a phone call different from the calls that other users received - it simply stated:

This is Waking Titan.
Username: wakingtitan

wakingtitan.com

Navigating to wakingtitan.com prompted players for a username and password. The web page could be accessed by logging in with these credentials:

Username: wakingtitan
Password: hyperion

Logging in displayed the site's homepage, which featured a hexagonal arrangement of triangles (referred to as "sigils" by the source code), one of which was glowing red. Clicking on the glowing red sigil prompted players to enter an email address to be notified of further updates. When this page was first accessed, there was a row of 5 glyphs along the bottom, but only the first glyph was activated (i.e. white and clickable). Clicking on the first glyph brought visitors to another page:

Clicking on the globe icon linked players to a PDF file, which was a top secret memo from Major Sophie Dubois to Elizabeth Leighton.

First Glyph - Top Secret Memo

The first page of the memo

The file contained vague “Assessments” of the project’s assets, infrastructure, and participant skill. A “Current Footprint” section included various social media websites and ARG sites (including this very wiki), indicating that ARG players themselves were the participants of Project WT. Another entry in the footprint section, forums.etarc.org, was apparently a forum for radio enthusiasts. It was speculated that the ETARC forums would turn out to be a hub for interacting with NPCs, a theory which which was confirmed when wakingtitan.com updated to include a direct link to the ETARC forums (on the glyph in the center of the hexagon).

In the footers of the PDF, this string could be seen: =O3QcsBFH6zY. This string lead to a YouTube URL, which hosted a song by Kavinsky called First Blood.

The final page of the PDF file contained 5 alphanumeric sequences, each of which has a missing entry. Each missing entry corresponded to one letter of the final solution, which was ORION.

Entering ORION on the page where the PDF was initially found displayed the word “Granted”, indicating that the password was correct, and returned players to the homepage. The first glyph along the bottom of the screen then turned red.

First Sequence - Waking Titan

The URL discovered in the spectrogram

On 2017-06-08, a broadcast was played on the radio stations displayed on project-wt.com at different times during the day. The voice in the transmission said

We are the mystery hiding in plain sight. You will find us. This broadcast is the first clue.

Spectrograms of the clip showed text reading wakingtitan.com.

First Sigil

On 2017-06-08 at approximately 15:50-16:00 UTC, a new email was sent out to the Waking Titan email list. And then, at about 17:00 UTC, a second glyph was unlocked on wakingtitan.com. Additionally, clicking the top left triangle (referred to as a "sigil" by the source code) in the center hexagon now revealed a puzzle instead of a prompt to enter a dialogue box:

The first sigil's puzzle, with an answer of '16'

The first puzzle can be solved several ways, but the most apparent solution was as follows:

If players look at the image in the background, they can see some text.
The characters are CCXL and XV, one on top of the other with a dividing line between them.
That's 240 and 15 in Roman Numerals.
240/15 = 16, the answer to the puzzle.

The number 16 also appeared in several other places: for instance, on a picture of a dossier hosted on the Waking Titan site. 16 was also the number of radio stations that were initially activated. Solving the puzzle caused a video to play. Several Discord users have attempted to transcribe the audio of the video:

My name is (?). You must help her find the way.  If you're receiving this signal, please, help us. You must save us. Without the videocom to help us, we're pretty much stuck. They can't find our devices. Help us. Tell her about Saladin (?)

After this puzzle was solved, clicking the second (top right) sigil showed a date, time, and radio station, as well as an input box for email updates:

By clicking the second glyph on the bottom row, a second PDF file could be accessed, as well as a text entry box. The PDF file suggested that a live drop that would take place at 7:00PM that day, at Cafe Bene in New York City.

Second Glyph - Live Drop

The piece of paper received at at the cafe

At 19:00 UTC-5, Discord user nikel met with the courier at Cafe Bene in New York City and was told:

Think outside the box. Something big is coming and when we find out what it is we must be prepared. Also, remember that we are a science community first and foremost.

Nikel was then given a piece of paper, which included the following string:

MDEzRDowMDc4OjA3MjQ6MDA1Ng==

Converting the string from base64 to ASCII:

013D:0078:0724:0056

No Man's Sky dead drop

The decoded base64 was a set of No Man's Sky coordinates, which lead to a Communications Station that displayed the text:

LOOP16 UNEXPECTED ERROR: 97C-303N-5884-P

Entering 97C-303N-5884-P into the second glyph returned the "accepted" screen, confirming the link between Waking Titan and No Man's Sky. At this point, it should be noted that No Man's Sky had a concurrent ARG involving 16 cassette tapes. The prominence of the number 16, as well as the method of hiding spectrograms in audio, made it highly likely that the No Man's Sky ARG was intertwined with Waking Titan.

Second Sequence - Echo

On 2017-06-10 at about 05:20 UTC, an advertisement was played on the SBC Paradise FM radio station in Seychelles which referenced a service called Echo Software, and a website.

Transcription:

I lost my grandmother, Emma, 2 years ago. She was 85. I miss her so much. But now, thanks to Echo Software, I - I can hear her voice back, just using a sample from an old home movie. *Grandma Speaks* Are you filming this honey? *Back to woman* I can make her say what makes me feel close to her again, like *Grandma Interrupts* I love you honey, and I'm leaving you all my jewelery. *Normal woman laughs? Cries?* Thanks to Echo Software, everybody's voice can be anybody's. Visit echo-64.com.

At first, http://echo-64.com had the text, BEGIN SECOND SEQUENCE ... Initialization may take up to 24 hours.. On 2017-06-10 at At 17:12 UTC, the site was updated into a fully-fledged corporate website. From reading the site, players learned that Echo is a company that allows its customers to synthesize virtual versions of deceased relatives. The purpose of this process was ostensibly to help people recover emotionally from the loss of a loved one. The process begins with sending Echo a 5-minute audio snippet from the person in question.

A phone number was listed on the site - +1 (408) 703-2077. Upon calling it, players would hear a message, transcribed here:

Echo is in transition and therefore cannot accept new input. When we achieve our predetermined finite state, we'll take new input and get back to you. Thank you. [BEEP] [Exactly 5 seconds of near-silence] [BEEP]

If players spoke during the silent section of the call, the final beep would not occur until the player stopped talking, or until 5 minutes had elapsed.

Clicking the string of numbers at the bottom of the Echo page, 84.190.188, redirected to Franka Potente - Believe, the third song found in this ARG.

Second Sigil

The clue which leads to the password "prism"

Located on the homepage of the site was a row of 5 geometric shapes. Clicking on all of them yielded the phrase:

The order of things is formed by the angle of its measure.

Clicking again on the shapes, this time in the order of decreasing angle (circle, triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon) yielded the riddle

This breaks white into 7.

The solution to the riddle was prism, which was the password for the second sigil on the main Waking Titan website.

Completing this sigil resulted in a new video being played, featuring the same woman as the first video. In this one she introduced herself as Elizabeth Leighton, CEO of the Atlas Foundation.

Hex to Gif

The image whose hexadecimal data was embedded in the site

Searching for anything on the Echo website revealed a set of 5 numbers:

112 97 115 116 101

Decoded from decimal:

paste

There was also a much larger block of hex underneath. Decoding this hex yielded the raw data for a .gif file. Opening this file, players could just barely make out a string of characters:

z1Rgxi5L

These two ciphers led to the URL http://pastebin.com/z1Rgxi5L, which contained the phrase There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so in hexadecimal. This phrase is a quote from Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2.

Third Sequence - Multiverse

On 2017-06-16 at 15:50 UTC, the Multiverse Technologies site was updated, with the text

BEGIN THIRD SEQUENCE ...
Initialization may take up to 24 hours.

On 2017-06-17 at 13:09 UTC on the radio station Wael 96FM in Puerto Rico, an advertisement was played:

Because of our recent discoveries in the fields of magnetic and geophysical anomalies, Multiverse Technologies is now hiring. If you or someone you know have research experience in the fields of radiation belts, computationalism, magnetic fields, or simply quantum electrodynamics, we will consider your application. If you have what it takes to break the laws of physics, contact us now at multiverse-75.com.

Immediately after this message was broadcast, the Multiverse site was updated to another corporate homepage, much like the Echo website before it. The Waking Titan site was also updated - the third sigil was unlocked, and the third and fourth glyphs were activated.

A phone number was listed on the Multiverse site: (1) 505 695 7033. Calling this number yielded the following message:

Thank you for your interest in Multiverse. Right now, our priority is our work on Abelian groups, manifolds, and basic knowledge of cochains, their cycles, and coboundaries.  We are in urgent need of talents in this branch of mathematics. If you have the expertise, let us know through our website.

Emailing [email protected] yielded the following response:

Specific expertise detected.
Input desired branch of mathematics in subject line to [email protected].
 
XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX

Sending another message to [email protected] with the subject line Algebraic Topology (the branch of mathematics dealing with Abelian groups, manifolds, and cochains, as mentioned when calling the phone number) yielded the following message:

Input > Valid candidate in algebraic topology
 
Executing process POSTBOX....
<...>
<...>
<...>
 
Process complete. WARNING: CONFIRMATION IS REQUIRED.
 
Do you want to trigger the mailing of package #9 /16?
Confirm in subject line with code ID : 817IDAS to [email protected]

Sending a final message to [email protected] with the subject line 817IDAS yielded the following, final message:

Package #9 /16 has been sent. Please stand by.
ETA: Week of June 19
 
// http://bit.ly/2sa872g42

The bit.ly link led to this PDF file, which is an internal memo from Elizabeth Leighton to all employees of the Atlas foundation. Finally, the footer of the PDF contained a link to Arcade Fire - Supersymmetry.

On 2017-06-21 a package was delivered to CobraTV. The package contained a cassette tape labeled 9/16 which is related to a concurrent No Man's Sky ARG involving 16 cassette tapes.

Third Glyph

All possible paths for the third glyph

Upon pressing the third glyph, a video of a picture of a wall covered in post-it notes with arrows and letters written on them showed in the background. By following the arrows in a path, players were able to deduce a series of letters. There was only one direct path from the top left note to the bottom right note:

O>B>A>F>G>K>M

OBAFGKM is a system used in “Spectral Classification” to describe the absorption lines of a spectrum. Accordingly, Spectral was the password for the third glyph.

Third Sigil

Upon further inspection of the Multiverse site, players noticed that three photographs of Multiverse employees displayed a glitch effect. The original, non-glitched images contained a faint, but visible distortion in the colour channel corresponding to their clothing colour. These distortions were actually two letters of Morse code in each of the 3 images. Going in the order they appear on the staff pictures:

... -.-. .- .-.. . ...

Decoded from Morse code:

SCALES

The answer for the third sigil was SCALES. After solving the third sigil, the background changed to a video of Elizabeth, as it had done with the past two sigils. By overlaying all of Elizabeth’s videos so far, players obtained a more complete message, as seen here. Also, the fourth (locked) sigil appeared, along with a message that players should wait until June 24th:

Fields Ciphers

The “Fields” section of the Multiverse homepage

Under the “Fields” section of the Multiverse-75 home page, players observed 5 buttons, labelled “Radiation Belts”, “Computationalism”, “Magnetic Fields”, “Electrodynamics”, and “Particle Acceleration”. Also, hidden in the source code of the web page was the string SCHRODINGEABFJKLMPQTUVWXYZ. This string represents a Polybius square, with the keyword SCHRODINGER. It was used as the key for a Bifid cipher to decode all 5 messages:

Radiation Belts

Wc snpsigdd cpfrrcxnfi hikdnnp dm crc Fcb Pdeug vueageacc vtyl sa zxm crebzp lyoeuaiwpv.
We recreate conditions similar to the Van Allen radiation belt in our secure facilities.

Computationalism

Eqsigcmsn ngi cddipnsttkdnl ivacsdmi sw a nllhiiiizlrcd bcrh bb ummsdcnsqpcwm: Nt hfv smcimi rilbzpk qwv ciwp vn lukncve mpx ocwxeai zh vcvuodm banqwdmuxab zyce gtwuesnlm-rebgfryoy wetnplloa.
Exploring the possibilities inherent in a computational view of consciousness: We are always finding new ways to enhance our ability to process information with naturally-occurring phenomena.

Magnetic Fields

Biimbf cb ya cwmhhbo bidmspi ikik iq fscrccstr pisoigrcfmh sbbgmoiwmmn ndfkqd: Kddk bipci cissntv ayv rssdwzzkle vuotz anq xs okolpvqd tzdu cvl iavtdyz vdbwcuocgkl we mviwdpxx sqyixypv.
Adding to an already massive pool of knowledge surrounding fundamental forces: This group studies how industrial tools can be improved with the liberal application of magnetic energies.

Electrodynamics

Wgmigcesc vd itb tpbrsenp sw Btrfngp Rchmgapheligdap, cr hmk pn fari medwlo kyn tx wlp zanlhuoz/gura cdecrvrwyuuo xqwr pewswk ycp xraqce az, rzavv ymr.
Venturing to new horizons in Quantum Electrodynamics, we aim to make better use of the particle/wave interactions that happen all around us, every day.

Particle Acceleration

Fcdgc fc bvm cskaddt-dsimpirpsh BIHI Mdsifodsmcrrcxp Qrdba Cbhmchpk mph sti Satidpc Lkfodsrmbs, taf bfcbpdd ooklousm weslwyawyea wp koepz wo maqwylz rbut xz ppsudti zce zmu, pc w yueqy rxoa ucve mrrowyerqh ecrczaiwpv.
Based on the already-successful CERN Superconducting Super Collider and the Cornell Syncrotron, our private particle accelerator is built to perform tens of studies per day, at a lower cost than comparable facilities.

Fourth Glyph - Package 9/16

The case that cassette 9/16 was contained in.

On 2017-06-21, YouTuber CobraTV received package 9/16. The sending of the package had been triggered by emails to [email protected]. CobraTV posted a short YouTube video showing the tape and playing portions of Side A, and made a download link for Side A available immediately. Side B was made available about two hours later.

The package itself was very similar to the packages received by No Man’s Sky moderators and community leaders earlier in June. The package contained a poster, a t-shirt, socks, a small statue of a ship, and cassette 9/16. The cassette was slightly different than previously sent cassettes, most notably because on the exterior of the cassette case was the ‘Atlas’ logo seen in several places throughout the Waking Titan ARG. The audio contents of the tape were also markedly different than those seen in the other tapes.

For information and discussion on the other cassette tapes, please see this page.

A Side

A Side Download Link

On the A Side of cassette 9/16, a 15 minute long ambient musical track is recorded, followed by a spoken word portion and then more ambient music.

Transcript of spoken word portion:

I am alone in this space between worlds, I am alone but for my thoughts, my words. I am alone but for you. I see you. You must have known I could, you must have known what this was. Through these travels we come to know ourselves, just as the universe comes to know us in turn. I cannot step through. I know now that if I do, all of this will be over. Lives come back to me. I've seen horrors and wonders. I have been through. I have become good and evil. I have grown beyond all such things. Life after life. And now I am become you.
One day your voice will speak to you telling you of something, some signal that needs answering. It will tell you of some secret at the heart of reality, some puzzle that needs to be solved lest all life falls into decay and oblivion. Do not listen to it. If all the world is a lie, then nothing is true, not even that explanation. Abandon it. Abandon me. It is inevitable.

B Side

Spectrogram of side B of tape 9/16, with annotation to show the repeated notes.

B Side Download Link

The B Side of tape 9/16 consisted of ambient noise and a low-pitched repeated series of notes. Each note is on a specific frequency, as indicated by the spectrogram. These notes were converted to MIDI values.

Frequencies: 490, 145, 208, 174, 138, 370, 260 
MIDI: 71, 50, 56, 53, 49, 66, 60

The frequencies were decoded into MIDI using this chart, yielding 36, 15, 21, 18, 14, 31, 25. Taking the mod26 of each of these numbers yielded players the sequence 10, 15, 21, 18, 14, 5, 25. Converting these numbers into letters based on their positions in the alphabet yielded the word JOURNEY.

The word JOURNEY was rotated 13 spaces (ROT13 is a fairly standard cipher seen in ARGs) to produce WBHEARL, which was the passphrase for glyph 4.

Fourth Sequence - Myriad

On 2017-06-24 at 15:41 UTC, the Myriad website was opened for investigation. Meanwhile, on 2017-06-24 at 15:55 UTC, the Waking Titan site unlocked another glyph and sigil.

On the same date at around 13:04 UTC on the Super Clásica - Baladas radio station in Bogotá, this advertisement for the Myriad website played, informing players that it was a company that offers 'open-source microsatelite ventures'.

Transcript:

If you believe the sky's the limit, you have it wrong - the government is the limit! We are Myriad. We specialize in open-source microsatellite ventures, and we think the sky should belong to everyone! With over 37 safe launch stations around the world, we enable a constellation of possibilities - making the world a better place! It's time - to launch a new era of regulations regarding microsatellites. Make your voice heard - at myriad-70.com.

The sigil led players to the Myriad status page, where they had to investigate a number of things. On the other hand, the glyph redirected to the main page of Myriad website.

Status Page

On the Myriad Status page, there were several different elements available to view, including:

• Network Report:

Latest network diagnostic table: 
669:a 116:b 365:c 119:d 816:e 108:f 590:g 586:h 408:i 847:j
759:k 707:l 804:m 343:n 313:o 298:p 919:q 333:r 585:s 602:t
196:u 225:v 560:w 296:x 534:y 775:z 811:a 918:b 922:c 530:d
866:e 613:f 500:g 449:h 563:i 221:j 435:k 655:l 332:m 443:n
992:o 702:p 531:q 513:r 760:s 404:t 363:u 118:v 841:w 621:x
337:y 291:z 

• Localized Magnetic Generation Field Service:

STATUS: ONLINE
INCIDENTS:
100 PB Limit reached >> clients/017-a24
uid: hevelius%20(wit.1706)%20su%20song // pc:lowercase(xxxx xxxxx)
INCIDENTS:
L6 package exceeded >> clients/021-f16 | 32272
uid: Z28ubmFzYS5nb3YvMnRDSGx5Zw // pc:lowercase(xxxxxxxxx)

• Current Satellite Launch Window:

07 DAYS: CLEAR
30 DAYS: RESCHEDULING
60 DAYS: CLEAR
90 DAYS: CLEAR

Subroutine Mercury: Process 1

The email that was sent to winners of the unexpected giveaway

The Network Report section of the page contained a link, titled “Mercury Process Running”. It linked to a voting site, where players could vote between 16, 32, 41, 64, 80, and 96. The meaning of these numbers was initially unclear. Upon completing their vote, players were redirected to this page, which displayed the total percentages of votes. At first, it was not clear what the purpose of this page was.

After the number 80 had "won" the vote, 80 players were randomly selected from the Waking Titan mailing list, and were sent free copies of No Man’s Sky. Based on this, it is speculated that the numbers we voted on determined the amount of No Man's Sky copies that were distributed.

User-ID pages

On the User-ID pages (1, 2) (and a couple of others) this cipher appeared. When ROT-13 was applied to it, it decoded to a plot summary of Chapter 27 of a French children's story, Le Petite Prince. Decoded message and translation into english:

Et maintenant, bien sûr, ça fait six ans déjà...Je n'ai jamais encore raconté cette histoire. Les camarades qui m'ont revu ont été bien contents de me revoir vivant. J'étais triste mais je leur disais: C'est la fatigue... Maintenant je me suis un peu consolé. C'est à dire... pas tout à fait. Mais je sais bien qu'il est revenu à sa planète, car, au lever du jour, je n'ai pas retrouvé son corps. Ce n'était pas un corps tellement lourd...Et j'aime la nuit écouter les étoiles. C'est comme cinq cent millions de grelots... Mais voilà qu'il passe quelque chose d'extraordinaire. La muselière que j'ai dessinée pour le petit prince, j'ai oublié d'y ajouter la courroie de cuir! Il n'aura jamais pu l'attacher au mouton. Alors je me demande: "Que s'est-il passé sur sa planète? Peut-être bien que le mouton à mangé la fleur..."
 
"Six years later, the pilot writes this story. He is reassured by the fact that the little prince's body disappeared the day after the scene with the snake and believes that the little prince really did make it back to his planet. However, the pilot realizes that he forgot to add a leather strap to the muzzle he drew for the little prince's sheep, and so he worries that the sheep may have eaten the rose. He asks the readers whether they believe the sheep has eaten the rose or not and emphasizes how essential the outcome of this question is." 

For the time being, the use of this passage remains unknown.

Fourth Sigil

The datamoshed image found in the second PDF file from Myriad

The Localized Magnetic Generation Field Service block from the status report page was divided into two main segments, which unlocked over time. The first segment to unlock was as follows:

INCIDENTS:
100 PB Limit reached >> clients/017-a24
uid: hevelius%20(wit.1706)%20su%20song // pc:lowercase(xxxx xxxxx)

The string 'clients/017-a24' pointed towards this password-protected page. The string 'pc:lowercase(xxxx xxxxx)' in the text above hints that the password is a 4-letter word followed by a 5-letter word, all lowercase. Also seen in the text above are the names "Hevelius", "Wit" and "Su Song" - ancient astronomers who were known for making star charts. Accordingly, star chart was the password for the first page, which led players to this PDF.

Later on, the second segment unlocked, revealing a similar puzzle:

INCIDENTS:
L6 package exceeded >> clients/021-f16 | 32272 
uid: Z28ubmFzYS5nb3YvMnRDSGx5Zw // pc:lowercase(xxxxxxxxx)

The string 'clients/021-f16' pointed towards a second password-protected page. The UID listed was in base64, which, when decoded, led to a [go.nasa.gov/2tCHlyg NASA archive page]. Inputting 32272 (from the message above) led to a STS 120 shuttle satellite, which then linked to a mission done by the spacecraft discovery, which was the code for the second page. Upon accessing the page, players received another PDF. This PDF contains a link to a datamoshed image, which has yet to be solved.

Both PDFs' footers contained the string =ZtWTUt2RZh0. This string led to a YouTube video of the song Computer Love by Kraftwerk.

The two PDF's contained the strings 313-xxxxx and xxx-98176. Putting those two together gave players 313-98176, which was the solution for the fourth sigil.

Completing this sigil resulted in a new message from Elizabeth Leighton being played.

Fifth Glyph

As players continued voting on numbers, the status report page was being updated. Over time, more and more number:letter pairs were added, until the end of the alphabet was reached. The final listing was as follows:

669:a 116:b 365:c 119:d 816:e 108:f 590:g 586:h 408:i 847:j
759:k 707:l 804:m 343:n 313:o 298:p 919:q 333:r 585:s 602:t
196:u 225:v 560:w 296:x 534:y 775:z 811:a 918:b 922:c 530:d
866:e 613:f 500:g 449:h 563:i 221:j 435:k 655:l 332:m 443:n
992:o 702:p 531:q 513:r 760:s 404:t 363:u 118:v 841:w 621:x
337:y 291:z

Players discovered that sending an e-mail to the sales@myriad-70 account resulted in a response message mentioning a "dedicated Nocturne support address". Mailing [email protected] returned a message with the sender Julian J Wong:

System Relay 001-A: Your support ticket ID has been sent to the primary technical contact for your account. If you are not already a Nocturne priority client, your request will be transferred to our general support center.
 
Sincerely, Julian J Wong.
 
Service code LA-443
Myriad Help Desk
An Atlas Foundation Company

Emailing [email protected] returned another message:

I've looked up and down the sonic bridge, but three of my favorite things are still missing. [email protected]

From this, players deduced that solfege note names (eg. do re mi) were relevant. The final email ended up being to [email protected], which responded with a set of numbers:

68 79 40 49 49 54 41 32 32 77 73 40 55 48 55 41 32 32 83 79 76 40 56 49 49 41

Decoding these using decimal to ASCII, players got:

DO(116) MI(707) SOL(811)

Combining these with FA-291, SI-313, LA-443, RE-992 from the contact page, players noticed they had a full solfege alphabet with numbers tied to it. When placing these in order and cross-referencing the numbers against the Status Report Page, they ended up with the following:

Do  - 116 - b
re  - 992 - o
mi  - 707 - l
fa  - 291 - z
sol - 811 - a
la  - 443 - n
si  - 313 - o

When put in the right order, the letters spelled Bolzano, which was the solution for the fifth glyph.

Fifth Sequence - Superlumina

On 2017-06-29 at 20:24 UTC, the upcoming Superlumina website updated with the following message:

BEGIN SEQUENCE -16.0e998112 ...
Process degraded. Rebooting.

The title of the page also read Read1 you’re not f4r ye3 this.

On 2017-06-30 at 9:24 UTC, the page title remained the same but the website updated with the following message:

BEGIN SEQUENCE -32.1af1983 ...
Process degraded. Rebooting.

At the same time, the copyright information changed from © Superlumina 2017 to © Superlumina 2018

Email Fragments

The first "Sequence Break Error" email

On 2017-06-30 at 14:00 UTC, an email was sent out to some people subscribed to the Waking Titan mailing list, containing a link to another Typeform poll, with the text Subroutine Mercury is active. This is process 2 out of 3. This process will execute once. Over time, more emails were sent out to different groups of people, each with minor variations. In particular, the hex in the top-left corner and the characters next to `Sequence Break Error` changed in each wave of emails.

First Email

• Sent: 2017-06-30 at 14:00 UTC
• Hex: 42 61 74 74 6c 65 20 6f 66 20 68 61 73 74 69 6e 67 73: Battle of Hastings
• Sequence Break Error: a/

Second Email

• Sent: 2017-06-30 at 14:24 UTC
• Hex: 4a 6f 73 65 6f 6e: Joseon
• Sequence Break Error: WO

Third Email

• Sent: 2017-06-30 at 14:48 UTC
• Hex: 52 6f 79 61 6c 20 53 6f 63 69 65 74 79: Royal Society
• Sequence Break Error: nE

Fourth Email

• Sent: 2017-06-30 at 15:16 UTC
• Hex: 54 75 72 69 6e 67: Turing
• Sequence Break Error: j

Adding all of the sequence break letters together leads to an Imgur image. Solving the equation leads to the answer 256.

On 2017-06-30 at 15:40 UTC, the website updated yet again with the following message:

BEGIN SEQUENCE -32.1af1983 ...
222-14-22 (25%)
24-190-2 (24%)
209-3-130 (19%)
117-0-159 (18%)
0-205-245 (15%)

These values corresponded with the voting process that was linked in the email fragments.

Process 2 Result

On 2017-06-30 at 21:55 UTC, the poll ended, and the Superlumina website updated with its background changed to a pink/magenta color. All other datasets save for "209-3-130" were removed, and new text displayed saying:

BEGIN SEQUENCE -32.1af1983 ...
209-3-130 Dataset Ready, please wait...

209-3-130 had received enough votes to "win" the voting process, and, accordingly, the background was a pink/magenta colour (R 209, G 3, B 130).

On 2017-07-01 at around 23:00 UTC, 100 players were randomly selected from the Waking Titan mailing list and were sent free copies of No Man’s Sky.

Superlumina Site

The uncorrupted Superlumina homepage

Shortly afterwards, the Superlumina site came online, but with several disturbing "corrupted" features. On 2017-07-08 at 0127 UTC it was discovered that the Superlumina site had updated. The uncorrupted version of the homepage was found to now contain the string =TLQWGoysbgM which references a YouTube video of the song Back in Time by Huey Lewis And The News. This update may be the first explicit example of a time travel mechanic in this ARG. Prior to the timestamp there was no reference to this video.

The corrupted Superlumina homepage

A seemingly corrupted version of the page was found below containing strange strange markings somewhat reminiscent of mathematical symbols. These glitches were hinted at by the "Sequence Break Error" emails. Some text on the homepage was even rendered illegible with Zalgo text. Cleaning the text up yields the following:

Controlling Information
Since beyond time we have consumed immense swaths of Knowledge and obtained untold power. We will come for your world as we have many others.
Join Our Crusade

The Projects subpage has a variety of entries, each associated with a decimal code:

• Tachyonic Antitelephone 101 99 104 111: echo
• High-Powered Signal Generator 109 117 108 116 105 118 101 114 115 101: multiverse
• Interstellar Listening Post 109 121 114 105 97 100: myriad
• Mass-Density Data Transmissions 73 110 102 105 110 105 116 101 32 108 111 111 112: infinite loop
• Particle Accelerator 97 116 108 97 115: atlas

Additionally, an image was found on the Contacts subpage of Superlumina's website. At this time, it is unclear how this image is intended to be used.

The phone number that appears when typing '256' on the blog post pages

The site also has a blog section. Two entries in particular stand out: the entries for a technology named "NLTT". These blog posts are Data Compression for NLTT and Non-Linear Transmission Technologies (NLTT). The bodies of these blog posts mention sending data back in time.

Typing the number 256 (the solution to the equation that was found earlier) on either of these blog posts altered the attached image to display a phone number:

508 955 2174

When called, this message was heard, which says: Call back later for pickup instructions. Be ready.. This message implies that a live drop may occur soon, and suddenly.

Superlumina Broadcast

On 2017-07-01 at 05:05 UTC, a message was broadcast through the Rock Mauritius Radio station in Mauritius.

The present message is a test.  If you hear this audio transmission, we at Superlumina have finally proven the Lorentz Invariant Theory is right.  We have succeeded in stabilizing superluminal communication.  Transmitting information into the past is now possible.  Today is [indecipherable] of August, 2017.  For more information, visit Superlumina-6c.com.

Fifth Sigil - London Live Drop

On 2017-07-01 at around 11:30 UTC, a new message was heard when 508 955 2174 was called again for the pickup instructions.

The Cumberland by Marble Arch. Now, 2 persons max. Meet Agent 59. Passcode: What was the first. Warning, we will not wait.

Soon after, another new message acknowledging the transit of Moulesmariner was heard.

Acknowledged. Agent MoulesMariner en route.

The note received by MoulesMariner

During Moulesmariner's encounter with Agent 59, he noted that the agent was seemingly in a hurry, and had to run to catch a plane. The meeting was recorded, presumably by Agent 59, and can be heard here. After MoulesMariner acquired the package from Agent 59 using the password "16", Agent 59 hastily wrote a note to include with the package, seen right.

Transcription of meeting with Agent 59:

MoulesMariner: Yeah.
Agent 59: Do you have a passcode for me?
MoulesMariner: I do.
Agent 59: What is it?
MoulesMariner: 16.
Agent 59: 16? Why did you decide on 16?
MoulesMariner: It was the first passcode for Waking Titan.
Agent 59: Alright. Were there any other answers you considered?
MoulesMariner: There were, Orion, Hyperion. I need to look. Bear with me.
Agent 59: Alright.
MoulesMariner: [In a?] bit of a rush to get here.
Agent 59: I imagine. You've come to some trouble, we appreciate that.
MoulesMariner: [Been a long way?].
Agent 59: It's alright, it's not that important.
MoulesMariner: Is it not that important? Ok. I [?] 
Agent 59: How did you decide on that answer versus all of the other answers?
MoulesMariner: I don't know, I am part of the community and they needed somebody to come for the drop.
Agent 59: Why did you trust their decision over your own decision.
MoulesMariner: Why did I trust their's, because we're together, we're a collective. We're working together to achieve an end I think.
Agent 59: Thank you.

On this note is a drawing of a flower, and text that reads:

28 minutes of silence
after the
thief

In addition, Moulsmariner received a No Man's Sky pin.

The drawing of the flower next to the word "thief" pointed to a movie called The Flower Thief, by Ron Rice. Soon after directing this movie, he directed a silent-movie called Senseless, which was 28 minutes long, which correlates with 28 minutes of silence from the clue. Senseless was the password for the 5th sigil.

The fifth sigil revealed a new video, and the details of the next broadcast:

Sixth Sequence - Atlas

On 2017-07-07 at 19:48 UTC, fragments of Atlas-65 were discovered by entering any text after the domain name. The main page remained unchanged, with the Be Patient page.

On 2017-07-07 at 21:00 UTC, the Atlas-65 main page started redirecting to the unlocked website. The About page stands out as the whole page glitches.

Radio Broadcasts

On 2017-07-08 at 10:25 UTC, the first broadcast aired on Howard Stern's show on Sirius XM 101.

We are the mystery hiding in plain sight. If you're curious enough, if you're bold enough, you will find us. Pay close attention.

In the background of the audio, there is Morse code, --. .-. --- -... .- -... .. .-.. .. ... - .. -.-. / -.-. --- -- .--. ..- - .. -. --. and when translated it is probabilistic computing

On 2017-07-08 at 11:00 UTC, the second broadcast aired on Howard Stern's show on Sirius XM 100.

Sometimes you hear something that sticks in your mind afterward. You'll wonder about it in your quiet moments. A question without an answer. A puzzle you can't solve.

In the background of the audio, there is Morse code, . ...- --- .-.. ..- - .. --- -. .- .-. -.-- / -.-. --- -- .--. ..- - .. -. --. and when translated it is evolutionary computing

On 2017-07-08 at 12:30 UTC, the third broadcast aired on Howard Stern's show on Sirius XM 101.

Pay close attention. You followed our clues and solved our riddles. But you were missing a piece. Until now. Will you solve the mystery or will you wonder forever?

In the background of the audio, there is Morse code, .---- ----. -- .- -.-- .---- ----. ...-- ...-- and when translated it is 19MAY1933. It's suspected that this refers to Edward de Bono, who was born on this day, as Bono was a pioneer of lateral computing (which fits with the solutions to the two previous Morse codes: evolutionary computing and probabalistic computing).

On 2017-07-08 at 14:30 UTC, the fourth broadcast aired on Howard Stern's show on Sirius XM 100.

Have we got your attention? We are the mystery hiding in plain sight. If you're curious enough, if you're bold enough, you can look for answers of wakingtitan.com. Go, it's time to finish this and begin something new.

In the background of the audio, there is Morse code, -... .-.. ..- ./.-- .... .. - ./.-. . -../-... .-.. .- -.-. -.-/-.-- . .-.. .-.. --- .--/--. .-. . . -. which translates to blue white red black yellow green, a reference to the Six Thinking Hats, a group discussion concept and book by Edward de Bono.

Sixth Sigil

The message displayed upon completing the sixth sigil

On 2017-07-08 at 14:35 UTC, the Waking Titan website unlocked the sixth and final sigil. The password was Six Thinking Hats, which was hinted at by the fourth series of Morse code from the Howard Stern show. Upon entering the code, we were granted access to a new PDF and a message. Much like previous PDFs, this one also contains a YouTube link to a song. In this case, it is the song "Groove Is In The Heart," by Dee-Lite. (The YouTube video is not available in the U.S., so a mirror for the song can be found here.)

The text of the PDF is as follows:

We want to extend our gratitude to everyone who has contributed to the Mercury subroutine so far.  
We hope you have enjoyed the successful distribution of 180 Access IDs, and we hope you will also  
appreciate the other interesting artifacts we have in store for you going forward. We intend to keep the 
process alive until the completion of Project Waking Titan in August. 

It is important to mention that we are very excited by the coming Phases 2 and 3. Input from the Mercury 
Subroutine will pave the way toward new experiences in version 1.3 of a familiar universe. We look forward 
to the successful conclusion of this ground-breaking experiment. 

Regards.
S.M.

End of Phase 1

On 2017-07-09 at 19:00 UTC, players received an email from the subscription list saying that a new video was being processed. After 10 minutes, another email was sent, containing a link to the Waking Titan Twitch stream.

At 19:07 UTC, the first broadcast was aired on the Twitch stream, where Elizabeth Leighton introduced the Citizen Science Division and announced the start of Phase 2 on July 21st 2017:

Hello. My name is Elizabeth Leighton and I'm the CEO of the Atlas Foundation. Congratulations, you've reached the end of the line. The final answer. You've proven your value beyond any shadow of a doubt. Thank you for everything you've done so far. I'm sure you have a lot of questions. Why is the Atlas Foundation doing this? What are we hoping to accomplish? What's your part in this? I'm here today to answer a few of your most burning questions.

The Atlas Foundation is dedicated to studying the nature of reality itself. Over the last few weeks we've been gathering a community of creative and... unpredictable individuals to help us perform a series of... call them collaborative thought experiments. You are the community we've found and you are everything we could have hoped for and more. But now the real works begins. We're inviting you to join the Atlas Foundation's Citizen Science Division. Starting on July 21st we'll have a series of very specific tasks we'd like you perform, individually, and collectively. As you can see we're giving you time to rest and prepare yourself for what's coming. But none of us will be idle. Between now and then, we'd like you to answer a few questions and apply for your level 4 Atlas Pass, to help us establish benchmarks for what's coming. To take the next step, visit csd.atlas-65.com and join the Citizen Science Division today. We're on the brink of creating something truly amazing. Something that will change your understanding of reality itself. Don't you want to be a part of that?

The live broadcast was repeated a few more times. Each subsequent broadcast began with different comments and answers to some questions posed by users in the Twitch chat, and concluded with the same important message as the first.

At 19:17 UTC, the second broadcast was aired.

At 19:31 UTC, the third broadcast was aired.

At 19:53 UTC, the fourth broadcast was aired.

Citizen Science Division

The Citizen Science Division reveals itself as a division of the Atlas Foundation with the slogan, Discover the nature of reality. The About Us section of the website describes the goal and areas of research of the Atlas Foundation, including a picture of an item called a Level 4 Atlas Pass which was mentioned in the live broadcasts from Elizabeth Leighton.

On another section of the Citizen Science Division website with the header loop16, a distorted image is visible, and upon clicking it, D00-A appears at the bottom, linking to an image which is the completed image of a previous glitched image.

Atlas Pass Distribution Email

At 2017-07-09 at 20:51 UTC, emails were sent out to those who signed up for the Waking Titan mailing list, welcoming them to the Atlas Foundation's Citizen Science Division.

Welcome to the Atlas Foundation's Citizen Science Division. To get you up to speed, this email has three parts: What's Happened So Far, What To Do Now, and What To Expect.


'''What's Happened So Far'''

In order to forge a strong community of curious and unpredictable minds, the Atlas Foundation created a series of radio ads and puzzles shrouded in mystery. It was called Waking Titan. A number of strong communities became interested in Waking Titan.

Now we at the Atlas Foundation are using this momentum to further our core mission: investigating the nature of reality itself, with a particular interest in simulated universes. And you can play a pivotal role in this mission.

 
'''What To Do Now'''

You’re not required to do anything more to take part in the next phase of Waking Titan. You’ve already joined the Citizen Science Division, and you’ll receive key updates on the program as they occur. 

But if you’d like to do more, then you can visit the Citizen Scientist Survey and answer a few simple questions. This important data will help us to conduct a more rigorous set of tests, so your cooperation is tremendously appreciated. This will also grant you a higher degree of participation going forward. Once you’re done, we’ll give you a Citizen Scientist Class designation.

You may also be selected to receive a Level 4 Atlas Pass in the mail. Our supplies are limited, so we'll be randomly distributing them. Our apologies if you are not selected. 

 
'''What To Expect'''

On July 21, we'll enter the next phase of Waking Titan. We'll begin an intensive series of tests and challenges. These collective experiments could change our understanding of reality itself. 

We're looking forward to working with you. Thank you, Citizen Scientist.

The optional survey contained questions related to the concepts of simulations and whether or not the universe is approaching a singularity.

Beginning of Phase 2

On July 21st, Phase 2 of Waking Titan began.