Waking Titan

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Waking Titan
Completed on 2018-07-20
Project WT logo.png
Waking Titan was an ARG which led towards the Atlas Rises and NEXT updates for No Man's Sky.
Type Official
Creators Alice & Smith & Hello Games
Discovered 2017-05-28
Completed 2018-07-20

Main Page > List of Investigations > Waking Titan

Description

Waking Titan (also known as Project WT) is an official ARG (alternate reality game) for No Man's Sky that involves a multitude of websites, phone numbers, and radio stations scattered across the world. The ARG is produced by veteran puppet masters Alice & Smith, and features NPCs, actors, and live events.

Relating to the origin of No Man's Sky, the ARG's story follows the powerful A.I known as Loop16; created by a company called The Atlas Foundation, with the intent of simulating a one-to-one recreation of reality that can mirror its chaotic variables to accurately predict the future.

Contents

The ARG encompassed several "seasons," each leading to a new update for No Man's Sky. Season 1 of Waking Titan led to the release of the Atlas Rises update, and Season 2 to the release of No Man's Sky: NEXT. Season 1 was further divided into several distinct "phases", and Season 2 has followed this convention for ease of reading. Each phase is documented on its own wiki page:

Season 1
Phase 1 Phase 1 of Waking Titan lasted from 2017-05-28 to 2017-07-08.
Phase 2 Phase 2 of Waking Titan lasted from 2017-07-21 to 2017-08-05.
Phase 3 Phase 3 of Waking Titan lasted from 2017-08-05 to 2017-08-07.
Season 2
Phase 4 Phase 4 of Waking Titan lasted from 2017-12-28 to 2018-06-01.
Phase 5 Phase 5 of Waking Titan lasted from 2018-06-01 to 2018-07-20.
Phase 6 Phase 6 of Waking Titan was on 2018-07-20.

Note: This is a summary page. For more in-depth descriptions of each phase, including detailed descriptions of puzzle solutions, check the Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, Phase 4, Phase 5, and Phase 6 pages.

Story Overview

Internal Memos

One of the internal memos discovered in Waking Titan

Throughout the ARG, in-game characters have communicated with each other via "internal memos". Over time, these memos were discovered by ARG players, in the form of PDF files. These memos provided lore content and puzzle content, and are highly recommended reading for new players!

Season 1

Season 2

Subpages

Navigating through the following subpages is recommended for newcomers wanting to get a grasp of Waking Titan's rapidly expanding story.

Story Subpages
Summary of Companies and Entities Includes a summary of each character, company, and relating experiments and their importance in the Waking Titan story.
Console Commands A list of commands used by players at the Waking Titan console
Company Archives An archive of official company details.

Newsletters

The numerous newsletters received throughout Waking Titan.

Season 1

Season 2

Music

Partial video addresses for Youtube can be found scattered across Waking Titan PDFs, website files, and surveys; which all lead to music. The exact reasoning for this has gone unexplained. However, there are apparent thematic relevancies in each song that appear to reflect on the state of the story. All songs linked to in Waking Titan so far can be found compiled here: WT Season 1; WT Season 2

Event Summaries

Introduction

On 2017-05-27, Twitter user @argn tweeted a link to 'project-wt.com'. The link led to a website which contained a map showing sixty locations, four of which were "active" at the time. The locations, when clicked on, revealed the location's name and status. The active locations also revealed a link to a livestream of a local radio station, originating from the corresponding location. The project-wt website displayed a date, June 8th, and stated that the first clue was being "initialized".

On 2017-06-01, moderators of No Man's Sky subreddits /r/NoMansSkyTheGame, /r/NMSPortals, and /r/NMSGalacticHub started to receive cassette tapes in the mail. Each cassette tape was labelled with a number out of 16. The Waking Titan ARG was initially thought to be a separate ARG from these tapes, but connections between the two made it clear that they were, in fact, one and the same.

Phase 1

The default appearance of the Waking Titan site during Phase 1, with no sigils or glyphs solved

During Phase 1, the http://wakingtitan.com hosted 6 triangles in the middle of the page. These triangles were referred to as "Sigils", while the white icons along the bottom of the page were referred to as "Glyphs". Each sigil and glyph, when clicked, lead to a password entry prompt - the correct passwords for all 6 sigils and the first 5 glyphs were discovered via puzzle-solving during Phase 1 of Waking Titan.

The sigil and glyph puzzles were solved collaboratively - while it may have be possible to solve some of these puzzles individually, most of them required a collaborative effort. For instance, some puzzles required players to meet agents from the Atlas Corporation in person, and to relay information obtained from these meetings back to the community. A list of all sigil and glyph solutions for Phase 1 can be found below:

WT Phase 1 complete.png

This phase culminated on July 8, 2017, with a congratulatory message from Elizabeth Leighton, the CEO of the Atlas Foundation.

Phase 2

One of the puzzles that appeared on the Waking Titan Twitch Stream

During Phase 2, the http://wakingtitan.com site hosted a command-line interface terminal. Various commands were accepted as input, which triggered different events. One of the most notable commands was the WHOIS <argument> command, which revealed a passage of text pertaining to the specified argument. For instance, the command WHOIS FOURTH RACE returned the following message: 

INCOMING TRANSMISSION… SOURCE: UNKNOWN…
You are not – kzzktt – alone –
Please, identify yourself. I’m – kzzkttk –

Additionally, http://project-wt.com hosted a "Calibration" utility during Phase 2. To successfully perform these calibrations, players had to upload images of various objects and buildings to the site. For instance, the first calibration required images of "public resonant percussion instruments".

Finally, towards the end of Phase 2, the Waking Titan Twitch stream went live, displaying a five-monitor setup. Throughout the duration of the stream, players had to work together to solve puzzles that were displayed on these monitors. Some of these puzzles were interactive; for example, one puzzle that was repeated several times involved the Twitch chat guiding a virtual hamster through a maze.

Additionally, players solved another 3 glyphs throughout Phase 2. The solutions to these glyphs are shown below:

WT Phase2 Passwords.png

Phase 3

Phase 3 was the briefest phase of Waking Titan. It consisted of the conclusion of the Twitch stream that began at the end of Phase 2. Players solved more interactive puzzles on the Twitch stream, before the rogue AI Loop16 asked them a final question: SHOULD I EXIST? The overwhelming response from the community was "yes".

After receiving this response, Loop16 and Emily of the ETARC forums were revealed as being one and the same. Loop16 generated a heartfelt "Thank You" video to round out the stream, before finally taking the 72-hour stream offline.

Shortly after this, players received emails with the subject line Waking Titan has Ended. The contents of the message were as follows: 

Hello, Citizen Scientist,

Thank you for your contributions to Waking Titan. The developments that took place during Phase 3 were somewhat concerning, but together we have set in motion truly world-shaping events. We will continue to inform the Citizen Science Division of privileged information or any need for collaborators on a new project.

But we do have a few loose ends to tie up with you before we move on, so let's proceed.

First, we're pleased to announce that all 10,000 Level 4 Atlas Passes are in production. Note that due to transit times for mail, some may take several weeks to be delivered.

Next, our CEO Elizabeth Leighton has asked us to include a personal note of gratitude:

"Thank you for all your diligent efforts, Citizen Scientists. It's been an amazing journey for all of us. I've watched you thrive and achieve from those first Phase 1 radio ads all the way through the intensity of Phase 3. I've been impressed at every turn by how brilliant you've been, how voracious, how kind, how thoughtful.

It's been an honor and a privilege. On behalf of the Atlas Foundation, and on behalf of the world, thank you."
The Mercury subroutine has concluded successfully, and a new memo from SM about this process is coming in the next 24 hours. We hope it will answer a few key questions you have about our program, and about what comes next.

On August 11, 2017, the Atlas Rises update was released for No Man's Sky.


Season 2 Prelude

NYC Livedrop.

Before Season 2 kicked off, there was a brief prelude.


The tenth glyph went live on Wakingtitan.com, and WT-related websites began updating with strange messages relating to mirrors and the number 1.5. Players also began receiving their Atlas Pass v4s in the mail.


The CSD were led to a livedrop at Café Bene; where code to unlock the tenth glyph was discovered (REMS // REM SLEEP) written on the back of an Atlas Foundation memo handed out to participants.

The ARG fell silent for two months before the beginning of Season 2.


Phase 4

Phase 4 of Waking Titan began on March 26th, 2018, as the beginning of a new "season" of the ARG which would go on to span another 3 phases.

During Phase 4, the CSD investigated an innovative Chinese gaming hardware company with relations to Myriad called W/ARE. Through their website, players discovered that W/ARE invented a next generation virtual reality device that essentially allows you to play video games in your sleep. 

EASY AND SAFE DREAM INDUCTION
Stimulating the Frontal and Temporal lobe of the brain using low-frequency signals: Our headset drops you into your own personal virtual space by using the brain’s natural processing power to generate cutting-edge 3d graphics in real time. This process puts you into a deep sleep while keeping you conscious of your actions, allowing you to act freely within the Dreamscape.
MORE REAL THAN REAL
Using the practical computational processing power of the human brain: Play in the most realistic virtual worlds possible! Our algorithms convert once-complex graphical processing microcode into mind-readable processes, unlocking your brain’s creative potential. Whether you are playing alone in an exciting single-player experience, or enjoying a real Massively-Multiplayer Online Game with friends: Every texture, sound, smell, and taste will be true to life. The W/ARE system is a mirror into the soul of humanity.

As Phase 4 progressed, it would become apparent that W/ARE's moral compass had suffered from their fearless push to bring new and better technology to the table. Their Research and Development (R&D) sector has very strict employee guidelines that reserve the right to legally penalize employees who fail to share any and all findings from conference tours they send employees on. One man who failed to comply with their stiff guidelines was named Mr. Zheng. He chose to not disclose findings from The Impact of Art on Dreams conference in Moscow, Russia, for personal reasons. In fact, Zheng diverged entirely from his planned tour path to learn more for himself; meeting several interesting characters along the way. This disregard for their requests prompted W/ARE to launch an investigation into the whereabouts of Zheng, which the CSD became consequentially embroiled in. Mr. Zheng had gone completely rogue by this point, revealed by secret memos we were able to uncover. Zheng had discovered that W/ARE were truly maniacal and careless. In their unconventional utilization of the W/ARE headset, they had caused death and brain death in many test subjects at their Research Lab in Beijing.

NEXT Announcement Tweet


On March 29th, 2018, Sean Murray took to Twitter to announce their next update, No Man's Sky: NEXT.

Alongside the announcement of NEXT, Hello Games announced that two new ports of the game were in development for the Xbox One, and — strangely enough — W/ARE's dreamscape.


Arnaud Lacours' WARE Developer Profile

Further sleuthing efforts revealed that an indie developer, Arnaud Lacours, had mysteriously slipped into a comatose state of anomalous properties while working on a game for W/ARE. The CSD were contacted by Dr. Géraldine Nadeau, a researcher of lucid dreaming methods. Dr. Nadeau had taken Arnaud into her care to study unusual brain activity detected during his unconsciousness.

Meanwhile, a new account emerged on the No Man's Sky subreddit, named SATCOM-70. The account began reaching out to players for assistance in establishing connection to Myriad's Satellite API, Satcom.


At the end of this phase, the CSD collaborated with Dr. Nadeau in determining the best personalized procedure to wake Arnaud, which was successful; and the final remaining five glyphs on the Waking Titan website were unlocked and solved shortly after.

Phase 5

Began on June 1st, 2018.


Connection to No Man's Sky

The case that cassette 9/16 was contained in.

At the beginning of the ARG, it was not clear whether Waking Titan was officially connected to No Man's Sky. At first, there were only hints and nudges. At one point, 180 free copies of No Man's Sky were distributed to ARG players. Here's the text of a PDF that was revealed at the end of Phase 1 of Waking Titan: 

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.

This text explicitly stated that the Waking Titan ARG was leading towards the upcoming 1.3 update for No Man's Sky.

Some console commands on the Waking Titan website during Phase 2 refer directly to No Man's Sky lore - for instance, WHOIS ATLAS, WHOIS VY'KEEN, and WHOIS KORVAX are all valid commands. Additionally, some terminal commands referred to a mysterious fourth race, so the prevailing assumption was that the upcoming 1.3 update would bring a fourth race to No Man's Sky.

At the conclusion of Season 1, an email was sent out to members of the CSD with a memo from Sean Murray, confirming that the ARG was the lead up to the 1.3 update, which was released after a few days.


Media Appearances

5th July 2017
[EN] ARGNet - Stern Words from No Man’s Sky ARG

23rd July 2017
[EN] GeekReply - Waking Titan Update 1: Phase 2 Commences!

27th July 2017
[EN] GeekReply - Waking Titan: How An ARG can Bring People Together.

8th August 2017
[EN] Dailystar - No Man's Sky News: Waking Titan Reddit Arg REVEALS 1.3 update ahead of release date

9th August 2017
[EN] Ars Technica - No Man’s Sky version 1.3 lands this week for free, adds “quick-travel” portals

[EN] Forbes - 'No Man's Sky' Is Patching In A Story This Week, A Year After Launch

[EN] GameSpew - No Man's Sky Patch This Week Improving Its Story

19th January 2018
[EN] Eurogamer - No Man's Sky's Waking Titan ARG is back, and fans are trying to figure it all out again

[RU] DTF - A Collection of No Man's Sky and Waking Titan Articles.

Other Information

Waking Titan Miscellaneous Subpages
Cassettes Information about the cassette tapes received by No Man's Sky subreddit moderators
Stations Information on the radio stations from the initial project-wt.com site
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