Level Three: 'THE HUNT' - A History Of Solving The Easter Egg
Level Three Activation
After Tier 3 of Level 2 was solved on March 22nd, 2024 with the password "0v0aurum," it led to a page with the image "THE_FINALS_I_Want_to".
On April 5th, 2024, Rob Runesson provided the URL path "tfeeactivationlvl3" in the Easter Egg channel of THE FINALS official Discord for a new secret URL on THE FINALS official website: https://www.reachthefinals.com/tfeeactivationlvl3.
This page had the title "Activation Page - Level 3" and indicated that activation of the level comprised three parts:
- 1.0.0 An image of a White Rabbit
- 2.0.0 An 8-bit-style image of a Dolphin
- 2.4.0 A gif image of a Three-Headed Monkey that disappeared immediately when the activation page loaded
Below these images was a button labelled "Activate" which led to an additional new secret URL of THE FINALS official website: https://www.reachthefinals.com/tfee_level3 where a password could be entered to activate Level 3 of the Easter Egg puzzle.
Two days later on April 7th, easter egg hunters discovered letters spelling out the word "CETACEA" on tiles unique to the sunset variation of SYS$HORIZON. One player stepping on each tile triggered three dolphins to emerge from the water, solving the 2.0.0 easter egg.
Three days afterwards, the fifth and final WR (white rabbit) was found on Seoul. This finalized the theory already confirmed by Rob that the WR locations spelled out "S LIES". This solved the 1.0.0 easter egg.
On May 30th, the first three-headed monkey was found on Monaco, and was followed by five more after hunters understood how to make the monkeys appear. Despite this, the final monkey required for the password remained undiscovered until July, when Rob published "THE_FINALS_Screenshot_034_2880x1620_L3AIM". Among other clues, the image featured the grid coordinates "B2 B4 E6 F4 G7 I3 I6" which lined up with each monkey found thus far. Searching in the "I6" square led to the discovery of the seventh three-headed monkey on July 19th.
How exactly to interpret the three-headed monkey locations was unknown, until Rob published the image "THE_FINALS_Screenshot_035_2880x1620_WRD3HM" on July 23rd. The image included a considerable number of clues pointing to the number 19 and the rule of thirds. This, along with the image name (WR, Dolphins, 3HM) implied that 19 represented the password, and that it could be divided into three separate parts corresponding to each easter egg.
SLIES (5 letters), CETACEA (7 letters), and the 7 monkeys led to 5 + 7 + 7 = 19, which suggested each monkey corresponded to a specific letter to spell out a word. Two weeks later on August 7th, the word "ASCONCE" was confirmed by Rob, and almost immediately combined with SLIES and CETACEA to form the password, "sliescetaceaasonce", by hunters.
Level Three Begins
Inputting the password revealed a new landing page featuring a world map, five sets of geographic coordinates, and three "MW.AREA" headings each featuring three connected password inputs.
MW.AREA #1
MW.AREA #2
MW.AREA #3
Images
THE_FINALS_I_Want_to
The level three landing page
THE_FINALS_Screenshot_034_2880x1620_L3AIM
THE_FINALS_Screenshot_035_2880x1620_WRD3HM
The Level 3 Activation page, fully loaded with the three-headed monkey image no longer visible.
The Level 3 Activation page, partly loaded, and briefly showing the three-headed monkey.
