THE FINALS Easter Egg Hunt/Quick Start Guide

Levels and Tiers

Since Level 2 began, the solutions to stages have come in the form of passwords that hunters must figure out. Stages are sequential, meaning once a stage is completed and a new one begins, it does not reopen. Most clues presented during a stage are specific to it, while others may relate to future stages, or multiple stages at once. There are some clues that specifically tie into the final level and ultimate solution to the hunt; these are called Diamond Clues.

At the start of each stage, one or two images containing clues are usually provided to hunters. According to Rob, the clues present in these are enough to solve each stage, but doing so is difficult, so more images and clues are provided over time.

Clues

Clues can come in multiple forms, such as content hidden in images, messages on platforms like Discord, and conversations between Embark team members and Easter egg hunters.

To find clues hidden in images, manipulation techniques like adjusting levels and curves, analyzing noise, and extracting color channels may be required. For example, in this image, the numbers "9619907" can be made clear by applying a principle component analysis.

Original image
Edited

Depending on the context, clues can usually be categorized as either primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, and so on. These refer to how how many steps need to be taken from the clue to arrive at the solution for the stage at hand. For example, if "Yellowstone" is a primary clue that points directly to a tier solution, then the date the Yellowstone TV series premiered (June 20, 2018) may be a secondary clue, since it points directly to the primary clue ("Yellowstone") and not the actual solution to the tier.

In-Game

Easter eggs and hints found within THE FINALS itself also play a part in the hunt, either as additional clues, or integral parts of a stage. For example, the activation of Level 3 - The Hunt required gathering and combining information based on three separate in-game Easter eggs. Other in-game clues may be hidden on cosmetic items or via their names and descriptions. Keep in mind that not all in-game Easter eggs will be related to THE FINALS Easter Egg Hunt specifically.

Theorizing

If a theory about the hunt or particular clue interpretation is 100% correct, there's a chance Rob will react to it on Discord with an eyes emoji (👀) to confirm its accuracy. Other reactions include a red cross (❌) in relation to "X marks the spot", and 'magnifyegg' () when something is relevant but not 100% correct; although these reactions are used very sparingly and should not always be expected or relied upon.

Recommended Tools

Hunters can use various tools to extract clues, communicate, and organize information, except those prohibited by the rules. These are some recommendations.

Image Manipulation

Decoding

Organization

THE FINALS Community Wiki (You are here)
Miro
Google Docs
Padlet (No longer used frequently)

Community Resources

The Easter egg hunter community has compiled various resources to help track and organize information about the hunt. Some are listed here.

THE FINALS Easter Egg Hunt - THE FINALS Community Wiki - collaborative (You are here)
A Complete Beginner's Guide To Solving THE FINALS Easter Egg Puzzles - YouTube - RockhoundBlack
EE Masterboard - Miro - collaborative
In-game Easter egg interactive map - collaborative
In-game Easter eggs and Rob interactions - Google Docs - collaborative
THE FINALS EE Hunt History - Obsidian - Lulz
Stage boards - Padlet - collaborative (No longer updated)
THE FINALS Easter Egg Document - Google Docs - Flex4d (No longer updated)

Community resources also exist for Easter eggs that are not specifically part of THE FINALS Easter Egg Hunt.

The Roses Board - Miro - ItsWompie & Rin

Rules & Etiquette

Trying to brute force or break your way into password-protected webpages is not allowed as it can completely ruin the hunt for everyone involved.
Using AI models or services such as ChatGPT to decode content or figure out connections, passwords, etc, is not allowed as it can similarly spoil the hunt.
The hunt is not about trying to bypass website or game security. All clues and Easter eggs are accessible by normal means. Do not share datamined content or try to exploit the game or Embark Studios' websites in any way.
The hunt does not require the use of glitches, exploits, or out-of-bounds exploration. In-game Easter eggs may be difficult to find, but they do not require breaking the game.
Hunt-related webpages can be found via clues. Do not try to discover hidden webpages / URLs on Embark Studios' websites by exploitative or unintended means.
The metadata of images does not contain intentional clues, and so does not need to be accessed; Photoshop file history, layer names, etc.

If you're unsure about whether you might be close to breaking a rule, just ask!

Rob's Helpful Hints

Messages from Rob that provide insight into the hunt.

'"Hi.! You are correct… Only look for clues in assets that we release in our channels where we can control naming, compression etc… don’t want you to fall down the wrong rabbit holes… ._."
"No we will never trick you (and you are too clever to be tricked). But it shouldn't be easy to solve puzzles like this... ._.
"Hi.! All passwords are lowercase… ._."
"Was going to comment on the discussion about 'password vs passcode'... I remember that discussion back on the Amiga BBS-era... so as long as it is in ASCII, it is a password, regardless if it is letters or numbers... ._. (but all passWORDS are lowercase regardless if it is letters, numbers or any other characters in the ASCII-table, hehe)"
"Hi.! Yes you CAN solve every EE (and level) with the first image, but, it’s hard… but the answer is there.! For every new image (or dusty text, hehe) we give you it becomes easier, and easier, and easier to solve each level… BTW you were actually really close already with the first image, I first thought TIER 1B was way too easy since you kind of mentioned the actual password (or is it a passcode @Giriko .?!) buuut then for some reason it went south… ._."
"Short answer is 'No, the images released during one level/tier are used to solve that level/tier'. However that said, there might be (and often are) clues and hints that potentially can (or will) be very useful (or obvious when you see the full picture in the end (or is it really the end, or perhaps just a new beginning))..."
"Everything is connected, but it's not THAT obvious... ._."
"Great puzzles need to be deep and complex to be fun and challenging, for this little EE-hunt there are always at least 4-5 connections between different clues on each level and often also multiple connections between both tiers and levels. That way the web becomes an intricate aventure, a beautiful painting and a puzzle that is much more satisfying to solve... after all don't we all want to honor Archimedes.?1"
"No, I’m only use standard ASCII, actually to keep the password very easy to figure out, I’ve made sure to only use lower case letters and numbers, for this level [Level Two] that is… ._."
"No spaces in psw in this ee-hunt… ._."

Try It Yourself

Download the below image and try to identify some of the clues hidden throughout it. These range from easy, to medium, to extremely difficult. Consider using the recommended tools to get started. If you get stuck, you can reveal each clue below.

In addition to hidden content, the civic crown, golden materials, and use of a mirror can also be considered clues.

Reveal the easy clue

There are four sets of numbers hidden in the corners: 555, 99 (top left), 444, 888 (top right), 4, 444 (bottom right), 666, 444 (bottom left). These can be spotted with the naked eye by looking closely on a bright display. These numbers decode via phoneword cipher to "LIGO XVII".

Reveal the medium clue

There are numbers hidden on the mirror: 15 07 1943. These correspond to the birth date of physicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell (July 15, 1943).

Reveal the extremely difficult clue (strongly recommended)

The signature of artist Paul Klee is split up into pieces and scattered throughout the background. This clue is so difficult to find that to date, no hunters have discovered how to do so. This clue is only known to exist because Rob revealed it himself.

Parts of the unknown 11-step process required to reveal the signature, shared by Rob