DaBigKahuna’s Big Ol’ Catch-Me-Up Inscryption Guide

(To-Do: Add pictures)

If you’re reading this, you were probably told to check the pins because you asked a question that has been answered a thousand times. No worries-this quick and dirty guide will get you up to speed on our current findings and explain details from other Daniel Mullins games that carry over to Inscryption. If you want a more complete guide to every secret discovered, check the other pins. Or don’t. Who cares.

Thank you, of course, to the wonderful users of Daniel Mullins’ Discord.

If you would like a version of this guide that hints to the next step, check out this great page by Qqwy.

THIS GUIDE ASSUMES YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE GAME AND WATCHED THE CREDITS ROLE. THERE ARE IMMENSE SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT.

Let’s begin.

This was the first code that kicked off the whole thing. It comes from the second-to-last ERROR video in the third and final series of videos. If you can’t read it, it says:

MYCOLOG1ST12|P3RH4PS??|BL00D$L3TT3R80X

These three clues kicked off the thread(s) that we’re still following as of today, 10/21/2021.This kind of code had been used before in another Daniel Mullins game, The Hex, so we knew that the format would use three strings separated by | marks.

Clue 1. MYCOLOG1ST12

Of course, this clue refers to the Mycologist, a secret boss in Part 3. To fight him, you first need to visit him in Part 2 and give him 2 sets of several different cards. You can only visit his mushroom hut after beating any 2 bosses.

He’ll give you a holographic purple key as a reward, which will unlock his boss room in Part 3. Travel to the Eastern Outpost, then click the bottom right corner of the screen- a hidden arrow will pop up. The Mycologist is a crazy boss and very difficult, but if you can beat him, he’ll show you his latest experiment:

“MYCOLOG1ST12” means to use the first 12 digits of this number for the

1st part of the cipher. So, our mystery cipher began with 918234489010.

Clue 1. MYCOLOG1ST12- SOLVED

ANSWER: 918234489010

Clue 2. P3RHAPS??

This was a very simple clue. Fans noticed very quickly that one of the names in the credits was Louis Natas, credited for the “Beeper” model. Mr. Satan Natas is not a real person, and “A Beeper, Perhaps??” is an Easter Egg from a previous game, The Hex.

The provided link for the Beeper model did not, in fact, exist. The two question marks in the link indicated that we needed to replace P3RHAPS?? with the equivalent characters from the URL. So the second part of the cipher is 8339344??.

Clue 2. P3RHAPS?? - SOLVED

ANSWER -> 8339344??

Clue 3. BL00D$L3TT3R80X

In part 2, there exists two cards that are the same half of one creature, the “Obol”. If you obtain both halves of the creature and play them both on the same board, they merge into one. You can then go to the Bone Lord, in the bottom-right corner, offer him a sacrifice, and he’ll give you a key to visit him in Part 3.

Meet him in Part 3 and you’ll get an interesting little interaction- but if you have your resolution in “Letterbox” format, otherwise known as 4:3 resolution, and you can just make out the code 8043!$702D!!$666 (or “Bone !$ Lord!!$ 666” in l33t.

Clue 3. BL00D$L3TT3R80X SOLVED

ANSWER ->8043!$702D!!$666

Now that we have all three parts of the cipher, let’s combine them into one long string.

Clue 4. 918234489010|8339344??|8043!$702D!!$666

Now that we have the code, where do we use it? Well, at the very beginning of Part 2, when you’re first loading in, press Ctrl + C to open the command line. There’s way more in here, but for now, type “cd OLD_DATA”, then “decode log.txt” then enter 918234489010|8339344??|8043!$702D!!$666 when asked for the cypher. Ta-da! New conversation, and new cipher, unlocked!

Clue 4. 918234489010|8339344??|8043!$702D!!$666 SOLVED!

ANSWER -> Decoded log.txt

There’s some more exposition here, but for our purposes we only want the text surrounded by <These symbols>. If we just combine them all together, we’ll get the following string:

SE:167BP:TRU|23K2F!00R|ARCHIV$NEW#GAME?

Seem familiar? We know that we’re going to use the same format as last time, which means we started to solve these individually. The first (and, as of now, only) clue that’s been solved is:

Clue 5. SE:167BP:TRU

Though it was solved relatively quickly, there was a lot of chaos surrounding this clue for some reason. It was the first clue where we needed to use outright save manipulation-the “SE: 167” refers to “Special Event 167”, which is basically a special flag in your SaveFile.gwsave. Also, the “TRU” hinted that you needed to have a certain value set to true, not false. You can find your save file right in the main folder of Inscryption if you want to follow along. Just type “167” in your “completedEvents” thingy-

and set “bonelordPuzzleActive” to “true”.

By the way, you can edit these files with any text editor if you’re confused.

Start your game back up, head into chapter 2, and walk on over to the skull on the wall. Spam click his head until he gives us the first code: IAMLRNED2MCH.

Clue 5. SE:167BP:TRU SOLVED!

ANSWER -> IAMLRNED2MCH

Let’s head on over to the next clue.

Clue 6. 23K2F!00R

We know that the “23K2” pattern appears in one of the Video Entries:

This is where it gets a little crazy. Essentially, there are tons of references to something called the “Karnoffel Code” hidden throughout the game. Most characters seem terrified to even say the name of the code, but the Mycologist is actively studying it. Here we see Luke on the Wikipedia page for Karnoffel, one of the earliest card games in the world. This, combined with the symbols on the sticky notes, tells us that we need to play the cards that are equivalent to the Karnoffel Pig(2), 3, King, and Pig(2), respectively. These cards were determined to be Daus, Mantis God, Rat King, and another Daus. (to-do: add more details)

Placing all four of these cards on your side of the board at once (in Part 1, the only times these cards are available) will result in the following code:

We get the code STOP! But we still haven’t used F!00R yet.

Turns out the answer to this one was a lot simpler than it looked. In that picture with Luke, the other sticky note said “MIRROR RORRIM”, a palindrome that indicates we need to “mirror” F!00R into R!00F. ROOF, you say? The most prominent “roof” in the game is Leshy’s cabin in Part 2, which looks like this:

The “273” combined with 4 missing planks on the left and 1 on the right to make 27341. Combine that with “STOP” from the earlier clue and

Clue 6. 23K2F!00R SOLVED!

ANSWER -> STOP27341

Clue 7:ARCHIV$NEW#GAME?

This one’s simple. In part 3, listen to the Archivist’s track. Those beeps and boops are Morse code, and when translated, spell out BIG EAR. Meanwhile, a chest in P03’s workshop glows with the signature light of a New Game Card, and translating those flashes into Morse Code gives us NOCHANCE. Following the trend of using the cipher’s symbols in the answer words gives us:

Clue 7:ARCHIV$NEW#GAME?

SOLVED!

ANSWER -> BIGEAR$NO#CHANCE?

Now that we have all the clues for Cipher 2, let’s combine them into:

Clue 8: IAMLRNED2MCH|STOP27341|BIGEAR$NO#CHANCE SOLVED!

ANSWER -> LOG.TXT Decoded

To use this password, we first need to decode log.txt USING THE FIRST CIPHER (918234489010|8339344??|8043!$702D!!$666). Then, type “save log.txt”. Then decode log.txt again, but using the new cipher. Let’s see what we find!

Maybe you’re wondering why it didn’t work. Though it looks like complete gibberish…  it’s actually just Polish. The relevant part are <these fragments>. Adding them together gets another cipher, yet again split into 3 different parts. That cipher, specifically, is

BCK2B3GNN!NG|MANATEE##|B1RCHK1N$$56-57M and we’ll again have to solve each clue individually.

Clue 9: BCK2B3GNN!NG

Back to the beginning? You might not know this, but Inscryption first started as an entry in Ludum Dare 43. The game was called “Sacrifices Must Be Made” and it was, of course, much shorter and was focused entirely on gameplay that would become Part 1 of Inscryption.  A few weeks before Inscryption’s release, SMBM’s itch.io page updated. Download it(The “Original Game” version!), and in the game’s folder, create a new text file. The file needs to be called “cipher.cipher” and should have the contents of Cipher 2, or IAMLRNED2MCH|STOP27341|BIGEAR$NO#CHANCE. I’ll explain more about how we knew to do that later.

When you beat the game(It doesn’t take very long and it’s fun!), you’ll get some special dialogue. The crux of it is the new code!

Clue 9: BCK2B3GNN!NG SOLVED

Answer -> WHTL!ESAHEAD

Now to the second part!

Clue 10: MANATEE##

In the Video Logs of Inscryption, many fictional cards and card games are mentioned. “Julius Sea Star” is mentioned at one point to be a card from the game “AquaRomans”. This is the name of a custom card set created by Daniel Mullins for the card game “Smash Up”. He made a post about it four years ago here:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1892657/article/27571251#27571251

and one of the custom cards featured heavily is “Manatee Antony”.

All we needed to do was swap out “MANATEE” for “ANTONY” and add an extra # symbol to make up for the missing letter. Pretty easy, but for some reason it seemed to take a while.

Clue 10: MANATEE## SOLVED!

Answer -> ANTONY###

Part 3!

Clue 11: B1RCHK1N$$56-57M

“B1RCHK1N is l33t for BIRCHKIN, of course, but what’s a Birchkin? Turns out, it’s another card from another fictional card game, which Luke mentions in his first card opening video. However, Birchkin has appeared in a very early Daniel Mullins game. The game was called “Catch Monsters” and you can download its pre-alpha here. Unfortunately the game was never released, but 7 years later it’s going to help us solve the next cipher. The Birchkin is the only monster in the game that has the “Pacifism” ability. It also has the same number of letters as Birchkin, so that’s the first part of the clue solved. But what about the second?

The dollar signs didn’t seem to be relevant, but “56-57M” certainly was. You see, there’s another Daniel Mullins game that has been relevant in past ARGs. The game is called “Beneath The Surface”, and a complete write-up of its relevance could probably take another 5 pages. To keep it simple, “Beneath The Surface” is available for free on Steam. It’s a fishing game. You have to play for a bit to unlock the upgrade necessary to fish between 56 and 57 meters… hence the code. Before that, though, copy the cipher.cipher file from Sacrifices Must Be Made and replace that with the first cipher we found- 918234489010|8339344??|8043!$702D!!$666. Make sure to put it with the BTS .exe file. There’s a random chance that, when fishing between 56 and 57 meters, you’ll get this:

Let’s take all the symbols and numbers from the disk’s description and get 0044!3. Put that together with “PACIFISM” from earlier, and the dollar signs, and you’ll get:

Clue 11: B1RCHK1N$$56-57M SOLVED!

Answer -> PACIFISM$$0044!3

That’s all three parts of Cipher 3 solved!

Clue 12: WHTL!ESAHEAD|ANTONY###|PACIFISM$$0044!3

You know the drill. Decode using the first cipher, then save log.txt. Decode using the second cipher, and save it again. Decode log.txt again using te new cipher and we’ll get a message about… Hitler?

Clue 12: WHTL!ESAHEAD|ANTONY###|PACIFISM$$0044!3

SOLVED! Answer -> log.txt decoded

The link in the game is unusable until we remove the | symbols (note that this are usually used to denote cipher parts). We can then head to https://www.kaminskimfg.com/orderform where you’ll see… pretty much nothing. However, when it was still up, users could see a “replacement form” that asked them to include an address.

Clue 13: Kaminski Data Storage Website

Fans quickly flocked to the website, putting in pretty much random text for the first two fields. Some people put in their real addresses, or email addresses, and of course some people put down fake info. In any case, the website was soon taken down and replaced with a message admonishing people and telling them to simply wait. And thus, wait we shall, until new leads are discovered.

GPS Coordinates in real life

Two fans have rapidly visited the GPS coordinates mentioned in the game where Luke digs up the Inscryption floppy disk in real life. It turned out to be a location in ‘Stanley Forest’, near Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada).

The two users are known as ‘Nutsfornuts’ and ‘MemesPraysnek’ in the Inscryption discord (please do not send them pointless DMs).

After visiting the location for the first time with a phone whose battery was almost depleted, they looked for a power bank in the city and returned. In the meantime, Daniel Mullins and Kevin Saxby (the actor playing Luke Carder) went to a nearby pub, and there the four of them met up.

What happened next can be seen in this Twitch clip: https://clips.twitch.tv/ArbitraryHotCockroachPicoMause-w4I4hGivhsCmFXUM

…

(Yes, the bit where the diggers were assaulted/’killed’ by Daniel was a little joke they decided beforehand to act out. Everyone is fine, but it was a fun moment where everyone in the community was hyped and a little confused for a while.)

The diggers found/received two floppy disks:

• A red one, which has been in the dirt at that location since March (and, as mentioned by Daniel did not/does not contain any data; and if there every had been anything on there it would not have survived the time in the dirt)
• A black one, which they received directly from Daniel, that supposedly contained a next secret.

Now we had to wait for the diggers to order and receive a floppy disk reader (this turned out to cost $ 30 CAD, rather than the $11 which Luke had to pay…).

Opening the floppy disk was livestreamed at Sunday the 24th of October, 17:00 British Columbia time (2021-10-25T00:00 UTC) here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1186211022

The floppy disk turned out to contain a single text file, called `file`, containing the following text: thisguymoaned

The community was already aware at that time that ‘ThisGuyMoaned’ is the Reddit username of an account belonging to Daniel Mullins (c.f. https://www.reddit.com/user/ThisGuyMoaned/submitted/ ), which was instrumental to figuring out the ‘MANATEE##’ clue (see above).

Currently the community believes that the floppy was thus an extra hint to the solution of this earlier clue.

This belief has strengthened as the ‘thisguymoaned’ Reddit account has since been deleted.

Kaminski `Backup 2` Disk

Note: the disks are mentioned in chronological order based on when they arrived in the mail.

The first Kaminski disk arrived in the mail of Discord user ‘Uwawa’, who streamed their progress opening it (again we had to wait for a floppy reader to be obtained as well: “3 hours driving to a different town”)

Highlight clip: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1189224338 

Disk Contents:

The floppy disk contained a single file, with the filename `backup_#2#.txt`

Contents:

####QZ6h###

|PLAYING##|

##e E##

From this it is speculated that there are two other floppies, where the parts which are `#`-signs here are readable there.

Specifically:

• ####QZ6h### -> might refer to a yet-unknown YouTube video ID
• |PLAYING##| -> The middle part of again a three-part clue. Read on below
• ##e E##  -> Likely stands for ‘the End’. People combined this with the ‘YOU!’ from the angry Kaminski “orders are full” page to further close in onto a possible solution to Cipher #4.

Cipher 4 solution

While the info above is only ⅓ of the info we’re probably going to receive, people started to craft theories and try potential cipher solutions immediately.

‘Playing’ and ‘the End’ together was enough for people to try the following cipher (as one of many other possibilties...), which decoded the final part of `log.txt`:

(NOTE: It helped that only the first two parts of the cipher need to be correct to make most of the ciphertext readable. Thus people were able to know that they were close with their solutions.)

THANKYOUFOR#|PLAYING##|NSCRYPTIONFRIEND

The last part of the decrypted `log.txt` is Russian

Translating these, and combining them in the referenced order with the other clues, we obtain:

 Translating these, and combining them in the referenced order with the other clues, we obtain (Thank you, Frozedon and Limonov):

 April 30th, 1945

TOP SECRET INFORMATION

Me and my comrade Maxim took photographs of the corpse and buried it at the drop-off spot at <DATA CORRUPTED. FOR ANY QUALITY CONCERNS PLEASE CONTACT KAMINSKI DATA STORAGE MFG.> [1a].

• [1a] This is it. This transcribed journal page reveals the very location of Herr Hitler’s rotting corpse and, more importantly, the precious deck of cards in his jacket pocket (The Karnoffel Code). I cracked the encryption last night. My situation here in the USSR is delicate, but I believe this intelligence warrants an action that may blow my cover. [1c]

• [1c] Yeah, it did. Poor old Barry Wilkinson (a.k.a. Big Ear) was imprisoned literally hours after these words were written to the disk. He did eventually get back to the states but I have not had any luck contacting him... There are actually a shit ton of Barry Wilkinsons! And it might not even be his real name.

• [1a...] I am now prepared to smuggle the disk out of Moscow to West Berlin, then on <DATA CORRUPTED> Boston. The disk is carefully concealed among many blank ones. [2b][2c]

• [2b] Fucking idiot. The fate of the WORLD if you consider the far-reaching effects... and throw it into a chest with lots of identical disks? Now we have to kiss these fucking Russians' shoes or risk the worst fucking fate. I certainly have better things to do than read and reread this top-secret disc. But no, the fucking idiots at GameFun have to finish their game. IT'S A FUCKING COVER, PEOPLE! [4c]

• [4c] Fuck you too Mr. Kaminski! They never told us that.

• [2b...] Nobody is playing this. Just give me a Super Weasel Kid clone so I can print it out so it doesn't knock on my door at eleven o'clock in the evening by an 8-foot Russian. [5c]

• [5c] Yes, he is equally angry in person.

• [2c] Eureka! That explains so much actually. I could not figure out why this disk would be tossed into a crate with a bunch of blank ones. Barry's plan to smuggle it out this way seems contrived at best, but I can't imagine the pressure he was under over there.

• [1a...] I believe this plan will work. And if it does not? Better to lose this old data than allow the Soviets an opportunity to use it.

We are currently awaiting further instructions in a local tavern, playing a lot of Durak accompanied with a few glasses of vodka[2a].

• [2a] How fitting. [3c]

• [3c] Indeed, Barry, indeed.

We are full and satisfied, yet we didn’t say a word about the work we’ve done today. We feel like we’re coming close to the End of such a long journey.[1b]

• [1b] I couldn't crack that encryption. I shouldn't even be, but what can I do to kill the fucking time?

(Note: ‘Durak’ is a Russian card game)

Kaminski `Backup 3` Disk

This disk was obtained by Discord user ‘trollinator’.

It also contained a single file, this one called `backup_##3.txt`.

Contents:

########TS0

||NSCRYPTIONFRIEND

### #nd

        Trollinator mentioned that the package was addressed to ‘Luke Carder’, and the mailman asked him to verify that Luke Carder was working in his office.

He was able to ask a local computer repair shop to fetch the file from the floppy disk.

Kaminski `Backup 1` Disk

Disk 1 was obtained by Discord user ‘Fizz’ (‘Princess Fizzy S. Fire Esq III’). It contained a file called:

`backup_1##.txt`. Contents:

e-Fu#######

THANKYOUFOR#||

Th# ###

Combining the backup disks & the End

As mentioned above, the final part of `log.txt` has already been decrypted by trying things based on only one of the disks (Backup 2) having arrived. The Backup 3 disk has confirmed that we were 100% correct.

Once the third disk (Backup 1) is delivered, we’ll be able to combine their numbers to obtain what is speculated to be an ID for a hidden YouTube video.

Combined contents:

e-FuQZ6hTS0

THANKYOUFOR#|PLAYING##|NSCRYPTIONFRIEND

The End

As mentioned above, ‘THANKYOUFOR#|PLAYING##|NSCRYPTIONFRIEND’ is the final cypher (cypher 4) to unlock the last piece of ciphertext in the `log.txt`.

`the End` is both a potential hint which allowed us to figure out more about this cipher even before the last two disks were submitted. It also indicates that the ARG is now over.

Finally, `e-FuQZ6hTS0` is indeed a YouTube ID. Full link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-FuQZ6hTS0

Enjoy :-)

This brings the ARG to a close.

Plaudits to everyone who contributed in whatever way during this ARG.
And finally, great applause for Daniel Mullins, the Great Architect of Inscryption and all the secrets within!

PSA about the Discord/YouTube ARG

Public Service Announcement: The ‘Lucky Carder’ YouTube-channel (this one) is created and maintained by a group of moderators from the Daniel Mullins Discord server (together with Kevin Saxby, the actor playing Luke Carder).

However, it is not canon:

It is not part of the main game’s ARG, and Daniel Mullins himself is not involved in it.

It definitely is also an interesting secrets-hunt to participate in. However:

• It should not be confused with content related to the game’s own ARG.
• And as such, it is not the focus of this document
• And it is not the focus of the #inscryption-plus Discord channel

Consider it a very big red herring :-).