#CIPHERHUNT Day 15 Summary (P.S.)

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9~13 | DAY 14 (FINAL) | DAY 15 (P.S.)

This is just to tie up loose ends since the actual hunt is over now. Refer to the previous day to see any updated information and images.

First off, a little sad news: It turns out the Bill Cipher statue was actually sitting on a property border dispute. And one of those property owners had the statue removed. (Alex had in fact made a deal with the other one to have Bill placed there in the first place.) So bemused police came and dug him out, surrounded by mournful Hunters. You can watch Bill being dug up and carted off here, here, and here. His hat (which was already unsteady) came off during the dig.

The good news! Thankfully the Reedsport Police Department agreed to keep the statue for Alex to pick up instead of possibly disposing it. And even offered to help install it somewhere else.

Alex did actually end up getting permission from that property owner, HOWEVER, ANOTHER property owner ALSO disputes the location. Rather than get in the middle of that situation, Alex has decided to move the statue to an all new place. (New location TBA.)

The pilot was quietly posted online during all the hubbub on http://themysteryofgravityfalls.com/pilot last night. It needs a username and password to unlock, which turned out to be in the ‘MyExWifeStillMissesMe.BuHerAimIsGettinBetter’ file from the USB discovered among the treasures.

The physical puzzle has all been set up and framed. And will be on display at Gallery Nucleus!

And finally, no word yet on the cut scenes. I’ll let y'all know once they are available.

well.

as if cipher hunt couldn’t get any stranger: this morning, the Reedsport PD relocated Bill to Bicentennial Park, about a mile from his original location. he’s gonna be chillin there for a while, i guess?

i’m kind of confused, but these are The Facts, people.

and for anyone concerned: Bill is not hurt. he’s bracketed to the tree, so he should still be undamaged. his hat was detached a while ago when he was uninstalled. don’t get angry, y’all. he makes a terrifying sight this way, i’m sure he’s happy in his new home.

i’ll let you know when he moves again?

thanks to aveathena on the discord for the pic! ∆

Here’s the message that was in the USB! 

“No refunds”

♪ We’ll meet again, don’t know where don’t know when, I know we’ll meet again s-some sunny day… ♫ *hacking coughs* Ugh. My esophagus. Hey, guys. Congratulations on finding my– mysterious treasure of the– statue in the forest! Um, this is it. You’ve reached the end. You really did it! You really… You looked for it and you found it. And um, now it’s yours. Uh… if you were hoping for some kinda like, cash prize… I can’t blame ya. But the real– the real treasure is the journey and the friends ya made along the way. ‘Case you don’t have any friends, which y’know… least you got some exercise. Um, anyway, take a good picture with the statue. Yeah- Shake his hand. That’s kind of like a prize. And, uh, tell everybody how you did it first. That makes you the best. Also, y’know if other people helped you, give them some of the gold plastic coins. Share the wealth! Anyway, congratulations! I’m Grunkle Stan, and as I always say… NO REFUNDS!

Good news!

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9~13

(x) Last time on Cipher Hunt we were stumped on the last clue. 

People have tried a lot of things; from visiting known tourist traps Alex has visited and drawn inspiration from (Trees of Mystery, Oregon Vortex, Boring OR, etc.), analyzed hiking trails all over Oregon, streets in Jersey, analyzed foliage in the images from the finale and the parchment trying to look for matching fauna, studied the degrees and angles of the branches, counted the leaves, tried to see shapes/letters/symbols in the branches and splotches of ink, and so so much more– to a truly obsessive degree. Yet still, we can’t figure it out! It’s been hinted at and even mentioned by Alex that we have everything we need to solve the clue, so what are we missing?

Alex even said that Bill would not be in a difficult to access place:

Two days ago Alex mentioned that he may give us another clue if enough people asked and it wasn’t solved by Monday. Well, it’s Monday now, and with no further luck he put up a poll this morning.

With 8,014 votes, 74% of people voted for Yes.

So, until then, let’s catch up on other matters…

And he signed it!

if you missed the live stream of Alex’s appearance at EK Comics to celebrate the completion of the puzzle, you can rewatch the session on periscope here! (around 1:10 is a good place to see the puzzle’s completion and Alex walk through the door.)

a huge congratulations and so many thanks to the LA cipher hunters who have worked so hard to finish the puzzle, even after the other clues were found! Alex promised earlier to release the unaired Gravity Falls pilot upon the puzzle’s completion—we wouldn’t have that without these dedicated hunters. ∆

The hunters are struggling to find the next clue on location at Amity, OR. Here are the hints he’s given us do far.

The next clue’s been found!

The next clue was found very quick in the Enchanted Forest. Someone already transletede it:

RETURN TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN/FINAL PIECE IS IN YOUR HAND THE PARCHMENT CAN BE SUCH A TEASE THE ANSWERS WRITTEN IN THE TREES

#CIPHERHUNT Day 4 Summary

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4

(x, x, x, x)

Slow but steady progress of the puzzle. The hunters moved from House of Pies > Denny’s > One of the hunters’ houses for more trickling work and sleep > Emerald Knights Comics and Games store and reserved a table.

At 7:36pm PST Alex asked us if we’d like a hint on the puzzle. The answers were an overwhelming yes. (Though personally, I would have preferred none and answered in the negative. Ha.)

Things we know:

Hope you all had a fun productive day!

looks like hirsch is helping the hunters with a hint! it might be interesting to see what this cipher translates to as well, for fun

the text, reading counter-clockwise starting from top left, reads “THIS IS WHERE THE CLUE APPEARS”

the six letters underneath the gnome are part of the actual clue, which read “CORNER” - this was already found out by the puzzle solvers

#CIPHERHUNT Day 3 Summary

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3

Outside the post office fans gathered in wait for @omgmei’s arrival. It became something of a mini convention with food from the House of Pies and pizza. There were surprise appearances from Jason Ritter who received gifts from fans and Ariel Hirsch!

Even more, writer Jeffery Rowe came and gave out some early copies of Curse of the Time Pirates’ Treasure! as prizes for an impromptu quiz game. And Scott Jones with the McGucket puppet (seen in previous Comic Con panels and the end credits of “Sock Opera”) and the Bill Cipher puppet (also seen at Comic Cons in the past.) Even past clue finders @ramblewheels and @achillesheelys showed up!

(Streams of the hunters here, here, here.)

Things started becoming a bit nerve wracking as it became a race against the clock. P.O. Box access hours at the Los Feliz post office closes at 7pm PST. Eventually, taking pity the post office allowed the hunters loitering outside into their lobby to take refuge from the heat. Haha. Jason and Ariel even joined in something of a live reading of Time Pirates’ as they waited.

@omgmei arrived at the post office to much celebration at a sweat raising 7:45pm. Watch them open the mail box here.

Inside was a bag with jigsaw puzzle pieces, a note from Bill, an envelope, and… a Bed, Bath, & Beyond catalogue? Inside the envelope was a stack of Stan bucks, and behind each one written in invisible ink were the words ‘FILBRICK.’ (Ford’s middle name who in turn, was named after his and Stan’s father.)

We’ll leave off for now. The puzzle… is going to take a while.

The LA hunters have until 2am PST before House of Pies closes for the night (where they’re currently located). And that concludes Day 3 of Cipher Hunt!

(Ty mistrel-fox for such a apropos gif.)

*Additional notes: If you have access to a 3D printer you can get your own Stan head from here. It was released by Matt Chapman a year ago!

What an unbelievable troll.

#CIPHERHUNT Day 2 Summary

DAY 1 | DAY 2

After eagerly awaiting for the University the next clue was supposed to found at to open at 7:30am, things were slightly derailed. It turned out, the clue which was supposed to be hidden behind a painting, was not only inaccessible to visitors, but wouldn’t have been there regardless. The note had been found some 3 months ago by staff and removed. It’s a little unfortunate that we’ll probably never know what the exact message was, but c'est la vie.

Made aware of the clue’s removal, Alex set up a substitute later in the day. He tweeted out the phone number from yesterday (323-283-8650) which had a new answering machine message from Stan.

The riddle’s answer led to the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, CA, which was named after Griffith J. Griffith. @ramblewheels found the next clue. A golden Stan head, some loose pieces of paper with a message written in invisible ink, and a pen light to read the message with.

Ramblewheels traced the message to get the following:

Fans cleverly deduced the next location to be the Century Plaza Towers in LA.

The temptation became too great for Jason Ritter (voice of Dipper) and Ariel Hirsch (Alex’s sister and inspiration for Mabel) who were close enough that they wanted to join in on the hunt. Along with a group of other Hunters, they were able to find the next clue!

(Find their live streamed videos of their discovery here (Jason’s) and here (Ariel’s). Compiled here.)

Found among rocks was one with a swirly pattern. Inside was a pouch, and inside that pouch was a USB drive. @Achillesheely took it home to load up the info onto their computer. Which turned out to be an audio file.

Sister Miley (who was the subject of the painting where the missing clue was originally supposed to be hidden behind) interrupts Stan as a ghostly figure. Luckily she is handily taken care of by Soos. (Transcript here.)

Stan informs us the next clue is only accessible to students of CalArts, and it’s in their basement. Amusingly, a student had already stumbled upon the clue a week ago. One even a month ago.

The above mix of numbers and letters are a hexadecimal code. When converted to decimal, we get the coordinates: 37°49'19.0"N and 122°13'59.0"W which is the location of Piedmont Park (which happens to be right next to Piedmont Middle and High school. Perhaps where Dipper and Mabel attend school. Ha.) The key to solving this clue was by referring to the rhyme on Waddle’s Lost Pet flyer.

A number of fans joined up together as they combed the area. However, after a few hours of searching (and perhaps a bit embarrassingly), Alex ended up giving us a map.

The group finally found the loot. A pink key wrapped around a root. Underneath which was a lightly buried treasure box. (Watch the live stream here from the approx. the 15:15 mark.) Inside the box was a bottle, and in that bottle was a cryptex wrapped in green cloth, that needed a passcode. That five letter code was PINES. When that was opened there was another key and a scrap of paper with an address inside.

The address leads to a post office in Los Angeles. And @omgmei has agreed to take the minimally long 5.5hr drive tomorrow with the key to said P.O. Box.

*Trivia: The post office is next to the House of Pies where Alex first came up with the name ‘Gravity Falls.’