Other Metagames [SVBH] La Voce Del Destino - Magic Bounce Arceus-Ghost + TrickScarf Eternatus Balance (peaked #1 1721 92.6% GXE, 55-2)

[rightclicker]

click on the sprites for the team!

La Voce Del Destino​

1. Introduction
I just wanted a team to peak ladder from 1000 elo since I've never actually done that. It's as simple as that. Also I wanted to try out TrickScarf Eternatus on a balance squad I guess.

teambuilding process

TrickScarf Eternatus was the original idea.

Given how easy TrickScarf Eternatus disrupted the opposing SpDef cores but struggles to clean teams itself, the first thing i thought of was Arceus-Ghost. I tried Magic Bounce here to provide some utility in the midgame and to be able to win even if Eternatus couldn't disrupt.

Imposter makes midladder a joke. Also scouts out potential switch ins to Eternatus + Arceus-Ghost so you can catch them with a Trick.

Generic physical wall + decent hazard removal improofed by Ghostceus.

Regen Wish Blissey sounded like an obvious pairing with sole Strength Sap user as the PhysDef core. It's vulnerable to things that target its defense stat (particularly Psystrike/Secret Sword/mixed attackers), and Ice Scales Mega Audino checks them.

1.1. Proof of peak

2. The team


Elogiare Il Codice (Chansey) (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Calm Nature
- Shore Up
- Block
- Rapid Spin
- Heal Bell

Big Imposter is always watching you. Big Imposter does various stuff, such as dissuading bullshit setup that nothing on our team can check, farm passive do nothing walls, and most importantly, scout out special walls to assess potential victims for Eternatus' Trick + Final Gambit. Eviolite is chosen here because we do not need the utility of Leftovers with Blissey, Covert Cloak with double Regenerator + a Take Heart user, or Boots with a non-Superman squad. Moveset improofs Mega Audino.


Fine Dei Tempi (Arceus-Ghost) @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Take Heart
- Judgment
- Secret Sword
- Shore Up

The main sweeper of the team. Since the main special setup control of most teams are Topsy-Turvy (which is bounced), they basically just cannot defensively answer this bar some Parting Shot set. Good as Gold can do the same while blocking Parting Shot, but provides practically no value outside of these 2 moves, whereas Magic Bounce has immense utility in the mid game, bouncing back Spikes and Glares. Take Heart clears game ending status such as paralysis or poison from Nuzzle and Mortal Spin, respectively. It also gives the team a somewhat formal status absorber. Secret Sword is chosen for it's ability to break through Blissey/Chansey and is perfect coverage alongisde Judgment. With Shore Up, you don't actually self-improof against Eviolite Imposter, so be sure to Knock it first or just use Mega Audino.
Improof: Selfproofs if Imposter doesn't have Eviolite, Mega Audino otherwise.


Paradiso Nocivo (Eternatus) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Final Gambit
- Trick
- Dragon Energy

The disruptor. Regenerator keeps Eternatus' health high without eating into any of its important moveslots. Speaking of which, Volt Switch synergies with Regen, does ok chip damage and allows Eternatus to sort of scout whatever is the main switch in. Trick + Final Gambit is the crux of the set, being able to heavily cripple or outright kill most special walls. Said special walls are often the only defensive check to Arceus-Ghost, meaning if you can remove them, Arceus-Ghost can really pop off. Dragon Energy is STAB and also synergies with Regen, nothing to say here.
Improof: Chansey, Blissey, or Mega Audino. All of them die to Final Gambit unfortunately but they also have to give up Imposter which is good for Ghostceus. You also outspeed Imposter if they aren't the mediocre Scarf so use that to your advantage.


LaVoceDelDestino (Blissey) (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Wish
- Teleport
- Topsy-Turvy
- Burning Bulwark
Blissey serves as the main pivot and special setup control of the team. Regenerator is nice synergy with Wishpass and forms a core with Eternatus. Topsy-Turvy controls setup, most notably from Thunder Cage Arceus formes that Mega Audino cannot check. Burning Bulwark is an option to deter physical breakers, Wish up itself, scout moves, and PP stall if it comes to that.
Improof: Zamazenta (CTorque isn't contact), Ghostceus sets up for free.


Pensieri Vaganti (Zamazenta) @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Combat Torque
- Mortal Spin
- Strength Sap
- Knock Off
Good general physical wall. Combat Torque + Mortal Spin + Knock Off is very hard to consistently wall or block, and will almost always make progress (or remove their progress). Sap is chosen over 50% recovery because of Zamazenta's lower bulk therefore needing more burst healing, and also to neutralize setup.
Improof: Ghostceus. Lowering Imposter's Atk first with Sap is the most consistent.


Amore Eterna (Audino-Mega) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Ice Scales
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Moonblast
- Stone Axe
- Nuzzle
- Shore Up
The final member of the team. Mega Audino does several things: Be a formal Ice Scales user + Dragon immunity, spreads paralysis for Ghostceus, and provides basic hazard support. Moonblast is chosen over the alternatives to better pressure frailer switch ins.
Improof: Chansey.
3. Threatlist

: Hard to wall. Softchecking with Eternatus & Imposter is your best bet, as Zamazenta is OHKOd by Desolate Land V-Create after just one Spike. Try to not get Imposter knocked and sack accordingly. You probably lose either way if its paired with Sun, RegenVest Ting-Lu (if played well), or an improof that is not reliant on Strength Sap.

Secret Sword : Versus Take Heart, if you get Imposter knocked and don't get lucky with Moonblast drops on Mega Audino, it can easily sweep. Fortunately Moonblast is a broken move so you can probably just cope. Nasty Plot is a bit better in that you can try to hax with Eternatus + Ghostceus + paralysis but its still awful.

: Both offensive and defensive are annoying. Defensive sets can fuck up Ghostceus + Zamazenta with Spirit Break and everything else with status. Offensive sets have no real walls other than maybe Nuzzling it with Mega Audino -> Imposter or try to Final Gambit it with Eternatus. Both are uncommon mons, however.

: Never switches in (or stays in) on Eternatus and walls Ghostceus. Hard to make any progress against. Let Eternatus get knocked, spam Volt Switch on it and hope they can't check Eternatus + Zamazenta.
4. Replays

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-2267034876-1q7s0tuum1a9fjjzihqzch3484waddgpw vs. outdated Balance

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-2267634689-ka2aypc6xnf3bb1csx2qa0s1jcwvg5npw vs. garbage passive Stall (+ BM from me lol)

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-2268191595-s6dm11bkzfyrztghz4ssd77qjhc7nkapw vs. +

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-2268224813-e41udii4kpjkb3a4qcdzqmj4jiu4y73pw vs. Encore + +

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...69317174-7lxpgl47hvjtofw2budhnhm3stwwtjdpw?p2 Ditto, Nasty Plot >

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...70374500-aa0i4edsjuib9kio1i11rq7n46h60tapw?p2 Ditto, >
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-2268780661-qdjtxhp4h37963dhgnyo6be8ulgmew7pw vs.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-2268801034-uaayfn0n23ijlkdiy9ta224l2hewgxwpw vs.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...69874625-7j4hm28ijx9si3i5mhv4p6qp823gx63pw?p2 vs. dubiously improofed Stall

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...70392210-b9cxzwj7vwnz7mr6imry02bey3xzyiqpw?p2 vs. Good as Gold ( + )

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-2270399334-hz17wo9cu0bahh5kclxlltxkqa87pr7pw vs. + Superman stall

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...70914161-aqjm6c20b4jxqo70r3k96v73mnheuyzpw?p2 vs. Magic Bounce

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9balancedhackmons-2271024488-cv4mi166xp8of91n8uz9ycjundjkga1pw vs. wack Balance

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...71032483-ysv0v84a9c4za2zexnlafhqqqrvrz0cpw?p2 Ditto

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...71052660-azud013stjo21wth6y3xu6wxbzp9dmbpw?p2 vs. dubiously improofed Stall (peak game)

5. Conclusion

Well, that's it for 2024. Overall this was a pretty cool year in terms of mons for me, going from being your average ladder hero building garbage exploitable shit to a less average player building still garbage but not as exploitable shit I guess.
Anyways, happy new year. I hope this year will go well for you, and for me.

IN ABSENTIA LUCIS TENEBRAE VINCUNT

00101101 00101110 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 00101101 00101101 00101010 00100000 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 00101110 00101101 00101101 00101101 00100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101101

BINARY IN ASCII

STAR LOWERCASE

DISCORD

HAVE FUN.

 

[Sami]

Like... and comment! You sir, have won the Internet! This just made me LOL. Have a good day sir!

 

[SpaceSpeakers]

Happy new year rightclicker

 

[mayonnaise. mayo.]

IN ABSENTIA LUCIS TENEBRAE VINCUNT

discord.gg/XAezwbU5JQ
you ain't slick

 

[Wheaty]

Loses to shift gear kyurem black, unviable

 

[rightclicker]

ok so its been a week and the timer is up and also no one cares anymore so here's the entire solution to the arg

how solve code

step 1. in absentia lucis tenebrae vincunt

00101101 00101110 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 0010101000100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 00101101 0010110100101010 00100000 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 0010111000101101 00100000 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 00101110 0010110100101101 00101101 00100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101101

BINARY IN ASCII

STAR LOWERCASE

DISCORD

this is what's in the post. it's pretty easy to understand.
"binary in ascii" simply means decipher the text from binary to ascii characters
decoding the text with said method gives you this:
-..- .- .* --..* .--* -...* ..- ..... .--- --.-
and it's pretty obvious that this is morse code, minus the asterisks.
decoding the morse code (with the asterisks) gives you this:
XAE*Z*W*B*U5JQ
and this is where the second clue comes in.

"star lowercase" means that every letter with a star (asterisk) behind it is, well, lowercase. removing the asterisks and making each denoted letter lowercase, we get:
XAezwbU5JQ
looks awfully like a discord server invite, right? that's because it is. the third clue also straight up gives that away.

step 2: the code

so, trying to join a server with the invite above leads you into a server called "the code". the only channel is #the-code, and inside it:

now, there are 3 messages of importance here:
the code itself ("B1N IB A4 5B6 BM NE JH F5 PF 35B")
"DECIMAL", and
"VIGENERE

YOUR ORIGIN".
the rest in the screenshot are red herrings, you don't care about those.

depending on what decipher tool you used for step 1 (or with general cryptography knowledge), you might notice that ascii can be encoded in more than just binary. it can also be encoded in hexadecimal, octal, and what is mentioned here, decimal.

vigenere is a polyalphabetic cipher method. the details are pretty complicated, but basically, you will need a password to break vigenere ciphertexts. now, below the text "VIGENERE" is "YOUR ORIGIN". so, the password is just "YOUR ORIGIN" right? not that simple. "YOUR ORIGIN" is meant to be taken not as the literal password, but as a key to the password itself. "your origin" means "where you came from". and where did you come from to get to the discord server? this rmt! and this rmt is named "La Voce Del Destino". bingo.

so, similar to the first step, we convert the ciphertext from decimal into- uhhh wait the ciphertext isn't in decimal whats wrong

so, to throw people off track, what you are supposed to do here is to decode the ciphertext in vigenere first, and then convert the result from decimal into ascii characters. yeah yeah call it bad puzzle design or whatever look this is my first ever arg i have no idea wtf im doing

ok, so firstly, you decode the ciphertext with the password "LAVOCEDELDESTINO". note that you will have to extend the alphabet source to include numbers (1234567890) because the traditional vigenere board only contains letters. doing so, you will get:
113 50 71 113 85 57 74 55 52 119
ok, now this is something we can work with.

converting the result from decimal to ascii, you get:
q2GqU9J74w
which is another discord invite. now we're heading somewhere

step 3: broken code

using the invite in step 2, you get access to a server called "broken code". similar to "the code", this server only has one channel, #in-the-absense-of-light-darkness-prevails. but, a look inside the channel reveals...

there's nothing.
how on earth are we supposed to progress if there's nothing???

but, keener eyes may start looking for places you can hide a channel in, and might notice... a thread!

here is what the thread holds:

again, there are 3 major messages here.
firstly, the massive ciphertext which i will paste here:

ciphertext

Odpc T wdyrsdw F hykw ve oje
Jcl wdp zytl wrqcpl tcwy ujtc
Wy wSp rcgcyc tzp kpw kjth
Ayqojqu jhh wdp ctsdw jcl lje
Kpjqmdtcs ayq j mylp ky ljqg
Wdjw ayqpzpq hpaw j vjqg
Tc ve kyrh jxyrw wy mqjmg
Ayq T apjqpl wy myvp xjmg
J cpo kuphh aZyv jcmtpcw qptsck
Wdjw fk xqpjgtcs jhh wdp mdjtck
Cpo ltvpcktyck odpqp wy ujtcw
Jhh wdp ltstwk T mjc uhje
Fytc vp cyo tcwy wdCk vjkk
Qtwrjh vjlp ya bpqy jcl atzpk
Uqysqjvvpl mylp wy qjtkp eyrq dpjqw
Vje wdp mphpxqjwtyc kwjqw

"<<<

KEYSHIFT", and
"MISCALCULATIONS".

alright, so to start off, "keyshift" itself doesn't actually mean anything, but, and by this point i hope you are assuming this, it's meant to be a cipher method of some sort. in this case, "keyshift" is short for "keyboard shift cipher", a substitution cipher using your keyboard. with this information, you can sort of guess the 3 "<" symbols signify the direction and the steps the ciphertext is encrypted in.

trying to decrypt the code in keyboard shift cipher with a step of 3 towards the left, accounting for capitalization, gives you this:

decrypted

When I thought J lost my way
and the void turned into pain
To tGe unknon I've set sail
Forwarp all the night and day
Searching for a code so dark
That forever left a mark
In my soul about to crack
For I feared to come back
A new spell fVom ancient reigns
That js breaking all the chains
New dimensions where to paint
all the digits I can play
Join me now into this masN
Ritual made of zero and fives
Programmed code to raise your heart
May the celebration start

immediately, you notice a couple of spelling errors, missing letters or just logically unsound sentences - "miscalculations" in the making of the poem, one can say. here's a list of them:
- line 1: I is replaced with J
- line 3: h in "the" is replaced with G, w is missing from "unknown"
- line 4: d in "Forward" is replaced with p
- line 9: r in "from" is replaced with V
- line 10: i in "is" replaced with j
- line 13: s in "mass" is replaced with N
- line 14: "zeros and fives"????? that makes no sense, if it's binary then it should be "zeros and ones", => ones is replaced with fives

combing all of those together in order of appearance, you get:
JGwpVjNfives
which doesn't actually look like a discord invite, but if you change "fives" to the number 5:
JGwpVjN5
you get this which is a discord invite.

aftermath: the dark

now, using the invite above, you would've gotten an invite to a server called "the dark" where i congratulate you for actually being a 5000iq genius or something
the catch is that i made the link so that it would expire in a week since i expected people to just solve the entire thing in like 2 days or something because gatekeeping wooo woooo!!!
no one ended up solving step 2.
anyways, at the time i'm writing this, the invite is fully expired and you can't actually reach the conclusion of this mini arg anymore.

 

[Just A Shroom God]

ok so its been a week and the timer is up and also no one cares anymore so here's the entire solution to the arg

how solve code

step 1. in absentia lucis tenebrae vincunt

00101101 00101110 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 0010101000100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 00101101 0010110100101010 00100000 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 0010111000101101 00100000 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 00101110 0010110100101101 00101101 00100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101101

BINARY IN ASCII

STAR LOWERCASE

DISCORD

this is what's in the post. it's pretty easy to understand.
"binary in ascii" simply means decipher the text from binary to ascii characters
decoding the text with said method gives you this:
-..- .- .* --..* .--* -...* ..- ..... .--- --.-
and it's pretty obvious that this is morse code, minus the asterisks.
decoding the morse code (with the asterisks) gives you this:
XAE*Z*W*B*U5JQ
and this is where the second clue comes in.

"star lowercase" means that every letter with a star (asterisk) behind it is, well, lowercase. removing the asterisks and making each denoted letter lowercase, we get:
XAezwbU5JQ
looks awfully like a discord server invite, right? that's because it is. the third clue also straight up gives that away.

step 2: the code

so, trying to join a server with the invite above leads you into a server called "the code". the only channel is #the-code, and inside it:
View attachment 702959
now, there are 3 messages of importance here:
the code itself ("B1N IB A4 5B6 BM NE JH F5 PF 35B")
"DECIMAL", and
"VIGENERE

YOUR ORIGIN".
the rest in the screenshot are red herrings, you don't care about those.

depending on what decipher tool you used for step 1 (or with general cryptography knowledge), you might notice that ascii can be encoded in more than just binary. it can also be encoded in hexadecimal, octal, and what is mentioned here, decimal.

vigenere is a polyalphabetic cipher method. the details are pretty complicated, but basically, you will need a password to break vigenere ciphertexts. now, below the text "VIGENERE" is "YOUR ORIGIN". so, the password is just "YOUR ORIGIN" right? not that simple. "YOUR ORIGIN" is meant to be taken not as the literal password, but as a key to the password itself. "your origin" means "where you came from". and where did you come from to get to the discord server? this rmt! and this rmt is named "La Voce Del Destino". bingo.

so, similar to the first step, we convert the ciphertext from decimal into- uhhh wait the ciphertext isn't in decimal whats wrong

so, to throw people off track, what you are supposed to do here is to decode the ciphertext in vigenere first, and then convert the result from decimal into ascii characters. yeah yeah call it bad puzzle design or whatever look this is my first ever arg i have no idea wtf im doing

ok, so firstly, you decode the ciphertext with the password "LAVOCEDELDESTINO". note that you will have to extend the alphabet source to include numbers (1234567890) because the traditional vigenere board only contains letters. doing so, you will get:
113 50 71 113 85 57 74 55 52 119
ok, now this is something we can work with.

converting the result from decimal to ascii, you get:
q2GqU9J74w
which is another discord invite. now we're heading somewhere

step 3: broken code

using the invite in step 2, you get access to a server called "broken code". similar to "the code", this server only has one channel, #in-the-absense-of-light-darkness-prevails. but, a look inside the channel reveals...
View attachment 702964
there's nothing.
how on earth are we supposed to progress if there's nothing???

but, keener eyes may start looking for places you can hide a channel in, and might notice... a thread!
View attachment 702966
here is what the thread holds:
View attachment 702967
again, there are 3 major messages here.
firstly, the massive ciphertext which i will paste here:

ciphertext

Odpc T wdyrsdw F hykw ve oje
Jcl wdp zytl wrqcpl tcwy ujtc
Wy wSp rcgcyc tzp kpw kjth
Ayqojqu jhh wdp ctsdw jcl lje
Kpjqmdtcs ayq j mylp ky ljqg
Wdjw ayqpzpq hpaw j vjqg
Tc ve kyrh jxyrw wy mqjmg
Ayq T apjqpl wy myvp xjmg
J cpo kuphh aZyv jcmtpcw qptsck
Wdjw fk xqpjgtcs jhh wdp mdjtck
Cpo ltvpcktyck odpqp wy ujtcw
Jhh wdp ltstwk T mjc uhje
Fytc vp cyo tcwy wdCk vjkk
Qtwrjh vjlp ya bpqy jcl atzpk
Uqysqjvvpl mylp wy qjtkp eyrq dpjqw
Vje wdp mphpxqjwtyc kwjqw

"<<<

KEYSHIFT", and
"MISCALCULATIONS".

alright, so to start off, "keyshift" itself doesn't actually mean anything, but, and by this point i hope you are assuming this, it's meant to be a cipher method of some sort. in this case, "keyshift" is short for "keyboard shift cipher", a substitution cipher using your keyboard. with this information, you can sort of guess the 3 "<" symbols signify the direction and the steps the ciphertext is encrypted in.

trying to decrypt the code in keyboard shift cipher with a step of 3 towards the left, accounting for capitalization, gives you this:

decrypted

When I thought J lost my way
and the void turned into pain
To tGe unknon I've set sail
Forwarp all the night and day
Searching for a code so dark
That forever left a mark
In my soul about to crack
For I feared to come back
A new spell fVom ancient reigns
That js breaking all the chains
New dimensions where to paint
all the digits I can play
Join me now into this masN
Ritual made of zero and fives
Programmed code to raise your heart
May the celebration start

immediately, you notice a couple of spelling errors, missing letters or just logically unsound sentences - "miscalculations" in the making of the poem, one can say. here's a list of them:
- line 1: I is replaced with J
- line 3: h in "the" is replaced with G, w is missing from "unknown"
- line 4: d in "Forward" is replaced with p
- line 9: r in "from" is replaced with V
- line 10: i in "is" replaced with j
- line 13: s in "mass" is replaced with N
- line 14: "zeros and fives"????? that makes no sense, if it's binary then it should be "zeros and ones", => ones is replaced with fives

combing all of those together in order of appearance, you get:
JGwpVjNfives
which doesn't actually look like a discord invite, but if you change "fives" to the number 5:
JGwpVjN5
you get this which is a discord invite.

aftermath: the dark

now, using the invite above, you would've gotten an invite to a server called "the dark" where i congratulate you for actually being a 5000iq genius or something
the catch is that i made the link so that it would expire in a week since i expected people to just solve the entire thing in like 2 days or something because gatekeeping wooo woooo!!!
no one ended up solving step 2.
anyways, at the time i'm writing this, the invite is fully expired and you can't actually reach the conclusion of this mini arg anymore.

I'm not going to lie, I saw "BINARY IN ASCII" and assumed the translated message was ascii art and that you were just really lazy/bad at making it. Oops -_-

 

[Sami]

ok so its been a week and the timer is up and also no one cares anymore so here's the entire solution to the arg

how solve code

step 1. in absentia lucis tenebrae vincunt

00101101 00101110 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 0010101000100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 00101101 0010110100101010 00100000 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 0010111000101101 00100000 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 00101110 0010110100101101 00101101 00100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101101

BINARY IN ASCII

STAR LOWERCASE

DISCORD

this is what's in the post. it's pretty easy to understand.
"binary in ascii" simply means decipher the text from binary to ascii characters
decoding the text with said method gives you this:
-..- .- .* --..* .--* -...* ..- ..... .--- --.-
and it's pretty obvious that this is morse code, minus the asterisks.
decoding the morse code (with the asterisks) gives you this:
XAE*Z*W*B*U5JQ
and this is where the second clue comes in.

"star lowercase" means that every letter with a star (asterisk) behind it is, well, lowercase. removing the asterisks and making each denoted letter lowercase, we get:
XAezwbU5JQ
looks awfully like a discord server invite, right? that's because it is. the third clue also straight up gives that away.

step 2: the code

so, trying to join a server with the invite above leads you into a server called "the code". the only channel is #the-code, and inside it:
View attachment 702959
now, there are 3 messages of importance here:
the code itself ("B1N IB A4 5B6 BM NE JH F5 PF 35B")
"DECIMAL", and
"VIGENERE

YOUR ORIGIN".
the rest in the screenshot are red herrings, you don't care about those.

depending on what decipher tool you used for step 1 (or with general cryptography knowledge), you might notice that ascii can be encoded in more than just binary. it can also be encoded in hexadecimal, octal, and what is mentioned here, decimal.

vigenere is a polyalphabetic cipher method. the details are pretty complicated, but basically, you will need a password to break vigenere ciphertexts. now, below the text "VIGENERE" is "YOUR ORIGIN". so, the password is just "YOUR ORIGIN" right? not that simple. "YOUR ORIGIN" is meant to be taken not as the literal password, but as a key to the password itself. "your origin" means "where you came from". and where did you come from to get to the discord server? this rmt! and this rmt is named "La Voce Del Destino". bingo.

so, similar to the first step, we convert the ciphertext from decimal into- uhhh wait the ciphertext isn't in decimal whats wrong

so, to throw people off track, what you are supposed to do here is to decode the ciphertext in vigenere first, and then convert the result from decimal into ascii characters. yeah yeah call it bad puzzle design or whatever look this is my first ever arg i have no idea wtf im doing

ok, so firstly, you decode the ciphertext with the password "LAVOCEDELDESTINO". note that you will have to extend the alphabet source to include numbers (1234567890) because the traditional vigenere board only contains letters. doing so, you will get:
113 50 71 113 85 57 74 55 52 119
ok, now this is something we can work with.

converting the result from decimal to ascii, you get:
q2GqU9J74w
which is another discord invite. now we're heading somewhere

step 3: broken code

using the invite in step 2, you get access to a server called "broken code". similar to "the code", this server only has one channel, #in-the-absense-of-light-darkness-prevails. but, a look inside the channel reveals...
View attachment 702964
there's nothing.
how on earth are we supposed to progress if there's nothing???

but, keener eyes may start looking for places you can hide a channel in, and might notice... a thread!
View attachment 702966
here is what the thread holds:
View attachment 702967
again, there are 3 major messages here.
firstly, the massive ciphertext which i will paste here:

ciphertext

Odpc T wdyrsdw F hykw ve oje
Jcl wdp zytl wrqcpl tcwy ujtc
Wy wSp rcgcyc tzp kpw kjth
Ayqojqu jhh wdp ctsdw jcl lje
Kpjqmdtcs ayq j mylp ky ljqg
Wdjw ayqpzpq hpaw j vjqg
Tc ve kyrh jxyrw wy mqjmg
Ayq T apjqpl wy myvp xjmg
J cpo kuphh aZyv jcmtpcw qptsck
Wdjw fk xqpjgtcs jhh wdp mdjtck
Cpo ltvpcktyck odpqp wy ujtcw
Jhh wdp ltstwk T mjc uhje
Fytc vp cyo tcwy wdCk vjkk
Qtwrjh vjlp ya bpqy jcl atzpk
Uqysqjvvpl mylp wy qjtkp eyrq dpjqw
Vje wdp mphpxqjwtyc kwjqw

"<<<

KEYSHIFT", and
"MISCALCULATIONS".

alright, so to start off, "keyshift" itself doesn't actually mean anything, but, and by this point i hope you are assuming this, it's meant to be a cipher method of some sort. in this case, "keyshift" is short for "keyboard shift cipher", a substitution cipher using your keyboard. with this information, you can sort of guess the 3 "<" symbols signify the direction and the steps the ciphertext is encrypted in.

trying to decrypt the code in keyboard shift cipher with a step of 3 towards the left, accounting for capitalization, gives you this:

decrypted

When I thought J lost my way
and the void turned into pain
To tGe unknon I've set sail
Forwarp all the night and day
Searching for a code so dark
That forever left a mark
In my soul about to crack
For I feared to come back
A new spell fVom ancient reigns
That js breaking all the chains
New dimensions where to paint
all the digits I can play
Join me now into this masN
Ritual made of zero and fives
Programmed code to raise your heart
May the celebration start

immediately, you notice a couple of spelling errors, missing letters or just logically unsound sentences - "miscalculations" in the making of the poem, one can say. here's a list of them:
- line 1: I is replaced with J
- line 3: h in "the" is replaced with G, w is missing from "unknown"
- line 4: d in "Forward" is replaced with p
- line 9: r in "from" is replaced with V
- line 10: i in "is" replaced with j
- line 13: s in "mass" is replaced with N
- line 14: "zeros and fives"????? that makes no sense, if it's binary then it should be "zeros and ones", => ones is replaced with fives

combing all of those together in order of appearance, you get:
JGwpVjNfives
which doesn't actually look like a discord invite, but if you change "fives" to the number 5:
JGwpVjN5
you get this which is a discord invite.

aftermath: the dark

now, using the invite above, you would've gotten an invite to a server called "the dark" where i congratulate you for actually being a 5000iq genius or something
the catch is that i made the link so that it would expire in a week since i expected people to just solve the entire thing in like 2 days or something because gatekeeping wooo woooo!!!
no one ended up solving step 2.
anyways, at the time i'm writing this, the invite is fully expired and you can't actually reach the conclusion of this mini arg anymore.

nah its ok u can keep it

 

[mayonnaise. mayo.]

ok so its been a week and the timer is up and also no one cares anymore so here's the entire solution to the arg

how solve code

step 1. in absentia lucis tenebrae vincunt

00101101 00101110 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 0010101000100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 00101101 0010110100101010 00100000 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 0010111000101101 00100000 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 00101110 0010110100101101 00101101 00100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101101

BINARY IN ASCII

STAR LOWERCASE

DISCORD

this is what's in the post. it's pretty easy to understand.
"binary in ascii" simply means decipher the text from binary to ascii characters
decoding the text with said method gives you this:
-..- .- .* --..* .--* -...* ..- ..... .--- --.-
and it's pretty obvious that this is morse code, minus the asterisks.
decoding the morse code (with the asterisks) gives you this:
XAE*Z*W*B*U5JQ
and this is where the second clue comes in.

"star lowercase" means that every letter with a star (asterisk) behind it is, well, lowercase. removing the asterisks and making each denoted letter lowercase, we get:
XAezwbU5JQ
looks awfully like a discord server invite, right? that's because it is. the third clue also straight up gives that away.

step 2: the code

so, trying to join a server with the invite above leads you into a server called "the code". the only channel is #the-code, and inside it:
View attachment 702959
now, there are 3 messages of importance here:
the code itself ("B1N IB A4 5B6 BM NE JH F5 PF 35B")
"DECIMAL", and
"VIGENERE

YOUR ORIGIN".
the rest in the screenshot are red herrings, you don't care about those.

depending on what decipher tool you used for step 1 (or with general cryptography knowledge), you might notice that ascii can be encoded in more than just binary. it can also be encoded in hexadecimal, octal, and what is mentioned here, decimal.

vigenere is a polyalphabetic cipher method. the details are pretty complicated, but basically, you will need a password to break vigenere ciphertexts. now, below the text "VIGENERE" is "YOUR ORIGIN". so, the password is just "YOUR ORIGIN" right? not that simple. "YOUR ORIGIN" is meant to be taken not as the literal password, but as a key to the password itself. "your origin" means "where you came from". and where did you come from to get to the discord server? this rmt! and this rmt is named "La Voce Del Destino". bingo.

so, similar to the first step, we convert the ciphertext from decimal into- uhhh wait the ciphertext isn't in decimal whats wrong

so, to throw people off track, what you are supposed to do here is to decode the ciphertext in vigenere first, and then convert the result from decimal into ascii characters. yeah yeah call it bad puzzle design or whatever look this is my first ever arg i have no idea wtf im doing

ok, so firstly, you decode the ciphertext with the password "LAVOCEDELDESTINO". note that you will have to extend the alphabet source to include numbers (1234567890) because the traditional vigenere board only contains letters. doing so, you will get:
113 50 71 113 85 57 74 55 52 119
ok, now this is something we can work with.

converting the result from decimal to ascii, you get:
q2GqU9J74w
which is another discord invite. now we're heading somewhere

step 3: broken code

using the invite in step 2, you get access to a server called "broken code". similar to "the code", this server only has one channel, #in-the-absense-of-light-darkness-prevails. but, a look inside the channel reveals...
View attachment 702964
there's nothing.
how on earth are we supposed to progress if there's nothing???

but, keener eyes may start looking for places you can hide a channel in, and might notice... a thread!
View attachment 702966
here is what the thread holds:
View attachment 702967
again, there are 3 major messages here.
firstly, the massive ciphertext which i will paste here:

ciphertext

Odpc T wdyrsdw F hykw ve oje
Jcl wdp zytl wrqcpl tcwy ujtc
Wy wSp rcgcyc tzp kpw kjth
Ayqojqu jhh wdp ctsdw jcl lje
Kpjqmdtcs ayq j mylp ky ljqg
Wdjw ayqpzpq hpaw j vjqg
Tc ve kyrh jxyrw wy mqjmg
Ayq T apjqpl wy myvp xjmg
J cpo kuphh aZyv jcmtpcw qptsck
Wdjw fk xqpjgtcs jhh wdp mdjtck
Cpo ltvpcktyck odpqp wy ujtcw
Jhh wdp ltstwk T mjc uhje
Fytc vp cyo tcwy wdCk vjkk
Qtwrjh vjlp ya bpqy jcl atzpk
Uqysqjvvpl mylp wy qjtkp eyrq dpjqw
Vje wdp mphpxqjwtyc kwjqw

"<<<

KEYSHIFT", and
"MISCALCULATIONS".

alright, so to start off, "keyshift" itself doesn't actually mean anything, but, and by this point i hope you are assuming this, it's meant to be a cipher method of some sort. in this case, "keyshift" is short for "keyboard shift cipher", a substitution cipher using your keyboard. with this information, you can sort of guess the 3 "<" symbols signify the direction and the steps the ciphertext is encrypted in.

trying to decrypt the code in keyboard shift cipher with a step of 3 towards the left, accounting for capitalization, gives you this:

decrypted

When I thought J lost my way
and the void turned into pain
To tGe unknon I've set sail
Forwarp all the night and day
Searching for a code so dark
That forever left a mark
In my soul about to crack
For I feared to come back
A new spell fVom ancient reigns
That js breaking all the chains
New dimensions where to paint
all the digits I can play
Join me now into this masN
Ritual made of zero and fives
Programmed code to raise your heart
May the celebration start

immediately, you notice a couple of spelling errors, missing letters or just logically unsound sentences - "miscalculations" in the making of the poem, one can say. here's a list of them:
- line 1: I is replaced with J
- line 3: h in "the" is replaced with G, w is missing from "unknown"
- line 4: d in "Forward" is replaced with p
- line 9: r in "from" is replaced with V
- line 10: i in "is" replaced with j
- line 13: s in "mass" is replaced with N
- line 14: "zeros and fives"????? that makes no sense, if it's binary then it should be "zeros and ones", => ones is replaced with fives

combing all of those together in order of appearance, you get:
JGwpVjNfives
which doesn't actually look like a discord invite, but if you change "fives" to the number 5:
JGwpVjN5
you get this which is a discord invite.

aftermath: the dark

now, using the invite above, you would've gotten an invite to a server called "the dark" where i congratulate you for actually being a 5000iq genius or something
the catch is that i made the link so that it would expire in a week since i expected people to just solve the entire thing in like 2 days or something because gatekeeping wooo woooo!!!
no one ended up solving step 2.
anyways, at the time i'm writing this, the invite is fully expired and you can't actually reach the conclusion of this mini arg anymore.

I was the only one who successfully deciphered some of this, only getting so far as the start of step 2. I gave everyone else the link to the server. For being the one who actually managed to do some of this, can you DM me a new code for the dark server?

 

[rightclicker]

I was the only one who successfully deciphered some of this, only getting so far as the start of step 2. I gave everyone else the link to the server. For being the one who actually managed to do some of this, can you DM me a new code for the dark server?

there literally is nothing in "the dark"

 

[mayonnaise. mayo.]

there literally is nothing in "the dark"

How do I know if you're lying or not?

 

[cat]

ok so its been a week and the timer is up and also no one cares anymore so here's the entire solution to the arg

how solve code

step 1. in absentia lucis tenebrae vincunt

00101101 00101110 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 00101101 00100000 00101110 0010101000100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 00101101 0010110100101010 00100000 00101101 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101010 00100000 00101110 0010111000101101 00100000 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 00101110 0010110100101101 00101101 00100000 00101101 00101101 00101110 00101101

BINARY IN ASCII

STAR LOWERCASE

DISCORD

this is what's in the post. it's pretty easy to understand.
"binary in ascii" simply means decipher the text from binary to ascii characters
decoding the text with said method gives you this:
-..- .- .* --..* .--* -...* ..- ..... .--- --.-
and it's pretty obvious that this is morse code, minus the asterisks.
decoding the morse code (with the asterisks) gives you this:
XAE*Z*W*B*U5JQ
and this is where the second clue comes in.

"star lowercase" means that every letter with a star (asterisk) behind it is, well, lowercase. removing the asterisks and making each denoted letter lowercase, we get:
XAezwbU5JQ
looks awfully like a discord server invite, right? that's because it is. the third clue also straight up gives that away.

step 2: the code

so, trying to join a server with the invite above leads you into a server called "the code". the only channel is #the-code, and inside it:
View attachment 702959
now, there are 3 messages of importance here:
the code itself ("B1N IB A4 5B6 BM NE JH F5 PF 35B")
"DECIMAL", and
"VIGENERE

YOUR ORIGIN".
the rest in the screenshot are red herrings, you don't care about those.

depending on what decipher tool you used for step 1 (or with general cryptography knowledge), you might notice that ascii can be encoded in more than just binary. it can also be encoded in hexadecimal, octal, and what is mentioned here, decimal.

vigenere is a polyalphabetic cipher method. the details are pretty complicated, but basically, you will need a password to break vigenere ciphertexts. now, below the text "VIGENERE" is "YOUR ORIGIN". so, the password is just "YOUR ORIGIN" right? not that simple. "YOUR ORIGIN" is meant to be taken not as the literal password, but as a key to the password itself. "your origin" means "where you came from". and where did you come from to get to the discord server? this rmt! and this rmt is named "La Voce Del Destino". bingo.

so, similar to the first step, we convert the ciphertext from decimal into- uhhh wait the ciphertext isn't in decimal whats wrong

so, to throw people off track, what you are supposed to do here is to decode the ciphertext in vigenere first, and then convert the result from decimal into ascii characters. yeah yeah call it bad puzzle design or whatever look this is my first ever arg i have no idea wtf im doing

ok, so firstly, you decode the ciphertext with the password "LAVOCEDELDESTINO". note that you will have to extend the alphabet source to include numbers (1234567890) because the traditional vigenere board only contains letters. doing so, you will get:
113 50 71 113 85 57 74 55 52 119
ok, now this is something we can work with.

converting the result from decimal to ascii, you get:
q2GqU9J74w
which is another discord invite. now we're heading somewhere

step 3: broken code

using the invite in step 2, you get access to a server called "broken code". similar to "the code", this server only has one channel, #in-the-absense-of-light-darkness-prevails. but, a look inside the channel reveals...
View attachment 702964
there's nothing.
how on earth are we supposed to progress if there's nothing???

but, keener eyes may start looking for places you can hide a channel in, and might notice... a thread!
View attachment 702966
here is what the thread holds:
View attachment 702967
again, there are 3 major messages here.
firstly, the massive ciphertext which i will paste here:

ciphertext

Odpc T wdyrsdw F hykw ve oje
Jcl wdp zytl wrqcpl tcwy ujtc
Wy wSp rcgcyc tzp kpw kjth
Ayqojqu jhh wdp ctsdw jcl lje
Kpjqmdtcs ayq j mylp ky ljqg
Wdjw ayqpzpq hpaw j vjqg
Tc ve kyrh jxyrw wy mqjmg
Ayq T apjqpl wy myvp xjmg
J cpo kuphh aZyv jcmtpcw qptsck
Wdjw fk xqpjgtcs jhh wdp mdjtck
Cpo ltvpcktyck odpqp wy ujtcw
Jhh wdp ltstwk T mjc uhje
Fytc vp cyo tcwy wdCk vjkk
Qtwrjh vjlp ya bpqy jcl atzpk
Uqysqjvvpl mylp wy qjtkp eyrq dpjqw
Vje wdp mphpxqjwtyc kwjqw

"<<<

KEYSHIFT", and
"MISCALCULATIONS".

alright, so to start off, "keyshift" itself doesn't actually mean anything, but, and by this point i hope you are assuming this, it's meant to be a cipher method of some sort. in this case, "keyshift" is short for "keyboard shift cipher", a substitution cipher using your keyboard. with this information, you can sort of guess the 3 "<" symbols signify the direction and the steps the ciphertext is encrypted in.

trying to decrypt the code in keyboard shift cipher with a step of 3 towards the left, accounting for capitalization, gives you this:

decrypted

When I thought J lost my way
and the void turned into pain
To tGe unknon I've set sail
Forwarp all the night and day
Searching for a code so dark
That forever left a mark
In my soul about to crack
For I feared to come back
A new spell fVom ancient reigns
That js breaking all the chains
New dimensions where to paint
all the digits I can play
Join me now into this masN
Ritual made of zero and fives
Programmed code to raise your heart
May the celebration start

immediately, you notice a couple of spelling errors, missing letters or just logically unsound sentences - "miscalculations" in the making of the poem, one can say. here's a list of them:
- line 1: I is replaced with J
- line 3: h in "the" is replaced with G, w is missing from "unknown"
- line 4: d in "Forward" is replaced with p
- line 9: r in "from" is replaced with V
- line 10: i in "is" replaced with j
- line 13: s in "mass" is replaced with N
- line 14: "zeros and fives"????? that makes no sense, if it's binary then it should be "zeros and ones", => ones is replaced with fives

combing all of those together in order of appearance, you get:
JGwpVjNfives
which doesn't actually look like a discord invite, but if you change "fives" to the number 5:
JGwpVjN5
you get this which is a discord invite.

aftermath: the dark

now, using the invite above, you would've gotten an invite to a server called "the dark" where i congratulate you for actually being a 5000iq genius or something
the catch is that i made the link so that it would expire in a week since i expected people to just solve the entire thing in like 2 days or something because gatekeeping wooo woooo!!!
no one ended up solving step 2.
anyways, at the time i'm writing this, the invite is fully expired and you can't actually reach the conclusion of this mini arg anymore.

what if you spent this time getting some bitches instead