Welcome to the Game III: Eight Key Hashes on Normal
Find all 8 Key Hashes, decrypt them through A.C.R.S., merge the decrypted fragments in index order 1-8, and send the combined string to Ronald before 4 AM. Hourly checkpoints let you retry a bad late hour.
Core goal: On Normal, survive the night long enough to find all 8 numbered Key Hashes, decrypt them through A.C.R.S., merge the decrypted pieces in index order 1-8, and send that single combined string to Ronald before 4 AM. Hourly checkpoints exist so you can retry a bad late hour instead of restarting the whole night. Keys spawn randomly each run and are not on every site.
1Know Exactly What You Are Looking For
2 - af59de1. First number is the slot in the final string (1 through 8). After the hyphen is the hash you must copy in full. After decryption it becomes a short string with no number (example: 30dc). You must still remember which slot it belonged to. Write both down immediately.2Search Every Live Site the Same Four Ways
- 1Read all visible text.
Headers, footers, tiny labels, emails. Do not skim past ugly text.
- 2Hover every word, button, image, and empty-looking area.
Cursor change plus a chime means you hit a click key. If nothing appears on the page, check the desktop for a
Key #text file. - 3Inspect images and thumbnails the same way.
Keys hide behind visuals, not just text.
- 4Open A.N.N. source (magnifying glass) and search the entire source, not the first match.
Hashes appear in full there. Stopping at the first string is a common way to miss one.
3Track Keys Like a Spreadsheet
- 1Record site name, encrypted hash exactly (caps and punctuation), decrypted fragment, and which decryptor or Rep you used.
Do not overwrite the raw hash with a shortened memory version. Missing one character wastes a decrypt fee and a checkpoint.
- 2Wiki links (.ann) go into A.N.N. to open the next directory.
You need more than the first wiki to reach all eight. Distribution is not a clean 2/2/2 every run. Leftover keys sit on random live pages. Keep searching a wiki after you already found two.
4Decrypt in Rep Order, Not Whenever You Find One
| Rep Level | Keys You Can Decrypt |
|---|---|
| Rep 1 | Keys 1-2 |
| Rep 2 | Keys 3-4 |
| Rep 3+ | Keys 5-6 (and so on, four different decryptors across the night) |
5Merge and Submit to Ronald
- 1Concatenate only the decrypted fragments in index order 1 to 8.
Do not send
1-08C7. Demo and full-game players get rejected for that. - 2Example from community:
Hashes
1 - 0c47and2 - 8iiobecome0c478iiofor Ronald. - 3On Normal, if the last hour is messy, die on purpose or fail a threat only after the hourly save if you need another pass at search or decrypt.
Players report the last hour often takes multiple checkpoint retries.
Key Decisions
| Situation | Choice |
|---|---|
| Stay on this site or leave? | One key per site is the working assumption. After you have the key, leave unless you still need a wiki or fetch. |
| Farm DOS vs search? | Early night: enough DOS plus Motion Alert so you can sit at the PC. After ~2 AM, search and decrypt beat extra mining if you still lack hashes. |
| Reload checkpoint? | Reload if a death came from a setup mistake (unlocked door, no sensor). Do not reload just because a site was empty. Keys are random. |
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Sending numbered or encrypted text to Ronald. Send only the merged decrypted fragments in index order.
- Hovering only "interesting" images, not every word. Keys hide in plain text and empty-looking areas too.
- Checking source once and stopping at the first string. Search the entire source. Hashes appear in full.
- Decrypting key 5 at Rep 1. The agent will not talk. Build Rep first.
- Assuming every listed wiki page exists this seed. Some timed links never appear on a given wiki list.
- Forgetting the desktop .txt after a click chime. If nothing appears on the page, check the desktop.
Video Walkthrough
Key cue and win condition sections around 17:17 and 31:15. Use it for the loop and threat timing, not as a fixed map of this run's eight hashes (those are random).