User:Sergei

In February 2024, the third THE GAME quest took place in ProTanki Online. The quest lasted for 5 days, and each day presented a significant challenge, with an average solving time of about 90 minutes.

The organization of the quest had been enhanced: for the first time, a special website was used for submitting answers, becoming integral to solving the puzzles. The point distribution system also made more flexible.

Day 1

First hint

This combat vehicle has incredible burst and immense firepower but is very slow on turns. It can be obtained upon reaching a six-star wanted level. With this vehicle, CJ is virtually invulnerable.

Solution

Secret room on Ping-Pong

Secret room on Industrial Zone

• The first clue described the Rhino tank from GTA: San Andreas — a reference to the Rhino paint in ProTanki Online.
• In the garage description of the Rhino paint, a hidden link (embedded as a dot) pointed to the Industrial Zone article on the Wiki.
• In the Paints article, the Rhino paint’s icon for protection from “Firebird” led to a page, https://imgur.com/a/Q3cbpHj, showing ping-pong rackets — an obvious reference to the Ping-Pong map.
• On the Industrial Zone map, a secret room was displayed where “nitro” was written in Morse code. Checking the description of the supply “Nitro” in the garage and on the Wiki gave no results, so the focus shifted to the Ping-Pong map.
• On the Ping-Pong map, a secret room was found with the same image as in the Polygon's secret room. The only connection is that both maps have secret rooms. In the Secret rooms article on Wiki, one image was clickable, leading to https://game.pro-tanki.com/HMN5NZMnyu90 — a form for entering a password.
• Using “nitro” as a reference from Industrial Zone map, and entering it into the form, led to a Google Form. Completing it correctly revealed the final image, depicting Roger Rabbit, a character from an old cartoon.
• The answer was Roger.

Link in Rhino description	Ping-Pong reference	Final image

Day 2

First hint

A special program that allows players to test various maps and take many screenshots. A very useful and popular program, often used by map makers, content creators, and regular players.

Solution

Reference to Gold Box

Encrypted message on Abyss

Link in ProTLVK article

• The first description matched ProTLVK program. In the ProTLVK article on Wiki, a question mark embedded as a link led to https://imgur.com/a/8jMfnmm.
• The image displayed four animatronics from the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” game, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4... The ellipsis after “4” hinted at the fifth animatronic, and that was Golden Freddy. The word “Golden” clearly referred to the Gold Box in ProTanki Online.
• On the Gold Box Wiki page, selecting all text revealed a hidden link to a Google Form (split into three parts, but easily combined).
• Completing the Google Form provided a link: https://game.pro-tanki.com/QFJyYa8XcA9k, where the password must be entered.
• Examining the Gold Box page, a hidden text “cdauu2left” was found at the bottom (visible by selecting all text). This indicated that the code “cdauu” should be shifted two letters back in the alphabet (Caesar cipher), giving “abyss”.
• On the Abyss map, a new secret room was added, with dark and light tiles on the floor, hinted at a binary message (“0” and “1”).
• Considering dark tiles as 0 and light tiles as 1, the message “01110110 01100001 01110010 01100001 01101110” was decoded into ASCII characters, and spelled “varan” — the password.
• Entering “varan” into the form unlocked the final image, showing characters from “The Wizard of the Emerald City”.
• The answer was Emerald.

Part of the link in the Gold Box article	Hidden message	Final image

Day 3

Many players found this day especially difficult, as evidenced by the solving time: the first correct answers appeared only about 3 hours after the first clue was given.

First hint

One of the first members and the main hero of all. His friends told him he was the last of his kind, which greatly annoyed him. Our hero began losing faith and doubting the existence of his species, but everything turned out fine during global warming. At last, he found a mate during the disaster.

Solution

Reference to Canyon

Code in the updates article

Reference to update 02/15/2022

Secret room on Duel

Final image

• The first clue described Manny the Mammoth from “Ice Age”, referring to the Mammoth hull in ProTanki Online.
• In the Mammoth article on Wiki, selecting all text revealed the notation “b64” at the bottom (hinting at base64 encoding).
• On the hull characteristics table, the Mammoth M0 preview image was replaced with an image of an exclamation mark, linking to https://imgur.com/a/SXUKY40, showing a Canon camera — a reference to the Canyon map.

b64 in Mammoth article	Image link in the article

• On the Canyon map, a secret room contained of four numbered images and another image that were visible only from outside (by driving along the map’s edge), depicting various characters and toys.

Inside the secret room	Visible from outside

• Returning to the Mammoth article and clicking on the “How to Use Mammoth” link revealed no article, but a text on a non-existent page with the phrase of “find a mention of this name” underlined, and was showing this date “02/15/2022”.
• In the updates article, the 02/15/2022 update mentioned changes to the Duel and Ping-Pong maps. Nothing changed on Ping-Pong since day one, but a new secret room had been added to Duel.
• In the update section, a hidden code “Z2FtZS5wcm8tdGFua2kuY29tL1p3WGlUZ3daN3BvTg==” was found. Decoding it with base64 revealed https://game.pro-tanki.com/ZwXiTgwZ7poN, this was where the password would be entered.
• In the Duel map’s secret room, four transparent coloured cubes (red, yellow, green, blue) were placed. Looking through these cubes at other cubes caused them to change colour that matched exactly the images in the Canyon map’s secret room.

• Viewing the cubes in rainbow order (red, yellow, green, blue) and matching the colours of the “toys” from the Canyon secret room gave the sequence of 0231420314.
• Entering this into the form at https://game.pro-tanki.com/ZwXiTgwZ7poN revealed the final image: a Caduceus (a symbol of medicine), as well as a screenshot of the location where the First Aid Kit drops on the Highland map.
• The answer was First Aid Kit.

Day 4

First hint

What is depicted here? Please let us know if anyone understands... Though it’s better to keep quiet and find the answer yourself as quickly as possible!

Solution

Chernobyl timestamp on Noise

Encrypted password on Chernobyl

Secret room on Noise

Final image

• The initial image was confusing at first glance. Even after rendering and enhancing its quality, no connections were made with the elements of the game. The focus shifted to the image’s effect, called “Noise”.
• On the Noise map, a secret room displayed a mine and a magnifying glass — a reference to the “Find the Mine” event in ProTanki Online. A hidden code — “t:514848180:f” was also found.
• “t:514848180:f” is a timestamp for April 26, 1986, the date of the Chernobyl disaster, pointing to the Chernobyl map.
• On the Chernobyl map, a secret room included five numbers: 09 18 02 09 19, and converting them to their corresponding letters in the English alphabet spelled the word “irbis” — the password.
• In the “Find the Mine” article on Wiki (now deleted), selecting all text revealed the coordinates at the bottom: 58.837795, 57.186750. Entering these coordinates into any world map application pointed to the village of Parma.
• While attempting to create a battle on the Parma map, a lone Viking-Shaft in the Spectator paint was noticed on the preview. This leaded to the Spectator paint article.

Parma coordinates	Tank in Spectator paint

• Tankers noticed that from time to time, strange symbols appeared on the paint preview in the garage, and the same thing happened with the paint preview on the tank. However, if these two images were overlaid, they formed a code: "B7bNhLB2iJ4J”.

Garage preview	Tank preview	Overlay result

• This turned out to be the address of a password entry form on the quest website: https://game.pro-tanki.com/B7bNhLB2iJ4J. Entering “irbis” redirected to a Google Form. Completing the survey revealed the final image: a maze with Hohloma patterns and “THE GAME” logo.
• The answer was Hohloma.

Day 5

First hint

It’s simpler than it seems.

Solution

QR code on Subway

• The phrase “It’s simpler than it seems” from the first hint meant that there was no need to look for hidden meaning in the words from the image or try to connect the text to something in the game. It was simply necessary to take the first letters of the three highlighted words, and getting “FAQ” — a reference to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) article.
• In the article, some of the letters typed in bold. Putting them all together produced “мепздока”, which, when rearranged, formed “подземка” (the word means “subway” in Russian).
• On the Subway map, two QR codes were found, leading to Google Forms (first and second).
• By correctly answering the question in the first form (123 windows on Silence) provided an image and a link to the password entry form: https://game.pro-tanki.com/aRGqf0pI7LH6. A barely visible “b64” with the number 1 was noticed in the corner of the image.
• The second form, when completed, showed a portrait of Blaise de Vigenère and asked, “Should we revisit the previous maps?”. This meant that the the Vigenère cipher would be used later and hinted at previous days’ secret rooms.

At the end of the first form	At the end of the second form	Atbash cipher	Caesar cipher

Code on Subway

Final image

• Checking previous secret rooms, on the Ping-Pong map, the image from Polygon map had been changed to an illustration of the Atbash cipher with the number 3, while on the Chernobyl map, the numbers had been replaced with a portrait of Caesar and the numbers 13 and 2.
• All this meant that the next step would be to use, in sequence, base64, the Caesar cipher with a shift of 13, and the Atbash cipher.
• It seemed to be a dead end, so the route returned to the Subway map. Upon re-examining the map, strange manhole covers were noticed on the ground that had not been there before. Counting them revealed a total of 7 covers.
• Continuing to explore the map, a barely visible code was noticed on one of the buildings: “YmVvZmJ0ZXJy”.
• Decoding them: base64 showed “beofbterr”, Caesar cipher (shift 13) showed “orbsogree”, Atbash showed “liyhltivv”. Using the Vigenère cipher with the key “seven” (recalling the 7 manhole covers on the Subway map), displayed “teddybear” — the password.
• Entering the password into the form at https://game.pro-tanki.com/aRGqf0pI7LH6 revealed the final image: a Mammoth in Africa with a Machine Gun mounted on its back, referencing the Eyjafjallajokull kit in ProTanki Online.
• The answer was Eyjafjallajokull.

Prizes

Paint «GAME 2024»

Prizes included crystals, supplies, premium account passes, the special GAME 2024 paint, and the “Dream Tank”.

Full list of prizes:

Place	Prize
1	“Dream Tank” or 200,000 crystals (up to the player’s choice), 10 days of premium account, 1,000 of all supplies, GAME 2024 paint
2	100,000 crystals, 7 days of premium account, 750 of all supplies, GAME 2024 paint
3	50,000 crystals, 5 days of premium account, 500 of all supplies, GAME 2024 paint
4-10	20,000 crystals, 3 days of premium account, 250 of all supplies, GAME 2024 paint
11-25	10,000 crystals, 1 day of premium account, 100 of all supplies
26-50	5,000 crystals, 50 of all supplies
All other tankers who did not make it into the top 50 but scored at least 25 points received 25 of each supply.

Winners

The first place was taken by tanker New.Day, the second by Tofi, and the third by TryBeFriend. A total of 414 players received prizes.

Top-10 Winners

Place	Nickname
1	New.Day
2	Tofi
3	TryBeFriend
4	PrideBlackMini
5	Memories
6	Out
7	bbb
8	TryDoFriend
9	69_Sky
10	69_Corpse