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Does anyone notice the letters on the left, what's the cipher for translating those into buttons?

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I figure is 3 code, cos there is 2 gap, mean 3 answer
then number not more than 25, suggesting they are numbered sequence

I google rare number, this is what I got
Rare numbers are positive integers n where:

n is expressed in base ten
r is the reverse of n (decimal digits)
n must be non-palindromic (n ? r)
(n+r) is the sum
(n-r) is the difference and must be positive
the sum and the difference must be perfect squares

< Message edited by yjjoel26 -- 4/4/2020 11:24:43 >

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key 1 is 19-21-2-20-18-1-3-20
key 2 is 20-8-5
key 3 is 11-5-25

maybe it made sense, maybe it doesnt, I just throwing ideas here and there hopefully it strike gold or the key in this sense

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The string of numbers correspond to letters in the alphabet; A=1 B=2 C=3 and so on. Going with that the numbers spell out "subtract the key"

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A "rare number" is apparently a number which has the properties explained here: http://www.shyamsundergupta.com/rare.htm

We are told to sort...something (the numbers in hint 5?) into a "rare number of rows". The first rare number, as shown in the link above, is 65. That doesn't make sense to me, however, since the only sequence of numbers we are given in hint 5 has "25" as its maximum number.

Keep grinding those brain gears, folks!

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correspond to this rare wave instead of a rare number.

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I think I know how to do the first step. For each row, we have to figure out what the rare number would be. It's possible it'll be a palindromatic rare number due to each row having five "numbers" per se, but that simply a hunch.

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STEP 1:
VDJWYJSUJGTGPNXWAFNKWNTTXTJTFZGGY given vertically at the side
has 33 characters
in one rare wave, there is the number "THREE"

So, sort the above into 3 rows, one step at a time, giving 11 characters each

One step at a time might mean cards distributing style
ABCDEFGHI ->
ADG
BEH
CFI
giving this:
VWSGPWNNXTG
DYUTNAKTTFG
JJJGXFWTJZY

STEP 2:
Realignment back to the whole
I tried all sorts of cipher to no avail =(

The whole may mean WHOLE NUMBER

STEP 4:
Key is ERROR from previous quest

STEP 5:
As mentioned, decode with caesar shift cipher you get
SUBTRACT THE KEY

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So, we have 5 main clues and one string of letters given to us in this quest:

First, sort into a rare number of rows, one step at a time.
Second, a simple realignment, back to the whole.
Third, go backwards.
Fourth, you have the answer. The answer is the key. They key. The key. The key.
Fifth, 19-21-2-20-18-1-3-20 20-8-5 11-5-25

And the string: VOJWYJSUJGTGPNXWAFNKWNTTXTJTFZGGY

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Here is the sequence of letters on the left side of the screen: VOJWYJSUJGTGPNXWAFNKWNTTXTJTFZGGY
Here is a link to a Caesar cipher decoder (the same cipher used in "The Leftovers" quest): https://cryptii.com/pipes/caesar-cipher
I wasn't able to get any meaningful words from this sequence, no matter what letter shift I used or whether I read it backwards or not. Maybe you guys can find some other pattern?

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"rare number of rows", not sure what it means, but it might be related to the rare waves.
"realignment" is a linear path, "back to the whole" might the the center of the grid.
3rd clue mentions going backwards, so we need to backtrack the grid path.
four, you have the answer and the key. "Answer" repeats twice, "key" repeats 4.
5th clue can be subtrack 4 (number of times it repeats before) or 1 (one Key for a Lock) to the column, since you can't subtract letters.

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Clue #1 says to sort in a rare number of rows. Following @kuanwu's idea, I sorted the long string of letters into three rows in the most natural way (at least to me), which is to take the first letter, in this case V, and then take every third letter from there. Doing the same thing with O and J, the second and third letters respectively, gives us the following three strings of length 11:
VWSGPWNNXTG
OYUTNAKTTFG
JJJGXFWTJZY

Putting them together as in clue #2 and then reversing the resulting string as per clue #3 gives us:
YZJTWFXGJJJGFTTKANTUYOGTXNNWPGSWV

And that's how far I've gotten for now.

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I think either the rowing is incorrect, or this is not a Caesar cipher, because of the triple J we would get that way. Hint number 5 does tell us to subtract the key, so I'm thinking it might be a vigenère cipher?

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A gibberish thought on the second clue but could it mean after you've sorted them into rows, flip the rows "upside down" like we did in the second lock? That's a form of realignment and back to the "whole" could be a pun on the word "hole," which featured prominently in that quest. Make the strings:

JJJGXFWTJZY
OYUTNAKTTFG
VWSGPWNNXTG