Level Three: The Hunt

Level Three: The Hunt is the third and current level of THE FINALS Easter Egg Hunt. It was activated on August 7, 2024 and currently remains unsolved.

History

After Tier 3 of Level Two was solved on March 22, 2024 with the password "0v0aurum," the Tier 3 page led to the image "THE_FINALS_I_Want_to", depicting Nama Tama wearing black knight armor floating in space.

• The image is a reference to the "Black Knight" space debris.
• There are 19 rivets on Nama Tama's helmet.
• Nama Tama's helmet bears resemblance to the great helm worn by the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), co-directed by Terry Gilliam. This has not yet been confirmed.
• The filename "I_Want_to" may be a reference to the 2008 film The X-Files: I Want to Believe. This has not yet been confirmed.
• The sequence "14XX0176XX0002XX 23XXX0176XX0002XXX" is hidden in the image. Some parts can be deciphered to arrive at "N XX ° XX 0002 XX W XXX ° XX 0002 XXX", using the below key. This has not yet been confirmed.
  • The 14th letter of the alphabet is N
  • The 23rd letter of the alphabet is W
  • 176 in the ASCII table is °

Nama Tama was previously depicted wearing the same black knight armor in the Season 1 launch trailer, on a Jack of Clubs playing card.

Small snippets of "THE_FINALS_I_Want_to" had previously been shared by Embark Studios CCO Rob Runesson during Tier 3 of Level Two.

Activation

On April 5, 2024, Rob provided the URL path "tfeeactivationlvl3" in the #easter-eggs channel of the official THE FINALS Discord server. It led to a new secret URL on the official THE FINALS website: reachthefinals.com/tfeeactivationlvl3.

This page had the title "Activation Page - Level 3" and indicated that activation of the level comprised three parts:

• 1.0.0 - An image of a white rabbit from Seoul.
• 2.0.0 - An image of a voxel-style dolphin.
• 2.4.0 - A gif of a three-headed monkey that disappeared after the page loaded.

Below these images was a button labelled "Activate" which led to an additional secret URL: reachthefinals.com/tfee-level3. This page presented a password input required to activate Level Three.

Two days later on April 7, Easter egg hunters discovered letters spelling out the word "CETACEA" on tiles unique to the sunset variation of SYS$HORIZON. One player stepping on each tile triggered three dolphins to emerge from the water, solving the 2.0.0 Easter egg.

Three days afterwards, the fifth and final WR (white rabbit) was found on Seoul. This finalized the theory already confirmed by Rob that the WR locations spelled out "S LIES" based on the objects the WRs were placed on, and solved the 1.0.0 Easter egg. The most likely letter-object associations are: S: Stairs, L: Light, I: I (letter), E: Escalator, S: Sign.

On May 30, the first three-headed monkey was found on Monaco, and was followed by five more after hunters understood how to make the monkeys appear. Despite this, the final monkey required for the password remained undiscovered until July, when Rob published "THE_FINALS_Screenshot_034_2880x1620_L3AIM". The image contained:

• Binary that converts to the grid coordinates: "B2 B4 E6 F4 G7 I3 I6"
• "152097597", the aphelion of Earth in kilometers (152,097,597 km)
• "loxolap", which can rearranged to form "apollo x"

The first six of the "B2 B4 E6 F4 G7 I3 I6" grid coordinates lined up with each monkey found thus far. Searching in the "I6" square led to the discovery of the seventh three-headed monkey on July 19.

How exactly to interpret the three-headed monkey locations was unknown, until Rob published the image "THE_FINALS_Screenshot_035_2880x1620_WRD3HM" on July 23. The image contained:

• ΙΘ΄, the number 19 in Greek, split into three parts across the image.
• "𝑿+𝒀+𝒁=⨀". The ⨀ symbol represents the Sun, and the Sun is the 19th Tarot card.
• "Anna Maria Prickett", wife of John Thomas Smith who produced the earliest work related to the Rule of Thirds.
• "Metonic Systems". A Metonic cycle is a period of almost exactly 19 years.
• "416 512". The sum of each number totals 19 (4+1+6+5+1+2 = 19).
• "51 51 54 46 55", 336.7 in ASCII, which is the melting point in Celsius of Potassium. Potassium has the atomic number 19.
• The music artist Adele's signature. Adele's debut album was titled "19."
• "22-38-33.73". EZ Aquarii, a triple star system, has a right ascension of 22h 38m 33.73s.

The considerable number of clues pointing to the number 19 and the rule of thirds, along with the image name (WR, Dolphins, 3HM) implied that 19 represented the password, and that it could be divided into three separate parts corresponding to each Easter egg.

SLIES (5 letters), CETACEA (7 letters), and the 7 monkeys led to 5 + 7 + 7 = 19, which suggested each monkey corresponded to a specific letter to spell out a word. Hunters began theorizing words based on the surfaces and objects the monkeys were placed on, and two weeks later on August 7, the word "ASCONCE" was confirmed by Rob. Based on the word and some confirmations by Rob, the most likely letter-object associations are: A: Asphalt, S: Steps, C: Curb, O: Overpass, N: N (letter), C: Concrete, E: Electrical generator.

The word "ASCONCE" was almost immediately combined with "S LIES" and "CETACEA" to form the password, "sliescetaceaasconce", by hunters. This solved the 2.4.0 Easter egg and activated Level Three. In total, activating Level Three took 124 days.

Level Three

Inputting the password revealed a new landing page featuring a world map, five sets of geographic coordinates, and three "MW.AREA" headings each featuring three connected password inputs marked with X symbols. The featured coordinates are:

• 72.58514 64.02630
• 15.70363 23.22150
• 27.86234 12.98314
• 81.75162 37.16174
• 46.69812 55.09871

After the page was revealed, hunter TonyB commented: "Oh man, are these real life coordinates/we need to go places? We need to recruit more players if so lol." Rob eyed the message, confirming its relevance or correctness, and responded with: "It’s not called the hunt for no reason… and come on you have seen this ❌ for a LONG time… (and yes it is a very obvious connection here…)."

On August 31, 2024, Rob posted a gif named "MultiCo_2008" depicting an animated MultiCo logo. The word "Abishemu" was hidden via flashing letters in the corner of the gif.

On September 26, Season 4 launched alongside several new in-game store items and bundles. One such bundle was named 'GILL T. FISHER' and featured a Kingfisher pet, sticker, and sound. The bundle may be a reference to The Fisher King (1991), directed by Terry Gilliam ("GILL T."). This has not yet been confirmed.

On November 7, 2024, Rob made several comments on Level Three while playing with streamer Waterdance on Twitch. Among them, he shared that there are "four letters" somewhere in the Las Vegas arena that directly correspond to one of the Level Three passwords. He described them as "big" and "colorful" and revealed that they have been in the arena since the launch of Season 1. Later on in the stream, Rob said "hey my name is Karl-Robert R-r-r-r-r-rupertius" as an unspecified clue, purposefully stuttering and repeating the first "R" in Rupertius.

Beginning in late July, Rob repeatedly noted the timestamp 01:23 and associated it with the phrase "sweet dreams", writing such as messages as "It's time to dream... it's 01:23... SWEET DREAMS.!" On November 15, 2024, Rob confirmed a theory by hunters that the clue was a reference to Alice in Wonderland. He then suggested that hunters should begin thinking about Easter eggs that are linked to Alice in Wonderland, giving the white rabbits and "burrow" as examples.

• A is the 1st letter of the alphabet.
• I is represented by two dots in morse code, which the : character represents.
• W is the 23rd letter of the alphabet.
• AIW = Alice in Wonderland.
• The events of Alice in Wonderland take place in one of Alice's dreams.

On November 19, Rob gave two hints towards either one or multiple Level Three passwords on Waterdance's Twitch stream. He began by telling hunters: "you can fill in the following codes on Level Three: X Y, double R, one X two." A few minutes later, he stated that the password in question is "not very hard to figure out" and that it "has R R in the middle."

On December 4, 2024, the 'VAULT HUNTER SET' bundle was released with update 4.10.0. It includes the 'FOSSIL FORTUNE' charm, 'LOST LEGACY' spray, and 'EXHIBITION GRADE' AKM skin. The charm depicts a Multibuck coin lodged into stone, and the writing: "Sato 1988-10-29." This is likely a reference to the Sega Genesis console that released on October 29, 1988 and was supervised in part by Hideki Sato. The spray depicts a torn off piece of map with a trail to a vault underneath two mountain peaks. The AKM skin features multiple engravings, including a heart, a cabin under two mountain peaks, and "DAYS SEARCHING FOR VAULT:" followed by several number tallies. The snow on the mountain peaks appears to be visualized by the letters W and N, and the tallies appear to total either 138 or 143. These observations led hunters to the 1990 TV series Twin Peaks, the pilot episode of which is titled 'Northwest Passage', and which takes place in the same universe as The X-Files. These connections have not yet been confirmed.

On December 16, the main Season 5 keyart was added to Embark's press kit. Clues are hidden in it, some of which can only be found by opening the PSB file and removing layers obstructing the background. The background contains:

• Three numbers, only a third of each being visible. The numbers are suspected to be 10.53, 24.71, and 44.58, which are the respective land areas in km² of North America, Europe, and Asia.
• A sequence of Greek letters: ΚΑΛΥΔΩΝ (Kappa, Alpha, Lambda, Upsilon, Delta, Omega, Nu).
• "I WE WHO"
• "SENIDENARY", a Latin term meaning "grouped by 16."
• A mirrored and slightly squashed frame from the Season 1 trailer depicting a squad on Skyway Stadium.

On December 17, Rob published the image "THE_FINALS_powe_i_powe" featuring a DISSUN-sponsored contestant. The filename is DISSUN's tagline, "power is power", with the last letter of each word removed. The image itself contains:

• Small symbols, possibly broken up pieces of larger symbols, in the footer.
• An illustration of a person, a tree, and an animal; possibly a sheep, lamb, goat, or dog.
• A shape with five even rounded protrusions.
• Letters, or pairs of letters, in the DISSUN logo that have not yet been determined with complete accuracy.

After some clues had been found in the image, hunter BIG OIL suggested that "this image is the baby steps to the already found clues we have and we just gotta put em together, again", to which Rob responded: "Yes, only 9 different LVL3 clues in the first image... ._.", likely referring to "THE_FINALS_I_Want_to" as the first image of Level Three.

On December 21, Rob published the image "812a369f6ccfecd0" featuring a VAIIYA-sponsored contestant. The image contains:

• "END-12-04-98". "12-04-98" references the December 4, 1998 launch date of STS-88, the mission flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour that took the "Black Knight" space debris photo.
• "57 45 57 45 49 48 56 55", which converts from decimal to ASCII as 9-9-1087, the death date of William the Conqueror.
• The signature of Simone Weil.
• Letters on the game logo: u, n, q, t, n, o, e, i (or l), r.
• A 2x2 null matrix.
• Three dark yellow (#8b7222) colored lines of lengths 3px, 5px, and 7px.
• Four dark (#160704) colored squares with sides of lengths 16px, 7px, and 4px.
• Three names: Terry, Kate, and Beth, with extra unknown characters on the end of each.
  • The names are suspected to reference Lewis Carroll's 1865 photograph: Elisabeth "Kate" Terry, taken of actress Kate Terry. This has not yet been confirmed.

Both "THE_FINALS_powe_i_powe" and "812a369f6ccfecd0" also contain two brace brackets, one on either side of each image. The images can be combined to make the brackets clearer.

So far, no Level Three passwords have been solved. Discussion of the Easter egg hunt and various theories primarily takes place in the official THE FINALS Discord server.

MW.AREA #1

MMA1-A

MMA1-B

MMA1-C

MW.AREA #2

MMA2-A

MMA2-B

MMA2-C

MW.AREA #3

MMA3-A

MMA3-B

MMA3-C

Gallery

• 

  The Level Three landing page

• 

  THE_FINALS_I_Want_to

• 

  THE_FINALS_Screenshot_034_2880x1620_L3AIM

• 

  THE_FINALS_Screenshot_035_2880x1620_WRD3HM

• 

  The Level Three activation page

• 

  The Level Three activation page with the three-headed monkey visible

• 

  MultiCo_2008

• 

  The background of the Season 5 keyart

• 

  Comparison between the Season 5 keyart and Season 1 trailer

• 

  THE_FINALS_powe_i_powe

• 

  812a369f6ccfecd0