REPORT: Waking Titan Linked to No Man’s Sky

[The following is a report done by Matthew Davis, Author/Reviewer at Gaming Cypher.]

Waking Titan is an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) involving several websites, radio stations, phone numbers, videos, audio logs, and live events. First launched on 05/27/2017, there have been a total of 6 sequences each involving elaborate puzzles, cryptic messages to decode, and teasers. The bulk of the ARG consisted of unlocking 6 glyphs found on the website wakingtitan.com. After a myriad of complicated events spanning over a month, it was announced phase 1 of 3 was complete on 07/09/2017.

The first link between Waking Titan and No Man’s Sky came in the form of coordinates leading to a Communications Station within the game. A code found in the message resulted in unlocking the second glyph on the Waking Titan website. An advertisement featuring a character talking about Echo Software stated she could talk to her dead grandmother again. YouTube channel Cobra TV, avid fan of the game, received a cassette tape in the mail featuring a message along with a poster, socks, t-shirt, and a statue of a ship. The cassette tape was in a case with the Atlas logo from Waking Titan. The box with which the package arrived was from Hello Games LTD. There’s a video of the unboxing here.

More clues led to the discovery of a website called superlumina. The website was allegedly founded by friends and colleagues of Harvard’s Theoretical Physics Post-Grad Program. A phone number was found within the website after typing in a solution to an equation of a former sequence. When the phone number was called a message was heard saying, “Call back later for pickup instructions. Be ready.”

Eventually, a new message was heard when the number was called, “The Cumberland by Marble Arch. Now, 2 persons max. Meet Agent 59. Passcode: What was the first. Warning, we will not wait.” A man known as Moulesmariner met with Agent 59 at the location. During the meeting, he acquired a package, and received a note that read, “28 minutes of silence after the (hand drawn flower) thief.” A movie called The Flower Thief, by Ron Rice was thought to be the reference. After directing that movie he directed a 28-minute silent film called Senseless. Typing “senseless” unlocked the fifth glyph.

Four advertisements were heard during a broadcast of Howard Stern (1, 2, 3, 4). In the background were secret clues hidden in Morse Code. The first and second translated to “probabilistic computing” and “evolutionary computing”. The third was a date most likely referencing the birthdate of Edward de Bono on 05/19/1933. The last was translated to “blue, white, red, black, yellow, green”. This was in reference to the book Six Thinking Hats, by Edward de Bono. Unlocking the final glyph was done by the password “Six Thinking Hats”.

Upon completion of the sixth and final glyph, players were treated to the access of a PDF file with the following contents:

Mercury Process Self Diagnosis Report
Generated July 8th, 2017. Myriad API #09121

Number of submitted answers: 112 391
Total Time Spent: 15 454 h
Unique Inbound Countries: 147
Network Traffic: 7,785,587 requests

Engineering Notes Alpha-2621
We want to extend our gratitude to everyone who has contributed to the Mercury subroutine so far. We hope you have enjoyed the successful distribution of 180 Access IDs, and we hope you will also appreciate the other interesting artifacts we have in store for you going forward. We intend to keep the process alive until the completion of Project Waking Titan in August.

It is important to mention that we are very excited by the coming Phases 2 and 3. Input from the Mercury Subroutine will pave the way toward new experiences in version 1.3 of a familiar universe. We look forward to the successful conclusion of this ground-breaking experiment.

Regards.
S.M.

This most likely a message from Sean Murray, the lead director of No Man’s Sky. There have been two major updates to the game since its launch in August 2016. This is most likely a marketing stunt designed to build up hype for their newest update. With an additional year under their belt, Hello Games could be launching an update big enough to fulfill the shoes of the enormous hype-train created before launch. It’s unclear what “new experiences” could be coming, though. Project Waking Titan aims to be completed in August, which just so happens to be the one-year anniversary of No Man’s Sky.

For a more in-depth look at all the sequences of Waking Titan, you can visit its wiki here.

If you would like to become part of the next phases you can sign up here.

Stay up to date on all gaming news right here at GamingCypher.

Matthew Davis

+ posts

I was born and raised in a town so small there were more cows than people. I joined the USAF as soon as I could, and I currently reside in San Antonio. I am a singer/songwriter on the side, but I've been a gamer since birth. I grew up with PlayStation and Nintendo, though, I don't discriminate between consoles and PC. I have a PC with a 3080, Steam Deck, and a PS5.

• Helldivers II Issues Patch to Kick AFK Players
• Helldivers 2 Issues Patch Addressing Quickplay
• Helldivers 2 Has a Higher Player Count than DOTA 2
• Destiny 2 and Mass Effect Crossover