Apex Legends fans solve Crypto's secret message before Season 3

Olivia Richman Published 09/10/2019

Apex Legends fans have been analyzing Crypto’s hints and hacks even before the legend was confirmed for Season 3. That feverish need to find out more about the secretive legend hasn’t died down now that he’s in the game.

A few tricky Reddit users solved a very cryptic ARG taking place right on the Apex Legends subreddit. On the header of the game’s subreddit, popular Apex data miner FrozenFroh pointed out that the banner had a very hard-to-spot secret message embedded within.

What first appears to be a bunch of jumbled numbers and letters is actually Base64 string that Reddit user kidmajor translated to: Look DEEPER within. Crypto.

Base64 is a group of binary-to-text encoding used in computer science to represent binary data to later be translated into a radix-64 (the number of unique digits that represent numbers in this particular numeral system) representation. Base64 is often used to embed image files on the internet, or to embed binary assets inside textual assets like with HTLM and CSS files.

While that was complex enough on its own, it didn’t end there.

After the Base64 string was translated, FrozenFroh pondered if this was “just the beginning.” Other fans began to speculate that Crypto was asking players to find another hint within the game, but FrozenFroh felt otherwise.

“I think it might be something else in the image? Doubt they’d make us look in the game,” he said.

In response, another Reddit user, N0TW1ZZ4RD, replied that they had actually discovered something within the banner. After studying the image, they discovered another hidden message.

“I’m glad you made it this far. Please let me know. More will come once you do,” was hidden within the picture file.

N0TW1ZZ4RD then posted the revealed message on their own Reddit thread, something Crypto had requested.

It’s still a mystery what exactly will be coming now that Crypto was informed that his first hidden message was cracked by clever Reddit users. Fans are left wondering if it will be another ARG, or if the next hidden message will appear in-game on the new map.

Apex Legends fans have been obsessed with Crypto’s secret messages going back way before he was a confirmed legend. In July, players stumbled upon a laptop within the game that appeared to be a hint at Crypto’s arrival. FrozenFroh discovered that the laptop was called crypto_laptop_tease in the game files.

A month before Season 3, Respawn Entertainment offered some other hints about the mysterious hacker. A loading bar appeared in various screens throughout King’s Canyon, and it seemed as though it was going to reach 100% at the time of Season 3’s arrival.

When Crypto was finally revealed, it became clear that all of the map changes and hacks were indeed committed by the hacker as a form of revenge. And it doesn’t seem like he’s slowing down any time soon.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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