Shadowkeep ARG

The ***Shadowkeep ARG*** was an alternate reality game (ARG) created for Bungie's *Destiny 2* expansion, *Shadowkeep.* The ARG was released in September 2019 when the Collector's Edition of the expansion was sent out to players earlier than the expansion's launch.

## Background

*Destiny 2: Shadowkeep* reintroduced the Earth's moon (from *Destiny*) and Eris Morn, who hadn't been a part of the story since *Destiny: The Taken King*. The moon is infected with the Hive and Eris has Hive-like powers.

The Collector’s Edition (CE) of the expansion contained a "Hive Cryptoglyph Replica," a "Luna Mission Handbook," a "Luna Journal", and more exclusive items.

## Solving the Clues

The Hive Cryptoglyph replica served as the main item of the set, and was inspired by the events of the *Shadowkeep* campaign. It also featured a hidden puzzle, which allowed the replica to open upon being solved.

### Step 1

Looking at the note card Eris Morn within the CE, it contained the clues necessary to solve the Hive Cryptoglyph. The front side of the card showed the highlighted glyphs, and the back side showed what order to put them in.

### Step 2

Inside the Cryptoglyph was a slip of paper with a URL that led to one of five Bungie websites, as well as a code to redeem. Going to a URL asked the person to log in first. If the person was logged in and the account had not redeemed the code, the page said that they must redeem the code in order to continue. If the logged in account had redeemed the code, the page displayed a piece of the puzzle which was made up of a series of strange runes.

### Step 3

This process could be repeated for the five URLs below to get five pieces of the puzzle per logged in account:

1. bungie.net/hearts
2. bungie.net/endure
3. bungie.net/dust
4. bungie.net/hope
5. bungie.net/poison

### Step 4

The community needed to share the image URLs of the strange runes with the rest community.

### Step 5

Once the URLs were submitted, the community combined all of the runes together to form a large block of text.

## Putting It All Together

Due to trial and error, the community learned valuable information to help them discover the solution to the puzzle:

>
> 1. Each URL was a set of puzzle pieces. Pieces didn't cross over between sets. (HEARTS pieces did not fit with ENDURE pieces, etc.)
> 2. Each set had three variations of image dimensions: Vertical Pieces, Horizontal Pieces, and a Square Pieces. (6x14, 14x6, 10x10 respectively for all but the Hearts set, Hearts was 4x8, 8x4, 6x6)
> 3. Pieces of the same dimensions never overlapped, but instead were aligned with edges and corners touching.
> 4. Rotating, flipping, or scaling the pieces was not mandatory.
> 5. Pieces that aligned perfectly never matched red with yellow in the same character spot.
> 6. Pieces that aligned perfectly never overlapped any letter segments with another piece.
> 7. Yellow letters appeared as capital letters in important part of text, such as the start of names, sentences, and important blocks of texts.
>
>
>

## Solution

Community members quickly started to put the images together, discovering that when they were overlaid, the runes formed words. The result of putting all the rune images together was five pages of text related to Destiny 2's Hive lore.

## References

1. ↑ Reddit - The Shadowkeep Collectors Edition Puzzle (September 26, 2019)
2. ↑ Bungie Store - Shadowkeep Collector's Edition
3. ↑ Reddit - Hive Cryptoglyth Solution (September 28, 2019)
4. ↑ Bungie.net - Cryptoglyth
5. ↑ Ishtar Collective - Cryptoglyth Messages