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for 83% off and 1 extra month for free! Are you guys ready? Let the games begin. On June 15th, 2012 Disney released their newest
cartoon; Gravity Falls. The show was created by Alex Hirsch,
and follows Dipper and Mable, two twins who are sent to stay with their
great uncle Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon, a mysterious small town
full of supernatural phenomenon. The show only ran for two seasons,
but despite its relatively short run, its garnered a massive following, becoming something
of a cult classic. That's in part because, unlike most Disney shows,
Gravity Falls dealt with some incredibly dark themes, disturbing imagery, and even the illuminati.
Perhaps the most notable thing about this show is the character Bill Cipher, the main
antagonist of the series. Bill Cipher is a triangle-shaped dream demon who bears a strong resemblance to the Eye of Providence, or the all-seeing eye of God. He’s the center of
many of the show’s mysteries, and has a twisted, sadistic sense of humor. [Bill Cipher]: "Deer teeth! For you kid, hahaha! [Gideon] Ah! You're insane! I’d argue that Bill is probably the stand-out
character of the show for his design and dialogue. And given his role in a series full of dark
and mysterious events, it’d only make sense for Bill to be at the center of one of the
craziest, cryptic games in Disney history. That game was called the Cipher Hunt. It was
Gravity Falls’ own ARG that took dedicated players all around the world for one final mystery. And today, we’re going to take you through all the locations, clues, and of course the puzzles and how they were solved. The treasure hunt really began
during the finale of Gravity Falls, which was a three part movie called “Weirdmageddon”. In this special, Bill Cipher finally gains physical form and brings havoc upon Gravity Falls. This episode was messed up, it's kind of insane that Disney was okay with this. People’s faces turn inside out, the citizens
are horrifically turned into stone, and of course there's that crazy line from Bill Cipher, when he says he's going to
change Mable and Dipper into corpses. [Bill Cipher]: Not so fast! You two wait here! I've got some children I need to make into corpses! [Bill Cipher]: When I get my hands on you, kids I'm gonna dissemble your molecules. You've tricked me for the last time! Crazy stuff. Anyways, what's most important
is that, at the very end of part three, past the credits, a quick shot of a statue of Bill Cipher can be seen, as well as some random numbers. Now, Gravity Falls is no stranger to hiding secret messages in their episodes, involving a wide array of different ciphers. All of these that I’m showing by the way,
are just in the third part of the finale alone So, let's get crackin. Out of all these hidden messages, the only one really having to do with the Cipher Hunt is this cryptic string of letters written on the bus seat. This can be decoded using a Vigenere Cipher. A Vigenere Cipher can be used to decode a message but only by using a key. The key determines how many times a letter must be shifted across the alphabet to crack the code. If that sounds complicated, it really isn’t. For example; let's decipher “JNPDA” using
the key “ABCDE”. A very simple way to go about using the Vigenere
Cipher is to imagine each letter in the key as a number. That number being its order in
the alphabet. However, you must also include the number 0, in cases where you don’t shift the letter at all. Since A is the first letter of the alphabet,
its value is 0. B is the second letter in the alphabet, so its value is 1. C is the third letter, so it’s a 2. So on and so forth. In order to solve this puzzle,
all you need to do is shift each letter in the cipher however many spaces to
the right as its matching number. Since J is the first letter in the cipher and 0 is the first number in the key, you shift it to the right zero times, resulting in a J. Take the N and shift it one time to the right,
resulting in the letter O. Take the letter P and shift it
two times to the right to get the letter R. Continue the process and
eventually you’ll decipher the code. In cases where you go past Z, you simply restart
at A and continue. In cases where the cipher is longer than the
key, simply repeat the key. And if you’re lazy or just bad at counting
with zero, you can use this chart. Now let's get back to the Cipher Hunt. We have the code, now all we need is
the key to crack the code. Well this is where things
got messy. The episode never explicitly states what the key was, and fans on reddit had to just guess. Yeah, sorry for being uneventful, but thats basically how it happened. Thankfully, what the key ended up being, and what the code was, can be combined together. The final
message ended up being: This, coupled with the image of the Bill Cipher
statue seen in the final episode, led fans to believe that this statue is
out there, waiting to be found. In the months following this discovery, show creator Alex Hirsch and the team behind Gravity
Falls spoke nothing of a Bill Cipher statue. That is until July 20th, 2016. On that day,
Alex Hirsch tweeted out a simple, “Are you guys ready?” Fans were excited. The Cipher Hunt had begun. Once that tweet was sent, fans knew that something
was about to go underway. But no one knew just how big
this game would end up being. Alex posted a second tweet that was even more enticing than the first. The tweet said “Let the games begin #FLSKHUKXQW” along with an image. This image is filled with secret codes,
but what stands out the most is the illustration of a Bill Cipher statue in the woods. Furthermore, Alex included several rules: There’s no doubt about it at this point.
A Bill Cipher statue is somewhere out there and only the most dedicated of fans will reach it first. Let’s examine this image. The majority of these codes can be solved by using a common cipher known as the Caesar Cipher. A Caesar Cipher is basically a simplified
version of the Vigenere Cipher. Instead of each letter having their own number to be
shifted by, all of the letters must be shifted to the left or to the right by the same amount.
What that amount is, is basically a guess. This is by far one of the simplest and most
commonly used ciphers out there, since no key is required and is fairly easy to solve. For example, taking the hashtag FLSKHUKXQW and shifting the whole thing back three letters,
gives up CIPHERHUNT. The text in the center of the image can also
be solved by shifting it three letters back. It reads: Finally by also shifting the bottom text three
letters back, it can be translated to: The oddest of these secret messages were the
numbers above the Bill Cipher statue. It reads: After some trial and error, it turned out that this
message can be decoded by using three ciphers. The first being an “A1Z26” cipher. This one is pretty simple; all you have to do is convert each number to its corresponding letter in the alphabet. 8 becomes H, since H is the
8th letter in the alphabet. 15 becomes O, since O is the 15th letter
in the alphabet, and so on. The second cipher used was the Atbash Cipher. The Atbash Cipher works by taking the order of the alphabet, and reversing it. A becomes Z. B becomes Y, and so on. Applying the cipher to our code gives us SLQHV Lastly, we use the good ol’ Caesar Cipher. Shifting all the letters back by 3 gives us:
PINES, which is the last name of our main characters. Although none of these coded messages gave
direct clues as to where the Bill Cipher statue was, fans were quick to notice that some of
the letters within these messages were highlighted red. After being translated, these letters
spelled out Russia. Furthermore, Russian fans were able to recognize the diagram at the middle left of the image as the Kazan Cathedral, located in Saint Petersburg, Russia. So fans visited the Cathedral in search of any clues. Eventually, a discovery was made by twitter
user MindOfAddict. After visiting the cathedral this image was found: By running the text through the Caesar Cipher,
it can be translated to: “Ruble” is the name of the currency used
in Russia. And Yen is the currency used in Japan. Therefore, the next clue was located
in Japan. However, given that no image accompanied the text, the exact location was a mystery.
Japan's kind of a pretty large place, after all. At this point, it became clear that this was more than just a mere game, but a worldwide hunt for the
mysterious Bill Cipher Statue. Fans from all walks of life came together in search of Alex Hirsch’s final gift to the Gravity Falls fandom. Determined hunters were eventually able to
figure out the location of the next clue, by searching through Alex Hirsch’s Twitter
account. Back in February, right before the airing of the finale, Alex Hirsch and his girlfriend
posted a picture of themselves visiting a shrine in Japan where you’re
supposed to specifically pray for cartoon-related luck. Hirsch left behind a Gravity Falls-themed
ema, which is a small wooden plaque that are typically left behind at shrines. Fans saw
this as a hint that the next location was the Kanda Myojin Shrine, the same one that
Alex and his girlfriend visited. Twitter user @nyankun1 was able to locate
the second clue on the back of one of the emas, accompanied by a scimitar and a crescent. By translating the message using the
good ol’ Caesar Cipher, it reads: Let's start with the Fountain of Youth. This mystical relic was believed to restore a person's youth by simply bathing in the fountain’s waters. The clue makes mention of “the hunter of the fountain of youth”. The most well-known person that fits this description is Juan Ponce de Leon, a Spanish explorer from the 1400’s.
He was said to have been searching for this fountain in order to cure his aging. Instead he discovered Florida. If we follow the next line in the second clue; “400 before
his name is written”; we get 400 Ponce de Leon, which is an actual address in Atlanta, Georgia. Upon reaching this address,
which was a Shriners temple, a missing (or LOST) poster for
Waddles The Pig was found. Unfortunately the poster was water damaged, but it contained a photo of Waddles, a secret message, and a phone number to call if Waddles is found. The phone number, when called, sounds like
a lot of gibberish. However, by reversing the audio, a legible message from Grunkle Stan, one of the main characters from Gravity Falls, can be heard: Basically, Grunkle Stan spells out the location of the fourth clue; the Ochre Court in Newport, Rhode Island. Players traveled to the building in search
for the next piece of the puzzle, only to find: nothing. Unfortunately, the University that owns the Ochre Court disposed of the clue before anyone arrived to find out. Alex tweeted out that a replacement clue would be given on July 21st 12:30pm. He also advised players to stay out of Ochre’s Court unless they want to invoke the Sister Miley’s curse. Anyways, at 12:30pm, Alex Hirsch tweeted
a simple message; a phone number. Fans noticed that this was the same number on the missing Waddles poster. This was Grunkle Stan’s phone number. After it was called, a new message played: So, our clue involves a man with the same
first and last name, a statue that honors him, and the location being somewhere near
a park. Eventually fans were able to narrow this to the Griffith J. Griffith statue at
Griffith Park in Los Angeles. A fan known as @RambleWheels was able to travel
to this location and find a golden head of Grunkle Stan. The head came with a piece of
paper, as well as a UV light. By flashing the light onto the piece of paper,
a string of letters can be uncovered, which when put through the Caesar Cipher displayed this message: Since 50+50 equals 100, players deduced that
the next clue was nearby in Century City, Los Angeles. One of the city’s parks was even trimmed to
look like the Eye of Providence, amazingly. The voice actor for Dipper, Jason
Ritter, and Alex Hirsch’s own sister, Ariel Hirsch joined in on the treasure hunt. The
duo, along with a group of fans, ventured to Century City in search for the fifth clue. Eventually, a black pouch was found which
contained a USB stick with a drawing of Bill Cipher on it. When read, it contained this
message: Oddly enough, Super Mario World music
and sound effects can also be heard, but whatever. Grunkle Stan flat out reveals the location
of the sixth clue, the California State Summer School of the Arts. However, the clue is inside the campus, meaning
only students who are currently attending the school can find it. Twitter user @DJRussellRed was the first to uncover a string of letters, numbers, and
symbols that were graffitied onto a campus wall, along with a crudely drawn Bill Cipher.
After some speculation, fans deduced that this was meant to be coordinates, as the N
and W could mean North and West. However, there are notably letters in between
some of the numbers, and converting by using the A1Z26 cipher led to the middle
of the Bermuda Triangle. That seemed unlikely. At least I hope so.. Nevertheless, it was soon discovered that
this code could be cracked using a Hexadecimal to Decimal cipher, which is kind of an insane way to encode a message. Here’s the simplified way of doing it: Take the first two numbers (2&5) Multiply 5 by 16^0, then take 2 and multiply
it by 16^1, and add the two results. 16^0 is 1. 5 times 1 is 5 16^1 is 16. 16 times 2 is 32 Therefore, 32 + 5 = 37, which is our first
value in the North coordinate. For the ones that involve a letter, like 7a,
all you need to know is that A = 10, B = 11, C = 12 and so on all the way to 15, since
hexadecimal are a base 16 system (including the 0). So 7a really just means 710. So, lets multiply 10 by 16^0, and 7 by 16^1,
just like before. 16^0 is 1. 1x10 is 10 16^1 is 16. 16 x 7 is 112. Therefore, 112+10 is 122, which is our first
value in the West coordinate. Following this formula results in 37°49'19"N
and 122°13'59"W, which points to Piedmont, California, the hometown of Alex Hirsch. After receiving a helpful map from Hirsch himself, fans set forward in search for the seventh clue. What was found was a treasure chest, a key, and a cryptex (which can only be opened
by entering the correct 5 letters) Eventually by entering in PINES, a letter
can be found. The letter directly led fans back to Los Angeles, specifically 1825 N Vermont Avenue, which
was a post office. The numbers 2,7,1,2, & 8 was the PO Box that hid the next clue. Tons of fans showed up in heavy anticipation, and uncovered what was probably the biggest
roadblock in the search so far. This puzzle set contained 2,000 pieces, and
it also included an envelope with a drawing of Bill Cipher, some Stan Bucks, and decoy
junk mail. Unlike some of the other puzzles that could be solved and decoded with the help of the internet, this jigsaw puzzle must be completed in person. Furthermore, a ton of the puzzle pieces were yellow, which made solving it even more difficult. Dedicated fans spent days trying to solve the puzzle; switching places with each other in order
to sleep, while some didn’t sleep at all. It got to the point that one fan was able to guess the location of the next clue, by assuming what the final message would be
when it was only partially finished. The fan was able to correctly guess
that the ninth clue was in Portland, Oregon. However, where in all of Portland,
Oregon remained a mystery. Fortunately, a different fan who was keeping
up with the Cipher Hunt online stumbled across the ninth clue by complete accident. It was a garden gnome with a view-master
and a message beneath it. The message read: A view-master is a stereoscopic toy, used
to view images on a given reel. The reel contained images of a random location somewhere in the
forest. It was soon deduced that the slides were actually depicting the area around Confusion Hill, a roadside attraction that served as the inspiration for the Mystery Shack from the show. This is evident by the message capitalizing the “C” in confused, as well as mentioning a gift shop. At Confusion Hill, a jar of fake eyeballs was uncovered, as well as the tenth clue written
on the bottom of it. It reads: This one was pretty straightforward, as it directly stated where players needed to go
to for the eleventh clue, Stanley Street in Amity, Oregon. A geocache bolt was found,
which, when unscrewed, revealed a message: After a quick google search, Roger Tofte was revealed to be the creator of the Enchanted
Forest, an amusement park in Turner, Oregon. Imagine how exciting it must have been to
live in either California or Oregon at the time. Anyways, the hunt was reaching its finale,
as evident by the clue found at the Enchanted Forest. It was a ripped up piece with an encoded
message written on it. After it was Caesar Cipher'd, the text
on the paper translated to: When I first read, “return to where it all
began,” I thought Alex Hirsch was actually expecting players to go back to Russia. But no, it turns
out that a dotted line and a red X can be found on the back of the paper, as if it were
a treasure map. By attaching it to the top of the initial image tweeted by Alex, the one that kickstarted the whole thing, a map can be created. Players used this map to look
for the statue in various locations but with no luck. Others began examining the trees seen behind the
Bill Cipher Statue, but again, no luck. It wasn’t until about a week later, when
Alex Hirsch decided to tweet a small clue to help further the search. Alex tweeted: Let's break this down. When you think of “urban legend” and
“arcade game”, what comes to mind? Most will probably think of Polybius,
an 80’s arcade game said to cause all sorts of nasty effects to those who played it. Knowing
this, fans were able to conclude that the Polybius Square would be the cipher used to
solve the final riddle. A Polybius Square is a 5x5 grid, with each
space containing one letter. By numbering each row and column, you can
give each letter its own unique number code. For example, the number 35 would get you the letter "P". by going down to the third column
and then right to the 5th row. The only problem was that the Polybius Square only has 25 spaces, and there are 26 letters in the alphabet. In the example shown on screen,
the letters I & J share the 2 by 4 space. However this isn’t always the case. You
can make your own unique Polybius Square by simply choosing a different pair of letters
to share a space, which can alter the cipher. Nevertheless, players had to find a number code hidden within the trees behind the Bill Cipher statue. Then translate that code through
the Polybius Square, get a location, and finally find the statue .. right? Well .. that isn’t exactly what happened. Through an honestly pretty impressive crypto analysis of the tree’s branches and knots, and with the assumption of the final location had to be Oregon, a fan was able to reason that the most likely location was Reedsport. And he was right. How was he able to do this? Well thankfully, he provided a brief explanation of his deduction on the Gravity Falls subreddit. I’m going to try and explain it and best as I can. Here’s how he did it: We know that the branches and knots play a key role in solving this mystery, as Alex’s tweet implies. There are 18 branches and 4 knots in this image. Assuming each branch and knot makes up
one number in the Polybius Square, that gives us 22 numbers to work with.
This is done by simply adding the number of branches and knots there are. However a Polybius Square is decoded using
a pair of numbers for the row and column. Knowing this, we can divide the 22 numbers into pairs and safely assume that there are 11 letters in total. Now the problem is finding out what the numbers were. Let's examine the photo a bit more closely. Some of the branches point upwards, some point downwards, some on the left side, some on the right, some have leaves on them, some do not. According to Alex’s hint, “Mathematically the letters
hide in branches & knots, no matter the side" It seems like Alex is saying that whatever side the branch is on doesn’t matter in solving the puzzle. Therefore, we can just forget about what side they’re on, and are left with just branches that point up, and branches that point down. The reddit user realized that some of these branches have a leaf attached to them. Knowing that the Polybius Square
can only use the numbers one through five, he reasoned that those five variables must
be the: branches that pointed upwards with the leaf, branches that pointed upwards without a leaf, branches that pointed downwards without a
leaf, branches that pointed downwards with a leaf, and the knots. These five variables stood for the five numbers. By ordering them from top to bottom, tree-to-tree,
we get this code. Looks good, and we’re narrowing our possibilities,
but now what? Something that stands out is that several
of the pairs actually repeat. The second and third letter, the first, eighth, and eleventh
letter, and the seventh and tenth letter. Now here is where we play the big guessing
game. If we assume that this is a city in Oregon, where Gravity Falls takes place, then we are left with an eleven letter
word with some repeating letters. It's likely that the second and third
letter is a vowel, like “EE” or “OO”. I think we can safely rule out
“AA”, “II”, and probably “UU” since those vowels aren’t commonly repeated in words. Now, there are 241 cities in Oregon. However, the only ones that have an EE or an OO after the first letter are: Coos Bay, Hood River, Reedsport, Woodburn, and Wood Village. You might think that it's Wood Village because
it perfectly fits the number of letters there are. However, that city also has another pair
of repeating letters, LL. The corresponding codes don’t match up and
therefore cannot be the exact translation. Whatever this code translates to must have the same second and third letter, the same first, eighth and eleventh letter, and the same seventh and tenth letter. Knowing this, the only city from our small selection that fits is REEDSPORT. The second and third letters are both E and
the first and eighth letters are both R. Following this pattern, the eleventh letter must also be R, and since the seventh letter in REEDSPORT
is O, that means the tenth letter is also O. O R meaning Oregon. Reedsport, Oregon. Fans began tweeting at Alex Hirsch about traveling
to Reedsport, to which he retweeted, seemingly confirming that that was the correct answer. The puzzle had been solved. The final clue was revealed. The Bill Cipher statue was waiting
to be found. On August 2nd, 2016, twitter user @shadow_wolfwind became the first to discover the Bill Cipher statue and was awarded by becoming
the Mayor of Gravity Falls. Sometime later, a treasure chest buried in front of the statue was discovered by a different group of fans. They also broke one of the rules by shaking
Bill’s hand which is just scandalous! Anyways, this treasure chest contained plastic coins
and gems, Russian and Japanese currency, a copy of Gravity Falls: Journal 3, a black
light, a music box with Bill’s eye that plays the Gravity Falls theme song, a piece
of paper, a mini Bill Cipher statue, a framed sketch of the main characters posing with
the statue, a USB drive, a plastic crown, and a sash that says “Mayor of Gravity Falls”,
which was given to the first winner. The drawing inside Journal 3 are of Soos,
Old Man McGucket, and Grunkle Stan, with Stan saying “ENJOY THE NERD BOOK, SMARTYPANTS!”
and below it says, "FROM GRUNKLE STAN, SOOS, & MCGUCKET -(ALEX HIRSCH)". However, by using
the blacklight, Bill’s name is also alongside the signatures. He also appears saying, “STAY
PARANOID”. When the piece of paper is put under the black
light, it reads: When the framed image of the main characters
is placed under the black light, their eyes begin to glow, including Bill’s. His bowtie
and eyelashes appear, and the phrase “TRUST NO ONE” can be seen above congratulations. Finally, there’s of course the USB Drive.
It contained a text file called "MyExWifeStillMissesMe.ButHerAimIsGettinBetter." and an audio file. Opening the audio file,
plays one final message from Grunkle Stan: And that’s the story of the Cipher Hunt. The Bill Cipher statue had finally been
found. The jigsaw puzzle from Los Angeleswas
solved the day before. That's how long it took Alex promised fans that if they were
able to solve the jigsaw puzzle, he would release the unaired
Gravity Falls pilot, which was previously lost media. By opening the text file, the phrase "RETURNBACKWARDSTOTHEPASTAGAINTHREE" can be found. Entering “RETURNBACKWARDS”
as a username and “TOTHEPASTAGAINTHREE” as the password on themysteryofgravityfalls.com/pilot,
allows fans to watch the unaired pilot which is just an alternate version of “Tourist Trapped”. Unfortunately, on August 3rd the statue of
Bill Cipher and all the treasure were taken by the local authorities because of a property
dispute. The property owner had allowed
Hirsch to place the statue there, but another person claiming to own
that land filed a complaint. The statue was moved, and Bill's hat
was broken in the process. It was moved to Bicentennial Park in Reedsport,
where it remained until August 15th, when Hirsch and some volunteers moved the statue
to its new permanent home at Confusion Hill. Bill has since gained a new hat, and those who visit
can take and leave treasure in front of him, so that if you wanted to join in the Cipher Hunt years later, there's always something for you. [Alex Hirsch]: "When I said I woke up that
one morning with this idea in my head, Sometimes when that happens, there's a deeper reason you're doing something and you don't entirely know. In my mind, the main reason I was doing it was... This is a show about mysteries.
I want one final mystery. As I was there digging the hole for Bill Cipher, I realized what was actually happening, which was I was processing the death of this show in my own way. I was creating a funeral and I was creating a headstone and I was burying it and I was leaving
a final message on that headstone. Like, it wasn't obvious to me until
midway through the process that everybody grieves in their own way, and throwing an insane international treasure hunt was the way I grieved for the end of Gravity Falls.
Seeing posts about this, when it was happening, is what got me into gravity falls. Thanks for sharing!