How players finally solved the most confusing
puzzle in Zardy’s Maze. Since the debut of Zardy’s Maze in the spooky
season of 2020, players have been repeatedly combing through an odd cornfield. Whether trying to overcome its difficult challenges,
or to take a closer look at the mystery behind the whole situation. However, while every challenge was overcome
and the secret lore messages were uncovered, there remained one thing that players had
trouble figuring out. And this was the crossword puzzle within the
game. Originally hidden within the files of the
game and later plastered on the wall within the house, this silly puzzle has frustrated
players quite a bit. But solving this puzzle yielded something
very, very important. So join me as I do a complete breakdown about
how the crossword puzzle was eventually cracked. As the game’s creator, it has been a lot
of fun watching players work together to solve it and how the solution hints at something
yet to come. And for those who missed it… Well, surprise! Zardy’s Maze 2 has been in development for
quite some time now. It’s been incredibly hard to keep quiet
about it over the past year. The teaser trailer just dropped, and to celebrate
the occasion, the official Cablecrow plushie has just launched! Grab this adorable, dangerous fella before
time runs out! Sales of the plushie go towards the development
costs of the game, and for a few extra bucks, you can even have your name or handle put
into the game in a unique way. Click the link in the description below to
get one before time runs out. So let’s talk about this crossword puzzle
and how it stumped players even after it was technically finished. So the crossword puzzle was actually intertwined
with another secret within the game. When Zardy’s Maze first came out, prior
to challenge mode launching, fans noticed that the house that the player appeared in
front of was locked. And people became obsessed with trying to
get into this house. Only a few months later the challenge mode
update would be released. This introduced 7 new pre-set challenges for
the player to tackle and a customizable challenge option. Each challenge would have to be cleared to
unlock the next challenge. Now, you may have already seen people tackle
the ultimate skill-based test called True Foolhardy. Which was basically setting the game to all
max settings in a custom challenge with a randomly generated maze. This was discovered, beaten, and also covered
in another overview video on my channel. But the crossword puzzle was the ultimate
thinking and sleuthing test. Anyways, when challenge mode was released,
players began combing through the files after they had overcome the 7 challenges. And eventually, someone found it. The texture file for a key. Now, players immediately hoped this was for
unlocking the house. And after doing some further digging, they
realized this key texture and object was tied to a specific challenge - which was Challenge
6, Needle in the Haystack. Needle in the Haystack was actually fairly
difficult to reach since it was later on in the game and required you to beat the challenges
before it. But just as the name implies, you’re searching
for a needle in a haystack. A super small vine flower guarded by Rattler. This is the darkest level in the game. It’s pitch black outside and you need to
find your axe immediately upon starting. However, somewhere within this maze was also
a small key on the ground. Many players could have simply ran over it
without even noticing it. The character would nudge over the key, but
it was still hard to tell. But once players found out a key existed,
they went out into the darkness to find it. And eventually they found the true needle
in the haystack. After picking up the key in challenge 6, they
could then exit the game and boot up the main mode that had the house and yard. This key then allowed them to go inside of
the house. Now, this is where things get interesting. Because players had already figured out how
to get outside of the corn maze and in front of the house without the key. But there was a divide so to speak within
the house. While searching the house, players would see
the crossword pinned to the main wall. This in itself is strange when you first see
it because it’s hard to make it out in the game. However, dumping the game files revealed the
full resolution crossword. But exiting the house itself in the back led
to another secret lore discovery… So players were introduced to a harder secret
in the midst of a more straightforward one. Perhaps in the future I can do a full breakdown
of all secrets since players have done a great job finding them. So now a lot of players knew the crossword
existed. And if you didn’t find it yourself, you
may have seen creators like Stowgee tackling the game’s mysteries and secrets in his
videos. So the crossword is literally just named “Gaming
Crossword” and it has 20 different answers that need to be filled in. Truthfully, it’s a mix between gaming and,
uh, SwankyBox gaming, since some answers were hidden in videos. Chances are the game itself had shown up on
my channel at some point, or there was a Zardy easter egg in the video. Players began sifting through videos, wikis,
and essentially other related indie horror titles to see if they could piece it together. There was another aspect of this at play though
which I’ll get to soon. But let’s go through the crossword item
by item, shall we? It’s already been solved, and I need to
set the stage for the aftermath of the crossword solution. So, clue 1 is a cheerful novel about human
experimentation. This is actually a Doki Doki Literature Club
toss back. I was really into theorizing the game years
ago, and it instantly became an indie horror-esque classic. So 1 across is Markov, derived from the Portrait
of Markov - Yuri’s book in the game. Clue 2 is “a banana floats above his desk”. The hidden office in Baldi’s Basics actually
has a banana floating above Baldi’s desk, and back when I covered Baldi a lot, it was
something I featured in a video. Baldi fans would for sure remember this though. Baldi fills in number 2. Clue 3: Four corners here hold something extra. A fairly popular video of mine talks about
a hidden extra life that can be spawned in Super Mario 64 by touching four corners. The area this happens in is Tall Tall Mountain,
which is the answer to number 3. Clue 4: Literally undateable. Now this one is a bit confusing because it
wasn’t as well documented as some other games. But in Dream Daddy, there was an 8th dateable
dad named Saul Graves. They were cut from the game but dataminers
discovered a creepy route involving them. Thus, they couldn’t be dated. Saul Graves fills in number 4. Clue 5: The worst box a super plumber ever
opened. This one is also obscure because obviously
people think Mario, but the box being opened isn’t from his universe. I once covered a Club Nintendo comic where
Mario opened Lemarchand’s box from the Hellraiser series. And I gotta say, that’s one box you shouldn’t
open. Lermachand is number 5. Clue 6: Owes $3,076.50 in electricity. Now that’s a hefty bill. But at the end of Chapter 5 in Bendy and the
Ink Machine, we can see that Joey Drew owes quite a lot of money as his electricity bill
is pinned to his wall. I talked about this in a theory video about
how Joey Drew tricked the player again at the end of the game. Thus, Joey Drew is number 6. Clue 7: An out of place object as you’re
frantically leaving the city. In my Pixel Portals video about City Escape
in Sonic Adventure 2, various posters around the city were replaced with Zardy’s face. Poster is number 7. Clue 8: The edge of the world on your journey. This one is kind of two fold because I’ve
talked about my love for Super Mario RPG’s Land’s End before in videos, but it also
applies to my book. Land’s End is the edge of the world in Super
Mario RPG and it’s the last chapter in my book, The YouTuber Journey. Land’s End is number 8. Clue 9: Once thought to be untouchable. In my video about touching the moon in Ocarina
of Time, Zardy’s face can be seen on the moon. Moon is number 9. Clue 10: Too scared to grab eighteen eighty
one from here. In Mad Monster Mansion in Banjo Kazooie, the
cellar barrels are marked with the year 1881. Cellar is number 10. Clue 11: A really bad name for a town. This one isn’t really gaming per say, but
I named my Animal Crossing Town La Poop as a kid. My pixel portal video covers it. LaPoop is number 11. Clue 12 Across: He’s joyful during the day. Freddy Fazbear always seemed chipper during
the day, thus Freddy is the answer to number 12 across. Clue 12 Down: Two out of fifty one isn’t
so bad here. Flipswip Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy has
a total coin count of 51 coins but only 2 are obtainable. Flipswitch is number 12 down. Clue 13: Becoming a coin is scary. In my Super Mario 64 all objects are coins
video, you can see that the paintings in Big Boo’s Haunt are replaced with a scarecrow
face. Big Boo’s Haunt is number 7. Clue 14 Across: Owns the sea. Johnny is Super Mario RPG claims that he owns
the sea and that anything that falls into it becomes his. Johnny is number 14 across. Clue 14 Down: You aren’t free, but he is. This concept is strongly pushed upon the player
when Kris encounters Jevil in Deltarune. Jevil is number 14 down. Clue 15: A dastardly place to hide answers. Uh… this one was kind of a hint? Keep in mind as you answer other crossword
sections, you get letters that can help you guess other answers. So the answer, which is videos, helps narrow
the scope a bit. So yeah, number 15 is videos. Clue 18 - err yes, we skipped 16 and 17… And I’ll explain why soon. Clue 18 is “she sees only shapes”. Some of my favorite indie game videos I’ve
ever made were on the game Night in the Woods. It just felt like the town I grew up in. Mae Borowski says she can only see shapes,
and I talk about this in some of my theory videos. Mae Borowski is number 18. Now when players tackled this crossword, they
honestly moved pretty quickly through it. The original presented answers were mostly
correct despite some that weren’t. The crossword wasn’t designed to be tackled
by one person. It was supposed to be a hivemind effort, and
hence the difficulty and specificity reflected that. And the fan base for Zardy’s Maze was assumed
to be largely, at first, from my channel. But I’m someone who breaks, tweaks, and
combs through games. There are vulnerabilities with every type
of lore or secret included in a game’s file system. However, I had a system where that wouldn’t
be an issue… Or, well, mostly. You see, each of the first letters from every
answer on the crossword was a part of a code. A 20 letter code that needed to be punched
into YouTube to reveal the locked door that had a secret behind it. When the game launched, typing this code into
Google would reveal nothing. Only YouTube worked. And this code would take players to a YouTube
channel I made that had a video asking for people to prove their accomplishment. At this point someone needed to comment all
the answers to the crossword. And if they were correct, the door would open
for everyone. This is how all my major secrets worked in
Zardy’s Maze. Anything that involved cutscenes weren’t
referenced at all in the game files. I knew people would just dump the files or
cheat to find everything at once. I mean, that’s what I’d do. But separating the two allowed me to give
fans a reward for solving and accomplishing things. I held all the keys to the doors, and I just
needed convincing to unlock them. And this is where answers 16 and 17 come into
play. You see, these two answers were just single
letters and were floating in the middle of the crossword. These were really confusing to people. They read as follows: Clue 16: Underground
where your shocks brighten the room. Clue 17: Juxtaposed with a tunnel that only
a ball can pass through. Strange, but what are they? Players guessed that maybe the first letter
of the word was what went into the slot, but this isn’t correct. The truth is, there was another way to get
these letters for the crossword if people were struggling. All of our hidden text endings that were baked
into Zardy’s Maze were all obscured in a special way. Eventually though, some time had passed and
a user named Brechdan cracked the system and began using it on objects it wasn’t normally
supposed to be used on. And hidden within one of these object’s
textures was the completed code for the crossword puzzle. This was a game changer for fans, because
it would help verify in some ways that the answers that they filled in on the crossword
were correct. I mean, if all the first letters line up,
that’s a plus. People could now enter the code on YouTube
and get to where the door resided. The gateway video to the hidden cutscene. But even after presenting all the answers,
the door would not open. And I stood there, watching the video, the
forums, and fan Discord channels like a hawk, twirling my figurative key in my hand as players
scratched their heads. The truth is, answers 16 and 17 were answers
that required a time and place. Instead of the user filling in the character
name, location, or game, they instead used the clue to find a video on my channel. This wasn’t very clear though, and I could
tell fans were growing frustrated. So I gave them the hint of needing a time
and place. But the crossword puzzle had come to a standstill… And for months it remained unsolved. The door was locked and the cutscene that
revealed a look into the lore was off limits. And to my surprise, people beat the Foolhardy
challenge - something I thought would remain unbeaten forever, before doing the crossword. But the crossword was still the gateway to
the fourth lore video. Lots of ARG’s tend to rely on cyphers and
lots of other similar methods, but ultimately I had launched a very barebones but obscure
scavenger hunt. I remember one fan in particular mentioning
that there was no way that the older videos on my channel would include the hidden elements
for the crossword. I remember sitting there and smiling. Because in reality, this puzzle had been almost
five or so years in the making. Years ago, in 2016 or so, when my channel
had just gotten to around 100,000 subscribers, I began laying out the foundation for a puzzle. 5 years in the future, and people were trying
to crack that same puzzle unknowingly by finding out what the mysterious letters A and W were
in my modern puzzle - the crossword. Time and place are everything - this was the
one clue that people had to solving the last leg of the crossword… And eventually it clicked with someone named
Titan29. Swanky’s a YouTuber. If clues are hidden in videos, like the Zardy
posters or the moon, then maybe we need to reveal the time and place of where the letters
are hidden. And that method of thinking eventually led
them to the answer. On my end of things, I was like sweating because
these fans had been standing right next to the clues the entire time. Even talking about the specific videos the
clues were in. They’d talk themselves out of it though
because the video was from 2016, years before Zardy’s Maze even came out. I’d wake up thinking, today’s gonna be
the day, but it ended up not happening over and over again. And this wasn’t the fault of the fans. They were doing a really excellent job. But this puzzle was designed for hundreds,
if not thousands of players to work out all at once. So they were taking on a job that wasn’t
supposed to be tackled by a small team. But you can never tell how big of a splash
your game will make, and the core group tacking this was rather small. A few less than 10 or so. So I get it was frustrating, but I’m super
happy you all persevered and found it. Clue 16: Underground where your shocks brighten
the room. In 2016 I collaborated with Dawko for a Five
Nights at Freddy’s Sister Location theory video. And I don’t think even Dawko knows this,
but that video is the video with the clue. Around 10:04 in the video you see the room
where you can shock the animatronics. And hidden in the darkness on screen is a
giant letter A. It’s a bit difficult to see unless you’re looking for it, but it
can be seen easier if you brighten the video up. Fast forward a few months to clue 17: Juxtaposed
with a tunnel that only a ball can pass through. This was in a video comparing MatPat’s Metroid
Morph Ball theory with Lockstin’s Morph Ball theory. This clue was quite literal. The series was called Juxtapose, and the viewer
was looking for a tunnel that only a ball could pass through. At 3:15 in the video, Samus turns into a ball
and goes into a small hole. And to the left we can see the hidden W. Now there was another hint as to where these
letters were, but I’m not sure if people ever leveraged them. In two of the secret cutscenes, if the audio
is reversed and sped up, it’s actually audio snippets from these videos during the time
in which the letter is on screen. For example, the metroid one says something
along the lines of “rolling with it ever since”. That’s what I’m saying in the video when
the letter is on screen. So there were a lot of odd hints. But with these two clues secured, the crossword
was now officially complete and the fourth cutscene was unlocked. It took a few months to discover the crossword
code, but it took an additional six months to unlock the gate to the final lore video… A lore video, that quite honestly, sets the
stage for Zardy’s Maze 2 quite nicely. A combined effort by players Secret Sauce,
SolarTear, Nephryte, Titan29, R03070, Mr. Mop, SuperMeah, Brechdan/Sandwich, Terrabyte,
Sapphire, and ForShovelry1. Truly an incredible job by these talented
individuals. But there’s one last surprise I have to
mention. Obviously if you want a Cablecrow plushie
please grab it now because they are only available for a limited time. But even though Zardy’s Maze 2 has been
announced and you’ve all more than likely seen the trailer, I still have one final Zardy’s
Maze 1 update for all of you. 3 new challenges to tackle will be releasing
shortly in the future, so I hope you enjoy running for your life while you wait for the
sequel to the game. And until my next video, cheers!
