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RUSH
From Portal 2 ARG Wiki - Valve ARG Network
RUSH is a game developed by Two Tribes that involves placing tiles on three-dimensional grids to control the flow of autonomously-moving cubes from a start to an end goal without falling off the level or colliding with other cubes.
Contents |
<TEST> Levels
The April 11th Update added five new <TEST> Levels to the game with GLaDOS taking the place of the standard announcer, and companion cubes replacing the normal blocks.
To Access the levels: Access is partially based on chance, but generally adheres to the following method:
- Play any level. GLaDOS may say that "This looks too easy, Here, I have an idea! Fixed." She will then remove your hints.
- If this does not happen immediately, keep trying. It will always be when you first begin a level. But you may have to load several.
- The Key to Success seems to have a higher chance of triggering this message.
- After she removes the hints, complete the level as normal. She will then say that you are ready for an "Actual Challenge". The completion message says "Succes." instead of the usual messages.
- Go to the Main menu, a new Difficulty menu will be available, shaped like a Companion cube, in between the Hard and Bonus difficulties.
Level Contents
- All levels appear to be named after Vegetables
- You cannot use Hints in any of the levels
- Completing the final level opens an Aperture Login Page
- The Correct path in the final puzzle reveals the password to be: "JOINITFORSUCCESS" (This needed to be lower case for me ~DN)
Audio Transmission
- Successful login begins an "audio transmission" from GLaDOS. It does not appear to be functioning correctly for everyone.
- The audio is of GLaDOS speaking seemingly random words. Much like the cyphers. Transcription needed.
- I hear "Ken's kingdom ships all espresso by dispatch."
- The audio file is here: File:RUSHSecondLoginAudioFile.mp3
Solutions
Below are solutions for each puzzle:
<TEST>PUMPKIN
- http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=yDPZ8I97t1U (via Wolfin in IRC)
<TEST>PEA
- http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=BDM0nPMNfvc (via Wolfin in IRC)
<TEST>ASPARAGUS
- http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=40tTXWYbNiY (via Wolfin in IRC)
<TEST>CARROT
- http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=ecMa9kxnO08 (via TheCell in IRC)
- http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=HzGk5jYAavo (via Wolfin in IRC)
<TEST>GARLIC
- It is possible to solve this puzzle by doing nothing at all, as GLaDOS points out.
- However many of the tiles have letters, numbers and glyphs that appear when the cube rolls over them.
- By taking an alternate path, the phrase: "JOINITFORSUCCESS" (This needed to be lower case for me ~DN) is spelled out. This is the password for the new login.
Getting to the Login Screen
To get the login screen:
- Unlock and load the "Key to Success" Hard level (Using the videos below if needed).
- Solve the puzzle as shown in this image from Amnesia. (Screenshot) (Video).
- Enter conveyor belts as the login code.
Puzzle Solution Videos:
- Easy Levels.
- Medium Levels.
- Hard Levels.
- Key to Success Level (Not actually needed).
April 1 update
RUSH was updated on Steam on April 1st like all other Potato Sack games to incorporate potatoes in humorous ways, but leading to the bigger ARG puzzle.
Three changes were immediately apparent:
- On the title screen, a giant potato would revolve around the sun. As the potato passed the foreground, the glyph for Killing Floor was immediately apparently along with the two letters "C" and "K".
- Clicking on this potato would pop up the message "6teen dot data. Ovened a hot nut, no hen", which turned out to be RUSH's cypher. It also references the use of "16" as a common theme in the ARG puzzle.
- In the game's credits, there are faint symbols of other glyphs: the "?" and "." glyphs unassociated with any game, the Super Meat Boy glyph, and The Wonderful End of the World glyph. Using the known letter assignment this gives the phrase DSRF. This forms the word "auDioSuRF" which would later point to the password rail rider that would be used for the RUSH Aperture Science login screen.
April 7 update
RUSH was updated on April 7th once all the glyphs and cyphers were discovered by the ARG.
Audiosurf password
The patch notes include the statement "Fixed small color issue in the skybox", which prompts the user to view the skybox by looking underneath the levels. For nearly all of the maps in the game, players found a new text label somewhere on the undersides of the level. [A complete archive of these pictures is available.
All maps had these labels excluding the map "Black Hole" (where the textures are all black, likely obscuring the text) and the 5 hidden levels. Most labels had the form X#-#, where X was B, E, H, M, or T, the first number ranging from 11 to 55, and the second number ranging from 1 to 16. Uniquely, the level "Key to Success" had a box around this label whereas all the rest did not. A few have the form "EOT", commonly read as "End of Transmission". Some labels were in an apparently different font but this did not seem to matter.
The ARG players recognized that the letters stood for Bonus, Easy, Hard, Medium and Tutorial, and that the first number was two digits representing the column and row, respectively, of the referenced map on the level selection screen (eg, H23 would by the 2nd column, 3rd row puzzle at the Hard stage selection screen). With this, it is possible to create a tree of which level refers to another
Clearly, there was a path from the "Key to Success" level to an EOT node, but the second number in each code was not yet understood. IRC user mib_566m99 identified that the second number is used to select the nth character from the level title; for example, "B52-1" from The Key to Success points to the level Revolver (on the Bonus gird at the 5th column, 2nd row), and thus the character for this path is "R" (the 1st character). Following the path from Key to Success gives the password rail rider, the password for the Audiosurf login screen as hinted by the credit glyphs.
Aperture Science login page
The Aperture Science login page for RUSH was pointed at by Amnesia. They include messages from the Frictional Games such as: Amnesia's April 1st patch included 4 encrypted RAR files requiring four different passwords. Once the first password was obtained from the April 7th update, the subsequent RAR files were decoded, with the 4th one containing an image spread on two edges that clearly resolved into a map of a RUSH level, "The Key to Success", with specific placements of the grid. Playing this level and placing the tiles as shown opens the Aperture Science login screen. The password itself comes from Amnesia, through the "Mysterious Omen" puzzle, which produced the lines conveyor belts.
Other observations
- New sound file was added to RUSH sfx folder. Perhaps we should be listening for something?
- RUSH potato skin from data dir may or may not have any importance.
Actual challenge
The April 11th Update added five new levels to the game with GLaDOS taking the place of the standard announcer, and companion cubes replacing the normal blocks.
Accessing the levels
Access is partially based on chance, but generally adheres to the following method:
- Play any level in Medium or higher difficulty. GLaDOS may say that "This looks too easy, I'll fix that." She will remove your hints
- If this does not happen, continue loading up levels. It may take several tries to get her to kick in.
- After she removes the hints, complete the level as normal. She will then say that you are ready for an "Actual Challenge"
- Go to the Main menu, a new Difficulty menu will be available. Shaped like a Companion cube, inbetween the Hard and Bonus difficulties.