SQ_d ][e HINTS & SOLUTION

Get started by inserting the floppy disk to power on the computer. It boots up and you meet Shadow. Poke around and play the built-in games — see the Games section below for help winning each one.

⚠ Heads-up: Shadow is temperamental and is known to disable peripherals — most often the gamepad. If your gamepad suddenly stops responding, that's Shadow messing with you. To recover, you'll need to enable the SQ_d Recovery Robot (power it on with its switch). Waking SQ_d is what kicks off the real adventure — continue at step 1 below.

Say hello to SQ_d. If the robot is silent and dark, it simply isn't awake yet. Find the robot's power switch and flip it. Once powered, SQ_d introduces itself and the mission begins: stop the virus known as Shadow.

SQ_d wants you to run the antivirus program — but Shadow has locked it out, so you can't launch it directly yet. Note where it lives in the filesystem; you'll come back to it once it's been unlocked.

Since the program is locked, SQ_d hacks the RAM directly using its ADRP-1 probe. Physically insert the probe through the vent.

If you see ADRP-1 disconnected, the probe lost contact — reseat it firmly and retry. Hold it steady all the way through the scan.

The antivirus is unlocked, but its password is encoded in binary. SQ_d streams it to you as ones and zeros, scrolling on the robot's little display.

How to read it:

1. Watch the binary the robot displays as it scrolls past.
2. Read each row of 8 bits, most-significant bit first (leftmost bit = 128, rightmost bit = 1).
3. Convert each 8-bit byte to a number, then to its ASCII character. For example 0100 0001 = 65 = A.
4. There are six characters — that is the six-slot antivirus password.

The feed loops, so let it repeat and write the bytes down until you have all six. Then type the decoded characters into the antivirus password screen.

Stuck on the decoding? The device has built-in reference cards: open DOCUMENTS ▸ ASCII.TXT and DOCUMENTS ▸ BINARY.TXT to look up which bytes map to which characters.

Enter the decoded password into the antivirus. The scan finishes, the lightning show fires, and Shadow is defeated. SQ_d wakes up… different.

Mutex-multiplex! Shadow slipped away and escaped SQ_d's mastermind. A code-breaking challenge now stands in your way.

Crack the hidden code using the peg feedback after each guess: one marker for right digit & right position, another for right digit, wrong position. Use the feedback to narrow it down methodically.

Need a method to actually crack it? A full step-by-step solving routine you can run with pencil and paper is in Games ▸ Mastermind, down in the Games section below.

SQ_d shows you a short riddle:

“D2 is the backdoor, to Access Level 4.”

It's terse, but it points at two things:

• D2 → find the component labeled D2 on the board. Its color is the key.
• Backdoor to Access Level 4 → the way in is the device's LED lighting, set under Settings ▸ Lighting — choose the color that matches D2.

Set the Lighting color to match component D2, and you'll be granted Access Level 4.

At Access Level 4 you're effectively root — but SQ_d can only hold the GPU open for a few seconds, so be ready before you start.

Navigate to System ▸ Devices ▸ Other and release the GPU Latch quickly. If it re-locks before you make it, re-trigger the Level 4 grant and try again.

With the GPU latch released, SQ_d leaves you one last word: numismatic — meaning relating to coins or coin-collecting. In other words, there's a coin to collect.

Grab the coin. Once you have it, the puzzle is complete: Q.E.D. — quod erat demonstrandum. You win. Thanks for playing SQ_d.

During the Boot PIN Challenge, if the “attempts” count gets past the “allowed” amount (for example “11/10” or “13/10”), it leaves the puzzle in an unsolvable state. A factory reset must be performed to recover (see instructions below).

Cause: This condition occurs when the player turns off the power just upon reaching the PIN guess limit. It is fixed in v1.4.7 and later.

⚠ Note: The BIOS factory reset reveals a non-puzzle element — it is not part of the puzzle. It should not be accessed under normal circumstances. Also, there is a different way to reset the puzzle once it is fully solved.

If a magnet is placed near a back foot, it can cause a power lapse that resets the screen, audio, and lights. A power cycle must be performed to recover. (Remove floppy disk, reinsert.) This is not part of the puzzle.

Cause: This issue is due to a mechanical power-handling relay close to the back corner of the box. The relay is sensitive to magnetic fields; a strong magnet can cause it to open and close, which causes the partial power reset. It should not cause damage to the device, but it can be annoying: it looks like it might be a puzzle element, and you will need to cycle the power to recover. Avoid placing magnets near the feet.

First player to 7 points wins. Return the ball past the opponent's paddle.

• Hit the ball with the edge of your paddle to add angle and speed; aim away from where the opponent is.
• Read the bounce and get in position early; keep the paddle moving rather than reacting late.

⚠ Shadow note: while Shadow is active the opponent is Shadow. It starts beatable but ramps up — once you reach 6 points it tracks the ball perfectly and becomes unbeatable, so you can't reach 7 until Shadow is eliminated in the story. After that, Pong plays fair.

Destroy every asteroid to clear the wave. Big rocks split into smaller, faster ones, so a wave gets busier before it ends.

• Use short thrust taps — momentum carries you, and drifting into a rock is the usual death.
• Finish off the small fragments quickly; they're fast and easy to lose track of.
• Watch for UFOs; the small ones aim at you — keep moving and pick them off between rocks.

⚠ Shadow note: while Shadow is active the field can't really be won. Clear the starting rocks and Shadow drops in three more; clear those and it unleashes a relentless “UFO storm” — UFOs and rocks keep pouring in endlessly. Just survive until you're out of lives to advance the story; normal, winnable waves return once Shadow is beaten.

Collect every piece of gold on the level, then escape up the ladder/rope that appears — all while dodging the guards.

• Dig holes to the left or right of yourself to trap a guard; run over the trapped guard, or let the hole refill to defeat it.
• Use ladders and ropes to out-maneuver guards — don't let yourself get cornered on the ground.
• Don't dig away a block you still need to climb back up on.

⚠ Shadow note: while Shadow is active the intro level is unbeatable — each time you grab the gold it respawns one piece at a time and a fresh guard appears, so it never ends. Survive as long as you can; running out of lives advances the story. Real, finishable levels unlock after Shadow is eliminated.

Crack a hidden code from peg feedback: one marker for right digit & right position, another for right digit, wrong position. The code is 4 digits, each 0–9, repeats allowed, and you get 10 guesses.

A simple pencil-and-paper method:

1. Scan the digits in pairs. With only 10 guesses you can't afford one guess per digit, so test two at a time — 0011, then 2233, 4455, 6677, 8899. Five guesses cover all ten digits. For each, add the two counts together (right-position + wrong-position): that total is how many of the code's four slots are filled by those two digits combined. Keep a running tally on paper.
2. Stop as soon as your tallies add up to 4. Once the totals account for all four slots, every untested digit must be absent — skip the rest of the scan.
3. Split any tied pair. When a pair scored but you can't tell which of its two digits did it, spend one all-same guess on one of them — e.g. if 0011 scored, guess 0000: the right-position count is exactly how many 0s there are, and the rest of that pair's total must be 1s. Do this only for pairs that scored, and stop once all four digits are pinned down.
4. Write out your four digits. You now know the multiset that makes up the code — e.g. two 4s, one 1, one 2 — just not the order.
5. Place them. Arrange your four known digits in any order and guess. From here on, look only at the right-position count.
6. Swap and check. Swap two of the digits and guess again: if the right-position count goes up, keep the swap; if it goes down, undo it; if it's unchanged, try a different pair. Repeat until the right-position count is 4 — that's the code.

Tips:

• Stop scanning the moment your tallies reach 4 — you'll rarely need all five pair-guesses.
• Repeats are your friend: every repeated digit means fewer distinct digits to place.
• During placement, ignore the wrong-position markers — only the right-position count matters.

Worked example (secret = 1 4 4 2):

• 0011 → total 1 — one of {0,1}. 2233 → total 1 — one of {2,3}.
• 4455 → total 2. Tally = 4, stop — skip 6677 and 8899.
• Split: 4444 → 2, so two 4s (no 5s). 1111 → 1, so the {0,1} hit was a 1. 2222 → 1, so the {2,3} hit was a 2. Digits: 1 2 4 4.
• Place: 1244 → 2 right-position. Swap the 2 and the last 4: 1442 → 4 — solved in 8 guesses.

Rotate and slide the falling pieces to complete solid horizontal rows; each completed row clears and scores. The longer you last, the faster they fall.

• Keep the stack low and flat; never leave covered gaps (holes) you can't fill.
• Leave one column open (usually an edge) and feed the long straight piece in to clear several rows at once.
• Use soft drop to place precisely; use hard drop only when you're sure.
• At high speed, decide a piece's rotation and column before it falls — plan the next piece too.

Reach the end of the trail (~2040 miles) without your party dying of starvation, illness, or the cold. It's a resource-management run on a tight budget.

• At the store, balance your money: plenty of food and ammo, enough oxen to pull, plus clothing and spare parts/misc — don't blow it all on one category.
• Keep some cash in reserve: forts sell the same goods at a premium, so buy there only when you must.
• Hunt when food runs low, but don't waste ammo — you can only carry so much meat home.
• Set a sustainable pace and rations; slow down and rest when the party gets sick or injured.