Leading up to the Aegis Nova anomaly on Saturday May 28 2016, followers on the Verum Inveniri Google+ page were invited to take part in the Aegis Nova Wargames. Aegis Nova Wargames is a series of cryptographic puzzles that reward the agents who can solve them the fastest with critical intel for various sites in the anomaly.
We’ll be taking a look at two puzzles from the series, Shield (money) and Family crest.
Before we begin, we’ll discuss what we’ll be looking for. We are looking to somehow convert the puzzle presented into a string of characters that fit a certain pattern. The pattern we are looking for today is xxxxxxxx#keyword#, meaning there are 8 letters followed by a number, followed by a keyword (typically related to the Ingress story somehow), and ending with a number. There are other patterns for other types of puzzles, this pattern is strictly for anomaly rewards.
The reward for solving the puzzle, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, is critical intel about various cluster/portals/shards. You also get XM, AP, and items:
The media item links to the following piece of intel.
Let’s begin!
Shield (money)
Look at all that money! Verum Inveniri also left us a clue:
We have 13 piles of money, let’s build a table separating out the bills and coins:
| Bills | Coins |
| 6000 | 6 |
| 7000 | 5 |
| 8000 | 1 |
| 6000 | 7 |
| 8000 | 9 |
| 9000 | 0 |
| 8000 | 6 |
| 8000 | 1 |
| 5000 | 2 |
| 7000 | 5 |
| 7000 | 6 |
| 8000 | 5 |
| 6000 | 9 |
| 5000 | 5 |
The letters A to Z are represented by the numbers 65 to 90 in ASCII, the numbers 0 to 9 are stored as 48 to 57. With that knowledge, and knowledge of the pattern, we can see the amount of bills are representing the ten’s digit of the passcode: There are 8 values of 6 to 9 at the top of the chart, followed by a 5, followed by another set of 6 to 8, and ending with a 5.
We will divide the bills by 100, and add the value of the coins:
| Bills | Bills ÷ 100 | Coins | Bills ÷ 100 + Coins |
| 6000 | 60 | 6 | 66 |
| 7000 | 70 | 5 | 75 |
| 8000 | 80 | 1 | 81 |
| 6000 | 60 | 7 | 67 |
| 8000 | 80 | 9 | 89 |
| 9000 | 90 | 0 | 90 |
| 8000 | 80 | 6 | 86 |
| 8000 | 80 | 1 | 81 |
| 5000 | 50 | 2 | 52 |
| 7000 | 70 | 5 | 75 |
| 7000 | 70 | 6 | 76 |
| 8000 | 80 | 5 | 85 |
| 6000 | 60 | 9 | 69 |
| 5000 | 50 | 5 | 55 |
Converting the final values to an ASCII character:
| Bills ÷ 100 + Coins | ASCII |
| 66 | B |
| 75 | K |
| 81 | Q |
| 67 | C |
| 89 | Y |
| 90 | Z |
| 86 | V |
| 81 | Q |
| 52 | 4 |
| 75 | K |
| 76 | L |
| 85 | U |
| 69 | E |
| 55 | 7 |
BKQCYZVQ4KLUE7
Family crest
The image isn’t showing much, let’s change the brightness levels and rotate it:
Extracting the numbers:
1971091519350602193 3080119190907195811
3019560722197109151 8990630194105161914
1224196505311985071 0189309131985071019
1909071957070818790 9271919090719141224
Looking at the data carefully, we notice a pattern:
19710915
19350602
19330801
19190907
19581130
19560722
19710915
18990630
19410516
19141224
19650531
19850710
18930913
19850710
19190907
19570708
18790927
19190907
19141224
These are all dates in YYYYMMDD format. The hint that Verum Inveniri provides should give us a clue on how to proceed:
Searching for a few days tells us these dates are the birthdates of famous people with the last name Shield or Shields. Let’s build a table:
19710915 |
Will Shields |
19350602 |
Carol Shields |
19330801 |
Teri Shields |
19190907 |
Neil Shields |
19581130 |
Steve Shields |
19560722 |
David Shields |
19710915 |
Will Shields |
18990630 |
Harry Shields |
19410516 |
Francis Alexander Shields |
19141224 |
Ian Shield |
19650531 |
Brooke Shields |
19850710 |
Arman Shields |
18930913 |
Larry Shields |
19850710 |
Arman Shields |
19190907 |
Neil Shields |
19570708 |
Carol Shields (ophthalmologist) |
18790927 |
Ella Shields |
19190907 |
Neil Shields |
19141224 |
Ian Shield |
The only important information we have now are the first names, the first letter seems interesting to look at:
| Will | W |
| Carol | C |
| Teri | T |
| Neil | N |
| Steve | S |
| David | D |
| Will | W |
| Harry | H |
| Francis Alexander | F |
| Ian | I |
| Brooke | B |
| Arman | A |
| Larry | L |
| Arman | A |
| Neil | N |
| Carol | C |
| Ella | E |
| Neil | N |
| Ian | I |
WCTNSDWHFIBALANCENI
The passcode format requires numbers after the 8 beginning characters and at the end of the code. Numbers are sometimes shortened to two letters, FI and NI can be changed to 5 and 9:
WCTNSDWH5BALANCE9
There are 13 other puzzles from the Aegis Nova Wargames. If you are interested in seeing how they are decoded, please checkout the // ingress.codes blog post for a full write up.