12 Days of FME Contest is Live: The Treasure Hunt Begins!

No, very much stuck again…. 😅

Definitely closer to a codes question than an image

This one had me for quite a while. There's more than eight to find. Enough to make the intersections clue important.

Is Code Puzzle 2 just a letter substitution? It’s been stumping me from the very beginning..

Nevermind, got it. Finally!

Thank you! Got it now too, was confused by too many non related words.
Now last eight hours for the last codes puzzle 🕵

Good luck to everyone!

As someone else said, see the time as an analog clock. Once you see it you'll be flagged accross the finish line in no time. We're off to dig up that treasure now!

I’m staring at the clock on my wall for quite some time now, but it still eludes me. Anyone care to give another small hint? (But dont spoil it all please)

Stop staring at the clock! It's ticking. But if you are staring, check out the indicator's where are they pointing at a certain time. Might they contain a hidden message?

Oh wait, since we are pirates using 17th century communication, maybe i'm not clear enough. If only i had a way to signal my message to your ship

Ahhh this one was so tough for me (as with all the codes!!), and was the last puzzle i had left - but your hint pointed me to the answer, thank you!

Good point with the year, I tried with a cipher from 1815 (though it used two masts arranged like a clock and looked perfect), that could explain the gibberish, definitly looks better using older ciphers, so thank you!!!

Still not sure if only my latest guess counts or that all my guesses have a chance to win?

All your guesses count, but you can only win 1 prize.

So if two of your guesses are the closest, you will win 1 prize, then we’ll find who had the next closest and they win the second prize.

I have to say that I’m very impressed with how you are all helping each other. It’s great to see the community spirit. 

Some of the level 5 puzzles are especially hard, so I’m also very impressed that many people have been able to solve them. I’m especially impressed if you didn’t use AI. 

I’ll publish the solutions to all of the puzzles early next week. It will be great to see if you solved them how I intended, or found a completely different method.

Mark

Posting this into the ether so I can have the same epiphany as you. Or maybe to get a hint. 

I wouldn't have figured out this one without a hint from my colleague, but then I just had to keep revisiting the clue periodically until things finally clicked..

Elemental, my dear Watson! Oops, I mean elementary..

Well folks. It’s all over! 

As per the contest Terms and Conditions, the “Contest Period” ended on Friday, December 12 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time and so I’ve closed the Make a Guess page to any further guesses.

How Did You Do? Early next week I’ll publish the solutions to all of the puzzles for you to inspect.

Shortly afterwards, we’ll publish the names of contest winners.

Good Luck, fair treasure hunter! And thank you so much for taking part.

Thanks Mark,

First time playing and it's been a lot of fun and very challenging

Thanks a lot Mark, I don’t want to think about how many hours you must have put into this challenge! 😶

This was a lot more time-consuming and brain wrecking than last year’s 12 Days of FME, but fun in a totally different way. Glad to say that I’ve managed all puzzles, with a little help from a co-worker on the last two.

Well, we were all in the same boat (sorry for the pun).

Thank you for all these great puzzles, had a lot of fun!

Especially liked the FME ones

Looking forward to all the solutions, especially the puzzles I couldn't solve myself😅

The solutions are available on the contest page now! 

Thanks so much ​@mark2atsafe, you’ve really outdone yourself this year! So challenging, and so fun when you solve one. What a great tradition for this time of year.

Thanks everyone. The solutions are indeed on the community website now, including how to obtain the correct location.

I’ve picked the winners but can’t say who that is until someone has been in touch. But I can say that the closest guess was just 1.99m away from my actual treasure location. That is so cool to see (and makes me happy that the puzzle wasn’t completely impossible)!

Here are the top guesses, close to the treasure on Verdon Beach, just west of Marseille.