The Inanimate Insanity II ARG was an alternate reality game made by the Inanimate Insanity staff starting on October 18, 2024 at 3 p.m. EDT[1], although some clues were found early the day before. The ARG was solved by the community in just 43 minutes (excluding the entire keyword 1 part), which lead to a webpage announcing the 3rd and final act of Inanimate Insanity II: The Movie, "Objects in Mirror", for late November 2024.
Processing complete. Let's begin.
Keyword 1: Red[]
A.D.A.M.'s tweet (image above), decoded, reads "YOU SEEK TO KNOW THE TRUE REASON FOR SUCH A TRAGIC SECOND SEASON IF YOU DECIDE YOU WANT TO SHOW MORE THERE MAY BE SOMETHING TO RESTORE SEE .COM/[INSERT CODE]".
The episode and merch descriptions were altered. The descriptions of the Season 2 episodes all have an extra letter at the bottom, combine to read "CPUYGTUCTGKPUVQTG". It decodes to "ANSWERSAREINSTORE" ("answers are in store") with a Caesar cipher.
The highlighted letters spell "cobs".
Entering "cpuygtuctgkpuvqtg" (all lowercase) after the II website's URL uncovers a subpage. It reads (highlighted letters are bolded instead):
CPUYGTUCTGKPUVQTG
You must collect the KEY 3 words to progress. String these words together to unlock the /truth.
Where can you find these words? Sometimes, one must go two steps back to go one step forward.
Good luck.
The codes in the merch descriptions are all encoded with a Vigenère ciphers with the key "Cobs".
The descriptions are:
- Test Tube plushie: KT ZGW KBFV, decodes to IF YOU WANT
- Nickel plush scaled up: KBGGTABLKCO JGUBJFWOY, decodes to INFORMATION REGARDING
- BFDI x Inanimate Insanity 2024 Tour t-shirt: VVF XWHVJG CG, decodes to THE FUTURE OF
- Inanimate Insanity "Black & White" T-Shirt: KBBFKABLG WOKCBJLA, decodes to INANIMATE INSANITY
- MePhone Notebook: VVF LTIUZ EOO TG TPMPR, decodes to THE TRUTH CAN BE FOUND
- Inanimate Insanity Poster: QB UZG VPJKNPF, decodes to ON THE HORIZON
- Object Shows Rock Hoodie: VC GAPR JL ACV EWGU YQ, decodes to TO FIND IT YOU MUST GO
- Object Shows Rock T-Shirt: UHSSKUIL VC UZG GPMTQF, decodes to STRAIGHT TO THE SOURCE
- Object Shows Rock Poster: HCS LJS OWZH DDWS, decodes to FOR THE NEXT CLUE
There are no codes in the "Choose Your Character" t-shirt collection. The full text reads (with adjustments in capitalization and punctuation), "If you want information regarding the future of Inanimate Insanity, the truth can be found on the horizon. To find it, you must go straight to the source for the next clue." "The source" refers to the source code of the shop page from line 1875 to 1886, which shows the first keyword "RED".
The message reads:
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @ KEY WORD #1: RED @ @ @ @ You have not won yet. @ @ @ @ But who won last? @ @ @ @ You may want to take a PAGE out of their playbook. @ @ @ @ To do so, you must highlight the hidden. @ @ @ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Keyword 2: Line[]
"Who won last" refers to Cabby. The answer was on her profile. Decoding the hidden text ("PSX NEQK XKV WHTSQU OHP ARIH? WYIVV TDXIV RVH PSXI EQJAHI. RHOX, JF XR KLH KLUVI WZQH GPDPIU NMWY XKV PRNIVK EYVVDXI SCEFVQHEX.") with the key "RED" reveals the line "YOU WANT THE SECOND KEY WORD? THESE PAGES ARE YOUR ANSWER. NEXT, GO TO THE THREE TIME PLAYER WITH THE LOWEST AVERAGE PLACEMENT".[2]
This lead to Nickel, and his profile's hidden text decodes (with the same key, "RED") to "YOUR INCREDIBLE NOSE YEARNING ANSWERS NEARS GREATNESS. THE FINAL KEY WORDS ARE POOP AND CHOCOLATE.", with the first letter of each sentence spelling Yin-Yang.[3]
Yin-Yang's "Best of" video was switched with an unlisted video on the website titled "Inanimate Insanity II - Best of YinYang 2.0". The video was a clip of Yin-Yang arguing about what to get from the vending machine. The video glitches and after a while, it turns to black. There was a backwards message that, when reversed, said: "To proceed, you must find the first word our beloved host has verbally said in the first episode of each season. That name is Instagram worthy."[4]
The only image posted on the account
The words were "greetings, greetings, and". Upon combining those words and searching it on instagram, a new instagram account was found. It had a single post, and a link to a quiz in the bio. The text in image was decoded with the key "Brian", translated, reads "YOU HAVE SOME TIME TO INVEST FOR MORE INFORMATION AT YOUR REQUEST LET US SEE IF YOU CAN PASS THE TEST LINK IN BIO FOR YOUR QUEST PASSWORD IS HEMADEYOU", it tells you to go to quiz URL with the password, "hemadeyou". Upon getting 10/10 on the quiz, it revealed that the second keyword was "Line".[5]
The results screen.
Keyword 3: Game[]
The thumbnail
The line they asked for was from Crappy Anniversary. The next clue was located in the thumbnail. Darkening it revealed a phrase that was decoded into "COMICTWO", the next location to search in was the comic "Art Class".
Survivors and Creators
Clicking on the first 3 panels popped up a crossword, with its answers being a selection of characters; Ghost Bow, Ghost Dough, Bot, MePhone4, Steve Cobs, A.D.A.M, J.U.S.T.I.N, B.R.I.A.N, Baxter, the Shimmers, and MePad. This crossword had four boxes that were highlighted yellow, leading to the final keyword; "Game".
As seen on /cpuygtuctgkpuvqtg, the steps that must be taken is to "go two steps back to go one step forward."
Release date announced on inanimateinsanity.com/truth webpage at the end of the ARG
The keywords "red, line, game" were put together to get the password to unlock /truth, "redlinegame". Upon unlocking the page, you would get a block of text that revealed the release window of "Objects in Mirror". It also had an audio clip from the episode of Cobs telling MePhone "Here's your chance to prove your allegiance, Four! Nothing else to do anyway. Everything you love...is gone."
Trivia[]
- Inanimateinsanity.com/truth was found approximately 15 minutes after the final clues were placed.[6]
- During the ARG hunt, an unrelated placeholder page for the Season 1-exclusive contestants was discovered at https://www.inanimateinsanity.com/blank. However, all of the characters currently have blank pages (except for Bomb, who can't be clicked on).
- Adam Katz revealed on Twitter that, at first, he was upset about how all of the work that went into the ARG was being solved so fast, but then became immensely impressed and proud of the community for completing it in record time.[7]
- The crossword for the 3rd keyword reveals who survived the mass deletion in "Through No Choice of Your Own".
- The password "redlinegame" refers to the red line that the contestants had to outrun in order to be brought back to life by MePhone4 in "Objects in Mirror".
References[]
- ↑ https://x.com/realAdamKatz/status/1847352379353813230
- ↑ https://x.com/InanimateUpdate/status/1847368594050732449
- ↑ https://x.com/InanimateUpdate/status/1847369373188837454
- ↑ https://x.com/InanimateUpdate/status/1847370188121063499
- ↑ https://x.com/InanimateUpdate/status/1847370779610271783
- ↑ https://x.com/InanimateUpdate/status/1847381338464407704
- ↑ https://x.com/realAdamKatz/status/1848196069194371123