Here is the full beginners guide for finding Cicada websites and clues and how to decode them. It was taken mostly from 4chan and it is really helpful I figured I share and add some cool pictures in between. More cool posts like this coming up in the future! Thanks for checking out the post and I hope you all get better at decoding. Good Luck!
BASICS:
TEXT: SEARCHING FOR CLUES
Any text can provide clues. The clues might be obvious or obscure. Pay close attention to:
Spelling. Mis-spellings can be important.
Capitalization. Might be a clue if you take just the capital letters.
Punctuation. Again, might be a clue.
Examples: The 2017 Start-Image has these words:
"A Fludd approches. Chart the stars.A Chord of would WARMS My I 3301"
The spelling of "Fludd" is "wrong" but it gives us a clue. That "wrong" spelling references a man named Robert Fludd. He is the creator of the disk that is seen in the Sandy Yagi Skull/Fox/Crows image. See: Fright Knight (1:05 mark or so): 
Note that "approaches" is spelled "wrong" too. That might be the French spelling or a purposeful mis-spelling for some other reason. Note also the "wrong" spacing at "Stars.A" Is that a clue? Look also at the word "chord" in relation to the other words. Chord of Would sounds like Cord of Wood. What is special about a cord of wood? Why "mis-spell" those words? Chord is related to music which seems to be a major theme this year.
Note the "odd" capitalization. Capitalized letters are: A F C A C W A R M S M I
Is that a clue?
IMAGES: SEARCHING FOR CLUES -- SOURCE CODE, ETC.
With the original image, you can right-click (on a PC) and get the source information. 2017C3301 often buries clues in the source code such as a web address or some other string of letters/numbers.
IMAGES: SNEAKY TRICKS
Letters written in the same color as the background (white letters on white, black on black, etc.). Find these by "selecting all" and then clicking on the color icon converting white to black, etc. (You probably need to do this with the original 2017C3301 image.) There might not be any text to convert, so .... you might get nothing.
AUDIO: SPECTRUM ANALYSIS
Cicada used a lot of audio files, music and sounds to provide clues.
.wav or .mp3 (or other audio files) can be put through scanning programs. Various analysis can be made like spectrum analysis ("spectrogram") and waveform. Various parts of the audio can be separated. C3301 often layers of sound/voice over music.
The spectrogram creates an image which might also be a clue OR have a written message embedded in the screen output.
Recommended to me by various researchers: program called Audacity. For some samples of the output, see http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/spectrogram_view.html
Example: sevens.exposed/314.wav
If this is still available, listen. Music, voices, backwards voices, shattering glass can be heard and in the background, you can hear the sound of cicadas.
MORSE CODE: AUDIO AND VISUAL
C3301 often uses Morse code. As audio, it is a series of repetitive beeps, short and long pauses in between. Research to locate examples.
Morse Code can also be rendered visually as dots and dashes.
Sample: .-. . -- . -- -... . .-. - .... . ..-. ..- - ..- .-. .
Convert the sample here: http://www.unit-conversion.info/texttools/morse-code/
Research conversion programs. Here's another example: http://morsecode.scphillips.com/translator.html
In the Sandy Yagi Skull/Fox/Crows image (above; partial) for 2017C3301, using Photoshop, Morse code can be found in the border around the image. Translated, it says: "A new species is emerging evolution is no longer guided by survival it is now guided by will the future is ours to choose and the singularity is approaching myriad choices will be made and utopia will usurp the world as neurons are designed to something new."
UDIO: DEEPSOUND SOFTWARE
http://jpinsoft.net/deepsound
See the (very) short wiki page which states: “Similar to hiding data in images, DeepSound allows the user to encode files into audio files. These audio files can even be burned to a CD (DeepSound cannot burn the actual CD). Thus files can be hid in an audio CD and unless it is known to contain data, no one would know to check it. DeepSound can also reverse this process, and upon opening the correct track, it will prompt the user for a passphrase. This will then reveal the concealed data. DeepSound has the ability to use AES 256 bit encryption.”
Should all the audio files now be checked for Deepsound hidden messages?
(24 Mar 2017), the Apocalypse Song .mp3 file was changed to add a Deepsound audio clue. Extracting the .wav file resulted in two clues. One was the .PDF file that is posted along with this post. That .pdf has now been decoded.
NUMBER/LETTER STRINGS: GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATES
Explanation: Clues appear, at times, that seem to be mysterious strings of numbers and letters (and runes) causing bewilderment. So, know what you are looking at or what you are looking for.
GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATES: Might look like:
3800N2320E -- geographic world coordinate (the N = north, E=East, etc.)
Separate the 4 digits and the letter and run it on google.maps. So 38 00 N 23 20 E
Also looks like: 38°00'00.0"N 23°20'00.0"E
Might look like:
38.000000, 23.333333
Also might look like (but here you need to add the direction N, S, E and W)
76 49 27 33 41 22 (you have to insert the directional notations N, S, E and W)
Link to those coordinates with N and W chosen. Somewhere in Greenland (you have to zoom out). https://www.google.com/maps/place/76%C2%B049'27.0%22N+33%C2%B041'22.0%22W/@75.1805388,-69.8027953,3156427m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d76.8241667!4d-33.6894444
Remember: Trial and Error are two of your best friends.
SKY COORDINATES: GOOGLE SKY (and similar)
76 49 27 33 41 22 might also be SKY COORDINATES. Stars and constellations are big themes for 2017C3301.
If you go to Google Sky, and enter those 6 numbers, Google Sky will show you the constellation closest to your coordinates, in this case Ursa MINOR. (Ursa Major is in several clues given by 2017C3301 so far.) As far as I can tell, Google Sky only uses the first four numbers and gives a result of Ursa Minor, the coordinates of which, are: 11h 59m 0s 77* 37 27.3 Using only the first four numbers, Google Sky will also give you the Little Dipper constellation at 81* 55' 38.2”
NUMBER/LETTER STRINGS: HEXADECIMAL
Explanation: At times, clues appear that seem to be mysterious strings of numbers and letters (and runes) causing bewilderment. So, know what you are looking at and what you are looking for.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
54 48 45 20 54 52 55 54 48 20 48 41 53 20 42 45 45 4e 20 4c 4f 53 54 2e 20 20 46 49 4e 44 20 49 54 2e
CONVERT IT HERE (OR ELSEWHERE): http://www.unit-conversion.info/texttools (click on "converter"; go from there)
NUMBER/LETTER STRINGS: Binary Code
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
01001001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110100 00101100 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100011 01101001 01110010 01100011 01110101 01101101 01100110 01100101 01110010 01100101 01101110 01100011 01100101 00101110
CONVERT IT HERE (OR ELSEWHERE): https://binarytranslator.com/
NUMBER/LETTER STRINGS: BASE64 TO ASCII
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
IFN1bmxpZ2h0IG1hcmNoZXMgaW4gdGhlIGJ1cnJvdy4gIE1vbXVzIGRlbWFuZHMgb3VyIGF0dGVu
dGlvbi4gIEZvbGxvdyB0aGUgYnVybmluZyBzdW4u
CONVERT the sample HERE (OR ELSEWHERE): http://coderstoolbox.net/string/#!encoding=base64&action=encode&charset=us_ascii
NUMBER/LETTER STRINGS: XML TO ???
Explanation: At times, clues appear that seem to be mysterious strings of numbers and letters (and runes) causing bewilderment. So, know what you are looking at and what you are looking for.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
Honestly, I have no idea. FWIW....
A lion will open the gates of hel
CONVERT IT HERE (OR ELSEWHERE): http://coderstoolbox.net/string/#!encoding=base64&action=encode&charset=us_ascii
NUMBER/LETTER STRINGS: ECMAScript TO ???
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
\x41\x20\x6c\x69\x6f\x6e\x20\x77\x69\x6c\x6c\x20\x6f\x70\x65\x6e\x20\x74\x68\x65\x20\x67\x61\x74\x65\x73\x20\x6f\x66\x20\x68\x65\x6c
CONVERT IT HERE (OR ELSEWHERE): http://coderstoolbox.net/string/#!encoding=base64&action=encode&charset=us_ascii
TIME STAMPS:
WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE:
UNIX: 1490385182
ISO 8601 time: 2107-03-24T14:53:20-05:00
RFC 2822 time: Fri, 24 Mar 2017 14:53:02 - 05:00
You can convert. Example: 1506142800
CONVERTING numbers from DECIMAL to HEX to OCTAL to BINARY
Example: regular number 50 = 32 in HEX, = 62 in OCTAL and = 110010 in BINARY.
Go here: http://coderstoolbox.net/number/
NUMBER/LETTER STRINGS: COMPUTER NETWORK RELATED
Explanation: At times, clues appear that seem to be mysterious strings of numbers and letters (and runes) causing bewilderment. So, know what you are looking at and what you are looking for.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE [“x” replaces numbers and other information; trying to avoid breaking any 4chan rules]:
HOSTNAME (ASCII): 108-xxx-xxx-235.somename.cicril.somewebaddress.net
HOSTNAME (Unicode): 108-xxx-xxx-235.lightspeed.cicril.somewebaddress.net
IP Address: 108.xxx.xxx.235
Integer: 182xxx3019
Netmask: 255.xxx.255.0
CIDR: 24
Network: 108.xxx.xxx.0/24
Broadcast: 108.xxx.xxx.255
COMPUTER NETWORK RELATED CONTINUED
Here at http://coderstoolbox.net/network/ , there is a "whois" button that will open a window that shows a lot of information. [I have blanked out most of the info listed; again trying to avoid breaking 4chan rules].
NetRange: 108.xxx.x.x - 108.xxx.xxx.255
CIDR: 108.xxx.x.x/xx
NetName: xxxxxxx
NetHandle: NET-108-xxx-x-x-x
Parent: xxxxxxx
NetType: Direct Allocation
OriginAS: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Organization: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
RegDate: 2011-01-12
Updated: 2012-03-02
Comment: For policy abuse issues contact xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx - Legal Compliance Group xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ref: https://whois.xxxxxxxx
OrgName:xxxxxxxxxxxx
OrgId: xxxxx
Address: xxxxxxxxx
Address: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Address: Attn:IP Management
City: xxxxxxxxx
StateProv: xxxxxxxxxx
PostalCode: xxxxxxxxxxx
Country: US
RegDate: 2000-06-19
Updated: 2017-03-20
Comment: For policy abuse issues contact abuse@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Comment: For all subpoena, Internet, court order related matters and emergency requests contact
Comment: address2xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Comment: city state zipxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Comment: Main Number: 800-xxx-xxxx
Comment: Fax: 888-xxx-xxxx
Ref: https://whois.xxxxxxx
OrgTechHandle: IPAxxxxx
OrgTechName: IPAdmin ATT Internet Services
OrgTechPhone: +1-888-xxx-xxxx
OrgTechEmail: ipadmin@ xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
OrgTechRef: https://whois.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
OrgTechHandle: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
OrgTechName: xxxxxxxxx
OrgTechPhone: +1-732-xxx-xxxx
OrgTechEmail: jb3310xxxxxxxxx
OrgTechRef: https://whois.xxxxxxx
OrgAbuseHandle:
OrgAbuseName:
OrgAbusePhone: +1-919-xxx-xxxx
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@xxxxxxx
OrgAbuseRef: https://whois.xxxxxx
OrgNOCHandle:
OrgNOCName:
OrgNOCPhone: +1-888-xxx-xxxx
OrgNOCEmail:
OrgNOCRef: https:/
MORE ON STAR CHARTING: YOUTUBE
Software: Stellarium. Downloadable and free.
Here is a youtube video showing how the program works (ignore the Bible references, if that is not of interest). Only 14 minutes or so, good descriptions and camera on the screen.
CELESTIAL EVENTS 2017: FWIW
17 Aug 2017: Solar Eclipse (path will pass through USA)
23 Sept 2017: During the day (so we won't actually be able to see it), Jupiter will exit the Virgo constellation after being retrograde in the constellation for 294 days along with a once-in-7000-year alignment of Virgo with the Leo constellation (with Venus, Mars and Mercury also being aligned) with the sun near Virgo's “head/shoulder” and with the moon aligned near her “feet.”
LOCATION OF CLUES: ONION WEBSITES AND TOR BROWSERS
Scenario: So, you – a hypothetical you – are happily trying to solve the puzzle, you are researching, you are cruising along and you see a link; you click; but “page not found” or something like that. You keep trying and still nothing. All comes to a screeching halt. Disappointment, etc., off to other things or, worse yet, off to watch others solve the puzzle.
Solution: The right tool(s). Cicada 3301 is not for beginners. Among its many methods of hiding clues, Cicada 3301 uses .ONION websites. These are websites that cannot be reached with normal web browsing software. You need something called a TOR browser.
Some basic Information on ONION WEBSITES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.onion
“Addresses in the .onion TLD are generally opaque, non-mnemoic, 16-character alpha-semi-numeric hashes which are automatically generated based on a public key when a hidden service is configured. These 16-character hashes can be made up of any letter of the alphabet, and decimal digits from 2 to 7, thus representing an 80-bit number in base31.
https://www.quora.com/Is-clicking-on-onion-links-on-a-regular-browser-bad
Example:
http://freepress3xxs3hk.onion/
Freedom of the Press is non-profit organization dedicated to support and defend public-interest journalism focused on exposing mismanagement, corruption, and law-breaking in government.
Some more information: https://darkwebnews.com/deep-web-links/
ZIP FILES AND OPENING .WAV FILES AS TEXT:
This should link to a zip file in a dropbox location.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3mrusvdlaywim3z/AADlZoRINmpaWsldIL6ySuKba/AMessage.zip?dl=0
In that dropbox is a Windows RAR .zip file. If you download it, It will auto open as an "evaluation" copy of the program and you will need to subsequently delete it from your computer (or pay for it, I guess, or have it not be usable ... whatever)
It contains three files, one of which is called AMessageOfHope.wav.
Sometimes you can open a .wav file (always?) as a text file. In my case, I opened Notepad and then "opened" AMessageofHope.wav. I then obtained a bunch of characters. I can see what is a star chart. I then "selected all" (from the dropdown "edit" tab at the top) and set the font to "2" which made the whole thing easier to see.
This is one method that Cicada hides clues.
Give it a try.
NUMBER/LETTER STRINGS: CONVERTING IMAGE FILES TO TEXT: ARE THERE CLUES HIDING?
Back to the beginning and taking more lessons from Fright Knight.
The start of the 2017C3301 was an image. That image was a file named 7.png. Aside from the text, several clues were hidden variously in the image and its code.
According to Fright Knight, the 7.png was “downloaded to a text file” (see images of his screen in the youtube video @ the 1:19 forward) and, at the end of the text file, there was a “string of clear text.” That string of clear text gave coordinates at 35.285827, -115.68463 and
an onion link at “popfilesxuru7lsr.onion/ ~truth7/7111317192329.png. See 1:24-:26 in the video. [Thanks again to Fright Knight for the clear instructions and guidance.]
The coordinates reference a now-long-gone location in the Mojave desert where there was once a lonely payphone (the “Mojave Desert Payphone”). The onion link led to the Sandy Yagi artwork (doctored by Cicada) called “Fox and Crows.” A partial of that image is used as the image for this /x thread.
I think this is a link to the original complete Cicada FoxCrow image.
SEE ABOVE FOR DISCUSSION OF ONION FILES AND OPENING .WAV FILES IN NOTEPAD.
ENCRYPTION: CODING/DECODING NUMBERS: A LITTLE BIT OF KNOWLEDGE
In the spirit of compiling resource tools, here is this:
http://rsatools.wforums.net/#intro
I do not fully understand it, but if I had to guess, this involves encryption of binary code via RSA. if you go to the third tab ("RSA Encryption"), you see that the converter program needs 3 (or 4) things:
two prime numbers
some plain text.
Go and experiment. I had the program "pick two random primes." It gave me two big, six digit primes. (I would have chosen 7 and 11, LOL). I then typed plain text: "A Fludd approches" (no punctuation). I hit "encrypt" and lots of OMG WOW stuff appeared. Do this yourself and see the output.
For me, column headings are: Character, Decimal, Bit Groups, Decimal. The second line is:
(converting the single word Fludd:)
70 108 117 100 100
01000110 01101100 01110101 01100100 01100100
302467343460
CONTINUING NUMBER/LETTER STRINGS: GEMATRIA PRIMUS AND NUMBERS FROM THE MOJAVE DESERT TELEPHONE NUMBER
As described above, downloading the 7.png image into a text file gave us two clues. One was to a now-long gone phone booth in the Mojave desert. The phone number, however, is still extant and, Cicada has access to it.
So, early on, reseachers called the number. Helpful Youtuber Andrew Gibson made a video.
The voice is reading a string of numbers. These numbers can be translated via various Gematria. Research what Gematria are.
Cicada has its own Gematria. (See image: >>18820134)
https://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/18491379/
Thanks to several helpful folks on this early /x thread, the numbers that came from the Mojave desert phone number were converted via Gematria Primus. Source here: https://ghostbin.com/paste/x93j3
A Gematria Primus number for each letter:
2-73-3-89-89 FLUDD
13-31-73-73-53 KILLS
97-73-73 ALL
61-3-59 BUT
11-7-7-59-53 ROOTS
19-7-73-3-67-53 WOLVES
97-11-67 ARE
2-7-47-67-53 FOXES ….
The full conversion is: A FLUDD KILLS ALL BUT ROOTS.
WOLVES ARE FOXES. FOXES ARE RAVENS.
THE HUNT DRAWS NEAR.
THOSE WHO CLAIM GOD-HOOD SHOULD BE STRUCK DOWN BY THOSE DEEMED ORC. WHEN KINGS RISE, TRUMPETS WILL PLAY. THE WORLD IS NOT YET FLOODED.
KEEP HUNTING 3301
X0A0
