Only problem is, the letters don't equally divide between 6. I think there's 49 there which gives a decimal like 8.16 letters per chunk :fuzemb: haha. I feel like it's gotta be something similar though.

EDIT: Just for reference, in both text strings there are 49 characters. In the first there is 6 slashes, in the second there is 5.

There are 4 text strings:

\\//\/KDIUTHANPUYHHDQOEPLNDOALJGUDITHBBDOZLGFERKJGLSAOE
\////JUTYROSLNGNALEHGNWOTIQPOKSDNTPNOJAWEOBNGLAWKJNWNR
\\\/\\JHWUITUHABSJGNEWKLALNVGJKWELKJLWQQPRUTJHJJSBFMMH
///\\/JQEABTVKNUCSEYCMBILDKOSCYSITECPAGFAXHKETJNZURWCIE

All text strings are 49 char long except the 3rd one which is only 48 characters long.

Whoops, hadn't even ventured past the halfway point in the source code. Serves me right for being busy ;)

I'm stumped then. The varying amount of slashes in each string kinda puts my theory to rest. It must be so obvious. It can probably all be worked out from this tweet:

"/\\/Focus on the /truth. /\\\Discard what you \don't need."

They're trying to show us another example of the code in action. I can't seem to find any pattern though. There's not the same amount of slashes as words, although I'd say they're definitely trying to show that forward slash is needed, backslash isn't. I think haha.

Tried it the other day, got nothing out of it.

I've got the full list of all 36 combinations if you want them. The problem is that the second line only has 5 true/false values, whereas the others have 6.
The other problem is that none of them are equally divisible by the amount of true/false values, some sections have one less letter, some have one more.

So F, U, and D are correct letters?
FUD.

O, C, I, S, and C again are incorrect letters.

This doesn't get us anywhere...


... What are we missing...?

The guys at OWI are banging their heads against the walls watching us struggle like that. :p

The beginning is always significant. Pay special attention to the way things start and you will be closer to the truth. #wewillrise

— SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) February 6, 2017

Correct values:
I, U, H,
U, T, Y, R,
U,
J, Q, E, T,

Incorrect values:
K, D, T,
J,
J, H, W, I, T,
A, B,

Discarded what we don't need.

Twiddles thumbs...

The thing about OWI's hints is, they make me more confused than I was before :p Then in the end it all makes sense.

My idea about the OWI hint is that it means we need to use some more of the clues from the original image with the braille, barcodes, arrows etc.

I can't really see how they apply though, we're already trying to read the numbers, knowing our codes and keeping them close doesn't explain much, and telling us to bethestorm is even less help. Maybe I've missed something thats on there

so uh.... I've been away for a few days and everything explodes haha!

So we're stuck on which letters to "discard" and which ones are "true" from the 4 strings of letters from the site code, right?

I'll lend my brain for a while :')

I think I've found something new.
In the source code there are dots and dashes spaced throughout the text. I think there may well be morse in the message itself. I'm trying to decode it at the minute and not having a huge amount of luck, but mostly because I am not sure where the spaces should be put.

The clue for me to find this was that if you look at the first two lines, the first line ends in two dots, where the second has a single ellipse (...) character. These seem like very obvious choices, especially with the apparently random distribution of single dots, double dots, ellipses, and hyphens throughout all the message. Please can someone else look at this too because I think I spotted something useful but am struggling to make sense of what it means.
Thanks :)

I thought this too! But I don't know if the underscores and normal dashes are meant to both be long dashes, or if one represents a space or what...

Good luck!!!

Hmm, which do you think are the underscores?

Personally, I'd try it both ways - so one time all the underscores are "DAH"s and then again with the dashes being the DAHs. Tedious, I know, but if it is something, then it's worth it!

The problem is, it's impossible to distinguish between two Es and an I, etc.

I've come up with this:
But the separations could be anywhere.
Could start with an E, an I, an F, or a U...

Shouldn't we focus on the '/' and '\' characters?

I mean the tweets were explicitly pointing in that direction.

Agreed.
But to be honest, I've basically been waiting for another tweet :p

I have absolutely no idea where to go now. Getting this...

...was as far as I got really...

You're right - it was just something we happened to notice. We're still working in the background!

EDIT: I hate to ask this but - were the 4 series of numbers withe the "mastermind" code besides them solved?

Yup, results were:
8992
8554

Respectively.

Do you mean the long series of numbers with the : and , in them? No they're not at the moment

Doesn't hurt to ask :p

No, the 4 number/coordinates series have not been solved either.

Sorry - yes that's what I was on about haha! I've been messing around with them, and it hit me that they may have already been solved!!

When the master mind values are applied to the text it gives:
1.IUH PUH QOP DOL UDT BDZ FEK LSO
2.UTYR SLNG ALEH NWOT QPOK DNTP OJAW OBNG AWKJ WNR
3.U B W V L Q H M
4.JQET VKNS EYCI LDKC YSIC PAGX HKEN ZURI E

When applied to the coordinates(taking each set of coordinates as a value(2,5:1 = /)), it gives
1. 5,1:4. 1,3:2. 3,3:2. 1,5:3. 4,5:9. 5,5:2. 7,6:6. 3,7:3.
2. 2,1:2. 3,1:2. 6,1:4. 1,2:4. 3,4:4. 5,5:2. 6,5:3. 7,5:3. 4,7:8. 7,6:4.
3. 4,1:2. 6,1:9. 2,2:2. 2,4:4. 3,5:2. 4,7:3. 6,7:2. 7,7:2.
4. 7,3:3. 2,4:8. 2,6:2. 1,7:4. 3,7:2.

EDIT: If the groups of characters are taken in the same fashion as the numbers (djasd = /), then it gives:
1. HDQOEP LNDOAL HBBDOZ E
2. OSLNG NALEH GNWOT IQPOK NOJAW EOBNG LAWKJ NWNR
3. ALNVGJ
4. JQEABT VKNUCS EYCMBI PAGFAX HKETJN ZURWCI E
hope i'm of use :)

In case there was any doubt left:

When a problem seems to have no logical pattern, we must \discard distractions and focus simply on the /useful elements to find the /truth.

— SPIRIT OF 1029 (@SPIRITOF1029) February 6, 2017

/ = truth
\ = discard

Haha dear god it must be so obvious, I just think we're all looking at it slightly the wrong way.

Maybe you're just over-complicating it? When I do puzzles, I look for patterns or things that don't match the other things.

I don't know if I'm completely oversimplifying here, but we only have one string of numbers that starts with a forward slash
/\//\\//5,1:4.1,2:8.1,3:2.3,3:2.4,3:3.7,3:3.1,5:3.4,5:9.5,5:2.7,5:4.7,6:6.3,7:3.

And only one string of letters that does

///\\/JQEABTVKNUCSEYCMBILDKOSCYSITECPAGFAXHKETJNZURWCIE

Apply the 8 slashes to the first 8 sequences then repeat throughout?

Same with the letters apply the 6 slashes over the first 6 then carry foward?

Edit: I mean place the slashes across the sequence and row of letters order to find what should stay or be discarded

I haven't the slightest tbh, just throwing my 2 cents in this silly madness

Could be completely wrong here:
5, :4.1,:.1, 3:2., 3:2.4, :3.7, 3:.1, 5:.5:9.5, :2.7,.7, 6:6., 7:3
simplified:
5:4, 1:1, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, 7:3, 1:5, 5:9, 5:2, 7:7, 6:6, 7:3.

So like this?

Repeating the pattern and discarding the distractions.

JQETVKNSEYCILDKCYSICPAGXHKENZURIE

It goes no where.

Edit: Manco already ahead of the game.

OK, I’m stuck but I think I’m onto something.

I noticed that for the text, the two longest lines both end on an E, so that made me directly compare the letters in each line to look for matches:

There are several matching pairs of letters throughout the lines.

I think that the /s denote how many of these letters are correct from each line, with the idea that we compare which letters appear in each line with how many /s precede that line. Like so:

Line 2 only contains 4 letters, so all 4 must be correct. If we remove those and mark them off against the other lines, we still have this remaining:

So we now need to find 2 more letters in row 1, and 1 more letter in row 3 and 4 each.

The reason I’m now stuck is because there are too many possibilities, so I’m not sure what the correct combo is. Maybe someone else can see what I’m missing, because I don’t feel much like going through all the possible combos.

I generally give up when I come across 10 or more combinations.
Also, line 2, also has 49 letters, its spare additional letter being R.

I just know we're missing something painstakingly obvious...

I'm going to stare at this until I solve it.

I know that feeling. Btw, cute Rarity avatar. She's adorable.

Hang in there guys, I know we can crack this sucker :) Even though right now my brain feels like it's broken. I've been staring at this code for ages now hoping something new will jump out at me, but I keep going back to the same things I have before xP I know that when we do finally figure it out it's probably going to be such a simple answer that I'll be beating myself up about it all day lol

I just wish we knew whether or not we are even close or if we've gone off in completely the wrong direction xD

Let’s recap the hints we have:

What I’m taking from these hints is:

• The answer is simpler than we think.
• / signifies a piece that we want.
• \ signifies something needs to be discarded.
• “Let the numbers guide you” suggests we should look at solving the numbers first.
• The slashes at the beginning of each string are the key to solving.
• “Distractions” seems to imply something in the puzzle is there to be misleading or hide the solution; this is what needs to be discarded.

The confusing part here is that the remaining segments don’t seem to be consistent with the mastermind code in the previously solved sections – how do we match the slashes to the longer strings of letters/numbers?

I don't know if anyone has commented on this, but the number strings all start with a number then a comma, and end with 2 numbers. So it looks like they all lead on from each other.

I.E the normal structure for the numbers in the pattern is "1:2.6," but at the start of each line it starts with for example "6," and each line ends with, for example, "1:2.", so if you put the end of a line with the start of another it would make the standard "1:2.6," pattern.

I feel like that was way more convoluted than it needed to be, and someone probably already pointed it out. :p

could this be anything? There is a full stop after every 3 numbers
5,1:4.

1,2:8.

1,3:2.

3,3:2.

4,3:3.

7,3:3.

1,5:3.

4,5:9.

5,5:2.

7,5:4.

7,6:6.

3,7:3.

It certainly does look like something...
Wish i knew more Ciphers

Just looking at this again that I posted way back on page 5, what daniel992 just posted reminded me of it. I noticed something that i hadn't before, the second number in each row runs in numerical order, i.e. it start with all the 1's and runs trhough to the 7's, except for in the second set of numbers where the last two rows are swapped. I did double check and this is how it is in the source. Just a bit odd really, maybe it means something

How did the arg start?
That was the beginning!
What were the codes used then?
"Know your codes, keep them close"

EDIT

I want people to know in have tried the repeating /\ through the string idea and it doesnt work as by the time you get to the end you don't have enough letters left.

I here at my laptop, ill keep trying

I applied previous ideas onto the other string
Heres what I got

7, 7:7
7, 3:3
8, 8:8
3, 3:6
6, 8:9
9, 9:8
4, 4:7
7, 7:3
3, 3:3