Sombra/ARG

"She who has the information, has the power..."

Before the release of Sombra as a hero, a series of hidden puzzles were placed by Blizzard which revealed small insights into Sombra and the world of Overwatch. This was dubbed the Sombra ARG by the community. Below are all of Sombra's messages, as well as a step-by-step process of how the puzzles were solved.

Note: This page is not finished. Visit the Game Detectives wiki for more complete information.

Table of Contents

 * 1. Messages
 * 2. Puzzles
 * Puzzle 1: Ana's Origin Story
 * Puzzle 2: Developer Update on Ana
 * Puzzle 3: Tracer's Trail
 * Puzzle 4: Compass
 * Puzzle 5: Datamoshed Screenshots
 * Skycoder's Forum Post: ASCII Skull
 * Skycoder's Forum Post: Datamoshed Reaper
 * Skycoder's Forum Post: Countdown
 * LumériCo's Emails
 * 3. Trivia

=Messages=

Ana's Origin Story
English:
 * ...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...sombra...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...

Spanish:
 * ...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...sombra...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...

Developer Update on Ana
English:
 * Was that easy? Well, now that I have your attention, allow me to make things much more difficult.

Spanish:
 * ¿Estuvo eso facilito? Ahora que tengo su atención, déjenme se las pongo más difícil.

Datamoshed Dorado Screenshot
English:
 * Why do you look to the sky? The answer is not above your heads, it's behind you. Sometimes, you need to analyze your previous achievements.

Spanish:
 * Por que estan mirando al cielo? La respuesta no esta sobre sus cabezas, esta detras de ustedes. A veces, necesitan analizar sus logros previos.

Achievement Page
English:
 * Good job, not bad. But I'm getting bored. Let's try something new in the same direction.

Spanish:
 * Vientos, nada mal. No obstante, me aburro. Intentemos algo nuevo en la misma dirección.

Datamoshed Volskaya Industries Screenshot
English:
 * It seems you like these little games... Why don't we play a real one?

Spanish:
 * Parece que te gustan estos jueguitos... por que no jugamos uno de verdad?

Forum Post
Sombra made a thread on the Overwatch forums.

English:
 * I promised you a game. I believe you game detectives would call it a trail head?

Spanish:
 * Les prometi un juego... Creo que ustedes los detectives de juegos lo llamarian un trail head?

Video
Video of a medical file.

English:
 * You seem to be very interested in these "heroes". Perhaps you would like to know some little details I've found about them?

Spanish:
 * Parecen estar muy interesados en estos "héroes". ¿Tal vez les interese conocer algunos detallitos que he averiguado sobre ellos?

A Moment in Crime
First message in English:
 * Well done, you have my key. Hacking this television program was a piece of cake. Wait for what follows.

Spanish:
 * Bien hecho, ya tienen mi clave. Hackear este programa de televisión no tuvo chiste. Espérense a lo que sigue.

Second message in English:
 * It seems that things are heating up ... I'll have to go unnoticed while this finishes.

Spanish:
 * Parece que se están calentando un poco las cosas... tendré que pasar desapercibida mientras esto se finaliza.

LumériCo's site
LumériCo's website can be found here. Translation of emails can be found here.

Three usernames and passwords are known.
 * Gonzalo Flores

Username: GFlores Password: g#fNwP5qJ


 * President of LumériCo, Guillermo Portero

Username: GPortero Password: Xy@4+Bkuqd<53uJ


 * Head of Security, María Jiménez

Username: MJimenez Password:' d0r*NuLw9

An article published by Atlas News.

Breaking news.

=Puzzles= A full explanation of each puzzle is below.

Discovery
On July 12, 2016, the video [NEW HERO Ana Origin Story | Overwatch] was released. At 1:16 and 2:11, faint text can be seen.


 * Text found at 1:16

2E 2E 2E 7B 76 20 66 62 72 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 7B 76 20 7E 79 71 78 65 7A 76 74 7E D4 A4 79 2C 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 72 7B 20 67 78 73 72 65 2E 2E 2E 7B 76 20 66 62 72 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 7B 76 20 7E 79 71 78 65 7A 76 74 7E D4 A4 79 2C 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 72 7B 20 67 78 73 72 65 2E 2E 2E 7B 76 20 66 62 72 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 7B 76 20 7E 79 71 78 65 7A 76 74 7E D4 A4 79 2C 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 72 7B 20 67 78 73 72 65 2E 2E 2E 7B 76 20 66 62 72 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 7B 76 20 7E 79 71 78 65 7A 76 74 7E D4 A4 79 2C 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 72 7B 20 67 78 73 72 65 2E 2E 2E 64 78 7A 75


 * Text found at 2:11

65 76 2E 2E 2E 7B 76 20 66 62 72 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 7B 76 20 7E 79 71 78 65 7A 76 74 7E D4 A4 79 2C 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 72 7B 20 67 78 73 72 65 2E 2E 2E 7B 76 20 66 62 72 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 7B 76 20 7E 79 71 78 65 7A 76 74 7E D4 A4 79 2C 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 72 7B 20 67 78 73 72 65 2E 2E 2E 7B 76 20 66 62 72 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 7B 76 20 7E 79 71 78 65 7A 76 74 7E D4 A4 79 2C 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 72 7B 20 67 78 73 72 65 2E 2E 2E 7B 76 20 66 62 72 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 7B 76 20 7E 79 71 78 65 7A 76 74 7E D4 A4 79 2C 20 63 7E 72 79 72 20 72 7B 20 67 78 73 72 65 2E 2E 2E

Step One
Convert the text from hexadecimal to ASCII. A hexadecimal to ASCII converter.

For the first message, this gives:
 * ...{v fbr c~ryr {v ~yqxezvt~Ô¤y, c~ryr r{ gxsre...{v fbr c~ryr {v ~yqxezvt~Ô¤y, c~ryr r{ gxsre...{v fbr c~ryr {v ~yqxezvt~Ô¤y, c~ryr r{ gxsre...{v fbr c~ryr {v ~yqxezvt~Ô¤y, c~ryr r{ gxsre...dxzu

And for the second, it gives:
 * ev...{v fbr c~ryr {v ~yqxezvt~Ô¤y, c~ryr r{ gxsre...{v fbr c~ryr {v ~yqxezvt~Ô¤y, c~ryr r{ gxsre...{v fbr c~ryr {v ~yqxezvt~Ô¤y, c~ryr r{ gxsre...{v fbr c~ryr {v ~yqxezvt~Ô¤y, c~ryr r{ gxsre...

Step Two
Using Python, enter (replacing "put text here" with the messages obtained from step one): str = "put text here"; '' .join(chr(ord(x) ^ 23) if x != ' ' and x != '.' else x for x in str);

For the first message, this gives:
 * ..la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...somb

And for the second, it gives:
 * ra...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...la que tiene la información; tiene el poder...

Final Message
Put together and translated from Spanish, the final message is:
 * ...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...sombra...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...she who has the information, has the power...

Step Two
On August 11, 2016, a new achievement was added to players' profiles on Play Overwatch.

A message is hidden within the page's source code:

Translated from Spanish:
 * Good job, not bad. But I'm getting bored. Let's try something new in the same direction.

Step Three
The non-Spanish in the above message is using a Vigenére cipher. It uses the heroes from the compass, starting from the top left and going clockwise, as a key. A Vigenére decoder.

Key:
 * tracertorbjornwinstonsymmetradvamercybastiongenjimccree

Result:
 * blzgdapiproaakamaihdnetmediascreenshot 5552e494 78b3 4ce9 acf6 ef8208f913cfjpg

Step Four
Add the necessary punctuation to get an image link: blzgdapipro-a.akamaihd.net/media/screenshot/5552E494-78B3-4CE9-ACF6-EF8208F913CF.jpg This is another datamoshed screenshot, this time of Volskaya Industries.

This image also has characters replaced with exclamation points, so repeat Step One and compare the two files. The output is the following:

Final Message
Parece que te gustan estos jueguitos... por que no jugamos uno de verdad? :PB@Bk: ,jB@@B@B@B@BBL. 7G@B@B@BMMMMMB@B@B@Nr :kB@B@@@MMOMOMOMOMMMM@B@B@B1, :5@B@B@B@BBMMOMOMOMOMOMOMM@@@B@B@BBu. 70@@@B@B@B@BXBBOMOMOMOMOMOMMBMPB@B@B@B@B@Nr G@@@BJ iB@B@@ OBMOMOMOMOMOMOM@2  B@B@B. EB@B@S @@BM@GJBU. iSuB@OMOMOMOMOMOMM@OU1: .kBLM@M@B@ B@MMB@B      7@BBMMOMOMOMOMOBB@:       B@BMM@B @@@B@B        7@@@MMOMOMOMM@B@:         @@B@B@ @@OLB. BNB@MMOMOMM@BEB         rBjM@B @@ @           M  OBOMOMM@q  M          .@  @@ @@OvB          B:u@MMOMOMMBJiB          .BvM@B @B@B@J        0@B@MMOMOMOMB@B@u         q@@@B@ B@MBB@v      G@@BMMMMMMMMMMMBB@5       F@BMM@B @BBM@BPNi  LMEB@OMMMM@B@MMOMM@BZM7   rEqB@MBB@ B@@@BM B@B@B  qBMOMB@B@B@BMOMBL  B@B@B  @B@B@M J@@@@PB@B@B@B7G@OMBB. ,@MMM@qLB@B@@@BqB@BBv iGB@,i0@M@B@MMO@E :  M@OMM@@@B@Pii@@N: .  B@M@B@MMM@B@B@B@MMM@@@M@B @B@B.i@MBB@B@B@@BM@::B@B@ B@@@ .B@B.:@B@ :B@B @B@O :0 r@B@ B@@ .@B@: P:                        vMB :@B@ :BO7 ,B@B

Translated, the Spanish reads:
 * It seems you like these little games... Why don't we play a real one?

Gonzalo Flores's Emails
This username and password allows one to log in on LumériCo's site and access Gonzalo Flores' emails. Most of them are general work emails without further hints, but one email talks about lumerico.mx/president-bypass. In the source code of that page is a git dump with codebehind files. From these, and after another cipher, is another username and password: GPortero/Xy@4+Bkuqd<53uJ

The President's Emails
Guillermo Portero's emails are also mostly work-related, but there is one from Sombra: "Veo que se han podido infiltrar en su correo. No se preocupen, él no puede ver este correo, lo he ocultado de su vista si se conecta desde una de sus direcciones conocidas de IP. Necesito un poco más de tiempo para establecer el próximo grupo de potocolos. Manténganse atentos a principios de la otra semana. Le echaré unos cuantos trapitos sucios en sus correos para que se filtren al público 'accidentalmente'. Ya veremos como reaccionan los medios de comunicación."

English: "I see you have been able to infiltrate his mail. Don't worry, he can't see this email, I've hidden it from view if you connect from one of the known IP addresses. I need a little more time to set the next group of protocols. Stay tuned early next week. I'll take a few dirty rags in their emails to be filtered to the public 'accidentally'. We'll see how they react to the media."

Head Security
On October 25th, lumerico.mx/omnics.txt was updated. After decoding, lumerico.mx/EXECUTEATTACK was found. Another username and password come from this: MJimenez / d0r*NuLw9. This account gives access to an admin page.

An article by Atlas News was posted on October 28th.

Trivia

 * Sombra's pseudonym on the Overwatch forums is a reference to the "skycode", a red herring found while trying to solve the Summer Games puzzles. Prompted by Jeff Kaplan saying that the puzzles were "way above [his] head", players found what seemed to be suspicious artifacting in Dorado's skybox. Despite many theories and attempts to decode it over the next five days, it was eventually debunked when players solved a puzzle which said, "Why do you look to the sky? The answer is not above your heads, it's behind you."
 * The number 23 used to decrypt the Ana Origin Story puzzle was a reference to Sombra being the 23rd hero in the game.