Hints

Under the black bars you'll find hints for the specific steps in the puzzle. They are ordered such that the first hint in a group is the weakest hint. If you feel like you need more hints than are currently present, feel free to ask for more.

Step 2 - Image:

1. The message is not visible.
2. The message is hidden in the LSB.
3. The message is written in Braille.

Step 2 - Message:

1. The string of digits is not a base conversion, but a ciphertext.
2. The cipher used is called Straddling Checkerboard.

Step 3 - Image:

1. The message is hidden in the GIF. The presence or absence of the message would not change how the GIF renders.

Step 3 - Message:

1. Block size is measured in bytes.

The Pond:

1. There is some custom steganography here.
2. A third dimension will be necessary to read the message.