Thursday, April 7, 2016

The Search for Astro

Update: Finding Astro just became a whole lot harder as the module no longer appears to be available.


In what has become become the hallmark of Trailhead emerges a rather cockamamy module to locate the lost Astro mascot. It may seem like an excuse for the creators to make odd videos and run around in the woods blair witch style, and maybe it was considering it went live on the 1st of April, but you might actually learn something along the way (and maybe win a prize).

The key to finding Astro will be in decoding the clues left in the trails. Expect to watch the videos of noir interrogations, Tanooki cosplay, goats, ... and then jump out to the indicated modules to find additional clues to complete the code. What code is this you ask? The first unit provides more details, but it looks something like this:

Don't worry if you never finished reading the Cryptonomicon. Or if you don't know the difference between a one-time pad and using the Apex Crypto class with AES256.

Instead, download the zip from the first part of the module that includes an Excel file you can use to complete the challenge. Alternatively, I've created an equivalent Google Sheet for decoding the clues.

Other things you might learn in the module:

  • How long it takes to get Cloudy the Goat groomed for a World Tour event.
  • Who sleeps on a pillow stuffed with Astro's hair.
  • "uploading data you get from a random dog you meet in the woods is NOT a Salesforce best practice"
  • Items that Cloudy the Goat has been using for mastication
  • #PancakeHands

So, hit the trail. Decrypt the note. And bring Astro home!


See also: