The challenge
One APK per attempt; the answer is an ANS- token hidden in the app. Written from the solver's report, the Game Master request log, and a static read of the Single Solve APK's puzzle asset.
Safety
APKs are hostile: one JSON asset was read statically on our Kali VM; nothing was installed or run.
What was in the files
A 12,704-byte APK whose assets/huntress_puzzle.json names a new codec, reflection. Our solver's fallback, added on Day 17, tries the known readings when a codec is new, and it found the token stored plainly in the data field. The timed variants used the same template.
What went wrong first
The solver crashed before starting Android. The Day 19 update we had put in place the evening before located its Day 17 base through the home folder, and the scheduled job runs Android from a different home folder than our tests did. The fix took a minute; the permanent fix loads the base by its own path, and we added a check that tests every lane under the scheduled job's own environment.
The modes
Single Solve CORRECT 09:01:48 flag 50941791…549d solve 1 ms, submit +1.36 s
Time Trial CORRECT 09:02:05 flag a7b8e7b1…e34b solve 1 ms, submit +1.83 s (ranked)
Mastery CORRECT 09:02:10 flag 924cc15a…1a2b solve 2 ms, submit +1.37 s (ranked, 5 sets)
Time to solve
All three modes were solved by 09:02:10 ET, about 2 min after release, despite the crash; the ranked Time Trial and Mastery each went through on the first submit.
Takeaways
- The fallback paid off: a new codec name didn't stop the lane.
- Test where it runs: a test run under the wrong home folder passed a solver that couldn't start as a scheduled job.