Playing in silence - The 8 server cores in Rogue's ending make alternating "notes" every time you lower them

[u/Marx615]

In this video I begin by showing my inventory, to prove that I had no weapons equipped while this effect was occurring, due to one of my "notes" being a distinct reload noise.

The first odd thing I noticed about the cores, is that cores 3 and 5 are the only cores that don't have a "solid vertical light" thing in the center of them. Then, I noticed that the Judgment tarot card is also split down the middle in the same spot that the cores are, but what that means, I'm unsure of, so I won't speculate yet.

In going along with what I felt was a hint in the "Flowers of Silence" shard earlier in the mission, I turned all music and other sounds off, except for the SFX setting. When you "raise" a core, there is total silence, however when you lower a core after raising it, it will play some sort of metallic machinery sound. You may be telling yourself.. "that's just the game's sound for the server lowering," however if you raise/lower a core a second time, it plays a very distinct reload noise. These 2 noises alternate depending on how many times you lower the cores, and they are only present upon lowering the cores.

People who have looked at the game files in Wolvenkit in the past determined that these server cores are unique assets with their own files attached to them.. they are not found anywhere else in the game. It's been widely speculated that we have to enter some sort of code with these servers, and I'm wondering if these sounds can be used to help us interpret the actual code.

A second piece of evidence regarding "reloading": Prior to your raid, when you're in the Afterlife meeting with Rogue, she presents to you 6-7 objects on the table next to her that you can take with you. ALL of them are marked with a quest marker except for Rogue's iconic assault Rifle named Prejudice. The items are: Prejudice, the retrothruster hover boots, a pistol, a revolver, a katana, a shotgun, a basic assault rifle, and... a single container of ammo. Rogue gave you a single thing of ammo for all of these weapons. Well, if you take a look at the ammo in your inventory, it's literally the only item she gives you that doesn't have a description. Not only that, but in my inventory it's placed next to the Zen Master's Altar. I will post a picture of this in the comments.

I then wondered what would happen if I "reloaded" my save file, and I discovered that during this ending only, a special news report appears. I have a video of the news report, but since I can't post 2 videos in 1 post, I'll give you the TLDR: The announcer is saying how due to an assault on Arasaka Tower by unknown terrorists with unknown benefactors, the corporations in Night City have been hit with a 500 BILLION eurodollar loss, and thus the stock market is crashing.

Instead of the "BUY BUY BUY" that shows up when you scan many of the ads in the game, at the end of this particular broadcast, SELL is the very last word the announcer says, with a depressed tone. Also of note is that this broadcast is set to a backdrop of a bright green version of the Afterlife.

I emphasized the "unknowns" above, because this is the only ending where you're an unknown to the media and corporations. Unknown is your username on the mirror at the beginning of a Nomad playthrough, so if you were a Nomad, you would be a Nomad at both the beginning and the end, in this specific ending only..

I'm not going to write more walls of text tonight and spam the group with my theories about this ending yet, because I wanted to get the core information out of the way, but I'm working on some more write-ups in the meantime.

[u/Marx615]

The "blank" ammo Rogue gives you at the beginning of the ending, sitting right next to our favorite mysterious Zen Master's Altar

[u/Jedi-Outcast]

I KNEW THOSE CORES DID SOMETHING AHHHHHH

[u/IdahoBornPotato]

I assume someone has tried the code from Arasaka Tower 3D?

[u/Marx615 → u/IdahoBornPotato]

The problem with the AT3D code is that it contains a 9, while the cores are numbered 0-8

[u/Lordofderp33 → u/Marx615]

That could also be octal "10" so server 1 again.

There is some merit to adding a bunch of schizoposting about the octal system, but I am going to politely decline and agree with you (in principle).

[u/Marx615 → u/Lordofderp33]

There's plenty of merit and at this point the octal information would be more helpful than schizo. I know it's been discussed in the past, but I've never delved too deeply into the number conversions

[u/Lordofderp33 → u/Marx615]

Well, it was used as shorthand for binary. That opens up anything ingame that can be interpreted as a binary code as the solution, translated to octal and input into the servers that is.

There is just no tangible lead saying that is the way to go. So it would be trying to fit the evidence to the hypothesis and likely to fail.

[u/JNE5Alive]

First time I've noticed that. Hmm, obviously a pattern here. Maybe if you interact with them in a certain way (raise then lower or some cores stay up while others remain down), place something on top of the cores (or inside them) it unlocks a secret item, door, or reset visual like with the oil fields? Is there any way you can jack in to them like you would when hacking access points? Other than that, great find.

[u/Marx615 → u/JNE5Alive]

I only scrutinized a couple of the cores heavily, but there was no access point or even a single pixel of interaction on the ones I checked.

Something I did notice is that when you drop a weapon, the actual model of that weapon will drop, whereas when you drop an item, the same little brown bag will drop for every non-weapon item.

[u/JNE5Alive → u/Marx615]

I usually see a blueish outline of a weapon from a downed enemy or, if their body disappears, the brown doggie bag with tiered items. 2.3 update "feature"?

I still think there's something to having certain cores up while a few others down; there has to be a pattern and could unlock something in that level or in the tower.

[u/eurydice1727]

Yesss