Snowball Showdown¶

Table of Contents¶

Snowball Showdown

Overview¶

On Alabaster's side of the Front Yard, Dusty Giftwrap is standing next to the Snowball Showdown poster on a small wall (that is also a terminal).

Dusty needs help win the snowball fight that will take down Wombley and end this fight.

Introduction¶

Dusty Giftwrap

Hi there! I'm Dusty Giftwrap, back from the battlefield! I'm mostly here for the snowball fights!

But I also don't want Santa angry at us, you wouldn't like him when he's angry. His face becomes as red as his hat! So I guess I'm rooting for Alabaster.

Alabaster Snowball seems to be having quite a pickle with Wombley Cube. We need your wizardry.

Take down Wombley the usual way with a friend, or try a different strategy by tweaking client-side values for an extra edge.

Alternatively, we've got a secret weapon - a giant snow bomb - but we can't remember where we put it or how to launch it.

Adjust the right elements and victory for Alabaster can be secured with more subtlety. Intriguing, right?

Raring to go? Terrific! Here's a real brain tickler. Navigator of chaos or maestro of subtlety, which will you be? Either way, remember our objective: bring victory to Alabaster.

Confidence! Wit! We've got what it takes. Team up with a friend or find a way to go solo - no matter how, let's end this conflict and take down Wombley!

Initial Analysis¶

After clicking on the challenge, a new tab opens with a welcome screen for the Snowball Showdown - The Great Elf Divide game showing a menu:

There are three options in the menu:

Random Match Making
Create Private Room
Join Private Room

If we chose option one or two, we get redirected to the game, where we see some instructions.

Once two players join the room and click the "Ready" button, the game starts.

The game is fairly simple. We can move horizontally with the letters A (left) or D (right), aim the snowball with the mouse pointer, and throw the snowball by clicking with the left mouse button.

Silver¶

Silver Analysis¶

The hint suggests to hack the client-side code to get an extra advantage.

Play Solo¶

Let's check the URL for the game:

https://hhc24-snowballshowdown.holidayhackchallenge.com/game.html?username=maikdev2&roomId=2101b77aa&roomType=private&id=[YOUR_ID]&dna=ATATATTAATATATATATATATGCATATATATCGATCGGCATATATATATATATATATATATATATATTATAATATCGTAATATATATATATTAATATATATATATATGCCGATATATTA&singlePlayer=false

At the end of the URL, there is a variable singlePlayer set to false. If we change it to true though, and reload the page, it starts immediately upon clicking the "Ready" button. This way, we don't have to wait for another player to join.

Modify Variables¶

Looking at the game source code in the DevTools, we find that it is made using the Phaser framework.

The game logic is in the js/phaser-snowball-game.js file, where we can see a couple of interesting variables:

this.snowBallBlastRadius = 24;
this.throwRateOfFire = 1000;

We can change their values to make things easier:

const scene = game.scene.scenes[0];
scene.snowBallBlastRadius = 30;
scene.throwRateOfFire = 1;

Automate Attacks¶

There is also this code in the setupPlayerBindings function.

this.input.on("pointerup", (pointer) => {
    if (pointer.button === 0 && !this.player1.isKo) {
        this.calcSnowballTrajectory(pointer, this.player1);
    }
});

This runs every time the left mouse button is released, and sends off the snowball. We can automate this part, so we don't have to keep clicking with the mouse.

const t = setInterval(() => {
    scene.calcSnowballTrajectory(scene.input.mousePointer, scene.player1);
}, 10);

Silver Solution¶

Let's click "Ready" after making the modifications above. After the game starts, we move closer to the ice block a bit and wait. After a few seconds, we get the Silver medal!

Gold¶

Fantastic work! You've used your hacker skills to lead Alabaster's forces to victory. That was some impressive strategy!

Christmas is on the line! For a mischievous edge-up, dive into the game's code - a few client-side tweaks to speed, movement, or power might shift the balance… or just help us find that secret weapon we misplaced!

Excellent! With Wombley's forces defeated, they'll have no choice but to admit defeat and abandon their wild plans to hijack Christmas.

Gold Analysis¶

Let's check the code again to find information about the "secret weapon".

Checking all the instances of sendMessage( we find a reference to "moasb".

this.moasb = () => {
    this.ws.sendMessage({ type: "moasb" });
};

This call sends a websocket message of the type “moasb”.

This word seems to be a twist referring to the MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs).

Gold Solution¶

Let's just force a call to the method during the game:

const scene = game.scene.scenes[0];
scene.moasb();

After this call is made, the console shows a moasb_start message in response from the server:

{"type":"moasb"}
{"type":"moasb_start"}

and an animation is triggered showing a plane that drops a massive bomb on Wonbley's elves.

Upon the bomb exploding, the client sends the moasb message with the launch code:

{"type":"moasb"}
{"type":"moasb_start"}
{"type":"moasb","launch_code":"85e8e9729e2437c9d7d6addca68abb9f"}

This seems to trigger the solve on the server, and we get the Gold medal!

Brilliant! You unravel the puzzle and launched the ‘mother-of-all-snow-bombs' like a true mastermind. Wombley never saw it coming!

Note

If you are in a game with another player who starts the MOASB sequence, the moasb_start message comes to both browsers, and then both browsers send the launch_code and get the gold solve.

Outro¶