The joke

Very early on April 1st, Mojang\Microsoft released a version 20w14Infinite build of Minecraft which allows players to create millions of wildly different new worlds by writing text in a book & throwing it through a Nether portal. The world generated depends on what is written in the book, & some specific worlds contain many "starter chests" to help the player in their explorations. Players can share what they wrote in each book with others, allowing multiple players to each access the same new dimensions on their own. In this way, individual single-player Minecraft instances can essentially become a collaboratively evolving game featuring previously nonexistent block types. Given that Randall has done multiple comics referencing Minecraft & seems to be an avid player, & given the presence of "chests" & the "worldbuilding" & collaborative nature of this latest comic, I believe xkcd's April 3rd 2020 comic is a reference to this "final" Minecraft build. ProphetZarquon (talk) 14:10, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I think this is extremely unlikely. Munroe has comics planned in advance, and a complex interactive comic like this one takes more than a couple hours to make.Matthias1 (talk) 18:43, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

The Meta-Message

Beginning one month earlier with 2275: Coronavirus Name (March 2, 2020) there was a long series of comics about the coronavirus pandemic. Superficially this April comic is not about the pandemic, but note that anybody anywhere can affect the comic's globally shared sandbox. Credit Randall with engineering a script reminding us that "We're all in this together." JohnB 162.158.74.215 19:01, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Explanation

Clicking on the URLs in the explanation return "File not found". I will remove the hyperlink so people are less confused. Fwacer (talk) 02:18, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

How the comic works

... is this going to be like 1190: Time? 162.158.74.63 04:08, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I hope so, otherwise I don't get the joke Forresthopkinsa (talk) 04:15, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

The page just went down for me so maybe what we've seen isn't what it's supposed to be? avis_magpie (talk) 04:20, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Looks like the whole comic was just taken down. Parzivail (talk) 04:27, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Can confirm - the most recent comic is Pathogen again 162.158.187.207 04:26, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

It is still up on the mobile website, but only if you directly go to comic page https://m.xkcd.com/2288 172.69.22.146 05:10, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Perhaps this is a collector's edition because it was only up for a limited amount of time? 108.162.219.60 (talk) 05:12, 3 April 2020 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

That was my immediate assumption. The title text says, "I'm sure you can find some suitable worldbuilding material if you scavenge through the archives." And I was viewing the comic by using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine — which, wouldn't you know it, captured the page exactly once before it went down. Between that and the title "Collector's Edition", I can't help thinking that the comic was actually intended to be viewed this way. Though for what reason, and what intended meaning, I couldn't tell you. …And jeez, in the time it took me to type this, the comic is back, but changed! Oy vey. NoriMori (talk) 06:42, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Maybe it's called collectors edition, because it was only available quite limited and to an unusual time? But that logic doesn't fit with the title text. --Lupo (talk) 05:14, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I doubt that could be caused by "technical difficulties". 172.69.34.186 06:14, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

It looks like it went back up about 5 minutes age. I can't figure out if it's possible to do more than pan right now though. 108.162.215.120 06:39, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Yeah I see the same thing, looks like they're just testing it live. What a shame :(--108.162.215.242 06:47, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

what makes you assume that this is testing right now? however it doesn't seem to be very interactive apart from panning through it, and that it seems to chagne over time (the moon from 1300 wasn't there a few minutes ago, was it? --Lupo (talk) 06:49, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

It's a giant pan similar to , although it's mostly empty, with some content at

. The title reads that you can find world building material, if you scavenge through the archives. I assume, more content will be unlocked as you read through past comics. Goatfryed (talk) 06:52, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

That would mean it is individual? That everyone gets their own picture? --Lupo (talk) 07:03, 3 April 2020 (UTC) Edit: I can kinda rule that out. I get the same picture on my phone and my work laptop, the work laptop is in a different country via vpn, and doesn't share any logins/advertisement ID's apart from explain xkcd with my phone... --Lupo (talk) 07:05, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, it definitely changes. The orange swimming pool just showed up now. Also, at the bottom of the page, it says something about "backpack", and what appears to be a reference to some other xkcd comic. For example, "Hint: why waste time say few word when lot word do trick", which I think refers to Up Goer Five. But I have no idea what to do with that info. 172.68.141.190 06:55, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

and the content seems to be related to previous comics and what-ifs... but still no clue what to do apart from exploring the page. --Lupo (talk) 06:57, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

So I just stumbled upon this and it seems to be exactly as other commentors have theorised: as you read previous comics more stuff gets added to the page. There seems to be some kind of backpack mechanic where you collect items from previous ones somehow, but, perhaps because I've already read all previous comics, that didn't seem to work for me. Instead I just had to click the link above the backpack, which opened the comic in a new tab, and it had a bunch of stuff there. We may need to co-ordinate to figure out if different people end up with different sets of items, and to ensure we have all of them, but I think other than that it should be just a cut and dry thing of making a table with every item in it. 162.158.34.202 07:12, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Hang on, mine just changed: before there was only 1 pool on the left, now there are two. I only went back to pathogens and then forwards agin. This may be harder than I thought, I'm going to start keeping a screenshot log of actions vs. results. Benkor42 (talk) 07:17, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

You may need to try xkcd.com instead of www.xkcd.com - there seems to be an issue with the latter at the moment. 162.158.255.216 07:18, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Hold up it changed again! This time without a reload! Benkor42 (talk) 07:28, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

It seems to change periodically, the url does change everytime. New stuff always seems to be added, not old stuff rremoved. Benkor42 (talk) 07:28, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

The URL is related to the coordinates, it changes when you pan the image. --Lupo (talk) 07:34, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Timings seem to be random, working on double checking that rn. Highest first number so far is 1127, once it switches agin I'm going to experiement with manually editing the url.

I was briefly able to do things. Open the archieve, navigate it to one of the comics, that are hinted for (e.g. compiling or iata) and when viewing that comic I get a lootbox, with an image I can then place in the 2288. It worked twice, and now it doesn't again... neither with those that have worked before, nor with others I am fairly sure have been placed by other people. (such as galilean moons) --Lupo (talk) 07:21, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I'm working on assembling an image log, wonder if we could compare? Also, the two number url could be useful, rn I'm on -1378, -152 Benkor42 (talk) 07:25, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

What do you mean by compare? Also the URL is related to the coordinates, it changes when you pan the image. --Lupo (talk) 07:34, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Yh just got that, is that the same for other panning comics (I'm a little new)? And I was wondering if the comic changed per person/system like certain previous comics. Benkor42 (talk) 07:40, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Just seen a previous comment from you saying it doesn't change cross-system. However, it definetely changes with time, so the question is whether that's per user or done on a sort of universal clock, so we all unlock the same new content at the same time.

I didn't complete writing up the thing I was able to do above... after opening the lootbox I got one image related to the comic I opened in my backpack and was able to place that in the actual 2288, where it now is placed. --Lupo (talk) 07:50, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

For me that didn't happen, it started with a loading screen type thing, and then objects just started appearing seemingly at random. I've also noticed some of them dissapear. I feel like the best course of action would be to start with a table of all the different objects, and then see if we can figure out when/why they appear later.

At least 2 objects appeared, because I placed them. It is a colaboration of many xkcd readers to do this world building here. I placed one of the sword fights around #439,-181 and the non-inverted kite at #-1679,-290 . --Lupo (talk) 07:55, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Do you agree that the best course of action would therefore be a table with all the items? Benkor42 (talk) 08:03, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Not a big fan of tables, unless there really is content of muliple categories to be entered for one line. A list would do fine I guess? Also I find lists easier to work with. Or what would be the columns you'd set up? --Lupo (talk) 08:08, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Something along the lines of the comic that it's a reference to, an image, and an explanation. Do we know if you find the same sticker at the same comic every time? If so, then that. A list would work well too. Benkor42 (talk) 08:12, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

From looking at what image URLs don't 404, it looks like there are 253 stickers, which is quite a lot for a table.Matthias1 (talk) 10:03, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I think we can unlock new elements by reading older comics (seemingly at random, it doesn't work with every comic read) and that everyone can see the changes once they are put on the global picture. If someone could check, I have put berret guy and his goat around (5000,0)

Yep, he's there. Benkor42 (talk) 08:01, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I almost feel like someone needs to show them this xkcd... https://xkcd.com/169/

It seems to be an interactive canvas. You can find stickers in chests on specific comics and put them in your backpack, and then when you come back here you can choose where to put them on the canvas. The hints in the empty backpack are cryptic references to comics. 162.158.107.85 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Yep, I figured the same thing, but for me it only worked twice (fly from wtf to lol was a reference to the iata thing and compiling was a reference to the compiling one) - but it didn't work again. Also: Some of the placed images are clearly references to what-if. Like the squirrel on top of an AK47 or the yoda powering an IPOD. --Lupo (talk) 07:59, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I've made a catalog of the stickers but it's only partial because stuff keeps appearing: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dPYeYVpGqu5tqGTt5 Lev (talk) 08:02, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I got it. I wrote the steps on reddit and included some screenshots. Feel free to use it to edit this page https://old.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/fu1dt0/xkcd_2288_collectors_edition/fmaqp1w/ Ufolicker (talk) 09:27, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Am I too late to participate in this or am I doing something wrong? Where is this hint supposed to appear? I only see an empty backpack and the canvas on which references to different comics are placed. No comic I've visited, either inspired by references on the canvas, nor by random selection has any chest or other interactive components to it. Bischoff (talk) 09:53, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

No, you're doing it right. Hints show up in the backpack area. Obviously no one is sure of anything, but even users who have seen hints have reported not seeing hints on a different browser/device. I suspect something similar to Umwelt, where different hints are shown to different people. And I think once a chest is picked up, it stops appearing to everyone that could see it, but that's a guess.Matthias1 (talk) 10:03, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Ok, I was unsure because on my windows 10 laptop I have yet to see a hint. I've tried chrome, firefox and internet explorer. Bischoff (talk) 11:09, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Finally got it to work in Safari in iOS Bischoff (talk) 11:13, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

That's really great, Bischoff, we were worried about you. Care to share how you did it, for the benefit of others? Jimmbo (talk) 14:19, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

I took part in the scavenger hunt and about 2 hours ago it stopped showing hints. So I assume it shut down and there is nothing to do anymore.¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Curse (talk) 15:15, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I think everybody gets a limited number of hints, and once you've found them all it won't show any more to you, but other people can still get hints. Pelosujamo (talk) 20:09, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Nope, it's not that. I visited this comic for the first time today, and no hints for me at all. Dansiman (talk) 14:16, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

When I view the comic, I don't see the closed box - the screen is absolutely full of stickers. I've not done any scavenger hunting (I'd upload an image, but I don't have permissions to do so) Kvetch (talk) 11:10, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Hints I've seen so far: "The first one was funnier" (chest appeared in comic 1, contained I'm a turtle); "418 I'm a teapot" "26th September, 1983" (comic 2052, Stanislav Petrov Day, white dove); 172.69.134.135 11:20, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Perhaps a table for found chests with no attached hints? I've stumbled across a few but don't know if they're hinted at or not :). Deranged (talk) 11:54, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Maybe add a line to the table with a blank first box, the link in the second box, empty third box? Someone will match it up. 162.158.166.37 12:21, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

"Churchill's gonna have to rehydrate" is Nothing to Offer. Can't remember what number, I think 1148?

In other news, the bad ads are back (previous discussion) - who's in charge of dealing with them anyway? Arcorann (talk) 12:25, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Could someone post an image showing what it looks like to find a chest on a comic? I've browsed to some of the comics referenced as having chests but couldn't see one so far. Thanks!141.101.69.13 12:54, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I've uploaded a few images on https://imgur.com/gallery/4q1QIW5. Can't upload them here yet, new account madsmtm (talk) 13:24, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

"The other side of the wardrobe", someone's put in the solution 2218: Wardrobe; but I also found the chest on 665: Prudence. Can there be multiple solutions to the same hint? Angel (talk) 13:00, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Is anyone else having issues with things just not working? I clicked around a bit, it gave me the award in being very smart, and now won't give me any hints or chests. Crazymachinefan (talk) 13:57, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I am also not getting any hints anymore after getting one chest.Eesley (talk) 14:01, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Nope, nothing to get anymore. Curse (talk) 15:15, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

The "Was it a rat I saw" hint is probably 1632: Palindrome. I haven't gotten the hint yet, so I can't confirm. Nvaiko24 (talk) 14:12, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Interestingly, the 1110: Click and Drag disables the backpack overlay. Also, anyone have any news on how to get the Go Big to Go Small hint?

I got the "First annual award for excellence in being very smart" on page 7, rather than 179 as stated above. Can't remember what the hint was. 162.158.34.222 14:26, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Found that award on comic 7, too. And "Researchers are reporting record number of sharks (loot 159) on comic 1368, but I'll be damned if I know the hint. Those give me nothing 162.158.91.43 14:44, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Found another one! It's a bug on a box, loot_007. From comic #442, no idea what hint goes with it. 162.158.74.7 15:18, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

For the ooOOOooo hint, I've now gone through every comic, and none of them give a chest. Lawruble13 (talk) 19:41, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Well that's just ducky! I'm stuck on that hint. Any way to get the hint to change without losing my collectibles? Anonymous 02:19, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

If you scroll almost directly upward, the Y-coordinate keeps resetting to 5000 (same with downward and -5000. However, if you scroll up and to the side with a slope of less than 1, you eventually get to this URL: https://xkcd.com/#-Infinity,-Infinity which just has the word "[LOADING_]" hand-drawn. -- brad

I think that's just Javascript floatingpoint math for ya. The loading image just appears while it is trying to load in new tiles --Jhollowe (talk) 19:11, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I wrote a script that gives a list of all the loot images that are on the page if we want to make a complete list of loot images, and a list of images that haven't been found yet. --Jhollowe (talk) 19:11, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Has anyone else gotten a "miniloot"? I just got "/2288/collectors/static/loot/miniloot-words-laser.png" from 293: RTFM with the hint listed in the above table. Lawruble13 (talk) 19:41, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

In a private window on Firefox, I had previously seen the hint, but it's now disappeared. I got loot_109.png (which is the sheeple eye from 1013: Wake Up Sheeple), and I can place it, but it stays in the inventory. Possible bug? Lawruble13 (talk) 19:43, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Viewable at https://xkcd.com/2288/#453,1003, both eyes posted using the same item. Lawruble13 (talk) 19:50, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

The "tea time" hint seems a bit weird; I found it at 579: The Race: Part 3, and others have apparently found it at 581, 578, 479 and maybe elsewhere. Not sure what connection any of those comics have to tea, except that 579 and 479 both have 79 in them and the image is from what-if 79. Pelosujamo (talk) 01:17, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

I don't know if there's an element of "the clue you get depends on the clues you answered"..? Yesterday, when I first visited, it seemed to be giving different hints as I scrolled through/jumped around the comics looking for the answers to earlier hints. Now (after finding three, confirmed as listed in the table) it's just flipping between two of the early once, the "chnace" and "fetish" ones, still undetailed in the table so I can't even cheat) leading me to believe I'm left with those two in my (personal?) 'pool' of hints, and I won't get any more until I answer one or other. Either that or I need to place my current meagre three discoveries, but I was actually wanting more first so I could be creative in combination... 162.158.93.141 04:04, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Are "oOOOoooo" and "oooooooo" different clues? I don't see the second one listed.

Unless I missed something, "Hint: Everyone deserves a second chnace" doesn't refer to a particular comic, but rather something else. I went through comics 500-2288. -- 162.158.92.22 (talk) 08:29, 4 April 2020‎ (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Probably requires a sequence of comics to be visited in specific order, like "A new model released each year" or "Take a ride in a barrel" Jaalenja (talk) 11:29, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Random question--is there a way to edit or delete items once they have been placed? This world is pretty messy.... -- 162.158.74.65 (talk) 14:12, 4 April 2020‎ (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I had these hints (along with 2 other) hints: oOOOoooo, Keep coming back, Everyone deserves a second chance. I have visited every comic and every series on this list, forwards and backwards, and none of them was awarded. They are either glitched or have very unusual requirements. Maybe something with one of the interactive comics? (I even tried collecting all coins in Hoverboard!) Maybe there is something that Randall considers a series but this wiki doesn't? Something else altogether (visit the same comic a number of times, return after elapsed time...)? I am giving up, if someone gets one of these and is up to the challenge, good luck, hopefully I helped a bit with getting a small list of things not to try. Jaalenja (talk) 14:58, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Browser agent related issues: Post what browser (Chrome, Firefox; mobile, desktop) you are using here & what issues (if any) you experience when interacting with this comic.

On Chrome version 80.0.3987.162 in mobile view, only "Collector's Edition" appears for me. The comic is not scrollable or interactive, & the backpack does not appear. In desktop view, the collectively added content appears, as does the backpack. (I have not tested whether I can add things, yet.) ProphetZarquon (talk) 13:52, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

On Chrome version 80.0.3987.163 on desktop, the hint doesn't seem to appear. Lawruble13 (talk) 19:41, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Firefox 74.0 on desktop - looks like I don't get any hints. Everything else seems to be fine. 162.158.92.98 19:59, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Apologies if this has been covered, but if you right-click-->inspect the backpack area, can you see the hint in the Java script? I can't find it with Chrome running in Windows 10, but it is entirely possible I don't know how/where to look.Godzilla (talk) 21:38, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

On Opera, hint doesn't appear.

In Firefox I have an item in my loot box, I can scroll around the world and the text is "find an empty area". I find an empty area (Damn long way out :P ) and the text changes to "place it" or "Cancel" I can cancel OK, but place it doesn't work at all. Is this a bug or have I hit the limit of my abilities? 172.68.86.34 01:05, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

oh...wait...there is a 5 second or more delay from clicking to it appearing. May be caused by the size of the world and number of elements. 172.68.86.34 01:08, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Firefox 52.9 Windows XP Doesn't get past "loading" and cannot drag around. However, the backpack does appear and can be closed and opened. 172.68.174.76 04:20, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

I tried Samsung browser (mobile, tablet), Chrome (mobile, desktop) and Edge (desktop). At first, only the Samsung browser on only one of the devices worked. Then it glitched, I got infinite Polish sausages and no more hints. It unglitched after deleting browser data. Then glitched after deleting browser data gain (I was stuck and wanted fresh batch of hints, karma is a bitch, I guess). Then it started working again after clearing browser data few more time. Then, on one occasion, I got a set of hints on desktop Chrome in incognito mode. Something weird is going on related to cookies, it seems. Jaalenja (talk) 07:35, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

FireFox/Ubuntu, nothing is working. No bag, no hint, whatever.

Firefox/Chromium on Ububntu, I seem to see evertything, it looks like this for example: https://ibb.co/BL1gDvX or https://ibb.co/PCByw8f (all add-ons disabled, chrome in standard settings)

Screenshots

Since this appears to be a time-limited event, I decided it would be good idea to save some screenshots for posterity. I have uploaded several screenshots: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:2288_hint_1.png https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:2288_hint_2.png https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:2288_chest.png https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:2288_chest_open.png https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:2288_place_item.png https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:2288_place_item_cant.png https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:2288_place_item_kitty.png

Add them to the article as you see fit. Jaalenja (talk) 09:29, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Spelling

I've moved this from 2288: Collectors Edition to 2288: Collector's Edition, which is both the correct spelling and the one used on xkcd; but was it misspelled on xkcd earlier, or did the typo originate here? Pelosujamo (talk) 20:09, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

New Comic:

I don't know if anyone has noticed since it's Saturday and xkcd doesn't usually update. But there's been a new comic 22889: Scenario 4. Can someone who knows how and actually has an account add the next page for it.

Thanks,

--173.245.52.207 22:08, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Interactivity finished

Now that the next comic (2289) has been published it looks like the ability to interact and find chests has ended. This is going to make it quite difficult to complete the table unless someone manages to reverse-engineer the code. Also noting that whilst there are >250 possible images there are only 80 hints listed in the table. It's not clear if all images were used - perhaps comparing the images in the table to those placed in the comic could help identify any that we don't have known hints for?

I was also wondering if it's worth including a thumbnail of each image in the table, and possibly a separate list of images for which the hint is not known? AlChemist (talk) 10:15, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

I did some quick ctrl+F in the client codes for comic numbers, item names etc. and it doesn't appear to contain the relevant information, must be server-side. Maybe one of the devs listed at the top of the page would leak something if asked nicely? Jaalenja (talk) 14:35, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

I managed to extract a list of all the images used in the comic along with how many times they appear. It looks like most are used, but there are a few that aren't. AlChemist (talk) 13:27, 7 April 2020 (UTC)