Welcome to Cthulhu! Inspired by Notpron, Cthulhu is a puzzle game in a Git repository; it uses the whole repository, not just the files within it.
The first few levels will be playable through GitHub, but you will need a local copy of the repo to manipulate for the rest. Obtaining a local copy is the first task of Level 0.
To make use of that local copy, you will also need to install Git.
Knowledge of how to use Git is not required; you can learn as you go.
Cthulhu proceeds in levels. Each level has an associated level code, and your goal for each level is to find the code for the next level.
The starting point for each level is the branch game/xxxxxxx/master,
where xxxxxxx is the level's code. If the level requires you to switch
to a branch (e.g. feat), that branch will be prefixed with the level
code (i.e. game/xxxxxxx/feat).
Each level has a README.md file that contains the clue. Start there.
If a level branch has nothing in it (not even a README), then the level is not yet finished. See the Updates section below.
Searching man pages and the Internet for Git techniques is allowed and encouraged, but resist the temptation to cheat! As David Münnich said in the Notpron hints, "It's easy to find cheats on the internet, but from the moment of your first cheating on, the whole fun is gone, stay strong!"
That said, if you need additional hints, you can find them in the
hints directory on master or in the GitHub issues where
you can comment and ask for further hints (which may or may not be
given). These hints are not spoilers. There are already threads for
each level; do not create your own hints thread.
This game is a work in progress and new levels will be published over
time. To get these updates, run the update.sh script in the master
branch. Do not perform a git fetch or git pull, lest you see
any spoilers; the script will perform these actions for you.
Rest assured, inspecting the update script will not be considered cheating.
Clone the repo.
Check out the next level: levelone
If you don't know how to do something, look it up! You will probably be able to find everything you need on the Git website.