[Guide] Easter Egg Issues (Spoilers)

[Drasnia]

WARNING: This thread contains many, many spoilers. Read at your own risk.

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What is an Easter Egg?

An Easter Egg is a special type of issue that nations can only ever encounter once. They're meant to be jokes and references about NationStates that would otherwise not be suitable in a normal issue. They also often have strange and esoteric requirements before being able to receive it. Because of the requirements I just mentioned, it can be difficult to pin down exactly what triggers an Easter Egg. The explanations in this post are as accurate as we as a community have been able to determine, but please keep in mind that this post might not be 100% accurate.

It is advised that you wait until your nation has at least 1 billion population before hunting for Easter eggs. Many of these issues require changing customizable fields and as such smaller nations are often unable to meet the requirements. Furthermore, many of these issues also seem to have a population requirement somewhere around 1 billion, so even if you're able to fill in the fields correctly, you might still be too young to be eligible. This seems to be an intentional mechanic as it ensures only experienced players who can appreciate the content of the Easter eggs will receive them.

Good luck, Hunter.

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#77: World To End, Or Possibly Just Mark Anniversary

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#77 was written by Max Barry and automatically given to every nation on NS' one year anniversary - even to nations who were set to vacation mode. It was later turned into a regular Easter Egg.

Nations become eligible to receive #77 after they have found several other Easter eggs. Currently, the required minimum Easter eggs before #77 seems to be 3.

#78: Should We Pull The Lever? [Meddlers; ed: SalusaSecondus]

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Nations become eligible to receive #78 if they have "Holy" in their pretitle.

#80: Aliens Wish Peace/Trade Agreement [Exiled; ed: SalusaSecondus]

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Nations become eligible to receive #80 when they have either "Cow" as the national animal or "Moo" as the national motto.

#215: What's Your Favourite Colour? [Antioch and the East; ed: Sirocco]

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Nations become eligible to receive #215 if they have a color in their pretitle. The list of colors that trigger #215 most likely includes all 11 options in the issue.

#223: Zombie Attack! [Naliitr; ed: Sirocco]

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#223 seemingly has two separate ways to become eligible to receive it. The first is to have ceased to exist and then resurrect. The second is to have "Zombie" in you pretitle (and thus not requiring CTE'ing).

#256: Suburbs Are Out Of This World [Scolopendra; ed: Sirocco]

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The requirements to receive #256 are still not entirely known. It most likely requires high crime rates, but also might require high scientific advancement or specific space program policies. Youth Rebelliousness does not trigger this issue.

#266: Breaching the Great Fourth Wall of @@NAME@@ [Reploid Productions; ed: Reploid Productions]

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Nations become eligible to receive #266 if they have "Nationstates" in their motto.

#375: Keep Your Hands Off Those Lucky Charms! [Vile Island; ed: Sanctaria]

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Nations have a chance to receive this easter egg during the month of March. Having "Gold" or "Golden" in your currency or "Lucky" in your motto may also be a requirement.

#408: Pony Peril [Sedgelight Sparkle; ed:Sedgistan]

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#408 has an interesting story behind its validity. Currently, nations become eligible to receive it when they have "friendship" included in their motto.

#430: Please, Sir, We Want Some More Issues [Eta Carinae; ed: Luna Amore]

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It is believed that the requirement for #430 is to have answered 250 or 300 issues and having your issue speed set to "No throttle."

#471: Red Sleigh Down [Nation of Quebec; ed: Sanctaria]

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Nations become eligible to receive #471 during the month of December and when they have Christmas-related words in their pretitle or other customizable fields.

#622: A Holiday Masquerade [The Grim Reaper; ed:Lenyo]

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Nations become eligible to receive #622 when their national animal is set to anything that contains any of several Halloween-themed creatures, such as monster, bat, vampire, zombie, or ghost. Creatures like wombat also work as it contains 'bat' within it.

#1122: Just Say No to E [Zwangzug; ed: Zwangzug]

Full Issue Text

Nations become eligible for #1222 when none of their customizable fields contain the letter 'e'.

[Drasnia]

The last thread has become pretty outdated and doesn't even contain all Easter Eggs any more, so I felt it was time we created a new thread, but this time with blackjack and hookers!

Please feel free to post any corrections or additional information so we can make this thread as accurate as possible.

[Westinor]

Thanks for making this! Greatly appreciated

As to #80, I think I can confirm it probably only requires one of the custom fields, as at the time Pizza Delivery was around 1,000 (50% of global rankings) and definitely not my @@MAJORINDUSTRY@@.

[Drasnia]

Thanks for making this! Greatly appreciated

As to #80, I think I can confirm it probably only requires one of the custom fields, as at the time Pizza Delivery was around 1,000 (50% of global rankings) and definitely not my @@MAJORINDUSTRY@@.

Yeah, it definitely looks to be based on custom fields, but I'm going to wait a bit longer for rock solid confirmation before updating the OP. Every report counts, though, so thanks for the confirmation!

[Pythaga]

Thank you for doing all this work Drasnia, it's nice to have an updated thread again!

As this wouldn't be a GI post without some grammar corrections, I have a few minor ones for you:

#77 was written by Max Barry and automatically give to every nation

Should be given, not give.

Nations become eligible to receive #215 if a color their pretitle.

There should be a "they have" between the if and a, and an "in" between color and their.

Having "Gold" or "Golden in your currency

You're missing the closing quote after Golden.

Nations become eligible for #622 when none of their customizable fields contain the letter 'e'.

You have the wrong issue number for this one.

[Drasnia]

Thank you for doing all this work Drasnia, it's nice to have an updated thread again!

As this wouldn't be a GI post without some grammar corrections, I have a few minor ones for you:

#77 was written by Max Barry and automatically give to every nation

Should be given, not give.

Nations become eligible to receive #215 if a color their pretitle.

There should be a "they have" between the if and a, and an "in" between color and their.

Having "Gold" or "Golden in your currency

You're missing the closing quote after Golden.

Nations become eligible for #622 when none of their customizable fields contain the letter 'e'.

You have the wrong issue number for this one.

Thanks! All of those should be fixed now.

[Cretox State]

Nations become eligible to receive #266 if they have "Nationstates" in their pretitle.

Does capitalization matter with regards to issue eligibility?

[Fauzjhia]

well. i am current trying this setup

national animal ; christmas bat
pre-title ; holy + color
and in motto ; Moo, NationStates, friendship

[Cretox State]

well. i am current trying this setup

national animal ; christmas bat
pre-title ; holy + color
and in motto ; Moo, NationStates, friendship

Put "Zombie" in the pretitle.

Edit: But seeing as you already have several eggs, you probably have a reason not to.

[Sunhizria]

well. i am current trying this setup

national animal ; christmas bat
pre-title ; holy + color
and in motto ; Moo, NationStates, friendship

Put "Zombie" in the pretitle.

Edit: But seeing as you already have several eggs, you probably have a reason not to.

with holy + color i have no space for zombie.

yeah i have multiple eggs.
i think i got the yearly, halloween (multiple, before fix), issues, and another, but i am not certain. and plenty of my nation have no easters eggs.

[Authoritaria-Imperia]

Thanks Drasnia for making this!

I also didn't need a good Pizza industry to get the aliens egg (mine was terrible, in fact); I did it with "cow" as part of my animal and "moo" in my motto.

It may be worth noting that #80 is (as far as I know) the only way to get the "Make Contact" banner. Selecting the wrong option might make it impossible to get that banner — or maybe either choice gets the banner; does anyone know?

Edit from a while later: After a test with a puppet, it seems that selecting either option awards the banner.

[Westinor]

Thanks Drasnia for making this!

I also didn't need a good Pizza industry to get the aliens egg (mine was terrible, in fact); I did it with "cow" as part of my animal and "moo" in my motto.

It may be worth noting that #80 is (as far as I know) the only way to get the "Make Contact" banner. Selecting the wrong option might make it impossible to get that banner — or maybe either choice gets the banner; does anyone know?

It should give you the banners both ways, far as I know. Not absolutely sure though

[Sunhizria]

i currently report 4 hits of breaching the fourth wall easter eggs, with NationStates in my motto

the easter egg was found by Rhaiznuse, Uraznuse, Sanzluna and Sfhesialzluna.. so NationStates has to be correct word to trigger it.

Thanks Drasnia for making this!

I also didn't need a good Pizza industry to get the aliens egg (mine was terrible, in fact); I did it with "cow" as part of my animal and "moo" in my motto.

It may be worth noting that #80 is (as far as I know) the only way to get the "Make Contact" banner. Selecting the wrong option might make it impossible to get that banner — or maybe either choice gets the banner; does anyone know?

It should give you the banners both ways, far as I know. Not absolutely sure though

i think what happened with fantaunzluna, prove that this banned can only gained by answer with option 1. i am not sure...
But it is my theory, that i did not receive the banned, because i pinked option 2 on that nation,then it got halloween issues because of its national animal, which had wolf in it, which lead it to issues 78, since i had 3 eggs

[Trotterdam]

#471 is limited to December, and #375 is limited to March. #622 is not time-limited.

[Fauzjhia]

what about #80.

[Drasnia]

Alright, OP should be caught up. I removed the Pizza Delivery part of #80 as we've pretty conclusively proven that theory false and added the December requirement to #471.

#471 is limited to December, and #375 is limited to March. #622 is not time-limited.

Do you know if there are any other requirements to #375 other than the month? In the old thread, I saw a lot of speculation that "gold" as part of your currency could affect it.

[Sunhizria]

Alright, OP should be caught up. I removed the Pizza Delivery part of #80 as we've pretty conclusively proven that theory false and added the December requirement to #471.

#471 is limited to December, and #375 is limited to March. #622 is not time-limited.

Do you know if there are any other requirements to #375 other than the month? In the old thread, I saw a lot of speculation that "gold" as part of your currency could affect it.

for #375 ,, i report fherlexzfhaizi being the only nation who had it.
i used ; luck favor the lucky in my motto
i am not sure gold is needed

[Trotterdam]

I removed the Pizza Delivery part of #80 as we've pretty conclusively proven that theory false

I'm not sure. One of my puppets has had "cow" in its national animal for a long, long time and never got the issue. Recently-but-not-too-recently (I think a few weeks to months, but I was careless and didn't write it down) I edited its national animal to be just "cow" with nothing next to it, in case that was the problem, and it still hasn't gotten the issue. But it's in the bottom 0.53% in the world for Industry: Pizza Delivery...

Do you know if there are any other requirements to #375 other than the month? In the old thread, I saw a lot of speculation that "gold" as part of your currency could affect it.

I haven't checked recently (for obvious reasons, I can't actually trap the issue to examine individual recipients until March rolls around again), but from what I recall that seems accurate.

for #375 ,, i report fherlexzfhaizi being the only nation who had it.
i used ; luck favor the lucky in my motto
i am not sure gold is needed

Most easter eggs have more than one keyword that can trigger them, so it's either/or. Knowing as many of the keywords as possible is still useful.

[Sunhizria]

i've been wondering if vegetarianism prevent my nations from getting alien easter eggs.

today i can confirm the settings i choose do work
i've received issue #622: 5 times, #266 9 times, #215 2 times and #78 12 times.


reminder pre-title, holy zombie + color

animal : christmas bat (I'll known in december about this one)
motto : Moo, NationStates, Friendship

[Trotterdam]

i've been wondering if vegetarianism prevent my nations from getting alien easter eggs.

You might be on to something. I checked my data, and #80 really is very rarely answered on vegetarian nations. (Option 1 was last seen at the beginning of November 2019, option 2 never since the last data purge.)

[Giovanniland]

i've been wondering if vegetarianism prevent my nations from getting alien easter eggs.

You might be on to something. I checked my data, and #80 really is very rarely answered on vegetarianism nations. (Option 1 was last seen at the beginning of November 2019, option 2 never since the last data purge.)

I've had the Vegetarianism policy since a long time and also recall getting that easter egg. Though I am not sure on the exact timeframe both the policy enactment and the easter egg find happened, so my report isn't really helpful at all - I could've accidentally removed and re-enacted it and simply forgot by now.

Edit: now I see from a Discord channel that I did indeed comment on cancelling vegetarianism for a brief time (2 weeks)... though I am pretty sure I found #80 outside of that timeframe. Probably only site admins (issue editors too, maybe?) have the exact dates on this.

[Sunhizria]

Well. i removed vegetarianism on a nation who did not had issues 80. so we'll see what happen
but serious, i swear, i' not getting easter egg issues very often.

for some reason my puppet, Estellium has easily found 7 (excluding luck and christmas)


i was wondering if there where some days, where the chance of getting an easter egg are higher then normal.
i'm not certain how to qualify for 80, if removing vegetarianism did not help me.

[Sunhizria]

BUMP

I really don't get why
but it seem my settings are a failure for getting issues 80.
my nations have no problem getting every other easters eggs.

but for aliens, i'm not certain Moo suffice to make it appear.

really don't have any idea about how to get it.

[Antibuda]

I got the color one within 4-6 days (I think) of updating my fields, so it feels like the E one is taking forever. I just replaced all my E's with ⍷.

[Trotterdam]

I got the color one within 4-6 days (I think) of updating my fields, so it feels like the E one is taking forever. I just replaced all my E's with ⍷.

Don't forget your leader and religion fields, which default to "Leader" and "a major religion" if you don't fill them in. There's evidence that they still count, even though they're not visible on your nation page.