There seems to be quite a lot of confusion regarding the secret rickroll profile picture and "Never Gonna Give You Up" steam Achievement. This guide will settle the confusion with an explanation of:

• How to unlock the Achievement
  
• The Terms for Unlocking the Achievement

And, for the sake of transparency:

• The Save Data associated with the Achievement
  
• Using the Save file to cheat your way to the Achievement (though, please do not make me regret putting this info out here, lol)

The Chat member Matt (Homer pfp) will choose between 2 profile links based on your responses from the first 2 chapters of the game.

These are the two options for profile links form Matt:

• A track titled 'music' ( LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great[emilyisaway.com])
  
• A track titled 'support' ( Friday - Rebecca Black[emilyisaway.com])

Our main objective is for Matt to choose the support track on his profile. When he does, opening the link will prompt the game to unlock the achievement (internally titled TopSecret) and a new profile 'rickroll' will show on your recents in the chat menu.

Contrary to the (at this time) existing and popular guide, you do not have to side with Emily in any questions or disputes. You just have to be truthful.

When Chapter 5 starts, EiA2 will begin setting up profiles for everyone in the chat menu. When it gets to Matt, it checks if the player has lied (given different answers between) Emily and Evelyn.



There are 3 major choices the player makes for the game to determine truthfulness:

• Alcohol Consumption (Chapter 1)
  
• Virginity (Chapter 2)
  
• "Life Outlook"/Whether you want to start a Family (Chapter 2)

You must give consistent answers for all 3 of these or else you will be reported to have been untruthful. The Chapter 3 dispute is completely unrelated to this achievement.




If you follow those guidelines, Matt will choose the appropriate track for his profile link and clicking it will trigger the rickroll scenario.

Before We Start
I ask in a respectful manner that you do not do this for your personal playthrough. I am only doing this to fully publicize my findings and also document information relating to the EiA2 save file.





Introduction to EiA2's Save Structure
Despite what (again) other people online are saying. The relevant Save Data is NOT stored in the Windows Registry or similar for other platforms. It is a raw text document stored in "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\LocalLow\KyleSeeley\Emily Is Away Too\savefile.txt" on WINDOWS systems. (TODO: Update this to a list for other platforms).

Inside of the text document you will likely find what at first seems like rubbish. When in reality, this is not. EiA2 uses base64 in an attempt to conceal the data being saved.

For example, take this line:

We can clearly see the phrase motolegacy here. In your file, you will see your screen name stored here instead. From this we can establish that this is in fact the screen name being saved.

The conclusion of the jumbled data being base64 is taken from the existence of padding in the string. Check out this cool page for identifying a string as being encoded with base64[www.hannesholst.com].

Decoding the base64 string[www.base64decode.org] we can see the true value of this line, PlayerScreennameKey.

At this point, the translated line would look like this in our minds (NOTE: this line does not reflect the actual save file line/you should not use decoded variable names in the save file):


With the two previous pieces of data in mind, we can assume the text ;;@%;; is just a clever separator between the save variable and it's value.





Finally: Unlocking the Achievement
With an understanding of the save file under our belt, we can now edit the file to reflect the conditions that we have been truthful to both Emily and Evelyn.

Here are the decoded variable names representing the actions important for the TopSecret achievement:

• Virginity (Emily): Chapter2EmIsVirgin
  
• Virginity (Evelyn): Chapter2EvaIsntVirgin
  
• Outlook (Emily): Chapter2EmSameOutlook
  
• Outlook (Evelyn): Chapter2EvaSameOutlook
  
• Alcohol Use (Emily): Chapter1EmPlayerDrinks
  
• Alcohol Use (Evelyn): Chapter1EvaPlayerDrinks

Now, lets take a look at the DidPlayerLie function again.


From this function we can gather that:

• Virginity values must NOT match.
  
• Outlook values must NOT match.
  
• Alcohol Use values MUST match.

An example of these conditions are as follows (remember that variables are base64 encoded, and that ;;@%;; is a separator between the variable and the value):

With these placed at the bottom of the save file, launching Chapter 5 will have Matt set his profile link to the support track and grant eligibility for the TopSecret achievement.

BONUS: if you do not have chapter 5 unlocked, you can do that with the save variable "CurrentLevelKey". in the save file:

I hope this helps out on earning this achievement. I myself was very confused based on existing guides, claiming 100% faithfulness to Emily or setting your profile picture to Minecraft Steve after replaying Chapter 5, etc. etc.

I once again ask that you do not go out of your way to use the means I described to just edit the save file for the achievement. I don't recommend you do that instead of just playing the game - playing the game is a lot more fun. I just wanted to document the save file procedure as it came to mind during my hunting.

Happy 'cheevo hunting.

motolegacy is away.