Are you a Dropbox user? By completing this year’s Dropquest, you can get 1 GB of extra Dropbox storage space, for free. Dropquest 2012 ends June 2.

I had the feeling that the riddles were harder than last year. Also, the Dropbox team made it harder to share answers, by creating up to three variations of some riddles. As a result, even with the right answers, it takes much longer to complete this year’s Dropquest. (For comparison: Dropquest 2011 could easily be completed in just a few seconds.)

Just like last year, Dropquest walkthroughs aren’t hard to find. However, those guides aren’t as efficient as I’d like them to be.

While struggling to find the answer for chapter 4 — I like to believe I got to level 7 before the walkthroughs caught up with me — I found that you can advance to level 5 without knowing the correct answer, simply by changing the URL (replacing /chapter4 with /chapter5). This appears to be the only chapter that can effectively be skipped — I guess the Dropbox team forgot to add a check for this.

Later in the quest, there’s a puzzle that combines a sudoku with a slider puzzle. These things can take quite some time, even if you know the correct solutions. It turns out that under the hood, similar code as last year’s was used: there’s some JavaScript that redirects you to a new page as soon as you successfully solve the puzzle. The new URL is the same as the URL of the current step, only with a query string containing information on how you solved the test appended to it.

if (is_done()) {
	location.href = "chapter14?moves=%s".format(moves.join(''));
}

The query string contains a list of numbers: one for every move you made to complete the test. This list is then processed server-side, to see if the moves form a truly valid solution. Only if this is the case, you’ll be redirected (again), this time to the next step in the quest.

I simply set a breakpoint on the line starting with location.href, so that I could inspect the value of the moves array. This allowed me to get the full URL before continuing to the next page.

That said, I’ve compiled this speed guide on how to complete Dropquest 2012 as fast as possible.

How to complete Dropquest 2012 using the minimum number of steps required

First, you’ll need a Dropbox account. If you don’t already have one, sign up through this referral link to start off with an extra 500 MB. You’ll need to log in to your account before you can participate in Dropquest.

For one of the steps, your account needs to have a verified email address. Simply share a folder using the web interface to have Dropbox send the verification email if you haven’t done that already.

After that, it’s simple. Just follow these steps in the correct order. If there’s a link, click it; if not, just do what it says.

• https://www.dropbox.com/dropquest2012/
• https://www.dropbox.com/dropquest2012/prologue
• https://www.dropbox.com/dropquest2012/chapter1#repair
• Enter “38645” or “46637” or “64529” until you get the green “Password received” message.
• https://www.dropbox.com/dropquest2012/crane#repair
• Enter “smudges”.
• https://www.dropbox.com/dropquest2012/chapter5#repair
• Enter “madlib”.
• https://www.dropbox.com/events?ns=false&n=0&d=11-28-2001
• https://www.dropbox.com/events?ns=false&n=0&d=3-21-2005
• https://www.dropbox.com/events?ns=false&n=0&d=1-7-2003
• https://www.dropbox.com/dropquest2012/aligned#repair
• https://www.dropbox.com/dropquest2012/leading#repair
• https://www.dropbox.com/dropquest2012/dealing#repair
• Of those last three URLs, find the one that didn’t return a 404 error. Enter “triumphant”.
• https://www.dropbox.com/referrals
• Invite boxer@dropbox.com or flash@dropbox.com or savior@dropbox.com (separately!) until you get redirected to the Chapter 10 page. Remember the email address you entered.
• Enter “mexico” or “argentina” or “korea”.
• Enter “southpole”.
• https://www.dropbox.com/home/Dropquest%202012/Captain's%20Logs
• Click Chapter 12.txt → More → Previous Versions → Restore.
• https://www.dropbox.com/help
• Click the shield icon (the icon, not the text right next to it).
• Clicking this link will solve the sudoku/slider puzzle for you.
• https://www.dropbox.com/home/Dropquest%202012
• Create a new folder and share it with the same email as before (boxer@dropbox.com or flash@dropbox.com or savior@dropbox.com).
• https://www.dropbox.com/share
• Click the biggest rainbow icon on the page.
• Enter “shanghai”.
• https://www.dropbox.com/home/Dropquest%202012/Spring%20Cleaning
• ⌘ + Click {1,3,6,8,9}.jpg and move them to the Category 1 folder. Shift + Click the first and last of the other JPEGs to select the remaining files, and drag them all to the Category 2 folder.
• http://db.tt/72j933
• http://db.tt/94j964
• http://db.tt/q2j9j4
• https://www.dropbox.com/dropquest2012/apollo13#repair
• Enter “abusively”.
• Enter “faced”, “based”, “badge”, “macau”, or “adage”.
• Enter “machu picchu”.
• Enter “colosseum”.
• https://www.dropbox.com/dropquest2012/finish

Following these steps, you can easily complete Dropquest 2012 in two or three minutes. Enjoy!