Occam's razor, kids.

You won't find any hidden strata. Can I be absolutely 100% sure of this? No. But I'm willing to bet every single bit of property that I own on SK that I'm right. You're looking way too deep into this. The secrets he was referring to are things small and not monumentally game-changing. That's called "content." And given the resources required to create said content and how content is needed to attract new players to the game, they would NOT just make it and then leave it "undiscovered" by the ENTIRE playerbase, unused, since the launch of the game. Think about this with some sense for just a minute. >_<

Also, the 4 "empty slots" are highly indicative of one of two things:

1) just a coincidence; that's simply how the columns line up.

2) 3R plans on incorporating more content in the future, and so left space open and available in various locations with which to do that.

Strongly believe it's number 2. You see how much unused space is in moorcroft and emberlight? those places, among others, seem to have been intentionally designed way in advance of planned content expansion in the future.

Now quit this before you try turning Spiral Knights into the "Number 23."

This is a very interesting theory. :o

1) What? It takes longer to make unused section of a hub? Yeah, it does, but why make it if you're not going to use it, if not for future expansion? "They made something unused because it takes longer to make" is nonsensical. You're going to need to rephrase or explain because I don't know what you mean.

2) Yes, Nick says there are secrets in the game. Did I claim there weren't? No. Glad that's out of the way.

3) I will be quick to dismiss "hidden content" for the exact reasons I stated. Now, I may be wrong depending on your definition of "content," but all the information he posted along with the "secrets" were just trivia. Any hidden stuff in the game right now is, I'm willing to bet, trivial and easter-eggish.

4) You're only convinced that the hidden secret is actual content because that's what you want it to be. You have nothing to go on whatsoever but implications and your own interpretations. You're not, nor is anyone, convinced of anything, because there isn't anything convincing ENOUGH (e.g. strong enough evidence).

Listen, I'm not telling you not to have this discussion. I'm only trying to be the voice of reason here and reminding you guys not to go overboard with the speculation, and IMO this is bordering on the edge. Also, keep in mind that people can and do look through game files, and even though it's against forum policy they post information they find from there onto here occasionally (like the shroom hat). If the playerbase hasn't found anything fundamentally game-altering or game-affecting, and no one has found it in the code, it's more logical to assume it isn't there rather than "xyz might exist." Call me a killjoy if you want, but I'd rather not have rumor mills start sending everyone down the absurdity road of things like "omg did you hear, there's some secret godzilla boss monster you can only fight on the stone grove if you do X Y and Z!"

The most important issue in doing this would not be the amount of materials, but timing. It would require 5-10 coordinated (on Vent or Skype) people who would each have a couple hundred of each material, and than, few minutes before the gate launches, choose the stratum that has most equal (lowest amplitude) amounts of materials, and than make it equal and keep it that way until the last second.

I don't know if it would be easier to do it in secret or to inform many players, because while informing them would keep some people from that, it would also bring attention to that gate, and possibly someone who'd want to interfere.

It wouldn't be hard to pull off with a good guild (or a couple of friends), I really hope it works to reveal a secret stratum (like the Sleep themed Starlight Cradle, that already is in the game files) but I doubt it's the secret Nick means.

EDIT: I tried experimenting with recipes on the 5 stratum of Silver Falcon gate, and it seems that none of those combinations created new stratums. I may be wrong, and the sleep stratum could be some kind of secret, that only appears when the gate is finished, but that's not very likely.

All equal - random
4 equal 1 higher - normal stratums
4 equal 1 lower - normal stratums
4 equal Dark matter higher - random

@ Zanoni
Looks like we got the same idea, we even tried the same gate xD

I was there after you, and balanced it again, but I was too lazy to take screenshots (unless something happened).

I dunno if this is what nick was getting at. But this is pretty smart, and I think people have overlooked this, probably due to having to talk to this guy and read :O

With the lack of sleep monsters, I'm not sure if these alternate zones are intended as of now or will be implemented in the future...thoughts?

yeah, I was ignored the mineral capacity thing because I thought they changed that awhile back (was it 6-9-2011 update?). So if there's no mineral capacity, there should be no such thing as a 10% to worry about.

Also I /derp with my initial post. Zanoni and Prizmat were testing that while I was typing (I left to browse my schedule). So my post was unnecessary :D

Look in the icons folder of the rsrc folder in the spiral knights folder of your computer, for a Doom status symbol and a Muddle status symbol.

Just adding more to the theories.

There has been experimentation of recipes for each individual strata, but could it be possible that there is a recipe that involves specific strata in order in a tier (or all the tiers) to say open up the core? I guess this could not be Nick#10, b/c that would be obvious to the devs if we figured out how to get the core open though...

Skylark is a cool idea too.

"Has anyone noticed that the mineral colors consist of 3 primary and 2 secondary."

The minerals are Crimsonite, Valestone, and Moonstone representing Red, Green, and Blue (the three primary colors of light as perceived by the human eye), plus Luminite and Dark Matter representing light and darkness (all colors and no colors). They are even ordered this way in your inventory.

They're probably just yellow and purple because those colors are more readable and/or on "more equal footing" to the others than white and black.

And why on earth is everyone taking Shoebox at his word that 3 and 8 are related to 10? He doesn't work for Three Rings.