2288: Collector's Edition

2026-05-19T19:35:04Z

Melrulez14: it is not 880: Headache. it is 292: goto.

{{comic
| number = 2288
| date = April 3, 2020
| title = Collector's Edition
| image = collectors_edition.png
| titletext = I'm sure you can find some suitable worldbuilding material if you scavenge through the archives.
}}
{{series
| series = April
| number = 12
| date = April 3, 2020
| days_late = 2
| day_category = Friday
| prev_title = 1975: Right Click
| prev_date = April 1, 2019
| next_title = 2445: Checkbox
| next_date = April 1, 2021
| extra_text = [[#Trivia|Learn why this comic was released late]].
}}
{{TOC}}To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|2288|original comic}}!

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Need to finish uploading the few files of loot missing (UPDATE: Only a few are missing!!!) and loot descriptions.}}
This comic is a large draggable image that acted as a shared virtual sandbox for users to interact. Chests are "Items" (small and often humorous images) which could be collected from other comics, and then placed in this image by viewers, but today they are no longer dropped. The collection then updated for all viewers in real-time. Multiples of the same item are often seen. There is a "backpack" at the bottom, similar to backpacks in video games containing items collected by the player. As hinted by the title text, items could be found by visiting different xkcd comics/pages. Randomly, some pages would have a treasure chest which contained the sticker related to the page. The hint would refer to the page which currently had a chest.

The image at the origin is a reference to [[1450: AI-Box Experiment]].

The comic contains 32993 separate images. The sticker images can be seen at xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot_'''XXX'''.png, where XXX is a number from 001 to 253. Additionally, some images can be found at custom URLs, for example the periodic elements can be found at <nowiki>h</nowiki>ttps://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/element-'''XX'''.png, where XX is the element, and text loot at xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot-words-'''X'''.png, where X is the sentence. The [https://github.com/xkcd/maple source code] for the comic was released on GitHub.

Placement is limited to 10,000 horizontal units and 5,000 vertical units from the origin. Users received no messages if they try placing something outside the boundary, with a silent fail and the object not being placed. The coordinates are relative to the bottom left corner of the canvas. As the default coordinates are (-370,-277) and the origin is in the center, the displayed portion of the canvas can be found to be twice this in magnitude, 740 x 544 units. The most common image is loot-30.png, which appears 2576 times.

[[File:2288_full.png|100000px|thumb|left|The full image]]{{clear}}

=== Hints ===
For a more minimal list of the stickers found in the comic, see [[2288: Collector's Edition/Stickers]].
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Sticker
!Hint
!Comic
!Item unlocked
!Notes
|-
|[[File:2288_loot_019.png|50px]]
|Doctors in a row
|[[239: Blagofaire]]
|Cory Doctorow
|These comics all have the same hint, but only one will have the chest
|-
|[[File:2288_loot_246.png|75px]]
|Get out the (US) vote
|Chapter 5 of What If? (New York Style Time Machine)
|Statue of liberty
|
|-
|[[File:2288_loot_126.png|75px]]
|Find a box of nice stuff on a picture with words like these
|[[ 1375: Astronaut Vandalism]]
|Signpost
|
|-
|[[File:2288_loot_228.png|50px]] or [[File:Miniloot-words-dispenser.png|75px]] (maybe incomplete)
|Plug in or find another power source
|[[1373: Screenshot]]
|
|
|-
|[[File:2288_loot_090.png|75px]]
|Sweet dreams, kitty
|[[729: Laser Pointer]] (maybe incomplete)
|Cat licking laser point
|
|-
|[[File:2288_loot_185.png|75px]]
|What is this hint pointing to? Hell if I know.
|[[1052: Every Major's Terrible]]
|2 + lightbulb = boat
|
|-
|[[File:loot 197.png|75px]]
|Somebody set up us the bomb
|[[286: All Your Base]]
|Exploding rock/planet crypton
|
|-
|[[File:loot 175.png|75px]]
|Cowabunga
|[[1412: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] (maybe incomplete)
|Women Science Fiction Authors
|[[197: Ninja Turtles]] also works
|-
|[[File:loot 210.png|75px]]
|I want to believe
|[[2156: Ufo]]
|Ufo
|
|-
|[[File:loot 044.png|75px]]
|Bleeped
|[[290]], [[398]], [[430]], [[447]], [[533]], [[549]], [[677]], [[724]] or [[1671]]
|*$@#!
|Comics whose titles involve profanities or similar insults.
|-
|[[File:loot 159.png|75px]]
|why waste time say few word when lot word do trick
|[[7]], [[111]], [[139]], [[143]], [[179]], [[217]], [[445]], [[470]], [[822]], [[823]], [[1022]], [[1247]], [[1491]], [[1921]], [[1991]], [[2182]] or [[2231]]
|First Annual Award for Excellence in Being Very Smart
|Comics with titles that are six or more words (with the exception of [[111]], which has five and a spaced dash).
|-
|[[File:loot 006.png|75px]]
|Cooler than electric scooters
|[[139]], [[409]], [[577]], [[578]], [[579]], [[580]] or [[581]]
|An electric skateboard
|
|-
|[[File:loot 095.png|75px]]
|Take it from the top
|[[1: Barrel - Part 1]] (maybe incomplete)
|I am a turtle from [[889: Turtles]]
|
|-
|[[File:loot 031.png|75px]]
|I accept the yucca gnocchi, this meal is a success!
|[[1713: 50 ccs]] (maybe incomplete)
|Man carrying parentheses from [[297: Lisp Cycles]]
|
|-
|
|Catch up on the news
|[[1699: Local News]] (maybe incomplete)
|
|
|-
|[[File:loot 096.png|75px]]
|Participation trophy
|[[2288: Collector's Edition]] (maybe incomplete)
|Server rack
|
|-
|[[File:loot 161.png|75px]]
|Find an opportunity for a sojourn
|[[665]], [[681]], [[695]], [[1091]], [[1504]], [[1613]], [[1663]] or [[2111]]
|Opportunity Mars rover from [[2111: Opportunity Rover]]
|
|-
|[[File:loot 159.png|75px]]
|Tastier than tau day
|[[179: e to the pi times i]] (maybe incomplete)
|First annual award for excellence in being very smart
|Need to find out the difference between this, and the entry below!
|-
|[[File:loot 056.png|75px]]
|Tastier than tau day
|[[235]], [[396]], [[872]], [[1029]], [[1342]], [[1655]] or [[1967]]
|Pie sign
|Published on Pi day
|-
|[[File:loot 216.png|75px]]
|418 I'm a teapot
|[[1866: Russell's Teapot]] (maybe incomplete)
|S.S. NASA: Space is Hard
|
|-
|[[File:loot 205.png|75px]]
|26th September, 1983
|[[2052: Stanislav Petrov Day]]
|White dove
|Might also be written "September 26th, 1983". Locale dependent?
|-
|[[File:loot 151.png|75px]]
|There are 4241 as of Apr 1, 2020
|[[1071: Exoplanets]] (maybe incomplete)
|Little girl from [[2264: Satellite]]
|
|-
|[[File:loot 079.png|75px]]
|asableiK
|[[645: RPS]]
|A reverse Polish hotdog
|"Kielbasa" backwards, which is "sausage" in Polish
|-
|[[File:loot 203.png|75px]]
|Critical mass elements
|[[235: Kite]] or [[239: Blagofaire]]
|
|
|-
|[[File:loot 036.png|150x150px]]
|Some Februarys are more equal than others
|[[390: Nightmares]]? (maybe incomplete)
|Cueball wheelie from [[272: Linux User at Best Buy]]
|Comic-hint connection largely conjectural; 390 was the first comic published on a leap day.
|-
|[[File:loot 022.png|150x150px]]
|Five spice
|[[1511: Spice Girl]] or [[1554: Spice Girls]]
|Rock guitarist
|
|-
|[[File:loot 058.png|75px]]
|Call the plumber
|[[423: Finish Line]]
|Luigi in a green Kart
|
|-
|[[File:loot 103.png|150x150px]]
|Was it a rat I saw?
|[[968: Everything]]
|Cueball with a large sack, pulling a wagon
|or [[1503: Squirrel Plan]] for Cueball holding a balloon caught in a ceiling fan.
|-
|[[File:loot 045.png|75px]]
|Churchill's gonna have to seriously rehydrate
|[[346: Diet Coke+Mentos]]
|Bottle of soda
|
|-
|
|Keep coming back
|
|
|
|-
|[[File:loot 235.png|75px]]
|A new model released each year
|Triggered by visiting all xkcd phone comics in order
|Phone screaming "Noooo"
|
|-
|[[File:loot 232.png|75px]]
|Tea Time
|Maybe [[581: The Race: Part 5]]? Need confirmation.
|All our tea
|
|-
|[[File:loot 092.png|75px]]
|Try pattern-matching! Look for comic 'bout alphabet?
|[[1045: Constraints]]
|Two Tetris blocks
|
|-
|[[File:loot 021.png|75px]]
|Where's Hilbert?
|[[195: Map of the Internet]] (maybe incomplete)
|Hilbert Curve
|
|-
|[[File:loot 202.png|75px]]
|Science fiction fetish
|[[1585: Similarities]]
|
|
|-
|[[File:loot 250.png|75px]] / [[File:loot 067.png|75px]]
|The first one was funnier
|[[11: Barrel - Part 2]] (maybe incomplete)
|Falling feather / Sign "The uncomfortable truths well"
|
|-
|[[File:loot 127.png|75px]]
|It's up to over 260 million cycles!
|[[1941: Dying Gift]]
|Megan on a tire swing
|
|-
|[[File:loot 163.png|75px]]
|Sleeping Beauty is the same everywhere though
|[[2233: Aurora Meaning]] (maybe incomplete)
|Sleeping Cat
|
|-
|[[File:loot 191.png|75px]]
|On the internet, nobody knows you're an arachnid
|[[1530: Keyboard Mash]] (maybe incomplete)
|Cobwebbed frame from [[1135: Arachnoneurology]]
|
|-
|[[File:loot 152.png|75px]]
|Did James Cameron pay for the rice cooker too?
|[[1598: Salvage]] (maybe incomplete)
|Rice bowl
|
|-
|[[File:loot 010.png|75px]]
|Never going to give you up
|[[351]], [[389]], [[396]], [[524]], [[573]], [[609]], [[802]], [[1212]], [[1757]] or [[1981]]
|Cueball in car listening to music
|
|-
|[[File:loot 247.png|75px]]
|If red touches yellow, that's 24 ohms
|[[1604: Snakes]], [[227: Color Codes]]? (maybe incomplete)
|Yoda with an mp3 player from What If
|
|-
|[[File:loot 115.png|75px]]
|An enthusiastic but questionable business opportunity
|[[1021]], [[1032]], [[1117]], [[1293]], [[1493]], [[1533]], [[1772]], [[1812]], [[1871]], [[1903]], [[1997]], [[2140]], [[2209]] or [[2277]]
|Beret guy with a goat on leash
|
|-
|Multiple: loot_106.png, miniloot-words-hair.png, miniloot-words-ominous.png, miniloot-words-eruption.png, miniloot-words-flying.png or miniloot-words-ghost.png (maybe incomplete)
|Read the fine manual
|[[293]], [[434]], [[456]], [[912]], [[1343]] or [[1692]]
|
|
|-
|[[File:loot 209.png|75px]]
|That thing's undecimodal!
|[[1347: t Distribution]] (maybe incomplete)
|Floating tentacled alien
|
|-
|[[File:loot 253.png|75px]]
|Actually, it's Myanmar-Shave now
|[[491: Twitter]] (maybe incomplete)
|Expensive bottle
|
|-
|[[File:loot 002.png|75px]]
|You don't have to find all 99
|[[121: Balloon]] (maybe incomplete)
|Balloon copter
|Or [[51: Malaria]] ?
|-
|[[File:loot 098.png|75px]]
|Going in circles
|[[378: Real Programmers]] (maybe incomplete)
|Cueball spinning in desk chair
|
|-
|[[File:loot 158.png|75px]]
|Couldn't you try knitting, or maybe stamp collecting?
|[[37]], [[53]], [[60]], [[75]], [[79]], [[148]], [[168]], [[174]], [[236]], [[259]], [[287]], [[296]], [[326]], [[331]], [[389]], [[437]], [[451]], [[559]], [[590]], [[605]], [[687]], [[719]], [[733]], [[790]], [[845]], [[966]], [[1004]], [[1119]], [[1145]], [[1169]], [[1208]], [[1278]], [[1304]], [[1329]], [[1340]], [[1355]], [[1405]], [[1480]], [[1546]], [[1598]], [[1677]], [[1697]], [[1705]], [[1788]], [[1795]], [[1960]], [[1995]], [[2032]], [[2123]], [[2208]] or [[2252]]
|Phishing License sign
|Mostly comics that include "My hobby:"
|-
|[[File:loot 069.png|75px]]
|It's the ciiiiircle of HONK
|[[537: Ducklings]] or [[1729: Migrating Geese]]
|DUCKLOOP'D?
|
|-
|[[File:loot 033.png|75px]]
|Fool me twice
|Maybe [[292: goto]]? Need confirmation.
|Raptor Attack
|The second April Fools' Day comic
|-
|
|oOOOoooo
|Maybe [[316: Loud Sex]]? Need confirmation.
|Sleeping cat
|
|-
|[[File:loot 004.png|75px]]
|Maybe we can ask for new wishes
|[[879: Lamp]]
|Genie and his bottle
|If you place the genie last, you get another genie (indefinitely) - Needs verification, this may also just be a bug!
|-
|[[File:loot 130.png|75px]]
|HACK THE PLANET
|[[1337: Hack]] (maybe incomplete)
|Crash and Burn in the pool from the end of ''Hackers''
|
|-
|[[File:loot 162.png]]
|Monetization haute couteur
|[[20]], [[23]], [[55]], [[123]], [[149]], [[150]], [[162]], [[208]], [[231]], [[242]], [[256]], [[273]], [[285]], [[303]], [[327]], [[377]], [[386]], [[420]], [[435]], [[442]], [[482]], [[505]], [[552]], [[556]], [[585]], [[614]], [[627]], [[657]], [[681]], [[688]], [[705]], [[710]], [[802]], [[821]], [[980]], [[1033]], [[1040]], [[1079]], [[1127]], [[1133]], [[1196]], [[1298]] or [[1428]] (maybe false positives)
|Two bags of money
|
|-
|[[File:miniloot-words-eater.png|75px]](maybe incomplete)
|Maybe writing a script would help
|[[1319: Automation]]
|
|
|-
|[[File:loot 245.png|75px]]
|Go big to go small
|[[1365: Inflation]]
|
|
|-
|[[File:loot 237.png|75px]]
|Are you projecting
|[[850]], [[977]], [[1500]], [[1784]], [[1799]], [[2242]] or [[2256]]
|Squirrel on a gun
|
|-
|loot_007.png
|Do spiders really have six legs
|[[8]], [[43]], [[126]], [[427]], [[442]] or [[1110]]
|
|
|-
|loot_071.png
|Istanbul or Constantinople or St. Trimble's Island?
|[[1688: Map Age Guide]]
|Cephalopod
|
|-
|loot_037.png
|Another rulebook?
|[[393: Ultimate Game]]
|Merlin in a chair from [[270: Merlin]]
|
|-
|[[File:loot 192.png|75px]]
|Moooooon
|[[482]], [[681]], [[1276]], [[1291]], [[1300]], [[1389]], [[1458]], [[1515]], [[1633]], [[1738]], [[1878]] or [[2258]]
|MOOOOOON
|
|-
|loot_049.png
|Take a flight from LOL to FFS
|[[1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations]]
|
|
|-
|
|Everyone deserves a second chnace
|All comics searched, no matches
|
|The misspelling is intentional. [[745: Dyslexics]] would have been a good fit
|-
|[[File:loot 035.png|75px]]
|Community contribution
|[[822]], [[823]], [[824]], [[825]], [[826]]
|[Citation Needed] protester from [[285: Wikipedian Protester]]
|
|-
|[[File:loot 154.png|75px]]
|On the other side of the wardrobe
|[[665: Prudence]], [[969: Delta-P]] or [[2218: Wardrobe]] (maybe incomplete)
|Authentic Reindeer pulling sled from [[1776: Reindeer]]
|
|-
|[[File:loot 105.png|75px]]
|Today's your lucky day
|[[1053: Ten Thousand]] (maybe incomplete)
|Ms. Frizzle
|
|-
|[[File:loot 038.png|75px]]
|[This hint has been redacted due to a copyright claim]
|[[1005: SOPA]]
|The tape
|
|-
|loot_times.png or loot_div.png (maybe incomplete)
|Try a different approach
|[[55: Useless]] (maybe incomplete)
|Equals sign
|
|-
|[[File:loot 144.png|75px]]
|The cake is a lie!
|[[606: Cutting Edge]]
|Cake
|
|-
|[[File:loot 026.png|75px]]
|Joanna, fire.
|[[322: Pix Plz]]
|Joanna with EMP cannon
|
|-
|
|Everything changes from time to time when the fire nation attacks
|[[965: Elements]]
|Symposium
|
|-
|loot_041.png
|90KG x 300M
|[[382: Trebuchet]]
|Trebuchet
|
|-
|loot_046.png
|Copyright Enforcement Brigade
|[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
|
|
|-
|[[File:loot 128.png|75px]]
|Where Cape Town meets Chukotka
|[[1500: Upside-Down Map]]
|Crater
|
|-
|[[File:loot 005.png|75px]]
|Take a ride in a barrel
|View all five barrel comics in reverse order ([[31]], [[25]], [[22]], [[11]], [[1]])
|Cueball at the door to the playpen-ball-filled apartment from [[150: Grownups]]
|
|-
|[[File:loot 030.png|75px]]
|Compiling...
|[[303: Compiling]]
|Two Cueballs fighting with swords while on chairs
|
|-
|[[File:loot 109.png|75px]]
|
|[[2288: Collector's Edition]]
|Sheeple eye from [[1013: Wake Up Sheeple]]
|
|-
|[[File:loot 167.png|75px]]
|
|[[2288: Collector's Edition]]
|Time machine from [[1747: Spider Paleontology]]
|
|}

==Transcript==

:[Cueball stands to the left of a vibrating box.]
:[The words "Collector's Edition" are written above him and boxed.]

==Trivia==
*This comic is the 2020 April Fools' Day comic and was supposed to be released on Wednesday, April 1st. However, it did not go live until Friday, April 3. Meanwhile, Friday's comic, [[2289: Scenario 4]], was published a day later for a [[2289: Scenario 4#Trivia|very rare Saturday release]]. The message below was displayed on the [[Header text|header text]] of the site from Wednesday until the comic finally went live:
:<blockquote>Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead. Apologies for the delay!</blockquote>
:This is one of the few comics released four days after the previous one. The last time this occurred was [[2224: Software Updates]].
*On [[unixkcd]], [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/collectors_edition.png this image] is displayed when you try to display this comic.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Giraffes]]
[[Category:Comics with cursed items]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Turtles]]
[[Category:Comics with custom header texts]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2288: Collector's Edition