OK I figured out the animal no ides how it related to the code but im looking for games. =) Love this set up. =)

I keep listening to the sound and we must have very different animal vocal cords in different locales. =)

Mhm, I was wondering if a hint for breaking the code was necessary.
If there is anyone who wants to give it a shot still: once you know the animal in question, you are already halfway there! As for the breaking the code: don't think too complicated, think simple ;)

Other than that, Grimwerk really was the only one who managed to solve, and quite early on at that. So, if you do redeem - you definitely deserve it :)

I've been assuming the animal is a GOAT - ruminant, fiber, also would be the missing 4 digit piece of the code.

But I haven't really spent any time trying to break the code - was mostly just having fun trolling the thread over the animal :)

Lol... True dat!

Here how to crack the code:

1) Use the original:
XQOQ WINB JEBN OGTM ZAZZ RTQX BISX HZON IOZA ZBJA
VTUZ GZSU IYFU GXFI PXDX AKDC VOXO ODWO ZOJO

2) Delete a and scrumble and edit the code. Result will be:
Ir0n Gi@nt is the answ3r and HL3 Confirmed!

3) ???

4) Profit!

Mhm, maybe hint 3 wasn't worded well enough, since it was meant to eliminate exactly those kind of species (goats, sheep, cows...) since their digestive system does in fact look like this... since I'm pretty sure people don't know about the intricacies of ruminating I suggested google.
Also, the code isn't missing any digits. Actually, the number of digits is nothing to worry about or think about for too long. Finding the right animal however is crucial.
Nice way to crack the code, however, I sense some bias towards Iron giant based solutions ;) Some kind of obsession, maybe? What might have brought that on, I wonder?

The animal is an ALPACA.

I'm [barely] familiar with the animal because there was a series of tv commercials years ago advocating that suburbanites abandon their jobs and raise alpacas in their backyard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVEMS2xK-1c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcy-_Jo_5wQ

Still, I couldn't identify the sound. But, WildHobgoblin dutifully responded to every posted guess, except Cadaver747, who asked: So I suspected Cadaver747 was on the right track.

WildHobgoblin also said: Which confirmed the LLAMA family (which includes the ALPACA). Listening to a few llama noise videos seemed to support this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzQ0tLLDQvs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_JIUS9PPxw

WildHobgoblin said about the code: This suggested a basic cipher, something quick using an animal name as a key. As he was concerned that someone could quickly type out animal names into a tool and recognize the answer, he garbled the message so it wouldn't be immediately recognizable as correct.

Turns out he used a Vigenere cipher, in which each letter in the text is shifted based upon the letters in the keyword ALPACA. The result is:

XFZQ UINQ UEZN OVEM XAZO CTOX BXDX FZOC TOXA ZQUA
TTUO RZQU INQU EXFX AXBX AZOC TOXD ZDUO ZDUO

As I said, garbled. But there are a few curiosities that reveal it is something special. It ends in a repeated group: ZDUO ZDUO. There are many patterns: AXBX BXDX EXFX and UINQ INQU. If you remove spaces and eliminate the Z and X letters, you get:

F QUINQUE NOVEM A OCTO B D F OCTO A QUATTUOR QUINQUE F A B A OCTO D DUO DUO

Which is the letters A through F, interspersed with Latin numbers:
F59A8-BDF8A-45FAB-A8D22

I found the puzzle to be very good fun, and the game looks excellent, so I've finally claimed the hell out of it. (Downloading now!)

Thanks very much, WildHobgoblin!

Please excuse my rambling, all.

Nice work!

Was there any mention of what the prize actually was, or did I miss it?

I work too much and when I come home I want to have a little fun + trolling :D

Thanks! Also, sorry, entirely forgot the game:
http://www.gog.com/game/indiana_jones_and_the_emperors_tomb

Thanks to Grimwerk for posting the solution, and congrats (again). I'm glad this game is interesting to you, and I hope you'll have some fun with it :) (It was Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb).

As for the code, I wasn't sure how far people had gotten into solving, or if anyone had tried ciphers at all, but:

if you go for ciphers, Vigenère is one of the more known ones, it is also the only "easy" cipher to need a keyword to break it. There are quite handy online tools for both de- and enciphering strings of letters (like this one). Since same tools may allow for brute force solving, numbers were changed to Latin, Z and X added as breaks between numbers/letters.

As for the hints, hint 1 was a random picture of hay, meant to lead you to think mammal, also eliminating carnivores and probably others, like primates.
Hint 2 is an Alpaca spitting.
Hint 3 - the Camelid family (along with Hippopatami) are counted among the ruminating animals, without actually having a rumen. Not many may know (or care, even, but hey, the more you know... ;) ). Google reverse image search will lead you to the relevant wikipedia page.
Hint 4 is Alpaca wool.

Thanks to everyone for playing along, thanks to Grimwerk for the kind words, and see you all around :)

Congrats grimwerk. I'm really impressed by your puzzle solving abilities!

Ah, I tried several ciphers, including Vigenere, with a dozen or so ruminating animal keywords. Including even cangaroos. I tried camels and llamas but not alpacas.

That said, I'm not sure I'd have spotted the answer
XFZQ UINQ UEZN OVEM XAZO CTOX BXDX FZOC TOXA ZQUA
TTUO RZQU INQU EXFX AXBX AZOC TOXD ZDUO ZDUO

even if I did try alpacas. That's a very good job of hiding it against brute force. I was quickly trying various animals, so had I tried alpaca, I'd have probably dismissed this as meaningless garbled text. But a person who know the answer is alpaca, would study it a bit more and spot the code. Well done.

Thanks for the puzzle.

Ah, sorry if that ruminating thing mislead you, but you were pretty close, it seems! (the wool maybe might have done it?)
I hoped people might use google-searching for "animal x sounds" or similar for verification (searching "Alpaca sounds" for me has this as a first result ;) ), thereby confirming their choice of animal... Good to hear though that you went with Vigenére, so at least it wasn't waayy out there ;)

Thanks, ZFR! And I agree with this. I'm pretty sure I did try ALPACA early on, but dismissed it. That garbled text contained just the right level of curiousness. In the end, I tried LLAMA and found nothing, but ALPACA was a fairly instant "heyyyy" due to the ZDUO ZDUO.

I need to get off my tail and error check my own new puzzles.

Wow, you have a twisted sense of "think simple" WildHobgoblin! ;) That's one amazing and challenging puzzle.

And as for you grimwerk, you are simply twisted! Enjoy the game :)

Yeah, you're probably right :)
Maybe playing too many adventure games while still young and impressionable has damaged me somehow...