From zero to the login page

Nothing about reaching Black Ops is hard. The part people get wrong is impatience: the first load is slow by design, and a page that is still building its circuit looks exactly like a page that is broken.

1. Get Tor Browser

   The official build for your system from torproject.org. It is the one browser that speaks .onion directly, with no middleman. Which build and what to leave alone.

2. Copy one of the three addresses

   In full, including the .onion. All three open the same market, so pick whichever is most convenient to copy. Do not retype it.

3. Paste it into the address bar

   That is the whole "configuration" step. There is nothing to add, no onion service to register, no setting to flip.

4. Wait for the circuit

   The first load routes through three relays and can take 20 to 60 seconds. The progress bar stalls, then jumps. On a slow connection two minutes happens. Sit still. When it arrives you may get a short "Checking Your Browser" screen and then a simple image puzzle, click the shape with the cut. That is the market's own front door with a 30 second timer, not a fake and not something to close. Finish it and the login page follows.

5. Check the address bar

   It should end in .onion and match what you copied. Compare the first four characters and the last six. This is the thirty-second habit that separates "I am at the market" from "I am at a page that wants my password". The full test.

6. Log in

   Username, password, 2FA code if you have it on. What to do when it will not take them. First time here? Register from the same page instead.