Battery count rules in the Bomb Appétit manual count batteries, not the holders they sit in. A holder carries either one battery or a pack of two, so add two for every pack and one for every single cell. Big Button and Tangled Wires are the two modules that ask, and both want that battery total.
How many battery holders can a bomb carry?
A bomb carries anywhere from zero to four battery holders on its casing. Each holder has one battery or a pack of two, so the battery total runs from zero up to eight. A bomb with no holders at all is normal, and its batteries plate simply says "none".
The manual's edgework appendix states the range in one line: zero to four holders, each with one battery or a pack of two. The game draws each holder as a dark box with yellow cells inside it. A box with one cell is a single. A box with two cells side by side is a pack.
An empty batteries plate is a real answer, not a missing one. When the plate reads "none", the battery count is zero, and every battery line in the manual can be settled straight away. "Fewer than two batteries" is true. "More than one battery" is false. The Tangled Wires battery letter means leave the wire.
The Defuser should still say the word out loud. "Batteries: none" is a complete report. Silence is not, because the Expert cannot tell whether the Defuser skipped the plate or found it empty.
Single cells and packs of two: adding up the battery count
To get the battery count, look inside every holder and add up the cells. A holder with one cell adds one. A holder with two cells, a pack, adds two. The number of boxes on the plate is the holder count, which the rules almost never want.
The arithmetic is simple, but it is easy to rush. A plate with three boxes looks like "three", and that is the number that comes out first. If two of those boxes are packs, the real total is five.
A clear way to count is box by box, left to right:
- Point at the first holder and say how many cells it has.
- Move to the next and add.
- Say the running total after the last box.
- Say the holder count too, so the Expert can check the sum.
A spoken report built that way might sound like this example: "Batteries: four holders. Two, one, two, one. Six batteries." The Expert hears both numbers and can confirm that four holders could reasonably hold six.
The highest total, eight, needs four packs. The smallest non-zero total is one, a single cell in a single holder. Every number in between can happen, and several holder setups can give the same total. Six batteries, for instance, can come from three packs or from two packs plus two single cells. That is why the Expert should write the total, not the setup.
For the side of this that happens at the case, including how the Defuser makes sure no holder is missed, see counting batteries on every side of the case. It walks through the read-out itself.
Battery conditions on the Big Button
Big Button's manual page is a list of lines, read from the top, and the first true line decides tap or hold. Some lines can test the battery count, written as "the bomb has more than N batteries" or "the bomb has fewer than N batteries". Both comparisons are strict: equal to N makes the line false.
That strictness is where most errors happen. "More than two batteries" means three or more. A bomb with exactly two batteries fails it. "Fewer than three batteries" means zero, one or two. A bomb with exactly three fails that one.
A Big Button line can also join two conditions with "and". An invented example: "If the button is yellow and the bomb has fewer than three batteries, hold the button." Both halves must be true. A yellow button on a bomb with three batteries fails the line, and the Expert carries on down the list.
Whether a battery line appears at all, which number it names and which direction it points all come from the rule seed. One manual's Big Button page may test batteries twice and another not at all. The only safe approach is to have the count written down before Big Button comes up.
A simple routine helps the Expert at a battery line:
- Read the number in the line.
- Read the comparison word: "more" or "fewer".
- Compare it with the total in the notes, treating equal as false.
- If the line has an "and", check the other half only if this half was true.
The full Big Button routine, including the colored strip that decides when to let go of a held button, is in the guide to tapping or holding the Big Button. Big Button lines can also ask about a labelled indicator, which is covered in which lit indicator label the Big Button asks about.
The two-battery rule on Tangled Wires
On Tangled Wires, the letter B means cut the wire only if the bomb has two or more batteries. Unlike Big Button, this one says "or more", so exactly two batteries counts. The threshold is printed the same way on every manual, so an Expert can learn it once.
Tangled Wires gives every wire four yes-or-no questions: does it have red, does it have blue, does it have a star, is its light on. The answers point to a letter in a diagram or a table on the manual page. C means cut. D means do not cut. Three letters hand the decision to the edgework: S asks about the serial number, P asks about a port, and B asks about batteries.
When the lookup lands on B, the Expert checks the notes. Two or more batteries: cut. Zero or one: leave the wire.
Because the threshold is two batteries, the holder mistake is especially costly here. A bomb with one holder carrying a pack has two batteries, so a B wire should be cut. Counted by holders, it looks like one, and the wire stays. That is a missed cut, and the module cannot finish until it is fixed.
The same bomb can need several B checks, since more than one wire may land on that letter. The answer is the same each time, so it pays to write "B: cut" or "B: leave" in the notes after the first lookup. For the other edgework letter that needs a lookup, see which port type Tangled Wires checks.
When would a rule count holders, not batteries?
The manual's appendix says rules count batteries, not holders, unless they say holders. That wording leaves room for a holder rule, but no module page in the current game has one. Every battery line on Big Button and Tangled Wires counts batteries.
So the practical answer is: only when the line on the page literally uses the word "holder". If a future module added such a line, its wording would say so. Until then, an Expert who sees the word "battery" or "batteries" should always use the total of cells.
It is still worth writing the holder count down. It costs one number, and it lets the Expert check the Defuser's addition. Four holders and nine batteries is impossible, so a report like that means something was misheard. It also means the notes are ready if the game ever adds a line that does ask about holders.
Every module reads the edgework the same way on every bomb, so the count never depends on which module is asking. The manual itself is all the Experts need during a round, and it states the counting rule in plain words.
The battery mistake: counting holders as batteries
The usual battery mistake is reporting the number of boxes instead of the number of cells. Each pack hides one extra battery, so the error grows with every pack on the case. With four packs, a holder count says four when the true battery count is eight.
The table below shows invented battery setups and how two rules from this post would resolve for each. The Big Button line used here, "more than two batteries", is an example; your manual's lines may use other numbers or point the other way. The Tangled Wires rule is the real B rule.
| Example setup | Holders | Batteries | Big Button "more than two batteries" | Tangled Wires B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No holders | 0 | 0 | False | Do not cut |
| One single cell | 1 | 1 | False | Do not cut |
| One pack | 1 | 2 | False | Cut |
| Two single cells | 2 | 2 | False | Cut |
| One pack and one single cell | 2 | 3 | True | Cut |
| Four packs | 4 | 8 | True | Cut |
Look at the "one pack" row. Counted by holders, it reads as one, which would give "do not cut" on Tangled Wires. The real count is two, which gives "cut". Now look at "one pack and one single cell". By holders it is two, which makes the Big Button line false; by batteries it is three, which makes it true. A single misread pack flips both answers.
Three habits stop it:
- The Defuser describes each holder by its cells, never as "a battery".
- The Expert writes "batteries" and "holders" as two labelled numbers.
- If the two numbers are the same, the Expert asks once: "No packs at all?"
Try it on the standard manual: read its Big Button page and its Tangled Wires B rule, then check the setups in the table against them. The how to play page has a short note on edgework for anyone new to the bomb.