Manual lookup tables hold the answers for most modules in the Bomb Appétit manual. Find the row from something the Defuser can see, such as a flashing color or a displayed word. Then pick the column from the bomb's state, such as the strike count. Read the one cell where they meet, aloud, exactly once.
Which modules answer through manual lookup tables?
Ten of the fourteen module pages answer through at least one lookup table. The exceptions are Wires, whose page is a set of rule lists, Labyrinth, which shows maze drawings, Passcode, which is a word list to cross off, and Discharge Lever, which has no rules at all. Big Button mixes a rule list with one small table.
The table below lists every page with a lookup table, what picks the row, what picks the column, and how many lookups one answer takes. The contents of each table change with the rule seed, but the shape described here does not.
| Module page | What picks the row | What picks the column or table | Lookups per answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Button | Color of the strip beside a held button | One column only: the digit to let go on | One, and only when the list says hold |
| Glyph Keypad | Not used: you search columns | The one column holding all four glyphs | One column search, then read its order |
| Color Echo | The pad that flashes | Table by serial vowel, column by strikes right now | One per flash |
| Word Grid | Step 1: the display word. Step 2: the word read | One column each | Two per round, three rounds |
| Recall | The digit on the display | The stage table, Stage 1 to Stage 5 | One per stage, plus notes for some answers |
| Blinker | Code table: a group of flashes | Then the word list: the word spelled out | One per letter, then one for the word |
| Tangled Wires | Wire color, star and light together | Then the letter table for the instruction | Two per wire |
| Wire Panels | The running count of that color | The wire's color: red, blue or black | One per wire |
| Pressure Vent | The question on the panel | One column: Yes or No | One each time it wakes |
| Dial Alignment | The pattern of twelve lights | One column: the direction | One each time it wakes |
You can open any of these pages in the standard manual, seed 1 and compare the layout with this table. For where the tables sit on a page, and how the lead paragraph above them is written, see how the bomb game manual is organized.
Finding a lookup table row from what the Defuser sees
A lookup table row is found from one fact the Defuser reads off the panel: a color, a word, a digit, a question or a pattern. Ask for that fact first and nothing else. Once you have it, run your eye down the first column until the fact matches, then stop and hold that row.
Each page has its own row key, and knowing it lets you ask a short, exact question. On Color Echo the row is the color of the pad that flashes. On Word Grid's first table it is the word on the display. On Recall it is the single digit on the display. On Pressure Vent it is the question, word for word. On Dial Alignment it is the full set of twelve lights, read as two rows of six.
Some row keys are easy to mishear, so the manual sorts tables to help. Word Grid's tables are sorted alphabetically, which is why spelling the word matters more than saying it. Blinker's code table is sorted by how many flashes a letter has, with fewer first and short before long, so an Expert who hears "short, long" knows to look near the top.
Some tables split their rows into two halves set side by side to save space. Word Grid's first table, Blinker's code table and Blinker's word list all do this. Each printed line then holds two separate entries. Find the half that contains your key before reading across, or you will read an answer that belongs to a different entry.
Lookup table columns that depend on the bomb's state
A lookup table column usually comes from the module, but Color Echo picks its column from the bomb: the number of strikes right now. Wire Panels does something related with its rows, picking them by a running count that grows across panels. In both cases the answer depends on something outside the single flash or wire in front of you.
Color Echo has two tables, one for a serial number with a vowel and one for a serial number without. Each table has three answer columns: no strikes, one strike, and two or more strikes. So before reading any row, the Expert needs two facts already settled: does the serial have a vowel, and how many strikes are on the bomb. The serial question is answered once per round. The strike question can change mid-module, and when it does the page says to start the current sequence again using the new column. The detail on that is in Color Echo's strike columns.
Whether a serial contains a vowel is quick to settle once you know the edgework appendix's rule that only A, E and U can appear. The guide to serial number rules for vowels and odd or even digits covers the other serial tests the manual uses.
Wire Panels has one column per wire color and nine rows labelled 1st to 9th. The row is not "this wire's position" but "how many wires of this color you have seen so far, counting this one". That count carries across all four panels and includes wires that were not cut. Keeping it in your head under a timer is unreliable, which is why it belongs on paper.
Two-step lookup tables: Word Grid and Blinker
A two-step lookup table gives an answer that is not the final action but the key to a second table. Word Grid and Blinker both work this way. The trick is to say the first answer aloud, write it down if needed, and only then go to the second table, so the two lookups never blur into one.
Word Grid's first table turns the display word into a button position, such as top left or bottom right. That position is not what you press. It tells you which button to read. The Defuser spells the word on that button, and the Expert finds it in the second table's left column. The right column is an ordered list of words. Go through it from left to right and stop at the first word that appears on any of the six buttons. That is the button to press. A Word Grid has three rounds, so this pair of lookups happens three times per module.
Blinker's first table is a code table. Each letter of the blinking word is a group of short and long flashes, and the table turns each group into a letter. One lookup per letter. When you have the whole word, look it up in the word list, which gives a frequency in MHz. The Defuser tunes to that frequency and presses transmit. Writing each letter down as you decode it keeps a long word from slipping halfway through.
Tangled Wires is a two-step lookup in a quieter form. The first table turns a wire's color, star and light into a letter. A second small table turns the letter into an instruction, such as cut, do not cut, or cut only if some edgework fact is true. That last kind of instruction sends you to the edgework, so a third fact comes into play.
Why is the Glyph Keypad lookup table read by column?
The Glyph Keypad table is read by column because the answer is a whole column, not a cell. The page shows six columns of seven glyphs. Only one column contains all four glyphs on the Defuser's keys. Find that column, then press the four keys in the order their glyphs appear in it, from top to bottom.
Every other lookup table in the manual starts with a known row key and reads across. Glyph Keypad has no row key at all. The Defuser's four glyphs are a set, and you are searching for the column that contains the whole set. That makes it a search, not a lookup, and it calls for a different habit.
A fast way to search: take the first glyph the Defuser names and find every column that has it. Usually that rules out several columns at once. Take the second glyph and check only the columns still in play. Keep going until one column remains, then confirm the last two glyphs are in it too. The rules are built so that only one column holds all four glyphs, but most glyphs also turn up in other columns, so a single match proves nothing.
Once the column is found, the order matters. Read the glyphs in that column from top to bottom, skip the ones the Defuser does not have, and say the four names in the order you meet them. Agreeing on glyph names with the Defuser before the first round, using the names printed under each glyph, saves the most time here.
The lookup table mistake: reading the row below
A common lookup table mistake is reading across the wrong row: the one below or above the row you meant. Under pressure the eye slides as it travels from the key column to the answer column. A finger, a ruler or the edge of a sheet of paper laid under the row stops it completely.
The risk is highest on tables where rows look alike. Dial Alignment's table is a column of light patterns, each made of filled and hollow circles. Eight patterns of dots in a stack invite the eye to drift, and every direction appears twice, so a slipped row still gives a plausible answer. Pressure Vent's questions are short and similar in tone, and two can share a word. Recall's five stage tables all have the same four rows, so reading Stage 2 instead of Stage 3 gives a sensible-looking but wrong instruction.
On screen, put the mouse pointer on the row, or select the row's text by dragging across it. On paper, lay a card or a pencil under the row before reading across. Then read the key cell aloud together with the answer cell, for example "blue flashes, one strike, press green" (an invented pairing). Saying the key back gives the Defuser a chance to catch a wrong row before the press.
A second version of the mistake is reading the right row in the wrong table. Color Echo's two tables look identical apart from their headings. Recall has five tables that differ only by stage number. Before reading, say which table you are in.
The facts these tables ask for come back again and again: the serial vowel, the strike count, Wire Panels counts, Recall presses. Keeping them on paper is covered in what to write in Bomb Expert notes, so the row and column keys are in front of you before the Defuser asks.