In puzzle games with instructions, the page does the thinking for you, as long as you read it in order. On a Bomb Appétit manual page that order is fixed: the lead paragraph first, then any numbered steps, then the list or table. Small instruction words, such as count, find, stop or otherwise, change what you tell the Defuser.
Why puzzle games with instructions put the rules in a lead paragraph
The lead paragraph is the short block of text directly under a module's name. It describes the panel the Defuser is looking at, then gives the method in a few plain sentences. The tables below it hold answers, but the lead holds the rules for using those answers: what to count, from which end, and what a mistake does.
A table cannot say whether wires are numbered from the top or the bottom, or whether a count resets between panels. A sentence can. That is why every module page in the manual starts with prose before any grid. The lead is where the page tells you how to hold the table.
Leads follow a pattern. The first sentences describe the panel in words the Defuser will recognise: how many wires, buttons, wheels or lights, and what is printed on them. The middle sentences give the method. The last sentences usually say what happens on a wrong move. Three or four short sentences cover all of it, written to be read aloud.
The overall shape of a page, including where the lead sits relative to the rules beneath it, is covered in how a module page is laid out. This post is about reading one page well, word by word, with Wire Panels as the worked example.
Should an Expert read the lead before asking any questions?
Yes. An Expert should read the lead before asking the Defuser anything, because the lead tells you which question to ask. Many leads name the exact request, such as asking the Defuser to spell every word or to read out all six letters on a wheel. Asking before reading means asking the wrong thing.
Look at how many leads contain a direct question for the Defuser. Word Grid's says to ask the Defuser to spell every word, because many of its words sound alike. Passcode's says to ask for all six letters on the first wheel. Labyrinth's says to ask where the two rings are, then where the light and the triangle are. Tangled Wires lists four things to ask about each wire. Pressure Vent says to have the Defuser read the question aloud.
An Expert who skips straight to "what do you see?" gets a description, which is fine, but then has to translate it into the facts the page wants. Reading the lead first lets you ask for those facts directly and in the order the page uses them.
The best time to read every lead is before the round, not during it. On screen, open the standard manual, seed 1 and step through the pages with the j key, reading only the leads. That takes a few minutes and pays back on every module. The bomb manual shortcuts guide covers j, k and the filter.
Instruction words on a manual page: count, find, stop, otherwise
Four small words carry most of the method on a manual page. Count says where numbering starts and what to include. Find says which fact locates the answer. Stop says when to quit reading. Otherwise names the fallback when nothing above applied. Missing any one of them changes the answer.
Count. Many pages say how to count before they say anything else. Wires are counted from the top, starting at one. Recall positions are counted from the left. Labyrinth columns count from the left and rows from the top. Wire Panels keeps a count for each color across all four panels. A count that starts from the wrong end gives a confident wrong answer.
Find. A find sentence names the key for the lookup: find the list for the number of wires, find the column with all four glyphs, find the word on the display, find the matching picture. It tells you what to ask for before you look anything up.
Stop. Only the Wires and Big Button pages say stop, and they mean it literally: read from the top and stop at the first line that is true. Lines below the first true one do not apply, even if they also fit. The full method is in reading manual rule lists to the first true line.
Otherwise. Otherwise starts the last line of every Wires and Big Button list and applies only when every line above it was false.
A few other words deserve the same attention. "Only" narrows: cut the wire only if it ends at a listed letter. "Do not" forbids an obvious move: do not press the pad that flashes, do not press the button you read yet. "First" picks one item out of several: press the first word in the list that is on any button.
An annotated reading of the Wire Panels page
Wire Panels shows the instruction words in action. Below, each sentence of the page is quoted, with the word that matters and what the Expert does with it. The table's letters change with the rule seed, so none are given here.
| Part of the page | Text on the page | Instruction word | What the Expert does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead | Four panels, shown one at a time. | one at a time | Expect four rounds of questions, not one |
| Lead | Each panel has up to three wires. | up to | Ask about empty posts as well as wired ones |
| Lead | A wire runs from a numbered post on the left to a lettered post on the right. | numbered, lettered | Ask for each wire as post number, color, letter |
| Lead | Each wire is red, blue or black. | red, blue, black | Prepare three tallies, one per color |
| Lead | Earlier panels cannot be seen again. | cannot | Write every wire down before moving on, because there is no going back |
| Step 1 | Read the wires of a panel from post 1 down to post 3. | from, down to | Ask for wires in post order, top to bottom |
| Step 2 | Keep a separate count for each color. The counts carry on from panel to panel. | separate, carry on | Never reset a tally between panels |
| Step 3 | Count every wire, whether or not it gets cut. | every | Add a wire to its tally even when the answer is leave it |
| Step 4 | Find the wire's color and count in the table. Cut the wire only if it ends at a listed letter. | find, only | Look up color column, count row, compare the letter, say cut or leave |
| Step 5 | When every wire on the panel has been checked, press the next panel button. | every, when | Confirm all wires on this panel are done before saying "next" |
| Step 6 | Pressing the button on the fourth panel finishes the module. | fourth | Say "next" after the last panel too, or the module stays open |
| Table heading | Cut the wire if it ends at | if | Read the cell as a condition, not as an order |
| Table cells | One or more letters joined by "or", or "never" | or, never | "Never" means leave that wire, whatever its letter |
Which instruction comes first when a page has numbered steps?
When a page has numbered steps, step one comes first and every step is done, in order, every time. Three pages work this way: Word Grid with two labelled steps, Blinker with five numbered steps, and Wire Panels with six. Unlike a rule list, nothing on these pages tells you to stop early.
Word Grid labels its two parts "Step 1: which button to read" and "Step 2: which button to press". The order matters because the first step gives you a position, not a press. Its own lead says do not press that button yet. Skipping to Step 2 with the display word gives nonsense, because Step 2 expects the word read from a button.
Blinker's five steps run from the Defuser calling out flashes, through the code table and the word list, to tuning the frequency and pressing transmit. Each step's output is the next step's input. The steps look obvious once written, which is exactly why they are written: under a timer, an Expert who finds the word may forget the Defuser still has to press transmit.
Wire Panels' six steps are the most demanding, because steps two and three describe a running tally across the whole module. They are not done once and finished. They stay in force from the first wire of the first panel to the last wire of the fourth.
A numbered list on the Wires or Big Button page is different again. Those numbered lines are alternatives, not a sequence. You test them in order and act on one. Check which kind of list you are reading before you start.
Instructions that change mid-module: strikes, stages and rounds
Some instructions change partway through a module. A strike can switch the table you use, send a module back to its start, or leave it exactly where it was. Stages and rounds move you to a new part of the page. The lead is where each page says which of these happens.
Strikes. Color Echo picks its answer column by the number of strikes on the bomb right now, so a strike anywhere on the bomb changes the answers. Its lead says to start the current sequence again using the new column. Recall's lead says a wrong press sends the module back to stage 1 with new numbers, so the notes from earlier stages must be thrown away. Word Grid's lead says a wrong press is a strike and the round stays the same. Labyrinth's says a step into a wall is a strike and the light stays where it was.
Stages. Recall has five stages, each with its own table. Later stages can ask for the position or label pressed in an earlier stage, which is why its lead tells you to write both down every time.
Rounds and growth. Word Grid has three rounds, each with a new display word. Color Echo's sequence grows by one flash each time the Defuser gets it right, and the lead says to answer the whole longer sequence from its start. Wire Panels moves through four panels, carrying its counts.
The needy pages also carry state over. Dial Alignment's lead says the dial stays where it was left when the module sleeps, so the next activation begins from that direction.
The instructions mistake: skipping the lead to reach the table
The instructions mistake is jumping straight to the table because the table looks like the answer. The table gives the right cell only if you came in with the right key, and the lead is what tells you the key. Skipping it means reading a correct table with the wrong row, column or count.
Wire Panels shows how this goes wrong. An Expert who skips the lead and the steps sees a table with a Count column and assumes it means the wire's position on the panel. On the first panel that can work by luck. On the second panel it fails, because the count is meant to carry on from the first, and the Expert has been restarting it at one.
Other pages fail the same way. On Color Echo, skipping the lead means missing "do not press the pad that flashes", and the Defuser presses the flashed color. On Recall, skipping it means not writing down the position and label at each stage, so stage four asks about stage two and nobody knows. On Labyrinth, it means counting rows from the bottom.
The cure costs very little. Read every lead once before the first round. During the round, glance at the lead again whenever you open a page you have not used for a while. On pages built as numbered lines, follow the first-true-line method for rule lists. For the big picture of what each page contains, see how the bomb game manual is organized.