The Recall module runs five stages, each showing one digit above four buttons. The Expert turns the digit into an instruction from that stage's table, and later stages ask about earlier presses. Write two facts after every press, the position and the label, and you can answer any stage. A strike sends Recall back to stage 1.
What the Recall module shows: one digit and four buttons
The Recall module has a large display showing a single digit from 1 to 4, and four tall buttons in a row below it. Each button carries a label, also 1 to 4, in a mixed-up order. A column of five lights beside the display fills from the bottom as stages are cleared.
Between stages, everything on the face changes. The display shows a new digit, and the four labels are shuffled into a new order. Nothing on the module remembers what was pressed before. The lights show only how many stages are done.
That is the whole point of the module. The rules for stage 3 can ask about stage 1, but stage 1 is gone from the screen. The only record of it is whatever the team wrote down or can remember. That makes Recall a listening memory game as much as a puzzle: the Defuser says what happened, and the Expert has to hold onto it.
When all five stages are cleared, the display shows a dash and the buttons dim. A Recall module first shows up in the mission Second helpings, whose blurb on the missions page promises five stages and no notes on the bomb.
Recall positions versus Recall labels
A Recall position is where a button sits, counted from the left starting at one. A Recall label is the digit printed on the button. The two often disagree, because the labels are shuffled. The button in position 2 might be labelled 4. The manual uses both words, and they mean different things.
Each stage's table has one row for each display digit, 1 to 4. Each row gives one of four kinds of instruction:
- Press the button in a given position, such as the third position.
- Press the button with a given label, such as the button labelled 2.
- Press the button in the same position as you pressed in an earlier stage.
- Press the button with the same label as you pressed in an earlier stage.
The first two need only the current screen. The last two need notes.
When the instruction names a position, the Defuser counts from the left and ignores the labels. When it names a label, the Defuser hunts for the digit and ignores where it sits. A clear way to speak is to always use the word: "position three" or "label three", never just "three". A bare "three" could mean either, and on Recall the two point at different buttons most of the time.
The Defuser should read the labels aloud left to right at the start of each stage: "display 2, labels 4, 1, 3, 2." With that, the Expert can translate between positions and labels without asking again.
What should an Expert write down at each Recall stage?
At each Recall stage, the Expert writes the position pressed and the label pressed. Those are the two facts any later stage can ask for. The manual's lead says so directly. Writing the display digit too costs one more number and helps when checking the stage table again after a mistake.
A grid with one row per stage works well. Here is one filled in with example values. The digits, labels and stage instructions are all invented for this post; real tables change with the rule seed.
| Stage | Display digit | Labels, left to right | Example instruction used | Position pressed | Label pressed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 4, 1, 3, 2 | Press the button in the second position | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | 2, 3, 4, 1 | Press the button labelled 4 | 3 | 4 |
| 3 | 4 | 3, 4, 2, 1 | Same position as you pressed in stage 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | 2 | 4, 3, 1, 2 | Same label as you pressed in stage 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 5 | 3 | 2, 4, 1, 3 | Same position as you pressed in stage 2 | 3 | 1 |
Read the grid one row at a time. At stage 1 the Expert looks up display 3 in the stage 1 table, which says the second position. The button there is labelled 1. Both numbers go in the row. Stage 2 says label 4, which sits in position 3. Stage 3 says the same position as stage 1, so the Expert reads position 2 from row 1. In stage 3's shuffle, position 2 is labelled 4.
Stage 4 asks for the same label as stage 2. Row 2 says label 4, which now sits at position 1. Stage 5 asks for the same position as stage 2: row 2 says position 3, and that button is labelled 1.
The columns for labels shown are optional, but they make the next step easy: the label pressed is just the label at the position pressed.
Recall stages that point back to an earlier stage
A Recall stage points back when its instruction says "the same position as you pressed in stage 1" or "the same label as you pressed in stage 2". The Expert reads the named stage's row in the notes, takes the column the instruction names, and applies it to the current screen.
Stage 1 can never point back, since nothing came before it. From stage 2 on, the two kinds of look-back work differently on the current screen.
Same position. Take the position number from the earlier row and press that position now. The label on it today does not matter. In the example grid, stage 3 copies stage 1's position, 2, even though position 2 is now labelled 4 instead of 1.
Same label. Take the label from the earlier row and find where that label sits now. The position it had before does not matter. In the example, stage 4 copies stage 2's label, 4, which has moved from position 3 to position 1.
Every stage after the first has at least one look-back line in its table, so a team that skips notes will hit one sooner or later. The later stages can reach back to any earlier stage, not only the one just before.
When the Expert reads a look-back line, they should say the earlier stage number and the value: "stage 1, position 2, so press position 2." That lets the Defuser hear the logic and catch a misread row.
What happens to Recall notes after a strike?
A wrong press on the Recall module is a strike, and the module goes back to stage 1 with new numbers: new display digits and new label orders for all five stages. The old notes describe a sequence that no longer exists, so they must be thrown away. The manual says exactly that.
It is tempting to keep the old rows, especially if the strike came at stage 4 and the first three rows were right. Do not. A new stage 1 can show a different digit and a different shuffle, so its correct press can differ. Any look-back to the old stage 1 would then copy a press that never happened in the new run.
Draw a line under the old grid, or start a fresh one, and begin again at stage 1. The stage tables in the manual have not changed; only the numbers on the module have.
The strike also has effects off the module. It speeds up the countdown, and it changes the strike column used by Color Echo, if there is one on the bomb. The guide to the full note sheet for a round shows where Recall's grid sits beside the strike count and the other running notes.
The Recall mistake: noting the label but not the position
The usual Recall mistake is writing down only one of the two facts, most often the label, because the label is the big digit the Defuser just pressed. Every "same label" instruction will still work. The first "same position" instruction breaks, because the position for that stage was never written down.
It feels efficient at stage 1. The Defuser says "pressed the 1", and the Expert writes 1. It is not clear whether that 1 was a label or a position, and the screen has already moved on. When stage 3 asks for the same position as stage 1, the team is left guessing.
The guess is often wrong, since a label and a position line up only by chance. A wrong guess is a strike, and the module starts over from stage 1. Five stages of work can be lost to one missing number.
The fix is to make the Defuser report both facts after every press: "pressed position 2, label 1." The Expert writes both, and repeats them back. Two numbers per stage, five stages, ten numbers in all. That is a small price for never guessing.
The opposite mistake, noting position but not label, breaks the "same label" lines in the same way. Neither column is optional.
Recall sits with the other memory modules in Bomb Appétit. The guide to the Blinker code table covers the next module that asks for careful listening, and the guide to the Tangled Wires diagram covers the one after. For a quick tour of all eleven regular modules, see the bomb defusal puzzle game guide.