The Wire Panels module shows four panels of wires, one at a time, and the earlier panels never come back. The Expert keeps a running count for each wire color across all four panels. Each wire's color and count pick a row in the table, and the wire is cut only if it ends at one of that row's letters.
What a Wire Panels panel shows: posts, letters and colors
A Wire Panels panel has three numbered posts on the left, three lettered posts on the right, and one to three wires between them. Each wire runs from a numbered post, 1 to 3, to a lettered post, A, B or C. Every wire is red, blue or black. A counter at the top reads 1/4 through 4/4.
The numbered posts are the reading order. Post 1 is at the top, post 3 at the bottom, and some posts may be empty on a given panel. The lettered posts are where the answer lives: the table asks which letter a wire ends at. On any one panel, no two wires end at the same letter.
Each wire also carries a small badge near its left end showing its color's letter: R for red, B for blue and K for black. That badge is there so color is never the only clue, which helps on a dim screen or a black-and-white printout. It has a side effect worth knowing. A blue wire's badge says B, and so does one of the lettered posts on the right. When the Defuser says "B", the Expert needs to know which B is meant. Saying "blue to C" rather than "B to C" removes the doubt.
Below the wires sits a yellow NEXT PANEL button. Nothing else on the module changes until it is pressed.
Why do Wire Panels counts carry from panel to panel?
Wire Panels counts carry because the table is indexed by how many wires of a color you have seen so far on the whole module, not on the current panel. "The third red wire" on panel two means the third red wire since panel one began, which might be the only red wire on panel two.
The manual's Wire Panels section says it plainly: keep a separate count for each color, and the counts carry on from panel to panel. The table rows run from 1st to 9th for each color. A bomb never holds more than nine wires of one color, so the table always has a row.
This is what makes the module a memory test as well as a lookup. On panel three, the Defuser cannot scroll back to check how many black wires went past on panel one. The Expert's notes are the only record. If those notes are wrong, every later wire of that color reads from the wrong row, and the mistake spreads.
The note sheet guide shows where the running counts fit beside the other notes an Expert keeps in a round. A tally of three short lines, one per color, is enough.
Does an uncut Wire Panels wire still count?
Every Wire Panels wire counts toward its color's tally, whether it is cut or left alone. The count is of wires seen, not wires cut. A red wire that the table says to leave still moves the red count up by one, and the next red wire reads from the following row.
New Experts often reason the other way. It feels natural to count only the wires that "did something". That reading shifts every later row by one for that color, and it tends to stay hidden until a wire gets cut that should not have been.
Empty posts do not count. Only wires add to a tally. A panel with a single wire moves one count forward and leaves the other two alone.
Reading the Wire Panels table by color and count
The Wire Panels table has one row per count, 1st to 9th, and one column per color: red, blue and black. Each cell lists one or two letters, such as "A" or "A or C". Find the wire's color column, go down to its count, and cut the wire only if it ends at a listed letter.
The steps for each wire are always the same:
- The Defuser names the wire by post, color and end letter: "post 1, red, to B".
- The Expert adds one to that color's tally and says the new count: "second red".
- The Expert reads the cell: "second red is A or C".
- The Expert compares and decides: "B is not listed, leave it".
Saying the count aloud is the cheapest check on the whole module. The Defuser hears "second red" and can object if they remember a different number. Two people tracking one tally catch more slips than one.
The letters in the table come from the rule seed, so the pattern of cuts on one manual means nothing on another. The structure stays the same on every seed: three color columns, nine count rows, one or two letters per cell.
A worked tally across four panels
Everything in this example is invented to show the method, including the table rows. A real manual will list different letters.
Example table rows used below:
| Count | Red | Blue | Black |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | C | B | A or C |
| 2nd | B | A or C | A |
| 3rd | A | B | C |
| 4th | A or B | C | B |
The four example panels, wire by wire, with the counts after each wire:
| Panel | Post | Color | Ends at | Count | Table says | Decision | Red / Blue / Black after |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Red | B | 1st red | C | Leave | 1 / 0 / 0 |
| 1 | 3 | Black | A | 1st black | A or C | Cut | 1 / 0 / 1 |
| 2 | 1 | Blue | C | 1st blue | B | Leave | 1 / 1 / 1 |
| 2 | 2 | Red | B | 2nd red | B | Cut | 2 / 1 / 1 |
| 2 | 3 | Blue | A | 2nd blue | A or C | Cut | 2 / 2 / 1 |
| 3 | 2 | Black | C | 2nd black | A | Leave | 2 / 2 / 2 |
| 3 | 3 | Red | A | 3rd red | A | Cut | 3 / 2 / 2 |
| 4 | 1 | Blue | B | 3rd blue | B | Cut | 3 / 3 / 2 |
| 4 | 2 | Black | C | 3rd black | C | Cut | 3 / 3 / 3 |
| 4 | 3 | Red | A | 4th red | A or B | Cut | 4 / 3 / 3 |
Notice the first red wire on panel one. It is left alone, yet it still pushes the red tally to one, which is why the red wire on panel two reads from the 2nd row and gets cut.
Pressing next panel on Wire Panels, and the fourth press
Press NEXT PANEL only after every wire on the panel has been checked and every wire that needs cutting is cut. If a wire that should be cut is still whole, the press is a strike and the panel stays where it is. Pressing the button on the fourth panel finishes the module.
The strike on an early press is useful information. The panel does not advance, so the Defuser can still see every wire, and the team knows exactly where the problem is: one of the wires on this panel should have been cut. Recheck the counts for the colors on screen before cutting anything else.
A cut is final in the other direction too. Cutting a wire that the table says to leave is a strike, and the wire stays cut. It still counts toward its color's tally, so the Expert should not remove it from the notes.
A good habit is a short closing line before each press: "panel two done, counts are red two, blue two, black one". The Defuser says "pressing" and moves on. On the fourth panel, the press turns the module's light green when all the cuts were right.
The Wire Panels mistake: restarting the counts on a new panel
Restarting the counts means treating the first wire of each color on a new panel as the "1st" again. Every wire after panel one then reads from the wrong row. Sometimes the wrong row happens to agree, which hides the mistake until a later panel when it does not.
Here is how it plays out in the example above. On panel two, a team that restarted the counts would call the red wire "1st red". The example row for 1st red lists C, the wire ends at B, so they leave it. The right answer was to cut it, as the 2nd red wire. When they press NEXT PANEL, the uncut wire triggers a strike.
The strike arrives at the right moment but points to the wrong cause. The team checks the wire, sees "red to B, 1st row says C", and concludes the table or the Defuser is wrong. Unless someone thinks to ask how many red wires came before, the team can stay stuck on that panel.
The fix is to write the counts down, not to remember them. Three short tallies on paper survive a needy module waking up, an argument about another module or a strike sound in the middle of a sentence.
Where Wire Panels sits among the modules
Wire Panels is one of the eleven regular modules in Bomb Appétit, the free browser game where one person holds the bomb and the others hold the manual. Its counts make it a good test of whether an Expert writes things down.
The Labyrinth maze module is a change of pace, trading counts for spoken directions on a grid. The Passcode module word list asks for a different kind of bookkeeping, crossing words off a list. For a tour of all eleven, the overview of the 11 modules explained gives each one a short summary.