The Wires module manual gives one list for each possible wire count, from three to six. The Expert picks the list matching the panel, reads its lines from the top, and stops at the first line that is true. That line names exactly one wire to cut, counted from the top of the panel, starting at one.
What the Wires panel shows the Defuser
The Wires panel shows between three and six horizontal wires stretched between two posts. Each wire is red, blue, yellow, white or black. A small badge on the left end carries the color's letter, and a number on the right end gives the wire's place from the top. Exactly one wire is the right one to cut.
The letters are there so the panel never relies on color alone. Red shows R, blue shows B, yellow shows Y and white shows W. Black shows K, not B, so it cannot be confused with blue. A Defuser who struggles to tell yellow from white on a dim screen can read the letters instead, and a team playing from a printed manual in black and white still has a shared vocabulary.
The numbers on the right are the most useful thing on the panel. They count from the top, starting at one, which is exactly how the manual counts. When the Expert says "cut the fourth wire", the Defuser does not need to count anything: they find the 4 and click that wire.
Colors can repeat. A five-wire panel might hold three blue wires and no red at all. That is normal, and several lines in the manual are written to catch it.
Bomb Appétit draws on Wires in every mission of the first section, starting with First bite, which has one Wires module and five minutes on the clock. It is the first page most Experts ever read, and you can open it now on the standard manual for seed 1.
Picking the Wires list by the number of wires
The number of wires chooses the list, so it is always the first fact the Expert asks for. The manual prints four lists, headed 3 wires, 4 wires, 5 wires and 6 wires. Each has its own lines and its own Otherwise. Reading the wrong list gives a confident answer that is simply wrong.
Asking for the count first also keeps the Defuser's description short. "Five wires" picks the page section in two words. Then the colors come in order: "blue, white, blue, red, yellow." The Expert now has everything the five-wire list can ask about, except the serial number, which sits on the side of the case.
Each list holds three or four "If" lines and ends with an "Otherwise" line. The Otherwise line is the answer when none of the "If" lines is true. It is never optional, and it is not a sign that something went wrong. On some bombs it is the most common answer.
Wires conditions: color counts, the last wire, the serial digit
A line on a Wires list tests one of three kinds of fact: how many wires of a color there are, what color the last wire is, or whether the last digit of the serial number is odd or even. Some lines join two of these with "and", and both halves must be true.
Color counts come in a few wordings. "There are no red wires" is true only when red is absent. "There is exactly one blue wire" or "exactly two" means that number and no other, so three blues fails it. "There is at least one yellow wire" and "there is more than one white wire" set a floor. Read the wording slowly, because "more than one" and "exactly one" sound alike when spoken fast.
The last-wire test looks only at the bottom wire. "The last wire is black" ignores every other wire on the panel.
The serial test reads the final character of the serial number, which is always a digit. Odd means 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9. Even means 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8.
The answer half of a line names a wire in one of four ways: a place ("cut the second wire"), the last wire, the first wire of a color, or the last wire of a color. A line that asks about a color will often name that same color in its answer.
The reason a list stops at the first true line, and what "Otherwise" really means, is covered in the guide on why a rule list stops at the first true line. Two true lines on one list are common; only the higher one counts.
How are Wires counted, from the top or the bottom?
Wires are counted from the top, starting at one. The manual's lead paragraph says so, and the panel prints the numbers on the right. "The second wire" is the one marked 2. "The last wire" is the bottom one. "The last blue wire" is the lowest blue wire, and "the first blue wire" is the highest.
The counting rules also apply to the conditions. "The last wire is red" means the bottom wire. Nothing on the Wires page counts from the bottom, so a Defuser who describes the panel bottom-up is creating a problem the manual never asked for.
A worked example, line by line
Here is a full worked example. The panel colors, the serial number and the list below are all invented for this post. Real lists change with the rule seed, so do not use these lines on a real bomb.
Example panel, five wires, top to bottom: 1 blue, 2 white, 3 blue, 4 red, 5 yellow.
Example serial number: KX4TR7, which ends in 7, an odd digit.
Example five-wire list:
- If there are no black wires and the last digit of the serial number is even, cut the fourth wire.
- If there is more than one red wire, cut the last red wire.
- If the last wire is yellow, cut the first blue wire.
- If there is exactly one white wire, cut the second wire.
- Otherwise, cut the last wire.
Testing it:
- Line 1 needs no black wires (true: there are none) and an even last digit (false: 7 is odd). One half fails, so the line is false. Move on.
- Line 2 needs two or more red wires. There is one. False. Move on.
- Line 3 asks whether the last wire is yellow. Wire 5 is yellow. True. Stop here.
- The answer is the first blue wire, which is wire 1.
Line 4 is also true on this panel, since there is exactly one white wire. It does not matter. The list stopped at line 3, so the Defuser cuts wire 1, not wire 2.
When does the serial number decide a Wires cut?
The serial number decides a Wires cut only when a line on your list asks whether its last digit is odd or even. Some lists include such a line and others never do. When one does, that line is true or false depending on one digit, so the same panel can need a different cut on a different bomb.
The Expert should ask for the last digit only when a serial line comes up. Better still, the team reads the whole serial number at the start of the round and the Expert writes it down, because Color Echo and Tangled Wires ask about it too. Then the Wires question is answered from the notes without interrupting the Defuser.
Serial numbers in Bomb Appétit are six characters, letters and digits, and they always end in a digit. They never contain the letters I or O, which would sound like 1 and 0. So "the last digit" always exists, and the Defuser can read it from the last character without hunting.
A serial line can also be half of a joined condition, as in the example above. In that case both halves must hold. Check the color half first if it is false; there is no need to read the serial at all. The odd and even test, and the other modules that use the same digit, are covered in the guide to the last serial digit, odd for Wires and even for Tangled Wires.
The Wires mistake: counting colors before counting wires
The common Wires mistake is an Expert who starts testing color lines before confirming how many wires there are. The colors arrive, the Expert's eyes land on a list, and it turns out to be the six-wire list on a five-wire panel. Every test that follows can be correct and still point at the wrong wire.
It happens because the Defuser leads with the most visible fact. "Blue, white, blue, red, yellow" sounds complete. The Expert, eager to help, glances at whichever list is on screen and starts testing. The six-wire list might have a line about "more than one blue wire", which is true here, and an answer like "cut the fifth wire". The Defuser cuts it. It is a strike.
On the Wires module a wrong cut is a strike and that wire stays cut. The module stays unsolved, so the team can still cut the right wire afterwards. But the strike speeds up the countdown, and it changes the strike count that Color Echo reads elsewhere on the bomb.
The fix is a fixed opening. The Expert asks "how many wires?" first, every time, and says the count back: "five wires, I'm on the five-wire list." Only then does the color run start. The Defuser can help by leading with the count without being asked.
Two smaller habits help too. Repeat the colors back in order before testing, so a missed wire shows up early. And when the list gives an answer, say it as a number: "cut wire one, the top blue." The number is on the panel, which makes it the hardest instruction to mishear.
Once Wires is steady, the next two pages to learn are the other starters. The guide to reading the Big Button's strip color covers the button's tap or hold list, and the guide to naming Glyph Keypad symbols and finding the column covers the keypad. All eleven regular modules are described in the bomb defusal puzzle game guide.