# ARC-AGI-3 Official Game Mechanics — Complete Reference Every game in the official ARC-AGI-3 public demo set (25 games), with its full mechanics, its per-action control mapping, and the opening frame of every level. **Read this instead of reverse-engineering the source.** Each write-up below was produced by reading that game's obfuscated Python in ARCEngine and tracing its `step()` and win conditions by hand, then adversarially re-checking the claims against the source a second time. Two rounds of that checking found 57 real errors across 22 games — almost all of the same shape: level-1 behaviour described as if it held for the whole game, mechanics that do not exist in the code at all, and unmentioned move/click/energy budgets that lose the level outright. If you are about to derive these rules yourself, you are about to make those mistakes again. **What is asserted here is what the code does.** Where a claim was only verified for some levels, the game's "Provenance and caveats" section says so. Informal names are flavour titles, not literal per-level mechanic claims — do not reason from the name. - Canonical HTML index: https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games - This document: https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games.md - Per-game pages: https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/ - Background and the technical report: https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3 - Official site: https://three.arcprize.org **Spoiler warning for humans.** Reading this tells you the answers. If you intend to play these games yourself, or to contribute to a human baseline, play first. --- ## Index - [Functional Tiles](#functional-tiles-ft09) — `ft09` — Click tiles to cycle their colors until every small marker on the board is satisfied, within a fixed click budget per level. - [Locksmith](#locksmith-ls20) — `ls20` — Transform a key into the required shape, color, and rotation to unlock an exit door, under a hidden step budget and three lives per level. - [Volume Control](#volume-control-vc33) — `vc33` — Pump white liquid between tanks so every rider sitting on a liquid surface ends up level with a mark of its own color, carrying riders through gates in the walls when they need to change tanks, before your click budget runs out. Not every level draws its tanks standing up -- some run sideways or hang upside down, same mechanic on a different axis. - [Axis Reflectors](#axis-reflectors-ar25) — `ar25` — Move one or two pieces and axis-aligned mirrors; live reflections must cover every target dot. - [Buoyant Pontoons](#buoyant-pontoons-bp35) — `bp35` — Steer left or right through a flooded shaft; every move automatically carries you further in whichever direction is currently "up" until you hit something solid, and a control tile lets you flip which way that is. The level world is bigger than the viewport shown at start -- the exit and the control tile are routinely off-screen, so nearly every level requires scrolling/exploring to even locate them (level 5 is the one level whose exit is in view at the start). - [Compass Dye](#compass-dye-cd82) — `cd82` — Fire colored dye from 8 compass stations, plus a dab tool from level 3, to match most of a reference pattern on a grid. - [Coded Notches](#coded-notches-cn04) — `cn04` — Slide and turn loose parts until every printed mark meets its match on another part. - [Deck Control](#deck-control-dc22) — `dc22` — Walk a small green square to the yellow goal square while pressing panel buttons that swing, flip, extend and slide pieces of floor into place. From level 5 you also drive a claw that carries a piece of floor for you. A press that pulls the floor out from under you costs 20 steps, and if that empties your budget the game is over. - [Ghost Twin](#ghost-twin-g50t) — `g50t` — Every move you make is being recorded; the fifth action sends you back to the start and spawns a twin that replays those exact moves alongside you, all under a draining timer bar. - [Kick Away](#kick-away-ka59) — `ka59` — Drive one green box at a time and knock the other pieces around until every outline frame on the board holds a piece of its size. Bumping a piece sends it flying about 15 cells; from level 5, bombs on a fuse blast pieces too. - [Leapfrog](#leapfrog-lf52) — `lf52` — Peg solitaire: click a peg, click its landing spot, and it hops a same-color neighbor off the board. From level 2, the arrow keys drive rail carts that carry pegs between rooms, and every action spends a limited move budget. - [Loop and Pull](#loop-and-pull-lp85) — `lp85` — Click red and green buttons to turn loops of colored squares back or forward until every yellow square (and, on levels 3-4, the orange one) sits inside a target of its color, marked by four corner dots. - [Mirror Rendezvous](#mirror-rendezvous-m0r0) — `m0r0` — A mirrored pair moves in lockstep; deliberately desync them off walls until they meet, within a 150-move budget. - [Reaching Lurch](#reaching-lurch-r11l) — `r11l` — Drag a blob around by its limbs until its body sits on its outline; from level 5 the bodies start white and must eat colored food until their colors exactly match an outline. - [Reach Emblems](#reach-emblems-re86) — `re86` — Slide colored outline pieces until every small target dot sits under a piece of its own color. Color pads that repaint pieces arrive on level 4; walls that bend crosses and squash squares only appear in the last three levels. - [Sliding Indicator](#sliding-indicator-s5i5) — `s5i5` — Grow, shrink and (from level 6) rotate color-coded rods to walk the markers riding them onto every pin. - [Sequence Belt](#sequence-belt-sb26) — `sb26` — Place colored tiles into the slots of machine containers, then run them to be read against a required color sequence, on a limited energy budget. - [Sigil Caster](#sigil-caster-sc25) — `sc25` — Draw a lit pattern on a toggle grid to auto-cast one of three spells (teleport, grow/shrink, or a block-clearing fireball) and reach the exit. - [Skewer Kebabs](#skewer-kebabs-sk48) — `sk48` — Extend, retract and slide a skewer that pushes colored beads ahead of its tip and skewers the ones that can't move, until the beads on each skewer match the reference skewers at the bottom. - [Streaming Purple](#streaming-purple-sp80) — `sp80` — Move red bars (and, from level 5, purple L pieces) so that one pour of the purple stream fills every yellow cup without touching a spill line. - [Sucking Up](#sucking-up-su15) — `su15` — Click to suck nearby blocks toward you, fusing same-size blocks into bigger ones, until the blue circles hold exactly the number the header asks for of each piece it lists. - [Toggle Navigator](#toggle-navigator-tn36) — `tn36` — Freely toggle switches on the right-hand panel to chain move/rotate/scale/recolor instructions onto its token, matching a target; from level 2 the left panel only plays preset demo programs. - [Toggle Runes](#toggle-runes-tr87) — `tr87` — Translate a phrase into a second alphabet using a wall of paired runes as your only dictionary -- in the last two levels, the answer is already right and you repair the dictionary instead. - [Trail Unwind](#trail-unwind-tu93) — `tu93` — Slide a Blue token pad to pad along Gray wires to a Green exit on a step budget, past enemies that bite you from the front, patrol their wires, or wake up and walk your own trail behind you. - [Warehouse Associates](#warehouse-associates-wa30) — `wa30` — Sokoban-style crate hauling where other haulers also move crates — for you, or against you. --- ## Functional Tiles (`ft09`) - **Game ID:** `ft09` - **Set:** preview (public from the start) - **Levels:** 6 - **Tags:** preview-set, pattern-matching, logic - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/ft09 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=ft09 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 208 (per level 43, 12, 23, 28, 65, 37); Boss: best win 133 actions (1 run) **Objective.** Click tiles to cycle their colors until every small marker on the board is satisfied, within a fixed click budget per level. ### Mechanics Every level is a grid of 3x3 tiles with a few 3x3 markers set in among them. A marker's center color is its target, and each of its eight border cells points at the tile on that side, diagonals included: white means that tile must be the target color, gray means it must be any other color, and dark gray (from level 5) means there is no tile on that side. Clicking a tile moves it to the next color in the level's list and wraps around; that list is shown as small swatches at the top right from level 2, and every tile starts on the first one. The level ends the moment every marker is satisfied. Only clicks on tiles cost anything: 32 on levels 1 and 2, 96 on levels 3 and 4, 128 on levels 5 and 6, shown as an orange bar along the bottom that gives way to yellow as you spend it. Run out before the board is solved and you lose. Level 1 shows three solved example boards and puts the real one in gray corner brackets that flash if you click outside the tiles. Level 4 is the only level with three colors in the cycle. Level 5 adds tiles with pink dots on their edges: clicking one recolors it and every neighbor a pink dot points at. On level 6 every tile has a single pink dot on its top edge, so a click recolors that tile and the tile above it. There is no undo; RESET restarts the level. ### Controls - `ACTION6` (Click): Click to change tile/color ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: Boxes, and the pattern it shows you. - What happened: It is obvious that it wants certain boxes colored certain ways. He has seen this one too often to judge it fresh, but models have no problem with it. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 43 actions · Boss 5 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ft09/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Click a tile (a solid 3x3 colored square) to move it to the next color in the level's color list. After the last color it wraps back to the first. Each tile click costs 1 from the budget. _(ft09.py:2369-2385, 2410-2424, 2431-2432)_ - Clicking anything that is not a tile (a marker, a gap, the background, the color swatches) does nothing and costs nothing. _(ft09.py:2386-2392)_ - Clicking is the only action. There is no undo. RESET restarts the level with a full budget. _(ft09.py:2306; arcengine/base_game.py:305-329)_ - Markers are small 3x3 squares set in among the tiles. The center color is the target. Each of the eight border cells points at the neighboring tile on that side, diagonals included. _(ft09.py:2436-2520)_ - A white border cell means the tile on that side must be the target color. A gray border cell means that tile must be any other color. Two markers can share a tile, and then both rules apply to it. _(ft09.py:2436-2520)_ - The level is won the moment every marker is satisfied at once, and the next level loads straight away. The click that solves it does not use up budget. _(ft09.py:2426-2429)_ - The bottom row is the click bar: orange for what is left, yellow for what you have spent. Budgets are 32, 32, 96, 96, 128 and 128 tile clicks, refilled at each new level. Hit zero before the board is solved and you lose. _(ft09.py:2064, 2093, 2133, 2169, 2220, 2260, 2272-2298, 2308-2312, 2431-2432)_ - On level 1, clicking outside the tiles (anywhere but a tile or the marker) makes the gray corner brackets around the real puzzle flash white twice, pointing you at it. It costs nothing. _(ft09.py:2319-2322, 2355-2363, 2386-2390)_ - Level 1 is a lesson: three solved example boards, each a ring of tiles around a marker, and the real puzzle in the lower right inside gray corner brackets. It uses blue and red only. _(ft09.py:2040-2069)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 12 actions · Boss 7 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ft09/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - More than one marker on a board, so tiles between two markers have to suit both. _(ft09.py:2071-2098)_ - Small color swatches at the top right list the level's colors in click order. The first swatch is the color every tile starts in. _(ft09.py:2071-2098, 2341-2348)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 23 actions · Boss 14 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ft09/lvl3.png #### Level 4 ARC baseline 28 actions · Boss 17 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ft09/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Three colors in the cycle (blue, red, orange), so a tile can take two clicks to reach the color you want. _(ft09.py:2140-2174)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 65 actions · Boss 60 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ft09/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Dark gray border cells on a marker: there is no tile on that side, so there is nothing to check there. _(ft09.py:2176-2225, 2446-2449)_ - Tiles with pink dots on their edges. Clicking one recolors it and every neighboring tile a pink dot points at, each one step along the color list. Level 5 has three of these, each with four dots (up, down, left, right). _(ft09.py:2176-2225, 2377-2381, 2400-2424)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 37 actions · Boss 30 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ft09/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Every tile on level 6 has one pink dot on its top edge, so each click recolors that tile and the tile directly above it (if there is one). _(ft09.py:2227-2265, 2400-2424)_ ### Screenshots from an older build Levels the current build does not have. - Level 8: https://arc.markbarney.net/ft09-lvl8.png - Level 9: https://arc.markbarney.net/ft09-lvl9.png ### Hints - **The Corner List Is Not a Target** (spoiler level 2): The colors near the top-right aren't a picture to recreate -- they're just the list of colors this level uses. The real goal is a set of small markers scattered around the board, each demanding its own neighboring tiles match or clash; every one of them has to hold at once. - **Color Cycling and a Hidden Click Budget** (spoiler level 1): Clicking a tile advances it through that level's fixed color list, wrapping back to the start -- a plain round-robin, not a smart toggle. One special tile type also recolors its neighbors, not just itself. Every level also caps your tile clicks (clicks anywhere else are free), shown as a draining bar; run out and you lose. ### Resources - [replay] FT09 Replay (original game): https://three.arcprize.org/replay/ft09-b8377d4b7815/39b51ef3-b565-43fe-b3a8-7374ca4c5058 — A run on the original FT09 (ft09-b8377d4b7815), before ARC Prize reworked it. - [replay] FT09 Boss's Official Human Replay: https://arcprize.org/replay/99084b22-7e67-4e13-8d68-6095e944255f — Boss's own official ARC Prize replay, human play (2026-09-15). ### Provenance and caveats Corrected 2026-09-12 after a direct, adversarially-verified source read: the original "dominant color" precedence framing had no code behind it at all. The real mechanic is independent, all-must-hold color markers scattered around the board, a per-level click budget that can lose the game, and a tile type that recolors several neighbors per click. --- ## Locksmith (`ls20`) - **Game ID:** `ls20` - **Set:** preview (public from the start) - **Tags:** preview-set, transformation, navigation - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/ls20 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=ls20 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 776 (per level 22, 123, 73, 84, 96, 192, 186); Boss: best win 561 actions (2 runs) **Objective.** Transform a key into the required shape, color, and rotation to unlock an exit door, under a hidden step budget and three lives per level. ### Mechanics The key is represented as a distinct group of pixels, typically located in the bottom-left area at the start of each level. You must move your player avatar over transformation tiles to change the key's shape, color, and rotation to match the lock. The door does not require a specific trigger action; simply reaching it with the correct key configuration will finish the level -- though level 6 has two separate doors that both need solving in turn, not just one. Every level also runs on a hidden step meter of 42 units, drawn as a bar of pips at the bottom-left of the frame. That is not 42 moves everywhere: levels 1, 4 and 6 drain one unit a move (42 moves), while levels 2, 3, 5 and 7 drain two (21 moves). Running the meter out does not end the level -- it respawns you at the level's start with a full meter and costs one life. You get three lives PER LEVEL, shown as three red pips at the bottom-right, and they are restored every time a new level begins. The THIRD loss on a single level ends the entire run, not just the level. RESET also restores both the lives and the step meter, because it re-runs the same level-setup routine, which makes it the only mid-level way to buy a life back -- a human win on 2026-09-15 used exactly that on the final level, one pip from losing the run. The final level adds fog-of-war, blacking out everything beyond a short radius around you. A lost life also puts the key back to its starting shape, color and rotation, brings back every pickup you used, and closes any door you had already opened. Other pieces the text above never named: from level 2, small yellow rings refill the step meter when you walk onto them; from level 3, light gray bars on the edge of a cell launch you across the room until you hit a wall; from level 5, some of the key-changing tiles slide back and forth along hidden paths, one step each time you move. Walking into a wall still costs a step, but walking into a door with the wrong key does not. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Move Up - `ACTION2` (Down): Move Down - `ACTION3` (Left): Move Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Move Right ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-15** - Saw: Three red dots: your lives on each level. Every death costs one. - Did: Used reset. - What happened: Reset brings all three back. So on some levels, especially the last one, where you can easily run out of time, you want to reset rather than lose the game. Undo isn't available in the current version; reset is. He found the reset rules bizarre when the preview came out, and this is probably why agents do so badly here: they don't use reset to keep their lives. - In the code: RESET restarts the level: the key, pickups and doors go back to the start, the step meter refills and all three lives come back. - **Boss, 2026-08-31** - Saw: Lots of energy and three lives. - What happened: Room for a lot of exploration. - **Boss, 2026-09-15** - Saw: The ls20 from the preview. - What happened: Today's ls20 is fundamentally a different game. Replays from before September don't reflect it. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 22 actions · Boss 14 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ls20/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Up, Down, Left and Right move your block one cell (5 pixels). Your block is the square that is orange on top and blue underneath. There is no clicking and no undo. _(ls20.py:398-410, 1787, 1940-1966; engine run on level 1)_ - Walking into a wall (the darker gray areas) leaves you where you are and still costs a step. _(ls20.py:1879-1881, 1964-1972; engine run on level 1: the bump took the meter from 34 to 33)_ - RESET restarts the level: you, the key, the pickups and the doors all go back to the start, the step meter refills and all three lives come back. _(ls20.py:1800-1843; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330; engine run on level 2: 1 life left, RESET gave back 3)_ - Each door is a black box with a picture of the key it wants, drawn in the right shape, color and rotation. Walk onto the door while your key matches that picture exactly and the door opens. When every door on the level is open, the next level loads. _(ls20.py:384-396, 1827-1839, 1882-1887, 1978-1981, 2039-2060; engine run: level 1 cleared in 15 moves)_ - Reaching the last door on the move that empties the meter still counts: the door check runs before the life is taken. _(ls20.py:1972-1987; engine run on level 2: door reached with 1 unit left (costs 2), level advanced, no life lost)_ - Your current key is shown in the black box at the bottom-left of the screen. It changes only when you step onto a key-changing tile. _(ls20.py:1807, 2016-2022, 1893-1909)_ - The rotation tile, a small white and light gray glyph, turns the key a quarter turn clockwise each time you step onto it. Step off and back on to turn it again. _(ls20.py:370-383, 1905-1909; engine run on level 1: the key went from 270 to 0 and matched the door picture)_ - Walking into a door with the wrong key does not open it. You stay put, the key box flashes white for a moment, and the move costs no step. _(ls20.py:1882-1887, 1930-1939, 1970-1971; engine run on level 2: meter unchanged, key box white in the first frame)_ - The yellow bar along the bottom of the screen is the step meter, 42 units on every level. Each move uses one unit on levels 1, 4 and 6 and two units on levels 2, 3, 5 and 7, so 42 or 21 moves. Spent units turn dark gray. _(ls20.py:1492-1515, 1543-1546, 1790-1798, 746, 1110, 1346; engine runs: 42 to 41 per move on level 1, 42 to 40 on level 2)_ - Three red pips at the bottom-right are your lives for this level. When the meter runs out, you lose a pip, the whole screen flashes yellow, and you start the level over from the beginning with a full meter. Losing the third pip on one level ends the game. Every new level starts with three again. _(ls20.py:425-437, 1547-1551, 1843, 1972, 1982-2013; engine run on level 2: lives lost on moves 22 and 44, game over on move 66)_ - Losing a life also resets the key to how it started the level, brings back every pickup you used, and closes any door you had already opened. _(ls20.py:1993-2012; engine runs on levels 2 and 6)_ - Level 1 only: when a tile makes your key match the door, white outlines flash around the key box and around the door for a few frames. That move also costs no step. _(ls20.py:2024-2037, 1906-1909, 1930-1939; engine run on level 1: 6 frames, meter stayed at 35)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 123 actions · Boss 67 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ls20/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Small yellow rings are step pickups. Walk onto one and the step meter fills back to full, the ring disappears, and that move costs nothing. _(ls20.py:341-353, 1888-1892, 1972; engine run on level 2: meter went from 10 to 42)_ - From level 2 the meter drains two units per move (levels 2, 3, 5 and 7), so those levels give you only 21 moves per life. _(ls20.py:1790-1798 (default of 2); engine run on level 2)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 73 actions · Boss 43 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ls20/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - The color tile, a small patch of blue, green, red, orange and white, changes the key's color each time you step onto it, in the order orange, blue, green, red and back to orange. _(ls20.py:411-424, 1771, 1899-1904)_ - Launch pads: a cell with a light gray bar along one edge. Step into it and it flings you the other way from the bar, sliding you and the bar across the room to the last cell before a wall or door, then the bar springs back. The step into the pad costs a normal move and the ride is free. _(ls20.py:207-219, 1560-1671, 1857-1864, 1972-1977; engine runs on level 3: carried from (9,5) to (34,5) and from (54,4) down to (54,44))_ - A launch skips everything it slides you over. Only the cell you stop on takes effect, so a tile or pickup there still works. _(ls20.py:1913-1921, 1623-1647)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 84 actions · Boss 79 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/ls20-lvl4.png **New on level 4** - The shape tile, a small white glyph, changes the key to the next of six shapes each time you step onto it. _(ls20.py:268-280, 1773-1778, 1893-1898)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 96 actions · Boss 74 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/ls20-lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Some key-changing tiles move. Each time you move, they take one step along a hidden path, back and forth along a line or around a small square. If your move is blocked, they stay put. _(ls20.py:1674-1762, 1851-1856, 1958-1959, 1967-1969; engine run on level 5: the rotation tile went 14, 19, 24, 19, 14 as the player moved)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 192 actions · Boss 109 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ls20/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Two doors, each wanting a different key. You can open them in either order, and the level ends when both are open. _(ls20.py:1339-1346, 2042-2060; engine run on level 6: opened the second door first)_ #### Level 7 ARC baseline 186 actions · Boss 175 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ls20/lvl7.png **New on level 7** - Fog: everything more than 20 pixels from your block is black, doors included. The key box, the step meter and the lives stay visible. _(ls20.py:1465, 1517-1551; engine run on level 7 render)_ ### Hints - **Key Transformation** (spoiler level 2): Identify the "recipe" for tiles. Some tiles might rotate the key by 90 degrees, while others change its color or append a new block to its shape. - **Exit Requirement** (spoiler level 1): The door area often shows a hint of the "target" key. Ensure your key matches that ghost image perfectly before approaching. - **Hidden Move Limit** (spoiler level 2): Every level secretly caps you at a 42-unit step meter before it respawns you and costs a life. Half the levels burn two units a move, so on levels 2, 3, 5 and 7 that is really only 21 moves. You get 3 lives on each level, not 3 for the whole run, and the third loss on one level ends the run. RESET gives you back both the lives and the full meter. The final level also blacks out everything beyond a short radius around you. ### Resources - [replay] LS20 Replay (original game): https://three.arcprize.org/replay/ls20-fa137e247ce6/7405808f-ec5b-4949-a252-a1451b946bae — A human win on the original LS20 (ls20-fa137e247ce6), published 4 Jan 2026: 508 actions, one reset, over EIGHT levels where today's game has seven. It is from before ARC set a per-level baseline for this game, so there is no baseline or score to compare it with. - [replay] LS20 Human Replay (Win, 7/7 Levels, Score 100): https://arcprize.org/replay/7537433d-75af-48fa-ad3d-45fd32b23c00 — A human playthrough on the current ls20-9607627b build: a win, all seven levels cleared, score 100. 561 actions against a 776-action baseline (0.72x) -- and under baseline on every single level, split 14/67/43/79/74/109/175 against 22/123/73/84/96/192/186. Three mid-run resets, one of which bought back two lost lives on the final level. The raw 562-row NDJSON recording is committed at arc3/ls20-9607627b.7537433d-75af-48fa-ad3d-45fd32b23c00.jsonl, and the life/step-budget mechanic it exposed is written up in docs/2026-09-15-ls20-lives-and-step-budget.md. ### Provenance and caveats Corrected 2026-09-12 after a direct, adversarially-verified source read: added the hidden step budget, level 6's second door, and the final level's fog-of-war, none of which the original write-up mentioned. Corrected again 2026-09-15: that pass got the life system wrong in both directions -- the three lives are per LEVEL and refill on every level change and on RESET, and the THIRD loss on a level ends the run, not the fourth. The 42-unit meter is also only 42 moves on levels 1, 4 and 6; levels 2, 3, 5 and 7 drain two units a move. Both corrections are cited line by line against ls20-9607627b/ls20.py and confirmed frame-by-frame on a human winning recording in docs/2026-09-15-ls20-lives-and-step-budget.md. That win, added to resources[] the same day, is the first replay listed here on the current build -- the older ls20-fa137e247ce6 links, including the video, are from a build that has since been replaced, and had EIGHT levels where this one has seven. Both listed replays are human; neither is an agent run. --- ## Volume Control (`vc33`) - **Game ID:** `vc33` - **Set:** preview (public from the start) - **Tags:** preview-set, hydraulics, physics - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/vc33 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=vc33 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 447 (per level 7, 18, 44, 61, 131, 34, 152); Boss: best win 575 actions (2 runs) **Objective.** Pump white liquid between tanks so every rider sitting on a liquid surface ends up level with a mark of its own color, carrying riders through gates in the walls when they need to change tanks, before your click budget runs out. Not every level draws its tanks standing up -- some run sideways or hang upside down, same mechanic on a different axis. ### Mechanics Each level is a set of tanks of white liquid separated by black walls, and the liquid settles toward one side of the screen (right, left, down or up depending on the level). Blue pumps sit in pairs at the foot of each wall, one on each side; clicking a pump moves one step of liquid through the wall into the tank on the pump's side, so that tank's surface rises and the other tank's surface drops. A pump does nothing if the tank it drains is empty or the tank it fills is already up to the top of the shorter wall beside it. Riders (small caps with a yellow, green or purple base) sit on liquid surfaces and move only with them; they can't be clicked. You win when every rider is level with a stripe of its own color painted on a wall next to its tank. From level 4, light gray gates are set into some walls. A gate turns orange, with white brackets beside it, when the liquid on both sides is exactly level with it; clicking it then slides riders across to the other tank (two riders swap). From level 6, black bars cap how far a tank can be filled. Every click, including a wasted one, spends one unit of a per-level budget; run out before finishing and you lose. ### Controls - `ACTION6` (Click): Click a blue pump to move liquid through a wall, or click an orange gate to send riders across it ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 7 actions · Boss 3 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/vc33/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Click is the only action. Clicking a blue pump or an orange gate does something. Clicking anything else, including a gray gate or a pump that can't move liquid right now, does nothing but still uses a click. _(vc33.py:1842, 2094-2124)_ - You win when every rider is level with a short stripe of its own color painted on a black wall next to its tank. The check runs after every click. _(vc33.py:1937-1955, 2120-2121)_ - The white areas are liquid in tanks divided by black walls. The liquid settles toward one side of the screen, and that side changes by level: right on levels 1 and 5, left on 2 and 6, down on 3 and 4, up on 7. The pumps always sit on the side the liquid settles toward, and the surface is the far face of the liquid. _(vc33.py:1568, 1589, 1622, 1651, 1681, 1704, 1740, 1853-1886)_ - Blue squares are pumps. They come in pairs at the foot of a black wall, one on each side of it. Clicking one moves liquid through that wall into the tank on the pump's own side: that tank's surface moves out one step and the tank across the wall drops one step. A step is 2 pixels on levels 1-3 and 7, and 3 pixels on levels 4-6. _(vc33.py:1894-1935, 2030-2056)_ - A pump does nothing if the tank it would drain is empty, or if the tank it would fill already reaches the end of the shorter black wall beside it. _(vc33.py:1994-1997, 2014-2028, 2030-2031)_ - Riders are small shapes with a darker gray cap and a colored base (yellow, green or purple), sitting on a liquid surface. You can't click them. They move only when the surface under them moves, and they go with it. _(vc33.py:195-257, 2010-2012, 2033-2037)_ - The strip along the top edge is the click budget: light pink for clicks left, darker gray for clicks used. Every click costs one. The budgets are 50, 50, 75, 50, 200, 50 and 200 for levels 1 to 7. The click that uses the last one loses, unless that same click wins the level. _(vc33.py:1792-1827, 1844-1848, 2103, 2120-2124)_ - RESET restarts the current level with a full budget. There is no undo; the other pump of a pair moves the liquid back, and that costs a click too. _(vc33.py:1894-1899; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 18 actions · Boss 14 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/vc33/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Three tanks in a row. The middle tank has a wall on each side, so it can be filled or drained through either wall. _(vc33.py:1571-1591)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 44 actions · Boss 47 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/vc33/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Three riders at once (yellow, green and purple). Each one needs a stripe of its own color, and all three have to be level at the same time. _(vc33.py:1592-1624, 1937-1955)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 61 actions · Boss 29 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/vc33/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Clicking an orange gate opens it: the gate slides back out of the way, a rider on either side slides across to the middle of the tank on the other side, and the gate slides shut. If both sides have a rider, they swap. The whole crossing plays out as one click. Clicking a gray gate does nothing. _(vc33.py:2058-2092, 2094-2118)_ - Light gray gates set into the black walls. A gate is ready when the liquid on both sides of it is exactly level with its end nearest the liquid; it then turns orange and white brackets appear on both sides of it. When it stops being level, it goes back to light gray. _(vc33.py:1628-1629, 1957-1992)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 131 actions · Boss 318 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/vc33/lvl5.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/vc33/lvl5-human-gates.png — human play, green put down, yellow next **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-17, level 5** - Saw: Level 5 of 7 is one of the levels turned 90 degrees counterclockwise since the preview, so the tanks run sideways. The yellow piece has to get through a gate and up to where it wants to be, and the gates only show up once you make them appear. - Did: Lost the level once. On the next try, put the green piece down first, then went back to work on the yellow piece. - What happened: That is the order the level wants: green has to go down first and yellow gets finished later. Devious. #### Level 6 ARC baseline 34 actions · Boss 32 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/vc33/lvl6.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/vc33/lvl6-human-frustration.png — human play, taken out of frustration **New on level 6** - Black bars in a tank's path. A tank can't be pumped past the bar, and if a rider sits on that tank, it stops early enough to leave the rider room. _(vc33.py:1687, 1999-2005, 2014-2023)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-17, level 6** - Saw: Level 6 needs the volume indicators, which show how much liquid is in each part, read pixel-perfect. - What happened: Insane, and very confusing. He took a screenshot out of pure frustration. #### Level 7 ARC baseline 152 actions · Boss 132 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/vc33/lvl7.png ### Hints - **Hydraulic Logic** (spoiler level 2): Think of the total volume of white pixels as constant. Raising one column usually requires lowering another. Map out which controllers affect which "tubes". - **Manual Crossing** (spoiler level 1): Riders don't glide across by themselves -- once the liquid on both sides of a gate is exactly level with it, the gate turns orange, and you have to click it directly; that click sends the riders on either side across (two riders swap). Watch your click budget while you experiment. ### Resources - [replay] VC33 Replay (original game): https://three.arcprize.org/replay/vc33-6ae7bf49eea5/29409ce8-c164-447e-8810-828b96fa4ceb — The same run as the video on this page, on the original 9-level VC33 (vc33-6ae7bf49eea5), before ARC Prize reworked it. It does not look like today's game. ### Provenance and caveats Orientation note added 2026-09-12 PM, from an eccentric chicken farmer who played this game at its original release: it used to read unambiguously as liquid, and the current build is a little more confusing because the columns aren't all drawn standing up anymore. Corrected 2026-09-12 after a direct, adversarially-verified source read: transit is a manual click-to-swap on a specific bar, not an automatic glide; blue squares never move liquid; and a per-level click budget that can lose the game was missing. Corrected again 2026-09-16 against the live build (5430563c): the blue squares are the pumps that move liquid, and no red or maroon piece exists in it. The red pumps are only in /vc33-lvl7.png, which is a screenshot of the original 9-level preview build, not the current 7-level game. --- ## Axis Reflectors (`ar25`) - **Game ID:** `ar25` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 8 - **Tags:** mirrors, reflection, step-budget, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/ar25 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=ar25 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 748 (per level 32, 50, 75, 37, 89, 159, 233, 73); Boss: best win 887 actions (1 run) **Objective.** Move one or two pieces and axis-aligned mirrors; live reflections must cover every target dot. ### Mechanics The board is 21x21 cells on a Blue background. You control one or two Black pieces -- levels 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 give you two -- plus straight Light Blue mirror lines: a fixed vertical one on level 1, a movable vertical one on level 2, a movable horizontal one on levels 3 and 4, and one of each from level 5. A vertical mirror only slides left and right, a horizontal one only up and down. Every piece is reflected live across every mirror, and the reflections are drawn in Darker Gray. The target is a shape made of Yellow squares; the level ends the moment every Yellow square is covered by a piece or a reflection. Pieces pass through each other and through mirror lines. Each cell a piece or mirror moves costs one step from a colored bar on the right edge of the screen (64, 128 or 320 steps), and pressing Cycle to switch what is selected costs a step too, but clicking a piece or mirror to select it is free. Undo moves things back one move but never refunds the step. The move that empties the bar loses the level unless that same move wins it. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Move piece/mirror Up - `ACTION2` (Down): Move piece/mirror Down - `ACTION3` (Left): Move piece/mirror Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Move piece/mirror Right - `ACTION5` (Cycle): Cycle selection - `ACTION6` (Click): Click a piece or mirror to select it - `ACTION7` (Undo): Undo ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: The first two levels. - What happened: He mostly understood them. Then it got far too complex, like very long or complicated Lego pieces: he could not group and count that many dots. He had played it before and got nowhere on the later levels. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 32 actions · Boss 59 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ar25/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Arrow keys move whatever is selected one cell. Cycle, click and undo are also available. _(ar25.py:1277, 1722-1778)_ - Cycle switches the selection to the next movable thing (mirrors first, then pieces) and always costs a step, even when there is only one thing to select. _(ar25.py:1779-1791)_ - Clicking a piece or mirror selects it for free. Clicking empty board, a Yellow square or a reflection does nothing and costs nothing. Where a piece sits on a mirror line, the click picks the piece. _(ar25.py:1792-1846)_ - Undo puts pieces and mirrors back where they were one move ago. It does not give the step back and does not change the selection. _(ar25.py:1309-1329, 1716-1721)_ - The target is a shape made of Yellow squares. The level ends the moment every Yellow square is covered, either by a Black piece or by one of its Darker Gray reflections. _(ar25.py:59-68, 1688-1696, 1767-1770)_ - Pieces are Black shapes on the Blue board. They move inside the board edges, and pressing toward an edge they already touch does nothing and costs nothing. _(ar25.py:1744-1755)_ - A mirror is a Light Blue line across the whole board. Every piece is reflected across it, and the reflection is drawn in Darker Gray on the other side, the same distance from the line. _(ar25.py:1555-1618, 1088)_ - On level 1 the mirror is fixed: you cannot select it or move it, so only the piece moves. _(ar25.py:667-677, 719-735, 1357-1360)_ - Reflections are live. Move a piece or a mirror and every reflection redraws at once. _(ar25.py:1767, 1682-1686)_ - Every cell a piece or mirror actually moves costs one step. The bar is a column on the right edge of the screen that drains from the top: 64 steps on levels 1-2, 128 on levels 3-5, 320 on levels 6-8. _(ar25.py:1092-1147, 1771-1773, 732-1061)_ - The move that uses your last step loses the level, unless that same move covers the last Yellow square. _(ar25.py:1767-1773)_ - The selected piece or mirror shows a White dot in the middle of each of its cells; unselected ones show Blue dots. A Yellow square that is covered keeps a small Yellow dot showing through whatever covers it. _(ar25.py:1150-1254)_ - RESET puts the level back to its start with a full bar and clears the undo history. _(ar25.py:1331-1385; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 50 actions · Boss 64 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ar25/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - From level 2 the mirror moves. A vertical mirror only slides left and right; pressing up or down on it does nothing and costs nothing. Levels 2 to 8 start with a mirror selected, not a piece. _(ar25.py:617-627, 736-755, 1740-1743, 1357-1360)_ - On level 2, if you spend 15 steps without ever switching the selection, a White box flashes three times around the Black piece, hinting that you can select it. _(ar25.py:79-90, 1702-1711, 1774-1776)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 75 actions · Boss 99 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ar25/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Level 3 swaps in a horizontal mirror, which only slides up and down, and gives you two Black pieces (levels 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 all have two). Each piece is reflected on its own. _(ar25.py:69-78, 756-794)_ - Pieces do not block anything: they slide over each other and straight across mirror lines. _(ar25.py:1722-1778)_ - Longer budgets use a multi-colored bar. Each 64 steps is one color: the Yellow column drains to show Orange underneath, then Orange drains to Purple, Purple to Red, Red to Green, and the last color drains to nothing. _(ar25.py:1098-1104, 1117-1147)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 37 actions · Boss 41 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ar25/lvl4.png #### Level 5 ARC baseline 89 actions · Boss 248 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ar25/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - From level 5 there is one vertical and one horizontal mirror at once. A piece then shows up to three Darker Gray copies: one across each mirror and one across both. Clicking where the two lines cross switches between the two mirrors. _(ar25.py:832-867, 1555-1618, 1814-1834)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 159 actions · Boss 195 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ar25/lvl6.png #### Level 7 ARC baseline 233 actions · Boss 122 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ar25/lvl7.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ar25/lvl7-human.png — human play, copying the Astra replay **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-16, level 7** - Saw: Level 7. - Did: Copied the GPT-6 Astra replay. - What happened: Even copying the replay he could not tell whether he was close to winning. He had to cheat the last two levels, and even then it was hard and took an eternity. #### Level 8 ARC baseline 73 actions · Boss 59 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ar25/lvl8.png ### Resources - [replay] AR25 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/c28b4a3f-69b3-416e-8137-3890497bc089 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] AR25 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/ed09362c-eb47-41b8-bf46-2d275090be02 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12 after an adversarially-verified direct source read: the single-piece framing and the free-cycling claim were both wrong. --- ## Buoyant Pontoons (`bp35`) - **Game ID:** `bp35` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 9 - **Tags:** vertical-scroller, budget, physics, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/bp35 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=bp35 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 651 (per level 21, 48, 44, 38, 33, 87, 86, 131, 163); Boss: best win 1024 actions (3 runs) **Objective.** Steer left or right through a flooded shaft; every move automatically carries you further in whichever direction is currently "up" until you hit something solid, and a control tile lets you flip which way that is. The level world is bigger than the viewport shown at start -- the exit and the control tile are routinely off-screen, so nearly every level requires scrolling/exploring to even locate them (level 5 is the one level whose exit is in view at the start). ### Mechanics You steer only left and right; there is no up or down action. Every sideways step is followed by a forced slide through any open space in whichever direction currently pulls you (up at the start of every level), until something solid stops you. Levels are 11 cells wide and far taller than the view, which scrolls to follow you, so the exit and the Red flip blocks are usually off-screen at the start -- on level 4 the one you need sits just above the starting view. You win by stepping or sliding onto the Light Pink plus. Clicking reshapes the level: a Green block breaks; an Orange block turns into see-through Orange dots you slide through, and clicking those turns them solid again; a Red block (from level 4) flips the pull and is used up, so later levels have you sinking instead of rising; a plain Purple block (from level 8) breaks, but every empty cell touching it fills with new Purple, which is how Purple spreads and how you build bridges with it. Being carried into a Purple spike -- a Purple block with a Black frame and a Yellow and White stripe -- kills you instantly; the shrinking-into-nothing effect is only the death animation. Walking sideways into a spike just bumps. In levels 1-3 a Purple-and-Black mass sits below you and rises one row whenever you make a move that goes nowhere (a bump, or a sideways step with no slide) and your running count of moves and clicks is even; if it reaches your row you lose. It is gone from level 4 on. Every action, including clicks on nothing and Undo, fills one step of a bar along the bottom edge: 64 actions on levels 1-6 (Purple on White), 128 on levels 7-9 (Light Pink, then Purple over it). Filling it ends the attempt. Undo takes back one action, including a gravity flip, but still costs a step. ### Controls - `ACTION3` (Left): Move Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Move Right - `ACTION6` (Click): Click a control shape - `ACTION7` (Undo): Undo — One of only 3 public games (with lf52, sk48) where Undo is load-bearing, not a convenience -- see notes below. ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-12** - Saw: The rising purple-and-black mass under you on the first levels. - What happened: It basically never fires in normal play; he never saw it reach him. - In the code: It rises one row only after a move that goes nowhere while your move count is even, and it is gone from level 4 on. - **Boss, 2026-09-13** - Saw: A purple tile marked with a bit of yellow and white. Being carried onto it plays what looks like a teleport into the void. - What happened: It is an instant death, every time he hit one, on every level. The void effect is only the death animation; nothing teleports. - In the code: Being carried into a purple spike calls lose(); walking sideways into one only bumps. - **Boss, 2026-09-13** - Saw: The exit and the flip tile are never on screen at the start. - What happened: Every level means exploring the whole map to find them. He thinks that exploring, more than any single mechanic, is what makes this game hard for an agent and not for a person. - **Boss, 2026-09-14** - Saw: Every left or right press sets off the slide, and you often cannot see where it will carry you. - Did: Used Undo to back out of bad slides. - What happened: Undo is what makes it finishable: the only way to take back a slide onto a spike or into a wasted detour. One of three public games (with lf52 and sk48) where Undo is load-bearing, not a convenience. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 21 actions · Boss 17 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/bp35/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Four actions: Left, Right, Click and Undo. There is no up or down key. _(bp35.py:4479, 4512-4555)_ - You are a Blue ball. Left or Right moves you one cell sideways; the Yellow side of the ball shows which way you last moved. _(bp35.py:3325-3334, 4077-4090)_ - After a sideways step, if the cell in the pull direction is open you keep sliding that way until something solid stops you. You cannot stop partway. Every level starts with the pull pointing up. _(bp35.py:4100-4119, 4211-4221, 4040-4044)_ - Stepping into anything solid (a wall, a block, a spike) is a bump: the ball shakes in place and you do not move, but it still costs an action. _(bp35.py:4197-4209)_ - Clicking anything else -- empty space, a wall, a spike, the exit, yourself -- does nothing, but it still costs an action. You can only click what is on screen. _(bp35.py:4289-4293, 4400-4401, 4541-4545)_ - Undo puts the level back one action -- position, blocks and the pull direction -- but it still fills a cell of the bar, even when there is nothing left to undo. _(bp35.py:463-467, 4546-4550)_ - The exit is a Light Pink plus with a Black outline. Step sideways onto it or slide onto it to win the level. _(bp35.py:3380-3384, 4096-4099, 4222-4223)_ - Black walls with Dark Gray specks are solid and nothing you do changes them. _(bp35.py:3300-3304, 4289-4401)_ - Click a Green block and it shrinks away. If it was the block holding you back in the pull direction, you slide on through the gap right away. _(bp35.py:3235-3254, 4294-4304, 4231-4253)_ - On levels 1-3 a Purple-and-Black mass sits below you. It rises one row whenever you make a move that goes nowhere -- a bump, or a sideways step with no slide -- and your running count of moves and clicks is even. Clicks and slides never raise it. If it reaches your row, you lose. _(bp35.py:3370-3379, 4052-4075, 4102-4113, 4198-4209)_ - Every action fills one cell of a bar along the bottom edge of the screen: Purple filling a White row from the left. Moves, clicks on nothing and Undo all count. On levels 1-6 the level is lost when the bar hits 64. _(bp35.py:4404-4445, 4512-4555)_ - The level is 11 cells wide and 32 to 50 rows tall, but the view only shows about 10 rows. It scrolls up and down to follow you, showing a little more space in the direction you are being pulled. The exit is out of view at the start on every level except level 5. _(bp35.py:4040-4050, 4116-4119)_ - RESET restarts the level and empties the bar. _(bp35.py:4551-4565; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 48 actions · Boss 42 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/bp35/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Purple spikes: a Purple block with a Black frame and a Yellow-White-Yellow stripe. If you are carried into one, you die -- the ball shrinks to a dot and vanishes, which is only the death animation. Stepping sideways onto a cell that has a spike right next to it in the pull direction counts too. _(bp35.py:3360-3369, 3438-3502, 4122-4152, 4224-4225)_ - Walking sideways straight into a spike is safe: it is only a bump. _(bp35.py:4100, 4197-4209)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-13, level 2** - Saw: The shaft splits into branches. - Did: Stepped left or right and let the forced slide carry him. - What happened: Which way you step, combined with the slide, decides which branch you end up in, and whether you land on a purple tile or a green one. #### Level 3 ARC baseline 44 actions · Boss 48 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/bp35/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Solid Orange block: click it and it turns into a see-through X of Orange dots that you walk and slide through. Click the dots and they turn back into a solid block. _(bp35.py:3275-3284, 3503-3560, 4340-4384, 4217)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 38 actions · Boss 41 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/bp35/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Red block: click it and the pull reverses (up becomes down, or back again), the Red block is used up, and you slide the new way at once. It works from anywhere on screen, even when the Red block is buried inside a wall. _(bp35.py:3255-3274, 3561-3626, 4385-4399, 4231-4253)_ - The rising Purple-and-Black mass is gone from level 4 on. _(bp35.py:4052-4054)_ - Level 4 needs the pull reversed, and none of its Red blocks is in view at the start; the nearest sits just above the starting view. _(bp35.py:3561-3626, 4040-4050)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-13, level 4** - Saw: What worked on the earlier levels does not work: this level needs you to sink, not rise. - Did: Floated up and explored past the edge of the starting view. - What happened: The tile that flips the pull sits above the visible frame at the start, so you have to go looking before you know it exists. His read: a human explores and finds it; an agent that sticks with what worked on earlier levels probably does not. - In the code: Red blocks flip the pull from level 4 on; level 4's sits just above the starting view. #### Level 5 ARC baseline 33 actions · Boss 31 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/bp35/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - From level 5 some spikes have the stripe on the other edge, lying on floors for when you are sinking. They kill the same way. _(bp35.py:3365-3369, 3627-3692, 4224)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 87 actions · Boss 85 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/bp35/lvl6.png **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-13, level 6** - Saw: No flip tile anywhere near the start. - Did: Went all the way down to the bottom of the map, then all the way back up to the opposite corner. - What happened: The red tile was in that far corner. Finding the flip tile costs more on every level: just above the start on level 4, a long round trip on level 6. #### Level 7 ARC baseline 86 actions · Boss 88 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/bp35/lvl7.png **New on level 7** - From level 7 the bar allows 128 actions: the bottom row first fills Light Pink, then Purple fills over it. The level is lost when it reaches 128. _(bp35.py:4446-4460)_ #### Level 8 ARC baseline 131 actions · Boss 142 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/bp35/lvl8.png **New on level 8** - Plain Purple block (no stripe): solid. Clicking it breaks it, but every empty cell touching it -- above, below, left and right -- fills with a new Purple block. That is how Purple spreads, and how you grow it into a bridge. _(bp35.py:3305-3324, 3818-3884, 4305-4339)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-13, level 8** - Saw: A new mass of plain solid purple blocks, with no yellow and white marks, plus orange circle tiles, orange checkered tiles and a pink plus. - Did: Used the plain purple as bridge material to reach the level's flip tile. - What happened: The purple spread after some of his mistakes, and some mistakes could not be fixed by playing on: they needed Undo or a full Reset. - In the code: Clicking a plain purple block removes it and fills every empty cell touching it with new purple. #### Level 9 ARC baseline 163 actions · Boss 530 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/bp35/lvl9.png ### Resources - [replay] BP35 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/084397eb-e736-4cfa-bd64-0f73cc198e50 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] BP35 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/b02b9920-372b-43c9-8eef-58b76704664f — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] BP35 Boss's Official Human Replay: https://arcprize.org/replay/c935ca1b-dfee-4be1-9574-bf4cc80c5b89 — Boss's own official ARC Prize replay, human play, from the live-play session that confirmed the purple death-tile mechanic (2026-09-13). ### Provenance and caveats Reread 2026-09-12 by Boss, who actually plays this game, against the real bp35.py logic (not the placeholder `levels` list at the top of the file). Confirmed: the auto-rise is a forced pull with no opt-out, not optional floating; the gravity-flip control tile is a real functional mechanic, not decorative; and the rising "chaser" (mylefxfaev/aknlbboysnc) is real code with a real self.lose() call, gated to levels 1-3, but requires repeated failed moves in a row to trigger, which matches Boss never seeing it fire in practice. EARLY OBSERVATION (2026-09-13, live play, level 2), later refined -- see RESOLVED note below: the purple tile with a bit of yellow and white on it (ubhhgljbnpu/hzusueifitk in code) does something to the player when the auto-rise carries them onto it that initially looked like a teleport. Also from live level 2 play: the level layout forks -- the shaft splits into branches, and which way you move left/right (combined with the forced auto-slide) determines which branch, and which tile type (purple vs green), you end up on. This path-choice structure is separate from the purple-tile behavior itself and should be reflected in the mechanics description. Also from live level 4 play (2026-09-13): the buoyancy-flip control tile is off-screen at level start -- it sits above the visible frame, so you have to float up and explore to find it before you even know it exists. Level 4 needs the opposite parity (sink, not rise) from what worked before, so any fixed hypothesis fails until the hidden tile is found and clicked. Boss flags this as a likely human-vs-agent difficulty gap: a human explores and finds it, an agent locked onto a working hypothesis from earlier levels probably does not. From live level 6 play (2026-09-13): the control tile is not just off-screen but far off-screen -- reaching it means tracing all the way down to the bottom of the map, then all the way back up to the opposite corner where the red tile sits. So the discovery/traversal cost the control tile imposes appears to grow across levels (level 4: just above the start frame; level 6: a long down-then-up round trip), not a one-time trick. From live level 8 play (2026-09-13): a new mass of solid purple blocks appears (visually distinct from the earlier individual yellow/white-marked purple tiles seen on levels 2/4/6 -- this looks like a different element, not confirmed the same mechanic). These purple blocks seem to spread as a result of certain mistakes, and Boss has not worked out the exact trigger/rule yet. Some mistakes on this level are apparently unrecoverable in place and require Undo or a full Reset rather than just continuing to play through them. Level 8 also introduces orange circle tiles, orange checkered tiles, and a pink plus/cross tile not seen on earlier levels -- purpose of each not yet documented. RESOLVED 2026-09-13 (level 8 play, then corrected by Boss right after): the yellow/white-marked purple tile kills the player when the auto-rise carries them onto it -- confirmed on every instance Boss has hit, across levels. It plays a teleport-into-the-void death animation, but Boss confirmed that's purely the animation -- there is no actual teleportation, it's an instant death dressed up to look like one. This is a different element from the plain solid-purple blocks also seen on level 8, which act as buildable/climbable bridge material (used to reach that level's control tile) and separately "spread" under a rule still not worked out -- the two purple elements are visually distinct (marked vs unmarked) and should be tracked separately going forward. Boss's working prediction for level 9 is that the marked purple tiles will behave the same way (instant death with the void animation) -- unconfirmed until played. General principle from live play across levels 2/4/6/8 (2026-09-13): this game never shows the exit or the control tile up front -- every level requires exploring the full map to find them, not just reacting to what is visible in the start frame. That exploration requirement, more than any single mechanic, looks like the core human-vs-agent difficulty driver for this game. Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No embedded replay video for this game (2026-09-14): tried rendering Boss's official replay recording via generate_arc3_video.py, but the raw NDJSON only captures one frame per completed action (pre/post state), not the intermediate ticks of the forced auto-slide -- so the rendered clip cut instantly between resting positions instead of showing the actual sliding motion, which for a game built entirely around continuous slide animation looked broken/misleading. Pulled the video field rather than ship it. The three replay links under resources (two GPT-6 Astra runs, one Boss's own) remain the way to actually watch this game played. Level screenshots were rendered from the game source on 2026-09-12; no hints exist yet. ACTION7 (Undo) cross-game note (2026-09-14): six of the 25 public games expose ACTION7 (bp35, lf52, sk48, ar25, su15, sb26), but Boss identifies bp35, lf52, and sk48 as the three where Undo is actually load-bearing -- necessary to realistically complete the game -- versus ar25/su15/sb26 where it's more of a convenience. In bp35 specifically: every left/right press triggers the forced, un-declinable auto-slide, so a single directional choice can carry you onto a fatal purple tile or into a wasted detour with no way to stop partway through and reconsider -- Undo is the only way to back out of a bad slide before it costs you the level or the action budget, since the level world extends beyond the viewport and you often can't see the consequence of a direction choice before committing to it. See lf52.ts and sk48.ts for the other two. Most of the remaining ~19 games have no undo at all -- Boss's read is that this is deliberate, since giving it to them would remove a big chunk of their difficulty (mistakes there are meant to be costly and are part of the challenge). --- ## Compass Dye (`cd82`) - **Game ID:** `cd82` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 6 - **Tags:** color-matching, compass, budget, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/cd82 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=cd82 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 171 (per level 55, 8, 41, 21, 23, 23); Boss: best win 216 actions (3 runs) **Objective.** Fire colored dye from 8 compass stations, plus a dab tool from level 3, to match most of a reference pattern on a grid. ### Mechanics You control a color-throwing rig built around a small 10x10 target square, cycling between eight fixed compass stations (N/NE/E/SE/S/SW/W/NW) around it. At each station you pick a color, then fire to wash half the target (cardinal stations) or a diagonal triangle of it (intercardinal stations) in that color. From level 3 on, the four cardinal stations also gain a second tool -- an arrow-dab that paints a small block, 4 cells wide and 3 deep, in the middle of that station's edge in the current color -- because Fire alone can only ever lay down a full half or triangle and can't build the more intricate patterns those levels need. The goal is to reproduce a small reference pattern shown in the corner before a 100-action countdown runs out; the countdown restarts on each level and counts every action, including moves that go nowhere and clicks on nothing, and the 100th action loses the level. The win-check is a bit forgiving, since it never checks the target's two diagonal lines of cells, across six levels of increasingly multi-region, multi-color targets. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Move selector - `ACTION2` (Down): Move selector - `ACTION3` (Left): Move selector - `ACTION4` (Right): Move selector - `ACTION5` (Fire): Fire the station's throw - `ACTION6` (Click): Pick a color / arrow-dab ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: A paint bucket that moves around the canvas like a compass, and colors to stamp. - What happened: Easy once you see you are stamping colors, and that the order you stamp them in matters. The weird part is the compass directions: the controls you expect to work don't really work at the start, and it was just weird to navigate around and move it. - In the code: The arrow keys step the bucket around a ring of eight stations (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW) to the neighbor in that direction; a press that would cut across the middle or leave the ring does nothing but still costs an action. A later throw paints over an earlier one wherever they overlap. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 55 actions · Boss 25 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cd82/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - The arrow keys move the paint bucket around eight stations in a ring around the White 10x10 canvas: N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W and NW. Each press steps to the neighboring station in that direction. A press that would cut through the middle or leave the ring does nothing, but still costs an action. _(cd82.py:393-412, 531-549)_ - Fire throws the bucket's paint at the canvas. A side station (N, E, S, W) paints the half of the canvas nearest it. A corner station (NE, SE, SW, NW) paints the triangle nearest it, including the diagonal line of cells. _(cd82.py:673-681, 709-738)_ - Color swatches (small squares with a Darker Gray frame) sit along the top. Click one to load that color: a White bar moves under it and the bucket changes color. Each level starts at the N station with Purple loaded. _(cd82.py:447-463, 551-572, 258-270)_ - Clicking anything that is not a swatch (or, from level 3, the dab nozzle) does nothing but still costs an action. You cannot click the bucket to fire it. _(cd82.py:551-572, 663-669)_ - Make the canvas match the reference pattern in the top-left corner. The game only checks right after a throw or a dab, and it skips the canvas's two diagonal lines, so 80 of the 100 cells have to match. _(cd82.py:740-753, 704-707, 606-611)_ - Paint simply covers what was there. A later throw overwrites an earlier one wherever they overlap, so order matters. _(cd82.py:709-738)_ - Each level allows 100 actions. Everything counts: moves that go nowhere, clicks on nothing, color picks, throws. The 100th action loses the level, so you really get 99. _(cd82.py:431-432, 630-635)_ - The countdown is a Darker Gray line along the bottom edge of the screen that turns Black from the right as you use actions. _(cd82.py:366-388, 631)_ - A throw is animated: the bucket slides toward the canvas, the paint lands, and the bucket slides back. _(cd82.py:683-707)_ - There is no undo. RESET clears the canvas back to White and refills the countdown. _(cd82.py:444, 447-463; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 8 actions · Boss 7 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cd82/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Level 1 has two colors (White and Purple). Level 2 adds Orange. From level 3 there are seven: White, Purple, Orange, Yellow, Green, Red and Blue. _(cd82.py:264-265, 277-279, 292-298)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 41 actions · Boss 20 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cd82/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - From level 3 a small nozzle in the current color appears next to the bucket whenever it is at a side station (N, E, S or W). Click the nozzle to dab a block 4 cells wide and 3 deep onto the middle of that side of the canvas. It never appears at corner stations. _(cd82.py:288, 459, 495-518, 560-565, 574-628)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 21 actions · Boss 17 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cd82/lvl4.png #### Level 5 ARC baseline 23 actions · Boss 75 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cd82/lvl5.png #### Level 6 ARC baseline 23 actions · Boss 72 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cd82/lvl6.png ### Resources - [replay] CD82 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/dc5800f9-f4be-4e93-8b54-111d19fba5d2 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] CD82 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/f4cac4df-b688-49e1-8cef-02935d9ef885 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] CD82 Human Replay (Win, 6/6 Levels, Score 59.92): https://arcprize.org/replay/496ee425-9705-409f-8410-463a2229627e — A human playthrough, not an agent run -- the other two replays listed here are GPT-6 Astra. Published 2026-09-15: a win, all six levels cleared, score 59.92, 216 actions total and no mid-run resets, split 25/7/20/17/75/72 across levels 1-6. The score is the lowest of the six human runs on this site, and it is earned on exactly two levels: the run is comfortably under the per-level action baseline on levels 1-4 (25/55, 7/8, 20/41, 17/21) and then runs 75 against 23 on level 5 and 72 against 23 on level 6 -- 3.26x and 3.13x. The API's level_scores agree without being consulted: 115 on each of the first four levels and 9.40 and 10.20 on the last two. Overall that is 216 actions against a 171-action baseline, 1.26x, so this is the one run here that does NOT beat the baseline. A low score on this scale means levels run far over their own baseline; it is not a different unit from the 100s on the Human Records card beside it. The raw 217-row NDJSON recording is committed at arc3/cd82-fb555c5d.496ee425-9705-409f-8410-463a2229627e.jsonl. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the three replay links in resources[] -- two ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results, plus a human win published 2026-09-15 (6/6 levels, 216 actions, no mid-run resets), whose raw recording is committed under arc3/. Corrected 2026-09-12 after an adversarially-verified direct source read: the write-up omitted the level-3+ dab tool and overstated how strict the win-check is. --- ## Coded Notches (`cn04`) - **Game ID:** `cn04` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 6 - **Tags:** matching, manipulation, memory, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/cn04 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=cn04 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 789 (per level 29, 54, 85, 300, 208, 113); Boss: best win 454 actions (2 runs) **Objective.** Slide and turn loose parts until every printed mark meets its match on another part. ### Mechanics Anywhere from two to five loose parts, depending on the level, each printed with marks; you hold one part at a time and slide it with the arrow actions until every mark meets a matching mark on another part. A mark goes dark the instant it is satisfied -- but it also goes dark when it lands on the wrong kind of mark: the marks come in two kinds that look exactly alike, and only a pair of the same kind counts toward finishing the level. From level 3 on, only the part currently in your hand shows its own colour and marks -- everything else is flattened to grey -- so tracking what still needs to line up means remembering what you've already seen. Interact does two completely different things, and which one you get is a property of the part, not of anything on screen that tells you in advance (the one small tell: a growing part you are holding carries a single White dot, which is gone at its largest size). Across the whole of levels 1 through 4 it is a quarter-turn, every single time. From level 5 on, some parts are built as a stack of nested variants of the same shape sharing one spot, and on those parts Interact never turns the part at all -- it steps up the stack, so the part GROWS. It always starts on the smallest variant, and the bigger variants carry marks the smaller ones simply do not have: level 5's yellow part shows 3 marks at its starting size and 7 at full extent, so four of the marks you have to satisfy do not exist on screen until you expand it. Form a plan from what level 5 first shows you and you are planning against an incomplete board. The stepping is a bounce, not a wrap -- reach the largest variant and the next Interact walks it back down. Level 6 does it twice, with a six-deep yellow part and a four-deep purple one. There is no resize action in the game, and that is exactly what makes this hard to document: the growth is implemented as a swap between stacked sprites, so reading the source for a stretch primitive turns up nothing at all while the screen plainly shows a part getting bigger. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Slide held part - `ACTION2` (Down): Slide held part - `ACTION3` (Left): Slide held part - `ACTION4` (Right): Slide held part - `ACTION5` (Interact): Rotate the held part 90° -- unless it is a stacked part, in which case it grows instead and never rotates — Levels 1-4 contain no stacked parts, so Interact is purely a rotation there. Level 5 introduces one 5-deep stack and level 6 has two (6-deep and 4-deep). On a stacked part Interact steps through nested growing variants and bounces at the largest. - `ACTION6` (Click): Select a part; click the part you are already holding to release it — A growing (stacked) part you are holding shows one White dot. Clicking that White dot steps it through its sizes, same as Interact; clicking anywhere else on it releases it like any other part. The largest size has no White dot. ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-12** - Saw: The pieces joining up. - What happened: It looks like welding, but it is really connecting pieces. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 29 actions · Boss 14 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cn04/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - The arrow keys slide the part you are holding one cell. A part cannot leave the 20x20 board; pressing into the edge does nothing. _(cn04.py:1102-1130)_ - Interact turns the part you are holding a quarter turn clockwise. If the turn would leave it hanging off the board, it is pushed back inside. _(cn04.py:1089-1101, 1174-1182)_ - Click a part to pick it up; whatever you were holding is put down. Click the part in your hand to put it down. Clicking empty board does nothing. _(cn04.py:1062-1088, 888-918)_ - Each level starts with the part nearest the top-left corner already in your hand. With nothing in your hand, arrows and Interact do nothing. _(cn04.py:881-885, 1090, 1108)_ - Every Red mark on every part has to sit on top of a Red mark on another part. The level ends as soon as that is true after a slide or an Interact. _(cn04.py:1023-1049, 1098-1100, 1126-1129, 1052-1055)_ - Parts never block each other. They slide over and under one another freely, which is how marks end up on top of each other. _(cn04.py:1119-1125)_ - The Red marks come in two kinds that look exactly the same on screen. A mark only counts when it sits on a mark of the same kind. A wrong-kind pair still turns Dark Gray, so the board can look finished while the level stays open. _(cn04.py:868, 946-994, 1023-1049)_ - Each level has an action limit: 75, 100, 125, 125, 150 and 200 for levels 1 to 6. Every action counts, including clicks on nothing and presses with nothing held. The action that reaches the limit loses the level. _(cn04.py:709-795, 851, 1057-1061)_ - A mark turns Dark Gray when it sits on exactly one other mark. Three marks stacked on one spot do not count. _(cn04.py:977-1018)_ - On levels 1 and 2 the part in your hand is drawn White with its Red marks; every other part shows its own color. _(cn04.py:888-904, 928-945)_ - The limit is a short bar in the middle of the top edge: Darker Gray, turning White from the left as actions are used. _(cn04.py:803-830)_ - There is no undo. RESET puts every part back where the level started. _(cn04.py:846-886; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 54 actions · Boss 29 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cn04/lvl2.png #### Level 3 ARC baseline 85 actions · Boss 34 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cn04/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - From level 3 every part you are not holding is drawn solid Darker Gray, marks included, even marks already matched. Only the part in your hand shows its color and its marks. _(cn04.py:726-739, 861, 870-871, 941-945, 1019-1021)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 300 actions · Boss 219 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cn04/lvl4.png #### Level 5 ARC baseline 208 actions · Boss 107 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cn04/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Growing part: on this part Interact never turns it. Each press swaps it for the next bigger size, growing out from its top-left corner. At the largest size the next press shrinks it again, back down to the smallest, and so on. _(cn04.py:755-773, 865-880, 1089-1097, 1133-1157)_ - Bigger sizes carry more marks. Level 5's Yellow part has 5 sizes and starts on the smallest, with 3 marks; the largest has 7. The missing marks are not on the board until you grow it, and they all have to be matched. _(cn04.py:756-762, 1023-1049)_ - A growing part you are holding shows one White dot (the largest size has none). Clicking that White dot grows it just like Interact. Clicking anywhere else on it puts it down. _(cn04.py:1074-1085, 1168-1172)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-15, level 5** - Saw: On level 5 one piece, the yellow one, grows instead of turning. - Did: Pressed spacebar on it. - Expected: Spacebar turns pieces, as on the earlier levels. - What happened: You have to grow the yellow piece all the way, or you never see the parts you need to attach to. Only 6 levels, but devious: looking at level 5 you don't have all the information you need to plan it, which would throw off any player who thinks they already know the game. - In the code: On a growing part Interact never turns it: each press swaps it for the next bigger size. Level 5's yellow part has 5 sizes, and its missing marks are not on the board until you grow it. #### Level 6 ARC baseline 113 actions · Boss 51 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/cn04/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Level 6 has two growing parts: a Yellow one with 6 sizes and a Purple one with 4. Only the Yellow one gains marks as it grows (2 up to 6); the Purple one has 3 at every size. _(cn04.py:774-797)_ - The two growing parts share one grow-or-shrink direction. Once one of them bounces back from its largest size, Interact on the other one shrinks it too, until it reaches its own smallest size and turns around. _(cn04.py:875, 1133-1157)_ ### Hints - **Interact stops meaning "rotate" on level 5** (spoiler level 1): Levels 1 through 4 teach you that Interact turns the held part 90 degrees, and that is true of every part in all four levels. Level 5 introduces a part where Interact does not rotate at all -- it makes the part bigger. Nothing on screen warns you, and there is no separate stretch action to discover. If Interact seems to be doing nothing useful, look at the part's size, not its orientation. - **Expand the yellow part on level 5 before you plan anything** (spoiler level 2): The yellow part on level 5 starts at its smallest variant, showing 3 marks. Fully expanded it shows 7. The four extra marks do not exist on the board until you expand it, so any strategy you form from the opening view is built on a board you have not fully seen. Expand it first, then plan. The stepping bounces rather than wrapping, so if you overshoot the largest variant the next press shrinks it again. ### Resources - [replay] CN04 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/3cd20b12-b1c0-47e2-a3a1-406b6e4f75a7 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] CN04 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/f6296e32-d4b0-4068-9bb0-3be64b8afef5 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] CN04 Human Replay -- WIN, all six levels: https://arcprize.org/replay/f714032e-914d-4bb5-bc95-386dfacebca0 — A human playthrough, unlike the two GPT-6 Astra agent runs above. WIN, 6 of 6 levels, 454 actions, 4 resets, score 100. Under the per-level action baseline on every single level (454 against a baseline of 789). This is the run that turned up the level-5 growing-part mechanic -- and the winning move was an Interact. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video exists for this game yet -- the page carries the level screenshots rendered from its own game source on 2026-09-12, two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results, and one human replay. Corrected 2026-09-12: the original "adversarially verified" pass still missed a fabricated stretch action and a wrong piece-count claim, caught by a second, independent re-verification. Corrected again 2026-09-15, and this one is worth reading twice, because the 2026-09-12 correction was itself wrong in an instructive way. A human win (f714032e) reported that on level 5 one part expands rather than rotates. It does. Interact on a part that shares its spot with other parts steps through a stack of nested growing variants and never rotates it (cn04.py:1066-1075), and the small variants carry fewer marks than the large ones, so marks you must satisfy are absent from the board until you expand the part. The 2026-09-12 pass looked for a resize primitive in the source, found none, and deleted the original pass's observation as fabricated -- but the original pass was describing something real. "No stretch action" is true of the implementation and false of what a player sees, and a documentation method that only trusts implementation primitives will keep making this mistake on other games. The piece-count claim was also still wrong in the correction: 2 to 13 counted sprite entries, and levels 5 and 6 stack several entries on one spot, so the manipulable-part count is 2, 4, 3, 4, 4, 5 across the six levels -- a range of 2 to 5. --- ## Deck Control (`dc22`) - **Game ID:** `dc22` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 6 - **Tags:** platform-building, budget, panel, public-demo-2026 - **Slippery Seven:** yes. Only the 27B fails it -- Flash-Next clears levels on it regularly. - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/dc22 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=dc22 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 1228 (per level 59, 102, 67, 98, 324, 578); Boss: best win 1320 actions (2 runs) **Objective.** Walk a small green square to the yellow goal square while pressing panel buttons that swing, flip, extend and slide pieces of floor into place. From level 5 you also drive a claw that carries a piece of floor for you. A press that pulls the floor out from under you costs 20 steps, and if that empties your budget the game is over. ### Mechanics You control the green 2x2 square directly: each arrow press moves it 2 cells, but only onto floor (gray tiles, solid colored pieces, pads, tokens), and every press costs 1 step even when you cannot move. Reach the yellow 2x2 square and the next level loads at once. The black panel on the right holds the buttons, and clicking one costs 2 steps; clicking on nothing costs 1. On levels 1-3 each colored button changes every piece of its color: red and pink bars swing a quarter turn around their center block, and blue and purple tiles flip between solid (floor) and checkered (not floor). Level 1 outlines both buttons in white until your first press. Level 2 hides the red button until you walk over a small red token; level 3 does the same for purple. Level 3 adds pink pads: stand exactly on one and press pink, and you jump to the other pad. Level 4 adds a gray square button that closes a black gap 2 cells from each end per press (orange when closed, then it opens again) and a yellow L-shaped button that slides a light gray slab 2 cells along its track. Level 5 adds a red claw on a white track, driven by five panel buttons: it moves 4 cells a press up the left side or along the top or bottom row, a move off the track costs 1 step and just nudges it, and the red bar grabs the orange pillar at the end of the top row, which you can then carry and stand on. There is no release, and a grab with nothing under the claw is free. Level 6 swaps in a square claw that can only move onto the white track tiles and grabs the orange rotating bridge; its direction buttons only show while you stand on the matching tile of a small cross of tiles, its grab button appears after a red token, and a multicolor token reveals a button that recolors one pad pink, red, yellow, blue in turn, so it links to a different pad. After any click, if the green square has no floor under it, the square fades, the screen closes to black around it, the click is undone, and you are charged 20 steps; if that takes the budget to zero, you lose. Budgets are 128, 192, 192, 192, 512 and 1024 steps, shown as the bottom row turning dark gray from the left. There is no undo button; RESET restarts the level. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Move Up - `ACTION2` (Down): Move Down - `ACTION3` (Left): Move Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Move Right - `ACTION6` (Click): Press a panel button ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-02** - Saw: Pieces of floor that change when you press the panel buttons. - What happened: It seems to be building a path. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 59 actions · Boss 31 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/dc22/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Arrow keys move the small green square 2 cells. You can only move onto floor: gray tiles, solid colored pieces, pads, tokens. A move into a wall or off the floor does nothing. Every arrow press costs 1 step, even one that goes nowhere. _(dc22.py:9874, 10649-10660, 10864-10870, 10885-10888, 10362-10421)_ - Click a button on the black panel on the right to use it. A button press costs 2 steps. Clicking on nothing (or on a hidden button) costs 1 step and does nothing. _(dc22.py:10663-10708, 10851-10863)_ - There is no undo. RESET restarts the current level with a full budget. _(dc22.py:9966-9971, 9980-9981; arcengine/base_game.py:305-329)_ - Step onto the small yellow square. The next level loads the moment the green square lands exactly on it, even if that move spends your last step. _(dc22.py:10881-10888, 10891-10892)_ - Each button changes every piece linked to it at once. On levels 1-3 that simply means every piece of the button's color. _(dc22.py:10677-10708, 10423-10432)_ - Red button (level 1): the red bar with a dark red end block swings a quarter turn around that end block, between pointing left and pointing up. _(dc22.py:9626-9645, 10695-10708)_ - Blue button: blue tiles flip between solid blue, which is floor, and a blue checkered pattern, which you cannot stand on and which can block you. _(dc22.py:9626-9645, 10042-10053, 10695-10708, 10406-10421)_ - If a click leaves the green square with no floor under it, the square fades out, the screen closes to black in a shrinking circle around it, and then the click is undone and 20 steps are taken from your budget. If that empties the budget, you lose. This goes for any click, claw moves included. _(dc22.py:9912-9914, 9933-9953, 10569-10594, 10833-10838)_ - The bottom row of the screen is the step bar: it starts white and turns dark gray from the left as you spend. Budgets are 128, 192, 192, 192, 512 and 1024 steps for levels 1 to 6. Running out on a move or a press loses the game. _(dc22.py:9907-9910, 9923-9932, 9644, 9669, 9699, 9731, 9774, 9852)_ - Level 1 draws a white outline around both panel buttons as a hint. The outlines disappear on your first button press. _(dc22.py:9637-9638, 10679-10681)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 102 actions · Boss 82 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/dc22/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Long red and pink bars (20 cells) with a center block swing a quarter turn around that center, between lying flat and standing upright. _(dc22.py:9646-9670, 10695-10708)_ - Hidden buttons: a panel button can be missing at the start. Walk over the small token of its color on the board and the button appears. Level 2 hides red, level 3 and level 5 hide purple. _(dc22.py:9646-9670, 10871-10879, 10300-10331)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 67 actions · Boss 54 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/dc22/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Purple pieces flip between solid purple (floor) and purple checkered (not floor), the same as the blue tiles. _(dc22.py:9671-9700, 10695-10708)_ - Pink pads: two small pink and light pink checkered squares. Stand exactly on one and press the pink button, and you jump to the other pad. Pressing pink while not on a pad does not move you. _(dc22.py:9671-9700, 10686-10694, 10476-10496)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 98 actions · Boss 69 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/dc22/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Gray square button: closes a black gap from both ends, 2 cells per end per press, in light gray. On the fourth press the gap is fully bridged and turns orange; the next presses open it again, an 8-press cycle. Two gaps on a level can be out of step with each other. _(dc22.py:9701-9732, 10028-10037, 10423-10432)_ - Yellow L-shaped button: a short light gray slab slides 2 cells along its strip per press, turns orange at the far end, and on the next press jumps back to the start, a 6-press cycle. _(dc22.py:9701-9732, 10423-10432)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 324 actions · Boss 740 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/dc22/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - A red claw sits on a white track on the board, driven by panel buttons: light blue squares for left and right, blue squares for up and down, a red bar to grab. It moves 4 cells per press, up and down the left side of the track and left and right along its top and bottom rows. A good move costs 1 step. _(dc22.py:9733-9775, 10709-10769, 10789-10832)_ - Grab with the claw over the orange pillar and the claw closes on it. The pillar then moves with the claw, and it is floor you can stand on. There is no release: pressing grab again costs a step and does nothing. _(dc22.py:9733-9775, 10770-10783, 10829-10832)_ - A claw move off the track costs 1 step, and the claw nudges that way and snaps back. Grabbing with nothing under the claw is free, and the claw just flickers open and shut. _(dc22.py:10595-10645, 10784-10788, 10839-10850)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 578 actions · Boss 344 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/dc22/lvl6.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/dc22/lvl6-human.png — Mid-play capture from Boss's own level 6 attempt (2026-09-15). **New on level 6** - The yellow goal is not on the open board: it sits in a notch cut into the top of the panel, reached along gray tiles. _(dc22.py:9776-9853)_ - The claw becomes a red square outline that can only move onto the white track tiles, 4 cells per press. Its grab picks up the orange bridge (an orange bar with a red-outlined center) and carries it, and the pink button still swings that bridge while it is carried. _(dc22.py:9776-9853, 10129-10144, 10715-10776, 10792-10827)_ - The claw's direction buttons only show while you stand on the matching tile of a small cross of tiles: each tile has a colored dot (orange left, purple up, green right, light blue down). Step off and the button disappears. On this level those buttons are panel buttons, so a good claw move costs 2 steps. _(dc22.py:9776-9853, 10247-10287, 10851-10863)_ - The claw's grab button appears after you walk over the red token, and a multicolor token reveals a four-color square button. That button recolors one pad pink, red, yellow, blue in turn. A pad sends you to the other pad of the same color, so recoloring it picks where it leads. _(dc22.py:9776-9853, 9983-9988, 10448-10474, 10683-10694)_ ### Resources - [replay] DC22 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/a3b944b0-1863-4e98-bfb3-6802d327311b — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] DC22 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/eb980b49-c92d-4fdd-b5a0-ff2aa8254cb9 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] DC22 Boss's Official Human Replay: https://arcprize.org/replay/d13d39eb-6a87-4168-8406-12cd77eb637f — Boss's own official ARC Prize replay, human play, from the level 6 live-play session (2026-09-15). ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12: the original "adversarially verified" pass still missed that a wrong press can end the game outright, caught by a second, independent re-verification. Level 6 screenshot replaced 2026-09-15 with a mid-play capture from Boss's own attempt; the original auto-rendered opening frame is gone (git history has it if it's ever needed back). Restored 2026-09-18: the engine render is lvl6.png again and Boss's capture sits beside it as lvl6-human.png. LIVE PLAY, LEVEL 6 (2026-09-15): Boss sent two console screenshots seconds apart, same level, and comparing them shows the reshape mechanic actually firing: the right-side panel (the fixed column of pressable shapes -- a red bar, a magenta ledge, a grey cross with four colored dots, a yellow L-bracket, a small 2x2 four-color square, and a larger multicolor cluster) is pixel-identical in both, confirming it is a static button deck, not board state. The left play-field is not: an orange bar with a red-centered tile -- read here as the claw-and-track piece already described in mechanicsExplanation -- sits isolated mid-board in the first frame, and in the second frame the same piece has relocated to bridge the two top grey platforms, with the white walkable path reshaped to originate from that new junction. This is inferred from pixels only (no source read to confirm it is literally the claw/track and not some other reshaped element), but it is the first time this file has an actual before/after pair showing a single panel press change the board, rather than a static single-level screenshot -- worth confirming against source or against Boss directly before stating as fact in mechanicsExplanation. CONFIRMED IN SOURCE 2026-09-16 (Claude Opus 5): the orange bar with the red-outlined center is the level 6 orange bridge, not the claw. The pink button swings it a quarter turn, and the square claw can grab it and carry it along the white track tiles, which is what moves it to a new spot (checked in the engine). The panel is also not a fully static deck on level 6: the claw direction buttons only show while you stand on the matching tile of the small cross of tiles, and the grab and four-color buttons appear only after you walk over their tokens. --- ## Ghost Twin (`g50t`) - **Game ID:** `g50t` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 7 - **Tags:** ghost-twin, move-recording, time-loop, timer, public-demo-2026 - **Slippery Seven:** yes. Hard for both models; the 27B does even worse on it. - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/g50t - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=g50t - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 879 (per level 78, 175, 179, 230, 96, 54, 67); Boss: best win 533 actions (2 runs) **Objective.** Every move you make is being recorded; the fifth action sends you back to the start and spawns a twin that replays those exact moves alongside you, all under a draining timer bar. ### Mechanics You control a small blue square moving through black corridors toward the goal (an open blue bracket you step into), and every successful move is silently appended to a history list. The fifth action doesn't move you -- it plays that history back in reverse to walk you to the start, then clones your just-finished self into a ghost twin bound to that exact move list. From then on, the twin re-executes its recorded moves in lockstep with your live moves, one step per step you take, whether or not that still makes sense for the room you're now in. Nothing in the level explains this before you trigger it, so a first attempt can't be a clean run -- you're meant to spend it learning what the fifth action does, then use the twin(s) it leaves behind to hold pressure plates while the real you reaches the chest. A timer bar drains on a fixed schedule tied to your action count and ends the run at zero if it beats you there. Plates open gates only while something stands on them, and a gate that shuts on you kills you; yellow gates instead flip open or shut each time their plate is pressed. Level 1 lets you keep one ghost and later levels two; rewinding once more wipes every ghost and starts the cycle over. The last two levels add green patrols that walk a fixed, unmarked route one square for each move you make and kill you if they finish a step on your square. Levels 4, 5 and 7 add hollow purple pads: pressing the purple plate swaps whatever is standing on one pad with whatever is on the other. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Move Up - `ACTION2` (Down): Move Down - `ACTION3` (Left): Move Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Move Right - `ACTION5` (Ghost): Spawn a ghost twin: you go back to the start and the twin replays your moves ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: You move to where you want your ghost twin to go, then press spacebar. You get sent back to where you started, and a ghost twin walks the exact path you just walked. You get three ghost twins. - Did: Used the ghost twins to press the levers and panels, so his own player could get to the exit. - What happened: It works, but it is weird. If you have never seen it before it just does not make sense, and it would never occur to a lot of people. He thinks many players get frustrated and leave. He won it twice (13 and 15 Sep, 7/7 both times, 533 and 536 actions). The public top 10 all won in 274-323 actions, against ARC's average of 879. - **Boss, 2026-09-13** - Saw: ACTION5. - What happened: It is not rewind. It is what spawns the ghost twin. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 78 actions · Boss 43 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/g50t/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Arrow keys move your blue square (with a black center dot) one square along the black corridors. A move into a wall or a shut gate does nothing, is not recorded, and does not move any ghost or patrol, but it still counts against the timer. _(g50t.py:1847, 2644-2658, 2670-2680, 2816-2828)_ - The fifth action is rewind. It walks you back to the start one step at a time (ghosts and patrols rewind with you), then leaves a ghost at the start that will replay the moves you just made. Pressing it before you have moved does nothing except use up a timer tick. _(g50t.py:2698-2726, 2752-2777, 2824-2825)_ - There is no undo beyond rewind. RESET restarts the level from scratch with no ghosts and a full timer. _(g50t.py:2793, 2796-2802; arcengine/base_game.py:305-329)_ - The goal is a blue bracket, an open box with a dot inside. Step your square into it and the next level loads. _(g50t.py:2515-2517, 2805-2807, 2833-2839)_ - A ghost is a gray copy of your square. Each time you make a successful move, every ghost makes its next recorded move at the same time. If that move is now blocked, the ghost skips it and carries on with the rest. When its list runs out it stands still. _(g50t.py:2086-2093, 2680-2687, 2769-2772)_ - Ghosts cannot be killed and do not block you. They do press plates, which is what they are for. _(g50t.py:2644-2658, 2745-2749)_ - Plates are small colored squares on the floor, joined to a gate by a thin line of the same color. A red plate holds its gate open only while you, a ghost or a patrol stands on it; step off and the gate slides shut again. _(g50t.py:2111-2176, 2198-2236, 2664-2668, 2745-2749)_ - Level 1 has two slots, so it allows one ghost. Rewinding again once every slot is used wipes all ghosts and starts over with none. _(g50t.py:1636-1653, 2759-2765)_ - A gate that slides shut onto your square kills you: the square bursts apart and the run is over. _(g50t.py:2043-2079, 2237-2247, 2829-2832, 2841-2842)_ - The blue bar along the bottom is a timer. It slides one cell to the left for every two actions you take (moves, blocked moves and rewinds all count). It is gone after 128 actions, and the 130th action on a level loses the game. _(g50t.py:2826-2828, 2841-2849)_ - The small squares at the top left are ghost slots. The one in use is blue with a blue bar under it, used ones turn gray, and unused ones are light gray. _(g50t.py:2402-2428, 2632-2639, 2736-2744, 2774-2777)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 175 actions · Boss 67 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/g50t/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Three slots from here on, so you can keep two ghosts at once, each replaying its own run. _(g50t.py:1655-1677, 2759-2773)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 179 actions · Boss 68 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/g50t/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Yellow plates and yellow gates. A yellow gate does not care when you step off: each new press of its plate flips it, open the first time and shut the next. _(g50t.py:1679-1705, 2186-2205)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 230 actions · Boss 55 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/g50t/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Hollow purple pads and a purple plate. When something presses the plate, there is a short pause and a small purple animation on the line between the pads, then whatever stands on one pad swaps places with whatever stands on the other. That is the only way onto some parts of the map. _(g50t.py:1707-1731, 2264-2367, 2555-2569, 2596-2622)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 96 actions · Boss 173 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/g50t/lvl5.png #### Level 6 ARC baseline 54 actions · Boss 62 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/g50t/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Patrols press plates too, and a gate that shuts on a patrol kills it. _(g50t.py:2248-2251, 2745-2749)_ - A green patrol (a green square with a black dot) walks a route that is not drawn on the map, one square each time you make a successful move, turning at corners and doubling back at dead ends. If it finishes a step on your square, you die. Patrols rewind with you. _(g50t.py:1768-1805, 2436-2491, 2544-2554, 2688-2718)_ #### Level 7 ARC baseline 67 actions · Boss 65 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/g50t/lvl7.png **New on level 7** - Two purple plates and two separate pairs of purple pads, plus a patrol. _(g50t.py:1807-1843)_ ### Resources - [replay] G50T Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/86b31ba0-245b-44c1-8587-bf7782bc27f2 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] G50T Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/b93ce848-16a9-4930-994b-871dd64ed93d — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] G50T Human Replay (Win, 7/7 Levels, Score 89.39): https://arcprize.org/replay/4f0689d0-7d06-4be7-91ac-31cb9a800b85 — Boss's first win, 13-Sep-2026, and his best score: all seven levels, 533 actions, 9 resets, split 43/67/68/55/173/62/65 against the game's baselines of 78/175/179/230/96/54/67 (879 total). Over baseline only on level 5 (173 against 96) and, just, level 6 (62 against 54). - [replay] G50T Human Replay (Win, 7/7 Levels, Score 82.12): https://arcprize.org/replay/58483738-cfaf-4e57-8c55-4c9c593bbab5 — Boss's second win, 15-Sep-2026: all seven levels, 536 actions, 8 resets, split 17/31/74/94/186/91/43. Faster on the first four levels than his first win, slower on 5 and 6, so it scored lower. ### Provenance and caveats Renamed 2026-09-13 from "Ghost Timer" to "Ghost Twin" by Boss, who played it: the timer bar is real but isn't the point, and the old name buried the actual mechanic -- an unexplained fifth action that records your moves and replays them via a cloned twin. Confirmed against g50t.py that move history is recorded and replayed exactly as Boss described. Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12 after an adversarially-verified direct source read: "dodge patrols" and "a handful of ghosts" both overstated what most levels actually contain, and a teleport-tile mechanic in 3 levels was missing entirely. --- ## Kick Away (`ka59`) - **Game ID:** `ka59` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 7 - **Tags:** sokoban, chain-push, bombs, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/ka59 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=ka59 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 730 (per level 28, 109, 51, 51, 33, 132, 326); Boss: best win 598 actions (1 run) **Objective.** Drive one green box at a time and knock the other pieces around until every outline frame on the board holds a piece of its size. Bumping a piece sends it flying about 15 cells; from level 5, bombs on a fuse blast pieces too. ### Mechanics Click a green box to select it (the selected box has a white center), then each arrow press moves it 3 cells. If the move would run into another piece -- another box, a yellow special block, or a bomb -- your box does not move; instead that piece is knocked about 15 cells in that direction in one go, shoving anything further in line along with it, until a wall stops it. Purple areas stop the box you are driving, but a knocked piece slides right across them, and one that would stop on purple keeps sliding until it is clear. The level is won the moment every dark gray outline frame holds a piece of exactly its size: the small frames want green boxes, the large ones want the yellow special blocks, which you can never select and can only move by knocking them. Levels 1 and 2 have no special block, level 3 has two, levels 4, 6 and 7 have one, and level 5 has one placed off the visible board with no frame, so it plays no part. From level 5, bombs fill with orange one row per arrow press; when the last row fills, the bomb shoots an orange blast out of one side that knocks whatever it hits, then turns dark red and starts filling again. Every click and every arrow press costs one step, whether or not anything moves: budgets are 100, 127, 100, 127, 100, 150 and 200. Run out and you lose. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Push selected box Up - `ACTION2` (Down): Push selected box Down - `ACTION3` (Left): Push selected box Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Push selected box Right - `ACTION6` (Click): Select a box ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: Pieces to push around, Sokoban-like. - What happened: Pretty easy. It feels like kicking pieces away, which is where the name Kick Away comes from. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 28 actions · Boss 22 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ka59/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Click a green box to select it. The selected box has a white center; the others have a dark center. Every click costs 1 step, even on empty floor or on the box that is already selected. _(ka59.py:41101-41112, 41136-41140, 41153-41156, 41448-41457)_ - Arrow keys move the selected box 3 cells. Every arrow press costs 1 step, including one where the box is blocked and does not move. _(ka59.py:41041, 41158-41178, 41380-41447)_ - There is no undo. RESET restarts the level with a full budget. _(ka59.py:41133, 41136-41151; arcengine/base_game.py:305-329)_ - Dark gray outline frames are the targets. The level is won the moment every frame has a piece sitting exactly inside it, one cell in from the outline on all sides, so the piece has to be the frame's size. Pieces with no frame to fill do not matter. _(ka59.py:41093-41098, 41262-41273, 41458-41460)_ - Driving into another piece does not move your box. Instead the piece you hit is knocked in that direction, 3 cells a frame for 5 frames (about 15 cells), all in one move. Anything in its way gets shoved along with it. If the piece at the far end of the line is against a wall, nothing in the line moves, and the knock is over. _(ka59.py:41042, 41180-41201, 41250-41260, 41319-41334, 41380-41390)_ - Gray walls stop everything. Purple areas only stop the box you are driving: a knocked piece slides straight across purple, and if it would come to rest on purple it keeps sliding until it is clear. On level 1, a box sitting 12 cells left of the purple strip and knocked right travels 18 cells instead of 15 for that reason. _(ka59.py:41158-41178, 41180-41201, 41250-41255)_ - The bottom row is the step bar: dark gray for what is left, turning white from the right as you spend. Budgets are 100, 127, 100, 127, 100, 150 and 200 steps for levels 1 to 7. When it hits zero you lose, unless that last step completed the board. _(ka59.py:41051-41086, 41147-41151, 41458-41462, 40946, 40962, 40975, 40989, 41005, 41020, 41036)_ - All green boxes have a green outline. On the selected box, any side that is touching another piece turns white, and a white line flashes on the side you bumped while the knocked piece slides away. _(ka59.py:41275-41304, 41306-41318, 41386-41390)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 109 actions · Boss 102 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ka59/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Boxes and frames come in more shapes: 3x3, 3 wide by 6 tall, 6 wide by 3 tall, and 6x6. Each frame only counts a box of its own shape. _(ka59.py:40948-40963, 41093-41098)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 51 actions · Boss 55 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ka59/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Yellow special blocks (9x9) with their own larger frames. You cannot select them: the only way to move one is to knock it with a box (or, later, a bomb blast). Level 3 has two of them and only one green box. _(ka59.py:40964-40976, 41262-41273)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 51 actions · Boss 43 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ka59/lvl4.png #### Level 5 ARC baseline 33 actions · Boss 59 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ka59/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Bombs are pieces too: drive into one and it gets knocked like anything else, so you can move a bomb to aim its blast. _(ka59.py:41089-41090, 41158-41178, 41180-41201)_ - Bombs: dark red squares that fill with orange one row for every arrow press (clicks do not count). When the last row fills, the bomb shoots an orange blast out of the side the fill was heading toward, growing 3 cells a frame, and knocks anything it touches the same way, your own box included. Then the bomb goes dark red and starts filling again. Small bombs go off every 3 presses, big ones every 6. _(ka59.py:40991-41006, 41227-41248, 41335-41379)_ - Level 5's special block (a small blue one) is placed outside the visible board and has no frame, so it plays no part. The level itself is one green box, one frame and five bombs, with the box starting inside a purple pocket that the big bomb caps. _(ka59.py:40991-41006)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 132 actions · Boss 174 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ka59/lvl6.png #### Level 7 ARC baseline 326 actions · Boss 143 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/ka59/lvl7.png ### Resources - [replay] KA59 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/36989e6c-72fc-4b22-a48b-1e7988df6477 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] KA59 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/a20bebda-f97c-4a72-940f-de03dae1833b — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] KA59 Human Replay (Win, 7/7 Levels, Score 84.57): https://arcprize.org/replay/1333b2ee-cf42-40dc-8994-cff1a5a9c55d — A human playthrough, not an agent run -- the other two replays listed here are GPT-6 Astra. Published 2026-09-15: a win, all seven levels cleared, score 84.57, 598 actions and 2 mid-run resets, split 22/102/55/43/59/174/143 across levels 1-7. Under the game's own action baseline overall (730), but over it on three levels -- marginally on level 3 (55 against 51), and heavily on the two that were clearly the hard ones: level 5 at 59 against 33 and level 6 at 174 against 132, where one of the run's two resets happened (the other was eight actions into level 1). Level 7 ran 143 against a 326 baseline. The 84.57 is those three over-baseline levels showing up in the score -- level_scores reads [115, 114.20, 85.98, 115, 31.28, 57.55, 115], with its two lowest values on exactly levels 5 and 6. It is the same scale as the 100s on the Human Records card beside it, not a different unit. The raw 599-row NDJSON recording is committed at arc3/ka59-38d34dbb.1333b2ee-cf42-40dc-8994-cff1a5a9c55d.jsonl. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the three replay links in resources[] -- two ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results, plus a human win published 2026-09-15 (7/7 levels, score 84.57, 598 actions, 2 mid-run resets), whose raw recording is committed under arc3/. Corrected 2026-09-12 after an adversarially-verified direct source read: the special block's role varies a lot more per level (0, 1, or 2 blocks, with or without a frame) than "one special block" implied. --- ## Leapfrog (`lf52`) - **Game ID:** `lf52` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 10 - **Tags:** peg-solitaire, linked-rooms, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/lf52 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=lf52 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 1339 (per level 32, 81, 60, 71, 205, 148, 244, 109, 164, 225); Boss: best win 1163 actions (4 runs) **Objective.** Peg solitaire: click a peg, click its landing spot, and it hops a same-color neighbor off the board. From level 2, the arrow keys drive rail carts that carry pegs between rooms, and every action spends a limited move budget. ### Mechanics Click a green peg, then click one of the gray rings that show where it can land: it hops straight over the next peg (or purple block) into the empty square beyond, and a jumped peg of the same color is removed. Get down to one peg to clear the level. From level 2, black tracks carry rail carts (orange squares with a yellow rim). Every arrow press moves every cart one square along its track, and a peg can hop onto an empty cart and ride it to another room. From level 4, purple blocks can be hopped over but never come off. Levels 6 and 7 each have one red peg: green and red pegs can hop over each other but neither removes the other, so those two levels are won with two pegs left, the red one and one more. Levels 8-10 add blue pegs that move and can be hopped over but never come off and never count, so you only need to get down to one green peg. Every click and arrow press costs a move, even one that does nothing: 64 on level 1, 320 on levels 2-5 and 640 on levels 6-10, and running out is the only way to lose. Undo takes back your last action and refunds its move. On levels 1, 2, 3 and 6, certain dead-end hops gray out every peg and raise a purple restart button in the bottom-left corner. Clicking it resets the level and your move count. It is its own icon, not part of the cart. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Move rail cart Up - `ACTION2` (Down): Move rail cart Down - `ACTION3` (Left): Move rail cart Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Move rail cart Right - `ACTION6` (Click): Select/place a peg - `ACTION7` (Undo): Undo — One of only 3 public games (with bp35, sk48) where Undo is load-bearing, not a convenience -- see notes below. ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-14** - Saw: Undo (ACTION7) is available. - What happened: Undo is load-bearing here: one of three public games (with bp35 and sk48) where you realistically need it to finish, not a convenience. - **Boss, 2026-09-12** - Saw: Ten levels, each needing a lot more clicks than the last. - What happened: It is much more than peg solitaire. The later levels get bigger budgets because they take far more clicks. On the human leaderboard the gap between #1 and #10 is hundreds of actions, and a player without the right idea in the first couple of moves falls apart. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 32 actions · Boss 8 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Click a peg to pick it. A dark gray ring goes around it, and a small gray ring appears on every square it can hop to, pulsing between a ring and a dot. Clicking a different peg switches to that one. _(lf52.py:4427-4441, 5334-5341, 5353-5365; engine run on level 1)_ - A hop goes straight up, down, left or right, never diagonally. It needs a peg (or, from level 4, a purple block) in the very next square and an empty floor tile just past it. _(lf52.py:5649-5669)_ - Click one of the gray landing rings to make the hop. _(lf52.py:5342-5344, 5374-5419)_ - Click a peg that has no legal hop and it gives a quick sideways wiggle. Nothing gets picked. _(lf52.py:5364-5367, 5671-5680)_ - Clicking anything that isn't a peg or a landing ring (empty floor, background, a purple block, a cart) just drops the current pick. Level 1 is the exception, see the hint below. The click still costs a move. _(lf52.py:5334-5351, 5369-5372; engine run on level 4 (clicking a purple block picked nothing))_ - The arrow keys move the rail carts. Level 1 has no carts, so there an arrow press does nothing except spend a move. _(lf52.py:5276-5290, 5811-5826; engine run: 64 arrow presses lose level 1)_ - Undo takes back your last action: a hop, a pick, a cart move, even a wasted click. It also refunds the move that action cost. You can undo again and again, one action at a time. _(lf52.py:5853-5857, 2436-2448, 831-835; engine run: 63 arrow presses then 5 undos left the move count at 58)_ - RESET restarts the current level and sets both the move count and the top-row meter back to zero. _(lf52.py:5858-5872; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330; engine run on level 2)_ - While that button is showing, a click anywhere in the bottom-left corner (not just on the icon) plays a black speckle fade and puts the level back to its start. Your move count goes back to zero, but the top-row meter keeps counting. _(lf52.py:5832-5848, 2450-2453, 837-843; engine run: click at (15,49) restored level 2, moves 0)_ - A hop removes the peg it jumps over when both pegs are the same color. Get the board down to one peg and the level is won: the pegs left do a little bounce and the next level loads. _(lf52.py:5391-5410, 5572-5581, 5592-5605, 5644-5647, 5763-5766; engine run: level 1 cleared in 4 hops)_ - Pegs are green circles. The floor is light gray tiles with white rims on a white board. A peg can only land on a floor tile, never on the light blue background. _(lf52.py:4367-4371, 4452-4456, 5666-5669; level 1 render)_ - There are no enemies, hazards or lives. Running out of moves is the only way to lose. _(lf52.py:5763-5782 (the only lose calls))_ - Every click and every arrow press costs one move, even one that does nothing. Level 1 gives you 64 moves, levels 2-5 give 320 and levels 6-10 give 640. Use them all up and the game is over. The win check runs first, so a winning hop on your very last move still counts. _(lf52.py:5277, 5335, 5763-5782; engine runs: lost on the 64th action on level 1, the 320th on level 2 and the 640th on level 6)_ - When you hop, the peg slides over and briefly swells, a sideways hop arcs up a few pixels on the way, and the peg you jumped shrinks away to nothing. _(lf52.py:5399-5418, 5522-5532, 5583-5590)_ - The top row of the screen is an action meter, not the move limit. Each action, undo included, adds one pixel from the left, and the row gets one shade darker every 64 actions (white, then light gray, gray, dark gray, darker gray). Undo doesn't take pixels back, so the meter can show more than you have really spent. It clears on RESET or a new level. _(lf52.py:5683-5695, 5716-5731, 5811-5862, 5872; engine run sampling the meter at 10, 70 and 200 actions)_ - Level 1 only: clicking empty space before your first hop blinks a blue circle over the peg to start with, or over its landing square once you have picked that peg. The hint click costs a move like any other. _(lf52.py:5225-5273, 5348-5350, 4610-4628; engine run on level 1)_ - On levels 1, 2, 3 and 6 the game knows some dead-end hops. Land on one of those squares and, after a short pause, every peg turns gray and shakes, then a purple pin-shaped button with a white centre rises into the bottom-left corner. On level 1, clicking empty space after that blinks the blue circle over the button. Not every losing hop is caught, and levels 4, 5 and 7-10 have no such squares. _(lf52.py:5420-5432, 5471-5474, 5607-5641, 5228-5242, 4589-4609; engine runs on levels 1 and 2)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-12, level 1** - Saw: Level 1. - What happened: It should take no more than 10 actions. He believes it can be done in 3. #### Level 2 ARC baseline 81 actions · Boss 39 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl2.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl2-human.png — human play, the cart on its track **New on level 2** - Black track lines appear, with a rail cart on them: an orange square with a yellow rim. Each arrow press moves the cart one square that way if there is track there. It won't leave the track or move into another cart. Moving a cart also drops your current pick. _(lf52.py:4457-4461, 4549-4588, 4667-4702, 5276-5313; engine run on level 2)_ - An empty cart counts as a landing square, so a peg can hop onto it, and whatever sits on a cart rides along when it moves. That is how pegs get from one group of tiles to another. A cart that already has something on it can't be landed on. _(lf52.py:5294-5313, 5666-5669; engine run on level 2: a peg hopped onto the cart and rode it down and left)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-12, level 2** - Saw: A car on the board. - What happened: You move the car with the direction keys. The AI runs never realize that, so they never solve level 2. - In the code: Black track lines appear with a rail cart on them; each arrow press moves the cart one square along its track. #### Level 3 ARC baseline 60 actions · Boss 50 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl3.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl3-human.png — human play, the board running off the screen **New on level 3** - Several carts on one level. An arrow press moves every cart that has track ahead of it, all at the same time. _(lf52.py:4703-4739, 5278-5313; engine runs on levels 3 and 4)_ - From level 3 most boards are bigger than the screen, and the view slides along. It pans when a cart carries a green peg (levels 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9, and the upper carts on level 4; a red or blue passenger doesn't move the view), and when a peg lands on certain squares (levels 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9). _(lf52.py:5294-5325, 5433-5521; engine runs: level 4 landing on the cart panned 30 pixels, level 3 carrying a green peg panned 8)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-12, level 3** - Saw: Level 3. - What happened: Everything is side-scrolling: you have to go way off the original screen. It is like bp35, except bp35 scrolls up and down and this one scrolls sideways. - In the code: From level 3 most boards are bigger than the screen, and the view slides along. #### Level 4 ARC baseline 71 actions · Boss 60 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Purple blocks: purple squares with a light pink and white centre. A peg can hop over one, but the block never comes off, can't be picked, and can't be landed on. _(lf52.py:4505-4509, 5391-5396, 5660-5669; engine run on level 4)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 205 actions · Boss 266 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Some purple blocks sit on carts and travel with them, so the thing you hop over can be moved into place. _(lf52.py:4785-4815 (P tiles), 5294-5313)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 148 actions · Boss 284 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Because the red peg can't be removed, levels 6 and 7 are won with two pegs left: the red one and one other. Level 7 starts with only two green pegs and the red one, so one capture clears it. _(lf52.py:5572, 4849-4883)_ - A red peg (a red circle), one each on levels 6 and 7. Green pegs can hop over it and it can hop over green pegs, but neither removes the other, so the red peg never comes off. _(lf52.py:4402-4406, 4816-4883, 5391-5396; engine run on level 6 in both directions)_ - When a green peg and the red peg hop over each other, a copy of the jumping peg is drawn on top so you can see it pass over. _(lf52.py:5533-5571)_ #### Level 7 ARC baseline 244 actions · Boss 175 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl7.png #### Level 8 ARC baseline 109 actions · Boss 73 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl8.png **New on level 8** - Blue pegs don't count toward the goal. Levels 8-10 are won when one green peg is left, however many blue pegs are still on the board. _(lf52.py:5171-5173, 5375-5377, 5572)_ - Blue pegs (blue circles). They can be picked, can hop, and can be hopped over like any peg, but a blue peg never comes off and never removes anything it jumps. _(lf52.py:4412-4421, 5391-5396; engine runs: blue over blue on level 8, green over blue and blue over green on level 9)_ #### Level 9 ARC baseline 164 actions · Boss 122 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl9.png #### Level 10 ARC baseline 225 actions · Boss 86 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lf52/lvl10.png **New on level 10** - Level 10's board runs off the bottom of the screen and the view never moves. A column of five carts carrying blue pegs starts mostly below the edge and comes into view as you push the carts up. _(lf52.py:4959-5000; 5162-5163 (start offset); 5307-5308 (the cart-carry pan is zero on level 10); 5433-5521 (no landing pan on level 10), and those are the only view-pan calls; engine run: 4 Up presses raised the column from rows 9-13 to rows 5-9 with the view offset unchanged)_ ### Resources - [replay] LF52 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/0beb41f9-31a2-499f-9d5a-64f187ae1edd — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] LF52 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/248b7fbd-5f82-40bd-af6d-ff811283526a — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12: the original "adversarially verified" pass still missed the red peg, the manual rail cart, and the per-level move budget, caught by a second, independent re-verification. ACTION7 (Undo) cross-game note (2026-09-14): Boss identifies lf52 as one of only three public games (with bp35 and sk48) where Undo is load-bearing rather than a convenience -- see bp35.ts for the full breakdown of which games expose ACTION7 at all. Reasoning for why it matters here specifically: this is peg solitaire, a combinatorial puzzle where a hop that looks fine in isolation can quietly make the remaining board unsolvable, and that usually isn't obvious until several hops later. Combined with a hard per-level move ceiling (64/320/640) where every hop is irreversible on the board itself, a full Reset after a bad line throws away all the correct hops made before it and re-spends move budget re-deriving them, while Undo only costs you the bad hop(s) -- the difference between backing out one step and re-solving the level from scratch inside a shrinking budget. The multi-room rail-cart structure compounds this: a hop set up in one room may only reveal whether it was a mistake once the cart carries you to a room you couldn't see at the time, which is the same viewport-vs-world gap documented on bp35's page, just expressed through room transitions instead of scrolling. --- ## Loop and Pull (`lp85`) - **Game ID:** `lp85` - **Set:** evaluation - **Tags:** evaluation-set, looping, sequencing - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/lp85 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=lp85 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 388 (per level 17, 38, 31, 16, 41, 60, 26, 159); Boss: best win 415 actions (1 run) **Objective.** Click red and green buttons to turn loops of colored squares back or forward until every yellow square (and, on levels 3-4, the orange one) sits inside a target of its color, marked by four corner dots. ### Mechanics Each target is four small corner dots framing one slot, and it is filled when a square of its color sits in that slot: every yellow target needs a yellow square, and on levels 3 and 4 the orange target also needs the orange square. The number of targets ranges from one to three depending on the level, never a fixed four. You control the sequence by pushing red and green buttons. Each button belongs to a loop of slots, and a click steps every square on that loop forward (green) or backward (red) by one position, with the last slot wrapping to the first; there is no swap, push, or pull hidden in later levels. From level 2 loops cross, so a square on a shared slot can be handed from one loop to the other, and on levels 6-8 some buttons are stacked so one click turns two, three or eight loops at once. Clicks that miss the buttons do nothing and cost nothing, but every button click spends one of the level's steps (13, 60, 80, 150, 80, 80, 80 and 80 for levels 1-8), and using the last one without finishing ends the game. LP85 is a one-action game: it declares available_actions = [6] and nothing else, on every frame of a full eight-level recording. ACTION6 is a click carrying x/y coordinates, and the action space exposes no undo -- so RESET, which restarts the current level, is the only recovery primitive the game offers. ### Controls - `ACTION6` (Click): Click Red/Green button to shift blocks ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: The tiny yellow boxes. - What happened: They show where it wants the yellow box. You are looping, and once you see that it is loop and pull, that is the whole game; it only gets more complex with the pulleys. One of the original preview games, and easy for him now. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 17 actions · Boss 7 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/lp85.png **The rules from the start** - Clicking is the only control. The buttons are small arrowheads: green ones point right and red ones point left. _(lp85.py:36-50, 1054-1068, 21352)_ - Each button belongs to one loop of slots. Click a green button and every square on its loop moves one slot forward; click a red one and they all move one slot back. The loop wraps, so going forward from the last slot lands on the first and going back from the first lands on the last. _(lp85.py:21265-21286, 21394-21430; engine run on level 1)_ - Clicking anywhere that isn't a button does nothing and costs nothing. _(lp85.py:21405-21406, 21431-21433; engine run: 30 clicks on empty board left all 13 steps)_ - There is no undo. RESET restarts the level with every square back in place and a full step bar. _(lp85.py:21352, 21355-21364; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330; engine run on level 1)_ - A target is four small yellow corner dots framing one slot. The level is cleared the moment every yellow target has a yellow square sitting in it. Any yellow square fills any yellow target. _(lp85.py:130-143, 580-590, 21434-21437, 21442-21446; engine run: level 1 cleared in 5 red clicks)_ - A loop is a chain of small colored squares (blue, light blue, light gray, gray and purple) with the yellow square among them, all the same size. The whole chain moves together. The other colors don't matter for winning, they only help you see the loop turn. _(lp85.py:96-107, 792-803, 21419-21430, 21442-21451; level 1 render)_ - Targets and buttons never move. Only squares sitting in a loop slot get carried along. _(lp85.py:21419-21430 (only sprites exactly on a slot are moved; targets sit one pixel off the slot grid))_ - There are no enemies, hazards or lives. Running out of steps is the only way to lose. _(lp85.py:21438-21440 (the only lose call))_ - Every button click spends one step. The levels allow 13, 60, 80, 150, 80, 80, 80 and 80 clicks. If a click uses up the last step without clearing the level, the game is over. The win check runs first, so clearing the level on your last step still counts. _(lp85.py:1121, 1181, 1227, 1291, 1328, 1452, 1484, 1578, 21301-21307, 21434-21440; engine run: 13th non-winning click on level 1 lost)_ - The column along the left edge of the screen is the step bar. It starts all green and turns black from the top down as you spend steps. It refills at the start of each level. _(lp85.py:21324-21330, 21355-21360; engine run)_ - The row of eight short dashes across the top tracks progress: one dash turns green for each level you have cleared. _(lp85.py:21312-21314, 21331-21335; engine run: first dash green on level 2)_ - There is no animation. Squares jump straight to their new slots in a single frame. _(lp85.py:21426-21440; engine run: 1 frame per click)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 38 actions · Boss 23 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lp85/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Two yellow squares and two yellow targets. Levels 2, 5 and 7 have two, levels 6 and 8 have three. _(lp85.py:1137-1138, 1303-1304, 1352-1354, 1462-1463, 1509-1511)_ - Several loops, each with its own red and green button. Loops cross each other, and a slot where two loops cross belongs to both, so a square sitting there can be carried off by either one. That is how a yellow square gets from one loop to another. _(lp85.py:1126-1184 and the level 2 loop maps; engine run)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 31 actions · Boss 26 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lp85/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Levels 3 and 4 have one yellow pair and one orange pair: an orange square and an orange target (four orange corner dots). The orange square has to end up in the orange target too, and a yellow square doesn't fill it. _(lp85.py:260-273, 308-318, 1205-1206, 1256-1257, 21447-21450)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 16 actions · Boss 17 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lp85/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Each button appears four times, spread around the board. All copies of a button do exactly the same thing. _(lp85.py:1232-1288)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 41 actions · Boss 22 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lp85/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - A short loop can sit on top of part of a longer one. On level 5 a straight row of five slots belongs to both: its own buttons cycle just those five squares, with the square at the end of the row jumping back to the start. _(lp85.py:1296-1331 and the level 5 loop maps; engine run: B green moved the end square back to the start of the row)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 60 actions · Boss 103 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lp85/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Level 6 has only green buttons, so every loop turns one way. Several loops share each button spot, so one click turns three or eight loops at once. One spot drives three loops that have only two slots each, so that click just swaps the squares in each pair. _(lp85.py:1333-1455 and the level 6 loop maps; engine run: one click at the top-right button moved 24 squares and cost 1 step)_ #### Level 7 ARC baseline 26 actions · Boss 55 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lp85/lvl7.png **New on level 7** - On level 7 the red and green buttons in the middle each drive two loops at once: a straight row whose end square wraps back to the start, and a small four-slot square. A separate pair of buttons drives a three-slot loop that shares one slot with the row, so you can park a square off the row while the other two loops turn. _(lp85.py:1457-1487 and the level 7 loop maps; engine run: one red click moved both loops)_ #### Level 8 ARC baseline 159 actions · Boss 162 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/lp85/lvl8.png **New on level 8** - On level 8 one red and one green button each drive three loops at once, and three more loops have their own buttons. Some colored squares are not on any loop and never move. _(lp85.py:1489-1581 and the level 8 loop maps)_ ### Hints - **Indicator Targets** (spoiler level 1): A target is four small corner dots framing one slot, the same size as the squares. Get a yellow square into every yellow target and the level clears -- any yellow square fills any yellow target. Levels 3 and 4 add an orange square and an orange target; the orange square has to land in it too, and a yellow square does not count there. - **Buttons Turn Whole Loops** (spoiler level 2): A green arrowhead moves every square on its loop one slot forward and a red one moves them one slot back, and the loop wraps around. Loops cross, and a slot where two loops cross belongs to both -- that is how a yellow square gets from one loop to another. From level 6 one button spot can turn three or even eight loops at once (level 6 has only green buttons), so count what every loop on that click does, not just the one you are watching. ### Resources - [replay] LP85 Replay (Human, Win, 8/8 Levels): https://three.arcprize.org/replay/lp85-d265526edbaa/dc3d96aa-762b-4c2e-ac68-6418c8f54c74 — Gameplay replay of LP85 (Loop and Pull). Its session is tagged human, not an agent run: a win on all eight levels in 545 actions with 4 resets, published 2026-01-05 against the older lp85-d265526edbaa build, before per-level baselines were published for this game (the session reports none). The mp4 on this page carries the same lp85-d265526edbaa game id, though nothing in the repo states outright which recording it was rendered from. - [replay] LP85 Human Replay (Win, 8/8 Levels, Score 76.39): https://arcprize.org/replay/129ddf21-d7ba-4ca0-9577-0cea2af042b6 — Boss's own ARC Prize replay, published 2026-09-15 -- and the second human run in this list, not the first: the January 2026 replay in this same list is tagged human too. A win, all eight levels cleared, score 76.39, 415 actions and 6 mid-run resets, split 7/23/26/17/22/103/55/162 across levels 1-8. Honestly read, that is slightly OVER the game's own action baseline, not under it: 415 against 388, a ratio of 1.07x. The walls were level 7 (55 actions against a 26 baseline, 2.12x) and level 6 (103 against 60, 1.72x), and the API's level_scores agree without being asked -- its two lowest values, 22.3 and 33.9, fall on exactly those two levels. Level 6's single reset came straight after a GAME_OVER, so it was forced recovery rather than a choice. Level 8 reads 1.02x by actions (162 against 159), but that understates it: five of the run's six resets happened inside level 8, so those 162 actions are 157 clicks spread across six separate attempts. The 76.39 is those over-baseline levels showing up in the score, on the same scale as the 100s on the Human Records card beside it rather than in a different unit. The raw 416-row NDJSON recording is committed at arc3/lp85-305b61c3.129ddf21-d7ba-4ca0-9577-0cea2af042b6.jsonl. ### Provenance and caveats Corrected 2026-09-12 after a direct, adversarially-verified source read: levels 3-4 add a second, orange block/target pair the write-up never mentioned; the "swap/push/pull button" claim described a mechanic that doesn't exist in the code; and the mover/target sprite roles were reversed. --- ## Mirror Rendezvous (`m0r0`) - **Game ID:** `m0r0` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 6 - **Tags:** mirrored-movement, desync-puzzle, public-demo-2026 - **Slippery Seven:** yes. Only the 27B fails it -- Flash-Next clears levels on it regularly. - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/m0r0 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=m0r0 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 1107 (per level 30, 111, 203, 26, 500, 237); Boss: best win 752 actions (2 runs) **Objective.** A mirrored pair moves in lockstep; deliberately desync them off walls until they meet, within a 150-move budget. ### Mechanics You steer a mirror-image pair of tokens that always move together: vertical input shifts both by the same amount, horizontal input pushes them toward or away from each other by equal and opposite amounts. Mirrored motion never changes the difference in their rows or the column halfway between them, so walking alone can only bring them together in that halfway column, and every level blocks the straight route at the start: the halfway cell on their starting row is a wall on levels 1, 2, 3 and 5 and a trap on level 6, and on level 4 they start two rows apart. The puzzle is deliberately driving one twin into a wall or block so only it stops, permanently shifting where they would meet, repeated until both land on the same tile and merge. In the last two levels, colored gates open and close live depending on which button tile either twin is currently standing on -- they're switches, not static walls. Checkerboard trap tiles snap both twins straight back to the level's starting position. Each level also gives you a hard cap of 150 moves, shown as a shrinking bar; run out before the twins merge and you lose. That cap counts every action, not just moves: clicks count, and so does the fifth action, which does nothing else. From level 3, blue blocks stop a twin like a wall; click one and the arrow keys move that block instead of the twins until you click somewhere else. Traps send the blocks back to their starting cells too. Twins also merge when they stand side by side and you press toward each other. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Move both twins up (or the picked block up) - `ACTION2` (Down): Move both twins down (or the picked block down) - `ACTION3` (Left): One twin moves left, the other moves the mirror way (or the picked block moves left) - `ACTION4` (Right): One twin moves right, the other moves the mirror way (or the picked block moves right) - `ACTION5` (Space): Does nothing except use up one of the 150 actions - `ACTION6` (Click): From level 3: click a blue block to pick it, so the arrows move that block one cell at a time; click anything else to go back to the twins. There is no dragging. Every click costs an action. ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: Two twins sliding around, a bit like the old as66. - What happened: One of the simplest games and easiest wins: you slide around and try to meet up with your twin. Models don't seem to have much trouble with it either. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 30 actions · Boss 23 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/m0r0/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - You steer two light blue squares, the twins. Up and Down move both of them the same way. Left and Right move them in opposite directions: one twin goes the way you press and the other goes the mirror way. _(m0r0.py:94-113, 770-820; engine run on level 1)_ - A twin that would move into a wall (or, later, a block or a closed gate) stays where it is, and the other twin still moves. Stopping one twin like this is the only way to change where they would meet. _(m0r0.py:868-892; engine run on level 3: one twin stopped under a block while the other moved up)_ - The fifth action (space) does nothing except use up one of your 150 actions. _(m0r0.py:693, 770-866; engine run: twins did not move, action count went up by 1)_ - There is no undo. RESET restarts the level and gives back all 150 actions. _(m0r0.py:693, 697-708, 724-725; arcengine/base_game.py:148-160, 305-330; engine run)_ - Get the twins together. The level is won the moment they merge: either both land on the same cell, or they stand side by side and you press toward each other (instead of swapping places they merge on the left one of the two cells). _(m0r0.py:827-866; engine runs: a one-cell gap closed with one press, and side-by-side twins merged, both advancing the level)_ - Walking alone never changes how many rows apart the twins are or the column halfway between them, so walking can only bring them together in that column. Every level blocks the straight route at the start: the halfway cell on the twins' starting row is a wall on levels 1, 2, 3 and 5 and a trap on level 6, and on level 4 the twins start two rows apart. _(m0r0.py:808-820; engine runs pressing toward each other on levels 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, plus a collision probe of the halfway cell on each level's starting row)_ - Each level allows 150 actions, and every action counts: moves (blocked ones too), clicks and the space action. The 151st action loses the game. There are no lives and nothing else can make you lose. _(m0r0.py:724-729 (the only lose call); engine run: lost on the 151st action)_ - The very top and very bottom rows of the screen are the action bar. Both start black. As you spend actions the top row turns white from its right end and the bottom row from its left end. _(m0r0.py:583-612, 724-725; engine run: half white after 76 actions)_ - The walls are drawn in two colors, one for each half of the screen, a reminder that the level is mirrored. The pair of colors changes from level to level (yellow and orange on level 1). _(m0r0.py:392, 430, 445, 476, 496, 575, 621-648; level 1 render)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 111 actions · Boss 56 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/m0r0/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Traps: red cells with a black checkerboard pattern. When a twin steps onto one, it flashes yellow a few times and then both twins jump back to where the level started. The actions you spent stay spent. _(m0r0.py:114-122, 666-676, 712-723, 821-826; engine run on level 2: 8 frames, both twins back at the start, 1 action used)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-18, level 2** - Saw: Solid red areas, and dashed red-and-black ones. - What happened: Solid red is fine; the dashed red-and-black areas are traps that send you back to the start. They only show up on levels 2, 4 and 6, and red and black are harmless everywhere else, which will confuse anything that relies on measuring pixel colors. - In the code: Traps are red cells with a black checkerboard. A twin that steps on one flashes yellow and both twins jump back to where the level started; the actions you spent stay spent. #### Level 3 ARC baseline 203 actions · Boss 173 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/m0r0/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Click a blue block to pick it. It turns yellow and the twins turn light gray, and now the arrow keys move that block one cell at a time instead of the twins. It won't move into walls, twins or traps. Click anything that isn't a block to go back to steering the twins, which turn light blue again. Every click costs an action. _(m0r0.py:730-769, 784-794; engine runs on levels 3 and 4)_ - Blue blocks with a black outline. A twin can't move into one, so a block stops a twin just like a wall. _(m0r0.py:65-78, 657-665, 882-886; engine run on level 3)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 26 actions · Boss 20 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/m0r0/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Traps also send every blue block back to its starting cell. _(m0r0.py:708, 717-719; engine run on level 4: a block moved one cell left went back after a twin hit a trap)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 500 actions · Boss 259 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/m0r0/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Gates and buttons in green, orange and purple. A gate is a bar three cells long and blocks twins while it is closed. While a twin stands on a button, every gate of that color disappears and can be walked through. As soon as no twin is on that button, those gates come back. _(m0r0.py:35-64, 123-150, 887-892, 894-924; engine run on level 5: green gate gone with a twin on the green button, back when it stepped off)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 237 actions · Boss 221 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/m0r0/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Only a twin holds a gate open. A blue block can't be moved onto a button, and the gate check only looks at the twins anyway. _(m0r0.py:784-794, 894-924; engine run on level 6: the block stopped one cell short of the green button)_ ### Resources - [replay] M0R0 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/d453ad9d-77ac-4228-a0a7-2cad831dd93c — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] M0R0 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/37443746-b7f8-4d5c-9140-b623f00cabe7 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] M0R0 Human Replay (Win, 6/6 Levels, Score 100): https://arcprize.org/replay/2134c482-1385-44e9-bec8-77aceb508cb1 — A human playthrough, not an agent run -- the other two replays listed here are both GPT-6 Astra (checked, not assumed: their sessions return agent tags, and the provider-adapter one is itself a win in 220 actions). Published 2026-09-15: a win, all six levels cleared, score 100, 752 actions and 10 mid-run resets, split 23/56/173/20/259/221 across levels 1-6. Under the game's own per-level action baseline on EVERY level -- 752 against 1107 overall, 0.68x -- 23/30, 56/111, 173/203, 20/26, 259/500, 221/237, and every level_score comes back at the 115 ceiling. Read the 100 and the 752 together rather than against each other: the score measures each level against that level's baseline, so a run can be well under baseline throughout and still take four times the actions of the fastest humans on the Human Records card beside it (their top ten win in 179-180). The raw 753-row NDJSON recording is committed at arc3/m0r0-492f87ba.2134c482-1385-44e9-bec8-77aceb508cb1.jsonl. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the three replay links in resources[] -- two ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results, plus a human win published 2026-09-15 (6/6 levels, score 100, 752 actions, 10 mid-run resets, under baseline on every level), whose raw recording is committed under arc3/. Corrected 2026-09-12 after an adversarially-verified direct source read: traps reset both twins (not just spare blocks), gates are an active switch mechanic in the last 2 levels only, and a 150-move budget that can lose the game was missing entirely. --- ## Reaching Lurch (`r11l`) - **Game ID:** `r11l` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 6 - **Tags:** click-puzzle, shape-matching, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/r11l - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=r11l - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 233 (per level 22, 33, 51, 26, 52, 49); Boss: best win 316 actions (1 run) **Objective.** Drag a blob around by its limbs until its body sits on its outline; from level 5 the bodies start white and must eat colored food until their colors exactly match an outline. ### Mechanics Click-only. Each piece is one arm of a blob: clicking an arm selects it, clicking an empty spot moves that arm there, and the blob's body is then re-centered to the average position of all its arms (r11l.py:1536-1551). You never move the body directly -- you reposition arms and the body gets dragged along behind them, like an amoeba pulling itself with pseudopods. On levels 1-4 each blob already wears its colors and a level clears when every blob's body overlaps its own outline of the same colors -- touching the outline is enough, it doesn't need to be centered (r11l.py:1758-1783). Levels 4-6 also show outlines that belong to no blob; the win check skips them. Level 5 changes the game: the blobs' bodies start plain white, the level adds 4 food pellets (level 6 has 9), and whenever the BODY overlaps one -- not the arm that moved it there -- the pellet's colored pixels are painted onto the body and the pellet is gone (r11l.py:1585-1599). You eat it, and that changes which outline you can satisfy: on levels 5-6 an outline only counts when a body sits on it with exactly the same set of colors (white doesn't count), and a later pellet can paint over a color you ate earlier. That is why level 5 reads as incomprehensible under a pure shape-matching model: from level 5 on, some outlines can only be matched by a color you have to go swallow first. Walls block an arm from being placed on them, but the click still spends one of the level's 60 clicks. On levels 2-4, light blue hazard zones punish a move that puts a body in them: the body flashes, the arm jumps back, and it counts a strike. Five strikes on a level, or reaching the 60th click, ends the game. ### Controls - `ACTION6` (Click): Select / relocate a piece ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-12** - Saw: A blob with limbs, food pellets, and a colored gate. - Did: Used the limbs to pull the body over the food. - What happened: It is an amoeba. You can't move the body directly; it always re-centers between the limbs. The body itself has to be over a pellet to eat it, and dragging a limb over a pellet does nothing. Eating changes the body's color, which is what gets it through the gate. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 22 actions · Boss 13 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/r11l/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Clicking is the only control. Click an arm to pick it: the picked arm is drawn with a white outline and the others with dark gray. At the start of a level the arm nearest the top-left corner is already picked. _(r11l.py:1440, 1511-1518, 1529-1534, 1826-1833; engine run on level 1)_ - Click anywhere that isn't an arm and the picked arm jumps so its center is where you clicked. Arms of any blob can be picked, one at a time. _(r11l.py:1834-1841, 1568-1576, 1717-1730; engine run on level 1)_ - There is no undo. RESET restarts the level, with every arm back in place, the click count back to zero and any strikes cleared. _(r11l.py:1440, 1463-1527; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ - Each blob has an outline target: a hollow ring of dots in the blob's colors. On levels 1-4 the level is won when every blob's body overlaps its own outline. Touching it is enough, the body doesn't need to be centered in it. _(r11l.py:355-367, 1758-1783, 1705-1709; engine runs on level 1: a body only touching the outline's edge still cleared the level)_ - A blob is a body (a small rounded square in the blob's colors with a pink dot in the middle) and two or more arms (small plus shapes with a colored center). Thin light gray lines join each arm to its body. _(r11l.py:660-672, 764-776, 1334-1364; level 1 render)_ - You never move a body directly. After every arm move the body jumps to the average position of all its arms, so moving arms drags the body around. _(r11l.py:1536-1551, 1725-1730; engine run on level 1: body went from (15,45) to (34,32) after one arm move)_ - Gray walls stop arms: if the arm would overlap a wall where you clicked, it doesn't move. The body is never checked against walls, so it can end up on top of one. _(r11l.py:816-830, 1553-1566, 1839-1843, 1536-1551; engine run on level 1: a click into the wall left both arms in place)_ - Every click costs one of the level's 60 clicks: picking an arm, moving it, and clicks into walls that do nothing. The 60th click ends the game on the spot, so you really get 59. The count starts over on each level. _(r11l.py:1406-1407, 1805-1812; arcengine/base_game.py:148-160; engine run: game over on the 60th click)_ - When a body lands on its outline, a white copy of the outline blinks over it a few times and then stays on while the body is there. It disappears if the body moves off. When the last one is in place, the next level loads after the blinking. _(r11l.py:411-423, 1646-1689, 1699-1709; engine runs: 23 frames on the winning move of level 1, highlight removed when the body left an outline on level 5)_ - The column along the left edge of the screen is the click bar. It starts white and turns black from the top down as you spend clicks. _(r11l.py:1306-1331; engine run: 31 white pixels left after 31 clicks)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 33 actions · Boss 17 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/r11l/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Two blobs at once, each with its own color, arms and outline. Both bodies have to be on their outlines. _(r11l.py:1164-1179, 1758-1783)_ - Light blue hazard zones (levels 2, 3 and 4). If an arm move puts any body into one, that body blinks white a few times, the arm jumps back to where it was, and you get a strike. Only bodies trigger it, not arms. The move still costs its click. _(r11l.py:86-98, 1733-1757, 1620-1644, 1786-1803; engine run on level 2: 23 frames, arm and body back in place)_ - Five strikes on one level ends the game. Nothing on screen counts the strikes for you. _(r11l.py:1747-1753, 1306-1331 (only the click bar is drawn); engine run on level 2: game over on the 5th hazard hit)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 51 actions · Boss 31 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/r11l/lvl3.png #### Level 4 ARC baseline 26 actions · Boss 35 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/r11l/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Some outlines belong to no blob. They look just like real ones, but the win check skips them, so they can be left empty. Level 4 has five of them, level 5 three and level 6 one. _(r11l.py:1203-1212, 1232-1237, 1256-1259, 1763)_ - Blobs and outlines with more than one color, split into two or three colored parts. _(r11l.py:1198-1227)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 52 actions · Boss 40 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/r11l/lvl5.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/r11l/lvl5-human.png — human play **New on level 5** - On levels 5 and 6 no outline has a blob of its own. An outline is filled when any body sits on it with exactly the same set of colors (white doesn't count), and the level is won when every real outline is filled. _(r11l.py:1601-1618, 1769-1783; engine runs on levels 5 and 6: with one outline filled the level did not end, and with both real outlines filled level 5 advanced and level 6 won the game)_ - The blobs' bodies start plain white, and food pellets appear: small blobs, part white and part one color. When a move puts a body over a pellet, the pellet's colored pixels are painted onto the body in the same spots and the pellet is gone. Only the body eats, not the arms. Level 5 has 4 pellets and level 6 has 9. _(r11l.py:464-476, 673-685, 1238-1241, 1260-1268, 1585-1599, 1731-1732; engine run on level 5: the body turned half red and the red pellet disappeared)_ - A later pellet can paint over a color the body already ate, so the order you eat in matters. _(r11l.py:1594-1596; engine run on level 5: blue was replaced by green, leaving red and green)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-12, level 5** - Saw: Level 5. - What happened: Hard to tell what it wants. On the first levels the body is already the target color; from here you have to eat pellets to make it the right color or combination of colors. #### Level 6 ARC baseline 49 actions · Boss 180 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/r11l/lvl6.png ### Resources - [replay] R11L Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/e026fd52-5b68-477f-8388-72fdfd8c56cf — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] R11L Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/932837ac-8800-414f-9d7c-46537ebea3a3 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] R11L Human Full Clear (6/6, score 72.87): https://arcprize.org/replay/60c0af00-18bc-477d-976f-ac595b76f5f4 — Human player, 12-Sep-2026: all six levels cleared in 316 clicks over 13m56s with 7 resets. Per-level clicks 13/17/31/35/40/180 against baselines of 22/33/51/26/52/49 -- levels 1-3 and 5 beat baseline, level 6 took 3.7x it. The clearest demonstration of the level-5 colour-eating shift. ### Provenance and caveats The blob/pseudopod mechanic on this page was identified by an eccentric chicken farmer after playing the game directly. The original write-up here, produced by coding agents reading the obfuscated source, missed it entirely and described this as a generic shape-into-outline puzzle -- a description that only holds through level 4. Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12 after an adversarially-verified direct source read: the marker sprite is visible not invisible, the hazard/mistake mechanic is level-scoped, and the keyhole markers matter a level earlier than claimed. --- ## Reach Emblems (`re86`) - **Game ID:** `re86` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 8 - **Tags:** pixel-matching, sliding-pieces, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/re86 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=re86 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 1255 (per level 26, 42, 86, 108, 189, 139, 424, 241); Boss: not won yet, 86 actions over 2 runs **Objective.** Slide colored outline pieces until every small target dot sits under a piece of its own color. Color pads that repaint pieces arrive on level 4; walls that bend crosses and squash squares only appear in the last three levels. ### Mechanics Up, Down, Left and Right slide the selected piece 3 pixels; ACTION5 hands control to the next piece. The selected piece is the one with a white pixel in its middle. The small target dots (one colored pixel in a darker gray ring) are on the board from the very start, under your see-through outline pieces, not hidden. The level clears the moment every dot's colored center pixel is covered by a piece of the same color -- any piece will do, the gray rings are ignored, and pieces lying elsewhere don't matter. Pieces pass straight through each other, and a move that would push a piece's middle off the board is refused. From level 4, color pads (small gray-bordered squares with a colored middle) repaint any piece of another color that slides onto them, as a stain that spreads across the piece during that one move; on levels 4, 5, 7 and 8 no piece starts in a dot color, so repainting is required. From level 6, light gray ring walls appear, and levels 1-5 have none. A cross whose line would run into a wall does not stop dead: the stuck line stays put and the other line keeps sliding, so the lines cross at a new point, until they cross at the very end of a line. A hollow square pushed into a wall squashes 3 pixels thinner and 3 pixels longer per push, down to 4 pixels thick. Neither change springs back before RESET. Every action, including switching pieces and refused moves, spends one step of the level's budget (100, 100, 200, 200, 250, 200, 300 and 400 for levels 1-8), shown as the purple bar along the bottom row; running out ends the game. RESET restarts the level, and there is no undo. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Slide selected piece Up - `ACTION2` (Down): Slide selected piece Down - `ACTION3` (Left): Slide selected piece Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Slide selected piece Right - `ACTION5` (Cycle): Cycle selected piece ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: What to do is pretty obvious. - What happened: It is just fiddly. He hasn't played it through, and hates games like this one. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 26 actions · Boss 24 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/re86/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Up, Down, Left and Right slide the selected piece 3 pixels. Only the selected piece moves, and there is no clicking in this game. _(re86.py:1755, 1880, 2126-2143)_ - ACTION5 switches control to the next piece in a fixed order, wrapping back to the first. It costs a step, the same as a move. _(re86.py:2144-2153)_ - RESET puts every piece back the way it started (position, color and shape) and refills the step bar. There is no undo. _(arcengine/base_game.py:305-330; engine run)_ - Each level shows small target dots: one colored pixel inside a darker gray ring. They are on the board from the start, drawn under the pieces. _(re86.py:1615-1750 (target layer -1))_ - The level clears the moment every dot's colored center pixel is covered by a piece of the same color. Any piece of that color will do, the gray rings don't count, and pieces lying over empty board don't matter. _(re86.py:1894-1918, 2154-2155; engine run: level 1 cleared in 20 moves)_ - Pieces are thin outlines, so only their lines cover anything. Level 1 has two plus-shaped crosses, one yellow and one blue, for the yellow and blue dots. _(re86.py:1616-1627)_ - Pieces slide straight through each other and never block one another. Where two overlap, the one drawn on top is the one the win check sees. _(re86.py:1894-1916, 2095-2100)_ - A piece can hang partly off the edge of the board, but a move that would put its middle off the board is refused. The refused move still costs a step. _(re86.py:1943-1951, 2126-2129; engine run)_ - If the steps run out before the level clears, the game is over. There are no lives. The win check runs first, so clearing a level on your very last step still counts. _(re86.py:2154-2158; engine run)_ - Every action spends one step: moves, refused moves and piece switches all count. Budgets are 100, 100, 200, 200, 250, 200, 300 and 400 steps for levels 1-8. _(re86.py:1838-1842, 1883-1892, 2126-2146, StepCounter in 1615-1750)_ - The bar along the bottom row of the screen is the step budget: purple for steps left, light gray for steps spent. It refills at the start of each level. _(re86.py:1826-1861, 1888-1892)_ - The selected piece has a single white pixel in its middle, and no other piece has one. White is not a color here, so a dot sitting exactly under that pixel is not covered while that piece is selected. _(re86.py:1775-1777, 1894-1918, 1920-1941, 2092)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 42 actions · Boss 40 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/re86/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - X-shaped pieces (two crossing diagonal lines) and a hollow diamond appear alongside the crosses. With no walls on levels 2-5, they slide exactly like the crosses. _(re86.py:1628-1640)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 86 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/re86/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - A single straight line piece appears. On level 3 all three pieces (an X, a hollow diamond and the line) and every dot are red. _(re86.py:1641-1653)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 108 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/re86/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - On levels 4, 5, 7 and 8 no piece starts in the color of any dot, so each piece you need has to be repainted on a pad first. Level 6 has no pads. _(re86.py:1654-1749)_ - Color pads appear: small squares with a gray border and a solid colored middle. When a piece of another color slides onto a pad, the whole piece is repainted in the pad's color. Pads never block, and a piece that is already the pad's color crosses it with no change. _(re86.py:2078-2091, 2102-2120; engine run on level 4)_ - A repaint plays out as an animation inside that one move: the new color starts where the piece touches the pad and spreads along its lines until the whole piece has changed, then the white selection pixel comes back. It costs one step like any move. _(re86.py:2102-2120; engine run: 27 frames for the level 4 pink cross)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 189 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/re86/lvl5.png #### Level 6 ARC baseline 139 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/re86/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Walls appear: light gray rings, 8 pixels wide on levels 6 and 7 and 5 pixels wide on level 8. No piece passes through a wall, but what happens instead depends on the piece's shape. _(re86.py:1690-1749, 1952-2058)_ - Push a cross so one of its lines runs into a wall and it does not stop: the line that would hit stays where it is and the other line keeps moving, so the two lines now cross at a different point. Once they cross at the very end of a line, pushes that way are refused. This works both when a line hits the wall side-on and when its tip hits it end-on. _(re86.py:2004-2058; engine runs on level 6)_ - A bent cross stays bent. Sliding it away moves it as it is, and only RESET straightens it. The white selection pixel stays in the middle of the piece's outer box, so on a bent cross it can sit off the lines. _(re86.py:2004-2058, 2092; engine run on level 6)_ - Push a hollow square into a wall and it squashes: each push makes it 3 pixels thinner in the push direction and 3 pixels longer the other way, with the edge touching the wall staying put. At 4 pixels thick, pushes that way are refused. It never springs back before RESET. _(re86.py:1952-2003; engine run on level 6: 19x19 went to 16x22, 13x25, 10x28, 7x31, 4x34, then refused)_ #### Level 7 ARC baseline 424 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/re86/lvl7.png #### Level 8 ARC baseline 241 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/re86/lvl8.png ### Resources - [replay] RE86 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/fcc4f8b7-01e5-4009-923d-1c7d1fcae9fe — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] RE86 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/d7c629e9-5f79-4225-8344-53131c1c5dbc — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12 after an adversarially-verified direct source read: the targets are visible, not a hidden image, and the wall/elastic mechanic only exists in the last 3 of 8 levels. --- ## Sliding Indicator (`s5i5`) - **Game ID:** `s5i5` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 8 - **Tags:** rods, point-and-click, chained-pieces, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/s5i5 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=s5i5 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 638 (per level 20, 89, 106, 54, 162, 38, 86, 83); Boss: best win 507 actions (3 runs) **Objective.** Grow, shrink and (from level 6) rotate color-coded rods to walk the markers riding them onto every pin. ### Mechanics Every level is a set of color-coded telescoping rods, each colored rod with a dark gray anchor end. The two-headed slider buttons (along the bottom on most levels) are color-matched: clicking the right half grows every rod of that color by one 3-pixel segment away from its anchor, the left half shrinks it (never below one segment), and the thin center line does nothing. (Level 1's one upright slider works the same way, bottom half grows, top half shrinks.) One button often drives two rods in different parts of the board at once. From level 6, plus-shaped (cross) buttons appear: clicking one turns every rod of that color a quarter turn counterclockwise around its own anchor. Rods are chained into parent/child groups, so growing, shrinking or turning a rod carries everything attached to it, including the markers, and a child rod never folds back onto its parent (that turn is skipped). Some rods have no button at all and only move because they are attached to one that does; purple pieces are fixed walls. Any click that would make one rod overlap another rod or a wall is cancelled in full, and it still costs a click. The level clears when every hollow-diamond pin has a marker (the single dot riding a rod) sitting exactly on it. Every click anywhere spends one unit of the level's budget (the bar along the bottom row: 50, 150, 200, 100, 150, 150, 200 and 200 clicks for levels 1-8), and running it out ends the game. ### Controls - `ACTION6` (Click): Grow/shrink rods of a color (slider halves) or rotate them (plus button) ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 20 actions · Boss 13 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/s5i5/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - The only action is a click. Every click spends one unit of the budget, including clicks on empty board, rods, markers, pins or walls, which do nothing else. _(s5i5.py:2042, 2188-2193; engine run)_ - Click the right half of a two-headed slider button to grow every rod of that button's color by one 3-pixel segment, away from the rod's dark gray anchor end. The left half shrinks them by one segment. The thin dark gray line down the middle does nothing, but the click still costs. _(s5i5.py:2218-2242, 2110-2136; engine run on level 1)_ - A rod never shrinks below one segment. If one button drives several rods and one of them is already down to one segment, that rod stays as it is while the others still shrink. _(s5i5.py:2228-2238)_ - Level 1's yellow slider stands upright: its bottom half grows, its top half shrinks. _(s5i5.py:1729-1747, 2220-2227)_ - There is no undo. RESET puts the level back to its starting layout with a full budget. _(s5i5.py:2042; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330; engine run)_ - The level clears when every pin (a small hollow dark red diamond) has a marker (a single dark red dot riding a rod) sitting exactly on it. Any marker can fill any pin, and pins never move. The check runs after each click. _(s5i5.py:2080-2086, 2243-2244; engine run: level 1 cleared in 13 clicks)_ - Rods are solid colored bars with a dark gray square at one end, the anchor. The anchor stays put while the rod grows or shrinks from the other end. _(s5i5.py:2100-2136)_ - A marker that touches a rod when the level starts rides on that rod from then on, moving with it whenever it grows, shrinks or turns. _(s5i5.py:2051-2058, 2088-2092; engine run)_ - Purple pieces are fixed walls. On level 1 two purple blocks sit just past the bottom and right edges of the board, in line with the two rods, so neither rod can grow off the board. _(s5i5.py:1729-1747; engine run: the 10th grow of the level 1 yellow rod was cancelled)_ - A click that would make any rod overlap another rod or a purple wall is cancelled in full, for every rod it would have moved, and it still costs a click. Markers and pins never block anything. _(s5i5.py:2138-2143, 2213-2217, 2238-2242)_ - Budgets are 50, 150, 200, 100, 150, 150, 200 and 200 clicks for levels 1-8. Running out before the level clears ends the game, and there are no lives. The win check runs first, so clearing on your last click counts. _(s5i5.py:1745, 1767, 1797, 1824, 1852, 1873, 1903, 1938, 2243-2247; engine run on level 2)_ - The bar along the bottom row of the screen is the budget: dark gray for clicks left, darker gray for clicks spent. It refills at the start of each level. _(s5i5.py:1952-1987, 2074-2078)_ - A cancelled click is not silent: the game draws the attempted move for one frame, then snaps everything back to where it was. _(s5i5.py:2182-2187, 2213-2215, 2238-2240; engine run: 2 frames on a cancelled click, 1 on a normal one)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 89 actions · Boss 27 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/s5i5/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Chained rods appear: a rod can be attached to the end of another rod, and gets carried along whenever the rod it hangs from grows, shrinks or turns. Level 2 has a chain of four one-segment rods. _(s5i5.py:1748-1769, 2060-2072, 2088-2092)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 106 actions · Boss 49 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/s5i5/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Light gray bars appear. They have no anchor end and no button, so they never grow, shrink or turn on their own. They only move because they are attached to a rod that does. _(s5i5.py:1770-1799, 2046-2053)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 54 actions · Boss 38 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/s5i5/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - One button can drive several rods: every rod of its color moves on the same click, even rods in different parts of the board growing in different directions. Level 4 has five yellow rods on one yellow button. _(s5i5.py:1800-1826, 2046-2053, 2228-2238)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 162 actions · Boss 49 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/s5i5/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Smaller slider buttons appear. They work exactly like the big ones. _(s5i5.py:1827-1854, 2218-2238)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-16, level 5** - Saw: On level 5 the buttons had obviously changed from level 4, and something else had changed too. - Did: Clicked everywhere on the board looking for what the new rule was. - What happened: It made no sense: most clicks moved nothing. The buttons are only smaller versions of the same grow/shrink sliders (right half grows, left half shrinks). What changed is that the orange and green buttons each drive two rods in different parts of the board, and any click that would make any rod hit something is cancelled while still costing a click. The level also starts with the light blue marker already on its pin, and that rod is in the way -- it has to be pulled off its pin and put back at the end. - In the code: The click budget is spent before the hit test in step(), and a collision restores every rod that moved. A breadth-first search over the real engine found a 28-click minimum for level 5, and no solution at all without shrinking the light blue rod. #### Level 6 ARC baseline 38 actions · Boss 127 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/s5i5/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Plus-shaped rotate buttons appear. Clicking one turns every rod of that color a quarter turn counterclockwise around its own anchor, swinging everything attached to it around the same point. _(s5i5.py:2194-2217, 2145-2179; engine run on level 6)_ - A rod attached to another rod skips the turn that would fold it straight back over its parent: that click turns it a half turn instead. _(s5i5.py:2202-2212; engine run on level 6 (yellow and blue rods))_ - Level 6 has no purple border, so a rod can swing or grow partly off the board. _(s5i5.py:1855-1876; engine run: the level 6 blue rod turned to sit partly above the top edge)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-16, level 6** - Saw: The rotate button looks like a cross or a plus sign. - What happened: The write-up had called it a diamond. It is a plus; the hollow diamonds on the board are the pins you are aiming for. - In the code: The rotate-button sprites are plus shapes and exist only on levels 6-8. Each click turns every rod of that color a quarter turn counterclockwise around its anchor. #### Level 7 ARC baseline 86 actions · Boss 115 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/s5i5/lvl7.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/s5i5/lvl7-human-overextended.png — human play, light blue rod overgrown by one segment - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/s5i5/lvl7-human-arm.png — human play, the arm part-unfolded **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-16, level 7** - Saw: After turning rods, the light blue rod had grown one segment too many. - Did: Tried shrinking it back. - Expected: Shrinking would give back the position he had before. - What happened: It did not: once a rod has been turned, shrinking it does not restore the earlier position, and he was left with a rod he could not fold into place. The undo key in the site player does nothing here -- RESET was the only way back. - In the code: The game declares only ACTION6 (s5i5.py:2042) and has no undo of any kind. - **Boss, 2026-09-16, level 7** - Saw: Level 7: colored crosses and stiff arms. - What happened: Demonic. You use the colored crosses to rotate the stiff arms, like an unfolding mechanical arm. He only got this far by watching GPT-6 Astra replays. It badly needs an undo, though undo might make it too easy: you can get completely stuck where only a reset gets you out, and with any exploration at all you will need reset on this level. A nightmare for his spatial reasoning. #### Level 8 ARC baseline 83 actions · Boss 89 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/s5i5/lvl8.png **New on level 8** - One rod can carry several rods at once: on level 8 a one-segment yellow rod has red, green, orange and blue rods attached on all four sides, and the yellow rotate button swings all four around it like a pinwheel. _(s5i5.py:1907-1941; engine run on level 8)_ ### Hints - **Buttons Move Colors, Not Rods** (spoiler level 1): A button moves every rod of its color at once, and they can be on opposite sides of the board growing in different directions. If a click does nothing, some rod of that color somewhere would have hit something, so the whole click was cancelled. It still cost you a click. - **Plus Buttons Rotate (Levels 6-8)** (spoiler level 2): The plus-shaped buttons turn every rod of that color a quarter turn counterclockwise around its anchor, swinging anything attached with it. The hollow diamonds are the pins you are aiming for, not buttons. Levels 1-5 have no rotate button at all. - **Level 5: Un-Solve the Solved Pin** (spoiler level 3): Level 5 starts with the light blue rod's marker already on its pin, and that rod is in the way. The light gray bar has no button, and you have to lift it past the light blue rod, so pull the light blue marker off and put it back at the end. Buttons left to right are blue, orange, green, light blue. From the level 5 starting layout: blue left x1, orange right x3, green right x1, light blue left x2, green right x3, blue left x4, green left x3, orange right x6, green right x3, light blue right x2. 28 clicks out of 150. - **There Is No Undo. Reset Early.** (spoiler level 2): The game declares only ACTION6 (s5i5.py:2042) and the build file has no undo of any kind, so the greyed-out UNDO (Z) key in the site player does nothing here -- RESET is the only way back. That matters most from level 6 on, where rotation enters: Boss reports that once you have turned a rod, shrinking it back does not get you the position you had. Grow one segment too many and you can be left with a rod you cannot fold into place, with every cancelled click still spending budget. Reported by Boss on level 7, 16-Sep-2026, after overgrowing the light blue rod (see the level 7 screenshots). Exploring costs resets: his winning 8/8 run used 5 of them, and the failed run before it used 10. ### Resources - [replay] S5I5 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/39d9f100-328a-4121-ad81-ce298e1f9626 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] S5I5 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/7609fe46-64be-4d12-b100-81733da7c768 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] S5I5 Human Replay -- Full 8/8 Clear (Boss, 16-Sep-2026): https://arcprize.org/replay/850dee42-d148-44c4-91e7-efb149fd9542 — Human run, WIN, all 8 levels in 507 actions with 5 resets, score 79.61. Level actions [13, 27, 49, 38, 49, 127, 115, 89] against baselines [20, 89, 106, 54, 162, 38, 86, 83] -- level 7 cost 115 against an 86 baseline. Boss's own run, tagged human on his arcprize.org scorecard, published 16 Sep 2026. The same scorecard also holds the losing run that preceded it: GAME_OVER at 4 levels, 831 actions, 10 resets. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. Level screenshots rendered from the game source on 2026-09-12; the two replay links are the ones ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Controls corrected 2026-09-16 against s5i5-18d95033/s5i5.py and run in the real engine: the rotate button is a plus, not a diamond, and appears only on levels 6-8; slider buttons drive every rod of their color; cancelled clicks still cost a click. The level 5 solution in the hints was found by breadth-first search over the engine (28 clicks is the minimum) and replayed to a clear. A human replay was added 2026-09-16: Boss cleared all 8 levels in 507 actions with 5 resets (session 850dee42, checked against his scorecards (card 339c8f8f-7235-4bcb-b4e8-0ff0a6458344)). Two level 7 captures from that session are listed above alongside the rendered level 7 grid; they are photographs of the player console during real play, not engine renders. --- ## Sequence Belt (`sb26`) - **Game ID:** `sb26` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 8 - **Tags:** sequencing, belt, portals, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/sb26 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=sb26 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 213 (per level 18, 28, 18, 19, 31, 23, 58, 18); Boss: best win 143 actions (2 runs) **Objective.** Place colored tiles into the slots of machine containers, then run them to be read against a required color sequence, on a limited energy budget. ### Mechanics Colored square tiles start in a tray under a long line near the bottom. Click a tile to pick it up, then click an empty slot in a machine to put it there, or a tile in a machine to swap the two; tiles and rings that start inside a machine are fixed. Level 1 has just one machine and nothing else; from level 2 on, ring-shaped tiles act as color-coded doorways: when a run reaches a ring, reading jumps into the machine whose border is that color and comes back after that machine's last slot, and rings can be nested. A run starts at the leftmost slot of the machine with the white corner marks and checks each tile's color against the next unfilled square in the goal row across the top. Each match fills a square, and the level clears the moment the last square fills. The first mismatch, an empty slot, or reaching the end of the first machine with squares still unfilled stops the run with a red flash and empties every square again. Each run, move or swap costs 1 of the level's 64 energy (the line above the tray); picking tiles up is free. When energy hits 0 the game is over. Undo reverts your last tile swap or placement, not your last run, costs nothing and does not give the energy back. ### Controls - `ACTION5` (Run): Run the arrangement - `ACTION6` (Click): Swap/move a tile - `ACTION7` (Undo): Undo to last tile move ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: The row across the top is showing you an order it wants to see the colored boxes in. That is pretty much all it is, and then it is abstractions: "here is what I want, and I am going to read the band like this." - Did: Played it and cleared it -- twice, most recently 8/8 at 93.47 in 174 actions with no resets. - What happened: It is incredibly easy once you see that. He likens it to a coded band rather than a sorting band -- writing out old computer code on punch cards, where the card holds the instruction and the reader decides how the card gets read. The same framing he used on TR87: "the game asks you for a certain code," only with colors instead of runes. - In the code: Agrees with the stored mechanics: the hollow colored squares along the top are the required sequence read left to right (sb26.py:729-730, 915-933), and a run starts at the leftmost slot of the machine with the white corner marks and reads right (sb26.py:726-727, 745-747, 998-1021). The "abstractions" are the ring tiles -- reading jumps into the machine whose border matches the ring's color and returns after that machine's last slot, and rings nest. Confirmation of what was already traced, not a new mechanic. - **Boss, 2026-09-16** - Saw: The colored boxes and the band. - What happened: Once you see it is like an extraction code, it is pretty easy; the hardest part is working out which colors go where. He lost one run by pressing reset twice by accident, which sends you back to level 1. Reset is a double-edged sword. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 18 actions · Boss 10 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sb26/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Click a loose tile in the tray (below the long line near the bottom) to pick it up; a white outline appears around it. Click the same tile again to put it back down. Picking up and putting down are free. _(sb26.py:903-912, 1042-1057; engine run)_ - With a tile picked up, click an empty slot (a small gray dot) to move the tile there, or click a tile sitting in a machine to swap the two. Each move or swap costs 1 energy. _(sb26.py:1051-1072; engine run on level 1)_ - With a tray tile picked up, clicking another tray tile just picks that one up instead. It does not swap them and costs nothing. _(sb26.py:1058-1060; engine run)_ - A tile can go back to the tray. A tray spot a tile has left shows a gray dot and takes a tile like any empty slot. _(sb26.py:731-735, 1064-1072; engine run on level 5)_ - Clicking empty background, or clicking an empty slot with nothing picked up, does nothing and costs nothing. _(sb26.py:908-912, 1042-1047; engine run)_ - Run (ACTION5) costs 1 energy and reads your tiles against the goal row. Any picked-up tile is dropped first. _(sb26.py:889-900, 998-1021)_ - Undo (ACTION7) takes back your last tile move or swap, and you can keep pressing it all the way back to the level's starting layout. It is free, but it does not give back the energy those moves spent, and it drops any picked-up tile. _(sb26.py:901-902, 1074-1088; engine run)_ - RESET restores the level's starting layout and a full 64 energy. _(sb26.py:721-724; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330; engine run)_ - The row of hollow colored squares across the top is the color sequence you need, read left to right. The level clears the moment the last square fills, even if tiles are left unread. _(sb26.py:729-730, 915-933, 800-806)_ - A run starts at the leftmost slot of the machine with the white corner marks and reads right, one slot at a time. Each tile must match the color of the next unfilled square. _(sb26.py:726-727, 745-747, 998-1021, 915-925; engine run)_ - Machines are outlined boxes with a row of slots. Level 1 has one red machine with four slots and four loose tiles. _(sb26.py:362-385, 998-1008)_ - The run fails at the first tile that doesn't match its square, or at an empty slot. _(sb26.py:915-925, 991)_ - The run also fails if the first machine runs out of slots while squares are still unfilled. _(sb26.py:958-973; engine run on level 8)_ - When energy reaches 0 after a move, a swap or a failed run, the game is over. There are no lives. A run that clears the level on your last point still counts. _(sb26.py:826-837, 879-887, 926-933; engine run: 64th run on level 1 ended the game)_ - Each level gives 64 energy. Runs, moves and swaps cost 1 each. Picking up, putting down, undo and clicks on nothing are free. _(sb26.py:721-724, 890, 1062, 1072)_ - The long line between the board and the tray is the energy bar: gray for energy left, dark gray for energy spent. It refills at the start of each level. _(sb26.py:700-710, 723-724)_ - A move or swap flashes a white outline at both spots, which quickly fades out. _(sb26.py:879-888, 1063-1072, 1102-1103)_ - During a run, a white ring marks the slot being read and another marks the goal square being checked. On a match the square flashes white, then fills with the tile's color. _(sb26.py:807-819, 998-1021; engine run)_ - When a tile doesn't match or a slot is empty, the two white rings flash red, then every filled goal square empties again. _(sb26.py:820-858, 993-996; engine run on level 1)_ - When the first machine runs out with squares left, a red bar flashes over the unfilled squares, then every filled square empties again. _(sb26.py:792-799, 958-973; engine run on level 8)_ - When the level clears, the black backing behind the goal squares fades to white before the next level loads. _(sb26.py:800-806, 926-933)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 28 actions · Boss 15 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sb26/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - A second machine and a ring tile (a hollow colored square) appear. When a run reaches a ring, no goal square fills: reading jumps to the leftmost slot of the machine whose border is the ring's color, and a dark gray outline marks the ring. After that machine's last slot, reading comes back and carries on from the slot after the ring. _(sb26.py:386-424, 934-957, 975-990; engine run: level 2 cleared through its green ring)_ - A machine is only read if the first machine, or a ring, leads to it. _(sb26.py:998-1021, 975-990)_ - Tiles and rings that start inside a machine are fixed. Clicking them does nothing. _(sb26.py:731-737; engine run on level 4 (clicking its fixed green tile picked nothing up))_ - On level 2 only, a green line joins the ring to the green machine it leads to. _(sb26.py:396)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 18 actions · Boss 25 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sb26/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Level 3's first machine holds two fixed rings, one green and one blue, each leading to its own small two-slot machine. _(sb26.py:425-464)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 19 actions · Boss 15 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sb26/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Rings appear loose in the tray, so you choose where the detours go. _(sb26.py:465-502)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 31 actions · Boss 24 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sb26/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Two rings of the same color can both lead into the same machine, so its tiles get read twice in one run. _(sb26.py:503-545; engine run: level 5 cleared with both blue rings)_ - Rings that would send reading round in a circle without reading a tile, such as a ring in the first slot of the machine it leads to, make the run fail. _(sb26.py:975-978; engine run on level 5 and level 8)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 23 actions · Boss 20 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sb26/lvl6.png #### Level 7 ARC baseline 58 actions · Boss 17 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sb26/lvl7.png **New on level 7** - Rings can be nested: a ring inside a machine that another ring leads to sends reading one machine deeper, and each machine hands reading back to the one that sent it. Level 7 was cleared reading three machines deep. _(sb26.py:934-957, 979-990; engine run on level 7)_ #### Level 8 ARC baseline 18 actions · Boss 17 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sb26/lvl8.png **New on level 8** - The goal is two rows of six squares: the top row is read left to right, then the second row. _(sb26.py:637-686, 729-730)_ - A red ring leads back into the red first machine itself, so reading can loop through it again. _(sb26.py:637-686, 979-990; engine run: level 8 cleared with the red ring in the blue machine)_ ### Resources - [replay] SB26 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/6066c7d2-601e-4d5c-9abc-9ba3b7ff57dd — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] SB26 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/7eebd5e4-fac6-47c7-b829-4ca32cc491e2 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12 after an adversarially-verified direct source read: level 1 has no portal/chain mechanic at all, Undo targets the wrong action, and a losable energy budget was missing. --- ## Sigil Caster (`sc25`) - **Game ID:** `sc25` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 6 - **Tags:** spellcasting, pattern-matching, maze, public-demo-2026 - **Slippery Seven:** yes. Only the 27B fails it -- Flash-Next clears levels on it regularly. - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/sc25 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=sc25 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 350 (per level 36, 6, 32, 83, 143, 50); Boss: not won yet, 262 actions over 2 runs **Objective.** Draw a lit pattern on a toggle grid to auto-cast one of three spells (teleport, grow/shrink, or a block-clearing fireball) and reach the exit. ### Mechanics You control a small wizard walking a maze toward an exit doorway. A 3x3 grid of clickable dots at the bottom toggles on/off, and if the lit pattern exactly matches the sigil of a spell unlocked on that level, the game auto-casts it: grow/shrink (the four dots around the center) switches the wizard between big and small so it can squeeze through 2-pixel gaps; teleport (top-left, top-middle and center) moves the wizard straight onto a pad of its size; fireball (the middle column) shoots the way the wizard last moved. The fireball only does something if the first thing in its path is a pink-framed target -- a wall or an ordinary block just fizzles it -- and when it connects, it removes the target and every block of the target's middle color (dark red or orange) anywhere on the level. A small green square is not solid: walking onto it takes 10 off your used-action count. Spells are gated per level (drawing a locked sigil does nothing), and a shared budget of moves, dot clicks and casts (50, 25, 50, 35, 65 and 60 for levels 1-6) ends the game in a loss if you go over it. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Move Up - `ACTION2` (Down): Move Down - `ACTION3` (Left): Move Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Move Right - `ACTION6` (Click): Toggle a sigil-grid dot ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: The game as a whole. - What happened: He would never have figured it out and had to cheat. Once you understand it is showing you a spell to cast, it is obvious. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 36 actions · Boss 33 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sc25/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Up, Down, Left and Right move the wizard 2 pixels when it is small and 4 when it is big; if a big step is blocked, it tries a 2-pixel step instead. The wizard turns to face the way you pressed even when it cannot move. _(sc25.py:2683-2718; engine run on level 1)_ - Click a dot in the 3x3 grid at the bottom (or the square around it) to light it or turn it off. _(sc25.py:1909-1945, 2647-2672)_ - Click a spell icon to show that spell's sigil as white dots in the grid. Clicking the icon already shown plays an animation that lights its dots one by one. Icon clicks are free. _(sc25.py:2613-2646, 2373-2398; engine run on level 4)_ - Clicking anywhere other than the grid or an icon makes the grid flash red and does nothing else. It is free. _(sc25.py:2673-2680, 2332-2371; engine run)_ - There is no undo. RESET restarts the level with a full budget. _(sc25.py:1764, 1769-1834; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ - Reach the exit, a blue-bordered light blue doorway. Bumping into it walks the wizard in and loads the next level, and that last step costs nothing. _(sc25.py:2731-2747, 1836-1857; engine run: level 1 cleared)_ - The wizard is a small square, light blue on top and blue below. It starts big (4x4) on every level. Black is wall and gray is floor. _(sc25.py:1379-1642 (wizard set to scale 2 on every level))_ - A spell casts by itself the moment the lit dots exactly match an unlocked sigil, with no extra dots lit. Lit dots turn the spell's color when they match and stay green when they don't. The grid clears after the spell. _(sc25.py:1672-1690, 1947-1965, 2431-2465, 2400-2429)_ - Only the spells shown by the icons on a level work there. Drawing a locked spell's sigil does nothing, and its dots stay green. _(sc25.py:1947-1955, 1411-1639 (efvw per level); engine run: teleport sigil on level 1)_ - Grow/shrink (purple) is the four dots around the center, with the center off. It switches the wizard between big and small. Shrinking always works. Growing shifts the wizard up or left to find room, and if there is none nearby, the wizard flashes and stays small. _(sc25.py:2111-2153, 2269-2330, 2496-2532; engine runs on level 1)_ - Go one action over the budget and the game is over. There are no lives. _(sc25.py:1890-1898, 2663-2668; engine run: the 51st counted action on level 1 ended the game)_ - The budget counts every move (blocked moves too), every dot click, and one more each time a spell finishes, including a grow that had no room or a fireball that hit nothing. Budgets are 50, 25, 50, 35, 65 and 60 for levels 1-6. Icon clicks, clicks elsewhere and the step into the exit are free. _(sc25.py:1890-1898, 2663, 2560-2602, 2748; engine runs)_ - The budget bar is a 2-pixel column down the right edge of the screen: green for what is left, white for what is used, filling from the top down. _(sc25.py:1859-1888; engine run)_ - When a sigil matches, the wizard flashes in the spell's color for a moment before the spell happens. _(sc25.py:2400-2429)_ - On levels 1-3 the grid starts with that level's sigil already shown as white dots. _(sc25.py:1829-1833)_ - On level 1, the first action you take after the level starts (or after RESET) only plays a short demo of the grow/shrink sigil being drawn. It does not move the wizard or light a dot, and it costs nothing. _(sc25.py:1834, 2542-2555; engine run: 22 frames, wizard did not move)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 6 actions · Boss 7 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sc25/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Teleport (yellow) is the top-left dot, the top-middle dot and the center. It moves the wizard straight onto a teleport pad for its size: a big wizard lands on a pad marked by four yellow corner dots. _(sc25.py:1672-1690, 2186-2251; engine run on level 2)_ - Darker gray gates (a bracket shape with a 2-pixel gap) block the big wizard. Only a small wizard fits through. _(sc25.py:1416-1455, 2713-2718 (gates are solid))_ - A larger set of corner marks frames the pad the next teleport will land on. _(sc25.py:2155-2184)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 32 actions · Boss 17 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sc25/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Fireball (pink) is the middle column of dots. It flies the way the wizard last moved and stops at the first wall, block or target in its path. It flies straight through the darker gray gates. _(sc25.py:1967-2027, 2047-2109; engine run on level 3)_ - Dark red blocks are solid. A fireball that hits one, or a wall, just fizzles. _(sc25.py:1967-2027, 2047-2109; engine run: fireball into a wall on level 3 removed nothing)_ - The target is a pink-framed square with a dark red middle. A fireball that hits it removes the target and every dark red block on the level, however far away. _(sc25.py:2084-2093; engine run on level 3)_ - The fireball's hit line runs along the wizard's top edge when shooting left or right, and along its left edge when shooting up or down, so a big wizard has to line that edge up with the target. _(sc25.py:1967-1990)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 83 actions · Boss 189 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sc25/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Two spells on one level. The spell icons move to a panel at the top left, and the grid no longer starts with a sigil shown, so click an icon to see its sigil. _(sc25.py:1496-1536, 1829-1833)_ - A small green square is not solid. Walking onto it removes it and takes 10 off your used-action count (never below zero). A big wizard only collects it with its top-left corner, but growing while on top of it also collects it. _(sc25.py:2719-2730, 2313-2324; engine runs on level 4)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 143 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sc25/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Small teleport pads appear: a solid purple dot. A small wizard teleports to the purple pad and a big one to the yellow pad, and the frame marks switch between yellow and purple as the wizard changes size. _(sc25.py:2155-2171, 2186-2211; engine run on level 5)_ - Orange blocks and a pink-framed target with an orange middle appear. Hitting that target removes only the orange blocks; the dark red target still removes only dark red blocks. _(sc25.py:1537-1588, 2094-2102)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 50 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sc25/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Two big teleport pads: each big teleport goes to the next pad in turn, and the yellow frame moves to show where the next one will land. _(sc25.py:2186-2211, 2173-2184; engine run on level 6)_ ### Resources - [replay] SC25 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/14734864-b319-4b44-832f-64b997351be0 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] SC25 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/2e83cea2-946f-4f51-9ce5-d7ca5c8576f3 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the six level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12 after an adversarially-verified direct source read: the fireball and grow-spell claims both mischaracterized what actually gets destroyed. --- ## Skewer Kebabs (`sk48`) - **Game ID:** `sk48` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 8 - **Tags:** skewer, threading, public-demo-2026 - **Slippery Seven:** yes. Hard for every model we have tried. Boss won it on 21 Sept 2026. - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/sk48 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=sk48 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 1070 (per level 61, 177, 101, 103, 230, 181, 125, 92); Boss: best win 856 actions (4 runs) **Objective.** Extend, retract and slide a skewer that pushes colored beads ahead of its tip and skewers the ones that can't move, until the beads on each skewer match the reference skewers at the bottom. ### Mechanics Each rod sticks out of a square handle. Pressing the rod's own direction extends it one segment, pressing the opposite way pulls it back one segment, and pressing sideways slides the whole rod one step along the striped rail beside its handle (no rail, no slide). Extending doesn't pass through loose beads -- it pushes each one ahead of the tip -- but a bead that can't be pushed any further (board edge, wall, or another stuck bead) stays put and the rod slides through it, skewering it. Beads already on the rod ride along when it extends, get dragged back when it retracts, and get carried when it slides; a slide that would push a bead off the board doesn't happen, and the tip can't go past the board edge or into a wall. The strip at the bottom holds a reference rod for each rod that counts: the level clears when the beads on each matching rod, read outward from its handle, have the reference's colors in the same order, and a white dot marks each position that already matches. From level 3 there are fixed rods you can't move, and on level 4 the references belong to two fixed rods while your own rod is only a tool. Solid black walls appear on levels 5 and 6, and from level 6 you switch between two rods by clicking a handle. Every direction press costs 1 of the level's 196 energy; clicks and undo are free, undo restores rods and beads but not energy, and running out of energy ends the game. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Extend/retract Up - `ACTION2` (Down): Extend/retract Down - `ACTION3` (Left): Extend/retract Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Extend/retract Right - `ACTION6` (Click): Select a skewer - `ACTION7` (Undo): Undo — One of only 3 public games (with bp35, lf52) where Undo is load-bearing, not a convenience -- see notes below. ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-14** - Saw: Undo (ACTION7) is available. - What happened: Undo is load-bearing here: one of three public games (with bp35 and lf52) where you realistically need it to finish, not a convenience. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 61 actions · Boss 16 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl1.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl1-human-0921.png — human play, a second run **The rules from the start** - Press the direction the selected rod points (away from its handle) to extend it one segment. Press the opposite direction to pull it back one segment. It never shrinks below the one segment under its handle. _(sk48.py:768-791; engine run on level 1)_ - Press a sideways direction to slide the whole rod, handle and all, one step along the striped gray rail beside the handle. Where the rail ends, or with no rail, nothing moves. _(sk48.py:792-797; engine run on level 1)_ - Every direction press costs 1 energy, even when nothing moves. _(sk48.py:768-769; engine run on level 1)_ - Undo (ACTION7) puts the rods and beads back as they were before your last move that changed something, and you can keep pressing it back to the level start. It is free, but it does not give back energy. _(sk48.py:757-758, 739-742, 861-891; engine run on level 1)_ - RESET restores the level with full energy. _(sk48.py:656-659; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330; engine run)_ - The strip below the long line at the bottom shows a reference rod with a row of colored beads for each rod that counts, matched to it by handle color. The level clears when the beads on each of those rods, read outward from its handle, have the reference's colors in the same order. _(sk48.py:661-676, 684-690, 842-859, 731-738; engine run: level 1 cleared in 14 moves)_ - Only the first as many beads as the reference holds are checked; extra beads further out on the rod don't matter. _(sk48.py:850-859)_ - Your rod is a gray zigzag bar sticking out of a pink square handle. Beads are small colored squares. Level 1 has one rod, a rail beside its handle, and a column of red, blue and green beads to be skewered as red, green, blue. _(sk48.py:268-298)_ - Extending pushes a loose bead just ahead of the tip along in front of it, and beads already on the rod ride forward with it. _(sk48.py:775-785, 893-944; engine run on level 7)_ - A bead that can't be pushed any further (board edge, wall, or another bead that is stuck) stays where it is and the rod slides through it. That is how a bead gets skewered. _(sk48.py:905-921; engine runs on levels 1 and 7)_ - Pulling the rod back drags the beads on it back toward the handle. A bead right next to the handle has nowhere to go, so the rod pulls out of it and leaves it loose. _(sk48.py:786-791, 893-944; engine run on level 1)_ - Sliding carries every bead on the rod and pushes loose beads in its way. If a bead would be pushed off the board, the slide doesn't happen. _(sk48.py:792-797, 893-944; engine run on level 1)_ - The tip can't go past the edge of the board. An extension that would do that does nothing, and still costs 1. _(sk48.py:775-777, 960-971; engine run)_ - When energy hits 0 the game is over. There are no lives. A move that clears the level with your last point still counts. _(sk48.py:731-745, 763-766; engine run: the 196th press on level 1 ended the game)_ - Each level gives 196 energy, and only direction presses spend it. Clicks and undo are free. _(sk48.py:658-659, 769)_ - The long line above the bottom strip is the energy bar: gray for energy left, dark gray for energy spent. It refills at the start of each level. _(sk48.py:629-639, 658-659)_ - A white dot appears on a reference bead whenever the bead in the same position on the matching rod has the same color, so you can see which positions are already right. _(sk48.py:684-690, 842-859; engine run on level 1)_ - When a bead gets newly skewered, an outline in the bead's color flashes around it for a moment. _(sk48.py:718-730, 797-802; engine runs: 3 frames on a skewering move, 2 on a plain one)_ - The selected rod's handle has a white inside and its rod is drawn a lighter gray. Its reference in the bottom strip lights up the same way. _(sk48.py:818-840)_ - On a clear, all the beads on the rods flash white a few times before the next level loads. _(sk48.py:709-717, 731-738)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 177 actions · Boss 50 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl2.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl2-human-a.png — human play, the rod and a row of loose boxes - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl2-human-b.png — human play, boxes pushed ahead of the tip - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl2-human-c.png — human play, a box pushed to the wall and speared (Boss's arrow) - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl2-human-d.png — human play, speared boxes carried along the rod - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl2-human-0921.png — human play, a second run **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-11, level 2** - Saw: The skewers at the bottom of the screen show the order the colored boxes are wanted in. - Did: Extended the long rod to spear the boxes. - What happened: It is an extendable meat skewer and the boxes are pieces of meat going onto it in a set order. It is physics: you can't just get up close to a box, you have to push it against the wall and spear it. Once speared it comes along with you on the rod, and it is solid, so you can use it to push the other boxes down. - In the code: A bead that can't be pushed any further (board edge, wall, or another stuck bead) stays where it is and the rod slides through it. That is how a bead gets skewered. #### Level 3 ARC baseline 101 actions · Boss 38 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl3.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl3-human.png — human play - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl3-human-0921.png — human play, a second run **New on level 3** - A fixed rod appears: a vertical rod with a black handle and a yellow center, which you can't select or move. Your rod passes straight through it. A bead on it can slide up and down along it (your rod can carry it that way), but nothing can push it sideways off the rod. _(sk48.py:335-376, 922-935; engine run on level 3)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 103 actions · Boss 62 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl4.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl4-human.png — human play, pieces already on the skewers - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl4-human-0921.png — human play, a second run, two reference rods **New on level 4** - The rods you must fill can be ones you don't control. On level 4 the two references belong to the two fixed rods at the top (light blue and yellow centers), and your pink rod has no reference at all: it is only a tool for moving beads onto them. _(sk48.py:377-427, 661-676; engine check: beads placed on the fixed rods in reference order passed the win check)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-11, level 4** - Saw: Level 4 starts with pieces already on the skewers. - What happened: The meat-skewer picture still explains it. The AI runs he read had called the rod a pen or a snake's tongue, and none of their guesses would handle this level. #### Level 5 ARC baseline 230 actions · Boss 132 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl5.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl5-human.png — human play - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl5-human-blocked.png — human play, the black box blocking the skewer **New on level 5** - Solid black wall squares appear on levels 5 and 6. The tip can't extend into one and beads can't be pushed into one. _(sk48.py:450, 498, 960-971)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-11, level 5** - Saw: A black box blocks the skewer, with red boxes behind it. - Did: Clicked on everything on the screen. - Expected: Clicking would do something. - What happened: Clicking changed nothing. He worked the level out by experimenting. - In the code: The black squares are walls: the tip can't extend into them and beads can't be pushed into them. Clicks only switch between rods you control, and there is just one until level 6, so clicking does nothing here. #### Level 6 ARC baseline 181 actions · Boss 298 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl6.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl6-human.png — human play, two rods - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl6-human-win.png — human play, right before the win - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl6-human-0921.png — human play, a second run, pink and purple skewers **New on level 6** - Two rods you control, pink and purple. Click a rod's handle, or its reference in the bottom strip, to switch to it. Switching is free, and clicking anything else does nothing. _(sk48.py:746-756; engine run on level 7)_ - The purple rod hangs down from the top and slides left and right along a rail across the top. The two rods pass straight through each other. _(sk48.py:467-520, 792-797; engine run on level 7)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-11, level 6** - Saw: Level 6, right before the win. - What happened: Each skewer is matched to its own reference at the bottom. They are not always pairs of skewers, and a skewer does not have to match a partner. - **Boss, 2026-09-21, level 6** - Saw: Two skewers to work with, pink and purple, and each one wants different colors. - Did: Clicked to switch which skewer he was using. - What happened: Clicking does nothing in this game until level 6 of 8. From there it is how you switch skewers. - In the code: Matches the source: level 6 is the first with two rods you control, and a click on a rod's handle or its reference switches to it (sk48.py:746). #### Level 7 ARC baseline 125 actions · Boss 160 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl7.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl7-human-0921.png — human play, a second run, one green for two skewers **New on level 7** - The two rods have to share a bead. The board has one green bead, two blue and two red, and both references want green in the middle: pink wants blue, green, blue and purple wants red, green, red. The one green has to end up where the two rods cross, counting for both. _(sk48.py:499-549 (level 7 layout and references). Not run in the engine: the bead counts and references are read from the level data.)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-21, level 7** - Saw: Pink and purple skewers, and both of them need green. - What happened: Level 7 is insane: the two skewers have to work together because they share the green peas. - In the code: Matches the level data: one green bead on the board, and both references want green in the middle (sk48.py:499-549). #### Level 8 ARC baseline 92 actions · Boss 100 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl8.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sk48/lvl8-human-win-0921.png — human play, right before the win **New on level 8** - Pink's rail shrinks to two segments, so the pink rod can barely slide up or down and can't get to the lower half of the board. The green bead starts down there, straight below the purple rod, so only purple can bring it up. Pink wants blue then green; purple wants red then orange. _(sk48.py:551-600 (level 8 layout: pink rail pieces at rows 22 and 28 only, green bead at column 29 row 38, purple rod at column 29). Not run in the engine.)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-21, level 8** - Saw: The purple skewer can reach the bottom of the board; the pink one on the left can't. - What happened: The fiendish part: you absolutely have to work with the other skewer to win level 8. - In the code: Matches the level data: pink's rail is only two segments long here, and the green bead starts low on the board, straight below the purple rod (sk48.py:551-600). ### Resources - [replay] SK48 Boss's winning replay: https://arcprize.org/replay/7f07c3de-ec0a-412c-a710-2e19b3303581 — Boss's first sk48 win, 21-Sep-2026: all 8 levels, 856 actions. The level 1-8 screenshots from that day are from this session. - [replay] SK48 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/549f92a6-c1d5-4990-a3c4-91323c1fc8e8 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] SK48 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/ec8d80f4-250f-47c4-948f-6e5d51379cb5 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12: adversarial re-verification confirmed the skewer pushes beads rather than passing through them, and added the level-5+ solid walls; the win-condition specifics are still an open gap. ACTION7 (Undo) cross-game note (2026-09-14): Boss identifies sk48 as one of only three public games (with bp35 and lf52) where Undo is load-bearing rather than a convenience -- see bp35.ts for the full breakdown of which games expose ACTION7 at all. Reasoning for why it matters here specifically: this is a push-block mechanic (the skewer shoves beads ahead of its tip instead of passing through them), and push-block puzzles are the classic case where moves are one-directional -- retracting or sliding the skewer back does not pull a pushed bead back with it, so a bad extension can permanently scramble the bead arrangement with no way to recover it by further play. That is presumably why the source implementation makes Undo explicitly restore bead positions, not just skewer position (per mechanicsExplanation) -- ordinary movement cannot undo a push, only the dedicated Undo can. Bounded by a step budget same as bp35/lf52, so Undo also saves you from re-spending moves re-deriving a bead layout a Reset would have thrown away. --- ## Streaming Purple (`sp80`) - **Game ID:** `sp80` - **Set:** evaluation - **Tags:** evaluation-set, physics, fluid-dynamics - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/sp80 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=sp80 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 518 (per level 39, 58, 25, 148, 96, 152); Boss: not won yet, 31 actions over 3 runs **Objective.** Move red bars (and, from level 5, purple L pieces) so that one pour of the purple stream fills every yellow cup without touching a spill line. ### Mechanics Click a piece to select it (it turns blue) and move it one cell at a time with the arrows. Action 5 pours: liquid falls from every spout one cell per frame. When it lands on a red bar it runs along the top of the bar both ways and drops off both ends, so each bar splits a stream in two. It fills a yellow cup (the cup turns dark red) only by dropping into the one-cell notch in the middle of the cup. A pour wins the level only if every cup is filled and no liquid touched a light gray spill line. A failed pour is not a reset: the liquid is wiped, your pieces stay where they are, and you can pour again -- but the fourth failed pour is the last one, and pressing Action 5 after it ends the game. Every action except RESET spends one step from the green bar at the edge of the screen; running out is game over. Levels 2, 3 and 5 are drawn upside down (the controls are turned to match). Level 4 adds a spout riding on a movable bar. Level 5 adds purple L pieces that turn a stream 90 degrees and cups mounted sideways on the walls, which only a sideways stream can fill. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Move the selected piece up one cell - `ACTION2` (Down): Move the selected piece down one cell - `ACTION3` (Left): Move the selected piece left one cell - `ACTION4` (Right): Move the selected piece right one cell - `ACTION5` (Interact/Execute): Pour: start the liquid from every spout - `ACTION6` (Click): Select the red bar or purple L piece you click on (it does not move it) ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: Purple streams that have to land in certain containers. - What happened: Frustrating and fiddly: you have to eyeball whether a stream will drop exactly where you want, and sometimes you can make a stream go a different way. He doesn't do well on games where you measure spatial distance. One of the original preview games. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 39 actions · Boss 6 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sp80/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Click a piece to select it. It turns blue and the piece you had selected goes back to its normal color. Anywhere inside the piece's box counts as a hit. Each level starts with one piece already selected: the one nearest the top-left corner of the board (the bottom-right corner on the upside-down levels). _(sp80.py:580-584, 615-622, 679-694)_ - Clicking on empty space does nothing, but it still spends a step. _(sp80.py:676-678, 725-726)_ - Up, Down, Left and Right move the selected piece one cell. A move that gets blocked still spends a step. _(sp80.py:697-713)_ - A piece can't move into the three rows at the spout end of the board, and it can't get within one cell of a yellow cup, diagonals included. The board edge, the spill line and the drop sitting under each spout also stop it. _(sp80.py:586-598, 708-711)_ - Pieces slide straight through each other. A bar can sit on top of another bar, and the selected piece is drawn on top. _(sp80.py:620, 709-711)_ - Action 5 pours. The whole pour plays out as one action -- you can't move anything until it finishes -- and it costs one step no matter how long the liquid runs. _(sp80.py:716-724, 631-653, 727-822)_ - You clear a level with one pour that fills every yellow cup while no liquid touches a light gray spill line. Both parts count: a clean pour that misses a cup fails, and a pour that fills every cup but also leaks fails. _(sp80.py:728-748)_ - The spout is a single darker gray pixel at the edge of the board, with the first drop of liquid already sitting next to it. When you pour, the liquid falls straight away from the spout, one cell per frame. _(sp80.py:631-653, 750-761)_ - Red bars: liquid that lands on a bar runs along the row just above it in both directions, one cell per frame, and drops off both ends. So a bar turns one stream into two, one off each end. _(sp80.py:764-771)_ - Yellow cups (U shapes): liquid that drops into the one-cell notch in the middle of a cup fills it, and the cup turns dark red. Liquid that lands on a cup's rim splits like it hit a bar: the half that falls into the notch still fills the cup, and the other half keeps falling down the outside. _(sp80.py:772-786)_ - Liquid that runs into liquid already on the board joins it and carries on in its own direction. _(sp80.py:762-763)_ - The light gray line along the bottom edge is a spill line. Liquid that reaches it turns the line green and that pour fails. _(sp80.py:812-816, 728-731)_ - Step bar: the strip along the top edge is green for steps left and white for steps used. Every action except RESET costs one step: moves, blocked moves, clicks on nothing, and each pour. The budgets are 30, 45, 100, 120, 100 and 120 steps for levels 1 to 6. Hitting zero is game over. _(sp80.py:415-436, 557-560, 676-678, 861-868; level data 274-409)_ - A failed pour cleans itself up. All the poured liquid disappears (the first drop by each spout stays), your pieces stay where you put them, and the selection jumps back to the piece nearest the top-left corner (bottom-right on the upside-down levels). You get four failed pours per level: pressing Action 5 after the fourth failure ends the game. Nothing on screen counts them for you. _(sp80.py:655-672, 716-721, 742-745)_ - After a failed pour, for a few frames the spill line that got hit blinks green and light gray, and every cup that stayed empty blinks white and yellow. That shows you where it leaked and which cups you missed. _(sp80.py:730-741)_ - A winning pour goes straight to the next level as soon as the liquid stops moving, with every cup shown dark red. _(sp80.py:744-748, 776-778)_ - RESET restarts the current level: pieces back to their starting spots, a full step bar, and the failed-pour count back to zero. It doesn't cost a step. _(sp80.py:538-566, 677; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ - There is no undo. The only actions are the four arrows, Action 5 and click. _(sp80.py:535)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 58 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sp80/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - More than one bar, in different lengths (a 5-cell bar and two 3-cell bars on level 2), so you click to choose which bar you are moving. _(sp80.py:292-311)_ - Levels 2, 3 and 5 are drawn upside down: the spout is at the bottom, the liquid rises, and the cups hang from the top. The arrows and clicks are turned to match, so Up still moves a piece up on screen. On these levels the step bar runs along the bottom edge, and its white (used) part grows from the left. _(sp80.py:439-452, 454-495, 845-859; level data "dojfslwbg": 180 on levels 2, 3, 5)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 25 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sp80/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Three spouts pour at the same time. Every stream has to end up in a cup, and none of them can leak. _(sp80.py:312-336, 631-653)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 148 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sp80/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - A red bar with a darker gray spout in its middle. When you pour, it starts its own stream from the cell just below that spout. It moves like any other bar, so you decide where the second stream starts. _(sp80.py:207-215, 346, 641-653)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 96 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/sp80/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Purple L pieces (a 2x2 block with one corner missing). Liquid that flows into the missing corner is turned 90 degrees and leaves through the open side it didn't come in from. On level 5 the L is missing its top-right corner, so falling liquid comes out heading right. You select and move L pieces like bars, and they turn blue when selected. _(sp80.py:254-262, 375, 568-569, 787-811)_ - Liquid that hits the outside of an L piece splits around it like it hit a bar. _(sp80.py:803-811)_ - A sideways stream runs in a straight line and does not fall. When it hits a bar or the outside of a piece it splits above and below and keeps going sideways. _(sp80.py:750-771)_ - Cups mounted on their side against a wall, with the notch facing into the board. Falling liquid can't reach the notch, so only a sideways stream can fill one. _(sp80.py:369, 393, 395-396, 772-786)_ - The side edges become spill lines too: the right edge on level 5 and both edges on level 6. A sideways stream that reaches one fails the pour, same as the floor. _(sp80.py:377-378, 401-402, 812-816)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 152 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/sp80-lvl6.png **New on level 6** - A second kind of L piece, missing its top-left corner: falling liquid that drops into it comes out heading left. Level 6 has one of each kind. _(sp80.py:244-252, 398, 787-803)_ - A standing red bar, four cells tall. It splits streams the same way a lying bar does. _(sp80.py:159-170, 391, 764-771)_ ### Hints - **Pre-Flight Check** (spoiler level 2): Do not start the stream until you are 100% sure the path is complete. The stream logic triggers a multi-frame animation that you cannot interrupt. - **U-Shape Targeting** (spoiler level 1): In half the levels the liquid falls straight down, but the other 3 of the 6 flip the entire screen upside-down for display, so the same physics looks like it's flowing up. From level 5, purple L pieces turn the stream 90 degrees so it can run sideways into the notch of a cup mounted on a wall. ### Resources - [replay] SP80 Replay (original game): https://three.arcprize.org/replay/sp80-0605ab9e5b2a/212c541e-db90-40c3-9601-79049867dab2 — A run on the original SP80 (sp80-0605ab9e5b2a), before ARC Prize reworked it. ### Provenance and caveats Corrected 2026-09-12 after a direct source read: the containers are yellow, not white, and "falls straight down" only holds for 3 of the 6 levels, since the other 3 render the screen rotated 180 degrees. A separate rename to "Streaming Pink" was proposed the same day over the liquid's exact pixel color, but reverted -- Boss watched the actual gameplay video and confirmed it reads as purple; the name stays Streaming Purple. --- ## Sucking Up (`su15`) - **Game ID:** `su15` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 9 - **Tags:** merging, sorting, exact-count, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/su15 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=su15 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 361 (per level 22, 42, 26, 115, 36, 31, 8, 40, 41); Boss: best win 293 actions (1 run) **Objective.** Click to suck nearby blocks toward you, fusing same-size blocks into bigger ones, until the blue circles hold exactly the number the header asks for of each piece it lists. ### Mechanics Every click (ACTION6) is a vacuum pull: every piece with any part within 8 cells of the point you clicked gets dragged onto that point, and the click costs one step from the level budget, even if it catches nothing. A thin white ring flashes around the click while the pull plays out: on its first frame it is drawn at that 8-cell reach, then it shrinks in toward the click. Blocks come in nine tiers, each a plain solid square, distinguished only by size and color -- nothing is numbered or labelled. In order the chain runs 1x1 light blue, 2x2 pink, 3x3 purple, 4x4 yellow, 5x5 orange, 7x7 red, 8x8 blue, 9x9 light pink, 10x10 green. Any overlapping cluster of same-tier blocks caught by that one click collapses into a single block one tier up, placed at the cluster's center -- so three blocks of a size give you one of the next size, not one plus a spare, and merging the top green tier destroys the whole group outright. Only pieces the current click actually caught can merge; blocks left overlapping from an earlier click sit there until a later click catches them together. Shoving two *different* tiers into each other is a foul: the two blocks blink white, the move is undone for you, and the level is charged an escalating penalty of 2, then 4, then 6 steps and so on instead of the usual 1. Undo does not lower that penalty; only starting or restarting the level does. The top ten rows are a header you cannot click into -- a click up there is simply ignored and costs no step -- and they hold two legends. Top-left is the size chain in merge order. Level 1 has none; levels 2-5 show the first four tiers (light blue, pink, purple, yellow); from level 6 it shows six, adding orange and red. Top-center is the shopping list: one life-size copy of each piece the level wants, repeated when it wants two of something. The targets are blue circles, between one and four of them per level, and the counts pool across all of them -- two required blocks may sit in two different circles. A block counts as delivered once its center is inside a circle. The win condition is an exact count, not a minimum, and only the pieces the level actually lists are counted -- a block of some other size sitting in a circle is ignored. From level 4 on, small 4x5 creatures that read as alien landers chase the nearest block, moving only while a click plays out (so an empty click still lets them move); they come in light pink, green and dark red and merge among themselves along their own three-step chain, which levels 8 and 9 display as a second legend row under the size chain. Levels 6, 8 and 9 require you to deliver a creature as well as blocks, so you have to breed the right one. A block that touches a creature recoils away and drops one tier, except the smallest 1x1, which is destroyed on contact. Each tier is worth double the one below it, and if you destroy so much that the blocks left on the board can no longer add up to what the level wants, the circles and the shopping list turn gray to tell you the level is already lost -- Undo restores them. Undo (ACTION7) is free, costs no steps, and simply restores the position before your last click; it does not give back the step that click cost. Level budgets are 32 or 48 clicks depending on the level, not a shrinking budget; you lose if the budget hits zero or if every block is gone. ### Controls - `ACTION6` (Click): Vacuum-pull nearby pieces toward a point (costs 1 step) - `ACTION7` (Undo): Undo the last click (free) ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-16** - Saw: Every click plays a brief animation that shows roughly the radius that is about to get sucked up -- the kind of quick animation he suspects a lot of models ignore. - Did: Clicked, with pieces inside and outside that radius. - What happened: Everything inside the radius is pulled to the click point, and two similar objects inside it join and become the bigger object. None of this, including what the animation means, was explained anywhere on the page. - In the code: Each click draws a thin white ring at the full 8-cell catch reach, which shrinks over about four frames while the pieces slide in (su15.py:1194-1215). Every caught same-size block that ends up overlapping fuses into ONE block of the next size up, so three small blocks give one bigger block, not a bigger block plus a spare. - **Boss, 2026-09-16** - Saw: The game was listed as "Sorting Urn". - What happened: That was not what it was. The game really is sucking things up, so it was renamed "Sucking Up". - **Boss, 2026-09-16** - Saw: Two legends: one in the top left showing what each shape becomes, one in the center showing what to bring to the blue circle. - What happened: You put the two together to know what to make and where to take it. - **Boss, 2026-09-16** - Saw: In later levels, little things like alien spaceships appear. - What happened: The cells, or asteroids, combine and merge, and the spaceships split them up again. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 22 actions · Boss 27 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/su15/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Click anywhere on the field to vacuum. Every piece with any part within 8 cells of the click point is caught and slides onto that point over the next few frames. Each click costs 1 step, even one that catches nothing. _(su15.py:1113-1128, 1135-1193, 1505-1579, 1888-1912)_ - Clicks in the top ten rows (the header) or on the very bottom row do nothing and cost no step, though they still count toward your action total. _(su15.py:1135-1137)_ - Undo puts every block and creature back where it was before your last click. It is free, and you can keep pressing it back to the start of the level, but it does not refund the step that click cost. _(su15.py:1129-1132, 2083-2137)_ - A dead click in the header or the bottom row still adds an entry to the undo history, so the next Undo after one of those appears to do nothing. Press it again. _(su15.py:1117-1118, 1135-1137, 2083-2093)_ - RESET restarts the current level: full step bar, starting layout, and the foul penalty back to 2. _(su15.py:960-965; arcengine/base_game.py:305-329)_ - The goal is the blue circles. A piece counts once its center is inside a circle, and the counts are pooled across every circle on the level, so two required blocks can sit in two different circles. _(su15.py:2014-2082)_ - The pieces drawn at the top center of the header are the shopping list: a life-size copy of each piece the level wants, drawn twice when it wants two. You win when the circles hold exactly that: one too many of a listed piece is as bad as one too few. Pieces the list does not mention are ignored, even inside a circle. _(su15.py:613-825, 2033-2082)_ - Blocks are plain solid squares in nine sizes, smallest to largest: 1x1 light blue, 2x2 pink, 3x3 purple, 4x4 yellow, 5x5 orange, 7x7 red, 8x8 blue, 9x9 light pink, 10x10 green. Nothing is numbered; size and color are the only labels. _(su15.py:37-262, 878-889)_ - When the pull ends, all caught blocks of one size that overlap fuse into a single block one size up, placed where they met. Since everything caught slides onto the same spot, catching two, three or four same-size blocks gives you one bigger block, not pairs. _(su15.py:1061-1064, 1224-1280, 1331-1408)_ - Only blocks this click caught can fuse. Blocks left overlapping from an earlier click stay as they are until a later click catches them together. _(su15.py:1148-1151, 1224-1280)_ - Fusing the largest size (10x10 green) does not make anything bigger: every green block in that group is destroyed. _(su15.py:1353-1364)_ - Foul: if a click leaves two blocks of different sizes overlapping, both turn white and blink for about 16 frames, then the whole click is rewound. Instead of 1 step it costs 2, then 4 for the next foul, then 6, and so on. Undo does not lower the penalty; only a new level or RESET does. _(su15.py:841-850, 1096-1108, 1246-1256, 1457-1504)_ - You also lose if every block on the board is gone. _(su15.py:1090-1091)_ - The white bar along the bottom row is your step budget, and it shrinks as you spend. Levels give 32 or 48 steps (32, 32, 48, 48, 32, 32, 32, 48, 48). When it runs out you lose the level, but a click that completes the shopping list wins even if it spends your last step. _(su15.py:826-857, 960-965, 1086-1093)_ - Each click draws a thin white ring around the click point. On its first frame the ring sits at the full 8-cell reach, so anything inside it is being pulled. It then shrinks in toward the click over about four frames while the pieces slide in. _(su15.py:1194-1215, 1569-1571)_ - On a win, the circles and the shopping list flash white for about ten frames, then the next level loads. _(su15.py:1044-1058, 1066-1070, 1086-1089)_ - Each size is worth double the size below it. If the blocks left can no longer add up to the blocks on the shopping list, the circles and the shopping list turn gray: the level cannot be won from here. Undo back to a position that can still make it, and the color comes back. Creatures on the list are not part of this check. _(su15.py:1075-1082, 2131-2136, 2138-2171)_ - Level 1 teaches the click: a small white plus sign near the purple block marks a spot that will catch it, a dotted dark gray line runs from the block to the circle, and a dark gray 3x3 outline inside the circle shows what goes there. The plus sign disappears when you click on it or once the block moves. Level 1 has no size chain in the header. _(su15.py:614-631, 1083-1085, 1119-1123)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 42 actions · Boss 48 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/su15/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - The size chain appears at the top left of the header: small color chips in merge order. Levels 2 to 5 show only the first four: light blue, pink, purple, yellow. _(su15.py:632-654 (a dark gray plate at x=16 hides the rest))_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 26 actions · Boss 21 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/su15/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - First level with two circles and two different pieces on the shopping list (one yellow 4x4 and one purple 3x3), so the pooled count starts to matter. _(su15.py:655-680)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 115 actions · Boss 59 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/su15/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - A click that catches a creature pulls it toward the click point, the same as a block. That is how you steer creatures into circles or into each other. _(su15.py:1150-1188, 1505-1531)_ - Creatures appear: small 4x5 light pink outlines shaped like landers. They chase the nearest block, one cell per frame, but only while a click is playing out, about 4 cells per click. An empty click still lets them move. _(su15.py:681-704, 1580-1662)_ - When a creature touches a block, the block shakes in place, then drops one size and flies about 10 cells straight away from the creature. A 1x1 light blue block is destroyed instead. The creature then sits still for a few frames. _(su15.py:1664-1674, 1695-1832)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 36 actions · Boss 31 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/su15/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Two creatures of the same color that overlap fuse into the next kind: two light pink make a green, two green make a dark red, and two dark red destroy each other. Unlike blocks, creatures fuse whenever they overlap during a click, caught or not. _(su15.py:1225, 1281-1330, 1409-1456, 1676, 1929-1935)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 31 actions · Boss 14 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/su15/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - The shopping list can include a creature. Level 6 wants a light pink one in a circle along with a yellow block. Creatures count by exact number, the same as blocks. _(su15.py:730-747, 2062-2082)_ - The size chain grows to six chips, adding orange and red after yellow. _(su15.py:730-747 (no plate over the chain from level 6))_ #### Level 7 ARC baseline 8 actions · Boss 10 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/su15/lvl7.png #### Level 8 ARC baseline 40 actions · Boss 23 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/su15/lvl8.png **New on level 8** - Two creatures of different colors overlapping is a foul, the same as mismatched blocks: they blink white, the click is rewound, and you pay the rising penalty. _(su15.py:1301-1311, 1457-1475)_ - A second row under the size chain shows the creature chain: light pink, green, dark red. Level 8 wants a green creature, level 9 a dark red one. _(su15.py:771-824)_ #### Level 9 ARC baseline 41 actions · Boss 60 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/su15/lvl9.png **New on level 9** - A dark red creature chases twice as fast as the others, two cells per frame. Level 9 is the only level with enough light pink creatures (four) to make one. _(su15.py:797-824, 1628-1636)_ ### Hints - **Read the Two Legends First** (spoiler level 1): The header strip across the top is not decoration, and you cannot click into it. The row at the top-left is the size chain in merge order: light blue, pink, purple, yellow, and from level 6 on also orange and red (level 1 has no chain at all). That is what fuses into what. The pieces sitting at the top-center are your shopping list -- one life-size copy of each thing the level wants delivered, shown twice if it wants two. Match the shopping list into the blue circles and the level ends. Nothing on screen is numbered; size and color are the only labels there are. - **Exact Counts, and the Circles Share a Total** (spoiler level 1): The win check is an exact match, not a minimum -- an extra block of a required size inside a circle keeps the level open just as surely as a missing one. When a level has several blue circles, they are not separate goals: the counts are pooled across all of them, so if a level wants two yellow blocks they can sit in two different circles. A block counts once its center is inside the circle, so nudging one that is only overlapping the edge is usually worth the click. - **Different Sizes Colliding Is the Expensive Mistake** (spoiler level 2): Undo is free and always available, so use it. The thing that actually drains your budget is driving two different-size blocks into each other: the game rewinds the move for you and bills you 2 steps, then 4 the next time, then 6, climbing all level. A vacuum click grabs everything within about 8 cells, so the cost is usually a bystander you did not mean to catch. Clicking from further out, so you pull only what you want, is cheaper than clicking in the middle of a crowd. - **A Cluster Merges Into One Block, So Mass Is Easy to Lose** (spoiler level 2): Same-size blocks caught by one click do not pair off -- the whole touching cluster becomes a single block one size up. Three small blocks get you one medium and nothing else, so sweeping everything into one pile wastes material. Each size is worth double the one below it, and if you burn so much that what is left cannot add up to the shopping list, the circles and the legend go gray: that level is already lost and you are just spending clicks. Undo puts the color back. Merging two of the largest green blocks deletes both. - **The Little Landers (Levels 4-9)** (spoiler level 3): The small 4x5 shapes that look like alien landers are creatures, and the first three levels have none. Touching one makes a block bounce away and shrink a size; a smallest 1x1 block touching one is simply gone. But they are not only hazards -- levels 6, 8 and 9 require you to deliver one into a circle, and they merge with each other along their own chain, light pink into green into dark red, which is the second legend row that appears on levels 8 and 9. Level 8 wants a green one, so two light pink ones have to be introduced. Level 9 wants a dark red one, which takes all four on the board. And the chain ends there: pushing two dark red ones together destroys both. ### Resources - [replay] SU15 Human Win, 9/9 (Boss): https://arcprize.org/replay/23823a58-a8bb-42d5-b61b-1bb8c81a5b78 — Boss's own playthrough on 16-Sep-2026, tagged human on his arcprize scorecard: a WIN clearing all 9 levels in 293 actions with 8 resets, score 90.62. Played on build su15-1944f8ab, the same build the level renders and the mechanics above were read from. - [replay] SU15 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/68e24873-d70f-4115-8617-711e48454c15 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] SU15 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/2e3994e1-8760-4e47-89f3-7ec096fce420 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. ### Provenance and caveats Rewritten 2026-09-16 after Boss cleared all 9 levels and reported that the page did not describe the game he had just played. The previous text called these "numbered blocks" -- they are not numbered, and nothing in this game renders a digit; the nine tiers differ only in size and color. It also never mentioned the two legends in the header strip, which are what make the game readable: the size chain at top-left and the delivery requirement at top-center. The creatures were called "diamond" critters; they are small lander-shaped glyphs. The step budget was described as shrinking; it is 32 or 48 depending on the level. Informal name changed from "Sorting Urn" to "Sucking Up" at Boss's direction, after the vacuum-pull click that is the game's only real verb. Level screenshots were rendered from the game's own source on 2026-09-12. An earlier 2026-09-12 pass corrected two other errors: Undo's cost claim was backwards, and the critter mechanic's scope and smallest-tier outcome were both wrong. --- ## Toggle Navigator (`tn36`) - **Game ID:** `tn36` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 7 - **Tags:** binary-logic, opcode-deduction, public-demo-2026 - **Slippery Seven:** yes. Only the 27B fails it -- Flash-Next clears levels on it regularly. - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/tn36 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=tn36 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 317 (per level 32, 72, 26, 40, 30, 55, 62); Boss: not won yet, 395 actions over 3 runs **Objective.** Freely toggle switches on the right-hand panel to chain move/rotate/scale/recolor instructions onto its token, matching a target; from level 2 the left panel only plays preset demo programs. ### Mechanics The right-hand panel is the one that counts: a yellow block with a notch, a yellow target outline, a row of switch columns and a blue run button. Each column of switches adds up to one number, and each number is a fixed instruction (move one square, jump two squares, turn, grow or shrink, recolor, or nothing). Pressing run plays the columns left to right, one per frame. You win when the run ends with the block in the target at the same spot, size, rotation and color. A run that misses sends the block back to its start. From level 2 a left-hand panel appears with tabs underneath; clicking a tab plays a preset demo program on a gray block so you can work out what the instructions do, but its switches can't be clicked. From level 3 there are six columns and pink walls that stop moves (a two-square jump goes straight over them). Level 6 adds yellow checkered save squares that move the start, and level 7 adds beams that shoot out after the third instruction of every run and break the block. Every click spends one unit of the blue bar at the top: 60 clicks on levels 1-5, 121 on levels 6-7, and the next click after that is a loss. ### Controls - `ACTION6` (Click): Flip a switch on the right panel, press the blue run button, or pick a demo tab under the left panel ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-18** - Saw: Something like lab pipetting, or a piano. - What happened: It never made sense to him and he had to cheat. Level 7 looked close to impossible (his scorecard didn't finish there). A hard one; he doesn't know how anybody solves it. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 32 actions · Boss 7 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tn36/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Click is the only action. What it does depends on where you click: a switch, the blue run button, or (from level 2) a demo tab. Clicking anywhere else does nothing but still costs a click. _(tn36.py:2603, 2500-2511, 2621-2627)_ - Switches sit in columns under the board. Click one to flip it: black is on, light gray is off. _(tn36.py:1930-1949, 2033-2040)_ - Clicking the blue circle runs the program. The columns play left to right, one per frame, and the column being played lights up blue behind its switches. You can't click anything until the run ends. Every run starts from the block's starting spot, not from where the last run left it. _(tn36.py:2297-2306, 2308-2311, 2358-2406, 2557-2563, 2621-2622)_ - Win by running a program that leaves the yellow block sitting exactly inside the yellow target outline, with the same size, the same rotation and the same color as the target, all at once. Only the right-hand panel counts. _(tn36.py:2153-2156, 2471-2472, 2628-2631, 2637-2638)_ - The block is a yellow square with a two-cell notch cut into one side, so you can see which way it is turned. The target is a yellow U-shaped outline with a small bump in the middle; the bump shows where the notch has to go. _(tn36.py:31-43, 908-922)_ - Each column is one instruction. Count a column's switches from the top as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 and add up the ones that are on; that total picks the instruction. On level 1 each column only has the 1 and 2 switches. _(tn36.py:1955-1956, 2004-2007, 2171-2191)_ - Level 1 instructions: 0 (both off) = do nothing, 1 = move left one square, 2 = move right one square, 3 = move down one square. One square is one square of the checkerboard. _(tn36.py:2171-2175, 1051-1086)_ - Nothing stops the block at the edge of the checkerboard: a move can slide it off the board and under the black frame. _(tn36.py:2269-2281)_ - The blue bar along the top edge is your click budget. Every click, including clicks on nothing, moves it one step off to the left. On levels 1 to 5 you get 60 clicks and the 61st loses; on levels 6 and 7 it only moves every second click, so you get 121 clicks and the 122nd loses. If the click that empties the bar is a run that wins, the win still counts. _(tn36.py:2577-2593, 2623-2634, 2640-2641)_ - A run that doesn't match the target sends the block straight back to its starting spot, size, rotation and color when it ends. _(tn36.py:2382-2387)_ - A winning run flashes the block and the target green for a frame, then the next level loads. _(tn36.py:1890-1892, 2118-2120, 2366-2370, 2388-2396, 2613-2616)_ - The run button flashes light blue for a frame when you click it. _(tn36.py:2297-2306, 2419-2424)_ - RESET restarts the current level: block, switches and the blue bar all go back to how the level started. There is no undo; to un-flip a switch you click it again, which costs a click. _(tn36.py:2605-2610; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 72 actions · Boss 62 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tn36/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Square tabs under the left panel. Clicking one turns it blue (the others go gray), loads that tab's preset program into the left switches, puts the gray block at that tab's starting spot, and plays the program right away. The block stays where the demo leaves it. Clicking the same tab again replays it. Each tab carries a small picture of what its program does: a yellow block trailing white dots for a move, a big or a tiny yellow square for grow or shrink, a yellow diamond for a turn, a purple square for recolor. _(tn36.py:274-325, 2500-2556, 2435-2442; level data "Programs" and "Reset" and the tab pictures placed at 1097-1098, 1186-1189, 1295-1298, 1397-1401, 1504-1507)_ - A second panel on the left with a gray block on a plain gray board. Its switches can't be flipped; clicking them only costs a click. It has no target and nothing you do there counts toward winning. _(tn36.py:1076, 1156-1158, 2011, 2033-2037, 2474-2498)_ - Columns now have six switches, so the instructions above 3 (up, two-square jumps, turns, size and color) become possible. Level 2 has four columns. _(tn36.py:1087-1175)_ - More move instructions: 33 = up one square, 34 = also left one square, 10 or 11 = right two squares, 12 or 13 = left two squares. _(tn36.py:2171-2191)_ - Turn instructions: 5 = quarter turn clockwise, 6 or 16 = quarter turn counterclockwise, 7 = half turn. _(tn36.py:2171-2191; arcengine/sprites.py:465-470)_ - Size instructions: 8 = grow one size, 9 = shrink one size. The block grows out to the right and down from its top-left corner, and it never shrinks below normal size. _(tn36.py:1865-1870, 2171-2191, 2283-2295)_ - Color instructions: 14 = turn blue, 15 = turn red, 63 (all six switches on) = turn purple. Every number not listed in these bullets does nothing. _(tn36.py:1872-1875, 2171-2191, 2397-2402)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 26 actions · Boss 219 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tn36/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - Six columns on the right panel, so a program is up to six instructions long. _(tn36.py:1176-1284)_ - Pink walls on the board. A one-square move or a grow that would overlap a wall doesn't happen, and the program carries on with the next column. A two-square jump only checks where it lands, so it goes straight over a one-square wall. _(tn36.py:1273-1274, 2269-2295)_ #### Level 4 ARC baseline 40 actions · Boss 18 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tn36/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - The block starts bigger than the target, so size now has to be fixed as well as position. _(tn36.py:1288, 1285-1386)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 30 actions · Boss 21 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tn36/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - The target is purple and twice normal size, and the block starts turned a different way, so this level needs turning, growing and recoloring in one program. One of the demo tabs shows a block turning purple. _(tn36.py:1387-1490, 1473, 1484)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 55 actions · Boss 8 (stopped here) - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tn36/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Yellow checkered squares are save points. If a run ends with the block, at normal size, on one of them, that spot becomes the block's new start (along with its current rotation and color), and every later run begins there. The square disappears while the block covers it. A grown block doesn't save. RESET puts the start back. _(tn36.py:1497-1499, 2261-2267, 2313-2318, 2374-2381)_ - The blue bar drains at half speed on levels 6 and 7: one step every second click. _(tn36.py:2586-2593)_ #### Level 7 ARC baseline 62 actions · Boss not reached - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tn36/lvl7.png **New on level 7** - There is also a hidden save square under the block's starting spot. It shows up once the block moves off it, so you can move the start back there. _(tn36.py:105-117, 1608, 2261-2267)_ - Two beam emitters: small boxes with a green edge and an orange and dark red checkered middle, one on each side of the board. Touching an emitter box breaks the block. After the third instruction of every run, both shoot out an orange and dark red beam three and a half squares long; a block in the beam, or moving into it, breaks. _(tn36.py:370-393, 1626-1629, 2074-2078, 2216-2232, 2350-2356)_ - A broken block shows as an orange and dark red checkered block for one frame and then disappears. It ignores the rest of the program, the run fails, and the block comes back at its start. The beams pull back in when a failed run ends. _(tn36.py:1894-1914, 2269-2281, 2382-2387)_ ### Resources - [replay] TN36 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/f8c61b63-9b3c-4ad0-80ef-a5f9fcb5c330 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] TN36 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/6f5dd73e-fdf4-4b30-a87a-22e4557d8189 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12 after an adversarially-verified direct source read: the panels' clickable/locked roles were backwards, the single-shared-number framing was wrong, and the final level's freeze hazard was missing. --- ## Toggle Runes (`tr87`) - **Game ID:** `tr87` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 6 - **Tags:** translation, lookup-table, alphabet, public-demo-2026 - **Slippery Seven:** yes. Only the 27B fails it -- Flash-Next clears levels on it regularly. - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/tr87 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=tr87 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 414 (per level 54, 58, 40, 45, 71, 146); Boss: best win 211 actions (4 runs) **Objective.** Translate a phrase into a second alphabet using a wall of paired runes as your only dictionary -- in the last two levels, the answer is already right and you repair the dictionary instead. ### Mechanics The top half of the screen is a dictionary: entries of glyphs on colored tiles, each linked by a short line to its translation, with the tile color marking the alphabet. The bottom half holds the phrase (never editable) and your answer row. In levels 1-4 you move a white bracket along the answer row with Left/Right and step the glyph under it through its alphabet with Up/Down, until the answer is the phrase translated entry by entry. The tilt of a glyph is random and means nothing; only which letter it is counts. Level 2 adds entries that turn one glyph into several, level 3 adds entries that turn a group of glyphs into one, and level 4 hides the direct translation: you look the phrase up into a middle alphabet that only appears on the wall, then look that up again. In levels 5-6 the answer row is fixed and correct and the dictionary is scrambled instead: Left/Right step through the sides of the dictionary entries, and Up/Down change every glyph on the selected side by one letter together, until the wall translates the phrase into the answer. Level 6 also branches: each phrase glyph becomes two middle glyphs, each looked up on its own. A move budget (128 actions in levels 1-5, 256 in level 6) ticks down on every action, including a bare cursor move; run out and you lose. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Change the selected glyph to the previous glyph of its alphabet (levels 5-6: every glyph on the selected dictionary side) - `ACTION2` (Down): Change the selected glyph to the next glyph of its alphabet (levels 5-6: every glyph on the selected dictionary side) - `ACTION3` (Left): Move the bracket left along the answer row (levels 5-6: to the previous dictionary side) - `ACTION4` (Right): Move the bracket right along the answer row (levels 5-6: to the next dictionary side) ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-17** - Saw: The winning sequence is right there on screen, and the symbols in it are rotated. - Expected: A rule he could state. He cannot: he knows the game wants a certain sequence translated, and he cannot say why an answer that is not rotated the "correct" way is still correct -- but it is. He is playing this one by recognition, not by a rule he could write down. - What happened: That is the bizarre, counterintuitive part: a rune turned a quarter turn is still the same rune, so a sequence can be correct while looking nothing like the one in the dictionary. Every other kind of symbol reading a person does is orientation-sensitive, and here orientation is noise you have to learn to ignore. - **Boss, 2026-09-17** - Saw: A run in progress, and then the arcprize.org site dropped his scorecard mid-game. - Did: Ground back through the levels from the start. - What happened: He won it on the replay: 6/6, score 100, 211 actions, no resets, under baseline on every level. Before that evening this game had never given him a single level. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 54 actions · Boss 37 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tr87/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Left and Right move the bracket along the answer row. It wraps around from one end to the other. _(tr87.py:996-1004)_ - Up and Down change the glyph under the bracket to the previous or next glyph of its alphabet, wrapping around after the 7th. The glyph keeps its tilt when it changes. _(tr87.py:1005-1014, 1024-1029)_ - Win when the answer row is the phrase translated. The phrase is read left to right; at each point the game uses the first dictionary entry (reading the wall row by row) whose left side matches, and the answer has to continue with that entry's right side. The check runs after every Up or Down, so the level ends on the press that finishes the translation. _(tr87.py:1015-1019, 1044-1105)_ - The top half of the screen is the dictionary. Each entry is a glyph on a colored tile, a short dark gray line, and its translation on tiles of another color. The tile color tells you the alphabet: light blue, light pink and, from level 2, yellow. Each alphabet has 7 glyphs. _(tr87.py:57-104, 105-113, 927-942, 1024-1029)_ - The bottom half has two rows. The top row is the phrase, which can never be changed. The row under it is your answer, marked by a white bracket above and below the selected glyph. _(tr87.py:920-926, 959-966, 1031-1042)_ - A glyph's tilt means nothing. Every glyph gets a random quarter-turn when the level loads, so the same glyph can appear tilted differently in the phrase, the answer and the dictionary. Only which glyph it is counts. _(tr87.py:912-919, 1107-1113)_ - The strip along the bottom edge is the move budget: light gray is what's left, darker gray is used. Every arrow press costs one, cursor moves included. You get 128 per level on levels 1 to 5. At zero you lose, unless that last press completed the translation. _(tr87.py:888-898, 967-968, 1003, 1014-1021)_ - On a win, each translated chunk of the phrase and answer changes color in turn (red, green, purple, pink, blue, orange, then white), and the dictionary entry used for that chunk gets a white outline. Then the next level loads. _(tr87.py:885, 975-995)_ - The answer row starts scrambled, and the scramble and the tilts are the same every time the level loads. _(tr87.py:912-919, 943-956)_ - RESET restarts the level with the same scramble and a full budget. There is no undo; you fix a wrong glyph by pressing the opposite arrow, which costs moves too. _(tr87.py:910-911, 967-968; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 58 actions · Boss 31 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tr87/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - An entry can turn one glyph into two or three, so the answer row is longer than the phrase. Level 2 translates light pink into yellow. _(tr87.py:530-600, 936-941)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 40 actions · Boss 39 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tr87/lvl3.png **New on level 3** - An entry's left side can be a group of two or three glyphs, which translates as one unit. Level 3 translates yellow into light blue, and the answer row is shorter than the phrase. _(tr87.py:601-679, 932-935)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-17, level 3** - Saw: The only controls are up, down, left, right and RESET, and RESET is not something you should need in this game. Even on level 3 there is no solid rule he has been able to pin down. It is a lot like SB26: the game asks you for a certain code, only with freaky-looking symbols instead of colors. The symbols also do not always have to be pointed the right way. - Did: Played it having seen it before and knowing roughly what it is about. - What happened: Once you know that much it is shockingly easy -- and it would have taken him literally forever if nobody had told him, because it just would not occur to you. He is still playing it badly. It is programmer talk turned into a game, working in abstractions: the top half of the screen always shows you the key, what the game wants, and in the bottom half you cycle through the runes with the arrow keys. #### Level 4 ARC baseline 45 actions · Boss 36 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tr87/lvl4.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tr87/lvl4-human.png — human play, one rune short of the win - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tr87/lvl5-human.png — human play, level 4 at the moment it cleared **New on level 4** - Two-step translation. The phrase is light blue and the answer is yellow, but no entry goes straight from light blue to yellow. Look each phrase glyph up to get a light pink glyph, then find the entry that starts with that light pink glyph; its yellow right side is what goes in the answer. Light pink only appears on the wall. _(tr87.py:680-757, 1080-1101)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-17, level 4** - Saw: In a lot of these games you have to press spacebar or some other action to confirm that the sequence you entered is the one you want. - Expected: A confirm press here too. - What happened: There is none. The moment the sequence is right it lights up, flashes, plays an animation and takes you to the next level. Bizarre. #### Level 5 ARC baseline 71 actions · Boss 28 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tr87/lvl5.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tr87/lvl5-human-dictionary.png — human play, the bracket up in the dictionary **New on level 5** - In repair mode, Left and Right step the bracket through the dictionary instead: the first entry's left side, then its right side, then the next entry, wrapping around. The bracket stretches over the one, two or three glyphs of the selected side. _(tr87.py:998-1000, 1033-1037)_ - In repair mode, Up and Down change every glyph on the selected side by one glyph together, so a side made of two identical glyphs stays two identical glyphs. _(tr87.py:1007-1010)_ - Repair mode. The answer row is already the target and can't be changed. Each side of each dictionary entry starts shifted by its own amount, and you win by fixing the wall until it translates the phrase into the answer row. _(tr87.py:758-811, 944-951)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-17, level 5** - Saw: On level 5 he is only allowed to select things up in the area that previously gave him the legend. - What happened: The puzzle is inverted from here: the answer row is already right and frozen, and the dictionary itself is what you change. #### Level 6 ARC baseline 146 actions · Boss 40 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tr87/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Branching translation, still in repair mode. Each light blue phrase glyph translates into two light pink glyphs, and each of those is looked up on its own in a light pink to yellow entry, so three phrase glyphs become six yellow answer glyphs. You have to repair both kinds of entry. _(tr87.py:812-878, 1065-1079)_ - The move budget doubles to 256. _(tr87.py:967)_ ### Resources - [replay] TR87 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/28185f71-d397-4228-819d-523b195190da — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] TR87 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/5c144b64-fd15-4913-bdc4-28feac5046ee — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] TR87 Human Replay (Win, 6/6 Levels, Score 100): https://arcprize.org/replay/d6580644-057c-41c0-8f52-cc5888380db0 — Boss's playthrough, and his first TR87 clear -- before this the game had never given him a single level. Published 2026-09-17: a win, all six levels, score 100, 211 actions and no resets, split 37/31/39/36/28/40 against the game's baselines of 54/58/40/45/71/146 (414 total). Under baseline on every level, and level 6, the branching one with the doubled budget, took 40 actions against 146. An earlier run the same evening was lost when the site dropped his scorecard mid-game. ### Provenance and caveats Renamed from "Tongue Runes" to "Toggle Runes" 2026-09-17 at Boss's call, playing it: you toggle the runes in a certain way, and that is what the game is about. Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12: the original "adversarially verified" pass still missed that levels 5-6 invert the puzzle, caught by a second, independent re-verification. --- ## Trail Unwind (`tu93`) - **Game ID:** `tu93` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 9 - **Tags:** chase, trail-replay, circuit-board, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/tu93 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=tu93 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 462 (per level 19, 16, 34, 42, 123, 80, 14, 23, 111); Boss: best win 297 actions (1 run) **Objective.** Slide a Blue token pad to pad along Gray wires to a Green exit on a step budget, past enemies that bite you from the front, patrol their wires, or wake up and walk your own trail behind you. ### Mechanics Four arrow keys, no click, no undo. The board is White pads joined by Gray wires; each move slides your Blue token one pad along a wire, and pressing toward a spot with no wire still costs a step. Land on the Green square to clear the level. A Pink bar along the bottom of the screen counts your steps (20 to 60 depending on the level); run it out and you lose. Every move resolves in the same order: you move first, then the enemies move, then the game checks for the exit. Contact works the same for every enemy: step onto the pad it is standing on and it bursts; be on the pad it moves onto and you burst. One hit ends the attempt, there are no lives. Level 2 adds the Red enemy with a Purple dot. It never moves or turns on its own, but if you finish a move on the pad right in front of its dot, the dot turns Yellow and it lunges onto you. Come at it from the side or from behind and you destroy it. Level 4 adds the Orange patroller, which steps one pad along its wire every time you move and turns around where its wire ends. Level 5 has a decoy that looks exactly like your own token. Level 7 adds the Dark Red sleeper: it wakes (dot turns Yellow) when you stop exactly two pads straight in front of it, walks straight to where you stood, then copies each move you made two turns earlier, so it follows your exact path two pads behind you. Double back and you walk into it. RESET restarts the level. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Move Up - `ACTION2` (Down): Move Down - `ACTION3` (Left): Move Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Move Right ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-16** - Saw: A small board. - What happened: One of the easier and more fun ones. You move two squares at a time, the animations matter, and to avoid some enemies you have to backtrack and take the least efficient route. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 19 actions · Boss 18 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tu93/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - Four moves only: up, down, left, right. There is no click and no undo. _(tu93.py:1000)_ - The board is White pads joined by short Gray wires on black. A move slides your token along a Gray wire to the next White pad. You can only go where a wire leads. _(tu93.py:1202-1249)_ - Land on the solid Green square to clear the level. Each level has exactly one. _(tu93.py:424-434, 1261-1264)_ - Your token is a Blue square with a Darker Gray dot. The dot turns to point the way you last moved. _(tu93.py:435-446, 1202-1249)_ - Pressing a direction with no wire still uses one step, but nothing on the board moves -- enemies stay put too -- so you cannot use it to wait for an enemy to pass. _(tu93.py:1202-1249, 1270-1272)_ - The step bar is a Pink line along the very bottom edge of the screen. Every arrow press uses one step, and the used part turns White. It refills on each new level: 50, 50, 35, 20, 50, 60, 30, 50 and 50 steps for levels 1 to 9. _(tu93.py:951-985, 1007-1011, 777-902)_ - When the bar is empty you lose. A move that spends your last step and lands you on the exit still wins. _(tu93.py:1263-1271)_ - Moves are animated one after the other: your token slides to the next pad first, then the enemies slide. You always finish your move before any enemy moves. _(tu93.py:1194-1269)_ - There are no lives. Getting killed or emptying the bar ends the attempt on the spot, and after that only RESET does anything. _(tu93.py:1265-1271; arcengine/base_game.py:205-215)_ - RESET puts the level back the way it started: full bar, every enemy back in place. _(arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 16 actions · Boss 15 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tu93/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - Red square with a Purple dot: an enemy. It never moves on its own and never turns. The Purple dot is its front and shows the way it faces. _(tu93.py:447-457, 780-792)_ - Step onto a Red enemy's pad from its side or from behind and you bite it: it is destroyed. You can never reach it head-on, because you would have to stop on the pad in front of it first. _(tu93.py:1053-1088)_ - Finish a move on the pad right in front of a Red enemy's dot and it bites: the dot turns Yellow, it lunges onto your pad and you die. It makes no difference how you got there -- walking straight at it or crossing in front of it from the side both get you killed. _(tu93.py:1047-1048, 1090-1108)_ - Every enemy follows the same contact rule: step onto the pad an enemy is standing on and it dies; be standing on the pad an enemy moves onto and you die. Enemies do not block your moves. _(tu93.py:1053-1123, 1159-1169)_ - The enemies take their move before the game checks for the exit. Landing on the Green square does not save you if an enemy reaches your pad on that same move. _(tu93.py:1257-1266)_ - Anything destroyed -- an enemy or your own token -- bursts into a ring of eight dots in its own color that grows once and disappears. _(tu93.py:45-70, 1064-1078)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-16, level 2** - Saw: Level 2 introduces an enemy: a red figure with a purple dot in it. - Did: Came at it straight on, then went around it and came at it from the side. - What happened: Straight on, it bites you and kills you. Going around and coming at it from the side, you bite it and destroy it. The page never mentioned this enemy at all, and it is a huge mechanic. - In the code: The purple dot is the enemy's front. Finish a move on the pad the dot points at -- whether you walked straight at it or crossed in front of it -- and the dot turns yellow, it lunges onto your pad, and you die (tu93.py:1047-1048, 1090-1108). Step onto the pad it is standing on from the side or from behind and it is destroyed (tu93.py:1053-1088). #### Level 3 ARC baseline 34 actions · Boss 20 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tu93/lvl3.png #### Level 4 ARC baseline 42 actions · Boss 17 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tu93/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Orange square with a Purple dot: a patroller. Every time you make a real move, it steps one pad along its wire the way its dot points, and turns around where its wire ends. It does not chase you, and its dot never turns Yellow. _(tu93.py:458-468, 808-821, 1110-1113, 1125-1151)_ - Step onto the pad an Orange patroller is standing on and it is destroyed, even if it is facing you, because you move before it does. _(tu93.py:1080-1088, 1250-1256)_ - If an Orange patroller steps onto your pad you die, from any direction, including from behind. Its dot always points at the pad it will step onto next, so do not end a move there. _(tu93.py:1115-1123)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 123 actions · Boss 30 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tu93/lvl5.png **New on level 5** - Level 5 has a second piece that looks exactly like your token (Blue square, Darker Gray dot). It is not you -- it is an enemy that bites like a Red one. It sits in the bottom-right corner facing off the edge of the board, so nothing can ever stand in front of it and it cannot bite. Step onto it and it bursts. _(tu93.py:34-44, 822-838)_ #### Level 6 ARC baseline 80 actions · Boss 75 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tu93/lvl6.png #### Level 7 ARC baseline 14 actions · Boss 16 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tu93/lvl7.png **New on level 7** - Dark Red square with a Purple dot: a sleeper. It stays still until you finish a move exactly two pads straight in front of its dot. Then its dot turns Yellow and it is awake. Standing one pad in front of it, or beside it, does not wake it. _(tu93.py:480-490, 859-872, 1171-1178)_ - A sleeping Dark Red enemy dies if you step onto it. An awake one cannot be caught that way: it is always two of your moves behind you, never one pad away. _(tu93.py:1080-1088, 1171-1182)_ - Once awake, the Dark Red enemy moves every time you move. Its first two steps go straight ahead, to the pad where you woke it. After that it copies the move you made two turns earlier, so it walks your exact path two pads behind you. Double back on yourself and it walks into you. _(tu93.py:1202-1249, 1153-1157, 1171-1182)_ #### Level 8 ARC baseline 23 actions · Boss 22 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tu93/lvl8.png #### Level 9 ARC baseline 111 actions · Boss 84 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/tu93/lvl9.png **New on level 9** - Level 9 uses all three enemy kinds, and its Green exit sits on the pad right in front of a Red enemy's dot. Walking straight onto the exit gets you bitten; that Red enemy has to go first. _(tu93.py:887-904)_ ### Resources - [replay] TU93 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/4cdfd8b4-111e-4f56-a0fd-7ad8be6b9bf2 — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] TU93 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/7c54faff-3875-43f3-8a06-ca25720b32c8 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Corrected 2026-09-12 after an adversarially-verified direct source read: the signature hazard is level-7+-only, not a whole-game feature, and a third lose condition and the hazard's non-replay opening moves were both missing. Corrected again 2026-09-16 against tu93-0768757b and engine runs: that "third lose condition" does not exist (one hit kills, and the shrinking outline is the death burst), the follower is two moves behind you, not one, and the Red biter Boss met on level 2 had never been written up. --- ## Warehouse Associates (`wa30`) - **Game ID:** `wa30` - **Set:** evaluation - **Levels:** 9 - **Tags:** sokoban, crate-pushing, public-demo-2026 - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/wa30 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=wa30 - **Actions to win:** ARC baseline 1843 (per level 71, 119, 183, 98, 368, 68, 79, 442, 415); Boss: best win 1517 actions (4 runs) **Objective.** Sokoban-style crate hauling where other haulers also move crates — for you, or against you. ### Mechanics You grab a crate in front of you with Action 5 and then drag it with the arrows (push, pull or slide it sideways), and let go with Action 5 again. A level is won when every crate sits in a blue-outlined bay with nobody holding it. From the second board onward you are never the only one hauling: an orange helper takes one step every time you act, walks to a loose crate, and hauls it into a bay. On levels 3, 4 and 9 a green-speckled line splits the floor; nobody can step on it, but crates can be pushed onto it and pulled off from the other side. From level 6 a purple thief does the same job toward its own gray drop area, takes crates out of bays, and will lift a crate out of your hands. Levels 6-7 spawn only the thief and none of the helper, so treat any single hauler you see as a stranger, not a friend, until you've watched which bay it heads for. You can get rid of a thief for good by facing it and pressing Action 5. Every action spends one move from a per-level budget; run out and you lose. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Move up (or turn to face up if blocked); drags a held crate - `ACTION2` (Down): Move down (or turn to face down if blocked); drags a held crate - `ACTION3` (Left): Move left (or turn to face left if blocked); drags a held crate - `ACTION4` (Right): Move right (or turn to face right if blocked); drags a held crate - `ACTION5` (Interact): Grab the crate you are facing, let go of the one you hold, or remove the thief you are facing ### Notes from play, whole game - **Boss, 2026-09-17** - Saw: Some of the other moving objects work with you, and some work against you. - What happened: The whole game has been crazy. He doubts an AI will realize which of the moving objects are on its side and which are against it. Interesting. ### Level by level #### Level 1 ARC baseline 71 actions · Boss 26 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/wa30/lvl1.png **The rules from the start** - You are the green square; its white edge shows which way you face. Up, Down, Left and Right move you one square. When you aren't holding a crate, pressing a direction turns you to face it even if the move is blocked, so bumping into something is how you turn toward it. _(wa30.py:316-328, 860-868, 987-991, 1203-1228)_ - Action 5 while facing a crate right next to you grabs it. While you hold it, the arrows drag it along with you and you keep facing it, so you can push it ahead, pull it behind you, or slide it sideways. The move only happens if both you and the crate have a free square to move into. _(wa30.py:842-851, 970-985, 996-1001, 1229-1237)_ - Action 5 while holding a crate lets go of it. Action 5 with nothing in front of you does nothing but still costs a move. _(wa30.py:1229-1246)_ - You win when every crate sits inside a bay and nobody is holding any of them. The check runs after every move, so a crate held inside a bay doesn't count until it is let go. _(wa30.py:1194-1196, 1248-1252)_ - Crates are small squares with a blue middle. The outline tells you their state: white means you are holding it, dark gray means you are facing it, black means a helper or thief is holding it, and darker gray means none of those. _(wa30.py:251-263, 853-857, 1119-1134)_ - Bays are rectangles with a blue outline. You and crates can move over them freely. Crates, other haulers and the edge of the board block you. _(wa30.py:134-149, 899-918, 993-994)_ - The strip along the bottom edge is the move budget: light pink for moves left, darker gray for moves used. Every action costs one, Action 5 and blocked moves included. The budgets are 200, 70, 100, 100, 125, 75, 125, 150 and 70 for levels 1 to 9. The move that uses the last one loses, unless that same move wins the level. _(wa30.py:772-806, 964-968, 1203-1254; level data "StepCounter")_ - RESET restarts the current level with a full budget. There is no undo. _(wa30.py:896, 899-900; arcengine/base_game.py:305-330)_ #### Level 2 ARC baseline 119 actions · Boss 56 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/wa30/lvl2.png **New on level 2** - You can take a crate straight out of a helper's hands: face the crate and press Action 5, and the helper lets go. _(wa30.py:1103-1117, 1229-1237)_ - An orange square helper. Every time you act, it takes one step right after you. It walks the shortest way to a loose crate that isn't already in a bay, grabs it once it is next to it, hauls it into a bay, and lets go. Grabbing and letting go each use up one of its steps. It never takes a crate that someone is holding. _(wa30.py:62-74, 934-947, 1009-1054, 1142-1163, 1198-1201)_ #### Level 3 ARC baseline 183 actions · Boss 292 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/wa30/lvl3.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/wa30/lvl3-human-handoff.png — human play, boxes handed off to the orange helper **New on level 3** - A gray line speckled with green. Nobody can step onto it, not you and not a helper, but a crate can sit on it. Push a crate onto the line and a helper on the other side can pull it off and haul it away. _(wa30.py:264-275, 404-419, 928-930, 993-1001)_ **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-17, level 3** - Saw: On level 3 the boxes have to go on the area in the middle. That was not obvious at all. - Did: Put the boxes there, then walked around for a while waiting. - What happened: After that the orange helper does the rest, and you just have to trust it will do it correctly. There is literally nothing for the character to do on level 3 once the boxes are down. Weird, but interesting. #### Level 4 ARC baseline 98 actions · Boss 54 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/wa30/lvl4.png **New on level 4** - Black wall squares. They block you, the helpers and crates. _(wa30.py:276-287, 463-472, 909-912, 996-1001)_ - Several helpers and several bays on one board (three helpers on level 4). Each helper works on its own and they all move once per action. _(wa30.py:427-486, 1142-1163)_ #### Level 5 ARC baseline 368 actions · Boss 109 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/wa30/lvl5.png #### Level 6 ARC baseline 68 actions · Boss 60 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/wa30/lvl6.png **New on level 6** - Face a thief (its outline turns yellow) and press Action 5 to remove it from the level for good. If it was carrying a crate, the crate drops where it is. _(wa30.py:1135-1140, 1239-1245)_ - A purple square thief. It moves once per action, after the helpers, and does the helper's job in reverse: it hauls crates to its own plain gray area and lets go there. It goes after any crate that isn't already in a gray area, including crates sitting in your bays, and it will pull a crate right out of your hands or a helper's. _(wa30.py:118-133, 162-174, 215-230, 529-530, 949-962, 1056-1101, 1165-1192, 1198-1201)_ #### Level 7 ARC baseline 79 actions · Boss 190 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/wa30/lvl7.png **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-17, level 7** - Saw: Level 7 was crazy, with a purple guy on the board. - What happened: He had not realized he could destroy the purple guy. #### Level 8 ARC baseline 442 actions · Boss 140 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/wa30/lvl8.png **New on level 8** - Helpers and thieves on the same board (two of each on level 8). A helper will carry crates back out of a thief's gray area, and a thief will carry them back out of the bays. _(wa30.py:619-677, 934-962, 1142-1192)_ #### Level 9 ARC baseline 415 actions · Boss 590 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/wa30/lvl9.png - Human capture (mid-play): https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3-levels/wa30/lvl9-human-final.png — human play, the final level **Notes from play** - **Boss, 2026-09-17, level 9** - Saw: Level 9, the final level. - Did: Did not make the optimal moves. - What happened: He had a lot of trouble running out of time. So far WA30 is the only game where running out of time has been a real problem for him as a human. ### Resources - [replay] WA30 Standard-Harness Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/be78fcef-1244-4cf8-b680-0a5e4e8f9afe — ARC Prize published replay, standard harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] WA30 Provider-Adapter Replay (GPT-6 Astra): https://arcprize.org/replay/49ac7afb-b83a-46f4-bb1e-3ecc902ca291 — ARC Prize published replay, provider-adapter harness, from the 2-Sep-2026 GPT-6 Astra results. - [replay] WA30 Human Replay (Win, 9/9 Levels, Score 81.65): https://arcprize.org/replay/65d8cd9c-5256-40df-b6ef-a1476c6de720 — Boss's playthrough, not an agent run -- the other two replays listed here are GPT-6 Astra. Published 2026-09-17: a win, all nine levels cleared, score 81.65, 1,517 actions and 17 resets, split 26/56/292/54/109/60/190/140/590 across levels 1-9 against the game's baselines of 71/119/183/98/368/68/79/442/415 (1,843 total). Over baseline on three levels: 3 (292 against 183), 7 (190 against 79) and 9 (590 against 415), the final level where he had trouble running out of time. ### Provenance and caveats Added 2026-09-11 when the informal-name registry was extended from the original 6 games to the full 25-game public demo set. No replay video or hints exist yet for this game -- only the level screenshots rendered from their own game source on 2026-09-12 and the two replay links ARC Prize published with the GPT-6 Astra results. Renamed from "Warehouse Allies" to "Warehouse Associates" 2026-09-11: levels 6-7 spawn zero of the helper unit and one of the crate-stealing unit, so "Allies" was false for those levels. The prior "adversarially verified" claim is dropped -- that pass already documented the crate-stealing unit and still named the game after the helper alone. --- # Withdrawn from the public demo set Kept here as historical preview-era content. Not part of the current official set. ## Always Sliding (`as66`) - **Game ID:** `as66` - **Set:** evaluation - **Tags:** preview-set, movement, sliding, withdrawn, lost-game, recreated, holdout - **Write-up:** https://arc.markbarney.net/arc3/games/as66 - **Official human leaderboard:** https://arcprize.org/arc-agi/3/leaderboard?task=as66 **Objective.** Navigate a sliding block to the exit while matching required colors and avoiding enemies. ### Mechanics The player block always slides in the chosen direction until it hits an obstacle. Collision with orange or red enemies results in instant death and level failure. To exit, you must match the color expected by the door area, which is typically marked as a white U-shaped area. Special objects in the field can change your block's color. ### Controls - `ACTION1` (Up): Slide Up - `ACTION2` (Down): Slide Down - `ACTION3` (Left): Slide Left - `ACTION4` (Right): Slide Right ### Level by level #### Level 1 #### Level 2 #### Level 3 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/as66-lvl3.png #### Level 4 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/as66-lvl4.png #### Level 5 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/as66-lvl5.png #### Level 6 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/as66-lvl6.png #### Level 7 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/as66-lvl7.png #### Level 8 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/as66-lvl8.png #### Level 9 - Engine render (opening frame): https://arc.markbarney.net/as66-lvl9.png ### Hints - **Level 1 Shortcut** (spoiler level 3): Quickest path: DOWN, LEFT, DOWN. - **Color Matching** (spoiler level 2): If the exit zone is white, it actually requires you to be a specific color (often yellow) to register the "WIN" state. Use the color-changing tiles strategically. ### Resources - [article] Play the recreated AS66: /arc3/play/as66 — The lost game, rebuilt from Boss's 27-Dec-2025 winning recording and his level screenshots, checked against both. Link-only: it is not listed in the gallery. - [replay] AS66 Replay: https://three.arcprize.org/replay/as66-821a4dcad9c2/db85123a-891c-4fde-8bd3-b85c6702575d — Gameplay replay of AS66 (Always Sliding) ### Provenance and caveats Updated with strategic intel about enemy lethality and exit conditions. WITHDRAWN FROM THE PUBLIC DEMO SET as of Sep 2026 (confirmed 2026-09-11 via arcprize.org/tasks -- the live ARC-AGI-3 Public Demo listing shows 25 games and AS66 is not one of them; client/src/data/astraHarnessGap.ts, ARC Prize's own 2-Sep-2026 published results, lists the same 25 without AS66; and the 2026-08-31 ARCEngine environment_files download batch pulled those same 25 codes, not AS66). Where it moved (semi-private or private) is not verifiable -- those sets are never published. Kept here as historical preview-era content; see docs/2026-09-11-arc3-25-game-names-plan.md.