ar25 — ARC-AGI-3 game guide

Level 1

• Arrow keys move whatever is selected one cell. Cycle, click and undo are also available.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• On level 1 the mirror is fixed: you cannot select it or move it, so only the piece moves.
• Reflections are live. Move a piece or a mirror and every reflection redraws at once.
• 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.
• The move that uses your last step loses the level, unless that same move covers the last Yellow square.
• 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.
• RESET puts the level back to its start with a full bar and clears the undo history.

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.
• 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.

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.
• Pieces do not block anything: they slide over each other and straight across mirror lines.
• 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.

Level 4

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.

Level 6

Level 7

Boss, 2026-09-16: Level 7. Copied the GPT-6 Astra replay. 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