su15 — ARC-AGI-3 game guide

Level 1

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• RESET restarts the current level: full step bar, starting layout, and the foul penalty back to 2.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Fusing the largest size (10x10 green) does not make anything bigger: every green block in that group is destroyed.
• 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.
• You also lose if every block on the board is gone.
• 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.
• 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.
• On a win, the circles and the shopping list flash white for about ten frames, then the next level loads.
• 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.
• 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.

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.

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.

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.
• 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.
• 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.

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.

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.
• The size chain grows to six chips, adding orange and red after yellow.

Level 7

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.
• 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.

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.