MASTERMIND 3.0 "Tut's Revenge"
©2005 Brian Power / Tink Tank

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SECRETS

Typical gameplay involves some critical thinking, however, the most strategic manner of play is to become completely "NUMBERS" based in your approach.

Even though the game will provide some clues, which can be helpful, the best strategy is one where you are consistent in the way you formulate each guess. The less random you become, the better a player you will be.

My personal favorite strategy is to start each game with the sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4. This guess will by chance win, but not, statistically, very often. The advantage is that you will SEE what 1, 2, 3, and 4 pieces ARE. The next guess should be based on the first guess. If, you had 2 pieces correct in the first guess, then pick which two pieces you "think" are correct and substitute piece 5 and piece 6 for the other two pieces (in sequential order with 5 before 6). This will possibly tell you whether or not your guess as to the right pieces is correct and, as well, it will show you what pieces 5 and 6 produce. This manner of playing quickly narrows down a number of things. In the first place it allows you to REFER BACK to the first and second guesses in order to REMEMBER WHICH PIECES WERE DRAGGED FROM WHERE. You should allways put 5 before 6 in your second guess so that you know that the new pieces that appear in that guess are 5 and 6 respectively.

From that point on, it is simply a matter of eliminating the obviously incorrect choices by determining which pieces appear to be consistently correct or which ones are obviously wrong. For example, if you have a row with a three to one ratio, as in piece one is a 1 followed by three 2s (1, 2, 2, 2) and the answer to that row is one GOLD and 3 RED tokens, then you know ABSOLUTELY that 1 is correct and that all the twos are not used anywhere in the answer to the riddle. This particular type of scenario is a cake walk.

Sometimes if you are very confused as to what is what, you can simply perform a 3 to 1 ratio TEST by picking the token you think is right and making a guess with that token as the first choice, followed by 3 pieces which are a token you are either completely sure is wrong or at least pretty sure is wrong. This eliminates any possibilty that you will have to try to figure out which of doubles or which of individual pieces are right. But if 2 out of 3 are correct (and you have a 3 to 1 ratio), then either the ONE piece is right AND ONE of the 3 is also correct, or else the ONE is wrong (or close) and two of the 3 are right. In this case, either way, it is possible to make informed decisions by looking at previous guesses which may contain those piece positions, and determining WHICH pieces are most likely the correct choices.

Another thing which will speed up your winning, is to remember that even when the answer seems impossible, and even when you think that the game is wrong, THE GAME NEVER LIES when it comes to the answer pieces. You may not believe that it is possible for there to be an answer that matches the pieces, but when the answer is revealed, you will be able to evaluate every guess you made and see that each answer was absolutely correct. For this reason, when you become doubtful, consider these points:

Sometimes, INVERTING your choice is the best answer.

As an example: 1, 2, 2, 1 becomes 2, 1, 1, 2 or 3,4,2,6 becomes 4,3,6,2 this is a straight inner to outer swap. In this type of swap, the first two pieces swap, and then the next two pieces swap.

You can also swap across inner and outer as in 1, 2, 3, 4 becomes 3, 4, 1, 2. In this case, you hop over a piece in the swapping process. SWAPPING pieces sometimes reveals the answer very quickly. But you must remember which swaps you have performed and avoid returning to old swaps, thus opening new avenues.

The last swap is outer to outer and inner to inner swap, as in 1, 6, 3, 4 becomes 4, 3, 6, 1.

Of course there is always partial swaps, where you just switch two pieces and leave the other two where they are. This is often the answer to headbangers that just don't seem right. NEVER convince yourself that a piece HAS TO BE RIGHT. Keep in mind that there are a lot of possibilities. Even though a piece appears to you to be correct, unless you are sure of it, then you must consider what other possibilities exist. For this to work in your favor, try eliminating your best guess and say to yourself, what if this piece were the correct one INSTEAD of what I think is the right choice. Suddenly, when you let yourself release concepts you have formed, you will be open to the other, and possibly right choice.

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If you pay attention to the Sarcophogi that light up and the words that appear when they do, COMPARE the text they speak with what you know about the piece you just played. If you are logically POSITIVE that a piece is correct and the glowing sarcophogus tells you to look elsewhere, then you know that THAT sarcophogus TUT is the LIAR. Likewise, you can similarly evaluate which one is telling the truth Another help in choosing the liar or the truth teller is that their "clues" are slightly different.

If you are an experienced THINKER, you probably will ignore the "mummies" completely. It is better if you do. However, they do confirm things sometimes if you are paying attention to them and to the game you are playing.

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On the OTHER hand, SOMETIMES the game can be very tough, even if you are a very careful and strategic and analytical player. This is the beauty of the game. If you really play well and find yourself up against a wall, which can happen, you might pay attention to the fan. If you are a poor player who can barely remember his own name, much less where you pulled the last game pieces from, then the FAN can be your best friend.

When the FAN appears, click on it (if you WANT TO) there is no rule saying you must fish for clues, but even good players like clues once in a while.

The CLUES are:

A) For a clue to be VALID the QUANTITY of DIGITS must MATCH the remaining UNPLAYED spots in the game row.

for example if you have played ONE piece in the row, then any valid answer must contain 3 digits.

As another example you might have one piece left to play in the row, you click the fan and TUT says

"485 dogs chase my sheep all day."

Well obviously, this is just some babbling bull he is rambling about and is not a clue.

B) EVEN IF THE CLUE SEEMS VALID, it is possible that it is NOT a clue.

In other words, if the quantity of digits matches it MIGHT BE A COINCIDENCE.

In order to know the difference, you must follow some further rules of detection.

RULE 1: If TUT says that something is "IN MY DOMAIN", or "IS MINE" or "REMAINS AS MY LEGACY"

then it is absolutely a CLUE.

RULE 2: if TUT says that something that resembles a proverb, then he is probably just being philosophical.

For example, he says: "2 things never change, Night and Day." Tut fancies himself to be prolific and he utters this kind of thing once in a while. If you have only one piece left on your row and he says this, just click the fan again and hope he is not still philosophical on his next rambling.

RULE 3: If the first DIGIT of the NUMBER at the beginning of his sentence is HIGHER than 6 then it cannot be a clue.

Also, some ramblings he says just to comfort himself, such as 40,000 warriors protect him and that sort of thing.

While you play try to recognize the real clues.

RULE 4: ONLY THE FIRST DIGIT of the number at the beginning of his clue is USED to determine the correct choice for the piece being played. IF the clue is valid, and it IS a clue then THAT digit represents the piece (from top to bottom of the column of tokens as 1 through 6) which is CORRECT for that Spot.

RULE 5: There is no ORDER to TUTs RAMBLINGS and NO WAY to force him to give you a clue.

Thus, if he feels like it, he might give you the whole enchilada in one shot with only 4 fan clicks, OR he may be in a funky mood and tell you to flake off after two clicks without even giving you a single hint.

Tut is finicky. Don't count on him giving you the answer. Most of the time he will provide at least ONE real answer during a game, but to play this game properly, you should figure it out for yourself. But it is still fun to click the fan and see what he will say. The fact is, his diatribes are completely random, and he will ONLY SPEAK when his MOUTH is OPEN. Also, the Sarcophogi work on the same principle. If the Fan is not present and Tut opens his mouth ( a random event in itself ) then one of the Tuts (also random) will light up and a CLUE will be provided as to whether the LAST PIECE PLAYED (NOT THE NEXT PIECE) was Right, Close or Wrong.

Remember that when the Sarcophogi light up the clue is in the PAST, and when the FAN is clicked the clue is in the FUTURE. Meaning the past is the last piece you played and the future is the next piece you are about to play.