BOMBANANA! First-Session Checklist

This checklist covers exactly one session: your first. Three players, four phases to work through before the bomb starts counting. By the end you'll know what everyone can and can't do, which signals to use before round one, and how to diagnose the first failure. Role strategy and advanced modules are out of scope — this page ends the moment the communication chain has worked at least once.

Before you send the invite

Three connection checks before any invites go out:

1. All three players own the game and can connect. BOMBANANA! is strictly 3-player — the third role is not optional or fillable by a bot, so a missing player ends the session before it begins.
2. Platform check: Windows and macOS are both supported. The Steam page notes macOS support was added July 3, 2026 — if a macOS player is joining, confirm they have the latest build.
3. WARP VPN users: If any player uses WARP VPN (Cloudflare 1.1.1.1), disable it before launching. As of June 2026, WARP prevents the game from starting — most likely by intercepting the peer connection; the launch fails silently with no error message.

Before you press Start

The Steam page describes three asymmetric roles — Deaf Monkey, Blind Monkey, Mute Monkey — each with a distinct set of input and output restrictions.

Role	What you can do	What you cannot do
Deaf Monkey	See the bomb; speak freely to teammates	Hear voice chat
Blind Monkey	Hear everything; speak freely; touch the bomb	See colors or on-screen text
Mute Monkey	See everything; read the bomb manual	Speak — gesture only via emote wheel

The information chain: Blind reports by touch → Mute hears and reads the manual → Mute gestures the answer → Deaf speaks it → Blind executes.

This order is not arbitrary. Blind is the only player whose hands are on the bomb, so tactile facts — wire count, order, dot patterns — originate with Blind, who can speak them aloud. Mute hears those reports directly and holds the manual, but can only reply through gesture. Deaf can see the gesture and speak, so the manual's answer travels Mute → Deaf → Blind — the only path that reaches Blind, who cannot read a gesture. Deaf also supplies the visual reads Blind cannot sense: colors and LED states.

Before the first bomb starts

This is the section most first-session groups skip — and why most first-session groups fail their first several attempts.

In the June 2026 demo, teams spent their first several attempts improvising signals mid-round, failing repeatedly when the Mute player had no agreed way to say "left" vs. "right." Once they established a two-number system before the round, success rates improved immediately.

Signal vocabulary (minimum viable):

Signal needed	Suggested default	Why it's needed
Left	Hold up 1 finger	Mute's emote wheel has no native left/right gesture
Right	Hold up 2 fingers	Same — must be agreed before round 1
Up / Yes	Thumbs up emote	Available in emote wheel
Down / No	Thumbs down emote	Available in emote wheel
Repeat / Restate	Wave / swirl gesture	When Mute needs a number restated
Zero	Swirl emote or 10-fingers	Emote wheel has no zero — omitting this leaves Mute unable to signal 0 or 10

Call order guidelines:

• Blind's job: Module type first, then the tactile details — wire count and order, dot patterns, switch positions. Module type first because Mute needs it to open the correct manual page, and Mute hears you directly.
• Deaf's job: Supply the visual reads Blind cannot sense — LED color, on-screen values — so Mute has the full state, then speak Mute's gestured answer back to Blind as an action instruction.
• Mute's job: Signal the final answer only — do not try to gesture the manual page.

After the bomb goes off

Failing the first bomb is expected. In the June 2026 demo recordings, zero clean defusals in early attempts was the norm.

Diagnose which link in the chain broke:

What happened	The temptation	What to fix
Blind executed the wrong direction	Deaf relays a direction and Blind acts immediately — the signal feels clear. But "1=left" assigned at session start is easily overridden mid-pressure by body intuition.	Confirm the signal vocabulary before round 1. Deaf, restate the intended action (not just the number) before Blind acts.
Ran out of time before the team could act	Blind describes everything in detail before giving the module type — it feels thorough. But Mute cannot open the correct manual section without the module type first.	Module type first, then the tactile details. Every second before the module name is a second Mute holds detail with nowhere to put it.
Mute couldn't match the report to a manual page	Blind and Deaf call out facts in whatever order they notice them, which varies by module. Mute needs a fixed incoming order to search the manual efficiently.	Module name first, then tactile details from Blind and the LED color from Deaf in an agreed order — the LED often governs which rule applies.
Team couldn't agree on what to try next	Without a pre-agreed role-stability rule, the team wastes time debating whether to swap roles or continue.	A reasonable first-session default is to keep roles stable until the communication chain succeeds once. Swapping before that adds a new learning layer.

What this guide covers

This guide covers the demo's four module types (wires, braille/directions, calculator, flip switches) as observed in June 2026 demo footage. Additional puzzle modules in the full release (August 2026) are not documented here.

What's outside this guide's scope:

• Per-role strategy (how to improve as Deaf, Blind, or Mute)
• Full module catalog beyond the four demo modules
• Multiplayer matchmaking, ranked play, or Level System progression
• Puzzle module variants not present in the demo