The Missing Manual

Explaining the mechanics of RYB.

Intro

RYB, which stands for Red Yellow Blue, is a logic game. An important part of this game is figuring out what the rules are, so if you don't know what to do, that's expected. Keep trying to figure it out on your own first, but if you're still stuck and need a bit of help deciphering a new mechanic, this guide is here to explain things.

There are no spoiler tags, this whole guide is a spoiler. If that's OK with you, keep reading.

Is guessing needed?

I saw a lot of reviews for this game saying that the game isn't good because the rules are inconsistent, levels are incorrect or have multiple solutions that aren't accepted, or that guessing is required since the presented clues are not sufficient. This is wrong, the game is always correct, all the needed clues are given, and they always lead to one valid solution. If you think that is not the case, you're either missing a clue, or you don't fully understand the rules. There is one kind of exception, "guessing" is required, but in the sense that you sometimes have to make a theoretical assumption, see where it goes, until you reach either a solution or a contradiction, e.g. assuming a cell has to be blue will later lead to that same cell having to be red. This isn't guessing, it is a valid and useful advanced tool in many logic games, including sudoku and minesweeper. It is not an easy tool to master, and it would certainly be helpful if the game had a "pencil" mode allowing you to test out these assumptions.

However, this does highlight the other somewhat valid criticism of the game, it fails to properly explain its rules with clear and simple tutorials. Still, I actually liked this aspect of the game, I don't see it as a failure but as yet another part of the game that needs "solving".

The Rules

The basics

The purpose of RYB is to color in all the segments in the level. You pick a color from the top right palette, then click on the segments you think have that color. You must use logic to figure out the right color, based on the clues given. The first level is the only help you get from within the game, and it shows how the color of each segment is transformed into a dot that's placed in the neighbors.

The Color Dots

A color dot in a segment means that one of the neighbors has that color. You may not have all the dots needed for all the neighbors, so if you see a yellow dot and a cell with 3 neighbors, one of which is already yellow, it doesn't mean that you found the yellow neighbor; none, either, or both of the remaining neighbors may be yellow too. It doesn't matter exactly where in the segment a dot is, the dots only indicate the colors of the neighbors, not which of the neighbors.

Neighbors?

A segment is neighboring another if they share at least a part of an edge, but not if they only share a corner.

The Summary Dots

These show up in the Pentagon level pack. They are next to the segments, and they indicate how many colors are left to color in. They don't count the colors already filled in. They are a great tool, don't ignore them! If, for example, they show that only one blue segment is left, and two different segments show they have a blue neighbor, then only a segment that neighbors both of them can be blue.

Secondary Colors

Introduced in the Hexagon level pack, Orange, Green and Purple really complicate the rules. A secondary color dot still indicates that one of the neighbors must have that color, but a primary color dot indicates that one of the neighbors has that primary color a part of its color. For example, a yellow dot means that one of the neighbors is either yellow, orange, or green. You must remember the color composition rules:

Orange = Red + Yellow
Green = Yellow + Blue
Purple = Blue + Red

Crossed out: Negative

This shows up in the upper left corner star, looks like a crossed out color dot. It means that none of the neighbors have that color.

White: Group Size

This shows up in the upper right corner star, looks like a white dot. It means that the segment it shows in is a part of a contiguous group of the same color with that many segments in it. For example:

- if there is only one white dot in a segment, none of its neighbors have the same color as it
- if there are three white dots in a segment, it and two other segments are connected, have the same color, and none of their other neighbors have the same color

Black: Uncolored

This shows up in the lower right corner star, looks like a black dot. It means that one of the neighbors is not colored at all. The number of uncolored segments is also shown in the summary dots. Unfortunately, there is no way of marking a segment as definitely uncolored, you must simply remember not to click on it.

[KDD!^putler kaputt 26/93]

@Thechugg7

the dots show only SOME of neighbours not ALL neighbours like in minesweeper

so if your tile touches 7 neighbours it can have only 3 dots. or 1. or none

[KDD!^putler kaputt 26/93]

guessing is "needed" because most of the intended solutions are "just solve the entire field in your head before touching the mouse" which start with a 50\50 option. that's unfun and no one like that, with 3 lives it's easier to just guess the first step

[Thechugg7]

"if you see a yellow dot and a cell with 3 neighbors, one of which is already yellow, it doesn't mean that you found the yellow neighbor"
"the dots only indicate the colors of the neighbors in total"
Very unclear explanation, first statement says you could have one yellow dot and multiple yellow neighbours, while the second statement contradicts this by saying one yellow dot means you can only have one yellow neighbour.
But this is also very unclear in the game itself...

[bloodization]

Clear explanation...