BOMBANANA Mute Monkey

Mute Monkey is the only player who can read the BOMBANANA defusal manual. Steam says the quiet part out loud: if only you could tell the others what you know. You cannot. There is no whisper channel, no exception for “just this number,” no typing the answer into chat as a legal substitute for the role. You look up the cell. You encode it. Deaf Monkey speaks it. Blind Monkey acts.

Lefto Studio and publisher TARK shipped that constraint in the full Steam build (app 4656000) on September 2, 2026. Price is $7.99, introductory $4.95 through September 9. Exactly three online players, Windows and macOS. Your job does not get a solo sandbox. The manual is useless until two other monkeys are in the room.

The demo trained a lot of groups to treat Mute as the only person allowed to wave. Launch is different: every role has an emote wheel, plus slaps and pointing. That is comedy and a backup wait flag. It is not a reason to get sloppy with your dictionary. You are still the only silent lookup. Read this with the roles hub and the callout sheet nearby.

What you hold, what you refuse to do

You hold the book. You can hear the room. You can see enough of the van or airplane to watch Deaf’s mouth and Blind’s hands. You cannot operate the bomb. You cannot speak the answer. If you break mute as a joke, you are not playing Mute — you are playing a house rule, and this wiki will not rank that.

Your loop, matching the rest of this roster:

1. Hear Blind’s tactile reports and Deaf’s visible-state callouts.
2. Open the correct manual page for that module family.
3. Find the cell. Do not approximate.
4. Gesture the answer to Deaf: digits, direction, wire index, up/down pattern, wait, repeat, go-back.
5. Freeze the sign until Deaf’s mouth has clearly finished the spoken packet.
6. Watch Blind input. Hear Blind’s repeat-back (Deaf cannot). If it is wrong, flash wait and start the page again.

You are the only player who can audit Blind by ear. Use that. If Blind says “second from my left” and your cell was third, stop the input with the wait sign before the cut. Deaf will not hear the mismatch. Your hands are the emergency brake.

Build a dictionary that survives a timer

Agree signs in the lobby, not on the first Wires panel. Minimum set:

• Wait / full stop
• Yes / no
• Repeat the last packet
• Go back one step
• Digits 0-9 (fingers, then a ten-sign if you need it)
• Four directions, mapped before anyone touches a D-pad. Many teams steal numpad logic (2 down, 4 left, 6 right, 8 up) so Direction answers are numbers, not interpretive dance.

Put the same list on paper or on the callout sheet. If Deaf shrugs at a sign, it is not a sign. Redo it slower. Guessing a manual cell and then “selling” it with a confident point is how Mute causes explosions that look like Deaf errors.

The full-game emote wheel is extra vocabulary, not the dictionary. Use it for wait and for “look at me” when Deaf’s camera is wrong. Do not bury a six-digit answer in a wheel that also contains slap and rude extras. Numbers belong on hands.

How each family hits the book

You do not need an unofficial answer key. Tables randomize per bomb. You need to know what packet the page expects so you can glare at Deaf until the packet is complete. The module guide is the how-to; module rankings is the order to practice.

Wires. You want count, left-to-right colors from Blind’s left, and LED. Missing count means the wrong row. Signal the cut as both an index and, if you have a color sign, a color. Hold it. Cutting is permanent.

Direction / D-pad. You want Blind’s braille value and Deaf’s LED. The cell is an arrow. Encode the arrow in the pre-agreed map. If Blind reports dots late, wait; do not fill in a five because the panel “looks like” one from your seat. You are not the tactile source.

Numpad / Calculator. You want the expression result, odd/even, any threshold flag, and LED. The result is often not the key. You pick the branch. Signal the final digit, not the math. If Deaf tries to speak 67 because they added in their head, flash wait and send the manual’s digit instead.

Switches. You want the full light order and the full number string before any toggle advice. Then one switch at a time. Never green-light Enter while a 50/50 remains. Enter is its own sign.

Eleven new standard modules and three CHAOS. Launch added fourteen puzzles on top of the demo families. CHAOS is built to keep Blind busy, which means your book and Blind’s hands will be on different clocks. Finish the cell you are on. Do not pre-load three answers into Deaf’s working memory. Deaf cannot hear you correct a queue.

Sitting Mute with Deaf and Blind

Stand where Deaf can see your hands without turning away from the bomb. Airplane aisles and van seats will fight this. Move. You can hear, so you can take a worse view of the case in exchange for a better view of Deaf’s face. If a loud hazard covers Blind’s repeat-back, you lost your only audio advantage — flash wait and have Blind report again after the noise.

You can hear Deaf describing colors. You still should not skip the page because you “already know” a wire rule from the last bomb. Rules sit in this bomb’s manual. Last bomb’s memory is how groups invent a house meta and then explode on Campaign level 12.

Role fit: sit Mute if you can read under pressure and you can stand not talking. The role rankings put Mute in the middle of communication load — fewer spoken packets than Deaf, more table work than Blind. If you are the friend who narrates everything, you will hate this seat, and you will leak answers by accident. Give that friend Deaf instead.

Random role button is fine for a mixer night. After it lands you on Mute, lock the dictionary before ready. Server browser and room codes get the three clients together; they do not explain fingers. Use lobby setup and how to play with friends. Colorblind modes (two types) help you and Deaf read LEDs in the book and on the case. Turn yours on if the palette smears.

Practice without burning the squad

Campaign’s 30 levels introduce families in a kinder order than Endless waves. Custom knobs can isolate one module type, stretch the timer, and drop hazards while you drill signs. That is the right way to learn Mute. Custom with a brutal timer and every hazard is a party trick, not a lesson. See mode rankings and the campaign walkthrough.

First hour drill:

1. Wires only, forced wait sign before every cut.
2. Direction, with the number-to-arrow map written down.
3. Switches, with Enter as a separate sign.
4. Numpad, where you refuse to let Deaf speak the raw sum as the key.

Then add launch modules one family at a time. After patches, re-read patch notes in case a table layout moved, and skim launch notes for CHAOS and airplane extras. Controls for emote wheel versus movement sit in the controls guide. When the book and the triangle finally click, send new players to Getting Started rather than dumping the whole manual on them in voice they should not be using.

You are the lookup, not the operator, not the speaker. Keep the book honest, keep the signs boring, and let Deaf Monkey talk. Return to the roles hub if the squad needs to reseat after a wipe.