# Bomb Defusal Expert: Your First Round With the Manual - Author: Bomb Appétit (https://bombappetit.com) - Published: 2026-10-20 - Category: Getting started - Canonical: https://bombappetit.com/blog/bomb-defusal-expert-first-round > The bomb defusal expert never sees the bomb. What the Expert does in a first round: getting ready, what to ask first, how to turn a rule into one clear order. A bomb defusal expert holds the manual and never sees the bomb. In a first round, the Expert opens the manual, checks the rule seed, asks the Defuser for the edgework, finds the page for the module described, and turns the matching rule into one short order. Then the Expert waits for the Defuser to repeat it. ## What does a bomb defusal Expert see and not see? The Expert sees the whole manual and none of the bomb. Every rule for every module is in the Expert's hands, but the wires, buttons, symbols and labels on the case exist for them only as the Defuser's words. In an online room, the Expert's screen also shows the timer, the strike count and how many modules are solved. That split is the whole game. The Defuser has the facts but not the rules. The Expert has the rules but not the facts. Neither can finish a module alone, so every module becomes a short conversation. Seen from the manual side, the bomb defusal expert role is mostly about asking for the right facts and handing back a clear result. In the same room, the Expert sees nothing of the bomb at all. The bomb screen should be turned away, and the Expert relies entirely on what they hear. They can usually tell from the Defuser's voice how things are going, but they cannot glance at the timer unless someone reads it out. Online, the game gives the Expert a little more. Experts in an online room see the time left, the number of strikes and the count of modules solved. They never see the bomb itself. That status line is useful for pacing: an Expert who notices two minutes left and three modules unsolved knows to cut the chat. The manual opens with a short note addressed to the Expert. It says, in effect: you cannot see the bomb, you have the rules, ask what they see, tell them what to do, do not look at their screen. Read it once before your first round. It describes the job better than any summary. If you are curious why the game splits its information this way, the post on [why the bomb and the manual split](/blog/asymmetrical-game-bomb-and-manual-split) explains the design and why it forces people to talk. ## Getting the Expert ready before the timer starts Before the timer starts, open the manual on your own device or on paper, check that its rule seed matches the bomb, and put a pen and a scrap of paper beside you. The rule seed is the number that generates every rule. If it does not match, every answer you give will be wrong. Open the [standard manual for rule seed 1](/manual/1) for a first round. The seed number is printed at the top of the manual. Ask the Defuser which rule seed the bomb uses, and say yours back. Most missions use seed 1. The final mission, Bomb Appétit, uses seed 2026, and freeplay lets the Defuser choose any seed from 1 to 999,999. Next, find your way around the manual. It opens with the note to the Expert and a short "Before you start" checklist. The module pages follow, one per module, then an appendix on edgework and a glossary of terms like needy module and strike at the end. Edgework is the set of labels on the bomb's casing: the serial number, batteries, indicators and ports. The edgework section explains details such as which letters count as vowels in the serial number. The pen and paper matter more than they seem. The manual's own checklist says to ask for all the edgework once, at the start, and write it down. Many rules refer back to it, and asking the Defuser to reread the serial number three times wastes seconds and patience. With more than one Expert, split the pages before the bomb starts. One Expert takes Wires and Big Button, another takes the rest. On a first round with First bite, there is only one module, so the split can wait. For how a module page is set out, line by line, the guide on [how a module page in the manual is laid out](/blog/the-bomb-game-manual-how-pages-are-organized#how-is-a-module-page-in-the-manual-laid-out) covers the headings and lists you will see. ## What should an Expert ask the Defuser first? Ask for the edgework first, then for the module in front of the Defuser. The edgework comes up in many rules and only needs reading once. Then ask the Defuser to name the module or describe it briefly, so you can turn to the right page before any details arrive. A good opening question is short and specific: "Read me the serial number, then count the batteries, then the indicators and ports." The Defuser reads; the Expert writes. The manual adds useful details here. The serial number has six characters and always ends in a digit. It never uses the letters I or O, so a round shape is a zero and a straight line is a one. Knowing that, the Expert can catch a misreading straight away. Batteries are counted, not holders. The manual notes that a holder may carry one battery or a pack of two, and that rules count batteries unless they say holders. An Expert who asks "how many batteries in total, counting each one" avoids a mix-up. Indicators are three-letter labels with a light that is lit or unlit. Ask for both the letters and the light. Ports are sockets; the manual describes each type by its shape, which helps when the Defuser does not know the name. Then ask about the modules. "What modules are on the case, front and back?" The manual's checklist says the team can solve them in any order. On First bite there is one, and it is Wires, but on later bombs this question decides which page each Expert opens. ## Turning a manual rule into an order for the Defuser A rule in the manual is a condition and an action. The Expert's job is to check the condition against what the Defuser said and give only the action, phrased as one order with a position and a colour. "Cut the third wire, the blue one" is an order. Reading out the condition is not. The Wires page is a good place to learn this. The page says a panel has three to six wires, exactly one wire must be cut, and wires are counted from the top, starting at one. There is one list for each wire count. The Expert reads the right list from the top and stops at the first line that is true. If nothing is true, the last line, which begins "Otherwise", applies. Conditions on that page are things like how many wires of a colour there are, what colour the last wire is, or whether the serial number's last digit is odd or even. Actions are things like cutting a wire at a given position, cutting the last wire, or cutting the first or last wire of a colour. The exact rules change with the seed, so read your own page. Here is a worked example of the Expert's side of a First bite round. **Every value below is invented for this example**, including the serial number, the wire colours and the rule lines. Your bomb and your manual will differ. 1. **Before the start.** Expert: "My manual is seed 1. Is the bomb seed 1?" Defuser: "Yes, seed 1." Expert: "Good. Start when ready." 2. **Edgework.** Expert: "Serial number first, one character at a time." Defuser: "D, 4, U, 7, K, 3." Expert writes it down: last digit 3, odd. Expert: "Batteries?" Defuser: "Two holders, one has a pair." Expert: "So three batteries." Expert: "Indicators and ports?" Defuser: "One indicator, lit. One port, the one with three prongs." Expert writes "trident port". 3. **The module.** Expert: "What module do you have?" Defuser: "Wires. Five wires." Expert turns to Wires and finds the list for five wires. 4. **The colours.** Expert: "Top to bottom, colours only." Defuser: "Red, white, yellow, white, black." 5. **Reading the list.** Example list for five wires: line one, "If the last wire is red, cut the fourth wire." The last wire is black, so no. Line two, "If there is exactly one yellow wire and the last digit of the serial number is odd, cut the first white wire." One yellow, and the last digit is 3. True. Stop reading. 6. **The order.** Expert: "Cut the first white wire. That's the second wire from the top." The order names the action and the position, and leaves out the reasoning. 7. **The repeat.** Defuser: "Cutting the second wire, white." Expert: "Yes, go." The light turns green and the bomb is defused. Notice step 6. The Expert translated "first white wire" into a position, because the Defuser counts from the top. Giving both the colour and the position lets the Defuser check one against the other. That one habit stops a lot of strikes. ## How does an Expert recover after a strike? After a strike, stop, confirm the facts again, and only then give the next order. Most strikes come from a misheard colour, a miscounted wire or a reading from the wrong list. The Expert should ask the Defuser to describe the module again from the top before rereading the page, and should keep their voice even. A strike speeds up the countdown, so the instinct is to rush. Resist it for ten seconds. A second strike on the same module, from the same misunderstanding, is far more costly than a short pause. On most missions, three strikes set the bomb off. Work through a quick checklist after a strike: - **Is the seed right?** If the Defuser's screen and the manual disagree, nothing else matters. - **Is the module right?** On a bigger bomb, the Defuser may have moved to a different panel. - **Is the description right?** Ask for the count and the colours again, slowly. - **Is the edgework right?** Read back the serial number and the battery count you wrote down. - **Did I stop at the first true line?** Reading past it is an easy mistake under pressure. Say something that takes the heat off. "That one was a misread, we're fine, let's go again" keeps the Defuser steady. Blame makes them hesitate on the next order. Online, watch the status line. The strike count tells you whether you still have room for another mistake, and the timer tells you how long you can afford to check. On a short bomb, the post on [how long a bomb defusal game takes](/blog/how-long-does-a-bomb-defusal-game-take) gives a feel for how quickly a sped-up clock runs out. ## The Expert's mistake: reading the whole manual page aloud The classic first-round mistake is reading the whole page to the Defuser. It feels helpful and thorough. In practice the Defuser drowns in conditions they cannot check, the clock runs, and the one sentence that matters gets lost. The Defuser needs the result of the rule, not the rule. Think about it from the bomb side. The Defuser hears "If there are no blue wires and the last wire is black, cut the third wire; otherwise, if there is more than one red wire..." while staring at a panel and trying to remember which wire is third. By the second clause they have stopped listening. The fix is to do the reading silently and speak only the outcome. Ask the Defuser for the facts the page needs, check the lines in your head or with a finger, and say one order. If you need a fact you do not have, ask for exactly that fact: "Is the last wire black?" The same idea applies to every module, not just Wires. Each manual page is written for the Expert's eyes. The Defuser's ears need short questions going in and short orders coming out. The communication guide puts it as [one instruction at a time, then wait](/blog/how-to-be-a-better-communicator-lessons-from-a-bomb#one-instruction-at-a-time-then-wait), and that pause after each order is what gives the Defuser room to repeat it. Once the first round is over, read the rest of the [how to play guide](/how-to-play) for tips on agreeing names for odd symbols. For a full picture of the round from both seats, the walkthrough of [how a bomb defusal round works](/blog/bomb-defusal-game-how-a-round-works) follows one bomb from the start screen to the green light.