Lucid Workshop: The Missing Axis

About Lucid Workshop: The Missing Axis

Lucid Workshop: The Missing Axis is a switch-and-weight puzzle set in a laboratory high in a tree canopy, where the switchboard is a stack of bark boughs and every pod on them hangs a counterweight lamp. A lamp is either up and glowing amber, a bloom, or down and dark, a closed bud, and the lab wants every one of them lit.

Pressing a pod flips its own lamp and, along each axis the lab is wired for, the lamps of the pods beside it. East to west means the pod on either side of it on the same bough, north to south the pod before and behind, and up to down the pod above and below on the boughs over and under it. A vine joins each pair of pods that are wired together, and lamps answer in a little ripple so that you can see exactly how far a press reaches. Every press can be undone, but an undone press still counts: the stars count all the presses you make against the fewest the game's own solver found.

Then the missing axis. In every switchboard one axis is out of sight. Either the lab is simply not wired that way and the legend shows a cut vine, or it is wired and the vine is not drawn, and the legend shows only a question mark. A press is the only way to find out, and a careful player works out which lamps must have answered. Twelve hand-ordered switchboards take you from one bough of nine pods to three boughs of sixteen, with spare switchboards without end and a daily switchboard that is the same for everyone. Nothing is timed. Your progress stays in this browser.

How to play

Light every lamp. A pod press flips its own lamp and the neighbours along the wired axes.
Tap a pod to press it. Vines show the wired axes you can see; the legend lists all three.
One axis is always missing: cut (not wired) or out of sight (wired, but undrawn).
Undo is free, but every press counts for your stars. There is no clock.

Controls

Tap or click a pod — press it
Arrow keys, WASD or D-pad — move the cursor over the pods; N and B — step through them; Q and E — change bough; Enter or Space — press
Backspace, Z, U or Undo — take a press back; R or Start over — back to the beginning
H or Hint — a pod from a fewest answer
P, Escape or Start — pause

Frequently asked questions

Which lamps does a press flip?

Its own, plus the neighbours along each axis the lab is wired for: left and right (east-west), before and behind (north-south), above and below on the neighbouring boughs (up-down). Pods at the edge simply have fewer neighbours.

What does cut or out of sight mean?

One axis is always missing. A cut axis is not wired: pressing never flips a neighbour that way. An out-of-sight axis is wired, but its vines are not drawn, so you learn it from how the lamps answer to a press (undo it if you like).

Why does an undone press still count?

Because the missing axis is the puzzle. Probing is allowed, and a hidden axis allows one probing press for a three-star result, but pressing and undoing freely would make the stars meaningless. Undo only takes the lamps back.

How are stars counted?

By all your presses against the fewest the solver found (computed exactly: the lamps are bits and the answer is the lightest solution of a system over two elements). A hint limits that switchboard to two stars. Start over is free.

Can I play without telling the colours apart?

Yes. A lit pod is an open bloom with petals and a dark pod a closed bud, the legend names each axis in words with an icon and a badge (a check, a cross or a question mark), and every press is described in words for screen readers.

Does the game save?

Yes, in this browser: solved switchboards, stars, and the presses of the one you were on. Nothing is uploaded.