Gothic lockpicking

How to Map Plate Links

Plate links are the difference between a simple lock and a confusing one. Mapping them carefully prevents impossible target states and wasted turns.

Use one controlled turn

Pick a plate, turn it once, and watch the other plates. If another plate changes in the same direction, mark same.

If another plate changes in the opposite direction, mark opposite. If it does not move, keep that pair as none.

Do not fill the whole matrix from guesses. Extra false links are worse than missing links because they can make a solvable lock look impossible.

The solver supports arbitrary pairs, so you do not need to force a link to be adjacent.

If the first generated move changes a plate unexpectedly, stop and update the link matrix before continuing.

This avoids compounding one wrong observation across a longer sequence.