On the Subject of Ladders

I wonder what is at the tops of these ladders.

• This module will contain three ladders underneath its panel. Press the round submit button to start the module and reveal the first ladder.
• Select a rung to break it. For each stage, break the correct rungs on the stage’s ladder, and press the button to submit. A correct answer reveals the next stage’s ladder, while an incorrect answer incurs a strike and resets the broken rungs. A successful button press on Stage 3 results in a solved module.
• The colors of the rungs on a ladder do not change upon a strike.
• The order in which the rungs are broken only matters on Stage 3.
• This module’s colors and abbreviations are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, cyan, purple, and gray.

Stage 1- Color Sequencing

Each cell in the table below represents a color sequence for three adjacent rungs that can be read either upwards or downwards. Identify all applicable cells in the table based on the edgework. Only one of the applicable sequences will be present on the first ladder. Break these three rungs and press the submit button to advance to the second ladder.

	3+ letters in Serial	3+ numbers in Serial	Serial contains a vowel	Serial contains C,L,1,M, or B
0–1 Batteries	P C G	O Y G	R C R	A B G
2–3 Batteries	C C A	G R P	Y B O	R C A
4+ Batteries	P O B	O R B	Y A G	P A C

Stage 2- Binary Conversion

The second ladder’s rungs represent an 8-digit long binary number displayed using two colors. A rung of a different color is present to distinguish the end/start of the number. When read vertically, the higher rung is the more significant bit, and the lower rung is the less significant bit. Use the two colors that represent the binary number as rows/columns in the table below to identify which color represents a 1. The other color represents a 0. The rung of the third color will represent neither a 1 nor 0, and will never be broken.

	Red	Orange	Yellow	Green	Blue	Cyan	Purple	Gray
Red		Orange	Red	Green	Blue	Red	Red	Gray
Orange	Orange		Yellow	Green	Orange	Cyan	Orange	Orange
Yellow	Red	Yellow		Yellow	Blue	Yellow	Purple	Gray
Green	Green	Green	Yellow		Green	Cyan	Purple	Gray
Blue	Blue	Orange	Blue	Green		Blue	Purple	Blue
Cyan	Red	Cyan	Yellow	Cyan	Blue		Cyan	Cyan
Purple	Red	Orange	Purple	Purple	Purple	Cyan		Purple
Gray	Gray	Orange	Gray	Gray	Blue	Cyan	Purple

Once the binary is translated, convert it to base 10 and adjust it according to the rule that matches the third color present on the ladder.

Red	Triple the number.	Blue	Subtract the number from 500.
Orange	Multiply by the number of ports (use 2 if there are no ports).	Cyan	Multiply the number by the largest digit in the serial (use 2 if the largest digit is 0).
Yellow	Take the number’s digital root and cube the result.	Purple	Add the sum of the serial number digits to the number.
Green	Add the number of modules on the bomb to the number.	Gray	Halve the number, rounding up.

If necessary, subtract 256 until it falls in the range 0–255. Convert the adjusted number back into binary and, within the eight rungs that represented the initial number, break the rungs that correspond to 1s in the adjusted number. The orientation of the bits on the ladder is the same (e.g. breaking the uppermost rung adds 128 in base 10 to the submitted number). Press the submit button to advance to the third ladder.

Stage 3- Alphabetic Sequencing

The third ladder’s cycle is seven rungs long. In this cycle, each rung is a unique color, and the rungs must be broken in a certain order. First, locate the word in the word bank below whose first letter matches the fourth character of the serial number. If the fourth character of the serial number is an X, use Y.

ABOLISH	BREVITY	CRAFTED	DRAGONS	EVOKING
FLICKER	GHOSTLY	HAYWIRE	INSPECT	JAILORS
KERATIN	LEOPARD	MASTERY	NUCLEAR	OPTIMAL
PAINFUL	QUALIFY	REBUILD	SCOPING	TEMPURA
UNCLEAR	VIBRATE	WEDLOCK	YOUNGER	ZODIACS

Replace the X’s in the column headers in the table below with the letters of this word, keeping their order in the word. Locate the applicable row and process the columns in alphabetical order according to the word’s letters. This gives a sequence of seven colors, and the order in which to break the rungs. Press the submit button after breaking all the rungs in the correct order to solve the module.

You can use the first row to input the letters of the word you’re using, and the second row to input which columns to look at in which order.

Letters
Press order
The absent color on the ladder	Red	Y	B	A	P	C	O	G
	Orange	G	C	P	B	A	R	Y
	Yellow	O	A	B	C	P	G	R
	Green	R	P	C	Y	B	A	O
	Blue	A	Y	G	O	R	C	P
	Cyan	P	R	O	G	Y	B	A
	Purple	C	G	R	A	O	Y	B
	Gray	B	O	Y	R	G	P	C