How to Play BOMBANANA! — A First Run for Three People

You need exactly three players. There is no solo mode, no two-player mode and no fourth slot — the store page states it plainly: "No more, no less. Exactly three monkeys required."

What happens in a round

A bomb sits in front of you with several modules on it. Each module is its own small puzzle with its own rules, and the rules live in a manual that only one of you can read. A timer runs. Make too many mistakes, or run out of time, and it goes off.

Before you start

Pick roles. Blind, deaf, mute — what each one can do is here. There is a random role button in the lobby if nobody wants to choose.

Check who has a microphone. Two of the three roles need one. The mute monkey does not, because they are not allowed to speak anyway.

Agree on left and right. From whose point of view? Decide now, not at ninety seconds.

The loop, in order

1. The blind player touches a module and describes its shape and position.
2. The deaf player reads what is printed on it — colours, symbols, digits.
3. The mute player finds that module in the manual and works out the answer.
4. The answer gets relayed back, usually deaf → blind.
5. The blind player says what they are about to do, then does it.

Step 5 costs two seconds and saves whole rounds.

First-session advice

• Do one module at a time. Working two in parallel sounds efficient and mostly produces two wrong answers.
• Swap roles between rounds. Nothing teaches you why your teammate keeps failing to explain something like being in their seat.
• Turn on colourblind mode if any of you is even slightly unsure about colours. Half of this game is reading colours aloud.
• Expect the environment to interfere. Power outages, loud noises and obstructions are deliberate features, not bugs. When one lands, stop and re-establish before continuing.

Then what

Campaign has 30 handcrafted levels that get harder as you go. Endless generates waves that keep escalating. Custom lets you set bomb difficulty, timer, which module types appear, hazards, and how many mistakes you are allowed — which makes it the best place to drill a module your group keeps losing to.