Directive 15: Rock Paper Scissors (Hints & Answer)

Hint first (no full spoiler): The Committee has thrown its hand. Do not copy it. Answer with the one hand that wins against it.

Directive 15 is the only directive the Vault Security Committee plays against you personally. The rule card shows one of three hand emoji: the fist (rock), the raised hand (paper), or the victory hand (scissors). Your password must contain the emoji that beats it. The Committee has already thrown. It is very confident.

The full solution

Standard rock paper scissors, resolved in the Committee’s favor only if you get it wrong:

• Card shows the fist ✊ (rock): you add the raised hand ✋ (paper). Paper covers rock.
• Card shows the raised hand ✋ (paper): you add the victory hand ✌️ (scissors). Scissors cut paper.
• Card shows the victory hand ✌️ (scissors): you add the fist ✊ (rock). Rock breaks scissors.

You never mirror the card. Matching the Committee’s throw is a draw, and a draw is DENIED.

Getting the emoji into the box is the easy part: use the emoji insert strip under the password box. Click the winning hand and it drops in at your cursor. Example fragments, shown here with the fist ✊ card as the prompt: chad1221✋ski, nepal-otto-44✋.

One placement warning. An emoji counts as exactly 1 character in this game, but it is not a letter or digit, so it breaks contiguous runs. Do not park your winning hand inside your Directive 11 block or in the middle of your country name. Put it at a seam between requirements.

What breaks later

• Length accounting: the emoji is 1 character, no more. That matters when Directive 28 caps your total length in Act IV. One hand, one character, budget accordingly.
• Run-breaking: as above, emoji split letter and digit runs. If Directive 11 or your Directive 12 country suddenly reads DENIED after this rule, check whether you dropped the hand into the middle of a required string. Moving it one slot left or right usually fixes both.
• Free of the letter economy: the hand emoji costs zero letters, zero digits, zero e’s. It has no effect on the digit sum or the letter limit. By Act III standards, this is the cheapest directive in the game.

Committee minutes note that the Committee has never won a properly played round, and that it keeps throwing anyway. Fern respects the persistence.

Stuck on a different directive? Browse all 30 rule guides or return to the vault. Fern believes in you.