Question 1

Is there any trick · does the ball ever leave a cup?

Accepted Answer

No. The ball stays under the same cup for the whole round; only the cups move. The cup you should tap is exactly the one the starting cup was swapped into, so a perfectly tracked round always wins. Unlike a street-corner shell game, the game is fair.

Question 2

Is the shuffle the same for everyone?

Accepted Answer

Yes when handed the same seed. The number of cups, where the ball starts, every swap in the shuffle, and the timings are all derived from the round seed · the same save code reproduces the round move for move. Useful for shared challenges.

Question 3

How does difficulty change it?

Accepted Answer

Higher difficulty adds cups (three at the easiest, up to six) and shortens how long the ball is shown before the cover-up. Higher labyrinth levels add more swaps to the shuffle. A late-game round at hard difficulty might run a dozen swaps across six cups in a few seconds.

Question 4

What if I get distracted mid-shuffle?

Accepted Answer

Once you lose the cup, you're guessing. The classical recovery move is to fix on the visual position rather than the cup itself · track "the third from the left swapped with the second" rather than "the cup with the ball moved to position 2". The position-based mental note is more robust to brief attention lapses.

Question 5

Does it work in the Labyrinth and Polymath?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Cups ships as a labyrinth encounter and appears in the cross-game Polymath rotations when its reasoning pool is active.

Question 6

Does it work offline?

Accepted Answer

Yes. PlayMemorize is a Progressive Web App. Install once and Cups works without an internet connection.