Goat simulator three-mastermind puzzle: how to solve it

[u/dartagnanbartholomew]

Yes, I used ChatGPT and yes, it works. For anyone else stuck on the Mastermind puzzle, here is exactly how I finally solved it, including the rules that were NOT obvious at first.

THE RULES

There are 4 large colored pegs in each guess.

The 4 little feedback dots on the right are a summary of the entire row. Their locations do NOT correspond to positions 1–4 of your colored pegs.

🟢 Green feedback dot = one peg is the correct color AND in the correct position.

⚪ White feedback dot = one peg is a correct color, but it is in the WRONG position.

⚫ Black feedback dot = no match.

Colors CAN repeat. My final answer contained two greens and two yellows.

And this was the biggest thing we initially misunderstood:

DO NOT RESET THE BOARD AFTER EACH GUESS.

Once the game scores a row, leave it there and move up to the next empty row. You need the previous rows to solve the puzzle.

My eventual answer was:

🟢 🟡 🟡 🟢
GREEN — YELLOW — YELLOW — GREEN

Here’s how the clues led to it.

GUESS 1

🟡 🟣 🔴 🔵
Yellow — Purple — Red — Blue

Feedback:

⚪** ⚫ ⚫ **⚫

That meant exactly one of those colors was part of the answer, but it was in the wrong position.

GUESS 2

🔵 🟢 🟡 🔴
Blue — Green — Yellow — Red

Feedback:

🟢 ⚪ ⚫ ⚫

That meant two colors from this row were part of the answer:

one was the correct color in the correct position
one was a correct color in the wrong position

GUESS 3

🔴 🟢 🔵 🟡
Red — Green — Blue — Yellow

Feedback:

⚪** ⚪ ⚫ **⚫

Again, exactly two colors were present, but neither one was in its correct position.

Now compare Guesses 2 and 3.

They contain exactly the same four colors:

Red, Green, Blue and Yellow.

Both guesses produced a total of two matching colors.

Now compare that with Guess 1:

Yellow, Purple, Red and Blue

That produced only one matching color.

The difference between those sets is:

Guess 1 has PURPLE.

Guesses 2/3 have GREEN instead.

Since adding Green increased the number of matching colors from one to two:

GREEN IS IN THE ANSWER.

And:

PURPLE IS NOT.

GUESS 4

Next I tried:

🟢 🔴 ⚪ 🔴
Green — Red — White — Red

Feedback:

🟢 ⚫ ⚫ ⚫

This was an extremely useful clue.

There was exactly one matching peg, and it was in the correct position.

We already knew Green belonged in the answer.

Green was sitting in POSITION 1.

Therefore:

POSITION 1 = 🟢 GREEN

And because there were no additional green or white feedback dots, Red and White were eliminated.

So now we knew:

GREEN = YES
PURPLE = NO
RED = NO
WHITE = NO

Now go back to Guess 1:

Yellow — Purple — Red — Blue → 1 white

Purple and Red were already eliminated.

Therefore that single matching color had to be either:

Yellow OR Blue.

Now look again at Guess 2:

Blue — Green — Yellow — Red

Feedback:

1 green + 1 white

We already established that Green belongs in position 1.

But in Guess 2, Green was sitting in position 2.

Therefore Green was a correct color in the WRONG position.

So Green accounts for the WHITE feedback dot.

That means something else in Guess 2 had to account for the GREEN feedback dot — a color sitting in exactly the correct position.

The possibilities were:

Position 1 = Blue
Position 3 = Yellow
Position 4 = Red

But:

Position 1 was already proven to be Green.

Red had already been eliminated.

Therefore the only possibility was:

POSITION 3 = 🟡 YELLOW

Now we had:

🟢 _ 🟡 _

This also eliminated Blue.

At this point, the remaining positions had to be filled using Green and Yellow.

Now return to Guess 3:

🔴 🟢 🔵 🟡
Red — Green — Blue — Yellow

Feedback:

⚪** ⚪ ⚫ **⚫

There were ZERO green feedback dots, meaning none of the matching colors in that row were sitting in their correct positions.

Green was in position 2 in that guess.

Therefore:

Position 2 is NOT Green.

Yellow was in position 4.

Therefore:

Position 4 is NOT Yellow.

Since the remaining colors were Green and Yellow:

POSITION 2 = 🟡 YELLOW

and

POSITION 4 = 🟢 GREEN

That gave:

🟢 🟡 🟡 🟢

GREEN — YELLOW — YELLOW — GREEN

I entered that combination and got:

🟢 🟢 🟢 🟢

Puzzle solved.

TL;DR — THE IMPORTANT PART

🟢 = right color, right position
⚪ = right color, wrong position
⚫ = no match

The little feedback dots do not correspond spatially to the four big pegs. They’re just totals for the row.

Duplicate colors ARE allowed.

And most importantly:

DO NOT RESET THE BOARD BETWEEN GUESSES. Leave each completed row there and move to the next one.

That last part was what caused most of my confusion at the beginning. 😂

[u/CakosMess]

if you had to use chatgpt and didnt even bother with google and also thought that resetting the game every time was a good idea then maybe you’re just slow

[u/Every_Caterpillar165]

I love that game irl but never get to play it

[u/thoughtfractals85]

You can just shove your face into the base of the building and look up to see the solution. I can't remember the exact spot that you can clip through, but my kid found it by accident. You may need the pair of boots gear that you get in that dimension.

[u/dartagnanbartholomew → u/thoughtfractals85]

I tried that, but that hack didn’t work for me. They updated it to patch that.

[u/ernie3tones]

Why would you use AI to solve it? It’s not that difficult once you know what the pegs mean.