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Squad communication guide
Quick answer
Agree on five gesture signs with Mute in the lobby (manual page, module type, count, go, stop) and a position language with Blind (numbered wires, named edges, counted seconds). Every action gets the two-person handshake: Blind announces, acts, reports what was felt; Deaf confirms what was seen.
- Mute communicates only via emote wheel, pointing, waving — never voice-chat workarounds that break the mute rule.
- Positions and timings beat colors every time — 'second wire from the left' survives everything.
- A 'wait' is cheaper than a wrong cut: freeze on vague callouts.
BOMBANANA's roles split the senses, so communication is a designed skill: Mute talks with the emote wheel, Deaf watches gestures, Blind narrates by touch. This guide builds the vocabulary your trio needs before round one.
- Fix lobby signs before round one: page flip, count, go, stop, 'look at me'.
- Number wires left-to-right, name device edges (near/far, top/bottom), count seconds aloud together.
- Close the loop every action: announce → act → report what you felt; Deaf confirms what was seen.
- Improvised mid-module gestures are how calm defusals turn into shouting matches two monkeys can't even hear.
- Rotate the vocabulary across Campaign's 30 levels — it compounds like any skill.
The three-channel problem
Most co-op games give every player the same three channels — voice, sight, touch. BOMBANANA hands each monkey one: Blind has hands and voice, Mute has the manual and gestures, Deaf has eyes and voice. Your squad's communication system is the plumbing that connects them. Skipped plumbing means information exists but never arrives where it's needed — the bomb doesn't care whose fault the gap was.
Building the gesture vocabulary
Mute's channel is the emote wheel plus pointing and waving. Agree on five fixed signs in the lobby: 'manual page' (point at the book, then fingers for the number), 'module type' (a fixed gesture per module family), 'count' (held fingers), 'go' (a wave forward), 'stop' (flat palm). Fixed signs matter because improvised gestures mid-module are ambiguous exactly when precision matters most — a point at the device could mean 'cut this', 'look here', or 'what is that'.
Then chain the signs the way sentences work: module type → page → count → go. Deaf narrates each step aloud for Blind (the only eyes-plus-voice role), and Blind's hands do the action. The two-person handshake on every step — announce, act, report, confirm — is what keeps three nervous monkeys alive on later levels.
The position language
Blind's side of the system: demand positions, durations, and counts, never colors or descriptions. 'Third wire from the left, after I say go' always beats 'the short one'. Anchor everything to something physical — device edges, wire order, button rows — because those survive lighting changes, colorblind modes, and panic. When a callout is ambiguous, freeze and ask for a re-anchor; the round timer punishes bad vocabulary more than it punishes caution (the co-op page covers timer pressure in depth).
Practice plan
Run the first three Campaign levels twice with roles locked: once to learn the vocabulary under easy pressure, once at speed to make it automatic. Swap roles after — communication taught from all three chairs is communication that survives the 30-level marathon. The squad setup tool records who's playing what; this page teaches the language those chairs speak.
Keep reading
Facts checked against the Steam store page.