Mummy Shuffle

Rows of mummies step out of a tomb wall, cross a stone terrace and walk off its far edge into the dark, and the terrace is where you are standing. The gaps in one row never line up with the gaps in the next, so you can never stand still for long. Nothing here moves faster than you can walk. It is a maze that comes to you, and the players who last are reading the next row while still stepping through this one.

The minute, ten seconds at a time

The procession is already walking at the start and gets busier every ten seconds.

• From the start, single rows step out every two seconds, with gaps two lanes wide.
• At 0:10 rows come in pairs, and pallbearers appear: two mummies carrying a coffin, three lanes wide.
• At 0:12 the crossfire starts. Single rows climb up over the left or right edge, hang there for a second with their eyes over the tiles, then march across and off the other side. One comes every six seconds, tightening to every four and a half by 0:30, never from the same side three times running.
• At 0:30 the gaps narrow to one lane.
• At 0:40 rows come in threes.
• Between 0:46 and 0:51 the Pharaoh walks. A five-second countdown goes up and markers blink on the lanes his row will block. He is gold and three lanes wide, and his row always has gaps two lanes wide, never under him.

At the 1:00 buzzer everyone still standing shares first place. If only one is left before then, the round ends there.

How a row behaves

A row stands in its alcove with its eyes lit for one second before it walks, and the lanes without eyes are its gaps. The row bursts out at about 5 m/s for nearly half the terrace, then slows to a shuffle of around 2 m/s. Mummies with red eyes are lurchers. They walk at twice their row's pace, up to 4.2 m/s, and overtake it, so the next row can reach you sooner than it looks.

Touching a mummy does not stun or slow you. It carries you along with it, faster than you can run against it, and nudges you sideways off its middle. Pushing into a row gets you nowhere; stepping sideways into a gap gets you out at full speed. Stay on its face and it walks you off the edge.

The tomb wall is the only edge you cannot fall from. The other three drop away, and there is no jump.

Bump

Q nudges every rival within 1.8 m in a cone in front of you about a metre, once every 1.5 seconds. It never knocks anyone off by itself; it puts someone in a mummy's path or takes the gap you both want. Once you are out, your ghost's Q gusts the living within 2 m.

Reading the maze

• Look one row ahead. The lane that gets you through this row is closed in the next, so drift toward the next gap as soon as you are clear.
• Stay nearer the tomb than the drop. A row that catches you there still has most of the terrace to cross, which is time to step out of it.
• Keep off the outermost lanes. Side rows climb up right beside them, and a mummy that catches you there can nudge you straight off the side.
• When the Pharaoh's markers blink, walk to an unmarked lane before he arrives. They show exactly the row that will walk.
• Bump at the edge of a gap, not in the open. A metre on empty floor is nothing; a metre into a mummy's path is a ride to the edge.

Bigger lobbies

The terrace grows with the lobby: 12 lanes with two players, 14 at four, 18 at eight and 22 from twelve, and from 15 m deep at two players to 22 m at sixteen. Gaps come about one per four lanes, so a wider terrace has more. Everyone starts in their own lane, four metres in from the drop.