Hints and Objectives

Most of your live attention goes to two things: watching where the team is, and helping them when they get stuck. The control column on the Control page gives you both — an objectives panel that tracks progress and a set of hint tools for sending clues. This guide covers objectives, saved and manual hints, and help requests.

The objectives panel

The objectives panel lists every objective in the active game — each puzzle or task the team must solve. As players progress, objectives update, so the panel is your live map of the room.

Each objective shows a status pill and a count of hints given. The statuses you will see are:

• Completed — the objective is solved.
• Bypassed — the objective was skipped without being solved.

An objective that still needs prerequisites shows a padlock line — Locked behind the objectives that come first.

Marking an objective complete

Press the status pill on an objective to mark it complete. By default ARC asks you to press and hold it for a moment — a green fill sweeps across the pill, and letting go early cancels — so a stray click can’t complete a puzzle the team has not actually solved. A manager can turn the hold off per game in the Editor.

Putting a completed objective back to incomplete always takes a hold, whatever that setting says.

Per-objective actions

Open an objective to act on it. Depending on how the game is configured, you may see:

• Override — fire the device action a builder attached to this objective, for example popping a stubborn maglock. ARC asks you to confirm: click again, and the button reads Running… while it works.
• Bypass — skip the objective without solving it, so the team can keep moving.
• View notes — read the staff notes saved for this objective.
• Open camera — open the camera assigned to this objective’s area.
• Open panel — open the control panel for this puzzle area, showing its device states.
• Send, next to the solution — push the objective’s solution text to the room’s displays.

Objective groups

Larger games organize their objectives into groups — named sections that follow the flow of the room. When a game uses groups, the panel shows group tabs and a progress stepper so you can jump straight to the area the team is working in.

List and Flow

If a builder has set up which objectives unlock which, the panel header offers two views: List and Flow.

Flow is a live map of the room drawn as cards joined by arrows — the same map a builder arranged in the Editor, but read-only and color-coded by what is happening right now:

• Green — completed.
• Highlighted with a glow — available, meaning the team can work on it now.
• Dimmed with a padlock — locked behind objectives that are not finished yet.
• Dashed and muted — bypassed.

You can pan and zoom the map. Clicking a card jumps back to List and opens that objective. Right-clicking gives you the same short menu the list offers — Complete, Bypass objective, Mark incomplete, or Disable bypass. Press and hold a card to complete it, exactly as you would in the list.

ARC remembers whichever view you last used. The tabs only appear when the game actually has unlock rules; otherwise you just get the list.

Saved hints

Most hints are written ahead of time in the Editor and attached to an objective. On the Control page they appear as ready-to-send saved hints, so you send the right clue with one tap instead of typing under pressure.

Saved hints come in several types:

• Text — a written clue shown on a display.
• Image — a picture shown on a display.
• Video — a video clip shown on a display.
• Audio — an audio clip played in the room.
• Text to Speech — a written clue spoken aloud by a synthesized voice.
• Verbal — a script for you to read to the team yourself.

To send a saved hint, press Send. If you have already sent it once, the button reads Resend. Queue puts the hint in line instead of sending it now — see The hint queue below. A queued hint’s button reads Queued so you can’t add it twice.

A Verbal hint is different: it is meant to be read aloud, not shown on a screen. When you open one, ARC shows a Read this hint aloud modal with the script. Read it to the team, then mark it as sent so it is logged.

Manual hints

When no saved hint fits the moment, write a manual hint on the spot. Type your clue in the hint message box, then choose where it goes and how to deliver it.

• Message — type the clue (“Enter hint message…”).
• Target — chips for each display, plus All. ARC remembers your choice for that game while the browser tab stays open.
• Objective — optional. Link the hint to an objective so it is logged against that puzzle.
• Send — show the message on the chosen displays.
• TTS — speak the message aloud using text to speech.
• Queue — put the message in line rather than sending it now.
• Alert — play the room’s alert sound to get the team’s attention.
• Clear — clear whatever the chosen displays are currently showing.

The hint queue

Some games line hints up instead of firing them straight away. When the queue is turned on for a game, the Timeline panel gains a second tab — Log and Queue — and both saved hints and manual hints get a Queue button.

The Queue tab lists what is waiting. You can drag entries to reorder them, Remove one, or press Send Now to push it immediately. Clear Queue empties the list. Entries added automatically by Assist carry an Assist badge and a Sends in m:ss countdown; ones you wrote yourself carry a Manual badge.

When a hint is about to go out on its own, the tab label turns into a countdown and a banner appears reading Hint in m:ss, with Send Now and Handle buttons. Handle acknowledges the help request and stops the automatic send, so you deal with it yourself; the hint stays in the queue until you send or remove it.

The queue is emptied when the room resets.

Help requests

Players can ask for help themselves — usually with a button or a device in the room. When they do, ARC shows a Help Requested modal. It tells you when the request came in and, if configured, when an automatic response or escalation is due.

Press Acknowledge to confirm you have seen the request and clear the modal. How a help request announces itself (a tone, a sound, a spoken alert, or silent) is set per game in the Editor.

If the hint queue is set to answer help requests on its own and a hint is already lined up, ARC skips the modal and shows the Hint in m:ss banner on the Queue tab instead. Clear the queue while the request is still open and the modal comes back.

Where to go next

• Running a Game — the session lifecycle and timer controls.
• Displays and Audio — where hints appear and how the room sounds.
• Resetting a Room — close out the session and reset.