What each of the four solver modes optimizes and when to pick which.
Last updated: August 12, 2026
The Gothic Remake lockpicking solver ships with four modes: Fewer Plate Switches, Fewer Switches (Fast), Shortest Moves, and Shortest Moves (Fast). The first two minimize how often you change plates; the last two guarantee the smallest possible number of moves. The goal is the same on every lock, from 4 to 7 plates: bring every pin to the center position 0. And one thing never changes: safety. Every mode checks each candidate move before accepting it, and any move that would push a plate beyond position ±3 is discarded. A plate at -3 or +3 is already against the wall, and driving it further is exactly what damages the pick — so by construction, no mode can ever suggest a move that breaks it.
The four modes differ only in how the sequence is chosen, never in whether it is safe: on any lock, all of them return only in-bounds (edge-safe) moves. The comparison table below lists each mode, what it optimizes, how fast it runs, and the situation it is built for. The rest of the guide explains how each algorithm reaches its result — and where the fast variants cut corners.
| Mode | Optimizes | Speed | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fewer Plate Switches | Fewest plate switches, then fewest moves | Full search — slowest of the four | Following by hand in-game |
| Fewer Switches (Fast) | Few switches via greedy local choice | Instant; falls back to shortest-moves BFS if stuck | Quick results on large locks |
| Shortest Moves | Minimum total moves (guaranteed) | BFS — milliseconds on any lock | Minimal inputs, exact move count |
| Shortest Moves (Fast) | Same as Shortest Moves | Identical BFS — already instant | Same as Shortest Moves |
Fewer Plate Switches (fs) runs a full search of every reachable lock state and ranks candidate paths by two numbers, in order: the number of plate switches first, then the number of moves. A switch is counted whenever a move turns a different plate than the one before it — for example turning plate 3 right after plate 1. Because switches dominate the ranking, the result is a sequence that stays on one plate for long stretches, which is exactly what makes it easy to follow in-game with a single finger or stick position. The price is compute time: the search re-visits states whenever it finds a path with fewer switches, so on 6- and 7-plate locks it is the heaviest of the four modes.
Fewer Switches (Fast) (fsf) is the greedy shortcut. At each step it tries the plate you are already holding first, then scores every legal move with a single heuristic — a switch costs 1000 points, plus the summed distance of all plates from the center — and takes the best local option without any lookahead. That makes it effectively instant on any lock. The trade-off is exactness: a locally attractive move can turn out bad a few steps later, so fsf may switch more often or use more moves than fs. And if the greedy walk ever gets stuck or exhausts its 5000-step safety cap, the worker falls back to the shortest-moves BFS and returns that result instead. Fine for a quick answer; for a guarantee of few switches, use fs.
Shortest Moves (sm) uses a breadth-first search: it explores every state reachable in one move, then every state reachable in two, and so on, never visiting a state twice. Because states are discovered strictly layer by layer, the first solved state it reaches is provably the one with the fewest moves — the minimum is guaranteed, not approximated. Switch count plays no role in the ranking at all. That is why a shortest sequence can hop between plates: every layer tests every plate, and on a 6-plate lock the shortest route often switches plates several times. A plate that needs three clicks may be reached faster by rotating a coupled neighbor twice — BFS finds such shortcuts automatically. You trade hand comfort for input count.
Shortest Moves (Fast) (smf) runs the identical breadth-first search — in the worker, both buttons call the same function. There is nothing left to speed up: positions range over seven values per plate, so even a 7-plate lock has at most 823,543 states, each expanded once, and the search finishes in milliseconds. The "Fast" label exists to keep the four modes parallel in the UI, not because a different algorithm hides behind it. Use sm or smf whenever you want the fewest turns possible and can live with more plate changes.
Following the sequence by hand in-game: choose Fewer Plate Switches. Fewer switches means fewer times you move your finger or stick between plates, and the full search makes the result exact rather than guessed. If the search on a big 6- or 7-plate lock feels slow, Fewer Switches (Fast) is the practical substitute — just remember that its greedy result can differ from fs. Both modes are equally edge-safe, so the choice is only about comfort versus input count.
Want the fewest inputs, or solving the largest locks: Shortest Moves (the Fast twin is identical) guarantees the minimum move count and is the fastest of the four. On Master difficulty with several removed links, plates act independently and the search graph opens up: every mode stays edge-safe, but the full fs search has the most paths to compare while BFS keeps its instant runtime. Rule of thumb: hands-on play → Fewer Plate Switches (or its fast variant); minimal moves or maximum speed → Shortest Moves. All four keep every pin inside ±3 on every lock, and a correctly followed sequence never breaks the pick.