How to beat Rule 18 Atomic numbers that add up to 200

Screenshot by PC Invasion

In The Password Game, you move through a series of ‘rules’ that you must solve in order to keep your password compliant. As you solve each new rule, additional requirements fall in place, which could force you to revisit earlier entries. This guide for The Password Game tells you how to beat Rule 18, which asks you to include Atomic numbers that add up to 200.

Note: After beating rule 18, you’ll most likely need help with rule 21: having your password be strong enough.

The Password Game – how to beat Rule 18

By the time you reach Rule 18 in The Password Game, you have obeyed 17 rules. Many of them include letters and numbers, and it’s possible that some of your answers require you to keep specific letters in place, and even to keep them capitalized.

To beat Rule 18, you must provide the capital/lowercase letter combinations for elements on the periodic table that total 200 in Atomic numbers. Each element on the periodic table has Atomic number, the number found on the top left of the box. Additionally, you may need to keep certain letters exactly as they are, which means there is no one answer to this puzzle.

As you determine which elements to add to equal 200, keep a few rules in mind:

• Any existing letters that are contributing to your total of 200 are highlighted in red.
• If the letters are part of a case-sensitive answer to a previous rule (for example, they relate to a chess move or they satisfy your requirements for Roman numerals), you must leave them in place.
• If the letters are not part of a case-sensitive answer to a previous rule, you can convert them to lowercase. For example, the name of a country does not need to be capitalized.

While keeping the following in mind, simplify your password to the extent you can without breaking any previous rules.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

To continue working toward the answer once you have simplified your password, take the following steps:

1. Determine which numbers you absolutely cannot change that count toward your current Atomic number total. If you don’t know the Atomic values of elements, consult an online periodic chart.
2. Add the value of those numbers together to figure out your current Atomic total.
3. Subtract the current total from 200.
4. Add any Atomic number(s) necessary to get from your current total to 200 and satisfy the rule.

There are a lot of steps and rules to this one, I know, but make sure that none of the new numbers introduce a Roman numeral that will mess with your required total. If a number you want to use would do this, find a combination of lower numbers.

I once reached this point with a password consisting of emojis and the following text: passw0rd!00013januaryXXXVPepsigc277dinerghanaBh5+. My password satisfied all rules up to that point. The password you might use to reach that point will differ. The game highlighted V and P and Bh to let me know they were counting toward my current Atomic number total. These elements have Atomic values of 23, 15, and 107, respectively. That makes a total of 145. I now knew I needed to add 55 more. Cesium (CS) has a value of 55, but doesn’t work because C is a Roman numeral and would break a previous password rule. Therefore, I had to settle on a combination that would add 55 without including Roman numerals. I went with Ne (10) and RH (45) and the password worked (as shown in the above screenshot).

Rule 18 is one of the trickiest challenges up to that point. However, there are stiff challenges to come. If you need help figuring out the answer to the rules in The Password Game, visit PC Invasion for more.