The twisted games in Alice in Borderland have killed hundreds of players, but which among them are the most difficult ones to beat?

Alice in Borderland has given fans a compelling narrative, memorable characters, and intense life or death games. Every game in the series comes with a card that represents its type and difficultly level: spades for strength, clubs for cooperation, diamonds for intellect, and hearts for betrayal.

Some lower-number games on the show are more challenging than higher-rated rounds. It really depends on the mechanics of the game and the players tackling it. Ranking them by difficulty would entail considering factors seen on the series like how Arisu manages to solve the game, how much it hurts players, what the results are, and more.

6 Distance (Four Of Clubs)

The “Distance” game is without a doubt, supposed to be the easiest round in the competition. It also underscores how the show’s simple mechanics can result in scenes that could be featured in survival movies similar to Alice in Borderland. If Arisu, Usagi, and their other companions had just spent more time thinking about the simple instruction to “reach the goal,” they could have figured out that they didn’t need to run as far as they did.

It’s not clear if the panther that appeared is part of the mechanics or just happened to be in that tunnel, but that is the one element that makes the round much harder than necessary. While Arisu eventually figures out that the bus was the goal the whole time, the other two players could have survived if they had just stepped a few meters back and seen the word “goal” painted on the vehicle. The other hint was clearly on their phones as well, as it wouldn’t make sense for the counter to go up as they moved away from the bus. Lastly, since it’s a game of clubs and not spades, there’s no reason for that round to test their strength or endurance – they just had to agree as a team to sit still and wait for the flood to pass.

5 Light Bulb (Four Of Diamonds)

To become part of the Beach’s elite board, Arisu is challenged to beat the deadly “Light Bulb” game. With the water level quickly rising, Arisu has to figure out which switch turns on the bulb. The only problem is that three switches can only safely be tested with the door to the room with the bulb closed, so there’s no way of telling if it’s the right one.

He eventually realizes that he can use the light bulb’s residual heat to check if it turned on without ever having to see it. He turns on a switch with the door closed, then brilliantly asks a fellow player to check for warmth. It’s a stressful situation for everyone, as any further delay would have caused the water to rise high enough to touch the electric rods. Most people would have never thought of using the light bulb’s residual heat to solve the game. That said, calmness and strategic thinking are the only main skills players would need to overcome this particular challenge. The fact that the executive representative in the room knew the answer all along is a testament to how easy this game is compared to others on the show.

4 Dead Or Alive (Three Of Clubs)

The first game Arisu and his friends ever play may just have a rating of three, but considering how they have no idea what to expect, it turns into a tremendously demanding round that could very well be a scene from an intense survival movie. The rules are simple: pick one of two doors before time runs out. Choosing the wrong door like one player does in the show results in immediate death while taking too long to pick one means burning alive in the room.

It takes one death and several terrifying rooms before Arisu figures out the layout of the building. Thanks to his photographic memory, he’s able to estimate the size of the building based on the model of a car he spots by the entrance. He makes a map and computes the approximate length of each room using only his foot size – it’s not an easy feat to pull off. By choosing the rooms that lead to the exit and using the video Chōta took as a reference, his wits save everyone during the last few moments. If anyone else other than Arisu had been there, it would be nearly impossible to guess the right door every single time. Players would likely act like Shibuki and sacrifice fellow competitors in order to get ahead.

3 Tag (Five Of Spades)

When players are tasked with playing a simple game of “Tag,” no one could have predicted it would turn out as deadly as it did. The taggers wearing horse masks and carrying rifles might as well be frightening antagonists in any of the best horror movies. Aside from avoiding these taggers, Arisu and the rest of the players have to find the right room in the massive building before the time runs out. If they fail, a bomb explodes and kills everyone.

The hardest thing about this game is that it doesn’t just necessitate strength to evade and defeat the taggers, but it also requires teamwork. Without the other players’ cooperation, Arisu would have never found the right room. There’s another twist waiting for him inside, though, adding another layer of difficulty to the challenging round. It turns out the taggers are also players being forced to kill others for their lives and Arisu has no choice but to murder them. It doesn’t pack the same emotional punch and trickiness as the game of hide and seek later on in the show, but it is still one of the trickier rounds in the series.

2 Hide-And-Seek (Seven Of Hearts)

Arisu, Chōta, Karube, and Shibuki all unwittingly make a terrible decision to join the game of “Hide-and-seek” together. Since it’s a game of hearts, they’re pitted against each other in a dramatic fashion. They’re each given headsets with facial recognition and one of them is labeled the “wolf,” while the three other players are the “sheep.” The sheep can take the wolf’s status for their own by making eye contact with the contestant. Only the wolf survives the game.

It’s easy to see why this is such a devastating game for the players who are close friends. It’s shocking that the show would choose to kill off who viewers may have seen as the main characters this early in the series. For a while, Arisu (and some fans) might think that there’s some way for all of them to survive the game together, but this isn’t the case. Arisu’s final moments as he runs around screaming for his friends is difficult to watch, as it becomes obvious that they’ve chosen to sacrifice themselves so that he could move forward. There are no real winners in this game, as it’s pretty much impossible to solve together and always ends in heartbreak.

1 Witch Hunt (Ten Of Hearts)

Right when Chishiya is about to escape with his stolen deck of cards, a massive plot twist on Alice in Borderland happens and turns the entire Beach’s building into a game site. Hundreds of players are instructed to find the “witch” who killed Momoka. If they don’t burn the witch in time, everyone dies.

Naturally, Aguni’s aggressive minions start shooting and burning everyone around them. Arisu is tied up in a room and unable to help as players continue to needlessly die. The game of hearts does exactly what it’s meant to, as it turns people against each other and encourages distrust and violence among supposed friends. Hundreds die before Arisu reveals that Momoka has been the witch all along and that the entire game was designed to bring out the worst in the players. The look on the contestants’ faces as the realization that they unnecessarily killed their friends says it all. It’s a game that requires intellect, trust, and cooperation – without these qualities, all the players would’ve died without knowing that the answer was right in front of them all along. It definitely deserves the highest rating of ten and is the best representation of how vicious games of hearts are on the show.

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