nameless-locksmith

A command-line, terminal-UI, and web solver and history manager for the lock-picking minigame in Gothic Remake.

▶ Try it in your browser: https://arminek.github.io/nameless-locksmith/

Each lock has 2–8 interconnected tumblers (plates, 6 being the most common) that slide along a 1–7 track. Moving one tumbler forces others to move, and no plate may ever fall below 1 or past 7. The goal is to center every plate at position 4. locks finds the shortest wall-safe key sequence via breadth-first search over all 7ᴺ plate states, and keeps a log of every lock you've solved. The tumbler count is inferred from the input (CLI, TUI, and web).

Interactive TUI

Run locks with no arguments to open the terminal UI (built with ratatui). On startup it asks for a language — English, Polski, Deutsch, Русский, Українська, Español, Português, Français — then gives you three views:

• Browse — a filterable list of your solved locks with a detail pane. d deletes the selected lock (with a y/n confirm).
• Solve — an in-place form (6 rules + start) that runs the solver and shows the result; ^W walks it, ^S saves it to the history. On a successful solve the lock plays a short "cracking" animation — the plates spin and settle onto hole 4 one by one — before the steps appear (press any key to skip).
• Step — walk a solution one click at a time. The six plates are stacked and aligned, so any tumblers at the same position line up; the plate slides while the pin stays put (as in the game), each pin turning green as it seats on hole 4. The lock is open when all six form one vertical column at the centre. A keycap panel shows which key to press (and how many times), and the steps scroll alongside.

All the locks <subcommand> commands below still work unchanged.

Screens

Browse — filter the history (left), inspect rules/start/solution (right):

 nameless-locksmith    Browse   Solve   Step
┌Filter──────────────────────────┐┌Detail──────────────────────────────────────┐
│/ to filter                     ││Second chest in the tower                   │
└────────────────────────────────┘│                                            │
┌Locks (5)───────────────────────┐│Rules                                       │
│  [✓] Chest above Cavalorn's cot ││  1: 3r, 6l                                 │
│  [✓] Cave near Cavalorn's cotta ││  2: -                                      │
│  [✓] Door to tower near Cavalor ││  3: 1r, 4l, 6r                             │
│  [✓] First chest in the tower   ││  4: 2r, 5r, 6l                             │
│▶ [✓] Second chest in the tower  ││  5: -        6: 3l                         │
│                                 ││Start  [5, 3, 6, 7, 2, 7]                   │
│                                 ││Solution (47 steps)                         │
│                                 ││  1: 1x A   2: 4x A   4: 1x D   ⋮           │
└────────────────────────────────┘└────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Browse — ↑↓ move · / filter · Enter walk · d delete · Tab solve · q quit

Solve — type in the 6 rules + start, press Enter; the shortest wall-safe sequence appears:

 nameless-locksmith    Browse   Solve   Step
┌Solve a lock──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Name      Vault behind the inn▏                                               │
│ Rule 1    3r, 6l                                                              │
│ Rule 2    -                                                                   │
│ Rule 3    1r, 4l, 6r                                                          │
│ Rule 4    2r, 5r, 6l                                                          │
│ Rule 5    -                                                                   │
│ Rule 6    3l                                                                  │
│ Start     5, 3, 6, 7, 2, 7                                                    │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌Result─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│✓ 52 clicks  ·  ^W walk  ·  ^S save                                            │
│  1: 1x A   2: 4x A   4: 1x D   ⋮                                              │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Solved in 52 clicks — ^W walk, ^S save

On solve, the result area first plays a short "cracking" reel — the plates spin and then settle onto hole 4 one at a time, mid-cascade here (✓ settled, ▶ still spinning):

┌Result─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│▶ 6         ▕ ○ ○ ◉ ◌ ○ ○ ○ ▏     3                                            │
│▶ 5             ▕ ◉ ○ ○ ◌ ○ ○ ○ ▏ 1                                            │
│▶ 4   ▕ ○ ○ ○ ◌ ○ ◉ ○ ▏           6                                            │
│  3       ▕ ○ ○ ○ ◉ ○ ○ ○ ▏       ✓                                            │
│  2       ▕ ○ ○ ○ ◉ ○ ○ ○ ▏       ✓                                            │
│  1       ▕ ○ ○ ○ ◉ ○ ○ ○ ▏       ✓                                            │
│cracking the lock …                                                            │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Step — aligned plates with the pin fixed at the centre column (▼ 4), a big current-move panel, and the scrolling checklist (✓ done · ▶ current):

 nameless-locksmith    Browse   Solve   Step
┌Lock — Chest above Cavalorn's cottage ──────┐┌Current move (9/31)─────────────┐
│                  ▼  4                      ││           ▶ tumbler 3          │
│ align every pin on hole 4                  ││              ╭───╮             │
│  6           ▕ ○ ◉ ○ ◌ ○ ○ ○ ▏   2         ││              │ D │             │
│  5             ▕ ◉ ○ ○ ◌ ○ ○ ○ ▏ 1         ││              ╰───╯             │
│  4           ▕ ○ ◉ ○ ◌ ○ ○ ○ ▏   2         ││             × 1   →            │
│▶ 3         ▕ ○ ○ ◉ ◌ ○ ○ ○ ▏     3         │└────────────────────────────────┘
│  2       ▕ ○ ○ ○ ◉ ○ ○ ○ ▏       ✓         │┌Steps (9/31)────────────────────┐
│  1             ▕ ◉ ○ ○ ◌ ○ ○ ○ ▏ 1         ││✓ 3   1× D                      │
│                                            ││✓ 5   1× A   ⋮                  │
│click 8 / 35   · 1/6 pins on 4              ││▶ 3   1× D                      │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘└────────────────────────────────┘
Step — →/Space next · ← prev · g reset · G end · Esc back

Adding a UI language is just dropping a key = value file in src/i18n/ and registering one row in LANGUAGES (see src/i18n/en.txt); missing keys fall back to English, and a test enforces that every catalog has the full key set.

Web app

A static browser version lives in web/ and is published to GitHub Pages at https://arminek.github.io/nameless-locksmith/. It runs the same Rust solver compiled to WebAssembly (web-wasm/, via wasm-pack) — so the web, CLI, and TUI share one solver with no re-implementation to keep in sync. It reuses the same lock history and translations too (generated from src/i18n/ + history-of-locks.md by web/build-data.mjs). The lock is drawn in SVG, so the plates slide smoothly and the "cracking" animation plays for real; the UI is plain HTML/CSS/ES-modules. The Pages workflow builds the wasm and gates on the core's tests.

Install

Grab a prebuilt binary for your OS from the Releases page (Linux, macOS Intel/Apple Silicon, Windows), or build from source:

cargo build --release
# binary at target/release/locks (locks.exe on Windows)

The core solver is std-only Rust; the TUI adds ratatui + crossterm. The step view uses 24-bit color, so a truecolor terminal renders the plate shading best.

Quick start

locks                         # launch the interactive TUI
locks list                    # list every lock in the history
locks show "Second chest"     # show one lock's rules, start, and solution
locks find tower              # search lock names
locks template > lock.txt     # get a starter input file to fill in
locks solve lock.txt          # compute the optimal sequence for a new lock

Capturing a lock in-game

You read the lock by watching the plates (easier to see than the small red pins):

1. Press [D] on a tumbler — its plate slides right.
2. For every other plate that moves, note the direction: r = right, l = left. Use - if nothing else moves.

Tip: if a plate is jammed against a wall (position 1 or 7), a [D] press can be blocked, which hides dependencies — you'll only see the one plate that hit the wall. Nudge plates toward the middle first so every dependency has room to move and be observed.

Then record the current position (1–7) of each plate as the Start row.

Input format

Name: my new lock
Rules:
1: 3r, 6l
2: -
3: 1r, 4l, 6r
4: 2r, 5r, 6l
5: -
6: 3l
Start:
[5, 3, 6, 7, 2, 7]

Run it:

locks solve lock.txt
locks solve lock.txt --save "Second chest in the tower"   # also append to history
cat lock.txt | locks solve -                              # read from stdin

Reading the output

The solution is a grouped key sequence to type in-game:

4: 2x D    # press [D] twice on tumbler 4 (plate slides right)
2: 3x A    # press [A] three times on tumbler 2 (plate slides left)

• [D] slides a plate right, [A] slides it left.
• [W]/[S] switch between tumblers.

Commands

Command	Description
locks list	List every lock in the history ([✓] = solved).
locks show <index|substring>	Print full details for a lock.
locks find <query>	Search lock names (case-insensitive).
locks template	Print a ready-to-fill input file for solve.
locks solve <input|->	Solve a lock from a file (or stdin via -).
locks edit <index|substring>	Print a lock as an editable input block.
locks remove <index|substring>	Delete a lock from the history (alias: rm).
locks help	Show full help.

Editing a lock: locks edit "tower" > lock.txt, fix the rules/start, then locks solve lock.txt --replace "tower" re-solves and updates it in place. In the TUI, press e on a lock in Browse to load it into the Solve form; ^S writes it back. (The web app is read-only over the built-in history — it has no persistent store, so use the CLI/TUI to capture and edit locks.)

Options: --save "<name>" appends a solved lock to the history; --file <path> selects a different history file (default history-of-locks.md).

History

Solved locks live in history-of-locks.md — rules, start positions, and the step sequences for every lock encountered so far. It doubles as worked examples.

License

MIT