4Stack #18 — answers & breakdown

Friday, July 31, 2026

Four fighting game rosters, except one of them is not a roster at all. If you have played Smash you will spot the problem immediately, and it will not help you as much as you expect.

The sixteen cards in this puzzle were: Joker, Steve, Sora, Banjo, Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile, Akuma, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kitana, Shao Kahn, Kazuya, Jin, Heihachi, King.

The four stacks

Street Fighter characters

Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile, Akuma

Street Fighter. Akuma is the hidden-boss addition rather than an original World Warrior.

Mortal Kombat characters

Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kitana, Shao Kahn

Mortal Kombat, including Shao Kahn, who spent most of the series as the final boss rather than a playable character.

Tekken characters

Kazuya, Jin, Heihachi, King

Tekken — and Kazuya is the sharpest card on the board, because he is genuinely a Smash Ultimate DLC fighter as well. Ryu has the same double claim over in yellow.

Smash Ultimate DLC fighters

Joker, Steve, Sora, Banjo

Smash Ultimate DLC fighters. The four here are the ones with nowhere else to go: Joker, Steve, Sora and Banjo have no other franchise represented on this board. Fill this group by elimination and Kazuya sorts itself out.

Want to try it yourself? Play puzzle #18 — archive plays don't affect your streak. Or jump into today's puzzle.