4Stack #7 — answers & breakdown
Monday, July 20, 2026
Characters — and the hardest sorting problem we had run so far, because several of these legitimately belong to more than one category in real life. The rule is that each one goes where it fits best.
The sixteen cards in this puzzle were: Gordon Freeman, Chell, Doomguy, Crono, Ganondorf, Sephiroth, GLaDOS, Bowser, Kirby, Fox, Ness, Captain Falcon, Nemesis, Pyramid Head, Springtrap, Mr. X.
The four stacks
Smash Bros. originals (64 roster)
Kirby, Fox, Ness, Captain Falcon
Playable characters who never speak. Chell and Gordon Freeman are the famous cases; Doomguy's silence is part of the joke, and Crono's is a Square convention of the era.
Final bosses
Ganondorf, Sephiroth, GLaDOS, Bowser
Antagonists you fight at the end. GLaDOS is the interesting inclusion — she is a final boss who also spends the entire game as your only source of dialogue.
Silent protagonists
Gordon Freeman, Chell, Doomguy, Crono
The original Super Smash Bros. roster from 1999. This is the group most people over-fill, because plenty of characters elsewhere in the grid are also Smash veterans — but only these four were in the N64 game.
Horror game stalkers
Nemesis, Pyramid Head, Springtrap, Mr. X
Recurring pursuers who hunt you across a horror game rather than waiting in one room. Mr. X and Nemesis are both Resident Evil, which is a deliberate double-up to make you second-guess the group.
Want to try it yourself? Play puzzle #7 — archive plays don't affect your streak. Or jump into today's puzzle.