Multicolor Tile Puzzle

The Multicolor Tile Puzzle is a puzzle based on walking across multiple different types of colored tiles, each with their own function. It is encountered twice throughout the game: first in Snowdin Forest immediately after the second blue X puzzle, and then again in Hotland after listening to Mettaton's song.
== Rules ==
* Pink tiles have no effect and can be walked on freely.
* Green tiles make a sound. They supposedly force the protagonist to fight a monster, but in the puzzle's first appearance, they don't appear at all, and in the second, it is only used as an excuse for Mettaton to fight after the puzzle's completion.
* Red tiles act as solid walls.
* Yellow tiles force the player back to the last tile they stepped on (the player's controls are locked in the meantime).
* Orange tiles change the player's flavor to "Orange".
* Purple tiles act similarly to the ice tiles in Snowdin Forest; they force the player to the next tile in the direction they are facing (the player's controls are locked in the meantime). Additionally, purple tiles change the player's flavor to "Lemon".
* Blue tiles vary in function depending on the following factors:
** If the blue tile is adjacent to a yellow tile, the blue tile acts identically to a yellow tile, simulating electrified water.
** If the player's flavor is "Orange", the blue tile also acts identically to a yellow tile, luring the piranhas out and forcing the player back to the previous tile.
** If neither of the above conditions are met, the blue tile acts identically to a pink tile.
== Main Story ==
In the first encounter, Papyrus presents the puzzle to the protagonist and explains the rules. However, the "randomly generated" outcome the machine creates is simply a line of pink tiles bordered by red tiles, which the protagonist can walk right across without trouble. As the machine is said to generate a puzzle randomly, the chances of this are 1 in 36,703,368,217,294,125,441,230,211,032,033,660,188,801 (7^{8 \cdot 6}, with 7 being the number of different tiles, and 8 \cdot 6 being the board's dimensions), though as there are some constraints to how the puzzle would be generated as this number should only include permutations that are possible to solve, this number should be much lower.
If the protagonist says they do not understand Papyrus's explanation of the puzzle's rules, he gets confused and mixes up the rules. If the protagonist again says the explanation makes less sense, Papyrus grows irritated and leaves a note explaining the rules, so to let the protagonist activate the machine themselves. The note contains illegible chicken scratch, and the machine cannot be operated.
On the Genocide Route, Papyrus becomes annoyed at the protagonist for walking through the puzzle and eventually gives up trying to explain it. He leaves a note with chicken scratch similar to the note when the protagonist says they do not understand the rules twice.
 
In the second encounter, Mettaton makes the protagonist fall through a trap door containing the puzzle. He then starts to explain the rules, but instead says, "DIDN'T WE SEE THIS PUZZLE ABOUT A HUNDRED ROOMS AGO? THAT'S RIGHT. YOU REMEMBER ALL THE RULES, DON'T YOU?" and starts the puzzle, giving them 30 seconds to complete it or else they will be burned by a pair of walls of fire.
If the protagonist does manage to solve the puzzle, Mettaton deactivates the flames before deciding to fight the protagonist. If they do not solve the puzzle, the walls of fire draw near before Alphys disables them; Mettaton then fights the protagonist, as he is the monster summoned by the green tile. If the protagonist does not step on a green tile, Mettaton fights them anyway.
On the Genocide Route, the maze is not activated.
== Trivia ==
* The machine that is used in Snowdin Forest to generate the puzzle heavily resembles Mettaton, which could mean either he was used to activate the Multicolor Tile Puzzle back at Snowdin, or that this puzzle was designed after him.
* Calling Papyrus in the room that contains Mettaton's multicolor tile puzzle triggers dialogue. If the protagonist successfully solved the puzzle before time ran out, Papyrus tells them that he saw the whole thing on TV and how he must have been a good explainer. If the protagonist failed to solve the puzzle, Papyrus tells them he saw the whole thing on TV and how they were not able to solve it. He then tells them they have to be prepared next time, and he says that he will explain it all over again. He goes on to say how red tiles are impassable, pink tiles do not do anything, and when he begins to explain the function of green tiles, he gets cut off, and the call ends.
** Calling him again triggers dialogue in which he begins to explain the function of "plaid tiles," but gets cut off again, and the call ends.
* If the protagonist steps on a blue tile while smelling like oranges, the Annoying Dog may appear in place of piranhas.
* Despite what the game suggests, green tiles and pink tiles are functionally identical (excluding the fact that green tiles make a sound), due to the fact that no actual monsters are fought when the protagonist steps on a green tile.
** Stepping on a green tile queues a monster encounter to occur after the puzzle, not during. The monster is, in fact, Mettaton, and if time expires without stepping on any green tiles, he fights the protagonist anyway with unique dialogue.
** The green tile's effect does not stack. Stepping on one green tile or many green tiles during the puzzle ostensibly queues up only one monster encounter.
* Alphys talks about disabling the firewall, which is probably a reference to a networking term called a firewall, a defense system for a network.
* It is possible to get stuck in Mettaton's puzzle, should the protagonist step on the leftmost orange tile in the top row. This is because the only way out of the small crevice formed by red and yellow tiles is a blue tile, which is impassable if the protagonist's flavor is orange.
* Without counting optional rooms, there are actually 95 rooms between the Snowdin tile puzzle and Mettaton's tile puzzle.
== References ==
de:Farbkachelpuzzle
fr:Multicolor Tile Puzzle
pl:Kolorowe Płytki
pt-br:Puzzle das Peças Multicoloridas
ru:Головоломка с цветными плитками
tr:Multicolor Tile Puzzle
zh:彩砖谜题
Category:Snowdin
Category:Hotland