Like its predecessors, Alice in Borderland season 3 also walks viewers through a series of compelling and haunting sci-fi games that determine the future of its main characters.

Since season 1, Alice in Borderland has been very innovative with the scale and vision of its central games. While some games in the series have been relatively more grounded and have only involved either physical survival or psychological manipulation, others have featured massive set pieces that push the boundaries of imagination.

Alice in Borderland season 3 is narratively a little different from the previous installments, but it does not disappoint with its games. Similar to the previous installments, it features the perfect mix of games that force players to use everything from clever strategy to sheer physical strength.

Game #1: Old Maid

The first game in Alice in Borderland season 3, “Old Maid,” served more as an audition set by Banda in the real world to determine which human would be the perfect candidate for his mission to bring Arisu back to the games. The game follows simple rules where players gather around a table and each gets a random deck of cards.

When their turn arrives, the players are either expected to draw a card from the deck or from another player while discarding pairs. If a player stands up in the middle of the game or ends up drawing a Joker, their seat will send a jolt of electricity through them and kill them before they can leave.

Ryuji, who is established as Alice in Borderland season 3’s main human villain, wins this game and earns the opportunity to visit the Borderlands.

Game #2: Sacred Fortunes

Soon after Arisu ends up in the Borderlands for the second time, he arrives at the venue of the “Sacred Fortunes” game. This game, too, seems simple when it comes to rules. Each player is expected to draw a fortune slip and correctly answer the question on it to avoid facing disastrous consequences.

It all starts well for the players when the first one draws a slip that leads to nothing. Things get darker, though, when the second player fails to correctly answer a math problem on her slip by a margin of three. As a result, three arrows come flying towards the players from an unknown direction, and two players end up dead.

As the game continues, the margin of error for the problems in the fortune slips also goes up. With this, more and more players meet a tragic fate. Arisu gets one of the hardest slips that asks him to correctly guess the world’s population. He answers 7.9 billion, which proves to be 100 million less than the correct answer.

The sky soon erupts with millions of arrows, but Arisu realizes that each slip also contains a safety instruction about the direction from which the arrows will come from. His quick thinking helps the last few players survive the game and move to the next one.

Game #3: Zombie Hunt

In terms of rules, “Zombie Hunt” proves to be far more complex and layered than the previous two games. The game unfolds in a closed facility where several teams get together. All players are given a set of cards and expected to compete in a one-on-one showdown with another player from a different team.

Apart from the regular playing cards, decks also contain three special cards:

• Zombie Card: The Zombie card is revealed to be infectious in the sense that, if a player draws it in a game, they instantly win, and their opponent is forced to join them. The losing player also gets a copy of the Zombie card, and they can use it in their next game to infect someone else.
• Shotgun Card: Some players also get access to a Shotgun card, which they use to beat their opponent’s Zombie card. Although the Shotgun card does nothing against the regular cards, it literally kills those who draw zombies against it.
• Vaccine Card: As the name suggests, the Vaccine card “neutralizes” a Zombie card. When a player uses it against a Zombie, the Zombie switches back to their uninfected state. The Vaccine card, however, can only be used on other players and not on oneself.

The game ends after 20 rounds of one-on-one matches, and the side — humans or zombies — with the most number of players ultimately wins. One of the main new players, Rei, is introduced during this game. To ensure her survival, Rei initially approaches Arisu and his team and asks them to isolate as many Zombies as they can.

She does this because she initially believes that the humans will outnumber the zombies. However, things take a chaotic turn when players from both sides start fighting back. Arisu, as always, stays ahead of the curve and ensures all his team members are Zombies. Ultimately, the Zombies do outnumber the humans, and Arisu and his friends move to the next game.

Game #4: Runaway Train

Players find themselves on a speeding train in this one. Each car on the train has a bird in a cage, and the players are expected to move from the train’s first car to the last one without dying. To win the game, the final surviving players also have to stop the train after a loud siren.

The catch in this game is that every new car the players enter will be filled with either oxygen or poison. It comes down to the players to guess which one of the two it will be. If they believe the car will be filled with poison, they must wear a gas mask with an attached canister that neutralizes the poison. The bird’s fate helps them determine whether they made the right choice

Since every player only gets five canisters, they must carefully strategize and guess whether their car will be filled with poison. After a series of wrong guesses, the players end up in a lose-lose situation where they run out of all canisters. This is when Usagi comes up with the idea of jumping onto another passing train, which allows a few to survive.

Game #5: Tokyo Bingo Tower

When Usagi and her team reach the semi-finals, they end up on the Tokyo Tower, where they must carefully climb up and press buzzers with numbers on them. The goal is to draw one diagonal, one horizontal, and one vertical line on their bingo card. What makes this game trickier is that every time a player presses a buzzer, heavy ball bearings fall from the top, making it harder for them to climb up.

While many players die on their way up, Usagi puts her climbing experience to good use. She also single-handedly makes her way to the top of the tower to access the “Free Space” buzzer, allowing the survivors to win and move to the final game.

Game #6: Kick The Can

This is the game Arisu and his team play before they end up moving on to the final game of the season. In this one, players gather in an indoor space where they get access to 10 cans. In each round, they must kick the cans and bring them back to the center of the arena before the timer ticks to zero. Every player who brings the can to the center gets to qualify for the next round.

The cans also have time bombs that explode when the time limit for a round ends. Due to an injury, Arisu struggles to perform in the game. However, with the help of his team members, he manages to make it out alive.

Game #7: Possible Futures

“Possible Futures” proves to be the most haunting and challenging game in Alice in Borderland season 3. Before the game begins, every player is asked to wear neck and wristbands. Then, they enter the arena that contains 25 rooms arranged in a square. In each room, one player has to roll the dice, and based on the numbers on the dice, they get to determine how many can move on to the next room.

All players get 15 points at the beginning of the game, which is reflected on their watch. Every time the players enter a new room, one point from their watches is deducted. If a player fails to advance from one room to another due to the limitations on the dice, they trigger a room lockdown, which can only be lifted by two other players.

Staying back in a room also leads to the deduction of a point, and each room also has its own unique point deduction system. What makes this game trickier is that above every door in a room, a projection shows the potential future a player will unlock with their choice. Arisu advises all players to be mindful of their choices and asks them not to be manipulated by the projections.

Unfortunately, the projections soon get inside the heads of many players, forcing them to make choices that are not optimal for their survival. As a result, many die towards the end. In the final room, one player is expected to make the ultimate sacrifice by staying behind and letting everyone else leave.

Arisu takes it upon himself to save the group by choosing to stay behind. To his shock, this turns out to be a ploy set up by Banda, who informs him that by choosing to stay, he has ensured his survival in the Borderlands but killed everyone else. With this, while Usagi confronts Banda, the others outside struggle to survive against a massive world-ending flood.

Game #8: The Joker Card Choice

Arisu encounters the Watchman of the Borderlands in Alice in Borderland season 3′s ending arc. The Watchman selects two random cards from his deck and places them faced down. He then asks Arisu to pick one and tells him that his destiny will not be in his own hands if he picks a Joker.

When both cards turn out to be jokers, Arisu confronts the Watchman for tricking him. Despite winning, the Watchman gives Arisu a second chance and allows him to make the choice to either return to the real world and experience unimaginable pain and tragedy, or accept the dark and cold embrace of death.

Arisu chooses the former and sets out to save Usagi from the flood before it is too late. Both characters eventually brave against the tides and head back to the light. With this, in Alice in Borderland season 3’s final moments, Arisu and Usagi end up in the real world again.