Most rock-paper-scissors apps pick moves at random, which makes them impossible to beat and impossible to lose to on purpose. RPS AI is different, because the computer watches how you play and adjusts to beat your habits.
What it actually does
This is the seventh major version of a game its author has been refining for a long time. You play rounds of rock-paper-scissors, and the bot records your moves to find patterns. Humans are bad at being random. Most of us repeat a winning move or switch after a loss, and those tendencies are what the AI goes after.
You can switch between five bot styles at any time:
- Regular saves your move whenever it loses or ties, to counter your per-round trends.
- Aggressive works like Regular but puts extra weight on its losses, so it swings harder against your wins.
- Short-Term Memory only looks at your last 10 moves, focusing on what you’re doing right now.
- Random uses weighted randomness based on your move counts. It leans toward beating you but stays unpredictable.
- Pattern Detection searches your last three games for repeating sequences and falls back to Regular logic when none turn up.
Version 7.2 upgraded Pattern Detection to also find two-move patterns and search more deeply. According to the author, that change made it win nearly 12% more games.
Two details make it feel fair. The AI always locks in its move before you choose yours, so it can’t cheat by reading your pick. And a Debug mode lets you see its reasoning every round before it plays.
Getting it set up
Run it once and allow access to Files, which it uses to store game data.
Running the shortcut
Start the game, pick or create an account, and choose a bot. Accounts are separate, so friends and family each get their own history, and the bot learns each person’s habits independently. Game data syncs across your devices through iCloud, which means you can pick up on your iPad where you left off on your iPhone.
Turn on Debug mode once just to watch how a bot thinks. It’s the quickest way to learn which of your habits it’s exploiting.
FAQ
Which bot is hardest to beat?
The author ran 5,000 games between every pair of bots across five seeds to compare them. Pattern Detection got the biggest boost in v7.2, so it’s the one to try if you want a challenge.
Does it cost anything?
It’s free, and the shortcut is the only thing you need to download.
Who wrote the bot’s lines?
The in-game AI text was written with ChatGPT.
First time adding a shortcut from a website? Here's what each prompt means.
