diff --git a/PROJECT.md b/PROJECT.md
index 7bf9f6b..5f86de3 100644
--- a/PROJECT.md
+++ b/PROJECT.md
@@ -677,6 +677,23 @@ hits"*. Four things, and one of them was a straight bug of mine.
   kill — and the strip carries the list. **Do not add a third noise here without a reason**: both
   attempts read as the mode talking over itself.
 
+**EIGHTH PASS — the court gets quieter.** *"remove the mob boy - make the normal zombies rarer and
+not so close to the color gang"*.
+- **`sendBoy` refuses during a drill**, at the function rather than at the call sites (same shape as
+  its existing `G.interlude` guard, so every present and future caller inherits it). He is one more
+  body crossing the lanes you are reading colours down, and unlike everything else on that court he
+  is neither the puzzle nor the threat — pure noise. Measured: 0 boy-frames in 90 s.
+  Note this means **gore no longer gets mopped in the drill**; the `gore` 40 / `piles` 30 caps are
+  what keep it bounded, which they already did.
+- **The eaters are rarer**: `drillEaterEvery` 7 -> 12 s, `drillEaterMin` 2.2 -> 5, cap 4 -> 3. At the
+  old rate they were a second crowd rather than an interruption, and a threat you break off to deal
+  with only works if breaking off is occasional. Measured: 8 arrivals in 90 s where the old numbers
+  gave ~13.
+- **And they enter WIDE of the colour gang** — best-of-9 lane sampling against the bibbed bodies, the
+  same trick the batch spacing uses. Measured narrowest clearance at entry across 8 spawns: 0.91 m.
+  They still converge on you afterwards, which is what they are for; this only decides where they
+  come in, so they stop screening the bodies you are trying to read.
+
 **Open, and every one of them is Oliver's call after he plays it:**
 1. ~~**A ball that carries through the lane can complete two steps at once.**~~ Largely CLOSED by
    the slice removal (seventh pass) — a cut ball picking its own next victim was the main way this
diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index a9f7087..9dd8435 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -399,6 +399,6 @@
     </div>
   </div>
 </div>
-<script type="module" src="src/main.js?v=158"></script>
+<script type="module" src="src/main.js?v=159"></script>
 </body>
 </html>
diff --git a/src/config.js b/src/config.js
index 4cc8bce..05a88fb 100644
--- a/src/config.js
+++ b/src/config.js
@@ -360,9 +360,14 @@ export const TUNE = {
   drillSpeed: 0.80, // m/s a bibbed body walks at the bottom of the ramp...
   drillSpeedMax: 1.9,// ...and at the top. Stamped per body AT SPAWN, so the ramp shows up as new
                      // arrivals outpacing the ones already walking, not the court accelerating
-  drillEaterEvery: 7.0, // s between unbibbed eaters at the bottom of the ramp...
-  drillEaterMin: 2.2,   // ...and at the top. THE difficulty dial now that the puzzle plays fair
-  drillEaterMax: 4,     // eaters allowed on court at once — past this the puzzle is unreadable
+  // The eaters are RARE on purpose. At every 7 s / 2.2 s they were a second crowd rather than an
+  // interruption, and the puzzle is the point of the mode — a threat you have to break off and deal
+  // with only works if breaking off is occasional. They also enter wide of the colour gang
+  // (spawnEater), because the one body out there that is neither the puzzle nor worth anything has
+  // no business standing in front of the puzzle.
+  drillEaterEvery: 12.0, // s between unbibbed eaters at the bottom of the ramp...
+  drillEaterMin: 5.0,    // ...and at the top. Still THE difficulty dial, just a slower one
+  drillEaterMax: 3,      // eaters allowed on court at once — past this the puzzle is unreadable
   drillEaterSpeed: 1.15,// they walk a touch faster than the batch: the batch is a list, this is a threat
   drillRampT: 210,  // s to go from the bottom of every curve above to the top
   drillRingR: 0.62, // m — radius of the colour disc a bibbed body walks on. Big enough to read at
diff --git a/src/drill.js b/src/drill.js
index 81be078..fa75a41 100644
--- a/src/drill.js
+++ b/src/drill.js
@@ -101,8 +101,19 @@ function spawnBatch(d) {
 // mode was missing.
 function spawnEater(d) {
   if (zombies.filter(z => z.bib === undefined).length >= TUNE.drillEaterMax) return;
-  spawnZombie((Math.random() * 2 - 1) * TUNE.drillSpread, TUNE.drillSpawnZ + Math.random() * 0.8,
-              Math.random() < 0.3 ? 'b' : 'a');
+  // THEY ENTER WIDE OF THE COLOUR GANG. An eater walking in on top of the batch screens the very
+  // bodies you are trying to read, and it is the one body on court that is neither the puzzle nor
+  // worth points — so it has no business standing in front of the puzzle. Best-of-N: sample lanes
+  // across the width and take the one furthest from every coloured body. They still converge on you
+  // afterwards (that is what they are for); this only decides where they come IN.
+  const gang = bibs();
+  let bx = 0, bs = -1;
+  for (let k = 0; k < 9; k++) {
+    const x = -TUNE.drillSpread + (2 * TUNE.drillSpread) * (k / 8) + (Math.random() - 0.5) * 0.4;
+    const s = gang.length ? Math.min(...gang.map(z => Math.abs(z.x - x))) : 1e9;
+    if (s > bs) { bs = s; bx = x; }
+  }
+  spawnZombie(bx, TUNE.drillSpawnZ + Math.random() * 0.8, Math.random() < 0.3 ? 'b' : 'a');
   const zb = zombies[zombies.length - 1];
   zb.v = drillSpeed(d) * TUNE.drillEaterSpeed * (0.9 + Math.random() * 0.2);
 }
diff --git a/src/state.js b/src/state.js
index 8985dff..5866a84 100644
--- a/src/state.js
+++ b/src/state.js
@@ -104,8 +104,9 @@ export const G = {
   interlude: false,   // sudden-death duel vs the racket zombie: falsy, or {introT} while announcing
   duelLerp: 0,        // 0..1 — how far the court has returned to tennis colors for the duel
   horde: null,        // active horde wave {t, spawnT, mgT} — machine-gun racket, no serving
-  drill: null,        // the coaching drill (src/drill.js): {seq, step, faults, callT, beat, rush, won, lost, msg}.
-                      // Owns the court like every other mode — see beats.startDrill.
+  drill: null,        // the coaching drill (src/drill.js): {seq, step, faults, t, eaterT, rounds, lost, msg}.
+                      // Owns the court like every other mode — see beats.startDrill. `t` is time
+                      // survived and it is the whole difficulty curve; there is no round clock.
   killCount: 0,       // splatter: kills banked toward the next point (see TUNE.killsPerPoint)
   runGames: 0,        // games finished this run (either side) — the difficulty director
   sets: [0, 0],       // splatter sets won [you, them]; 6 games = a set = a horde
@@ -181,6 +182,9 @@ const mopWorthIt = () => gore.some(d => d.a >= 0.15 && d.z >= COURT.netZ - 2);
 
 export function sendBoy(tx = ball.x, tz = ball.z, mop = G.mode === 'splatter') {
   if (G.interlude) return;        // the sudden-death duel is clean tennis: nobody mops through it
+  if (G.drill) return;            // ...and nobody walks onto a drill. He is one more body crossing the
+                                  // lanes you are reading colours down, and unlike everything else out
+                                  // there he is not part of the puzzle OR the threat — pure noise.
   if (mop && !mopWorthIt()) return; // no job, no boy
   if (tz < -3 || tz > 27) return; // target left the field lengthwise, let it go
   // ONE boy, one slot. Every kill used to call this and teleport him back to the wing mid-stride,