List of common oscillators

This is a list of the most common oscillators in the Game of Life, specifically Catagolue's B3/S23/C1 census, as of February 28, 2022, comprising nearly 2 quadrillion object occurrences. Names for objects are taken from Catagolue where applicable; the apgcode of the object is substituted otherwise.

The relative frequency column gives an estimate of the fraction of all randomly-occurring oscillators that will be of the given type. However, the first three in the list comprise nearly 100% of all natural occurrences. The rest of the objects in the list are very uncommon. For this reason, the list only includes the first 86; after that, the frequency of each object is less than 1 in 100 billion of all oscillator occurrences and the numbers are too small for any order to be meaningful.

Note: a tilde (~) has been used in lieu of leaving a cell blank when it is useful for that cell to sort at the bottom of the collating sequence.

	Pattern	Period	Heat	Minimum # of cells	Glider cost	Relative frequency	Rotor	Bushing type
1	Blinker	2	4	3	2	0.9898377	Pole 2	Dot
2	Toad	2	8	6	3	1 in 132.41	Toad	Toad
3	Beacon	2	2	6	3	1 in 423.43	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
4	Pulsar	3	42.7	48	3	1 in 4109.8	Pulsar	Pulsar
5	Pentadecathlon	15	22.4	12	3	1 in 381776	Pentadecathlon	-
6	Clock	2	8	6	4	1 in 654985	Clock (rotor)	Clock
7	Bipole	2	4	8	4	1 in 3.130 million	Pole 2	Bipole
8	Quadpole	2	8	10	5	1 in 3.500 million	Pole 4	Quadpole
9	Great on-off	2	2	18	5	1 in 5.081 million	Diagonal on-off	Cavity
10	Figure eight	8	16.5	12	4	1 in 10.66 million	Figure eight	-
11	Spark coil	2	2	18	4	1 in 15.53 million	Orthogonal on-off	Spark coil
12	Mold	4	7	12	5	1 in 18.64 million	Mold	Loaf
13	Quadpole tie ship	2	8	16	6	1 in 45.35 million	Pole 4	Quadpole
14	Tripole	2	6	9	5	1 in 92.25 million	Pole 3	Tripole
15	Mazing	4	14	12	5	1 in 97.85 million	Mazing	-
16	Blocker	8	9	15	5	1 in 140 million	Blocker	Blocker
17	Jam	3	14.3	13	5	1 in 186 million	Jam	Loaf
18	Trans-queen bee shuttle	30	17.9	20	6	1 in 324 million	Queen bee	Blocks
19	Cis-queen bee shuttle	30	17.9	20	5	1 in 330 million	Queen bee	Blocks
20	Trans-beacon on table	2	2	12	5	1 in 390 million	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
21	Cis-beacon on table	2	2	12	5	1 in 398 million	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
22	Cis-beacon on dock	2	2	16	4	1 in 418 million	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
23	Test tube baby	2	2	14	5	1 in 499 million	Orthogonal on-off	Test tube baby
24	Achim's p4	4	4	40	5	1 in 518 million	1-2-3-4	?
25	Cis-beacon on anvil	2	2	19	6	1 in 536 million	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
26	Octagon 2	5	16	16	5	1 in 621 million	Octagon 2	n/a
27	Unix	6	11.3	16	5	1 in 630 million	Unix	Unix
28	1 beacon	2	2	18	5	1 in 642 million	Diagonal on-off	1 beacon
29	Tub test tube baby	2	2	16	6	1 in 688 million	Orthogonal on-off	Test tube baby
30	Trans-beacon on dock	2	2	16	5	1 in 907 million	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
31	Tumbler	14	10.3	16	5	1 in 944 million	Tumbler	-
32	Block on griddle	2	6	15	5	1 in 1.01 billion	Flutter	Griddle
33	Fore and back	2	4	24	5	1 in 1.48 billion	Pole 2	Snake pit
34	Cis-beacon up on long bookend	2	2	14	6	1 in 1.56 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
35	Cis-beacon on cap	2	2	14	6	1 in 1.67 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
36	Cis-beacon down on long bookend	2	2	14	6	1 in 1.87 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
37	Trans-block on candlefrobra	3	6	16	6	1 in 2.06 billion	Candlefrobra	Candlefrobra
38	Mango with beacon on dock	2	2	21	6	1 in 2.30 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
39	Trans-beacon down on long bookend	2	2	14	5	1 in 3.77 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
40	Caterer	3	14.7	12	5	1 in 3.97 billion	Caterer	n/a
41	Coe's p8	8	12.5	17	5	1 in 4.27 billion	Coe's p8	Coe's p8
42	Trans-beacon on cap	2	2	14	5	1 in 4.95 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
43	xp2_8e1t2gozw23	2	2	16	6	1 in 5.64 billion	Diagonal on-off	1 Beacon
44	Beehive on griddle	2	6	17	7	1 in 5.67 billion	Flutter	Griddle
45	Boat tie spark coil	2	2	23	5	1 in 5.90 billion	Orthogonal on-off	Spark coil
46	Cis-block on candlefrobra	3	6	16	6	1 in 5.94 billion	Candlefrobra	Candlefrobra
47	xp2_69b8baiczx32	2	2	20	5	1 in 6.00 billion	Diagonal on-off	1 beacon
48	Trans-beacon up on long bookend	2	2	14	6	1 in 6.29 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
49	Bipole tie ship	2	4	14	8	1 in 7.26 billion	Pole 2	Bipole
50	Boat tie bipole	2	4	13	6	1 in 7.85 billion	Pole 2	Bipole
51	Boat on griddle	2	6	16	6	1 in 10.9 billion	Flutter	Griddle
52	Four boats	2	4	16	6	1 in 11.3 billion	~	~
53	Boat tie quadpole	2	8	15	7	1 in 11.6 billion	Pole 4	Quadpole
54	Monotub spark coil	2	2	19	6	1 in 15.1 billion	Orthogonal on-off	Spark coil
55	xp2_og2t1e8z6221	2	2	18	7	1 in 15.3 billion	Diagonal on-off	1 beacon
56	xp2_caabaiczw32	2	2	18	9	1 in 16.3 billion	Diagonal on-off	1 beacon
57	Eater plug	2	2	14	7	1 in 17.1 billion	Diagonal on-off	Cavity
58	Odd test tube baby	2	2	15	6	1 in 17.3 billion	Orthogonal on-off	Test tube baby
59	Trans-beacon on bookend siamese table	2	2	17	10	1 in 17.7 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
60	G and spark coil	2	2	21	6	1 in 19.6 billion	Orthogonal on-off	Spark coil
61	xp2_69b8b9iczx32	2	2	20	9	1 in 21.5 billion	Diagonal on-off	1 beacon
62	Cis-beehive on candlefrobra	3	6	18	7	1 in 24.9 billion	Candlefrobra	Candlefrobra
63	xp2_33gv1og26	2	2	17	8	1 in 27.8 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
64	Beacon on cover	2	2	14	9	1 in 28.4 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
65	Blocks on griddle	2	6	19	5	1 in 36.1 billion	Flutter	Griddle
66	xp3_6a889b8ozx33	3	2	18	7	1 in 37.3 billion	Cuphook	Cuphook
67	Cis-boat down on candlefrobra	3	6	17	5	1 in 41.5 billion	Candlefrobra	Candlefrobra
68	xp2_6a88baiczx32	2	2	18	8	1 in 41.8 billion	Diagonal on-off	1 beacon
69	xp2_0318cz259d1d96	2	2	22	6	1 in 42.0 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
70	xp2_gk2t2sgzw23	2	3	16	9	1 in 44 billion	Flutter	Griddle
71	Griddle and table	2	6	17	8	1 in 44 billion	Flutter	Griddle
72	Racetrack and ortho-beacon	2	2	18	9	1 in 46 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
73	Fox	2	18	12	7	1 in 47 billion	~	~
74	Cis-bipole and dock	2	2	18	9	1 in 47 billion	Pole 2	Bipole
75	Fumarole	5	12.8	18	7	1 in 56 billion	~	~
76	Beacon on racetrack	2	2	18	8	1 in 63 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
77	Beehive test tube baby	2	2	17	8	1 in 69 billion	Orthogonal on-off	Test tube baby
78	Cis-beacon down on trans-mango-with-long-leg	2	2	19	7	1 in 69 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
79	xp2_og2t1acz6221	2	2	18	8	1 in 62 billion	Diagonal on-off	1 beacon
80	Cis-boat up on candlefrobra	3	6	17	7	1 in 73 billion	Candlefrobra	Candlefrobra
81	Loaf on griddle	2	3	18	8	1 in 76 billion	Flutter	Griddle
82	Lightbulb and cis-hook	2	3	24	6	1 in 79 billion	V triplet	Lightbulb
83	Trans-boat test tube baby	2	2	16	9	1 in 82 billion	Orthogonal on-off	Test tube baby
84	Pond on griddle	2	3	19	8	1 in 84 billion	Flutter	Griddle
85	Cis-beacon up on tub-with-long-leg	2	2	15	9	1 in 88 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon
86	Cis-beacon up on beehive-with-long-leg	2	2	17	8	1 in 97 billion	Diagonal on-off	Beacon