diff --git a/docs/re/BACKLOG.md b/docs/re/BACKLOG.md
index cff6f03..bb348b5 100644
--- a/docs/re/BACKLOG.md
+++ b/docs/re/BACKLOG.md
@@ -1788,6 +1788,32 @@ is what the autopilot needs in order to CHOOSE a target. One run in:
   `ob_flag.py` abort on it. **Roughly two runs in three.**
   See [`mission-freeze-resume-spin.md`](mission-freeze-resume-spin.md).
 
+> ### ✅ 2026-08-27 — the "first step, revised" below is DONE, and `--log_mask=0` is a dead end
+>
+> **The counter moves.** `pilot.py` gained `SYLPH_WEAKEST=1` (score scaled by the
+> target's remaining hull, so fire concentrates on one already-damaged craft
+> instead of spreading over a squadron) and the very next run drove
+> `REMAINING OB` **008 → 007**, concurrent with the live `e010` floor dropping
+> 16 → 15. `REMAINING OB` is now fully solved — see
+> [`ob-counts-marked-attackers.md`](ob-counts-marked-attackers.md). So the
+> obstacle this entry names is cleared; what the freeze work still needs is only
+> a **frozen sample** for the v2 probe to compare against.
+>
+> ❌ **Do not try `--log_mask=0` for that sample.** Measured on a full Stage 02
+> run: **199 MB of log**, growing **~33 MB/min**, and a 300 k-line tail is
+> **254 127 `A>` (Apu/XMA)**, 42 444 `d>`, 2 897 `G>`, 532 `w>` — with **zero**
+> `k>` and only **14 `K>` lines in a 58 k-line boot sample**. `XamShowSigninUI`,
+> `KeWaitForSingleObject` and `NtWaitForSingleObject` each appear exactly **once**
+> in the whole 199 MB, i.e. in an export listing, never as call traces. That
+> independently confirms the cost note above: kernel calls are `kHighFrequency`
+> and stay silent without `--log_high_frequency_kernel_calls=true`, so `log_mask=0`
+> buys nothing but audio spam. The purpose-built `--log_stuck_waits` probe remains
+> the right instrument.
+>
+> ⚠️ That run also **did not freeze** — healthy from `TIME 00:24.28` to
+> `03:33.28`, `frozen.py` animating throughout — making it the fourth
+> consecutive non-freezing run across this entry and the last session.
+
 **First step, revised:** make `pilot.py` shoot, then re-run `ob_flag.py`. The
 freeze is no longer the blocker it looked like — a 25-minute run stayed
 animating — and the actual obstacle is that nothing the pilot does moves the