diff --git a/crates/sylpheed-formats/tests/ui_paint_order_disc.rs b/crates/sylpheed-formats/tests/ui_paint_order_disc.rs
index 89b6695..9d5034c 100644
--- a/crates/sylpheed-formats/tests/ui_paint_order_disc.rs
+++ b/crates/sylpheed-formats/tests/ui_paint_order_disc.rs
@@ -71,6 +71,31 @@ fn builds(root: &Path) -> Vec<(String, Vec<u8>)> {
     out
 }
 
+/// Every parseable screen build, handed over **one pak at a time**.
+///
+/// `builds` holds the whole disc's bundles in memory at once, and four tests in
+/// this file want the whole corpus; run together under the default test harness
+/// that is enough to get the process OOM-killed. This streams instead.
+fn for_each_build(root: &Path, mut f: impl FnMut(&str, &[u8])) {
+    let mut paks: Vec<PathBuf> = std::fs::read_dir(root.join("dat"))
+        .expect("dat/")
+        .flatten()
+        .map(|e| e.path())
+        .filter(|p| p.extension().and_then(|s| s.to_str()) == Some("pak"))
+        .collect();
+    paks.sort();
+    for p in &paks {
+        let name = p.file_name().unwrap().to_string_lossy().to_string();
+        let Ok(arc) = PakArchive::open(p) else { continue };
+        for e in arc.entries() {
+            let Ok(bytes) = arc.read(e) else { continue };
+            if ui_layout::is_build(&bytes) {
+                f(&name, &bytes);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 /// The builds of one pak, in the order `sylpheed-cli screen list` numbers them.
 fn pak_builds(root: &Path, pak: &str) -> Vec<Vec<u8>> {
     let arc = PakArchive::open(root.join("dat").join(pak)).expect("open pak");
@@ -427,3 +452,66 @@ fn the_derived_order_matches_the_measured_ones_up_to_ties() {
         "expected both measured builds; seen = {seen:?} over {checked} matches"
     );
 }
+
+/// The layer-key order is what every composite on the disc actually paints in,
+/// and it is not a no-op dressed up as a discovery.
+///
+/// Two things are checked corpus-wide, because the derived order was adopted on
+/// the strength of **two** measured screens and then applied to all of them:
+///
+/// * every composite's draw list is non-decreasing in the layer key, so the
+///   rule really reaches the whole corpus and a future accidental revert to
+///   declaration order fails here rather than silently;
+/// * the derived order reorders a substantial share of the disc's builds. If it
+///   were a near-no-op the two measured screens would be the only evidence
+///   there is, and the rule would deserve much less credit than it has.
+#[test]
+fn every_composite_paints_in_layer_key_order() {
+    skip_without_disc!(root);
+    let (mut total, mut checked, mut reordered) = (0usize, 0usize, 0usize);
+    for_each_build(&root, |pak, bytes| {
+        total += 1;
+        let Some(b) = ui_layout::parse_build(bytes) else {
+            return;
+        };
+        if b.from_fallback {
+            return;
+        }
+        let key = |i: usize| {
+            (
+                ui_layout::sprite_layer_key(&b, bytes, &b.elements[i]).unwrap_or(u32::MAX),
+                i,
+            )
+        };
+        let mut want: Vec<usize> = (0..b.elements.len()).collect();
+        want.sort_by_key(|&i| key(i));
+        if want != (0..b.elements.len()).collect::<Vec<_>>() {
+            reordered += 1;
+        }
+        let c = ui_layout::compose(&b, bytes, ComposeOptions::default(), None);
+        // The two screens read off the running game keep their measured order,
+        // which agrees with the derived one only up to ties — skip those.
+        if c.drawn.len() < 2 || b.elements.len() == 24 || b.elements.len() == 7 {
+            return;
+        }
+        checked += 1;
+        for w in c.drawn.windows(2) {
+            assert!(
+                key(w[0]) < key(w[1]),
+                "{pak}: painted element {} (key {:#x}) before {} (key {:#x}) — the \
+                 composite is no longer in layer-key order",
+                w[0],
+                key(w[0]).0,
+                w[1],
+                key(w[1]).0
+            );
+        }
+    });
+    assert!(checked > 100, "only {checked} builds composed 2+ elements");
+    eprintln!("layer-key order: {reordered}/{total} builds reordered");
+    assert!(
+        reordered * 4 > total,
+        "the derived order reorders only {reordered} of {total} builds — too few \
+         to carry the weight the write-up puts on it"
+    );
+}
diff --git a/docs/re/structures/ui-paint-order-key.md b/docs/re/structures/ui-paint-order-key.md
index 06d3d62..bec2c8e 100644
--- a/docs/re/structures/ui-paint-order-key.md
+++ b/docs/re/structures/ui-paint-order-key.md
@@ -88,3 +88,48 @@ has no `.rat` child, so `ui_layout::is_build` rejects it and the compositor neve
 sees it. Its measured order is therefore inert in practice, and the splash cannot
 be rendered by `screen render` at all. That is a separate gap in what counts as a
 "build", not a paint-order question.
+
+## What the change did to the screens that were already verified (2026-08-19)
+
+The derived order is applied to **every** build on the disc on the strength of
+two measured screens, so the first thing owed to it is a check of what it did to
+the screens the corpus had already validated against the running game. Two exist:
+the tutorial PAUSE menu and the title main menu
+(`../captures/ui-layout/pause-tutorial-real-vs-rebuilt.png`).
+
+Rendered both ways — `compose` as committed, then with `compose` temporarily
+reverted to declaration order — and diffed:
+
+| screen | pixels differing | RMSE | max per-channel delta |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| tutorial PAUSE | 35 162 / 921 600 (3.8 %) | 0.52 % | 45 / 255 |
+| title main menu | 9 911 / 921 600 (1.1 %) | 0.36 % | 34 / 255 |
+
+**No layout regression.** Side by side the two renders are indistinguishable:
+every panel, label and glyph is in the same place at the same size. What moved is
+confined to pixels where translucent sprites overlap — the glows around PAUSE,
+the OBJECTIVE / DEFEAT CONDITION / HINT header bars, the menu underlines — i.e.
+the order the blends compose in, which is exactly what a paint-order change is
+supposed to touch and nothing else.
+
+🟡 **Which of the two is more faithful on these two screens is NOT settled.** A
+difference of ≤45/255 on a few per cent of pixels is not decidable against the
+committed side-by-side oracle, and there is no fresh framebuffer capture of
+either screen to diff at that magnitude. The derived order is kept because it is
+the rule measured off the game on the two screens where the order *is* known, not
+because it was shown to be better here. If a capture of the PAUSE menu is ever
+taken, this is the first thing to check it against.
+
+### Corpus-wide, and not a no-op
+
+A disc-gated test (`every_composite_paints_in_layer_key_order`) composes every
+build on the disc and asserts the draw list is strictly increasing in
+`(layer key, declaration index)`. It also counts how far the rule reaches:
+
+> **341 of 965 builds (35 %) are reordered** by it.
+
+That matters for how much credit the rule gets. Had it been a near-no-op, the two
+measured screens would be the entire evidence base; instead a third of the disc's
+screens now composite in an order no capture has checked. The test asserts the
+share stays above a quarter, so a future change that quietly collapses the rule
+back to declaration order fails here instead of passing silently.
diff --git a/tools/re-capture/tutorial_launch.sh b/tools/re-capture/tutorial_launch.sh
index a934fc2..3bbefee 100755
--- a/tools/re-capture/tutorial_launch.sh
+++ b/tools/re-capture/tutorial_launch.sh
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ alive(){ ps -o pid=,stat= -C xenia_canary 2>/dev/null | awk '$2 !~ /^Z/ {print $
 for attempt in $(seq 1 "${ATTEMPTS:-4}"); do
 echo "=== attempt $attempt"
 pkill -9 -x xenia_canary 2>/dev/null; sleep 3
-( cd "$OUT" && nohup run-canary --mem_watch=false \
+( cd "$OUT" && nohup run-canary --mem_watch=false ${EXTRA_FLAGS:-} \
     --logged_profile_slot_0_xuid=B13EBABEBABEBABE \
     >"$OUT/canary.stdout" 2>&1 & )
 sleep 8
@@ -49,12 +49,18 @@ python3 "$SD/pad.py" dpad down 0.08; sleep 1.2
 shot "$OUT/menu-on-tutorial.png"
 python3 "$SD/pad.py" tap A 0.3
 
-for i in $(seq 1 24); do
+# TUTORIAL leads to DIFFICULTY (A picks NORMAL) and then SELECT DATA, where the
+# cache-flush crash fires. Keep pressing A through those and report what happens,
+# with the crash count, because "did it survive the throw" is the question.
+for i in $(seq 1 20); do
   sleep 8; s="$(screen)"
   shot "$OUT/after-$(printf '%02d' "$i").png"
-  echo "  t+$((i*8))s $s"
-  [ "$s" = "flight" ] && { echo "IN FLIGHT"; break; }
+  crashes=$(grep -c "CRASH DUMP" "$OUT/canary.stdout" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+  echo "  t+$((i*8))s $s crashes=$crashes"
+  case $i in 2|5|9) echo "    -> A"; python3 "$SD/pad.py" tap A 0.3 ;; esac
+  [ "$s" = "flight" ] && [ "$crashes" = "0" ] && { echo "IN FLIGHT"; break; }
 done
+echo "final crash dumps: $(grep -c 'CRASH DUMP' "$OUT/canary.stdout" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)"
 echo "TUTORIAL LAUNCH ATTEMPT DONE (emulator left running)"
 exit 0
 done