#optimization puzzle

[zoydraft]

Transit Puzzle Game

A transit-themed pen-and-paper puzzle game for one or more players, about the constraints of incremental planning.

These are the rules for the first stable-ish version, written up March 11, 2025

Planning supplies

1 D6

A hex grid (I’ve been testing with 9 by 11.5 (alternating 11 and 12 tile rows), which introduces space constraints very quickly. I have also tried a much bigger grid and found it too wide open, but more testing would be beneficial)

A die with at least as many sides as the longer dimension of the grid

Coloured writing utensils. At least 5 per player, preferably more.

You’re probably curious about how to win

You will be scored for your system attributes and performance. Your score can either be used in pursuit of a personal best, or competitively around a table.

The system attributes are:

Length of longest line (in tiles)

Number of interchanges (defined as tiles with tracks heading in ≥3 directions)

Other ideas

Most stations in a line (redundant with longest line)

Super-interchanges (defined as tiles with tracks heading in 6 directions)

Once you have placed your 10th station you will roll the coordinates of a trip’s origin and destination. Once you have completed your map, you will be evaluated on your system’s service of this trip.

Once you have placed your final station you will roll the coordinates for a second trip which you will also be evaluated based on.

Gameplay

Randomly decide your starting coordinates (e.g. if using a 9 x 12 grid you can roll 2D12 and re-roll if the numbers are too high to correspond to a tile) and draw your first station there.

If playing multiplayer, all players share all rolls, including starting position, track lengths, and trip coordinates.

Roll a D6 to find the length of track to be placed. All tracks must be straight, exactly the length rolled, begin at an existing station, and end at another station, which can either be new or already existing.

Repeat step two until you have placed 10 stations.

Determine your first trip coordinates (origin and destination) and indicate them on the map

Continue placing tracks and stations until you have placed 20 stations, or you have rolled 3 consecutive D6 that have not allowed a legal track placement.

Roll your second trip coordinates and show them on the map.

Track Placement & Lines

Tracks can only be straight lines

Tracks can not cross, except at stations

Lines are continuous tracks that do not turn more than 60°at stations

You may start a new line on any roll, but it must originate from an existing station

You must use all rolls that you are able to. If you do not believe there is any possible track placement possible you may re-roll up to 3 times. If you have 3 consecutive rolls that do not allow legal track placement your map is finished.

Scoring

The first iteration of scoring is intentionally convoluted to appeal to my weirdo child, whose favourite part of the game (by far) is using a calculator. Simplifications may be beneficial.

Trip Evaluation

The first step of trip evaluation is checking the walking distance between the two tiles to figure out the baseline trip time.

Then, you find the trip time by adding up the factors on the table below.

Origin coordinates: (___, ___)

Destination coordinates: (___, ___)

Final Trip Score

(Alternately, use only K)

K x M =

Final Score

(M1 + M2) x C

Commentary

This game evolved from a collaborative world-building game that my kid had no initial patience for. As is, it is much more puzzle-y and fairly fun and satisfying.

Future Work

Illustrations for instructions, or example maps.

Testing different maps

Different grid sizes

Incorporating obstacles or points of interest

Testing multiplayer

Scoring could be simplified using a victory points system, such that system attributes are a sum of superlatives around the table.

Players could agree in advance on attributes of interest.

Refining scoring options

Current rules are purposely convoluted.

[creepyjirachi]

okay hear me out. i know i love science and i’m very good at chemistry and physics. but what if i became a fucking accountant

[welcomeinitiate]

soccer chef is sooo fun! I need a full version of it ASAP

question though, I made bicycle kick although that's not in the recipe book?

Thanks!!! It was incredibly fun to make and also a giant mess of spaghetti. The way I made it was a little unhinged in that I used global variables and had the game reset each time you click the pot lid

There are four dishes that were implemented but not listed in the recipe section as they weren't helpful to the puzzle solve: Hand Ball, Drop Ball, Bicycle Kick, and Kick Off--looks like you figured one of them out!

[moe-broey]

I love when speedruns are just like. World record time! 29 hours long. Playlist split in ten parts for convenient viewing. Each chunk 3 to 5 hours. Maybe more, I'm not there yet. AWESOME... 🫡

[neillesart]

Imagining Nightmare's mansion filled to the brim with breakable crates and pots. Uninvited guests go in and break all of them for materials.

[infinitystation]

sorry about that i just didnt think there would be much balatro posting tbh so i never checked the tag kjhfkg

[mountmortar]

the thing that always destroys me in calculus are the goddamn optimization problems. limits? easy. derivatives? easy. integrals? tedious as fuck sometimes but ultimately easy. "A rectangle is constructed with its base on the​ x-axis and its upper two vertices on the parabola y = 16 - x². What are the dimensions of the rectangle with the maximum​ area? What is the​ area?" buddy i'm about two seconds away from taking a long walk off a short pier let's calm it down a bit

[verdantmeadows]

Professor Layton speedruns are so funny because there's not really anything impressive skill-wise like a Hollow Knight speedrun or glitch-wise like a Mario 64 speedrun. Answer my puzzles and mash through dialogue fast boy

[potatoesandsunshine]

i miss him...... (arcade gannon)

[haplogamingchef]

Clair Obscur Expedition 33: Full Ancient Sanctuary Walkthrough & Platinum Trophy Guide

Introduction

Welcome, explorers! If you’re working toward that Platinum Trophy in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, you've come to the right place. This guide will take you through everything you need to know about completing the Ancient Sanctuary 100%. We’ll cover every hidden item, shortcut, outfit, merchant, and boss battle in an easy-to-follow route.

Whether you're hunting for all the Luminina Colors, grabbing rare weapon upgrades, or unlocking secret outfits, this walkthrough has you covered. Plus, if you want to find every merchant and important collectible to make your journey smoother, keep reading.

Let's dive right into the Ancient Sanctuary and make sure you don't miss a single thing!

Starting Your Adventure: Unlocking the Shortcut and Gathering Early Loot

Before heading straight to the Ancient Sanctuary, there’s still plenty to do. First, from where you start, head left through the forest. Stick to the path and you’ll find a stone marker — interact with it to unlock a valuable shortcut. This will make moving around way easier later.

Tip: Make sure you activate the shortcut immediately. It'll save a ton of backtracking.

Quick Loot: After the shortcut, look nearby for a Luminina Color. It’s near some crates guarded by an enemy you can safely ignore. Just grab it and move on.

After snagging the loot, head back across the bridge and begin moving clockwise through the area. Stay on the main path for now; we’ll cover the side areas soon.

Clearing Enemies and Collecting Important Items

As you proceed clockwise, you’ll encounter a small enemy group. These are guarding an item you absolutely want — so take them out. The enemies aren’t too tough, especially if you’re at the level expected at this point. Take your time, dodge properly, and collect your rewards.

Key Rewards:

Weapon upgrade materials

Another Luminina Color tucked away inside a chest

You’ll also stumble upon a merchant close by. Make sure you buy everything available, especially the Artist Wig and the Music Album. Note: One item remains locked until you add a new party member — don’t worry, we’ll return later for it.

Reaching the Beach and Grabbing a Hidden Outfit

After finishing up near the merchant, head left toward the Red Forest and continue along the path until you start seeing the beach. This is your next big destination.

Important: There’s a hidden outfit here you don’t want to miss.

Directions: Walk down to the beach, look near the crates to find the Colors of Luminar (sometimes referred to incorrectly as Luminina Colors — both names pop up).

You'll also meet a stronger NPC here who mentions an "ugly" friend located deeper within. Don’t rush forward yet — there’s an obstacle course you’ll need to complete.

Obstacle Course Challenge: Winning the Swimsuit

The obstacle course at the beach isn’t easy, but it's totally doable with a little patience.

Tips for Success:

Waves can knock you off — be patient and time your jumps carefully.

Stick to the logs and rotating platforms.

Always start moving when the path lines up rather than waiting too long.

Once you complete the course and reach the other NPC (the "ugly" guy), you’ll get a reward question. Answer it by typing 17 to receive a Boy’s Swimsuit Outfit!

Shortcut: After getting your reward, you can just jump into the water to return to the start quickly.

Facing the Strong Enemy for Big Rewards

After your fun at the beach, head back toward the main path, staying on the left side (clockwise direction again). You'll quickly run into a huge enemy — don’t let the size scare you.

Why Fight?

Drops a ton of EXP (around 21,000 XP).

Grants huge loot and weapon upgrade materials.

Levels up your characters by two to three levels easily.

Strategy Tips:

Dodge his major slam attacks — it’s easier than parrying.

Target his weak spot in the center for double damage.

Use Fire Attacks: He’s vulnerable to burning.

Break his balance fast using Breakers, then spam your heavy skills.

Revival Ready: Keep healing spells and revival items handy just in case.

Once defeated, you’ll get strong revival components and make your next dungeon much easier.

Merchant, Hidden Cove, and Important Encounters

Keep moving past where you fought the big guy and you’ll find a small beach with a hidden merchant.

Good News:

You can buy everything here immediately (no tasks needed this time).

Stock up on rare items and accessories while you can.

After shopping, continue towards a small cave entrance you’ll see ahead. Important:

You can't fully enter the cave yet because of a special barrier, but talk to the purple Cobalt enemy outside.

You need to find five of these purple enemies across the world map to unlock special later-game paths!

Pro Tip: Always speak to strange NPCs even if you can't proceed immediately.

Entering the Ancient Sanctuary: First Steps and Fast Loot

From the red forest, move forward until you reach the main entrance to the Ancient Sanctuary. This place is huge but don't worry — we’ll keep it straightforward.

First Thing: Follow a strange glowing object ahead.

Break Shields Fast: Use AP shots to weaken enemy shields quickly and make fights easier.

Important: Always use Overload when available to speed up enemy takedowns.

Inside, you’ll collect:

Luminina Colors (lots of them)

Catalyst components for upgrades

Small loot drops for quick boosts

Remember to keep an eye out for glowing purple items; they often blend into the scenery.

Exploring Side Areas and Finding Bonus Items

After clearing the initial room, head down to the left along a rocky stream. You'll find a glowing item below — Pictus Burning Mark — a very useful upgrade that improves burning attacks.

Next Move: Climb back up and stay on the main path.

Keep following the trail and you'll come across:

A giant statue in the distance (ignore for now, we'll revisit it).

A boy standing alone on the path — talk to him.He doesn't do much yet, but it’s important for story progression later.

From there, continue walking straight, and you’ll reach the first major boss fight inside the Sanctuary.

Taking Down the First Boss and Scoring a New Weapon

After talking to the boy and moving forward, you'll run into the first Sanctuary boss.

Fight Tips:

Don’t worry — it’s not super hard if you use Overload early.

Focus on shield-breaking attacks.

Dodge instead of parry — it's safer.

When you beat the boss:

You’ll unlock a new weapon.

You’ll also open the way forward to a new checkpoint.

Important: Before rushing ahead, make sure to heal and save at the checkpoint.

Left Path Exploration: Mimic Fight and Huge Rewards

After the checkpoint, turn left, not right.

You'll find a cave entrance leading to hidden loot.

Watch out for a Pantomime (Mimic) sitting up on a rock.

How to Beat the Mimic:

Hit it fast with Earth Magic from Lone.

Let Gustav Overload and smash it while the barrier is down.

Stay aggressive once its shield breaks — it drops fast.

Reward:

Baget Outfit — another cool collectible!

Other Quick Loot in This Section:

Revival Color (extra healing potion)

Luminina Color (grab it when you spot the glowing points)

Several chroma shards (needed for future upgrades)

Pro Tip: Always check corners and edges — hidden loot is easy to miss here!

Cave Exploration: Loot, Battles, and Pictus Upgrades

After grabbing the Baget Outfit, head back into the cave and choose the right-side path this time.

You’ll find:

More chroma shards early on (grab all you can, you’ll need tons soon).

An enemy blocking your way — deal with them carefully.

Tip: Take out ranged attackers first to make fights smoother.

Once you defeat the enemy:

Check the right corner: There’s a Luminina Color waiting.

Also hidden inside the cave:

Pictus: Invigorating Start (gives you +2 AP at the start of battles).

Super useful for speeding up fights, especially tougher ones coming soon!

Life Steal Upgrade and More Hidden Collectibles

Moving further through the cave, you’ll find another guarded spot.

Beat the enemy blocking the path (jump attacks work wonders).

Then, grab two major rewards:

Pictus: Life Steal — heals you with every basic attack.

Another Luminina Color near a rock wall.

Both upgrades boost your survivability and make regular encounters much easier.

Shortcut Tip: After collecting everything, circle back to the main checkpoint. You’ll loop neatly around the Sanctuary without missing anything.

Unlocking Shortcuts and Preparing for the Final Boss

Once you circle back to the checkpoint, it’s time to open some shortcuts.

Head to the right and look for a shortcut path — unlock it.

Why bother? It'll save time if you need to come back for collectibles or side tasks later.

From there:

Continue moving forward along the main illuminated path.

Watch for more loot:

Hidden chroma shards

Extra healing items near crates

Checkpoint Tip: Make sure you heal, save, and gear up — you’re about to hit a major boss fight.

Beating the Final Sanctuary Boss (No Spoilers!)

At the end of the illuminated path, you’ll meet the real boss of the Ancient Sanctuary.

Fight Strategy:

Break shields first with AP shots.

Use Overload attacks after stunning him.

Dodge big attacks — some are instant knockouts if you’re not careful.

Buff with healing light and use ignite spells for damage over time.

When you beat the boss:

You’ll unlock a new ability.

Gain access to major loot drops.

Complete the Ancient Sanctuary's main quest for Platinum progression.

No spoiler: Trust me, this boss feels way tougher than the first — but manageable if you stick to dodging and timing.

Secret Tunnel, Hidden Pictus, and Extra Loot

Before you leave the sanctuary, don’t walk out just yet. From the boss area, turn left and explore the nearby zone.

You’ll find a Luminina Color tucked behind some rocks.

Keep moving up the slope and check the right side wall — there’s a small crawlspace you can easily miss.

Crawl through it and grab:

Pictus: Stunned Enemies Take +30% Damage (Super useful in stun-based builds later in the game)

An Energy Color Shard, which boosts item strength.

Pro Tip: Don’t leave this pictus behind — it’s one of the most overlooked power-ups in the game!

Exiting the Sanctuary and Reaching the Next Village

Once you’ve cleared the tunnel:

Exit back through the forest path.

You’ll land in an open world section with red trees and rocky terrain.

Head right and you’ll quickly reach the next checkpoint and the village of Gestual Dwarf.

Along the way:

Look for another Luminina Color near a dead robot sculpture.

The transition to the village marks the end of Ancient Sanctuary exploration.

And with that — you’ve 100% completed this region of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33!

Key Takeaways for 100% Completion

✔️ All Luminina Colors collected

✔️ All merchants discovered

✔️ Secret outfits (Boy’s Swimsuit, Baget Outfit) unlocked

✔️ Pantomime defeated

✔️ All Pictus upgrades obtained

✔️ All shortcut paths activated

✔️ Both major bosses cleared

✔️ Progress to next region unlocked

Wrap-Up

That’s everything you need to fully complete the Ancient Sanctuary in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. From unlocking all shortcuts to taking down both bosses, collecting every Luminina Color, and grabbing hidden outfits and Pictus upgrades, this route ensures you don’t miss a thing on your way to the Platinum Trophy.

Stay tuned for the next region guide as we dive deeper into the world of Expedition 33. Until then, keep exploring, leveling up, and collecting every last secret!

If this guide helped, feel free to share it with other adventurers and subscribe for more walkthroughs.

FAQs – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Ancient Sanctuary Guide

Q1: Where can I find all Luminina Colors in the Ancient Sanctuary? You can find them in side caves, hidden tunnels, boss arenas, crate areas, and near shortcuts. This guide shows every location in a clockwise route.

Q2: How do I unlock secret outfits in Expedition 33? Secret outfits are tied to optional tasks like completing the beach obstacle course or defeating a Pantomime enemy in a hidden cave.

Q3: What are the best weapon upgrades in the Ancient Sanctuary? After defeating certain enemy groups and bosses, you’ll get rare upgrade items — including enough to push your swords to level 6.

Q4: Can I miss any merchants in the Ancient Sanctuary? Yes. A few merchants are placed off the main path and in hidden beach/cave areas. This guide helps you locate every one of them before advancing.

Q5: Is it possible to complete the Ancient Sanctuary 100% in one visit? Mostly yes, but some areas and collectibles are locked behind late-game progress or specific characters. This guide marks those for follow-up later.

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[skydigiblogs]

more talk about the apocalymon descended dungeon in puzzle and dragons lol

okay with a little more adjustment last night my team is now extremely consistent, albeit barbed orbs and weakened orbs are still both a pain lmao. idk if there's any counterplay for them in the game rn (i would assume enhanced orb skyfall is the one for weakened orbs at least actually i am finishing a run while working on this so i just noticed, it seems to be matching an enhanced orb with it?) but anyways

here's what i'm running now

leader: tai and agumon - flamie's firepepper (latent: leader swap resist)

sora and biyomon - masaki's CAD

sora and biyomon - altheos altrusta

sea wolf and daytona (wolftona) - flamie's firepepper

diaochan - amaterasu's timepiece (latents: 2x SDR, jammer surge resist)

the equips at this point are kind of superfluous on some of my cards (tai's and seatona's are the same, offering +2 SB while changing their sub att to fire, but i put the one on seatona not realizing it can't target the 3rd attribute). an equip i've seen on at least one or two tais in my friend's list that could also work is madoo's flame chain-bound destroyer god evolution. this gives you tape/cloud and 2+ SB. other red equips with 2 sb (at least that i can see in my box) are elio's g-pen, june bride ra's ring (also provides 1 SBR), shiva's brooch.

i don't know what the currently functioning database site for card info is so there are definitely more that i just don't have access to lol.

tl;dr though the equips that matter provide:

jammer resist (metalseadramon, machinedramon, and apocalymon)

poison resist (metalseadramon, apocalymon)

sbr if your version of the team doesn't have full sbr (puppetmon; this can also be achieved with the SBR badge if you have it)

tape coverage optional (piemon; there's a sub lead tai on my list that has it. since piemon always tapes the bottom row for 1 turn, it's not a huge hassle to deal with since you're running a tpa team)

skill boost. ultimately, you need 36 turns of charge, ideally on turn 1 (i supplement this with a SB+ badge to hit 29). this can be shored up with a haste inherit on diaochan. first turn, she gets both soras and wolftona charged. use wolftona first, then a mix of sora and tai to get wolftona transformed and everyone up to their final form. i haven't' figured out the perfect order for this yet, but it also doesn't matter too much since tai gives you 2 turns of damage void and at least one sora will be charged by the end of that.

base sora cleanly loops while offering an insane amount of haste. you'll go through the dungeon with a guaranteed 35% shield, damage void pierce, and 6x7 board cleric. it also doesn't hurt that she sets her damage cap to 9 billion.

with wolftona, you also have cleanly looping orb gen, albeit some off colors since wolftona generates 4 blue orbs, but it hasn't been too much of a problem for me. you'll alternate tai - wolftona - tai and so forth. wolftona also sets its damage cap and recovers 40% hp for the turn when it procs, which is very useful. the transform skill for stage 1 is also handy for ensuring you hit your max hp before moving on from metalseadramon.

make sure you have diaochan up to clear apocalymon's preemtive. she's a 2 turn charge at max level, so as long as you don't use her the last turn against piemon, she should be up since he has a 50% super resolve. she's also your move time debuff cleric, something that'll only come into play if metalseadramon isn't playing nice with you.

you may also consider trying to fit a debuff cleric for if you screw up skill timing and end up with machinedramon hitting you with the .25x for 3 turns debuff. it's liveable since this team is so tanky though. tai's mult is also so nutty that if you're hitting 10c with at least a few tpas, you are good to go.

once you have most of these hazard resists, everything else is just a skill check to see if you can handle working around debuffed orbs, roulettes, and barbed orbs. ultimately, you bring resists for the things you don't want to deal with or find most annoying (in my case, filler orbs and 5x4 board). VDP like sora's skill has is important if you want to run a tpa team since you don't inherently have it through any other looping skill (like, say, a cotton system in a daytona team).

as soon as barbed orbs are in play, i find myself using a lot of corner movement to avoid barbs as best i can. i don't know the exact numbers on how much they do, but it can stack up if you don't slow down and plan your moves ahead. the recovery on seatona is important for coming back from a bad barb skyfall. if you have a team with at least one heart orb enhance (like i get from diaochan), you'll also benefit from matching heart "tpas," so keep that in mind.

in general though, remember: if you can't match tpas, just make sure to match fire and light attribute orbs. your shield is tied to those matches. tai benefits from tpas, but ultimately, if you think you can't make the damage, low and slow should work with all the recovery available to you. sora's shield helps mitigate some damage, but it can't fully protect you from how hard some of these mons are hitting.

like i said with my much rougher version of the team last night, if anyone in the digimon fandom needs help building for this dungeon, hit me up in my inbox and i can try to help.

[fellator]

one of my favorite things about takeout is actually the trash bc like. most of these containers were flat once. I can make them flat again

[rawbiredbest]

Nioh 2 is less than 30 bux on Steam

I highly recommend you check it out, it's very good

[bluemoonbun]

Reader is implied to like feminine things, though gender identity is kept ambiguous.

Damian was a good brother. That’s what he always told himself. He was a good brother, a good son. He was cold, rude, and erudite, but he was able and willing to help anyone who needed it.

When he arrived at Wayne manor, Bruce told him the general run down of why you were to be avoided when it came to anything vigilante related. You were still pure, a year younger than Damian but without any of the pain. The only one in the Wayne manor that could have a shot at becoming a normal person. Damian envied that, but kept it to himself. His anger often boiled to the top, drops of green venom dripping from his mouth when you tried to annoy him into spending time with you.

Your complaints of him ignoring you was scalding water on his already raw nerves. Why would you complain about not being the center of attention for five damn seconds? He would trade anything for the life you had. A life where you could lay around after school and never worry about a rogue bullet lodging itself in your arm, or a poisonous plant releasing psychedelic spores into an open wound.

You could and would never join the Robins. You were weak; it was in your blood. Always sickly, always the pacifist. You wouldn't survive a day in his life. And you weren't living his life; you were living his dream.

But apparently the effort the family was putting in wasn’t enough.

He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed that the manor felt… off about two weeks before the fight with Joker. He couldn’t trace it for the life of him at first. When he realized by the second week that he hadn’t spoken to you in days, or really seen you around the manor at all, he wrote off the worms writhing in his stomach. You must’ve been busy with a class assignment and had little time to annoy him with your demands of time together.

After the fight, however, he was a war of a thousand emotions. How dare you leave them? Why would you turn away an easy life fat on nepotism for a group of murderers, con men, the dredges of Gotham’s society?

Were you truly that desperate to be acknowledged that you’d turn your back on the family who did everything for you? He hopes you’re happy there, since you were clearly so upset at not being given attention.

Over time, however, things start to change. A few days after Jason made a full recovery, Damian looked at one of the drones Tim managed to get a chunk of code from. It took a lot of trial and error, and the development of an entirely new program to grab some of the code before it bricked itself, and enough all nighters and energy drinks that any doctor would faint, but it was managed. The code was dense, optimized to work with the least bloat possible, well tagged variables, and even a handful of comments in the code.

//Buy Bane those Boston Donuts from the donut shop on 5th //Why does this code need to be here so it doesn’t auto brick itself. What is in the code protecting it from the wrath of God //Louie likes Texas barbecue ribs. Possible treat? //DO NOT FEED THEM WHOLE RIBS. COOKED BONES BAD. //SINCE WHEN WAS THIS VARIABLE A STRING??? IT WAS AN INT 5 LINES AGO //Help the hopeless lesbians get together. //Would Harley and Ivy dating make Harley my mom or Ivy my big sister? Both???

His eyes skimmed the retrieved comments, laughing at a few. It seems that Bane, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn were the most common subjects of the notes, though a few mentioning the Iceberg lounge asking what non-alchoholic drink you’d like added, or Riddler offering you another puzzle to keep your mind active. Even Joker was mentioned, though it seemed mostly transactional.

It was strange seeing you in this light. You seemed to have a lot of spice in you, but a heart made of gold. You were definitely surprised whenever one othe villains offered to take you on some trip to amusement parks, regular parks, even just willingly watching anime with you. It was odd to see. Surely someone at the house did those things with you? He didn’t but he was extremely busy with school and vigilantism. Jason was legally dead, so surely he had all the time in the world.

“How was I supposed to relate to them? They’re what, 12 and into shit like that one with the cat looking dog thing and the robot girl. I have shit to do. Y’know, managing Crime Alley?”

Well, Dick had come over to hang out plenty of times. Surely he’d spent at least a few hours with you every now and then? “I have an entire team and criminals to manage of in another city, Damian. I don’t have as much time as you think to do whatever it was with them they’d wanted to do”

Maybe Tim? “I have college and stuff, Damian. And I don’t have the energy to put into hanging around them. I’d probably just be sleeping most of the time.

Bruce? “I have to manage you, Gotham, and the Justice League, Damian. I barely have time for myself.”

… Alfred? “I tried, Master Damian. However I’m constantly pulled thin between so many tasks. Besides, all you have is school most days, and you’ve had summer vacations and weekends. Shouldn’t you’ve had plenty of time to spend with your younger sibling?”

… He did have the most time outside of vigilantism. And it took him a week to realize you were missing.

You had to realize that they were under extreme stress though, right?He couldn’t spend all his free time with you. He had his own friends to hang out with. How were you two even supposed to relate?

One day at dinner, the thoughts were thrashing in his head, slamming against soft tissue and tearing through brain matter. He aimlessly poked at the food on his plate.

“You alright, replacement?” Jason asked, pausing in his extremely rare dinners with everyone else. Alfred had promised him a tray of fudge to take home this time around, and nobody made fudge quite as good as he did.

“… They were gone for two weeks.”

Everyone stopped eating as he continued.

“Two weeks. Two full weeks before they showed up at that fight. Did anyone here even know? I only noticed after a week and assumed they were just holed up in their room with a class assignment or something.” He was rambling. Everyone was quiet and looking at each other. How did it manage to slip past everyone? They were detectives, for Christ’s sake.

They were your family.

—

Dinner ended with guilt wrapping around their throats and pulling.

Eventually, all of them found themselves in your room. It had been emptied, but showed no signs of struggle. All the small items, the comforter, and your clothes were gone. But what was taken left something behind. Copies of photos of you winning state level competitions, letters requesting your attendance at seminars, photos of gold medals and blue ribbons spread across the floor. Most damning of all was the most recent photo. A certificate by some big time tech company being handed to you. Edward Nashton stood behind you, a firm, reassuring hand on your shoulder.

When had this happened? They never remembered hearing of something like this. A news clipping on the back told them it was maybe a week before you left.

“The Wayne prodigy stated that their family had more important things to see to than such an occasion. I can’t imagine something more important that either of my kids being recognized by a multi-million dollar tech company! I remember postponing an anniversary with my husband to celebrate our child placing second in the science fair. But I guess that’s just the Waynes for you!”

That’s just the Waynes to you.

But it’s ok. He can make it better. He can be a good big brother. He can spend time watching anime with you and decorating your room with lace and fairy lights and go makeup shopping with you. You just need to come home. Now.

---------------- Taglist! Ask to be added! Edit: It is now closed!

@jjsmeowthie , @jsprien213 , @ladyrosemone

[wirewitchviolet]

Sudokuvania: Digits of Despair is one of the most impressive works of pure game design I have ever seen.

Before I say anything else, I am going to be talking about a game that is VERY new and has pretty terrible search optimization, so in case this blog post somehow came up near the top of results for someone, here is the as-of-this-writing-current 1.02 release, and for good measure, here is the official FAQ page with the full version history, any future patches, and an FAQ for some of the more confusingly worded stuff that crops up later into the game. Now on with the praise-heaping!

So... Sudokuvania pretty much exactly what the name implies. It's a -vania, that is, a Metroidvania, and specifically one styled after one of the ones that's actually in the latter Castlevania series so that naming convention actually makes sense. Exploring a big castle, fighting bosses, getting various items letting you explore more areas, maybe breaking out of the borders of the map to find cool secrets here and there.

Also, it's a variant of sudoku. And I don't mean someone sat down with some videogame designing toolkit and made a videogame where some of the gameplay is solving logic puzzles on a grid you fill with numbers (I mean, I guess technically I do). I mean that link to the game I posted takes you to a website with a little built in standard app for solving sudoku puzzles and weird variations thereof, and the particular puzzle it's pointing to, somehow, manages to have a big map to explore, boss fights, special items that give you new powers, NPCs, and for good measure, fog of war. It is, again, an absolutely amazing hacky thing and I'm flabbergasted at how well executed it is. Now you're probably wondering how that even works, and that's why I'm writing this big gushy blog post. Here's what you see when you first load it up:

You're going to notice there is some absurdly small and kind of important text you can't possibly read, and that's because again, this is kind of a hacky thing this site so was not designed for. So it's kind of annoying but if you access this through the proper introduction page, it'll explain that the first thing you need to do is click the little gear icon in the floating tool palette, toggle on Visuals: Draw arrows above lines and Disable emoji replacement, then scroll all the way down to Experimental and turn on Test Large Puzzle UI. That enables you to zoom in and out with the scroll wheel, and right-click drag to pan around. It's... a little clunky because again, this website was NOT built for this, but tada, now you can zoom in, read the text, and start solving at a reasonable size. Then there's a couple gameplay concepts it does its best to explain, but... most people I've shown it to myself included needed extra explanation of a couple important early concepts. So let me just do a little color coding here to make this easier to get...

The map is not, in fact, one great big grid. It's 9 squares (and one rectangle that's not quite square over on the east side). Each of these is its own 9x9 Sudoku grid (well, the starting one is 6x6 and has those mutant 2x3 cells instead of the usual 3x3, and there's that weird eastern mutant). If you're solving stuff in one square, you completely ignore everything outside that square, except for where they overlap, in which case the numbers you're placing have to fit for both puzzles. So if we look at the light grey/green intersection on the left, those three overlap cells respectively can't be 4 6 or 5 (and whatever use you deduce in the grey box, but the pure green cells completely ignore all that, you're just focusing on the green 9x9 (which is going to have the overlap as a starting point, naturally).

The next bit that through me off a ton is the way fog of war works. Let me reasonably zoom in and do a little solving here. One second...

Here's the whole starting area all marked up to hell like you do when you're kinda bad at Sudoku and don't know how to spot a starting point. Penciling in little numbers in the corners. You'll also notice a that... most of the map is covered in this dark grey fog of war. A lot of in-game stuff mentions that you shouldn't go clicking out into the fog of war, because it'll show you names of later areas and preview certain special rules and all, but that's talking about clicking WAY off from what you can see. You are 100% allowed to solve stuff out in the fog of war, and it's pretty stingy about de-fogging. Don't go blindly guessing because then you can maybe end up sequence breaking but... yeah. Sorry I'm spoiling the Front Gate, it's basically the tutorial though. Anyway, first move is obvious, only one place we can put that 6, and suddenly...

Tada, important space so it rewarded us with a little fog clearing. You can also see that this will handily point out stuff in your pencil notes that can't be true, but only if A- it's untrue for standard sudoku reasons not special stuff, and B- it's not in the fog of war (or on the other side of some. You also maybe noticed that weird green thing under that first hint 6? That's something we need a tool for, you don't worry about it until you have that tool. Solving this out some more...

Little more de-fogging, both of the puzzle area and the margins where we're getting new information on playing the game in general. Now right here if you're observant, you'll see that bottom right corner has to be a 6. It's out in the fog of war, but you can mark it if you know what it is. And...

I was cropping it out before but the big purple number pad is always floating off to the side there, and the green text box over it, which among other things has an area name and flavor text for whatever grid you're in. This won't ALWAYS happen when you place numbers in fog of war, but there was a trigger on this 6 to load in a little piece of the first real area, and oh hey, we unlocked "Guide THERMO!" That's our first tool, and it's described up in the upper left.

So tada, from here out in addition to standard sudoku stuff, you've got these "bronze Guide THERMOs" that show up here and there and have this extra rule. You basically never get free numbers in the grid past the Front Gate, it's all slow-marching into new areas using what you're bringing in plus some easy starting examples of how your new tools work, plowing on from there. The fog of war is pretty stingy but it keeps you focused. You'll also notice the rules here mention bosses, all the 9x9 ones have one. It's clearly marked, and you should PROBABLY expose it from the fog first, but any time you're in the area really you, if you scroll around in that green text box or hit the rules button when in a grid, there's a link you can click to go fight it. The boss fights are all separate puzzles (site's good about auto-saving so don't freak out if it takes over your tab and you have to hit back after). These are very themey, sometimes VERY evil (especially boss #1, feels a bit overtuned) self-contained 9x9 puzzles, probably using the same tools their area is themed around, and I don't think there's a single pre-placed number in any of them. Beat the boss puzzle, it gives you some flavor text and a number to place in its cell back in the main castle puzzle, plug that in and you're always going to unlock something cool. Usually a new item, sometimes other weird stuff, and it just goes on like that.

Don't expect to be able to fully solve a given grid in one go. It's a Metroidvania, backtracking is expected. Even if you've fully de-fogged a grid, later stuff might reward you by straight up adding new symbols you couldn't see before or doing weird stuff with fog. It IS all solvable with pure logic... but there ARE a few places that do that thing I hate in tougher sudokus where you just kinda have to pencil in in a different faction and explore 2 possible futures for a bit to see which eventually contradicts itself. And of course the last couple of grids do some really evil mind-bendy stuff.

But yeah aside from a couple gripes where the way a tool works could maybe be a lot more grammatically clear, that first boss being a lot to deal with as you're first getting your feet wet, and a particularly cruel twist later on, I don't really have any complaints. Well, it might need a cool soundtrack. Maybe play some Castlevania music. Maybe switch it up for some real proper boss music when you're nearing victory.

Again I am just completely blown away that someone made something so meaty in a standard sudoku site's normal UI, and really managed to make it feel so much like playing a DS Castlevania. Some real proof of game design being an art form here. And now you too can just completely lose a day or two to it!

[puzzlax]

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