Tour · 3 of 11 · Section 4.5.1, Table 4.4

The optimal route

How little room for error does the simple floor leave?

The hero starts with 470 HP, and the potions add 700. In the best order, the monsters that have to be fought, the boss included, cost 1,157 HP. The optimal route therefore ends with 13 HP: a single decision that wastes 13 HP or more loses the floor.

The exact solver finds exactly one set of monsters and doors that wins. Its route has seventeen actions; at every one of them at least one legal alternative makes the boss unwinnable, at ten of them every alternative does, and on average 87 % of the alternatives lose (Table 4.4). Step through it below.

Route on the map
HP470final 13
ATK / DEF9 / 4
Keys0 / 0 / 0yellow / blue / red
Step0 / 2112 decisions
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0
24
1
114
2
114
3
56
4
55
5
182
55
6
24
7
55
56
8
9
114
182
114
10
!
Original game tiles (24-floor sample tower, mota-js). Number on a monster = HP it costs to kill now (green: winnable, red: not). Hover any tile for its stats.
Exact route · 13 HP

Every decision clears a door or fight node; items and fights that cost nothing are taken automatically ("auto"). 412 states expanded.

Every winning episode of the final configuration follows the same sequence, the winning trajectory. It equals the optimal route except at turn 15, where it fights the Slime Lord (1,9) before the Bat (3,5). That costs 11 HP, so every win ends at 2 HP instead of 13, and from then on any decision that wastes 2 HP loses.