Stuck at home social distancing. I have now won the game with the ballast in 9 resets.
An apprentice bringing a marcher back to life… it should not be possible. But you will have a notion, a fragment of memory, that help will arrive. Repairs will be made.
*** You will begin ***
[In the course of this game, you reset the world 9 times – 2 involuntarily.]
The six critical resources are the four elements (air, earth, fire, water), orichalcum, and mercury. In the steps below, when I use a critical resource, I represent it as (a e f w o m).
Here’s what I came up with:
- get air (o), open Deck Suite cabinet (but not Medical Wing Cabinet), make billet, Great Marriage (a e f w)
- open Storage Nook hatch (e o), Vacuum Protection, learn Tortoise, learn Radix, learn Caudex (m)
- learn Calyx (m), get air (o), open Medical Wing Cabinet (a), fix Baros (e f w)
- enter Chancel (e f w o)
- access Baros via Pneuma (e f o), fix Pneuma (m)
- diamond marble solvent, Yang Oil, get fourth glyph behind alien window (e o m)
- access Maze Center (e f o), fix Aistheta (m)
- fix Syndesis (w o m)
- perform Great Marriage in the Chancel (a e f w o m)
Here are the key insights:
- The ephemeris billet coordinates aren’t randomized, so you can just dial in the billet coordinates directly based on a previous playthrough. This is cheating, I suppose, but it allows you to create the ephemeris billet without using any elements.
- You can also cheat by putting the polar oil on the debris outside the alien wreck without going through the window in the wreck. (You’ll still need to go there to get the fourth alien glyph to win.)
- You can use Glass Permeability more than once in a run; just “perform glass” again and it’s ready to roll. Thus you can learn the Name of the Tortoise on the same run you first visit the alien wreck.
The rest is resource management and constraints.
Accessing dragons has these requirements:
- Aistheta: (e o), free after Pneuma
- Baros: (e f w), free after Syndesis; accessible for free from Pneuma after Baros
- Pneuma: (e f o), free after Aistheta
- Syndesis: (w o) or (a o), never free (this is why it’s impossible to win if you put the ballast in the Birdhouse Crawl)
So my path looks optimal to me (note that we’re using orichalcum in every round) under the following constraints:
- You can’t win until you get the fourth glyph behind the alien window
- You can’t get the fourth glyph until you’ve fixed Pneuma
- You can’t fix a second dragon until you access an alien glyph and access the Chancel
- You can’t fix your second dragon on the same round as you access the Chancel (due to orichalcum and/or water constraints)
- You can’t access an alien glyph until you perform Vacuum Protection
- You can’t perform Vacuum Protection or enter the Chancel until you’ve opened the Storage Nook hatch (it contains the Greater Phlogistical Saturation and the Fire Devourer)
- You can’t open the Storage Nook hatch until you open the Deck Suite cabinet
It’s not totally clear to me that I’ve done “better” than @ReikoYukawa in this case, because I think Reiko decided not to “cheat” with the billet (or with the polar oil?).
I think the best you can do without the calyx cheat or the billet cheat is indeed 10 resets. Adding the constraints that you must perform the Tincture before Great Marriage, and learn Calyx after the fourth glyph:
- get air (o), open Medical Wing Cabinet (a), open Deck Suite Cabinet, perform Tincture (e f w)
- get air (o), Great Marriage (a e f w)
- open Storage Nook hatch (e o), Vacuum Protection, learn Tortoise, learn Radix, learn Caudex (m)
- fix Pneuma (e f o)
- learn Chi in Burning Hall East (f), get fourth glyph behind alien window (e o m)
- learn Calyx (m), enter Chancel (e f w o)
- access Pneuma (e f o), fix Aistheta (m)
- access Baros (e f w), fix Baros (m)
- diamond marble solvent, Yang Oil, fix Syndesis (w o m)
- perform Great Marriage in the Chancel (a e f w o m)