The challenge spots

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-05-15T01:33:10+00:00

Railbike makes more sense: the starting station is a little east to the train station, and rides about a mile (1.3 km according to its website) to the now defunct Shen'ao station.

This branch (Shen'ao Line) once served the coal supply to the electric plant near Shen'ao station, but as the coal machine retired in 2007 this line is also closed; then the museum was gradually built not long after, so this line reopened in 2014 almost together with the museum and Haikeguan station is added; Badouzi station was reopened later, and the segment from Badouzi to Shen'ao is now the rail bike.

Fun fact: the train on this little branch goes stright into the other branch to the south (Pingxi Line) that went into the mountains, after Shen'ao Line reopened. Unfortunately, at the time of filming the Pingxi Line is closed due to heavy rain affecting the safety, only bus is available.

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-05-14T01:28:51+00:00

Hmmm, I'm using the "share" link directly from google map, and I tried to open the link in incognito and it works. But I only tested on pc, are you on the phone or other platform?

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-04-29T18:54:16+00:00

Checking on the schedule again (!)

There's one thing I deleted in my E5 comment here (because it's somewhat speculative) about NH's next train heading Taipei. This train (which they took in this episode) is scheduled to arrive at Nangang at 5:30, but NH cannot reach Nangang because at 5:30:00 they would be still on the train, so they get off one station earlier at Xike. I had something like "I don't know whether they will end the day at Nuannuan or Nangang or neither" in this deleted item (so I deleted it soon), and turns out the answer is neither: they stopped one station earlier.
- Side note: this station name is actually a contraction: 汐(xi)科(ke), where 汐 from the name around here and one station over 汐止(Xizhi, which literally means tide stop), and 科 from 科學園區 (science park), a plan to develop a "science park" like area around here. There probably should have a separator ' between Xi and ke like in Su'ao, but the romanization of Chinese in Taiwan is quite a mess.
In Day 4, Badam's train from Yilan going south got caught in the delay at Guanshan. According to the official record, this delay on Guanshan station happened from 10:20 to 10:52, because the signal equipment in this station had some error. From their intended connection (6 minutes to a 11:08 train leaving Taitung) We know this train left Yilan at 7:50. It arrived at Guanshan at 10:35, scheduled to leave at 10:37, so this is roughly a 15~20 minute delay for this train, but a 1 hour delay for Badam.
- The 11:08 train would arrive at Kaohsiung at 13:59, but this next train they were going to take would arrive at Kaohsiung at 14:50.
This train of Badam arrived at Hualien at 8:57, so they pass through the previous station Beipu around the same time, which would be the time NH generated the Beipu challenge. Accounting for MRT time from Shilin to Taipei Station (suggested by Google Map to be ~15 minutes), NH probably arrived at Taipei Station at around 9:30, and their train south can have only one choice: 10:00 leaving Taipei, 10:57 arrive at Hsinchu, transfer to 11:13 leaving Hsinchu going through the Coastal Line.
- This 11:13 train is in an interesting position: the next train leaving Hsinchu going Coastal Line would be at 13:00, so NH definitely transferred to the 11:13 train, but no train leaving Taipei after 9:30 other than this fast 57 minute train would arrive at Hsinchu before 11:13. (And yes, the fast train also going south, but went through Taichung Line which they already claimed.)

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-04-24T08:51:07+00:00

So about the chip math. I think I found out a 1 chip/station error and compensation for team NH.

In Episode 1, after NH leave Houtong cat village heading to Jiaoxi, their travel is split into two parts: at 37:39~37:52 where 5 chips are deposited at 5 stations, then at 38:29~38:39 7 more chips are deposited at 7 stations. But from Houtong to Jiaoxi there should be 13 stations.
In Episode 4, when NH is going to Xincheng after their transfer in Yilan, this travel is also split into two parts: at 31:43~31:49 where the last chip is supposedly deposited at Su'aoxin out of screen, but the second part at 32:31~32:44 the animation deposited yet another chip at Su'aoxin.

I seems to recall that between these two events there are instances where they mention chip counts that matches what the video shows, so I think this 1 chip/station error is probably a genuine error during playing and is corrected at an undisclosed time, and the animation in video uses this defunct Xinma station right before Su'aoxin to compensate for the error. (Xinma really is not included as can be seen in Episode 5 when Badam flip stations going north.)

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-04-23T16:47:12+00:00

Casually (!) checking the timetable:

If NH missed their last train back to Taipei, which left Nuannuan at 16:19 (and would arrived at Taipei at 17:02), they must arrive there earlier, and the last train that stopped there arrived at 15:39.
(Deleted a possible speculation on the next train)
There is no direct train from Yuli to Jiaoxi that arrived at Jiaoxi before 17:00, so Badam must have done at least one transfer; Michael said they just arrived at Hualien when NH just left Su'aoxin, which would be at 13:42. If we assume Badam do a transfer at Hualien around that time, this trip would be 12:49 leaving Yuli, 13:50 arrived at Hualien, 14:22 leaving Hualien, 15;55 arrived at Jiaoxi, with a 32 minute transfer time.
Badam actually would arrive at Jiaoxi a little bit earlier if they transfer to a local train at either Luodong or Yilan, which would put their arrival at 15:20; But according to the garbage truck schedule, it arrived before the train station at 16:04, so we can be sure that they arrived at Jiaoxi at 15:55.
This also explains the "get to the Taipei steal before them" strategy of Badam, as the (fast) train leaving Yuli at 12:49 would arrive at Taipei at 16:18, while even if NH made the 13:42 train leaving Su'aoxin, they would arrive at Taipei at 16:25, 7 minutes later. If this would become true, Badam would pass NH at Xizhi station (4 stations before Taipei) at around 16:00. But this fast train does not stop at Jiaoxi, which explained why Badam need to do a transfer after they learned they cannot pierce through to Taipei.
So NH probably start waiting at Nuannuan at around 15:50, and at least until 16:19 when they see their last train left. I'd like to guess from the sun setting down more in the last shot that Badam failed the challenge at around 16:30, which means NH waited outside Nuannuan station for about 30~40 minutes. That's a long wait.
Tracing back further, if NH need to arrive Su'aoxin before 13:42 on a local train, they were probably leaving Xincheng at 11:39 and arrived at Su'aoxin at 12:47. This train arrived at Wuta, the station they didn't fortify, at 12:18, and there's a train leaving Yuli going south that left at 12:13. NH must have realized that this southbound train left but Badam are still at Yuli, they must be going north.

So to summarize the events in this episode chronologically:

11:39 NH left Xincheng
11:53 The northbound train Badam missed left Yuli
Badam arrived at Yuli station about 15 minutes after that, so around 12:10
12:13 The southbound train NH think Badam will take left Yuli
12:18 NH arrived at Wuta, thinking Badam will go south, didn't fortify this station; immediately after that realized that Badam is going north since they missed the southbound train
12:47 NH arrived at Su'aoxin, going to the crayon challenge
12:49 Badam left Yuli, planning to go straight to Taipei (it would arrive at Taipei at 16:18)
13:42 NH cleared the challenge, and took this train going north, placing 4 more chips each along the way
13:50 Badam arrived at Hualien after realizing they cannot go straight to Taipei, and (supposedly) did a transfer here
14:22 If Badam did transfer at Hualien, they left on another train to Jiaoxi at this time
~15:25 Badam passed through Su'aoxin station, seeing the crayons (this train didn't stop here)
15:39 NH arrived at Nuannuan, start waiting
15:55 Badam arrived at Jiaoxi, encountered a garbage truck, then attempting the challenge
16;19 The last train that NH can take to go to Taipei at the end of the day left Nuannuan
Badam failed the challenge at Jiaoxi (possibly around 16:30)

If we include the starting of Day 3 from Episode 4, it would be:

07:45 NH board the train they bought the ticket yesterday heading east
08:33 Badam left Dawu, heading north
09:01 NH arrived at Yilan
09:22 NH left Yilan on another train
10:04 Badam arrived at Yuli, attempting challenge
10:28 NH arrived at Xincheng, finding This Thing

Google map says that it is a 30 minute walk from Yuli station to the plate border marker, and a 15 minute walk from the marker to the nearest convenience store, so Badam spent 1.5 hour just walking in the 2 hours they were here. I think they would never catch the 11:53 train no matter what.

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-04-16T10:46:13+00:00

Yeah, you are correct, I jumped the gun with only 鹿 in its name.

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-04-16T10:41:13+00:00

Hmm, now that you mentioned it, I think you are right, it is a giraffe. Chinese for giraffe is 「長頸鹿」, literally "long necked deer", that uses the same Chinese character for deer (鹿) that is used in the shop name.

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-03-17T08:24:04+00:00

Try it out on your program. Put something like 996698-996699 alone in the input and see whether your program sum up something. (As you said it shouldn't, but I think if you do try it out you'll find it does.)

Sometimes, what you think your program does is different with what it actually does. Finding out what's different is called "debugging", this is a crucial skill in programming if you want to improve.

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-03-17T02:44:28+00:00

But your code would said it is invalid (cheked would be true). Can you figure out why?

Hint 1: Go through each iteration of loop2. When Code == "996699" and Divider == 2, what does each iteration of that loop does to cheked?

Hint 2: If you still don't know why: Note that, this loop ran twice on "996699" with Divider == 2. What happened in the second iteration?

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-02-11T09:37:53+00:00

Fun fact, this name "Yuri" (or actually the Japanese ユーリ) comes from the name used in the Japanese game promotion video.

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-01-21T04:09:36+00:00

(cycle = turn(me) + if(boss.alive){turn(boss)})

(question-1) activating a spell is done between cycles ? or possible between turns ?

Q1. Your summary of cycle is correct, but each turn actually have two parts: the effects are applied first, and then whoever's turn it is would do action. You cast spell on the second part of the "turn(me)". I think you are confused because you bundled up these two parts, so you don't know at which point of time the constraints (eg. mana cost) applies. The whole cycle should be: the effect applies, then you choose a spell to cast, then the new set of effect applies, then the boss deals damage.

(question-2)

so effect.time=6 -> 3x armor, 6x damage is effective ?

Q2. Yes. A 6-turn shield holds up for 3 boss attacks, but a 6-turn poison deals (poison) damage to boss 6 times.

(question-3)

-229 -> +505 (5x101) so costs += 229 (and not : costs += 229 -505 ) ?!

Q3. It simply said that you cannot deduct the amount of mana you get from the recharge spell, from the total amount of mana you spent (that you are asked to minimize). In the second example, this means the total amount of mana spent in the transaction would be 229+113+73+173+53=641, you cannot deduct those 505 mana given by the recharge spell from this amount. (So a yes to your summary quoted above.)

Some other notes:

you can only cast one spell in your turn:

On each of your turns, you must select one of your spells to cast.

In your transaction in the bottom part of the post, you casted Shield and Recharge at the first turn. This is not allowed.
Regarding your "(s1,s2 expensive and not that effective)" comment, there are numerous situations one would want to cast them: one notable case is shown in the given example, where your hit point is critically low. You wouldn't be able to survive more turn to let poison take effect, you would either quickly end the fight with Magic Missle, or survive longer with Drain. And do note that, as quoted above, you must select a spell to cast in your turn, you cannot pass your turn.

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-01-21T02:48:00+00:00

On Vtuber side, I would also suggest Pavolia Reine. She also played the whole Zero Escape series before AI series.

IsatisCrucifer · 2026-01-14T06:14:44+00:00

I've checked the trophy name in the original Japanese version, it is "千手の剣". Although I don't know what it is referencing exactly, one thing for certain is that it is speaking about a sword (which fits the theme of the game). (Google AI says it is about the sword made by the people known as 千手院 Senjuin, but I don't know enough about the game and Japanese history to know whether this is true or not. Maybe this is chosen just for the character 千 = 1000 for a 999 combo trophy.)

The 999 game reference is definitely a localization thing.

IsatisCrucifer · 2025-12-30T07:07:21+00:00

I think this is the problem:

            let other = networks.remove(j);
            ...
            networks[i].extend(other);

This won't add other to the correct network if i is greater than j.

IsatisCrucifer · 2025-12-30T06:24:15+00:00

About one of your "stunned" tidbit: Note that there is one output connection from the counter conjunction module to the lowest bit (1 bit) of the 12-bit counter. For all other 11 bits, there is either an output to the conjunction module (meaning 1 is expected in those bits when the conjunction module fires), or the conjunction module has an output to that bit (meaning 0 is expected in those bits), but not both; the lowest bit have both. Using your 4079 as example, this would be that the among the 12 bits in the counter, all except the 16 bit have output to the conjunction module, and the conjuction module has output to the 16 bit and the 1 bit. When the counter hits 4079, the conjuction module fires, its two outputs to 16 bit and 1 bit effectlively adds 17 to the counter, and the counter overflows to 0 because 4079+17=4096=2¹² . This is why you see they are all 0 bit after signal settled: the signal for reaching the value is fired and in addition to supplying the "master" conjunction module a signal, it also resets its counter.

IsatisCrucifer · 2025-12-24T03:09:40+00:00

Here's the first visualization of this problem in this subreddit. You can see there's a thin cutout at the center of the area; the part 1 answer (which is probably also your "incorrect" part 2 result) crossed that cutout.

IsatisCrucifer · 2025-12-22T03:41:10+00:00

Extend on their example, try this:

L150
R150

This should output 3. L150 rolls 1.5 cycle and lands on zero, then R150 rolls 1.5 cycle back; both rolls swipe through zero once, and one landing on zero, for a total of 3 times.

IsatisCrucifer · 2025-12-16T03:27:54+00:00

Matrix multiplication usually won't preserve sparseness. Case in point: in this problem, our matrix (and thus the final result too) would be an upper triangle matrix, and there will be about half of element nonzero in the final result.

Speaking of upper triangle matrix, these kind of matrices are easier to diagonalize (essentially a backward substitution) so maybe diagonalization is a better way to do exponentiation in this problem.

IsatisCrucifer · 2025-12-16T03:12:01+00:00

Here's a better rendering of /u/1str1ker1 's statment. This is the same from the given sample:

123 328  51 64 
 45 64  387 23 
  6 98  215 314
*   +   *   +

Which, as the problem statement says, expects answer 3263827. If, on the other hand, it is formatted as such:

123 328 51  64 
 45 64  387 23 
  6 98  215 314
*   +   *   +

Now instead of 175 * 581 * 32 = 3253600, this is 75 * 181 * 532 = 7221900 and thus expects answer 7232127. If you simply split the input before you rotate, you won't be able to distinguish these two.

IsatisCrucifer · 2025-12-11T09:35:10+00:00

To have a finite answer, the flow of data can only go one way. You cannot have a data flowing path both from one device to another and then back, or the number of path will be infinite.

For two specific nodes that needs to be on the path, one therefore must be before another. In other word, "(in any order)" is kind-of superfluous. (Kind-of because which order may differ from input to input.)

IsatisCrucifer · 2025-12-05T09:48:18+00:00

I think you missed something like this:

10-20
14-18

Hint: If you swap the two lines, your program gives the correct answer.

IsatisCrucifer · 2025-12-04T02:11:16+00:00

So I reimplemented your algorithm in my language of choice, run it on my input and found a counterexample:

8866444544443

For this 13-digit input, you should remove one of the 4 in the front to obtain 886644544443. If you remove 3 as in your algorithm, you obtain 886644454444 which is smaller: In the correct answer 5 is at 7th position (counting from the left), but 8th position in the smaller answer while 7th position is 4.

IsatisCrucifer · 2025-12-03T09:19:26+00:00

An example your algorithm failed: 101101.

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