Advent of Code 2015 Day 21
Why not attempt Day 22 first?
- Any time a puzzle references another - earlier - puzzle, I try to solve the referenced puzzle(s) first...assuming there's important knowledge or skills to be gained from them that will help me solve the later one(s)
Part 1
- A finance-related boss battle? Exciting!
- A shortest-path combination puzzle
- How to do battle
- Studying the example scenario for the battle's math
- Writing an algorithm I could replay manually
- Playing out a few more battles
A finance-related boss battle? Exciting!
- Defeat the boss!
- But don't spend any more money than you have to to win!
- Even though the instructions say you have plenty!
A shortest-path and permutation puzzle
- I must find the combination of weapons-armor-rings that costs the least and still defeats the boss
The combinations:
- 1 weapon (5), 0 armor, 0 rings = 5 options
- 1 weapon (5), 0 armor, 1 ring (6) = 30 options
- 1 weapon (5), 0 armor, 2 rings (6 * 5 = 30) = 150 options
- 1 weapon (5), 1 armor (5), 0 rings = 25 options
- 1 weapon (5), 1 armor (5), 1 ring (6) = 150 options
- 1 weapon (5), 1 armor (5), 2 rings (30) = 750 options
Total possible combinations:
1110
Yikes!
How to do battle
- The player goes first
- Each attack damages the defender by at least 1 hit point
- As soon as any player has 0 hit points, the battle ends
- Each attacker's damage remains constant
Damage is calculated using this equation:
Attacker's damage score - Defender's armor score
- The boss's hit points and scores are provided in the input and do not change
- The player's hit points are 100 and scores are decided based on the item(s) purchased
- It seems the answer to this puzzle is identifying the cost of the items that cause the battle to a real nail-biter!
Studying the example scenario for the battle's math
Stats:
Player
Hit Points: 8
Damage: 5
Armor: 5
Boss
Hit Points: 12
Damage: 7
Armor: 2
Calculating scores:
Player:
5 - 2 = 3
Boss:
7 - 5 = 2
Rounds of battle:
Boss Player
0 12 8
1 9 6
2 6 4
3 3 2
4 0 0
Interesting:
- In the example, both player's hit points were evenly divisible by their respective damage score
12 % 3 == 0
8 % 2 == 0
12 / 3 == 4
8 / 2 == 4
If equal, Player wins
Else, whoever's is smaller loses
By my logic:
- Check whether the reminder after dividing the starting hit points by the damage received is 0
- If it is, calculate the quotient of the hit points and damage received
- Else, calculate 1 + the quotient of the difference of hit points and the remainder, then the damage received
So, using the example:
12 % 3 == 0 ? 12 / 3 : 1 + ((12 - (12 % 3)) / 3)
// 4
8 % 2 == 0 ? 8 / 2 : 1 + ((8 - (8 % 2)) / 2)
// 4
Then:
- If boss's amount is less than or equal to player's, player wins
- Else, boss wins
Writing an algorithm I could replay manually
Extracting the boss's stats:
let [BossHP, BossDmg, BossDef] = input.matchAll(/\d+/g)].map(el => +el[0])
Calculating the number of rounds survived:
function calculateRounds(hp, dmg) {
return hp % dmg == 0
? hp / dmg
: 1 + ((hp - (hp % dmg)) / dmg)
}
Simulating the battle:
function battle(stats) {
let BossRounds = calculateRounds(
stats.BossHP,
stats.P1Dmg - stats.BossDef
)
let P1Rounds = calculateRounds(
stats.P1HP,
stats.BossDmg - stats.P1Def
)
return BossRounds <= P1Rounds ?
["P1 wins!", P1Rounds, BossRounds] :
["Boss wins!", BossRounds, P1Rounds]
}
The parameter referenced above, stats, has this structure:
{
BossHP: BossHP,
BossDmg: BossDmg,
BossDef: BossDef,
P1HP: 100,
P1Dmg: 8,
P1Def: 4
}
To replay, I just changed P1Dmg and P1Def:
P1Dmg: 4
P1Def: 0
Boss wins!
P1Dmg: 5
P1Def: 0
Boss wins!
P1Dmg: 6
P1Def: 0
Boss wins!
P1Dmg: 7
P1Def: 0
Boss wins!
P1Dmg: 8
P1Def: 0
Boss wins!
Bummer. Looks like the player must carry more than just a weapon into battle to have a chance at winning!
Playing out a few more battles
It's not enough to do 8 damage and have no armor.
What about 8 damage and all the armor: 8?
- As expected, player wins
Let's work backwards now until player loses:
P1Dmg: 8
P1Def: 8
P1 wins!
P1Dmg: 8
P1Def: 7
P1 wins!
P1Dmg: 8
P1Def: 6
P1 wins!
P1Dmg: 8
P1Def: 5
P1 wins!
P1Dmg: 8
P1Def: 4
P1 wins!
P1Dmg: 8
P1Def: 3
Boss wins!
The lowest cost thus far:
P1Dmg: 8
P1Def: 4
Weapon: Longsword (40 gold)
Armor: Bandedmail (75 gold)
Ring: Damage +1 (25 gold)
Total cost: 140 gold
What if player's damage is 9?
P1Dmg: 9
P1Def: 4
P1 wins!
P1Dmg: 9
P1Def: 3
P1 wins!
P1Dmg: 9
P1Def: 2
P1 wins! Barely!
P1Dmg: 9
P1Def: 1
Boss wins!
The lowest cost thus far:
P1Dmg: 9
P1Def: 2
Weapon: Longsword (40 gold)
Armor: Chainmail (31 gold)
Ring: Damage +2 (50 gold)
Total cost: 121 gold
It's worth a try at the correct answer...
...Yes! Correct answer!
Part 2
I guess I'll keep playing!
This time, I must identify:
the most amount of gold I can spend and still lose the fight
- Seems smart to wear both the most expensive rings
- And I have to buy a weapon
How about:
P1Dmg: 7
P1Def: 4
Boss wins!
Weapon: Dagger (8 gold)
Armor: Bandedmail (75 gold)
Ring: Damage +3 (100 gold)
Total cost: 183 gold
Oh, and with two rings:
P1Dmg: 8
P1Def: 3
Boss wins!
Weapon: Shortsword (10 gold)
Ring: Defense +3 (80 gold)
Ring: Damage +3 (100 gold)
Total cost: 190 gold
Is that the correct answer?
- Nope. Too low.
Oh, another (7, 4) but with four items:
P1Dmg: 7
P1Def: 4
Boss wins!
Weapon: Dagger (8 gold)
Armor: Leather (13 gold)
Ring: Defense +3 (80 gold)
Ring: Damage +3 (100 gold)
Total cost: 201 gold
Is that the correct answer?
- Yes, it is!
I did it!!
- I solved both parts!
- By first building a round-calculating algorithm that performed simple arithmetic!
- Then, by building a battle-simulating algorithm!
- And playing it with different damage and defense values!
- And identifying the proper items that would tally to the winning - or losing - values!
If I hadn't stumbled on Part 1's correct answer so quickly, I was ready to write an algorithm using several nested for loops that simulated all 1110 of the options.
Thankfully, I didn't have to build such an algorithm!
Though, it may have been a fun - albeit frustrating and head-scratching - experience.
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