[Arnavion]

There is an optimal way to play even for the first 11 XP as well as onwards and will always give you enough health scrolls / level ups to continue.

FYI I've played probably a couple of hundred games at this point (since a week ago when I found it) and have not found any unwinnable one.

[unsnap_biceps]

So what is the optimal way for the first 11 XP? I've found that I'm often left with a 50/50 on which one is which.

[o11c]

I've found I have at least 75% success with the following strategy:

* if at any point the rat king becomes visible (directly or via using the warlock scroll to identify all other 5s), activate it as soon as possible

* don't worry about leaving 1 and 2 enemies for the endgame; there's 16HP worth of walls to play with. (do however worry about leaving 1 and 2 enemies for the immediate following turn)

* if you can figure out where the warlock is, use it as one of your 1s

* make your 5 out of as many small numbers (known or constrained) as possible, even if this means not leaving a certain combination that makes 6.

* if you know "these squares must add up to N", clicking one of them is better than clicking a known N, and clicking a known N on the perimeter is better than clicking a known N that won't reveal any knowledge to you.

(for example, in a game I just started, revealed enemies are 21333 2467, but I have 16=2+4+6 + three unknowns, so I start there)

* aggressively expand toward areas with known 0s, you might get the ?gnome or a treasure chest containing XP (the mimic is no threat if you're paying attention and deal with gazers)

* whenever you use a scroll of HP, always do one that will reveal new information

* if you find the scroll of orb, use it immediately only if it's the very beginning of the game; otherwise leave it until you're lacking information and don't have any suspected 0s (if you have "100" next to 2 squares, it might choose that instead of a more useful 0 elsewhere on the map)

* work towards at least 3 of the corners so that you can kill the lich as soon as you reach 11HP. But before activating the scroll, make sure to flag (or at least constrain the position of) as many mines as you can . It's really annoying that this game "maybe" flagging (and yet, it has a useless 9).

* do not click on any walls until the endgame unless you don't know/suspect where any 1s are and you have only 1HP left

* remember that cells near the center can only be 0-7 or 10. The fact that 8s are only near the edge and there are no 9s often constrains how a large number is formed.

* with mines you have an extra level of logic, so very often you can constrain what nearby numbers are

[Aardwolf]

Does anyone the exact rules of the L0 enemy, the blue knight with red pants that sometimes gives 10xp.

For me the following happened in one game: early game a blue orb chest revealed him, and it said '0' on him. This was new since in previous games I encountered him later in the game and he'd say '10' and give 10 xp (the 0 was not visible in those cases since he got revealed by clicking a tile then, no blue orb).

I killed him and he just disappeared, no 10xp. But later that same game he appeared elsewhere, this time with 10xp, so he can move?

I fully cleared the entire board, but ended up with score 302, where normally that gives 303. I think that's related to what happened with this 0, and the guy seemingly moving.

I already beat the game to 303 before, but now I'm trying to beat it without gambling (that is no random clicks in the beginning other than the 2 blue orbs, while in earlier games I'd reveal corners in the beginning to make it much easier), and this 302 ruined it ;p

[o11c]

I accidentally enabled debug mode and figured out what's going on.

Whenever you click on the L0, he always teleports to an unoccupied square. Only if there is nowhere left to teleport do you get the 10XP. Since the scroll of orb uses similar mechanics to find an unoccupied square, that means it is worth using relatively early.

Incidentally, with perfect knowledge, there are at least 18 spare HP (it depends on how much XP the 1HP and 2HP walls happen to give). So theoretically you can get a score of 303 without using the last heart scroll. Without cheating the best I've done is 13 HP remaining when using the last scroll.

The only time I've got a score of 302 is when I didn't use the scroll of orb. Unlike scrolls of HP that one does seem mandatory.

[unsnap_biceps]

Thank you for the write up. That's a lot of great information