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This is the hold used for the second blind DROD race. See this thread for context.

Levels were made by blorx1, disoriented and Xindaris. Additional testing by Crimson Moon.

Minimal changes were made between this version and the race.

Insoluble
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Looks like not a lot of people have played through this hold yet (with CNet accounts at least), which is a real shame. This hold was pretty fun to play through even having seen most of the solutions before from watching the videos. There are quite a few rooms that are interesting to optimize and not too many rooms that were overly fiddly. Each of the three levels has a very different feel (which is understandable coming from three different architects), but I found all three of them to be enjoyable.

The three levels are labeled with difficulty levels but take those with a grain of salt. It's not really a matter of different difficulty levels so much as different difficulty styles. It wouldn't really fit on a scroll, but I would describe them thus:

Atoll (Disoriented): Mostly linch pin based room in which there is one central idea. If you get the main concept of the room execution is pretty straightforward (with one or two exceptions). Very nice aesthetics by the way, the sailboat was a nice touch!

Preparation (Xindaris): These are mainly execution/efficiency rooms. It's usually pretty clear what you need to do, but you have to be strategic with how you go about doing it. I also want to mention that these felt much more streamlined and focused than some of the rooms in Xindaris's published holds (especially the first one). I really liked what I saw here.

Frozen Abyss (blorx1): This was easier on average than the typical blorx1 hold, but if you've played any of those before you know that an easy blorx1 hold is still pretty tough. Expect a mix of linchpins, tricky execution, and crazy looking rooms. They can be difficult to parse at first, but once you figure out what's going on they aren't too bad.

So lots of fun overall. Definitely worth trying out even if you've seen the videos of it (which you can find in the link in the post above.)

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Lucky Luc
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I guess this hold could use some more reviews. Note that I'm reviewing the race version, but I assume this version is mostly the same.

As you might know, I was a runner in this race, and I enjoyed it a lot. I think think it was excellent in what it tried to be: A hold that is interesting to solve as quickly as possible. But even without any time pressure, I'm convinced the puzzles are very fun and satisfying to solve.

disoriented's level is a great collection of little lynchpins that are not hidden in any way, but pretty fun to figure out. If you know a good deal about DROD, you should be able to solve most of these rooms in a minute or two, but even then there might be a few rooms that have you baffled for a while. Also, there's a super-neat drawing of a boat in the first room.

Xindaris' level is also pretty cool, though I failed it badly during the race. It's about time-clones and only contains three rooms, but they are a lot more execution heavy than the rest of the hold.

blorx' level is, well, a blorx level, but more of the "A day at the beach"-kind than his usual crazy-difficult-madness. The rooms look very complicated at first, but most of them actually turn out to depend on a relatively simple lynchpin, only that they are a lot more hidden than in disoriented's level. There's also a neat mechanic that I totally missed during the race. (And if you're not sure, a blorx level is a good thing in my opinion)

Finally, the extra lap contains some pretty tough variations of the rooms from the three main levels, and honestly, it's a good idea they were nerfed. They are, however, extremely satisfying to solve, and I'm glad they've made it into the hold.

I rated it a 9 overall and 6 brains, because I feel like that's appropriate. If you haven't checked this out and you're thinking about it, you should! If you've watched the videos and wanted to wait a while, maybe now is a good time? Anyway, totally recommended.

Nuntar
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There are a couple of faults with the challenge scripting.

VL 1N: Script waits for you to be near the room edge before awarding the challenge, but there's nothing to indicate this. Surely it makes more sense to just check the player isn't trapped by excluding the zones (6,3)-(8,9) and (5,10)-(11,15).

VL 2N:

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blorx1
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I'm not sure if we have a precedent in place for it being OK, to update challenge scripting, but I'm not particularly interested in doing so at the moment.
Trapping yourself in 2N is sufficiently difficult that if it awards the challenge, I'm not really bothered by it.

For 1N, the scripting works, and while I admit it's not indicated that you need to go near the room edge, the racer videos I've seen demonstrate that people usually figure it out.

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Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

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Anyhow, now that I've finished the victory lap, time to write a review

This is a very nice, shortish hold, highly recommended if you want a break from harder holds. disoriented's level has the most rooms, each one being a linchpin mini-puzzle in the style of Foursquare. I'm not wild about the waterskipper horde room or one room that uses an obscure mechanic, but mostly the rooms are very neat and you feel good about solving them.

Xindaris' level is a mixed bag -- neat timeclone linchpins in Entrance and 1S, a weirdly easy room in 1S1W, and a horde efficiency room in 1S1E (but don't be put off, it isn't as frustrating as it looks). And finally, blorx's level is a fun mixture of linchpins, mimic manipulation, and playing with player roles.

As for the victory lap, the leap in difficulty between 1N and 2N and the rest of the hold is rather jarring -- these two rooms took me two hours, longer than the entire rest of the hold. That said, puzzling out the solutions was great fun, and in a fitting spirit of generosity, each one has two solutions of roughly equal difficulty, and you get a challenge awarded for both.

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