Apologies for the necro – I came here in hope of hints rather than a demo, but a little preemptive H&S magic got me to delete what I was typing, challenge done with literally one turn to spare.
For anyone else down the line wanting just a little push, this room demonstrates an important general principle: A smitemaster must always remember his or her
ABCs:
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×Always
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×Be
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×Cutting.
This means:
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×Every move you make, think:
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×Am I putting myself in the position to immediately cut another corner of mud?
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×Am I leaving something I'm going to have to loop back around through open floor to get later? Am I creating a fork in the remaining mud topology?
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×I'll need to rotate or reposition soon to keep whittling away...
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×Can I set myself up to take out a corner or baby while I do so?
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×Realistically, I'm going to be killing babies as soon as I create them...
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×I'd better create them where my sword was going to go anyway...
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×...and refrain from forcing myself to backswipe on them.
This all seems obvious on some level, and when it clicks you certainly can't unsee it as such, but where there's something that has to click, there's often something profound on some level.
Oh, and...
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×You probably won't find too many checkpoints along the optimised path you're trying to tread. Unlimited undo helps a lot here.
Cruel as this challenge seems, besting it will make you a better player. Best of luck!
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h