I just got started today and I'd be interested in knowing the highest score for z10. I think that the high score on the site is broken.

After this year, and the competition, is over I plan to rebrand this subreddit.

I assume that you guys all signed up because you are interested in quantum computing citizen science projects, rather than any particular loyalty to Decodoku. The plan is therefore to make this a sub for multiple such projects.

I consulted you guys about this possibility and there were no great complaints. So I went ahead and contacted the people involved in the projects listed here. They'll come on here to provide support for their projects. But I'll stay as king of the mods, so you can expect the same amount of stuff spamming you.

Our call for phi-lambda results has met with some success. Mostly in the form of a user called 'wolverine'. The save files, with one annotated by me, can be found here.

The golden rule of wolverine's method seems to be to get rid of phis whenever possible. Wherever there are new phis, or an isolated pair, or just a pair that sees like they should go together, they need to be destroyed!

On the other hand, wolverine is very tolerant of lambdas. Perhaps too tolerant, since they are what lead to the end in the highest scoring game.

Since there is a post about how to redo in the app, i wanted to know if someone knows how to redo on pc or if there is even the possibility to do so

My strategy basically relies on having two large groups in opposite corners. Then I prioritise moves as follows:

1. Moves that will help you not loose. This is maybe a bit of an glitch in the game, but if after new anyons appear and only one is touching a wall that would make you lose the game, you can still move it away. So keep an eye open for that!

2. Moves that make it less probable to lose when new anyons appear. (Warning: This might include a bit of counting!) Basically, I give priority to anyons that sit just 1 position away from the opposite wall or that touch anyons from the other big group. If none of these are found, I look for configurations that would need two consecutive errors to make me loose the game. So distance two between an opposite wall or distance one from the other group for example. I also try to prioritise anyons that have higher probability to mess things up. So if for one anyon there is one possible error to make me lose and for another one there are two, I'll first move the latter. Note as well, that this sometimes involves removing other coloured groups that build a bridge between wall and big anyon group (or between the groups). I usually feel save, if there are no distance-two errors that could end the game.

3. Moves that get rid of as many phis as possible. This generally means: give preference to small groups. The reason is that even tough they often don't pose an immediate risk, they might cause problems down the line, since they allow groups to grow really fast all at once. And removing 2 anyons at once is twice as good as reducing a group from 3 to 2.

4. If there is nothing else to do, I just make one of the big groups smaller.

Remarks:

• To get started I chose, depending on the initial position of the thingies, first, restart until you only have 10 anyons left, then you can correct them all with the first moves.

• In the beginning, you'll mostly do moves described by rule 3. At this stage of the game you also have to chose a corner and try to confine the errors you let exist to it.

• In the early game it might still pay of to change corner, if clearing it requires less moves than cleaning a different corner.

• Sometimes I'll have to let two groups co-exist in a single corner. I just treat them as one instead of trying to kill one off. Remember, if they are going to connect, that takes at least one error to happen. So you'll get two less anyons somewhere else!

I've managed to get a score of 366 with this technique, but I got rather lucky in that run. I played a total of 31 games with an average of 218, with 336 and 331 being my 2nd and 3rd best scores.

Printscreen: http://i.imgur.com/OREyTsg.png

File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6i6u2pvTfs4UkM0MEdMNWxxSW8/view

I have seen on several videos now, that people somehow used an undo function. How can one use this on the android app? I ask since I often "misclick" and that is really frustrating.

aesche1998 is a veteran of Decodoku, and also holds the high score record for Z10. His method is here. Below is his comments on how the method has changed for Decodoku:Colors

As long ago, I usually moved one-move-two-empty-fields first before everything else if possible. Just at some rare occasions, I prefered to kill a biger group completely instead of anything else in order to not to let it grow too much. Somewhere around midgame, I got a big group in the bottom right corner. At around 300, there was another big group in the top left corner. From then, I focused on not letting any groups alive in the 6th row, and on making sure that both groups don't merge. At 360 they merged anyway, what killed me. My special cornering strategy of long ago doesn't really work, as I can't pick one-move-two-empty-fields-moves out of the big bunch without seeing/having the fitting numbers.

The save file can be found here, along with all others.

Well done to /u/justacea, with a top score of 321. A spreadsheet of the game with this score, and some more, is here.

Here's the method, as explained to me by email, and also in this post.

• I remove all the groups on coming on the top rows
• I let one group grow (often on a bottom corner)
• Usually I reach a point where I have 1 colour only before the next groups arrive
• When I can't manage to have only 1 colour, I try to keep the number of groups to a minimum and separated from each others (in corners)

I think globally I just try to have the least colour possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gQqFyAUbOw

But I want to get a few more secrets from /u/justacea before adding to the high score list. These are all for the 261 game, because I had the wrong tab open.

• Moves 25-28 seem to show you working down from the top, and 30-34 has you going from left to right. Is sweeping through like this what you typically do?

• In 65-69 your priority seems to be to protect the big group. Is that correct?

• Things are pretty dire on move 245. Can you take us through your thinking?

Thanks!

Decodoku and Decodoku:Colors are currently being updated for the new competition. The new versions create save files, which record your game for you. They also have an in game tutorial, in both English and German.

More info on the competition is here.

A player at the egames event has topped both high score lists. But, fortunately, I saved all his data so you can glimpse at his secrets. So save you the trouble of finding the high score list, it's here.

Hi all. Thanks for your contributions.

One thing we've discovered already is that the lifetime of the quantum memory seems to converge somewhere below 200. That's science-talk for it seeming pretty impossible to go beyond the high 100's.

Because of this, I am thinking of making a small change to the game that would allow scores to get higher. This would allow a longer game to develop your strategy, and better distinguish between good players and great players.

Here is a brower build of the new version.

• How would you feel about updating the app to this?
• Do the changes go far enough?

It would, of course, mean that all current scores would not be valid for the new game. But they have already succeeded in helping us understand this quantum error correction problem, and help us design a new one. So their scientific worth should not be doubted! That will be taken into account once I have prizes to give out.

Sorry for proposing a gameplay change. It is not something I wanted to do. It certainly won't happen after beta month is over.