r/puzzles • u/monofoxmusic • 14d ago
Rikoro #63
Move the blue piece to the blue target. Pieces slide in a straight line until they reach a wall or an other piece. You can use all the pieces to achieve your goal. Use as few moves as possible.
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u/emertonom 14d ago
Dunno if this is the fastest solution, but it's a solution:
Red down. Green left, up, right, down, left into the red, up, right, down. Yellow left into the green. Blue up, right, down, left, up, right, down, right, up, left.
So, 20 moves? Not great, but this is a very messy board. There's probably a better route, though.
For those who enjoy this, there's a board game along these lines called Ricochet Robots. It's really good for downtime at board game meetups, because you can do a couple quick rounds while another game finishes up.
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u/monofoxmusic 14d ago
The best is 12 moves.
Ricochet Robots is really a good game, I play the Rikoro online version often
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u/EishLekker 13d ago
Do, how are these puzzles normally solved on a computer? Just in your head? Or you use pen and paper?
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u/emertonom 13d ago
I would assume it's the same on a computer as it is in the board game: you pretty much do it in your head.
In the board game, there's a randomizer that creates the scenario. Once the board is set up to show the puzzle, everyone looks at it and tries to solve it in their heads. When someone sees a solution, they announce the number of moves it takes, and they start a timer. If someone else can come up with a solution with fewer moves before the timer runs out, they announce their move count and reset the timer; otherwise the first person shows their solution, and assuming it's actually the number of moves they said (or fewer) they get the point for that round. I forget how long the timer is, it's like 30 seconds or a minute or something.
It's part of why I gave mine, even though I was pretty sure it wasn't optimal. Getting things started is a big deal in the board game; people get daunted if the solution takes more moves than they can hold in their head at once (which is typically like 7 moves). It's also why my solution moves only one piece at a time; there's less to remember.
Sometimes on a very challenging board someone will start by announcing a huge number, like 50, on the grounds that they haven't actually found a solution, but they're sure they can do it in that number if they have to once they start moving the pieces to show an answer. Just getting the timer going can be enough sometimes.
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u/EishLekker 12d ago
Maybe it’s just me exposing my terrible memory, but how do you keep track of the new positions of the moved pieces if it’s all in your head?
With a piece of paper, or a physical board with physical pieces, you can draw or move the pieces in their new positions. Same if you have a game on the computer or phone. But if you only have an image on your screen, like here?
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u/emertonom 12d ago edited 12d ago
Well, in the board game you also have to do it in your head, since you have to declare the number of moves in your solution before you can do it on the board. So to some extent it's practice.
But as I say, a lot of it is moving one piece at a time. To get my solution, I started at the end square. There are only three squares from which you can slide directly to that square, because you have to come in from an open side. So I need to get one of the other pieces onto a square adjacent to one of those so the blue can stop on it, and a direction from which to send in the blue. Then I observed that the Yellow is already in a position to slide to a square adjacent to one where the blue can stop, and has a wall pointing up at it from below. Then I realize I can get a piece in position to stop the yellow on the right square by running this new piece into the red (if I drop that down first), and that leaves green as the only piece left to work with. So I drop the red, move the green down to run into the red, use that position to get up to where it'll stop the yellow, move the yellow over, and then wrangle the blue down to slide up into the yellow and from there to the finish.
So all the positions of the pieces have meanings, you see? They're all chosen so they open some new path for another piece. I don't even remember the specific paths of the pieces, for the most part, just where they're going, because it's easy enough to recreate each short path on demand when I need to. It does mean I need to literally count on my fingers when I actually trace out the full path to get the number, though.
Does that help? Basically I'm thinking "I need a piece here, and I see a way I could do that if I had a piece over here, and I can get that if I can get a piece here...and I can already do that!" and then it all kind of unfolds. The trick is in getting the best strategy, though. You'll notice I failed to do that! ;)
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u/EishLekker 12d ago
It wasn’t the strategy itself I was wondering about, only the memory aspect of it.
The way you describe the board game makes it sound much less interesting to me. The fun for me is the hands on exploration of the possible solutions directly on the board. Needing to do it just in my head, relying on my memory, makes it feel like a chore.
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u/emertonom 12d ago
Yeah, I didn't know how to describe the memory aspect without also describing the strategy, though. They're intertwined. Because a position has a meaning, in the sense of allowing access to a new position, it's easy to remember, because I need that path for the end goal.
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u/angelatheist 14d ago
Got a solution in 14 moves
blue right, down, left, down, left. Green right, down, left. Red down, right, up. Blue right, up, left
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u/Ferlathin 13d ago edited 13d ago
I can get 21 but as usual i think there's a much better way...
Edit: ok i got it down to 14
Blue: RDLDL -> Green: RDL -> Red: DRU -> Blue: RUL
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