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This is the third puzzle in the Fetching Alchemist series, and I am experimenting with a new format here. This time, I won't tell you in advance what the perfect score is. The first guess may be correct but mostly likely it will only be the first hint for subsequent guessers, who will then know it is lower than that guess. I am hoping this makes for an enjoyable community experience but if it doesn't I will be happy to go back to showing you the perfect score up-front.

This is the first puzzle where you need multiple of the same item for the same quest. Note that in this case you will end up needing 4 Gold Ore to make 2 Gold Ingots, as well as 2 Sand to make 1 Glass and 2 Hides to make 1 Leather... don't worry about the practical logic!

Oh, and this is the first puzzle that is exclusive to Puzzling SE! I may include these exclusive puzzles in the app after they are solved.

How to Play

You are looking for the shortest possible path that allows you to complete all the quests. The red numbers indicate the distance of each road. Present your answer in the form "99: ABCDE...", where the numbers are the total path distance and the letters are the places you visit on the path.

You complete a quest simply by travelling there with the required items in your inventory, which are consumed upon completing the quest (if the quest has required items, indicated by the presence of items left of an arrow under the quest).

The items drawn around places are the reward items for the quests that can be completed there.

You can complete a quest more than once but only once per place.

You cannot avoid completing a quest that you are able to complete where you are.

You can complete more than one quest in the same place. When completing more than one quest in the same place, quests are completed automatically from top to bottom. Consequently, completing a higher quest may prevent completing a lower quest.

If you would obtain an item from completing a quest, you can use it to complete a quest in the same place without travelling again.

You always start where the character is. You cannot return to the starting place once you have left. This is because, in the game, returning to the start is how you reset the puzzle.

If you are still unsure how to play, have a look at the first solved puzzle.

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1 Answer 1

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Some heuristics:

We shouldn't start going left, since gold is too rare, but the only Leather spots on the right are at the top, so our path should go right to get Gold and then curve upward.

This suggests, after some refinement...

NFQRSCS (length: 92m)
Ingots are refined at F and C
Glass is made at C from Sand at Q and S (initially I picked some up at A, but after realizing I needed to go north I noticed it was unnecessary)
Leather is made at S from Hides at F and Q
and then I have to backtrack to S because Farlo isn't waiting at C

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  • $\begingroup$ Excellent! By my count that is 92? 92 is the perfect answer, so I worried for a moment that you had somehow beaten my program. $\endgroup$
    – Joshua Bizley
    Commented Apr 19, 2021 at 15:14
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    $\begingroup$ Ah yes, doubled the 10 instead of the 11... $\endgroup$
    – AxiomaticSystem
    Commented Apr 19, 2021 at 17:01

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