Description
There's not much to do as you slowly descend to the bottom of the ocean. The submarine computer challenges you to a nice game of Dirac Dice.
This game consists of a single die, two pawns, and a game board with a circular track containing ten spaces marked 1
through 10
clockwise. Each player's starting space is chosen randomly (your puzzle input). Player 1 goes first.
Players take turns moving. On each player's turn, the player rolls the die three times and adds up the results. Then, the player moves their pawn that many times forward around the track (that is, moving clockwise on spaces in order of increasing value, wrapping back around to 1
after 10
). So, if a player is on space 7
and they roll 2
, 2
, and 1
, they would move forward 5 times, to spaces 8
, 9
, 10
, 1
, and finally stopping on 2
.
After each player moves, they increase their score by the value of the space their pawn stopped on. Players' scores start at 0
. So, if the first player starts on space 7
and rolls a total of 5
, they would stop on space 2
and add 2
to their score (for a total score of 2
). The game immediately ends as a win for any player whose score reaches at least 1000
.
Since the first game is a practice game, the submarine opens a compartment labeled deterministic dice and a 100-sided die falls out. This die always rolls 1
first, then 2
, then 3
, and so on up to 100
, after which it starts over at 1
again. Play using this die.
For example, given these starting positions:
Player 1 starting position: 4
Player 2 starting position: 8
This is how the game would go:
- Player 1 rolls
1
+2
+3
and moves to space10
for a total score of10
. - Player 2 rolls
4
+5
+6
and moves to space3
for a total score of3
. - Player 1 rolls
7
+8
+9
and moves to space4
for a total score of14
. - Player 2 rolls
10
+11
+12
and moves to space6
for a total score of9
. - Player 1 rolls
13
+14
+15
and moves to space6
for a total score of20
. - Player 2 rolls
16
+17
+18
and moves to space7
for a total score of16
. - Player 1 rolls
19
+20
+21
and moves to space6
for a total score of26
. - Player 2 rolls
22
+23
+24
and moves to space6
for a total score of22
.
...after many turns...
- Player 2 rolls
82
+83
+84
and moves to space6
for a total score of742
. - Player 1 rolls
85
+86
+87
and moves to space4
for a total score of990
. - Player 2 rolls
88
+89
+90
and moves to space3
for a total score of745
. - Player 1 rolls
91
+92
+93
and moves to space10
for a final score,1000
.
Since player 1 has at least 1000
points, player 1 wins and the game ends. At this point, the losing player had 745
points and the die had been rolled a total of 993
times; 745 * 993 = *739785*
.
Play a practice game using the deterministic 100-sided die. The moment either player wins, what do you get if you multiply the score of the losing player by the number of times the die was rolled during the game?
--- Part Two ---
Now that you're warmed up, it's time to play the real game.
A second compartment opens, this time labeled Dirac dice. Out of it falls a single three-sided die.
As you experiment with the die, you feel a little strange. An informational brochure in the compartment explains that this is a quantum die: when you roll it, the universe splits into multiple copies, one copy for each possible outcome of the die. In this case, rolling the die always splits the universe into three copies: one where the outcome of the roll was 1
, one where it was 2
, and one where it was 3
.
The game is played the same as before, although to prevent things from getting too far out of hand, the game now ends when either player's score reaches at least *21*
.
Using the same starting positions as in the example above, player 1 wins in *444356092776315*
universes, while player 2 merely wins in 341960390180808
universes.
Using your given starting positions, determine every possible outcome. Find the player that wins in more universes; in how many universes does that player win?
Notes
- 21-1: This one was fun, as it was about building an algorithm to follow a simple dice game.
- As usual, this one took me longer than I think it should've, but I actually got it. A deterministic dice that always goes from 1-100 and then repeats was helpful in not making it take too long.
- 21-2: Oh boy, now we got quantum dice mechanics. This is most likely beyond my current ability :(