How to score 40 in Pangu

[nns2009]

That's the only achievement I have left. I don't feel like figuring this out on my own. The required 40 seems to be much more than 27-31 I previously achieved when winning. So help/hints/strats is appreciated.

[SoMall-dumpling]

Well, in short, just spam your dice.

Must pick: Settlement(First Turn Best), Clone Machine, Prospector, Minor(?), Reactor(splitting one), Selfrepair Material, Tourist Attraction(build it later!).

Must Must Pick: Bionic Robot -> Give you 2 extra dice each turn!

Remember that you can right-click a Blueprint to get +1 M.O.D.. If you are close to purchase anything mentioned above, you can sacrifice some useless blueprints.

Manage the turn you build Projects carefully. I always choose 4,6,8 or 5,7,8(when blueprints aren't good).

[Perseus]

It's difficult to say what you might be doing wrong without knowing what your general strategy is, or what kind of choices you make.

As for general advice, i think it's important to know how points are given.
While all blueprints/projects completed always grant 1 point,
completing a project gives additional points dependent on the current round (equal to 3*(11-[current round])), which makes it really worthwhile to complete projects as soon as possible;
So i think you should prioritize blueprints that give dice or ways to get more dice, unless you can complete a project, in which case you probably should complete that project.

[nns2009]

Thanks for your replies!

My strategy was to spend early game "development" and getting as much dice as possible, building everything on the last couple of turns.

Originally posted by SoMall-dumpling:

Remember that you can right-click a Blueprint to get +1 M.O.D.

I didn't know that, that helps

Originally posted by Perseus:

completing a project gives additional points dependent on the current round (equal to 3*(11-[current round]))

Wow! I totally didn't know. I was doing the opposite: trying to do as much development as possible early on and squeeze the projects in the last couple of turns.

After a couple of attempts, I managed to get 47 and complete all 3 projects on turn 8. It also helped to get the hang of the game in general, like stashing fixed even dice to be able to complete that "10 even/odd dice" project. I'd also say that a blueprint, which divides the dice (e.g. 5 -> 2+3) was quite useful, considering it's predictable and may be used to produce straights and subsequent pairs.

[nns2009]

Final "play" times:

• Basic completion: ~7 hours
  
• All challenges: ~23.5 hours
  
• Beat the professor 10x: ~27.5 hours
  
• Pangu / All achievements: ~31 hours

(The true last three "play" times are actually ~3.5 hour less, because A*B took ~3.5 hours to test, which I wasn't actually playing)

[Perseus]

Originally posted by nns2009:

(The true last three "play" times are actually ~3.5 hour less, because A*B took ~3.5 hours to test, which I wasn't actually playing)

What do you mean? Isn't there a time limit (and i mean one much, *much* smaller than 3 hours)?
I'm pretty sure it's one of the two limitations that forced me to make more efficient code and end up completing the challenge at the same time as the level.

[nns2009]

Yes, there is a limit of 100 000 left-side searches. I had to re-order my program's instructions to make sure the most common ones are located at the top, so the execution doesn't exceed the limit. I then first tested it on the maximum case (11111*11111) to make sure it passes, before starting full in-game tests.

But (in some cases) the execution itself is really slow, somewhere around mere 20-100 instructions per second. I assume the ever-growing log on the left is the culprit here.

If you are curious, here is my 23/28 solution. It passes all tests, but you'll have to waaaait.
Basic idea: Expand to unary, multiply in unary, convert back to binary
Full code:

iN = Ni
jN = Nj

aN = b
bN = Na
(start)N = b

ij = Nji

0@ = @@0
1@ = @@1i
i@ = @i

0i = i0 
1i = i1

(start)@ = 
*@ = *

(once)* = @*
(once) = (end)@*

0* = *
1* = *

*i = j*

# (once) = a

i** = **
j** = **
** = 

a = 0
b = 1