It's known that you memorize league points faster (in less passes) if you perform better at the duty navigation puzzle. Therefore, the better you are at the puzzle, the less time you'll have to spend memorizing to learn your routes. Some folks complain of having to make 6-8 passes over a league point to memorize it. Garnering Excellents and Incredibles, I can normally memorize any league point in 4-6 passes (usually 4-5). So, if that's the case, let's talk about how to be a good duty navver.
Duty Navigation is different from most puzzles in Y!PP in that it isn't based largely around combos. Sure, you can combo in duty nav, but it's very difficult and I never even bother to try. Regardless of not doing combos, I've climbed as high as #11 on Midnight. If you really want to get to #1, I'd suggest spending some time learning about combos and then you can write about how to be a good duty navver. ;) The scoring is based on clearing constellations - the larger the constellations, the more your indicator is impacted. As such, when you first start duty navigation (at Able standing), you're going to have very small constellations which won't be worth much. As you increase your standing, however, your constellations will become more complicated. This means that they'll take more effort to complete, but they'll also have a greater impact on your duty report. Here's an example of a basic 5-star constellation. The easiest constellations will have only 2 or 3 stars in them - the most difficult will have around 8.
However, while Duty Navigation may be different in that it's not largely combo-based, it's very similar to most puzzles in that a little planning will take you a long way. Actually, I'd go as far as saying that the duty nav puzzle is almost entirely about planning.
Replacing Lower Circle Pieces
Filling the first constellation is usually pretty simple. You just drop stars as you need them and you're good as gold. The real trouble comes when you have to complete constellations and you have existing stars in your way. Sooner or later, you're going to run across a situation like this:
In this case, we have an orange star in the lowest ring that's preventing us from putting the yellow that we need in that place. So we need to find a way to clear that orange star and replace it with a yellow. It's not a complicated process - let me guide you through what the steps are.
And, to go along with that, just so you can see it in action, here's a quick video of me doing the same maneuver. In this case, I'm trying to replace an orange in the inner ring with a blue star.
Video Sample
Planning For the Future
Quite often, it seems like you get a lot of stars that don't fit into the constellation so you can just drop them anywhere. Beware - what you don't pay attention to now may come back to haunt you later. Take a look at this example:
In this case, I've got a red star coming that I simply don't need. I could easily just drop it where it is. But, what happens if I do? Then I have two red stars on top of one another (the red star on the inner ring is even part of the constellation). If it takes me a while to get the orange star needed to clear this constellation, I may have to be careful not to accidentally clear that column of reds. If I do accidentally clear it, I may have to start all over, which is costly.
Okay, so that example is a little contrived and not too hard to deal with, but what about this situation?
In this case, I have two oranges stacked - one of which is part of my constellation, so I don't want to clear it. Both the inner and middle rings are locked into place because it helps me clear my constellation. What's worse is that, to complete this constellation, I need two yellow stars. The chances of me getting two yellow stars prior to getting one orange one are not good. That means that I'm probably going to end up with an orange star in my outer ring and I'm going to have to be careful about moving it about so that I don't accidentally clear that column and ruin my constellation.
These situations aren't always avoidable - sometimes you just get stuck in such situations. However, a bit of planning can help you avoid them as much as possible. Even if you can't avoid the situation, being able to recognize that you don't want to accidentally clear that column can help you clear your constellation without a gaffe.
"Fixing" Troublesome Setups
The situation I just pointed out isn't hopeless - far from it. If you're really getting taxed for space in the outer ring and you have an orange star out there, you may want to try to clear it out, giving you some more freedom to move.
In this case, we're fortunate in that there is another orange star in the inner ring. If another orange falls to us in the outer ring, we can shift the inner ring counter-clockwise one position. This action maintains the formation of the constellation in the inner ring (although it's now offset by one position) but allows you to clear the "new" column of oranges safely, making the constellation easier to complete.
Be wary of using this strategy when your outer ring is getting quite full. As you rotate the inner and middle rings, you might find yourself accidentally making clears where you don't intend to and potentially destroying your constellation. This brings me nicely to my next point.
Buying Yourself Time
There are five different colors of stars in the navigation puzzle: red, yellow, white, blue, and orange. As such, you can expect that it'll take, on average, about 5 stars before you get a repeat of the same color you just got. Of course, what star you actually get is random, but the law of averages plays its part, here.
Look again at the previous example. I need two yellows to complete that constellation. Unfortunately, if you count the red one that is falling, I only have 8 positions remaining in my puzzle before I booch. Will I get two yellows before then? I don't know, but it'll probably be dang close. This is a great example of a situation in which I'd like to "buy some time."
Buying time is really just the process of clearing stars in rows or columns to give yourself more room. The most important part of this, though, is that you must clear them without jeopardizing the integrity of your constellation. If you screw up your progress, you really cost yourself more time than you saved.
As I mentioned earlier, you can try to "repair" the column of oranges. Not only does that make the constellation more manageable, but it also opens up three additional spaces on your board, giving you more opportunities to get the two yellow stars needed to complete the constellation.
Any other possible clears that stand out? How about the whites extending off to 3 o'clock? Those have nothing to do with the constellation and are already lined up, just waiting to be cleared. That would be a great way to open some more space.
Okay, I've rambled on long enough about duty navigation. Hopefully, some of the above makes some sense. As usual, if you have questions, post them here.
Below is a link to a video of me doing some duty navigation. Be warned that I went for video quality over file size, so it is a very hefty download (just over 47 MB, zipped).
Duty Navigation Sample Video
2 comments:
Thanks, FU!!! I learned something new ... I need to pay more attention to where I drop those "unneeded" pieces. Thanks so much for taking the time to write this up for us. I'm going to go back and read up on the rumble now. Yoanne.
Very nice post. I've been looking for a way on how to get better at Dnaving so that I can memorize routes faster. This has really helped me a lot. Keep up the good work!
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