First Place:

(Great Job, I loved the description, makes me want to to go do some testing regarding the actual percentages for blades, etc to see what kinds of discrepancies there is in the game. You were the first entry to be submitted with "1" health, and bonus points for talking code! :)

Description: (click to view)

This was such a fun contest! I'm going to include some prior research, so feel free to skip down to the end for the setup on my actual battle. The research I'm explaining here, however, is extremely important in determining how to set up for this challenge. Before battling through a lengthy dungeon to reach Malistaire Drake - the boss I chose for this contest - I decided to test some calculations on a Lost Soul in Wizard City. Initially, I wanted to look into how the game rounds damage values - with some experience in coding, I know a command called Math.floor() is commonly used, which truncates - or, essentially, rounds down, any and all values. So, I stacked on some blades, did some math, and determined that a Colossal Efreet with a Fireblade, Elemental Blade, and Sharpen Fireblade should deal 6183.7 with my 100% gear damage boost. A damage reading of 6183 would yield the conclusion that Math.floor() is being used, while 6184 would lead me to believe Math.round() or another rounding method is at work. The result really surprised me - it was neither. The attack dealt 6159 damage, a 0.4% percent error. While this is certainly minor, our calculation would become increasingly inaccurate when damage values approach the thousands. With 1 health left, we need to be as accurate as possible. I decided to solve for how much blades are really amplifying damage, because buffs are the only source of error here - an attack without any blades deals exactly as much damage as it should, and gear would remain consistent throughout all trials. With 100% gear damage boost and one sharpen blade, adding 10% damage, the following equation would solve for how much each blade would scale up the attack. In this case, x represents 1 + the decimal value of a blade, because we want the right side of the equation to multiply to the total damage. 6159 = (1170)(2)(x)(x)(x+0.1) 6159/(1170*2) = (x^2)(x+0.1) 6159/2340 = x^3 + 0.1x^2 As this is a cubic equation, I used a calculator to solve for x. My result was that a 35% blade doesn't actually boost 35% - a more accurate value is closer to 34.82%. I did some more calculations, but I think this is enough to demonstrate the inaccuracy of in-game readings and how to account for them. My goal after this phase was to find the right combination of buffs - ranging from 1.25x to 1.75x multipliers, using calculated percentages, not the ones listed on the cards. To leave the enemy with 1 health remaining, it would be ideal to have the damage value end in at least --99 (i.e., nines in the tens and ones places). I was a bit lucky here, because all I ended up needing to add was a 25% multiplier to reach my target number. Because of the unreliability of blades, I tried an aura instead, to see if their actual value is more similar to what is listed on the card. It actually proved to be exact - my Efreet landed 7699 damage (7698.7 was the calculation - looks like the game really does use Math.round() after all!). Malistaire would be left with 2301 health, which would then become relatively straightforward to reduce to 1. To deal with the remainder of his health, I decided not to set up another attack with buffs, as their margin of error could easily change the tens or ones digit of his health. Instead, I used off-school treasure cards with base damages that were multiples of 100. Catalan deals 700 damage and Savage Paw deals 500 - this totals 1200 damage, so we only need 1100 more. It was a little more difficult finding the right card, or cards, to deal this much damage, but I eventually settled on Gaze of Fate, attacking with twice with 550 damage each. I made sure the gear I was using only boosted fire damage and not any other schools and began the Great Spyre dungeon. The battle with Malistaire went pretty much as planned - it took a few tries due to undesired critical hits, a weakness being cast on the turn I attacked, Malistaire using a drain spell after the Efreet, etc., but I found ways with dealing with most of those problems. I brought my friend with me, who had the sole purpose of casting double Death dispels after I used my Efreet so that Malistaire wouldn't be able to heal himself with his drains. It took some time to gain the amount of pips I needed to Efreet, Catalan, Savage Paw, and Gaze of Fate (no mastery amulet!), but the goal of leaving Malistaire with just one remaining health point was a success! I have pictures of the attack setup, the 7,699 damage dealt by my Efreet, as well as the treasure cards in action. Please let me know if you want me to send any of these! Thanks for the contest, I'm really into math and computer science, so it was great delving deeper into the game using some of those skills. Really appreciate the opportunity!

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Second Place:

(Kudos for doing this solo, sometimes not an easy task...of course sometimes others can be unpredictable, so maybe it was safer that way. Love the detailed description of every number involved.)

Description: (click to view)

Boss: Malistaire Drake from Dragonspyre (10,000 Health) Gear: Hat- Raging Blackwater's Helm (14% Storm Damage) Robe- Raging Blackwater's Helm (19% Storm Damage) Boots- Battlemage's Boots of Furor (22% Storm Damage) Wand- Misty Mountain Mandolin (Lvl.90+) Athame- Thunderclap Spike (6% Damage+Cracked Damage Amethyst +2) Amulet- Children of the Sea Medallion Ring- Storm Owl's Terror Ring (12% Storm Damage+Cracked Damage Amethyst +1) Pet- Alert Hound (Pain Giver- 5% Damage) Spell Used: Glowbug Squall (Regular, Enchanted with regular Strong) Blades/Traps Used in order:45% Elemental Blade, 40% Storm Blade, 35% Elemental Blade, 30% Storm Blade, 30% Dragonblade (from pet) Did I crit?: No Set up/Damage Notes: Round 1- 45% Elemental Blade Round 2- 40% Storm Blade, Round 3- 35% Elemental Blade, Round 4- 30% Storm Blade, Round 5- 30% Pet Dragonblade, Round 6- Glowbug Squall (Enchanted w/ Strong) Total Damage: 9999

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Third Place #1:

(Congrats on getting your entry in quickly, and good description, from your description it kind of sounds like, "I did a little math, then crossed my fingers and hoped it worked out", lol)

Description: (click to view)

First of all, I decided to try this on Khai Amahte, A boss in Krokotopia with 700 HP. I used Alpha and Omega ring (+10% Universal damage), Majoris shoes of fortitude (+25% storm damage) and that gives me about +35% basic storm damage. (I also used a deck but it has no damage boost) So at the beginning of the battle, I had 1 Power pip and 1 small pip, I used a normal storm blade (+30% storm damage). At the second round, I gained a power pip, then casted a regular tempest that does 80 damage per pip, and since I am storm 80x5=400, with the game's damage calculating system 400x1.35(from gear)x1.3(blade)~near 700. And that's how I got it!

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Third Place #2:

(Wow, love the way you took the basic contest and went the extra mile getting 3 bosses of 3 different schools all down to 1 health in the same fight. Would have loved to see that last death boss down to 1 health as well, but awesome effort on this, you made me decide to give additional 3rd place prizes.)

Description: (click to view)

why get one enemy's health down to one... when you can get THREE! i battled the first enemies in the winterbane hall and the planning process of making it happen took about 3 days, and many hours of failing and trying again. i used 2 accounts to get this done, one stronger account and one weak one both storm. the way i did this, first i had to get the enemies to be as much storm, or ice, or death as possible, life enemies are obviously not going to go well with this, and balance keeps weakening my attacks, this took a long time to get the right enemies and settled for these ones. then i had my main wizard use tempest at 5 pips (about 400 damage) and i made sure my gear had a 2% boost, which was needed to get them to the health needed, i then got the storm with 2 wand attacks on my main, and then put it the small wizard, to use 2 wands on the death (the death ended up using ghoul, which healed him, ruining the attempt, but i was tired of retrying at this point). i then had my main wizard flee, and change its gear to get to 33% boost, and then the ices shielded, and i forgot to put my pierces in deck, so long story short i fleed again and put them in, got rid of the first ice, then the other one shielded again and ran out of tc so i had to flee and go out and get some (i had the weaker one hold them so i could do these things) and i got to the bazaar and bought some put them in my deck, went to triton avenue and healed up and went back, before the holder died. i got rid of the shield and ultimately him. the death one i tried to get, but at that point he was down to 57 health and my wand attack was 60 and i was so tired of retrying i didnt bother. i could've done better and got the 4th but the whole thing took so many hours and failed so much, and fizzles and incorrect pips, and other people joining bane when i tell them not to when we were looking for the enemies. i just wanted to finish, but here it is. 3 enemies down to 1 at once. (completely unrelated but i didn't even win the battle either, i had 0 mana so yeah)

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Honorable Mention:

(Had to give you an honorable mention, at first I was like, "Wow, they went with Malistaire the Undying!", then I remembered that he always shows up with 25 health after you defeat his first form and have a doom and gloom up! So you get an honorable mention, next time I will have to add some fine print, lol.)