Is the Game Always Solvable?

Is the Game Always Solvable?

This article is about both Dungeon Squire and Dragonsweeper, but focuses on the former.

A question I get asked a lot is: Is Dungeon Squire always solvable?

The short answer? Practically always.

Let’s break it down!

When is a Map Unwinnable?

The question posed in the beginning breaks down into two questions.

• Is a game winnable at all, even with guessing involved?
• Is a game solvable without guessing?

Some setups are outright impossible, like this:

If you’re facing an impenetrable wall of fire, there’s no way through. But in practice, the game practically never generates something like this.

Now, let’s also consider maps where you’re forced to guess (50/50 chances) as “unwanted” layouts:

Technically winnable, but you must guess — with a 2/3 chance of getting roasted. Again, highly unlikely to spawn. The likelyhood of a flame wall spawning is very low. It’s very likely they get interrupted by rock-walls or weaker monsters. Plus, the game guarantees four hammers and three potions in the starting area to help you out.

How the Game Prevents Pure Luck-Based Deaths

Let’s say a weak monster appears in one of the gaps:

The 206 hints at where the monster is hiding.

Or take this pattern:

There are rare situations where you have to guess, but since the chances are 1:3, I’d say this is still fair. It adds to the game since you have to work with probabilities and make an educated choice about the least risky field.

Conclusion: Practically Always Beatable, in most cases without guessing.

The game doesn’t explicitly guarantee beatable levels, but the odds of generating an impossible one are ridiculously low.

When it comes to the question “is the game solvable without guessing”, I can only speak of my experience so far. I found that when using items effectively, guessing is in most cases avoidable.

What Makes a Good Map?

We had a discussion about this on Discord, and we landed on a few key requirements:

• Always solvable
• Ideally no forced guessing
• If guessing is required, the worst odds should be less than 1:1 instant death
• A seed should be beatable on the first try with optimal play

What Counts as “Optimal Play”?

This is the tricky part. There are a lot of good moves, especially with item usage, but defining the best one in terms of probability is tough. Personally, I use items when I feel they’ll give me useful info or make real progress in exploration.

There’s probably a way to crunch the numbers with probability calculations, but in practice, intuition plays a big role too.

What is Dungeon Squire?

Dungeon Squire (DS) is “Minesweeper with Monsters” and is a direct descendant of Dragonsweeper with a strong focus on Android game play. It’s mechanically very close to Dragonsweeper and is green lighted by Daniel, the original author of Dragonsweeper.