Week 3: Clusterfgold

Clusterfgold

METRICS
Rate > Cost > Instructions
Cost > Instructions > Cycles

("Rate" is like cycles, but it ignores startup time; the average number of cycles between outputs, after your machine reaches steady state, is all that matters.)

REAGENTS
Terra Regia

PRODUCTS
Alchemist's Clay

(The game will not let you place the input and the output in the same chamber when solving this puzzle. This is not a bug.)

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 To the Spiritual Brilliance Foundation:

  I hope you get this message! Mail into and out of Bhalgura isn’t steady.
  I’ve arrived, and I’m sheltering in an old observatory that looks worse than the one that House Colvan bombed out from Van Tessen. The houses in the village are in dire shape, too. The people have to go over a pass between mountain foothills just to get water, and there’s so much debris and tailings from mining operations.
  It’s hard to make sense of. The mountain mines are almost dry here, but they still get a trickle of virgin gold out. It should be more than enough wealth to revitalize this place, but they barely get any shipments at all. I’ve been helping out around town, repairing what I can, but I’m not made for manual labor. There’s too much going on and too much that’s broken. The only good word for it is a rude one.
  I gathered some Terra Regia from the tailings, so I’m making some reagents. Wish me luck.

[click here after solving puzzle to reveal post-solve flavortext]

JOCELYN: Oh, I didn’t see you there. Hello!
???: …
JOCELYN: You can step out of the shadows, if you want!
???: You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for an alchemical engineer to show.

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download: OM2026_W3_Clusterfgold.puzzle (where do i put this?)