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Mass Effect Hints

How does it work?

  • 1 of 14: Let's start by saying that you decide to move the entire stack of four pieces to column 3.
  • 2 of 14: Using the "bottom up" approach, your first major goal will be to move the bottom (biggest) piece from column 1 to column 3.
  • 3 of 14: But before you can do that, column 3 will have to be empty, since you can't move a piece to any column that already has smaller pieces in it.
  • 4 of 14: Also, column 1 will have to be empty except for the bottom piece, since you can only move the top piece out of any column.
  • 5 of 14: That means the other three pieces will have to be in column 2. That's the only way you could ever move the bottom piece from column 1 to column 3.
  • 6 of 14: So now you need to figure out how to get the other three pieces nicely stacked in column 2 using the movement rules.
  • 7 of 14: This is a "recursive" process, meaning that you basically repeat what you just did for the bottom piece with the next-to-bottom piece.
  • 8 of 14: We've already determined that the next-to-bottom piece has to be moved to column 2. How are the other pieces going to have to be arranged in order for that to be possible?
  • 9 of 14: Such a move will be possible only when the bottom and next-to-bottom pieces are in column 1, and the top two pieces are in column 3, leaving column 2 empty.
  • 10 of 14: So now how do we get the next-to-top piece to column 3?
  • 11 of 14: You should quickly conclude that you first need to move the smallest (top) piece from column 1 to column 2, then move the next-to-top piece from column 1 to column 3.
  • 12 of 14: After that, you can move the smallest piece from column 2 to column 3, thereby opening up column 2 for the next-to-bottom piece from column 1.
  • 13 of 14: After you get the next-to-bottom piece moved into column 2, you'll need to get the two pieces in column 3 moved into column 2 using a process similar to how you got them into column 3.
  • 14 of 14: Then, after you finally get the bottom piece moved to column 3, you'll need to get the next-to-bottom piece moved to column 3, and so on up until you get them all into column 3.