The Eternity II puzzle had secondary puzzles, called Clue Puzzles, that were shipped as well. Unfortunately the sites that support those Clue Puzzles went out of business, so I can no longer submit an answer for one, even if I could find one to buy. However, that doesn’t mean the Internet doesn’t still have the information available, and while scouring the Internet I managed to find someone that had the answers and was willing to share it with me. This is great news!
To express how great this news is, I ran some numbers. Roughly speaking, the number of possible tile placements for the Eternity II puzzle without the hints is:
652,462,655,969,994,559,741,103,489,614,177,039,095,430,462,067,869,985,328,314,734,123,815,335,654,941,630,696,773,132,693,354,219,109,906,288,103,573,501,531,150,317,158,003,508,504,294,576,898,531,816,917,242,939,827,675,255,753,862,937,689,127,386,664,152,157,193,215,761,270,180,463,221,783,405,432,213,823,989,543,602,829,637,372,441,786,368,232,967,396,104,308,262,351,073,321,219,956,381,058,597,901,130,302,400,003,222,913,210,852,993,216,323,986,907,423,192,907,547,317,559,294,078,158,801,148,729,797,579,289,872,095,986,642,075,633,102,503,292,713,540,279,428,817,217,361,773,920,428,869,170,826,800,909,973,643,591,680,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
That’s A LOT of zeroes. So many zeroes that I’d potentially have to run through to find the solution. This is the problem with a brute force attempt at solving this problem, but it’s the best solution I have until I can find a better one.
Now, if I place the hint pieces, that reduces the count to: 16,471,454,954,102,004,915,949,763,791,844,744,430,585,229,828,359,845,826,807,586,676,468,871,926,460,454,921,662,799,498,975,527,462,257,803,719,082,043,944,234,353,763,593,218,787,245,960,053,433,530,332,704,640,618,075,985,077,669,619,720,398,781,085,382,876,707,264,497,078,741,193,820,374,052,661,483,240,397,076,615,679,691,078,850,369,645,098,379,778,994,469,343,042,697,011,720,829,508,275,095,401,159,313,602,972,897,407,959,503,917,009,744,002,977,670,417,479,366,472,013,021,278,665,875,338,440,986,474,644,383,629,748,795,479,278,395,699,139,113,766,925,316,308,824,626,251,133,079,516,264,401,967,390,287,387,269,358,864,142,491,487,460,862,832,061,116,222,847,000,843,986,110,919,266,611,017,828,131,398,382,602,948,421,100,528,168,747,679,034,091,634,765,198,599,351,059,491,424,212,826,980,352,000,000,000,000,000
That’s still a lot of zeroes, but notably it’s 34 zeroes less, or a reduction of a factor of 1 decillion.
Also unfortunately, this requires me to restart my run, but I think that this is an okay trade-off considering the number of combinations I’m eliminating overall.