So one of the most frustrating things is the placement of guests throughout the hotel. The elevator always moves at one second per floor and you cannot do anything else during this time apart from I guess any combining items you need to do.

The first bit is easy. You send an FBI agent to the hotel and they will have to travel to the maximum of Boris and Franklin's rooms. Franklin will have to travel to his room in the flashback, and then back to the lobby. So the total seconds spent in the elevator will be 2F+2max(F,B) And you just want F and B to be as low as possible. Best case scenario: 12 seconds in the elevator. Worst case scenario: 48 seconds in the elevator.

The second bit is trickier. It's clearly best to get all the elevator business done at the same time, and this can all be done after the arrest. It is best with just one character and the ghost, and as Ransome cannot give the pigeon brothers card to the manager, nor does he want the wrench, I do it all with Delores. Finally, once you give Sexy Riker the burger, you need to follow him.

So we have two efficient choices: 1: Franklin goes to M, gets the cake, goes to guest room, scares twice with delores giving the pigeon brothers card in between, follows sexy Riker. Delores then goes from bottom to top, getting the wrench, tools, and sorting out the podium. Franklin heads to the penthouse at the end.

Time in elevator = G + |R-G| + (13-R) for Franklin + 13 for Delores = G+R-G+13-R+13 = 26 when R>G or G+G-R+13-R+13 = 26+2(G-R) when G>R

2: Franklin goes to M, gets the cake, follows sexy Riker. Delores gets the tools then reenters the hotel with the map. Franklin scares the guest twice with Delores giving the pigeon brothers card in between. Delores and Franklin then travel to the top.

Time in elevator: R+|R-G|+(13-G) for Franklin + R+13 for Delores = R+R-G+13-G+R+13 = 26+3R-2G when R>G or R+G-R+13-G+R+13 = 26+R when G>R

So if Sexy Riker is ABOVE the Guest we have 26+3R-2G > 26 so method 1 is better. However, if Sexy Riker is BELOW the guest and 2G>3R method 2 is better.

Unfortunately we pick the method knowing G but not R

Extreme examples: G = 3, R = 12. If we picked method 1 we'll spend 26 seconds in the elevator If we picked method 2 we'll spend 56 seconds in the elevator G = 12, R = 3. If we picked method 1 we'll spend 44 seconds in the elevator If we picked method 2 we'll spend 29 seconds in the elevator

Taking the average of all possibilities for R when G is known, we get that method 1 is going to be a better bet for all but one floor: If the guest is on floor 12, method 2 is better.

Wow stellar work dude, I'm gonna have to re-read this a few times to get my head around it.

But to summarize, would you say if you get bad Elevator RNG then it's just worth resetting?

Maybe yes. I would say go with method 1, and then it's all about how far below the guest's floor Riker is.

The difference between best and worst case RNG would be a whopping 54 seconds of waiting in the damned elevator ;)

I didn't realize how much time could be lost in the elevator, but thinking about it, it makes sense. Thanks for coming up with that! It definitely puts things in perspective

That's insane, it's like the Coffins RNG in Monkey 2, but much much worse.

In that case its a 1 in 5 chance of getting best RNG and a time loss of 15 seconds for the worst.