Slay the Dragon: Defeat 100-Headed Beast with Min. Attacks

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The discussion revolves around two main problems: defeating a dragon with multiple heads and deciphering a garbled transmission. In the first scenario, the knight must strategically use his four attacks—Thrust, Slash, Chop, and Berserk Slash—each with specific head-cutting capabilities and head-regrowth penalties. The challenge is to determine the minimum number of attacks needed to exactly match the dragon's head count of 100, considering the regrowth after each attack. The second problem involves interpreting a partially garbled transmission intercepted by a communications unit. The task is to identify the missing letters represented by question marks and provide strategic advice based on the deciphered message. Both scenarios require analytical thinking and problem-solving skills to achieve the desired outcomes.
terripwilliam
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1. Slay the dragon
A knight needs to fight a dragon with 100 heads. The knight has 4 major moves each able to cut off a number of heads: Thrust (5 heads), Slash (15 heads), Chop (17 heads), and Berserk Slash (20 heads). However, for each attack the dragon grows back heads: Thurst (24 heads), Slash (2 heads), Chop (14 heads), and Berserk Slash (17 heads). The dragon can only be killed if the knight uses an attack that cuts of exactly all its remaining heads. (i.e. if the dragon has 10 heads left, it can't be killed in one attack, but if it has 20 it can). What is the minimum number of attacks required to kill the dragon?

2. Strangely Familiar
You are the communications engineer reporting directly to the commander of a communications intercept RVU (Radar Viewing Unit) which scans frequencies for possible enemy information on threats and reconnaissance. You have just intercepted a transmission, but part of it is garbled due to bad weather. The intercept is:
A ? D F ? H J ? L
where ? represents a garbled letter. What are the garbled letters? What advice do you give to your commander?
 
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1. Slay the dragon
11: for instance 5 slashes, 5 chops, finishing it off with a berserk slash
 

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