Hints: Word Search II
How are scores calculated?
In the puzzle Word Search (found in our hunt in 2018), the score is computed as the Levenshtein distance (you can check that puzzle’s solution for more details). However, this alone won’t give the correct distances. For each distance you will need to compute two separate Levenshtein distances and add them up.
More, please:
This puzzle is also influenced by another one of last year’s puzzles, as the flavortext hints at.
Which puzzle is that?
o ea / Wrd Srch. In particular, you may find splitting the words up into their vowels and consonants helpful.
I just want the exact algorithm:
The first distance computes the sum of the Levenshtein distance of the first word’s vowels and your entry’s vowels and the distance of the second word’s consonants and your entry’s consonants. The second distance is vice versa.
I know how these scores are computed, but I’m not sure how to figure out the target words.
As with the original Word Search, it may be helpful to vary just a single letter and see how that affects the distances. That can allow you to determine which vowels and consonants each word has.
How do I extract the answer?
You’ll want to take the first letters of each word, and then apply a related mechanic to solve the puzzle.