# D&D.Sci June 2022: A Goddess Tried To Reincarnate Me Into A Fantasy World, But I Insisted On Using Data Science To Select An Optimal Combination Of Cheat Skills!

*This is an entry in the 'Dungeons & Data Science' series, a set of puzzles where players are given a dataset to analyze and an objective to pursue using information from that dataset.*

“So I expect you know what this is about . . .” says the strange woman, as you both float gently in the void between worlds.

You find yourself tongue-tied, but your expression successfully communicates that you have no idea who she is, why you’re here, or how her hair manages to keep that shape.

“You know, the thing where someone dies, then a goddess gives them superpowers and sends them to another universe to defeat a Demon King?” She examines you quizzically. “It’s pretty common.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” you say, uselessly. “I was just cycling to the office . . .” You trail off as the implications of everything she just said hit you like a series of trucks (a comparison which, as your recent memories return, you realize you’re *extremely* qualified to make).

The apparently-goddess looks at you with a little sympathy and a lot of impatience. “I know you’re going through a lot right now, but like I said, there are a *bunch* of other people in your situation. So how about you just pick your cheat skills, let me move on to the next hero, and process all this later?”

As most of your mind continues to bluescreen, a hardcoded habit from your dayjob assumes control and starts running on automatic. “A . . . bunch of people, you say?”

“Yes. So I-”

“How big a bunch? Hundreds, thousands?”

“Hundreds *of* thousands. It’s a big multiverse.”

“So in other words, you have access to a data source from which we could plausibly derive statistically significant results, and thereby inform my decision?"

“. . . huh?”

* * *

After some explanations, some pleading, and a promise to share any insights she might find useful, the goddess leaves you in the care of one of her lesser angels, who has been taking notes on her previous heroes’ characteristics, choices and successes.

(As she departs, she expresses surprise that you’re making your decision based solely on win rates, and not considering how fun the various abilities could be or how well they match your personality. You reply that while you might have taken fun into consideration if you’d been more confident in your success, right now you’re just doing whatever gives you the best odds of winning: leaving a Demon King undefeated seems like it could be *really* bad for the world you’ll be reborn into.)

The angel provides you with a [dataset](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/H-B-P/d-and-d-sci-june-2022/main/dset.csv) detailing the goddess’ first 307641 champions, and clarifies some key points:

*   Every hero gets two cheat skills. (He patriotically informs you that most reincarnation goddesses provide just one, but *his* patron believes in going the extra mile.)
*   You can’t pick the same skill twice, pick fewer than two skills, delay the decision until after you reach your new world, take the goddess with you, or do anything like that.
*   Early in her career, the goddess needed to partner with other gods in order to provide two skills per hero. Her collaborators were an eldritch abomination (who agreed on the condition that every hero it helped with can only have Monstrous Regeneration and Anomalous Agility), and a chaos deity (who agreed on the condition that every hero he helped with have their cheat skills selected randomly instead of chosen by them). Rows where she was supported by each of these entities are marked as such, and the only thing a collaborator changes is which cheat skills are taken.
*   The goddess’ experience of time is orthogonal to that of the worlds she summons her champions from and to; as such, there should be no relevant time trends aside from changes in collaborators.
*   In his taxonomy, you have the following traits[^u8sgri9bop]: 

NOT a Sociopath (worried what would happen to strangers if the Demon King was left undefeated)

NOT an Otaku (needed the isekai premise explained)

A Nerd (knows how to do Data Science)

An Office Worker (had a job in an office . . .)

NOT a Hikkikomori (. . . which required a cycle commute)

* * *

The abilities on offer are as follows:

*   Shapeshifting
*   Barrier Conjuration
*   Enlightenment
*   Uncanny Luck
*   Temporal Distortion
*   Hypercompetent Dark Side
*   Rapid XP Gain
*   Mind Palace
*   Monstrous Regeneration
*   Radiant Splendor
*   Anomalous Agility

Which skills will you select? And what thoughts will you share with the goddess on her return?

* * *

I’ll be posting an interactive letting you test your decision, along with an explanation of how I generated the dataset, sometime on Monday the 13th. I’m giving you nine days, but the task shouldn’t take more than an evening or two; use Excel, R, Python, prophetic dreams, or whatever other tools you think are appropriate. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about the scenario.

If you want to investigate collaboratively and/or call your decisions in advance, feel free to do so in the comments; however, please use spoiler tags (type >! at the start of a paragraph to open a spoiler block) when sharing inferences/strategies/decisions, so people intending to fly solo can look for clarifications without being spoiled.

[^u8sgri9bop]: Spoilered in case you want to try deducing your character’s traits from the text.