Saltfire Day 74 12 September 2026
Vine
How do you make Vine in 7 merges?
- 1 Dew + Salt Brine
- 2 Brine + Ember Broth
- 3 Breath + Salt Dust
- 4 Broth + Dust Seed
- 5 Ember + Seed Tree
- 6 Dew + Tree Leaf
- 7 Breath + Leaf Vine
Why is 7 merges the shortest possible?
Day 74 asked for Vine — a tier-4 element, one of the complex — and it goes in seven merges. Not fewer: par is worked out across the whole recipe tree before the puzzle ships, and then proved by replaying the chain above against the game's own rules, starting from nothing but Salt, Ember, Dew and Breath. If that replay had spent one step more or one step less, the build would have failed and this day would never have run.
Two of the seven merges come straight out of the primordials — Brine and Dust — and everything else is built on top of those. The last step is Breath + Leaf, which is where Vine finally condenses.
No intermediate here is wanted twice: every element the chain makes is consumed by exactly one later merge, so par is simply how far Vine sits above the primordials. There is nothing shared to save a step on — seven links of chain, seven merges.
Vine has three recipes in the tree, so the route above is the cheapest way in rather than the only one. Another chain of the same length is quite possible; a longer one is far more likely.