> I still haven't finished the conduits. I have tried everything I can think of. I don't understand the conduits at all.

Step 1: if you're confused on the terminology (conduit, junction, link, meridian, inner parallel, outer parallel) then read over the information that you can access on the computer terminal, or ask for a clarification here. I think too many people just try to rush right into the problem without understanding what all the words mean first. The places where you can actually visit in the game are the *junctions*, not the conduits themselves. No matter which junction you're at, you're at the *ends* of four different conduits.

Step 2: once you understand the terminology, make sure you can picture spatially how everything fits together (actually, you don't need to, since I included a diagram of the torus, with some sample conduits/junctions/links drawn in). Make sure you can visualize where each of the 12 junctions are located and where each of the 24 power conduits are located. Make sure you can visualize which directions are north and south when the torus is spinning (this is more important for the booster job, though), and which directions are west and east. Make sure you can visualize what it means to move between the west and east sides crossing either the outer parallel or the inner parallel.

Here's a hint for the west/east visualization: if you view the torus from one side (as you might view a donut on a table if you looked at it from above), and the torus is spinning counter-clockwise in your viewpoint, then the half of the torus closer to you is the *east* side, and the side you can't see is the *west* side. You don't actually have to worry about *moving* west and east in the power conduit job -- all west/east movements just toggle between being on the west/east sides of the torus.

Step 3: make sure you understand the 3 rules for how the power circuit has to be set up. They were supposed to be perfectly clear in the game text, but they've since been clarified numerous times on this forum. Just for the heck of it, I'll rephrase them here, and much more explicitly:

(3A) You must form a single circuit, using 12 of the 24 power conduits, which passes through each of the 12 junctions. A circuit consists of an alternating sequence of junctions and conduits (J1, C1, J2, C2, J3, C3, ..., J12, C12, J1) such that each of the 12 junctions and conduits is used exactly once (with the exception that the starting and ending junction are the same), and such that each junction has a link pointing across each of the adjacent conduits in that sequence (think of junctions as dots, and conduits as lines connecting dots).

(3B) As you travel along the circuit, some of the conduits will lead north or south, and some of them will lead along the meridian (crossing either the outer parallel or the inner parallel). Among these crossings of the parallels, you must alternate between crossing the inner and outer parallels.

(3C) None of the conduits (C1, C2, ..., C12) must be broken.

Once you've completed the first three steps (which precede the actual problem-solving steps), the problem is not too difficult. You might even be able to scribble out the solution on paper before you fiddle around any more in the game.

Step 4: start at one junction (it is recommended to start at one of the 4 junctions adjacent to the end of a broken conduit) and pick an orientation for the links. If you start next to a broken conduit, you will automatically be able to rule out two of the configurations (namely, those for which a link points along the broken conduit).

Step 5: move to one of the two junctions which must link up to your starting junction, and reason out how you must orient the new junction's links. If you've moved north or south from the first junction to get to the second junction, it should be relatively easy to orient the second junction (first, choose one link to point back to the first junction, and second, look over the list of rules to see which of the two parallels the other link *must* point). If you've moved along the meridian (across a parallel) to get from the first junction to the second junction, then it's a little tougher to reason out how the links must point (the easy link direction is the one which points across a parallel to connect with the first junction). A hint for how the other link must point: one direction will eventually force the circuit you're on to violate one of the rules after you've configured the fourth junction -- you'll get a four-junction circuit which can not be extended to the complete twelve-junction circuit.

Step 6: after configuring the second junction's links, move to a new junction in a direction one of the links at the second junction points to (there's only one choice, really, since one link points back to the first junction). Then use the same reasoning to figure out which two directions the links at the third junction must face.

Step 7: continue, in this fashion, to move from junction to junction and configuring the links one junction at a time.

One of two things will happen: (1) you'll reach all twelve junctions, and have the (unique) correct solution, or (2) at some point, you'll be forced to break one of the rules because of a broken conduit. If (1) happens, you're done as soon as you check in with the technicians. If (2) happens, you'll have to go all the way back at the fourth step and reconfigure your starting junction. If you've followed the advice and started next to a broken conduit, there will only be one remaining orientation possible. After you've reconfigured the starting junction again, repeat steps five through seven.

Then you're done. Hopefully you'll only need to go through steps five through seven once, but if you do everything right, the worst case is that you'll have to do those steps twice.