Very nice idea. I remember this puzzle from childrens' puzzle books with 4 letters, and the solution was always known to be length 3 or 4. It's far more interesting when there is no obvious 3- or 4-letter solution, but we can never be perfectly sure.
bash
base
bane
mane (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mane#English)
mine
build
guild
guile
guide
glide (this was given explicitly as a hint in the original problem)
slide
slice
slick
stick
stack
BUILD to STACK is hard if you don't know the exact Lemmings-related intermediate word in the center. I haven't found a shorter route even when that intermediate word isn't required.
New puzzle: disk
dusk
dunk
bunk
bank
balk
ball
Now I want to play a game of Scrabble with Proxima. :lix-grin:
-- Simon
I suspect you'd beat me 8-) Here's a solution for disk-ball in 8, I'll see if I can come up with a shorter one.
disk, dish, dash, mash, math, matt, malt, mall, ball
EDIT: Got it in 6! :D
disk, dirk, mirk, milk, mill, bill, ball
CLIMB to FLOAT is very hard. I have a solution in 7, but it uses obscure words. According to an online solver, the best solution with only common words is 16!
My solution:
climb, clime, cline, clone, clonk, cloak, cloat, float
Yet again, the shortest path just happens to go through another skill name :P
I have two dictionaries near at hand, and neither accepts clonk or cloat. Yet clonk (to strike aggressively, especially on the head) is part of my everyday vocabulary. Cloat, I admit, I googled to see whether it was a word, after failing to complete the chain any other way.
A better puzzle: WALK to TRAP (10). This uses one rather obscure word, but nowhere near as bad as the climb-float puzzle. The online solver finds a solution in 11 with only common words.
My solution:
walk, wall, tall, tale, tare, tarn, tern, term, team, tram, trap
WALK
salk (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/salk)
sauk (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/sauk)
souk (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/souk)
soak (the one non-obscure word)
boak (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/boak)
brak (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/brak)
brap (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/brap)
TRAP
WALK->TRAP in 8, using lots of obscure words.
I finally managed 7 with much more common words, and w/o the solver's help.
WALK
TALK
TALL
TELL
TEAL
TEAM
TRAM
TRAP
(For reference: the solver yields 6 with obscure words, and 11 for its sum-based "common". I guess it thinks that color word in my solution as "rare", even though I think it's not so rare nowadays?)
FAIL
FALL
PALL
POLL
POLE
POKE
PUKE
NUKE
(solver gives 6 with obscure and 8 for "common". As you can see in the spoiler mine's actually 7, but one of the words used, while valid, was not as common as I thought (it is part of a common compound word that relates to funerals, but by itself I guess it's not as common).
fail
farl (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/farl)
furl (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/furl)
curl
cure
cuke (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/cuke)
nuke
fail
fall
full
pull
pule (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pule)
puke
nuke
I like how these grow from both sides in promising style, and then I google for the missing link in the center until I get lucky. Googling wouldn't be allowed during Scrabble, Proxima doesn't have to be afraid. 8-)
Walk -> Trap looks harder, I don't have anything good yet.
-- Simon
BLOCK
BLOCS
BLOTS
BOOTS
BOLTS
MOLTS
MOLES
MILES
MINES
MINER
Here's one using a couple of Lemmings 2 skills: FILL -> GLUE The best I could come up with on my own is 7. The solver managed to find a 6-step solution using an obscure word.
FILL
FELL
FEEL
FEED
FLED
FLEE
GLEE
GLUE