Comments on the 18 levels I've managed so far for the second rank "Crazy Crusade."
Alert: the comments on level 12 reveal 90% of the solution.
I expect progress on the next rank to be very slow - so far have only solved 4 of the first 8 levels.
Solutions for 18 levels in the second rank:
OYMLr2v1_plukz.zip
Levels 2 to 11
Level 2 "Gorge": a very easy level.
Level 3 "Fiery Cavern": a straightforward level, with one advance lemming forging a path for both groups, while one group is held back, before they join up.
Level 4 "Path of Fire Twins": shows the advantages and disadvantages of Sliders. Needed a bit of tweaking to rescue all the Blockers, but not too difficult.
Level 5 "Frozen Pass": unless my solution is a backroute, some of the skills provided are red herrings. You need to know how to create an upwards path with Bashers, Miners and Builders.
Level 6 "Room of Shredder Traps": a step up in difficulty. 1 advance lemming needs to create a path for the others. That part is straightforward, but releasing a second advance one, some time after the first, is a challenge; the Slider plays a vital role. The solution needs perfect placement, both early on and near the end.
Level 7 "Swastika": Equally difficult. From the bottom trapdoors, the first lemming does the advance work; from the top trapdoor, the last does the key work. I had quite a few false starts with different ways of delaying the second lemming at the bottom left – most of which left problems elsewhere. One of my solutions uses the Stacker to delay; the other uses the Stacker in the obvious place, with a Miner doing the delaying.
Level 8 "SnowLem Land": a breather level. Needs the Blocker to turn a Builder, and careful attention to the topography to rescue the non-Climber from the right-hand group.
Level 9 "Hard as Steel": an easier puzzle, but still needs a bit of figuring out to ensure that the 1 of 5 lemmings that cannot be made a Climber is delayed until a rescue platform is in place. In fact, only 1 Climber and 1 Miner are needed.
Level 10 "This Puzzle is Crystal Clear": I hate spider's webs, but even so it was not too difficult to save 99. However, care is needed to avoid the Hang Glider overshooting the exit. First I found a complicated solution, with the advance lemming bashing back to free the group, where I had to: time things so that the first lemming liberated by the advance one is the 100th spawner, which is only slightly ahead of the 1st (which follows close behind after looping round); increase the distance between 100th and 1st so that the 100th can be sufficiently advanced in its mining so that the early followers do not simply walk past the mineshaft; and save the Hang Glider, while still allowing the later lemmings to avoid the trap. Precise timing is the key to the first challenge. The spare Climber/Floater can help with the second. For the third challenge, a sneaky bit of pretend mining did the trick. But then I realised there is a simpler solution, which leaves 3 spare skills.
Level 11 "Center Point": Timing is very tight here. The first Stoner has to go in the middle. The second Climber is used only after the middle is reached.
Level 3 "Fiery Cavern": a straightforward level, with one advance lemming forging a path for both groups, while one group is held back, before they join up.
Level 4 "Path of Fire Twins": shows the advantages and disadvantages of Sliders. Needed a bit of tweaking to rescue all the Blockers, but not too difficult.
Level 5 "Frozen Pass": unless my solution is a backroute, some of the skills provided are red herrings. You need to know how to create an upwards path with Bashers, Miners and Builders.
Level 6 "Room of Shredder Traps": a step up in difficulty. 1 advance lemming needs to create a path for the others. That part is straightforward, but releasing a second advance one, some time after the first, is a challenge; the Slider plays a vital role. The solution needs perfect placement, both early on and near the end.
Level 7 "Swastika": Equally difficult. From the bottom trapdoors, the first lemming does the advance work; from the top trapdoor, the last does the key work. I had quite a few false starts with different ways of delaying the second lemming at the bottom left – most of which left problems elsewhere. One of my solutions uses the Stacker to delay; the other uses the Stacker in the obvious place, with a Miner doing the delaying.
Level 8 "SnowLem Land": a breather level. Needs the Blocker to turn a Builder, and careful attention to the topography to rescue the non-Climber from the right-hand group.
Level 9 "Hard as Steel": an easier puzzle, but still needs a bit of figuring out to ensure that the 1 of 5 lemmings that cannot be made a Climber is delayed until a rescue platform is in place. In fact, only 1 Climber and 1 Miner are needed.
Level 10 "This Puzzle is Crystal Clear": I hate spider's webs, but even so it was not too difficult to save 99. However, care is needed to avoid the Hang Glider overshooting the exit. First I found a complicated solution, with the advance lemming bashing back to free the group, where I had to: time things so that the first lemming liberated by the advance one is the 100th spawner, which is only slightly ahead of the 1st (which follows close behind after looping round); increase the distance between 100th and 1st so that the 100th can be sufficiently advanced in its mining so that the early followers do not simply walk past the mineshaft; and save the Hang Glider, while still allowing the later lemmings to avoid the trap. Precise timing is the key to the first challenge. The spare Climber/Floater can help with the second. For the third challenge, a sneaky bit of pretend mining did the trick. But then I realised there is a simpler solution, which leaves 3 spare skills.
Level 11 "Center Point": Timing is very tight here. The first Stoner has to go in the middle. The second Climber is used only after the middle is reached.
Level 12 Happy Winter Break
With only 1 of 100 lemmings to be saved, and only 2 Bombers to get through 3 pit floors, a Nuke solution is clearly needed. So the final 2 lemmings have to reach the exit area before they explode, but they cannot access it until an earlier spawner has exploded. If I understand the game mechanics correctly, the time interval between the first and last explosions depends on how many lemmings there are between them, still alive at the point of Nuking. This creates a problem: if there are too many exploding lemmings, the ground at the bottom is blown away. So how to avoid this while still keeping most of the lemmings in play? I used a Builder and Blocker to corral the group to the right of the middle pit, while allowing the first spawner to escape. Timings and release rates have to be handled carefully. My final 2 lemmings were not tight together when approaching the pre-exit trap, but fortunately the trap is relatively generous.
Levels 13-15 & 17-20
Level 13 "Failed Hibernation": the traps are so rapid-fire that, for 1 of 5 Climbers to pass the 4 traps, the 5 need to be so tightly bunched that they appear on screen as a single lemming. Even this may not be enough, with the chameleon traps firing every 5 frames – far faster than a pair of Climbers can get through these traps. This made me think that bunching up the lemmings between a pit wall and a Stoner would not work. Eventually I realised that it's OK for each chameleon to gobble 2 lemmings; and that making the gap between a Stoner and a pit wall as narrow as possible is not a good idea. Needs perfect placement and timing, but a nice puzzle.
Level 14 "Salvage Operation": another challenging level. One key element for my solution is making sure that, when the group are freed, the first lemming to advance is a singleton, not one of the pairs.
Level 15 "Arrows": a breather level. Lemmings from the middle group free the left and right groups. I got the gold talisman on my second attempt.
Level 17 "Castle Conqueror": a good challenge, a large part of which is how to delay most lemmings while facilitating the necessary advance bridging. The 3 Shimmiers are used in 3 different ways, one of them a variant of a trick learnt in the first level.
Level 18 "Hall of Hope": not difficult to meet the save requirement and time limit, but my first attempt to do better ran into problems with running out of Platformers and using more Bombers than I wanted to. What was needed was an economical way of releasing at least 3 advance lemmings: the generous Climber allowance suggested a setup that allowed only Climbers to advance. Eventually I was able to save 74 lemmings (the requirement is 70) in a reasonable time.
Level 19 "Hydroelectric Powerplant": I learnt a new trick here, making a stack ascendable by using a Fencer, some distance away, to make a notch in the middle. Not too difficult if the skills are used frugally, and another generous time limit.
Level 20 "Watch Left And Right": an easy level to finish the rank, with lemmings from the right-hand trapdoor doing most of the work.
Level 14 "Salvage Operation": another challenging level. One key element for my solution is making sure that, when the group are freed, the first lemming to advance is a singleton, not one of the pairs.
Level 15 "Arrows": a breather level. Lemmings from the middle group free the left and right groups. I got the gold talisman on my second attempt.
Level 17 "Castle Conqueror": a good challenge, a large part of which is how to delay most lemmings while facilitating the necessary advance bridging. The 3 Shimmiers are used in 3 different ways, one of them a variant of a trick learnt in the first level.
Level 18 "Hall of Hope": not difficult to meet the save requirement and time limit, but my first attempt to do better ran into problems with running out of Platformers and using more Bombers than I wanted to. What was needed was an economical way of releasing at least 3 advance lemmings: the generous Climber allowance suggested a setup that allowed only Climbers to advance. Eventually I was able to save 74 lemmings (the requirement is 70) in a reasonable time.
Level 19 "Hydroelectric Powerplant": I learnt a new trick here, making a stack ascendable by using a Fencer, some distance away, to make a notch in the middle. Not too difficult if the skills are used frugally, and another generous time limit.
Level 20 "Watch Left And Right": an easy level to finish the rank, with lemmings from the right-hand trapdoor doing most of the work.
Solutions for 18 levels in the second rank:
OYMLr2v1_plukz.zip