@Guigui

Congrats on getting all of Icho's levels solved!

Quote from: Guigui on January 09, 2026, 09:33:30 PMAbout rule 3, I must say I tend to not like  pickups much generally. They either give too much hint on what to do depending on the pickups you get, or they give too much distraction when you put unnecessary pickups here and there.

And IchoTolot's Lem In The Box belongs to the latter category ! Why would anyone enclose 3 pickups in 3 boxes, including a precious digger, only to make the level solvable w/o them ??
Well, while writing the question, I got my own answer : to make the level harder, and also smarter : "look I can put a precious thing there, but if you try to go and fetch it you'll lose".

Decoy pick-ups in levels to increase the difficulty and to act as distractions are quite fair game, just like using decorative terrain to distract players or make them think it must be part of the solution when it isn't Similarly with providing extra skills to act as red herrings, though this is harder to do since one must take care to make sure they also can't be used to backroute the level. The most common one you probably have seen is providing bombers on save all levels, though there are such levels out there that still require them to be used. Hence, in pickup levels, it very much becomes a puzzle and you'll need to ask yourself, what pickups do I need to solve the level, are these pickups necessary to solve the level, etc.
 

QuoteThen I tried Rule 1 Underroot by Armani. Brilliant design again, I love how in Armani's levels you get to see a lot of things just by letting the lemmings go their own way for a time. Here I have an almost solution : just missing one Lemming. I had to resort to a "build your own smooth wall for a climber" thing, and a blocker bypass, but it is not enough yet to clear.
I'm joining my replay, can anyone tell if I'm on the correct track ?

Yup, you're nearly there! You just need to change one thing and then you'll have it. As a matter of fact, I think you can already see the solution, especially when you consider what absolutely must be your losses in the level  

Ack, apologies @Guigui for attaching some outdated replays in the collection That's what I get for keeping all replays, including the old ones. I've fixed it now, so the new attachment in reply #53 a few posts above should be correct

Regarding One 2, as mentioned it took me so much trial and error before I found something that worked, by which before I succeeded caused me a fair amount of frustration. So, quite honestly I'm not sure if I can bother myself with fiddling around with the level some more to see if it's possible to save more than the talisman requirement. I checked my replay again and I wouldn't be able to tweak it to work since

Spoiler

laying the builder bricks a bit further back so that Lemmings won't fall off will just result in them getting killed by the shredder trap. Honestly that made me pretty mad that something that would had worked ends up failing because of the trap However, as it turns out I really overcomplicated my solution compared to the intended way! Anything else I tried with tweaking even the builder positions ever so slightly I wouldn't be able to succeed with just the 15 builders because I run out or it's at the wrong height so that you can get through the thin ceiling in both directions with the provided amount

Even if it was possible to, I honestly wouldn't bother changing up the level any further to prevent it. The level's already really hard as is and could be quite fiddly on top of it if one doesn't find the exact intended way like I failed to

Hello @Guigui,

I have resolved the latest updates, the Jan2026 one you posted almost a week ago. I have attached my entire replay collection with the new replays. Here, you just need to check Neo 2, One 2, One 3, and One 6. All these new ones look good now, so great job for finally getting Neo 2, One 2, and One 3 backroute-proof! For One 2, I'm not sure whether or not to praise that one, but that's only because there was so much trial and error I resorted to before I finally found something that works, especially the talisman. I can confirm I can no longer pull off any crazy nuke shenanigans on it which I've done for a few past versions you sent me for further testing So, with the thought that my solution has to be intended now, I checked your intended talisman solution and as I suspected, I really overcomplicated it! Of course, as you can clearly see I completely missed

Spoiler

the visual clue of the green terrain piece ledged in between the marble brick pieces for where to start the building! I was definitely wondering about that and I simply failed to figure out its meaning  

As for One 6, unfortunately, you'll going to hate me for that because I still managed to spare a digger I still haven't caught on to the riddle, and I'm definitely wondering if it's just from my lack of Back to the Future knowledge. As mentioned, I haven't seen any of the films fully

So, unless you feel like not fixing up One 6 anymore, I honestly am not sure if further fixes would just lead to a complete mess now

Quote from: Guigui on January 04, 2026, 01:18:57 AMNow, after all this time spent with the Save One concept that came to me (and my 10yo kid!) when toying with the editor, I'll try to give a set of 3 rules describing what would be, in my opinion, a very solid Save One level :

Rule 1) The player should only be able to save 1 lemming.

Rule 2) The lemmings count should be at least 2, and the saved lemming should not be able to reach the exit by himself. In other words, there should be interaction of any kind between the saved lemming and the other(s).

Rule 3) Even if there were more lemmings coming out from the entrance (lets say 20% more lemmings for instance), the player should still not be able to save more than one lemming.


Rule 1) is obvious. Rule 2) is what differentiate the Save One pack from Dexter's Lock and Key pack. And Rule 3) is the cherry on the cake but very hard to fulfill actually.
In the Save One pack, all levels (hopefully) satisfy Rule 1) and Rule 2), but not all levels satisfy Rule 3) :
Levels that fulfill Rule 3) in the most satisfying way imo : EON 4, NEO 2, NEO 3, ONE 2, ONE 3, ONE 5.
Levels that fulfill Rule 3) but in a not interesting way : EON 2, NEO 5, ONE 1.
Levels that do not fullfil Rule 3) : EON 3, NEO 4 (sorry IchoTolot, I did not state the rule to you!), ONE 4.

I must say the concept/theme you were going for with this level pack is great! Sure, some level types are definitely far more prone to backroutes than others, but as with most things, they can be avoided with clever and careful level designing. That being said, I, along with some others who played your pack, totally didn't expect and was surprised to hear that practically the entire One rank was backrouted

I also mentioned one other time that backroutes will pretty much always happen no matter how long one has been making levels. I've been making levels for about 5 years now and I still haven't gotten that much better at backroute fixing since I first started back in 2021, though I think I've gotten somewhat better, especially with my more recent stuff. In fairness, it's likely due to my intended solutions being somewhat complicated Also, only seeing the intended way definitely leaves us designers blind to potential backroutes! I'm definitely hoping my upcoming Lemmings Memories level pack that's currently a work in progress won't be ripped apart so badly, but knowing myself I can probably expect a lot of backroutes in the first pass of pre-testing whenever that phase opens

Best of luck with GeoffLems! It's an excellent pack and one that's on the easier side than most other level packs!      

Hello @WillLem,

I have solved all of the levels My replays are attached.

Also link to my LP: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbp2m4KlFpJupBOI10iCSb3I1ufEHRAX0

Enjoy!

General Feedback

MiniLems is another remix pack by WillLem, where the concept this time is taking select L1 levels and making them "miniatures" by drastically reducing the level size. In this way, some levels now end up as one-screeners and for those that don't the level is still way smaller in size, with the condition that WillLem was working with being the levels are no taller than 124 pixels tall and no more than 800 pixels wide, according to the OP description. MiniLems also has twice the amount of levels per rank than DéjàLems does and hence double the amount of levels overall. In addition, MiniLems is classified as a much easier pack than DéjàLems, and I completely agree with the difficulty classification of Very Easy - Medium. Just like DéjàLems, I still enjoyed MiniLems very much despite it being on the easier side than most other level packs I've played! Well done WillLem, this is a nice level pack concept as well

Since the levels in this pack are just select L1 levels remade as miniatures, I'll simply list my favorites and which levels I found challenging.

Favorites: Tricky 2, Tricky 6, Tricky 13, Tricky 16, Taxing 4, Taxing 7, Taxing 9, Taxing 11, Taxing 14, Mayhem 3, Mayhem 7, Mayhem 10, Mayhem 12, Mayhem 13, and Mayhem 15.

Hardest levels of the pack IMO: Tricky 2 (not very hard but one I can see that can be challenging for less experienced players), Tricky 13, Tricky 16, Taxing 11, Mayhem 3, Mayhem 5, and Mayhem 7.

Well done again and thank you for MiniLems, WillLem!    

Hello @WillLem,

I've solved all of the pack   My replays are attached

Also link to my LP: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbp2m4KlFpJtqnA8pLGYi6yyD_ehLrQJX

Enjoy!

General Feedback

DéjàLems is a level pack where the concept is taking some official L1 levels with pre-made basher, miner, and digger tunnels, and pre-placed bomber crater holes, builder bricks, or pre-placed blockers to represent the idea of solving the level as a possible solution the player might had found to the original levels. The challenge then is to solve them again, possibly with a completely different skillset. I really like this concept a lot I had promised WillLem that I would get to this pack a few years back, only to not until now. Sorry about that!

As these levels are just taken from L1, I'll just say which ones were my favorites and which ones gave me some problems. In the entire pack, Taxing 1 and Taxing 3 were the hardest for me. I can also see Mayhem 4 being challenging, so I would agree with @Guigui there with Taxing 3 and Mayhem 4.

My favorites of the pack: Tricky 2, Tricky 3, Tricky 4, Tricky 5, Tricky 7, Taxing 5, Taxing 7, Mayhem 1, Mayhem 3, Mayhem 4, Mayhem 6, and Mayhem 7

I also made another exception with this pack and went for all the talismans, as I anticipated this being a very quick LP, which indeed it was, save for Taxing 3 which took me the longest time before I figured it out. Here, my favorite ones were Fun 5 and Taxing 2.

Nice job with this pack and I think I'm going to try MiniLems next. Normally, I leave a big time window between packs by the same author, but again I'm going to make an exception here and do MiniLems immediately after, as again DéjàLems was really quick

Quote from: JawaJuice on January 06, 2026, 12:53:51 PMHey, I was just trying to be helpful. I didn't have time to go through every single level of every pack; I just went through the packs I've completed to date, and noted the skills for all of the levels in a single rank, making the (admittedly flawed) assumption that other ranks would follow the same pattern. I don't have the time to conduct exhaustive research on every post I make I also can't guarantee I won't make the odd typo with peoples' user names or pack/level names in future either - everyone makes mistakes occasionally; I'm sure this forum is full of them, if you go through and scrutinize every post made since it began. With respect, this is a forum, not a class room. I guess I just won't chime in next time!

What can I say? I generally go for a perfectionist-like style. Just the way I roll!

Quote from: JawaJuice on January 05, 2026, 08:31:16 AM

Quote from: kaywhyn on January 05, 2026, 04:56:48 AMI think you'll enjoy the remaining content after Volume 1, especially the new Cloud set in Volume III! The difficulty isn't too high either, I think it's just right for your skill level

It was a bit easy for me actually, but I still enjoyed it

Ok, how about posting that in the Zemmings Complete topic next time!  

Also one last thing as I forgot to bring it up the last time, but I found some more packs on your list that aren't classic 8 skills in NL. You'll want to do your research next time before chiming in!

QuoteInsane Steve's World by Insane Steve
PimoLems by Pieuw

For Insane Steve's World, while most of the levels come from his 10-level Dos packs that are available on the Lemmings Level Database and hence use only the classic 8 skills, if I'm not mistaken some of the levels originally come from Lix and maybe some from Cheapo and hence are recreations for the pack.

Like DoveLems, PimoLems was originally a level pack for Lemmini and hence is indeed a classic 8 skills pack on that engine. Unlike the former, however, there are several glitch levels that needed to be adapted to work in the NL conversion. As a result, there are a few levels that have the walker skill. This one should had came to my mind, especially as this and DoveLems were the first custom level packs I played on Lemmini, after MazuLems, though this one I played on Dos.       

Quote from: JawaJuice on January 04, 2026, 08:34:21 PMHeh, no worries - I was being a little bit facetious in pointing that out

Heh, JawaJuice being JawaJuice Not a misspelling like in your post, since I technically spelled it right. Just a mis-styling! Thinking about it, it's possible that I simply did so without thinking, when I wasn't really full awake. At the same time, I'm fairly confident I actually did hold Shift down for the second J as well, but apparently not. Or I might had let go too early. Guess I'll never know.

QuoteYou know what though? I've just realized that I only actually have Zemmings Volume I and just a couple of levels from the other volumes Looks like I have a 'new' pack to play!

I think you'll enjoy the remaining content after Volume 1, especially the new Cloud set in Volume III! The difficulty isn't too high either, I think it's just right for your skill level

Anyway, let's bring the focus back to DéjàLems,as that's what this topic is, and discuss things not related to this pack elsewhere. I've told WillLem that I've been meaning to take a look at this pack years back but as of now still haven't gotten around to doing so Guess I'm making this the next pack of WillLem's I'm playing!  

Quote from: JawaJuice on January 04, 2026, 08:02:47 PMNoted. Also note that the second 'J' in JawaJuice is capitalized.

My bad. Fixed. I gotten it right all other times on this site but this time I didn't notice that I did not capitalize the second J I blame my sleep deprivation! In fairness, here it's just a stylized thing and isn't as bad as, say, you missing a letter in zanzindorf, in this case, the second n Still, I did indeed commit a blunder with mis-stylizing yours!

@hrb264

To expand on the Lemmings Plus series, only Lemmings Plus I, Lemmings Plus II, and Lemmings Plus III use classic 8 skills. The rest of the packs in the series use NL skills as well.

Other packs that use classic 8 skills that I haven't seen listed:

Cachapack and Dodopack, both by Dodochacalo
Lemmings Redux by Proxima and the Lemmings community
Lemmings Rundown by LemFan
Lemmings Stampede by BulletRide
NepsterLems by Nepster
Quest From Kieran by Kieran Millar
Revenge of the Lemmings v4.0 by various level designers of the Lemmings Community
Save One by Guigui
Lemmings Memories by kaywhyn

The last one hasn't been released yet and won't be for a very long time, as I'm still very far from making all of it, but I plan to use classic 8 skills only, so definitely fits the bill! More information on my upcoming level pack for NL here (alternatively, it's in my signature as well):

https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6990.0

Also, the last four listed and LemFan's are packs in pretty recent times that use classic 8 skills only!

@JawaJuice

QuoteDoveLems

Almost. Maso 30 is the only level of the pack that has a NL skill, a glider. What is true is that DoveLems was originally for Lemmini, an engine that supports classic 8 skills only and therefore it is indeed a classic 8 skills pack. Maso 30 relied on a miner glitch that works only on Lemmini, and since NL eliminates all glitches, the level therefore had to be adapted in the latter in order to keep the spirit of the intended solution. The closest one can get in NL with that is substituting one of the miners for a glider.

QuoteZemmings Complete by zanzidorf

Not a classic 8 skills pack. Only Volume 1 sticks to classic 8 skills. The rest of the pack after that uses NL skills as well. Also, please be mindful and write people's usernames correctly!

@hrb264

I checked your NL video and everything seems fine there to me, including the speed. Mine goes at about that speed as well, and I'm certain that goes the same for pretty much everyone else who uses NL, unless it's a weak machine and/or the user has a lot of open applications while playing NL and other settings in-game enabled, such as the high quality mini-map, though the performance hit with this particular setting on will especially be notable on really huge/tall levels, and even moreso if there are also a lot of animated objects in the level. Then even on modern machines it will tend to be very laggy. In contrast, at least FF in NL works properly, not like in the Windows version where the level is practically over in about a second once you engage it.   

Quote from: WillLem on December 22, 2025, 03:13:56 PMNice!

Here's kaywhyn's solution in action on WinLemm. The key to the digger assignments is to use the arrow keys to make sure the lemming is facing the correct direction. From there, the solution is reasonably straightforward, and saves 100% which is always good

Thanks, and nice job on this as well!

All rightie, I've finally recorded and posted video solutions to the levels of this pack

Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbp2m4KlFpJtZOQP0pe56P99MaVH8fcY9

I'm also attaching my replay collection again. The extra solutions to a level are the talisman solutions. Huh, what are the chances I end up getting none of them on my first playthrough of the pack years ago The biggest problem with Old Formats NL, of course, is that the talismans are hidden in the F6 menu instead of being displayed on the level preview screen like they are in New Formats NL

Quote from: geoo on December 28, 2025, 10:06:23 PMkaywhyn, I watched your LP for Stroke at Retirement Age, and you basically had all the skill placements down after 20 minutes. Really interesting to see that the hard part was realizing that this works if only you change the timing. And similarly interesting to know that you had a hard time with Merge Sort. For Lix I actually made a small level pack exploring these flow control ideas if you're curious. It ships with the latest Lix release.

Yea, I definitely plan to take a look at your Lix pack sometime I'll let you know when I am. I've already played two levels from it, which were nominations for LOTY2024 earlier this year (I'm guessing Simon nominated them?). They are Roots of Life and Just Mine.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzivNQsFb2M

Also completely unrelated, but I also uploaded solutions to your geooPkG custom Dos/Lemmix pack from about 1-2 months ago:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbp2m4KlFpJt-4qlhSQKD16P7K5AoMqmt

QuoteBack in the early days I had similar trouble with tseug's Oh No, Not Again (is that in RotL as well?); it took me 4 years to solve that as my intuition for how the lemmings moved was completely off and I never thought feasible what ended up being the solution.

I checked and nah, Oh No, Not Again isn't in the RotL v4.0 New Formats NL pack. It is, however, the final level of the Armageddon rank of the Lemmini version of RotL that mobius put together all those years ago, as well as in some earlier NL versions of the pack. That is fascinating to read that it took you 4 years to get the level solved. I didn't think it was that difficult, though I do find it amusing as the final level of the Lemmini version of RotL, when it's nowhere near the hardest level of the main part of the pack.

Speaking of tseug, I also finally solved all of their 1tseug Dos/Lemmix pack recently. Woo-wee, quite a difficult pack, but I finally managed it all after starting it quite sometime ago but didn't get very far with it back then!

All rightie, something that I meant to do earlier in the year but haven't gone around to doing so until now, but I've now done a level solving commentary video series on this pack

Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbp2m4KlFpJsU_8wPm-YNPQPAxKfS0xKC

For those who haven't seen this kind of video series of mine, it's basically a series where I run my replays on the levels and explain my thought processes that I had while I was solving the levels. So pretty much a commentary video series from my perspective as a player solving the levels

Enjoy and merry Christmas!  

Just realized I never got around to making a proper post to this topic of what my turn-offs are. Well, I'm pretty much like Armani here in that I don't really have any, as I pretty much play all levels There are, however, some designs and level elements I'm not a fan of. In particular, levels where you have to repeatedly spam the same skill, especially in a very short amount of time. Similarly, levels where the solution is obvious but is so fiddly and difficult to execute or require so much trial and error before finding the right solution tend to not be enjoyable for me

---

@geoo

Stroke at Retirement Age is also the final level for the New Formats NL version of Revenge of the Lemmings 4.0. I got stumped there for 4 months before I finally figured it out, so its position as the final level of the community pack is well-justified!

More information here: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5963.0

And oh wow, I too never caught on with the hint in the level title It makes perfect sense, though! Like probably many others, I simply thought it was just a random level title that you picked and therefore it had absolutely no connection to the level whatsoever Then again, I myself am really bad with coming up with level titles to my own stuff, so I'm not any better there

@JawaJuice

Nepster is very well-known for really hard levels, among others that are often associated with such, such as Icho, Armani, and Crane. That's not really surprising, considering Nepster was one of the NL maintainers alongside namida back in the days. Not only that, his level solving skills are legendary, even if he came really close on some packs, such as Lemmings Plus Omega 2! I don't know about my stuff, since I constantly keep thinking my levels aren't that hard, but hey, I'll let you be the judge of that when you eventually get to my other stuff in the LDC Compilation Pack As a heads up, you'll find my stuff starting at LDC #22 That reminds me, there's a few levels of mine in there that I would like to submit an updated version for, mostly to fix and tidy up the aesthetics and visuals. I honestly can't look at some of my earliest levels now without cringing at least once Like seriously, I can't believe I made some atrocious looking levels back then! In my defense, those were my earliest ones, and in general I'm not artist, and still am not  

Indeed, NepsterLems was pretty much the last really old, really hard level pack I managed to complete, after some others which are much harder, including Lemmings United, Lemmings Uncharted, and Lemmings Plus Omega 2. It truly blows me away at how very hard NepsterLems manages to be despite sticking to just the classic 8 skills! In fairness, I often switched back and forth between Lemmings United and NepsterLems back when I first started playing NL, back when I wasn't as experienced as I am now, when roadblocks came up very often for me. For example, the first major roadblock for me was Planet 13, followed by Sun 7, culminating in Black Hole 1, which went unsolved for nearly 3 years! I finally had success with the level shortly after I had just beaten LPO2 and RotL, with the latter only a few weeks after I finally figured out Stroke at Retirement Age. Because of all the experience I gained from all the custom level packs I've played and solved in between the nearly 3 years Black Hole 1 was unsolved, I proceeded to smash through the rest of the Black Hole rank in very short order At the same time, several levels in the earlier ranks IMO are much harder than most of the levels in the Black Hole rank, and I had way more roadblocks in the Planet, Sun, and Neutron Star ranks. Again, keep in mind NepsterLems was one of the earliest NL custom level packs I played, back when I wasn't as experienced as I am now.

Lemmings Stampede was another pack I rotated between Lemmings United and NepsterLems back then as well. Indeed, Wicked 5 had me stumped for a really long time, only to not surprisingly come up with a really overcomplicated solution