Minimum skills for one lemming

[Minim]

Throughout the past four years of challenges we have been so creative and imaginative with our different range of challenges that it's been hard to come up with any sort of new challenge. Whilst all these other challenges focus on saving the required or maximum percentage, how about a new idea where we focus on saving one lemming? It should be a quick and easy challenge altogether, so let's see if this sort of idea is an interesting enough idea for everyone. In this case, we'll use the minimum skills challenge, one of the most popular challenges introduced in 2009, when the forum started.

The rules are simple. You treat every skill as equal, and when a lemming comes home, the challenge is over!

We've got a full set of results, and it certainly made a difference compared to the normal requirement (To be exact, about three eighths less). There were plenty of single figures shown on the table which in my opinion makes it look quite neat. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

Note: The asterisk show results without using the nuke. I've posted nuke results under the table.


 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Rating | 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Total |Diff.|
|-------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----|
|Fun    | 1  1  3  2  3  2  2  1  1  1  2  2  1  2  8  6  1  5  4  3  2  4  4  1  2  3  1  8  8  2*  86  | -34 |
|Tricky | 2  1  3  6  7  4  9 10  5* 4  4  3  4  9  3  6* 2  1  1  3  7  2  2  2  4  1  4  3  4  2  119  | -65 |
|Taxing | 8  3  6  4 10  1  6  7  1  7  9  7  4 19  9  1  4  3  5  6  4  1 10  3  4  1  9  4  3  1  161  | -81 |
|Mayhem |18  6  1  3 10  8  3  5 11  9  1  5  3 15  4  1  6  3  9  2  3 10 10  3  4 11  1  7 15  8  195  | -124|
|-------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----|
|Tame   | 2* 1  2  1  2  1  1  2  1  1  2  2  3  3  2  2  1* 2  3  2                                 35  | -4  |
|Crazy  | 2  1  2  3  5  5  2  7  4  4  1  5  2  5  1  4  7  4  4  7                                 75  | -45 |
|Wild   | 2* 7  7  5  8  3  1  3  0  5  3  4  7  5  2  5  3  8  8  3                                 89  | -55 |
|Wicked | 1 14  3  2  1  3* 4  3  7  9  8  7 10  2  8  1  3  4  6  3                                 99  | -54 |
|Havoc  | 9  9  3  3  4  1  7  5  5  1 12  3  6  1  7  2  5  9  4  2                                 98  | -92 |
|-------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----|
|Xmas 91| 7  8                                                                                       15  | -2  |
|Xmas 92| 1* 1  9 11                                                                                 22  | -11 |
|Frost  | 5  1  2  1  2  2  7  1  1  3  2  6  0  5  3  2                                             43  | -21 |
|Hail   | 2  4 23  4  5  0  7  7  8  1  3  6  3  6  2  2                                             83  | -59 |
|Flurry | 1  1  1  2  1  2  1  6  2  8  2  2  1  3  1  6                                             40  | -14 |
|Blitz  | 3  8  1  2  7  1  4  1  6  1  8  1  8  2* 6  3                                             62  | -49 |
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Lemmings Total: 561 skills (304 less than normal)
Oh No More Lemmings Total: 396 skills (249 less than normal)
Xmas Lemmings Total: 265 skills (155 less than normal)
Overall: 1222 skills (708 less than normal)

*Possible with nuke:
Fun 30: 1 (-1)
Tricky 9: 4 (-1)
Tricky 16: 4 (-2)
Tame 1: 1 (-1)
Tame 17: 0 (-1)
Wild 1: 1 (-1)
Wicked 6: 2 (-1)
Blitz 14: 1 (-1)
Xmas 92 level 1: 0 (-1)

[Clam]

Nice idea! This could be just the thing to revive the challenge board.

Here's Tame 17 with no skills - just release rate and nuke. I even saved more than required

[ccexplore]

Minor improvement of Fun 29 to 8 skills.

[Clam]

More nuclear-powered improvements

• Fun 30 to 1 skill
• Tame 19 to 3 skills

[Clam]

Since this challenge seems to rely quite heavily on nuke, I suggest we do what geoo is doing in the L2 challenge and keep separate scores for nuke and non-nuke solutions. That way everyone can contribute without having to be a master nuker, and also we can see how many skills the nuke is worth

Each of my nuke routes so far saved one skill.


Starting on Tricky now (and adopting another great suggestion by posting a copy/pastable table section):

|Tricky | 2  1  3  6  7  4  9 10  5* 4  4  3  4

* Tricky 9 can be done with 4 skills + nuke, replay attached.

[Minim]

Ah, thanks for this. I've started on Tricky as well, but went a lot further and got all the results. Here are some of the changes in comparison to the regular requirement. The rest are normal.

14: 9 skills. One precise long bash to get underground, had a fiddle with the release rate to get someone out before they all drop, and two long builds.
18 & 19: 1 skill. Floater & Climber respectively
20: 3 skills. Bash, climb & float
23 & 30: 2 skills. Climb & Float
24: 2 builders
25: 4 skills. Self explanatory
26: 1 basher
27: 5 skills. 1 digger, 1 climber to climb over the rocks, and 3 builders to reach the exit.
28: 3 skills. 2 to build to the hidden exit, and bash in.
29: 4 skills. A few mines to get beneath the first two traps, and a digger and basher for the third.

Impressive work on the Tricky 9 nuke solution. Very advanced. BTW on that level does that mean that its possible with 5 skills without the nuke? I've recently done it with 6 skills, but I don't think mine was as good as yours.

And I think you raised a good point about the nuke use. I'll bring this up on the OP and reorganise the table.

[Clam]

Yes, you can do Tricky 9 with 5 by entirely normal means

For Tricky 27 you only need 2 builders and 4 skills total - your lemming is a climber so you only have to build into the steel.

[ccexplore]

Taxing 4 5 skills via sliding.

What are the chances of nuking for Tricky 16 and maybe Fun 5?

[Minim]

Probably not possible, but I might have a look into that later.

Done some Taxing levels, and came up with some interesting results. Every record breaking the original one so far (And well done on Taxing 4).

1: 8 skills. Same as Fun 15
2: 4 skills. Done by digging down the left, increasing the rate, bashing the rock, getting some lemmings past the trap and two builders for the exit.
3: 6 builders
5: 9 skills. Very pleased with myself to get through this frustrating level. Reply attached
6: 1 basher timed correctly
7: 6 skills. Same as Tricky 4
8: 7 skills. 3 bashers, a precisely timed bomber to break the grid under the fourth ball, and three builders to the exit.
9: 1 digger
10: 7 skills. 4 builders to reach the edge of the third pit, a digger then 2 more builders to the exit.
11: 10 skills. 2 diggers and 8 builders
12: 7 skills.

Edit: I also did the first half of crazy. 1 and 3 is impossible to beat.
2: 1 digger down the left side
4: 3 builders
5: 5 builders
6: 1 climber, 1 digger and 3 builders over each gap
7: 2 skills. Climber and floater
8: 7 skills. Requires precision and thought in those builders and bashers.
9: 4 bashers. Upped the release rate to get someone past the trap.
10: 4 skills. 1 floater, builder, climber and basher

BTW, big slap to the face on Fun 29. Didn't realise that the backwards miner would gain that much height for the plank to be climbable.

[Clam]

What are the chances of nuking for Tricky 16 and maybe Fun 5?

I thought about Tricky 16, pretty sure you can save bombers there but the question is how many. Fun 5 I'm less sure of, you only need one basher through the net so to save a skill you'd have to nuke through the whole thing.

edit: Attached Tricky 16 with 5 skills + nuke. 4 seems quite plausible.

[ccexplore]

Taxing 2 can be improved to 3 skills as one builder is sufficient to reach the exit.
On Taxing 5 unfortunately you miscounted, the total in your replay comes to 10 not 9.  [Hint: the text version of replay makes it easier to count the total.]
Taxing 11 can be improved to 9 skills--one miner at the start will turn one lemming around.

[Pooty]

I've had a stab at the first 5 Mayhem levels.

Mayhem 1: 18 skills (Modified Clam Spammer's 90% solution. Saved 3 skills. Replay attached).
Mayhem 2: 8 skills (4 builders to platform, 3 builders to flame gun, 1 climber)
Mayhem 3: 1 skill (The timing of the builder is tighter than on Fun 24, but it still works)
Mayhem 4: 4 skills (normal solution)
Mayhem 5: 10 skills (1 digger at the start, followed by normal means to the exit (4 blockers, 5 builders). Release rate needs to be adjusted so that one lemming can get ahead of the pack. Replay attached.)

Edit: Taxing 4 has been improved to 4 skills. Replay attached.

[Minim]

Very well done on Taxing 4! Certainly looked more obvious than it should with the slider trick. On Mayhem 4 Clam Spammer did set a record with even the original requirement. He did it with 3 skills (which was posted back here, but never made a replay for it).

Anyway, I've finished off Crazy. Here are the improvements:

13: 2 skills. Floater & Climber
14: 5 skills. Blocker, Climber, and three builders from the top platform to the exit.
15: 2 skills. Builder to turn the lemming round and a glitch involving a digger through the edge of the steel.
16: 4 skills. Looks like three is out of reach on this level.
17: 7 skills. Quite disappointed really, as six would've been possible if there was more time.
18: 5 skills. Done by upping the release rate to get one past the vacuum trap, then mine, two builds and a bash.
19: 4 skills. Digger, builder, bomber and basher
20: 8 skills. 6 builders and 2 bashers.

The rest are normal. I also did Wild 1 with three skills. Edit: Improved to two, using the direct drop trick!

[Clam]

Very well done on Taxing 4! Certainly looked more obvious than it should with the slider trick. On Mayhem 4 Clam Spammer did set a record with even the original requirement. He did it with 3 skills (which was posted back here, but never made a replay for it).

Here's a replay if you want it. I guess at the time I considered it too easy to warrant one.

[ccexplore]

Mayhem 2 7 skills.  I also looked at sliding a la Pooty's Taxing 4, but doesn't appear to improve on the 7.

[Pooty]

Nice one, although you can actually do this in the bit below, so you can do Mayhem 2 with 6 skills by saving that builder. Unfortunately, it looks like you still need the builder that's used as the lemming is climbing to the finish with this solution, which is annoying.

[Pooty]

I've looked ahead at some other Mayhem levels. I can't say they're optimized, mainly because there are a few levels that I can't match with the other minimum skills challenge.

Mayhem 6 - 8 Skills (4 builders to the right, one bomber/builder/miner to turn lemming around, then dig, build and build to the exit)
Mayhem 7 - 3 Skills (Exactly the same as Fun 20)
Mayhem 8 - 5 Skills (3 builders to the lump of land, then climb and dig)
Mayhem 9: 11 Skills (Save one, save the lot)
Mayhem 10: 10 Skills (Defaulting to 10 because despite the minimum skill challenge stating you can do it in 10 skills, I have no idea how to get ONE lemming there, never mind 50)
Mayhem 11: 1 Skill (Digger)
Mayhem 12: 5 Skills (Based on minimum skill challenge. Are you able to go through the steel or something?)
Mayhem 13: 3 Skills (Same as Fun 26)
Mayhem 14: 15 Skills (Minimum skills says this is possible. I personally couldn't do it in fewer than 16)
Mayhem 15: 4 Skills (Same as Tricky 10)
Mayhem 16: 1 Skill (Basher)
Mayhem 17: 6 Skills (Replay attached)
Mayhem 18: 3 Skills (from top-right entrance)

I looked at 19, and decided I needed a break.

[Minim]

Thanks for this. Just as you were going through Mayhem I whizzed through the first half whole of Wicked (not Wild, I might let someone else do that). Any blank ones are no different to the original requirement.

1: 1 miner
3: 3 skills. 1 builder into the steel. 1 left digger down the side of the steel and build.
4: 2 skills. Bomber and basher
5: 1 climber
6: Got lucky on this one, as I found a two-skill nuke solution. The original takes three.
7: 4 bombers
8: 3 skills. Climber, floater & builder
9: 7 skills. 1 floater & 6 builders
10: 11 skills. A few elongated bridges did the trick there.
12: 8 skills. Straightforward
13: 10 skills. Went up the exit the other way
14: 2 skills. Miner & Climber
15: 11 skills. 1 floater, 1 miner & 9 builders
16: 1 floater
17: 4 skills. 3 builders and 1 bomber
18: 4 skills. Have a go at this one.

[Minim]

Time to update the table with the full list of Havoc levels:

1: 9 skills. Upped the release rate to get past the trap.
2: 10 skills. 6 builders, 1 climber, 1 floater, 2 diggers
3: 3 skills. Builder, basher & floater
5: 4 skills.
6: 1 miner positioned correctly to direct-drop to the exit
7: 7 builders.
8: 5 skills. 1 climber & 4 builders
9: 5 builders
11: 13 skills. Replay on a slightly modified ceiling route
12: 3 builders
13: 6 skills.
14: 1 climber
16: 2 skills.
18: 9 skills. Replay attached
19: 4 skills.
20: 2 miners.

[LemSteven]

Here's the rest of Taxing:

13: 4
14: 19
15: 9
16: 1
17: 4 (unconfirmed, but assumed to be the same as Fun 23)
18: 3
19: 5
20: 7
21: 4
22: 1
23: 10
24: 3
25: 4
26: 1
27: 9
28: 4
29: 3
30: 1

And a few other obvious ones not yet mentioned:
Mayhem 27: 1
Mayhem 28: 7
Wild 9: 0
Wild 16: 5

[Clam]

Finally got back to this after the puzzlehunt. Some improvements:

Crazy 15 to 1 skill:

You don't need a skill to turn around, just RR99 and some lemmings get through the traps.

Crazy 18 to 4 skills:

Standard challenge trick on this level: from the corner of the gold balls you can build over with two bridges, stretched as far as possible.

Crazy 20 to 7 skills:

With a well-timed second lemming you can bash through the spike without the builder stopping.

Wicked 10 to 9 skills, replay attached but I'll spoiler the key trick here:

Force the climber into the terrain below the exit. But you have to be clever about it (:

Wicked 12 to 7 skills:

Use the miner above the exit. Because of the chain there you don't even need the glitch for this to work.

Wicked 15 to 8 skills, seems simple enough that I doubt it needs a replay or anything.

Wicked 17 to 3 skills:

1 bomber, 2 builders.

Wicked 19 to 6 skills by taking the right path the correct path, not the path on the right .

Wicked 20 to 3 skills:

This takes one expertly-placed bomber. (But then, so does the 4-skill full solution, doesn't it?)

Also for Wicked 3 you've put the wrong number in the table (should be 3).(edit: fixed now)

[ccexplore]

Only able to find two improvements in Havoc: Havoc 2 9 skills (attached), Havoc 17 5 skills (obvious lower route now possible since save requirement doesn't matter now).

[ccexplore]

Wild 12 4 skills.

[Minim]

Well, what an interesting (and rather hilarious ) new tactic you came up with on Wild 12! It was so interesting that I decided to copy that on one of the Xmas demo levels. Here's the same trick on Xmas 91 level 2. This was done with 8 skills.

I also did the other level with 7, not too difficult.

[ccexplore]

Taxing 20 improved to 6 skills, using a well-known glitch/trick to deal with that pesky first piece of web.

[Minim]

A big set of results coming up. Here's my results for Xmas '92 and for Flurry and Blitz:

Xmas 92
3: 10 (Replay)
4: 11

Flurry
1, 2, 7 & 13: 1
8: 6. 1 climber, 1 digger & 4 builders
9, 11 & 12: 2

Frustrated with 16. Is there no way to get down to the bottom platform with just 2 skills?

Blitz:
1 & 16: 3
2: 8
5: 7
8: 2
9 & 15: 6
10 & 12: 1
11 & 13: 8
14: 2 (1 is possible with nuke)
 

[LemSteven]

Havoc 15 improved to 7 skills (with 6 failing by one pixel).  See spoiler.

The first lemming builds after turning around, and the second blocks from the edge of the bridge such that the builder turns off of him.  The third bombs such that he goes off against the wall, and another digs from the right end of the crater, which should break through to the other side.  Let the digger go awhile and have one of the later lemmings build over the gap and bash toward the exit.

I have experimented with several different placements of the final basher, but unfortunately every attempt resulted in the basher either stopping before he exposed the exit, or he was too low and wouldn't go into the exit without building to hit the trigger point.  Therefore one final builder is needed to get him to the exit.

[Clam]

Tricky 16 with 5 skills + nuke. 4 seems quite plausible.

I didn't forget about this one ... I was just otherwise occupied for a while.

Here's Tricky 16 with 4 skills + nuke.


Now some fresh results for Mayhem:

19: 9, replay attached (precision and glitches required )
20: 2
21: 3, same as the Tricky version

[Minim]

Nice improvement on that nuke solution.

OK, here are improvements for Frost. Replays can be requested if needed.

2, 4 & 9: 1 skill
3, 6, 11, 16: 2 skills
10 & 15: 3 skills
13: 0

[Minim]

And to finish off Holiday Lemmings, I've done the Hail set too.

1: 2
5: 5
7: 7, needs precise building to pull this off
8: 7
9: 8 using the slider trick, but I'm just wondering, does the trick work on a 3-pixel wall, rather than a 4-pixel wall?
10: 1
11: 3
13: 3
14: 6 using the left entrance
15: 2, 1 digger to descend the basher
16: 2

I'm hope that some improvements will follow, especially 3.

Apparently, level 6 is impossible without the nuke

[Proxima]

I'm hope that some improvements will follow, especially 3.

Extremely doubtful, as the 23-skill solution uses no crowd control -- it is just one lemming getting to the exit by the fastest route.

[ccexplore]

Here are all Wild results you can just cut and paste into your table.  Except for Wild 12 everything else is pretty straightforward I'd say.

2  7  7  5  8  3  1  3  0  5  3  4  8  5  2  5  3  8  8  3       

[Minim]

Hey, that's great. Thanks for making it easy on me.

And yes, I think that 23-skill solution to Hail 3 was just very good lemming control, with no need for extra skills to hold back the others.

I did Mayhem 22 with 12 skills and 23 with 11 skills. I'm sure the latter can be improved, maybe by using the old slider trick, but I don't know how in this case.

[Proxima]

Mayhem 24 is obviously 3, the title doesn't lie.
Mayhem 25 has the same 4-skill solution as Tricky 13 (build, climb, 2 builds at the top).
Mayhem 30 requires 8 (use RR to get one past the trap).

[Proxima]

Seems to be 13 for Mayhem 26 and 16 for Mayhem 29.

EDIT: Double-checked the other minimum skills topic. You can get up the central room on Mayhem 26 with five builds, so that's 12 total.

[Pooty]

I've made some Mayhem improvements.

Mayhem 22: 10 Skills
Mayhem 23: 10 Skills (sliding technique might not be optimised, so that's one area to look at for potential improvement)
Mayhem 26: 11 Skills (As a bonus, I rescued enough lemmings to beat the level)
Mayhem 29: 15 Skills

Replays attached for all of the above.

[ccexplore]

Nice work on Mayhem 26.

Minor improvement to Xmas92 level 3 to 9 skills.

[Clam]

More improvements, not all involving nukes

Wild 1: 1 + nuke (the action happens 3 minutes in)
Wild 13: 7
Havoc 11: 12

[ccexplore]

Nice work, I was able to find the Wild 13 and Havoc 11 solutions on my own once I saw your post.

Wild 1 was surprisingly straightforward .  At the time I wasn't really sure with only two entrances' worth of lemmings usable, whether it would be sufficient for a working nuke solution.   Now in hindsight, I clearly had failed to realize that it's not at all the same as actually having only 30 lemmings, that in fact the timing (in terms of having lemmings explode as late as possible) is almost more like having, well, 60 lemmings.

[Pooty]

I've had another go at Mayhem 10 because that level has been bothering me for some reason. I have reduced it to 9 skills now, and a replay is attached. This level still torments me because I can rescue 65% of the lemmings with 10 skills, but you need 66% to win it. Bluuurgh! " title="Angry" class="smiley" />

Oh well. That was slightly off-topic, and someone else has already done the minimum % with 10 skills anyway, so...

[ccexplore]

Minor improvements:

Flurry 10: 8
Blitz 7: 4
Blitz 8: 1

[Clam]

Xmas92 level 1 with nuke only (0 skills)