Mayhem 1 -
No Spare Soldier Another very nice rank starter! It was pretty much an extension to Taxing 20's concept of holding a few Lemmings in place by becoming blockers themselves to contain the crowd and then releasing them all with a basher, including the turner.
Mayhem 2 -
Perfect Show Possibly my favorite of the entire rank. I especially like the first climber being a turner and the second climber releasing him with a digger and once low enough he bashes in order to make it a survivable drop for him. Same with building over the gap and then releasing the crowd with a turner so they all drop onto the staircase, as well as releasing him with a digger. Definitely love how the solution all comes together.
Mayhem 3 -
Die and Let Live A little challenging but not too much. Another level with a clever use of the bomber, being used to release the blocker who himself becomes a floater because he will splat otherwise, while everyone else from the top entrance will simply be stunned but survive. It's all about assigning the correct Lemmings the skills in order to get the bashing job done before anyone can turn around while it's in-progress.
Mayhem 4 -
Candy Corner Definitely one of the hardest levels of the rank that's quite early. It easily belongs closer to or even in the second half of the rank. It is one where I did make the solution harder than it needs to be, especially as I complained about the area where the crowd is contained can probably be bigger to allow more leeway. It's far harder to stop bashers in L3D than in other Lemmings games, especially when you don't have builders or can't afford to with them or with blockers instead. I do like the concept and all, especially as I love builderless levels myself, but this one was frustrating to pull off. However, I did learn something from watching namida's solution, and that is you can stop climbers from climbing deflector blocks by digging the block underneath it. Good to know, so that came in very handy for a few levels later. That also showed me that I was wrong about climbers not being savable on that level
Mayhem 5 -
Steps to Success It's all about the execution here, almost like Taxing 9, especially as there isn't much to do here except for floating and digging. It was more that I was a dummy here than doing the solution itself, even though there is also a lot of unnecessary precision I used, mostly with the floater assignments and even RR manipulation thrown in. It never occurred to me to have the non-floaters wonder into the digger pits of the floaters instead rather than keep the groups separate from each other. Even then, I did manage to only use two diggers, though that's probably already well-known and possible for this level as a challenge solution.
Mayhem 6 -
Tomb Raider Agree with Direkrow's feedback on this level being a great puzzle in and of itself, where while this is mostly a turner puzzle, it goes beyond that and includes bashing through wall tiles that are marked with a graphic, indicating that it can only be bashed from that side, and so they are like OWW. It is a very big level and hence can appear very intimidating. Even moreso because there's a couple of places where the path forks. However, the saving grace is that they at least aren't very long before you need to backtrack and try the other. There is a special gimmick here in that one of the entrances that I missed is due to it cannot be freed from the outside. Because there was one entrance that wasn't accounted for, it made me think that I missed a path somewhere along the way. I did a reset and followed where I assigned the skills as the replay mode went on. Turns out I didn't miss any route and went down every path except for those that are complete dead ends. The answer is to cycle through the multiple cameras since they can free themselves without the help of the other entrances. You won't be able to solve the level otherwise if you don't use this feature of the game.
Mayhem 7 -
Flying Sweets Pretty much a breather level and where watching namida's solution of stopping climbers from climbing a deflector block on Mayhem 4 really came in handy
Mayhem 8 -
Color Display Can be challenging, but this one isn't too bad. I had the solution down somewhat quickly, but after that it was all about fine-tuning things until it worked. Some of my earlier attempts had me one short of the requirement. Decent level and kind of reminded me of a Bridge level from LPVI that I really struggled with, only much harder than this one.
Mayhem 9 -
Breaking the Routine Another favorite of mine, especially once I figured out the solution. Somewhat of a roadblock as well, so agree with namida there. I must say the outer parts of the level after the first trampoline are really good red herrings/distractions
Even when you do manage to get there, you'll find there isn't enough time to do so. I thought the solution I found was a backroute because it looked very hackish, but to my surprise it is intended after all from watching namida's solution.
Mayhem 10 -
Detour Shot Somewhat easy and nearly another breather. The only difficulty I had was figuring out how to remove all 3 parts of the wall to stop the splatting from spring use. it's hard more due to the solution than the save requirement, as the latter is quite lenient here.
Mayhem 11 -
Kingdom of Chaos Now back to somewhat difficult here but a pretty good one. I especially like how the climbers do all the work and they all are the sacrifices in order to help the floaters home. I'm not sure what happens in namida's solution with the one that turns on the turner, but I used him as a bomber sacrifice to free the floater blocker.
Mayhem 12 -
Acrobatics Another level that is somewhat huge, hard, and intimidating. I sadly backrouted this one, though it nearly fails due to the top boundary and if it weren't for fallers having forward momentum it surely would had. Honestly, I'm not sure what happens in namida's video solution for Dos, so I'm better off watching namida's Loap replay instead
Mayhem 13 -
The Grand Arch Slight backroute, though the fact I used all but two turners means I cannot lose anyone else except for the turners due to splatting or drowning. Thankfully, climbers affecting only the block they're on gets destroyed when bombed, hence everyone else was able to still walk into the bomber hole in the pillar. Once more, I learned something new from watching namida's solution with the Lemmings not falling off the staircase when turning on the second turner. Essentially, the intended solution requires simulating the effect of a blocker with two turners on staircases so that you can come back and build to get up to the exit. I originally tried going for the intended way but eventually gave up because I couldn't visualize it correctly. Needles to say, the level would be too easy if you were provided even 1 blocker. Since you aren't, you have to make do with turners instead. Most definitely one of the hardest levels of the rank.
Mayhem 14 -
Luck Shot Definitely a level you either get very quickly or you struggle for a while on. I was the latter, but only because I didn't think the nuke would work despite my suspicions right from the very start. It was really me hastily coming to an incorrect conclusion when I haven't even tried nuking a level when there's a huge number of Lemmings in the level. After a long while struggling on-camera with it, I did have to spend some off-camera time on it. Very cool seeing the first nuke level of L3D in this pack, and now I know that such levels are possible to make in the engine.
Mayhem 15 -
Aerial Assault Another level that looks intimidating and challenging but it really isn't that bad once figure out the correct way to do the level. I also ended up spending more time than I needed to on this level because I kept doing the splatforms wrong, when they're really all done in the pillars themselves after bombing to get climbers into them, never on the grass. Luckily, the save requirement is lenient here and so the main difficulty is just finding the correct way of doing the solution.
Mayhem 16 -
Not Quite the Original Act Essentially L3D's equivalent of the NTTD levels found in all of the numbered Plus packs, i.e, LPI through LPVI. Same stats as them, with a few differences: 9 turners in addition to 9 each of the classic 8 skills, 4 minute time limit instead of 2 mins. This is definitely the hardest NTTD-like level I have ever played and solved. It took me a long time before I succeeded, though maybe not as long as Direkrow. The main reason why it's hard is due to saving everyone, even moreso when turners are involved, as even if you free them they have not turned themselves and so getting them to the exit later is also a challenge in itself. It definitely got frustrating for me after a while, especially when I thought I had the level solved when in fact I haven't, as well as timings not working out even after I thought I had the solution down. There's a really good reason why this level is very late in the rank!
Mayhem 17 -
Winter Dynasty A level that appears harder than it really is. In the first few minutes, I thought this wasn't bad at all, but boy was I wrong. It seems the normal route is just too slow and you end up losing one more than you're allowed once the miner is done, the extra being the miner himself, as there's no way to turn him around back to the exit later. My off-camera solution is fiddly and timing heavy here, as I contain the crowd differently than the intended way, though i was fortunate that everyone walked out the correct way when they were bombed released and the turner when released is far enough ahead of the compressed crowds in order to not be turned around on the blocker and was able to overtake the basher before he destroyed the terrain leading up to the exit and they therefore cannot exit anymore.
Mayhem 18 -
Activity Center I found this one harder due to the solution instead of the very tight timer, though it's yet another case where I made the solution far harder than it needed to be. In particular, I only had the crowd contained for about 5-10 seconds and I literally had to delay the basher being made a turner for as long as possible in order to finally get the timing and spacing correct so that I don't lose too many. I seemed to have defied the hint in this pack topic, as I went for the "incorrect" exit instead of the one that the intended route goes for, but they both seemed to be functional exits.
Mayhem 19 -
Power Distribution Pretty good one here as mentioned. The RR manipulation was the one I had the most trouble with in the level, as I got the solution somewhat quick. It's far easier to get Lemmings trapped with a digger, as they can only step up one slab, not up to 6 pixels like in NL, though the difference is essentially due to pixel-based vs block-based.
Mayhem 20 -
Final Frontier While definitely nowhere near the hardest or anywhere as difficult as the 4 levels before it, it's still no pushover. The teleporters and somewhat huge level does make the level look somewhat intimidating, but it isn't as bad as it appears. Indeed, I called it quits after close to 40 minutes on it. It was mostly due to exhaustion and given how very late it was where I am. Turns out that I nearly had a solution, I simply stopped too soon, just like I did with Taxing 19. In the end, a slight backroute, nearly similar to the one Ryemanni found. I must say that while I'm quite shocked that it took him more than 4 hours before solving Mayhem 19, I'm just as shocked that he managed to get this one solved in only about 10 minutes. So, it really does show that difficulty is different with different individuals, as well as how you just have to be in the right mindset. When you're mentally exhausted and sleepy, you can easily miss details that you otherwise wouldn't if you're in an alert state. All things considered, still a worthy level to end the pack on.
