Skills: 10 Floaters, 10 Bombers, 2 Blockers, 6 Builders, 10 Bashers, 10 Miners, 10 Diggers
Save Requirement: 27/30
Time Limit: None
Release Rate: 80
PlaythroughThere's a mountain to climb over and two water gaps to build over. It looks easy enough... or so it seemed, until you stop and really think about it. The steel wall prevents going through the mountain. The mountain is too thin to mine down and too tall to build over. Even if you do go over the mountain, the trap on the other side blocks the way. There's no climbers and only a limited resource of builders.
Is the way forward by digging under the mountain, then? How would you dig up, though? Most perplexing. I decided to take a look in clear physics mode. Maybe there's a gap between the trap triggers and the wall.
There is. So lemmings can actually fall down past the traps, provided they're right up against the inside wall when they do. I have a feeling this isn't intended, though. Check your traps, people!
Just to confirm my suspicions, I tried building over the mountain. The visible mound at the base of the mountain is too close for the builder bridge to gain enough height before it crashes into the mountain itself. So, I have to start the build from further back...
Getting up there uses 5 of my 6 builders. Way too many. I'd need at least 3 or 4 more to make it over the remaining water gaps.
What about going under the steel wall? I can dig up by repeatedly canceling bashers or miners with builders. This will eat into my supply, but maybe it uses less than 5?
Well... one less. Still not enough to even make it over the first water gap, let alone the second. This one's a stumper.
It seems like a stretch, but maybe I need to dig
even lower and go under the first water gap, coming out below the bottom most trap. I thought there was no way this could work, but looking at it more closely...
I see two approaches. Either going under the exit and wrapping back around. Or building a zigzag around the trap and entering the exit from the left:
Option A uses 1 blocker and Option B uses 2 blockers. Either way, this makes managing the crowd more challenging. I'll worry about how to trap the crowd later, first I need to see if either of these routes are going to work.
One of them can be quickly ruled out:
Even starting at one of the lowest points, I can't stretch the bridge out enough to make it all the way under the exit's platform without crashing into the ceiling.
From this testing, I think the other route might actually work. Thing is, how will I contain the crowd? With no blockers, I'll need to use digging skills to hold them in place. What makes this even more complicated is that I eventually need another lemming to be the first blocker. How do I release one lemming without releasing the crowd? It'd be easy with climbers, but I have none.
Regarding the 2nd worker, what I opt to try is this:
I have a lot of extra digging skills. I can just leave the extra worker bouncing around in the tunnel and control the timing of their arrival at the bridge by making them dig:
A couple of miner-basher delays later and we have our second worker arriving just as the first finishes their job. Looks like this approach will work. What about the crowd, though? In that little test, you can see I used a blocker. That's unacceptable, since I need both to build the bridge to the exit. I could bomb in the snow to trap the crowd, but that alone isn't quite enough. The 2nd worker will eventually walk back and get stuck too.
I resolve this by having the first worker start their bash before I contain the crowd. Then, once they're past the steel block at the bottom of the level, I establish the crowd-trap. The last lemming to turn around inside the basher tunnel becomes my 2nd worker. They then mine into the steel block themselves, creating a place for them to turn around inside the tunnel:
I build the bridge as before. The second worker becomes the second blocker. At that point, I can free the crowd and they'll remain safe between the two blockers.
Now I just build to the exit:
Success! Used all of the blockers+builders and saved exactly the required number of lemmings. A surprisingly tricky puzzle considering how simple the layout was.
Reflecting on the puzzle makes me appreciate it even more.
AddendumThe walkthrough describes another way to resolve the "contain the crowd + let workers go when they're needed" problem which is cool and I wish I had thought of it. I'm glad I checked it, because it's a trick I'll probably need to keep in mind for future puzzles in other packs too.
Rather than just allowing the 2nd worker to bounce around freely in the the tunnel, you can have all of your workers isolate themselves in seperate digger pits:
Then when it's time for the next one to go, you bash through the side to release them. Nifty!
ReviewPros: Enjoyed the crowd control elements of the puzzle. Enjoyed how limited resources dictated a slightly creative solution. Tougher than it looked.
Cons: Some traps and terrain are misplaced.
Look: It's pretty passable. The snow environment is hard to sell. It's hard to see in the small screenshots, but the lower left corner of the mountain terrain piece is exposed.
Score: 7/10
Solution Replay 