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and not using the climbers wasn't a backroute i just made everything 10x harder for myself

This was extremely difficult for me but I was able to solve it by using a precise bomber at the end.

The trick is to keep the crowd moving rather than sending out a worker: use all the skills that you can, and watch what Swimmers are able to do!

6: I realised I could solve this one without collecting the pick-up skill - so this may not be quite in the spirit of the level!

This feels as if has to be one of these: Either it's a glaring backroute because I don't bash through the one-way pillar and the bashing is intended, or it's exactly the intended solution and the one-way arrows are a lovely red herring.

Out of these two, I believe it's the intended way because I didn't find a solution with bashing the one-way that still finishes in time.

WillLem put an icicle trap at the bottom where you come out of the fat mountain. This makes your route look like a second intended solution. But who am I to judge. :evil:

Initially I thought this level was going to be an evil one like Elfabet Soup (hence finishing it today and not yesterday) but I noticed if you assign them miners on the first frame they're assignable then they don't collide paths. So I counted the amount of frames between them and assigned them accordingly and it worked! Clever level WillLem! :lemcat:

Standard we all fall down style level (apart from the fact that I could send 2 lems at once), that gave me no problems at all :lemcat: . Even managed to unintentionally get a lem on the starting platform but to the right of the trap :lem-mindblown:

At first I kept on running out of time at the end, but then I realized I was overthinking it and you can just make both of them climbers and floaters! I think I got in the habit of always associating OWA's with the Keep Your Hair On Mr. Lemming solution!

Yes, this backroute was made impossible in the original version of this level (from my 2019 Christmas Pack, upon which many of these levels are based). I decided to make it an alternative route in this version; those who want the shortest & most economical route can go this way, whilst those who want the scenic route can take the upper path across the top of the mountain, which is more interesting :lemcat:

Indeed, the OWW is there to prevent Bashing straight through the pipe rather than being part of the puzzle, so I guess they are a bit herringy ;P

Simon's jumping from the top of the OWW pillar is a nice touch :thumbsup:

I struggled with this level quite a bit because I am not used to skill pickups, I think this was a good level to introduce me to it though. Also struggled quite a bit on where I was supposed to use the cloner.

Fun level.

This solution was really messy and didn't save all lems, I only saving it so I can be caught up for the bonus level, maybe I'll save all lems again one day

Both Silken and Simon solved this without using the second Cloner (apart from to meet the save requirement); it seems that the second Cloner is really just there to speed the solution up slightly. I guess I didn't realise that it doesn't actually form a necessary part of the solution. I like that it's there though, since I always reach for it when playing through this level. Apjjm uses it in exactly the same way that I do, incidentally :lemcat:

All very different and inventive solutions, great to see!

Both Apjjm and Silken used a glaring backroute which I'm surprised I didn't spot. This level is a carryover from my Xmas SUPERLEMMINGS (https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=5252.msg87889#msg87889) pack, originally written for SuperLemmini where the steel blocks are allowed to extend fully below the snow. Of course, in NeoLemmix they become ineffective when partially submerged. Since this level re-appears later in the pack in another version, I probably will release a fix for this...

These have been my favourite replays to watch so far. I had a lot of fun putting this level together and it's great to see the different ways it can be navigated.

@Silken - You definitely seem to have a preference for taking the alternate routes around these levels, some of which I didn't even spot myself. Nice work!

@Simon and Apjjm - You both used the same method to make the Mary Poppins' Land-style drop obstacle safe! I like you're thinking, very cheeky! ;P

Fun fact: Simon was the only player to use the originally intended method of controlling the crowd (in the first version of this level from 2019). The introduction of Laserers into this level makes other methods possible, and preferable.

Only was able to save one lemming, but that is probably the max intended due to the level name and skill count. Which is quite a clever concept, nice level!

It looks like the bridge streching is necessary. If I don't stretch, the athlete dies.

But your design idea fundamentally would work without stretching. Can you tweak the distance to avoid the need for stretching? Then you will work with the UI instead of against it: Lemmings gives you ample time to assign to the shrugger, producing unstretched bridges, and NL offers limited queuing that also produces unstretched bridges.

Surprised how nontrivial the level felt, even though the terrain leaves zero choice after counting the required number of bridges to the exit.

The placement of the flamethrowers allow healthy walking underneath. It feels like you fell prey to the #1 usability sin of NL physics, putting the lemmings' pin in the ground under the foot instead of in the foot. :P

Given deadly flamethrowers, it looks like crowd control can be identical and trailblazing still very similar, again leading to merely walking over the cat.

Might be a backroute, probably not. Infact I did the exact same thing as Simon apart from using a builder instead of a platformer and vise-versa at the start and end

This level seemed easier than it should of been... I even managed to get the gold talisman on my normal playthrough. Still need that hint on rebel without a claus btw

I got a hint to beat this level, which was watching a bit of WillLem beating it which pretty much gave it away but I am still glad I beat it otherwise I would've been stuck on this for ageeeeeeeees

That said, I would've thought the fact that it can be completed in real-time means that the more tool-assisted approach should make it easier to bring the timings together. It's not as precise as you think; the placement of the flamethrower offers considerable margin for Builder placement.

Shimmiers are the key to this level, and it only takes 5 Builders to get from the crystal to the exit platform.

North Pole - I think the bottom crowd being a train of lemmings you just have to make the path work for is a really fun idea.

Merry Christmas M.C. Escher - The talisman on this was really tricky! I'm pretty happy to have found a solution that works for this one as the teleporter animations are surprisingly long and unforgiving for lemmings being too close together. I tried some release rate manipulation with no luck and had a few close solutions which didn't quite work out before releasing I didn't need to adjust the RR at all if I just let the first lemming walk a bit before turning it around.

Two methods for Mary v2 that both win gold. The first feels too precise but is more obvious to try. Such precision feels off since it's an easy holiday pack otherwise.

The easier feels intended but the terrain doesn't enforce this yet; the terrain lures you into the more precise method.

Mary v2 is hardest level in pack so far, first that I didn't solve in a single session. Granted: I forgot how to solve Take a Running Jump efficiently.

Solution doesn't need the bashers.

Terrain near the exits is precise to mine. Mining too early on top of a spike cancels the miner before he opens the exit. Frustration is moderate because feedback from mis-mining is at least immediate.

We all fall down - Managed to solve this with only 1 basher by using a trick I picked up playing lemmings cranium recently.
Escape from cindyland - Got a save-all solution for the gold talisman here, but is quite an open ended level if you are willing to multi-task.

I'm happy with all solutions except the ones to Mary Christmas, both of which avoid sending the crowd back around via the infinite platform. A change to the layout and/or skillset may be the only way to proof this one, since the Builders intended to make a splatform can clearly be used to block the crowd from going that way at all. I like this level a lot, so I'll likely make one last fix for this one.

Marshmallow Land II also still seems too easy: the ending is supposed to create more problems, and a Swimmer is meant to be used ideally. But... I'm going to leave this one as it is, it can be an anomaly which will hopefully have some interesting challenge solutions.

Merry Christmas M.C. Escher has a surprising number of possible solutions; I don't think I've seen it solved exactly the same way twice so far (it was also included in my 2019 Xmas pack). I'm not sure if your solution could be tweaked to work without the Floaters, but I have no doubt that you'd be able to find a different way to solve the level. Apjjm's talisman solution is not intended and is more precise than it needs to be; the intended solution can be performed pause-free and without helpers.

You found some slight shortcuts to Icy What You Did There and The Icicle Lane, but nothing I'd call a backroute; these were more like interesting skill-saving alternatives.

One thing I particularly like about your solutions is that you often use multiple workers, even in the levels which require working at both ends of the map. It makes for some entertaining replays! :thumbsup:

All great solutions; Mary Christmas is intended (yay!) and your Merry Christmas M.C. Escher talisman is very inventive in its use of the miner :thumbsup:

You also performed The Icicle Lane in pretty much exactly the intended way, which is nice to see.

Elsewhere, some very interesting solutions to the more open-ended levels. The backroute fix for Marshmallow Land II doesn't block your route, but I'll allow it for its sheer creativity and attention to detail. Nice work so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing your solve to the finale :lemcat:

It's the same solution as my earlier, but replaces the floating with heavy RR-fidgeting to force all necessary spacing.

Still uses only one exit. Still is hackish and doesn't feel adequate as a talisman puzzle solution. But I found nothing else, it surprises me that Escher allegedly has several solutions.

Feels like a backroute because I abuse the platformer for a few pixels of height. The leftover digger raises an eyebrow.

I conjecture that the intended solution digs one of the poles from the initial enclosue. I conjecture that the intended solution bashes through the tree and jumps over the snowman; I swapped these.

Santa 1 - Merry Christmas Mr Lemming Nice 5-of-everything level to start off the pack. Many possible solutions, you take your pick and find any you like.

Santa 2 - Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, BLITZEN Far more limited in the skillset, although there's still a couple of ways to go about the level. The hardest part is probably just finishing on time, so it's important to know when to release everyone else. I see that a save all is indeed possible here, and I think I know how that is achieved.

Santa 3 - Bashing Through the Snow Nice builders/bashers only level. Reminds me of WillLem's contest level that provided only these two skill types, although it was pretty much a remake of "And now, the end is near..." I realized later that I didn't have to spend the builders at the start like I did, but well, there's plenty of ways to go about the level, some of which may cause more problems than needed depending on if you waste more of one skill than the other too quickly. Still, a nice 3 lemmings level where you have to manage everyone carefully, as you need to save all.

Santa 4 - Tinsellation Although I solved this one quickly, I can still see this one being a hard one for less experienced players, especially given the 2-of-everything skillset. You can certainly run into a lot of dead ends if you're not careful with the skills here. Even then, I enjoyed this one, and it was a bit fun to see how you can still end up with a lot of skills left :P

Santa 5 - Elfabet Soup Nice homage to "Pea Soup" from the OL. The difference here is that you have way more skills available and time is far tighter. I think I know how the talisman would be obtained, I simply need to send more workers on ahead and release the crowd much earlier. The cloners will certainly be a huge help here for that.

Santa 6 - The Return of Sir Edmund Hilemming Nice 1-lemming level that pays homage to the Mount Everest level from the Xmas Lemmings games. I scaled the mountain and collected the glider pickup. To do so was the most challenging part, given the very limited skillset and the wonky terrain and numerous obstacles to get through.

Santa 7 - Say It Ain't Snow Just a short level demonstrating that two miners can cross one another without cancelling either one out and nothing else. Just fiddle around until you get the positions and timing right to make it work.

Santa 8 - Race Against the Race Against Cliches I didn't have a problem here at all, although I quickly realized that the answer wasn't to build to the OWW but to simply jump and climb it and then float down the other side. I think attempting to build would cause you to run out of time. If so, nicely done to enforce this solution described in the previous two sentences.

Santa 9 - We All Fall Down I Just an homage to the infamous WAFD levels which seems to be the type disliked by many here. I don't understand why the level's RR is locked, although maybe its sole purpose is to simply show that absolutely no changing the RR is necessary at all to get the level solved. Even then, it does drag the level out longer than it should, though thankfully there's time skip, but it's still a bit annoying since you still have to make sure you get in some digger assignments in the interim so that you don't lose anyone, as you need to save everyone.

Santa 10 - Stage Presents Struggled more than I should had, but only because I refused to play by activating CPM :P Besides, the level's title hints as to where the pickups are, so it shouldn't be hard to figure out their location. Not to mention at least hidden things aren't overdone here in this pack at all, so it's perfectly fine IMO. It's the fun of it, anyway, especially since I prefer to figure things out as I go along in the level. Quite a nice level here, although I was a dummy in that it took me a while to figure out I needed to clone the platformer in order to save up the builders I needed to get up to the final teleporter leading to the exit.

Santa 11 - Return to CindyLand Massive builderfest, although given the very wide skillset it's ultimately another anything goes level. Other than the tedium of the builder bridges, the only hard part is finishing on time, though I think I remember finishing with a lot of time to spare. The repeat, on the other hand...

Santa 12 - Jingle All The Way Very nice open-ended level to finish off the rank. Going for the save all proved harder than I thought it would, although here I used the builder wall at the very start. After that, I simply isolated a worker and prepared the rest of the path for the crowd before releasing. Rescuing the athletes at the end was a very nice touch :thumbsup:

Satan 1 - All For One Really nice bombers only puzzle here! :thumbsup: You really need to think about who to bomb and who to let through and how to bomb. In particular, I especially love the part where you need to bomb a faller to release others to do some of the path, that was a stroke of genius :) Well done here, WillLem.

Satan 2 - Rebel Without A Claus Looks like I share Apjjm's feelings about this level, as this too was a favorite of mine! Very nice puzzle involving figuring out how to save the swimmer/glider before he gets into trouble with the firebox, meaning you need to prepare the route with a normal lemming before that happens. I do have a spare builder, though :P

Satan 3 - Marshmallow Land II I consider this level a huge step up in difficulty. Although it seems that you have plenty, the skillset in actuality turns out to be very limited and tight. The cloners do help to overcome some of the shortcomings, but you still have to really think about how to go about the level. I should had realized sooner that the way to get to the exit is through the cat face, as building all the way across the water uses more constructive skills than you're given. It's a nice puzzle if my solution is even the least bit intended, but yea, this was a hard one to play and figure out.

Satan 4 - Mary Christmas Nice remake of "Take a Running Jump..." from the OL, as well as using a part of "Mary Poppins' Land" design. This one was harder than I thought it would be, although it's certainly due to the very limited amount of builders. As a matter of fact, you're given the bare amount needed to solve the level. It took me a while to figure out where to place the first builder in order to make a splatform for the crowd with the "Mary Poppins' Land" structure. Here, I would reduce the precision, as it's still not very clear that the drop is safe with 4 builders. This is just me personally, though. However, I think it's exactly the way the structure is made in that level.

Satan 5 - The North Pole I was a dummy here for quite a while, as for some reason it didn't occur to me to make both preplaced lemmings go out to the right rather than one each in separate directions. You certainly won't have the necessary skills to make either the floater or glider turn back towards the exit if they fall out to the left. A little bit too tall IMO, although I certainly understand it's supposed to represent the actual physical distance to the North Pole. Also, I wonder how long it took for you to figure out where to put the stars so that the gliders continuously bounce back and forth without leaving out the right side of the level. Nice touch with saving the climber/glider hatch by destroying some terrain on the right side :thumbsup:

Satan 6 - Icy What You Did There Somewhat challenging, although the level pretty much solves itself as long as you make sure to build on top of the inclines and simply platform along the bottom of the platforms and then bash once the gaps are sealed off so that you have the right distribution of lemmings going for the limited exits. This was quite a nice puzzle!

Satan 7 - Merry Christmas M. C. Escher Harder than I thought it would be, especially with figuring out how to manage both the normal lemming and neutral crowds and ensuring no one slips past the teleporters on the extreme edges on either side. I wonder if my solution is a bit of a backroute due to how I used a stacker to prevent anyone from using the bottom teleporter and to pretty much turn everyone back towards the left exit :P

Satan 8 - ...And A Happy New Year! Much harder repeat of Santa 1 due to a far more restricted skillset. A very fine puzzle here where it's very non-trivial to figure out the best and most efficient route. I think it's especially fun with X-of-everything levels and to see how much further the skillset can be reduced in the repeat and still be solvable. It definitely seems that 3 is the absolute minimum in this case, as I'm almost certain that a solution is completely out of reach with a 2-of-everything skillset.

Satan 9 - We All Fall Down Another repeat, except you only have builders and bashers. The solution is pretty obvious, just getting it to work and executing it can be hard.I likely could had saved up some builders maybe if I had built along the starting platform at a later time.

Satan 10 - The Icicle Lane Looks difficult, but it's really not thanks to the very low RR. It's more than enough time to seal off the gaps before anyone falls into oblivion, especially among 3 hatches. I spared a builder and a basher here :P

Satan 11 - Escape From CindyLand Another repeat of the CindyLand level from the previous rank, except the hatches and exit are in different locations, and the skillset is different, with a far more limited builder supply. In turn, the amounts of the other skills have increased, and you also get an extra 2 minutes. Once again, a huge builderfest and one in which I probably could had saved far more time had I done a bit more multitasking than is shown in the LP. It's certainly a good lesson in being economical with your builders, saving them wherever possible. Originally, I wanted to get the right entrance out without needing to send someone from the left entrance over via interrupting bashers/miners midstroke with a builder, but I think I would had maybe ran out of builders that way. Instead, one could send a lemming from the left entrance and use a digger/basher staircase.

Satan 12 - Running Home From Christmas Really nice and fun open-ended level to finish off the rank. Definitely reminds me of "Rendezvous at the Mountain" in that there's one entrance on each side and the exit is in about the middle. That reminds me, didn't Lemminas finish off with a similar level type to Mayhem 30? Except there's a lot of different choices of pickups to go for. Very easy to go for a save all here. Multi-tasking might not even be needed at all given the high time limit, although I didn't want to take the risk :P

Bonus 1 - A Christmas Carol Nice puzzle to finish off the pack. Took longer than I thought it would, and I wonder if I backrouted this level due to having a swimmer and shimmier leftover :P It was fun figuring out which lemmings to go for which exit. Should be clear that the non-climbers will need to use the left exit, while the climbers use the right exit. Figuring out how to save the glider was the hardest IMO.