Lemmings Doublets

[Proxima]

"Doublets" is a word game where you try to transform one word into another (of the same length), changing a single letter at a time, with the proviso that all the intermediate steps must be valid words: for example, cat, cot, cog, dog. The goal is to complete the chain in as few steps as possible (the final word counts as a step but the starting word does not, so the above chain scores 3).

See if you can equal or beat my scores:

BASH to MINE (5)
BOMB to CUBE (14)
BUILD to STACK (13) (hint: the chain contains another Lemmings-related word)

[Simon]

Very nice idea. I remember this puzzle from childrens' puzzle books with 4 letters, and the solution was always known to be length 3 or 4. It's far more interesting when there is no obvious 3- or 4-letter solution, but we can never be perfectly sure.

BASH to MINE in 4

bash
base
bane
mane
mine

BOMB to CUBE in 5

bomb
comb
come
core
cure
cube

BUILD to STACK in 9

build
guild
guile
guide
glide (this was given explicitly as a hint in the original problem)
slide
slice
slick
stick
stack

BUILD to STACK is hard if you don't know the exact Lemmings-related intermediate word in the center. I haven't found a shorter route even when that intermediate word isn't required.

New puzzle:

DISK to BALL in 6

disk
dusk
dunk
bunk
bank
balk
ball

Now I want to play a game of Scrabble with Proxima.

-- Simon

[Proxima]

I suspect you'd beat me Here's a solution for disk-ball in 8, I'll see if I can come up with a shorter one.

Spoiler

disk, dish, dash, mash, math, matt, malt, mall, ball

EDIT: Got it in 6!

Spoiler

disk, dirk, mirk, milk, mill, bill, ball

[Proxima]

CLIMB to FLOAT is very hard. I have a solution in 7, but it uses obscure words. According to an online solver, the best solution with only common words is 16!

My solution:

Spoiler

climb, clime, cline, clone, clonk, cloak, cloat, float

Yet again, the shortest path just happens to go through another skill name

I have two dictionaries near at hand, and neither accepts clonk or cloat. Yet clonk (to strike aggressively, especially on the head) is part of my everyday vocabulary. Cloat, I admit, I googled to see whether it was a word, after failing to complete the chain any other way.

A better puzzle: WALK to TRAP (10). This uses one rather obscure word, but nowhere near as bad as the climb-float puzzle. The online solver finds a solution in 11 with only common words.

My solution:

Spoiler

walk, wall, tall, tale, tare, tarn, tern, term, team, tram, trap

[Gronkling]

WALK->TRAP in 8, using lots of obscure words.

WALK
salk
sauk
souk
soak (the one non-obscure word)
boak
brak
brap
TRAP

[ccexplore]

BUILD to STACK is hard if you don't know the exact Lemmings-related intermediate word in the center. I haven't found a shorter route even when that intermediate word isn't required.

According to an online solver, an 8-step solution exists, not using the Lemmings-related word either but instead rely upon an obscure word near the center:

(solution: http://ceptimus.co.uk/wordladder.php?w1=BUILD&w2=STACK)

According to an online solver, the best solution with only common words is 16!

If it's the same solver I'm using above, based on its explanation page, the common-word solver seems to minimize sum of rareness instead of length, rather than say basing on just a threshold of rareness (but otherwise still minimizing length, even if it means using more relatively rarer words still below the threshold), so it may tend to produce longer solutions just so the words used are more common, so to speak.  For example it seems to prefer a 10-step solution over Simon's 9 for BUILD -> STACK, apparently not liking the first step in Simon's solution for some reason, even though effectively all the rest of the steps are identical to Simon's.  (And no, it fails to elaborate on exactly how rareness scores are assigned to words in the dictionary it is using.)

[ccexplore]

WALK->TRAP in 8, using lots of obscure words.

I finally managed 7 with much more common words, and w/o the solver's help.

Spoiler

WALK
TALK
TALL
TELL
TEAL
TEAM
TRAM
TRAP

(For reference: the solver yields 6 with obscure words, and 11 for its sum-based "common".   I guess it thinks that color word in my solution as "rare", even though I think it's not so rare nowadays?)

[ccexplore]

FAIL to NUKE in 8 or better

FAIL
FALL
PALL
POLL
POLE
POKE
PUKE
NUKE

(solver gives 6 with obscure and 8 for "common".  As you can see in the spoiler mine's actually 7, but one of the words used, while valid, was not as common as I thought (it is part of a common compound word that relates to funerals, but by itself I guess it's not as common).

[Gronkling]

FAIL->NUKE in 6

fail
farl
furl
curl
cure
cuke
nuke

[Simon]

FAIL -> NUKE in 6

fail
fall
full
pull
pule
puke
nuke

I like how these grow from both sides in promising style, and then I google for the missing link in the center until I get lucky. Googling wouldn't be allowed during Scrabble, Proxima doesn't have to be afraid.

Walk -> Trap looks harder, I don't have anything good yet.

-- Simon

[Apjjm]

I got walk->trap in the same way as ccexplore.

How about BLOCK to MINER? I found this really hard and 12 was the best i could manage.

Spoiler

• BLACK
• BLANK
• BLAND
• BRAND
• BRANS
• BEANS
• BEADS
• BENDS
• BINDS
• MINDS
• MINES
• MINER

[LemSteven]

BLOCK -> MINER in 9

BLOCK
BLOCS
BLOTS
BOOTS
BOLTS
MOLTS
MOLES
MILES
MINES
MINER

Here's one using a couple of Lemmings 2 skills: FILL -> GLUE  The best I could come up with on my own is 7.  The solver managed to find a 6-step solution using an obscure word.

FILL -> GLUE in 7

FILL
FELL
FEEL
FEED
FLED
FLEE
GLEE
GLUE