History ThatOneLevel / Lemmings

* Tricky 19, ''Postcard from Lemmingland''. This level is not dangerous per se, but is one of the first true puzzles of the game and has caught out many novice players. The conventional solution is to use your Digger and Builder to turn a lead lemming around right before he walks into the exit (and don't forget to turn him into a Floater or you'll regret it later!). This level was infamous enough that its solution was actually printed in the manual for the UsefulNotes/MegaDrive version.

* Mayhem 20, ''No added colours or lemmings''. This is another puzzle level that requires creative use of the two Miners to solve: one to undermine a Blocker and one to destroy the end of a Builder's bridge so a Climber can make it to the exit. The latter trick is hard to pull off as it requires pixel-perfect accuracy and no other lemmings nearby (which is hard to guarantee). Also, you have to use a blocker so as to isolate one lemming, but you need to save 100%. This is possible because mining under a blocker releases him. But no previous level has required this, so it takes quite a creative leap to come up with it on the spot. Like Tricky 19, this level also had its solution printed in the UsefulNotes/MegaDrive version's manual.

* Slightly weirder physics and mechanics made the UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum Level 27 (Tricky 19), ''Postcard From Lemmingland'', monumentally irritating. The solution turned out to be synching the release rate with a Basher such that the lemmings pass through the scoop of the ramp he digs as a small enough step to get up onto the ledge. (Setting the rate to 97 did it.)

* Taxing 26, ''Triple Trouble''. It's ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. You're given three Lemming spawn points but only one exit, blocked off by a ring of stone in the center of the stage. It's easy to save all the Lemmings coming out of the topmost hatch, since you can just dig through the upper edge of the ring, but the other two hatches are a nightmare. You have a severely limited amount of Builders (12 on most versions, ''10'' on the SNES and Genesis versions), and you need two of them to get those groups past otherwise-impassable steel walls and one to build up to the exit once you've Bashed away the ground beneath it. In other words, you have only nine/seven Builders to get up to the ring in the center, and if a Lemming runs out of building room when he nears the goal, you're pretty much screwed. Why this level isn't in Mayhem is a mystery for the ages.

* And finally, Havoc 20, ''[=LOoK BeFoRe YoU LeAp!=]''. You have to use about a dozen bombers to dig a downward path through several layers of rock, but you don't get any blockers to help you place them precisely; you have to time them to explode at a certain place while they're still moving. If just one or two explode in the wrong place, you can either send them all plummeting to their doom, trap them somewhere with no way out, or simply end up falling short of the completion percentage because you wasted too many bombers.

* Havoc 16, ''Scaling the Heights'', requires turning the first lemming into a Blocker just before he walks off the edge of the very narrow platform under the entrance, trapping the other lemmings against a wall. After a lemming has been sent on ahead to create the path to the exit, the other lemmings must be freed by building out of the pit. Because of the difficulty in assigning a job to a particular lemming in a large group in a small area, it is extremely easy to inadvertently build over the Blocker and send all of the lemmings marching off to their deaths, without the resources to make them turn around. And with onl 2 minutes to complete the level, the clock often ends up being your worst enemy. On the DOS version, it's a lot easier to hold the crowd in the bottom part of the level, and send a climber up to mine down and release them. On the Mac, though, because of the high-resolution graphics, a vertical part of the wall becomes bumpy and ''can't be climbed''.

* The Genesis version has ''two'' extra difficulty settings as well as a host of other levels unique to that version (five of which are also {{Brutal Bonus Level}}s in the SNES version), which means even ''more'' levels guaranteed to cause loss of sleep, sanity, and hair:

* Tricky 26, ''I have a cunning plan'' despite being in Tricky, has a difficulty more along the lines of late Mayhem. To clear the level, you either need to make a lemming a blocker the instant he touches the ground so the lemmings walk through, and then save him at the end using the mine under him trick, or create a wall out of bridges to stop lemmings from walking into a shredder. The former is hard because that is a late Mayhem level trick that was difficult to figure out in Mayhem, let alone Tricky and it requires near pixel perfect precision when assigning the miner, and the latter is difficult because there is no indication that a thick bridge can act as a wall and it too requires a lot of precision. Most of the time, the wall will not be thick enough, or one of the builders will hit his head and die in the shredder, preventing you from saving 100%.

* Mayhem 21, ''With a twist of lemming please''. In the level's original version as Tricky 12, ''Bitter Lemming'', you have enough Builders that it is easy to stop the initial fall from being fatal to non-Floaters in fairly short order. But in the second version, you have just enough Builders to create the path to the exit, so all 50 lemmings must be turned into Floaters straight out of the gate. Miss one, and you have to start over. But that's not the end... once you send a lemming on ahead to build the bridges to the exit, you must bash through the wall of the pit under the entrance to reach the bridges - and you only have one Basher. Click on a lemming facing away from the wall instead of toward it - which is very easy to do - and you have to start over. [[note]]There are a couple of ways to avoid this problem. Later lemmings have assignment priority over earlier ones, so you can watch the last lemming enter the pile-up and make sure to click on him. Alternatively, set the release rate to 39, so that the interval between lemming releases is exactly the same as the time it takes a lemming to walk across the pit and back, and then the lemmings will all land in the same place![[/note]]

* The Genesis version has ''two'' extra difficulty settings as well as a host of other levels unique to that version, which means even ''more'' levels guaranteed to cause loss of sleep, sanity, and hair:

** Mayhem 30, ''Lemmings' ark''. (Also the last of the five SUNSOFT levels on the SNES version.) This is arguably the hardest puzzle level of the entire game. The objective looks simple enough, but you always seem to be short of a Builder. The clue is this: what's the Basher for?

* Havoc 16, ''Scaling the Heights'', requires turning the first lemming into a Blocker just before he walks off the edge of the very narrow platform under the entrance, trapping the other lemmings against a wall. After a lemming has been sent on ahead to create the path to the exit, the other lemmings must be freed by building out of the pit. Because of the difficulty in assigning a job to a particular lemming in a large group in a small area, it is extremely easy to inadvertently build over the Blocker and send all of the lemmings marching off to their deaths, without the resources to make them turn around. And, of course, you only have 2 minutes to complete the level, so the clock often ends up being your worst enemy. On the DOS version, it's a lot easier to hold the crowd in the bottom part of the level, and send a climber up to mine down and release them. On the Mac, though, because of the high-resolution graphics, a vertical part of the wall becomes bumpy and ''can't be climbed''.

** Present 29, ''Private room available''. Two lemmings, the first and last out of the gate, must forge the path through the level while the other eighteen must be separated into individual chambers and each must then dig through the very centre of the chamber floor - too far off centre and either they will fall to their deaths or they will dig through their neighbour's wall creating another fatal fall. Sequence breakers have found another, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WXNuDCq-5w far easier way]] to do it, but ''talk about unintuitive''.

* There are some levels specific to the Genesis version, which has two extra difficulty settings, which could qualify here:

** Present 29, ''Private room available''. Two lemmings, the first and last out of the gate, must forge the path through the level while the other eighteen must be separated into individual chambers and each must then dig through the very centre of the chamber floor - too far off centre and either they will fall to their deaths or they will dig through their neighbour's wall creating another fatal fall. There's another, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WXNuDCq-5w far easier way]] to do it, but ''talk about unintuitive''.
** SUNSOFT 23, ''Move on in two separate groups''. This requires a series of quickfire bashing and building manoeuvres within the first few seconds to set everything up properly.

** SUNSOFT 29, ''I am A.T.'' This essentially requires creating a diagonal staircase of Diggers to allow Lemmings to climb out of a pit and walk to the exit -- except that as they reach the top, they must be turned into Diggers to keep the staircase climbable. Even if you get the basic pattern down, get the timing wrong (or set the release rate too low or too high) and either the final step will be too high by the time the first lemmings reach the top of it, some of the intended Diggers will fall to their deaths at the beginning of the staircase, you will run out of Diggers too early, or too few lemmings will have climbed the staircase by the time the final step becomes too high permanently (there are 100 lemmings, of which 80 must be saved). Did we mention the 2 minute time limit?

* Taxing 3, ''Heaven can wait (we hope!!!!)'' is the first notable TimedMission. In it's original version as Fun 16, ''Don't do anything too hasty'', you have eight minutes to clear it. This version? Only ''two''. In addition, you must rescue 100% and you have no blockers. This requires you to trap the other lemmings in a pit and free them at a very specific time. Too early and they will catch up to the worker lemming building to the exit before he's done and have lemmings fall into the lava or splat. Too late and you will run out of time.

* Taxing 14, ''Hunt the Nessy''. Not a hard level in terms of pure difficulty, just mind-numbingly tedious and not fun to play, unless you're the rare player who can't get enough bridge building.
* Taxing 21, ''Feel the heat!''. To complete it, you have to get the Builders to make ladders in such a way that, when the Lemmings arrive to the end of the big ladder, they fall down exactly on top of the exit. If you make the ladder too short or too long, they get scorched by the fire blasters on either side, and there isn't a lot of room for error either. (Still, you can just assign the Basher skill to make your builder stop building.)
* Taxing 23, ''King of the Castle'', is a major pain. You have to get all your lemmings across a medium-sized gap, and you have only builders - no blockers or digging skills to keep the others penned up while you build your bridges. Even worse, you have a small number of builders with which to complete the level, and the level is designed so that you have to use nearly all of them, so you can't waste any, either.

* For the Mac version, it is of course Mayhem 26, ''The Steel Mines of Kessel''. This level has no destructive skills other than bombers, so you have to use bombers to forge a path to the exit ''and'' explode any blockers you place. However, due to the Mac's high-resolution graphics, some stalks on the ground have become impassable, so you have to use extra bombers to get past them. And that's not all! The Mac has a maximum of 80 lemmings per level, but the save requirement was kept as 90%, so instead of the intended ten bombers you can only use ''eight''.

** Mayhem 30, ''Lemmings' ark''. Actually the last of the original 5 SUNSOFT levels, this is arguably the hardest puzzle level of the entire game. The objective looks simple enough, but you always seem to be short of a Builder. The clue is this: what's the Basher for?

* In a scrappy sense, all of the Tame levels. They are extremely easy to solve and there are no traps or hazards to kill the Lemmings (unless you go out of your way to kill them). In a sense it's easier than the original's Fun rating (and less fun too).
* Crazy 3, ''Many Lemmings make level work'' requires ridiculous precision on walking bombers. Assign a lemming a bomber even slightly too late, he will blow a hole clean through the platform and lemmings will splat; assign him too early, and a lemming will walk past him while he is doing the "Oh no!" animation and that lemming will splat. You have to do this almost pixel perfect bomber assignment ''twice''. Other ''Lemmings'' and ''Oh No! More Lemmings'' levels have required precision walking bombing, but never to this extent. It doesn't help that this level appears very early in the game. (Luckily, it doesn't have to be this way; builders are slow, and this level is made easier for those who know how to use this fact to their advantage.)

* Classic 8, ''The secret of Lemh'', isn't too difficult if you don't mind losing one lemming (you still get a gold medal), but gets easily the most frustating level in the game if you decide you want to save that extra lemming, as it requires you to make a lot of lemmings dig in a very small area with perfect timing, where even missing a target by one pixel can prove fatal.

[[AC:Other]]
* The bonus level "The Apple Computer Level", included in some ports (such as ''[=SuperLemmini=]'' and ''[=NeoLemmix=]'', ports that include all officially-released levels for the original ''Lemmings''), is even more ridiculously easy than the "Tame" levels; just set the release rate to max, engage fast-forward mode, and watch as the lemmings swarm into the exit [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing without your help]].

* Taxing 3, ''Heaven can wait (we hope!!!!)'' is the first notable TimedMission. In it's original version as Fun 16, ''Don't do anything too hasty'', you have eight minutes to clear it. This version? Only ''two''. In addition, you must rescue 100% and you have no blockers. This requires you to trap the other lemmings in a pit and free them at a very specific time. Too early and they will catch up to the worker lemming building to the exit before he's done and have lemming fall into the lava or splat. Too late and you will run out of time.

* Taxing 3, ''Heaven can wait (we hope!!!!)'' is the first notable TimedMission. It's original version as Fun 16, ''Don't do anything too hasty'', you have eight minutes to clear it. This version? Only ''two''. In addition, you must rescue 100% and you have no blockers. This requires you to trap the other lemmings in a pit and free them at a very specific time. Too early and they will catch up to the worker lemming building to the exit before he's done and have lemming fall into the lava or splat. Too late and you will run out of time.

* Mayhem 21, ''With a twist of lemming please''. In the level's original version as Tricky 12, ''Bitter Lemming'', you have enough Builders that it is easy to stop the initial fall from being fatal to non-Floaters in fairly short order. But in the second version, you have just enough Builders to create the path to the exit, so all 50 lemmings must be turned into Floaters straight out of the gate. Miss one, and you have to start over. But that's not the end... once you send a lemming on ahead to build the bridges to the exit, you must bash through the wall of the pit under the entrance to reach the bridges - and you only have one Basher. Click on a lemming facing away from the wall instead of toward it - which is very easy to do - and you have to start over. [[note]]There are a couple of ways to avoid this problem. Later lemmings have assignment priority over earlier ones, so you can watch the last lemming enter the pile-up and make sure to click on him. Alternatively, set the release rate to 43, so that the interval between lemming releases is exactly the same as the time it takes a lemming to walk across the pit and back, and then the lemmings will all land in the same place![[/note]]

* Mayhem 21, ''With a twist of lemming please''. In the level's original version as Tricky 12, ''Bitter Lemming'', you have enough Builders that it is easy to stop the initial fall from being fatal to non-Floaters in fairly short order. But in the second version, you have just enough Builders to create the path to the exit, so all 50 lemmings must be turned into Floaters straight out of the gate. Miss one, and you have to start over. But that's not the end... once you send a lemming on ahead to build the bridges to the exit, you must bash through the wall of the pit under the entrance to reach the bridges - and you only have one Basher. Click on a lemming facing away from the wall instead of toward it - which is very easy to do - and you have to start over.
* For the Mac version, it is of course Mayhem 26, ''The Steel Mines of Kessel'' -- due to higher-resolution graphics, some stalks on the ground were made impassable, so you have to use extra bombers to get past them. Trouble is, you're limited to eight bombers for the level, instead of ten as on other versions.

* The bonus level "The Apple Computer Level", included in some ports (such as ''SuperLemmini'' and ''[=NeoLemmix=]'', ports that include all officially-released levels for the original ''Lemmings''), is even more ridiculously easy than the "Tame" levels; just set the release rate to max, engage fast-forward mode, and watch as the lemmings swarm into the exit [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing without your help]].

* Tricky 26, ''I have a cunning plan'' despite being in Tricky, has a difficulty more along the lines of late Mayhem. To clear the level, you either need to make a lemming a blocker the instant he touches the ground so the lemmings walk through, and then save him at the end using the mine under him trick, or create a wall out of bridges to stop lemmings from walking into a shredder. The former is hard because that is a late Mayhem level trick that was ridiculously difficult to figure out in Mayhem, let alone Tricky and it requires near pixel perfect precision when assigning the miner, and the latter is difficult because there is no indication that a thick bridge can act as a wall and it too requires a lot of precision. Most of the time, the wall will not be thick enough, or one of the builders will hit his head and die in the shredder, preventing you from saving 100%.

* The bonus level "The Apple Computer Level", included in some ports (such as ''Superlemmini'' and ''[=NeoLemmix=]'', ports that include all officially-released levels for the original ''Lemmings''), is even more ridiculously easy than the "Tame" levels; just set the release rate to max, engage fast-forward mode, and watch as the lemmings swarm into the exit [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing without your help]].

* Mayhem 16, ''Just a minute...'' is absolutely ridiculous. Like the name implies, you have 1 minute to get every single lemming into the exit. Simply bashing through the wall in your way is not enough, because there is a shredder behind the entrance, so you need to dig occasionally and then bash again to keep the lemmings from falling too far back. You can only dig so many times before you're too low to reach the exit, but if you don't dig enough, the lemmings will spend too much time walking back and forth to reach the exit in time, making properly executing this level quite infuriating. As if this wasn't bad enough, you have to complete this level again as Mayhem 27, ''Just a minute... (Part 2)''.

* Crazy 3, ''Many Lemmings make level work'' requires ridiculous precision on walking bombers. Assign a lemming a bomber even slightly too late, he will blow a hole clean through the platform and lemmings will splat; assign him too early, and a lemming will walk past him while he is doing the "Oh no!" animation and that lemming will splat. You have to do this almost pixel perfect bomber assignment ''twice''. Other ''Lemmings'' and ''Oh No! More Lemmings'' levels have required precision walking bombing, but never to this extent. It doesn't help that this level appears very early in the game. Luckily, builders are slow, and this level is made easier for those who know how to use this fact to their advantage.

The ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}'' series' simplistic but addictive gameplay has made it one of the most fondly remembered puzzle games of recent times. All of the games share the same small furry creatures plodding through dangerous territories, the same goal to guide all of them to the exit safely, and the same head-scratching difficulty. How difficult are they? The fact that this game needs its ''own subarticle'' under ThatOneLevel speaks volumes.

* The infamous ''We all fall down''. Unless you have the DOS CD version and [[GoodBadBugs its increased fall distance]] (which let them fall harmlessly here without any of your input), these levels are incredibly annoying, and worst of all, you have to do it ''four'' times, saving an increasing number of lemmings each time. And worse yet, you have to save 100%. One screw up, which is very easy to do, and all of your hard work is for naught. It is possible to control the release rate and use half or less of the required diggers by letting some lemmings fall into half-dug holes, but this level is not easy regardless of the way you do it.

* The bonus level "The Apple Computer Level", included in some ports (such as Superlemmini, a Java port which reportedly includes all officially-released levels for the original Lemmings), is even more ridiculously easy than the "Tame" levels; just set the release rate to max, engage fast-forward mode, and watch as the lemmings swarm into the exit without your help.

* Havoc 19, ''Looks a bit nippy out there'', requires that the first lemming build across a small gap at the bottom of a narrow pit; get the timing wrong and you won't be able to finish the level. Then, you must wait until the 79th lemming (of 80) has fallen out of the entrance and have him start building a bridge the instant he hits the ground (over the pit containing the other 78 lemmings) so that the final lemming can cross the gap and be available for other tasks to complete the level. Both lemmings must then complete a series of further precision building manouvers to both pave the way to the exit and free the other 78 lemmings. This time you have a whole ''3 minutes'' to finish.

* Crazy 3, ''Many Lemmings make level work'' requires ridiculous precision on walking bombers. Assign a lemming a bomber even slightly too late, he will blow a hole clean through the platform and lemmings will splat; assign him too early, and a lemming will walk past him while he is doing the "Oh no!" animation and that lemming will splat. You have to do this almost pixel perfect bomber assignment ''twice''. Other ''Lemmings'' and ''Oh No! More Lemmings'' levels have required precision walking bombing, but never to this extent. It doesn't help that this level appears very early in the game.
** Luckily, builders are slow, and this level is made easier for those who know how to use this fact to their advantage.