Lost MonstersMedium puzzles, solved step by step
Medium challenges take three to eight moves. The helpers now need more than one move, and Roland often has to go out of the way first.
Here are two medium boards from the game, picked because each one teaches a trick you will need again. For each one: the board, the idea behind the best solution, and every move with a picture. Every challenge in Lost Monsters has a known best solution, found by a computer that tried every possible move, so these are the shortest ways there are.
- Line up the stopper: Roland reaches the exit alone in five moves. The crown needs four, and a helper who first takes one step sideways.
- Fill the corner: The exit is one square above a corner. Someone has to fill the corner, and it cannot be Roland.
Line up the stopper
Medium · Best solution: 4 moves. Stars: 4 moves for all five (the crown), up to 7 for four, up to 10 for three, up to 14 for two, up to 20 for one.
The exit is in the top row, a few squares from the top left corner. Roland is on the left edge in the middle of the board, and Goof, the blue monster, is a few squares to his right.
Roland can get there on his own in five moves, which earns four stars. The fifth star, the crown, needs a four-move solution, and that one uses Goof.
Want to try it yourself first? Play this challenge
The trick
Roland can reach the top left corner in one move and then slide right along the top row. He would slide over the exit, unless something stands just right of it. The column right of the exit runs straight down between the cross-shaped walls, so a monster that slides up that column stops exactly in the right place.
Goof is not in that column, though. His own column is blocked by a wall on the way up. One small step to the left puts him in the free lane.
The best solution, move by move
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1. Roland up. He slides up the left edge into the top left corner.
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2. Goof left. Just one square: the cross-shaped wall stops him. He is now in the column right of the exit.
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3. Goof up. He slides up the free lane to the top row and stops right of the exit.
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4. Roland right. He slides along the top row and stops on the exit, against Goof. Four moves and the crown.
The first two moves can be played in either order. What matters is the idea: a helper often needs one extra move to get into the lane that leads to the right spot. Two helper moves here save one move overall, and that one move is the difference between four and five stars.
Play this challenge and see if you can do it without looking.
Fill the corner
Medium · Best solution: 5 moves. Stars: 5 moves for all five (the crown), up to 8 for four, up to 11 for three, up to 15 for two, up to 21 for one.
The exit is on the right edge, one square above the bottom right corner. Roland starts in the bottom row, not far from that corner. Griffin, the red monster, is near the top right.
There is no way for Roland to do this alone.
Want to try it yourself first? Play this challenge
The trick
A monster that slides down the right edge ends in the corner, one square below the exit. If the corner is already taken, the next monster coming down stops exactly on the exit. So the plan is: a helper in the corner, Roland coming down from above.
The catch is the order. Roland is in the bottom row, so if Griffin filled the corner first, Roland would bump into him and never get onto the right edge. Roland has to go up the right edge first, and only then Griffin follows into the corner below him.
The best solution, move by move
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1. Roland right. He slides along the bottom row into the corner.
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2. Roland up. He slides up the whole right edge, over the exit, to the top.
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3. Griffin right. He slides to the right edge, below Roland.
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4. Griffin down. He slides down the right edge, over the exit, into the corner.
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5. Roland down. He slides down and stops on the exit, on top of Griffin. Five moves, five stars.
Notice that Roland passes the exit twice before he stops on it. In Lost Monsters that is normal: sliding over the exit does not count, only stopping on it does.
Play this challenge and see if you can do it without looking.