Puzzle guides

Six boards from Lost Monsters, from easy to difficult, each with the trick behind it and the best solution explained move by move.

Every challenge in the game has a known best solution: a computer tried every possible sequence of moves and kept the shortest. That is how the game knows how many stars you earned, and why the fifth star, the crown, always means you found it. The guides below take a few of those solutions and explain them in words, so you can learn the ideas instead of the moves.

Easy

Easy challenges are solved in two to six moves. Most of them need at most one helper: a monster that moves first so that Roland, the green monster, has something to stop against.

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  One stopper saves fourteen moves3 moves · The exit sits in the bottom row with nothing next to it. One pink helper fixes that.
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  Clear the doorstep4 moves · A pink monster sits on the one square Roland needs. Move her one square and the way is open.

Medium

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.

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  Line up the stopper4 moves · Roland reaches the exit alone in five moves. The crown needs four, and a helper who first takes one step sideways.
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  Fill the corner5 moves · The exit is one square above a corner. Someone has to fill the corner, and it cannot be Roland.

Difficult

Difficult challenges take up to seventeen moves. Often two or three helpers, and an order of moves that has to be exactly right.

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  Close the door behind him7 moves · Roland has to cross the exit first, and only then may the helper take its place next to it.
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  One monster, two jobs7 moves · Griffin first steps out of Roland's lane and later becomes his stopper. Goof parks Roland in the right column.

How to read the pictures

The pictures are taken from the game itself. The green ring is the exit. Roland, the green monster, always has to stop on it. The monster with the white circle is the one that moves next, and the arrows show how far it would slide in each direction. Dark shapes are walls and pits: a monster stops on the square in front of them.

Ideas that work on many boards

• Start at the exit. Which square next to the exit could hold a stopper? From which side can Roland arrive so that the stopper, or a wall, holds him there?
• Build the wall first. Most solutions begin with helper moves that do not touch Roland at all.
• Sliding over the exit is fine. Roland often passes the exit once or twice before he stops on it.
• Mind the order. A helper that moves too early can block the way Roland still needs.

New to the game? Read how to play first, or just start playing: the tutorial explains the rules in four short boards.