GK1 Chaotic Greens

Normal solution

Hints are given below when you expand the boxes.

Spoiler: Hint 1 (what to do)
This level is about Beard-wrangling, and it's a tough one. The bridge to the exit is in the northeast of the level; the blocks you'll need are on a tower in the southeast.

Spoiler: Hint 2 (dealing with the Beards)
Before you make plans for word-building, you'll need to figure out what to do with the Beards. Otherwise, they'll get in the way and push your blocks and ruin your whole day.

Spoiler: Hint 3
What did you learn about Beards in the last level that you can exploit here?

Spoiler: Hint 4
Beards slide on ice. There are some lovely patches of ice right next to big pits here...

Spoiler: Hint 5
You'll want to make Beards slide on ice into the pits. This needs a little finesse, but you should be able to manage it. Remember, you can fling to make a bit of room between yourself and a pursuing Beard (you can use grass as an obstacle to stop a fling), and you can step on grass to evade Beards.

Spoiler: Hint 6

Here is a little movement tip: if you are not in the same row or column as a Beard, he will prefer to move in the direction that has the bigger distance between you and him. For example, if you are standing 3 tiles north and 5 tiles west of a Beard when he wants to move, the north-south distance is 3 and the west-east distance is 5, so he will try moving west first (and then north, if he can't go west). Knowing this might help you lure a Beard onto ice even if you're standing far away from him.

Spoiler: Hint 7
Here's a couple of ways you can trap Beards in pits. If you can get the pit and some ice between you and a Beard, you're good If a Beard is directly behind you and you can fling across the pit without falling in, that's an easy way to lure them in - just fling to the other side and guide them in remotely.

Spoiler: Hint 8 (help, the Beards keep getting out)
Are the Beards getting out of the pits somehow? They are probably dying and respawning. Watch out for the spikes in the centre of each pit.

Spoiler: Hint 9
Beards don't step into each other, so it's possible that a Beard is being forced into the spikes because his preferred route is blocked by other Beards. If you split the Beards between the two pits available to you (two in each) you should give them more space to move, and thus have fewer problems with reappearing Beards.

Spoiler: Hint 10
You might also be causing the Beards to walk into the spikes by flinging too much. If you fling across a pit while a Beard is halfway along one side, they may want to walk across the centre of the pit to catch up with you, thus walking into spikes. You may want to take it slow in this level, and only fling when you have to.

Spoiler: Hint 11 (help, how do I get this freakin' Beard away from the stairs)
You may have an issue with a certain Beard getting stuck on the ice at the foot of the stairs. You'll need to take special care to lure him away.

Spoiler: Hint 12
Since south of that ice patch is a dead end (at least for the Beard - you can fling across to the southwest but he can't), you'll have to bring him north past the little grass square. That means getting him south of the northern route, and then letting him slide north.

Spoiler: Hint 13
Luring him south isn't a bad idea, actually, so you can have him chase you around the big pillar of wall there and bring him back north. Or maybe you can even find a place to keep him trapped for now!

Spoiler: Hint 14

Follow this figure 8 shape from the grass square to dislodge the Beard The quickest route I found to getting that Beard into a pit was to stand on the grass square with the Beard directly south of you, then step north, west, south, south (sliding), west, north (sliding), east (sliding), north. You should end up on the grass square again, but with the Beard directly west of you. Then you and he can run north until you get to a pit, and lure him in from there. Alternatively, if you hang out in the southwest leg of the level, that Beard will come down to the southeast leg, and you can then get him hung up in the grass squares there. This is quick and simple, but the Beard may find his way out again if you have to go to the southeast yourself.

Spoiler: Hint 15 (making CHAOS)
Assuming you've got all the Beards out of the way, you just have to solve the block puzzle now. But from their starting blockpads, you have to push some blocks north and other blocks west, which scatters them across the level. So you have to figure out where they can converge.

Spoiler: Hint 16
Focus on the C. You'll find its movement is forced.

Spoiler: Hint 17
Pushing the C west from its blockpad (as you're forced to do) lands it next to a pillar. Pushing it south from there will send it into the abyss, so you have to push it north. Where can it go next?

Spoiler: Hint 18
Whether you push it east or west from there, you'll find that the C ultimately ends up in the northwest corner. That's where we'll build our word.

Spoiler: Hint 19
Should you write CHAOS reading south from the northwest corner or reading east? Both are viable for completing the level. I think writing it vertically makes placing the H and A slightly harder, but horizontally makes the O and S slightly harder. Do as you feel - the block-pushing is mostly the same either way.

Spoiler: Hint 20 (CHA...)
Hints for placing the C are given in Hints 16-18.

Spoiler: Hint 21
The C goes in the northwest corner, and we need to bring every other letter to meet it. You can just go in order - C, H, A...

Spoiler: Hint 22
The H should be easy to get into position. Just push it to the northwest as directly as possible. You should have plenty of room to manoeuvre around to push it. (If you want it south of the C, you may have to push it south across the Beard pit in the northwest - just keep an eye on what the Beards are doing so you don't lure one into spikes accidentally.)

Spoiler: Hint 23
The A lands near the H, and so goes into position in almost the exact same way.

Spoiler: Hint 24 (...OS)
The O turns out to be tricky. It lands very close to the blockpads,and pushing it north from there will get it caught up in a corner with some grass. It will have to take a more circuituous route...

Spoiler: Hint 25
The O is forced to go south of the ice at the foot of the stairs first. (Luckily, there's some grass on the southern edge that will stop it falling off the level.) If it can't go back north, where can it go?

Spoiler: Hint 26
The O will have to take a big leap across to the southwest corner. The grass near it should let you set this up without much trouble.

Spoiler: Hint 27
Once the O is in the southwest, it should go north towards your other blocks easily. (If you're writing CHAOS horizontally, you may then have to push it east so you can get it around the Beard pit and into position the same way as the H and A.)

Spoiler: Hint 28
After all that, the S should go into position easily - it'll just go west and north, and that will almost complete CHAOS if you'll written it vertically! (If it's horizontal, it just needs to take the same detour as the O.) Congratulations on beating one of the toughest levels in the game!

Spoiler: Hint 29 (full solution)

Here's how the blocks should go. Note that the S and the O take the same path eventually. Dispose of the Beards by luring them onto ice patches so that they slide into the pits. (This is too complex and open-ended to give precise instructions, as different movements you make early on will have a butterfly effect on where the Beards end up in your playthrough. Follow Hint 5 and onwards for general guidance, and Hint 14 for dealing with the Beard at the foot of the stairs specifically.) Push the C west, north, west and north (so it ends up in the northwest corner). Push the H north, west, north, west, north and west (spelling CH). Push the A the same way as the H (spelling CHA). Push the O west, south, west, south, west, north, west (it should be in the southwest now), north, east, north, west, north and west (spelling CHAO). Push the S west, north, east, north, west, north and west (spelling CHAOS). Leave by the bridge.

Present solution

Spoiler: Hint 1 (present location)
The present is well hidden. Check the level carefully. Do you note any hidden walkways?

Spoiler: Hint 2
Check around the CHAOS bridge/exit area.

Spoiler: Hint 3
Note a platform you can stand on directly below the H in the CHAOS bridge. It's tricky to get to.

Spoiler: Hint 4
You'll need some help. It's not as hard as it first looks.

Spoiler: Hint 5 (solution)

Set up a Beard right here to get to the present Spell CHAOS in the NW corner as normal. Lure one of the Beards to the NW corner of the map (kill them on spikes in the pit if you need to get one out of the pit), so that the Beard is trapped behind a bit of grass directly south of the O block in CHAOS. Walk across the CHAOS bridge; as soon as you step on the H the Beard will try to move north (smashing the S), breaking the bridge and you will fall to a small platform. Fling south from there to get to the present. You can follow a hidden path east from there to get back to the exit (if you got the present before beating the puzzle).

Extras

Spoiler: Achievements

There is 1 achievement available for this level: Chaotic Scene: Beat Chaotic Greens with no beards in pits. Spoiler: WARNING!  Beards can NEVER fall in pits. Even if you get them out of the pits later, it will not count for this achievement. Emm will comment if a beard falls in a pit even if you can't see it. Spoiler: Hint 1  Preventing accidental falls into the pits can be tricky, unless you can find somewhere to trap the beards out of the way. Spoiler: Hint 2  The top of the tower is a great place to keep the beards. You can trap all four of them up there and they won't really be able to get down. (I found it relatively simple to get a beard into the SW area of the map, kill yourself, step on grass without hopping down from the starting island, and then align yourself with the stairs up the tower. Let a beard get in line too and then fling over their head to the stairs and lead them up. Once all four beards are trapped, you can solve the level as normal.) Beards will push blocks off the tower for you if needed. You need to exit the level to get the achievement.

Spoiler: View squares
There are 3 view squares on this level: On top of the tower in SW where the letter blockpads are. Just east of the present. Along the hidden pathway past the present back to the exit.

Spoiler: Hanging men
There are 0 hanging men on this level.

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