colonyflow Level 14

Overview

Level 14 is a Normal three-color stage whose target picture is a pixel-art pair of cherries: a pink outer layer around the fruit (about 46% of tiles), a red cherry body (about 43%), and green stems and leaves on top (about 11%), with tiny gray, orange, black, blue and cyan trace accents. The goal is to clear every tile by tapping the number tiles at the bottom so ants carry each color away. Because the tiles are stacked, the pink outer layer must leave first, then the red cherry body, with the green stems finishing as the bottom layer.

• Difficulty: Regular (Normal)
• Estimated moves: 15–25 taps

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Start by tapping the pink tile. Pink forms the outer layer of the cherries and sits on top, so it is reachable immediately. Tap it and let the ants march to the fruit and begin carrying the pink squares away.
2. While the pink carry is running, clear the tiny gray, orange, black, blue and cyan trace tiles opportunistically. They become reachable as the outer layer comes off; tapping them whenever a slot opens keeps the ants busy without blocking a slot.
3. Continue tapping pink until most of the outer layer is carried off. Do not switch to red until the pink is nearly gone; any leftover pink keeps covering the cherry body and blocks the ants' path inward.
4. When pink is mostly gone, tap the red tile. Red is the cherry body — the largest remaining area on the board — so this is the long middle stretch of the level. Keep the queue pointed at red in one continuous push and use the 2x speed-up button in the top-right corner to shorten the wait.
5. Do not start a new color while the red carry is running. With only three main colors, the queue rarely jams, but the habit to build here is to finish red completely before touching the green stems.
6. Finish with the green tile. Green forms the stems and leaves on top of the cherries — the bottom layer — so it only becomes reachable once the red body is fully cleared. Clear green in one short push to complete the level.
7. Keep the five-slot queue under active control: push one main color at a time, finish a color before starting the next, and never jam all five slots with mixed colors.

Strategy & Reasoning

The level is a clean three-layer puzzle: the pink outer layer physically covers the red cherry body, which in turn covers the green stems, so the removal order measured in the solution video is pink first, then red, with green finishing last. Tapping the red body at the start would waste ants on tiles that are still buried under the pink outer layer. With only three main colors the queue is rarely the bottleneck, but the efficient pattern is to clear all of the pink — including the small trace accents — before committing the queue to the large red body, so the ants are never split between two layers. The 2x speed-up button should be active for the long red carry, since that single step accounts for most of the level's waiting time. If the queue ever jams, the Magnet tool pulls one whole color out of the line, while the Eraser is reserved for a single stuck tile.

Tips & Common Mistakes

• Tapping the red cherry body before the pink outer layer is gone is the classic mistake. The red tiles are still covered, so the ants have no path to them; always clear pink first.
• Running pink and red at the same time splits the ants and can strand the small trace accents. Finish pink completely before starting the red push.
• Ignoring the tiny gray, orange, black, blue and cyan traces leaves slots blocked for no reason. Clear them opportunistically whenever a slot is free, instead of saving them all to the end.

Key Frames