colonyflow Level 18

Overview

Level 18 is a Normal five-color stage whose target picture is a pixel-art hamburger: an orange top bun (about 27% of tiles), a red patty (about 21%), a brown bottom bun and layers (about 20%), a pink sauce layer (about 19%), and green lettuce (about 13%), with tiny gray, blue, black, cyan and yellow 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 burger is built as horizontal layers stacked vertically, the correct order is to remove the top layers first — pink sauce, then red patty, brown layers, green lettuce — with the orange bun finishing as the bottom layer.

• Difficulty: Regular (Normal)
• Estimated moves: 25–40 taps

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Start by tapping the pink tile. Pink is the sauce layer on top of the burger and sits on the outermost layer, so it is reachable immediately. Tap it and let the ants march to the top and begin carrying the pink squares away.
2. Next, tap the red tile. Red is the patty layer and sits directly underneath the pink sauce. Clear it in one continuous push so the upper half of the burger opens up.
3. While the red carry is running, clear the tiny gray, blue, black, cyan and yellow trace tiles opportunistically. They become reachable as the upper layers come off; tapping them whenever a slot opens keeps the ants busy without blocking a slot.
4. When red is mostly gone, tap the brown tile. Brown forms the bottom bun and middle layers of the burger and was covered by the upper layers, so it only becomes reachable now. Keep the queue pointed at brown in one continuous push and use the 2x speed-up button in the top-right corner to shorten the wait.
5. Next, tap the green tile. Green is the lettuce layer and is exposed only after brown finishes. Sweep green in a moderate push, keeping spare slots free.
6. Finish with the orange tile. Orange is the top and bottom bun — the largest remaining area and the bottom layer — so it is the last color to be exposed. Because it is final, the queue can safely be filled with orange to speed up the finish.
7. Keep the five-slot queue under active control: with five main colors sharing five slots, push one main color plus at most one small color at a time, finish a color before starting the next, and never jam all five slots with mixed colors.

Strategy & Reasoning

The burger is built as a vertical stack of horizontal layers, so the removal order measured in the solution video is pink, red, brown, green, orange, which matches the sandwich geometry exactly. Tapping the orange bun at the start would waste ants on tiles that are buried under three whole layers. The queue is the bottleneck — five main colors plus trace accents share only five slots, and the worst mistake is pushing brown and orange at the same time, which leaves no room for the small traces and forces waiting. The efficient play is to remove each layer completely before exposing the next, using spare slots for the small trace colors only while a large layer is being carried. The 2x speed-up button should be active for the long brown and orange carries, since those layers account for most of the level's waiting time. If the queue 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 orange bun before the pink sauce, red patty and brown layers are gone is the classic mistake. The bun tiles are still covered, so the ants have no path to them; always clear the upper layers first.
• Running brown and orange at the same time jams the five-slot queue and strands the small traces. Finish brown and green completely before starting orange.
• Ignoring the tiny gray, blue, black, cyan and yellow 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