colonyflow Level 23

Overview

Level 23 is a Normal five-color stage whose target picture is a pixel-art taco: a gray outer shell (about 26% of tiles), an orange tortilla layer (about 24%), yellow cheese (about 19%), red salsa (about 16%), and green lettuce (about 15%), with tiny blue, brown, pink, cyan and black 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 gray shell must leave first, then the yellow cheese and red salsa, with the green lettuce and orange tortilla finishing as the bottom layers.

• Difficulty: Regular (Normal)
• Estimated moves: 35–55 taps

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Start by tapping the gray tile. Gray forms the outer shell of the taco and sits on the top layer, so it is reachable immediately. Tap it and let the ants march to the shell and begin carrying the gray squares away.
2. Next, tap the yellow tile. Yellow is the cheese inside the taco and sits on the same upper layer. Clear it in one push so the filling opens up.
3. While the yellow carry is running, clear the tiny blue, brown, pink, cyan and black trace tiles opportunistically. They become reachable as the shell comes off; tapping them whenever a slot opens keeps the ants busy without blocking a slot.
4. When gray and yellow are mostly gone, tap the red tile. Red is the salsa layer inside the taco and was covered by the shell, so it only becomes reachable now. 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. Next, tap the green tile. Green is the lettuce filling and is exposed only after red finishes. Sweep green in a moderate push, keeping spare slots free.
6. Finish with the orange tile. Orange is the tortilla shell — 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 level is built around the layered-stacking rule: a color that covers others must be carried away first, and the removal order measured in the solution video is gray, yellow, red, green, orange, which matches the geometry of the taco. Clearing the gray shell before yellow matters because it sits on top; tapping yellow first would leave that shell buried. The queue is the bottleneck — five main colors plus trace accents share only five slots, and the worst mistake is pushing gray and orange at the same time, which leaves no room for the small traces and forces waiting. The efficient play is to alternate the large gray and red carries with the small yellow, green and trace colors so the ants are almost never idle. The 2x speed-up button should be active for the long gray shell carry, since that single step accounts 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 tortilla before the gray shell and yellow cheese are gone is the classic mistake. The tortilla tiles are still covered, so the ants have no path to them; always clear the upper layers first.
• Running gray and orange at the same time jams the five-slot queue and strands the small traces. Finish gray and red completely before starting orange.
• Ignoring the tiny blue, brown, pink, cyan and black 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