colonyflow Level 3

Overview

Level 3 is a Normal three-color stage whose target picture is a pixel-art strawberry built from stacked layers: a pink outer shell around the fruit (about 46% of tiles), a red middle body (about 44%), and a green leafy calyx on top (about 10%), with white highlight tiles on the body and a thin dark outline trace of black, gray, blue, brown, orange and yellow along the edges. 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 layered, the pink shell must be removed before the red body is reachable, and the green leaves finish with the bottom layer.

• Difficulty: Regular (Normal)
• Estimated moves: 15–22 taps

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Start by tapping the pink tile. Pink forms the outer shell of the strawberry and covers most of the board, so the ants cannot reach the red body underneath until it is gone. Tap pink and let the first batch of ants march to the edge of the fruit and begin carrying the pink squares away.
2. While the pink carry is running, clear the dark outline traces (black, gray, brown) that sit on the outer edge. They are tiny colors and they become reachable as the shell comes off; tapping them opportunistically keeps a queue slot from being wasted on a large color alone.
3. Continue tapping pink until the outer shell is fully carried off. Do not switch to red until most of the pink is gone; any leftover pink keeps covering the body and blocks the ants' path inward.
4. Next, tap the red tile. With the shell gone, the red body of the strawberry is exposed. Keep the queue pointed at red in one continuous push so the ants strip the middle layer cleanly, and use the 2x speed-up button in the top-right corner to shorten the long carry.
5. Sweep the green leaves last. Green is the small calyx on top of the fruit, and it only becomes reachable once red is finished. Clear it in a short bulk push at the end; because it is the final main color, filling spare queue slots with green is safe.
6. As you pass them, tap the white highlight tiles and the remaining tiny traces (blue, orange, yellow) whenever a queue slot opens up. They are too small to start a dedicated push, but leaving them scattered keeps a slot blocked for longer than necessary.
7. Keep the five-slot queue under active control: 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 a layered-stacking puzzle in which pink physically covers red, which covers the green calyx, so the removal order measured in the solution video is pink first, then red, with green finishing last. Tapping the red body or the green leaves at the very start would waste ants on tiles that are still buried under the pink shell. The queue is the main constraint — three main colors plus several trace colors share only five slots, and letting pink and red run simultaneously leaves no room for the small tiles, which then stall. The efficient pattern is to alternate a large color (pink, then red) with the small trace colors so the ants are almost never idle and a slot is always free. The 2x speed-up button should be active for the long pink and red carries, since those two steps account 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 body before the pink shell 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 jams the five-slot queue and strands the small trace colors. Finish pink completely before starting the red push.
• Ignoring the tiny outline 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