colonyflow Level 38

Overview

Level 38 is a Normal five-color stage whose target picture is a pixel-art orange fish: a blue background (about 36% of tiles), an orange fish body (about 35%), yellow eyes (about 19%), red accents (about 5%), and gray outlines (about 4%), with tiny brown, pink, cyan and purple trace details. 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 blue background must leave first, then the yellow eyes, with the red accents, gray outlines and orange body finishing as the inner layers.

• Difficulty: Regular (Normal)
• Estimated moves: 30–50 taps

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Start by tapping the blue tile. Blue is the background around the fish and sits on the outermost layer, so it is reachable immediately. This is the largest single area on the board, so this is the long opening stretch. Keep the queue pointed at blue in batches and use the 2x speed-up button in the top-right corner to shorten the wait.
2. While the blue carry is running, clear the tiny brown, pink, cyan and purple trace tiles opportunistically. They become reachable as the background comes off; tapping them whenever a slot opens keeps the ants busy without blocking a slot.
3. Continue tapping blue until most of the background is carried off. Do not switch to yellow until the blue is nearly gone; any leftover blue keeps covering the fish and blocks the ants' path inward.
4. When blue is mostly gone, tap the yellow tile. Yellow is the fish's eyes and was covered by the background, so it only becomes reachable now. Keep the queue pointed at yellow in one continuous push and keep an eye on the queue.
5. Next, tap the red tile. Red forms small accents on the fish and is exposed only after yellow finishes. Sweep red in a moderate push, keeping spare slots free.
6. Then tap the gray tile. Gray forms the outline around the fish; it becomes reachable once red is gone. Clear gray in small batches.
7. Finish with the orange tile. Orange is the fish's body — 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.
8. Keep the five-slot queue under active control: with five main colors plus trace accents 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 blue, yellow, red, gray, orange, which matches the geometry of the fish. Clearing the blue background before the orange body matters because it sits on top; tapping orange first would leave that background buried. The queue is the bottleneck — five main colors plus trace accents share only five slots, and the worst mistake is pushing blue 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 blue background carry with the small yellow, red and trace colors so the ants are almost never idle. The 2x speed-up button should be active for the long blue background 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 body before the blue background and yellow eyes are gone is the classic mistake. The body tiles are still covered, so the ants have no path to them; always clear the background first.
• Running blue and orange at the same time jams the five-slot queue and strands the small traces. Finish blue completely before starting orange.
• Ignoring the tiny brown, pink, cyan and purple 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