colonyflow Level 4

Overview

Level 4 is a Normal six-color stage whose target picture is a pixel-art mushroom house built from stacked layers: a red mushroom cap with white spots (about 33% of tiles), a yellow house body and door (about 22%), a cyan base and steps (about 18%), plus orange (10%), pink (9%) and green grass (8%) accents, with white highlight spots and a thin gray/blue/brown/black outline trace around 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 small outer greens and pinks must leave first, then the large red cap, with the yellow, cyan and orange bottom layers finishing last.

• Difficulty: Regular (Normal)
• Estimated moves: 30–45 taps

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Start by tapping the green tile. Green is the small grass strip at the base of the house and sits on the top layer, so it is reachable immediately. Clear it first to expose the edges of the picture underneath.
2. Next, tap the pink tile. Pink is a small accent color on the outer layer and clears quickly; doing it right after green keeps a large color from sitting in the queue while the ants work.
3. Now tap the red tile. Red is the mushroom cap — the largest single area on the board — so this is the long stretch of the level. Tap it once, let the ants run, and use the 2x speed-up button in the top-right corner to shorten the wait. Do not tap yellow at the same time; running two large colors together fills the queue.
4. While the red carry is running, clear the gray, blue, brown and black outline traces opportunistically. They become reachable as the cap comes off, and tapping them whenever a slot opens keeps the ants busy without blocking a slot.
5. When red is mostly gone, tap the yellow tile. Yellow house tiles were covered by the red cap, so they only become reachable now. Clear yellow in one continuous push and keep an eye on the queue.
6. Next, tap the cyan tile. Cyan forms the base and steps of the house and is exposed only after yellow finishes. Sweep cyan in a moderate push, keeping spare slots free.
7. Finish with orange. Orange is the bottom layer of the picture, so it is the last color to be exposed. Because it is the final color, the queue can safely be filled with orange to speed up the finish.
8. 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 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 green, pink, red, yellow, cyan, orange, which matches the geometry of the mushroom house. Clearing green and pink before red matters because they sit on the outermost edges; tapping red first would leave those small tiles buried and harder to reach later. The queue is the bottleneck here — six main colors share only five slots, and the worst mistake is pushing red and yellow at the same time, which leaves no room for the outline traces and forces waiting. The efficient play is to alternate the large red and yellow carries with small trace colors so the ants are almost never idle. The 2x speed-up button should be active for the long red stretch, since that single carry represents the longest idle time in the level. 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

• Running red and yellow at the same time is the most common failure: two large colors fill the five-slot queue, small trace colors get stuck behind them, and the board stalls. Finish red completely before starting yellow.
• Tapping yellow or cyan before the red cap is gone wastes ants on covered tiles. Always clear green, pink and red first.
• Ignoring the 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