colonyflow Level 40

Overview

Level 40 is a Normal five-color stage whose target picture is a pixel-art brown bear head: a green background panel (about 42% of tiles), an orange face (about 26%), yellow snout (about 12%), red nose (about 11%), and brown outline (about 9%), with tiny pink, gray, blue, black and cyan 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 yellow snout must leave first, then the green background, with the red nose, orange face and brown outline finishing as the inner layers.

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

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Start by tapping the yellow tile. Yellow is the snout of the bear and sits on the outermost layer, so it is reachable immediately. Clear it first so it never gets buried under the face.
2. Next, tap the green tile. Green is the background panel behind the bear and sits on the same upper layer. This is the largest single area on the board, so this is the long opening stretch. Keep the queue pointed at green in batches and use the 2x speed-up button in the top-right corner to shorten the wait.
3. While the green carry is running, clear the tiny pink, gray, blue, black and cyan 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.
4. When yellow and green are mostly gone, tap the red tile. Red is the bear's nose and was covered by the snout, so it only becomes reachable now. Keep the queue pointed at red in one continuous push and keep an eye on the queue.
5. Next, tap the orange tile. Orange is the bear's face and is exposed only after red finishes. Sweep orange in a moderate push, keeping spare slots free.
6. Finish with the brown tile. Brown is the outline around the bear's head — the bottom layer — so it is the last color to be exposed. Because it is final, the queue can safely be filled with brown to speed up the finish.
7. 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 yellow, green, red, orange, brown, which matches the geometry of the bear head. Clearing the yellow snout before the green background matters because it sits on top; tapping green first would leave that snout buried. The queue is the bottleneck — five main colors plus trace accents share only five slots, and the worst mistake is pushing yellow and green at the same time, which leaves no room for the small traces and forces waiting. The efficient play is to alternate the large green 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 green 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 face before the yellow snout and green background are gone is the classic mistake. The face tiles are still covered, so the ants have no path to them; always clear the snout and background first.
• Running yellow and green at the same time jams the five-slot queue and strands the small traces. Finish yellow completely before starting green.
• Ignoring the tiny pink, gray, blue, black and cyan 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