colonyflow Level 72

Overview

Level 72 is a short Normal six-color stage built around a decorative framed picture with a big question-mark tile hidden in its center. Pink is the largest area of the picture, followed by orange, brown and red in the middle layers, with yellow and gray as the smaller outline and accent colors and white forming the inner highlight. The tiles are stacked in layers, so the clearing follows the frame from the outside in: pink leaves first, then yellow, brown and red, then orange, and gray finishes at the bottom. The twist is the central "?" tile, which hides its count until the queue has a free slot to open it.

• Difficulty: Regular (Normal)
• Estimated moves: 25–35 taps

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Open with pink. Pink is the outermost and largest layer of the frame, so nothing underneath it can be carried away until it is gone. Tap the pink tile and let the ants start the long outer clear.
2. Move to yellow next. Yellow sits just inside the pink layer, and clearing it exposes the middle of the picture. Keep the queue on one color at a time so the small tiles below do not get stuck.
3. Work the brown and red phases. Brown and red form the main body of the frame and were covered by the outer colors, so they only become reachable now. Clear them one after another in continuous pushes and use the 2x speed-up button to shorten the wait.
4. Open the central "?" tile only when a queue slot is free. It hides an unknown color, so opening it while the line is full could block the ants; once a slot is free, tap it and clear whatever color is revealed.
5. Clear the trace colors (blue, black) and the white inner highlights as they are exposed, spending free queue slots on them immediately so they never block a slot later.
6. Finish with orange and gray. These are the bottom layers of the picture, so they only become reachable at the very end. Sweep them in bulk; since they are the final colors, it is safe to fill the queue and let the ants finish the board. The picture disappears completely and the level-complete overlay with five white input slots appears.

Strategy & Reasoning

The removal order is dictated by the layer geometry: pink covers the frame, yellow and brown sit on the middle layers, and gray is the bottom layer, so the sequence pink → yellow → brown → red → orange → gray keeps the ants on reachable tiles. Pink is the strategic bottleneck — it is the largest single area, and the correct play is to give it a long uninterrupted run while using spare queue slots for the small trace colors. The central "?" tile is the main trap: opening it early can dump an unknown color into a full queue, so it should wait until a slot is free. With such a short level, the speed-up button should stay active through the whole pink push, and tools like Magnet and Lightning exist only to rescue a jammed queue.

Tips & Common Mistakes

• Opening the "?" tile while the queue is full blocks the line with an unknown color. Open it only when a slot is free.
• Running pink and brown at the same time jams the five slots and stalls the board. Finish one main color before starting the next.
• Ignoring the small trace colors until the queue is full leaves an unmatchable tile blocking the line. Clear every exposed accent immediately with a free slot.

Key Frames