colonyflow Level 98

Overview

Level 98 is a Normal seven-color stage built around a pagoda picture — a red pagoda tower with green trees on a pale blue background. Gray is the largest area of the picture, followed by yellow, blue and cyan in the middle layers, with green, red and orange as the smaller accent colors and tiny trace colors scattered on top. The tiles are stacked in layers, so the clearing follows the pagoda from the outside in: gray leaves first, then green and red, then yellow and cyan, then blue, and orange finishes at the bottom. With seven colors competing for only five queue slots, disciplined queue switching is the whole challenge.

• Difficulty: Regular (Normal)
• Estimated moves: 30–40 taps

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Open with gray. Gray is the outermost outline layer of the pagoda picture, so nothing underneath it can be carried away until it is gone. Tap the gray tile and let the ants start the outer clear.
2. Move to green next. Green forms the trees and sits just inside the gray layer. Clear it in one push so the foliage starts disappearing and the colors beneath show through.
3. Work the red phase. Red is the pagoda tower and was covered by the outer colors, so it only becomes reachable now. Clear red in one continuous push and use the 2x speed-up button to shorten the wait.
4. Work yellow and cyan next. These middle colors were covered by the brighter outer colors, so they become reachable one after another. Clear them one at a time in continuous pushes.
5. Clear the trace colors (pink, brown, black, purple) as they are exposed. These small accents hide inside the pagoda, and the efficient play is to spend free queue slots on them immediately so they never block a slot during the main pushes.
6. Finish with blue and orange. 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 pagoda disappears completely and the level-complete overlay with five white input slots appears.

Strategy & Reasoning

The removal order is dictated by the layer geometry: gray and green cover the pagoda, red and yellow sit on the middle layers, and orange is the bottom layer, so the sequence gray → green → red → yellow → cyan → blue → orange keeps the ants on reachable tiles. Gray 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. With seven colors and only five queue slots, the worst mistake is pushing two large colors at once, which leaves no room for small colors and forces waiting. The efficient play is to alternate a main color with small trace colors so the ants are almost never idle, and to save Magnet and Lightning only for rescuing a jammed queue.

Tips & Common Mistakes

• Running gray and red at the same time jams the five slots and stalls the board. Finish the outline before starting the tower color.
• 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.
• Opening a "?" tile while the queue is full can block the line. Open unknown tiles only when a queue slot is free.

Key Frames