Colony Flow! Level 40 Walkthrough

Board Notes

Layout

The board opens in portrait view. The top half of the screen holds a pixel-art butterfly / winged figure: a purple body and inner-wing shape spread across the center, a cluster of small white spots scattered across the wing field, a small blue dock/box tucked into the lower-left of the art (the only blue region in the picture), and a yellow background tile filling the rest of the frame. Below the dirt strip the working area is a 5-cell top active row plus a 3-row, 3-column source grid. The 5-cell top active row opens as red 30, blue 25, purple 26, white 35, black 40 with no empty white buffer slots at the start. Source row 1 reads red 25, yellow 33, red 25. Source row 2 reads white 27, red 25, black 40. Source row 3 reads yellow 45, blue 35, yellow 45.

Goal

Red cubes from the red 30 in the active row, the two red 25 stacks in source row 1, the red 25 in source row 2, and the late red refills that rise into the active row must fill the small red accent cells inside the wing field. Blue cubes from the blue 25 in the active row and the blue 35 in source row 3 must close the small blue dock/box in the lower-left of the art. Purple cubes from the purple 26 in the active row plus any late purple refill must fill the purple body and inner-wing shape. White cubes from the white 35 in the active row and the white 27 in source row 2 must close the white spots scattered across the wings. Black cubes from the black 40 in the active row and the black 40 in source row 2 must trace any dark outline and small dark accent cells wrapping the silhouette. Yellow cubes from the yellow 33 in source row 1 and the two yellow 45 stacks in source row 3 must fill the large yellow background that covers the rest of the art.

Opening

The run opens with the red 30 stack at the far left of the 5-cell active row. Red 30 is the largest numbered stack in the active row and the red accent cells are the smallest color region in the art, so opening with red 30 dispatches red ants up the dirt path in the first beat and the red accent cells closest to the ant hole start closing immediately. The second confirmed tap is the purple 26 stack in the third cell of the active row, which sends purple ants up the same dirt path and starts filling the purple body of the butterfly. The third confirmed tap is the white 35 stack in the fourth cell of the active row, which sends white ants up the same dirt path and starts closing the white spots scattered across the wing field. The blue 25 in column 2 and the black 40 in column 5 of the active row are held for one beat so the red, purple, and white waves can clear the perimeter of the butterfly before the blue dock or any dark accent is touched. The red 25, red 25, yellow 33, white 27, red 25, black 40, yellow 45, blue 35, and yellow 45 source stacks are all held for one beat so the active row opener waves can clear the perimeter first.

Danger Zone

Most failed runs start at the blue 25 stack in the second cell of the 5-cell active row. The blue dock/box in the lower-left of the art is the smallest color region in the picture, and if the player taps the blue 25 before the red 30 and purple 26 waves have cleared the perimeter of the butterfly, blue ants cross the wing field that purple has to fill and stall on the still-empty dock cells, blocking the blue 35 in source row 3 that needs to close the dock. The other trap is firing the yellow 33 in source row 1 while purple ants are still walking the dirt path up to the purple body, because yellow ants use the same dirt path as the purple ants and a premature yellow click strands yellow ants on the still-empty background cells and blocks the late yellow 45 refills in source row 3 that need to reach the rest of the background. Tapping the black 40 in the active row before the red and white accent cells are at least half-closed is also bad, because black ants share the path with red and white ants and stall on the still-empty dark accent cells. Letting the white 27 in source row 2 rise into the active row before the white 35 wave has cleared the wing spots strands white ants on the still-empty spots and blocks the red 25 refills in source row 1 that need to reach the red accents.

Mechanics

Level 40 is a multi-stack color-routing board combined with a pixel-art completion goal and a single ant hole, with a butterfly-on-yellow-background scene. The 5-cell top active row plus the 3-row, 3-column source grid makes this a tall 14-stack working area, and there are no empty white buffer slots at the start of the run, so every cell of the active row starts with a real stack and the only way to create a buffer is to drain an active row cell so a source row stack can rise into it. The butterfly pixel art has six main color families (yellow background, purple body, white spots, blue dock, red accents, black outline) plus the late refill waves, and the player has to keep all of those routes staged at once. The 5-cell active row is the queue that pre-holds the red 30, blue 25, purple 26, white 35, and black 40 from the start, and the 3-row, 3-column source grid underneath it acts as the supply that refills the active row as stacks are sent, so the last small red refill, the late blue refill, the late purple refill, the late white refill, the late black refill, and the late yellow refills still need a clean delivery after the bottom of the source grid looks clear. Compared to Level 37's fox portrait, the butterfly scene is shorter on the source grid but has a much larger yellow background region and a purple-on-yellow body-and-background contrast that forces the player to drain the active row completely before tapping the source grid.