Color Flood

How to play Color Flood

Turn the whole 14×14 board into one connected color within the move budget. The flooded area starts at the fixed top-left corner and includes every matching square connected to it. A connection goes up, down, left or right; diagonal contact does not count.

Make each color choice count

Choose one of the six palette buttons to recolor the entire flooded area. It absorbs matching territory connected to it. Choosing the current color does nothing and costs no move. Any different color uses one move, even when it adds no squares.

Capturing all 196 squares wins immediately. A clear on the last permitted move still wins; otherwise the board ends when the budget is used. There is no time limit.

A little tighter, then a steady challenge

Level 1 gives you 26 moves, Level 2 gives 25, Level 3 gives 24 and Level 4 gives 23. From Level 5 onward the budget stays at 22. After a clear, choose Next level to move on. New board creates a fresh arrangement at the current level.

Boards draw from 40 originals, with eight for each move budget. You may see an original again with different colors or reflected across its diagonal. Every starting board has a checked clearing route within its budget. Your collection counts each original once.

Colors you can recognise

Every color has a number and name: 1 Coral, 2 Amber, 3 Sage, 4 Teal, 5 Blue and 6 Violet. Matching patterns help distinguish colors on the board. Patterns start on and can be switched off; the number and name labels stay visible.

Hints that say what they know

Hint suggests a color without applying it. When your position still follows a checked clearing route with enough moves left, the message identifies that route suggestion. Otherwise it offers a legal growth option and clearly avoids promising a complete finish. A suggestion is not a claim of a globally shortest route.

Requesting a hint counts as help immediately. Help remains recorded after Undo, Restart or another variation of the same original board. A checked starting route does not guarantee a win after every sequence of choices.

Try again without losing your progress

Undo and Redo revisit choices on the current board. A different choice clears the Redo branch. Restart returns to the same starting board as practice; New board asks before replacing it with a fresh arrangement at the current level.

Best progress and earned achievements remain earned. Replaying a finish does not duplicate original-board wins. Winning after using Hint, Undo or Restart still joins your collection. Fresh-finish rewards require your first clear of that original board before using any of those tools on it.

Eight achievements

Earn stars for real growth, capturing half the board, a completed board, a fresh finish, a fresh finish with at least three moves left, winning on Level 2 or later, and collecting three and ten original boards. Your eight stars track these achievements across your Color Flood boards.

Comfortable controls

Tap or click a numbered color. Keyboard 1–6 chooses directly; arrows move palette focus and Enter or Space selects it. U or Ctrl+Z undoes, Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes, H requests a hint and P pauses. N asks for a new board, R asks to restart and Escape closes a panel or leaves full screen.

Pause hides the board and stops active time. Full screen provides more room, and Back to page restores your place. Sound starts off, celebrations do not block choices, and motion follows your browser preference.

Saved in this browser

Your current board, choices, active time, patterns, sound preference and achievements save when browser storage is available. A persistent warning explains when saving is unavailable; keep that tab open to retain its in-memory run. No account is needed.

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