Why Your Colony Jams: Reachability Explained With Examples

The reachability rule

Ants walk on empty ground. A tile is eatable if it sits on the bottom row of the picture, or touches an empty cell that connects — through other empty cells — to the bottom edge. Everything else is buried, no matter how close it looks.

This is why a color that wraps around the top of the picture can show a big number in the tray yet do nothing for minutes: its tiles are all sealed behind other colors.

Reading a board in 10 seconds

1. Bottom edge: which colors touch it? Those are your openers.
2. Outline: which color forms the picture's border? Borders unlock everything inside — prioritize them.
3. Core: which colors only appear in the middle? Those cubes stay in the tray until late.

The three jam patterns

• The greedy fill: tapping five cubes at the start because slots were open. Two turn out unreachable, and by mid-level the remaining three slots can't cover the board's needs.
• The bad reveal: a hidden cube flips to a core-only color with every slot full. Prevention: reveal with two slots free.
• The color island: one color's last tiles get enclosed by a slower color. Watch for colors whose count stalls — clear their neighbours first.

If you're already jammed

Pick Up returns the worst slot cube to the tray and instantly un-jams you; Vacuum deletes a whole color if the jam is structural. Both cost the 3-star rating, so on early levels a retry with the level page's loading order is usually the better trade.