Strategy guide: reading the tray and keeping the nest clear

Every level of Crumb Colony is the same puzzle in a new shape: a pixel picture, a tray of numbered color boxes in four columns, and five slots in the nest. You win by sending boxes in an order that always gives the ants something to bite. This guide covers the habits that matter on every level, from the first egg to trick-or-treating on Halloween night in the last level.

1. Read the picture from the outside in

Ants can only bite a block that is exposed: on the edge of the picture, or touching a cell that has already been eaten. So a picture always comes apart in rings. Before your first tap, look at the outer ring and name its colors. Those are the only colors that are useful right now. Everything inside will only become reachable after the ring around it is gone.

A good habit is to ask, for every color in the tray: is it exposed now, will it be exposed soon, or is it buried deep? Boxes of exposed colors are safe to send. Buried colors are the ones that jam the nest.

2. Plan by columns, not by boxes

You can only take the front box of each column, and you can see three rows deep. Choosing a column is really choosing what you uncover next. When two front boxes are equally useful, take the one whose column has the more useful box underneath it. When a column has a buried color at the front, the boxes behind it are stuck until you deal with it.

3. Keep one slot free

A box only leaves its slot once all of its ants have set off. If you send a color that cannot be eaten yet, it sits there and does nothing. Two or three of those and the nest is full. Keep one slot free whenever you can, for the moment when a front box blocks a column you need and has to be parked for a while.

4. Wait for the ants when it matters

Sending boxes quickly is fine while the picture is open. In tight moments it pays to wait until the ants have finished and the next layer is exposed before you decide; the right choice is often obvious once you see what was uncovered.

5. Count the special boxes coming up

• Chained boxes need both halves at the front and two free slots at once.
• Locked boxes need a key dug out of the picture first.
• Mystery boxes only reveal their color at the front.
• Soldier boxes are only useful once the edge of a spider web is exposed.

When you see one of these two or three rows away, start making room before it arrives.

6. Know where the level is tight

From chapter 2 on, each level shows a small difficulty curve at the top left. Its red stretch is where the slots fill up most easily. Play loose and quick before it, and arrive at it with free slots.

7. Use boosters as a last resort

Every level can be cleared without boosters, and every booster costs one of the three stars. If you are truly stuck, Extra Slot and Grab are the gentlest fixes; save the Machine Gun and the UFO for real jams.