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How to solve Inkflood

A practical guide to the daily color flood puzzle: how the board behaves, how to think about each move, and a full example solved step by step.

The rules in one minute

Every tile on the board has a color. Tiles of the same color that touch along a side (not just at a corner) form an area. A move has two parts: pick a color from the palette, then tap any tile. The area that tile belongs to changes to the color you picked.

The goal is shown above the board: turn every tile into the target color. You have a limited number of moves, so the puzzle is really about turning the board into one big area as fast as possible, and making sure that last area ends up the right color.

Think in areas, not tiles

The single most useful idea in Inkflood is that a move never changes just one area. When an area turns a new color, it merges with every neighboring area of that color. One tap can join three or four areas at once.

So the useful question for every move is: how many areas does this remove? A move that changes a big area but merges with nothing has been wasted, however satisfying it looks.

Five strategies that save moves

1. Pick one area and grow it

Choose one area to be your "blob" and keep changing it to whichever color touches it the most. Each move then swallows the neighbors around its edge. Spreading your moves across different parts of the board usually leaves several medium areas that still need joining at the end.

2. Start near the middle

An area in the middle of the board touches more neighbors than one in a corner, so it grows in every direction. If two areas look equally good, pick the more central one. Unlike classic flood games, Inkflood lets you tap any tile, so you are never forced to start from a corner.

3. Count colors, not just tiles

Before each move, look at the colors touching your blob. Picking the color with the most tiles along the edge is a good default. Picking the color that makes a whole color disappear from the board is often even better, because every color you remove is one less color you will need a move for later.

4. Save the target color for the end

It is tempting to paint things the target color early. But the target color is only needed once: on your final move, when everything is joined. Until then, use whichever colors merge the most. The exception is when the target color is also the best merge, which happens, and then you should use it.

5. Don't leave islands behind

A single tile trapped between other colors can cost a full extra move at the end. When your blob grows past a small island, check whether one of your next moves can pick it up on the way.

A full example, move by move

Here is a real 6×6 board from the game, the kind you get on a Monday. It has 10 areas in four colors, and the goal is all yellow. Par is 4.

Move 1 turns the large blue area red, which joins it with the red tiles around it. Move 2 turns the new blob purple, picking up the purple areas on its edge. Move 3 switches to blue and reaches across the board. By now only the yellow tiles are left outside the blob, so move 4 turns everything yellow and the puzzle is done, right on par.

Common mistakes

Chasing the biggest area every time

The largest area is not always the best one to change. A smaller area that sits between two big ones of the same color can join all three in one move.

Using the target color too early

Painting part of the board the target color feels like progress, but those tiles still have to be joined to everything else, so it rarely saves a move.

Forgetting the corners

Corner and edge tiles have few neighbors, so they are easy to overlook until the final move. Glance at all four corners before your last two moves.

Par, spare moves and stars

Every board has a par: a strong solution found by the game's solver. You get par plus two spare moves; the dots under the board count them down, and the spare ones are outlined in red. Finish within par for three stars, one over par for two, and anything else for one. The solver is good but not perfect, so beating par is possible, and earns a trophy.

Boards grow through the week: 6×6 with four colors on Monday, up to 9×9 with six colors on the weekend. The strategies stay the same; there are just more areas to plan around. Practice mode lets you replay any size as often as you like, with hints.