About Color Pour
Color Pour is our take on the liquid sort puzzle. Every tube holds up to four layers of colored liquid, and the colors start out mixed. Your job is to pour them around until each tube is either empty or filled with four layers of a single color.
Every level is generated from its level number, so level 12 is always the same level 12, and before a level is shown to you our solver plays it through to make sure a solution exists. We ran that check on the first 200 levels with a second, independent solver too, and every one came back solvable.
The difficulty ramps slowly. Levels 1 to 3 use three colors, and one new color joins every three levels until you reach twelve colors at level 28. There are always two empty tubes at the start, so a twelve-color level has fourteen tubes on the board. There is no final level. Your current level and your best cleared level are saved in your browser, so you can close the tab and pick up where you left off.
Color matters in this game, so we added an optional symbol mode. Turn on Symbols and every color also gets its own shape (circle, triangle, star, heart, and so on) printed on each layer. It helps if some colors are hard for you to tell apart.
How to play
- Tap a tube to lift it. You can only lift a tube that has liquid in it.
- Tap another tube to pour into it. A pour is allowed when the target tube is empty, or when its top layer is the same color as the top layer you’re pouring and it still has room.
- The whole block of matching color on top pours at once, as much as fits. If you pour three red layers into a tube with one free space, one layer moves and two stay behind.
- If a pour isn’t allowed, the lifted tube gives a little shake and your selection switches to the tube you tapped.
- When a tube fills with four layers of one color it gets a colored cap. Cap every color and the level is clear.
The move counter counts every pour, and using undo also counts as a move. There is no timer and no fail state, so take as long as you like.
Helpers
| Helper | Uses per level | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Undo | 3 | Steps back one pour |
| Extra tube | 1 | Adds one empty tube for the rest of the level |
| Restart | Unlimited | Resets the level and refills both helpers |
After each pour the game quietly checks whether the position can still be solved. If it finds you’ve reached a real dead end, it tells you, says whether an extra tube would rescue the position, and offers Undo, the extra tube, or a fresh start. The check has a time limit, so on very large boards it only speaks up when it’s certain.
Strategy tips
1. Treat empty tubes as your most valuable resource
An empty tube can take any color, so it’s the most flexible thing on the board. Don’t fill one just because you can. Pour into an empty tube when you’re starting a color you can finish soon, not as a place to park stuff.
2. Pour onto matching colors before using empties
If a red layer can go onto another red, that move costs you nothing. The same pour into an empty tube uses up flexibility you might need later. In our playtests, most failed runs started with both empty tubes filled early.
3. Count layers before you commit
Each color has exactly four layers. Before you start collecting a color in a tube, find all four layers and check how deep they’re buried. A color whose layers are all near the top is a great first target. A color with a layer at the bottom of a full tube is a job for later.
4. Don’t bury a color you’re about to need
Pouring blue on top of the only accessible yellow means you’ll have to move that blue again before you can reach the yellow. Before each pour, ask what it covers up.
5. Clear one tube completely
A tube that’s been emptied is as good as an extra empty tube. Often the best move is to dig out the tube with the fewest layers, even if none of them finish a color right away.
6. Save your helpers
You only get three undos, so spend them on misclicks and pours you instantly regret, not on testing ideas. The extra tube works best late, when one color is stuck under another.
A worked example
Here’s a small two-color position, listed bottom to top:
| Tube | Contents |
|---|---|
| A | red, yellow, red, red |
| B | yellow, yellow, red, yellow |
| C | empty |
| D | empty |
Count first: red has three layers in A and one in B, yellow has one in A and three in B. A good line:
- Pour A into C. Both reds on top of A move together, so C holds two reds and A shows yellow.
- Pour B into A. B’s top yellow lands on A’s yellow. A is now red, yellow, yellow.
- Pour B into C. B’s red joins the other two, so C has three reds and B is down to two yellows.
- Pour A into B. Both yellows move, and B becomes four yellows. Capped.
- Pour A into C. The last red finishes C. Level clear in five pours, and tube D was never touched.
The key was step 2: pouring yellow onto yellow cost nothing, while pouring it into D would have used up the spare tube for no reason.
FAQ
Is every level really solvable?
Yes. Each level is built from a seed and checked by a solver before you see it. If no solution is found quickly, the game tries another layout for that level number.
Does using undo or the extra tube hurt my progress?
No. Clearing the level counts the same either way. The win screen just notes when you solved it without using undo.
Can I replay an earlier level?
After you clear a level, Play again replays it. From the start screen you can also jump back to level 1 at any time without losing your saved progress.
