Color Flood

How to play

1. The corner cell is yours. So is every cell touching it that shares its color — together they are the blob, drawn with a heavy outline.
2. In Merge there are two blobs, in opposite corners, and one color steers both. They become one the moment they touch, because they are always the same color as each other.
3. Pick a color and the whole blob becomes it, swallowing whatever it now matches along its edge.
4. Win by turning the whole board one color.
5. Par is the fewest moves that will finish the board. You are given par plus a little, and on the hardest settings you are given par exactly.
6. Undo and restart are free. Use them.
7. Every cell carries its color's initial — Color Blind Assist, on by default and switchable in Settings. It is not decoration: blue and purple are all but identical to a red–green color blind player, and the letter is what tells them apart.
8. You get two hints a puzzle. A hint names a color that is on a best line from wherever you have got to — and it does not cost you a move. Restarting does not give them back.

The trap is the biggest grab. Taking whichever color swallows the most board, every turn, gets you close — and on the harder settings it will leave you a move or two short. Look for the move that opens up two regions at once rather than the one that eats the most now.