How to Play Color Flood
Color Flood (also known as Flood-It or Flood Fill) is a deceptively simple puzzle game where the goal is to turn an entire board into a single color within a limited number of moves. Starting from the top-left corner, you pick a color each turn, and your region expands to absorb all adjacent cells of that color. It begins small, but as your flood region grows, each move becomes increasingly satisfying — watching a cascade of color wash across the board is the core of this game's addictive appeal.
How to Play
The board starts as a randomly colored grid. Your "flood region" begins as the single cell in the top-left corner. Each turn, you pick one of the six available colors by clicking a color button. Your flood region changes to that color, and any adjacent cells that match the new color are absorbed into your region. The goal is to flood the entire board — make every cell the same color — before you run out of moves.
Three board sizes are available: 10×10 (25 moves), 14×14 (30 moves), and 18×18 (38 moves). Fewer moves used means a better score. The optimal strategy involves looking ahead to see which color captures the most territory each turn.
History & Origin
Color Flood games first appeared on the web in the mid-2000s. The most famous version, "Flood-It," was created by LabPixies (later acquired by Google) and became one of the most popular puzzle apps on early smartphones. The underlying algorithm — flood fill — is fundamental to computer graphics and is the same one used by the paint bucket tool in image editors. The puzzle variant turns this algorithm into a strategic decision at each step: which color maximizes territory gain? The game has been mathematically proven to be NP-hard in its general form, meaning there's no known efficient algorithm that always finds the optimal solution. For more puzzles, see our best puzzle games roundup.
Strategy & Tips
- Maximize each move. Pick the color that will absorb the most cells in a single turn. Look at the border of your flood region and count which color appears most.
- Think two moves ahead. Sometimes a smaller gain now sets up a huge gain next turn. If choosing green absorbs 3 cells but puts you next to 10 blue cells, it may be worth it even if red would absorb 5 cells right now.
- Work toward corners. The top-left corner is solved immediately. Focus on reaching the far corners — the bottom-right corner is usually the last area to be captured.
- Avoid the same color twice in a row. Picking a color that doesn't border your region wastes a move entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Color Flood always solvable within the move limit?
Almost always. The move limits are generous enough that the vast majority of random boards are solvable. On rare occasions a particularly unlucky layout may be very tight, but smart play should win most games.
How many colors are used?
Six colors. More colors would make the puzzle harder, fewer would make it trivial. Six provides the ideal balance of challenge and visual variety.
What is the connection to the flood fill algorithm?
Each time you pick a color, the game internally runs a flood fill from the top-left corner — the same algorithm that powers the paint bucket tool in Photoshop, GIMP, and MS Paint. The game essentially asks you to orchestrate a series of flood fills to cover the entire canvas.
Play Color Flood free in your browser. Pick colors, flood the board, and beat it in as few moves as possible.