Color Lab.

How to play Color Lab

1. Press Play, then begin or continue the journey. Daily, Free Lab, the experiment map and settings are one tap away in the menu.
2. Tap a vessel that holds color. It lifts, and the vessels that can receive its top color are marked.
3. Tap an empty vessel or one whose top color matches. The matching group at the top pours across until the group ends or the destination is full.
4. Keep pouring until every vessel is empty or holds one color, full to the top. A cork seals each finished vessel.
5. Use Undo to take back a pour, Hint to see a move from your current position, and Spare to add one extra empty flask. Restart asks before clearing an attempt.
6. Finish at par or better without help for three stars, then move to the next experiment or replay for a better score.

Make your move

About Color Lab

Color Lab is an original water sort puzzle set in a small glass atelier. Colored liquids are mixed across a row of vessels. Tap a vessel to pick up its top color, then tap another vessel to pour. The destination must be empty or have the same color on top, and a pour moves the whole matching group at the top, as far as the space allows. The experiment is finished when every color stands in a full vessel of its own and the other vessels are empty. There is no countdown and no move limit.

The journey holds 600 experiments in thirty chapters of twenty. The first forty are the original Color Lab boards, from three colors up to seven. Later chapters reach eight, ten and finally twelve colors, and each chapter adds or combines one idea. Uneven shelves spread the free space across partly filled vessels. Tall glass holds five units of every color and deep glass holds six. A short illustrated card introduces each new kind of glass the first time it appears.

Special glass changes how you plan. Frosted glass hides every unit below the top of its vessel; a hidden color shows itself when it becomes the top unit, and it stays revealed even after an undo. A tinted flask carries a colored collar and accepts only that color, although it can pour out whatever it starts with. A wax-sealed flask cannot pour or be filled until a full vessel of its key color stands on the bench, and the seal shows which color that is. Completing the key breaks the wax.

Every level is proven. Before a level shipped, an exact A* search with a lower bound that never overestimates found its shortest solution, and that solution became its par. A second, independent solver also finishes every level in the test suite. Levels were chosen by measurement: many candidate arrangements were dealt for each slot, a short-sighted test player tried each one dozens of times, and the arrangement nearest the slot’s target difficulty was kept. That is why the curve rises steadily, with an easier breather every few levels, instead of lurching between trivial and impossible.

Stars reward clear thinking. Three stars mean you finished at par or better without help. Two stars mean you finished within a few pours of par, or finished with a hint or the spare flask. One star is for any finish. Undo is free and does not count against you, so you can experiment. New experiments open three at a time beyond your furthest solve, so one stubborn level never blocks the rest of the journey. Stars also unlock two extra glass styles and five bench themes, from a dawn studio to a paper lab.

A daily experiment arrives at midnight on your device’s calendar and is the same arrangement for every player on that date. Monday is gentle and Sunday is grand, with more colors and special glass as the week goes on. A calendar shows the days you have solved, earlier days can be replayed, and the streak counts days solved on the day itself. Free Lab mixes a fresh random bench whenever you like, in three sizes with any combination of frosted, tinted, sealed or tall glass, and checks each one with the solver before you see it.

The pour is animated from real geometry: the vessel tilts until its liquid reaches the lip, the surface stays level as it tips, and the destination fills as the stream lands. You can tap your next move while a pour is still in the air. Sounds are synthesized in the browser, including a pour whose pitch rises as the vessel fills, and an optional ambient track. Progress, stars, streaks and an unfinished attempt in each mode are saved in this browser without an account. If you solved experiments in the first release, they count toward the new journey.

A little help for your next high score

• Treat empty vessels as working space. Filling both at once is the most common way to get stuck.
• Before you pour, look at what the move uncovers. Exposing a color that already matches another top is often worth more than tidying a vessel.
• Count the free space in the destination. A pour stops when the destination is full, which can split a group you meant to move together.
• On frosted benches, keep one vessel free until the hidden colors show themselves, and work on vessels whose tops you can already see.
• A wax seal is a promise: plan to complete its key color early, because the sealed flask may hold colors you need or be the empty space you are missing.
• If you are close to par but not there, undo back to the first uncertain choice and try the other branch. Undo is free and never costs a star.

Good questions