How to play Munchpix

Every Munchpix level is a small picture made of colored blocks. Below it, squads of hungry critters wait in line. Send them up in the right order and they eat the whole picture. Send them in the wrong order and they pile up with nothing to eat.

The rules

1. Tap a squad. Its critters walk up and eat blocks of their own color.
2. They can only eat blocks they can walk to from the floor.
3. A critter with nothing to eat waits in a slot.
4. Eat the whole picture before the slots fill up.

What "reachable" means

Critters start at the bottom edge and walk through empty cells, up, down and sideways but never diagonally. A block is reachable when a critter can stand next to it. At the start that is the bottom row. Every block that gets eaten leaves an empty cell behind, which opens the way to the blocks above and beside it.

In the picture above, the blue squad can eat straight away because blue blocks sit on the bottom row. The yellow squad has to wait until blue has opened a path.

Squads and the queue

Three squads are ready at a time, and you can see the next two coming. You may tap any of the three. Each squad has one color and a size, shown on its card. A squad of four eats up to four reachable blocks of its color, nearest first. Blocks that become reachable while the squad is eating count too.

Waiting slots

If a squad finds fewer blocks than it has critters, the leftover critters each take a waiting slot. A level has five slots.

Waiting critters are not wasted. The moment a block of their color becomes reachable, they eat it on their own, longest-waiting first, and their slot is free again.

A squad whose leftovers would not fit in the free slots refuses to go: its card shakes and nothing happens. If none of the three squads can go and no waiting critter can eat, you are stuck and the picture has to be started again.

Boosters

Each puzzle comes with one free use of each booster:

• Extra slot adds one more waiting slot for this picture.
• Shuffle reorders the waiting squads, into an order that can still win when there is one.
• Undo takes back your last squad.

Stars

Three stars for finishing without getting stuck and without boosters. One slip or one booster still earns two stars, and any other finish earns one.

Daily picture and levels

A new picture arrives every day and is the same for everyone. Eating it on its own day keeps your streak going. Past days stay in the archive. The level list holds many more pictures, grouped in bands that open as you finish the one before.

Questions

Is there a timer?

No. Nothing in Munchpix is timed. If the animations feel slow, the 2x switch in the toolbar speeds them up.

Can every picture be eaten?

Yes. Every picture has at least one order of squads that eats all of it.

Can I play with a keyboard?

Yes. Press 1, 2 or 3 to send a squad, U to undo and H for a hint.

Is Munchpix free?

Yes. The web game is free, needs no account and saves your progress in your browser.

Read the Munchpix tips next, or play today's picture. Munchpix is made by One Thumb Games.