Munchpix tips: how to never get stuck

Munchpix is a game about order. Every picture can be eaten, and getting stuck always traces back to one squad sent a little too early. These habits keep the waiting slots empty. If you have not played yet, start with how to play Munchpix.

1. Count before you tap

Before sending a squad, count the blocks of its color that are reachable right now, and compare that with the size on the squad's card. If the squad is size five and you can count five reachable blocks, nobody will have to wait. If you count two, three critters are about to take slots.

Remember that the count can grow while the squad eats. Eating a block may uncover another block of the same color behind it, and the squad will take that one too.

2. Treat slots as a budget

You have five waiting slots. Using some of them is normal and often necessary. What matters is whether the critters sitting there will get fed soon. A waiting blue critter is fine if the very next squad is about to uncover blue blocks. It is a problem if blue is buried under three other colors.

3. Open the picture from the bottom

Only blocks next to an empty cell that connects to the floor can be eaten. Early in a picture that means the bottom rows. Prefer the squad that opens the most new ground: a color spread along the bottom row gives the next squads more to reach than one that sits in a single column.

4. Read two squads ahead

You can see the three squads you may send and the next two behind them. Use that. If a big red squad is coming and red is still buried, spend the squads in front of it digging toward red, so that it arrives to a full plate.

5. Pick freely among the three

You do not have to send the squads in the order they are shown. If the first card would leave four critters waiting and the third would leave none, send the third. The queue moves up either way.

6. Let waiting critters work for you

Critters in slots eat on their own as soon as a block of their color becomes reachable, longest-waiting first. A good move is one squad that eats its fill and, in doing so, uncovers food for two critters who were waiting. That frees slots without spending a squad on it.

7. Spend boosters in the right order

Each picture has one free use of each booster, and any booster costs you the third star, so first decide whether you are playing for three stars or just to finish.

• Undo is the cheapest fix. Use it at once when a squad leaves more critters waiting than you expected.
• Shuffle helps when the squads you need are stuck at the back. It looks for an order that can still clear the picture.
• Extra slot is for when you are one critter short. It does not fix a bad order, it only buys one more mistake.

8. Wait for the hint

If you stop tapping for a while, the game points out a squad that is on a winning line and says why. On a keyboard, H asks for it straight away. It is free, so on a hard picture there is no shame in pausing to see what it says.

Play Munchpix now, or see more from One Thumb Games.