How to play Color Debt
Merge neighbors into mixed colors and pay back the ledger.
In this guide What Color Debt is How colors mix How to play The ledger and White Goals, moves and scoring How a level is lost Other controls and saving Tips Questions and answers
What Color Debt is
Color Debt is a browser merge puzzle in which no merge is free. The board is a grid of colored tiles, five wide and six tall. Mixing two neighboring tiles produces a new color, and at the same moment the ledger records a debt. To clear that debt you must find and spend a tile of exactly the color you owe. Reach the level's payment goal before your mixes run out.
How colors mix
| Mix | Result | Debt created |
|---|---|---|
| Red + Green | Yellow | Blue |
| Red + Blue | Magenta | Green |
| Green + Blue | Cyan | Red |
| Yellow + Blue, Magenta + Green or Cyan + Red | White | None. White clears the ledger. |
Colors behave like light, so the debt is always the one primary color missing from the result. Mixing a color with itself, or with a color it already contains, is refused and costs nothing. Every tile carries three small dots that show which of red, green and blue it contains, so the board can be read without relying on color vision.
How to play
- Tap a tile to pick it up. It gets a white outline, and every neighbor it can legally mix with gets a dashed outline in the resulting color, with a small preview of the result and the debt it would create.
- Tap a highlighted neighbor to mix into it. This uses one move.
- To pay a debt, pick up a tile of exactly the color owed. Matching debt chips in the ledger pulse with TAP TO PAY. Tap the chip. Payments cost no moves.
- Tap the same tile again, or empty space, to put a tile down without doing anything.
The ledger and White
The ledger holds three debts. A fourth is bankruptcy and the level is lost. Mixing White, which needs all three lights in one tile, wipes the whole ledger at once and counts every cleared debt as paid. The price is that the White tile stays on the board. It cannot be mixed or spent, so each White you make leaves less room to work in.
Goals, moves and scoring
Level 1 asks for 5 paid debts and gives you 11 moves. Each level raises the goal by 2 and the moves by 2, so the spare margin stays at 6 while the job grows. From level 2, two-light tiles such as Yellow begin to appear on the board ready-made, which puts White one mix away.
Paying a debt scores 10 points. A White mix scores 25 plus 10 for every debt it clears. Clearing a level adds 5 points for each move left over. Score carries from level to level.
How a level is lost
- Bankruptcy: a fourth debt arrives while the ledger is full.
- Out of moves: the mixes are used up, the goal is not met and nothing on the board can pay a debt.
- Stuck: the ledger is full, no tile can pay any of it and no White is one mix away, so every remaining mix would bankrupt you.
Other controls and saving
RESTART LEVEL, or the R key, starts the level again. Esc drops the selected tile. Mouse and touch both work. Nothing is saved: the game stores no data in your browser, and score and level last only until the page is closed or reloaded.
Tips
- Before you mix, find the tile that will pay for it. If Red and Green are about to become Yellow, make sure a Blue tile will still be on the board.
- Pay early. Payments are free, and an empty ledger is the only protection against a forced mix later.
- Treat White as an emergency exit. It scores well and clears everything, but each White tile is a dead square for the rest of the level.
- Do not mix away the color you owe. Using your last Blue in a mix while the ledger holds a Blue debt can leave that debt unpayable.
- From level 2, look for ready-made Yellow, Magenta or Cyan tiles next to their missing primary. That is a White in a single move.
- Keep count of moves against the goal. Every debt you pay had to be created by a mix first, so a goal of 5 needs at least 5 mixes, and the six spare moves are your whole margin.
Questions and answers
Does paying a debt use a move?
No. Only mixes use moves. Payments are free.
Why was my mix refused?
The two tiles were the same color, or one already contains the other, so mixing would produce nothing new.
Can a White tile pay a debt?
No. White tiles are inert. They cannot be mixed or spent.
Is my score saved between visits?
No. Nothing is stored. A reload starts again from level 1.