Sand Loop Level 226 Solution Walkthrough | Sand Loop 226

Sand Loop Level 226 Guide: The Santa Claus Puzzle

This is the "Santa Claus" pixel art level. It’s not a speed run; it’s a digging expedition. You are looking at a classic portrait: red hat, pink face, white/cream beard, and a cyan background.

The hook here isn't speed—it's vertical dependency. The most important color for the top of the image (Red for the hat) is buried at the very bottom of the central column. You are forced to burn through colors you don't necessarily need immediately just to reach the ones required for the top half of the canvas. This mismatch between "canvas position" and "tray position" is where players get stuck.

Sand Loop Level 226 Solution: The Santa Portrait

Looking at the top screen, the Santa image is dense. Unlike sparse abstract levels, almost every pixel here counts.

• Color Palette Deep Dive:

  • Red: The massive hat. This is your high-value target.
  • Cream/White: The beard and the fluffy trim of the hat.
  • Pink: The face skin tone.
  • Dark Blue: The eyes and specific shadow details.
  • Cyan: The background fill.

• The "Danger Zones": The eyes. They are tiny Dark Blue clusters surrounded by Pink and Cream. It is incredibly easy to accidentally overwrite a blue eye pixel with pink face paint if your timing is sloppy. Precision matters more on the face than on the hat.

• Fill Order Prediction: Logic dictates you usually paint top-to-bottom. However, because your Red cups are buried, you will likely end up painting the background (Cyan) and the eyes (Dark Blue) first, simply because those cups are available in the top rows of the tray. Don't fight this. Clear what you can to reach the Red.

Tackling the "Center Column Blockade" in Sand Loop Level 226

The specific obstacle in Sand Loop Level 226 is the Center Column Stack. Look at your tray. The Red cups needed for the massive hat area are located in Row 4 and Row 5 of the center column.

They are buried under:

1. Dark Blue (Top)
2. Dark Blue (Row 2)
3. Cream (Row 3)

This is a deliberate bottleneck. You cannot finish the top of the image (the hat) until you have cleared three layers of the center column. This forces you to play aggressively in the center while being conservative on the sides. If you fill your 5-slot conveyor with side cups (Cyans) and ignore the center, you'll end up with a conveyor full of background color and no way to paint the main subject.

Sand Loop Level 226 Step-by-Step Walkthrough

You have 5 slots on the conveyor. Never fill them all unless you are doing a massive single-color dump. Keep 1 slot open to prevent deadlocks.

1. Excavating the Center

Your first move isn't about painting; it's about mining. Tap the Dark Blue cup in the top center immediately. You need to get this out of the way. Since the Santa eyes are Dark Blue, this is a valid pour.

Once the top center is clear, the Row 2 Dark Blue unlocks. Tap that next. Do not get distracted by the Cyans on the edges yet. Your primary mission is to dig down to the Red cups. If the eyes are already painted, you might have to waste a bit of Blue paint, but getting to the Red is worth the cost.

2. The Cream Layer Transition

After clearing the two center Blues, you hit a Cream cup in Row 3. This is perfect timing. The Santa image usually requires Cream for the hat trim (the white fluff).

As you tap this center Cream cup, you can also start tapping the Pink cups in Row 3 (flanking the center). This allows you to paint the face and the beard simultaneously. At this stage, your conveyor should be a mix of Pink and Cream. Watch the canvas carefully—the Pink goes in the middle (face), the Cream goes around it (beard). Don't mix them up.

3. Unleashing the Red Hat

Once that center Cream cup is gone, you finally expose the Red cups in Rows 4 and 5. This is the endgame.

Tap the Red cups immediately. By now, the top of your canvas (where the hat goes) is likely still blank because you've been focusing on the face and background. The Red paint will travel up the conveyor and fill that large empty block at the top.

Pro Tip: While the Red is pouring, you can use your remaining Cyan cups (on the far left/right columns) to finish off the background. The background is low risk, so fill the gaps in your conveyor with Cyan whenever the main dispenser is busy with Red or Pink. This keeps the flow constant without risking a color mismatch on the face.