Sand Loop Level 290 Solution Walkthrough

Sand Loop Level 290 Guide: The Locomotive Puzzle

This is the "Retro Steam Train" level. While it looks like a charming piece of pixel art, Level 290 is actually a claustrophobic logic test. You are dealing with a standard 5-slot capacity limit, but the board layout is incredibly dense.

The hook here isn't speed; it's digging. You have deep columns of cups blocking three specific Ice Buckets (numbered 6, 8, and 9). If you play too casually, you will jam your tray with blue cups long before the sky is ready to be painted, forcing a restart. The color palette is deceptive too—distinguishing between the Maroon (Dark Red) of the engine body and the Bright Red of the cabin is where most players fail.

Sand Loop Level 290 Solution: The Train Layout

Before you tap a single cup, look at the canvas at the top. The image dictates your flow, and the train has distinct layers.

Maroon (Dark Red): This is the dominant color. It covers the main cylindrical body of the train and the wheels. This is your "volume" color. You need a lot of it, early.
Bright Red: Used for the cabin (back of the train) and the pilot (front cowcatcher area). Do not waste this on the main body.
Yellow: Used for three things: the ground, the window trim, and the outer edges of the smoke.
Orange: The center of the smoke clouds and the headlight.
Blue: The massive background sky.

The Danger Zone: The Smoke Stack. It alternates between Yellow and Orange. If you send a solid stream of Orange without pausing for the Yellow edges, you’ll ruin the cloud definition.

Fill Order Prediction: You generally want to paint the Yellow ground and the Maroon train body first. The Blue sky is the last thing you should worry about, even though Blue cups are clogging up the middle of your board.

Tackling the [Numbered Ice Blocks] in Sand Loop Level 290

The primary obstacle in Sand Loop Level 290 is the trio of Numbered Ice Blocks: the "6" in the top center, and the "8" and "9" buried in the bottom corners.

These aren't standard cups. They are blockers that count down based on your actions (clearing cups).

The "6" Block sits directly on top of your main supply of Blue cups. Until you clear 6 cups from the board, that middle lane is dead space.
The "8" and "9" Blocks are worse. They are at the very bottom of the side stacks. This means you have to clear almost the entire left and right columns just to activate them.

This setup forces a "U-shape" clearing strategy. You must eat away at the left and right towers to trigger the middle and bottom assists.

Sand Loop Level 290 Step-by-Step Walkthrough

You have 5 Slots. Do not pick up a cup unless you know exactly where the sand is going right now. A filled slot with no valid target is a death sentence here.

Clearing the Top Layer (Maroon & Yellow)

Your first moves must target the Yellow cup (top left) and the Maroon/Dark Red cup (top right).

Tap the Yellow cup first. The conveyor will take it to the bottom of the canvas to start the ground layer.
Immediately tap the Maroon cup. The train body is the largest contiguous block. You need to start filling it to clear space in your tray.
Ignore the Blue cups visible in the second row for now. The sky is not ready, and picking them up will just choke your 5-slot limit.

Cracking the "6" Block

As you clear the initial Reds and Yellows, the counter on the central "6" block will tick down.

Once it breaks, it exposes a column of Blue cups. Do not panic-tap them.
Check your canvas. Is the train body finished? If the Maroon and Bright Red sections are still incomplete, leave the Blue cups sitting in the supply tray.
If you load Blue cups onto the conveyor while the nozzle is over the red train body, you will contaminate the artwork. Wait for the nozzle to move to the background or clear sky area.

Navigating the Smoke Trap (Yellow vs. Orange)

Mid-game, you will uncover Orange cups in the middle rows of the side stacks. This is for the smoke and the headlight.

The smoke is a mix. It’s not a solid block.
You need to alternate Yellow -> Orange -> Yellow to get the puffy cloud effect.
If you see a run of Orange cups, send them with a gap between them. Do not create a continuous "rope" of orange sand, or you will paint over the yellow outline of the smoke clouds.

The Final Dig (Blocks 8 & 9)

By the time you reach the bottom of the stacks, you are likely just finishing the sky.

The "8" and "9" blocks usually hide the final necessary colors or "white" cleaner cups to finish the edges.
The biggest risk here is running out of Maroon (Dark Red) before the wheels are done. The wheels have holes in them (the background color shows through).
To fix this, ensure you are pouring Maroon in short bursts when the nozzle is over the solid parts of the wheel, and stop pouring when it passes over the gaps. Precision is key here; don't just hold the button down.

Once the "8" and "9" pop, use whatever is inside to patch up any missed pixels on the edges. Clear the remaining Blue for the sky, and you're done.

Sand Loop Level 290 Solution Walkthrough | Sand Loop 290