Clear Arrows Start game

Strategy for levels 1 to 20: read the board, don't guess

Strategy

By Dirk Werner, Dipl.-Psych., Psychologischer Psychotherapeut (licensed in Germany)

Published on · Last updated on

The first twenty levels of Clear Arrows grow from a 6×6 grid with 7 arrows to a 20×20 grid with 146 arrows. Along the way, two mechanics join in: from level 11 the board turns (Shifting Grid), and from level 16 traps get expensive (cascade traps). A clock runs from the very start. This page is not a full walkthrough. It explains what to look for so that you can find the solution yourself. Every rule of thumb rests on what the game actually evaluates and comes with the numbers from the levels.

1. There is exactly one penalty

An arrow can be removed when its path in the direction it points is clear all the way to the edge. If you tap an arrow whose path is blocked, it costs a life. That is the only way to lose a life by tapping in these levels. The invisible traps do not change this: a trap only hurts you if you tap it while it is blocked. Removing a free arrow is always safe, even if it is a trap. In level 1 both traps are free from the start, in level 10 nine out of eleven are.

This leads to the most important habit: before every tap, check the cells in front of the arrowhead, not the arrow itself. A blocked arrow is not marked. You can only tell whether it is free by looking at its path.

2. Start at the edge

An arrow in the outermost row that points outwards is always free: there is nothing between it and the edge. Even beyond that, the share of free arrows is much higher at the edge than in the middle. In level 11, 76 % of the edge arrows are free at the start, but only 56 % of the inner ones; in level 15 it is 75 % versus 34 %. The larger the grid, the bigger the difference.

Each edge arrow you remove often opens the path for the arrow behind it. If you start on the outside, you work your way inwards layer by layer instead of hunting for that one free arrow in the middle.

3. The clock in levels 1 to 10: three runs, not one

In levels 1 to 5 every level has 30 seconds, in levels 6 to 10 it is 25. There is no time bonus yet. When the time runs out, the level is not lost, though: it costs a life, the clock restarts, and the combo drops to zero. With three lives you therefore get up to three runs of the clock. Every misclick takes one of them away, because it costs the same life.

In levels 9 and 10 there are 28 arrows on the board, with 25 seconds. Doing that in a single run takes about one arrow per second. If you cannot manage that, keep playing calmly rather than tapping in a hurry: a run that times out costs a life, and so does a misclick. Together, the two end the level quickly.

4. From level 11 the clock becomes a move clock

From level 11, every correct move gives time back: 7 seconds times the combo multiplier. The multiplier depends on the number of correct moves in a row: ×1 for one or two moves, ×2 from the third, ×3 from the sixth, ×4 from the tenth. No single move gives more than 28 seconds, and the clock never climbs above the level's starting time. In levels 11 to 20 that is 20 seconds.

This changes what is scarce. It is not the number of moves that costs time, but the pause between them. From the third correct move in a row, every move gives back at least 14 seconds, and the clock is almost full again. If you move briskly from one free arrow to the next, you have practically unlimited time. If you ponder for a long time or lose the combo through a misclick, you will watch the clock run down. So plan while you tap: look for the next free arrow before you remove the current one.

5. Shifting Grid: count what is free before the turn

From level 11 the board turns at a fixed rhythm: in levels 11 to 16 after every eighth correct move, in levels 17 to 20 after every sixth. Misclicks do not count, only arrows you actually remove. With each turn, every arrow rotates 90 degrees clockwise: what pointed up now points right; right becomes down, down becomes left, left becomes up. The orange bar under the score shows how many moves are left until the next turn.

A turn does not tidy up the board, it locks it. In the starting position of level 11, 27 arrows are free. If the board turned right away, only 9 would be, and of the 27 only 5 would still be free. In level 20 the number would drop from 62 to 11. The moves before a turn are therefore the most valuable ones: above all, remove the free arrows that would be blocked after the turn. Arrows that will be free afterwards anyway can wait.

If all remaining arrows block each other after a turn, deadlock protection kicks in: the game removes up to three arrows, at no cost in lives or coins. If arrows vanish on their own after a turn, that is this protection at work.

Example: reading the start of level 11

Level 11 is the first level with a turn. The grid is 12×12 and holds 42 arrows, 18 of them traps. The clock starts at 20 seconds, and the board turns after every 8 correct moves. Cells are given here as row/column, counted from the top left.

At the start, 27 arrows are free, 13 of them at the edge. You cannot see whether an arrow is a trap. 11 of the free arrows are, and because they are free, removing them costs nothing (rule 1). The real question comes from rule 5: which of the free arrows would still be free after the turn? To find out, you turn each free arrow a quarter turn clockwise in your head and check whether its new path to the edge would be clear. The result: only 5 would stay free, 22 would be blocked.

One case for each side. The arrow on 1/1, in the top left corner, points up and is free. After the turn it would point right along the first row, and 3 arrows would stand in its way. So it belongs among the first moves. The arrow on 1/11 also points up. After the turn it would point right, and the cell to its right is empty. It stays free and can wait. It is a trap, by the way, which you cannot see and which plays no part here.

If you play by this rule and always take the first matching arrow in reading order, that is row by row from left to right, the moves up to the turn are: 1/1, 1/9, 2/5, 2/7, 2/8, 3/12, 5/1, 5/11. Each of them would have been blocked after the turn. 4 are at the edge, 2 are traps, and none is a misclick. After the turn, 34 arrows are still on the board, 13 of them free.

The comparison shows what the rule achieves. If you simply play the moves up to the turn in reading order, without paying attention to the turn, you have 11 free arrows afterwards. If you do it the other way round and first remove what would stay free anyway, you have only 8. A few more free arrows may not sound like much. But they decide whether you keep the rhythm after the turn or have to search while the clock is running.

6. Cascade traps from level 16: keep away from trap clusters

From level 16, a wrong tap on a trap costs more than one life: one extra for every armed trap directly next to it, above, below, left or right. Traps are invisible, but plentiful. In level 16 just over half of the blocked arrows are traps (51 %), in level 20 it is 55 %. On average, a blocked trap in level 16 has just under half a further trap next to it, in level 20 it is 0.6; the largest clusters have two neighbouring traps in level 16 and three in level 20.

With three lives, this means: a single wrong tap into a cluster of three traps ends the level. The remedy is the same as in rule 1, only with more weight. Only tap when the path is definitely clear, especially in densely packed areas. A free arrow never costs anything, even if it is a trap.

7. Stars: what the rating counts

You only get three stars with no misclick and no Hint, two stars with at most one misclick and no Hint, otherwise one. A run of the clock that times out does not count as a misclick, but it costs a life. The Hint (question mark) first uses a Hint from your stock, if you have bought some in the Shop; without stock it costs no coins but a life, and on your last life it is locked. Either way it takes away the third and second star. If you are playing for three stars, it is better to take a moment longer for the next move than to guess.

In short

Continue with the strategy for levels 21 to 57, where the arrows are hidden. What each mechanic does exactly and in which levels it applies is explained on the Mechanics page.