Color Takeover How the Final Ball Gets Its Colour
In Color Takeover you divide 100 balls between up to ten colours and watch them merge into one. The title suggests a battle, but the outcome is more predictable than it looks. Once you understand how colours combine, you can guess the final shade before you press Play.
Setting up your mix
You add up to ten colours, tap each swatch to choose its shade, and optionally type a name. Each colour's share is set with plus and minus buttons, or you can tap Split Evenly. One percent equals one ball, and the total must be exactly 100% before Play unlocks.
This makes the setup a small puzzle of its own: how do you share 100 balls between your colours?
How merging works
Every ball moves in a straight line at the same steady speed. When two touch, the bigger one swallows the smaller, their areas add, and the survivor grows smoothly to its new size. Only one merge can happen every 0.3 seconds, so the box winds down ball by ball, usually in under a minute.
Counters show how many balls are left, how many merges have happened, and the biggest ball's share of the total.
How colours combine
The colour of a merged ball is the average of every original ball inside it, weighted by count. A ball containing 30 red balls and 10 blue ones is closer to red than to blue. This is why the final ball's colour is the weighted average of your starting mix, and why the order of merges changes only the journey, not the destination.
Colours are averaged channel by channel, which has some useful consequences. Equal amounts of opposite colours, such as red and cyan, end up close to grey. A small share of a strong colour, such as 10% black, noticeably darkens the final ball.
Experiments to try
Try a 90 to 10 split between two colours and predict the result. Try ten colours at 10% each. Try one colour at 99% and see how little the single odd ball changes it. Each time, guess the final colour first, then press Play and compare.
Merges play piano notes that drop lower as balls grow, but the bounce notes only begin once five balls are left, so the end of each run is the most musical part.
A tiny lesson in averages
It may look like a toy, but the game demonstrates an important idea: a weighted average depends on both the values and the amounts. Change the amounts and you change the outcome, even when the colours stay the same. Press RESET after any run and set up a new mix.
Try it now in Color Takeover
