How an arrow actually leaves the board
Every level in Arrow Flow is a picture drawn with arrows: a house, a rocket, a whale, a dinosaur. Tap an arrow and it slides off the board. Tap one that is blocked and you lose a heart. The goal is to find an order that clears the whole picture.
The single most useful thing to understand is what counts as blocked. An arrow leaves in the direction its head points. The game looks along a straight line from the head to the edge of the board, and if any other arrow sits anywhere on that line, the move fails. Distance does not matter: a small piece of an arrow on the far side of the board is enough to stop it.
The body of the arrow does not matter for this check. An arrow can bend several times on its way across the picture, and when it escapes it follows its own path out, but only the line in front of its head decides whether it can go. So when you are reading a board, look at the heads first and ignore the tangle behind them.
Start with the arrows that are already free
On a new board, scan each arrow head and follow its line to the edge. Any arrow with a clear line is a safe tap. Arrows near the outside of the picture that point outward are often the first ones free, because there is little or nothing between them and the edge.
After each successful tap, look again. Removing one arrow can open the line for several others, and the board you are looking at is no longer the board you started with.
Big pictures can get crowded on a phone screen. You can pinch to zoom and drag to move around the board. Time is not part of your score, so zooming in to check a line costs you nothing. If you are not sure whether a head has a clear path, zoom and trace it before you tap.
Work backwards from the arrow you are stuck on
The first five levels are a warm-up. From level 6 the hard stages begin, and the game tells you so with a short message: every level is a new picture with longer chains and only a few free arrows. Think before you tap. That message is a good summary of what changes.
A chain is a line of dependencies. Arrow A cannot leave until B is gone, and B cannot leave until C is gone. On the harder stages these chains get long, and at the start only a handful of arrows can move at all. Arrows also get longer and bend more often, so a single arrow can sit in the way of several others.
When you are stuck, pick an arrow you want to free and follow its head line. Note the first arrow in the way. Then do the same for that arrow, and keep going until you reach one that is free. Clear that one and work your way back up the chain. It is slower than tapping on instinct, but it is the most reliable way through.
Protect your hearts, and your stars
You get three hearts per level. A blocked tap makes the arrow flash red and shake, the board shakes, and one heart breaks. Lose all three and the level is over. The arrow that failed stays where it was, which is useful information: whatever is on its head line still needs to go first.
Stars are earned on a clear and they are strict in a good way. Three stars means no mistakes and no hints. Two stars means at most one mistake and at most one hint. Any other clear is one star. Your score is based on the number of arrows, your stars, and how many mistakes and hints you used. Speed is deliberately left out.
Fast clears do build a combo. Escapes that come within a short window of each other raise the combo counter, and a run of clean taps brings up words like GREAT! over the board. It feels good, but the combo does not change your stars or your coins for the level. If you are chasing three stars, a calm pace is the better choice. Save the quick taps for when a daily task asks you to reach a x5 combo.
Hints, revives and coins
A hint costs 20 coins and highlights one arrow that can leave right now. If you do not have enough coins, you can watch a short video for the hint instead. The highlight stays until you move an arrow, even if you leave the level and come back, and tapping Hint twice will not charge you twice for the same highlight. Remember that a hint counts against your star rating.
If you lose all your hearts, you can revive and keep your board for 500 coins or a video. The video revive is available once per attempt. Your earlier mistakes still count toward the score, so a revive gets you through the level rather than back to a perfect run.
Coins come from first clears: 20, 35 or 50 coins for one, two or three stars. Replaying a level to improve its rating pays only the difference, up to 50 coins per level. Completing every level in a chapter of ten pays a 50 coin bonus. There is also an optional video for 50 free coins once an hour.
Small habits that help over time
Each day brings three tasks, such as clearing a level without losing a heart or clearing two levels without a hint. A new set arrives at midnight, and claiming all three pays a 50 coin bonus on top. The Flawless Run event rewards 100 coins for clearing five new levels in a row without losing a heart. A daily streak pays 100 coins on every seventh day in a row.
These rewards all point the same way as good play: read the board, avoid guesses, and use hints only when you need them. If you sign in with Google Play Games, your progress is also saved to the cloud, so a new phone does not mean starting over.
Arrow Flow is free on Google Play. If a level has you properly stuck, or you have a tip of your own, we would love to hear it. Your feedback helps us see where boards feel fair and where they need another pass.