Category — Games

I had pulled free from the sucking vortex of Candy Crush and had released myself from King.com’s evil grip.  I was no longer playing down my lives and then resetting the clock to get more chances to pop candy.  I was down to playing one or two tries per day, and then clicking away from the game when there were still unused lives at the ready.  And then I started going one day, two days, even three days in between rounds.  There was a point where over half a week went by without logging on.

Fine, I was playing a grotesque amount of Hay Day instead, but regardless, I was free of Candy Crush.

And then I got a little email.

The subject line was personalized (nice touch, King.com): “Melissa, your candy friends miss you!” and an image filled the majority of the text box:

The Yeti was personally requesting — no, demanding with an exclamation point to boot — that I crush that candy.  No one turns down a Yeti.  I mean, they’re huge.  They’re fierce.  They have a whole ride dedicated to them at Animal Kingdom in Disney World.

And lest I not understand that the Yeti is King.com’s Gríma Wormtongue, when you pan back in the message, you can see what goes over the image:

“You know what to do…”

Five simple words, but when I read them, I sat up a little straighter.  Yes, I did know what to do.  I wasn’t going to leave my friends; that man with the strangely long limbs or the squashed girl or the Yeti.  I was going to go back to the Soda Swamp and conquer level 413.

And I did.  I breezed through the next few levels to land on the absolutely ridiculous 417.  Which is where I am, my attention waning until the Yeti brings me back in his furry clutches.

I will never, ever be free.

A bunch of people emailed me about level 181 of Candy Crush recently after I wrote a note about it on the level 180 and 182 post.  So maybe it’s not as straightforward as it seems.  I tried playing it again to remember how I did it, and of course lost on the first try.  It took me a bit before I could win it again.

So you have to bring down two cherries.  They’re locked on the side columns with multi-break whipped cream below them.  The only way to pop that whipped cream is to smash through the whipped cream in the middle and make as many striped horizontal candies as possible to shoot them through the side columns.  If you make a horizontal striped candy higher than the cherries, don’t use it until you can bring it down.

Should you make a vertical candy?  No, not unless you can also make a wrapped one or a speckled doughnut and combine it.  Every move needs to be either smashing that whipped cream in the middle or doing something to set up a horizontal stripe.

This is not a level where you can predict whether a board is good or bad before the first move, so it’s worth playing on Facebook because you won’t be exiting out the board.  Just look for places where you have two of the same colour one above the other (let’s say, yellow), a yellow one off to the left or right, and another yellow one in the same column as the first two yellows.  You’re looking to make a foursome vertically so it creates a striped candy that moves horizontally.

Hope that helps!  Off to go moan about my back.

While my back heals, I’m writing out advice for passing level 130 and level 140 of Candy Crush because I have a lot of requests for those two levels in my inbox.  They both require skills that pop up a lot on later levels, as well as Candy Crush Saga’s penchant for red herrings.  More on that below.

Level 130

To pass this level, you need to make ten striped candies and combine them five times.  Well, maybe you’ll end up making a few striped candies that you’ll never use, or striped candies that accidentally get set off before you can combine them, but for the most part, you’re looking to pop two striped candies together, five times.

Look at the board above.  Four columns over from the right, you’ll see three yellow candies, with a 4th one in the column to the right.  Slide that one on the right over one and you’ve made a striped candy.  Now look above it at that formation of blue candies.  The instinct is to slide over that 5th blue candy to form a wrapped candy.  DON’T.  Instead, slide that blue down four rows from the top and you’ll have a striped candy land on top of that other striped candy.  Combine them, and you now only have 4 more combinations to go with 38 moves.

Plus there are two more stripes waiting to happen in the board above.  Do you see them?  One is a vertical yellow stripe three over from the left, and the other is a vertical red stripe four over from the left.  You’ll need to mess around a bit with the red one to bring it down a level or two so it’s next to the yellow one, but this can be done.

This board uses the same threading technique that will help you when you get to level 356.  In fact, this board mirrors that one almost completely with the added difficulty of how the board on 356 is set up.  So go over and read those hints, but the one that will help the most is to look for places where you have two of one colour (let’s say, red), one of another colour (blue), and then another red.  Make a match below ONLY the blue candy to gently pull down another red candy into that row.  That will form a stripe for you.

Level 140

This board is what I call a red herring board.  You think you have to only focus on the reds, oranges, and yellows since those are the orders you’re filling.  WRONG!

If you did that, you likely won’t make enough matches even with 45 moves.  You need 99 moves to clear this board if you keep making three-combination moves with only those colours.  See, impossible.

What you need to do is make as many special combinations, regardless of colour.  The opening move for this board creates a red striped candy (two columns over from the left).  This is actually a fairly crappy board (above) because you can only make one special immediately.  I would restart (exiting out if you’re on a mobile device.  If you do this on Facebook, it takes away a life) until you have a board where you can make two specials as an opening move.  When I played the board above, I didn’t pass on the first try despite making a speckled doughnut and combining it with a red candy, as well as a striped/wrap combo.

So ignore those orders and instead take out whole rows and columns (or many rows and columns) by creating and setting off special candies.

Currently: I’m on Level 409, and I’m happy to go backwards and explain how I did any board before that. Sometimes it was stupid luck but other times, there was actual thought involved (here are the other advice posts I’ve written). Let me know the level you’re struggling with.  I’m finishing a write up for 181 that will be up in a moment.

Your last present for Christmas is an answer for why Candy Crush is addictive.  Because if you are anything like me and you play it before bed, you fall asleep thinking up boards.  You dream about combining two speckled doughnuts.  If you have a ten minute wait somewhere, rather than grab a book, you convince yourself that it’s not worth your time and open a round of Candy Crush instead.

Someone has studied this behaviour.

And she has determined that what we’re addicted to is momentum.

These games move from easy boards that you pop through like Doritos and hard boards, which make you feel smart when you finally pass them.  Easy – hard – easy – hard; never a predictable pattern so you write off the last board as an easy one, but a gentle dip and rise that makes you feel good and carries you from board to board.

Stephanie Michele writes,

This is the scientific formula for human momentum. Set a goal and then organize and leverage smaller actions along the path that are aligned to that goal. Celebrate each milestone easy and hard making sure to space out the hard ones to avoid discouragement. Discouragement murders momentum and blinds us from seeing and celebrating progress.

So it’s all just vanity.  We feel smart, so we keep playing.  It’s linked to Facebook so our friends see our progress.  I always assumed that it was meant to not only give us a group of people from whom to collect tickets or trade advice (or, more cynically, to give King.com more access to new players), but to have us feel less alone while we play in our respective houses.  Because video games are sort of lonely. But maybe it was meant to bring out our sense of competition, to have our friends notice and stroke our ego.

But, for me, it’s more than that.  It’s more than just momentum.

I’m aware that Doritos are engineered to make me want more empty calories.  They not only taste good, but they plug into some part of my brain that convinces me that it would be a sound idea to finish the whole bag despite rationally knowing that it is too much food before I take the first bite.  And there is something about this game that taps into my brain, turning off the constant buzz.  When I’m playing, I’m not worrying.  I’m not thinking about what needs to get done or my worst fears.  I’m just crushing virtual candies.  It’s the same release that comes from throwing plates against a wall, without the clean up.   I don’t need the music; I can silence the game and get the same effect.  But those moments when I’m crushing candies are the calmest moments of my day.  They are the only moments when I’m not fretting.  Or if I am fretting, I’m not fretting about real stuff.  I’m worrying about creeping chocolate.  There needs to be something said for an activity that is a massage for my brain.

So yes, I play a lot of the ‘Crush.  And I probably couldn’t turn it off if I tried.  I talk about deleting it at various milestones, but I don’t think I’ll stop until I hit that figurative wall and find a level that I absolutely can’t pass.  And even then, I could see myself going backwards and playing the first levels again for old time sake.  Because it feels good.

So… I hope you’ve had a relaxing day.  And if you haven’t had a relaxing day, sit down next to me and tell me about while I crush some candies.  I promise I can listen at the same time.

The next one of my Christmas gifts to you is an update on the hardest level of Candy Crush as crowdsourced by tons of players.  I never closed that original poll, and people kept answering. (Feel free to leave your answer there if you wish.  Maybe I’ll revisit this again in a few months.)  In fact, hundreds of people kept answering.  So I figured it was worth a relook if new answers skewed the results.

Why is it important to know the hardest level?  Because then you can anticipate, plan ahead, and hoard boosters from the prize wheel.  Why the hell would you spend a lollipop hammer on level 31 if you know that in two boards, you’re going to have to clear a lot of jelly?  It also helps, when you’re stuck, to know other people got stuck in the same place too.

So, to review, when I first wrote the post, the hardest level was 65.  The other nine most dreaded levels were: 33, 70, 79, 97, 125, 147, 165, 252, and 410.

The least favourite level has changed over time to become level 33.  It ousted 65 from the most hated spot.  In fact, level 33 earned 24% of the vote.  Whereas only 13% of the people answered that they disliked level 65.  Also added to that original list are multiple votes for  levels 23, 29, and 30.

There is the problem that more people have encountered those lower levels vs. the higher levels, and therefore, while they may really dislike 33, they have no clue that 350 is going to suck hardcore.  So the results definitely skew towards those first 200 levels.   There was also a tendency to dislike recent boards.  In other words, a lot of people who reported hating 97 were either still on 97 or were below 100.

Still, there’s more to be learned if we look at types of boards.  30% of people hate bring down the ingredients boards.  Only 22% of you hate clear the jelly.  And 30% hate timed levels.  I should add to that more options, some of which I didn’t even know about when I wrote that poll: the cannons, the chocolate machines, licorice, the 5-break whipped cream, and bombs bombs bombs bombs bombs bombs.

Okay, so start pre-dreading levels 23, 29, 30, 33, 65, 70, 79, 97, 125, 147, 165, 252, and 410.  And if you’re past them, breathe a huge sigh of relief.

What has been your hardest board?  Or tell us about a recent difficult board where you got stuck.

You can open another gift under the figurative tree in another few hours…  Which is just my way of saying another post will go up.  Hope you are having a wonderful Christmas.