Level 275

This is very simple to describe: HARDEST. LEVEL. EVER. Well, so far anyway.

A simple case of blast away the jelly it most certainly is not. Behind the two chocolate pieces in the top corners are bombs with a life of just THREE lives.

You have a few options in the way you deal with them: if you are lucky, you can match them or smash them using a rainbow (if you happen to have one and it's adjacent to the colour you need), but then another one will just appear against and you're fighting a losing battle. If you are really lucky, you will be able to move them away from the corner into a match position and leave a regular candy in their place, thus blocking the appearance of a new one. If you are really, really lucky, then a piece of chocolate will be created to cover them, and you will breathe a huge sigh of relief.

But really, the way to deal with them is to NOT deal with them, i.e. do your matches in a way that stays away from them as much as possible. That means no blasting away with rainbow+stripe or rainbow+wrapped. These risk opening up those bombs and then you are f*cked.

The way to win is to work the lower part of the board first, and slowly, gently use moves without too many side effects to clear away jelly. Just stripes are OK, but stay away from the edges and the top. The fish are a little bit helpful - sometimes they are kind enough to get those hard-to-clear jelly in the top corners - but again be careful not to match them with anything too powerful. Using rainbows to just clear one colour is also helpful. Then, when you only have a few pieces of jelly left, you can bring out some heavy artillery to get rid of the last bits. When you eventually do finish this, it will probably be with plenty of moves left. Until that time, you will get tantalisingly close, or think you have made a really good start when a cascading match opens up one of those bombs.

Scores
Difficulty: 10
Frustration: 10
Tease: 10

Level 265

Do you hate the chocolate factory? Well, now you have a new mortal enemy - the bomb factory. This level is one of the hardest of all. Only 8 bits of jelly to remove, but they are in the most awkward of positions, and as soon as you match in one of them, they are replaced with a bomb. On the one hand, you want to match in the jelly as quickly as possible, but on the other hand, if you do it too quickly, you will create a multitude of bombs and be unable to get rid of them.

Completing this level requires (a) some luck, (b) striking that balance. The things you will find helpful are stripes with horizontals that you can manipulate into place to wipe out across (or match 2 stripes for similar effect), and also rainbows, which are useful just to get rid of individual jelly as well as matching with stripes for maximum destruction.

You will get tantalisingly close on this level and have many "if only" thoughts. It just requires a lot of patience and looking ahead at how the candy will fall. Remember also that matching the bombs away from their original locations is an equally good way to remove them.

Score
Difficulty: 10
Frustration: 9
Tease: 9

Level 210

At first you look at this, and think the way to clear all that jelly is to match stripes and wrapped candy and swipe across it bit by bit, and to match some of those rainbows with stripes for even more destruction. Then you try it, and keep running out of moves - 30 isn't a lot to clear such a large area.

But once you realize the trick, it's not so hard after all. Just work one of the upper rainbows all the way down to the bottom, and match two rainbows. This will clear all of the licorice on the right (and everything on the left too), and then you'll have regular candy to match and clear, and you're done! Quite simple, really.

It helps to look at the initial positions before starting to ensure you've got some good matches that can help drop the rainbows as quickly as possible before you can progress to the next part of clearing the jelly.




Scores
Difficulty: 10 if you don't know the trick
Frustration: 7
Tease: 7

Level 258

Wow - this one is a killer. 35 moves to get rid of the bombs, but a further 10 moves to clear just 16 jellies. But oh such difficult ones, especially when bombs are gone and there's jelly just sitting there with no pieces near them to help you make matches.

I kept trying to get stripes in the edges of the central 'plus' section and match them to wipe out the jelly, but (a) this is really hard, (b) it doable in the bottom section but near impossible in the top, and (c) there just aren't enough moves.

In the end, it was a case of serendipity: I matched the fish with stripes, and then with wrapped candy. Lo and behold, they flew out to the jelly and wreaked far more damage - turning into stripes and wrapped respectively - and I was able to clear all the jelly.

So the way to win this is to not match the fish as soon as possible, but release them, then work stripes and wrappers near them, and only then match.

Scores
Difficulty: 8
Frustration: 7
Tease: 9

Level 182

You will think you have a real chance at getting this, and will fall short many times before actually completing it. First you've got the bombs in the upper left quadrant. Either you will lucky enough to be able to get rid of them quickly or you won't. Don't waste time agonizing to find ways to match them - time is too precious in this one. Also, don't worry about the chocolate either - ignore that quadrant and just let it fill up - it won't expand beyond there or put the game in danger.

The key here is to be looking for matches as quickly as you can, especially when it runs out of matches and has to shuffle - use that time to prepare looking for other matches. The other thing to look for is +5s - you will need the extra time they provide so match them before you lose them. Because the bottom right quadrant will fill with chocolate, most of the activity is on the left side, and that's OK. The sooner you can break through the cupcakes the better because it opens up more board and gives you more chances for matches, but again, don't agonize over that as a goal; just match as quickly as you can and it will happen.

Scores
Difficulty: 9
Frustration: 8
Tease: 8

General Hints

Here are some really useful hints that can help you in a lot of games

1. You don't have to play. In some games (not timed ones of course), you can have a look at the board layout and then exit without playing and you won't lose a life. It's worth looking ahead sometimes at the moves available to you that can get you a good head start. Particularly when you have to smash the stuff that needs 5 shots to destroy, look for opportunities to match 3s against a row of them.

2. Look at the big picture. Sometimes it's better to focus less on the specific tasks you need to complete, but rather on the sorts of things you need to do that will get those tasks complete. It's not one piece of jelly or fruit but the moves that will obliterate lots of them, and cause cascading moves.

3. Work the bottom of the screen. Matching candies at the bottom increases the chance of cascading falls that lead to more matches, which lead to more matches, etc etc. Look for opportunities to do whenever you can.

4. Know a hard level before you start. If you have lots of Facebook friends playing (assuming a reasonable number are ahead of you), seeing the ladder before you start a level is very useful. If the top scores are a lot higher than the target score, it's often a situation that once you complete the goal, it will go nuts matching and boosting. On the other hand, if they are all in a cluster not that much higher than the target, then you know it's going to be a very difficult one (e.g. 97 and 182).

Level 97

This is a very difficult level - you have to reach the target number of points in just 25 moves. The original target is 100,000 points - this image shows a higher number because I already completed it. I noticed before starting that my friends had barely exceeded this total - a good indicator of how hard this is.

You really have to look out for the bombs because they can easily get stuck up in the top corner, so make sure you work matches in all parts of the board. Sometimes a bomb will be hidden and appear with barely any moves left, or you will just not have the opportunities to get rid of them. Don't fret - just start again. As usual, matching at the bottom will get cascades and more stripes etc which is what you need to boost the points.

Scores
Difficulty: 9
Frustration: 8
Tease: 6

Level 173

This one is deceptive - you make a start and think this should be straightforward and then get bogged and. Then you think - "I was that close; this should be easy to complete", and so on.

30 stripes in 40 moves sounds reasonable, but you cannot complete this by doing them one at a time. The way to win this is to match a sprinkle and a stripe, which will typically convert into 10-20 stripes and then obliterate them.

How to do that? Break down the locked candy as quickly as you can because that increases the chances of getting stripes and other combos. Don't sweat too much on the bombs - they are best removed by either a stripe going through them or a rainbow (and if they are the same colour, that's a great way to get rid of them).

Remember: the goal is not to unlock all the pieces, so don't fret over that. Also, wrappers are only useful if you can match them with a stripe for extra wanton destruction that leads to lots of cascading candies and more opportunities for matching.

Scores
Difficulty: 7
Frustration: 6
Tease: 8

Level 169

This level is a complete bastard - demoralising in every way. You will do it over and over and wonder what on earth you need to do differently to get it. The answer is: nothing! Completing it relies on luck a lot more than anything else.

These sorts of games where you have to combine stripes, wrapped and cookies are always difficult. It's hard enough to get them at the best of times, but to get them together?!

Destroying the sides quickly helps as it opens up the board and increases the chances of getting the stripes, wrapped and cookies. Getting a game that already has some match opportunities around the side is a good start.

The way you will complete this is to get a cookie early. Then create as much destruction around it as you can, and hope to get a stripe next to it. The others are a lot easier once you have that complete. Don't get bogged down. If you don't get one of the orders complete early (and the cookie+stripe is the hardest), then it's going to be very hard to complete.

Scores
Difficulty: 9
Frustration: 9
Tease: 6

Introduction

My name is David, and I'm a Candy Crush addict.

There are way too many blogs about Candy Crush out there - what's the point of yet another one?

It's quite simple. Most of the others are full of junk. What help is it to watch a video of some smart-ass completing a level? You will never be able to replicate it. How many times did they record themselves before this successful effort? Those things are a waste of time and all they will do is make you feel inadequate.

So what will you get different here? Strategies and tactics. The tools that will help you complete levels, with specific posts about some of the really difficult ones and how to approach them.

As of right now, I'm stuck on Level 169, which is a killer.

Enjoy!