Playing CCFS jointly with a friend can help you pass difficult levels!

UncleBob2

Some CCFS levels are quite difficult to solve and then progress! But if you have a friend who also plays CCFS and is willing to jointly play that level with you, TOGETHER you may be much better at finding a solution. My friend and I have developed a way of playing CCFS levels together that may help other players also progress past difficult levels and would like to share it with all of you:

First, we found a place where we could comfortably sit side-by-side, and both see the playing grid on the device, an iPad in this case. The player trying to progress on the IPad is the "Pilot" and makes all the final decisions about which moves to make (using the red iPad stylus). The Friend is the "Co-Pilot" and gives the Pilot additional observations and ideas about possible moves (using the pencil).

After each move, both players scan the resulting playing grid (which gives a much more complete scan than a single person), and then both players think about what the best next move would be (which gives two or more possibly different viewpoints of the best strategy for the next move). The next step is for each player to explain their chosen "best move" , and the reason they think it is best, to the other player. We usually start with the Co-Pilot using their pencil to show the Pilot exactly their preferred move and explain why they think it is best:

Sometimes the suggested move can be stated verbally like "match the 3 purples" (see above), but often a verbal statement like "match the orange wrapped candy with the other two oranges to explode it" will be ambiguous because there are two or more different ways to do that (see above). So we have often found it necessary for the Co-Pilot to use the point of their pencil to show the exact piece of candy that would be moved in the exact direction (see below).

In this example, I was showing the Pilot a suggested move of that cyan candy to the LEFT, which would free 1 octopus and break one set of pink licorice links. The pencil was necessary because you could also move that cyan candy UP and form a cyan fish.

The Pilot will also indicate their preferred move using their stylus (but not touching the screen) and explain their reason for that move.

Sometimes this results in an intense discussion about which move is really best, and even other possible moves that might be even better than their initial ideas! In the picture below, we are proposing different ways to move the orange wrapped candy to explode it most effectively.

But after all the proposed moves have been discussed, the Pilot will make their final decision and make that move with their iPad stylus.

This process may sound like a lot of work, but if you and your Friend really like playing CCFS, looking for different moves and discussing why they are "best" can be a lot of fun and may even help you become a better player! For example, I have learned to quickly shift the chosen "Helper" when replaying a level (rather than fixating on the Number 1 Helper) so that I can use a different approach when replaying that level. My Friend has learned to carefully scan the playing grid for best possible move rather than choosing the most obvious high-value move because a low-value move now sometimes leads to a better long-term result later!
We hope that other CCFS players can use their Friends as resources to help them better look for the best moves and better understand why they are better, when trying to pass the difficult CCFS levels! Cheers!

Any questions?
Does anyone else have ideas on how to improve playing CCFS for difficult levels, or simply make to it more fun to play?