Level 1168 ..... What?

christinewupp

Hey no, I used to love this level! Another one bites the dust.

Okay, so it was always a bit of a lucky free for all with the cascades. But at least it was fun and passable before. It looks scary but was almost always passable as I recall it.

https://youtu.be/x8KUqff7sEU?si=TFNSiX2QQNSa4gxD

So now the bombs are gone, the bottom conveyor belt is gone, and this new version is just a tedious wait for that lucky board. Like so many levels these days. Eventually you'll get a game board that drops a load of colour bombs and then you'll pass. Zero strategy, it's just a waiting game now.

It's become too obvious and with that too boring. I'm starting to hate the "New Candy Crush". That drive to control the game boards so that players will be left just a few moves short is sucking the fun out of this game. Please give us back the illusion at least of having some degree of control when playing this game.

christinewupp

As there are no events in my games this weekend I have spent some time analysing the newly revamped level 1168. It's a nice example of how Candy Crush has become a mere puppert show.

I played about sixty attempts I would guess (I didn't count)

Strategy:

1. If there is a chance create a wrap, stripe or colour bomb.

2. If no such chance play the move to clear as much frosting as possible

3. If there is combo of special candies play this

4. If nothing of the above is possible play suggested move

Findings:

The game will either:

1. Leave me way off the mark with 70-98 of the purple order short or

2. leave me 30-50 short with a finishing board that suggests to me I could pass in another 5 moves or

3. leave me with about 20 purple short, which is about 1-3 moves short

Scenario no.2 was by far the most frequent outcome. This outcome happened regardless of how many purple I scored or how much of the board I cleared early on. Sometimes the game helps early on with colour bombs and opportunities to make special candies but then with 8 or some moves left opportunities suddenly dry up. I have noted this on other levels as well. There must be an "end of level" algorithm that kicks in stopping us from changing the pre determined outcome. On other occasions the same outcome (no.2) was obtained even though I had not cleared much of the board halfway through the level, in which case the game dropped me colour bombs and gave me combo opportunities near the end, but always still leaving me short of passing.

The only two occasions that I passed, and then I did pass easily, is when the fishing boat showed up, gave me timed stripe/wrap and I added a starting colour bomb. As I don't have many boosters to spare I didn't try this level out with starting boosters, which would be something to do on another occasion, such as when I have timed boosters.

Conclusions:

Which moves we make is largely irrelevant. Planning more than one move ahead is futile. We are just puppets playing the algorithm. To pass this level wait for the fishing boat that gives you wrap/stripe and then play a colour bomb as well.

All findings are relevant only for this weekend 7th September 2024 . I might come back to this level to see if King change it in the coming weeks.