Lessen for the weekend: Lucky Boards

christinewupp

I've just played episode 156-170 as a new player and feel I just need to share this experience!

It's been an entire episode of lucky boards. It shows beautifully what we have been saying all along:

You will pass when the game wants you to pass: In this episode it was every single level on a new players' first attempt without boosters. The game knows we have win streak boosters, so it takes this into account. The unmarked levels I passed with 10 or more spare moves. The levels marked as hard/super hard/nightmarishly hard I passed with 2 or 3 moves left.

I used my usual strategy:

1. Make the first move the game suggests
2. Make ANY match that will create a colour bomb, striped or wrapped candy
3. Create and strike any visible combo of special candies (don't bother to plan more than one move ahead for this)
4. If there is no such chance make the best move to remove as many blockers as possible
5. With 5-8 moves remaining be more careful and plan ahead of how you might be able to pass

This strategy worked beautifully in this episode and it was clear early on I had lucky boards.

I think it also demonstrates beautifully how the same boards and levels are changed from week to week, one episode at a time and each episode is an entity. I remember many of these levels have held me up in the past, so it shows beyond a shadow of a doubt how King adjust level difficulty by the way they introduce and withdraw Lucky Boards.

christinewupp

To add to my post:

I do think we probably all play the same level difficulty now. I scrolled back to the same levels on my main game, played boosters to mimic win streak boosters and achieved very similar success. It would be interesting if anyone else would like to check that episode out and share their findings.

Also, I found that the lucky boards showed up only on my first attempt for the levels marked as hard. I think this also supports what I have suspected all along: You are most likely to get a lucky board on your first attempt. So I think my advice to not waste starting boosters on subsequent attempts is sound advice.

cookiemae

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3183589#Comment_3183589

@christinewupp I have had no difficulty passing most levels. I think I have mentioned this before. I don't and never believed we are all playing and receiving the same game. Certain groups as seen in the events get different or no events the same I think is also in level difficulty. My main game I have no problem passing levels just using starter boosters. My second game is totally different I have had to play multiple levels more than once and with additional boosters. I'm thinking even before AI that king had the players in different groups. Maybe with so many players they cannot or will not give us the same program. For me I feel everyone should have access to all events but they will say it's a test. Why would they do that? Wouldn't it keep the players happy if they did? I don't think they can just like they can't make the level play the same. If you are not a member of this forum or have a person that you know that play this game and compare notes on it you would have no idea of the difference in the game. What you call a Lucky board could be the normal for others depending again on what group king has you in. My play is probably no different than yours but I just have a different program running my game. Anyway just a thought.

christinewupp

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3183658#Comment_3183658

Hi @cookiemae Thanks for your thoughts on this. I understand that as a new releases player at the top of the map your game is quite special and yes, it seems that you have a permanent place in a lucky test group with that game. I do wonder how many others there are though as lucky as you, because if there were a lot of others then surely someone would think to post their solutions to those levels on YouTube, and there seem to be hardly any "no boosters" videos on any levels above 15,000. Just my thought on this.

As for what I call "lucky boards" , the way I use the term I mean a very specific algorithm that is identifiable and written into the game by the level designers. Yes, they have always been around but were not as obvious before. It is not a matter of perception by the player. I'll illustrate this in my next post here.

christinewupp

You will recognise you may have a lucky board if you get some of the following:

• your first move lets you create a special candy or your starting boosters start off side by side for a combo
• you get lots of chances to create special candies
• special candies especially colour bombs form spontaneously
• there are helpful cascades of candies blowing up in succession
• you get chances to create combos of special candies
• the game drops you just the candies you need

This level is an example of how I recognised a lucky board. Level 163, which can be very tricky. I know this from previous encounters. The colour bomb is next to the wrap here, but I prefer to carry out the first move the game suggests, and it tells me to make the colour bomb/purple match, which is the better choice.

The result is good and gives me the chance to make another colour bomb, so that is a very good indication I may be onto a Lucky Board.

After the colour bomb is made I see no opportunity to make special candies, so I continue to clear as many blockers as I can with each move. I avoid popping the colour bomb, hoping it might form a combo later.

By this time I have cleared the liquorice below and cleared frosting. Not much obvious luck up to this point, but at last I have a chance to make a purple striped candy on the board above. This sets off immediately in a cascade and creates the next chance to match four blue candies:

Those four blue candies including the wrap will cause another cascade and again immediately give me the chance to make another special candy, a red wrap on the board below.

I now have lots of special candies waiting for a cascade to set them all off. Two moves later: Bingo! The game drops just orange and red candies for a cluster that lets me create a colour bomb, which will sit just next to the purple striped candy.

The rest is easy and obviously I pass from here. This colour bomb/stripe combo practically clears the board.

cookiemae

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3183794#Comment_3183794

Sweet

cookiemae

@christinewupp lol I know what you mean by lucky boards.

christinewupp

Just to add this point to my post:

So episode 156-170 was unusually and ridiculously easy to pass this week…..

Wait for the next one, levels 171-185: I started it around midday, hoping to get to level 200 without spending boosters or gold bars like I usually do. Hell, no! That next episode was awful and so completely different to the one preceding it, it screams "rigged" at anyone with two eyes and a brain.

Episode 171-185 blocked me completely using exactly the same strategy as in the previous episode. Why? Because this early on it's just not yet possible to have enough friends (just got 2), so I ran out of lives twice using my best strategy. I even used some pre level boosters and one lollipop hammer to pass the hard levels. And then, out of the blue, I lost the episode race!! While waiting for my lives to fill up. Within 12 hours of starting the episode!

Sorry, King, but this latest algorithm stinks, and if I was really a new player I'd quit at this point as this game is not fun at all. The game needs to be better balanced than that.

Oh, and this is the latest trick: I have just started the game again this morning at level 184, played the level five times with success, ran out of lives again, and then and only then, once I'm out of lives this shows up:

They deliberately waited for me to run out of lives until telling me I had won the weekly contest and all these timed boosters!? Really???