How far can we get in Candy Crush Saga playing entirely for free?

christinewupp · October 25

Here is my new test:

I just started another new game. (Can't help myself, I'm getting bored with the game again). I would like to test out the theory that you can play the game completely for free if you:

Play from the beginning and spend no gold until after level 205
Spend gold and boosters wisely after that
Play at least one episode per day to win every champions race
Play no more than one new episode per day if there are several legendary levels per episode*
Use older levels to help earn boosters and gold where events allow to win best available rewards
Follow these rules:

Make the first move the game suggests **
Make any move visible that will allow me to match 4 or 5 candies to create a colour bomb, wrap or stripe
Make any possible combo of special candies visible on the board
If neither of the above is possible choose the move that will remove the most blockers
If no move achieving the above is possible, make the move the game suggests
When I get to about 5-10 remaining moves, depending on level, I start to make judgements on further moves depending on experience: By this time I usually can see if I will pass or fail and if I will have to use boosters to pass. I then stop following the above rules and make my own judgements. I will never use more than 10 gold bars for extra moves

*Level/episode difficulty gets adjusted frequently, so the one episode per day limit may not apply if the game is being made particularly easy, which depends on the day of the week and if there is a leaderboard competition coming up - I might play more episodes if I find I continue to make a good gold profit

**Unless there is an obvious better move, which is only really the case if there is a 2 colour bomb combo

pmin · October 27

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/473276/how-far-can-we-get-in-candy-crush-saga-playing-entirely-for-free

Aren't you just going to restart your account soon and start saving up gold for Allstars 2025? Or did you abandon that?

christinewupp · October 27

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3183375#Comment_3183375

I am planning to use my main account for this, which I started in the spring, @pmin. I already have lots of honestly earned gold saved up in that. It is approaching level 4200, so I need to play slowly now to stay in competition friendly territory. Hence I am bored and thought of running this test.

pmin · October 27

Gotcha, I was just curious. And yeah I definitely wouldn't want to start much beyond that 4k range. I lucked out and finished music season early 8000s where the skull levels start and those would have definitely lowered my scoring considerably. This was my first go beyond level 1500, so just timed out well. Finals I think I started 4500ish.

christinewupp · October 28

First update:

Levels 1-200

As planned I used zero gold bars and used boosters only as a last resort. The problem I encountered was that I ran out of lives as it's too early in the game to make enough friends. I failed to beat the Troll once and lost one champions race because I lost all my lives and was taken by surprise. Levels 171-185 made me fail the race surprisingly in less than 12 hours! Had I anticipated this I would have used a different strategy, but the game is designed to catch players out, so I'll accept that.

Also of note is the fact that "Don't feed the Troll" showed up surprisingly early, at level 66 and I just managed to win it with 17 seconds spare playing new levels, just by level 88 where the Party Popper first becomes active (coincidence or design?). Usually we get a free Party popper and free UFOs to show us how to use them, but beating the Troll meant that I did not gain those freebies.

Levels 1-200 play differently from week to week so I won't add comments about difficulty in this thread, I have commented on the levels elsewhere.

christinewupp · November 3

My other test game, which I started a few days later, was part of a totally different test group. Different early levels and entire episodes were markedly different in difficulty. But the outcome at level 201 has been remarkably similar:

Again I lost one episode race due to not having enough lives, but it was not the same episode that tricked me.

christinewupp · November 5

Next step: The horrible 200s

Once the game includes legendary levels there are some that require us to spend some gold to pass. Which one or two these win streak blockers are varies from game to game and week to week. They tend to end in the digit "5": 225, 240 for example.

My strategy changes:

Play starting boosters for legendary and nightmarishly hard levels on my first attempt
If I get close enough on my first attempt I play one boosters (lollipop or UFO if I have one) when I can see this will help me pass on my first attempt or pay 10 gold if I see I will definitely pass within 5 moves
If I fail on my first attempt I play no more starting boosters and wait until the game offers me enough extra moves to pass with paying 10 gold bars
I do not play starting boosters (unless gifted timed from events of course) on unmarked level . If I fail these I retry them until I pass
I play one episode per day

This strategy does help to get to level 261, when the game gets a little kinder, with 500 gold bars in the budget.

Two games playing very differently, with different levels holding me up, but the outcome is remarkably the same.

SneakyMelonPyroDuck · November 5

The fact the first 3-4 episodes in the 200s are the nightmare they are is hilarious to me now.

Of all the changes they have made, they just leave those as they are.

christinewupp · November 12

I crossed level 500 with both my test games in synch and both with just over 1000 gold bars in the bank.

Here are the screenshots.

To get to level 500 I played 1-2 episodes per day. In both games I have played only the boosters I got from events. I did not buy any boosters at all, not even timed ones, because I wanted to test out if the game will give us enough boosters from events to pass all levels and win the episode races. To get past the impossible levels I used a mixture of boosters (lollipop, UFO, Party Popper) I had from events and 10 gold bars for extra moves. I have plenty of friends in both my games now, so I no longer run out of lives if I just play one episode. Both games have different success from events and Cow has more boosters in her inventory than Tiffy, but so far their gold balance is very similar.

One footnote: on Candy Royale, which starts at level 502. Boosters are locked for this level for our first attempt (and only for the first attempt) and this is really foul because there is no way to pass level 502 without boosters on your first attempt, so you either fail and lose Candy Royale before it even starts or have to pay gold bars for extra moves to start Candy Royale. I am quite baffled why King would do this. I failed with Cow but then passed easily on my second attempt because the win streak boosters got added for my second attempt. I decided to pay to pass with Tiffy. She earned 56 gold bars from the event. Candy Royale showed up again 24 hours later for Cow but her prize was only 17 gold.

I think you noted the locked boosters previously @SneakyMelonPyroDuck ?

gkarg · 8:47PM

I am in the 12,000's and have never spent a penny on the game.

christinewupp · 9:13PM

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3197841#Comment_3197841

That's great to hear. It's quite an achievement. How long did it take you to get this far?

How far can we get in Candy Crush Saga playing entirely for free?

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