Candy Crush Saga

Discussions
Chat about Candy Crush Saga, share thoughts, news, or anything sweet!
Support
Stuck or having trouble with Candy Crush Saga? Ask your question here and get help from others.
Contests
Enter for a chance to win Gold Bars and sweet in-game rewards in Candy Crush Saga!
Ideas
Have a sweet suggestion? Share your ideas to help improve Candy Crush Saga.
Off-Topic
This is your chill zone! Talk about anything that’s not Candy-related with other Candy players!.

Candy Crush Saga

Discussions
Chat about Candy Crush Saga, share thoughts, news, or anything sweet!
Support
Stuck or having trouble with Candy Crush Saga? Ask your question here and get help from others.
Contests
Enter for a chance to win Gold Bars and sweet in-game rewards in Candy Crush Saga!
Ideas
Have a sweet suggestion? Share your ideas to help improve Candy Crush Saga.
Off-Topic
This is your chill zone! Talk about anything that’s not Candy-related with other Candy players!.

Yo-Yo level difficulty

Hi guys. I've noticed that in the past few months level difficulty has become like a yo-yo and have been trying to figure out why.

I think many of us have noted that often the harder levels get harder and the easier levels are just too easy.

I have also noted that often level difficulty seems out of synch with their labels.

Especially the "hard/super hard/nightmarishly hard/legendary" labels now all play much the same for me: They are often impossible to pass on your first attempt.

One theory I've had is that this is a by-product of the AI running the game autonomously. What have others found and have you got any theories on this?

Just to clarify:

By level difficulty I mean

How many and which boosters/gold do new players have to use to pass on a first attempt?
How long does it take for a pass (without paying gold) if you replay the level? i.e. how long until a lucky board shows up?

What I am also not sure about is if the script that the game uses to label levels as "hard" etc takes into account the first or second factor or both. Do any of you know this?

@SirPyroOfLight @Alienscar @MannyFae @quekkc ?

Welcome! 👋

Comments

christinewupp

After playing the first 500 levels of the game twice I am starting to see more and more patterns, which make me wonder if there is now a move to manufacture level difficulty permanently. This may also go hand in hand with the new reordering of the episodes to have the hardest ones at the end. There is now a drive for players to use boosters and events in a certain manner to keep their win streaks through each of these episodes. Understand this and you can earn hundreds of gold bars, don't see through it and you wind up spending lots of money to keep going.

All of my recent test games (five since the beginning of September) haver seen the same difficulty in the first 200 levels and have had similar events and progress. I wonder if there are no longer multiple test groups, and if this is due to streamlining and making the game less complicated, less data hungry perhaps.

Hard levels seem to follow the rule that half of them are easy to pass on a first attempt and half are impossible to pass on a first attempt. Which of it is for each player is probably random.

Legendary levels seem to only be possible to pass on a first attempt, and then only if you play every correct best move and/or play specific boosters. After the first fail there will be many more fails with or without starting boosters. I like these levels because I find them easy to predict, probably because of my experience with the game. They tend to be strategy levels.

Nightmarishly hard and super hard levels I find the hardest and cannot work out patterns in these. They seem unpredictable and I haven't figured out how to play those yet.

Having heard recent reports about levels being moved about in the 2000s (and the 19,000s, but not elsewhere) I wonder if there is a drive underway to predetermine and streamline level difficulty proactively in order to control the smooth running of each episode and coordinate events better with level difficulty, so King can control our games more tightly. However, I think this may backfire as it reopens the gates for players to use timed boosters and events more effectively if they have some strategic thought. I am making lots of gold again as the game is becoming increasingly predictable for us experienced players and there are definitely strategies now we can use to take advantage of these more predictable patterns within episodes.

There are still a few outliers in some episodes. I wonder if the next action will be to pick up those and maybe change them. I also think the marshmallow experiment has largely been stopped.

MannyFae

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3420070#Comment_3420070

Yes, I tried it and it seems fairly easy at the moment. Also, I just played through two episodes in the main game while playing Candy Royale, and it was easier than I expected. The only levels that caused me trouble were the starting levels of episodes, both were horrible. Maybe the yo-yo is going down 🙂

christinewupp

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3420049#Comment_3420049

I agree. This is part of the yo-yo effect: The same episodes may suddenly get easier when too many players quit when hitting the wall. This may not matter to King in the last 2000 levels, which is why those have never been made easier, but I think the wall at 4000+ might soon disappear. Some of the early levels are a good indication as to how easy it is to fix this. Look at this level I hit today:

This one is easy to fix to adjust difficulty, and it has been fixed: I played it about seven times. Six times I got a lucky board, once I got a "one more move" board. It's also a good level to spot the different algorithms: the fishy ones and the old fashioned lucky board ones. It definitely is not "hard" at this moment, so it seems to have been made easier very recently.

MannyFae

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3419889#Comment_3419889

This makes perfect sense and explains well the fluctuations in difficulty we are seeing in the game. Re the possibility of the runaway effect. This will result in everyone's booster inventories being depleted, but I don't think everyone will rush to buy booster packages as King might hope. Instead, it will have a depressing effect on the whole game as most people will be playing less or stopping altogether. (This is what I think we are seeing with the aliens event, which is the ultimate example of levels that have no 'without boosters' solution.) Hence, they will have to decrease the level of difficulty again at some point.

christinewupp

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3419741#Comment_3419741

I was hoping you'd say that because this is what I have been thinking exactly. I just haven't been able to quantify it.

What I have noted from playing several new games through levels 1-300 is this: In levels 51-200 "hard +" levels seem unusually hard and harder than their labels would suggest. I believe this is because until quite recently the win streak boosters and the super charger appeared really early in the game ( at level 51). Therefore difficulty for all the levels 51-200 is based on players who approached those levels with colour bombs on their opening boards, possibly combined with colour bomb starting boosters, so many had a double colour bomb combo. Now new starting players have no win streak bags and therefore there is no possibility of a double colour bomb combo at all. So these levels are much harder than their rating.

At the moment the win streak and super colour bomb show up at level 200. All the levels in the two following episodes are therefore much, much easier to pass than their rating suggests: Legendary levels are possible to pass on a first attempt with only starting boosters.

This may soon lead to the system sensing that levels 51-200 are too hard and that level 200-300 are too easy and in a few weeks from now, if the AI is left to adjust difficulty unchecked, we may see another yo-yo effect, back to giving players lots of "without boosters" lucky boards for levels up to 200, and it might make levels 225, 240, etc harder again.

There may be similar effects going on all through the game. The game bombards us with timed starting colour bombs and so can place double colour bomb combos on starting boards to decide level outcome for any player at their first attempt, and we have all seen this: The game does this all the time now. This will change player behaviour and increase use of starting boosters, and I wonder if it could lead to a runaway effect that will leave players who don't play to keep their win streaks stranded and with no chance to pass certain levels.

We do seem to be losing the "without boosters" solutions to the hardest boards throughout the game now. This is forcing players to try to keep their wins streak bags going and plays starting boosters.

This can also explain why at the same time the easy levels become too easy: Players with timed starting boosters, win streak bags and super chargers will finish those levels with tons of moves to spare. A computer programme won't spot this as a problem: a pass at first attempt is a pass at first attempt to the AI. So it won't ever see a need to adjust those levels.

Do I make any sense?

MannyFae

I think many of us have noted that often the harder levels get harder and the easier levels are just too easy.

I generally agree.

Especially the "hard/super hard/nightmarishly hard/legendary" labels now all play much the same for me: They are often impossible to pass on your first attempt.

In my main game, I find the same thing, but it's not surprising because I'm not that far from 'the Wall'. However, in my second game, it's not as noticeable.

I have also noted that often level difficulty seems out of synch with their labels

It's not possible for me to know exactly how they label levels, of course, but, the way levels are labelled had definitely changed shortly after the shuffling of levels. Many levels' ratings got downgraded. I think it's the principle of how levels are labeled that has changed, not just the threshold for each grade. Initially, the most difficult levels were moved towards the end of an episode, but after the labeling changes, some of them were downgraded to just Hard or even regular.

Here are two examples. In the past, both levels were labeled harder and were moved towards the end of episodes accordingly. Now they are unmarked levels.

What they have in common is that they can be greatly helped by a starting supercharger combo or a plain double color bomb combo. So I think the success rate of first attempts is now more important in how levels are labeled, and how long it takes to pass if you fail on the first attempt is less important.

Comments

christinewupp

Hard levels seem to follow the rule that half of them are easy to pass on a first attempt and half are impossible to pass on a first attempt. Which of it is for each player is probably random.

Nightmarishly hard and super hard levels I find the hardest and cannot work out patterns in these. They seem unpredictable and I haven't figured out how to play those yet.

There are still a few outliers in some episodes. I wonder if the next action will be to pick up those and maybe change them. I also think the marshmallow experiment has largely been stopped.

MannyFae

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3420070#Comment_3420070

christinewupp

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3420049#Comment_3420049

MannyFae

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3419889#Comment_3419889

christinewupp

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/comment/3419741#Comment_3419741

I was hoping you'd say that because this is what I have been thinking exactly. I just haven't been able to quantify it.

Do I make any sense?

MannyFae

I think many of us have noted that often the harder levels get harder and the easier levels are just too easy.

I generally agree.

Especially the "hard/super hard/nightmarishly hard/legendary" labels now all play much the same for me: They are often impossible to pass on your first attempt.

In my main game, I find the same thing, but it's not surprising because I'm not that far from 'the Wall'. However, in my second game, it's not as noticeable.

I have also noted that often level difficulty seems out of synch with their labels

Here are two examples. In the past, both levels were labeled harder and were moved towards the end of episodes accordingly. Now they are unmarked levels.

Recent Announcements

🛒 Let's start shopping on Black Friday!
Hello Crushers! Are you ready for another opportunity to win gold bars? Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season and is the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. 🛒 This year, Black Friday falls on November 28, so…
It's Time to Wish Happy Birthday🎂to the CCS Players with Birthdays in November🎉
🎉🎂Please join me in wishing the following players who were born in November a very Happy Birthday🥳: @headnurd73 @Maddy1996 @flapintinha25 @Peeps🐤 @cidacorreia @Peter_Tornaros @Megums @jrojas10 @galaxyangel @NegaSilveira @lynze13 @teenybee @johamilton @CrumD @Amoonmoon @king3244 @Taylor_Renee @Emmacdavid @Kerrie @Mr Lobato…
🎶 Wake Up, Rehearse, Perform – Music Season Is Here 🥳
The Candy band is back for their biggest show yet, but they’ve overslept😴 From 3 November to 7 December, join the Music Season and help Jelly Queen, Yeti, and Mr. Toffee get ready for their sweetest concert ever in the new Concert Chaos event! 🎵 What’s New This Season The Saga map gets a full music makeover! As you play…

Quick Links

🏠 Home

Active Discussions

Unnecessary hardening of levels
I have not being getting to play ads after loosing a level secondly candy royale is not giving much hence making the game boring by stagnating on a particular level
Free ads
Free ads
When where ur jow can I start to play
CCan Start to play now
Gold bard
Hello, I just won a race. I had 55 gold bars. It should have went up to 95 gold bars but the extra 40 didn't register. How can that get fixed? Thank you.
Perte de bonus
Aujourd'hui j'ai vus que mes bonus sont vide? Que dois-je faire

Discussions
Chat about Candy Crush Saga, share thoughts, news, or anything sweet!
Support
Stuck or having trouble with Candy Crush Saga? Ask your question here and get help from others.
Contests
Enter for a chance to win Gold Bars and sweet in-game rewards in Candy Crush Saga!
Ideas
Have a sweet suggestion? Share your ideas to help improve Candy Crush Saga.
Off-Topic
This is your chill zone! Talk about anything that’s not Candy-related with other Candy players!.