Hard levels to earn three stars

''This page is about Hard Levels regarding earning three stars. For Hard Levels regarding completion of a level click here.''

A Hard Level To Earn Three Stars is a level on Candy Crush Saga that is considered difficult by the majority of players to earn three stars. Levels can be hard to earn three stars for a whole mass of reasons. Any level type has the potential to have levels which are hard to earn three stars.

The hardest level type to earn three stars is thought to be Timed Levels, and the easiest is thought to be Ingredient Levels, as there are no particularly difficult ingredient levels to earn three stars.

What Makes a Level Hard To Earn Three Stars
Candy Colours - A level can have up to six candy colours. With six colours on the board, the candies are much more mixed up and matches are harder to make, as are special candies, making a level significantly harder to earn three stars than it would be if there were five or four colours. Furthermore, in Jelly Levels, they make cascades less likely.

Notorious levels: 33, 50, 70, 139, 152, 169, 295, pre-nerfed 350, 418, 421, 440, 461, 488 and 505.

Blocker - Blockers can make a level hard to earn three stars by preventing huge cascades from occurring or by restricting available board space to make special candies. A blocker with many layers of icing can make a level hard by the sheer number of hits needed, reducing the amount of points earned through sugar crush. Even in levels with candy bombs, liquorice lock can make a level hard to earn three stars as a candy bomb inside a liquorice lock requires two hits to score massive points as one colour bomb is required to remove the liquorice lock and the other to remove the bomb (this is provided if regular matches or special candies have not yet remove the liquorice lock). The above point is applicable for mobile devices but not on Facebook.

Notorious levels: 50, 70, 77, 152, 169, 182, 239, 257, 350, 440, 461, 500, 505 and 560.

Layout - The board can sometimes take a very complicated and confusing shape, sometimes a very awkward shape or even isolated from the main board, making jellies hard to reach and cascades less likely. In other level types, they cause too many moves to be spent to clear the objective.

Notorious levels: 33, 70, 76, 77, 131, 182, 323, 383, 428, 458, 461, 567 and 586.

Move / Time Limit - In some levels the move or time limit is deliberately very low. This means fewer points to be earned through sugar crush or fewer opportunities to create special candies as the moves have to be used to clear the objective. In timed levels, a player must be very lucky and strategic with their moves.

Notorious levels: 33, 65, 70, 77, 129, 204, 295, 297, 350, 421, 422, 427, 452, 458, 461, 531, 560, 563 and 586.

Orders Giving Few Points - Sometimes the Candy Order Levels only requires to collect a certain amount of candies which makes it difficult to meet the three star target score. This is because the candies do not give as many points (each regular candy collected gives 100 points, each special candy collected without the need of combinations gives 1,000 points and each special candy combinations gives 5,000 points). Specific orders which require the use of combinations that give low amount of points (colour bomb + stripped candy combination being used to meet an order for a large number of stripped candies is the biggest example) can also count if there are no additional means of earning points such as destroying candy bombs.

Notorious levels: 129, 140, 169, 257, 379, 419, 421, 452 and 560.

Mechanics - The mechancics in Facebook and Mobile Devices work differently such as the creation of special candies and cascades. This means that there is a split difficulty rating for the Facebook and Mobile Devices as some levels are easy to earn three stars on Facebook but hard on Mobile Devices. The reverse holds true as well.

Notorious levels: pre-nerfed 183, 295, 488 and 553.

High Target Scores - The most common reason for levels being hard to earn three stars. In some levels, clearing the objective gives enough points to pass the level (one star). However, the three star target score is so high that players will need a good "Sugar Crush" or by sacrificing moves to create more special candies in order to earn three stars. This reason is always used with other reasons.

Notorious levels: 33, 50, 70, 76, 77, 169, 182, 221, 239, 257, 295, 297, 323, pre-nerfed 350, 361, 421, 427, 440, 444, 452, 458, 463, 478, 488, 505, 531, 560, 563 and 586.

List of Hard Levels to earn three stars
You can find all the levels which are hard to earn three stars:

Category:Hard levels to earn three stars

Category:Very hard levels to earn three stars

Category:Insanely hard levels to earn three stars

Hardest Level And Episode In The Game To Earn Three Stars
There are three polls created to determine the hardest levels and episodes to earn three stars for the Reality and Dreamworld segments as shown below.

Hardest Level in Reality to earn three stars

Hardest Level in Dreamworld to earn three stars

Hardest Episode in the Game to earn 3 stars