Level 361

Difficulty

 * This level is incredibly difficult due to the three-layered icing and chocolate spawners, although it looks very easy from the start.
 * Ingredients will often spawn on the sides and if moved sideways, could land on the chocolate spawners. In that case you are required to switch them to another column, which is very difficult considering the presence of six colors, unless you use the Free Switch booster.
 * The icing is blocking the ingredients' path down and the chocolate can easily invade much of the board.
 * The ingredients are worth 30,000 points, which is equal to the one star target score.

Strategy

 * Try to remove the liquorice locks using a vertical stripe rather than a colour match. This will clear the chocolate trapped underneath at the same time, so it does not have a chance to spread.
 * Unless creating a vertical stripe or colour bomb, try to make matches at the bottom of the board to clear the icing. This prevents chocolate from spreading as and clears the path for the ingredients.
 * Vertical stripes in the columns where the ingredients are the most helpful in clearing icing and chocolate.
 * Keep in mind that ingredients drop when you have 30 and 15 moves left. It is advised to make a move at one move before the next drop (31 and 16 moves left). If nothing is open yet, try to make a move over the previous ingredient.
 * Be very careful not to move an ingredient into the same column as a chocolate spawner, as it will be very difficult to move it back so it can drop off.
 * The more combinations you make the more chances you get to make vertical striped candy in the right columns.

Difficulty

 * The presence of six colours makes it hard to create special candies.
 * The ingredients are worth 30,000 points. Hence, an additional 30,000 points for two stars and an additional 65,000 points for three stars have to be earned through matching of candies.
 * The player is required to earn an additional 680 points per move for two stars and an additional 1,460 points per move for three stars.
 * There is three-layered icing at the bottom of the board which needs to be cleared, requiring a good number of moves to be spent.
 * The chocolate spawners at the bottom of the board may block the exit for the ingredients.
 * The chocolate at the bottom can be quite hard to clear even though it provides a direct path to the exit. Moreover, if the liquorice locks are cleared with a colour match, the chocolate will spread to the main board, further reducing available board space.

Strategy

 * Try to create a wrapped candy + striped candy combination first if possible. It will even be better if the combination is beside the icing and must be swiped downwards if the special candies are stacked on top of one another (or sideways if they are positioned side by side) so that the combination will take out a lot of icing.
 * Vertical striped candies are also essential in clearing the icing and dropping the ingredient in one move.
 * Colour bombs are good because they can reduce the number of colours, increasing the possibility of creating special candies.
 * The best option is to clear the chocolate directly above the ingredient exit, switch the ingredient to that exit, create a vertical striped candy directly on the column where the ingredient exit is then activate it.
 * Try to have the ingredient start from the centre and have all the other ingredients dispense from the centre as well. This is because you will have a larger board to work with. On mobile devices, keep cycling the board till you get one where the ingredient appears at the centre dispensers.

Trivia

 * This is one of the few levels to make a cameo in a Candy Crush Saga television advertisement. The other levels are Level 461, Level 50, Level 33, Level 97, Level 70, Level 290, Level 181, Level 147, and Level 350. These levels were rated hard or harder.