Level 290

Difficulty

 * Typical of an episode finale around this point in the game, this level is very difficult. This is due to the sheer number of blockers. 43 double jelly squares hide behind icing of up to the full five layers, so jelly fish do not help much. It is extremely difficult to make it through all the blockers within the 50 moves, even with only five colours.
 * The jellies at the bottom are next to impossible to reach due to the shape of the board and the fact they are behind five layer icing. An incredibly lucky board is needed to beat this level. You must need consistent special candies and cascades all the way through to win, which is dauntingly hard seeing due to the layout of the blockers. One will generally have a slow start with each attempt.
 * This can be the hardest level in Android or iOS in Candy Clouds, due to a lots of 5-layered icing in the bottom ones, making this level an extremely hard one.
 * The jellies are worth 86,000 points, which is more than the two star target score.

Strategy

 * Do not pay much attention to the jelly fish, as they are not very useful. Do not mix them with any special candies either, as they'll most likely eat up icing and waste your special candy. Just set them off when you can.
 * The level is pretty straightforward: Break as many icing as fast as you can. Create vertical striped candies and blast them down. Make wrapped candies explode at the icing . When you reach the bottom, create horizontal striped candies there.
 * Striped candy + wrapped candy and colour bomb + striped candies are the most powerful combinations in this level. Just make sure to set the wrapped candies off right above the icing for impact.
 * The game will often create many cascades for you, usually 3-4 ones. Look out for colour bomb matches as well, as you can be distracted with breaking the icing.
 * Just imagine all of the layered icing wasn't there, and the jelly fishes were not in marmalade. It would be much easier to do this level. If it was like that, the difficulty would be very easy. 50 moves aren't enough.
 * Colour bombs are very effective, but when you find the colour bomb + colour bomb combination, don't do it. Colour bomb + striped candy combinations are much better than colour bomb + colour bomb. But when a striped candy hits a jelly fish or two or three, you're wasting jelly fishes. You should only use the jelly fishes when all the icings are out.
 * Striped candy + wrapped candy is much better than all combinations. Pretend this is a candy order and get 10 striped candy + wrapped candy combinations.

Difficulty

 * The presence of five colours make it easy to create special candies.
 * The jellies are worth 86,000 points. Hence, a two star score is guaranteed and an additional 9,000 points for three stars have to be earned through matching of candies.
 * Since all the icings have jellies underneath them, it forces the player to create special candies and their combinations to clear them quickly. All these result in a point boost.
 * With an open board, cascades can occur frequently which gives even more points.

Trivia

 * This is one of the few levels to make a cameo in a Candy Crush Saga television advertisement. The other levels are level 33, level 50, level 70, level 97, level 147, level 181, level 350, level 361, and level 461. Most of these levels were rated hard or harder.