Level 1142

Level 1142 is the twelfth level in Teapot Tower and the 308th ingredients level. To pass this level, you must bring down 4 cherries and score at least 40,000 points in 30 moves or fewer. When you complete the level, Sugar Crush is activated.

Due to all the blockers (locked chocolate, 5-layered icing, more liquorice locks, possible bad outcomes from mystery candies, the ingredients being under marmalade), only 30 moves and the board layout making it harder to create the striped candies required to free the ingredients from the marmalade, this level is insanely difficult to pass, even with 4 colours. It is currently the hardest 4 coloured level, even harder than pre-nerf level 914 and level 428.

Difficulty

 * Releasing the ingredients from the marmalade can be difficult even with four colours present.
 * The board layout makes it hard to create vertical striped candies. Moreover, use of said special candies will unlock the chocolate, causing them to spread and reduce available board space.
 * There are a lot of blockers to clear for the ingredients to fall in only 30 moves.
 * The mystery candies will either help or hinder your process.
 * The ingredients are worth 40,000 points (4 ingredients x 10,000 points per ingredient = 40,000 points) which is equal to the one star target score.

Strategy
Strategy for those who are prepared to believe that you can skill your way through this level:
 * This level is perceived to be extremely hard by the regular contributors to this wiki. That collective expertise and experience deserves respect and due consideration...
 * ...but this level can be solved without too much difficulty by pursuing a planning strategy in the early stages, rather than blast and hope.
 * In the early stages of this board, each possible move should be weighed up carefully, much as you would weigh up chess moves against a challenging opponent.
 * One counter-intuitive tactic or strategic point for the early stage is the deliberate encouragement of a shuffle - if you cannot foresee good stuff happening with reasonable likelihood two or three moves down the line, then make the move that actually blocks up future moves and is likely to cause a shuffle. The board is so restricted at first, that you can do this.
 * Concentrate on making a triple hit or better on this blockers as often as possible early in the board.
 * When you get some specials going (there are only four colours, you will get them) make your top priority at first to release the ingredients, unless you have a combo or visible cascade set up so you know that you will not only unlock but also destroy the chocolate. Try if you can to hold back from launching specials that will unlock but not destroy chocolate.
 * Make the most of those mystery candies. Not sure if the board has been slightly nerfed but the mystery candies seemed mostly positive useful ones with just a few nasties, not the other way around, so mysteries should be mostly nice surprises and help you to reach your goal.  Wrapped/striped is a great friend in the early/mid mart of this level, as is colour bomb/striped.  You have a reasonable chance of getting one of those once the mystery candies are in play and one of those combos should help you to make some good progress.
 * As soon as an ingredient is/some ingredients are free, work very hard on getting one or two of them down and out quickly so you can then focus on the remainder. If anything move the end ones on each side towards centre - avoid moving anything outwards if you possibly can.  Straight drop is probably the easiest route in any case, but you still don;t need the whole board unblocked, just most of it.
 * It might take a few goes, of course, but following this strategy you have a decent chance each time you play and you shouldn't be losing your rag on this level.

Strategy in line with the prevailing view on this level
 * You will have to create many striped candies or combinations Striped + Wrapped or Striped + Colour Bomb to remove blockers.
 * This level requires major luck. 4 colors mean special candies are easy to create, but the limited board space is a burden. There are a lot of blockers waiting to hinder your progress, so good luck! You'll certainly need it to pass this nearly impossible level!
 * If you're really fed up with this level's difficulty, boosters such as coconut wheels and striped+wrapped would be a good idea to clear the blockers and free the cherries from the marmalade.

Glitch

 * While playing this game, some ingredients may disappear when leaving their starting locations.
 * On mobile, there is a glitch that, new candies will spawn below that tile, rather than the object in that tile falling down similar to the one on dreamworld counterpart of level 593 but all columns are glitched. Due to this glitch, the mobile version of this level may be the hardest level ever in the game.