Redesigning

Redesigning is the process in Candy Crush Saga in which the game developers, King, change a level or an in game element in the level. Redesigning can be differentiated into two categories: Nerfing and Buffing. Nerfing is a community name given to the process of which the game developers make a level or an in-game element easier or less powerful. Buffing, on the other hand, is a common term to describe a level or an in-game element being made more difficult or powerful.

Every now and then, when too many people complain that a level is too difficult and many players reach the level and quit, the Candy Crush team will redesign the level to make it a little easier, or a lot easier in some cases. As a result, nerfing is much more common than buffing. However, buffing is much more common than nerfing in later levels, especially after Cereal Sea.

Common Ways of Redesigning Levels

 * Adding or Reducing Moves - sometimes more moves are given to complete the level. Level 167 is an example - the moves were raised from 45 to 50. This can also come in the form of giving bombs more moves before exploding. The bombs in Level 425 were increased from 10 moves to 15. On the other hand, sometimes fewer moves are given to complete the level, which can bring more challenge in completing the level.
 * Lowering or Increasing the Target Score - sometimes done if the target score is too difficult to reach. Level 98, level 183, level 392 and level 608 are good examples. On the other hand, the target score can also be increased if it is too easy to reach. In most cases, the one star target score will be increased.
 * Removing Jelly - sometimes jellies are removed from jelly levels. This can either be reducing double jellies to single jellies (level 65) or removing jellies completely. In some cases, the reverse can occur. It can make a level easier as in the case of level 608. After all the single jellies in the centre were converted to double jellies, it became much easier to reach the one star target score (along with the decrease in the one star target score).
 * Removal of blockers - a very common type of redesign. Typically this involves taking layers off icing or removing icing completely. Other blockers can be removed from levels as well. Level 305 is a good example - many layers were taken off the icing and others removed. Level 325's nerf removed the liquorice swirls.
 * Removal of a colour - a very powerful redesign. This usually involves dropping a six-colour level to five colours. As this makes such a difference, this is usually balanced out by lowering the moves and/or adding blockers, but it still makes the level easier. Level 213, level 311 and level 350 are very good examples of this type of redesign. Some levels like level 677 removed a colour but added more moves. The difficulties were lowered from insanely hard to medium or considerably hard following these redesigns. On the other hand, some levels such as level 629, Level 649, Level 686, Level 688, and Level 691 have an additional colour.
 * Changing structure of board - sometimes a level is redesigned completely in an easier, or a more difficult fashion. Redesigning can also involve moving components of the level around. Level 347 is an example.
 * Changing the orders in candy order levels. Level 347 also had its order changed from two colour bomb+wrapped combos to collecting 10 wrapped and 2 colour bombs, though it went from very hard to insanely hard this way. Level 421, on the other hand, went from insanely hard to very hard by having its number of striped+striped comboes reduced from 7 to 5.
 * Increasing stability of Moon Scale, such as in Level 123, Level 202 and Level 382.
 * Increasing moonstruck duration. On the other hand, Level 202 is a level which the moonstruck duration was decreased after increasing the stability of moon scale. Level 276 is another level which the moonstruck duration was decreased after increasing the number of moves.
 * Reducing the number of moves required to completely fill up the moon meter. Levels like 68 and 147 contain this type of redesigning, where level 68 moves the moon struck to one move eariler, and level 147 moves the moon struck to 7 moves eariler (it is moved from move 8 to move 15, along with increase in moon struck duration).

Jelly Fish redesign
Other elements have been redesigned besides levels. The most notable case is the jelly fish from the Sugar Crush of jelly levels on Facebook. The fish used to give 1020 points each, and still do on iOS, but now only a few fish give 1020 points, the rest giving none. This redesign has been resented by many players. A possible reason is that special candies are easier to create on Facebook, a crucial point on later levels which use a lot of moves to clear the jelly and have few moves left for sugar crush.

Toffee Tornado redesign
Toffee Tornadoes were introduced in the 29th episode, Soda Swamp. They were despised by many players. When they first appeared, there was no way of removing them. When the 30th episode, Rainbow Runway, came out, the developers redesigned the tornadoes. If a special candy hit a tornado, it will disappear for 5 moves. Subsequently, if a special candy hit a tornado, it will disappear for the rest of the level. Despite this redesign, this still remains one of the most hated blockers.

Trivia

 * Nerfing upsets a lot of players, specifically those that completed the level when it was still hard. Level 147 is a good example, since the nerf from 3-layer icing to 2-layer is very great, and it was previously an insanely hard level.
 * Level redesigning usually occurs at the same time as an episode is released. However, some levels could also be reverted to their previous versions.
 * Sometimes levels go through multiple redesigns, usually being nerfs.
 * Level 135, being redesigned three times, is the level with the most redesigns.
 * Levels 65, 147, and 311 were all considered the absolute hardest levels of the game before they all got redesigned. Level 350 has also been redesigned but is very hard.
 * Levels 147, and 382 are the levels where both the Reality and Dreamworld versions are nerfed.
 * Level 125 and 455 are the only Dreamworld levels which has a colour removed when the level are redesigned.
 * May 28, 2014 was the biggest nerfage day in Candy Crush history. Six Reality levels were nerfed, all of which were the hardest and most complained about levels in the game. The levels included, 323, 350, 421, 425, 461, and 500. Reality Level 181 has yet to be nerfed.
 * On August 6, 2014, 10 levels in the once ridiculously easy episodes Cereal Sea and Taffy Tropics were buffed. The only other level that had been buffed before it was nerfed was level 1. This does not account for two levels that were duplicates of other levels (fixed on July 30 along with the redesign of level 608. The changes to level 608 made it easier to pass as most players fail due to not reaching the one star target score).