Talk:Level 863/@comment-24693751-20150325014011

I was very surprised to pass this level on my 4th try with 3***, using no boosters! I didn't view this page beforehand but my strategy was really similar to the one the page suggests, except I didn't wait until my 15th move to let the bombs fall. I just let them fall whenever I was able to hit the 3rd key & then hoped for the best. But the part that was the same on my winning board was that I cleared all the icing on the right side asap so that all the cherries had dropped & were ready to fall as soon as I hit the 4th key. Which I did by making a wrapped/stripe combo at the bottom, lined up to hit the key. I specifically remember I had a bunch of bombs that were on 3 when I hit it. Basically, I just made special candies anywhere I could & then tried to think about the best ways to use them. That's the one good thing about this level is that it gives you a lot of opportunity to make special candies. Of course the wrapped/stripe combo is always helpful & Color Bomb/stripe is good too(though I actually am pretty sure I didn't end up using the CB/stripe combo on my winning board-it was yesterday so I don't remember every detail 100%). I think I had the opportunity to do either wrapped/stripe or Color Bomb/stripe at the same time & chose wrapped/stripe earlier in the game too b/c it was lined up exactly to hit the icing perfectly while with Color Bomb/stripe there's no guarantee it will hit where you need it to. I also just did a lot of horizontal stripes to take out either icing or even one of the bombs. I was also matching the bombs whenever possible to take some of them out so hitting one would sometimes make it possible to make another match. I had several bombs that were down to 5 & I thought I would just go ahead & smash the last key with my hammer to set the cherries free. But then I saw the opportunity to make the wrapped/stripe combo & hit the key with it so that worked out better for me.

Despite my good luck with this level, I can still see how it could be very hard. But I do think focusing on getting rid of the icing on the right is the best way to go so the cherries will be ready to drop as soon as you can hit the last key.