Level 390

Level 390 is the tenth level in Licorice Tower and the 96th ingredients level. To pass this level, you must bring down 2 hazelnuts and 2 cherries and score at least 40,000 points in 50 moves or fewer. When you complete the level, Sugar Crush is activated.

Difficulty

 * Destroying the cake bombs is the only difficult part of the level.
 * 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

 * Do not worry about the marmalade-coated special candies on the side unless the opportunity is there to get it.
 * Focus on breaking through the icing on whichever side is being the most generous towards you, until you destroy the first cake.
 * You should be able to remove the second one pretty soon afterwards, then it is an open field to bring down the ingredients.

Earning More Stars

 *  difficulty: Medium
 *  difficulty: Very hard (Insanely hard)

Reason

 * The presence of five colours makes it easy to create special candies. However, it can be a double edged sword as it can cause the ingredients to be dropped too quickly without sufficient points being earned.
 * The ingredients are worth 40,000 points. Hence, an additional 160,000 points for two stars and an additional 260,000 points for three stars have to be earned through matching of candies.
 * The player is required to earn an additional 3,200 points per move (160,000 points / 50 moves = 3,200 points per move) for two stars.
 * The player is required to earn an additional 5,200 points per move (260,000 points / 50 moves = 5,200 points per move) for three stars. This amount is higher than the maximum amount of points a striped candy during sugar crush can provide which in this case is 3,540 points (3,000 points per striped candy + 540 points if the striped destroys nine candies). Moreover, they will only earn a few hundred points for at least the first ten moves or even more as the blockers heavily restrict the available board space. Note: the amount of points earned by the striped candies during sugar crush may be higher or lower. If the striped candy causes cascades after detonation, the amount of points is increased. If the striped candy destroys a blocker or less than nine candies which is the greatest number of spaces in this board and does not cause cascades, the amount of points earned will be less than 3,540 points. For the former, an minimum of 1,660 points per striped candy has be created from cascades.
 * There are plenty of blockers. Despite this, the presence of five colours makes it easy to clear them.
 * Clearing the cake bomb removes all the candies on the board including colour bombs. Moreover, the amount of points earned from the first cake bomb is likely to be less than 5,200 points for three stars due to the huge amount of blockers (every regular or special candy cleared by a cake bomb is worth 100 points). However, it may be more 3,200 points for two stars.
 * Depending on how fast the cake bombs are cleared, it may leave the player with plenty or too few moves left to create special candies.
 * The problem is that once all the blockers are cleared, the ingredients can be dropped down way too quickly. With the fourth point in mind, it is a must to create special candies especially colour bombs before dropping the last ingredient to drastically increase the score.

Possible Strategy

 * Grasp every opportunity to create colour bombs as they are the only special candies which can give points higher than the 5,200 points per move requirement for three stars. This is provided that the colour bombs are used on the most abundant candies.
 * Clear the blockers and cake bombs in as few moves as possible so that the player can have more moves available to create colour bombs and increase the effectiveness of the colour bombs.