Talk:The Bombs/@comment-25372464-20141110210459

I've now beaten this 3 times legitimately - maybe in 100 plays - the first two having the bombs expire right after the 35th move (so they're at 0 right after you make your final move; thankfully, this counts), the last one with the bombs at 3 going to 2 (and I had no way of stopping them). Some general notes:

1) Bombs only come in through four vertical slots.  This is useful.  Semi-often you can waste time in your first few moves and play on the ends of the screen, which will not cause these slots to activate.

2) Once you have bombs coming in on both sides of the center, you've almost certainly lost.

3) Color bombs are not terribly useful, until the very end.  When activated, they unfortunately will too likely open up both sides (again, causing you to lose).

4) Horizontal stripes are horrible as well - again, when activated they will cause both sides to open up.

5) Vertical stripes are ok for clearing columns, but remember then that whole column will fill up with bombs.

6) Wraps are actually very useful.  Good strategy, where possible: create wrapped candy somewhere near the bottom while timebombs are ticking (say, at 5).  Screw around for a few moves on the side, not causing any more time bombs to fall, until the ones currently on screen are at 1.  Then activate the wrapped candy, hopefully clearing that side for another 8 moves.

7) After one side fills with or is near to full with chocolate, you get a little more freedom with horizontal stripes.  If you can break the chocolate below the top chocolate layer, you won't cause any new bombs to form.  (So you can mix a horizontal with a wrap in some occasions).

Yes, it takes lots of luck. And my current high score is only 375K (getting 3 stars looks to be very hard, and I'd definitely add it to the hardest-to-get-three-stars list). But while this level is insanely hard and requires a ton of luck, it's not completely impossible. Certainly it's much easier than pre-nerfed 677.