Level 357

Level 357 is the seventh level in Fudge Islands and the 87th ingredients level. To pass this level, you must bring down 9 hazelnuts and 9 cherries and score at least 180,000 points in 30 moves or fewer. When you complete the level, Sugar Crush is activated.

Difficulty

 * Do not be fooled that 18 ingredients in 30 moves is going to make this insanely hard. The ingredients drop from down low at an area of 3 by 3 and a lot will dispense so if you break candies in that area, multiple ingredients could score. With only 4 colours it is easy to make special candies.
 * The difficult part is when liquorice swirls can sometimes block the effectiveness of striped candies. This level can be frustrating at times, finishing 1-4 ingredients short a lot.
 * The above point happens because the ingredients are dispensed at moves 28, 26, 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 0 if all the preceding ingredients are not cleared.
 * The ingredients are worth 180,000 points (18 ingredients x 10,000 points per ingredient = 180,000 points) which is equal to the one star target score.

Strategy
Striped candies are the main solution for this level. Either work down low on the bottom right to make horizontal candies or work up high on the top left to make vertical candies. Of course, colour bomb combos are very helpful too. Just make sure you plan each and every move because again, this level can finish very close.

Earning More Stars

 *  difficulty: Hard
 *  difficulty: Hard

Reason

 * The presence of four colours makes it easy to create special candies and is essential as special candies must be used to drop the ingredients.
 * The ingredients are worth 180,000 points. Hence, an additional 100,000 points for two stars and an additional 120,000 points for three stars have to be earned through matching of candies.
 * The player is required to earn an additional 3,340 points per move (100,000 points / 30 moves = 3,333.33 points per move) for two stars.
 * The player is required to earn an additional 4,000 points per move (120,000 points / 30 moves = 4,000 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 3,480 points (3,000 points per striped candy + 480 points if the striped destroys eight candies). 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 3,480 points. For the former, a minimum of 520 points per striped candy has be earned from cascades.
 * The liquorice swirls may occasionally dispense, preventing too many ingredients from being dropped in a single move.
 * With respect to the two star target score, 30 moves are insufficient to boost the score by a huge amount of points to meet that target score.

Possible Strategy

 * Try to create colour bomb + wrapped candy combinations if given the opportunity.
 * Wrapped candy + striped candy combinations on the areas directly above the dispensers also help in dropping the ingredients. However, beware of the liquorice swirls.

Trivia

 * This level is one of the two levels (the other being Level 376) that has the largest number of ingredients needed to bring down in the game (18 ingredients).
 * This level is the same shape as Level 574, except the ingredient drop arrows are on the sides and no bombs.