Level 421

Level 421 is the eleventh level in Soda Swamp and the ninety-third candy order level. To pass this level, you must collect 5 striped candy + striped candy combinations and score at least 10,000 points in 50 moves or fewer. If you have extra moves left in this level, Sugar Crush will activate striped candies and score you additional points.

The tedious task of combining striped candies together frustrated great number of players, particularly with a Toffee Tornado in play.

Difficulty

 * It is insanely difficult to pass because collecting 5 striped+striped combos is tedious with a small amount of space and all 6 colours unless you clear the cake bombs, but they don't make anything easier. The cakes can easily ruin your plans on collecting the orders, not to mention the toffee tornado, which can also easily ruin your progress.
 * If you manage to leave the stripes in the marmalade, then when the first cake bomb is set off, it will destroy the marmalade and free the stripes, letting the top ones fall upon the bottom ones so you can make one or two matches.  If you're lucky, one of the pairs will be stacked upon one another and the other will fall side by side, so that you can set off the stacked one first without disturbing the other pair, and then set off the side by side match.

Strategy
Strategy 1


 * Try to bring down the top striped candies to their bottom counterparts. However, this is VERY difficult because a cake bomb may go off or because combining one set of striped candies will remove the marmalade of the opposite side's bottom one.
 * Try to make at least one striped candy combination before setting any cakes off. If it is not possible within the first 5 turns or less, get rid of the cakes bombs as soon as you can to make more space on the board.
 * Plan your moves carefully; when combining striped candies make sure it won't ruin any other set ups you may have.
 * The cake bombs are a tremendous hazard. They explode whenever all 8 slices are cut off. They can be advantageous by refreshing a bad board, but they may blow off a board with striped candies ready to mix as well.
 * Don't bother to use boosters unless there are only 1 or 2 mixes left with a lot of moves available. Lollipops and Free-switch are the only helpful ones, and they are very situational at best. Aside from these boosters, all start-up boosters are pretty much useless.
 * Tremendous luck and skill is needed to complete the order of 5 striped + striped mixes. Eventually, there should be a good board to complete the task.

Strategy 2


 * 1)  If playing on mobile, enter and quit until you know you can make a striped + striped combo with one of the four striped candies. If you're playing the level with rules in which the hammer doesn't destroy the striped candies in marmelade, destroy a cake bomb as soon as you can to make an easy striped + striped match when the upper candies fall to the bottom.
 * 2)  Get rid of the cake bombs ASAP. Don't try to make striped + striped combos before you've taken all four out unless you know you have a very good chance of doing so within 2 - 3 turns, or if you are unable to make any progress on a cake bomb. Use whatever special candies and combos you can to speed up the process. If you're lucky, you could be down to five combos by the end of this section.

Once all cake bombs are cleared... (You should have 30+ moves remaining and 5 - 6 combos left by this point)
 * Make striped candies.  Try to focus making striped candies in the upper middle of the board, as combos to the side and bottom are difficult to form. If you have a choice between making a striped in the middle or outside, make the one in the middle first, as the tornado can interfere with your plans.
 * Make color bombs. This is a little risky, but can be well worth it. If you see a chance to make one, I'd say go for it. It's better to make these near the edges of the board (not including top) but you should take what you can get. Ridding yourself of a color will make creating spriped candies much more attainable. When you use these, make sure no striped candy will be detonated because of it, either due to it being the color you getting rid of or an unwanted cascade that will happen. Don't combine this with striped candy - there's no good reason for this. Combine this with a wrapped candy if you have a chance and there are no striped candies on the board.
 * Don't make wrapped candies. They can ruin your game if they are near any striped candies as unwanted cascades/the tornado can set them off unexpectedly. You will inevitably receive some on the board from cascades, so try to deal with them when they're isolated from striped candies.
 * Watch for the column that will fall because of the tornado. If you're planning a combo, make sure that when the tornado moves that the column of candies that will fall down won't interfere with your plan. If there are two swaps on the board that you can make to create a striped candy, see if either of them will be affected by the column falling due to the tornado. If one will be disrupted, make that one before the other.
 * Think. I know this sounds silly, but this board requires a lot of thought. Before each move, make sure that nothing catastrophic will be set off and that you can't make a better move. I'll give you one last example: If you're about to make a striped + striped combo, check and see if it will wreck any possible ways to create a striped candy or destroy a striped candy. Make those striped candies (if they won't be set off when you activate the combo) before the combo, or try to lower the combo so that it won't strike any striped candies/ruin a combo in it's path.

Getting Three Stars (For Daring Players)

 * Difficulty: Hard
 * Six colours make it difficult to make the special candies required for the order.
 * Cake Bombs heavily limit the available board space and require a good number of moves to clear them.
 * Even after the Cake Bombs are cleared, the Toffee Tornado will disrupt the creation of special candies and the combination required for the order.
 * The current version requires five combinations instead of seven. With two less combinations required, players are forced to complete the level in far fewer moves to earn three stars.
 * The three star target score is relatively high. Most runs of passing the level will end up with 100,000 - 120,000 points.
 * Follow Strategy 2 and it will be easier to earn three stars.

Trivia

 * Despite the target score being 10,000 points, the implied target score is 25,000 points because each special candy combination the player 5,000 points and that five of those have to be done. Hence, 5 special candy combinations x 5,000 points per combination = 25,000 points.