Fan based content
This article contains fan based content which may contain not officially announced information by King. |
Difficulty is a system on Candy Crush Saga Wiki to measure how difficult a level or episode is. This system has been introduced in 2013, and is inspirational to many other game wikis (especially King games).
Table of all Reality levels by difficulty (Note: large page size)
Table of Difficulty Distributions and Episode Averages
Difficulty code usage
There are 12 types of difficulty, ten of them sequential, and two of them peculiar. They are:
0 | None (white) | |
1 | Very easy (cyan) | |
2 | Easy (teal) | |
3 | Somewhat easy (green) | |
4 | Medium (yellow) | |
5 | Somewhat hard (orange) | |
6 | Hard (red) | |
7 | Very hard (maroon) | |
8 | Extremely hard (black) | |
9 | Nearly impossible (navy blue) | |
V | Variable (purple) | |
? | Impossible (gray) |
Episode means
An important thing that comes with level ratings is episode means, the indicator of how hard each episode is on a scale of 0 to 9. The overall difficulty of the episode is also determined with it.
Calculating episode means
To calculate the mean of each episode, we must first remember how to convert each difficulty level into its given number (Noted above, in the "Difficulty code usage" section. It's different for variable levels, explained below). The higher the difficulty, the higher its number.
Then, we must add up the 15 (Usually) numbers (Aka calculate the sum of the 15 numbers) and we must divide the number we'll get by 15 (Usually). The final number we'll get, which is rounded to the hundredth decimal place, is the arithmetic mean of that episode. (Note: In the first two episodes, we must divide the sum by 10 instead of the usual 15).
NOTABLE EXCEPTION: Variable levels. If an episode contains variable levels, we must subtract the number of variable levels from the size of the population (Aka the number we have to divide by during the final operation). Variable levels are also not included in the sum that we have to divide to calculate the episode mean, as if the episode has <15 levels.
Impossible levels. If an episode contains an impossible level, the difficulty of the episode is also impossible and the mean cannot be calculated.
Translating the mean of the episode to the overall difficulty. The names of the episode difficulties are identical to those used for level difficulties. Each episode difficulty has its own cutoffs ("Borders"), which is noted below, in the "Usage criteria and examples" section.
Examples
Example 1: An episode has 4 somewhat easy levels, 8 somewhat hard levels and 3 hard levels.
Remember, the number assigned to each somewhat easy level is 3, the number assigned to each somewhat hard level is 5 and the number assigned to each hard level is 6.
1. Calculation of the sum: 3+3+3+3+5+5+5+5+5+5+5+5+6+6+6 = 70
Or (3x4)+(5x8)+(6x3) = 70
2. Division: 70/15 = 4.(6) ≈ 4.67
The mean of the episode is 4.67
Example 2: An episode has 2 very easy levels, 6 medium levels, 5 extremely hard levels and 2 variable levels.
Remember, the number assigned to each very easy levels is 1, the number assigned to each medium level is 4, the number assigned to each extremely hard level is 8 and variable levels are not assigned any number.
1. Calculation of the sum: 1+1+4+4+4+4+4+4+8+8+8+8+8 = 66
Or (1x2)+(6x4)+(8x5) = 66
2. Division: Remember, the episode has two variable levels. Therefore, we must divide 66 by 13 instead of 15.
66/13 ≈ 5.08
The mean of the episode is 5.08
Comparing episode means
- If the difference between the means of two episodes is 0, we say that they are of the same difficulty / one episode is of the same difficulty as the other.
- If the difference between the means of two episodes is at least 0.01 and at most 0.09, we say that they are of similar difficulty / one episode is of similar difficulty to the other.
- If the difference between the means of two episodes is at least 0.1 and at most 0.19, we say that one episode is slightly easier/harder than the other.
- If the difference between the means of two episodes is at least 0.2 and at most 0.49, we say that one episode is easier/harder than the other.
- If the difference between the means of two episodes is at least 0.5, we say that one episode is much easier/harder than the other.
- Note that 0.5 in the last bullet point is a debatable number and may change.
Usage criteria and examples
Grading | Description | Concrete examples | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
None |
|
*Exclusive to tutorials*
| ||||||||||
Very easy (Episode means of 1–1.99) |
|
*Rare Difficulty Level in the high episodes*
| ||||||||||
Easy (Episode means of 2–2.99) |
|
*Uncommon difficulty level in high episodes*
| ||||||||||
Somewhat easy (Episode means of 3.0–3.49) |
|
*Common difficulty level* | ||||||||||
Medium (Episode means of 3.5–3.99) |
|
*Common difficulty level* | ||||||||||
Somewhat hard (Episode means of 4.0–4.49) |
|
*Common difficulty level* | ||||||||||
Hard (Episode means of 4.5–4.99) |
|
*Common difficulty level* | ||||||||||
Very hard (Episode means of 5.0–5.99) |
|
*Common difficulty level especially in high episodes*
| ||||||||||
Extremely hard (Episode means of 6.0–6.99) |
|
*Rare difficulty level in the earlier levels, but very common in the later levels*
| ||||||||||
Nearly impossible (Episode means of 7.0 and above) |
|
*Rare difficulty level, often nerfed. Some levels don’t even get redesigned!*
| ||||||||||
Variable |
|
*Very Rare Difficulty Level*
| ||||||||||
Impossible |
|
*Insanely rare difficulty level*
|
Amendments to difficulty scales
There are two notable changes to the difficulty nomenclature throughout CCSW history.
2016 Difficulty System change
Since 2016, there were additions to the difficulty system:
Key Points
- The "Nearly Impossible" difficulty was introduced as the new top difficulty, above "Insanely Hard". This applies to levels which are almost unbeatable without the use of boosters. Special request is required for such a level to be regarded as "Nearly Impossible".
- The "Insanely Hard" difficulty was renamed to "Extremely Hard". This is the second-highest difficulty, below "Nearly Impossible" but above "Very Hard". However, "Extremely Hard" is nowadays strictly below the original definition of "Insanely Hard".
- Levels originally are "Insanely Hard" were changed to "Nearly Impossible", unless the level does not receive 70% votes for "Insanely Hard" ("Nearly Impossible"), which will result in an instant downgrade to "Extremely Hard".
Change map
The following tables illustrate the colour codes and changes for each difficulty rating.
- The first column shows the new colour codes, ie. those currently in effect.
- The second column tells you whether/how this difficulty colour was changed.
- The last column shows the old colour codes.
New Colours | change | Old Colours | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Color change
Effective August 7th, 2015, the difficulty colour coding in the wiki was changed. The new colour codes used were thought to be more intuitive, as they form a gradual progression through the colour spectrum from light and cyan to dark and red.
Key points
- The new colour for hard (red) was previously used for very hard.
- The new colour for very hard (maroon) was previously used for impossible.
- No colour coding is added to levels whose difficulty is undetermined.
Change map
The following tables illustrate the colour codes and changes for each difficulty rating.
- The first column shows the new colour codes, ie. those currently in effect.
- The second column tells you whether/how this difficulty colour was changed.
- The last column shows the old colour codes.
New Colours | change | Old Colours | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Template:DifficultyCodeChangePast
Trivia
The information is currently outdated.
The information in this page is now outdated as of 19 April 2024. It hasn't been updated in more than 2 years even though updates are done at a much higher frequency. The content of this page was last updated on 17/04/2020 02:32 (UTC). |
- It originated from the List of Levels, which the difficulty of levels were once graded as "considerably hard for some", "considerably hard", "hard", and "extremely hard".
- No one really knows who actually created this difficulty system.
- The colour of "Medium" was once between blue and purple, but the colour is too similar to purple, so it is changed to the colour salmon. Now, the colour of medium is gold.
- This happened again on "Variable", where it was formerly yellow. It was changed to green to make it easier to see on a white background. Now, the colour of variable is purple.
- It also happened with "Impossible". The former colour of impossible was white (it was specially designed for April Fools). However, once this difficulty was officially implemented, for the glitched Level 578, it was changed to dark red. Now, the colour of impossible is gray.
- Before, there was no "Impossible" difficulty. It was first given out to Level 1 as an April Fools Joke, represented by the colour white.
- In the same year all Very Easy levels were reassigned "extremely hard" and all the rest levels reassigned to "Very Easy".
- When Level 578 was found out to be impossible without Jelly Fish, it was still white at the time the Impossible difficulty was handed out.
- Level 276/Dreamworld was once given the Impossible rating.
- The first "very hard" level was level 30, but it got downgraded afterwards. The first one currently is level 191.
- The first "extremely hard" level was level 35, but then it got downgraded and then redesigned. The first one currently is level 688.
- The hardest levels (and impossible levels) in the game are shifting during the process of making this game. First having level 35, then moving on to level 65. After that, the infamous level 147 was released and maintained to be the hardest level in 2013. Since then, level 350 appeared to take over level 147. However, between the release of Dreamworld episode Cookie Cabana and the nerf of level 147/Dreamworld, it became the hardest level in the game. With the nerf taken place to level 350 on May 28, level 578 became the hardest level in the game, and initially it was even impossible without using boosters. With the nerf of level 578, level 276/Dreamworld became the hardest since getting 300 blue candies with limited moves and blockers is an excruciatingly difficult job, which is almost impossible. Then, these two levels received another nerf and possibly the hardest level in the game became level 289/Dreamworld as there are almost no extremely hard levels in reality and level 289/Dreamworld became the only level that most players agree that it should be extremely hard. However, then level 380/Dreamworld took place because it is impossible without boosters like 578 in reality. However, after the nerf of 380, its place was taken over by level 677 (pre-nerf), because like level 276 of Dreamworld, was almost impossible without boosters. Then it was taken over by level 1330 until an incredibly hard level took its place, level 2069, because of its incredibly low amount of moves. Currently, arguably the hardest level in the game is level 2005, which was buffed once again from 50 to 12 moves. In Dreamworld, more new extremely hard levels were released alongside some quite challenging episodes starting with Funky Fortress, which continues until Snoozy Slopes (and Rambunctious Riffs is excluded from this). What's even worse is that later episodes of Reality contain tons of extremely hard levels. Level 147 pre-nerf was the first Nearly Impossible level.
- There is clearly an upward trend of level and episode difficulties as you climb up to the high levels. The most recently released levels are almost always at least Very Hard, and usually reside at Extremely Hard or even Nearly Impossible range. It has also made polls more irrelevant than in the past.
- Mostly, the attempts may not always be true as a person is lucky.