Sour Skull

Note that this page covers both sour skulls AND skull pedestals.

Sour Skull is one of the blockers in Candy Crush Saga. It first appears in the 527th episode, Fantastic Forest, with first being level level 8031.

Appearances[]

First appearance	Latest appearance
Level 5240 (unofficial) Level 8031 (official)	Level 17430

For the list of levels with this blocker, see here.

Properties[]

Empty Skull Pedestals cannot be damaged. To remove them, you have to make matches next to the sour skull, which becomes immune to other Cascades, then moves to another pedestal. In other words, you can only take off a layer a move. Sour skulls have five layers.
- If a level contains conveyor belts, as long as candies are on them, it is possible to clear 2 sour skull layers per move.
Once the skull is destroyed, so are all the pedestals. Pedestals can also have other elements secured, like blockers and ingredients.
A flashing skull pedestal means it will be the one the sour skull will be on next time it moves.
The amount of pedestals in a level can vary but usually there must be at least two so the Sour Skull can move. EXCEPTIONS:
- In Level 8594, the sour skull always remains on the same skull pedestal, despite there being multiple pedestals.
- In Level 8712, there is only one skull pedestal, thereby the skull also reappearing on the same pedestal.
The sour skull's movement can either be variable or fixed. In some levels, the sour skull starts on a random skull pedestal and moves to a random one upon being hit. In others, the sour skull always starts on the same pedestal and moves in a fixed pattern. In levels with more than five skull pedestals, the skull won't land on every pedestal before it is destroyed.
Sour skulls can't be spawned by magic mixers or yielded by lucky candies in levels where sour skull orders are required. This is likely because only one sour skull can appear in any level.

Notable levels[]

Level 5240 - First unofficial appearance.
Level 8031 - Officially first level with sour skulls, skull pedestals and sour skull order. First candy order level with them.
Level 8032 - First ingredients level with sour skulls and skull pedestals.
Level 8033 - First jelly level with sour skulls and skull pedestals.
Level 8037 - First level with empty skull pedestals and first level with sour skull encased by liquorice fence.
Level 8047 - First level with sour skulls and skull pedestals on conveyor belts.
Level 8059 - First mixed level with sour skulls and skull pedestals.
Level 8220 - First rainbow rapids level with sour skulls and skull pedestals.
Level 8230 - First level where sour skull order is required to unlock order locks.
Level 8288 - First jelly-order mixed level with sour skull order.
Level 8350 - First order-ingredients mixed level with sour skull order.
Level 8531 - First rapids-order mixed level with sour skull order.
Level 8594 - First level where the sour skull doesn't move to a different skull pedestal.
Level 8695 - First level with sour skull encased by candy cane curls
Level 8712 - First level with only one skull pedestal.
Level 8812 - First level with skull pedestal containing bonbon blitz.
Level 9010 - First level with a different colour scheme where sour skulls appear.
Level 9128 - First level where less than 5 sour skull layers are required for the order.
Level 9563 - First level with two coloured candies with a different colour scheme.
Level 9641 - First level with skull pedestal containing jelly jars.
Level 10514 - First level with skull pedestal containing candy cobras and their baskets.
Level 12454 - First level with skull pedestal containing dark chocolate fountains.
Level 13433 - First level with skull pedestal containing lucky candies.
Level 14381 - First six-coloured level with sour skull and skull pedestals.
Level 14684 - First level with skull pedestal containing non-spawning blue candies.

Trivia[]

It was tested in Tiffi and the Beanstalk. The first six levels with sour skulls match the six levels in said event (with minor changes, such as level 8031 having an empty space instead of another skull pedestal).
The concept of this element is similar to the Toffee Tornado. However, it can move in a fixed position (only to other skull pedestals) and only when hit. Toffee tornadoes, meanwhile, can move to almost any random tile every move (every two moves after being nerfed). Also, skull pedestals flash to let you know which one the sour skull will be on next time it moves, while toffee tornadoes don't give any indication.
- It might also be a reference of Heart in Candy Crush Friends Saga where it moves in a determined route at the end of cascades after being hit, with a limitation of being able to move up to 5 steps per cascade. While in the same time, each sour skull can only move one step per cascade.
Like sugar chests, rainbow rapid molds and order locks, the skull pedestal is an encasing blocker that can only be removed by clearing a certain element.
Once the sour skulls were hit 5 times, the pedestal(s) pops like its less-irritating counterpart, the Bubblegum Pop.
However, it did not clear jellies behind the blocker itself. It sometimes clears like rainbow twists, when a group of twists cleared and it doesn’t clear jellies. Sour skulls sometimes look similar to a rainbow twist grouping together.
Sour skulls can be required for candy orders and have the code number '34'. The order icon is a five-layered sour skull with no skull pedestal under it.
- Like crystal candies, liquorice swirls, and candy bombs, they are required for candy orders the first level they appear in.
- Unlike just about every other Candy order, this one almost always requires the same amount in each level (5 sour skull layers). This is because sour skulls always have 5 layers. This can also extend to levels where order locks need sour skull layers to unlock but Level 8240 is an exception. In Level 9128, less than 5 sour skull layers are required for a candy order for the first time.
Sour skulls have the tile map code 180.
No sour skulls appeared in Episode 541, Episode 544, Episode 546 or Episode 547.
Sour skulls are required for order locks in level 8230.
- This is the first order element required to unlock order locks after order locks themselves were introduced.
- An order lock that requires 5 sour skull layers to unlock will function the same way as a skull pedestal that the sour skull cannot land on.
Sour skull order is officially the last order to be introduced in 2020. Technically, Liquorice Shell orders was introduced in December 2020, but that blocker is a replacement for popcorn, which was required for orders from 2016.
As previously mentioned, in levels with only one skull pedestal, the sour skull will disappear and reappear on it.
While the sour skull takes five hits to destroy, skull pedestals cannot be damaged by special candy effects or regular matches. Theoretically, if there was ever a level with skull pedestals but no sour skull, the skull pedestals would be indestructible.
Sour skull is the first blocker that can only be hit once per move, since it becomes invulnerable for the rest of the move.
The sour skull's audio seems robotic. Even the pedestals popping make such noise.
Real sour skull candies are commonly eaten on Halloween, which makes a reference to the blocker's release date that this blocker was released a few weeks before Halloween.
While there can be many skull pedestals in a single level, only one sour skull appears per level. The sour skull is the second element in the game where only one of them can appear in a level, and two or more of them in one level is impossible by design. The first is the candy frog.
Unlike most destructible blockers, the Sour Skull cannot be destroyed in one shot by the Candy Cobra (it will only take one layer off instead of destroying it completely). This can be seen in Level 10964.
This is the last blocker type in chronological order to appear in a six-coloured level.
The skull pedestal is currently the last (and likely last, period) semi-indestructible blocker.

Gallery[]

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