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Redesigning is the process in Candy Crush Saga in which the game developers, King, change a level or an in-game element in the level. Redesigning can be differentiated into two categories: Nerfing and Buffing. Further forms of redesigning include Reverting and Correcting.

Minor selective redesigns, also referred as tweaks, are nowadays done every business day as long as the player is connected to the internet, so the information posted on the wiki may slightly or considerably differ to different players. Most of these tweaks will eventually be incorporated as official redesigns affecting both online and offline players. The gallery below demonstrates the frequency and scope of tweaks.

An ongoing mass redesign is currently underway, resulting in almost all early levels becoming completely redesigned, much in character to April Fool's Day (2020) altering almost every episode names. As of 2022 Sep 25, the lowest unaffected level is Level 606, the opener of Cereal Sea (E42, World IX).

There are several different characters of redesigns:

  • Nerfing, is a community name given to the process by which the game developers make a level or an in-game element easier or less powerful.
  • Buffing, on the other hand, is a common term to describe a level or an in-game element being made more difficult or powerful.
  • Changing, is a redesign that inconclusively affects the difficulty of the level, or requires a completely different strategy, or are complete redesigns.
  • Reverting is to revert a level to a previous design.
  • Correcting is to correct unintended mistakes or inconsistencies in a board layout. This could include correcting tiles to maintain symmetry in a symmetrical board or board section, or to repair glitches, erroneously copied levels, levels affected by game mechanic changes, and impossible levels.

Now and then, when too many people complain that a level is too difficult and many players reach the level and quit, King will redesign the level to make it a little easier, or a lot easier in some cases and vice versa when buffing. Nowadays, buffing is much more common, particularly on new levels.

Common ways of redesigning levels

  • Adjusting moves - most of the time, more moves are given to complete the level. Level 167 is an example - the moves were raised from 45 to 50. This can also come in the form of giving bombs more moves before exploding. The bombs in 425 were increased from 10 moves to 15. On the other hand, moves are reduced to complete the level, like in 700, which had 75 moves but now has 45 moves.
    • Exceptional cases occurred in 735 and 15; they were nerfed by reducing the number of moves (from 35 to 25, and 90 to 16, respectively).
  • Adjusting the target score - they were done if the target score is too difficult to reach. Levels 98, 183, 392, 608 and 2290 are good examples. On the other hand, the target score can also be increased if it is too easy to reach.
    • Nowadays, this is rarely the case anymore, as when you complete the task, you will automatically complete the level. Unmistakably, the only exception is moves levels.
  • Adjusting the objective - This includes jellies, ingredients, and orders.
    • Jellies are removed from jelly levels. This can either be reducing double jellies to single jellies (65) or removing jellies completely. In some cases, the reverse can occur. Level 31 is an example, where jellies are added, while some have an extra layer.
    • More ingredients are added. 631 is an example; adding one more hazelnut to collect.
    • Changing orders. Most of the time, levels were redesigned to have less orders. These include 165, 245, 421, 677, and 1000. The list goes on and on.
  • Adjusting blockers - a very common type of redesign. Typically this involves taking layers off from frosting or removing frosting completely. Other blockers can be removed from levels as well. 305 is a good example - many layers were taken off the frosting and others removed. 325's nerf removed the liquorice swirls. On the other hand, 666, being a famous "level of sixes", has chocolate spawners added.
    • This may overlap with "adjusting the order" if said order requires blockers. One example is 1601, whose order is changed from chocolate to liquorice swirls.
      • Eventually, numerous levels were redesigned to unofficially introduce blockers in the game.
  • Changing colours - a very powerful redesign. This usually involves dropping a six-colour level to five colours, or a five-colour level to four colours. As this makes such a difference, this is usually balanced out by lowering the moves and/or adding blockers, but it still makes the level easier. Levels 65, 147, 167, 213, 350, 461 and 1128 are good examples of this type of redesign. Some levels like 677 removed a colour but added more moves.
  • Changing the structure of the board - sometimes a level is redesigned to an easier or a more difficult fashion. Redesigning can also involve moving components of the level around. 347 is an example.
    • An odd example is an HTML5 variation of level 1535. Upon release, this level was impossible due to ingredient spawning at the wrong place. After correction, there was a new candy cannon indicating the correct spawning location.
  • Changing stability of moon scale, before Dreamworld was removed. Examples include 123, 202 and 382.
  • Changing moon struck pattern, by modifying the charge moves and/or duration, before Dreamworld was removed. See the table below for examples.
Example of changing Moon Struck
Levels Charge moves (before) Duration (before) Charge moves (now) Duration (now)
68 10 1 9 1
147 17 1 10 10
202 10 3 10 1
276 20 (v1)
17 (v2)
3 (v1)
3 (v2)
14 1
  • Changing time - to time more or less. Levels 43 and 618 are examples. Nowadays, this only applies in Flash.
  • Changing the type of level - a rare form of redesigning usually due to duplicate levels and a few exceptional cases. Changing the type of level by changing from this type of level to that type of level.
    • The exceptional example is 1180, being an almost impossible candy order level until redesigned into a jelly level. Additionally, the original design receives a typical major nerf as aforementioned but reassigned to level 1317. Thus, 1180 concurrently has two nerfed versions.
    • Another example is 1730, which had four different level versions, an unreleased jelly level, and two former split versions, a timed level, a candy order level on HTML5, and a moves level.
    • Most time levels have been converted to Moves levels, although a few levels have been changed to different level types such as level 108.
  • Complete redesign - by far the rarest form of nerfing in the game. An entirely new board blueprint has been established for this level, replacing the old one such that the new version is much easier. 1180 is an example of a level which has undergone a complete redesign for this level number, yet undergone a nerf reassigned to level 1317. It happened frequently on later levels. Levels 26 and 29 are also good examples.
  • Game-wide and mechanics changes: When an element is removed from Candy Crush Saga, all levels for which the element applied to, if any, are redesigned to no longer contain the element.
    • For example, in 2018, all timed levels were changed to other types over a four-month period, until Level 18, the last remaining one, was changed to a jelly level on May 2, 2018, marking the official date on which the timed level type was removed.
    • At the release of 1.186, the scoring mechanism has been negatively altered resulting in lowered point values for detonating colour bombs and candy bombs. Thus, all moves levels were affected, and indirectly buffed without redesign. The score requirements of many levels had been decreased.
    • On 31 August 2021, the last 25 remaining moves levels were converted to other level types. That happened after April Fools 2020 and occurred concurrently to the mass redesign.
    • In February 2021, it was announced on King's official blog that the Mystery Candy and Chameleon Candy would be removed. This was formally carried out on April 30, 2021, as all levels that formerly contained one or both elements were redesigned to no longer contain them.
  • Mass redesign: Occassionally, there will be mass redesigns, sometimes spread over a wide period of time, causing entire ranges of levels to receive considerable or total rehaul. A current mass redesign starting since 2020, gradually resulted in total changes of now-early levels (levels before 1K, to the point that many elements once introduced late-game, now officially appear much earlier.

Redesigning Game Mechanics and Elements

With a new version of Candy Crush, players may be subject to redesigns in game mechanics, either soft-applied to some players once they go online, or officially applied to all players. They are often subtle, but can notably affect the difficulty of all applicable levels at once without directly redesigning the levels. Differences between game mechanics between Flash and Mobile resulted in split difficulties.

  • There were multiple subtle mechanics changes in cascades and the scoring formula. In particular, colour bombs yielded lots of points and scaled quadratically with the number of candies cleared this way. They synergized particuarly well with candy bombs, and many levels featuring candy bombs often featured very high target scores.
    • Level 97 was initially rated Very Hard upon release. It has been downgraded all the way to Easy without a single nerf to the level's config.
    • This benefit has been negated again with a negative change to the scoring formula in September 24, 2020. It was responsible for the extinction of Moves levels.
  • Formerly, popcorn are immune to the Lollipop Hammer and Jelly Fish avoid these blockers. Now popcorn can be hit by Lollipop Hammers (there is even a popup upon first encounter), and Jelly Fish prefer these blockers.
  • The Color Bomb + Color Bomb combo will now affect blockers as well as candies. Initially, they only targeted candies.
  • Cake bomb slices can now be removed via Color Bomb detonations, and affect popcorn.

Recently (v1.236), a glitch caused all Regular Icing, now indistinguishable from One-layered Frosting from appearing properly. They now are treated as empty gaps on the board. This rendered multiple levels Nearly Impossible or even completely Impossible.

  • One very notorious affected level was the opener of Episode 100, which went straight from Very Easy to Nearly Impossible.

Sugar Crush buff

A notable case is the jelly fish from the Sugar Crush of jelly levels on Flash compared to mobile. On both platforms, the fish used to give 1020 points each, but after some time during the early eras, only a few fish give 1020 points, the rest giving none on Flash. A possible reason is that special candies are easier to be created, the difficulty associated with many jelly levels, and due to the high score value of jellies. Nevertheless, this was resented by many players.

Eventually, with the release of Fungi Forest, jelly fish give off 1020 points a fish again on Flash.

Toffee Tornado Nerfs and Removal

Toffee tornadoes used to be introduced in the 29th episode, Soda Swamp. They were despised by many players. Being a most hated element and the incredible impact even one can have on a level, it accounts for the already endangered status of the tornado. The majority resided in its debut episode. This blocker was finally removed on 28th October 2015, making only a one-off event appearance before total removal.

  1. Inception: Permanent throughout the level.
  2. Release of Rainbow Runway: First nerf. One episode after Soda Swamp, if a special candy hits a tornado, it will exit the for 5 moves before returning.
  3. Release between Candy Kaiju and Fizzy Falls: Second nerf. If a special candy hits a tornado, it will disappear for the rest of the level.
  4. Release of Eggnog Emporium: Third nerf. They only move every 2 moves, and the crack they left disappears immediately.
    1. This means they can only block a total of one tile, and at the same time much easier to be removed, permanently.
  5. Release of Hoax Hollow: Removal by mass redesign. All tornadoes were replaced by other elements across both Reality and Dreamworld.
    1. They caused the unofficial release of many later-game elements, such as liquorice shell (in the previous versions of levels 414, 415 and 422) and UFO (such as level 419).
    2. They also constituted the last updates to Dreamworld, well after Dozy Dawn. The liquorice shell and the UFO otherwise would never make an appearance there.

List of notable redesigned Reality levels

This list is currently incomplete. Update it to include current levels. See Redesigning/Notable Levels.

Trivia

  • Nerfing upsets a lot of players, specifically those that completed the level when it was still hard. Reality level 735 is a good example.
  • Level redesigning usually occurs at the same time as an episode is released. However, some levels could also be reverted to their previous versions.
  • Sometimes levels go through multiple redesigns, usually being nerfs.
  • Levels 103 and 3980 have the most redesigns, with a whopping ten times!
    • Levels 65, 425 (excluding minor adjustments) and 3791, being redesigned nine times, are the levels with the second most redesigns.
  • Levels 65, 147, 213, 311, 350, 677, 1180, 276 DW, and 383 DW were all considered the absolute hardest levels of the game before they all got redesigned.
  • Levels 147, 382, and 500 are the levels where both the Reality and Dreamworld versions are nerfed.
  • Dreamworld levels 125 and 455 are the only Dreamworld levels which have a colour removed when the levels are redesigned.
  • Level 910 is the only level that has the three-star target score decreased while everything else is unchanged.
  • On 28 May 2014, there was one of the biggest nerf in Candy Crush Saga history. Six Reality levels were nerfed, all of which were the hardest and most complained about levels in the game. The levels included, 323, 350, 421, 425, 461, and 500. Reality Level 181 has also been nerfed.
    • On 28 October 2015, there was also another big redesign, as all levels with toffee tornadoes were redesigned, and all the toffee tornadoes were removed.
  • On 6 August 2014, 10 levels in the once ridiculously easy episodes Cereal Sea and Taffy Tropics were buffed. The only other level that had been buffed before it was nerfed was level 1. This does not account for two levels that were duplicates of other levels (fixed on 30 July along with the redesign of level 608. The changes to level 608 made it easier to pass as most players fail due to not reaching the one star target score).

Gallery

Moves220926

Trend of moves limit across all levels. Red points indicate moves limits for levels being soft-redesigned, affecting only selected players who have went online. Notice the red area from around Level 591 to Level 800 where mass redesigns are under way. On the other side, notice how recent levels are having their moves adjusted variously across players.

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