Candy Crush Saga Ingredients Levels

The concept of the Candy Crush Ingredient Level is one that is introduced early. I believe the first one is on level 11. However, it's a commonly recurring objective throughout the game, and at the later levels you'll really learn to hate these crazy ingredient requirements.

Candy Crush Saga Ingredient levels are the first time the game gives you an objective that can't be reached just by matching whatever's handy. Still, though, you've got to go for score in these levels. This conflict of interest between multiple goals is a theme you'll see often repeated throughout Candy Crush Saga. Here, we've collected our most potent tips and tricks for beating these ingredient levels, in the hopes that they will prove useful to those who are stuck.

Ingredient Levels: Matches to Watch Out For

Not just any match is helpful on an ingredient level. If a match isn't under an ingredient, it's unlikely to be helpful. There are exceptions to this, especially once other obstacles like chocolate are in the mix. However, this is really the first time that you should start ignoring the hint system completely. The hint system seems like it should be telling you things to help you win, but often times the hint system in Candy Crush Saga will just make you waste moves.

Instead, focus on candy directly below the ingredients whenever possible. A three or more in a row match arranged vertically below an ingredient is usually the best you can hope for. When you're in this situation, the ingredients can make a big move!

Ingredient Levels: Special Candies You Need

As the number of colors of candy goes up, though, it's difficult to get matches that are directly below an ingredient. The number of colors ensures that most of the board is populated with 1 or 2 in a row of the same candy, without room for a bunch of matches that could potentially help you out.

That's where special candies come into play. The advantage of a special candy is that it can change the board far from where the match is made. This is an essential advantage in many levels, where the candies at the bottom of the board that you need to clear in order to move the ingredient are stale and have no moves available.

Of these, I would suggest prioritizing:

Remember your special candy combos! If you get a couple of seemingly "useless" horizontal striped candies, you can match them together to clear a row and a column, for instance.

Related Guide Need a special candy refresher? Check out our special candies guide!

Ingredient Levels: They Keep Getting Harder!

As you progress through the levels, Candy Crush Saga keeps throwing more mechanics at you left, right, and center. As it does, the ingredient levels continue to get harder.

The difficulty here is that you've only got so many moves to get the ingredients down, score big, and deal with these other impediments. Special Candies - especially combos - are oftentimes the only way to make progress on all of these things at one time!

Related Guide Chocolate got you down? Click here for our chocolate guide!

Ingredient Levels: Stuck in a Corner?

The most painful way to lose a Candy Crush Saga Ingredients Level is by getting your ingredient stuck in a corner. Many of the later ingredients levels will give you a spot with a stair step pattern and no "goal" square at the bottom. It's important to watch out for these corners - you can tell them apart from "goal" spaces by the little green arrow. No green arrow? That's not a goal!

The best cure for getting stuck in a corner is to avoid doing it in the first place. As they say, "an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure." It's much easier to change what column you're in before you get stuck.

The only way to move an ingredient to a new column is with a vertically aligned match. This means that the candy above and/or below the ingredient must be the same color as the candy one column to the left or right of the candy. Only in this configuration can you swap the ingredient to a new column!

If you're stuck in the corner, this means that you only have a single option open to you. You must get the two candies on top of the ingredient to be the same as the one candy to the left or right of the ingredient. Only then can you get unstuck. This is exceptionally rare, unfortunately. No amount of special candies or paid-for boosts will help - once stuck like this, you're done for unless you can make this particular match.