I admit it: I was a Candy Crush addict for several months. It’s the perfect way to while away the time whilst standing in airport terminals, waiting for taxis, and just generally getting from A to B. While I have since recovered my senses and deleted the game from my phone (and iPad) for those of you still stuck obsessively crushing candy, here’s how to cheat your way to the next level of Candy Crush without breaking a sweat!
The best way to cheat at Candy Crush is to play it on a device that isn’t synced to your Calendar. Why? Because the 30 minute wait time for an extra life goes by your iPhone or iPad’s internal clock. If you don’t want to wait the 2.5 hours for 5 extra lives (and really, why should we?), and yet you’re tired of giving the app another .99 cents (I think I paid around $20 before learning this trick), simply go into your “Settings” and move your clock forward 3 hours. The downside is that when you do this, any apps that sync to your device’s clock are going to be seriously messed up. The solution? Leave your iPhone alone, and start playing the game on your iPad exclusively, removing your other apps’ ability to sync between devices (you can also do this under “Settings.) It’s by no means perfect, but at least you can functionally use your iPhone as normal, while you iPad moves further and further into the future.
Are you something of a coder? Did you know you can mess with Candy Crush’s Facebook code to get more helper items? I definitely didn’t, and while I quit Candy Crush before I got this seriously into trying to cheat the game, I was impressed to learn how you can manipulate the Candy Crush server code to cheat. All it takes is a simple HTTP server proxy and add a script to it. Then enter python ccrush.py <sessionid> <episode> <level> to enable it.
One of the ways Candy Crush can get frustrating is that it gets hard quickly. By level 50, you’re struggling to win easily, and with over 500 levels (544 at recent count), the levels are being added faster than you can beat them! Add in the new Dreamworld expansion that launched in December 2013, and the idea of ever beating the game suddenly seems incredibly daunting. Never fear, the Internet is full of level-specific cheats and tricks. Some are more helpful than others (and include video walkthroughs), but I wish I’d reviewed some of these tricks before wasting 20 minutes on a really hard chocolate-and-gel level. Quickly reviewing each level’s tricks right before you start playing it will get you through the game much more quickly.
Finally, remember to review the functions of all the specific and “special” candies. Since Candy Crush is so intuitive and there’s no need to read any directions before you begin to play, most people learn what the specials candies are and what they can do by trial-and-error. It took me hours before I figured out that striped candy and wrapped candy together will clear rows and columns both vertically and horizontally. Had I known that earlier, I definitely would have made it a priority and gotten through more levels. Good luck, Crushers!
