Ingredients Levels, also widely known as Ingredient Drop Levels, are one of the five level types in Candy Crush Saga. This level type's icon is green with a white downwards arrow. Ingredients levels first appear in Candy Factory, the second episode, and the first ingredients level is Level 11.
Ingredients levels are the second most common level type, with 209 levels currently, making up 27.1% of all levels. The current trend is 4 ingredient levels per episode. Some earlier episodes have 5, and Bubblegum Bridge has 7. Meringue Moor also has 5 ingredient levels. Most episodes between Chocolate Barn and Cherry Chateau have either 3 or 4 ingredient levels.
Ingredients levels are considered easier than Jelly Levels, but there are still some very hard ingredients levels, such as levels 158, 181, 325, 361, 409, 417, 445, and 664 .
See the full list of Ingredients Levels here.
The two items that are only featured in this type of level are cherries and hazelnuts.
To win an ingredients level, the player must bring all the required Ingredients down to the bottom of the board (or anywhere where there is a green arrow). In some levels, only one ingredient is needed, and in others, up to 18 ingredients are needed.
There are 2 types of Ingredients a player will have to bring down: cherries and hazelnuts. Some levels require cherries, some require hazelnuts, and some require both. A certain number of each will have to be brought down to complete the level. 10,000 points are awarded for each ingredient collected.
The ingredients fall like normal candies. They come in through the top of the board, usually after another ingredient has been cleared. Some levels start with the ingredients already on the board, and in levels 217 and above, sometimes the ingredients come out of a dispenser.
When all ingredients have been collected, a striped candy is made for every move remaining, giving 3,000 points for each. Then each of the striped candies activate themselves.
Difficulty (Reality)
Ingredient Drop levels are generally easier than jelly levels and sometimes easier than Candy Order Levels. They are considered overall more difficult than Timed Levels. Like all level types, earlier ingredients levels are easier than later ones.
Many ingredient drop levels are easy. They generally have few colours, and many, even later ones, such as Level 439, are easy and almost pointless. But like all level types, there ARE difficult ingredient drop levels, but they are quite few.
Certain levels do have misplaced ingredients. Switching an ingredient left or right is the hardest things to do when it comes to ingredient levels. This requires luck and future prediction in order to set up a horizontal ingredient switch. Levels such as 315, 409, etc require switching or else a player will not win the level. The levels do not top out to be insanely hard but they are still very hard to manage. Luckily, these levels are not as common as insanely hard jelly levels.
However, when you do get a difficult ingredient drop level, they are VERY DECEIVING! They often look easy when they aren't. This can lead to players feeling stupid and bad about themselves if they don't realize the level is generally hard for the community. There are many examples of deceivingly difficult ingredient drop levels, such as Level 181, Level 325, Level 361, Level 445, Level 664, and even the original Level 500 to name a few. These levels often contain hidden difficulties which may not be so obvious when playing the level for the first time. This sneaky aspect of ingredient drop levels has led many people to quit and many others to rage.
Difficulty (Dreamworld)
Ingredient Levels are harder in Dreamworld. Although the hardest level in Dreamworld is not often an Ingredient level, there are many consistently hard levels in Dreamworld.
More ingredients are required to complete most levels. Level 383 is an example. Also, there are fewer moves given. The hardest part about these levels is usually only 1 ingredient can spawn on the board. That means that a large cascade is wasted if the ingredient is just as close as 1 square away from the exit. This is the reason why level 87 was voted as the hardest level in the Dreamworld before it was nerfed. Level 272 is also another notorious level because of this.
Trivia
It is impossible for one NOT to get 3 stars on Level 11 since the objective for achieving 3 stars is 3,000 points, whereas bringing down a single cherry would give you 10,000 points. The same thing is true with Level 22, Level 30, pre-nerf Level 664, and Level 671.
Bubblegum Bridge has 7 ingredients levels - the most of any episode.
Wafer Wharf has only one ingredients level. It is the only episode to have more Timed levels than ingredients levels.
Levels 87, 187, 287, 387, 487, and 587 are all ingredients levels, but level 687 is a jelly level. Of these levels, 587 is the easiest having only 3 colours present in the board.
The most ingredients required in a single level is 18, with 9 cherries and 9 hazelnuts, in levels 357 and 376.
It is impossible to score fewer than 10,000 points on an Ingredients level as bringing down an ingredient scores a player 10,000 points. In levels 357 and 376 it is impossible to score fewer than 180,000 points.
Ingredients Levels are the only levels where the Coconut Wheel can be used.
Meringue Moor has 5 ingredient levels (including Level 500). This is the first level to have more than four since Crunchy Castle. They are separated by 17 episodes.
Only twice in the game has an episode finale fallen on a level multiple number of 100. Both times this happened (levels 200 and 500), the level type was ingredients.
In the most cases, the required target score is equal to the points awarded when all ingredients are dropped, for example, if you must drop 4 ingredients, then the target score will be 40,000, making the level impossible to fail because of not reaching the target score.
Level 417 - Another super difficult ingredients level. A level dependent on luck.
Level 500 - Used to be a level with most moves in the game (65), also milestone level number, supposedly the hardest ingredients level, and considered one of the hardest levels in the game. Now badly nerfed.
Level 586 - The hardest ingredient level to earn three stars.
Level 587 - One of only three levels in the whole game to contain just 3 candy colours. The others are 31 and 621.
Level 600 - Milestone level, and contains the first 3 item dispenser.
Level 645 - Another level highly dependent on luck (Particularly where the ingredients spawn.)
Level 700 - Another milestone level it along with Level 696 used to have the largest number of moves in the game, 75. It has since been, buffed and now has 45 moves.
