I passed some threshold recently (I’m on level 382 now) where you get a free power up every day–randomized, based on a Wheel of Fortune-style dispenser, but still allowing you to accumulate them until you feel you really need them…
…which, incidentally, might be now, since 382 seems virtually impossible without using a power up (and even then, so far without success). We’ll see, but this one’s an ass-kicker.
Like Anamorphic, I paid the $0.99 once when I had one move left. And it still pisses me off that after I won, the other moves I didn’t use disappeared.
Did any of you get updated? Now I have a nifty daily prize wheel. I win hammers and fish and things. No idea what the “Jackpot” prize is. And the prizes don’t seem to disappear, so they’re handy. But due to a phone malfunction, I had to start over again, so I’m only on 91.
I had all of Candy Crush gels completed it stated I didn’t. It has done this many times hold on to your cash people. It is rigged majority of all games are rigged. I haven’t paid either, but have won when the game stated that I didn’t so I had to continue to play the same level.
I was going to post about that…I’ve got that little wheel of fortune available and I’m around level 160. I use it often just to stockpile free power-ups. I noticed, though, that if you select/use a power up, be sure to un-check it next time you play, otherwise you’ll use them all up without noticing.
I admit a spent a few dollars on it early on - I forget what level it was but I was stuck there for about a month and about to lose my mind. Since then, though, not a penny.
Another confession: I play it on my phone and on my iPad…not linked to FB or anything so when I run out of lives on one, I can grab the other. 
I’ve made it to 257 and have yet to pay a nickel or link to social media. It’s doable.
You might be out of luck soon. At some point (I think around the late 200s or maybe early 300s) it stopped giving me the “Play quests to unlock” option when I got to the end of a section. The only options are to pay 69p or to pester friends. I pay the 69p. I’m on level 383 so far.
Other than that I have maybe bought power-ups or extra moves a dozen or so times, which still makes it pretty cheap for several months of entertainment.
Of course, if you’re playing on an iPhone and you run out of lives, you can just go into the phone Settings menu, change the time forward three hours, switch back to Candy Crush for a second to check your lives have updates, then set the time back to automatic. Takes a few seconds and refills your lives, and can be repeated as often as you like.
Edit: I should have Googled earlier. It turns out the Mystery Quests option disappears if you are logged in to Facebook. I shouldn’t have logged in, seeing as I never ask for lives etc.
Eh. If the only options are pay or pester, I’ll stop playing. I’ve got other games.
Neat tip on refills though. I’ll have to try that.
I know I don’t have to, but I’ve been paying each time to go up to the next section. I don’t have the patience to wait for the quests to unlock.
I think I’m around 193 now, but man, 181 had me stuck for days.
My iPad is currently out of juice and the charger is in storage, so I’m just playing on the wife’s iPhone - have been stuck on 350 for some time now. With a lot of these harder levels, it’s often a matter of just getting a perfect run together, there’s not a great deal of skill to it or many tactics you can deliberately employ. As such, the game is very cleverly designed, because if you have been stuck for weeks on a level and then get oh so close to completing it, the temptation to spend 69p in order to finish is strong. But I am stronger, and am yet to pay anything. Despite the randomness of it, it’s somehow therapeutic to shuffle candies around for a few minutes, and there is just enough satisfaction from spotting a good move, or working out how to engineer a “five” next to stripey, to keep my interest.
A perfect summary of my feelings. I’ve been stuck on 182 for a bit now; it’s a timed level with bombs, which makes it particularly diabolic. But I know that one of these tries, everything will just happen to fall the right way, so I keep playing.
Reported.
OK, so I reached somewhere in the mid-400s soon after my last post (over a year ago) when my phone crashed and I lost everything. I wasn’t in the mood to start from scratch right away, so have only resumed the game (from the beginning) recently…along with the Candy Crush Soda game, in parallel.
And something has changed.
Before, you used to reach a certain stop point where you had the option of (a) paying your way through that barrier, or (b) solving 3 puzzles, limit one per day, which would then get you through the barrier. This latter option was free but it just meant waiting a bit.
Now, however, that is no longer an option. Now, you either (a) pay, like before, or (b) have a “friend” “help” you through to the next stage. Which I don’t understand.
I passed the first barrier by asking for help (“Click All”) and someone doing something to get me to the next level. No idea Who or How. This is just a weird and (to my mind) pointless development. I have not registered my game through Facebook (which I suppose I should) but don’t really see the point behind this arbitrary adjustment.
Any thoughts?
It’s been that way as long as I’ve been playing CC. No puzzles, just ask friends for help via Facebook.
It does not cost anyone anything to help you, nor you to help them. Your requests and their help shows up in the same little “mail” area where your free moves and free lives go.
But if you don’t have any friends via FB, you probably don’t have any free moves or free lives…?
I do believe that when they first started it, all of your Facebook friends were available for you to ask - whether they played the game or not. So if you didn’t have a grasp on who might be playing and/or you checked “all” you would send notifications/invites to everyone on your FB friends list. Even if they weren’t playing.
Which in turn would bring new players into the game for them, and make them more money (they hoped). Eyeballs on screens meant money.
I quit playing for a while and now play like 2 or 3 times a week. But I think they’ve updated it to be more upfront about which one of your friends is playing so when you do a request the friends they suggest for you to check are all people who have played recently. So you’re not blanket spamming everyone and actually sending requests out to people who can/will help you.
I don’t know anything about reaching out to anonymous. I would hook up on FB if I were you. So you can see who is playing and have them help you every 10 levels. You should be able to keep the app from posting on your wall. Mine has never done it.
I have found (from playing on my iPad, where I have no data connection unless I have wireless internet available) that when the app detects an internet connection, it will only offer the “ask friends” (or pay) option to progress from one episode to the next (which occurs every 15 levels). Whereas if I am not connected to the internet, it will offer the “play quests” option, where it gives you an old level to do (but with a higher scoring target) and if you complete this, you have to wait 24 hours for the next one. Having completed 3, you are allowed to progress. In this way, you can theoretically progress through the game for free without paying anything or bothering anyone else, if you disable your internet connection. However, I tend to ask my Facebook friends who I know play the game as this is much quicker (the “quests” are often tough), as it’s no real bother to them, and certainly costs no money (either for them or me).
Hope this helps.
Incidentally, with the latest update it seems something has changed and maybe they are breaking the link with Facebook, but I haven’t got to the bottom of that yet - anyone know anything more?
I’m currently on about level 450 on the “daytime” side, and 220 or so on the “nighttime” side.
I got started on Candy Crush after it was a little past its peak of popularity, and only have four or five friends who still play. If I ask for help to get to the next episode, sometimes they’ll see it and sometimes they won’t. But after four days or so, the game will let me go to the next episode anyway.
I probably shouldn’t admit to which level I’m on.
Thanks for the responses! I’ve been doing some experimenting and have discovered that yes, it doesn’t cost anything if I “help” a friend out. And I assume it’s not cost anything when they’ve helped me out. The next question is: Who are these friends?
I still haven’t signed in via Facebook, but there are still a variety of players in the game who are listed as some kind of connection, and constitute a mini-address roster, of sorts. Most of the names are not specialized handles, but obvious auto-generating ones. But I still don’t know who these people are!
Also, what is exactly up with the rankings? I think it’s neat that it tells me how I rank against other players, but sometimes, I’ll complete a level that has two dozen listings in the ranking, and then the next level, I’m only one of two in the ranking. Then, the next level over 20 again. Strange.
Thanks for the advice about the internet connection and its relationship to the quests. While I prefer the quests, it seems pretty harmless to ask for help (from these strangers, essentially) and not worth the trouble of constantly turning on and off my web link.
Thanks everyone! 
Well, as the British would say…
Sorted.