Candy Crush Soda Saga: Top 10 tips, hints, and cheats you need to know!

November 17, 2014

If you didn't get enough candy-crushing action out of the original Candy Crush Saga, you can rejoice because Candy Crush Soda Saga is here for both iPhone and iPad with all new challenges and levels to master. With it comes new challenges, obstacles, and candies. You'll also need to be on the lookout for new combos that can help you rack up some serious points. We've got all the tips, hints, and cheats you need to get past the toughest levels, and even a tip on how to earn free lives faster, no real-world money required!

1. How to get free lives faster

In Candy Crush Soda Saga, you earn about two lives every hour or so with a maximum of five lives. If you run out, you'll have to wait or cough up cash for gold bars. Or do you?

As luck would have it, Candy Crush Soda Saga is susceptible to the same free-lives cheat that the original game is. Just hop into the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and navigate to General and Date and Time. Just move time forward a few hours and relaunch the game. Voila! Your lives are refreshed and you can keep crushing candies!

2. How to scout out Frozen Bears under ice

Frozen Bears are stuck under either one or two layers of ice. Once you crack the first layer, you'll be able to see a faint blueish-green glow where a Frozen Bear is stuck. Save moves by only going after areas of ice that contain bears. In Soda Saga, candy falls through ice and doesn't act as a barrier, so if you don't need to smash the ice, leave it be.

3. Don't let soda bottles pass you by in Bubble Bear levels

When trying to save Bubble Bears, be sure you don't let soda bottles go off the screen by making the bear rise too fast. Ensure that you match all the bottles on the same level or below the Bubble Bear before making it rise any further. If you can't raise the soda level enough, you'll build yourself into a corner that you can't get out of. Just keep your eyes peeled on all corners of the screen so soda bottles don't unknowingly pass you by.

4. In candy necklace levels, use vertical striped candies to reach the top faster

Once you've matched all the soda bottles on the screen (or they're far enough up), create vertical striped candies in the same column as your Bubble Bear. When you detonate them, you'll clear the entire row and he'll float to the top faster. While this theory doesn't always work, whenever you get the opportunity, you should definitely take it as it can save you a few moves. Just be sure your bear has room to rise, otherwise you'll be wasting a striped candy for a bear that can't rise far enough.

5. Remember that Frosted Bear locations are random each time

While some levels always remain the same in Candy Crush, the Frosted Bear locations are always random. That means if you have to restart a level, don't plan on the bears being in the same place twice. Your memory won't help you here and you'll just have to watch the ice and use your best judgement each time in order to figure out where the Frozen Bears are hiding.

6. How to use Coloring Candies wisely

Coloring Candies are new in Soda Saga and can be created by matching a whopping seven candies. You can then swap a coloring candy with any candy on the board, just like you can with colorbomb candies. Just be sure you understand what they do. Basically, whatever color is on the inside of the coloring candy is the color the pieces will change to.

For example, if the coloring candy is green, the color you swap it with will be changed to green. You'll always want to swap a coloring candy with a color that you have a lot of on the board. If you have a green coloring candy and it's next to a yellow piece — and you have a lot of yellow pieces on the board — swap it with yellow. Ideally, wait until you have a good amount of both the coloring candy color and the color of the candy you're swapping with. The idea is to maximize how many pieces get cleared off the board. (I sometimes use coloring candies as ways to free candy in pesky licorice cages, as well if matching colors are surrounding them.)

7. Only create Swedish Fish if you need them

In Soda Saga you can now summon Swedish Fish on demand by creating a square grid of four of the same candy. While this is useful for getting at hard- or impossible-to-reach candy, you don't always need fish. For instance, if you're in a Frozen Bear level and there isn't anything hard to reach, you probably won't need to create fish. And since fish pop things largely at random, you're always taking a chance. Save your moves and create fish only as you have a need for them.

8. Master the physics of Bubble Bear levels

In Bubble Bear levels, candies flow up from the bottom to the soda line. If you swap pieces above the soda line, candies will fall downward. Remember this and plan each move based on this fact. There's nothing worse than wasting a combo that you thought would bring a Bubble Bear above the line only to realize the soda isn't high enough and the candies fell instead of rose, or vice versa. Since these kinds of levels aren't timed, you're better off planning moves accordingly and not rushing.

9. Get to know your barriers such as chocolate, honey, and others

As you progress through Soda Saga, you'll come into contact with different kinds of barriers along the way, just like in the original Candy Crush Saga. Here's a few general rules to remember for each type of barrier so you know what to expect.

Chocolate: Just like in the first game, as long as chocolate is on the board, it'll keep multiplying unless you break at least one piece each move. The piece it covers is gone forever, so watch your combo pieces before chocolate gets to them.
Pastry, cupcakes, and other treat items: The more toppings and items that are on them, the more matches you'll have to get in order to break them down. Once you get them down to the wrapper, you need one more hit to break past them.
Honey: You'll need to break through honey in order to save bears. Honey layers can vary in thickness from one to six layers. When it's only one to two layers, you should be able to see bears through it. Anything more than that and you'll have to do some guesswork first in order to learn the location of trapped bears.

10. Most original Candy Crush Saga rules apply to Soda Saga

You can use many of the same combos and strategies from the original Candy Crush game in Soda Saga as well. As such, whether you're just getting started with Candy Crush, haven't played in a while, or want even more tips and tricks, check out our original guides for even more helpful tips to get you past those tough levels!

And if Candy Crush isn't your thing, we've got lots of other game guides for you to check out as well!