Ingredients levels require you to bring cherries and hazelnuts through the board and out through exit tiles, usually at the bottom. The objective seems straightforward — but blockers, inefficient column choices, and multi-ingredient boards make these levels surprisingly hard to optimize.
How Ingredients Move
Ingredients don't move on their own. They drop one tile whenever:
- You make a match in the same column as the ingredient, clearing the tile directly below it
- An explosion (stripe, wrapped) hits the tile directly beneath the ingredient
- A cascade match clears a tile in the ingredient's column
Ingredients do not move horizontally on their own. They can only fall straight down, or shift horizontally if the board layout has angled paths built into its exit routes.
Where Ingredients Exit
Exit tiles are marked with a downward arrow at the bottom edge of the board (occasionally on the sides). Ingredients must reach one of these tiles to count as collected. On boards with multiple exits, any ingredient can exit through any marked tile — you're not locked to specific columns.
Step-by-Step Strategy
- Identify exit positions. Look at where the arrows are before making any moves.
- Trace each ingredient's path. Which column does it need to travel through? Are there blockers in that path?
- Clear blockers first. Licorice, ice, and locked tiles in the ingredient's path must be removed before the ingredient can pass through.
- Make matches in the ingredient's column. Every match directly in the column drops the ingredient one row.
- Use vertical stripes for fast drops. A vertical striped candy in the same column clears the entire column — dropping the ingredient multiple rows at once.
Best Candies for Ingredients Levels
Vertical Striped Candy
The most efficient tool. A vertical stripe in an ingredient's column can drop the ingredient from the top of the board to near the exit in a single move. To make a vertical stripe, match 4 candies in a horizontal line.
Wrapped Candy
A wrapped explosion hits a 3×3 area, which can clear blockers on and around the ingredient's path in one move. This is the best combo for breaking open a blocked column quickly.
Color Bomb + Striped
Fires stripes across the full board. On an ingredients level, some of those vertical stripes will pass through ingredient columns and drop multiple ingredients simultaneously. Very efficient on levels with 4+ ingredients.
Handling Multiple Ingredients
When you have 3–5 ingredients to drop, prioritize the one with the clearest path to an exit first. Getting one ingredient out quickly often frees up board space and column access for the remaining ones.
Don't try to move all ingredients equally. Pick the easiest one first, clear it, then move to the next. The board becomes more manageable as ingredients exit.
When Ingredients Are Stuck
An ingredient won't fall if its entire column path is blocked. Common blockers: licorice swirls (require a match adjacent to them), ice tiles (require a match or explosion on the ice square), and locked tiles (require a key match). Identify and clear these before expecting the ingredient to move.
If an ingredient is stuck against the side of the board with no path to an exit, you may need to create a path using the board's candy-flow mechanics — making large cascades that shift the board's structure. This is rare but happens in later-episode level designs.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do ingredients move in Candy Crush Saga?
They fall down one tile per match made in their column. Stripes and explosions in the column also move them. They exit through arrow tiles at the bottom (or sides) of the board.
What is the fastest way to bring down ingredients?
Vertical striped candies fired through the ingredient's column — they clear the whole column and drop the ingredient multiple rows at once.
What ingredients appear in Candy Crush Saga?
Cherries and hazelnuts are the most common. Some levels include acorns or other items. All function identically — they need to reach an exit arrow tile.
Why won't my ingredients fall?
Blockers (licorice, ice, locked tiles) are in the column path below the ingredient. Clear those first — the ingredient can't pass through blocked tiles.
Do ingredients fall through teleporters in Candy Crush?
Yes — in levels with teleporter tiles, ingredients can be teleported to a different part of the board. This is usually built into the intended solution path for those levels.
Last updated: June 2026 · All Candy Crush guides