With the December 2013 iOS update comes Candy Crush Saga Dreamworld (available earlier to a select few). Dreamworld is a new Episode, but unlike most of the other new episodes that require you to unlock all of the previous ones, you can jump into Candy Crush Dreamworld without any prerequisites. At this point you might think that the folks at King were feeling the holiday spirit and wanting to say thanks to their fans for all of their success this year. That may well be the case, but play a little of Dreamworld and you'll quickly start to see some of the same old shenigans. As usual, WOTS is here to help - and while we will be putting out some articles on particularly tough levels, it is also worth sharing some basic tips for Dreamworld and the difference in mechanics.
Keeping Odus on the level
Your new frenemy in Candy Crush Dreamworld is Odus the Owl, who balances on a new game mechanic: the Moon Scale. The Moon Scale is a new handicap that forces you to balance the amount of candies you crush for two specific colors (on either side of the scale). Tip the scale too far in one direction, and you'll discover that there is a new way to fail levels. Happy Holidays indeed.
Pro Tip The balance of the Moon Scale is determined by the number of candies of each color that you crush. Even if Odus is already leaning in one direction, it's fine to match candies that are in that direction as long as you combo to match candies of the opposite color. Try to create combos and trigger special candies that crush an equal or nearly equal number of the Moon Scale candies.
Pro Tip You can cheat the Moon Scale system a little when it is the last move before winning the level, or the last move before a "Moonstruck" event. Since the "Moonstruck" event always happens after the same number of moves, you can use this to your advantage to ignore the Moon Scale balance on the last move before a Moonstrike.
Moonstriking
If every cloud has a silver lining, the Dreamworld "Moonstruck" mechanic is such a lining. Once you fill the yellow meter on the Moon Scale, Odus will execute a "Moonstruck" event which eliminates one or more colors similar to a Color Bomb, and blocks the color(s) from reappearing for the duration of the "Moonstruck" event (making other Special Candies and Special Candy Combos easier). The duration of the "Moonstruck" event is limited, sometimes lasting only a single turn. Even with it's limited duration, it is one of the rare instances of a little gift from the King "hate engineers" - they're such nice folks.
Pro Tip During the "Moonstruck" event the Moon Scale stays balanced for a fixed amount of time. You can watch the yellow gauge tick backwards to get an idea of how many moves you have left, or on the tougher levels just memorize how many since it is always the same. Take full advantage of the event by making all the imbalanced matches you've been waiting on.
Pro Tip Certain moves are borderline impossible when the Moon Scale is active, and must be done during the "Moonstruck" event. In particular, save you Color Bombs, and pretty much any Special Candy Combo besides Striped + Striped. Using Color Bombs during the "Moonstruck" event is particularly effective, since one color is already eliminated your chances of creating more Color Bombs are greatly improved.