Unlocking new episodes in Candy Crush Saga can be a tricky (or costly!) process. If you've endured the wall of pain that is Lemonade Lake, you're well aware that in order to get from level 35 to level 36 you need tickets.
Get used to this, since you'll need tickets again to get from level 50 to level 51. You can always buy these tickets for $0.99, or bug your friends, but you can also play a set of Candy Crush Saga Mystery Quests. What are Mystery Quests? Read on to find out! Besides paying or bugging your friends, as I mentioned in my CCS guide, the other option is to play three Candy Crush Saga Mystery Quests. Mystery Quests are random repeats of levels you've cleared, with a higher score threshold than the normal levels. You can play only one Mystery Quest per day, although I've heard of people having luck moving their phone's clock forward a day in order to bypass this restriction.
Getting Mystery Quests in Candy Crush Saga
You can't get Candy Crush Saga Mystery Quests via Facebook, or so I've been told. Bummer for those of you who don't play on a mobile device!
Warning! A few people now have mentioned that if you've got a massive stockpile of lives (in most cases I've heard, it's been more than 50), logging out of Facebook will reset you to the default maximum of 5. If you've got a lot of friends giving you lives, it might be better to ask them for tickets rather than doing Mystery Quests.
UPDATE for December 2014! In December 2014 King pushed a new feature called "Kingdoms" to Candy Crush Saga. They took away Mystery Quests as an option - unless your phone/tablet is completely offline!
To be considered offline, you can't be connected to wi-fi OR 3G/4G data. The easiest way to get offline is to turn on "Airplane mode." Turning on Airplane Mode requires that you go into the settings on your device. It will be under the data settings header on most devices.
Then you should go back to the map, and tap the plane/train/boat/etc icon that is past the last level you've been to, and the Mystery Quest option should appear.
If you're still having trouble, make sure your Candy Crush Saga app is the latest version. If you've been holding off on downloading updates for the app, you might be missing this feature.
Winning Mystery Quests in Candy Crush Saga
Playing a Mystery Quest is challenging, so I highly suggest you read and follow the tips and strategies in our two part guide to the best tips and tricks for playing Candy Crush Saga - you'll avoid a lot of frustration!
The primary difference between a "normal" version of a Candy Crush Saga level and the "Mystery Quest" version of that same level is that the score threshold is significantly higher in a Mystery Quest. If you just squeaked by on score the first time you played a particular level, you may have trouble with the Mystery Quest. To max out your score, try some of these tips:
- Clear the objective early. Like I mentioned in the guide, clearing the objective with moves to spare gives you a massive score boost.
- Make special candy and then ignore it. All special candy is detonated when you run out of moves, so don't bother with these candies unless you need them to complete the objective. They'll clear out and give you points for free.
- Watch for score boosts that you're awarded for clearing other obstacles. For instance, bombs are worth 3000 points when you clear them, and the average 3-in-a-row is only worth 60.
You can still roll Mystery Quests, but it's a bit more involved since you'll have to do a few more taps. (New to rolling? Click here to learn more about this handy technique!) Make sure when you're rolling that you're tapping on the plane/train/boat icon instead of the last level you were on!
If you're having issues, remember that these are recycled levels from earlier in the game - you can look at the screen before you start to figure out what level you're replaying. Then you can search online (or, better yet, in our Candy Crush Saga article archives) to find a strategy to help you out.