Timed levels

Timed level icon on Facebook

Timed levels, officially known as Time levels, are one of the five level types in Candy Crush Saga. This level type's icon is purple with an hourglass. Timed levels first appear in  the 2nd episode, Candy Factory, with the first timed level being level 20.

Your objective is to earn at least one star before the time runs out.

Like moves levels, relatively a few timed levels exist, with only 53 timed levels currently existing, making up 3.48% of all levels. They are moderately common up to World 6, but long appearance droughts will occur afterwards. The distribution is also highly skewed, as most of them occur in the first 5 worlds. Timed levels are very rare after Sugary Shire, with a group of them in late World 8 and Worlds 22 and above.

Timed levels only appear in Reality, their Dreamworld counterparts are always replaced with other level types. Timed levels are considered the easiest level type; only a few levels (such as 134, 182, and 973) are very hard to earn even one star. Later timed levels, on the other hand, can be notoriously hard to earn three stars.

See the full list of Timed levels here.

Objective

How to play (mobile)

Timed level Icon on mobile

These are the only level type which is not restricted by moves.

To pass a timed level, a certain score must be achieved within the time allocated, such that you will earn at least one star. When a match subsequently results in three cascades, a +5 candy will come down. If the cascades are still in progress, a +5 candy will come down after every four cascades. When time runs out all special candies are activated, then +5 candies are turned into wrapped candies and activated.

The Extra Time booster gives 15 seconds extra at the start and the discontinued Charm of Frozen Time used to freeze the timer until the player made their next move.

When an Extra Time Candy is matched, it will only grant 5 seconds or refill the timer, whichever is less.

Difficulty

• Highest difficulty for one star: Very hard
• Timed levels are the easiest level types, since your goal is just to earn one star. There are only a few hard timed levels to earn one star like 134, 182, and 973. They are also very fun to play, especially level 252.
  • They are easy because you simply have to earn one star, and you are not pressured due to number of moves, but there is time limit.
  • On the contrary, many later timed levels are notoriously hard to earn three stars. Level 297 is an example.

A green Extra Time Candy.

When you see this as your result of that level, obviously you fail if you don't have money or sufficient gold bars.

How to pass timed levels.

Trivia

• This is the level type in the original Candy Crush and Action Mode of Bejeweled.
• This is one of the two 'primitive' level types, as their sole objective is the score. The other 'primitive' level type is moves, and it is used for tutorial levels.
• There has never been two consecutive timed levels.
• There has never had an episode with three or more timed levels.
• There has never been a timed level as an episode opener.
• There never had been a timed level that was insanely hard to earn even one star. However, many later timed levels are insanely hard to earn three stars.
  • Level 297 is an insanely hard level to earn three stars, yet it is almost impossible to fail to reach the target score.
• The distribution of timed levels vary. They become progressively rarer as you progress through the episodes.
  • They are somewhat common up to World 5, but rare since World 6 and so on.
  • Up to Sweet Surprise, around 1 in 8 levels are timed, and episodes have an average of around two timed levels.
  • After Sweet Surprise, it decreases to 1 in 15. Episodes have one timed level each until Licorice Tower.
  • At Licorice Tower, timed level abundance have dropped such that there is only one timed level per every two episodes. They finally make a long absence since Sugary Shire.
  • However, at Cereal Sea, they make a short reappearance, but further on, they became very rare; most later worlds do not feature even one timed Level. Now timed levels are getting considerably more common.
• Candy Factory, Chocolate Mountains, Easter Bunny Hills, Salty Canyon, Peppermint Palace, and all episodes after Sweet Surprise have only 1 timed level, while the others have 2. However, when Toffee Tower was released, it has 2 timed levels.
• Meanwhile, Licorice Tower, Soda Swamp (Episode 29), Butterscotch Boulders, every episode from Cherry Chateau to Wafer Windmill, every episode from Taffy Tropics to Crunchy Courtyard, every episode from Marshmallow Mountains to Truffle Terrace, and every episode from Crumbly Coast to Minty Meadow (Episode 64) are episodes without timed levels. Candy Town does not have any timed levels because the first timed level is Level 20. 
• When Licorice Tower was released, level 373 was believed to be the last timed level ever, but this was confirmed false when Polkapalooza came out, as level 403 is timed. However, after level 462, there were no timed levels until level 618. Some people thought that level 462 was the last timed level. Because of that, there are no timed levels in the 500s.
• Timed levels are the most spread out level type. In the entire game, the smallest gap between two timed levels is 3 (Levels 698 and 701). This could, however, be a result of the level type's low abundance, especially in the later levels.
• Easter Bunny Hills and Boneyard Bonanza are the only two 15-level episode to have a timed finale: level 80 and 725.
• Level 211 is the only level with a maximum time that is not divisible by 5, which is 17 seconds.
• Level 1237 is the hardest timed level to earn three stars.
• Usually, a timed level precedes a difficult level. An example would be level 956 before level 957.
• There are more timed levels with 5 colours than there are with 6 colours.
• Hard timed levels tend to have 1 minute and 30 seconds (except level 462, with 40 seconds).
• Timed levels are found in 42 episodes, less than half of all Reality episodes. They are in the first 25 episodes after their introduction.
  • Only 17 episodes after the first 25 episodes have time levels.
  • Toffee Tower is the only one of the 17 to have more than one.
• There was a glitch on mobile versions that, once you make a move, you have to wait about half a second to make a move. This becomes very annoying if there's chocolate spreading, and the threat becomes much higher if there is a toffee tornado. That's because the chocolate has you wait about another second, and the toffee tornado takes another second to move AFTER the chocolate. Therefore, on level 433, you have to wait a MINIMUM of 2.5 seconds between moves. This glitch has been fixed now.
• Level 880 has the highest three star score for the Reality series.
• The music used in the mobile version is the Candy Order levels, while at Facebook is the Ingredient levels.
• Timed levels do not give any sugar drops on mobile.
• This type of level is only available on Reality. Owing to the moon scale and moon struck, it is replaced by other level types in Dreamworld.

Notable timed levels

File:Level 20 Reality New Background.png

The first timed level in Level 20

• Level 20 - 1st timed level
• Level 108 - 10th timed level (Also the first timed level to have bombs)
• Level 121 - A very hard level for some players
• Level 182 - Currently one of the timed levels that has very hard difficulty.
• Level 189 - 20th timed level
• Level 211 - Only timed level with a time limit not divisible by 5. (17 seconds)
• Level 252 - First timed level to have 4 colours. Only level that can be played forever.
• Level 297 - A timed level with the second lowest time limit (15 seconds), and being very easy to pass with 1 star yet being insanely hard to pass with 3 stars.
• Level 313 - 30th timed level
• Level 343 - A timed level with the highest time limit (3 minutes)
• Level 462 - Once considered the last timed level King would ever release, but was proven false when Cereal Sea was released. Also a hard timed level.
• Level 698 - 40th timed level
• Level 701 - The second timed level to have 4 colours. And currently the only level to have nothing on the starting board (before candies settle).
• Level 725 - The third timed level to have 4 colours, the first to have Extra Time Candy in Sugar Chests, and the highest points-per-second rate at 33,335 points points per second required for three stars.
• Level 880 - The first timed level to have coconut wheels. The level which has the highest one star target score for Reality and the second highest in Dreamworld at 800,008 points.
• Level 973 - Currently the hardest timed level.
• Level 1198 - The shortest timed level with only 10 seconds, beating level 297. Can be done without a single move, yet it is very hard to earn 3 stars.
• Level 1237 - The hardest timed level to earn 3 stars.
• Level 1387 - 50th timed level. The first timed level to have Conveyor Belt.
• Level 1424 - First timed level to have UFO.
• Level 1512 - Last timed level to date.