Shuffle is a phenomenon in Candy Crush Soda Saga. When all the candies on the board are shuffled, usually only applied when you have no more possible switches. Occasionally, a booster can be used to shuffle to get out of a disadvantageous candy arrangement.
Shuffles are very common in levels with constrained layouts, and levels with more colours. Shuffles are usually beneficial since it allowed the board to refresh from configurations which will force a sequence of simple matches which waste moves.
Properties[]
Shuffling literally shuffles the existing applicable candies to a different permutation. It does not change the distribution of candy types and colours. Unlike Candy Crush Saga, the result after shuffling doesn't contain matches.
When you run out of possible moves, all the candies go into a "Shuffling" word in the center of the screen and then they come out of the shuffled randomly.
Objects that are excluded from shuffling include immovable blockers, bears, special candies, pancakes and liquorice swirls. A shuffle can still result even if you have a coloring candy and colour bombs, due to the layout or due to being surrounded by bears (in bubble levels) and blockers.
In later updates, instead of the "Shuffling" word, now when you run out of possible moves, a pink banner "Shuffling candies to make new matches." appears.
Unwinnable[]
Every shuffle is guaranteed to yield a permutation of the existing candies such that a match can be made. It is possible that you can no longer make any matches after any amount of shuffling. There is an algorithm to decide if no more matches are possible even after all shuffles, and if so, you reach an unwinnable state.
You'll immediately fail the level without any option to continue, even if this can be resolved via a lollipop hammer and (or) some various boosters. This is a much less common method of failing a level than running out of moves, commonly realized as a pop-up "There are no more possible moves."
Trivia[]
- Unlike the original game, after shuffling, you can't get new cascades instantly, not true for the shuffler.
- Level 451 may be an example for the case 'there are not enough candies to form a single move' if you use sprinkleshell in an incorrect way.