Introducing boosters to new players

New Candy Crush players were unlocking boosters without understanding what they did. These power-ups could help them complete a level, but the game explained them through popups between rounds.

I led the redesign of booster onboarding, moving introductions to the start of a level so players could try each power-up straight away. I also developed principles the team adopted across the game's onboarding.

The redesign raised day-30 retention by 3% and increased revenue.

Player drop-off

Illustration of a bored player slumped on a sofa, looking at his phone

Candy Crush lost 70% of new players across the early journey below, about 700,000 of the million who joined each day. Booster introduction was one point we investigated; it was part of a wider onboarding problem.

Stage of the early journey	Players remaining	Players, of 1M a day
Download	100%	1,000,000
Tutorial start	85%	850,000
Level 5 complete	60%	600,000
Booster introduction	45%	450,000
Level 15 complete	30%	300,000

What boosters do

A Lollipop Hammer removes a selected piece; a Party Booster clears a much larger part of the board. Unlocking one only helps if a player understands when and how to use it.

A player picks a booster from the booster bar during a level and uses it on the board — A player picks a booster from the bar at the bottom of the screen and uses it mid-level.

The booster bar, a row of booster icons with the number of each one the player owns — The booster bar shows each booster a player owns and how many they have left.

Research findings

PMs and researchers identified more than 50 issues in a review of the first-time experience. I used those findings to focus the booster redesign on five problems.

Unique problems identified: 50+
Critical priority issues: 7
Internal evaluators: 20
Players surveyed: 1,000

Priority	Issues from the review
Critical	Players did not understand boosters or how they were introduced.
High	The golden crown was unexplained, and instructions were unclear.
Medium	Currencies were introduced poorly, and move hints offered little explanation.

The five core problems

01Poor understanding65% of players never used their first booster. Unlocking a power-up did not mean knowing what to do with it.
02Hard-coded tutorialsThe popup system dated back to 2012. Changes to timing and content required engineering work, slowing down iteration.
03Popup-heavy onboardingBooster instructions competed with gifts and promotional messages. Players could dismiss them with the rest.
04An interruption after the roundThe introduction interrupted the score summary and star animation, before the previous sequence had finished.
05Slow booster rolloutSome boosters unlocked after level 90; competing games introduced theirs within about 20 levels. New players waited much longer to discover the variety boosters offered.

Audit of the screens from playing level 6 to unlocking the Lollipop Hammer in level 7 — The old sequence interrupted the win and score animations, then offered no guidance during play.

Timeline of the levels at which Candy Crush Saga, Royal Kingdom, Royal Match and Toon Blast unlock their boosters — Competing games introduced boosters within about 20 levels; Candy Crush spread them across nearly 90.

Design principles

I developed a shared approach to onboarding: introduce a feature when it becomes useful, explain it briefly, and let the player try it. The team adopted this beyond boosters.

MissionHelp new players discover more of what they can do in the game.
VisionGive players room to discover features through play, with guidance when they need it.
ApproachIntroduce each feature when players can use it, then let them practise.

A legacy flow that had barely changed

From the 2012 launch to 2025, the introduction still happened between rounds. The visual design had changed, but players still had to remember an explanation until they could act on it.

2025 flow, step 1: the level summary with its stars and score — The same introduction in 2025. The booster appeared after the round, between the score summary and the map.

Problem	Solution
Players lacked context for the booster	Introduce it just before players can use it
The popup format	A dynamic overlay above gameplay
Hard-coded tutorials	Let the team change the timing and content
A late introduction	Introduce boosters earlier, one at a time

The redesign

I changed when boosters were introduced, shortened the explanations, and used animation to connect the introduction to the booster bar. Players could then try the booster in the level that followed. I also made tutorial timing configurable, so the team could adjust when introductions appeared.

Booster Unlocked screen for the Lollipop Hammer with a one-line explanation

The Lollipop Hammer badge over the level the player is about to play

Party Booster introduced at the start of a level

UFO booster introduced at the start of a level

Pre-game boosters

Players equip some boosters before a level and use others during play. The old popup treated both alike. I gave pre-game boosters their own introduction, with the booster already selected so players could see how to equip it.

Results

More players completed onboarding and were still playing a month later.

Day-30 retention: +3%
Day-7 retention: +1.5%
FTUE completion rate: +12%
Drop-off at the booster introduction: −15%

Churn rate: −4%
Gross bookings: +0.5%
Popups removed: 10+

New players remaining	Before	After
Download	100%	100%
Tutorial start	85%	85%
Level 5 complete	60%	60%
Booster introduction	45%	45%
Level 15 complete	30%	40%

The redesign connected each explanation to an immediate action. Configurable timing also gave the team a way to keep improving introductions without rebuilding the flow.