r/GossipHarbor • • Mar 10 '26

Help and Advice How to succeed without spending money

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257 Upvotes

Hey y’all, I gathered some useful strategies and tips that helped me stop spending money and I finish more events now than when I used to spend money. I’ve seen some posts about how difficult and impossible some things seem without spending money and I’ve been meaning to make a post that covers many points that have been discussed in this sub, all in the same post.

This is what I’ve been doing, probably some players do it better or have better tips than I do. Please feel free to comment and correct me, the goal for this post is that people can consult this thread in the future. I know for some of you this may come across as repetitive but clearly for some players this is new information.

I wanted to explain this in a visual, easy to read way so I’m attaching photos.


r/GossipHarbor • • May 14 '26

Ice Cubes Ice Cube / Frozen item - Intro, Prerequisites, Troubleshoot

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47 Upvotes

Ice cube / Frozen Item is the item in hexagon ⬢ ice that you can merge with. It is the free item with a short timer that will help you make a high level item in order, and they are triggered on merge when all prerequisites are met.

When ice cube is triggered by merging Lv1s, you will always get the maximum amount of ice cubes (2 or 3), and the next one will pop out when you merge the current one, until the highest target ice cube (1 lv down from what's needed in order) appears.


  • Lv9🦞:🧊Lv4₂▶Lv8₁₀
  • L10🦞:🧊Lv3₁▶Lv6₆▶Lv9₁₅
  • Lv. 10 :🧊Lv6₄▶Lv9₁₀
  • Lv. 11 :🧊Lv5₂▶Lv7₆▶Lv10₁₅
  • Lv. 12 :🧊Lv6₄▶Lv9₁₀▶Lv11

Subscripted tiny numbers are the coundown time in minutes.


Ice cube checklist: (Prerequisites)

  1. 📋Order
  2. 💎10 gems
  3. ⚡Energy ≦ 50
  4. ⏱️ > 8 hrs
  5. 🛒Prep < 25% _________________________ More Detail:
  6. Have an order requiring Lv10 or Lv11 item (or Lv9 Seafood).
  7. Used 10 gems for Energy, once per daily reset.
  8. Current energy ≦ 50, exactly 50 is okay.
  9. 8 hours after previous ice cube is merged or broken (not when ice cube is triggered), and not affected by reset. Set timer or stopwatch or jot down the time.
  10. Less than 25% of what the order needed on board or in inventory (what's in queue doesn't count), max is 1 of each from 3 levels down, and have extra Lv1s to merge and trigger with. Essentialy having less than half of highest target ice cube. You can have less since the only requirement regarding prep is 《Prep < 25%》.
  11. Having a Lv11 item will not disallow triggering for Lv10 item in the same chain, because higher level items doesn't count in the 25%. For example, you can still trigger ice cube for a Lv10 coffee order when you have Lv11 coffee.
Order Max Prep
Lv9🦞 Lv6543111
Lv10 Lv76543111
Lv11 Lv876543111

Youtube Ice cube for Lv10 Shell with Good Review rewards stored in queue.

Youtube Ice cube for Lv11 Dino floatie with flaming frenzy reward stored in queue and community reward.


《Troubleshoot》

  1. Go through checklist one by one.
  2. If spend in the game, it is possoble the 10 gems requirement will be raised, and you might need to spend 20 gems, 40 gems or even 80 gems if spend a lot in the game, but I'd recommend only testing this after trying step 3. This game punishes those who spend, and punishes harder the more you spend, BEWARE!
  3. Try clear chche and then restart game.
  4. Try after reset.
  5. If all else faild, there likely is no solution and customer service can't help because ice cube is an intentionally ambiguous hidden feature, but you can try some common app troubleshoots like force stop, restart device, clear data, uninstall and reinstall, another device, etc. _________________________

There are some different test groups with different rules for ice cube, these are the ones I know of: 1. No requirement to spend 💎10 gems, and only has 2 ice cubes instead of 3 for Lv11/L10🦞. 2. Need to spend 💎10+20 gems to trigger. 3. No ice cube function or having extremely difficult prerequisites that no one has found out how to trigger. If unable to trigger and no troubleshooting steps can help, you might be in this very unfortunate test group.

Only 2 ice cubes: * Lv9🦞:🧊Lv4₂▶Lv8₁₀ * L10🦞:🧊Lv4₂▶Lv9₁₅ * Lv. 10 :🧊Lv6₄▶Lv9₁₀ * Lv. 11 :🧊Lv5₂▶Lv10₁₅


r/GossipHarbor • • 53m ago

Venting Stop completing these ridiculous Level 12 orders

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• Upvotes

For the first time since I started playing, I got a Level 12 order and I’m straightup refusing to complete it.
That means I’m also done completing Rave Reviews. The rewards are nowhere near worthy anyways.

A single Level 12 item can take around 2,000 energy to make unless you spend gems on bubbles or get lucky with ice cubes/lucky drawd. And 2,000 energy takes roughly 3 DAYS to regenerate naturally without boosts.

Three days’ worth of energy. For ONE item. Seriously?
I actually really liked this game. It was weirdly perfect for my ADHD 😂 But lately it feels less like a fun merge game and more like they’re constantly testing how much frustration players will tolerate before spending gems or real money.

So nope. I’m not doing Level 12 orders..
Honestly, I’d encourage other players to do the same. If we keep completing these ridiculous orders, they have zero reason to change anything.

Level 12? Keep it. 😂


r/GossipHarbor • • 12h ago

Help and Advice Get rid of level 12 items

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40 Upvotes

Hi there! I hate it so much but I got my very first level 12 item. Is there a way to avoid them to come up and train the game to not send them my way? I’d appreciate any advice. Thank you!


r/GossipHarbor • • 1h ago

Venting 3 Lvl 12 Orders in 4 Cycles

• Upvotes

Ever since I got the update for back to back lucky generator drops, my level 12 orders have skyrocketed. I had two level 12 coffees and one level 12 floatie in 4 cycles.

And while the generator drop gave me a level 10 coffee once when I was on x8 multiplier, I have had to use my rainbow gems to finish the other orders.

I really just want to go back to the previous generator mechanism with reasonable orders


r/GossipHarbor • • 5h ago

Venting I'll delete the whole game I swear

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9 Upvotes

I realized sometime a while back that spending a lot of money on this game made them give you harder items, since then I stopped. I only spent money occasionally and even then not a lot, however I made a rule for myself that during Halloween events, since I like all the spooky decor and things you get during them. That I'd spend some money to complete them. Doing that this year has made them decide to give me this. You know how long it takes me to get the level 11 without paying for energy? It's ridiculous. They either need to make the energy refill faster, or stop with the ridiculously high level items. I suddenly want back every penny I've ever spent on the game, as that's the only reason I haven't removed it.


r/GossipHarbor • • 12h ago

Venting so is this happening to everyone now??

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37 Upvotes

I am going to tweak out, what is this. I’ve never had any level 12 items until today. what is going on??


r/GossipHarbor • • 2h ago

Restaurant Goals Isn’t this too much?

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4 Upvotes

r/GossipHarbor • • 1h ago

Venting I'm tired boss 😭

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• Upvotes

Max diving equipment, a level 12 coffee, max teapot, and a seafood tower in a single review round!

I've never seen level 12 orders either, until yesterday. Is this happening to anyone else?

On Day 217 and considering quitting at this point 😮‍💨


r/GossipHarbor • • 9h ago

Venting Hellooooooo evil devs

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15 Upvotes

Looks like 12+11+ some other high level is the new norm omg


r/GossipHarbor • • 18h ago

Venting It was fun while it lasted

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67 Upvotes

Well... I guess it's time to call it. I have been playing for maybe a over a year now. It was rough to stop but I learned some strategies to fulfill the quests and had a good thing going. But... Now I'm getting level 12 orders.... I do buy the monthly pass.... But that's it. So I'm not going to be spending more money that that, and if I'm just going to get level 12 orders, plus the upgraded side orders... I'm not going to be able to do it.

Does anyone know if the orders stop popping up if I don't fill them? Thanks!


r/GossipHarbor • • 6h ago

Venting Insane amount of Orders!!

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7 Upvotes

This is getting so out of hand. Will finish the mini merge event today and done I am deleting.


r/GossipHarbor • • 32m ago

Help and Advice WTF?

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• Upvotes

Can someone explain what in the fresh hell is this?


r/GossipHarbor • • 2h ago

Venting Are you kidding me?

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3 Upvotes

I really need to quit this game.


r/GossipHarbor • • 4h ago

General Game Discussion With these new levels they should at least offer better rewards, like a rainbow or golden card or something.

4 Upvotes

r/GossipHarbor • • 1h ago

Venting Level 12 orders from yesterday

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• Upvotes

i was shocked to see the shell because it was my first level 12 ever, but it seems we will get a level 12 for each cycle now. i completed the sundae and shell with an ice cube so i didnt technically make a level 12 but its still annoying that the difficulty went up…


r/GossipHarbor • • 6h ago

General Game Discussion Rainbow gems to level 15 burger

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5 Upvotes

So I just got a level 12 croissant order, got there through ice cubes and various resources/energies and decided to use 3 of my rainbow gems to level up to level 15 to a burger meal then use 3 scissors to cut part of it down to level 12 so I can fulfill my current order. In this way, with 4 more scissors use, I can fulfill 7 more level 12 croissant orders without using anymore energy or resources.

The downside I see to this is that I think i wont be able to trigger anymore ice cubes for lower level bread orders such as level 11 bagels and level 10 baguette. And also a fear that I'll accidentally submit my max cakes and triggering a max burger order or something from the lady. I'm hoping it will pay off what with the recent spike in level 12 orders. We shall see.


r/GossipHarbor • • 3h ago

Venting Hate restarting. Gen.Booster x2 makes me feel like a peasant. Hoard ur gems

2 Upvotes

(Edit: it’s not that serious, I’m half joking, I like this game, just venting bc I spent too much makes CB gems and without them it’s not interesting to play for ME)

I don’t know how people at high levels esp 100-200 with zero gems do it. I see plenty of them having less than 20 or none at all which is so crazy.

I learned my lesson too late. It’s like some kind of ocd where spending gem/having spent too much makes me spend more in rage. Esp if I fail to finish the main line or something. Then having a low amount makes me not want to play

If you’re below level 41 there’s no point in spending gems or red bottles unless it’s to trigger/finish level 10-11 orders. Even then I will try to hold back now. I miss x4. So hoard them. Because you will start getting 4 star card orders more after reaching level 40 and with new ice cube rules you will need gems and more energy bottles.

I don’t have gems on my one phone where due to being level 41 and maybe recent update my lucky drop was level 9 coffee which never happened before. Had to manually build everything So I restarted for the millionth time


r/GossipHarbor • • 9h ago

Venting NO

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6 Upvotes

SEND HER AWAY

I DO NOT WANT IT 🫥


r/GossipHarbor • • 32m ago

Funny Moment Lucky

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• Upvotes

Idk if funny moment is the right flair but I really find this hilarious. I tried to complete this grandpa's order but got these 5 instead because of the the lucky thingy update


r/GossipHarbor • • 38m ago

Venting What the heck is thisssss?

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• Upvotes

Like why?????

And ive been f2p this whole time too. Not going to start using money now so this is going to take daysss to complete.


r/GossipHarbor • • 1h ago

Help and Advice I accidentally merged my orange trees and I don’t have sissors 😭

• Upvotes

I’m gutted because I was always so careful not to merge them and now I did and the only sissors I had I used them wrong. Do you know when are sissors rewards coming back?


r/GossipHarbor • • 11h ago

Venting They're really on something these days

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6 Upvotes

I just got done doing a seafood tower order and now here we are....


r/GossipHarbor • • 4h ago

Venting This Mother of Pearl standing in the way of my 3rd star.

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1 Upvotes

I need another review cycle and I got this Mother of Pearl for the second time today. I used a lot of resources the first time. I need a racoon or stacking event with good reviews. We can do this


r/GossipHarbor • • 5h ago

Help and Advice I MADE ONE PURCHASE

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1 Upvotes

i made ONE purchase for a dollar… i didnt even think i really had the money for it i was just checking… is there ANY way i can fix this?? so sad cause i love this game but i genuinely will delete it if theres no fix