>>45312569>actively handicap yourselfWhat? The game gives you this shit, so you MUST use it? Nah kid, back in my day, you held onto the really good shit, for the final levels and the boss fight in particular, so you horde all the good crap.
There's also no need to bother with candies when the EXP system got tweaked (even without EXP share on) where the lower-levelled you are, the higher the gain from the KO (it's why they capped the uncatchable high-level shit to just 5 level's worth of differential) and really you got to ask yourself, are candies really the problem, or is it PEBCAC again?