New Areas – Each area of the map will be unlocked as you advance in the game. If you click on the locked bubble on the map, you will see when each section is available. So far, there has not been a coin cost to open these new map areas. Current areas in the game are as follows: 

Castle – The game opens here. By time everything has been opened, you will have 12 locations, 22 HOSs, and 35** ZZs opened. 
**The Fire Altar ZZ is unlocked/opened/presented in the Forbidden Tower during Level 60. When the Wise Dragon returns to the Forbidden Tower (Level 73), he replaces the Fire Altar....which reduces the number of ZZ in the Castle to 34. 

Town – Achieve Level 22 and complete the Keeper of Wishes’ quest (This occurs after activating the Ring of Runes that opens the Mystery Chamber. The Keeper of Wishes then sends you to open Shining Split and you get the Map Pieces that “reveals the next part of the mysterious world.” When you click on the Map Pieces, you are taken to the Town – City Square). There are a total of 10 locations, 20 HOSs, and 33 ZZs in the Town. 

Cloud City – Achieve Level 29 and complete the King’s Problem quest (This causes much confusion to players because it actually does not occur until you have almost finished Level 29. When you activate Griffin’s Horn, you are immediately taken to Cloud City Pier.) There will then be a bubble to open the Commercial District at Level 30. -- I recommend waiting to open this until the game sends you to this area. There are 7 locations, 14 HOS, and 23 ZZs in Cloud City until Levels 80 to 82. Then there are 10 locations, 19 HOS, and 30 ZZ. 

Elvyn Forest – Complete Level 45 and the Elf Creature quest (This occurs at the beginning of Level 45  ….When you use the Fairy Serpent, it opens the Elvyn Forest. So the notation on the map should say at the completion of Level 44 instead of Level 45). There are 3 locations, 6 HOSs, and 9 ZZ in the Elvyn Forest 

Dark Tower – Achieve Level 61 and complete the Crossed Fingers quest (This occurs mid-way in Level 61 – after you have completed Norman’s and Arabella’s tasks –and then activate the Rune Scroll. The Rune Scroll opens the Dark Tower). There are 6 locations, 4 HOSs, and 20 ZZs in the Dark Tower. 

Harbor – Achieve Level 70 and complete the Energy Search quest (This occurs when you activate the Portal Activator to unlock the portal. The portal takes you to the Harbor). There are 4 locations; 5 HOSs, and 11 ZZs in the Harbor. 

Atlantis – Get to Level 72 and complete the Sea Calls! quest (This happens when you give the Ocean Guide to the pirate. The Ocean Guide sets ship sailing and it ends up at a “forgotten city” – Atlantis). There are 4 locations, 8 HOSs, and 11 ZZs in Atlantis. 

Fairy Forest - Get to Level 74 and complete the Ancient Artifact quest (This area is opened a little over half way into the Level -- when you get the final piece to the Tablets of Wisdom and activate that item.) There are 3 locations, 6 HOSs, and 9 ZZs in Fairy Forest. 

East - Achieve Level 77 and start the Envoy from the East quest (This happens when activating the Storybook.) There are 8 locations, 15 HOSs, and 22 ZZ in East.

Bone Kingdom – Achieve Level 84 and start After Victory quest (This happens when activating the Mask of Silence.) There are 11 locations, 20 HOSs, and 29 ZZ in Bone Kingdom

Northern Islands - Achieve Level 89 and start the New Hopes quest (This quest starts after activating the Darkness Destroyer.) There are 5 locations, 9 HOSs, and 10 ZZ in Northern Islands.

Tournaments – Tournaments are available at Level 8. The mailman comes with a message 1 hour before the beginning of the tournament. There are 5 rooms to visit for the tournament round. You enter each room, find the objects, then go to the next room. For PC players only, there is bonus scoring for accuracy (iOS and Kindle players have the option to enlarge the screen, and this interferes with the accuracy posting. So for iOS and Kindle players, the bonus feature has been disabled). 

In addition to finding the hidden objects in each room, there will be “chips” placed in each room. The amount of chips will vary from 1 to 3 in each room, 3 being the maximum. After you have completed all 5 rooms, you will get the chance to spin the wheel to enhance your score. It takes 3 chips to spin the wheel one time. Your score is then posted to the Leader board. Diamonds are awarded to the top players. 

Also, if you do not like the blinking light from the mailman announcing the tournament, you can disable this feature by clicking on your gear in the upper right corner of your game screen. Select “Additional Settings.” Click on the amber diamond next to “disable tournament notifications” to put a check mark there. Click on the x to close the screen. 

This information is explained in much more detail in the Tips and Tricks located on the Helpful Links for Midnight Castle. It should be noted, though, that the “bust” has been removed from the wheel as well as the minus scores. There have been many discussions about the tournaments in the forum. 

Periodically, the tournaments are suspended to work through any player concerns about fairness in play. At this writing, the tournament feature of the game is disabled.

Seasonal Events – As briefly mentioned earlier, there are currently 3 seasonal events. During those times, the Gnome Quests change to 1-part quests based on the season. (The gnome is replaced by some theme character – During the Fall event, the DQ is brought to you by “All Hallows Jack.” The Christmas Elf is employed during Winter, and a Spring Fairy is used during Spring.) Each season, there are new achievements, new pets and special avatars that are offered. 

During each event, there are some changes to many of the scenes (snow falls during Winter, etc). The Dice table changes from a Skeleton to some other character, but still behaves the same way (the characters still cheat and you still lose  – at least it seems that way!) 

Some of the items you need to craft the seasonal pets are only received from completing the daily quest or from the bonus chest you receive. The quest requirements are usually easy to secure – mostly you just need to visit the HOSs repeatedly. It should be mentioned that the search button next to the item requested in a seasonal daily quest will only take you to an open HOS. It does not guarantee you will get that particular Christmas decoration. 

During the seasonal event, the morphing flowers will change to something else – snowflake, pumpkin, or egg. During normal play, when you collect 5 morphing flowers you get 10 coins or an occasional stamp. Possibly, you will get a shard. Or, on some rare occasion, you might get a diamond. 

However, the morphing objects during seasonal events bring much bounty of goodies……coin bundles are doubled to 20. Frequently, you will get a diamond for collecting 5 of “whatever.” During Christmas, you will get cards. So, it becomes very lucrative to collect all the morphing objects that you can while going from location to another. You will be amazed at how your coins and diamonds will build up!! 

The airship is a peculiar area during seasonal events….it becomes a pumpkin blimp during Fall, a Sleigh with reindeer during Winter, and an egg during Spring. During the Winter and Spring event (when you send the airship), you will get your usual pet food and stamp, but you will also get an event item. It doesn’t matter if the airship has been docked for a while or if it has just returned/come in. 

Memory fades here, but I remember the Fall event – the airship only gave some event goodie if you sent it immediately after it docked. If it sat there for a while, you only got the basic stamp and pet food. This could change over time…..bottom line, experiment with it and see if you get additional goodies. 

There are "books" associated with each of the three events -- a Ghost Book (Fall), a Snow Globe Book (Winter), and an Egg Album (Spring). During each event, there will be flying orbs that show up on each location. You "capture" a ghost with a ghost trap; you "capture" a snow globe with a holiday wand; you secure an enchanted egg using a carrot. There are several achievements associated with each of the 3 books and items to be captured.

The books can be displayed in your private room by selecting one of them that the Gargoyle is holding (you can display one in your original room, one in the Christmas room, and one in the Spring room .... or choose the same one to display in all 3 rooms). When others enter your private room, they can click on whichever book you are displaying to see the collection in that book. 

Trina and the Private Room – When Trina was first added to the game, she was introduced to players at Level 6. This feature was moved to Level 13 in July 2016. A bubble will present to allow you to open the Key Master Shop for 100 coins. Inside the Key Master Shop will be another bubble to open the Lucky Diamond slot machine for 300 coins. You get 1 free spin within 24 hours; you can reset the timer for diamonds. With Trina's arrival, you now have the choice to “disenchant” an item for shards or sell it for coins (originally, you could only sell them for coins). 

Trina's quests will comprise of 2 requests. As you advance in the game, her requests will increase. The most she has ever requested in quests that I have done is: 300 steering wheels, 200 shards, 20 postcards, 50 HOSs, or 20 ZZs. As a reward, she will give you coins and 1 Golden Key. (The amount of coins you receive from Trina will continue to increase until it maxes at 300 coins. But you still only get the 1 Key.) 

You do not have to do her quests; they do not advance you in the game levels. However, they can be fulfilled while leveling up without much difficulty (except for the shard requests). You can open her request.....look at it and either accept it or click on the X to close it out. If you close it, or don't accept a new quest when you have completed one, she no longer appears on the left of your screen. You will then need to go into the Key Master's shop just below the Belfry on the Castle Entry to engage her again. 

 

Your private room also becomes available with Trina’s introduction. You must do one of Trina's quests to unlock it. Additional Golden Keys are secured by doing more of Trina’s quests. Inside, if you click on the “off” button at the bottom, you will see “slots” that can be unlocked for various amount of Golden Keys. (Also, while the fields are activated, you can see a pencil in the upper left corner. You can backspace out the generic room description and enter your own personalized message.) There are “upgrades” you can make to each basic slot item in the room. (The upgrades are listed later in this section.) 

You will notice butterflies sometimes flying around in the room. Some of them, when clicked on, will give you a Magic Shard (but not all of them – this is a random occurrence). Also, you will notice a chest toward the bottom of the screen. If you click on your chest, you will receive a shard, coins, pet food, diamond, or a stamp. The butterflies regenerate after 2 minutes; the Mystery Chest unlocks after 3 hours (Or you can open it during the recharge time for 3 diamonds). 

After clicking on butterflies and the Mystery Chest in your own room, you can access one of your friends’ rooms and do the same thing. (It does not take anything away from your friend.) Sometimes you will need to click on several friends before you will see a chest in their room. 

There is an icon on the lower right of the screen that looks like Just John. If you click on that, your friends will be scrolled along the bottom of the page. This will allow you to select one of your friends to see how they have decorated their room (or to see which room they have chosen to display). 

Original Room -- 1 key to open the room 
Gargoyle - 0 keys -- ghost book, snow globe album, egg album all for 1 shard each 
Chair/Table - 0 keys 
Lamp - 2 keys 
Backdrop - 3 keys 
Pet Stool - 1 key 
Rug - 5 keys 
Fireplace - 1 key 
Mantle/Above Fireplace - 2 keys 
Scarecrow - 10 keys 
**Upgrades for all items (except gargoyle) are 10 shards; 1500 shards; or 20,000 coins 

Additional info regarding the Gargoyle.....The Gargoyle was added to the Original and Christmas Rm 1 when the Spring Rm 1 was introduced. For THOSE THREE ROOMS, when you activate the slots, it will show that the "blank book" is already owned.....HOWEVER, if you then select it and click on the check box, it will give you the option to purchase it for 0 shards.....if you do this in each of those rooms, you will have added 3 furniture upgrades to your achievement count in Furniture Finder. ...... There are currently 93 / 100 items that can be purchased in your private room (as of October 24, 2018) <--There is debate about whether this is still available as some appear to be able to select the blank book and others do not. So, advice is to try it to see if it works. 

Christmas Room 1 – 1 key to open the room 
Tree - 0 keys - 3000 shards to upgrade - 2016, 2 upgrades added for 5000 coins each: tree with candles; tree with stars & candy 
Chair - 3 keys - 1500 shards to upgrade - 2016, 2 upgrades added for 3000 coins each: leather chair; reclining chair 
Snowman - 5 keys - 1000 shards to upgrade - 2016, 2 upgrades added for 3000 coins each: ghostly snowman; ghostly cat 
Cushion - 2 keys - 1000 shards to upgrade - 2016, 2 upgrades added for 2000 coins each: beige cushion; red circle with holy 
Gargoyle (2016) - 0 keys - can hold ghost book, snow globe album, or egg album (1 shard each) 

Christmas Room 2 – 1 key to open the room 
Santa Picture - 3 keys - Santa and Mrs (1500 shards); Santa sleigh (5000 coins) 
Hearth Bells - 3 keys - silver bells (1500 shards); gold bells (5000 coin) 
Pet Cushion - 3 keys - cushion with bow (500 shards); with dragon claw (3000 coins) 
Book - 0 keys - can hold ghost book, snow globe album, or egg album (1 shard each)