Getting Started– The game starts on the Castle Vicinity and you get introduced to Prof. Pinfeathers (the Crow). You’re given a few coins and diamonds to start the game. As you play and complete achievements, those coins and diamonds will increase. As you open new areas, the coinage will decrease.

Each new day in the Castle starts at midnight GMT, so it will vary based on your time zone. When the new day rolls, you are presented with 3 gift boxes….you choose 1 and will receive coins, a diamond, or a unique stamp. These “gifts” are presented in increasing increments up to 5 days. Then it reverts back to the 50 coin increment: 

50 coins / 1 diamond / 1 unique stamp 
200 coins / 1 diamond / 1 unique stamp 
500 coins / 2 diamonds / 1 unique stamp 
800 coins / 2 diamonds / 1 unique stamp 
1500 coins / 5 diamonds / 1 unique stamp 

As mentioned in the brief overview, Prof. Pinfeathers will always be on the left of your screen with quests for you to follow. This is how you advance (Level up) in the game. 

As you progress in the game, you will periodically be presented with messages that you need to download the next part to continue. This is to accommodate those players who have a slow Internet connection, or have a limit to the amount of data they can download each day. It CAN be a bit annoying to be “into” the game only to be delayed a few minutes while the next “chunk” downloads to your device. So, if you have a strong Internet connection or no monthly data limit, you can download the entire game and it will just continue to play out until you reach the maximum game content that has been released. 

If you want to download the full game content…..click on your gear in the upper right corner of your game, then select “Download Full Content.” It will tell you the size of the remaining content, and you can either accept that download or X out of the screen. 

save for future expansion

User Interface – Some things will be on all locations/pages:
1. Avatar (game picture) and name (initially “player”) will be at the top left of your screen.
2. Prof. Pinfeathers will be below that Avatar.
3. The Daily Quest gnome icon will be toward the bottom on the left 
4. Your pet will be at the bottom left of the screen after this feature is introduced
5. Your coinage and diamond inventory will show at the upper right of your screen
6. Goal, inventory, lab and map icons will be at the lowest right of the screen once each feature is introduced
7. There will be a pull out tab just above the goal, inventory, etc. icons that will contain icons for additional game features: private room, album, tournament, castle challenge, puzzles, social, mini-events, and enchanted amulets. These icons will activate when each feature is introduced. (The album is only published to this area during the seasonal events.)

Some significant milestones: 
Level 3: The Fortune Wheel (Castle Entry) is available 
Level 4: Get Beginner’s pack with 10 diamonds; Gentleman and Lady avatars are unlocked 
Level 4: Mini-Event feature is unlocked 
Level 4: The Dice Table (in Tavern) is available 
Level 5: Game directs you to open the Airship Tower -- of note, it CAN be opened earlier 
Level 5: You will be introduced to the “Laboratory” 
Level 6: Just John arrives to introduce the friends aspect of the game
Level 7: Message from Prof. Pinfeathers: Interactives added to the game when the Anniversary Room was created
             In July 2019 are now available to new players 
Level 7: You get your first pet, Griffin (all others must either be crafted or achieved) 
Level 8: You can now participate in Tournaments (currently this feature is disabled) 
Level 9: The Amulet feature is introduced 
Level 10: Daily Quest Gnome and Castle Challenges are available 
Level 11: Puzzle feature is unlocked 
Level 13: Trina and the private room are available 

Hidden-Object Puzzles – These are the “scenes” or the main object of the game. You open the scenes to find the objects hidden in plain sight. There are “levels” to each scene…..the first time you open it, there will be 6 items to find. Gradually, more items will be listed for you to find, with a maximum of 22 items displayed. 

Currently, there are 8 “levels” to each room: 
*0 - 75,000 -- 6 items -- 10 coin -- 30 sec recharge -- enter early for free ----Note: Silhouette Mode is unlocked at 75,000 -- Bonus: 20 coins when level up 
*75,001 - 150,000 -- 6 items -- 10 coin -- 90 sec recharge -- enter early for free ---- Note: Mirror Mode is unlocked at 150,000 -- Bonus: 30 coins when level up 
*150,001 - 200,000 -- 8 items -- 11 coin -- 2 min recharge -- enter early for free ---- Note: ++Night Mode unlocked at 200,000 -- Bonus: 40 coins when level up 
*200,001 - 250,000 -- 10 items -- 13 coin -- 2 min; 30 sec recharge -- enter early for free -- Bonus: 50 coins when level up 
*250,001 - 500,000 -- 12 items -- 15 coin -- 5 min recharge -- enter early for 1 diamond -- Bonus: 100 coins when level up 
*500,001 - 2,500,000 -- 14 items -- 20 coin -- 10 min recharge -- enter early for 2 diamonds -- Bonus: 150 coins when level up 
*2,500,001 - 10,000, 000 -- 18 items -- 30 coin -- 30 min recharge -- enter early for 3 diamonds -- Bonus: 200 coins when level up 
*10,000,001 is max amount -- 22 items -- 50 coin -- 1 hr recharge -- enter early for 5 diamonds 

++Some people were physically bothered by the night mode feature of the game. The developers have allowed you to disable this feature by clicking on the gear at the top of your game page. Select “Additional Settings” then select the amber box next to “disable night mode” to put a check mark in the box and disable the feature. Click x in the upper right corner to close the boxes. 

When you complete the scene, the Leaderboard or Statistics screen will show your score, your ranking in the player list, how far you are toward the max level, your coin reward, and what you have found. Your placement in the leader list does not impact your progress in the game. It is provided so you can see how you fair in relation to your friends on your social page. There are only 6 places that show, so if 5 of your friends have higher scores than you do, you will be in 6th place. 

You can choose to go as fast as you can to find the objects, hoping to level up faster and get more coins. You can choose to go very, very slowly to stretch out the time it takes you to find things to slow down the leveling up so you can return to the room sooner. Or, you can do a combination of both. There is no right or wrong way to approach this, just your own personal strategy. 

Additional note about the "scoring" on the Leaderboard: When you are in the HOS, there is a slider bar at the top left of the screen. As you find the items, the indicator on the bar will move toward the left. To get a high score, you would want to find the items in a rhythmical manner so the slider bar does not completely go away (and the bar will slide faster as you get toward the end of the item collection). You also need to find the items quickly......so a good score is a combination of rhythm and speed. There is no penalty in the scoring for random clicking/tapping of objects. The speed with which you complete the HOS has no bearing on what you receive (item, coin, shard) upon completion. 

When you complete the HOS, you will receive coins (amount will depend on your level within the HOS), an airship item, and one of the following: 15 coins, shard, or HOS item. Sometimes when completing the HOS, you will also receive a bag of pet food, a stamp, or a Gift for a Friend. Randomly, you will also receive an Energy Unit. Because the HOS is the source for your airship items, stamps, and pet food, it is important to visit them frequently to get these items. 

In addition to the HOSs on each location, you will also be opening other areas that are called Zoom Zones (ZZ). These are areas that you use various HOS items to open and get another item from inside. Further into the game, some of the ZZs will require one or more item located in a ZZ to open it. For instance, the Astral Lamp is one of the first ZZs you open in the game. It opens with a Winged Amulet (found in the Broken Carriage). Inside, you will find: Obsidian Whirlwind, Demonic Ring, Dragon’s Fang. The Dragon’s Fang is one of the items needed to open the Wooden Panel (ZZ) in the Elvyn Forest – Tree Top. 

Several lists have been created for where you could find objects, how much is each object worth, how many coins or shards you could get from crafted items, and a listing of all the interactive items in all the HOSs. As a result, that information will not be included in this Guide.

Questing – There are several types of quests in the game as you level up……they will be listed in the order in which they show up in the game: 

**Prof. Pinfeathers quests – This is how you “level up” in the game. Prof. Pinfeathers will send you to various characters to assist them with finding items or crafting items. As you complete these quests, you receive coins and “experience points” that move you up within the levels. Sometimes you will also receive an item needed to repair the artifact you’re currently working on. Initially, the levels go quite quickly and are very inexpensive. However, as you advance in the game, they become more complex and cost you lots of coins and inventory to complete. 

**Daily Quests – These are the “Gnome” quests and they are explained in more detail in The Archivist 

**Trina’s Quests – These quests will be explained later in the section titled Trina and the Private Room 

**Side Quests – These are introduced in the game at Level 68/69. Because the explanation is better understood when players reach this section of the game, the explanation for this feature has been inserted within the character quest list just before of Level 69 quests. 

The most important thing to remember about the various quest types is that only the Prof. Pinfeather quests will enable you to level up within the game. The Daily Quests, Trina’s Quest, and (to some degree) the Side Quests are purely optional and can be ignored. 

Unlocks – At various stages in the game, you will be presented with a “bubble” indicating that an area/item needs to be unlocked. Generally, you must be at a certain level and have the designated amount of coins to open that area. However, sometimes you must be at a certain level, have the coins, AND provide an item from the game. These bubbles are presented so you will know that there is an area coming up where you will need a boatload of coins and possibly an item. 

While you CAN click on the bubble when you have met the criteria, I have found that the game will go more smoothly if you patiently wait for the game to direct you to that area. Players frequently post that they are having problems opening an area when it turns out that they were trying to click on a bubble before the game sends them there. It is only natural to want to open a new area as soon as you can because the graphics in this game are absolutely amazing. But, learning patience early will go a long way to dispelling frustration. 

Also, by opening one of these bubbles before the game directs you, you may run out of coins to continue with your current quests.

Crafting Items and Pets – The Laboratory becomes available/is introduced at Level 5. When you click on the laboratory icon, there will be a list of items that can be crafted on the left side of the page. Initially, some items will be locked; as you level up, they are unlocked. The right side of the screen will let you know what is required for crafting that item. Sometimes, an item will be unlocked, but will bear a ? in one of the fields. That just means that the HOS or ZZ in which this item is found has not been made available to you. 

When you have found all the components and click on the “get” button, circles will pop out on each side of the item you are crafting. Most of the items displayed in these bonus circles are “eye candy.” The only bonus items you will receive are coins, pet food, stamp, crystal ball, wand, lightning flash, or diamond. The number of coins you receive increases in increments of 3 coins as you level up in the game. On Level 5, your bonus coin bundle is 12 coins. Level 6 yields 15 coins; Level 7 yields 18 coins, etc. until at the current max Level of 129, you receive 384 coins in your bonus bundle. 

(The crystal ball, wand, and lightning flash are considered HOS "hints." The crystal ball will show you the location of every item in the scene. The wand will collect all six of the items listed to be found. The lightning flash will convert the scene back to "normal.") 

Also, on the left side, you will see another tab next to “Items” that will be a paw print. If you click on this tab, the pets available to be crafted will be displayed. As with the items, when you click on a particular pet, it will show you on the right side what components are necessary to craft that pet. As of December 2019, when you have crafted a pet, it will no longer show in the laboratory. It will, however, be shown on your “paw” tab of your inventory.

As stated earlier, Griffin (your first pet) is given to you at the beginning of Level 7. However, the remaining pets must be earned or crafted. Most of the pet eggs come from the Fortune Wheel; friends can also gift one to you. But, you can get 4 of the pet eggs by completing a particular level of an achievement: 

Egg for Flap-Eared Puppy -- Steer Clear, Level 2 
Egg for Gold-Bearing Turtle -- Lucky One, Level 3 
Egg for Hopping Tiger -- Dragon Fighter, Level 2 
Egg for Pink Piggy -- Breadwinner, Level 2 

Some pets have “eggs” and some do not. Some are regular/original pets, and some are seasonal pets. Also, there are 4 “exclusive” pets that become available when you reach Level 69 in the game. (These will be discussed when listing the character quests for that level.) 

You can “set” any pet you own to be the one you display in the lower left of your screen. To do this, just go to your Inventory, click on the paw tab, click on the pet, and select the “set” button. There are 5 different types of pet food: Simple, Special, Rare, Unique, and Exclusive. Click on the pet in your inventory, to see what type of food that pet requires. 

The pet info tab will also tell you what type of chest that pet can give, the percentage of the time you can expect to receive a chest type, and whether it is an event pet or original pet:
Original and Exclusive pets – no icon in upper right corner
Fall pets – pumpkin in upper right corner
Winter pets – snowflake in upper right corner
Spring pet – egg in upper right corner