Picture Levels

As you successfully play a picture or puzzle its scene level will progress.

As of the Treasure Island Update there are currently 8 different levels available for each picture and puzzle in the game.

Each new level is represented on your Home Desktop by a different colour picture frame.

Picture Level Progress
Each time you successfully investigate a picture or win a puzzle mini-game you will increase its current scene level progress. Once you reach 100% on a level the scene will be upgraded to the next level and the picture or puzzle will show a new picture frame on your Home Desktop.

The rate of progress for each successful play differs for each level, with the higher levels requiring more plays for each percentage increase.

By tapping on the photo of a picture or puzzle you bring up that picture/puzzles Research Window. The current scene level is displayed below the photo of the picture/puzzle in the research window. Beneath this is a green progress bar, showing the percentage completion of the current level. This bar will fill the more you play that picture or puzzle until it reaches 100%.

You will be given a notification of scene level advancement at the end of the investigation/puzzle game that brings the scene level to 100%. This notification appears before the rewards window that tells you what you have won for the successful picture/puzzle play and contains a graphic that changes colour to the new levels frame colour.

Rewards for Playing and Picture Level
Some collection items and elements that combine collections are only unlocked when the picture/puzzle reaches a certain level. Successful investigations of the picture or puzzle on lower levels will not reward those collection items or elements.

For example, in Tree of Dates: the picture must be at Trainee level or higher to reward the needle, pin and thread combining elements; the picture must be at Detective level or higher to reward the heart and postcard combining elements and the picture must be at Pro level or higher to reward the rose and candle combining elements.

If you are looking for an item and are told that it can be found in a particular picture or puzzle, check the 'Can be found' list in the research window before playing. The 'Can be found' list appears below the scene level progress bar, directly above the green 'Research' button, and can be scrolled through using the arrows on either side. If the item does not appear in the 'Can be found' section of the Research Window for that picture/puzzle it may be at too low a level to reward that item.

(note: in the case of pictures, some items also require the picture to be in a certain picture mode, so the item may not be on the 'Can be found' list because the picture is not in the right game mode even though it is at the right level).

Special Items and Picture Level
Some pictures in the game require special items in addition to energy points for each play, .e.g. Fireflies are required to play Night Garden; Ladybugs are required to play the Mill, Carrots are required to play Illusionist's Room. Holiday pictures may have their own special item requirements during Holiday Challenges, such as Christmas Baubles being a requirement for Christmas Eve during the Christmas Update.

The number special items needed for each play of a picture increases as the picture's level increases. At higher levels a large number of special items may be required for each play of that picture.

It may sometimes be beneficial to leave a picture that requires special items on a lower level if you expect to have a number of quests that require investigating that picture later. But this approach may backfire if the items needed for the quest can only be won when the picture has reached a certain level.

Picture Levels Pre-Halloween2014 update
Below is the list of levels for each picture from lowest level to highest level as of the Valentines Update. The frame colour, rate of scene progress for play of a picture/puzzle at that level and special item requirement for a picture at that level is noted. Please note the frame decoration noted here is as seen on an iPad 1st generation, and the picture frame appearance may vary with the device the game is played on.

Picture Levels Halloween2014 update onwards
The Halloween2014 update made slight changes to how the picture levels progress. The rate of progress per play of a picture on any picture level now varies depending on the picture. This means that progress on some pictures is slower than on other pictures. As a rule of thumb, the lower the experience level you require to unlock a certain Picture, the quicker the progress per play of that picture will be on the first 4 Picture levels (Novice - Pro). Pictures that require players to be on a much higher game level to unlock will have slower progress per play for the first 4 Picture levels. The rate of progress of the final 4 Picture levels (High Seeker - Professor) remains the same for all Pictures.


 * Note: When you first start a new game, Witch's Hut will say it requires level 5 to unlock, Christmas Eve will say it requires level 8 to unlock and the Tavern picture will say it requires level 55 to unlock. These are the levels these pictures should be (that best fits into the sequence of opening pictures). However, a glitch in the game that was introduced after the Tavern Update, and still exists in the most up-to-date version of the game (Christmas2014), causes the game to change the requirements to unlock Witch's Hut from level 5 to level 7 once a player reaches level 5; to change the requirements to unlock Christmas Eve from level 8 to level 10 once a player reaches level 8; and to change the requirements to unlock Tavern from level 55 to level 62 once a player reaches level 55. This means that Witch's Hut cannot be opened until level 7; Christmas Eve cannot be opened until level 10; and Tavern cannot be opened until level 62, and not at levels 5, 8 and 55 as first advertised.

The number of special items needed to play each level remains the same as before the Halloween2014 update, as does the frame colours used to indicate what level a picture is currently on.

The progress rate at each picture level a player experiences will depend on the update version of the game they are playing. Any game that has the Halloween2014 or later update (have the Forest House and Theater pictures), will use the new game level based progress rate. Any game that has the Treasure Island Update or lower update version (does not have the Forest House and Theater pictures), will use the old standard progress rate. Players using the Mac computer platform do not currently have access to newer updates to the game (the most uptodate version of the game available to Mac computers is the Tavern Update), which means they will all use the old standard progress rate. However, the Halloween2014 or newer updates are available on all other platforms, so whether a player sees the new or old progress rate in their pictures will depend entirely on whether they have chosen to update to the latest version of the game available to them (in which case they will see the new progress rate) or they have chosen to remain on an older, pre-Halloween2014, version of the game.

Note: players using iPad 1, which cannot update to iOS 6 or above, are no longer able to receive updates since the Christmas2014 update. However, if these players have updated to the Halloween2014 update, which is still available to them, they will still see the new picture level progress rates.

Puzzle Levels
The order and requirements of levels for puzzles are identical to those for early level pictures listed above.

Special Goals 'Reach Academic Level'
As a guide, if a special task requires getting to 'Academic level' (Academician; purple-pink frame) on a new picture this will now require 150 plays and 3,285 special items if they are needed for that picture (e.g. cupids arrows for Tree of Dates, Christmas baubles for Christmas Eve, pumpkin lanterns for Witch's Hut). Before the Halloween update changed the Picture level progress rates, the same challenge would have required approximately 155 plays and approximately 3,350 special items.

Related

 * SS Home
 * Home Desktop
 * List of Pictures
 * Picture Modes
 * List of Puzzles
 * Energy
 * Updates
 * Halloween2014 Update