April 2016 Update

The April 2016 update was released on the 1st of April 2016. For the first time in the game's history, the update was released simultaneously on all platforms for the game.

The April 2016 update introduced a new picture, Crashed Temple, 6 new collections, 36 new quests, and an exciting set of new Timed Challenges. The April 2016 update also introduced new game modes for the first time since the game's initial release.

Daylight Savings Challenge
The Daylight Savings timed challenges begin when a player reaches game level 7 in the game (or automatically after downloading the update if the player is already above level 7).



The Daylight Savings timed event contains 3 challenges. Players have 30 days to complete the following tasks:


 * Collect 2000 G5 logos by winning games of Gem Match to win 3 cappuccinos.
 * Complete 30 holiday quests to win the once-off Anti-Time Talisman, which reduces the amount of time available to play for Pictures and Puzzles by 1 minute for 24 hours once activated.
 * Achieve 'Academician' level in Crashed Temple to win a unique avatar.

For the duration of the Daylight Savings challenge, Jars o' light special items are required in addition to energy points to play Crashed Temple. Jars o' light are given as rewards for every successful investigation for every other picture in game, but only when the Pictures are in Night mode. Jars o' light cannot be won by playing playing Puzzles or by banishing anomalies. Jars o' light also cannot gifted between friends, however they are given as rewards for combining some of the new April 2016 collections, and they can be given as rewards by the Sphere of Miracles and Pyramid of Wonder desktop awards.

Important: It is important to note that the Challenge timer begins counting down from the moment the update was released in a devices app store, and not from the moment a player downloads the update. This means the timed challenges will end for everyone on Saturday the 30th of April.

The Gem Match Challenge - collecting G5 logos
Players can win the great energy boost by collecting 2000 G5 logos. G5 logos can only be won by successfully completing the Gem Match puzzle. For each successful win of Gem Match, you can potentially win 1 G5 logos as one of the rewards for completing the puzzle. Additionally, you can also win 1 extra G5 logo after each game of Gem Match by opting to watch a short (3 minute) advertisement video for another exciting game in G5's stable.



When you open the Research Window for Gem Match by tapping on the Gem Match puzzle icon on your Home Desktop you will see G5 logos listed as the first item in the 'Can be found' list for the puzzle. G5 logos are available to win for every play of the puzzle at every puzzle level.

You must keep playing (and winning) Gem Match until you have collected 2000 G5 logos in order to win the Cappuccinos.

Once you win the Cappuccinos, they will automatically go into the 'Energy' tab in your inventory. If you already have a Cappuccino in your inventory, they will be added to your total. To use a Cappuccino, open the inventory section and select the 'Energy' tab. Tap on the Cappuccino to bring up a window with details about the chest, and press the green 'Use' button at the bottom of this window.

There had been some complaints by players that the 'find 500 of x items' in Gem Match challenge, which has been a feature of 5 updates in a row now, has gotten a bit repetitive, and some players have argued that the Lunch Box reward for some iterations of the challenge has not been very desirable. The challenge added by the April 2016 update has shown that these player's voices have been heard. The increase from 500 to 2000 items to be found by playing Gem Match means players can have even more Gem Match fun with this challenge, and to address the repetitiveness of the challenge, a new way of earning the item to be collected has been added - by watching videos after successful games of Gem Match, which will really break the challenge up for players. The reward for completing the challenge has also been changed, so players do not have to worry about only receiving a Lunch Chest after playing Gem Match 1000 times.

Hints/Tips for Collecting G5 Logos
Although it will take many plays of Gem Match to win 2000 G5 logos, there are things you can do to make the challenge easier:
 * 1) Read the Gem Match article on this wiki for tips on playing Gem Match, including how to make special gems and combine them to create special moves to clear the board faster.
 * 2) Note that you are limited to only 3 extra G5 logo's from watching videos each day of the challenge, but you can still watch a video after each game of Gem Match even after this limit has been reached.

The Unique Avatar - Getting Crashed Temple to Academician Level
Players can win the Unique Shadowy-er Man Avatar by playing the new picture, Crashed Temple, until they increase its scene progress level up to Academician Level during the April 2016 update's time sensitive challenge (during the first 14 days after the update is released).

In an unprecedented act, the game developers have listened to player's complaints that the unique avatars offered by previous updates lacked diversity, and for the first time have offered a prize avatar that is not an image of skinny white woman. The prize for completing the Daylight Savings timed challenges is the Shadowy-er Man Avatar. Some players have noted that the new Shadowy-er Man Avatar does bear some resemblance to the original Shadow Man Avatar that all players start out as using by default when they begin a game, however any similarity is only by coincidence.

Winning the Unique Avatar
For the duration of the April 2016 update, Jar o' light special items are needed for each play of the Crashed Temple picture.

While the Timed Challenges are active (before you complete all three, or the timer expires, whichever happens first), Jars o' light are given as rewards for every successful investigation of 'Night Mode' for every picture in the game. At least one Jar o' light is given for every game you win, but winning 2 Jars o' light at a time is also possible.

Jars o' light are not given as rewards from banishing anomalies, or for playing puzzles. Jars o' light cannot be gifted between friends, however they are given as rewards for combining some of the new April 2016 collections. Players with the Pyramid of Wonder or Sphere of Miracles also have a 1 in 6 chance of receiving Jars o' light from these Desktop Awards when collecting their rewards every 12 hours. The number of Jars o' light needed for each play of Crashed Temple increases as you increase the Picture Levels of Crashed Temple (+5 Jars o' light per Level increase), starting at 5 Jars o' light per play when the picture is opened at Novice Level and increasing to 40 Jars o' light per play when the picture is at Professor Level.

As a guide, in order to reach Academician Level on Crashed Temple, and win the new Avatar, you will need to play the picture approximately 150 times, which will require approximately 3,285 Jars o' light! (or 2,628 Jars o' light if using the Amulet of Santa artefact).

Hints/Tips for Winning the Unique Avatar

 * 1) With the new game modes introduced by the Update, there is some confusion as to which modes will reward Jars o' light. It seems that any of the new modes will reward a Jar o' light, however you will only be in with a chance to win 2 Jars o' light when playing in Night Night mode.
 * 2) Try to save up your Lantern and Torch Tools for playing Crashed Temple itself, since this picture is unique in the game in that it only rotates through the new game modes and none of the traditional game modes

The Challenge Quests and the Anti-Time Talisman
The Anti-Time Talisman can be won once a player completes all 30 of the special Daylight Savings challenge quests introduced as part of April 2016 update. The quests must be completed within the 14 day time limit of the Timed Challenge in order to unlock the Talisman.

Once the quests are completed, the Anti-Time Talisman automatically goes into your inventory, and a new page of the Diary page 'I think we've been here before' will open.

A notification screen will appear to say that the 30 challenge quests are complete and you have won the Anti-Time Talisman, but you must go to the Talisman section of the Inventory itself to see and use the new Talisman.

Once activated, the Anti-Time Talisman will decrease the time available for every Picture and Puzzle game for 24 hours. This adds an exciting new twist to the game for long-term players who may not have felt challenged by recent updates.

Note: The Anti-Time Talisman looks very similar to the Time Talisman Artefact, and sits next to it in a player's inventory. Please be careful to make sure you are tapping on the right Time Talisman when activating it, or you may find yourself stuck with the inconvenience of having an extra minute added to all your Picture investigations and Puzzle games for 24 hours before you can use the Anti-Time Talisman.

Hints/Tips for Winning the Anti-Time Talisman

 * 1) Save up your tools for playing Crashed Temple, since this picture only rotates between the new game modes, you will find that you will need plenty of torches, lanterns and time machines as you get used to the picture. Thankfully, Crashed Temple is a re-imagining of 2 of the most popular Pictures in the game (Mayan Temple and Crashed Plane), which allows players to play those pictures in their favourite low visibility modes all the time, so players should become experts in playing Crashed Temple relatively quickly.
 * 2) Read the quest instructions carefully. Most quests just ask you to play Crashed Temple, but some will specify a mode. The item will only be available to win when the picture is in the correct mode. Crashed Temple only rotates between the new Game Modes introduced by the update, however the original 'Night' mode is included in this rotation. This is important to know, as the game differentiates between the different Night modes, and so if a Quest asks for Night mode, and you play Crashed Temple in the new 'Night Silhouette' mode or 'Night Morphs' mode, you will not be able to win the quest item. This is particularly confusing when it comes to the new 'Night Text' mode, which does bear some similarity to Night mode.

After the Challenge is complete
Once you complete all three Daylight Savings Update Challenges, or after the challenge timer expires, Jars o' light will be restricted so that they will only be won in Crashed Temple itself (instead of in all the Pictures like during the Timed Challenges). This means you will have to play Crashed Temple up to 40 times in order to win enough Jars o' light to play Crashed Temple once.

New Game Modes
The April 2016 Update has introduced 6 new game modes to the game. This is the first time such a large change was made in the game. The new modes add a large amount of diversity to the game, so players may feel like they are playing a completely new game when playing old Pictures in the new modes:

These new modes are now available in every Picture in the game. This brings the total game modes available in most pictures up to 13. Note, however, that the new picture, Crashed Temple, only has 7 game modes available. The 6 listed above, and the traditional Night mode.

Tools work as normal in most of the new game modes. Lanterns will increase the radius of the light circle that players use to look for items within for 30 seconds, and torches will illuminate the whole picture for 30 seconds. This means that players can use torches to create pseudo-traditional mode playing conditions, such as playing tradition 'Silhouette' mode for 30 seconds during a play of 'Night Silhouette' mode!

Note that there is one exception to the tools usage in the new game modes. Night Night mode is designed to be a sort of 'extra Night' mode, and so the traditional game tools have a slightly modified functionality in Night Night mode:


 * Lantern: activating a Lantern in Night Night mode will create a light circle, similar to that used in other Night modes to navigate the picture, only with a 50% reduced size, for 30 seconds. Only one Lantern can be used per play of Night Night mode, so choose when to activate it carefully!
 * Torch: the first time a player activates a Torch in any one play of Night Night mode will change the hue of darkness in the Picture from Eerie black (hex code #1B1B1B) to Licorice (hex code #1A1110) for 30 seconds. Activating a second Torch will change the hue of the darkness to the much lighter shade of black, Onyx (hex code #353839) for 30 seconds. Each activation of a torch will produce a lighter and lighter hue of blank until eventually (on the 13th torch) the Picture will be illuminated like normal. Players can use as many Torches as they wish to while playing a picture in Night Night mode, however they must wait fro one Torch to expire before activating another, so you may have to use Time Machines if you wish to use 13 torches and see Crashed Temple in all its glory.



Server Problems Gifting and Visiting
As with all large updates released for the game, the April 2016 update will cause an overload in the games servers during peak times for a couple of days immediately following the release of the update on any platform. During this time players may encounter problems visiting and gifting, and be given a "Failure to connect to the servers." error message when trying to interact with the Friends portion of the game. The servers normally go back to normal after a couple of days once all players on that platform have downloaded the new update.

Hidden Object Items in Crashed Temple
Crashed Temple is unique in the game, in that it is the only picture that has more than one of a particular item type in its list of Hidden Object Items. Players are asked to find multiple 'stick' items when playing the Picture. Although all the sticks look the same, they are all unique within the game's code. This means that each 'stick' entry in the list of items to search for refers to a specific stick hiding in the picture. Tapping on any other stick will not clear the item from the list, players must find the correct stick to move on in the hidden object game.

Tools in Crashed Temple
One of the items that players are asked to search for in Crashed Temple, the 'patch of dark', can be quite difficult to locate in some of the new game modes. However, there is a glitch in the Crashed Temple picture that makes this item particularly difficult to find when using tools such as the Lantern and the Torch. Since the patch of dark item is so well matched to the darkness surrounding it in the Night modes, whenever a tool is activated it appears to disappear the patch of dark along with the darkness around it, effectively making it disappear from the screen. But players will still have to find it, so it recommended to find the patch of dark item first before activating any tools in the Picture.

Visiting Glitch
The April 2016 update has introduced a glitch to the game, where players are taken to completely random game boards when attempting to visit their friends. Tapping on the 'visit' button next to any Friend in your Friend list will bring a player to a random player's game board to visit. Players have reported even being brought to the game boards of players that they are not even friends with. Visiting works as normal on these game boards, however if you are not friends with the player whose board you have arrived at, all of your actions will visiting will be recorded as by 'anonym' in their game. This has caused some confusion, with many players reporting that all of their visits are from 'anonym' so they do not know who to thank for the help in their game, and that even if they did know the players name the chances of their randomly visiting their board when pressing the visit button on one of their friends is remote.

Related

 * SS Home
 * Updates
 * Holiday Updates
 * Halloween Update
 * Christmas Update
 * Valentines Update
 * Tavern Update
 * Treasure Island Update
 * Christmas Update 2014
 * Valentines Update 2015
 * Spring 2015 Update
 * Travel Time Update
 * Social Events Update
 * Halloween Update 2015
 * Christmas Update 2015
 * Spring 2016 Update
 * Quests
 * Collections
 * Artefacts
 * List of Artefacts