Hints and Tips for Event Challenges

Event's challenges can seem to be a daunting task but there are some hints and tips to help you finish them in time.

Hints/Tips for Winning 500 items in a Puzzle
Successful completion of each play of the puzzle will yield 2, 3, 4, or 5 of the items that are needed to complete the challenge. It is chance how many items you will receive after any given play. You can think of it like rolling a 4-sided dice. On average, you will get 3.5 items per play. If the challenge requires collecting 500 items, you can estimate that it will require approximately 143 plays.

Blocks, Gem Match, Jigsaw, Information in PDFs
 * 1) Depending on which puzzle is used, read the article and PDF on this wiki for tips on playing the puzzle.

Time Machines add 45 seconds to the puzzle timer. In Blocks using an Explorer's Eye will remove one block from the game board at random. In Jigsaw using an Explorer's Eye will place one piece in the right place. In Gem Match using an Explorer's Eye will remove a single yellow border from the game board at random. This can be particularly useful for tricky pieces.
 * 1) Use tools when playing the puzzle. You can use Explorer's Eyes and Time Machines when playing any puzzle. Use the List of Collections, List of Collection Items and List of Collection Item Locations pages here to find out which collections give out these tools when combined, and where you can find the items needed to combine those collections.


 * 1) To help avoid feelings of frustration with the game and challenge, don't just play the puzzle over and over again; try to play a variety of pictures and puzzles as much as possible. Perhaps rotate trying to get the Desktop Award/opened Box with the other challenges in the event (playing the event picture and completing the 30 challenge quests).


 * 1) Don't rely on Luck Talismans/Artefacts. Luck Talismans (e.g. Horseshoes) and Artefacts (e.g. Symbol of Success) do not increase your odds of winning a higher number of the required items per play. However, they do increase the number of different items (collection items, combining elements) you will win for each successful play of a picture/puzzle.


 * 1) If you are struggling to win the puzzle in the time given then try to use the Time Talisman, Engineer's Amulet or Aviator's Amulet Artefact. Once activated, these artefacts add 1 minute to every picture/puzzle for 24 hours.

Hints/Tips for Winning the Unique Avatars
In order to reach Academician Level on the event picture and win the new Avatar, you will need to play the picture 150 times, which will require 3,285 special items or 2,628 special items if using Artefacts decreasing the number of special items needed to play pictures for all plays of the event picture.


 * 1) Try to play a variety of pictures as much as possible when playing, instead of just playing the event picture over and over again. The more you play a single picture/puzzle repeatedly, the worse the rewards for each win gets. Additionally, the bigger variety of pictures you play, the bigger variety of collection items you can potentially win. This will greatly increase the number of regular collections you will be able to combine, which will potentially give you more tools, energy items, Talismans and Artefacts that will all help with completing the quests.


 * 1) If you are low on energy, but close to leveling up (at which point your energy will restore), play Buddha's Square until you level up. At higher picture levels Buddha's Square potentially rewards a Cappuccino for each successful picture investigation. Cappuccinos restore 30 energy points when used, and Buddha's Square only requires 34 energy points at most to play (at Grand Magister level). This means you can play for free or next to free if you have a good success rate of winning Cappuccinos. Using Luck Talismans and Artefacts, like Horseshoes while playing Buddha's Square will increase your odds for winning Cappuccinos. This also means that Buddha's Square is a great picture to play when collecting Special Items needed to play the event picture, as by winning Cappuccinos and restoring the energy you are using to play, you are basically collecting the Special Items for free in terms of energy costs.


 * 1) If you are low on energy, avoid playing high energy pictures in the game too often as most do not reward combining elements.


 * 1) Try to always keep some pictures in Text mode, that way they can catch an Anomaly. Banishing the Anomaly will not cost any energy but will give you special items for the event picture.


 * 1) Use the Amulet of Santa,the Amulet of Rarities Artefact or the Sapphire Amulet to decrease the number of Special Items needed to play the event picture. Any of the Amulet of Santa, the Amulet of Rarities and the Sapphire Amulet Artefacts reduce the number of special items needed to play paid scenes like event pictures by 20% for 24 hours once activated.


 * 1) Use the Valentine's Amulet, Sakura Talisman, Great Hunter's Amulet or Creator's Amulet Artefact to decrease the amount of energy needed to play every picture/puzzle when you are ready to play the event picture a number of times. The Valentine's Amulet reduces the amount of energy needed to play by 10% for 12 hours. The Sakura Talisma reduces the amount of energy needed to play by 5% for 24 hours. The Great Hunter's Amulet reduces the amount of energy needed to play by 5% for 48 hours. The Creator's Amulet reduces the amount of energy needed to play by 10% for 24 hours.


 * 1) Use Luck Talismans and Artefacts such as Horseshoes in conjunction with the Valentine's Amulet, and make sure to play Tree of Dates in rotation when you are playing the pictures. This will increase your chances of finding all the collection items needed to combine another Valentine's Amulet as you play. The other energy reducing artefacts require playing pictures at Grand Magister level or high energy pictures to obtain the collection items needed to combine them.


 * 1) As you play through the 30 challenge quests to win the event Talisman, you will be able to combine 5 new collections added as part of the update. These quests will reward event Special Items once combined, and often the effect of the event talisman itself helps in winning the unique avatar (increased energy restoration, increased effect of food items, decreased energy consumption for exploring pictures/puzzles, ...).

Hints/Tips for Winning the Event's Talisman

 * 1) For Halloween and Christmas events: All of the Collections that you will combine when working through the Special Quests require the 'Halloween'/'Christmas' combining elements to combine (Dragon's claw; Mermaid Scale; Basilisk fang; Salamander Tail; Griffin Feather; and Unicorn blood / Snowflake; Christmas stocking; Streamer; and Tinsel) so make sure you stock up on these combining elements so that you do not get stuck on one of the combine quests. All of these combining elements can be won by playing Witch's Hut (Halloween) / Christmas Eve (Christmas), and they can also be given as free gifts] between [[Friends (they do not come out of your inventory when you send them to friends).


 * 1) Use the strongest Luck Talismans/Artefacts you have available whenever you are playing. It will increase the chance of winning the quest item. Diamond_horseshoe.pngnd horseshoe Talismans (+90% chance of winning items for 120 minutes) and the Symbol of Success, Photographer's Amulet and Artist's Amulet Artefacts (+50% chance of winning items for 24 hours) are the most powerful Luck Talismans available in the game, so when playing other pictures choose pictures which award items needed for collections that reward these Talismans. You will need to play other pictures during the challenge anyway to collect the Special Items to play the event picture, so by making sure that Tavern (rewards items for collections that reward Diamond horseshoes), Venice, Buddha's Square, Throne Room, Mayan Temple, Ghost Town, Joy Café, Amusement Park, Bungalow and Misty Shed (rewards items for collections needed to combine Symbol of Success) are in your rotation while you increase your chances of getting more of these powerful Luck Talismans to use for the quests. Collection items for the other two Artefacts, Photographer's Amulet and Artist's Amulet, can only be one in high level pictures. Note that using powerful Luck Talismans will not guarantee that you win the quest item on your first attempt, as all they do is give a percentage increase to the coded 'chance' of winning the item in the game. If an item normally has only a 10% chance of being won per play of the correct quest requirements, then using Luck Talismans that give you a 100% increase will not give you a 100% chance of winning the item. It will just increase the 10% by 100%, giving you a 20% chance of winning the item. Hard to get items will still be hard to get.


 * 1) Use your Magic Crystal Talismans during the challenge. The Magic Crystal Talisman works as a Luck Talisman (it increases your odds of finding objects by 12% when activated), and the Social Events Update has fixed the problem where no other Luck Talisman could be activated while using it, so now you can use them together again. This means you can add an additional 12% increase in odds of finding objects to other Luck Talismans that you use during the challenge. You can only use one other Luck Talisman once the Magic Crystal Talisman is activated (as you cannot use more than one Luck Talisman at a time), but you can use one of any other Luck Talisman or Artefact at the same time as the Magic Crystal Talisman again. The Magic Crystal Talisman lasts for 10 days.


 * 1) The Challenge quests usually ask for you to play the event picture, so it is best to continue to work on it as normal when playing and not to worry too much about the quests themselves, they will be completed as you go. That is, it is better to concentrate your resources just working on the Avatar challenge - getting the event picture to Academician level. You will complete the quests naturally as you increase the picture to Academician level. The hints/tips for that challenge will therefore also aid in completing this challenge.


 * 1) Read the quest instructions carefully. Most quests just ask you to play the event picture, but some will specify a mode. The item will only be available to win when the picture is in the correct mode. Modes cannot be 'forced', which means you cannot make them appear in rotation. Since the Halloween's Horror Update it is possible to change the current mode of a picture by paying 5 crystals, but also here no mode can be forced. The next mode will be chosen randomly.


 * 1) The items needed to complete the quests cannot be gifted between friends. However they may drop as random items when you are visiting your friends and charging their desktops; from the Collectors Desktop Award when collecting its rewards; and from opening Pandora's Chests. Whether this happens or not will be completely up to chance, but in order to increase your odds it is a good idea to visit your friends every day when doing the challenge.


 * 1) Warning: If you combine the collection items you are gathering before the 'Combine' quest (the 6th quest in each sequence), the game may glitch and not recognize that the collection is combined. If this happens you may be stuck unable to combine the collection again in order to complete the 'Combine' quest and move on in the quests, effectively ending this challenge for you barring finding the collection items a second time from random drops.

Related

 * SS Home
 * Updates
 * Quests
 * Collections
 * Talismans
 * Artefacts
 * List of Artefacts
 * List of Pictures
 * List of Puzzles