Picture Modes

In the Secret Society: Hidden Mystery game it is possible to investigate pictures in different modes.

The game modes essentially create different types of hidden object games within the same picture.

The pictures randomly rotate through the game modes as you play them. There is no way to force a particular mode to appear in a picture in order to complete a quest. You must continue to play the picture until the mode you require appears. The only exceptions to this rule are Curse mode and Text mode, which can be triggered depending on how you interact with an anomaly in the picture.

Playing Picture Modes
Each mode has its own unique symbol. This symbol is displayed in the top left corner of the photo of the picture on your Home Desktop. If a visiting friend has charged a picture on your home desktop, the charged symbol showing the profession of the friend may obscure the mode symbol.

You can see a bigger version of the mode symbol when you press a picture on your Home Desktop and bring up the 'Research Window' for that picture. In the research window the mode symbol for that game in the picture is shown as a piece of paper attached by a paper clip in the top left corner of the blown up photo of the picture.

The symbols for the different modes are as follows: Once you have found a picture in the right mode, you just have to press the green research button in the research window to begin the game.
 * Text mode - the letters 'Abc' in black on a white background
 * Silhouette mode - a silhouette of a teapot
 * Night mode - The letters 'Abc' in white on a black background
 * Pairs mode - two wheels with an equal sign between them
 * Pieces mode - a circle broken in half
 * Morphs mode - a wheel and a flower with a 'greater than' sign between them
 * Curse - The letters 'Cba' in black on a white background

Text Mode
Text mode is the most basic hidden object game available. In text mode you are given the words for objects you need to find in the picture. Up to 6 words at a time are displayed on the brown banner at the base of the picture. As you find each object in the picture a line is drawn through the word for the object in the banner and it is replaced by the word for a new object to find until you have found all of the required amount of objects for that picture level.

For early picture levels you may only have to find a few of the objects within the Picture. As you advance the picture level you will have to find up to all or all bar 1 of the objects in that picture.

You are given 3 minutes to find all the required objects in Text mode.

Tools in Text Mode
In Text mode the Seeker's Eye tool will point out 1 object when used. The object will light up for a few seconds after the Seeker's Eye finds it. The Compass tool lasts for 30 seconds - during this time the compass will point to an object on the list. You can move the compass around the picture. As the compass gets close to the object it is pointing at that object will light up. When the compass is on top of the object, the compass needle will spin around. The dynamite tool will remove up to 3 objects from the picture at a time. The Time Machine tool will add 45 extra seconds to your time limit.

Text Mode and Anomalies
Text mode is one of the regular modes in the game, which means it will randomly appear in pictures as you play them and the picture rotates between game modes. However, in certain circumstances you can 'force' Text mode to appear.

In most cases you cannot force a mode to appear in a picture. One exception to this rule is Text mode and anomalies. When an anomaly appears in a picture, if you banish the anomaly the next mode in that picture is always Text mode (unless a second anomaly appears in that picture before you play). To banish an anomaly tap on the picture to bring up its research window. In the research window for a picture that has an anomaly in it, the word 'Banish' will appear where the picture level progress bar normally is (above the 'can be found' list). If you have the right tool to banish the anomaly, pressing banish will remove the anomaly for the picture. If you do not have the right tool to banish the anomaly from the picture you will be offered to buy the tool using crystals or you can choose to play the picture with the anomaly.

Silhouette Mode
In silhouette mode you are shown the silhouettes of the objects you need to find in the picture. Up to 5 silhouettes at a time are displayed on the brown banner at the base of the picture. As you find each object in the picture it moves to join its silhouette and both disappear from the list. The silhouette of a new object appears until you have found all of the required amount of objeects for that picture level.

For early picture levels you may only have to find a few of the objects within the Picture. As you advance the picture level you will have to find up to all or all bar 1 of the objects in that picture.

You are given 3 minutes to find all the required objects in Silhouette mode.

Tools in Silhouette Mode
All of the tools in Silhouette mode behave in the same way as in Text mode.

Night Mode
In night mode you are given the words objects you need to find in the picture. Up to 6 words at a time are displayed on the brown banner at the base of the picture in the same way as in Text mode. However, in Night mode you can only see a small portion of the picture at one time and the rest of the picture is darkened. You can see a small circle of light that illuminates the picture, which you can move around the picture to search for objects.

For early pictures you may only have to find a few of the objects within the picture. As you advance the picture level you will to find up to all or all bar 1 of the objects in that picture.

You are given 5 minutes to find all the required objects in Night mode.

Tools in Night Mode
The Lantern and Torch tools can only be used in Night mode. The lantern doubles the light circle radius for 30 seconds and the Torch lights the entire picture for 35 seconds. All other tools can also be used as normal. The Seekers Eye will point to an object even it is in a darkened portion of the picture. The object will light up revealing its location, and you can tap the object to find it without moving the light circle to its location. If you place the compass within the light circle, the light circle will move with the compass as you move it around the picture.

Pairs Mode
In Pairs mode you must search for matching pairs of objects in the picture. The pairs objects are the same objects as found in the text, silhouette and night modes. The phrase "remaining pairs: (number)" is displayed on the brown banner at the base of the picture. As you find each pair, the number remaining is reduced by 1 until you find the last pair in the picture, at which point the game is won.

For early picture levels you may have to find as few as 5 pairs within the picture. As you avance the picture level you will need to find up to 15 pairs.

You are given 5 minutes to find all the requored objects in Pairs mode.

Tools in Pairs Mode
The Seeker's Eye tool will simultaneously point out and light up both objects in the pair if used in Pairs mode. The compass tool will light up both pairs when you drag it close to one object in a pair. When you press one of the pairs the other will stop being illuminated, so it is better to press the second object in the pair, not the one the compass is pointing to first to save time when looking for pairs. If you press the first object in the pair being pointed at by the compass first, the compass will then point towards the second pair until you miss tap or find it. The Dynamite and Time Machine tools work as normal in pairs mode.

Pieces Mode
In pieces mode you must search for the different pieces of one object in the picture. Each object is split into 5 pieces, and the silhouettes of all 5 pieces for the object are shown together on the brown banner at the base of the picture. As you find a piece it will move to join its silhouette and both disappear from the list. When you have found the 5th and final piece of an object, the silhouettes of the next set of 5 pieces will appear on the list and a grpahic shoing the pieces you have found coming togeher to form the object will appear in the middle of the picture.

Each picture has 6 set objects split into 5 pieces each for pieces modes. These are not the same objects as found in Text, Silhouette and Night modes. For early picture levels you may have to find as few as 1 object's pieces. As you advance the picture level you will need to find the pieces of up to 5 of the 6 available objects.

You are given 5 minutes to find all the required objects in Pieces mode.

Tools in Pieces Mode
The Seeker's Eye, Compass and Time Machine tools work in the same way for pieces mode as they do in Text and Silhouette mode. The dynamite will only remove pieces of the object you are currently looking for, so if you only have 1 or 2 pieces of that object remaining, the dynamite will only remove those pieces and not any pieces of the next object you must find.

Morphs Mode
In Morphs mode you must search for objects that periodically change shape into new objects. The morphs objects are usually different objects than you find in Text, Silhouette and Night mode, although some of the objects may temporarily take on the shape of one of the normal objects.The phrase "remaining morphs: (number)" is displayed on the brown banner at the base of the picture. As you find each morph, the number remaining is reduced by 1 until you find the last morph in the picture, at which point the game is won.

For early picture levels you may have to find as few as 4 morphs within the picture. As you advance the picture level you will need to find up to 10 morphs.

For the first 16 pictures released for the game, the morph objects were unique to each picture, and each picture only had 11 potential morph items. Only these 11 items appeared in the picture in morphs mode, some of them behaving like morphs and others remaining static, depending on the level of the picture, making the moprhs very easy to find. For pictures released in more recent updates, i.e. Eastern Bazaar, Illusionist's Room, Witch's Hut, Christmas Eve and Tree of Dates, additionnal items were added to pictures in morphs mode to make the game more more challenging.

You are given 5 minutes to find all the requored objects in Pairs mode.

Tools in Morphs Mode
All of the tools in Curse mode behave in the same way as in Text and Silhouette modes.

Curse Mode
Curse mode is identical to Text mode, except the letters in the words in the list of objects to find are all jumbled up. You must figure out what object the jumbled letters refer to in order to find the right object.

For early picture levels you may only have to find a few of the objects within the Picture. As you advance the picture level you will have to find up to all or all bar 1 of the objects in that picture.

You are given 5 minutes to find all the required objects in Silhouette mode.

Tools in Curse Mode
All of the tools in Curse mode behave in the same way as in Text mode.

Curse Mode and Anomalies
Curse mode is unique in that it does not appear in the normal rotation of modes in pictures as you play them. The ONLY way to get curse mode to appear in a picture is to play a picture that has an anomaly in it without banishing the anomaly. The next mode to appear in the picture after you have finished playing it with the anomaly in it will ALWAYS be Curse mode (unless another anomaly appears in the picture before you get to play the curse mode). Note: Although the Ghostly Mirror anomaly scrambles the words in the list of object to find in the same way as curse mode, it does not count as a curse mode for quests. Only pictures with the 'Cba' symbol count as having the Curse mode.

Summary
Below is a summary table on the different game modes available to play:

Related

 * SS Home
 * List of Pictures
 * Energy
 * Picture Levels
 * Tools
 * Anomalies
 * Quests