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. The maximum level currently available is Professor level.

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

For a complete list of the increasing energy and special item demands along with the potential rewards at each Picture Scene Level, see the Picture/Puzzle Rewards and Demands article.

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 Rate of % Progress Pre-Halloween2014 update
Below is the list of levels for each picture from lowest level to highest level prior to the 2014 Halloween Update. Originally, all Pictures followed the same rate of progress at each picture level. 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 Rate of % Progress 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. Pictures that don't obey this rule of thumb are highlighted in red.

Note 1: Spring Festival is currently part of the Spring 2016 Update's special timed challenges, and so has been given an unlocking level of 7 to allow all players to take part in the timed challenges, regardless of their game level. Spring Festival has also been given level 7 equivalent fast rates of progress for Novice-Pro levels, to allow players to reach Academician level for the Update's timed challenges with fewer overall plays of the picture. It is possible that Spring Festival's unlocking level and rate of progress at each picture level (Novice-Pro) will change when a new update is introduced to the game.

Note 2: Observation Deck was part of the Travel Time Update's special timed challenges, and so had an unlocking level of 7 to all all players to take part in the timed challenges, regardless of their game level. Any player who still have the Travel Time Update installed on their devices will still have the unlocking level of 7 and the rate of progress listed above for each picture level. Any player who has installed the newer Social Events Update will now have an unlocking level of 90 (92 real opening level) for Observation Deck, and it is possible that the rate of progress at each picture level has also changed to reflect this new higher unlocking level. That is, it is possible that now the rate of progress on the different levels is slower for Observation Deck than what is listed above. It may be that the picture levels Novice-Pro are more similar to those of Flower Shop than what is currently listed above for Observation Deck (since the current listed rates of progress are based on playing Observation Deck when it had the much lower unlocking level of 7 and easier progress rates to allow for the Travel Time Updates timed challenge that asked players to reach Academician Level on Observation Deck).

Banquet Hall was part of the Social Events Update's special timed challenges, and so had an unlocking level of 7 to allow all players to take part in the timed challenges, regardless of their game level. Any player who still have the Social Events Update installed on their devices will still have the unlocking level of 7 and the rate of progress listed above for each picture level. Any player who has installed the newer Halloween 2015 Update will now have an unlocking level of 95 (97 real opening level) for Banquet Hall (if it is not already opened, if it was opened when the unlocking level was 7 it will remain open even if the player is below level 97), and it is possible that now the rate of progress on the different levels is slower for Banquet Hall than what is listed above. It may be that the picture levels Novice-Pro are more similar to those of Flower Shop than what is listed above for Banquet Hall (since the current listed rates of progress are based on playing Banquet Hall when it had the much lower unlocking level of 7 and easier progress rates to allow for the Social Events Update's timed challenges that asked players to reach Academician Level on the picture within  a short time frame.

Spooky Yard was part of the Halloween 2015 Update's special timed challenges, and so had an unlocking level of 7 to allow all players to take part in the timed challenges, regardless of their game level. Any player who still have the Halloween 2015 Update installed on their devices will still have the unlocking level of 7 and the rate of progress listed above for level 7 pictures. Any player who has installed the newer 2015 Christmas Update will now have an unlocking level of 100 (102 real opening level) for Spooky Yard (if it is not already opened, if it was opened when the unlocking level was 7 it will remain open even if the player is below level 100), and the picture levels Novice-Pro have slower progress per play to reflect this higher unlocking level.

Wonder Shop was part of the 2015 Christmas Update's special timed challenges, and so had an unlocking level of 7 to allow all players to take part in the timed challenges, regardless of their game level. Any player who still have the Christmas 2015 Update installed on their devices will still have the unlocking level of 7 and the rate of progress listed above for level 7 pictures. Any player who has installed the newer Mountain Vacation Update will now have an unlocking level of 105 (107 real opening level) for Wonder Shop (if it is not already opened, if it was opened when the unlocking level was 7 it will remain open even if the player is below level 105), and the picture levels Novice-Pro have slower progress per play to reflect this higher unlocking level.

Mountain Resort was part of the Mountain Vacation Update's special timed challenges, and so had an unlocking level of 7 to allow all players to take part in the timed challenges, regardless of their game level. Any player who still have the Mountain Vacation Update installed on their devices will still have the unlocking level of 7 and the rate of progress sted above for level 7 pictures. Any player who has installed the newer Spring 2016 Update will now have an unlocking level of 110 (112 real opening level) for Mountain Resort (if it is not already opened, if it was opened when the unlocking level was 7 it will remain open even if the player is below level 110), and the picture levels Novice-Pro have slower progress per play to reflect this higher unlocking level.

Spring Festival was part of the Spring Festival Update's special timed challenges, and so had an unlocking level of 7 to allow all players to take part in the timed challenges, regardless of their game level. Any player who still have the Spring Festival Update installed on their devices will still have the unlocking level of 7 and the rate of progress sted above for level 7 pictures. Any player who has installed the newer Celebration by the Bonfire Update will now have an unlocking level of 120 (122 real opening level) for Spring Festival (if it is not already opened, if it was opened when the unlocking level was 7 it will remain open even if the player is below level 122), and the picture levels Novice-Pro have slower progress per play to reflect this higher unlocking level.

Note 3: A "glitch" in the game that was introduced by the Tavern Update, and still exists in the most up-to-date version of the game (Spring 2016), causes the game to change the requirements to unlock certain pictures. This means that players must reach higher game levels than expected to unlock these pictures.

When a player starts a new game they will see a locked padlock icon over all pictures except Venice and Buddha's Square. Tapping on this icon will bring up a screen that will explain what experience level a player must be on to unlock these pictures. Once the player reaches the stated level, the icon of the locked padlock will change to an icon of an unlocked padlock indicating that the picture is now unlocked. A new quest will begin that will ask the player to search for pieces of the picture, and once these pieces are collected the player will be able to open the new picture after paying with energy points and coins and solving a jigsaw puzzle of the new picture.

This glitch causes the game level number stated at the beginning of the game to change to a higher number once the player reaches the original level. For example, for the Tavern picture itself a new player will see that they must reach level 55 to unlock Tavern. However, as soon as the player reaches level 55 the picture will not unlock and trigger the quest to open the picture. Instead the requirements to unlock Tavern will change to show level 62 instead of level 55. Once the player reaches level 62 the Tavern picture will unlock and they will be able to open it. Below are examples of some of the pictures currently experiencing this glitch, and the true game level a player will need to reach order to unlock those pictures:

It is obvious that this is not a glitch but a purposeful move to encourage people to spend real money on the game. The first level a player is shown for a picture is not a true 'open' level, but rather the level the picture unlocks for you to spend crystals (i.e. real money) to open the picture. The second level that appears is the true level the picture opens through normal game play. However, at no point are players told that the first level they see is not a true 'open' level, but rather a 'pay to play' level nor is it explained why the level to 'open' the picture suddenly changes.

The language used in the information box that appears when you tap on the picture never changes, it always says "The picture is closed. You have to achieve level x to open it". This is incredibly mis-leading and the changing of the level to 'open' the picture only when the player reaches the first stated level is essentially moving the goal posts on players mid-game:



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 Halloween2014 update changed the Picture level progress rates, the same challenge would have required approximately 155 plays and approximately 3,350 special items. Since the change, this is now typically taking 150 plays and approximately 3,285 special items as the over all progress of Pictures that can be opened at lower game levels has been accelerated by the change (while the progress of Pictures requiring higher levels has been slowed) and the Pictures used for the 'Reach Academic Level' challenges are typically ones that can be opened at Level 7.

Maximum Progress?
Although Professor Level is currently the maximum level obtainable in the game, it is still possible to play a Picture or Puzzle after reaching 100% on Professor level. The progress tracker continues to count as normal for each play after 100% (increasing by 1% every 6 plays), to 101%, 102% and so on. There is no upper limit to this progress percentage, Pictures and Puzzles can be played as many times as a player wishes.

Originally, the highest level in the game was High Seeker Level. The Academician and Magister levels were added later by an update to the game, with the Professor level being the most recently introduced level (added by the Treasure Island Update).

When Academician (and Magister) level were added to the game, any priogress a player had over 100% High Seeker was lost. If a player was at 100% High Seeker when the new levels were added, then the picture would automatically upgrade to Academician level on their next play of the picture/puzzle. The Picture/Puzzle would start at 0% Academician. Higher progress, above 100%, was lost. If the player was at 450% on a Picture, for example, they would still start at 0% Academician Level on their next play of the picture.

This problem was solved when Professor level was added to the game by a later update. This time, all progress above 100% Magister was converted into progress at Professor level at the rate of progress of Professor level. For example, if a player was at 160% Magister on a picture when Professor level was introduced, then they would have played 240 games after reaching 100% Magister (60 multiplied by 4, the number of plays needed to increase by 1% at Magister level). That picture would automatically start at 40% Professor when the level was introduced (240 plays divided by 6, the number of plays needed to increase by 1% at Professor level).

Related

 * SS Home
 * Picture/Puzzle Levels Rewards and Demands
 * Home Desktop
 * List of Pictures
 * Picture Modes
 * List of Puzzles
 * Energy
 * Updates
 * Halloween2014 Update