The Official Game Artwork on loading Screens have been given a Valentine's theme for the Valentine's Update.
The Valentine's update (v. 1.4) was simultaneously released on the 5th of February 2016 for iOS, Android and Kindle devices, and on the 10th of February 2016 for Windows players.
On the release day for the Valentine's Update, the game was also released for Mac computers for the first time. The version of the game released on these platforms is the Valentine's Update.
The Valentines Update added 1 new Hidden Object Locations to the game - Dark Forest, as well as added 100 new Quests and 16 new Collections.
The Valentine's Update made a number of other changes, most noticeable of which was removing the Christmas Monsters added by the Christmas Update, and adding a new 'Towns-person' for players to Trade with, 'Cupid' for the purpose of the Update's timed challenges. Many Hidden Object Locations also had their artwork updated, and in addition to to an upgrade Winter Yard had its name changed to 'Night Street'.
The Update also introduced Main Events to the game for the fourth time. Players have a limited amount of time to complete 2 special challenges in the game in order to win unique rewards.
Update Information: New challenges and incredible adventures await you in the mysterious city of Darkwood! And now the game is available on Mac App Store!
- The long-awaited update includes
-
- A special Saint Valentine's Day event
- An event reward: a beautiful avatar filled with love magic
- 100 exciting quests and new, unique collections
- The spellbinding Dark Forest location
- Updated locations: the Night Street, the Docks, the Alley, the Ballroom, the Marketplace and the Garden
The Valentine's Timed Challenges - Upon Wings of Love[]
The Valentines timed challenges begin when a player reaches game level 7 in the game (or automatically after downloading the update if the player is already beyond level 7).
The Valentine's Update's timed challenges
The Valentine's timed event introduced 2 new challenges for players to complete within a set time frame:
- Collect 100 Valentines Cards by winning Hidden Object games and win a special game Avatar.
- Collect 150 Arrows by winning Hidden Object games and then trade the arrows with 'Cupid' to win the Chest of Love, which contains holiday themed Energy items.
Important: The amount of time available for the Valentines Update's timed challenges is set and the countdown timer began as soon as the update was released in the a device's App Store. Players have been given 16 days beginning on the 5th of February 2016. This timer will expire for all players on the 21st of February 2016 unless an extension is given. It does not matter when you download the update, this finish date is set. If you download the update on the 7th of February you will have 14 days to complete the challenge, and if you wait until the 20th of February to download the update you will only have 1 day to complete the challenge. Delaying installing the update will not delay the timer.
The Special Avatar - Collecting 100 Valentine's Cards[]
The Special Avatar that is won when you collect 100 Valentine's Cards.
Players can win a Unique 'Valentine' Avatar by playing Hidden Object Locations until you win 100 Valentine's Cards
Valentine's Cards can be won as potential rewards for winning Hidden Object games of the following Locations:
- Garden (requires Lantern Access Passes to play)
- Ship (requires Pieces of Eight Access Passes to play)
- Train Station
- Observatory
- Clothing Store (requires Gold Thread Access Passes to play)
- Docks
- Ballroom
- Dressing Room (requires Theater Ticket Access Passes to play)
- Cafe
- Gloomy House (requires Candy Cauldron Access Passes to play)
- Night Street (formerly Winter Yard)
- Shack
The goal is to collect 100 Valentine's Cards by winning Hidden Object Locations.
Valentine's Cards are listed in the 'You can Find' section of the Explore Window of every Hidden Object Location that rewards them. They can be won at any Location Rank of the Locations.
You are not guaranteed to win a Valentine's Card for every successful Hidden Object game you play of the Locations listed above. Valentine's Cards are rare items to win, in order to make the challenge more difficult for players.
Once a player has successfully collected 100 Valentine's Cards, a notification window appears explaining that this part of the Challenge is complete. The new Valentine Avatar goes directly into the player's Avatar options, which can be accessed by tapping on their current Avatar on the top left hand corner of their Darkwood Town Map.
The Chest of Love - Collecting 150 Arrows[]
The Chest of Love, the reward for collecting 150 Arrows and trading with Cupid.
Players can win a Chest Of Love by playing Hidden Object Locations until they win 150 Arrows and then Trading those arrows with Cupid.
Arrows can be won as potential rewards for winning Hidden Object games of the following Locations:
- Garden (requires Lantern Access Passes to play)
- Hunter's House
- Ship (requires Pieces of Eight Access Passes to play)
- Marketplace
- Clothing Store (requires Gold Thread Access Passes to play)
- Alley
- Clock Tower
- Dressing Room (requires Theater Ticket Access Passes to play)
- Mayor's Office
- Dark Forest
- Mine
- Gloomy House (requires Candy Cauldron Access Passes to play)
The goal is to collect 150 Arrows by winning Hidden Object games of select Locations and then Trading them with Cupid to win the Chest.
Arrows are listed in the 'You can Find' section of the Explore Window of every Hidden Object Location that rewards them. They can be won at any Location Rank of the Locations.
You are not guaranteed to win an Arrow for every successful Hidden Object game you play of the Locations listed above, however they are easier to win than Valentine's Cards. This is because Arrows are treated as 'trading items' by the game, whereas Valentine's Cards are treated as 'collection items'. For every successful play of a Hidden Object Location, you are more likely to win trading items than any one collection item. They have a higher drop rate, and so are easier to collect over time, since more are required during normal game play.
You can collect as many Arrows as you want, and trade with Cupid as many times as you can, over the course of the 16 day timed challenge. This means that you can potentially win multiple Chests of Love, by collecting 150 arrows more than once.
Trading with Cupid[]
Once you have collected all 150 Arrows, you can Trade with Cupid and receive a Chest of Love. You will not automatically receive the chest simply by reaching 150 arrows, you must trade the arrows for the chest.
Trading with Cupid works exactly the same as trading with any other Towns person on the Darkwood Town Map (e.g. like trading Pots with the Flower Girl or trading Grindstone with the Woodman).
Once you have collected 150 arrows you can trade them with the Cupid and win the Chest.
A 'Cupid' icon floats around the Darkwood Town Map in the same way as icons do for each Townsperson or Monster. The Cupid icon is marked with a special gold border that contains a red heart at its base. Tapping on this icon will bring up the Cupid 'Local Trade' Screen.
In the 'Local Trade' screen for Cupid, you will see how many Arrows you currenly have (out of the goal of 150) beneath the picture of an Arrow. If you have less than 150 Arrows, then the writing will be in red. If you have 150 or more Arrows, then the writing will be in green.
Beside the image of an Arrow is a 'Find' button. Tapping on this will close the Local Trade screen and a blue arrow will point to one of the Hidden Object Locations that potentially reward Arrows.
Beneath this, the Chest of Love is listed in the 'You can Obtain' section of the Cupid Local Trade Screen. Tapping on the Chest of Love will bring up description of the Chest, including a list of its contents.
If you have 150 or more Arrows, then Tapping on Trade button at the bottom of the Local Trade screen will Trade your Arrows with Cupid and you will win a Chest of Love, as well as some experience points and coins similar to any other trade in the game. A notification window will appear confirming the trade.
If you do not yet have 150 Arrows, then tapping on the Trade button will close the Local Trade window and a blue arrow will point to one of the Hidden Object Locations that potentially reward Arrows.
The Chest of Love[]
The Chest of Love
Once you have collected all 150 Arrows, you can Trade with Cupid and receive a Chest of Love.
The Chest of Love will automatically go into your Inventory. You must go to the Inventory Window in order to use the Chest.
The Chest of Love can be found in the Chests Tab of the Inventory Window (4th tab, symbol of a box). Tapping on the Chest of Love in this Tab will bring up an information box for the Chest which will explain what is inside and allow you to open it to collect these rewards.
The Chest of Love in Chest tab of Inventory. Important: You can win as many chests as you like while the challenge timer is active.
Tapping on the green 'Open' button at the bottom of this information window will open the Chest and you will receive the rewards inside. The chest will then disappear from the Chest tab of the Inventory.
Tapping on the brown 'X' button on the top right of this information window will close the window without opening the chest. The Chest will remain in the Chest tab of the Inventory until you open it and collect the rewards inside.
The Chest of Love contains the following rewards:
- 1x 'Lemonade' Energy Item (holiday equivalent of Truffles, restores 35 energy points)
- 1x 'Strawberries and Cream' Energy Item (holiday equivalent of Coffee a la Vienne, restores 60 energy points)
- 1x 'Love Desert' Energy Item (holiday equivalent of Belgian Waffles, restores 120 energy points)
- 1x 'Pink Cupcakes' Energy Item (holiday equivalent of Cake, restores 180 energy points)
- 1x 'Candy Hearts' Energy Item (holiday equivalent of Salad, restores 300 energy points)
- 1x 'Raspberry Heart' Energy Item (holiday equivalent of Grilled Fish, restores 600 energy points)
The Chest of Love contains one each of new 'holiday themed' Energy items. Each of these items are equivalent to one of the normal energy items in the game, however will give 20% more energy when used.
Hints/Tips for Completing the Timed Challenges[]
Both of the Valentine's timed challenges ask players to do the same thing - play certain Hidden Object Locations over and over until you collect a set amount of some item. As such, all players have to do is play the game as normal and they will complete the challenges.
Although it will take many plays different Hidden Object Locations to complete both challenges, there are things you can do to make the challenges easier:
- Make sure the Hidden Object Location you are playing actually rewards the item you are looking for. Note that both the Valentine's Cards and the Arrows can only be won in certain locations, not every single Hidden Object Location. Neither item can be won by playing Puzzles.
- Try to play a variety of Hidden Object Locations as much when possible when collecting Valentine's Cards and Arrows instead of just playing one or two over and over again. The more you play a single Location repeatedly, the worse the rewards for each win gets. Additionally, the bigger variety of Locations you play, the bigger variety of other game 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, Crafting Items, Monster Banishing items, Talismans and Artifacts that will all help with completing the quest.
- Select which Hidden Object Locations you play carefully. Take into account which Locations you actually like playing; the energy requirements for playing Locations; and whether or not the Location requires Access Passes to play. Choose Locations that cost less energy per play, and avoid Locations that require Access Passes in addition to energy points to play unless you have a large inventory of both energy items and Access Passes. When choosing which Locations to play to earn Valentine's Cards or Arrows, use the List of Collection Item Locations and Location Rewards pages here to see which Locations can potentially give you items for Collections you can combine for additional Energy, Tools, and Talismans.
- Garden; Ship; Clothing Store; Dressing Room and Gloomy House reward both Valentine's Cards and Arrows, however all of these Locations require Access Passes to play and so may not be easy to play many times in a row unless you already have a stockpile of the correct Access Passes. Avoid these pictures if energy or Access Passes are a concern, with the exception of Garden (see below).
- If you are low on energy, but close to levelling up (at which point your energy will restore), visit your Friends for the extra Experience points you can earn from daily bonuses and charging Locations on their Darkwood Town Maps
- Play Garden when you can. Garden can potentially rewards Truffles for Hidden Object game you win there. Truffles restore 30 energy points when used, and Garden can cost as little as 28 energy points (at Novice Rank, but up to over 50 energy points at higher Ranks). This means you can play for free or next to free if you have a good success rate of winning Truffles. Using Luck talismans and artifacts while playing Garden will increase your odds for winning Truffles. You can also potentially win both Valentine's Cards and Arrows by playing Garden. This also means that Garden is a great picture to play when collecting these items, as by winning Truffles and restoring the energy you are using to play, you are basically collecting these items for free in terms of energy costs. Note Garden requires Lantern Access Passes to play, so you will need to play other Locations to win these in order to play Garden.
- Play Clock Tower and Dressing Room when you can, as these Locations potentially rewards the Flying Time tool as a reward for playing. This tool will come in handy when playing other Locations, particularly the new locations you may not be as familiar with. Note Dressing Room requires Gold Thread Access Passes to play, so you will need to play other Locations to win these in order to play Dressing Room. However, Clock Tower does not require Access Passes to play.
- Play Clothing Store; Garden and Dressing Room when you can as these Locations potentially give Tools as rewards for playing. However, all of these Locations require Access Passes to play, so check to see if there are any Collections that will also reward the Tools you require, whose items can be won from playing regular energy Locations instead.
- Although Puzzles do not reward either Valentine's cards or Arrows, and therefore will not directly help with either Challenge, they do reward items for very useful collections that can provide useful rewards for playing the game, such as Tools, Crafting items and Talismans. In particular, you need to play Puzzles if you want to collect the items needed for the Collections used to create the Valuable Pyramid Artifact (which increases the number of items you win for each play by 50% for 24 hours). Only remove Puzzles completely from your playing rotation if you do not need these items for the challenges.
- Use Luck Talismans when you can. Luck Talismans will not give you multiple Valentine's Cards or Arrows for each play, but they may increase the number of times that you win them while playing. Luck Talismans will also increase the number of other items you win, such as Fixers, Crafting Items, Monster Banishing Items, and Collection Items. Everything you earn as you play trying to win Valentine's Cards and Arrows will be useful in the long run as they will help you combine the Collections to collect useful items in the game.
- Work on other goals in the game while collecting Valentine's Cards and Arrows to keep you motivated. Completing regular quests, finding items for regular collections, finding items for Crafting, Trading, and Banishing Monsters all involve playing Hidden Object Locations. As you work towards these goals you will collect Valentine's Cards and Arrows naturally and will be slowly working towards this goal in the process.
- Find a system that works for you when you are collecting Valentine's Cards and Arrows. The real difficulty in this challenge is keeping yourself motivated when playing normal Locations many, many times over to collect Valentine's Cards and Arrows. In the end the best strategy for one player may not be the best strategy for other players, so find the one that suits your playing style. If it helps to count Valentine's Cards and Arrows as you win them, then count them. If it helps to ignore them and work on other goals such as regular Quests, then ignore them. The more you play the more you will collect, regardless of how you approach collecting them.
At the end of the day, there is no special challenge to these timed challenges. They simply ask you to play the game as normal, and if you play the game enough over the course of the timed event, you will be rewarded with some special rewards such as a new avatar or one (or more) Chest of Love.
After the Challenge is Complete[]
Although you can only win the Avatar once by collecting Valentines Cards, you can collect as many arrows to trade with Cupid as many times as you want to win the Chest of Love during the 16 days that the Valentine's Timed Challenges are active.
This means that, for as long as the challenge timer is running, players can collect Arrows. They will always appear in the 'You can Find' list in the Explore window of the Hidden Object Locations that they can be won in, even after a player has already traded with Cupid to win a Chest of Love or has completed the Valentine's Card challenge and won the unique Valentine's avatar. Players can potentially win many Chests of Love over the course of the timed event.
Once a player completes the Avatar challenge, then it will no longer be possible to win any more Valentine's Cards, since they are no longer needed by the player. The Valentine's Cards will disappear from the 'You can find' list in the Explore window of the Locations that they could previously be won in, and they will no longer be won as potential rewards for completing Hidden Object games in those Locations.
Once the challenge timer ends, then both Valentines cards and Arrows will no longer be available to win by playing Hidden Object games.
Changes to Hidden Object Locations[]
Changes to Winter Yard (Night Street)[]
With the introduction of the Valentine's update, Winter Yard has been changed to reflect the fact that it is no longer part of a set of timed challenges.
The game level required to unlock Winter Yard has been increased to level 48. With this, so have the energy requirements for each play of Winter Yard increased, and so has the experience points and coins won at every Location Rank for the Location. These increases are to bring Winter Yard in line with the energy costs and rewards used in other Hidden Object Locations with high opening levels.
Gingerbread Trees have been removed from the game, so that the Location is now just a regular Location that just requires Energy points for each play.
The Location's name has also been changed to 'Night Street' and the artwork for the Location has been updated.
Anomaly Summoning Items can still be won in Night Street[]
For the duration of the Halloween Update, Anomaly summoning items could be won by playing Gloomy House. These items were removed from Gloomy House with the introduction of the Christmas Update. Instead, the anomaly summoning items could be won in the new challenge picture, Winter Yard, instead. With the release of the Valentine's Update, these items have not been removed from the Winter Yard location, and so can still be won by playing games of this Location. Note that the Winter Yard location's name has been changed to Night Street, and the artwork of the Location has been updated.
Updating Artwork in a number of Locations[]
The artwork for the Night Street (formerly named Winter Yard), Docks, Alley, Ballroom, Marketplace and Garden locations have been updated.
Left: Ballroom before the Foggy Ship Update. Middle: Ballroom after the Foggy Ship Update. Right: Ballroom after the Valentine's Update
Left: Garden before the Foggy Ship Update. Middle: Garden after the Foggy Ship Update. Right: Garden after the Valentine's Update
Changes to Collections & Artifacts Section[]
A number of changes have been made to Collections in the game, including which Hidden Object Locations some collection items can now be found in.
A red exclamation mark now appears on the Collections icon at the bottom of the Darkwood Town Map whenever a player has either a collection or an artifact that are ready to combine. The exclamation mark only appears if the player has both the required collection items and the right amount of the required fixers needed to combine the collection/artifact. If the player has all of the required collection items, but does not have the required fixers to combine/assemble the collection/artifact then the exclamation mark will not appear since the collection/artifact cannot yet be combined.
Changes to Inventory Section[]
A new tab has been added to the Inventory window for Access Passes. This Tab is named 'Access' and has the symbol of a golden key in the Inventory window.
Changes to Friends[]
Social Interaction limits changed[]
A number of changes have been made to how players can interact with each other in the game.
Positive changes:
- The number of Free Gifts that can be sent per day has been increased from 50 to 100.
Negative changes:
- A maximum number of Friends a player can have has been introduced - the limit is now 250 Friends
- A maximum number of Friends a player can visit each day to collect visiting bonuses has been introduced - the limit is now 100 Friends
- A maximum number of Friends whose Darkwood Town Maps a player can charge has been introduced - the limit is now 50 Friends
Technical reasons were cited for introducing these limits, probably brought on by the increasing number of people playing the game.
Other Changes to Visiting Friends[]
There is now a quick scroll option on the list of Friends that appears at the bottom of the screen when you are Visiting a Friend's Darkwood Town Map. This allows players to immediately jump to either the very beginning or the very end of their Friends list when choosing which Friend to visit next.
Other Changes to the Free Gift System[]
The Free Gift System in the game has been expanding to include a number of the new Fixers added to the game in the update. This gives players much more choice in what they can send their Friends as a gift each day. Players are still restricted to only sending one free gift to each friend each day (up to a maximum of 50 friends), but now they have more choice in what they can gift.
Changes to Banishing Monsters[]
The three 'Christmas' Monsters, added by the Christmas Update, have been removed from the game. The Fixers that players used to win by banishing the 'Christmas' Monsters can now be won by banishing other Monsters in the game, with the exception of the Snowy Cake, which can now only be obtained by receiving it as a gift from Friends:
- The Christmas Hat Fixer can now be won by banishing the Clot of Dark monster
- The Sweet Nuts Fixer can now be won by banishing the Fire Elemental monster
- The Carrot Fixer can now be won by banishing the Werewolf Leader monster
- The Polka-dot Bow Tie Fixer can now be won by banishing the Medusa monster
- The Icy Crown Artifact Fixer can now be won by banishing the Gremlin Leader monster
- The Snowy Cake Artifact Fixer can be given as a free gift between friends.
Changes to Trading with Townspeople[]
For the duration of the Valentine's Update's timed challenge, one new Towns-person has been added to the Darkwood Town Map. You can now Trade with 'Cupid' as part of the update's challenges. It is likely that Cupid will be removed from the game once the challenge is complete.
Changes to Fixers[]
More new Fixers added to the game[]
Four more Fixers have been added to the game. The Coral, Glass Bird, Brooch, and Forget-me-not can be won by winning Hidden Object games of Dark Forest or Mine, and they can all be given as Free Gifts between Friends.
Changes to the Darkwood Town Map[]
Holiday Decorations[]
The Darkwood Town Map has been decorated for Valentine's Day. Festive.
Glitches Fixed by the Valentine's Update[]
coming soon... (maybe)
Glitches not Fixed by the Valentine's Update[]
Players Stats Frozen in the Top 100 list or for Friends[]
(To be Confirmed) Many players have a problem with their player stats in the game, where their game stats are not updating in the Top 100 List or in their entry on their Friends' 'Friends Lists', and when their Friends were Visiting them.
Wishlists Not Updating[]
(To be Confirmed, and if stats fixed it is likely so is this...) Players WL's are still not updating correctly on the games servers, so that their Friends cannot see what they are currently asking for but instead see a much older version of the list of requests.
Game Crashes Losing Player's Progress[]
(To be Confirmed) Some Players have been experiencing game crashes that result in them losing all their game progress and having to start the game over again since the game was first released.
Problems with the Valentine's Update[]
Useless Gingerbread Trees[]
Gingerbread Trees have been removed as a requirement for playing the Winter Yard Location (now called Night Street). This means that they no longer serve a purpose in the game. However, they are still listed as items that can be won by playing games of the Train Station Location and still remain in a player's inventory. There is nothing that players can do with these items, which they may still collect for no reason.
Server Problems Visiting and Gifting Friends[]
As with all large updates released for large social games, the Christmas Update caused an overload in the games servers during peak times for a couple of days immediately following the release of the update. 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 have downloaded the new update, and server interactions have settled back down to normal levels.
Glitches in the Valentine's Update[]
Dark Forest Not Unlocking[]
Locked Explore Window for Dark Forest.
Some player's have reported that the new Quests added to the game by the Valentine's Update are not automatically starting after the update is installed. This problem is especially noticeable with the new Hidden Object Location - Dark Forest.
Dark Forest should unlock when a player reaches level 51. At this point a new Quest will begin, asking the player to find the Key to Dark Forest. Once the Key Quest is completed, the player can then use the key and pay with Energy and Coins to open the new Hidden Object Location.
Players who are already above level 51 when installing the Valentine's Update should have the key quest for Dark Forest start as soon as the update is installed. This has been the case for all other new Locations added by updates in the past (e.g. Mine in the Christmas Update or Shack in the Halloween Update). However, the key quest does not automatically start for these players.
When a player below level 51 opens the explore window for the locked Dark Forest Location, they will see the level they need to reach to unlock the picture. However, when a player above level 51 opens the explore window for the Dark Forest Location, this information is missing since they have already reached the unlocking level requirement for the Location. Instead the information box is empty and the player is simply told that the Location is locked, without being given any information on how they could possibly unlock it.