Avatars

Players have a number of options of Avatars

Player's can choose from a number of Avatars to use in the Secret Society - Hidden Mystery game. There are currently 10 standard avatars available to all players when they start a new game. In addition to these 10 standard avatars, players can occassionally win new avatars by completing special Timed Challenges that appear in the game, and can also choose to link their game to a Facebook account to use their Facebook profile picture as an avatar.

Player's avatars appear in a number of places in the game. They appear in a player's own game at the top left hand corner of their Home Desktop and when they are viewing their stats in the Top 1000 list. A player's avatar will can also be seen in their Friends games - next to the player's entry in their Friend's friends list; next to their gifts in their Friend's gift box; next to their wishlist when their Friend is gifting them; and on their Friend's Home Desktop when their Friend hires them. A player's avatar will also be visible to all other players in the game, whether they are game friends or not, if they appear in the Top 1000 list.

Changing Avatars

Accessing the Avatar window

Every player is given the 'Shadow man' standard avatar by default when they start a new game. Player's can change their avatar as many times they want for free (since it does not cost crystals like name changes do).

In-Game Avatars

To choose an avatar from the standard in-game options, tap on your current avatar on the top left hand corner of the Home Desktop, beside your game name and current game level. This will bring up the 'Avatars' window, which will show all of the Avatars currently available in your game.

Accessing the Avatar window

You can scroll through the list to see all available avatars. Tapping on an avatar will select it. The currently selected avatar will display a small green check mark to indicate it is selected.

Tapping on save will save any changes and exit the Avatars window. Tapping on the brown 'X' in the top right hand corner of the window will exit without saving any changes.

Facebook Avatars

Players can tap on the blue 'F' icon beneath their game name to connect their game to a Facebook account. This will open the devices browser and open the log-in page of Facebook.

Once a game is connected to Facebook, the name used on the Facebook account will be displayed below the player's game name and game level on their Home Desktop. Note that the Facebook name will also appear next to the players name in all other areas of the game, such as in their Friend's friends lists and in their stats in the top 1000 list, so players should not connect the game to their regular Facebook account that uses their real name unless they are comfortable with their name being displayed to all other players in the game. Creating a second, anonymous, gaming Facebook account to use for this purpose is recommended.

Once a Facebook account is connected to the game, the profile picture used in that Facebook account will appear as the first option in the Avatars window. Players can select this as their avatar by following the instructions above for changing in-game avatars.

List of In-Game Avatars

Every player in the game has access to a number of in-game avatars to choose from if they do not want to connect their game to a Facebook account. There are 10 standard avatars that all players have access to, as well as over 40 'unique' avatars (including female and male versions, if applicable) that could be won during previous timed challenge events in the game. It is not possible for a player to win any of the timed challenge avatars once their associated timed challenge event is over, but players who do win one of these special avatars during the event will always have it as an option to use. The table in this section shows the 10 standard avatars. The table in the next section shows the timed challenge avatars.

Avatar	Avatar Type
	Standard (default)
	Standard
	Standard
	Standard
	Standard
	Standard
	Standard
	Standard
	Standard
	Standard
	Standard

Special Avatars

Many Timed Challenges introduced by Updates to the game have used unique avatars as a reward. Typically, players are asked to complete a challenge within a certain time frame to win the avatar. Once a player wins a special avatar it will always be available to them to use and will always appear as an option in their in-game avatar list.

Below is a list of the special avatars that have been added to the game by timed challenge events:

Avatar	Timed Challenge	Requirements to win
	2013 Halloween Update (Oct-Nov 2013)	Reach Academician level on Witch's Hut within a certain time frame
	2013 Christmas Update (Dec 2013-Jan 2014)	Reach Academician level on Christmas Eve within a certain time frame
	Valentines 2014 (Feb-March 2014)	Reach Academician level on Tree of Dates within a certain time frame
	Treasure Island (Sept-Oct 2014)	Collect 400 butterflies within a certain time frame (one of many rewards)
	2014 Halloween Update (Oct-Nov 2014)	Combine the 5 Halloween collections to create 'Witch's Talisman' artefact within a certain time frame
	2014 Christmas Update (Dec 2014 -Jan 2015)	Reach Academician level on Winter Street within a certain time frame
	Travel Time Update (July 2015 - August 2015)	Reach Academician level on Observation Deck within a certain time frame
	Social Events Update (September 2015 - October 2015)	Reach Academician level on Banquet Hall within a certain time frame
	2015 Halloween Update (October 2015 - November 2015)	Reach Academician level on Spooky Yard within a certain time frame
	2015 Christmas Update (December 2015 - January 2016)	Reach Academician level on Wonder Shop within a certain time frame
	Mountain Vacation Update (March 2016 - April 2016)	Reach Academician level on Mountain Resort within a certain time frame
	Spring Festival Update (April 2016 - May 2016)	Reach Academician level on Spring Festival within a certain time frame
	Celebration by the Bonfire Update/Celebration by the Bonfire Timed Challenge (June 2016 - July 2016)	Reach Academician level on Camping Site within a certain time frame
	Celebration by the Bonfire Update/Vacation by the Sea Timed Challenge (July 2016 - August 2016)	Reach Academician level on Tropical Evening within a certain time frame
	Harvest and Halloween Update/Harvest Festival Timed Challenges Female and male avatars (September - October 2016)	Reach Academician level on Farm within a certain time frame
	Harvest and Halloween Update/Halloween 2016 Timed Challenges Female and male avatars (October - November 2016)	Reach Academician level on Haunted Attraction within a certain time frame
	Magic Tour and Christmas Update/Magic Tour Timed Challenge Female and male avatars (November - December 2016)	Reach Academician level on Luxury Express within a certain time frame.
	Magic Tour and Christmas Update/Christmas 2016 Timed Challenge Female and male avatars (December 2016 - January 2017)	Reach Academician level on Festive Dinner within a certain time frame.
	Winter's Tale Update Female and male avatars (January - February 2017)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Orangery scene.
	The Legend Returns Update Female and male avatars (February - March 2017)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Tea Corner scene.
	Forgotten Story Update Female and male avatars (March - April 2017)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Aviation Museum scene.
	Wildlife Photography Season Update Female and male avatars (April - May 2017)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Forester's Base scene.
	Call from the Depths Update Female and male avatars (May - June 2017)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Captain's Cabin scene.
	Time Trap Update Female and male avatars (June - July 2017)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Ship's Deck scene.
	Guardian of the Desert Update Female and male avatars (July - August 2017)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Heart of the Dunes scene.
	Raven's Test Update Female and male avatars (August - October 2017)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Vikings Village scene.
	Halloween's Horror Update Female and male avatars (October - November 2017)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Film Studio scene.
	Sweet Venture Update Female and male avatars (November - December 2017)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Bakery scene.
	Christmas Miracle Update Female and male avatars (December 2017 - January 2018)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Secret Mailroom scene.
	Theater of Feelings Update Female and male avatars (January - February 2018)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Actress's Room scene.
	Chinese New Year Update Female and male avatars (February - March 2018)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Chinese Teahouse scene.
	Hanami Festival Update Female and male avatars (April 2018)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Japanese Shrine scene.
	Family Mystery Update Female and male avatars (May - June 2018)	Get the unique avatars after reaching the "Academician" scene level in the Garden Tea Party scene.

Mystery Avatar

Dating back to the game at least to the 1.16 update (Halloween 2015 update) and potentially added by the Spring 2015 Update due to its positioning in the game files, one avatar exists in the game files but has not been used in the game to date. This mystery avatar may be related to aborted set of timed challenges intended for the Spring 2015 update, or may simply be a ghost left over from previous events in the game or the Facebook version of the game.

Hints and Tips

Some players use avatars to display messages to their Friends. Since avatars are free to change (do not cost crystals) and unique avatars can be used by connecting a game to a Facebook game, they can be used as powerful tools to easily display messages in the game such as gifting preferences or notifications of holidays from the game.

Glitches with Avatars

The Halloween 2013 Timed Challenge Avatar

The 2013 Halloween Update was the first time that timed challenges were introduced to the game. For this first ever set of challenges, players could win a unique avatar by reaching Academician level in the newly added Witch's Hut picture within a certain time frame. This was the first time that a unique avatar was on offer in the game. Many players experienced a glitch with this avatar, where it would not remain as an option in their Avatars window. Once a player changed their avatar from this Halloween avatar to another in-game option or a facebook avatar, then it would disappear from their list of available avatars and can never be used again. This is the only timed challenge avatar to date to have this problem.

Game Crashes Tavern Update

A change to how Facebook named its profile images in May 2014 created a serious problem in the game for iPad users. The new Facebook image names were too long for the game to handle and so the file extensions were cut off in the game. Without a file extension, the game did not know the file stored for that Facebook image was a picture and could not display it. For Android and Kindle devices, this meant affected images were replaced by a black square. But for iOS devices, the default black square could not be displayed, so instead the game would crash. This resulted in a major issue for iPad players, whose games would crash continuously when attempting to accept gifts. Any gifts sent by a player with a problem Facebook image as an avatar would have the problem image displayed next to the gift in their friend's gift boxes. When the iOS player attempting to accept their gifts came across one of these gifts, their game would crash. Many players lost all access to their gifts as a result of this glitch. It was eventually fixed by Treasure Island Update (September 2014) which added a default image that iOS devices could display whenever it had an issue displaying an image in the game.

Personalized Facebook Avatar Glitch

On March 29, 2018, players noticed that personalized Facebook Avatars had disappeared from the Avatar selection list. These games remained connected to Facebook and their Facebook account name continued to display, but the Avatar image was replaced by the Standard (default) Avatar in their own games and in the Friends section of the game. The glitch appears to affect all supported game platforms. The glitch did not affect the unsupported Windows 8 platform. The problem was reported to G5 and is awaiting resolution.