Banquet Hall, the picture introduced by the Social Events Update
The Social Events update (v1.15) was released on the 10th of September 2015 for Android players, on the 14th of September 2015 for iOS players, and on the 15th of September for Kindle players. The update was not released on Mac or PC computer versions of the game.
The Social Events Update also introduced a new set of non-holiday themed timed challenges, which gave players a chance to win a lunch chest along with a once off talisman, the Solemnity Talisman, and a new unique game avatar.
The Social Events Update is unique in the game, in that it was the first update to be released on Android devices first. All previous updates were released on iOS devices first, with other platforms coming later.
The Social Events timed challenges begin when a player reaches game level 7 in the game (or automatically after downloading the update if the player is already above level 7).
The Social Event's Update's timed challenges
The Social Events timed event introduced 3 new challenges for players to complete within a set time frame:
Collect 500 Air Balloons by winning games of the Gem Match puzzle to win a Lunch Chest
Complete 30 challenge quests to win a special once-off Talisman - the Solemnity Talisman - which increases the rate of energy restoration by 5 times for 24 hours once activated.
For the duration of the Social Events Update, Invitation special items were needed in addition to energy points to play Banquet Hall. Invitations were given as rewards for every successful investigation for every picture, and as rewards for banishing anomalies, but not for playing puzzles. Invitations cannot be gifted between friends, however they are given as rewards for combining some of the new Banquet Hall collections, and they can be giving as rewards by the Sphere of Miracles and Pyramid of Wonders.
Important: The amount of time available for the Social Events timed challenges will vary across platforms. For example, Android players were given 21 days to complete the challenge, and iOS players were given a little over 16 days when their version of the update was released nearly 5 days later. It is important to note that the Challenge timer begins counting down from the moment the update is released in a devices app store, and not from the moment a player downloads the update. If an update with a set of timed challenges is released in your app store with 20 days to complete the challenges and you wait 15 days to download the new update, when you download it you will only have 5 days to complete the challenge, not 20.
Collecting Air Balloons and the Lunch Chest[]
How to Win the Lunch Chest[]
Air Balloons can be won for as a reward for successfully winning a game of the Gem Match puzzle during the Social Events Update's timed challenges
Players can win the Lunch Chest by collecting 500 Air Balloons. Air Balloons can only be won by successfully completing the Gem Match puzzle. For each successful win of Gem Match, you can potentially win between 1-5 Air Balloons as one of the rewards for completing the puzzle.
When you open the Research Window for Gem Match by tapping on the Gem Match puzzle icon on your Home Desktop you will see Air Balloons listed as the first item in the 'Can be found' list for the puzzle. Air Balloons are available to win for every play of the puzzle at every puzzle level.
Air Balloons can be won by winning games of Gem Match. Between 1 and 5 Air Balloons are given for every win of the Gem Match Puzzle until you collect 500 in total
You must keep playing (and winning) Gem Match until you have collected 500 Air Balloons in order to win the Lunch Chest. Once you win the Lunch Chest it will automatically go into the 'Special' tab in your inventory. To open the box, open the inventory section and select the 'Special' tab. Tap on the Lunch chest to bring up a window with details about the chest, and press the green 'use' button at the bottom of this window. The chest will disappear from the Special tab of the inventory and the items it contains will be added to your inventory.
The lunch chest rewarded for collecting 500 Air Balloons
Once opened, the Lunch Chest will add the following energy items to the 'Energy' tab of your inventory: 2x Cappuccinos (2x 30 energy points); 1x Ice Cream (1x 50 energy points); 1x donut (1x 100 energy points); 1x Lunch box (1x 150 energy points) and 1x energy drink (1x 250 energy points).
You can use these items any time you want by going to the energy tab of your inventory and going to the 'Energy' tab.Tap on any item you wa
You collect Air Balloons by winning games of Gem Match
nt to use and a window giving details of the item will appear. Tap the green 'Use' button at the bottom of this window and the energy points will be added to your total.
You will also automatically be offered to use these items if you try to play a picture/puzzle that requires more energy than you currently have, which means you do not have to go through all the steps in the inventory tab if you wish to keep playing.
Note: Just because an item is on a picture/puzzles 'Can be Found' list, it is not guaranteed you will win that item every time you play that picture/puzzle. There is an element of chance in the game that determines what items you will win when you successfully complete a picture/puzzle. All items are weighted based on their value in the game. Higher value items, like the Air Balloons needed to win the Lunch Chest, are weighted in such a way that they are less likely to be won than low value items such as some low level collection items and most combining elements. This means you will not win multiple Air Balloons every single time you win a Gem Match Game. However, all of the Timed Challenges are designed to be completed within the given time limit, so it is possible to collect 500 Air Balloons well within the time given. The task is designed to be challenging, but it is not impossible!
Hints/Tips for Collecting Air Balloons[]
Although it will take many plays of Gem Match to win 500 Air Balloons, there are things you can do to make the challenge easier:
Read the Gem Match article on this wiki for tips on playing Gem Match, including how to make special gems and combine them to create special moves to clear the board faster.
Explorer's Eyes can be used to remove a single yellow border from the game board while playing Gem Match
Use tools when playing Gem Match. You can use Explorer's Eyes and Time Machines when playing Gem Match. Using a Explorer's Eye will remove one yellow border from the game board at random. This can be particularly useful for tricky corner pieces. However, since you cannot control which border is removed by the Explorer's Eye, it is better to wait until you only have a few left to remove to increase the chances of it removing the difficult one. Time Machines add 45 seconds to the puzzle timer, which can be a great help for the more difficult board configurations.
Don't just play Gem Match over and over again; try to play a variety of pictures and puzzles as much when possible. The more you play a single picture/puzzle repeatedly, the worse the rewards for each win gets. In order to keep your chances of getting many Air Balloons per play high, try mixing other pictures/puzzles into your playing rotation. Perhaps rotate trying to get the Lunch Chest with the other challenges in the Banquet Hall event (playing Banquet Hall and completing the 30 challenge quests)
Don't rely on Luck Talismans/Artifacts. Luck talismans (e.g. Horseshoes) and artifacts (e.g. Symbol of Success) do not increase your odds of winning a particular item, such as Air Balloons, i.e. they do not change the weighting of items. However, they do increase the number of items you will win for each successful play of a picture/puzzle. Because you can win more items for each play, you essentially get more rolls of the dice each time you win. However, since Air Balloons are rewarded using the same mechanism as Christmas balls/Pumpkin Lanterns/Tokens special items etc during holiday themed timed challenges (i.e a number of Air Balloons are awarded for each play, it is the number you win that is weighted not whether or not you win them) instead of using the same mechanism as collection items/combining elements (i.e. you may or may not win the item each play, it is whether the item will be won or not that is weighted), Luck talismans and artifacts will not affect the number of Air Balloons won per win of Gem Match. Since the game is coded to give out Air Balloons for each play, increasing the number of different items won per play, by using luck talismans, will not change anything. The number of Air Balloons given is also based on chance, with higher numbers weighted to appear less often than lower numbers, but Luck talismans/artifacts cannot help with this since they do not affect weighting.
Use the Time Talisman artifact. If you are struggling to win Gem Match in the time given (particularly at lower puzzle levels, where less time is allotted to each play) then try to use a Time Talisman artifact. Once activated, this artifact adds 1 minute to every picture/puzzle for 24 hours.
The Unique Avatar - Getting Banquet Hall to Academician Level[]
Players can win the Unique 'Social Events' Avatar by playing the new picture, Banquet Hall, until they increase its scene progress level up to Academician Level during the Social Events update's time sensitive challenge (during the first 21 days after the update is released for a platform).
The avatar won for reaching Academician level in Banquet Hall
For the duration of the Social Events update, Invitation special items were needed for each play of the Banquet Hall picture.
While the Timed Challenges are active (before you complete all three, or the timer expires, whichever happens first), Invitations were given as rewards for every successful investigation for every picture in the game. At least one Invitation is given for every game you win, but winning 2 or 3 Invitations at a time is also possible.
Invitations are required, in addition to Energy points, for each play of Banquet Hall
Invitations are also given as rewards from banishing anomalies, but not for playing puzzles. Invitations cannot be gifted between friends, however they are given as rewards for combining some of the new Banquet Hall collections. Players with the Pyramid of Wonder or Sphere of Miracles also have a 1 in 6 chance of receiving Invitations from these Desktop Awards when collecting their rewards every 12 hours. The number of Invitations needed for each play of Banquet Hall increases as you increase the Picture Levels of Banquet Hall (+5 Invitations per Level increase), starting at 5 Invitations per play when the picture is opened at Novice Level and increasing to 40 Invitations per play when the picture is at Professor Level.
As a guide, in order to reach Academician Level on Banquet Hall, and win the new Avatar, you will need to play the picture approximately 150 times, which will require approximately 3,285 Invitations! (or 2,628 Invitations if using the Amulet of Santa artifact).
The goal of the challenge is to play Banquet Hall enough times to reach Academician level
Hints/Tips for Winning the Unique Avatar[]
Try to play a variety of pictures as much when possible when playing, instead of just playing Banquet Hall 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 artifacts that will all help with completing the quest.
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 31 energy points at most to play (at professor 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 artifacts, 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 Invitations, as by winning cappuccinos and restoring the energy you are using to play, you are basically collecting Invitations for free in terms of energy costs.
The 2014 version of the Amulet of Santa (note it has changed in appearance since the original version, which was a Santa icon)
If you are low on energy, avoid playing the newest pictures in the game too often (Tavern, Treasure Island, Theatre, Forest House, Excavations, Winter Street, Flower Shop, Observation Deck) as these pictures do not reward combining elements and usually have a high energy demand (except for Forest House and Winter Street). Although some of the collections rewarded by some of these pictures (especially Tavern) are tempting, the lack of combining elements means you will struggle to combine the collections they reward, and the majority of collection items they reward are for collections with lesser rewards than the original pictures in the game.
Use the Amulet of Santa artifact to decrease the number of Invitations needed to play Banquet Hall. The Amulet of Santa artifact reduces the number of Special Items needed to play paid scenes like Banquet Hall by 20% per 24 hours once activated. All of the items for the collections needed to create an Amulet of Santa can be won by playing Winter Street (but see point 3 above about playing some pictures too often when trying to make the most of your energy while collecting Invitations). Using Amulet of Santa artifacts when playing Banquet Hall could potentially reduce the total number of Invitations you need to find to reach Academician level from 3,285 to 2,628. N
The Valentines Amulet artifact reduces the amount of energy needed to play pictures by 10% for 12 hours
ote that, unlike during the Travel Time Update's timed challenges, Amulets of Santa's can still be collected and combined during the Social Event Update's timed challenges. The items needed to combine the collections that are used to create the artifact can still be won in Winter Street during the challenge. So it is a good idea to have Winter Street in the rotation of pictures you play while collecting Invitations, as you can the collect the items needed to create the Amulet of Santa items at the same time.
Use the Valentines Amulet artifact to decrease the amount of energy needed to play every picture/puzzle when you are ready to Banquet Hall a number of times. The Valentines amulet reduces the amount of energy needed to play by 10% for 12 hours, so will enable you to play Banquet Hall more times with your available energy.
Use luck talismans and artifacts, 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.
As you play through the 30 challenge quests to win the Solemnity Talisman, you will be able to combine 5 new collections added as part of the update. These quests will reward Invitations once combined.
The Challenge Quests and the Solemnity Talisman[]
The Solemnity Talisman can be won by completing the 30 challenge quests, marked by silver thorn borders in the quests list on the left hand side of the Home Desktop
The Solemnity Talisman can be won once a player completes all 30 of the special Banquet Hall challenge quests introduced as part of Social Events update. The quests must be completed within the 21 day time limit of the Timed Challenge in order to unlock the Talisman.
Once the quests are completed, the Solemnity Talisman automatically goes your inventory, and a new page of the Diary 'Gala Evening for Explorers' will open. A notification screen will appear to say that the 30 challenge quests are complete and you have won the Solemnity Talisman, but you must go to the Talisman section of the Inventory itself to see and use the new Talisman.
The Solemnity Talisman can be activated from the Talisman tab of the inventory like any other talisman/artifact. To activate the Talisman, open the Inventory, the Talisman tab will automatically be open (default open tab). Scroll to the Solemnity Talisman and tap on it to bring up its information box. Press the green 'use' button at the bottom of the information box to activate the Talisman or the brown 'cancel' button to return to the Inventory without activating the Talisman. Once activated, the Solemnity Talisman will increase the rate of energy restoration by 5 times for 24 hours (i.e. it is exactly the same as a Witch's talisman artifact).
A special decorative border, of silver thorns, in the quest list marks the 30 quests needed to win the Solemnity Talisman. Other quests added by the update, with regular gold borders, do not count towards the 30 when completed.
Note: the very first quest that displays the special decorative border is the quest to find the picture pieces needed to unlock and open the Banquet Hall picture. However, this quest does not count towards the 30 quests needed to win the Solemnity Talisman. This means there are actually 31 quests that display the decorative border, but only the last 30 of them count towards the challenge. But importantly, you will need to complete this first quest in order to complete the challenge as the 30 quests that make up the challenge will not start until this quest is completed (there is only ever one quest with a special decorative border active at any one time) and the other quests require you to play the picture Banquet Hall (which this quest opens).
The decorative border that indicates which quests count towards the 30 needed to win the Solemnity Talisman
The special 30 quests that must be completed in order to win the Solemnity Talisman consist of 5 collection sequences of 6 quests each. The first 5 quests of each sequence are to find each of the 5 items belonging to one new collection added by the update. The 6th quest is to combine the collection.
The 5 collections players gather as they complete the 30 quests are:
Invitation postcards (combines to create "Canada postcard"and rewards 10 Invitations when combined)
Jewelry pendants (combines to create "Morganite Explorer" and rewards 15 Invitations when combined)
Ice statues (combines to create "Ice lion" and rewards 20 Invitations when combined)
Caesar salad (combines to create "Caesar Salad" and rewards 25 Invitations when combined)
Watermelon smoothie (combines to create "Water-melon smoothie" and rewards 30 Invitations when combined)
When you complete the 30 challenge quests with silver borders, the Solemnity Talisman will automatically go into the Talisman Tab of the Inventory.
All the items that make up these collections cannot be gifted between friends (they do not have green plus signs to add them to your wishlist and they will not appear in the 'Send a collection item' tab when sending gifts to your friends. They are all also 'Quest only' items, which means that they cannot be won normally by playing pictures/puzzles. They are only available to win in pictures while the quest for the particular item is activated and will stop being available to win in that picture once the quest is completed. They may also 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, however whether or not you get any of these items in those ways is completely up to chance. This means that the only way to complete these quests is to follow the quest instructions as you get the quests. This makes these 30 challenge quests slightly more difficult than the challenge quests in recent Timed Challenges, all of which could be gifted between friends or won in regular play of certain pictures.
The Challenge Quests[]
The 30 quests that are needed to win the Solemnity Talisman are:
Quest Number
Quest Name
Quest Instructions
Item Won
Collection Sequence
0
Banquet Hall
Investigate the photo in Text mode to find an object
Pieces of Banquet Hall Picture
N/A
1
Party Planning
Investigate 'Banquet Hall' to find an object
'China' postcard
Invitation postcards
2
Not Enough Assistants
Investigate 'Banquet Hall' to find an object
'Cuba' postcard
Invitation postcards
3
Global Guest List
Investigate the 'Banquet Hall' in Text mode to find an object
'Morocco' postcard
Invitation postcards
4
Arctic Style
Investigate 'Banquet Hall' to find an object
'Iceland' postcard
Invitation postcards
5
From Down Under
Investigate the 'Banquet Hall' in Night mode to find an object
'Australia' postcard
Invitation postcards
6
The Last Postcard
You must gather (combine) the collection to obtain the object
Diamond Horseshoes increase you chance of winning items by 90% for 2 hours
Use the strongest Luck Talismans/artifacts you have available whenever you are playing. This will increase the number items you win for each play, which will increase you chances of winning the quest item. Diamond Horseshoe talismans (+90% chance of winning items for 120 minutes) and the Symbol of Success artifact (+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 Invitations to play Banquet Hall, so by making sure that Tavern (rewards items for collections that reward Diamond horseshoes) and Venice; Buddha's Square; Throne Room; Mayan Temple; Ghost Town; Joy Café; Amusement Park; Bungalow; 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.
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 again 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 the Symbol of Success Artifact at the same time as Magic Crystal Talisman again. The Magic Crystal Talisman lasts for 10 days.
The Challenge quests usually ask for you to play Banquet Hall, so it is best to continue to work on Banquet Hall 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 Banquet Hall 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 aide in completing this challenge.
Read the quest instructions carefully. Most quests just ask you to play Banquet Hall, but some will specify a mode. The item will only be available to win when the picture is in the correct mode. Most modes cannot be 'forced', which means you cannot make them appear in rotation. However, 'Text' mode can be triggered by banishing (not playing) an anomaly in the picture. If the quest asks for Text mode in Banquet Hall, then play other pictures until an anomaly appears in Banquet Hall. You can then banish the anomaly, making the next mode Text mode. (Make sure the picture is not in Night mode while waiting for an anomaly, play it to change the mode if it is in night mode).
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.
You can complete a quest by combining the collection involved in the quest. E.g. if you already have all 5 items for a collection and are currently on the quest for the 3rd item in the collection, then combining the collection will automatically complete the quest. The next quest to start will be the quest for the 4th item in the collection and you will have to find both the 4th and the 5th item in the collection as normal, but the 6th quest in that sequence - to combine the collection - will also complete automatically when it starts. However, it will be rare to be able to complete any of these collections early since the items do not have a regular play location, so do not rely on being able to do this to skip difficult quests.
After the Challenge is complete[]
Once you complete all three Social Events Update Challenges, or after the challenge timer expires, it is very likely that Invitations will be restricted so that they will only be won in a couple of Pictures (instead of in all the Pictures like during the Timed Challenges).
This restriction of the challenge quest special items after completion has been a feature of the last few timed update challenges (e.g. Christmas 2014, Halloween2014), Travel Time Update) and is designed to allow players to collect enough to complete the challenge within the short time frame but not amass a large quantity after the challenge is over in the months leading up to the next update. The game does not want players to have an excess of these items as they would give an big advantage in the game after the update.
Typically, one of two things may happen to the Invitations when the next update is released:
The Invitations may be removed from the game by the future update, and any remaining in the players inventory could be converted to other special items (such as Fireflies, Ladybugs, carrots, cupid arrows and tokens). In this case, keeping the number of Invitations a player can accumulate down will keep the number of other special items the player can win down, since these items are meant to be rare.
The Invitations could be kept in the game as a requirement for playing Banquet Hall, like the Cupid Arrows were kept in the game as a requirement for playing Tree of Dates after the Valentines Update and Tokens were kept in the game as a requirement for playing Observation Deck after the Travel Time Update (which introduced them in an identical quest). In this case, the game would want to keep the number of Invitations a player can win down after the challenge so that Banquet Hall would work the same way as any other picture with a special item requirement - where the special item is rare and can only be won in a few pictures.
Either way, players being able to accumulate a large amount of Invitations (by winning them in every picture) after the challenge is over but before the new update arrives would give them too large a boost in game resources compared to what would normally be accomplish-able in the same time period, which is why recent updates have introduced the restriction after the challenge quests are complete or the timer expires (whichever happens first).
It is worth noting that some of the regular quests that were introduced with the update require you to play Banquet Hall (including some of the very last quests of the new crop you will work through). In order to maximize how many Invitations you can earn to aid in these quests, it is best to not complete all 3 of the timed challenges until the challenge timer is nearly finished. Keeping one of the 3 challenges incomplete for as long as possible will keep the time period that Invitations can be won in every picture in the game open as long as possible.
The Gem Match challenge of collecting 500 Air Balloons for the lunch chest is the easiest of the 3 to leave uncompleted (both of the other challenges require you play Banquet Hall so you will naturally complete one as you complete the other, whereas the Gem Match challenge is kept entirely separate from the others).
Simply play Gem Match until you have 400-450 Air Balloons (to allow for winning some while playing other quests) and then stop until the day before the timer expires. When the timer is nearly finished, collect the remaining Air Balloons to complete the Gem Match Challenge for its reward.
By leaving this Challenge to the last possible moment, you can complete the other two challenges (the challenge quests, which all require playing Banquet Hall, and the avatar challenge, which requires playing Banquet Hall) and still continue to collect Invitations in every picture to build up a stockpile of Invitations to use after they become restricted (while still being confident that you can complete all 3 challenges before the timer expires).
New Collections Added with the Social Events Update[]
Observation Deck Becomes the 5th Regular Special Item Picture[]
Observation Deck was introduced to the game as part of the Travel Time Update. As part of the Travel Time Update's Timed Challenges, players needed to play Observation Deck until they upgraded the picture to Academician Level within the Time Challenges set time limit in order to win a Unique Avatar in the game. Token Special Items were needed, in addition to Energy Points, for each play of Observation Deck. This is a common type of Timed Challenge in the game. For the duration of the Timed Challenge itself, Tokens could be won as a reward for winning every Picture in the game, as well as for Banishing Anomalies and for combining some of the new collections added by the Travel Time Update. Once a player completed all three challenges that made up the Travel Time Update's Timed Challenges or when the challenge timer expired (whichever happened first), Tokens were restricted so that they could only be won in two locations - Mayan Temple and Crashed Plane. They could still be won by banishing Anomalies (but only in these two Pictures), and they could still be won by combining the Collections that rewarded them.
For the duration of the Travel Time Update, Observation Deck could be unlocked and opened from game level 7 onward, in order to allow all players to be able to take part in the Travel Time Update's Timed Challenges, regardless of their game level.
Once a player updates to the Social Events Update, a number of changes will take place regarding the Observation Deck picture.
The game level needed to unlock and open Observation Deck has been increased from 7 to 90, so that Observation Deck is now the Picture that requires the highest game level for players to open.
The Social Events Update has also kept Observation Deck as a Regular Special Item picture.This means that Tokens will continue to be required for each play of Observation Deck. This makes Observation Deck the 5th regular Special Item Picture in the game, joining Night Garden (which requires Fireflies to play); Mill which requires Ladybugs to play);Illusionist's Room (which requires Carrots to play); and Tree of Dates (which requires Cupid Arrows to play).
Tokens can continue to be won by winning games of Mayan Temple and Crashed Plane, which will be the permanent regular pictures to pay to win Tokens. However the drop rate of Tokens has been improved in these pictures making them easier to win than they were when they were first restricted to these two pictures. Tokens can also still be won by banishing Anomalies from these pictures. However, the Collections that rewarded Tokens when combined as part of the Travel Time Update have had their rewards changed to different items.This means that no collection in a game upgraded to the Social Events Update will give Tokens as rewards for combining.
The Sphere of Miracles and Pyramid of Wonders can still potentially give Tokens as their reward every 12 hours. (They can also potentially reward Invitations, which are the special item needed to play Banquet Hall).
Tokens are unlocked as Free Gifts at level 87, but can be unlocked early by buying them for a once off price of 87 crystals
Tokens can now be gifted as Free Gifts between Friends. Players must be at game level 87 in order to unlock Tokens as Free Gifts. Once unlocked, Tokens can be sent like the other Special Items as free gifts (by scrolling to their entry in the 'Send a Gift' tab in the Gifting Window. Tokens are located at the very end of the 'Send a Gift' tab (last entry). Tokens have the same restrictions as any other Free Gift - being limited to just one free gift to each friend up to a maximum of 50 Friends each day.
Note: Tokens are Free Gifts - this means they do not come out of your Inventory when you give them as Gifts to your Friends. You do not lose any of your own Tokens when you send them.
Important: Players who have updated to the Social Events update, and so can gift Tokens, are able to give Tokens as Free Gifts to all other players who have at least the Travel Time Update installed on their devices, including players who have not yet updated to the Social Events Update (as it has not been released for their device yet or they have chosen not to update yet). This is because any player who has the Travel Time Update installed will have the correct coding for Tokens in their game (since their game uses them), enabling them to receive them as gifts from players who can send them as gifts.
Summary of Tokens and Game Versions[]
Players will experience 3 different criteria for winning Tokens, depending on which update they currently have installed on their devices and what state that update is currently in (timed challenges active or not):
Travel Time Update Installed and Timed Challenges currently active
Tokens are required, in addition to energy points, to play Observation Deck.
Tokens can be won for every successful game of every picture in the game (except for Observation Deck itself), and at least 1 Token will be won every time.
Tokens can be won by banishing anomalies from every picture in the game.
Tokens can be won by combining 5 of the Travel Time Update's collections.
Tokens cannot be given as gifts to your friends
Tokens can be received as gifts from your friends, as long as those friends have installed the Social Events Update (and so can send Tokens).
Tokens cannot be bought in the Shop for crystals.
The Sphere of Miracles and Pyramid of Wonder desktop awards can potentially reward Tokens.
Travel Time Update Installed and Timed Challenges finished
Tokens are required, in addition to energy points, to play Observation Deck.
Tokens can only be won by winning games of Mayan Temple and Crashed Plane, and will not be won every time (very infrequent and only a single Token).
Tokens can only be potentially won when banishing anomalies from the Mayan Temple and Crashed Plane.
Tokens can be won by combining 5 of the Travel Time Update's collections.
Tokens cannot be given as gifts to your friends
Tokens can be received as gifts from your friends, as long as those friends have installed the Social Events Update (and so can send Tokens).
Tokens cannot be bought in the Shop for crystals
The Sphere of Miracles and Pyramid of Wonder desktop awards can still potentially reward Tokens.
Social Events Update Installed
Tokens are required, in addition to energy points, to play Observation Deck.
Tokens can only be won by winning games of Mayan Temple and Crashed Plane, and will not be won every time, but will be won more frequently than for those players still playing the Travel Time version of the game.
Tokens can only be potentially won when banishing anomalies from the Mayan Temple and Crashed Plane.
Tokens cannot be won by combining any collection in the game (the 5 Travel Time Update collections that rewarded Tokens have had their rewards changed to other items).
Tokens can be given as free gifts (do not come out of your inventory) to your friends. You must be level 87 or higher to unlock Tokens as a free gift. Tokens are located in the last position in the 'Send a Gift' tab of the gifting window.
Tokens can be received as gifts from your friends, as long as those friends have installed the Social Events Update (and so can send Tokens).
Tokens can be bought in the Shop by paying with crystals, with three options: buying 1 Token for 5 crystals; buying 10 Tokens for 40 crystals; and buying 100 Tokens for 300 crystals.
The Sphere of Miracles and Pyramid of Wonder desktop awards can still potentially reward Tokens (and can also potentially reward Invitations).
Magic Crystal Talisman Fixed[]
The Social Events Update has changed the Magic Crystal Talisman again, so that it can now once again be used at the same time as another Talisman/Artifact that has the same function.
The Magic Crystal Talisman is a reward for entering the game every day for a set period of time. There are 5 components to the magic crystal, and each component is given for visiting the game for a set number of days in a row. To get the Magic Crystal you must enter the game every day for 25 days (5 days for each component). The Magic Crystal increases the odds of finding an object by 12% and adds 12% to coins received from exploring pictures/puzzles for 10 days.
Prior to the Christmas 2014 Update, the Magic Crystal Talisman was unique in the game, in that it was the only Talisman that could be activated at the same time as another Talisman/Artifact of the same function. That is, you could activate one other Talisman/Artifact that increases your odds of finding objects after winning Picture/Puzzle games and one other Luck Talisman/Artifact that increases the amount of coins you win for winning Picture/Puzzle games even when you already had a Magic Crystal Talisman active. You would receive the cumulative effect of both Money Talismans/Artifacts running at the same time. For example, if you had a Magic Crystal Talisman active (+12% chances of winning objects) and also activated a Fortune Amulet (+30% chances of winning objects), then the overall net effect would be an increase of 42% to your chances of winning objects after successfully investigating a Picture or winning a Puzzle game until either the Magic Crystal Talisman or the Fortune Amulet expired.
The Christmas 2014 Update changed the Magic Crystal Talisman so that it could not longer be used in conjunction with other Talismans/Artifacts with the same purpose (no other Luck or Money Talismans/Artifacts). This meant that if you activated a Magic Crystal Talisman you would be locked into the +12% increase in Luck and Money for 10 days. For things like the timed challenges introduced with updates, this meant that you could be stuck with this very low increase for a large amount of the time you have available to complete the challenges, and would not be able to activate more powerful talismans if you earned them while playing for 10 days.
The Social Events Update has returned Magic Crystal Talismans to their original mechanics. This means that can now, once again, be used at the same time as Talismans/Artifacts of the same function. This makes the Magic Crystal Talisman a very useful Talisman once again.
Glitches Fixed by the Social Events Update[]
Awards being Charged by Friends[]
This glitch was introduced by the Travel Time Update, which made big changes to the charging system while visiting allowing multiple Friends to charge the same picture, but inadvertently broke the Desktop Awards so that they no longer registered charges by any visiting Friends. Players could still get the usual rewards for charging their Friends Desktop Awards, but their Friends would never receive the benefit of their charge. The Social Events update has fixed the Desktop Awards so that they now register charges again, and players will now get the benefit of additional rewards when their Friends charge their Desktop Awards again.
Problems with the Social Events Update[]
Repetitiveness[]
The Social Events Update is exactly the same as the Travel Time Update, that was released in July 2015. All of the timed challenges are the same, and all of the rewards are the same. There is nothing unique about the update that will interest players who have just completed the Travel Time Update's Timed Challenges.
If anything the Banquet Hall Update is even smaller than the Travel Time Update, as it introduces fewer new collections and regular quests than the Travel Time Update did.
Disproportionate work for rewards in Timed Challenge[]
Onceagain, the rewards for completing certain tasks in the timed challenges introduced by the Social Events Update do not reflect the amount of work required to complete the tasks.
As part of the timed challenges, players are asked to collect 500 Air Balloons by winning games of Gem Match. In order to do this, players must play Gem Match at least 100-500 times, assuming the player wins the puzzle every time they play it. This could cost the player up to 36,000 energy points, depending on how many plays it takes them and what Level their Gem Match puzzle is currently on (Gem Match costs 30 energy points per play at Novice level and costs 72 energy points at professor level). The reward for this challenge is a single Lunch Chest.
The Lunch Chest contains the following energy items: 2x Cappuccinos (2x 30 energy points); 1x Ice Cream (1x 50 energy points); 1x Donut (1x 100 energy points); 1x Lunch box (1x 150 energy points) and 1x energy drink (1x 250 energy points). Using all these items would give the player a total of 610 energy points.
Some Players may already have some unused Lunch Chests in their Inventory before even completing the Challenge
Assuming a player opened Gem Match for the first time to start the challenge (starting at 0% Novice Level) and completed the challenge in exactly 100 plays. It would cost them 4,842 energy points. Which is nearly 8 times the amount of energy they will get back from the Lunch Chest they are rewarded with for finishing the challenge.
The Lunch Chest itself is not a particularly special item in the game, nor is it something unique that was introduced with the update in order to entice players to complete the challenge. It can be won in other ways in the game, such as by completing the following rewards: 'Specialist'; 'The Professional of Photos'; 'The Lord of Photos', 'The Adept of Photos'; 'The Master of Photos'; 'Traveler'; 'Great One'; 'High Explorer (Level 5)' and by combining the gift-able collection 'Animal Tracks'. The items needed to combine the Animal Tracks collection can be found in the game by either banishing or playing the Anomaly 'Lost Time'. These items can also been gifted between friends
Additionally, the Social Events Update has introduced the 30th picture to the game. Many of the game's Awards reference this number of pictures, and so the highest levels of these awards are now possible to win.
The first such Award, Traveler, which is the 5th level of the Discoverer Award and is given for opening 30 new pictures in the game, gives a Lunch Chest as its reward. This means that the first thing players who already have all other 29 Pictures open will see when they open the Banquet Hall picture itself will be a notification that they have won a Lunch Chest!
Once they have installed the Social Events Update, many players will win the Traveler Award as soon as they open the Banquet Hall picture, which will immediately give them a Lunch Chest without having to play a single game of Gem Match
This unfortunate coincidence really does highlight how disproportionate the work to collect 500 Air Balloons is compared to the reward for doing so.
The only reward for the biggest challenge of the update - getting Banquet Hall to Academician level, is a new Avatar. Players will need to play, on average, 1500 other pictures in order to collect enough Invitations to play Banquet Hall enough times to reach the Academician Level. Which again, may not really reflect the amount of work that is required to complete the challenge.
This means that the only reason to do this challenge is for the enjoyment of playing the timed challenges and for the sense of accomplishment in completing them. These reasons should not be under-estimated. The timed challenges really are fun to play and it does feel amazing to finish them. But be warned that the rewards you receive will not reflect the work needed to complete the task. And if all you really want is the Lunch Chest itself and not the sense of achievement of completing this particular task, you would be better off putting the Animal Tracks collection on your wishlist, as your friends could probably just give the items to you.
Server Problems Gifting and Visiting[]
As with all large updates released for the game, the Social Events update will cause an overload in the games servers during peak times for a couple of days immediately following the release of the update on any platform. 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 on that platform have downloaded the new update.
Lack of diversity in 'Unique Avatars' rewarded in Timed Challenges[]
Once again, the main portion of the Timed Challenges introduced by this update is to play a new picture many, many times in order to win a 'Unique' avatar to use in the game. And once again, this unique avatar is an image of a skinny white woman.
The Social Events update is the 8th Update to introduce a new avatar as a reward for completing challenges within a certain time period.
Collect 400 butterflies within a certain time frame (one of many rewards)
Halloween 2014 (Oct-Nov 2014)
Combine the 5 Halloween collections to create 'Witch's Talisman' artifact within a certain time frame
Christmas 2014 (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 - date)
Reach Academician level on Banquet Hall within a certain time frame
Although these avatars are advertised as unique, they are often very similar in appearance with just hair colour and outfit changing between updates. The striking attribute they have in common is a complete lack of diversity in terms of appearance and gender. Most shockingly, none of these unique avatars have ever used an image of a person of colour, completely alienating a large proportion of players. This lack of diversity in the avatars completely fails to reflect the great diversity of people who are actually playing the game, and completing the challenges. Many players feel that these avatars, which they have worked hard to win access to, simply do represent them and are not desirable to use as their actual avatars in the game.
Since these unique avatars are not useful or desirable as actual avatars for many players, they have slowly turned into simple devices used by players to announce that they have completed the challenge in question, and are just used by players to announce that they have completed the challenge for a short period, before returning to an avatar that better represents them.
This leads to a large proportion of players using the same avatar for a couple of weeks at the end of each of these timed challenges, removing all uniqueness from lists of players in the game (either in Friends lists or the top 1000), after which most of these avatars are removed by these players, never to be used again.
A simple solution would be to offer a small selection of avatars that players can choose from when they win the Avatar challenge. All options could have a theme or type of outfit in common that would easily indicate which timed challenge the avatar represents.
Glitches Not Fixed by the Social Events Update[]
Mode dependent items won a play early[]
The Social Events Update has not fixed the glitch impacting Collection Items whose regular play locations are determined by the mode the picture is in. Mode dependent items can only be won when playing pictures in a certain game mode, but can be won in any picture as long as it is in the correct mode. Originally introduced by the Valentines Update, this glitch results in mode dependent items being won when playing a picture the game before the picture changes into the right mode for those items.
Some items in the game can only be found when playing (any) picture in a certain mode. For example, the items from the Venetian Masks collection can be won when playing a picture in Text mode. This glitch means that a player might win an item from the Venetian Masks collection in any mode, as long as the next mode in that picture is Text mode. Players could potentially win an item from the Venetian Masks collection in any other mode (e.g. Night mode) as a result of the glitch.
Confusingly, the Venetian Masks items will then still appear in the 'Can be found' list for the picture in the following play of the picture as normal (in Text mode, which they are supposed to be won in), but an item from the Venetian Masks collection will only be won in that subsequent play if the next mode after that play is also Text mode (i.e. Text mode repeats), otherwise items from a different mode dependent collection may be won instead.
One handy consequence of that glitch was that you could tell which mode will come next in a picture by looking at the items won during the current play, as if any item from a mode dependent collection is won, then that mode will be the next mode in the picture. Seeing items from the Ghost Town collection (not the picture!), for example, in your rewards after playing a picture, will tell you that Night mode will be the next mode in that picture.
Level Unlocking Glitch[]
Originally introduced by the Tavern Update, this glitch causes the game to change the requirements to open certain pictures. This means that players must reach higher game levels than expected to open these pictures.
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 Flower Shop picture, a new player will see that they must reach level 85 to open Flower Shop. However, as soon as the player reaches level 85 the picture will not 'open' and trigger the quest to open the picture. Instead the requirements to unlock Flower Shop will change to show level 87 instead of level 85. Once the player reaches level 87 the Flower Shop picture will open and they will be able to open it.
In the last three updates (Spring 2015 Update; Travel Time Update and Social Events Update) this issue has been extended to nearly every picture in the game in order to hide that it is a recent introduction to the new pictures. This means that nearly every picture in the game now states one 'opening' level when a player first starts a new game, and then suddenly changes to state a different 'opening' level when the player reaches the first stated level. For early pictures, for which this has been retroactively applied, the increase is only one level.
This means that players starting the game now will have to reach a higher level to unlock nearly all pictures than players who originally started the game before this change, as the increase has been added to the original opening level for every picture.
Left: Polar Station 'opens' at level 16, according to the information box when a player is less than 16. Right: Polar Station actually opens at level 17, according to the information box as soon as the player finally reaches level 16 (expecting to be able to open the picture).
The language in the information box when you tap on the locked picture never changes to suggest that there is a difference between the first and second stated level, or giving an explanation to why the level has changed.
It always says "This photo is closed. You have to achieve level X to open it". But the level stated will change without explanation when the player reaches the first level claimed for 'opening' the picture.
When the first level is reached, then the picture will unlock, allowing players to pay with Crystals (real money) to open the picture. At the second stated level, then the picture can be opened naturally through normal game play (a quest will start to find the pieces of the picture, followed by a jig saw puzzle that only costs energy points and coins to open.
The idea is that the first level stated is the 'unlocking' level, at which point players can spend real money to open the picture and the second level that appears (only when you reach the first stated level) is the 'opening' level, where the picture can be opened normally.
However, the game calls them both 'opening' levels, and does not distinguish between them, just changes the level needed itself in the information box for the locked picture, essentially moving the goal posts on players without explanation once they reach the first stated level.
Prior to this change, the pictures used to always state the true 'opening' level in this information box from the very beginning of the game, and this level never changed. The picture would reach an 'unlocking' level, where players could pay to open the picture with crystals, at some earlier level (not stated directly in the game, but usually 1-2 levels below the stated 'open' level), and could choose to unlock the picture early or continue to play until they reach the 'opening' level. Although the picture did unlock (go from a locked padlock symbol to an unlocked padlock symbol) early, players always knew what level they needed to reach in order to open the picture by playing the game rather than spending real money on Crystals.
Not only does this change mean players do not know what level they must reach to open the picture until they reach the unlocking level. Since it was added to the original pictures retroactively in recent update to make them similar to the new pictures in this regard, new players also now have to reach a higher level than players previously needed to reach to open pictures in the game.
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:
