Visiting

In addition to sending your friends gifts, you are also allowed to visit them each day. Visiting your friends gives you more benefit than it gives them. You are rewarded with reputation points and experience points every time you charge a friend's Home Desktop. You may also be rewarded with additional coins, Fireflies, Ladybugs, Carrots, Cupid's arrows, Tokens and random collection items as you visit your friends.

The more you visit your friends and charge their Home Desktop's the greater the rewards you receive as you build up your reputation points and level. The higher your reputation level, the more bonuses you receive for visiting friends.

Visiting a Friend's Desktop

To visit a friend open the Friends Section of the game by pressing the Friends Icon on your Home Desktop. The first tab in the Friends section is the list of your current friends. Find the friend you want to visit and then press the green 'visit' button under their name in your friends list.

You will be brought to your friend's Home Desktop (see picture of visiting a friend above). This will look a lot like your own home desktop but the picture levels and award levels will be your friends and not yours.

The screen you see when you visit a friend's home desktop is very similar to what you see when you are on your own home desktop, but with a few important differences.

In the top left corner you will see your name and avatar (Number 1 in the picture of visiting a friend above). Below this is a red bar very similar to the bar for experience points you see under your name on your home desktop (Number 2 in the picture of visiting a friend above). This bar shows your current reputation points and the number of reputation points you need to get to the next reputation level. Under your avatar, your current reputation level is shown in the red circle (Number 3 in the picture of visiting a friend above).

At the bottom of your friends desktop you will see your friends name, with their avatar next to it. Their current game level (not reputation level) will be listed under their name, and a symbol for their profession will be in the corner of their avatar (Number 4 in the picture of visiting a friend above).

Charging a Friend's Desktop Items

Every day you are allowed a set number of actions for each friend you visit. You may only charge that number of pictures/puzzles/awards for each friend that day. The number of actions reset at midnight GMT each day. You can see how many actions you have left for the friend you are visiting by looking at the coloured arrow symbol on the left hand side of your friends desktop (Number 5 in the picture of visiting a friend above).

The number of actions you are allowed is related to your current reputation level. Every player starts with 4 actions for each friend each day. Every 10 reputation levels you increase will add an extra action to you allotment for the day.

To charge a picture, puzzle or award simply press the icon for that picture/puzzle/award. A check mark will appear if you have successfully charge it (Numbers 8 and 9 in the picture of visiting a friend above).

Each charge costs you 10 strength points. Strength points are just like energy points when you playing the regular game. Your current amount strength points and current maximum amount of strength points are shown at the top of the friends desktop, in the position your energy points are shown on your own home desktop. (Number 6 in the picture of visiting a friend above).

Your Strength points restore at a rate of 1 point every 3 minutes. Winged Lightning talismans do not increase the rate of restoration of strength points (they only work on energy points). You can restore more strength points by using weights in the Power section of your inventory. If you run out of strength while charging a friends desktop and have weights in your inventory you will be given the option to automatically use the weight in your inventory. You can win weights as rewards for combining certain collections or buy them in the shop for crystals.

You receive a reward for each picture or award you charge when visiting friends. This reward is 1 reputation point and a set number of experience points and coins.

Note: There was a glitch introduced and fixed during the Spring 2015 update. That players only received 5 experience points for each charge/action instead of 50. They still received 50 coins. This has been fixed.

Reputation Points and Levels

For every item on a friend's desktop you charge you will receive 1 reputation point. The more reputation points you earn the higher your reputation level grows (Number 2 in the picture of visiting a friend above).

Increasing your reputation level has a number of advantages. For every 10 reputation levels you increase you are allowed an additional action for each friend you visit. At higher reputation levels the amount of experience points and coins you earn from each charge increase. Additionally, the number of daily bonuses you can receive for visiting friends is equal to your reputation level. See the table on the Reputation Levels page.

When you look at a friends profile by pressing their avatar in your friends list, the number that shows next to reputation is the number of reputation points that friend has, not their reputation level. For example, for the player in the picture above, friends will see 4898 next to reputation, not 15, when viewing the players profile.

Daily Bonuses for Visiting

When you first visit a friend a dialog box may appear saying:

"A visit to a friend: You have visited your friend! You get a bonus for this. You will be able to visit this friend again tomorrow, be sure to come back. Today you can get the bonuses from x number of friends"

This is your daily bonus for visiting friends. Each day you will receive a bonus for visiting a certain number of friends. This number is equal to your reputation level. For the player in the picture above, they will receive bonuses for the first 15 friends they visit every day, as their reputation level is currently 15.

The daily bonus for visiting friends always includes coins, experience points, and one Special Item. When you see a dialog box such as the one shown here, you have just received 100 Experience Points and 100 Coins. You have also just received a Special Item, which is either a Carrot (as seen here), a Ladybug, a jar of Fireflies, a Cupid's arrow, or a Token. The image in this section indicates "Today you can get the bonuses from 50 friends." Upon the next visit, the message will read "Today you can get the bonuses from 49 friends." If you visit 50 friends, you will receive 5000 Experience Points and 5000 Coins and 50 Special Items.

If your reputation level is higher than the number of friends you currently have, you may visit the randomly generated players in the invite tab of your friends section and receive bonuses for visiting them instead until you reach your bonus limit. However, you may not charge these players pictures/puzzles/awards as you are not currently friends with them. To do that you must invite them to be friends and they must accept your invitation and enter your friends list.

Extra Bonuses for Charging

In addition to earning reputation points and experience points, collection items may randomly drop as you charge your friends pictures/puzzles/awards. This occurs roughly every 4 - 8 charges applied. These go into your inventory and can be used to complete collections. If the collection item that drops is one that you require for a current quest, it will complete the quest for you (this last feature was added in the Valentine's update, if you have an older version of the game, it will not complete the quest).

Game Professions

Every player is randomly assigned a profession when they start a new game. You may not pick your profession and you may not change the profession that has been assigned to you. The only way to get a new profession is to start a new game.

Each profession has a different special ability that comes into effect when a player charges a picture or a puzzle, or when you hire friend before investigating a picture or a puzzle. Professions have no influence when charging desktop awards, the extra rewards added when your desktop awards are charged are the same regardless of the chargers profession, game level and reputation level.

There are 4 professions within the game:

Magician (symbol - lightning bolt): Decreases energy points needed to investigate picture/puzzle
Merchant (symbol - coin): Increases coins earned from successful investigation of a picture/puzzle
Sage (symbol - star): Increases experience earned from successful investigation of a picture/puzzle
Sleuth (symbol - camera): Increases chances of finding items. Note: Sleuths increase your chances of receiving rewards for successful investigating a picture or a puzzle the same way that luck talismans help you. They do not help you find items within pictures during investigations.

For some versions of the game, it is possible to find out your profession by looking at your profile on the top1000 list in the Friends Section of the game. Tap on the friends tab at the bottom of the screen and select the 6th tab, "Top 1000". If you are at a high enough level to appear on the top1000 in any category, you can press the green 'find me' button on the bottom right of the top1000 window to be automatically brought to your position on the list. If you are not yet on the top1000 list for any category, you can select the "Friends Only" check-box on the bottom left of the window, which will bring up the rankings of just you and your game friends, then press "Find Me" to be brought to your position among your game friends for that category. Tapping on your avatar icon in either list will display your profile. In the profile window, your profession symbol may be displayed in the top right hand corner of the blown up version of your avatar.

Note: This method may not work on your game, depending on your platform and version of the game you are using.

Currently the only guaranteed way to find out your own profession is to ask someone who is friends with you in the game to check your name on their friends list. See the information graveyard for ways it was possible to find your own profession within your own game that has since been removed from the game in previous updates.

Talismans for Power Recovery

There are several Talismans available to accelerate power recovery (strength point recovery).

There are several Talismans available from the Shop, and occasionally as prizes from Timed Challenges. These talismans work to recover strength points in the same manner that the Winged Lightning and Super Winged Lightning talismans work to recover energy points. These include but are not necessarily limited to:

Bronze weight disk - 3 times power recovery for 30 minutes
Golden weight disk - 5 times power recovery for 90 minutes

There are several other Talismans available to accelerate power recovery which can be made by combining collections into Artefacts. These include but are not necessarily limited to:

Amulet of Friendly Aid - 5 times for 24 hours
Horn of Fate Amulet - 5 times for 24 hours

There have also been "One-Off" Talismans which could have been won during some Timed Challenges. These include but are not necessarily limited to:

Forest Keeper's Talisman - 5 times for 24 hours

Talismans for Visiting Rewards Bonuses

There are several Talismans available to increase the rewards for visiting and charging. These will increase both the Experience Points and Coins rewards.

There are several Talismans available from the Shop, and occasionally as prizes from Timed Challenges. These include but are not necessarily limited to:

Friend's support - +20% for 30 minutes
Strong friendship - +30% for 90 minutes

There are several other Talismans available to increase the rewards which can be made by combining collections into Artefacts. These include but are not necessarily limited to:

Amulet of Peace - +50% for 24 hours
Farmer's Amulet - +50% for 48 hours
Amulet of the Forest - +50% for 48 hours
Actor's Amulet - +50% for 48 hours

There have also been "One-Off" Talismans which could have been won during some Timed Challenges. These include but are not necessarily limited to:

Talisman of Fortitude - +50% for 48 hours

Hints and Tips

Progressing in your own game

Use the experience points you earn when visiting friends to help you level up faster in your own game. Visiting your friends is a great way to very quickly earn many experience points without using energy points (it does, of course, require strength points). For example, if you have 50 friends, are allowed to charge 8 pictures for each friend each day and receive 50 experience points for each charge you could potentially gain 20,000 experience points just by visiting all of your friends.

Try to time visiting your friends to when you are close to reaching a new level in the game but have run out of energy points. Use the experience points you earn charging friend's pictures or awards to reach the next level in your game, and your energy points will then be fully restored so you can continue to play. Your strength points are also fully restored when you reach a new level in the game, so it is worth trying to time charging the last picture to receive the last experience points you need to advance to when you also have very few strength points left. This means you will get the maximum gain in energy points and strength points when you level up.

Completing Quests

Since the Valentine's Update, Collection Items you receive randomly when charging a friend's desktop will count towards any active quests you have. If you have any quests that you are having difficulty completing, visiting your friends often increases your chances of getting that item and completing the quest without having to play the picture, puzzle or anomaly which the quest is requiring. Non-giftable (non-plus sign) collection items are more likely to drop when charging friends desktops. *These are often the hardest quests to complete and cannot be put on your wish list or gifted to you by your friends.

Note: This has changed as of 2017 as all non-giftable Collection Items are giftable ("non-plus" items are now "plus" items). This includes the Special Task Items after an Update/Event ends.

Sparkling Awards on friends home desktops

A note about sparkling desktop awards when you are visiting your friends home desktop: Occasionally you will see your friends desktop awards sparkle when you are visiting them. The sparkling has nothing to do with your friends desktop awards or previous visitors to that friend. It is a reflection of your own Home Desktop, a result of the fact that the desktop you see when visiting your friends is simply your desktop with a skin on top to show their picture, puzzle and award levels.

There are two reasons your friends desktop awards may be sparkling: 1. you do not have that award. If your friend has an award you do not, such as the Sphere of Miracles or Pyramid of Wonder, that award will always appear sparkling when you visit. 2. your own version of that desktop award is fully charged and ready to collect. If you visit a friend and an award you do have is sparkling. Leave the friends page and you will see that award is sparkling on your own home desktop. If you discharge the award (collect your rewards) and visit the same friend again you will see the award is no longer sparkling on their desktop either.

What happens when two players charge the same Picture/Puzzle/Award?

Each Picture or Puzzle can accept up to 4 charges - one each from each profession in the game (Magician, Sleuth, Sage, Merchant). When two players of the same profession (e.g. 2 different merchants) charge the same picture or puzzle, the second player overwrites the first player. Each award can accept 1 charge - from any profession. When two players charge the same award, the second player overwrites the first player. The player name you see is the most recent friend to charge.

When you collect your desktop awards, you will only see the last friend who charged that award. There is no way to get around this, without real time communication with your friends. Since most of your friends will be random anonymous players in the game you may never know if that friend has been visiting you but always overwritten. One

Morethanonechargeslidernoname — Scroll the window or use the slider to see the second, third, and fourth charges (Friend's name has been removed)

way to check if a friend is visiting you or not is to track their reputation points by pressing their avatar on your friends list. If their reputation points never rise, then they probably are not visiting their friends. If their reputation points do rise, there is a chance they are visiting you but their charges are being overwritten.

For your pictures and puzzles, to see which friend(s) left charges, open the Research window. Click or tap the group of profession symbols in the upper right corner. If there was only one charge, you will see the name and avatar of that friend. There can be up to four charges, one for each Profession. You can scroll the window to see all the charges. With a mouse, drag the slider (circled in red in the illustration at right.) For each charge, you will see the friend's name, avatar, and a desciption of their profession. For each profession, you will only see the most recent charge.

Additionally, the 'players who have visited you' box that appears when you open the game has a limit to how many players can be listed. So additional friends who visited you while you were away may not be listed there. If their charges are also overwritten there will be no evidence left that that friend visited you.

What to Charge?

There really are no rules as to what to charge and what not to charge when visiting your friends.

Some people do have preferences for what their friends charge on their desktop depending on their profession. For example, some players with large stockpiles of coins prefer Merchants to charge awards.

Note: With pictures and puzzles only the same profession can overwrite a charge, it does not affect other profession charges.

The following link contains details on the worth of each charge at different levels of Awards: Award Levels

Other players may dislike having un-played charges visible on their desktop, and may have limited special item resources (e.g. ladybugs for playing Mill) and so prefer not to have paid scenes charged too often to save them having to use the special items to clear them.

Other players hate Puzzles and so do not play them often and would rather them not charged (while other players love Puzzles and want them charged frequently).

During an Event, the Event challenges might take priority.

If you know your profession, try to gear your charges towards what you think the biggest benefit will be to your friend. Since Magicians reduce the energy points needed to play a picture or a puzzle, their charges are more beneficial on expensive pictures/puzzles than ones that do not require many energy points anyway. Since sleuths increase the chances of finding collection items their charges will be more beneficial on pictures and puzzles than on awards.

Checking a friend's wish list is one way of having an idea of possible pictures to charge. With the limits on gifting, players can charge the pictures for wish list items unable to send. As an example, your friend is asking for the Whales collection. You could charge the pictures where these collection items are found in, Mayan Temple and Japanese House. If your friend is looking for combining elements like Teapots, Rabbit’s Waistcoat and Mad Hat, charges on Eastern Bazaar, Throne Room, Japanese House or Memory Match might help your friend win them. For collection items or combining elements from a paid picture, remember your friend may not have the required number of special items (e.g. Ladybugs) to play the picture. You could charge the pictures where the special items are found. This does take a little extra time.

Again, there is no way to know for sure what your Friends like without having a way to communicate with them so they can simply tell you. The List of Wiki Secret Society Players Gifting and Visiting Preferences maintained on this site allows players who visit this site to state their preferences for both visiting and gifting. If your Friends have added their information to this list or similar databases, you may get some indication of their visiting preferences.

But remember, it is just a game, there is no point in taking the question of what to charge too seriously. If you don't know your friends preferences it is okay to charge whatever you want to on your friend's desktop. Many players don't have a preference to what they want charged, and those that do are usually still very grateful for every visit they receive even if what you charge isn't their exact preference.