Darkwood Town Map

In the Seeker's Notes: Mysteries of Darkwood game, the Darkwood Town Map is your playing board. This is the screen that displays when you first open the game is the tool you use to navigate through the games many features.

The Darkwood Town Map left Idle
If you leave your game Idle on your Darkwood Town Map for 10 seconds, then a blue arrow will appear pointing at one of your quests to give you a clue on how to proceed with your game. Pressing that quest to open the quest box and exiting out of it by using the brown 'x' in the top right corner will remove that blue arrow, but 10 seconds later another will appear pointing at another quest. Instead you can just try to ignore them. If you leave your game idle longer, then a box will automatically appear after a set period of time offering to take you to the Store to buy something to continue with your game.

If your energy meter is not full, this Store box will show you different energy items you can buy in the Store for Rubies. If your energy meter is currently full, then this Store box will instead show you different Talismans you can buy in the Store for Rubies.

You can buy any of the 4 items displayed in the Store box by pressing the 'Buy for x Rubies' button below the picture of that item. You can go to the Store to see the full list of items you can buy, by pressing the green 'Store' button at the bottom of the Store box. You can exit the box and return to your Darkwood Town Map by pressing the brown 'X' in the top right hand corner of the box.

Currently, the Store box will trigger is you leave the Darkwood Town Map idle for just 45 seconds, which can be very annoying, but you can exit it by pressing the brown 'x' at the top right corner of the box. The Store box will also occasionally trigger randomly while visiting your friends. There is currently no way to change the amount of time the game is left idle before the Store box is triggered.

The Darkwood Town Map and your Player Information
The top of the Darkwood Town Map shows your Player information.

Game Name and Avatar
In the far left of the top of the Map, you will see your current avatar (1). At the bottom of your Avatar, your current Game Level will be displayed in a grey box (2). Tapping on your Avatar will bring up your 'Profile' box. This box contains the list of game Avatars currently available for you to use. You can scroll through the list of avatars by either swipping or by using the green arrows either side of the box. Your current Avatar will be highlighted by a subtle white border. You can select any other Avatar to use by simply tapping on them.

At the top of the 'Profile' box your current Player name will be displayed. You can tap on the name to bring up a keyboard that will allow you to change your name. Changing your Player name is free.

Next to the Avatar on your Darkwood Town map is two long boxes. The top box shows your current Player name (3).Tapping on this will bring up your 'Profile' box, just as tapping on your Avatar will bring up the box. Here you can change both your Avatar and your Player name free.

Game Level and Current Experience Points
The bottom box (4) shows your current number of Experience points and the number of Experience points you need to get to the next Game Level (your current Game Level, (2), is displayed under your Avatar). Your current total experience points are listed first and then the goal number of experience points needed to reach the next level are listed after the forward slash. Your current total experience points represent every single experience point you have earned since starting the game. As you earn experience points you slowly climb through the Game Levels.

This box itself acts like a meter, which starts out completely grey when your first reach a new level (and are the furthest point away from the goal experience points to the next level) and slowly fills up with a blue background as you get closer to the goal.

In the example above, the player is currently on Game Level 11 (2) and their Experience meter (4) displays "10692/12000", showing that to date they have earned 10,692 experience points while playing the game and that they need to reach 12,000 experience points total to get to Game level 12. The Experience meter is nearly half full showing that they are nearly half way from the previous goal (to reach Level 11 by earning 9,700 experience points total) to the new goal (to reach Level 12 by earning 12,000 experience points total).

Energy Meter
Energy is required to visit locations in the game and to play puzzle games. As you play, you will use up your energy, and may need to wait for it to restore to continue to play.

The Energy meter (5) is located at the top centre of your Darkwood Town Map. This shows how many energy points you currently have followed by your current maximum energy. In the example above, the energy meter displays "15/85" showing that the player currently has 15 energy points out of a total of 85.

Energy restores over time, at a rate of one energy point every 3 minutes. The energy timer (6), shows the countdown until another energy point is added. The energy timer will stop and energy will stop restoring when the maximum energy is reached. In the example above, the player's energy timer will stop restoring 1 energy point every 3 minutes once they have reached 85 energy points (in another 210 minutes if they leave the game idle and donotspend any energy points).

A player's maximum energy starts at 35 energy points when they start a new game at Game Level 1. Every time a player reaches a new Game Level, their maximum energy is increased by 5 and their energy is fully restored to the new maximum amount. In the example above, if the player was to suddenly reach Level 12, then their maximum energy would increase to 90 and their energy would be fully restored.Their energy meter would then display 90/90 and their energy timer would stop counting down and restoring more energy as they have reached their maximum energy.

It is possible to have more energy than your maximum energy in the game, it is just not possible for the energy timer to give you more energy when you are at or above your maximum energy. Extra energy, earned through other means in the game, will still be added to your current energy even if you are at or above your maximum energy. For example, using energy items, such as Truffles (which restore 30 energy points), will add energy to your current energy level even if you are at your maximum. Desktop achievements that periodically reward energy,such as the Surge of Energy trophy, will also add energy to your total energy even if you are at or above your current maximum. Any energy you earn while playing locations will also be added to your total energy even if you are at or above your maximum energy.

Settings
sby pressing the gear symbol (7) in at the top centre of the Darkwood Town map.

You can toggle the game's music and sound effects on and off by using the symbols in the settings box. The speaker symbol on the left hand side toggles the game sound effects on and off, and the musical note symbol on the right hand side toggles the game mucic on and off.

Beneath the sound settings is the game's Facebook connection. You can earn a bonus 3 Rubies by connecting your game to a Facebook account. Tapping on the Facebook symbol of the '+3 Rubies' symbol will automatically open your devices browser and bring you to the Facebook log-in page. After you log in, your game will be connected to your Facebook account and you will receive your 3 Rubies when you return to the game.

Beneath the Facebook connection, at the bottom of the Settings box, is the game Support information. Your Support ID is listed at the top left of this box. This is your unique game ID, which the game developers can use to identify your game. This is also your permanent Friend invite code (which you will also find in the 'Invite' tab of the Friends section under 'Invitation Code'.

Under your support ID is the current version of the game you have installed. In the picture above, the game has the 1.0.6 update installed.

Next to the Support ID and Version number is a quick link for contacting the game's Support. Pressing this will open you Mail app and create an email to the MyTona support desk (snsupport at mytona dot com). This email template contains an area for you to describe your problem as well as automatically generating important information about your game that the game developers will need when investigating your problem. This information includes your support ID; the version of iOS you have installed on your iPad; which iPad generation you own, and the version of the game you currently have installed. A warning advises you not to delete this information as it may be helpful to the game developers for determining the exact cause of your problem.

Hint: Your support ID is the same as your Friend Code. If you are having difficulty using your Friend Code to gain new friends in the game, you can use this support link in the settings box to see your support ID using the native iOS font in the automatically generated email the support link creates. This may be easier to read than the game font, and help you tell certain numbers and letters apart. For example the game's font displays the letter 'L' and the number '1' very similarly, but they are easily distinguished in the native iOS font in the automatically generated email.

Bank
The top right of the Darkwood Town map displays your current inventory of Coins (8) and Rubies (9). Tapping either box will open the bank, where you can buy additional coins or rubies for real money.

The bank has two tabs, one showing the deals for buying Coins and one showing the deals for buying Rubies. Which tab first opens depends on which you select on your Darkwood Town map, i.e. tapping on your current Coins total will open the bank displaying the Coins tab and tapping on your current Rubies total will open the bank displaying the Rubies tab. Once the bank is open you can toggle between the tabs by tapping 'Coins' or 'Rubies' at the top of the screen, you do not need to return to the Darkwood Town map to open the other tab. As you play locations in the game, you will periodically win the Crystal of Atlantis as one of the items for successully playing a location. The Crystal of Atlantis doubles the amount of Coins or Rubies you receive in the bank at each price point. When you win the Crystal of Atlantis, it will automatically activate and a bubble representing the crystal appear on the right hand side of your Darkwood Town map (where your active Talismans and Artifacts, Hired friends and other speical offers are displayed). The Crystal of Atlantis lasts for 3 days, during which time you will receive double the rewards for any purchase you make in the bank for real money. The Crystal of Atlantis bubble on the right hand side of your Darkwood Town map will show a count-down timer, in hours, that will display how much time is left before the Crystal expires.

Using the Darkwood Town Map to Trade Items
As you play, some of the Darkwood Town

Using the Darkwood Town Map to Banish Monsters
As you play, monster icons will float around the Darkwood Town map. To banish a monster, simply tap on a floating icon for that monster. This will bring up the Banishing Window for that monster.

Using the Darkwood Town Map to Hire Friends
As you play, icons for your friends showing their Avatars and Talent icon in a playing card shaped icon, will float around the Darkwood Town map, leaving footprints behind them. As a shortcut to Hiring Friends, you can tap on their floating icon on the map. This will bring up an information box about that friend, which shows their current game level, their current reputation level and their Talent, along with an explantion of what that Talent does. You can leave the information box and return to the Darkwood Town map by tapping the brown 'X' in the top right hand corner of the friend's information box.

You can Hire the friend by tapping on the green 'Accept help' button at the bottom of the friend's information box. When you press Hire, a confirmation window will appear asking you are you sure if you want to Hire the friend or not. This confirmation window will remind you of the friends Talent and what that Talent does, and gives you the option to press 'Ok' or press 'Cancel'. Pressing 'Ok' will bring up a new bubble on the right hand side of your Darkwood Town Map showing your Friends Avatar and a symbol that represents their Talent. Tapping on this bubble willl bring up an information box about the Hire, showing which friend you have Hired, what their Talent is, and what that Talent does.

When your friend is Hired, you will get the benefit of their Talent for one play of a location or a puzzle game. The bonus will count for the first play of a location or a puzzle after you Hire the Friend.

If you tap on the same Friend's floating icon on the map while they are currently Hired, it will bring up their information box again but instead of a 'Accept Help' button at the bottom of the information box there will simply be an 'Ok' button.

If you tap on a different Friend's floating icon on the map, it will bring up their information box, and this will have an 'Accept Help' button. Tapping on this button will Hire that friend, or if you have reached you maximum concurrent hires, will replace your currently Hired friend with the new friend. You can only Hire each friend once per day, however you can choose pay with Rubies to unlock that friend and allow you to re-hire them. After you have hired a friend, and played a location or puzzle to gain the benefit of their Talent, if you tap on that Friend's floating icon on the Darkwood Town map a new 'Energize' information box will appear for that friend. This new box will have an 'Energize' button instead of an 'Accept Help' button. Pressing 'Energize' will bring up a confirmation window that explains that "Your friend is dozing off - your friend is tired, give your friend a shot in the arm so you can get some more help" which shows the price of Energizing the friend in Rubies. Pressing 'Ok' will remove the stated number of Rubies from your Inventory and bring you back to the Darkwood Town Map. Tapping on that Friends floating icon again will now bring up an 'Accept Help' information box and you will be able to Hire that friend one more time that day.

Alternatively, you can Hire your friends from the Friends Section of the game. In your Friend's list, every Friend has a small box showing their Name (top); their Avatar (left) which contains a small icon for their Talent; their Game and Reputation levels (right); and two green buttons at the bottom of the box. The left green button is 'Hire' and the right green button is 'Visit'. Pressing the 'Hire' button for a friend in your friends list will bring up a confirmation box reminding you of that friends Talent and and what benefit that Talent gives, and pressing okay in the confirmation box will Hire the friend. The friends entry will then be highlighted in the friends list for the duration of the time they are hired and a bubble will appear on the right hand side of your Darkwood Town map indicating which friend is Hired. After you have used the Hire for that friend, the 'Hire' button in their entry on your Friends list will become an 'Energize' button, which you can use to pay to be able to Hire that friend again using Rubies.

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