Hiring Friends

In addition to sending your Friends gifts, and Visiting them each day, you can also hire your Friends in order help you play Hidden Object Locations and Puzzles games.

When you hire a Friend you will get a benefit for the next HO Location/Puzzle you play. The benefit depends on the Talent of the Friend you hired. Your Friends are not notified if you hire them, and they receive no benefit from being hired by you. Hiring is an action you do for your own benefit alone and not for the benefit of your friends.

Each hire only lasts for one play, and you can only hire each friend once a day, but you can pay with Rubies to 'Energise' a previously hired Friend, enabling you to hire them again.

What is Hiring?
When you Hire a Friend, you will receive a bonus for the next Hidden Object Location or Puzzle game you play. This bonus is determined by the Talent of the Friend that was Hired.

Hires only count for 1 play of any Hidden Object Locations or any Puzzle, after which you must hire another friend if you want another benefit for the next game you play.

For example, if you Hire a Friend with the 'Accountant' Talent, which increases the number of coins earned for winning a Hidden object or Puzzle game, then you will receive a 10% bonus in the coins you win for the next game you play.

You will see that potential bonus before playing a Hidden Object game when you open the 'Explore' window for that Hidden Object Location (or for a Puzzle, you will see it in the 'Solve' Window before playing). Under the 'rewards' section for the HO Location/Puzzle in the Explore/Solve Window, the normal amount of coins that are won for that Location at that Rank will be displayed. A plus sign (+) followed by an additional number will show how many additional coins could be won due to boosters, including those from Hiring an 'Accountant' friend.

The additional coins won that are listed after the standard coins won at that Rank in the Explore/Solve windows are cumulative of all Boosters currently in effect. That is, it gives the total amount of additional coins from all boosters, such as the Hired Friend, but also active Talismans and Artifacts and charges left by a visiting Friend. You can have many different types of boosters active for a single play, and they will all count. The total coins you see after the plus sign will be the total when you add all these boosters together.

Although Hiring is an activity that appears to involve your Friends in the game, it is really an action that is completely self contained within your own game. Your Friend does not receive any benefit from you hiring them while you play. They do not receive any notifications when they have been hired, and they do not receive any bonus when you 'energise' them in order to be able to hire them again. There is no real interaction with the Friend in the hiring process.

Accessing Friends Sections
The bottom of the Darkwood Town Map allows you to access many important areas of the game. There are 7 bubbles located at the bottom of the map, each of which opens up a different area.

The Friends icon (7) is the bubble on the right hand side of the map. Tapping on the Friends icon (7) will bring up three options in the form of three sub-bubbles. Tapping the Friends Icon a second time will hide the three sub-bubbles again.

Friends List Window (B)
The second sub-bubble (B) brings up the Friends List Window. There are three tabs in the Friends List Window:
 * Friends - lists your current friends. This is where you Hire and Visit Friends.
 * Invite - displays your friend code; allows you to enter the friend code of another player; allows you to add a friend through Facebook; and gives the option to invite 6 random players to be friends every 8 hours.
 * Waiting - displays players you have invited to become friends with but who have not accepted your invite yet and players who have invited you to become friends but are waiting for you to accept their invitation.

Navigating the 'Friends' Tab
The 'Friends' tab is the default open tab when you open the Friends List Window. Here your current Friends are listed. Each Friend's entry initially contains some basic information about the Friend but can be used to view more detailed information. The Friend's name is listed at the top of their entry. Beneath this, in the centre of the box, the Friend's Game Level and Reputation Level is stated. If the Friend has connected their game to a Facebook account, then the name of that Facebook account will be displayed above their Game level in a blue box.

The Friend's Avatar is displayed in the centre of the box, next to the Game and Reputation levels. Each Avatar shows the symbol for the friends Talent in the bottom left corner and a favourite star slot in the top right corner. If the Friend is marked as a Favourite friend, the favourite star will be gold with a red background. If not, the star and background will both be grey. Tapping anywhere on the Avatar will bring up a detailed information box about that friend. This information box contains extra information about the player's game stats including how many friends they have; how many collections they have combined; how much energy they currently have and how much their maximum energy is; how many quests they have completed and how many puzzles total they have won.

The Friend's Avatar in the information box also shows their Talent symbol and favourite star, but here you can interact with them. Tapping on the Talent symbol will bring up a description of what that Talent does. Tapping on the favourite star will activate it or de-activate it if it is already active. This will add that Friend to your Favourite list, which means that they will be listed at the start of your Friends list both in the Friends list window and in the list of Friends that appears at the bottom of the screen when you are visiting a friend. If multiple friends are listed as Favourites, then they will appear at the beginning of your Friends list in the order of their game level, from highest to lowest.

The main entry for the Friend in the Friends List contains two buttons - 'Hire' and 'Visit'.

Pressing Hire will hire that Friend for the next play of a Location or a Puzzle game. This will give you the benefit of their Talent for one play. Their entry will be highlighted for the duration of the time they are hired. You can only Hire each friend once per day, after which the 'Hire' button will become an 'Energize' button. Pressing this will give you the option of paying with Rubies to enable another Hire of that friend (see Using Darkwood Town Map to Hire Friends section).

Pressing Visit will bring you to that Friend's Darkwood Town Map, where you can help them by charging their Hidden Object Locations and Puzzle Games

Hiring Friends from the 'Friends' Tab
Open Friends List Window by pressing the Friends bubble on the lower right hand side of your Darkwood Town Map and then pressing the Friends List sub-bubble (B on picture above). The default open tab in the Friends List Window is your list of friends.

Every friend has an entry in your friends list. This entry gives basic information about the player including their game level and current number of experience points. Under their game info are two options: 'Hire' and 'Visit', which allow you to Hire or visit your friend.

Tapping the 'hire' button will hire that friend 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.

Once hired, the friend's entry in your friends list will be highlighted until you play a picture or puzzle. An icon will appear on the right hand side of your Darkwood Town Map (where other Boosters like Talismans, Artifacts and gifts) indicating that you currently have a friend hired. The icon will show the players avatar and their Talent symbol.

If you try to hire more than one friend at a time, the first Friend will be replaced by the second Friend, both as the highlighted Friend in your Friends list as well as in the icon on your Darkwood Town Map.

The Hire will only last for one play, after which Darkwood Town Map icon will disappear and the Friend's entry in your friends list will go back to normal. You will not be able to hire that friend again until the next day.

The Hire button in your Friends List will be replaced by an 'Energise' 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 the 'Energise' button will become a 'Hire' button again under your Friends entry in your Friends list, allowing you to Hire that friend again.

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 explanation 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 will 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.

Choosing a Player Talent to Hire
See Player Talents article for full details of Player Talents.

Each Player Talent gives you a different benefit when you hire a friend with that Talent. This is the exact same benefit as you would receive if a friend with that Talent visited you and charged a Hidden Object Location or puzzle.

The advantage of hiring over having Locations charged by visiting Friends is that when you hire a Friend you choose which HO Location/puzzle to play to get the benefit, whereas the friend chooses when they visit you. You can also accumulate the benefit, so if a player charges a Ho Location/puzzle and you hire that friend/a different friend, you get both benefits when you play that HO Location/puzzle, even if both actions are by a player with the same Talent.

You cannot hire the same Friend twice, but you can hire the same friend that has just charged the HO Location/puzzle you want to play.

The table below shows the 4 Player Talents available in the game, the symbols used to represent those Talents in your Friends list and the benefit of hiring a Friend with that Talent:

Hints and Tips

 * If you Hire a friend and then fail the next play of a Location or Puzzle, the Hire will not be used. You can get still the benefit of the Hire during your next attempt.
 * Your Friend does not receive any benefit from you Hiring them. They will not be notified that they were Hired by you. They will not receive a bonus is you 'Energise' them. Hiring is something that is completely self contained within your own game and does not effect your Friends.

Related

 * SN Home
 * Player Talents
 * Friends
 * Adding Friends
 * Gifting Friends
 * Visiting Friends
 * Visiting Friends