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| Release Date | Dec. 12th, 2011 | |
| Platforms | iPad, iPod, iPhone | |
| Number of Chapters | 44 | |
| Developer | Playdom | |
| Download to your device NOW! | ||
Torynn (talk) 17:36, September 16, 2013 (UTC)
Important Note if you have just Downloaded the App.
Some users have found that their app has fundamental flaws; flaws that are not repairable and cripple your progress and ability to backup/save your game in the event of a catastrophic device failure or device replacement.
Immediately upon downloading the app, look HERE to learn what to check for on your GoT app.
Story
The Time Society is a mysterious organization established in the early 20th century to guard the secrets of time travel, and preserve the flow of history. Their journey takes them to the farthest corners of the Earth, and the farthest reaches of time.
The Society is tasked by its reclusive founders to find hidden objects out of place in history, and to preserve historical artifacts in their various Gardens of Time.
The Society has found itself extraordinarily busy as of late forcing them to seek out new apprentices to fill the ranks. Their latest recruit....is you.
As a new recruit, you will begin your studies along the Ancient Giza Riverfront. From Egypt, you'll travel to the Time Societys headquarters at Time Manor in England. Your tasks involve solving hidden object puzzles, discovering the time paradoxes, and building a beautiful garden of rare and timeless artifacts. As you progress, you'll be able to visit other locations from the Walls of Troy, the London Clock Tower, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in search of misplaced objects.
What you soon discover, though, is that something is wrong with the flow of time. Who is trying to sabotage the Time Society's work?
Characters
Gardens of Time Game Trailer by Playdom
Gardens of Time Trailer by Playdom
- Alistair Wells - your partner and mentor
- Eleanor Lansing Purlieu - Matriarch of the Time Society
- Richard Wakefield - a talented rapscallion
- Lulu Milton - A free spirit
- Quincy Bolthouse - Computer Geek
- Megan Kher - another recent inductee
Chapters
Reputation Required to open Chapters
There are currently 44 Chapters. Once you've reached level 2, just swipe between them or use the left/right arrows to navigate. Each chapter has 5 scenes to open by reputation and 1 premium scene you can purchase with gold. The premium scenes enhance the storyline between the characters but for chapters 1-11 you receive nothing else for opening them. The Chapter 12 premium scene (Whistler's Mine) opens for purchase "the prospectors", while the Chapter 13 premium scene (Great Barrier Reef) unlocks for purchase the Grand Aquarium*.
The maximum number of stars you can earn for any scene is 4. For chapter 3, ensure you earn all stars in every scene to unlock the Dragon Tower wonder. You can navigate back to any scene at any time and keep replaying it to earn stars and silver. It takes numerous rounds to earn proficiency in order to gain all four stars.
There are also special Premium Chapters that get released every few months, they can be opened with gold and once opened can be played again & again. Time Crystal Chapters are also released periodically and are opened with Time Crystals. TC Chapters expire, so you only have a limited time to play through them and collect the special items.
*note 1. The Grand Aquarium is available for purchase independant of the Great Barrier Reef scene for 27g, which makes buying the premium scene for 28g worth it (prices vary).
**note 2. BUG ALERT: Those completing the 3 star quest in Great Barrier Reef (Ch.13) are NOT receiving their promised grand aquarium (25-06-12)
Gameplay
There are three aspects to the Gardens of Time-Mobile gameplay:
- Hidden Object Games
- Garden game play
- Helping your fellow Time Travelers
Hidden Object Game-Chapters & How to Play
Each Chapter has five scenes, some are Hidden Object games and others are Time Paradoxes.
In the Hidden Object scenes, players search for objects that are out of synch with the time period. The list of items at the bottom of your screen starts off at six, and slowly moves up to 12. Once you click on an item that you found, the corresponding word at the bottom disappears and is replaced with another until you find all items necessary to complete that round. There is no time limit.
When re-playing scenes, the list of items to find will change, but the items are always in the same location in the scene which makes it easier to find all 12 fast enough to get the maximum bonus. As you get better, the hardest to find items will appear in your list each time.
In the Paradox scenes you will be confronted with two pictures side by side and have to find the six differences. Once you find an item that is not on the other side, click on it(on either side) and it will change the other side to match.
Random clicking on any scene will cause the game to halt for five seconds, during which you've mostly likely lost any chained bonus you had. Don't randomly tap the screen!
Be sure to look for the "Quest" banner on any scene! This means the scene is involved in a current quest that is on the left side of your screen. If you see a padlock on a scene, then it's locked and you must continue to increase your reputation to unlock it, which means building and placing items in your garden (see item below)
There are three hints:
- A free hint provided by the game; you can use as many as you want but it has a long cooldown between uses which wastes valuable time and lost bonues. It's best to leave that hint for a hard-to-find item for last.
- Thermo-hint: unlocks at level 10 and can be gifted to you by your neighbours. It will tell you whether you are getting hotter or colder as get near/far from an item.
- Goggle-Hint: unlocks at level five, and when you activate it a goggle attaches to your screen and as you move it around and it finds a hidden item the item glows and "dances" around. These can also be gifted by your neighbours.
Scoring: Chaining all the items yields the highest possible base score. Chaining means: everytime you find a correct item, if you find the next one in 3 seconds, and then the next one in 3 sec...so that you chained all 12 (or six in the case of paradox scenes) you will receive the maximum base score. Then you receive bonuses for not using a hint, and overall speed. The better you score, the higher your Star Rating is at the end of the Hidden Object game. Each games Star Rating is cumulitave, which encourages players to revisit puzzles frequently to gain the max rating of four stars. The Star Rating is put towards leaderboards scored between in-game friends, one of several social elements included within Gardens of Time. (note: The Leaderboards have been disabled since the the last update, no idea why-you are unable to "challenge" others players to beat your score as well).
Maxmimum base score for chaining all 12 items in a hidden object scene is 315,000
Maximum base score for chaining all 6 items in a paradox scene is 283,000
Tip - Once you've completed a chapter but are not yet ready to open the next one, keep playing your most recent scene, as your energy allows, in order to gain additional XP and silver.
Leaderboards
There are two ways of measuring yourself against others in Gardens of Time-Mobile:
1. How does your garden compare against your neighbours, for Likes. To find out, in the main screen, tap the social icon (4th from left), then tap the trophy icon (1st on right). Some iPhone users do not have this option to view the trophy (see Your Device Effects for Gameplay ). On the left side of the screen you can scroll through all your neighbours to discover how many "Likes" they have, and how you compare. There is NO significance in gameplay to the # of Likes your garden has, or to "liking" others gardens.
On the right hand side, are the globally ranked gardens. It is interesting to note, that many of these gardens are low level, have not been active for MONTHS, and have no upgraded items whatsoever, yet manage to draw over 70,000 likes. Go figure.
2. Challenge your Neighbour! After playing a hidden object scene, and receiving your score, you can challenge any neighbours that scored in the Top Ten by tapping the yellow VS. button next to their name. This will send a challenge to that player to try and beat your score. The recipient receives the challenge in their mail, top right quadrant (above gifts), and has the option to accept or decline. The unfortunate part is that the game is not designed to let the original challenger know what happens....did my neighbour accept the challenge? Did they win? Did they fail? There are no benefits to challenging.
Note: leaderboards for challenges were down for almost 8 weeks, but as of early July/12 they're baaaack.
Gardening
While building up your new skills as a Time Society member, you will also be actively working on creating and designing your garden.The game will start out with a tutorial along the Ancient Giza Riverfront (Chapter: Trouble at Time Manor) where you are to find six items in ancient Egypt. This initial scene is to familiarize you with game mechanics. You will also be taught how to purchase items to build in your garden. Building items increases your Reputation & Experience (more about these below), and as these increase you will be able to unlock new scenes in your chapter. Completing all the required quests in a Chapter unlocks an impressive wonder to display in your garden.
Purchasing and Placing items to Decorate your Garden
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You can place artifacts, buildings, decorative items, pathways, and unlocked wonders in your garden. Click on the "Build" tab at the bottom left (hammer & saw). Once this opens, run your cursor along the various tabs to see what is available for purchase: Artifacts, Buildings, Decorations, Wonders, Pathways, Garden Expansion, and your own Inventory.
- Decorations have the lowest Reputation points but build instantly. As there is no construction time you can place them in your garden immediately and earn instant reputation points.
- Artifacts are unlocked by searching hidden object scenes and leveling up in the game. Once you complete a scene successfully this artifact will unlock and you can purchase it and place it in your garden for XP and Reputations points. Build time for Artifacts ranges from instant at the lowest levels to 8 hours at the highest.
- Buildings have the 2nd highest Reputation & XP in the game. Click on the Buildings Tab then scroll through to look over any building to see its stats. If it's locked, there will be a closed padlock at the bottom of the building item card; you will need to gain more levels and complete more quests before they will unlock. The cost is located along the bottom and the construction time and Reputation to be earned are listed along the top. Click the circled i in the top right corner to flip the card and see the XP to be gained as well. Each building has a different build time ranging from 5 minutes at the low end, to one full day at the high end.
- Wonders can only be placed by completeing quests . At the lower levels, wonders provide the highest Reputation & XP in the game. Click on the Build tab, and where you see the different categories of decoration, artifacts, buildings, you'll see the Wonders tab (pic of a pyramid). As you begin the game, the first wonder to unlcok is Big Ben. When placing Big Ben, return to normal viewing mode and click on the construction site to "Finish Building Now" - this feature can only be used on wonders. For buildings & artifacts you have to pay gold to complete them before their normal time (but just be patient, don't waste your gold).
- Any item classified as a Building or Wonder is automatically at level 1. These can be upgraded to provide drastic reputation increases to level 5. In order to upgrade any buildings/wonders you need friends as you will have to ask them daily for the materials you need to upgrade your items.
Note: two buildings purchased with gold are NOT upgradeable at this time: the amphitheater & Great Wall Guards.
After you've selected an available piece for your garden, click on the green buy button and it will appear in your garden. Just tap it and move it to where you want it placed. If it takes time to build it, you will see a construction crew hard at work. Just tap the crew and they will tell you how long is left until completion (be patient, you don't have to spend gold to hurry them along).
Once the item has finished construction, a blue sign will appear above it "tap to finish". Just tap the sign and your item will appear. Remember, you don't get the reputation for the item until it's finished.
All BUILDINGS AND WONDERS and now ARTIFACTS AND DECORATIONS are upgradeable which drastically increases the amount of reputation they give you. Please read the FAQs on upgrading. Most people stick with buildings though as they require less materials to upgrade.
Redesigning your Garden
You can move or flip items in another direction or you can sell the items for a reduced rate or store them for future use. While the item is in your garden, enter "Build"-edit mode and tap on the item. You can flip it and move wherever you want or sell it, or store it in your inventory by clicking the cardboard box icon. Note: Selling items appears to net you less than 50% what you paid for it. Be careful while selling that you don't accidentally sell something else.
Expanding your Garden
Click on the "Build" icon, then click on the "Grid Expansion" tab, which is located on the far right next to your inventory box. You will have to have a certain number of silver coins reputations points or neighbours in order to purchase a garden expansion. Sometimes it is a combination of all 3.The entire garden will increase in size once you purchase an expansion and you can begin to rearrange your garden or add more items right away. The maximum available garden size is currently 25X25, available for 90g, prices may vary. The last four garden expansions have ONLY been available through gold purchase.
Helping your Fellow Time Travelers
Gardens of Time-Mobile is a "social" game and you are encouraged to invite your friends via Facebook or Game Center. No worries if you don't use either of those though, as the game will send you daily random friends that you can invite.
Friends are handy because they will send you useful gifts , you can visit their gardens to earn extra energy, silver, and XP, and they are mandatory if you wish to upgrade your buildings and wonders .
See the Friends page for more information on how to add them, how they can help you, and how you can help them.
Temporal Energy
You will need Temporal Energy to fuel your Time Machine and search for hidden objects in the various scenes. You have a base Energy of 30. Each time you choose a location to search, 10 energy points will be deducted from your overall total. That's only 3 plays and you're out of energy. Originally 60 energy was the base pool but Playdom cut this by 50% with no warning to "enhance game play" (no comment). However! There are three ways to re-coup some energy (Do NOT purchase energy with gold, it’s a waste).
- One point of energy is regenerated every 4 minutes. In 2 hours you have your 30 energy restored.
- You can use 10 gifted energy canisters per day (from neighbours), each canister is 5 energy. Using all 10=5 more plays. Note: for unknown reasons some people are NEVER able to receive gifted energy canisters, some are only able to use 3 or 5 a day, and some people find their energy canisters give them only +3 energy vs. +5. See the Game Paradox page for more examples of game inconsistency.
- Visiting neighbours: The first 20 friends you visit within 24 hours will yield you 1 energy point. Using your base energy throughout the day, gifted energy canisters, and visiting friends will give you a minimum of 10 scene plays in a 24 hour period.
If you are low on energy, and cannot play the hidden object scenes anymore, check how close you are to leveling up (tap the XP meter above your name banner). If you are really close to leveling, buy a "Decoration" item and place it in your garden to gain the XP (click on the i on the decor item's purchase card to flip it over and see how much xp you will earn). Only purchase a building/artifact if it won't take long too build. Leveling up replenishes your temporal energy to maximum.
Tip: some users like to "hoard" their energy; meaning, while waiting for another chapter to be released, they do not play any hidden object scenes at all, and make sure they visit 20 neighbours each day. The 20 energy gained from visiting neighbours adds to your base energy. You want to make sure you are not close to a level up while doing this do as visiting neighbours also grants a small amount of xp, should you level up in the middle of hoarding your energy it could reset you back to the base 30. This is a one time only energy expenditure. If you've managed to save 200, and you then play the latest chapter release and deplete all your energy, your base goes back to 30.
Reputation
Reputation Required to open Chapters
While XP is important to level up, Reputation is what unlocks additional scenes to explore in the game. Your reputation meter is located at the top right of your screen (with a crown). Purchasing artifacts, buildings, and decorations and placing them in your garden will increase your reputation. Decorations require no build time so the added reputation is instant, but with building/artifacts your new reputation is only calculated once the item has competed construction. Reputation from purchase items can be viewed on the item card for sale in the top left corner with a crown.
Upgrading your wonders and building to level 5 is the BEST WAY to increase your reputation as the gains in reputation with upgrading is dramatic. Upgrade all your largest footprint items first (ie. 9 square wonders, then 4, etc) as this provides the best return on material useage.
Items in your inventory do not count towards your overall reputation, you must place them in your garden to accumulate the rep points.
Tip - Some players prefer to have their garden decorative and creative and are not concerned about their reputation level. To open a new chapter, they wipe their garden, place all their high reputation items as needed until the new chapter is open, then wipe their garden again and redecorate to suit their taste. The game remembers your highest reptuation score and the scenes you unlocked will stay unlocked (for some, the game doesn't remember though).
Experience Points (XP)
XP is awarded for completing the Hidden Object scenes, for buying items for your garden, for visiting your neighbours garden, and for completing Blitz Scenes . All XP goes towards helping you level up; leveling up unlocks new items to purchase for your garden, replenishes your Energy, and gives you 1 gold bar.
Oct. 9, 2012: It has been discovered that the Mobile game only goes up to Level 89. One player reached Level 90, only to have the number roll-over to 1 and all new items locked.
Quests
{{#NewWindowLink: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AgH9hshaqK92dElMR2ZKbFpxV3pZQksyMmhsYW1FbUE&type=view&gid=5&f=true&sortcolid=1&sortasc=true&rowsperpage=393 | Quests & Progression Details}}
From the opening scene, the characters of Gardens of Time-Mobile will guide and mentor your gameplay sending you on quests through time to varying locations. Your active quests are displayed vertically on the left side of your screen. Only 3 quests will show at a time; while you may have more you will not see them until you clear one of the three you are currently on. Not seeing the quest will not prohibit you from completing it though. Questing helps progress you through the newly opened chapters, advances the storyline, moves you back and forth to different chapters, and unlocks wonders. Quests generally fall into three categories:
- Goals for hidden object scenes (ie. Earn 18 total stars in Chapter 10 scenes). Watch for a red "Quest" ribbon placed on a scene you have an objective for.
- Goals for visiting friends (ie. complete 15 blitz scenes)
- Goals for your garden (ie. "have this" or "place this" in your garden). "Have" means if you have one already in your garden, or in your inventory (put it into your garden), this will fulfill the quest objective. "Place" means you have to buy it fresh and build it.
The game tracks your progress on quests with two or more goals; just click on the quest to see if you've fulfilled any of the requirements. Once you complete a goal, it show with a green checkmark beside it. Once the entire quest is complete, you will get a quest popup window directing you on to a new quest, or advising you of a reward.
Currency
There are two types of currency: Silver and Gold. Silver is the basic currency and you will earn this every time you complete the hidden object games or visit neighbours (or sell inventory). Silver buys you all the basics you will need for your garden.
Gold bars are the premium currency and are used to buy special items for your garden, to purchase exclusive chapters, and also can be used to speed up processes such as energy restoration, completing the construction of a building (rather than waiting), and purchasing materials to upgrade your buildings. Everytime you level up, you gain 1 gold bar. The only way to earn more gold bars is to purchase them for real cash in the game (click on the + beside your gold bars).
Time Crystals - Have Arrived!
August 23rd: The first Time Crystals chapter has arrived! Thanks mags630 for sending along the photo. You have 32 days to complete the chapter, so get busy! Visit this page for all the details you need on how to complete the TC chapters.
This walkthrough was from a Gamezebo article on the Facebook game, revised & edited by Tory to reflect the differences in the mobile game.