This guide was written by our friend and gaming guru, Kathy Lew. It has everything you need to complete the game 100%.
General interface:
-Game difficulty can be changed at any time by going to the Menu button.
-There’s a lot of storyline whenever cutscenes appear, but the story is actually pretty good and if you skip it all, IMO you’re missing a good part of the game. I do speed up the text about 35% using the Text Speed button at the top right, since the default slowest speed is a tad too slow for me.
-You can replay any level which has unlocked by going to the Map from the Menu button.
-The skip button can be found by clicking on the Menu button (for minigames only).
-Clicking the Next Place button in the map takes you to the highest unlocked level not yet played.
-It’s worth it to do everything in this game, because skipping all the puzzles, battles, and minigames is missing out on two-thirds of the game. If you skip all the story too, it’s a three hour tour and that’s if you’re not very good at HOGs!
HOS:
-You can right-click to shut off zoom, or use the magnifying glass or + sign button to toggle zoom on or off.
-When you buy the Eagle’s Eye card, it enables the + sign button for zooming the whole image. There are scroll arrows in the 4 cardinal directions to scroll the screen. A nifty feature is the scroll speed can be controlled by hovering closer to the front of the arrows (faster) or back of the arrows (slower).
-The clues for the items to find in the “list” are not necessarily in the same orientation as the object in the scene, and are not necessarily the same color.
-If you replay a HOS, the “list” will be slightly different each time.
-Most scenes have bonus golden skulls to find which will never appear in the “list”. If you buy the Tiska’s Prescience card from the Darksage Temple, a golden skull icon with a counter will appear at the bottom center of the “list” of any HOS which has golden skulls, showing you how many skulls are present, but there are no other hints available for golden skulls. The golden skulls in the scene will look just like the skull icon, although they can be in different orientations. They are never attached to a skeleton, unlike the regular skulls which are often present. Any regular bones will be white.
-Two scenes have hidden maps for unlocking extra HOS, and three scenes have hidden Beast Eyes which if found and placed into the beast’s head they belong to, will give you an extra golden skull.
-Finding all the light and darkness items in the “list” ends the level, so if you want all the achievements, find the bonus golden skulls, Beast Eyes, and secret maps before completing the “list”. You can replay any HOS to find leftover bonus items you missed the first go-round; the game will keep track of your progress on the bonus items.
-The CE version of the game has in-game achievements, including finding all the golden skulls.
-Some scenes have sparkling areas, which open up insets in the scene. If there is an item on the list which is in the inset, the sparkles will appear. If there are no sparkles at the moment, all the items currently on the list are in the main scene. If an item which is in the inset shows up later in the list, the sparkles will come back. If you have found all the items currently in the list which are in the inset, the inset closes automatically. Yes, free hints of sorts!
Matching Pairs Minigame:
-Most of these are to find pairs of the same item with 2 clicks, but there’s one which appears in the CE bonus chapter which is a match the function game instead. If you shut off all the help, the idea with that game is to match the things which are used for the same purpose or are otherwise associated with each other. A couple of examples are the baseball and bat, and the detergent bottle with the washing machine.
-If you are having trouble making out the images because of vision difficulties or color blindness, uncheck the “Colorize” button.
Dragon Battle Minigame:
It’s not timed; take as long as you want. The numbers are randomly generated each time you play. So long as you follow the instructions, the dragon won’t attack you and you’ll get the achievement. The only tricky step for me was the addition question where I added incorrectly on my first try.
Jigsaw Puzzle Variants Minigame:
-There are swap-2 versions, drag the pieces sideways version, or traditional jigsaws. The swapping puzzle in the Sky chapter has some upside down pieces, where you must right click to flip a piece right side up.
-Hovering over the icon at the bottom right of the game flashes you an image of the solved puzzle, and is better than using the Hint button, because hovering over the icon never costs you gold coins.
Minstrel Cards Minigame:
-It’s a memory game. The playing cards are flashed face-up briefly, then flipped back over and shuffled. Once you deal a card into the open slot at the top, you guess whether it’s higher or lower than the face-up card to win the “reward” coins offered by the minstrel. If you guess wrong, the minstrel deducts the “cut” amount of coins from your stash at the left. It’s possible to completely lose the entire pot of coins at the left in later games if you guess wrong too many times.
-As you go along, powerup cards specific to the cards games unlock to help you out.
-To use a powerup card during a card game, click on the Auguries button to the left.
-If you want this to be easy, write down all the numbers on the cards when they are flashed at the start and cross off numbers as they’re used.
Symbols Puzzle:
-Rearrange the symbols so every row and column has only one of each symbol, no duplicates. The “solved?” button will tell you where one duplicate pair is located, but won’t show you all the mistakes.
-My strategy for doing these is to start with one of the symbols that has some in the fixed red squares and work from there for the rest of that symbol. Once all of that symbol is placed, go to the next one which has some in red squares and place those. The symbols with no red squares go in the remaining spaces. The hard part is not mixing up something you’ve already set up earlier. It may help to write down the locations of symbols you’ve already figured out as you’re going along.
-Making diagonal patterns (partially or completely across the grid) is usually the trick. The red squares are randomly generated each time you play these puzzles, so unfortunately I can’t write a walkthrough, but hopefully this is enough guidance to get you through.
Clutter Minigame:
-This is a pick 2 version.
-Using the shuffle button is free, and will usually reveal at least one pair. Alternatively, you can drag items around to look for matches.
Starry Night Minigame (CE bonus content):
-This is a pick 2 clutter game, but the entire scene is hidden.
-Although the instructions say to drag somewhere in the scene to uncover an area, I prefer to click instead to uncover a small spot with each click.
-Dragging or clicking adds to the “Darkness Bar” at the top of the puzzle. If the Darkness Bar gets completely full, the entire scene will be hidden again. Clicking fills the Darkness Bar more slowly.
-When you find a matching pair of items, click them both to remove them. Removing pairs of objects reduces the fill on the Darkness Bar. You don’t need to have the entire object(s) showing, so long as you click on 2 of the same, it works.
Battles:
-It’s a pop type matching game, where you must click on a group of at least 2 of the same to attack the opponent. While popping a larger group doesn’t deal more damage to the opponent, it does charge the Adrenaline bar faster.
-Each pop charges the Adrenaline bar located in the middle of the screen, and when the Adrenaline bar is full, you get to pick a powerup card from the Grimoire. You can skip the choosing of a powerup, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re playing on normal or expert.
-The opponent will match you move for move, either directly attacking Claire on their turn, or using their turn to temporarily up their attack strength, defense, or heal themselves (restore energy to their health bar).
-Don’t worry about cascades in the grid producing a large cluster after you’ve made a move, as the opponent will never use the grid; all the pops available are yours.
-The energy bar is the green bar with a heart at the bottom. You must deplete all of the opponent’s energy bar before they drain all of Claire’s to win.
-Most battles will feature colored symbols placed randomly in the grid. Including a colored symbol in a pop adds to Claire’s battle skills based upon the color for that move. Green adds energy to Claire’s energy bar. Yellow adds to the Adrenaline bar. Red adds to Claire’s attack strength. Blue adds to Claire’s defense.
-The “Att” number shows a relative amount of energy damage an attack produces. The “Def” number is also relative and indicates “shielding” ability from attacks.
-If you’re having trouble spotting a pop, wait a bit and the game will highlight a group.
-Many of the battle powerup cards in the Grimoire must first be purchased from the Darksage Shop. You don’t get prompted to visit the shop after the initial introduction, so remember to click on the Darksage Shop button every so often in the end level dialog, or in the map area.
-If cards are in the Reserve pile, you can view them by clicking on the Reserve button, but they are otherwise not up for being chosen at that point.
-The most useful cards in the Grimoire are the Darkness Orb and Darksage Comeback for dealing major damage to the opponent. Use Darksage Comeback when Claire’s energy bar is low for the best effect. Dark Twin is also great for dealing serious damage, but you have to wait for the Darkness Orb card to reappear in the Grimoire later to get the benefit.
-Special thanks to IKIGames for this strategy: To really wail on the tough bosses in the later battles, if you have Gambit’s Edge, Darksage Comeback and Holy Protection available together when the Grimoire opens, pick Gambit’s Edge, then Darksage Comeback, then Holy Protection. This deals pretty much a full energy bar’s worth of damage to the opponent and fully restores Claire’s energy.
Coliseum (CE Extras):
-New bosses are available for Claire to battle. They’re tougher than the other battle bosses in the rest of the game, so make sure you bought all the Darksage cards from the shop before trying the Coliseum.
-Yela and Judita Frostflame are by far the hardest to beat. Yela has the pesky ability to restore energy on a very regular basis, so you just have to keep on making pops in the grid and using whatever cards look best. The last time I played, the Dark Orb card never appeared while battling Yela, which makes the Dark Twin card completely useless. Check the Reserve to make sure you don’t waste a Grimoire opportunity when picking a card to use.
-Judita Frostflame is just plain difficult and winning takes an element of luck with getting the Gambit’s Edge, Darksage Comeback and Holy Protection all at once in the Grimoire. But it will take a few tries at least to beat her.
Achievements:
Most are self-explanatory, but tips for a few of them:
-I got Lightning Eyes and Speed Finder by replaying the very first scene (Claire’s Room) several times as it’s a matter of remembering where everything in the “list” is.
-Fairy Nap Time cannot be unlocked until Tiska joins Claire on her quest, so you have to wait until at least the second HOS. I confess to having to ask the developer just how to get this one, although it turns out I was on the right track. This is an anti-trophy, because you get it for rapid random clicking, which usually penalizes you in games like these. Randomly click around rapidly at the wrong things until Tiska nags you about the clicking. Then keep on doing it until Tiska nags you again to get the achievement to pop.
-Tycoon is obtained by either hoarding your gold long enough by buying very few cards in the Darksage Temple, or by doing all the content in the game and replaying a few of the minstrel card games if necessary. I like to replay the card game in the Fire chapter because that one builds up gold the fastest. I’ve been told you can get away with buying very few cards for the regular game – another player reported they only bought Tiska’s Prescience, Holy Protection, and maybe Dark Twin, but I’d have to think that would make battles in expert mode pretty tough. You also can’t beat all the Coliseum bosses with that few cards.
-Darksage Collector will have you choosing between whether you want Tycoon sooner or later, as you must actually have 100,000 gold amassed for Tycoon, so buying cards will set you back.
-Card Shark requires a specific strategy of using the Augury cards to build up your gold, and for me at least, is best accomplished on the Fire Minstrel game because you win at least 1000 coins for a correct guess there. When the highest card is face up, use Twin Moons to double your win. When you aren’t sure about the current card because it’s a 50-50 situation, use Lucky Clover or Black Cat. Lucky Clover should cover you for the rest of your mistakes so long as you aren’t egregiously wrong with all your guesses.
-The hidden achievement is for obtaining all the other achievements.
Hidden Bonus Items Walkthrough: I put in a few random tips for some of the tricky items.
Academy 2:
-Golden Skulls:
1) painting in the right background
2) behind the round flasks on the desk in the center foreground (almost aligned with the chair)
3) left of the large map on the bookcase in the left background
Academy 3:
-Golden Skulls:
1) in front of the 3 drawer chest in the center background
2) atop the chandelier in the middle of the ceiling
3) in front of the large stack of bagels in the center of the bookcases at the left (there’s a big red cylinder near the bagels)
Desert 1:
-Beast Eye: This one’s the only one Tiska tips you off about, but all Beast Eyes will make a sound and produce a red halo when hovered over. It is on the stern of the ship by the mast. Drag it to the eye slot of the large mask at the left.
-Golden Skulls:
1) inside the mouth of the large mask (opens upon placing Beast Eye into mask)
2) to the right of the partially buried refrigerator in the left foreground
3) above the multicolored umbrella (right side of the fancy arches in the center background)
4) inside the ribcage of the dinosaur skeleton on the left
Desert 2:
-Dragon’s Nest Map: It’s to the right of the center doorway with the curtains.
-Golden Skulls:
1) top left, to the right of the chalkboard
2) top center left, to the right of the digital clock
3) top center right, inside the umbrella
Dragon’s Nest (secret level):
-Golden Skulls:
1) in the branches at the top of the nest
2) hanging in the large curtain at the far right
3) hanging in the curtain at the left
4) on the bottom inside right of the nest
5) lying on the stones at the bottom left corner
6) hanging in the archway near the top right corner
7) lying in the dirt to the right of the nest near the bottom right (it’s next to a regular white skull)
8) left side of the circular rim at the top
9) right side of the circular rim at the top
10) in the branches on the left side of the nest
Desert 3:
-Golden Skulls:
1) to the right of the flying saucer in the top center
2) covering the face of the scarecrow on the left (LOL after you remove the skull, the scarecrow has no face!)
3) behind the glowing globe in the center
Woods 1:
-Golden Skulls:
1) in the leaves at the top right corner
2) in the middle of the 3 large balloons on the right
3) in the tree just to the left of the lamppost in the top center
4) to the left of the wine bottle rack on the far right
Woods 2:
-Elf clue: “Wanted” poster on the tree at the far right.
-Beast Eye: in the red flower at the bottom center. Put it into the eye hole of the mask on the right.
-Golden Skulls:
1) inside the carnivorous plant (opens up only after the Beast Eye has been placed)
2) behind the blue curtain in the center right
3) in the crook of the tree, center left (above the carnivorous plant)
4) to the right of the apron in the tree at the far left
Elf Battle (secret level): Gives you the Bounty Hunter achievement and a lot of gold for winning it, plus the usual battle rewards.
Ice 1:
-Golden Skulls:
1) to the right of the black booth-like thing in the center right
2) above the large black cushion in the middle
3) above the coat rack on the right (next to the skull and crossbones sign)
Ice 2:
-Beast Eye: hiding just above the red lantern in the bottom center (to the left of the water dispensing machine). Put it into the dragon’s eye slot on the dragon at the right.
-Golden Skulls:
1) on the table in the bottom right (must place Beast Eye first to thaw the ice)
2) bottom shelf of the grandfather clock cabinet on the left
Ice 3:
-Golden Skulls:
1) to the right of the woman’s hat hanging on the left
2) above the birdhouse at the top left
3) above the broom in the columns on the right
Fire 1:
-Golden Skulls:
1) behind the folding portable table in the center right (by the broken columns)
2) behind the folded piece of paper (says “report card” if you look closely) in the bottom center foreground
3) above the tree in the center background, just under the clouds (there’s a portable fan in front)
Fire 2:
-Golden Skulls:
1) atop the pile of regular skulls in the center foreground
2) inside the trophy cup on the right
3) behind the chair on the left
Fire 3:
-Golden Skulls:
1) very center of image, in the altar
2) under the glowing lava rocks in the bottom right
3) floating in the lava lake, left center foreground
Sky 1:
-Golden Skulls:
1) to the left of the yellow clouds, far left
2) above the clouds and next to the skyscrapers, far right
3) immediately to the right of the turtle’s right front leg
Sky 2:
-Golden Skulls:
1) above the large white stone block on the left
2) in the center of the sun-moon-stars shield at the top center
3) peeking out from the bank of clouds on the right side of the central building (beneath the bunch of balloons)
Sky 3: Ugh…there’s too much gold in this one…
-Golden Skulls:
1) below and a little to the left of the bunch of gold balloons
2) behind and a little to the right of the center group of clear crystals
3) just above the golden dragon at the far right
-One of the bells is the “desktop” variety in which you push the little button on the top to ring it.