Hiring Friends

Once you have added Friends, you can send them Gifts, Visit them each day and you can also **hire** your Friends in order to 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.

Each hire lasts only for one play, and you can only hire each friend once a day. The Hire button in your Friends Info box will then be replaced by an 'Energise' button. Pressing 'Energise' 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 Energising 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, allowing you to hire that friend again.

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:

 Accountant
 Keeper
 Ranger

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.**

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.

**Hint:** If you Hire a friend and then fail the next play of a Location or Puzzle, the Hire will not be used. You can still get the benefit of the Hire during your next attempt.

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.

## Hiring Friends from the 'Friends' Window

Open the Friends List Window by pressing the Friends Icon at the bottom of your Darkwood Town Map and then tapping the Friends sub-bubble (middle). The default open tab in the Friends Window is your List of Friends.

     Friends tab in Friends Window

Every friend has an entry in your friends list. This entry gives just the basic information about the players including Name, game level, if marked as favourite. Under their game info are two options allowing you to 'Hire' and/or 'Visit' your friend.

Tapping the 'Hire' button will bring up a confirmation box reminding you of that friends Talent and what benefit it will give. Pressing okay in the confirmation box will hire this friend.

Once hired, the friend's entry 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 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.

## Using the Darkwood Town Map to Hire Friends

    As you play icons for your friends, showing their Avatars and Talent in a playing card shaped style, 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, reputation level, their Talent and other game stats.

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, or you can Hire the friend by tapping on the green 'Hire' button. 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 remind you which friend you have hired, what their Talent is, and what that Talent does.

## 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.

## 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 if you 'Energise' them. Hiring is something that is completely self contained within your own game and does not effect your Friends.
* Using the Friends Sort Symbol at the bottom of the Friends Window allows you to sort Friends by their Talents. This enables you to hire the same talent back to back without having to scroll through your Friends List.

## Related

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