Feeling Dumb

[Nordix]

First, Thanks to all that friended me-- The game is soooo much better with friends. Thanks for the gifts as well.
I have a few questions though. Maybe this will become clearer as I go up in levels, but I am confused on a couple of things:
How does one finish a "season"? Is it just grinding away at all the quests and diary pages or am I missing something?
I notice some peoples rooms are FULL of decorations, and I had the raven decoration, but it disappeared (as have most of my other decorations) yet others still have ravens in their rooms. What is the secret there?
I absolutely do not understand the constellations. is it just for puzzle pieces? I can rarely finish following the stars, because I run out of life before I can finish. When and how do you choose a constellation?
Are the puzzle pieces just random drops when completing a room? I have been doing the attic and the library for what seems like forever, and STILL missing pieces. Same with the first floor. I have most mansion pieces, but have no idea how I got them.
Also, It takes me a over a week to go up in level, even when using food and drink to give me more life.
Love the game, just feel like I am doing things the hard way. Maybe not, maybe the game is designed to be a long term game. Any light anyone could shed would be great.
Thanks D

[izoralee]

I think the seasons are as you describe, you move onto another season once you've completed a specific "storyline" or quest.

Decorations usually only last so long then they expire. Some of them are tied to a particular game-wide theme, like a holiday.

The limited run quests like the stars and constellations are annual and different star related quests come up once a month. Same with quests a summer or halloween theme. The recent Maps of Wonder quest rolls around about every 2 months I think, and anything you acquired sticks in your inventory so you have it for next time. There is a lot of repeat in the game.

Some puzzle pieces are somewhat random but many of the room puzzles are tied to a particular quests. You get the final number 24 piece once you've finished the quest. I've found a couple of sites that someone has put together that give some info on the game.
http://www.gamexp.com/en/wiki/panicroom/Puzzle_FAQs
http://catness.org/pr_info/puzzles.html

The game is fun, for me, but it is an ongoing process. Like leveling up just opens up more levels if that makes sense. It really doesn't have an end point.

[Nordix]

Thanks so much!

[izoralee]

Welcome :)

[Briannah]

I understand your confusion, I wondered the same things for the longest time and they don't explain things most of the time. I started season 2 some time ago, it just popped up. I didn't know I was finishing season 1 till it happened and I felt like some things had been skipped over but there wasn't really a choice. How long it takes depends on how long you take to do the key quests and when I say "key" quests, I mean the quests in your logbook that have a picture of a key on them.

As far as the decorations go, when we do the events, you can get multiple copies of those items like the Raven depending on how many times you gather up the required materials. I have a Raven in my room but it isn't the original one, I think I have refreshed it two or three times and I have enough for one or two more times I think? Some, I only get one copy of because they are rewards at the end of the event. For the other decorations, you can get them different ways. They are often obtained when you go through the Indian Room, Bathroom and Abandoned Room (possibly others as well but I may not have access to them yet).

For me, as I have leveled up, I have been able to play more and complete more puzzles and events. I don't think it was until I hit 45 or 50 that I started being able to finish an event and I only got my first Zodiac completion last month because it requires so many stars. As you go along, you will develop better strategies that help you become more efficient like, I never start the Zodiac thing unless all the rooms are already in Night or Cache mode so I am not wasting HP. You can also save up food items throughout the month so you can give yourself more HP during events. And BTW, finishing the Constellation puzzles does not help you get the decoration, you have to gather enough stars and you don't lose the stars if you don't finish, you can just add to them for the next month.

As for the puzzles pieces, there is a trick to them I learned from a Facebook Forum. Certain rooms give out certain numbers of puzzle pieces:

Piece # 1-6: Bedroom, Children's Room, Kitchen, Study
Piece # 7-12: Bedroom, Library, Living Room, Study
Piece # 13-18: Attic, Basement, Lair, Winter Garden
Piece # 19-24: Film Theater, Hallway, Lair, Winter Garden

All pieces also available in the Indian Room, Garage and Bathroom.

This doesn't include the star puzzles which are only available in the rooms indicated but most everything else follows the above. Made my life easier once I found out about it, now I always finish the puzzles.

As far as leveling up, in my experience, the lower levels took me forever! Now, it takes me a couple days to go up a level but I use amulets and decorations to increase the amount of HP I get from rooms.

I am sure there is more but I can't think of it right now. If you have any more questions, just ask:)

[izoralee]

I did not know that about the puzzle pieces and rooms! great info, thank you :)

[Nordix]

Great answer Monique!! Thanks!!

[Briannah]

Happy I could help:D

[Buki]

I just saw this so I thought I'd help out as well.

Just an FYI Season 1 is very long. Although you will not complete Season 1 via collections because those also include the storylines of Ortho, Hugo Fall, Poisoned Puppet, etc. (Those side storylines will be added as you progress in the game if that bit is nonsense). But otherwise Season Collection are a nice indication as to how close you are to finishing.

Gathering all of the star during the month will give you the constellation of that zodiac sign. So if you finish collecting all of the stars while you're in Ares, you'll receive the Ares decoration. You don't get to select until you have multiple zodiacs complete. You can see what each constellation's benefit is during the next zodiac event by click the cool, blue, little dipper contraption on the left corner of the main mansion page. Then plan accordingly. For example, I'm sooo close to a fire zodiac sign which are Ares, Leo, and Sagittarius, but I chose to wait on completing it because I'd rather have the benefits of the Leo over the Ares before I start the process all over again.

A bit more on the puzzles:
Very Common Puzzle Pieces: 1, 2, 7, 8, 13, 14,19, 20
Common: 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23
Rare: 6, 12, 18, 24

Some puzzle amulets (like the constellations) have a value system of bronze (V. Common), silver (V. Common & Common), and gold (V. Common, Common, & Rare) so that should help you as well to determine what amulet to use.

Star puzzles:
Jenny: Kitchen
Jim: Living Room
Jack: Basement
Tigress: Hallway
Ghost Maiden: Kitchen
Druid: Japanese Room
Exile: Cellar
Dragon: bathroom (I think), and children's room
Puppeteer: library, film theatre, attic
Investigator: basement
Fire Maiden: Hallway
Elder: Attic

I've also got a picture of Monique's puzzle room list I refer to. Message me if you want the visual aid.

Some recommendations based on goals or experiences:
Obvious amulets and decorations help you level up, but so does completing the quests from the events. That may seem obvious, but I'm more interested in the "key" plot quests so my leveling up is slower. Example: I'm well into season 3, but only level 55. A lot of people are in S2 among my friends are in lvl 70+. At the beginning definitely get some leveling up with quests of any kind because it'll help you out later on when certain storylines can only be completed at levels and more gifting objects will be available. I keep hitting a wall where I can't get help from people on quests because I'm not at the minimum lvl to get assistance. -_-

My best recommendation for decorations (which took me soooo long to realize) is don't use unfinished combing-event decor (like the Beltane: 5nettles, 5ribbons, 5dandelions decor) SAVE IT; I realize that's how high level players finish the decor in the first day or two of an event. See if the event comes around again whether it be an bi-annual event (Can't think of all event names: The hunt (owls), rubber ducky collecting, constellations, wonders of the world, etc.) or annual (xmas, halloween, etc.). Sometimes they don't repeat, like Easter didn't come back this year, but save it because all of the pieces are there and you can complete it later and reap more of the benefits by "finishing" all parts of the event decorations.

Ask people for help in your wishlist. Post puzzle pieces from the Seasons you need, post collection pieces you need. I even have a ping-pong system with a neighbor to complete daily quests faster.

If you can stack up on your karma (good first, then start bringing in some bad to collect from more friends), and go through all of the friends rooms to collect cookies. Stack up on ravens, rats, mongooses, and backyard interactions until you want to use them for an event. Pretty much hoard everything and it'll help later.

Finally, there is a HUGE game play on Facebook. So I actually joined some facebook groups to help me out. Although they can't gift me (we share the same event overall collection bar though) or anything, they can help with question and have documents like what room to go into the finish an "unknown room" quest.

Sorry this was so long. I hope I'm helping.

[Briannah]

That was excellent advice! I too have joined several of the Facebook groups and it is where I get a lot of my information.

[Nordix]

AWESOME!! Thanks!