Adventure Quests are designed for an individual player. Family or friends can easily tag along, but only the registered player will be able to interact with the quest. If you and a friend would like to compete, you will each have to register because only registered players/participants will be able to interact with the quest and receive the clues.

Discover Quests can be enjoyed by an individual, a couple, or by a car load of friends, but only the person holding the phone will be able to directly interact with the quest.

No, once you register for a quest, that quest will be accessible in your “My Account” area under the "Registered Quests" heading.

If you have registered for an Adventure Quest or Discover Quest, then the quest will be available to begin immediately, although you don’t have to start it immediately. The quest will remain active and will be displayed in your “My Account” area until it is started and ultimately completed.

No. Once you start a quest, if you can't play it straight through, you can always come back to it later and finish it. There is no time limit. 

No. All of the quests are played by the registered participant independent of any other registered participants. This means that you will not be required to attend a gathering of people unless those people just happen to be enjoying the same location as the quest, such as a public park. 

If you can roam through a park or walk down the street, an Adventure Quest should be no problem for you. However, some Adventure Quests, such as those along a state park nature trail, may involve areas that are not paved and are not handicapped accessible. Likewise, they may involve more difficult terrain. Any quests in such a location will be disclosed in the quest description prior to registration.

Discover Quests are designed primarily for driving, but you can get out of your vehicle to further explore an area if you choose to.

You really need daylight and the ability to see well to complete the quest, so it is best to participate during daylight hours. Playing after dark is not recommended. In addition, all participants should use wisdom, be aware of their surroundings, and take their own safety into consideration at all times.

No, all quests are designed for you to go to various physical locations within the play area. The quests use geolocation and clues to guide you. They cannot be played from a stationary location.

That depends on the quest you are choosing. If you are playing an Adventure Quest in an area that’s an easy walk from you, then, no, you can simply walk there. If that is not the case, you will need to get to the play area somehow, whether it be by car or public transportation. Some quests may take you to different locations within a broader area that is simply too large for the average walker.

Most Discover Quests, on the other hand, are designed primarily as driving tours.

No, we do not store your credit card information. All transactions are handled by a secure third-party merchant card processor.

No. There is no app to download, which is awesome for you, because who needs another app taking up space on their phone, right?  You can, however, “install” Cryptic Quests so that it behaves similar to an app. This is achieved by adding it to your phone’s desktop when prompted. This basically gives you a more streamlined and user friendly experience instead of having to keep a browser tab open.

You must have a GPS enabled Android or IOS based smartphone. In order to receive the clues or information and interact with the quest, the phone must also have an active cellular connection with location permission enabled.

Yes, in order to participate in a quest, your mobile device must have GPS capabilities enabled. You must also have an active cellular internet connection with location enabled, and you must give CrypticQuests.com permission to access your device's location. For best GPS location accuracy you should have "High Accuracy" set on your phone. 

Your active cellular connection must also have mobile data available, as this is the only way for you to interact with your quest.

A note about GPS devices:

GPS-enabled devices are typically accurate to within a 16-ft radius, but not all phones have the same level of accuracy. As a result, the exact location of your clue (Adventure Quests) or next point-of-interest (Discover Quests) will appear to vary, when in fact it is your position that is varying based on your phone’s ability to determine your current location. The accuracy depends entirely on your phone’s capabilities. This same phenomenon can be observed when using a Google map to find your current position. Your location appears to float and changes, because your phone is “listening” for signals from navigation satellites circling the earth. This is normal and does not indicate any problem with the Cryptic Quests system.

A Discover Quest will take you on an interesting and entertaining tour to discover hidden gems and historical points-of-interest in a specified city or region. These quests are family friendly, self-guided, and take place in specific outdoor areas. Your tour can be taken at any time, has no time limit, and depending on the size of the region, can take anywhere from an hour to several hours.

This icon will zoom in to your location and center the map on you, similar to how a Google map behaves when their version of this icon is clicked. Once you have selected a point to travel to and clicked the routing icon, you can click the centering icon at the top and it will show your progress as you travel along the route.

Absolutely! In fact, we highly recommend it so that everyone in the vehicle can hear the audio narration. If your vehicle has this capability, please consult your vehicle owner’s manual to find out how to do this. For most vehicles you must first turn on your phone’s bluetooth and then follow a procedure to pair your phone to your vehicle so that the audio can play through your speakers.

As you visit the points-of-interest, make sure you have the quest open and visible on your phone so that it can register your arrival. In order for it to check off in your list of visited points, the quest must be open at the moment you visit that point. When the quest is open, you will see a message "You have arrived."  If you move off the quest in order to look at something else on your phone and are not on it when you visit that point, it will not register that you've been to that location.

An Adventure Quest is a fun and entertaining game of skill that takes you on a mini outdoor adventure. Using your GPS enabled smartphone, you’ll be immersed in a humorous story line as you partner with the story’s character to solve a mystery by finding and unlocking clues. Your surroundings and the in-game clue finder are the key to your adventure and will help you solve each riddle and clue. All quests are self-guided and family friendly. They can be played at any time, and depending on how quickly you work through the clues, may take anywhere from 1-2 hours.

Once you complete an Adventure Quest, you will no longer be able to access it for game play. It will show in your “My Account” area as a completed quest for personal reference, but you will not be able to replay it again.

In general, all clues and/or points-of-interest will lead you to areas that are outdoors and accessible to the public. They will not take you inside buildings. You will not need to dig, climb trees or poles, nor swim. In the event a quest leads you through an area requiring you to go up or down an outside flight of stairs or hilly terrain, it will be disclosed in the quest description.

For an added layer of fun, some of our Adventure Quests require you to enter a number combination to access the next clue. Pay close attention to previous clues as they may give you a 3 to 4-digit number that will be needed later in the game. Simply enter the number into the lock by scrolling each digit up or down. It will unlock automatically if you have entered the correct code.

Step 1: Make sure your phone still has a good cellular signal. Loss of cellular signal will impact your phone’s ability to interact with the game.

Step 2: Check the accuracy indicator in your in-game Clue Finder. It indicates the accuracy of your device’s location at any given time during game play and will display either Good, Poor, or Stand Still. Each clue is plotted at a specific GPS coordinate with a pre-determined grace-radius extending around it, and your phone’s compass will let the game know where you are in relation to that location. 

If the accuracy indicator says Stand Still, then you need to stand still for a moment so your phone’s compass can adjust. If Poor or Stand Still are continuously displayed during game play and standing still for several seconds doesn't change the accuracy level, you can try re-calibrating your device and check other GPS related settings.

The directional arrows point in the general direction of where the clue is. This direction is determined “as the crow flies” so-to-speak. It cannot guide you around objects. In this scenario, it sounds like the arrow is pointing to something on the other side of that building. You will have to go around the building to get to where the arrow is pointing.

GPS-enabled devices are typically accurate to within a 16-ft radius, but not all phones have the same level of accuracy. As a result, the exact location of your clue will appear to vary, when in fact it is your position that is varying based on your phone’s ability to determine your current location. The accuracy depends entirely on your phone’s capabilities and the GPS satellite's ability to determine your actual location.

This same phenomenon can be observed when using a Google map to find your current position. Your location appears to float and changes because your phone is “listening” for signals from navigation satellites circling the earth. This is normal and does not indicate any problem with the Cryptic Quests system. It even makes the game more fun, especially when playing with a friend, because you can sometimes “find” the exact same clue several feet apart from each other. 

At this point-in-time, our Discover Quests cannot navigate you turn-by-turn. We are able to show the suggested route only. However, you can follow your progress along the route by clicking on the centering icon at the top of the map. This will cause the map to center on your current location, following your progress.

At this point-in-time, our Discover Quest map will only show you the total driving time from your point of origin where you first initiated the routing. It will not update to show you the remaining time along the way. You can however click the route button again and it will update the route and time/distance based on your current location.

There are two possibilities of what could be going wrong here. Either you've misinterpreted where the clue was leading you to, or the compass on your phone needs to be recalibrated. Please review the information below to see if you need to recalibrate your phone's compass:

Information from Google on how to calibrate your device's compass.