June’s Journey Strategies

Assumption: You’ve read through the JJ help pages and understand the basic terminology and how the game works. This details strategies you won’t find in those help pages, this comes from experience.

Also note: Wooga / Playtika / whoever owns JJ is constantly doing A / B testing to research players’ behavior, and tweaking the game accordingly. Therefore details may vary from the game behavior you experience over time.

There are recurring comments on the JJ FB groups from players who feel stressed because there is so much going on with this game. Keep in mind, this is because there are different groups of players in varying scenarios, and this game has evolved over time to accommodate all of those scenarios. For example: retirees, people with full-time jobs, those who work shifts, newbies, veteran players close to catching up with the developers, etc.

Last updated: 7/12/2024

Competitive Strategies

• Player-Level Strategies

• Team-Level Strategies

• Competition-Playing Teams

Social / Relaxed Strategies

Leadership Strategies

No Club

Veteran Strategies

Side Games - write up on Set the Scene

Updates to Policy - 10/27/2022

Competitive Strategies

We’ll start with competitive strategies at the player level, then progress to strategies at the team level.

Player-Level Strategies

Tips

• Save character cards and star boosters. Note: Only one star booster can be used at a time.

• Double tap rapidly twice at the end of a scene to play again immediately, but wait a little before the third tap to see if any cases were solved. As soon as a case is solved, collect the reward, see the ad to get the next case, and sometimes cycle through several cases in one session.

• Use tips to upgrade to 15 energy bars max. Then use tips for hints / pink boxes (or, if you don’t mind spoilers, links at the bottom for spoilers and JJ scenes to study before competitions). No benefit to character cards and drinks.

• Free case change every 24 hours, subsequent case changes within that period require an increasing amount of diamonds. There is a section below on solving cases that is more extensive.

• For dark scenes, increase brightness on your device (and plug in to be safe) or shine a bright light (daytime vs nighttime mode).

Stash Builders

Decent stash is 7000 energy and 500 diamonds for 6 week Detective League (“DL”). Benefits of having a stash:

• Play all 5 stars of a scene in one session

• Play when you want, not just when the energy bar refills. Helpful for those who have full-time jobs, to be able to play as much as they want during off hours

• Solve more cases; can make an extra push if close to promoting during a DL

• Don’t need to spend diamonds to refill energy bar (especially given 2022’s ongoing #bushgate fracas with the bush changes)

Detective League Strategies

• Important: Do Not collect solved cases in between weeks, when they are preparing the new teams! Those points won’t go toward the tournament! If you accidentally solve a case, don’t collect the reward until the teams are assembled.

• During Detective League, when playing Spot the Difference or Time Rush, if you get everything except for 1, use a hint to quickly go to the next scene. Tournament points accumulate based on the number of scenes you complete. Don’t waste time searching for that last item you missed.

• Warning: There is a Las Vegas-style protocol where once you start spending diamonds or money to do something (change out cases you don’t like, etc.) the cases get worse to encourage you to spend more. Wooga / Playtika focuses on casino-style games and JJ falls into that category.

Search Strategy

This game is based on the “Invisible Gorilla” experiment, where people watching a basketball game are asked how many times someone in a white shirt passes a ball. Then a guy in a gorilla suit walks through the game, and 50% of the people don’t see it. I used to be really bad at JJ when I started because we only see what we expect to see. For example, how long did it take you to find a pipe the first time when they gave you a metal pipe and you were looking for that tobacco pipe? I once looked in my sister’s fridge and asked her where she put my water, and it was literally in front of my face but I didn’t see it because the bottle was too tall and she laid it on its side, and I was expecting an upright bottle. JJ surprises you with each scene because you expect to see something on the ground but it’s up in the air, you’re looking for it far away and it’s actually near, or it’s a different color, like you’re expecting a green lizard when it’s inlaid in wood / gold / silver / bronze, etc. Other techniques frequently used involve propping an object like a cane against a table leg, or using negative space to fool you into thinking an object is part of the surrounding space.

Understand this one premise - that we only see what we expect to see - and you’ll improve measurably, when you learn to eliminate expectations. Heck, this is a good overall strategy for life itself. You can’t see opportunities that don’t align with your expectations. What are you missing in life, not because someone slammed a door in your face, but because you didn’t even see that there was a door in front of you?

Spot the Difference Strategies

• As you improve, for earlier scenes you can spot the difference first without expanding the scene (quicker). Zoom in only if you can’t find stuff.

• Tap on the object, not where it’s missing, you’re less likely to miss.

“Magic Eye” (ME) Technique and why this is so much “fun”:

In the normal world you have two eyes, and when you look at an object, it looks 3D. If you shift your eye muscles so you see two copies of the same object, you may notice you see the same object at slightly different angles, and each image loses the 3D effect. You can shift focus to a single image through each eye (or, like an optometrist, cover one eye, then switch to covering the other eye, and flip back and forth to see the differences).

With ME it's the opposite. When you shift your eye muscles each eye ends up focusing on the left and right image, and you have to play around to sync them up. As soon as you're able to sync them up, you get a single image in rich 3D (it's gorgeous), except for the differences which look a little funny (slightly blurry / gray). Then it's easy to spot the differences. Poking at the differences is a different story if you're new, and takes a little practice to develop the muscle memory. And it's hard to poke at the left image because your hand then gets in front and you lose the 3D effect temporarily. Some use a stylus for greater accuracy. After finishing a scene, I have to go back to normal vision until the next scene starts, then quickly sync up again.

ME players can easily score 1 million or more. The good ones can score 2.5 million or more.

Weaknesses to ME:

Keep hints handy even if you do ME. With the ME technique, it’s hard to see things like spider webs, or objects that are on a background with a similar color (embossed, in the shadows, etc.). If they are contrasting colors it’s easier to see the differences. Often the differences are lurking at the extreme edges of the image. Different devices have different aspect ratios, so sometimes only part of the search item is visible.

Everyone has a dominant eye, but if you have a strongly dominant eye where you look out of it primarily and not the other, ME may not work. You may see something is strange, and only when you click on it, the object will appear in both screens and you can see it through the dominant eye.

If both eyes are not 20/20 or at least close to each other, you may have challenges. This can also exacerbate dominant eye problems as you may have a tendency to look out of the eye that can see more clearly.

If you’re new, start off on a mobile phone. When you are comfortable with this, then try with an iPad. Personal experience: I don’t score as well on iPad, and the iPad exacerbates the dominant eye problem, it’s harder to see the differences on an iPad.

Thoughts on the “ME is cheating” perspective: Don’t think it is. Wooga brackets groups into those with similar stats / scores, and since ME players score higher, they’ll automatically bracket amongst themselves. It’s in Wooga’s interest - if it’s too easy OR too hard, people will tune out and disengage. There is likely the greatest engagement (and money spent) when teams are neck and neck and it’s a dogfight to promote.

Solving Cases

Almost guaranteed, as soon as you do something, it comes up in a level 2 or 3 case. Example: You just renovated a landmark and the case is to renovate a landmark. You traveled to a new chapter and the case is to travel to a new chapter. During the League, hold off on doing things until necessary:

• Case: “give 3 bushes”. Gift the required number of bushes when they come up in cases.

• Case: “collect 15 tips”. Hold on to some tips after exchanging coffee.

• Case: “serve or drink 1 - 3 drinks” - team has to decide if they want to give drinks multiple times a day.

• Don’t start a 72 hour airport task if you’re just about to finish a level 3 case or guaranteed you’ll get “use 35 materials”.

• Don’t open blue and pink boxes unless a case tells you to, or the boxes are needed to solve a case (e.g. “find a character card” which can only be found by opening boxes).

• “Go up a level”. This means obtain enough flowers to go from, say, level 500 to 501. Keep high value items stored on ship and add them to your island to quickly go up a level.

• “Travel to a new chapter". This requires preparation: Keep star boosters handy for this, and consider having a 50 scene buffer before starting a DL. E.g. you’re on level 100 but have opened up scene 50. If you’re in flower jail this won’t work.

• The Worst Cases to get: 4 landmark renovations, 220 coins from estate. I got those after changing cases a couple times (sometimes they get worse, not better).

• If you can still solve level 2 or 3 cases, keep playing (unless you’re too tired). If you can only solve a level 1 case, stop playing because it would be a waste of energy which is better used when level 2 or 3 are unlocked. Wooga’s goal: ads and buy diamonds. If you stop playing - no eyeballs on ads. It’s like going on strike. Also, you save your stash for getting real results.

How do you solve a series of cases in one session? Here is a concrete example:

• Wake up, fire up JJ. Check the current help wanted tasks: a) Gift 1 bush to your friends b) Find 2 clues in Hidden Object Scenes c) Open 2 5-star boxes. Already opened 1 5-star box last night thanks to tips in the cafe after coffee exchange, need another one.

• Pick up energy and coins from buildings and landmarks except for the mansion (those often come up in cases). If anything arrived at the airport, collect that

• Gift 1 bush to solve level 1 case. Collect the reward, watch the ad. Now it’s a) Serve or drink 1 drink in the cafe, and our coffee exchange is at 9pm EST. Interestingly, it’s easier if a level 1 case gets tied up early like this. This means more uninterrupted play to solve level 2 and 3 cases, instead of always stopping to collect the level 1 case and see another ad to get the next case…

• There are 3000 energy bars available. Click on the scenes, watch the ad to get the energy discount of 10 energy during the next 30 minutes. Play a new scene, while keeping tabs on notifications. At the end of each scene, because you double tap rapidly, playing the scenes goes quickly. As soon as level 2 is solved (find 2 clues), go back to the island, collect reward, see the ad for the next case. b) Spend 2000 coins on seasonal set. Do this. Collect reward, watch the ad, now b) Play 24 hidden scenes with energy discount activated. Keep progressing through all 5 stars in the scene.

• Got 5-star box. Open it. Collect reward, see ad. c) Nurture an egg or bird 4 times. 1 free case change. c) Find 600 objects. Keep replaying scene. Played 24 scenes, collect reward, see ad. b) Collect 15 tips in cafe. Saved those from last night. b) Get 8 perfects. 30 minutes are up. Then you have to decide: see another ad and fire off another 30 minute round, or go to school / work / your kitchen / etc… If you’re not going to play for awhile, renovate a landmark, start an airport task, etc.

Sweep the Board (STB)

Factors for consideration:

• Veteran players who have covered more scenes have an easier time with familiar scenes (and an easier time with the game in general because we know all the tricks).

• Learn how to screenshot the first scene quickly before finding the initial six items. Once you have a screenshot, you can use https://find.june.ovh to find the scene. If you’ve already opened the scene you can play and practice it. If not, there are Youtube videos that you can follow, and websites that highlight each search object with the correct name. Why is this useful? Because when playing and practicing the scene, JJ will hit certain objects. When playing STB, it will hit other objects. So the best strategy if you have the scene is to play it, then check your screenshot systematically for things you haven’t hit yet.

• As you get to more challenging levels, take a deep breath and play the scene. This will keep you calmer, with better focus.

• This may also be a good time to turn the brightness on your device to maximum…

When STB is active, you accumulate tickets for playing STB, that would otherwise be rewards like coins, energy, diamonds, compasses, etc. If you complete STB, you no longer get STB tickets. Luckily, they cap the number of accumulated tickets at 15, so if you want to play STB, play scenes until you accumulate 15 tickets, then start STB to get the extra 6 tickets. If you want to ignore it, start STB to get the 6 tickets, then play scenes.

Jumping

• Members can leave a club and join another club for drinks. Some clubs ask that you serve a drink, but others will allow you to leave tips, ribbons during DL, or bushes.

• Join the club, quit the JJ app and restart it to see the stats and coffee for the new club.

• Benefit to the club: fill empty spots temporarily, extra tips (useful when upgrading to 15 energy per coffee).

• Benefit to the jumper: jumper can join multiple clubs and drink coffee, will need to alert the club as to their intentions. There are FB forums to connect jumpers and lounges.

• Caution:

  • Jumpers have to be members for a certain amount of time to participate in competitions.

  • If your home club is full and you jump - you might not be able to return if someone joins the club. This is a danger with open clubs. With clubs set to application, someone has to let you in every time you jump.

  • Returning jumpers will lose their officer status.

Team-Level Strategies

If I had the time to be a team president and was interested in building a team and culture that was “lazy competitive”, these are some of the strategies I’d use for the DL, the goal being to bracket down as far as possible to maximize prizes for the team with minimal effort and minimal use of resources, and no need to spend money. Any “rules” established would be for the sake of gaining team members a maximum amount of freedom to play their own games as they please, while still ending up at Private Eye or Ace without too much effort.

I wouldn’t play too hard on the first day to get a feel for the velocity of the teams. If it’s going to be a blowout, let the top contenders duke it out and save your resources. We’ve been in situations where we were second or third until half an hour before the DL closed, and we were bumped to fourth. Whether by giving players an easy run of wins, or bots, it’s easy to rig this.

Show Up for Coffee

Have everyone show up at the meeting time and gift their one free coffee at minimum. Sure, things may go a little slower than the 2 - 4 coffee groups, but it’s more sustainable and won’t require people to buy diamonds. Consider bagging any formal bush rotation requirement. Have members use their tips first to upgrade to 15 energy bars per coffee.

Note that in early 2023 the lounge officially changed, where on different days coffee can give energy, ribbons, tips, coins, etc. This impacts energy and strategies.

Week 1 Strategy

Do the absolute minimum needed to promote, ideally stay in 2nd or 3rd place. Keep those rock stars on a leash. Granted, if a good DN comes along, hey, just grab those prizes, especially if they’re Memoir packs or diamonds and you’re into that. Show up for coffee and save up the energy.

Simply break the ticket for competitions and play one scene to partake in prizes.

Week 2 Strategy

Do absolute minimum needed to promote, ideally stay in 2nd or 3rd place. If needed, let the more junior members step up to the plate and start using more of their resources.

Week 3 Strategy

By now things are getting more competitive. Have your intermediate level members step up to the plate and use more of their resources. If needed, play a Saturday competition to promote.

Week 4 Strategy

Take a break, relax, regroup, rebuild resources. Bracket back down to a less competitive group.

Weeks 5 and 6

If able to promote by doing the absolute minimum, do this. Otherwise, bring out the rock stars.

Promotion Window

If competing during a DL, the critical time is the hours before the top three teams are promoted and the new teams are assembled. Every team’s velocity is different, and a medium-competitive team may learn they should be 2000 ribbons ahead of 4th place 5 - 8 hours before promotion to be safe. Then, if you’re lucky enough to have a global team, whoever is on “night watch” can hold the fort until the team is promoted. The only requirement is to do enough to stay in lockstep with 4th place. It’s much harder, if behind, to catch up and surpass the 3rd place team (because all they have to do is stay vigilant and in lockstep with you).

Another alternative, if it’s close, is to stock up a level 2 or 3 case that will complete when you wake up (e.g. gift 6 bushes which you do first thing in the morning). That way you could wake up in fourth place but pop into promotion zone.

Competition-Playing Teams

Teams that play the competitions will get ribbons, and also use up energy. Magic Eye players especially, so even though I and other members may be ME players, many of us have shelved our super powers to conserve resources in order to go the “lazy competitive” route.

But teams that play competitions as well as the game tend to be resource-challenged, and the best way to handle that is to create a team that can give multiple coffees promptly during meeting time, then play. Have members save up their boxes, star boosters, and character cards and open them before the competition.

Social / Relaxed Strategies

Post-Sherlock

Did you want Sherlock status at all cost and did you get it? Did you pull out all the stops and end up in flower jail with no energy / diamonds left? Do you feel like you just want a consistent coffee and maybe bush rotation to recuperate? This section is for you. This means many of the competitive tips in the previous section are moot. Instead, the goal is to bracket down to a lower-scoring competitive group so you can get promoted and still get decent prizes while using less resources.

Getting out of flower jail or building a scene buffer: playing the same scene over and over again to collect coins either for high value seasonal items or greenhouse / fire truck / playground. Another option: search for the highest value 1 square item in the seasonal set, e.g. “Hot Work”, 200 flowers for 6000 coins, or “Snowy Streetlamp”, 300 flowers for 9000 coins. Change out or ignore tasks like “travel to a new chapter”. Tasks like renovate landscape 4 times may take more time but won’t burn through scenes. Once you have a buffer, limit to opening a new scene every 1 - 3 days or more. Ideal time to go for a greenhouse is when you don’t like the current seasonal set offered.

Rock stars: Stop acting like one. If you’re sitting on a stash of energy and diamonds, act like you only have a 150 energy bar and play every five hours for a little while. Hold the line on time consuming cases: don’t waste energy if it won’t solve a case. The team will bracket lower, and you can save the stash in case later you’re close to promoting and a little push can get you over the edge. Time Rush and Spot the Difference bracket according to previous stats. Skip one and score higher in the next competition. Wait until an hour before a competition ends. If the team is doing well or close, play. Otherwise, skip. Have less experienced team members read this page to get up to speed on strategies, use lounge chat to discuss strategies so everyone can play normally and still get something.

Have two accounts? Lot of benefits (e.g. stuck with cases in one account, switch to the other one), and also extra work in a competitive situation. One option: keep the primary account in a competitive group, secondary account in a coffee only or coffee/bush group.

Or keep both in one group, but play differently. Say the primary account is close to catching up to the developers. Stock up on energy with coffee exchange, and only play the competitions (or only play STD if a ME player). The secondary account is at level 600 and in flower jail. Stock up on energy and only play the game, replaying scenes often to get high value decorations. Break the ticket on competitions to share in prizes.

Note: If most players simply break the ticket and play one scene for competitions, the group will eventually bracket low enough to be in first or second place with little effort. And conversely, we’ve played our hearts out only to end up in 10th place. This also saves energy bars for game play.

Memoirs

Before memoirs, the only way to accumulate diamonds was to spend real money, play scenes, open boxes, open land and clear dead trees / stones, or have a reliable bush gifting system. Then #bushgate happened where we no longer reliably get diamonds from bushes.

From personal experience, this is the best way to play Memoirs. Play the way you normally play, and accumulate packs but don’t open them. Assumption: you pick up one reminder early on. Don’t buy any other reminders.

Look at the number of days Memoirs will run, e.g. 70 days. Count them out in a calendar and set a reminder about 5 days before the end of Memoirs, to open packs. Why? Because June reminders will trigger automatically when you open Memoirs. Wooga probably added this type of reminder to trip up people who think: “oh, well, it already placed something, so I might as well open the packs…” Wooga also refreshes the deja vu store periodically, this is another way to get players to open the packs instead of wait.

When it’s time, start opening the common brown packs until you start to get a lot of deja vus, then begin to round robin: open one pink, one green, blue, etc. Stop periodically to look at the album and place snippets, and keep accumulating deja vus. When you get down to 5 snippets left outstanding, start counting while continuing to round robin through the different color packs. Use the one reminder to finish the album.

JJ will ask: open all remaining packs? Don’t do this. Open the rest of the packs by hand, because that way you get more deja vus than by opening all packs at once. Snap up the diamonds, compasses, etc. and don’t waste deja vus on a reminder.

Benefits of playing Memoirs this way:

• Eliminate mental stress that you need x more snippets. Because you don’t fill in the album, there is no way / no need to keep comparing outstanding snippets with the number of days left. Just keep accumulating packs.

• By opening the common packs first, this leaves the more high value packs to give the harder to find snippets.

• Note: At first I did occasionally spend diamonds on packs (pre #bushgate). It might have helped having more high value packs but still at the end in both accounts I had a lot of unopened packs.

• Note: don’t wait until the cool down period to open packs, because then the option to purchase a reminder goes away.

“It’s Just a Game”

Context is everything, rendering this statement useless, since context could make this statement anything from true to false. Those most likely to get snagged with the more abusive aspects of JJ may have addictive personalities.

For many, it is just a game.

In one club, some members didn’t know what monoclonal antibodies were (early in the pandemic), so when family members got COVID and we alerted them, those family members knew to ask for monoclonal antibodies. Could the lounge feature be saving lives? We may never know.

Other Random Thoughts

In a world where computer technology / AI / machine learning is mature enough to create deep fakes, we don’t even know if we’re playing against other flesh-and-blood teams. Even if we are playing against real teams, algorithms can be configured in a way where the game can put its finger on the scale to maximize engagement and competitiveness (increasing the opportunity that players will spend more money). Note that we used to get diamonds from bushes, and now we can get a variety of rewards, including ribbons for competitions, any of which can be used to stack the deck. Keeping this in mind can help players maintain greater emotional detachment.

Ever watch those movies where there is ubiquitous surveillance, like in the movie Enemy of the State with Will Smith? (Or what about that Chinese spy balloon brouhaha in early 2023?) Sounds scary, right? Except that you can only surveil traffic patterns for people and things that move. What about those retirees in wheel chairs? Oh, but they’re playing JJ all day. As of early 2023, there are now bans due to awareness with TikTok, and pushback to China buying agricultural land close to military bases. The latter strangely makes sense. Gluten has been weaponized in the US and anyone experiencing an autoimmune disease should avoid gluten (I was active Hashimoto’s to the point of losing a right thyroid lobe in 2009, it went dormant on the AutoImmune Protocol - AIP). Also check out Doug Kaufmann’s three volumes titled The Fungus Link. Whoever owns the game and data will know everything about the players at a fairly fine-grained level as to:

• who is driven / competitive vs. more laid back

• who can be easily manipulated and how (this person prefers diamonds or packets)

• who still has fast reflexes / intelligence / judgment / memory vs. who might have recently had a stroke (ideal candidate for a scam?)

Authoritarian regimes maintain control over their populace by surveillance. And with JJ being a global game, their knowledge is similarly global. They can tie behavioral data to countries, cultures, etc.

Not that I’m saying become paranoid and go completely off the grid, just be aware of these things and think about what kinds of insights others might gain based on your behaviors and strategies. And, while the data and constant A/B testing afford authoritarian types insights into how to control a populace more through influence as opposed to brute force, the same is true for players as well. Players can learn how to exert influence by not blindly accepting abuse. Don’t like what’s going on? Walk away for awhile.

Leadership Strategies

There is a Facebook group June’s Journey Club Presidents, only for club presidents or club leaders. No recruiting posts allowed. The main notable fact to keep in mind: if you are the president of a club and are inactive for 30 days, you will be demoted and a more active member will be promoted to president. This makes sense, in that clubs should have active presidents, and in the case of some sort of emergency or worse, a club won’t get held hostage for an unreasonable amount of time (I’ve seen a couple unfortunate situations where an active member suddenly goes quiet, with no way of contacting that person).

Configuring the Club

As of mid-October 2021, JJ added the ability to tag a team as relaxed, social, or competitive.

The club can be set to “application” or “open”. If a group gets below 12 members and the club is “open”, Wooga will invite low-level players to join. The only way to get around this would be to set the club to “application” instead of “open”.

The first priority for all members of the club should be to use tips to upgrade to coffee giving 15 energy bars. Period.

An easy way to recruit is to click on the club name, and in the lower right is an icon with a green plus which you can use to invite members.

Club Recruiting

In the original June’s Journey spoilers link below, there is a subgroup “Recruiting”.

There are vastly more clubs looking to fill spots, than members looking for clubs. The JJ game has evolved where everyone can do whatever they want: decorate, chat, compete in competitions and/or DL. Personal experience: Doing all of it isn’t sustainable over the long haul for those who don’t spend money. So another option is to have two different types of clubs in mind - those that compete, and those that are coffee / bush rotation only, where you can restore a stash of energy / diamonds. Oscillate between the different groups when priorities / situations shift.

A really good strategy for relaxed / social clubs would be to post in Recruiting immediately after a DL completes, to pick up newly burned out competitive players who have completely depleted their resources.

Another good strategy: most recruiting posts focus on the team itself and what they’re looking for. To stand out, speak to the hearts of your desired prospective candidates first. True, it’s easiest if all of the relevant information is there (meeting time with time zone, expectations, etc.), but start with things like:

• Are you tired of being in flower jail and not being able to play the game the way YOU want?

• Are you searching for a team that is consistent with 1 free coffee at meeting time, so that you can build resources?

• Are you searching for that blend of “lazy competitive” where team members are consistent with their 1 free coffee at meeting time, play the game as they please, and still get to Private Eye or Ace without the drama of going into flower jail?

Second Accounts

Second accounts are a savvy solution to keeping lounge membership and coffee exchange at a maximum of 15 at all times. If someone leaves, add a second account in lieu of recruiting for more members or searching for jumpers. For those who still have a competitive itch, keep the second account in a relaxed group until you’ve built up resources, then rejoin a competitive team and swap out the primary account that is depleted.

Switching from Competitive to Coffee Only Team

After being in a competitive team for awhile, switching mindsets is difficult. When ex-competitive members join your team, it really helps to give these former addicts… ahem… new members some guidance. Some examples:

• “We don’t count coffees in this group” (especially since #bushgate - clubs that used to give 2, 3, or 4 coffees may cut back depending on the amount of diamonds they now get, so that members don’t feel an obligation to buy diamonds to keep up - that would be a great way to guarantee yourself a full-time job recruiting new members)

• “People are free to play or not play the competitions.” At least break the ticket and play one scene so you can partake in the prizes. Yes, we don’t get ribbons by doing this, but we’ve learned when we bracket down, we can still get to Ace level without the stress (note: I haven’t fully validated this with a pristine experiment - I would have to create a club with only my two accounts, bracket down, and see what happens with DLs, competitions, and prizes. It’s possible previous clubs I’ve been in got to Ace because of a few rock stars when everyone else was playing relaxed. This is a future experiment - or, if anyone is doing this and would like to report back to me, much appreciated).

Over time, I’ve come to the conclusion that the real “Sherlock” players aren’t the ones festooned with purple trophies and bushes. They’re the players in relaxed / social clubs with 1300 diamonds, a 100 scene buffer, and 50,000 energy bars - all accumulated without spending money - and they’re playing the game the way they want.

“No Drama”

There is a recurring theme where players and teams search for “no drama” situations. This is talking about the symptom without delving into the different sources for why it occurs. Best way to avoid: be specific in requests to find the best match, whether a competitive team or coffee only team.

Rock stars: It’s hard if a team has one or a few rock stars - this puts a lot of the burden on those rock stars, e.g. to have a sizable stash to burn, and time to spend. It could also create resentment towards those who can’t contribute as much (less experienced players / life circumstances interfere). This is especially hard on expert ME players, to save up enough energy to play Spot the Difference and also play the game.

No Club

Even if you’re in a club with a fabulous president, you never know what will happen if that president leaves and the culture changes. Plus, thanks to #bushgate it’s hard even being in a coffee club and giving two coffees because the second coffee costs 10 diamonds. When facing a summer both closing and moving, plus spending an entire month in Paris for a deep immersion as a composer, I wasn’t a member of a club for several months until returning to the US in August 2022. Here are the results of that experiment.

Without a club:

• No competitions, and no DL

• Energy limited to 100 or 150 bar (not enough to play an entire scene through - all five stars)

After leaving the coffee-only club, in both accounts I now have:

• 53,000 energy bars

• 1050 diamonds

• 120+ scene buffer

• All landmarks and buildings

If I play all five stars of one new scene, with energy discount, I use up 289 energy bars, round up to 300.

Each landmark gives maximum 15 energy bars over 10 hours, so ideally pop into JJ a few times a day before the 10 hour limit to accumulate as many energy bars as possible. At night, collect coins and energy before you go to sleep so it doesn’t max out in the middle of the night.

Let’s assume: 4 landmarks = 60 energy bars. Pick up energy in the morning and evening = 120 energy bars every day

This means a player not in a club can play one scene roughly every three days and still accumulate energy bars.

Think about it: without a club, you still have: Help Wanted, Detectives Needed, Fairground Fortune, Sweep the Board, and Memoirs. That’s more than enough.

To play the “no club” game more strategically:

• Pick up coins and energy before the 10 hour maximum for energy hits, so fire up JJ at least three times a day.

• Play scenes only during Detectives Needed, if the prizes are worth it (e.g. packs for Memoirs or diamonds). They’ll usually run for a little over a day.

• If Sweep the Board is on simultaneously, luckily I’ve played for so long I don’t have to waste energy finding and studying the scenes anymore. I’ll use up the sweep tickets to get as far as possible without spending diamonds (usually level 2 to 3).

• Note: Wooga nudges no club players to join clubs by giving Help Wanted ads like “Collect 20 tips from Cafe” and “Serve or drink 3 drinks in the Cafe”. The only way to do this without a club, and without spending diamonds, is to serve one drink. If you’re lucky, you may catch someone’s drink. While I have two accounts, because both are not in a club, they cannot see each others’ drinks, even though the accounts are Facebook friends.

If at some point the stash depletes too precipitously, options:

• Become a jumper

• Find a club that is more suitable given the changes in the game. Either stay to replenish stash, or stay more permanently if it’s a good group (or until something happens).

Veteran Strategies

Veterans will have their own set of benefits, and challenges above and beyond the usual (e.g. flower jail, lack of compasses, and other types of resource management issues).

Benefits:

• Ability to accumulate a variety of decorations over time, which may or may not show up in later sets or at great expense in terms of coins or diamonds

• Easier time with competitions and STB if they’ve encountered most scenes

• Matured understanding of strategies, having watched the game evolve over these years

Now for the main challenges.

Catching Up to the Developers

Wooga releases one new chapter a week, so players who catch up to the developers will be limited to opening 5 new scenes each week. This limits the number of blue and pink boxes available. I’ve set a threshold of 10 chapters, where I try to stay at least 10 chapters behind what is being released. The official JJ Facebook page tells which chapter is being released every Thursday (EST).

Reaching a Level Threshold

In early 2023, my primary account was pegged at level 1475, while I continued to accumulate flowers (around 18,000). This was near the end of Volume 6. Also, the islands have changed, with the map now double in size than previously. This is a challenge when you get a case to “Go Up a Level”, and have to change them out with a free case.

The best “mothballing” strategy is to minimize play but continue with coffee and bushes, and stick with a lazy competitive strategy for DL. Another is to return to the beginning and replay scenes, trying to get a search score above 660,000, or getting to highest on the leader board. Since veterans started playing years ago, it’s possible early scenes have very low scores because back then not many people were playing, so top of the leader board back then is different from top of the leader board today.

Impacted Battery Performance

With Memoirs and the number of animated decorations accumulated over time, it’s possible this may degrade your battery performance. In my primary account I’ve turned off all Memoir related decorations, and moved the animated decorations (Lounge, yearly animated decorations, etc.) from the main island to another island I rarely visit.

Side Games

As of 2024, the number of side games that have cropped up is borderline ludicrous. Rather than suffer from FOMO, the best way to stay sane is to play the side games if you like them, or if they offer prizes worth the effort. Since there are so many and they appear to continue growing, there won’t be any specific discussion here on the side games, except for the latest beta for Set the Scene (STS) mid 2024. (The Japanese set is one of my favorites, so of course I was going to get sucked in.) The S acronyms are even starting to get confusing - STS, Sweep the Board (STB), Spot the Difference (STD)…

So why so many side games? Because the core game engine now has a solid database of search scenes, decorations, etc., it is easy to cobble those foundational “bricks” together in new ways to create new side games (former software developer here).

• Side games are a way to get even veteran players intrigued at least initially.

• For players who have caught up to the developers and are stuck opening five new scenes each week, they have something else to do (and a reason to replay their most current scene). For as long as I can remember, every week when a new chapter is released, someone says “done!” and wishes Wooga would release more than one chapter a week. This is a way to put a stop to that.

• Betas are a great way for Wooga to determine how players encounter something new and quickly develop their strategy.

• Some betas may seem strange or lame initially, but this may be a way for developers to get partial functionality working, and test the end-to-end plumbing first before digging into the finer points (as in, why waste time perfecting something if there are foundational issues to address first, either technically or with how players react?)

• Different games can be designed to accumulate more information on players and engage different player styles (competitive, non-competitive, time-based, relaxed, etc.).

• Wooga can offer less for free but offer more for play. Instead of offering normal prizes, they can instead offer tickets to another side game (making it more difficult for players to grasp whether their rewards are commensurate given the time / effort expended).

• The side games are a chance to keep playing JJ even if you’re low on other traditional resources.

• With STS, those who are terrified by the prospect of wiping clean and redecorating their main island for the first time can practice this on a more reasonable scale, with a more focused scope. Incidentally, I learned the way to redecorate a large island is to segment it. Ever tried Zentangle? Similar principle. There is nothing more daunting to a non-artist than a blank canvas. But if you can segment it, and you focus on a single segment, suddenly you realize “hey, I can handle that.”

• So what don’t we know about all the different ways those decorations click together?! Again, within a specific scope with STS, it’s a great way to explore different “snap together” options and not feel overwhelmed

And… because many things can be purchased with diamonds, these side games (and STS definitely) can be a Venus fly trap either to get people to spend diamonds deliberately or accidentally (there is no safety net within the game itself, like when you try to delete something and the system asks: “Are you sure?” In JJ, as soon as you click on a button requiring diamonds your purchase goes through, and this is especially the case for STS - so look and think before you click). There really is no viable reason to spend diamonds on STS, because when it’s over it’s gone (other than the grand prize, for which multiples will snap together to create larger configurations). The only thing you’ll have left of the event is any screenshot you take of your completed set.

Many of these side games become more advanced as you progress, so I often play 1 or 2 levels to easily get those prizes.

Set the Scene beta - the main things to focus on are the large props which are available for prop tokens every hour, small props every half an hour, and (opportunistically) the free decorations that refresh every 5 minutes if you’re interested in the decorating part. Since decorations can be stored in the movie set’s storage it doesn’t cost anything to accumulate them. For the beta, I was able to get to the second level without too much trouble. It requires some effort to finish the third level.

The set comes with trees to clear and some decorations, and first thing I do is clear everything and store the decorations. We got a set of bonus prop tokens which made this beta easier. I set a timer for each hour, went in and collected the large props, small props, and the free props. It was fairly easy getting the prizes for the first level which included an extra 400 prop tokens. Since I do enjoy the decorating I’ll first decorate the island and take a snapshot. After that it’s all strategy, since you can’t get anywhere with just the free props, they’re too low value.

I then cram in all high value decorations and keep accumulating. At some point I run out of prop tokens, and sell off the zero value decorations that were part of the initial set, in exchange for prop tokens. Be careful, if you’re maxed out on prop tokens, selling those decorations is a wasted opportunity. Wait until you’ve zeroed out. That’s enough to get the second level prizes without having to play search scenes to accumulate more prop tokens, or playing a minimal amount of scenes for prop tokens.

Because the STS beta required playing only a few search scenes to accumulate the maximum amount of prop tokens, I simply replayed my last scene a few times, so park on a scene you actually like (by Volume 7 there some scenes are downright annoying). Luckily the week this beta ran, it was an off week for us with the DL (our team is more about strategic resource accumulation vs. super competitive play).

Current Home

I stumbled on the group Cosmic Oasis and noticed they were relaxed, and able to get to Private Eye with only two active members (without doing coffee initially!). Now we exchange one free coffee regularly at 9pm EST. The club is quick to pull the plug, even on week two of a DL, if things don’t look promising. If a space ever opens up and you’re more of an introvert who doesn’t like a lot of chatter, prefers playing a more sustainable “lazy competitive” to conserve resources, and can add your one free coffee at coffee time, feel free to join us.

Bottom Line

Practically every day on the JJ FB forums, the reactions to Wooga run the gamut from hate to love. Which makes all of it irrelevant. The game can be played a gazillion different ways, within given constraints (so that it’s not too easy or too hard, or different groups would tune out). In fact, if the diverse groups complain in equal portion - Wooga probably nailed the balance.

If some aspect drives you nuts, it’s possible first to adopt the perspective that this is a learning experience, and adapt game play so it doesn’t drive you nuts. JJ is actually more like a mirror - reflecting back to you - you. Wouldn’t be surprised if peoples’ reactions and comments mirror their actual lives as well. Players demonstrated during #coffeegate that boycotts can work. But for the most part, the game is well thought out, and players need to play long enough to figure out what works for them, and where and when they will hold the line on principle. For those encountering addiction-type behaviors / stress / etc. and wanting to rectify them, consider taking a 1 month sabbatical. In fact, when I initially caught up to the developers years ago and was stuck opening one chapter a week, that’s when I took a 1 year sabbatical.

Because the game is shifting constantly based on the results of the A / B testing, I don’t spend time tracking diamonds and getting upset because we used to get diamonds from <fill in the blank> and now we don’t. Rather, I’ve set a baseline threshold of 1000 diamonds. Period. I play with the excess over 1000 diamonds, and stop playing and spending diamonds at 1000 or below. Having a trigger threshold renders the constant game changes irrelevant and provides players with a real-time alert to re-evaluate and shift strategy in response.

Links

• June’s Journey Spoiler FB Group (private, must join)

• Gamers Unite! - All JJ Scenes - in case you want to study before the competitions

• VERY Useful for Sweep the Board

• ThatSleuthLife Scenes

• ThatSleuthLife Competitions

Updates To Policy

On 10/27/2022 Wooga disseminated policy changes (dated in effect 10/15):

https://www.wooga.com/legal/en-terms-of-service

Because this current set of changes talk about reimbursement if we don’t agree with the policy, I asked support what they would reimburse, given that I’ve played this game since 2018. Not surprisingly, their answer was they wouldn’t reimburse anything. No matter what happens, this strategy page will remain online as a historical account, and because there is valuable information that goes above just the game itself. And depending on what happens, everything will continue to be documented.

Bottom line: the game has changed considerably, going from a platform that valued its players to one that increasingly requires spending money to play. Bushes used to give diamonds, and coffee used to give free energy. Now, the only way to get diamonds and energy is through systems that can be easily rigged.

The policy states they can do anything with the game, and by playing the game, we are bound by their terms. They can boot anyone off for any number of policy violations.

They will also remove accounts that are inactive for 6 months. Granted, it’s understandable that maintaining servers with a lot of dead accounts is a waste of resources, but players also have a point that sometimes people have a medical crisis or are deployed, and that could last for more than 6 months. Heck, I took a year sabbatical at one point and came back. The only solution would be to just log in periodically and pick up energy and coins from landmarks and buildings.