Update: I believe the developer read my post. See the bottom where I complained about not getting credit for ads. The problem I was experiencing is gone. Ads work as expected now. I love the fact the developer fixed the issue. There are in-app purchases to reduce the ad watching effort or you can just wait long enough to allow your energy and hints to regenerate. I’m not that patient, I prefer to get immersed and enjoy the puzzle solving in a long session. I’ve become accustom to bringing up the game while engaged in other activities to let ads play to accelerate the build up of energy and hints. First, I love the game. It is engaging and immersive. And, you can play for free. However, the reason for three stars is because of all the ads I watch but receive no reward. I would have to watch two, three or more ads before the game give me small bump in energy or hints. I've learned to force quit the app and restart to get a new ad to watch. I might quit the app up to four times to start a new ad, one I trust will end with a reward. The ones that start with a 30 second timer to receive a reward are the ones that work. The rest don’t and are a waste of time.

When I first downloaded this game on my iPad, over a year ago, I was excited because it was similar to one I really enjoyed on my Switch, but every time I tried to play it, I couldn’t. The game would prompt me to download content and then there was the spinning circle forever. I tried several times to just leave it alone for hours to keep trying to download, with no success. I recently got frustrated with the games I’d been playing and decided to try this one again. Either our internet is better, or the game has been updated, or both, but it works great now. There is such a wide variety of cases, and within each case, there is a wide variety of challenges. Some of them are easy, some challenging, and some confusing, which is a great mix. You get plenty of hints to help you out when you get stuck, and can watch ads to get additional hints if/when you need them. Energy regenerates slowly, which is my only complaint, though watching ads will give you more energy, and allow you to use less energy for an hour. Currently, I’m using running out of energy as a prompt to get off my tablet, lol, but there are options to use gems, which you can earn at a reasonable rate. I haven’t yet felt a need to purchase gems for extra energy or hints, but I haven’t ruled it out. I do want to support the developers because it’s such a well designed game, so I don’t mind clicking on the ads.

I probably would not have started this if I had known how SEVERELY time gated it is. 24 hours a day x 60 minutes = 1440 minutes divided by 4.5 minutes per energy point = 300 chances to get energy points. Which means you would have to have this game open 24 hours a day to completely fill the meter. Yes, you can watch an ad once an hour for 20 energy points and a total of 420 per day (if the meter even goes that high) but who needs another timer in their life just to play a GAME? Not to mention that - as another reviewer said, every action costs 5 energy, so you get four big tries to play. I really, really miss the days when you could just pay once for a game and just be able to play it. I understand developers need to make their money but does everything have to be a CONSTANT cash grab??? ……………… As for that @%,##,*** Hint button - Make it smaller, Relocate it on the screen and Make it have to be deliberately contacted (maybe a multiple tap?) PLEASE. I am down to one hint without actually USING any because I habitually rest my right hand on the bottom right corner of my iPad and I keep accidentally hitting it. There is also the need to tap all over the blasted screen in order to locate hidden objects, which has lost me a couple of hints as well. This is *quite* frustrating.