Frequently Asked Questions

Here you will find answers to questions frequently asked by our players.

• How can I get insider information on the game?
• How do I find treasures without a map?
• I have a map, and I’m trying to pick up a treasure, but I can’t pick it up
• How close do I have to be to collect a treasure?
• Where should I not bury treasure?
• What is the Traveler’s Quest Store?
• How is a treasure map’s value/cost determined?
• Upgrading your bury level
• Upgrading your detect level
• What are other benefits of buying upgrades?
• Game Notes
• Why can’t Traveler’s Quest find my location?
• I live in an [E]dge area and the game is slow!
• Can I reinstall TQ?
• JailBroken Pitfalls
• What are some things that will get me auto-banned from the game?
• New Features!

• Q:How can I get insider information on Traveler’s Quest game play?
  A: Traveler’s Quest has two fan podcasts with regular episodes so far:
  • Traveler’s Quest Fan PodCast by crowley177 was our first Fan Podcast and takes both email and recorded input from the Facebook community, bringing anyone who wants to participate in.
  • Subterranean Homesick Blues is a blog as well as a podcast by DigDug which really goes into game play, and how to be successful in the game.

• Q: How do I find treasures without a map?
  A: Treasures are picked up through a few easy steps. First tap on Maps in the tab bar, then select Detect Treasure. If there are treasures within 5 miles of your current location, you will be able to find them using detect treasure. These treasures also need to be at your current detector level or less. So if you are just starting out, your detector level is 1, and you can find any treasures which are buried at level 1. See Traveler’s Quest Store for upgrade instructions.
• Q: I have a map, and I’m trying to pick up a treasure, but I can’t pick it up
  A: Tap on the red X which marks the spot on the map. You should now see a pop-up which says “Dig Treasure” and who buried the treasure. To the right, you will see a red circle with an > inside. Tap the > to collect the treasure. If the pop-up goes away without showing you the treasure you found, then you missed the spot and should try again. The area you must tap is small, and tapping anywhere outside of that area will move you away from this treasure. Once you are successful at picking up a treasure, you will see a “Loading” screen, then the description and info for the treasure you have found will appear.
• Q: How close do I have to be to collect a treasure?
  A: To collect a treasure, you must be within 1.5 miles of the treasure, however, you will not begin to receive a gold bonus until you are within 1 mile of the treasure you seek. The closer you are to the treasure, the larger the gold bonus you will be awarded. The distance from you to the virtual treasure is measured by your iPhone’s GPS, and is only as accurate as your GPS. This means that treasures which are buried off the coast, or in secure areas should still be accessible, however nothing is guaranteed.
• Q: Where should I not bury treasure?
  A: Because the game uses a live GPS, it is not a good idea to bury a treasure at your home. While you can unbury treasures as of Traveler’s Quest 2.0, once a map has been purchased to your treasure, it can no longer be unburied, or otherwise moved.
• Q: What is the Traveler’s Quest Store?
  A: The Traveler’s Quest Store is contained within the game. This is where you can buy local maps, treasures and upgrades, or sell your treasure. Each time you bury a treasure, a map to your treasure is added to the Traveler’s Quest Store for another player to purchase. You will never see your own treasure maps, or maps you have already purchased in the Traveler’s Quest store. You receive the gold for each of your treasure maps which are purchased by other players. Maps are available in your local store, which is an approximately 25 mile radius. Maps which are available in Orlando, FL can also be seen in the stores for Oviedo, FL and Lake Mary, FL since those cities are within the 25 mile area. Available treasure maps outside of the 25 mile radius will not be seen until you move closer to them. See How is a treasure map’s value/cost determined for more information.
• Q: How is a treasure map’s value/cost determined?
  A: Maps will vary in cost based on the treasure’s value and on the bury level of the treasure. For instance, a treasure which was created in Miami, FL, and brought to Orlando, FL will be worth more buried in Orlando, FL than in Miami. Likewise, treasure maps which lead to treasures buried deeper (level 2, level 3, etc) will be more expensive to purchase, since they are more expensive to bury.
  The map prices work like this. If you have a detect of 50 and I have a bury level of 50, you’d have to pay full price for a map to my treasure since we are on even ground. But… as you increase your detect level, the price you pay for my map prices will decrease until they are back to their original price. This was done so that someone with a huge detect level (150) won’t have to pay much for a treasure at a relative small bury level (50). This is a great reason for players to increase their bury and detect levels in the game.
• Q: Upgrading your bury level
  A: Upgrading your bury level will increase the default level whenever you bury any treasure. Increasing the bury level of a treasure will not only make other users pay more for a map to your treasure, but it will also make it harder for other users to detect.
• Q: Upgrading your detect level
  A: Increasing your detect level will allow you to detect treasures that are buried at deeper levels. Thus if a user has buried a treasure at bury level 10, only the users with a detect level of 10 or greater will be able to detect it.
• Q: What are other benefits of buying upgrades?
  A: In the Traveler’s Quest In Game Store, you can purchase upgrades. These upgrades allow you to find nearby treasures which have been buried by other players at a level equal to or less than your detector level. If you are at detector level 6, you can find nearby treasures which have been buried at level 6 or below without purchasing a map to the treasure. Similarly, when you upgrade your bury level, you are always able to bury at that level. When you bury a treasure, you have the option to bury deeper for a nominal amount of gold per treasure. By purchasing an upgrade, you will not need to spend the gold to gain that bury level, or to find that nearby treasure without a map. In addition, the maps in the in game store are also related to your detect level, allowing you to see maps which are within your detect level, but outside of your detect range radius. This means that you can see maps which are your detect level or less, and around you up to 25 miles in any direction.
• Q: Do you have any Game Notes/Notices?
  A: The news board in game will give you the most up to date information about the game, but please keep in mind that Traveler’s Quest is a new game and as with any new game we are continually tweaking game play as we find the need. This means that your game experience could change as you play the game with or without notice. Our goal is of course, to make the best game possible for all players. We hope our players will appreciate the tweaks, and of course, we hope you will tell your friends about the game since this game is so much more fun when you have more people in your area playing!
• Q: Why can’t Traveler’s Quest find my location?
  A: You may know where you are, but location services on the iPhone may sometimes have a hard time finding you. If they do, try stepping outside, or going near a window. The GPS on the iPhone is really just a radio receiver, so going through a tunnel, being in a subway or large building may not give you a cell phone signal. Location services are even more sensitive to being blocked by tunnels and large buildings because the GPS requires a good signal from the GPS satellite or a good signal from multiple towers to triangulate your location.
  Enable Wi-Fi
  • Make sure your WI-FI service is turned ON in settings! It has been found that WI-FI being turned OFF causes your iPhone’s location detection to take substantially longer than when it is turned on. This is due to the triangulation that is done based on wi-fi hot spots around you. You may not be connecting to them, but the network knows where they are and this helps the service pick out where you are a lot faster.

  iPhone 1st Generation Players:

  • The game is currently written specifically for use with the iPhone 3g and iPhone 3gs.

  Things to try:

  • Try turning your iPhone’s airplane mode on and off again. This sometimes helps the triangulation find you again.
  • Try turning your phone off and on again – there are known memory leaks in the maps API which developers cannot control, nor can we clear. What this means to you is that there is memory being used by applications which have already closed. This could prevent location services from finding you for a variety of technical reasons, and could also be causing you problems in other areas that you may not have noticed yet, so it’s something to try.

  This is a great article that talks a little about how all of this works with Skyhook Wireless. They are the providers of the location services on your iPhone.

• Q: I am in an [E]dge area and the game is slow!
  A: Traveler’s Quest is heavily reliant on server connectivity. What this means to you is that the game could be slow at times, or have a hard time finding you because of bad or spotty signal from your cellphone carrier. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot we can do about this scenario other than continue to optimize the game to use the least amount of signal possible.
• Q: Can I reinstall TQ?
  A:
  Yes, you can reinstall Traveler’s Quest. You can delete and reinstall the app on your iPhone either by Syncing your iPhone with iTunes on your computer or by downloading the app again from the App Store. You will not be required to purchase the app again, the iTunes store keeps track of your purchases and will simply ask you if you would like to reinstall the app (iPhoneUsersGuide.com: iPhonee OS 3.0 Will Allow Redownloading of Apps.).
  Keep in mind though that some information is kept ONLY on your device, so while your game will be restored, you could loose access to purchased maps and be required to purchase them again, however any treasures you have found are yours to keep and will be restored to you automatically.

• Q: What are some JailBroken Pitfalls
  A: Backgrounder: The system has cheat detectors which could be triggered if you use Traveler’s Quest with Backgrounder, a multi-tasking application only available to jailbroken phones. To prevent Backgrounder from working with Traveler’s Quest, add Traveler’s Quest to the blacklist available in Backgrounder.
• Q: What are some things that will get me auto-banned from the game?
  A: Backgrounder: The system has cheat detectors which could be triggered if you use Traveler’s Quest with Backgrounder, a multi-tasking application only available to jailbroken phones. To prevent Backgrounder from working with Traveler’s Quest, add Traveler’s Quest to the blacklist available in Backgrounder.
• Q: What are new features added to version 2.0 of Traveler’s Quest?
  A: Traveler’s Quest 2.0 now has:
  • Traps: Set traps on those buried treasures, and really make the player who found your treasures pay!
  • Trap Disarm: Found a treasure with a trap? You won’t pay as dearly as your foe thought because you worked ahead and learned how to disarm those nasty traps!
  • Treasure Hunting Radius: Find the best way to get to that hard to get treasure, or see that it’s out of reach before spending the time trying to get that elusive treasure
  • Treasure Bury Radius: Tired of burying treasures that you think are out of the way, only to find someone else found a road close by? Bury that treasure with confidence using this upgrade that lets you see what roads or obstacles are in the way of your foe before you bury your treasure!
  • Uber Detect: Missing that one elusive treasure? Use this upgrade to find the closest of a particular treasure item to you so you can claim collection victory!
  • In App Purchase: All of the above upgrades plus detect and bury levels can be bought using in game gold or an In App purchase.
  • Unbury Treasure: Bury that treasure in a really bad spot (like in your house)? Now you can unbury it as long as nobody else has purchased a map to it!
  • News Alert: Let us tell you when someone has detected one of your treasures!
  • More Leaderboards: Now you can see who the top 50 players are
  • New Look and Feel: This has been a long time coming and we are very proud of the awesome new graphics which have been added to Traveler’s Quest – We hope you love them too!
  • Buried Treasure Base Location: Ever want to see where in the world that treasure you just found started from? Now you can see it on the Buried Treasure Info and Buried Treasure Map
  • Buried Treasure Base Map Price: Just one more thing you can see on a buried treasure!
  • Bigger Dig Button: The long awaited bigger dig button is finally here – let the fingers rejoice!
  • Increased Treasure Room Size: Your treasure room just isn’t the same when it’s full, so we’ve added on so you can store even more!
  • Optimizations: Players on Edge won’t feel the burn of a slow connection anymore! The game is now at least 4 times faster than previous versions of Traveler’s Quest allowing you to do what you want to do without the long wait

  We hope you love these new additions to Traveler’s Quest 2.0!