Everyone loves a good mystery. There’s undoubtedly a measure of excitement in trying to solve crimes, ghost sightings, or other events that need more than commonplace logic to be explained. Mysteries beget intrigue, and humans are inherently drawn toward strange happenings if only to satisfy our curiosity and break the monotony of the everyday.
It’s why cartoons like Scooby Doo or shows like CSI, Ghost Hunters, or even Ancient Aliens have become such hits, there’s always an element of mystery to them, a puzzle that needs to be solved, a story to be unraveled. Of course, one cannot discount the importance of the Sherlock Holmes or Nancy Drew books, which have given readers the chance to step into these mysterious stories long before they’ve become staples of the big screen.
It’s no surprise then that games like June’s Journey can deftly pull players into a world of intrigue, romance, and crime. Set in the roaring ’20s, June’s Journey is a hidden objects game wherein you’re presented with a scene and are tasked to find objects corresponding to a set of words. The mechanics of the game seem simple enough at the onset, but there’s more to it than meets the eye, just like the mystery surrounding the deaths of June’s sister Clare and Clare’s husband, Harry.
Before giving an overview of how the game is played, let’s first talk about the story in which the game revolves so we can have some context into June’s motivation, which, by extension, also serves as your motivation as the player: June’s Journey begins with June Parker receiving news that her sister Clare had been killed by her husband, Harry, just before Harry himself committed suicide.
With their teenage daughter Viriginia left in the estate, June takes it upon herself to travel to her late sister’s house, which also happens to be the scene of the crime. Here, June discovers that her hunch had been right: that there was something awfully suspicious about the circumstances surrounding her sister and brother-in-law’s deaths. Though without any experience as a detective, June has nevertheless made up her mind to find out what truly happened to Clare and Harry.
Determined to get to the bottom of things, June sets off to find more clues, and this is where you, as the player, will come in.
In following the story, you will be, as mentioned, provided with scenes containing a set of words that pertain to specific objects found in that particular scene. Some of these objects can be easily spotted while others are hidden, testing your observation skills. Your goal is to find all the objects until every word in the list has been crossed out.
In some cases, an object included in that list is a clue that drives the story forward. Every time you play a round of a specific scene, the list of words and objects you have to find will change.
For every object that you click correctly, you stand to gain multipliers that will give you bonus points. The faster you click on the right objects, the higher the multipliers and your score will be.
Scores are calculated based on your speed, accuracy, and whether or not you’ve availed of hints. Using hints will decrease your score.
Scenes are considered as levels and playing a single round will require you to spend energy. Completing a round will earn you points that can gain you stars. Each level has a maximum of 5 stars, which will earn you Mastery of that level. There are multiple levels in each chapter and you may only proceed to the next chapter if you’ve achieved all its requirements, which may consist of stars and flowers.
If stars can be earned by mastering a level, flowers can be earned by buying decor for Orchid Island, which is where Clare’s estate is. As June, you’ve become the unofficial caretaker of the estate. Every piece of decor costs a varying amount of coins, which can be earned by completing rounds. Placing certain types of decor will also yield a varying amount of flowers. Aside from being used to access new chapters, flowers are also needed to level up your overall account. Increasing your account level will grant you access to more decor, more levels, more chapters, and so on.
The estate itself, which is considered an individual building, can be leveled up. Completing rounds may get you construction materials, which are necessary for the upgrade. Only specific decor can be leveled up, which can yield flowers after the upgrade has been completed. Buildings also passively produce coins, which can be collected after a waiting period.
Additionally, you may eventually expand accessible spots in Orchid Island when you collect compasses, which are used in exchange for expanding your plot. Reaching certain chapters in the main story or getting enough stars will also grant you access to different places around Orchid Island, such as the lighthouse, the hangar, or the shipyard.
Of course, you can get all of these rewards and open up more locations when you play the main hidden objects game following Clare and Harry’s murder mystery. But while the mechanics of the game sound rather simple, just find an object and click on it, it’s a lot more challenging than you might think.
With our beginner’s guide for June’s Journey, we’ll teach you some tricks to find objects in the fastest way possible, as well as tips to get those high scores, not waste a drop of energy, and decorate Orchid Island into a vintage paradise that will be the envy of your neighbors, and solve the murder mystery along the way, of course.
Spend Your Energy Well
As we mentioned earlier, playing a round will always require energy. As a beginner, you have roughly a maximum of 110 energy points. Each round costs a minimum of 15 energy points. Depending on how well you do in a round, you can either gain a star or portion of a star.
This means that if a level has a maximum of 5 stars to achieve Mastery, you likely have to play it more than 5 times as completing a round does not automatically mean gaining 1 whole star. Sometimes, you might gain only 12% of a star or 30% of a star.
Again, it depends on how quickly and accurately you find all the objects included in the word set. If you do extremely well in a round, perhaps even get a “Perfect” rating, then you might be able to get, say, 50% of a star.
However, if you do poorly, you might get only 12% of a star, for example. If you consistently get low percentages, this basically means that you’re spending a lot of energy without getting much in return. Additionally, 1 energy point regenerates every 2 minutes so waiting times can feel quite lengthy.
This brings us to the two ways you may choose to approach the game so you can allocate energy points in the most productive way: you can either gain mastery of one level at a time or find all the clues first to complete a whole chapter.
What difference do these two approaches make? They both have their pros and cons and here’s what sets them apart:
Gaining Mastery of a Level First
Gaining Mastery of one level means earning all 5 stars for that level. Again, this will likely take more than 5 rounds as the game doesn’t seem to let you earn 1 whole star with every round, even if you do manage to get a “Perfect” rating.
This can seem a little tedious at first, but the advantage of gaining Mastery of a level is that you’re only focused on one scene and though there will be objects added to it every time you play a round, you’ve already become familiar with most of where the objects are hidden that you’re more likely to get Perfect ratings even if the difficulty increases. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, so playing a level over and over to earn all 5 stars is definitely good practice.
Eventually, you would become quite familiar with the scene and the locations of objects that you’ll complete rounds faster without using hints. This then maximizes the energy you spend. Additionally, after attaining Mastery of a level, you get to open a 5-Star Box, which often contains Rare, Marvelous, and Special items.
The downside to this approach, however, is that the story won’t progress as fast and you won’t be able to unlock other areas in Orchid Island until later.
Finding Clues First
On the other hand, you may opt to complete searching for clues first then moving on to the next level instead of earning Mastery for one level. The way the game works is that in every level, you get to find 2 clues, the first of which you’ll encounter upon starting the level and the second when you’ve reached a certain number of stars for that scene.
Once you’ve found all the clues, you may unlock the next level (provided you also have enough of the flowers required) and proceed to play that scene. The advantage to this is that you’ll be able to drive the story forward and unlock more levels, chapters, and other features of the game such as unlockable locations around Orchid Island.
The downside is that most of the time, accessing the final level of a chapter requires a certain number of stars, which you’ll have to earn from previous levels. This means you may have to gain a Mastery rating of certain levels anyway.
Between these two approaches, gaining Mastery of each level may be the more productive approach when it comes to maximizing your energy points. It might seem slow in terms of story progression, but you won’t have to worry about going back to previous levels and trying to reacquaint yourself with a specific scene all over again.
You only have to focus on one scene at a time, raising your chances of getting a high score and Perfect ratings since you’re already familiar with the objects that can be found in the scene. Additionally, stars (alongside compasses) are also required to expand the plot around your estate, which is surrounded by fog. Certain decor items may also be unlocked when you earn a number of stars.
That said, you can consider gaining Mastery as the slow but steady approach that will ultimately lead to more rewards in the long run. All you need to do is be patient about your progression.
Thoroughly Study the Scene
As mentioned, high scores for each round depend on how quickly and accurately you find the right objects in a scene. During your first few tries, this can seem a little difficult and may take some time getting used to.
Many objects are cleverly hidden wherein some are shrouded in shadows, placed behind a more prominent object, or look as though they’re part of what our vision perceives as the background. Thus, you need to thoroughly study the scene to become familiar with what objects it contains from the get-go. But how exactly do you do that? Here are a few tips we’d like you to consider:
Pick the Image Apart
The first time you encounter a particular scene, you’ll be given an overall view of what it looks like. You’ll quite literally get to see the entire picture but not all the details, at least, not immediately. Upon encountering a scene, we strongly recommend zooming into it first before clicking on any object as listed in the word set.
This is because clicking an object automatically begins the round, and how fast you find objects will be taken into account when tallying up your final score. Thus, it’s better to pick the image apart first before beginning the round so you don’t waste time zooming the picture in and out when the invisible timer has begun.
When zooming into portions of the scene, try to be methodical about it. One thing you can do is try to imagine lines dividing the picture into several parts. Let’s take this scene for example:
As you can see from the image above, we’ve divided the scene into three. Let’s look at the rightmost portion first. The most obvious objects are the big ones or those closest to the foreground, so take note of those first:
- Trees
- Fountain
- Crow
Smaller objects which may be mistaken as part of the background or can be easily overlooked include:
- Easel on the balcony
- Water tower beside the trees
- Crown on top of the fountain
- White vase
At the center portion, the most obvious objects may include:
- Balcony
- Pillars
- Car
- Front door
- Hanging flowers
- Bell
- Flower bush
Further breaking the image into smaller objects, we can see the following:
- Chimney
- Lights on the second floor
- Clock on top of the front door
- Heart shapes on the front door
- Horn at the side of the car
- Wheels
- Steps to the entrance
- Golden decor on the balcony
The left side of the image also has a lot of small things that may be included in the word set:
- Basket on top of the car
- Suitcases
- A stack of books on top of a suitcase
- Ladder
- Shutters
- Flowers of different colors
- Trees
- Car seats
- Extra tire
- Foggy windows from the car
- Small balcony
- Exclamation point
You might think that the last item sounds strange, but there will be times when numbers, shapes, and even Zodiac symbols will be part of the word set. This is why it’s important to take note of every small detail that you come across since they might be included as an object you have to find.
Take your time when doing this and go back and forth zooming in and out of the scene until you have a good grasp of all the objects you can possibly recognize. Don’t start until you’re confident that you’ve managed to discern most, if not all, objects in the scene.
Take Note of Additional Items
Apart from recognizing hidden objects, the other challenging aspect in this game is that every round you play may have other objects added to what you’ve already encountered. Take for example these two images below:
It can be rather subtle, but the scene on the right has more objects in it, any one of which may be included in that round’s word set. This brings us back to our first tip, wherein it’s a good idea to pick the image apart as thoroughly as you can.
Additionally, you need to treat each round as though you’re encountering a new scene since objects will occasionally be added or even removed from it. Reacquaint yourself with the scene each time you play it and take note of what’s been added or what’s been removed. This way, you don’t get caught off-guard when a new word suddenly springs up from the word set.
Remember the Words and Their Locations
Now it can be extremely difficult to memorize each and every object in every scene. Fortunately, some words get repeated, allowing you to better remember the object corresponding to this word.
Aside from just knowing what the object looks like, also take note of its general location. Keep in mind that you have about 2 to 3 seconds before bonus multipliers disappear, which may be enough time to find a specific object when you know its general location.
As for encountering new words in the set, their location might not always be where you expect as some objects are placed in spots that don’t always make sense, like a letter M on a fireplace…
… or a figure eight on a sofa.
If you’ve zoomed in and out of the scene before beginning the round, these odd locations can work as markers that will help you remember an object’s general location better.
Don’t Just Click Objects at Random
You might think that it’s a clever move to just start clicking at random and hope to find the object indicated in the word set, especially if you’ve been staring at the scene for what feels like ages. Surely, you’re bound to get lucky and click on the correct object, right?
While that may be somewhat true, keep in mind that accuracy is also taken into account when tallying your overall score. This means that for every mistaken click, you lose points.
How many points are lost seem to be arbitrary, but suffice it that they do affect your final score, thus lowering your chances of getting a high percentage when it comes to earning stars. That said, it may be better to lose just speed points instead of losing both speed and accuracy points. After all, you’ve already spent some time trying to find the object that you might as well click on the right thing.
Use Hints Only When Necessary
Sometimes, there’s just that one object you can’t seem to find in the scene. You’ve zoomed in and out of the image, stared intently at the picture, but this particular object remains hidden from view. In this case, you may click the hint button, which is the light bulb on the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Upon clicking the hint button, it will illuminate the object you’re looking for, allowing you to spot it. Below is one case where we used the hint button because the chapel was extremely difficult to see and looked deceptively part of the background.
Of course, using hints will decrease your overall score. You may use hints multiple times but the button has a waiting period before it can be used again. That said, use hints only when absolutely necessary. If you really can’t find the object, then it may be time to use a hint, especially if it’s the last item on the word set.
Similarly, you may want to use the hint button if the last word on the list is one you’ve yet to encounter and you don’t want to lose the speed multiplier bonus. Click the hint button just before the multiplier bonus appears so you can still at least have a decent high score even if some points will be deducted.
Don’t Expect Items to Look the Way You Imagined
As we’ve mentioned earlier, June’s Journey is set in the 1920s, so characters, scenes, and other features of the game are all made to align with this era’s vintage aesthetic. This poses a new challenge as objects from the word list might not look like the way you imagined.
For instance, in Chapter 1, in the Old Garden Gate (Level 4), you might be asked to find a thermometer. Of course, our idea of a thermometer looks different from the way it used to in the 1920s. This is how it’s presented in the Old Garden Gate:
You’ll encounter a similar instance in Chapter 2, when you play the scene for Harry’s Yacht (Level 7). Here’s how the thermometer in this scene looks like:
Neither of these images look the same, and neither of them are likely familiar to people today, but both of these images will be listed as “thermometer” if they pop out on the word set.
On the other hand, you might encounter a word that may be totally unfamiliar to you. One example is, again, in Harry’s Yacht (Level 7), where the word “Amphora” might spring up. Amphora isn’t an everyday word so we had to use the hint button to find out where the corresponding object is. It turns out that an amphora is an ancient Greek or Roman jar with a narrow neck and two handles.
Other times, the word included in the list can also be pretty vague or just simply isn’t what you’d expect. For instance, the word airplane or plane is something you might encounter once or twice, but it can mean either an actual plane, a paper plane, or even a poster of a plane.
The word star can mean a literal star in the sky, a carving shaped into a star, or even a starfish. Grapes can mean the literal fruit or might even pertain to stone grapes that are part of a statue or decor.
You won’t really be able to tell unless you’ve actually found the object for a particular scene so it’s best not to associate a certain word with what you might think it looks like since this can keep you from finding the right object when your eyes are looking for a specific appearance based on word-image association. As much as you can, keep both your eyes and your mind open to all sorts of possibilities so you can find the right objects even if they can be tricky.
Don’t Panic!
Last but not least, panic is definitely your worst enemy! With the way the game operates, you’ll be put under time pressure not to break your streak and the pressure to click objects correctly every single instance just to get a high score and earn bigger portions of stars. You’ll soon discover, as we did, that the game can be a little stingy when it comes to earning stars.
In this case, panicking won’t help as it can sometimes lead to paralysis and you’ll lose the chance to find an object as opposed to when you approach a scene calmly and methodically. When you don’t know which object a specific word is referring to, leave that word for now and move on to the other two words flashed on the screen.
Find the objects that are most familiar to you or those whose locations or appearances you can remember best. Upon correctly finding an object, a new word will be flashed so you can turn your attention towards that first until such time you can focus on an object or objects you’re not familiar with.
Additionally, it’s easier to be calm and find the right objects when you’re in an environment that has minimal distractions. If you’re the type to concentrate better in a quiet place, play the game at a location without too much noise. You may even choose to mute the game altogether if you find the music distracting (although this is hardly the case as the music playing for each scene is rather soft and relaxing).
Also, try not to play when you’re sleepy, if your eyes feel tired, or while you’re in a spot without ample light to avoid straining your vision. Your environment may play a significant role in keeping you calm and focused so it’s best to play in a setting that fosters these.
All in all, your performance in each round will rely on your skillfulness as an observer. It can take some time getting used to but it’ll be easier once you get the hang of things. Keep our tips in mind and don’t panic!
Claiming Rewards
Though June’s Journey can be a little bit stingy when it comes to giving rewards, there are a few avenues in which you can get some extra coins, energy, and other items just by playing the main game. Here are a few of them:
Opening Boxes
Occasionally, you’ll be able to earn both 1-star and 5-star boxes during and after playing scenes. Naturally, 1-star boxes typically give out common materials and are earned at random. On the other hand, 5-star boxes are usually earned after gaining Mastery of a level. Upon acquiring boxes, they’ll simply be kept unopened in your inventory so make sure to open them up when you’ve finished a round or have run out of energy to play.
Both 1-star and 5-star boxes have a varying chance of giving the following items:
- Coins: Used to purchase decor for Orchid Island.
- Gems: Used similarly as coins, but may also be spent for speedups and other purchases like decor.
- Compass: Used in exchange for expanding plots in Orchid Island.
- Energy: What you spend playing scenes.
- Construction materials: Used to upgrade certain buildings and fixtures in Orchid Island.
- Character cards: Can be collected so you can discover more about the characters indicated in cards. When you complete character cards, you’ll be able to play a mini game where you’ll put a fragmented picture of the character together.
Once you’ve acquired a number of these rewards, you may be able to play more scenes with additional energy, buy more decor, expand plots in Orchid Island, or get additional story-related information.
Daily Deliveries
You can get random rewards from the Daily Deliveries every day you log into the game. Fortunately, the reward counter won’t reset if you forget to login and you’ll simply be able to claim the next delivery. Any of the items mentioned above can be earned through the Daily Deliveries. At the end of five days each week, you’ll be able to get a special prize and a fancy decor item by the end of 30 days.
Opening Mail
There are times when you’ll receive letters from other characters, even those you might not have met yet. Included in these letters are small rewards such as a handful of coins. That said, check your mail from time to time in case you have a letter alongside a tiny reward.
Decorate and Expand Orchid Island
Speaking of decoration and expansion, these are two important activities that you need to accomplish aside from playing scenes and finding clues. As we briefly mentioned in the beginning, decorating Orchid Island will let you earn flowers, which are needed to level up your overall account. Flowers are also required to unlock levels, particularly the last level of a chapter.
You can earn flowers by buying decor, which will often cost coins, though some can be acquired by spending gems. You will gradually unlock more decor when you keep playing scenes and earning stars.
Some decor can be expensive but yield more flowers, while cheaper decor will only give you a handful of flowers. Often, decor that earns a lot of flowers will ask you to accomplish a long waiting period, which can last between 2 to 12 hours or much more.
Taking waiting times into account, it may be best to accumulate as many coins as you can so you can afford more expensive decor items instead of buying a multitude of cheaper ones. Basically, you can play the hidden objects game over and over to earn coins and open boxes, then buy the more costly decor by the end of the day so they’ll be ready the next time you log back into the game.
On the other hand, you can still buy cheaper decor if you only need a very small amount of flowers to level up your account or unlock a particular scene. This way, you don’t have to wait too long for just a handful of flowers to progress.
Upgrading your estate, too, requires a certain waiting period, but this is something you can start anytime, provided you have all the required construction materials. Upgrading your estate or other buildings like the fountain will take several hours so the earlier you can begin this, the better.
When this is done, you’ll be able to collect extra coins from these spots. The higher the level of these buildings, the more coins you can get.
Barring aside how many flowers you can earn, you can always just have fun decorating Orchid Island and the area surrounding your estate. Of course, you will need ample space to place all the decor you’ve bought, so don’t forget to click on the foggy areas to know how many stars and compasses you need to unlock those spots.
Each expandable spot requires a different number of compasses and stars so you technically can’t choose which foggy area you want to access first because of these varying requirements, unless you skip the expansion for one spot and pick the one you desire when you’ve earned enough stars and compasses for it. Otherwise, keep playing the hidden objects game and claiming rewards so you can accumulate expansion requirements.
Similarly, progressing the main story by unlocking more chapters may also give you access to other spots in Orchid Island. For instance, you can start renovating the lighthouse when you reach Chapter 3. When you reach Chapter 7, you’ll be able to access the hangar to the west of the island.
Some other spots, on the other hand, will require the complete renovation of other areas to be accessed. For example, this cottage on the northeast side of the estate can only be accessed when the lighthouse has been completely renovated.
On the other hand, the airplane on the east side can only be unlocked when you’ve earned 60 stars.
Occasionally check what needs to be upgraded and renovated in Orchid Island so you can unlock more features and, consequently, more modes and rewards.
Complete Challenges and Tasks
As with any mobile game, tasks and challenges will spring up from time to time. These are avenues from which you can earn additional rewards apart from playing the main game. During our run, we were able to catch the event for the Elegant Gazebo, which is an exclusive decor piece you can gain by earning points from buying specific decor.
Basically, you simply need to buy the decor indicated in the list to earn the Elegant Gazebo. Each time you buy these specific decor, you gain points that will fill up a bar. Once the bar has been filled, you’ll be rewarded the Elegant Gazebo, which will give you an extra 100 flowers.
Similarly, we also caught the Help Wanted challenge, which is a set of tasks you can accomplish to earn rewards like energy or coins. Tasks can include just about anything, from finding a certain amount of hidden objects to playing a number of scenes, and so on.
Frequently check which tasks are needed to be fulfilled so you can gain additional rewards. Don’t forget to claim these rewards as well so the task will refresh into a new one. Upon claiming rewards for a completed task, you will have to wait a few hours to view the new task, unless you watch an ad.
Watch Ads for Perks
Ah yes, ads, they’re a staple in mobile games. Though they can sometimes break your immersion from the game, ads in June’s Journey are helpful in that they offer a handful of perks in exchange for 30 to 45 seconds of watch time. Here are just some of the things that you can gain whenever you watch ads:
- Reduced energy expenditure: Before playing any scene, you can click on the purple button at the lower right-hand side of the screen so you can watch ads. Doing this will lessen the cost of playing scenes from 15 energy to just 10 energy for a duration of 10 minutes. Once your 10 minutes are up, you may watch another ad so you can bring the energy cost back down to 10 once more.
- Building renovation: Let’s say you’ve unlocked the lighthouse, which is in need of renovation. The only way you can actually renovate this spot is by watching ads. Depending on how far you’ve progressed into the renovation phase, you’ll need to watch a minimum of 1 to 2 ads.
Once the renovation phase is completed, you’ll have to wait around 20 hours to be able to continue renovating the area. This way, you don’t have to watch ads continuously and the game actually gives you sort of a break from playing.
- Refresh tasks instantly: This one specifically applies to when you’ve encountered the Help Wanted challenge or other similar challenges. As we mentioned in the previous section, you’ll have to wait a couple of hours before you can view new tasks. However, you can skip this waiting time once you watch an ad for each new task you want to view instantly.
Between waiting a couple of hours and watching a short ad, the latter sounds like a reasonable compromise so you can continue completing tasks and not waste energy without gaining additional rewards.
This brings us to the conclusion of our beginner’s guide for June’s Journey! Hopefully, our bag of tips and tricks are able to help you find objects faster, complete scenes with higher scores, maximize your energy points, and earn more rewards! Who do you think is the real killer? What’s the object you had the most difficult time finding? Do you have other tips for your fellow detectives? Share your thoughts in our comment section below!
Liz
Monday 19th of August 2024
I cannot get the branch down to free the tree to load the mine cart at tyhe end of level 44?
Namma
Tuesday 16th of July 2024
Is there any way to buy certain materials? I have needed hammers for about a week and don't get them in play
Debi
Monday 22nd of April 2024
What are the golden keys and silver skips for?
carla
Wednesday 14th of February 2024
I lost everything, I was already on the 3rd island
lucille Traylor
Monday 5th of February 2024
How to get rid of Big Box being charged to amazon