Manor Matters Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Cheats & Tricks to Solve All Mysteries in Castlewood

Manor Matters is a hidden object adventure game developed and published by Playrix, a company that has wowed fans with their family-friendly mobile games Gardenscapes and Homescapes. Following in the footsteps of those titles, Manor Matters is another great time-killing mobile game that all members of the family could enjoy. In here, you play as the heir of Castlewood Manor – an old and abandoned manor full of secrets. The game has been out for iOS and Android devices, so be sure to give it a try if you are into hidden object games.

Castlewood is as charming as dilapidated manors in video games can be: mysterious and probably haunted. It’s up to you, the player, to bring it back to its former glory, one hidden object at a time.

Every scene you complete will earn you stars, which you can use to finish tasks. Tasks are a list of objects to repair around the manor and other activities that will progress the story and solve Castlewood’s many mysteries. Mysteries get discovered and solved by completing tasks, so getting as many stars as possible will certainly help. Thankfully, you get five stars for every normal scene you finish, and eight stars for more difficult scenes. This is the only use of stars, so there’s no need to conserve them – spend them as much as you like.

As you complete tasks, the manor will slowly return to its former glory, and you will start unraveling the intrigues that surround Castlewood. Completing tasks will unlock gifts for you, which could be in the form of any of the game’s resources. There’s also a competitive aspect in the game, but we’ll get into that a bit later.

If you’re still having trouble with Manor Matters, we’ve put together a list of guidelines and strategies that you can use to find objects much faster! In this Manor Matters beginner’s guide, we will share with you loads of tips, cheats and strategies so you can learn how to manage your time and conserve the other resources in the game. So, without further ado, let’s talk about some tips on how to make Castlewood Manor great again.

1. Finding Hidden Objects Faster

Progress in Manor Matters means playing Scenes where you have to find items off a list under a time limit. The time limit could be as long as two minutes, and later stages show the time limit set to one minute. That feels like a very short time, especially since you’re tasked to find a total of ten hidden objects per scene. But don’t worry: there are certain strategies you can employ to make your sleuthing go much faster.

Most scenes will have up to four items listed at a time for you to find. Each object you find will then unlock the next object to look for. It might be tempting to look for these objects one by one, but the game becomes much easier if you commit to finding them in any order. So take a quick look at the list, and get searching!

Another great trick is to keep a mental note of what you’ve seen so far. You don’t have to remember exactly every item you see on the screen, but it would be helpful if you could instantly recall where you’ve seen that owl which just got added to the hidden objects list. This trick will come easier with much practice.

Also, don’t underestimate zooming in! Instinct tells us that having the full picture would help you find objects faster, but as the game progresses, you’ll find more and more objects cleverly hidden within a scene–and they would be very easy to miss zoomed out. An item you’re looking for could be etched on a faraway wall!

2. Don’t Be Fooled

The game has a sneaky way of hiding the objects you have to find. The words aren’t always literal. For example, asking you to find a dog could either mean a living pup lying down on the floor, a framed picture of a dog, a stuffed dog, or even letters spelling out the word ‘dog’. Keeping an open mind and an open eye will definitely help you find hidden objects faster.

Keep on the lookout as well for objects literally hidden behind, inside, or under other objects. Looking for a knife, you might be tempted to search for a blade. But there would be times that the knife’s blade would be hidden inside a roll of paper, with only the knife’s handle visible!

Bonus tip: knowing more English words can also come in handy. There could be times that the only things stopping you from finding an object is not knowing what the word actually meant. Having a grasp of different definitions of a word will also help, because sometimes you have a preconceived idea of how an item would look like, but the hidden object can turn out to be very different from what you expect.

3. Know What You’re Getting Into

Castlewood might be full of mysteries, but you CAN know what kind of puzzler you’re getting into whenever you play. There are eight kinds of search scenes: The Words, Silhouettes, Couples, Step by Step, Acceleration, Reflection, Anagram, and The Choice. Getting familiar with these search scenes and being prepared for them will help you solve them with ease.

The Words is the basic search scene in the game. It gives you a list of four items that you need to find within a set time, and a new item replaces those that you’ve already found.

Silhouettes is a bit more challenging, because you’ll only be given shadowy figures of the things you’re supposed to find. It could be tricky, but finding the items in The Words should familiarize you with how the objects look, helping you figure out what the shadows are supposed to be.

In Couples, you’re given a list of four items just like in The Words. But instead of finding just one object at a time, each hidden item instead has a pair. For example, The Words will usually make you look for a cat, but in Couples, you’ll have to find a cat, and then its pair. Keep in mind that the pairs don’t look exactly alike, and sometimes the only thing they have in common is their name. For example, asking for a pair of suns could refer first to the actual sun, and second to a print of the sun on luggage.

Step by Step is like the bottleneck version of each search scene. In this game mode, you are only given one object to find at a time. You will only be given the next item when you’ve found the current hidden object. Thankfully, Step by Step scenes ask you to find less objects than usual.

Acceleration is basically a Words scene but faster. The timer will count down quicker than usual. However, this scene will only appear on locations that you would have already mastered at that point in the game.

Reflection gives you the same experience as The Words, except the whole scene is presented in a mirror image. It might be disorienting at first, but it’s just as easy as The Words once you’ve refamiliarized yourself with the images.

Anagram adds another puzzle to the mix. The Words for the hidden objects will have their letters all mixed up. But you’ll notice that the first letter of the hidden object will always be capitalized, giving you a clue on what the item is.

The Choice is the last kind of scene you’ll be introduced to, and it’s also the most high-pressure scene of all. You will be given three objects to look for, and you will have to find at least one of them within twenty seconds. You only have to find one of three items, then you’ll be given a new set of three hidden objects. This is more of a sprint than a marathon, and this scene type will keep you on your toes the entire time.

Knowing what type of scene you’re getting into is half of the game. Thankfully, each scene is represented by an icon that tells you exactly what type of scene it is even before you start playing it. Keep a lookout and mentally prepare yourself before every scene and you’ll do better than blindly going into each one.

4. Focus On Resource Management

There are more than a couple of resources in the game that you’ll have to manage. We’ll go through them one by one and talk about when and how you should be spending them.

Firstly, you have the staples of any mobile puzzle game: the energy and coins. You can have up to 50 Energy, and it refills by 1 every two minutes. 10 Energy is consumed every time you attempt a scene, but you also usually get those 10 Energy back when you successfully complete the scene. Coins are earned the same way, and are used to purchase tools, energy, or extra time for a failed scene. As Energy recharges over time, we recommend saving up your coins for tools instead.

To help you in finding the hidden objects, the game gives you three tools. These are the Compass, Darts, and Magnifying Glass.

The Magnifying Glass is the most straightforward of the three. Using it will instantly find one of the items on your list.

The Darts will instantly find three of the items on your list, which makes it extremely powerful, and should then be used sparingly.

The Compass shows up on the screen for a set amount of time. It will point to any of the items that you’re currently looking for. Depending on how fast you can find objects, the Compass’ potential could help you find more than three objects, making it the most powerful tool at your disposal. However, it will not highlight any of the objects, so all it does is give you an idea of where to look.

Although all three of the tools are already hard to come by, the Compass is actually the rarest, followed by the Darts. Keep this in mind when thinking of using them. Make sure that you really need them to finish the scene before using them. Sometimes, a second or third attempt on a seemingly difficult scene would be enough to complete it. As Energy is easier to get than the tools, it might be a good idea to keep retrying a scene before deciding it’s necessary to use the tools. Losing in a scene will also reveal one of the hidden objects you failed to find, making any succeeding attempts easier.

There are also specific scenes where the tools are more effective in. Using Darts in Couples is extra helpful, for example, because it actually finds six objects for you instead of just three. The Compass is extremely helpful in finding objects in quick succession in Step by Step. Finally, the Magnifying Glass is helpful in finding that one last object before the timer runs out in Acceleration.

As you gain experience in finding hidden objects, you’ll also get a better grasp as to when it is best to use the tools. Just remember that they’re in limited supply.

5. Doing Well In The Golden Race

You could get more tools as you go through the game, but the most effective way to get them is through the game’s competitive aspect: The Golden Race.

The Golden Race is simple: It’s a contest on how much coins you can accumulate over a set amount of time. One Golden Race competition usually lasts up to two days, so you’ll have a lot of time to collect gold. However, competition can get rough, and you’ll have to bring you’re A-game if you want to make it to the top.

The Golden Race is the best time to use your tools, as you could earn even more tools in the Golden Race. Remember still to practice a bit of restraint though, as you could end up running out of tools if you’re not thrifty. Remember: your best tool here is still your skill and experience. The tools are there to secure your win, but what really gets you ahead is your keen eye and constant practice.

6. How To Complete The Manor

Just like any good mystery, you will also eventually finish all of the tasks available and restore Castlewood Manor. You can still continue playing the game, and the scenes only get progressively harder–basically you’ve got an endless supply of challenging content in a mobile game.

After completing all the tasks and restoring the manor, most of the post-game content revolve around Golden Races and Events. Events are added on a regular basis by the developers, and you can play them after solving all of the Manor’s mysteries. Events would sometimes even introduce new mysteries to the game, so it’s always great to have them!

Manor Matters is a wonderful experience that is clever, charming, and intriguing. Don’t be fooled by its family-friendly feel. It’s quite the suspenseful game at some of its most memorable moments.

Hopefully, our Manor Matters beginner’s guide will help you unravel all the mysteries that the game has to offer. Remember that your strongest tool in this game are your eyes, and getting better at finding hidden objects come with constant practice. Happy sleuthing!