This is what the completed Medieval Tower, in the Gardens of Time game, looks like. It took a long time to finish the entire thing, and a total of 17 quests. I heard that the opportunity to build the Medieval Tower was given to randomly selected players. If you didn’t get it, then you were just out of luck. (Or, so I’ve heard).
I didn’t keep track of the details about each of the quests as I was building it because, based upon the complaints of some players, I thought that there might have been a chance that I would not be able to finish it. So, here’s what I’ve gleaned from the internet about what each quest involved.
The whole thing is a series of Restoration Quests. There is a storyline that goes with it, and an NPC that appears only for this series of quests.
Quest 1: Take the tower out of your inventory and place it somewhere in your garden. You will need to collect 8 crystals. You will need friends to send you 5 wood, and 5 marble. You had to spend silver (the in game currency) to buy 2 silver pennies.
This is typical of how you complete many of the larger buildings in the game – get your friends to send you stuff. (By the way, I found it way faster and easier to finish the quests that required gifts from friends when I was playing it on Playdom.com than when I used to play Gardens of Time on Facebook).
Quest 2: “Decoration Vacation”
Place 3 decorations in your garden. This means you had to go to the in-game store and use silver to purchase and place any three items from the Decorations category of stuff. It didn’t matter which three you picked, or if you already had one in the garden. Just go spend some silver and buy three things you liked. Put them anywhere in the garden.
Quest 3: “Introduction to Crafting”
Build a bunny corner. To do it, you need to gather up 10 crystals. You also have to get your friends to send you 5 seed packets, and 5 bunnies. You also have to spend some silver. I can’t recall how much, exactly, and do not see anywhere online where it says the specific amount.
Once you have everything, you need to spend 8 energy to build it. Energy is what you use to play the scenes in the game. Finish scenes to earn silver, reputation points, and maybe a random crystal. It takes about five minutes of real time for the Bunny Corner to finish building. You can see it in the screenshot above, where the little white bunnies are standing.
Quest 4: “Blitzing With Friends”
Do Blitzes in 5 neighbor’s gardens. Blitzes are similar to the scenes that you play. In both, you have to locate, and click on, specific hidden objects. The Blitzes are on a timer and last for 60 seconds. The scenes end when you find 6 or 12 items. If you have plenty of neighbors, then this part will go by really fast.
Quest 5: “A Vast Improvement”
Upgrade the Medieval Tower to level 2. Everything that you put in your garden starts at level 1. You can raise it to level 5. The bigger buildings will look much more awesome at level 5 than they did at level 1. The smaller stuff looks the same at any level. The higher the level an object, the more reputation it gives you, and this is how you open up new scenes in the game.
For the Medieval Tower, you needed to collect 12 crystals. You had to have friends send you 6 glass and 6 blue paint. You had to buy 1 silver penny.
Quest 6:
I can’t find the name of this quest. You need to collect 14 crystals. Your have to get your friends to send you 6 watering cans and 6 yellow fish. You have to spend silver to buy 1 silver penny. Once you have gathered up all of these things, you have to spend 14 energy to get this part to build. It takes 2 hours of real time to finish. If I remember correctly, when you finish this quest you will have a small koi pond appear next to your Medieval Tower.
Quest 7:
Purchase and place 3 new artifacts. Go to the in game store and buy any 3 items that catch your attention from the Artifacts tab (NOT the Decorations tab this time). Place the items somewhere in your garden. Easy, but requires you to spend silver.
Quest 8:
Upgrade the Medieval Tower to level 3. This works pretty much the same way as it did when you upgraded it to level 2. This time, you have to collect 16 crystals. You have to get your friends to send you 7 iron and 7 blue paint. You spend more silver to buy a silver penny.
Quest 9:
Complete 7 Blitzes. Time to go visit seven of your neighbors. While you are visiting, make sure you do the timed Blitz quest that you can access from their gardens. This doesn’t take long to complete, you don’t have to collect anything, and it doesn’t cost any silver (just like the last “go do Blitzes” quest).
Quest 10:
Craft the fountain panel. For this one, you have to collect 18 crystals. You have to get your friends to send you 8 hose and 8 wishing fountains. You have to spend silver to buy a silver penny. When you get all that together, you have to spend 18 energy to get the build started. The build takes 8 hours of real time to complete. When finished, this puts a little fountain in the area around your Medieval Tower.
Quest 11:
Place 3 new buildings. This requires you to go back to the in game store and spend more silver. Click on the Buildings tab. Pick any 3 that you like, and stick them in your garden. If I remember it right, I think this quest didn’t count as complete until the 3 buildings were built. Each kind takes a certain amount of real time before it is done.
Quest 12:
Upgrade the Medieval Tower to level 4. You knew this was coming, right? Sigh. Ok, go gather up 20 crystals. Get your friends to send you 8 granite and 8 purple paint. Spend some more silver to buy a silver penny. There ya go. Gathering up the crystals, which you can only get if they appear randomly as you are completing scenes, takes a long time!
Quest 13:
Craft the cobblestone panel. Yes, another one of these! For this one, you need 24 crystals. That’s even more than you needed for Quest 12! You also have to get your friends to send you 9 wheel barrels and 9 cobblestones. Spend some more silver to buy 1 silver penny.
Once you gather up all of that, you have to spend 24 energy to get this part started building. I think the default you start with (if you haven’t played all day) is 60 energy, so requiring 24 is asking for a lot of it.
Don’t have enough right now? Too bad, you are going to have to wait until tomorrow (or hope that you can get the kind people in the chat room to send you some). Got 24 energy now? Great! Click the build button. It takes 24 hours of real time to build this part. When it is done, it puts a little cobblestone path onto the space around your Medieval Tower. There are more quests to go!
Quest 14:
Place 3 new decorations, artifacts, and buildings. Go back to the in game store and spend some more silver. You will be buying and placing 9 items, (3 from each category). Yes, the buildings will require a certain amount of real time to pass, again, before they are done.
Quest 15:
Upgrade the Medieval Tower to level 5. Of course! Fortunately, level 5 is the highest it can go, so you won’t have to level it anymore after this quest. This time, you need to gather 25 crystals. That takes a long time! You have to have friends send you 10 nails and 10 purple paint. You have to spend silver to buy 1 Silver Penny.
Quest 16:
Why isn’t this done already! Sigh. This time, you have to Craft the Meeting Corner. It requires you to collect up 25 crystals. No, you can’t use the ones from before. Each quest uses up all the components, and you have to start collecting them all over again. When you finally get this one done, it will add a little table and benches onto the space around your Medieval Tower.
Quest 17:
Hire 15 friends to help you complete the Medieval Tower. This should have been easy, but it wasn’t. There are other buildings in the game that require you to get some friends to help. You click a button asking for help, the people in the chat room see it, and a bunch will click and help you. Busy chat room? Finish even faster.
The problem was that the button you click to ask for help was malfunctioning. Eventually, players made Playdom aware of this glitch. What you had to do to finish Quest 17, and your Medieval Tower, was to spend 1 gold for each of the 15 friends that you were supposed to have the chance to get for free.
Naturally, this angered a lot of players. There are only a few ways to get gold. The easiest way is to spend real world money to buy it. Another way is to happen upon a Gold Tournament, and be lucky enough for your team to win. (This will give you 2 gold). The third way is for your team to win a Tournament with a regular prize, and be lucky enough to have clicked on more things than anyone else and be named the MVP. (This will give you 2 gold). The last way is to gain enough experience points to level. (This will give you 1 gold). If you have reached level 100, you are at maximum and cannot gain gold by leveling anymore.
I had some gold left over from leveling. By chance, I got in the game during a Gold Tournament, (and bounced over to the team that was winning so I would get 2 gold). After that, I just kept playing the game as usual and gradually waited to level. Once I leveled, I immediately used the gold on the Medieval Tower. It took an incredibly long time from start to finish!
My gaming philosophy can be summed up as: “What happens if I do this?” Now that I have completed a Restoration Quest series in Gardens of Time, I probably won’t be inclined to want to try and do this type of thing again. It was fun, but also tedious, and required a lot of in game currency and gold to complete. I’ve heard you can send in a ticket to get the gold you spent on the Medieval Tower restored to you, but I don’t feel like bothering with that.