Homescapes is the latest puzzle renovation simulation from Playrix. Like Gardenscapes before it, Homescapes offers a massive amount of match-3 levels to tackle while earning stars to upgrade a dilapidated mansion into something new and your own. While the stars …
Homescapes is the latest puzzle renovation simulation from Playrix. Like Gardenscapes before it, Homescapes offers a massive amount of match-3 levels to tackle while earning stars to upgrade a dilapidated mansion into something new and your own.
While the stars are the “currency” used to work through the story and complete tasks, coins also play an important role in making progress. You can use coins to purchase boosters to take into especially tough stages or spend them on an extra five lives “continue” if you run out of turns before reaching a goal. They’re also used to purchase different decorations if you get tired of your original choices, although every piece of furniture in the mansion can typically be bought for under 20 coins.
We’ve detailed the different ways to earn coins in Homescapes below so you can work on building up both your house and bank account.
Complete match-3 levels (quickly): The primary and recurring way to earn coins is simply by playing the game and working through the match-3 stages. Every level you complete awards 50 coins base. If you finish a stage with extra, unspent turns, those turns will be added to the final board as power-ups. Both these bonus power-ups and any you finished the level without using will explode in a celebratory cascade, awarding extra coins for the tiles removed.
The bonus earned this way is relatively small: for instance, we finished level 77 with eleven extra turns that were transformed into coin-producing power-ups. But when everything was cleared, we only received 66 coins total. Assume that you’ll get about one to two coins per unused turn when finishing a stage on top of the guaranteed 50 coin reward.
Use stars to accomplish tasks: The tasks Austin gives you in the tablet menu range from installing new stairs to playing with your pet cat, and each one costs a certain number of stars–and occasionally time–to complete. While there’s never any listed monetary reward for completing tasks, you will occasionally receive something extra for a specific goal.
For instance, after we finished a series of assignments related to restoring the statues in the main hall, the artist who helped us with the project sent us 500 coins as “royalties” for inspiring his latest work of art. These rewards usually show up as letters from in-game characters, so if you see an envelope icon on the right side of your screen, be sure to open it up.
Complete an entire day: Homescapes’ house-renovating tasks are separated into days that usually follow a specific theme or overarching goal. One day may be focused on renovating the stairs and its surrounding area while another will be more concerned with the home’s growing assortment of pets.
In the To Do list in the tablet menu, you can see how far along you are in the current day via the progress bar at the top of the list. Different tasks fill in this bar a different amount, but eventually you’ll reach 100% and the end of the day once you’ve completed enough to-dos. Reaching 100% will complete the day, assign you the lone task of “start a new day,” and award some collection of prizes. These often include extra boosters, but you’ll always receive a helpful amount of coins.
Watch videos: Homescapes doesn’t contain any random ads at any point while playing. The only ads available are opt-in videos you have to specifically choose to watch. These ads will occasionally be available at the bottom of the task list in your To Do menu. Watching one will award a handful of coins, up to 100 for a single video.
These ads aren’t always available and you can usually only choose to watch a couple at a given time, so keep an eye on your To Do list for their next appearance.
Purchase outright: While getting coins for free is always ideal, sometimes you just need a little extra to get through a tough series of stages. You can buy coins with real money any time by tapping the green plus icon next to your coin total at the top of the screen. However, we highly recommend waiting for a sale: just like in Gardenscapes, you’ll randomly receive special sale offers on coins. These usually include not only greatly discounted coins, but often some boosters thrown in for free as well.
Sale notices will usually pop up when you open the game (if any are available), and they remain as tappable icons on the right side of the screen until you buy them or the sale offer ends. We’ve seen 90% discounts on coins (12,000 for $0.99), so waiting for a deal can save you a ton of real world coinage.
Spin the daily prize wheel…someday: Although there is no daily prize wheel available in Homescapes yet, developer Playrix has confirmed on their forums that the daily bonus should be added into the game during an October update. This may be a wheel like in Gardenscapes or it may take some other form, but we expect it will feature similar rewards which include coins. Once it’s added and special events begin appearing, merely logging in will be a great way to keep Austin’s coffers filled.
