Yesterday we published Part 1 of our guide to Order & Chaos Online for Windows Phone 8. Today we follow up with the second installment, which covers lots of fun subjects like guilds, auction houses, and crafting. This installment includes a brand new video guide as well!

Remember, these guides apply to the iOS and Android versions of the game as well as the Windows Phone 8 version, so all Order & Chaos Online newcomers can benefit from our tips and tricks.

Private Messaging

There are several ways to send a whisper (private message) to others:

• Tap the person’s name in the chat channel at the bottom of the screen. It might take a few tries to get the context menu to pop up. Then select Whisper.
• From the Friends or Guild menu, tap a person’s name and choose Whisper.
• While accessing the chat window, you’ll see an arrow at the top left corner of the screen. The arrow opens a menu that contains preset messages and allows you to whisper directly to the most recent person to whom you whispered.

Earning and buying gold

Gold is the main form of currency, but you’ll also deal with plenty of silver and copper. 100 copper coins equal one silver coin. 100 silver coins add up to one gold coin.

There are lots of ways to make money: looting it from enemies, selling loot, and completing quests. You can also make a great deal from selling crafting resources and crafted items at the Auction House, which we’ll get to in a bit. As you gain levels and reach new areas, enemies, loot, and quests start providing more money. In time, you’ll be able to earn several gold pieces a day.

If you really like the game and you’d rather get your hands on some gold a little faster, you can also buy it with real money via In-App Purchase (IAP). Gold prices are kind of high unless they’re on sale, with $6.99 only getting you seven pieces. Larger packages are a better value, of course.

Whether buying gold is worthwhile to you comes down entirely to your enjoyment of the game and how quickly you’d like to get ahead. The main thing you’ll need gold for is expanding your bag and storage box.

Bag and Storage Boxes

The bag is where you store things you pick up from enemies, chests, quest rewards, etc. If your bag is full, you will be unable to pick up anything else (including quest items and rewards) until you sell, store, or drop some items.

A bag starts with one page of slots; each page holds up to 12 items. The bag can be expanded by increments of 6-slots for increasing quantities of gold. An IAP of seven gold coins will fund the first two upgrades, providing a fair jumpstart early in the game.

• First Upgrade: 1 Gold
• Second Upgrade: 5 Gold
• Third Upgrade: 20 Gold
• Fourth Upgrade: 50 Gold
• Fifth Upgrade: 100 Gold
• Sixth Upgrade: 180 Gold
• Seventh Upgrade: 300 Gold
• Last Upgrade: 500 Gold

Storage boxes allow you to put items away for safe keeping. All storage boxes are connected, so items placed in one town’s box can be retrieved from another town’s box. Players get 24 slots (two pages) to begin with. Each upgrade adds a full page of 12 slots to your box.

• First Upgrade: 10 Gold
• Second Upgrade: 30 Gold
• Third Upgrade: 100 Gold
• Fourth Upgrade: 180 Gold

Rune Stones

Unlike gold, rune stones can’t be earned through gameplay. They are a premium currency and must be purchased via IAP. You can use rune stones to do the following:

• Respawn at your current location for one rune stone
• Unlock extra character slots for 10 Rune stones each
• Play the second (one rune stone) and third tiers (30 rune stones) of the Daily Lottery
• Buy special pets and items from Ubiquitous Nick’s shop
• Purchase epic armor sets in Greenmont

Only highly dedicated players will want to purchase rune stones, so don’t worry about them early in the game.

Learning a craft

To learn one of the game’s three crafts, you’ll need to complete a quest given by Mastoo the Materials Supplier in the town of Silence. The quest reward will allow you to select a letter to one of the three crafting trainers. Deliver the letter to the appropriate trainer in the town of silence to receive a handbook that will teach you the trainer’s craft.

You can only use one craft at a time and it costs a whopping 60 gold to switch (again, in Silence), so choose your trade carefully. Each trade produces items that benefit only one or two classes, but any class can learn any trade.

• Cloth: Mage and Monk gear
• Leather: Ranger and Warrior gear
• Blacksmithing: Primarily Warrior gear (plate armor), melee weapons (swords, daggers, hammers, axes, etc.)

Crafting

To rise in your profession and learn to create new items, you’ll need to increase your crafting currency. Initially you can only make one kind of item. Head to the bottom option on the Spells menu in order to produce things. Crafting an item in your skill range gives you one or two craft points. You can then sell the item for a profit.

After gaining a certain number of craft points from making a type of item, you’ll no longer earn points by making that item. At that point, buy a new craft recipe from the appropriate trainer in Silence or Greenmont and start producing the next kind of item. Certain recipes only appear as rare drops from enemies and chests.

Crafting materials are often in high demand at the Auction House. It takes more time to gather them but you save a lot of money. Here’s how to gather materials:

• Cloth: Grenadine, cotton, etc. Cloth drops from humanoid enemies such as thieves and goblins.
• Leather: Poor fur, quality fur, etc. Fur drops from animals and monsters – even reptiles.
• Ore: Bronze material, marcasite, etc. Ore spawns in the wild and must be gathered.

Recipes also require mixing materials like flux and thread; these must be purchased from vendors. You’ll usually find them in the tavern or near a craft trainer.

Auctions

The best way to make money is by selling crafting materials, crafted goods, and other items at Auction Houses. In towns that have Auction Houses, they are marked by a green gavel icon on the map.

You’ll find the first Auction House in the northwestern corner of Greenmont. The town of Bellshoal on the Tear Coast also has a lone Auctioneer who stands on the second floor of a tavern.

From an Auction House you can bid items or sell your own. Before selling an item, it’s wise to look at auctions for the same item and price yours accordingly. You’ll need to set the bidding price, instant purchase price, and duration of the auction. I like to create 48 hour auctions in order to increase the likelihood of the item selling.

Notifications of completed and expired auctions are sent to your mailbox (a red envelope icon on the map). When reading an auction mail, be sure to extract the item or money before deleting the mail.

Guilds

To create a guild, you must be level 10 or higher. Then head to the guild master in Silence or Greemont (southeast corner of the city) – she has a green stone symbol above her head. Buy a guild stone from her for five gold and then use it to name your guild. You can’t create a guild if you are already in one.

After successfully creating the guild, go to the Social menu and select the Guild tab. Pick Manage in order to invite new members or rename the guild ranks. Type in a character name (case sensitive) and then press Add to invite that character to the guild. The recipient must be online and not currently in a guild in order to join.

Joining a guild gets you access to the guild chat channel, where you can socialize, ask for help, or recruit team members. If you’re playing on Windows Phone, join the WPCentral guild! American players: whisper to EastWind or Forthwind when we’re online and ask for an invite. European players: whisper to Dezdemona.

Pets

Pets are small animals that follow you around and do little tricks. They don’t participate in combat or grant stat bonuses, so they’re just for show.

You can use gold to buy pets from a woman named Lilivia Vineviva who stands near the Greenmont auction house. Ubiquitous Nick also sells unique pets for rune stones. To activate a pet, put it in your bag and choose to use it.

Later in the game, rare and epic pets can be found as loot drops or captured in the wild.

Mounts

You can’t use mounts until level 20 and they’re really intended for much higher levels, so we won’t discuss them too much in this guide. In Greenmont you can buy licenses that allow you to ride specific kinds of mounts. Even then, you also need to buy or capture a mount. Purchasable mounts cost a startling 999 gold! The capture stones needed to snag wild mounts cost 5 gold, but they only have a five percent success rate.

See the Order & Chaos Online Wiki for more on mounts.

Battery life

Here’s a few quick tips for improving your Windows Phone’s battery life while playing Order & Chaos Online:

• Use a 1.5A or 2.1A charger in order to provide more power to the phone
• Turn screen brightness down to low
• Turn off cellular data, Bluetooth, and Tap & Send (NFC)

As for phone warmth, that’s a design flaw in certain phones and you can’t do much to combat it other than use a case to reduce the heat transferred to your hands, or play for shorter periods of time.

The story lives on…

We hope you enjoyed Part 1 and Part 2 of our guide! We haven’t even touched on some advanced subjects like dungeons. Let us know what topics you’d like to see in a future guide!

Order & Chaos Online– Windows Phone 8 with 1 GB RAM – 1012 MB - $6.99 – Store Link

With the recent "security changes" from Instagram, causing all third party apps from being blocked from posting, we figured we’d recap at least two ways that we know of that still work. Think of these as your permanent fail-safes in case this is a prolonged outage or as a temporary solution until Daniel Gary (Instance) and others figure out a way around the problem.

To recap, using apps like Instance allows users to post to their Instagram account, but after about fifteen seconds, the image is deleted. That means somehow Instagram has flagged images uploaded by unauthorized apps in a clever way that has befuddled developers so far. But you can still post via other apps—one official, the other a hack.

Hipstamatic Oggl and Oggl Pro

Released this past Friday, and probably the catalyst for this change in policy, Hipstamatic Oggl is a free, 100% guaranteed working method for posting to Instagram. In a sanctioned deal between the two companies, users can cross-post to their Instagram account and get some snazzy filters to boot. The good thing here is this method should work for the conceivable future as it is authorized.

The downside is that Oggl is a bit clunky to use, causing some consternation amongst users. In addition, only those with a Windows Phone 8 device and 1 GB of RAM can use it.

Note: if you get an upload/share error, try logging out from the app (Settings > Sign out from Oggl) and then re-sign in again. This should resolve any “token” errors.

• Pros: Free, guaranteed to work, great filters, fast and direct posting
• Cons: Windows Phone 8 only, Oggl is still a bit sluggish to use, cross-posting to Twitter omits written text, only provides Oggl link not to Instagram, cannot view Instagram followers/following—only for posting, doesn’t work on 512 MB devices

Pick up Oggl (all Windows Phone 8 devices) here and Oggl Pro (Nokia Lumia 1020) here from the Store to get started.

Oggl

Oggl Pro

Instagraph

Instagraph was the very first method by which Windows Phone users could post to Instagram. We covered this app extensively in the past as it uses a clever work around: it relays the image via pseudo Android/iPhone devices to Instagram. Translation: proxy servers. As a result, it looks like it came from an official iPhone or Android app, keeping those over-zealous Instagram developers in the dark.

As of today, this method is still working, which gives users a viable alternative. Instagraph has not had any legal challenges and it has been quite reliable, but still, there are tradeoffs.

For one, you are posting through another server, which can cause complications or delays. On average, it takes about two minutes from when you submit the image to their relay service until it gets posted to your account. That’s opposed to the instant posting from Instance or Oggl. Likewise, the service is only as good as those servers, meaning if they ever go down, so does your ability to use the app.

Still, other benefits include the ability to use original Instagram filters (no preview though), account creation, management of your profile, ability to save the original image to your device and more.

Users of Pictures Lab or Fhotoroom, two popular image editing apps on Windows Phone, and Tagsdagram for tag management, also have direct sharing abilities with Instagraph for a more integrated experience.

• Pros: All Windows Phones (7.x and 8), Tried and tested workaround for Instgram posting, original Instagram filters
• Cons: Works via proxy servers, not free, not the prettiest app, delay in posting, no cross-posting to Twitter, no Live Tile

You can grab Instagraph for all Windows Phone devices here in the Store. It goes for $1.49 though you have a free trial (one upload per day, max 30 days) to give the service a spin.

Wrapping it up

While Windows Phone is still struggling in the Instagram world, users at least have two viable options for continuing to participate in the hipster photo sharing service. Neither are complete solutions, as they only allow you to post to your account and are not “all in one clients”, like Instance.

Still, if you want to give the finger to the man, you can use Instagraph for posting right now or Oggl if you want to be legit (and have Windows Phone 8 device with 1 GB of RAM). They may not be perfect, but they do work.

Did we miss a solution to the Instagram problem? Let us know in comments and we’ll update accordingly.

While Windows Phone 8 10327 and higher (aka GDR2) does a great job of fixing the Other storage memory leak, there are still some quirks that are irritating a few users. The main complaint appears to be how Windows Phone handles auto-uploaded images to SkyDrive, or even if you manually mass upload photos and video.

In essence, when you upload photos to SkyDrive, they end up either in the 'Camera Roll' and 'Mobile Uploads' folders. You can then of course delete them from your device but believe it or not, Windows Phone holds onto them in Temporary storage for two weeks i.e. a SkyDrive cache.

That’s why some people have higher than normal Temporary storage numbers that cannot be cleared using apps like Nokia Storage Check. If you leave auto-upload for photos off, it will be quite low, usually less than 50MB in size (ours is at 33MB). If however you had a few hundred photos that were just processed, it could much higher.

We should point out that Windows Phone and SkyDrive will clear this out on its own. But like all things in computing, some would like more control than others. And on rare occasions e.g. OS updates, sometimes you really need that extra space right now.

In the Windows Phone Central forums, a simple method to speed up this process has been discovered and verified by a few members. It’s a simple idea and requires nothing more than a unassuming calendar change. Supposing you have a few hundred megabytes (or even gigabytes) of Temporary memory (not Other storage) and it is not clearing with any tools, try the following.

Steps to clear SkyDrive cache of recently uploaded photos and videos

1. Login into SkyDrive via the Web or the standalone Windows Phone app
2. Move every file in the 'Camera Roll' and 'Mobile Uploads' folders into a new, differently named folder
3. Go to your Pictures hub on your Windows Phone, and allow it to refresh and update
4. On your Windows Phone, push the date and time forward by at least two weeks
5. Now use Nokia Storage Check or HTC’s Make More Space (GDR2) to clear out the SkyDrive cache via Temporary files

Initial reports from our forum members have witnessed Temporary files dropping from a massive 2GB to under 200MB using this process. Another user went from 3GB of SkyDrive cache to just 73MB.

Needless to say, if you have recently uploaded a lot of photos or videos to SkyDrive, this could make a substantial impact. Having said that, we’re not sure many of you will fall into the 2GB of Temporary files category and even if you did, assuming you moved the files out of ‘Camera Roll’ and ‘Mobile Uploads’ folders, the system will clear itself out in two weeks’ time anyway.

We should also point out this is not Other storage, which is a Windows Phone cache system and very different from Temporary files, which includes things like Internet Explorer cache, SkyDrive data and more. Another misconception is that GDR2 fixes Other storage to the extent that it does not exist anymore—that is not the case as it merely controls itself more easily, but depending on your device hardware, it will still vary.

We can confirm that 8GB devices will have a lot less Other Storage (1/4 to 1/5 less) when compared to a 32GB with equal setups.

Did this tip help you? Let us know in comments, bookmark and share with others.

Thanks, Olof Lagerkvist, for finding this and the tip

Square-Enix’s Chaos Rings is easily the cream of the single-player Role-Playing Game crop on Windows Phone. With an intricate storyline spanning alternate dimensions and timelines and four teams of playable characters, it’s also one of the vaster and most complex games in the Xbox Windows Phone lineup.

Windows Phone Central has spent countless hours exploring Chaos Rings’ every cranny and secret, and now we’ve got an exclusive Achievement Guide to share with you. Learn which team to start with, the best equipment and skills to use, where to find the hidden bosses, and lots more – after the break!

Game flow

While each team takes on the worlds in a different order, their games all follow the same flow:

• First world
• Second world
• Arena battle against another team
• Third world
• Fourth world
• Arena battle against remaining team
• Original Door
• Bereshith Road (fifth world)

The first four worlds each consists of two halves and two bosses, plus four puzzles each. If you get stuck on a puzzle, use this guide.

After defeating the Agent and going through the Original Door, you’ll get an ending. Make sure you save once the credits finish. Then load the same team and the Bereshith Road area will become available. You won’t get the team-specific Achievement until your team completes Bereshith Road. Don’t forget to save after that, because you’ll be revisiting the team later on!

Each time your team completes a world, Piu Piu’s shop updates with new inventory. Always buy the best weapon, armor, and jewel available in his shop. The stat boosts will make life much easier. Keep at least 10 keys on-hand as well so that you don’t miss out on valuable locked chests.

First team: maxing out the genes

Your first team’s playthrough will be the longest because you’ll be working towards ‘All genes max level’ at the same time. Gene progress (and money) carriers over to the other teams, so subsequent playthroughs will go much faster. You can choose Escher’s or Eluca’s team for this run; I suggest starting with Escher and Museia to keep things simple.

The first time you fight any new type of enemy, you’ll acquire its gene. A gene starts with only one skill. As you fight more of that enemy type, you’ll randomly acquire that gene’s remaining skills. Get all six of a gene’s skills to max it out.

Your team is more likely to acquire skills from higher level enemies. You can also increase your chances of learning skills by equipping a maxed out Slug Gene. As soon as you learn the Slug Gene’s ‘Get More Genes’ skill, equip it on both characters. Don’t unequip it until you’ve maxed out every gene and unlocked the ‘All genes max level’ Achievement.

The strategy for learning new skills is simple. Whenever you find a new type of enemy as a random encounter, stay in that area and grind until you’ve maxed out the skill. Enemy types that first appear as bosses will eventually show up as regular enemies, so don’t worry if you haven’t seen one appear for a while. Several genes can’t be maxed until Bereshith Road.

Here are the genes you need to max out:

• Mouse Genes
• Dog Genes
• Crocodile Genes
• Deer Genes
• Bird Genes
• Monkey Genes
• Hippopotamus Genes
• Insect Genes
• Manta Genes
• Slug Genes
• Tiger Genes
• Elephant Genes
• Lion Genes
• Fish Genes
• Tortoise Genes
• Devil Genes
• Dinosaur Genes
• Dragon Genes
• Panda Genes
• Celestial Genes

For a list of gene abilities, go here. To see which enemies appear in each area, go here.

First team: reaching level 100

You only need to reach level 100 with one team, though it’s a good idea to do it with all of your teams. The key to leveling quickly is the Elephant gene’s ‘EXP Up’ skill. As soon as you get that skill, equip the Elephant on both of your characters and don’t take it off until they hit 100.

The best place to grind for EXP is Bereshith Road. There are two possible strategies to take before you reach that area:

• Play slowly. Do runs through the first four areas on both the same level you’re on and the highest level available. This takes longer but it’s easier and will also contribute more towards the ‘Defeat 1000 enemies’ Achievement.
• Play quickly. Only run through each area once, selecting the highest level available. This is harder, but saves grinding time that will be better spent in Bereshith Road. Just make sure you’ve always bought the best equipment available and plenty of healing and elemental items.

Once you clear the fourth area, Piu Piu starts selling the Paradise Apple (Body) in the shop. This item doubles EXP gained from a battle. You only need to use one per battle; the benefit applies to both teammates.

As soon as they become available, buy all the Paradise Apples (Body) you can afford. I would get 50-90, just to be safe. Use one in every battle that follows, whether it’s the final Arena battle or a random encounter in Bereshith Road.

The single best location to grind for EXP is the treasure room on floor 137 of Bereshith Road (pictured above). The fifth world doesn’t actually 137 floors; you’ll reach 137 fairly quickly via elevator. Near the end of floor 137, you can take an exit crystal towards the computer room and the area boss, or go past that exit to another exit. The second exit leads to a room with three treasure chests; that’s our destination.

Inside the treasure room, you’ll randomly encounter three types of panda enemies. The red variety, Tomorrow Biliken gives the most EXP in the game. Use a Paradise Apple (Body) while fighting him and your team will gain 2-6 levels after the battle!

Sometimes Tomorrow Bilikens appear relatively frequently, other times hardly at all. Just stay in the treasure room, using Paradise Apples (Body) during every single battle, and you’ll reach level 100 after one or two hours.

Once you hit 100 (and assuming you’ve maxed all genes), turn off Random encounters by pressing the button at the top-right corner of the screen and then press the ‘Enc’ button that appears at left of the Camp button. Proceed to the computer room and the area boss. Defeat the boss; you’ll get the team-specific Achievement after the credits roll. Save and then it’s time to start the next team!

Second, third, and fourth teams

The three remaining teams will go so much quicker than the first. Follow this strategy and they will take about four hours apiece to complete.

At the start of each team’s game, head to the shop and buy the best equipment and some healing items. You’ll also need to equip three genes on each character before heading to the first area. I recommend:

• Elephant (for the EXP boost and S-Healing)
• Lion (for Auto Counter, which helps battles go faster whenever it activates)
• Dragon (adds 100 points to speed and attack)

This setup only gives your team fire magic. You’ll mostly be brute forcing battles instead of worrying about elements. But when you need the elemental advantage during a boss fight, just use element-changing items.

Having readied your party, jump into the first world on 11-20 difficulty. Use the ‘play quickly’ strategy I described earlier, running through each area only once instead of multiple times. Occasionally a boss might give you trouble, but if you remember to heal and use elements as needed, you’ll come out on top.

Once your teams reach Bereshith Road (71-80), you can make for the treasure room and get them properly leveled. I highly recommend getting each team to at least level 80, if not 100. They still have a few tough boss fights ahead after Bereshith Road…

Complete the ‘Final’ battle

Having completed each team’s story, you’ll now have the option to engage in the Final scenario with any team. The Final scenario consists of four consecutive battles; one for each duo of heroes. As long as your teams are high level, these battles will be a cakewalk.

Watch the end credits and remember to save. The ‘Clear all areas’ Achievement will unlock.

Defeat the hidden bosses (all teams)

Each of the five main worlds has two hidden bosses who can only be fought after completing Bereshith Road for the first time. These bosses award the best weapons, armor, and jewels in the game.

When you’re ready to face the hidden bosses, return to any of the main worlds. In the spot where you previously faced a boss, you’ll now find a large crystal. Activate it to fight the hidden boss within.

To reach the hidden bosses as fast as possible:

• Turn off random encounters
• Choose to skip the first half of the world. You’ll start just past the first boss fight. Backtrack immediately to reach the first hidden boss. Then progress through the rest of the area to meet the second one.

All four teams must defeat all nine secret bosses for the ‘Defeat all hidden bosses’ Achievement to unlock. The process should take about 20 minutes per team. After getting the Achievement, save and return to the Ark.

Finally: face the secret boss

After defeating all hidden bosses with all couples, take your strongest team and talk to Piu Piu. You’ll now have the chance to fight the hardest boss in the game!

The boss is so challenging because he casts a different elemental attack every 1-2 turns and automatically recovers 10,000 HP every turn. Your team will need to cast whatever spell the opponent is currently weak against (or use an item to do so) and then attack until he changes elements again. Repeat the process, casting S-Healing as necessary, until you win.

The battle should take 10 minutes or so. As soon as it ends, you’ll unlock the secret ‘Defeat Piu Piu’ Achievement. You’ll also receive the best “jewel” in the game: the ‘Super MV.’ Piu Piu only needs to be beaten once, but each team you thwart him with adds an extra two percent to your completion ratio.

Epilogue: kill 1,000 monsters

Having cleared every storyline and defeated every boss, you should be left with only one Achievement remaining – ‘Defeat 1000 enemies.’ The game doesn’t provide a way to check how many monsters you’ve killed, sadly. But if you ran through the main areas more than once with a few of your teams, you’re probably pretty close to a thousand kills already.

To grind the rest of the kills out, either head to the treasure room we grinded in earlier or just make a few trips through previous worlds. Choose low levels (1-10) to make the fights end sooner. Just keep fighting and you’ll get that last Achievement sooner or later.

Time for Chaos

RPG fans, we hope you’ve found this guide useful. And for players on the fence about Chaos Rings, we’ll have a full review soon!

• Chaos Rings– Windows Phone 7 or 8 – 775 MB - $9.99 – Store Link

Gameloft’s latest Xbox Windows Phone release Six-Guns is a free to play game. Of course it must be monetized somehow – in this case via In-App Purchases (IAPs). Six-Guns actually offers a wider variety of things to buy than many free games, which can be confusing (or off-putting) to new players.

We’ve spent ample time with the game as we prepare for our upcoming review. And we’ve also spent a little cash in order to put those IAPs through their paces. Read on to learn how to which premium purchases might be worth your coin, plus some encouraging news about cloud saves.

Gold

Six-Guns’ soft currency is gold, meaning players can earn large quantities of it through normal gameplay or grinding. Completing missions and killing enemies during missions get you gold. Missions are repeatable, so while they start with modest payouts, eventually you’ll earn up to 1,000 gold for completing them.

Gold can be spent on several things:

• Guns: Dragon Revolver, Double-barrel Shotgun (3500), Revolver Sniper Rifle (5000), Dual Guns (8500), Longshot Repeater 1887, Assault Pump Shotgun (25000), Tesla Gun (35000), Impaler (65000), Witch Impaler (150000), Flak Cannon (150000), Demon Thrower (150000), Doom Bringers (450000), Gatling Annihilator (500000)
• Clothing: Outlaw set, Mexican set, Gunner set (22500), Hunter set (71000), Witch Hunter set (partial - 28000), Machinist set (partial - 36000), Gunslinger set (partial - 46000)
• Horses: Florida Cracker Horse (350), Morgan Horse (3500), Spanish Mustang (9500), Black Steam Horse (50000), Quarter Horse (65000)
• Ammo: Gun Ammo, Rifle Ammo, Sniper Ammo, Shotgun Ammo, Werewolf Slayer Ammo, Railgun Ammo, Tesla Gun Ammo, Demon Disks, Cannon Gun Ammo, Gasoline, Bugs, Defiler Ammo
• Saddle Bag Upgrades: Single slot, 10 slots

One of the first things you’ll want to buy is a Saddle bag upgrade. Otherwise, you’ll have a tough time carrying around ammo and especially collectibles. The first bag upgrade isn’t too expensive, but each subsequent slot goes up in price.

You’ll start to earn gold at a decent rate once you reach the higher mission levels. But if you’d rather not wait, buying some gold via IAP and getting the 10 slot Bag upgrade can make things much more comfortable early on. The $9.99 purchase of 33,000 coins will cover 10 slots if you haven’t bought too many slots already.

Note that the $19.99 ‘Chest Full of Coins’ purchase appears to be broken. Hopefully Gameloft will fix it in an update.

Stars

Sheriff's Stars are the hard or premium currency, meaning they mostly need to be bought via IAP. Players earn one medal every time they level up. On very rare occasions, quantities of 1-3 medals can be won for free in the daily lottery.

Stars can be spent on:

• Guns: Lawmaker Revolver (15), Lee Navy Bolt-Action (20), Sawed-off Shotgun (25), Railgun (35), Sniper Gun (35), Cannon Gun (45), Eagle-Eye Sniper Rifle (50), Triple-Barrel Terror (55), Hand Cannon (75), Scythe (120), Crucifixator (285), Flamethrower (300),Werewolf Slayer (400), Defiler (450)
• Clothing: Business set, Duelist set (44), Sheriff set (110), Rogue set (130), Witch Hunter set (partial - 55), Machinist set (partial - 85), Gunslinger set (partial - 89)
• Horses: American Warmblood (3), Appaloosa Horse (10), Standardbred Trotter (25), Mechanical Horse (150)
• Healing items: Healing Elixir (1), Great Health (2), Panacea (3),
• Ammo: Fire Stakes (1), Flak Cannon Ammo (1)
• Lottery: Bronze Bullet Chest (5), Silver Bullet Chest (10), Gold Bullet Chest (20)
• Gun upgrades: Any gun can be fully upgraded instantly with medals. Some individual gun upgrades also cost medals.
• Skip Missions: if you’re having trouble with a mission, you can pay 5 medals to skip it. Be careful not to skip missions by mistake!
• Respawn: During a mission (or even multiplayer matches), you can pay medals to respawn.

Obviously some of the things that cost stars are a big waste – namely respawns and healing items. I also recommend against skipping missions. You’re better off coming back to a mission later on, after you’ve leveled up or bought better equipment.

Gun upgrades are a tempting way to spend stars, but only do so if you’re using one of the most expensive guns in the game. You don’t want to burn stars on a gun that you’ll outgrow in time.

Playing the Lottery can actually be a fair use of stars. The Gold Bullet Chest only pays out premium items, with the Swarm Gun being the best reward. The Bronze Bullet Chest offers a Sniper Gun (35 star value) and the Silver Bullet Chest offers the Submachine Gun and Scythe (120 star value).

Before you spend stars on a premium item, consider…

Item Packs

Clothing, weapons, and horses are also available as themed packs. These packs cost dollar amounts rather than stars, and they can be a better value than buying items separately. You’ll find the Packs under the chest icon in the Shop.

• Starter Pack ($4.99): Dual Guns, Revolver Sniper Rifle, Florida Cracker Horse, Outlaw set
• Bandit Pack ($8.99): Longshot Repeater 1887, Appaloosa Horse, Mexican set
• Browncoat Pack ($14.99): Assault Pump Shotgun, Spanish Mustang, Gunner set
• West Legend Pack ($29.99): Railgun, English Bloodhorse, Hunter set
• Law-Enforcement Pack ($44.99): Impaler, Mechanical Horse, Sheriff set
• Witch Hunter Pack ($64.99): Witch Impaler, Witch Hunter set
• Machinist Pack ($69.99): Flamethrower, Black Steam Horse, Machinist set
• Overkill Pack ($99.99): Includes the contents of all other packs.

The Starter pack is actually a pretty good value when you’re first starting out since it comes with two different weapons. The guns alone would cost $4.99 worth of gold, so the cheap horse and outfit act as a bonus.

As for the high dollar packs, I expect the only people who will purchase those are seeking an unfair advantage in multiplayer. They’d also provide a huge leg up in single-player, but most users will get by fine without them.

Experience

Leveling up has two advantages: it can unlock new items for purchase in the shop, and players gain 5 health per level. You can gain XP towards leveling up by killing enemies and completing missions, just like gold. But if you’re in a hurry, buying an XP pack will cut down on the grind. If the XP purchased causes you to pass a level that has an Achievement, you’ll unlock that Achievement right after purchase.

Health Boosts

Okay, so leveling up increases your health. But you can also buy permanent health increases on top of that. The extra health will make single-player missions that much easier to survive. It also brings a multiplayer advantage since you’ll be able to take more hits.

Of all the IAPs in Six-Guns, the health boosts could possibly be the best value. A $4.99 purchase gives you the equivalent of four levels’ worth of health, while the $9.99 purchase provides 12 levels’ worth. Buying gold just cuts down on grinding time, but the extra health from a boost will go above and beyond the health you could otherwise earn.

 Cloud saves and cross-platform features

Let’s face it, “whales” – players who enjoy spending money on IAPs are the ones who’ll be doing the most spending in Six-Guns. But anybody who really enjoys the game and wants to show Gameloft some love might find value in some of the more affordable IAPs.

Of course, when making an IAP in any game you’ll want to consider the permanence of that purchase. Many Windows Phone games don’t provide users with any way to back up their save files, so changing devices or uninstalling the game could result in a permanent loss of purchased content.

Thankfully Six-Guns uses cloud saving! If you ever need to reinstall the game (as I did), you’ll be prompted about using the existing cloud save. This could also prove quite useful when the Windows 8 version of Six-Guns comes along. Presumably, both versions will share the same cloud save data. So any purchase made in the Windows Phone game will likely extend to the tablet and PC version as well.

That’s it for our IAP discussion. Come back on Wednesday for our full review!

• Six-Guns– Windows Phone 8, including 512MB devices – 436 MB – Free – Store Link

While the flow of new Xbox games for Windows Phone has slowed this year, the number of free to play games in the Xbox lineup continues to grow. These titles rely on In-App Purchases (IAPs) for revenue. Users who enjoy a game and feel motivated to purchase content can do so, while other players can simply play without spending.

We’ll be profiling the In-App Purchases of each new free to play or IAP-heavy mobile Xbox title that comes along. We’ve already looked at the IAPs of Six-Guns from Gameloft; this week we explore the purchases in Electronic Arts’ The Sims FreePlay for Windows Phone 8. Read on to learn exactly what IAPs the game has in store and which offer the best values.

Dueling currencies

The Windows Phone version of The Sims FreePlay has two types of currencies: Simoleons and Life Points. Unlike many free to play games, players can earn both types of currency through regular gameplay – and I don’t mean by winning some daily lottery. Still, both currencies can be purchased from the in-game store as well.

To access the store, select the purple shopping cart icon at the bottom-right corner of the screen. The store is divided up into three sections. Annoyingly, you have to choose an item and head to the purchase screen in order to actually view its price (just as with the iOS version). Naturally we’ll list the prices right here for your convenience.

Simoleons

These are traditional Sims currency, represented by a green circle with a white shape inside. Simoleons are used to purchase houses, buildings, businesses, furniture, appliances, and several other items.

Your Sims earn Simoleons by performing a variety of actions:

• Gardening: A great source of both money and XP. A garden patch costs only 20 Simoleons, so you might as well install more than one.
• Baking: Another good source of money and XP.
• Jobs: Adult Sims can get a variety of jobs, all with different working hours and pay. Increase your Sim’s job level and he or she will earn more pay.
• Pets: Your dog or cat can find various quantities of money and on very rare occasions, life points.
• Ghost hunting: Buy one or more haunted decoration items and your Sims can take up ghost hunting as a hobby. Select the haunted item and choose to have the Sim look for ghosts. After your Sim finds the ghost, tap the red ghost icon and then tap the ghost three times before it escapes. You’ll earn money for the capture.
  Multiple Sims can ghost hunt simultaneously, but you’ll need one haunted item per Sim. The Pro Skater’s Dream Pad includes a free skeleton in its rec room. Make sure you use it.
• Other hobbies: Oh yeah, some other hobbies pay money too.
• Daily bonus: Every day you’ll receive a different quantity of Simoleons in the mail.
• House and building revenue: All houses and many buildings produce money over time. Visit the town map to collect it.
• Driving: When a Sim drives a car, it produces musical notes. Follow the car around and hit those notes for small quantities of money. It’s not especially worthwhile though.
• Competitions: After building a Competition Center, your Sims who have hobbies can compete to earn prizes, including Simoleons and Life Points.

Simoleon packages:

Note: quantities vary by player level.

• Handful of Cash – 5,500 Simoleons - $4.99 (1,100 Simoleons per dollar)
• Pile of Cash – 13,500 Simoleons - $7.99 (1,687 Simoleons per dollar)
• Piggy Bank of Cash – 19,000 Simoleons - $9.99 (1,900 Simoleons per dollar)
• Sack of Cash – 32,500 Simoleons - $14.99 (2,167 Simoleons per dollar)
• Trunk of Cash – 108,000 Simoleons - $19.99 (5,400 Simoleons per dollar)
• Bank of Cash – 430,000 Simoleons - $49.99 (8,600 Simoleons per dollar)
• Treasury of Cash – 1,080,000 Simoleons - $99.99 (10,800 Simoleons per dollar)

Most free to play games give better deals on larger quantities of currency. But Sims FreePlay provides unusually high values on the more expensive packs. Of course, that means the low priced packs aren’t too great a value; the $5 pack provides so few Simoleons as to be practically worthless.

Each subsequent houses and building you buy costs more than the one before it; eventually they get pretty expensive. If you find yourself unable to afford a building or other expensive item needed for a goal or Achievement, your choices are to wait and earn the Simoleons or just buy them from the store. Of the Simoleon packages, I find the $20 package most attractive.

Life Points

Life Points are used to buy premium homes, vehicles, and many other items. Most importantly, Birthday cakes (needed to advance babies to toddlers and toddlers to preteens) and higher quality wedding rings cost Life Points. Goals can be skipped for five Life Points. Additionally, actions can be sped up at a rate of one Life Point per hour.

There are several ways to earn Life Points:

• Goals: Many goals pay in Life Points, though not all.
• Town worth: Reaching town worth milestones pays in Life Points.
• Hobbies: Reaching milestones in a hobby will sometimes pay out in Life Points. After maxing out a hobby, players can choose to start over in the hobby and earn the same rewards again.
• Pets: On very rare occasions, pets can find Life Points for you.
• Competitions: Like Simoleons, Life Points can be won at the Competition Center. First prize is three Life Points. Your Sim will need to be maxed out in a hobby to win first prize.

Life Points packages:

Note: quantities vary by player level.

• Handful of LP– 6 Life Points - $4.99 (1.2 Life Points per dollar)
• Bucket of LP– 21 Life Points - $7.99 (2.6 Life Points per dollar)
• Box of LP– 62 Life Points - $9.99 (6.2 Life Points per dollar)
• Barrow of LP– 105 Life Points - $14.99 (7 Life Points per dollar)
• Carload of LP– 215 Life Points - $19.99 (10.75 Life Points per dollar)
• Truckload of LP– 645 Life Points - $46.99 (13.7 Life Points per dollar)
• Boatload of LP– 1560 Life Points - $99.99 (15.6 Life Points per dollar)

Whereas the sweet spot for Simoleon value is the $20 package, the $10 Life Point pack represents a fair value at a lower price. Not that you can’t blow through 62 Life Points quickly. It’s important to use them conservatively. Don’t speed up actions with Points unless you have a compelling reason, and only skip Goals whose requirements are extremely long term.

Specials

The Specials section of the store contains several unique items that can only be acquired vi IAP, plus a combo Simoleon/Life Point package:

• Swimsuit Bundle– $4.99
  We have new and exclusive Mankinis and Swimsuits for your Sim's next pool party!
• Premium Home Pack– $4.99
  Give your Sim's home the very finest in living with the Premium Home Pack. Bonus: 5 LP.
• Goldfish Aquarium– $0.99
  The perfect gift for the Sim who has everything. Buy the Goldfish Aquarium today!
• Tropical Fish Bundle– $3.99
  Be hypnotized by the beauty of Discus and Angel Fish in these two quality aquariums.
• Dress-up Chest– $1.99
  Play dress-ups! Bumble Bee, Robot, Panda and Dinosaur costumes for your toddlers!
• Wedding Bundle– $4.99
  Want to get married in style? You need a Wedding Dress and Groom Suit for your Sims!
• Currency Bundle– $15.99
  Piggy Bank of Simoleons (19,000 Simoleons) and Box of Life Points (62 LP) Bundle. (2375 Simoleons and 7.75 Life Points per dollar) - Quantities vary by player level

The Premium Home Pack contains:

• 2-Star white toilet – Value: 700 Simoleons
• 2-Star shower – Value: 1,000 Simoleons
• 2-Star wall-mounted television – Value: 1,250 Simoleons
• 2-Star black stereo – Value: 1,600 Simoleons
• 2-Star white bed – Value: 1,600 Simoleons
• 2-Star white bedroom table – Value: 375 Simoleons
• 2-Star white refrigerator – Value: 1,300 Simoleons
• Grey oven – Value: 1,500 Simoleons
• 2-Star white living room chair – Value: 1,500 Simoleons
• 2-Star white couch – Value: 2,200 Simoleons
• 2-Star white coffee table – Value: 450 Simoleons
• 2-Star black bookcase – Value: 800 Simoleons
• 2-Star white dining room table – Value: 700 Simoleons
• 2-Star white dining room chair (4) – Value: 3,200 Simoleons
• Red square wall clock – Value: 175 Simoleons
• Various plants
• Gardening patch (10) – Value: 200 Simoleons
• 5 Life Points

Excluding the plants, that adds up to 18,550 Simoleons worth of items. None of it is exclusive to the pack, but it’s essentially a $10 Simoleon package worth of items plus the five Life Points all for five bucks. That’s a way better buy than a $5 Life Point package!

A curious aspect of the Specials section is all three items listed as 50-60 percent off Tropical Fish, Dress-up Chest, Wedding Bundle) seem to be showing up at regular price. Not much of a bargain, right?

As for the Currency Bundle, it’s a great booster early in the game. You’re essentially getting $10 packs of each currency for $16. The individual high value packages are still a better deal, but the bundle should do if you’re not looking to spend a lot.

Time to start a faimly

Did you make any In-App Purchases, Sims players? Check back soon for our Sims FreePlay Achievement Guide, to be followed by our full review.

• The Sims FreePlay – Windows Phone 8 (1 GB of RAM) – 427 MB – Free – Store Link

Last week Windows Phone Central brought you a guide to the In-App Purchases of The Sims FreePlay for Windows Phone 8. Today we’re back with part one of our exclusive and thorough Achievement Guide! It will take many, many hours to get The Sims FreePlay’s 200 GamerScore, but we’ll help you do it.

Before we get to the strategies, note that Sims FreePlay does have some Achievement glitchiness. The game MUST be connected to Xbox Live in order for an Achievement to unlock. Sometimes it drops the connection during gameplay – without warning the player. If that happens, any Achievements you unlock won’t count.

To avoid unlocking Achievements while offline, always save and exit the game by pressing the Save and Exit button at the bottom right corner of the main menu. You can also do this right before you expect to earn an Achievement. That way, whenever you restart the game you’re sure to be connected.

Buildings required for Achievements

Here’s a handy town map I made and the list of buildings you’ll need to buy. Use it as an early roadmap towards the Achievements; you should buy every one of these buildings before the others unless required to do otherwise by a goal.

• Science Lab
• Hobby Store or Park (not required but recommended)
• School
• Children’s Store (not required but recommended)
• Community Center
• Pro Skater’s Dream Pad
• Car Dealership (or Mansion)

Miscellaneous Achievements

Lucky Dog!

Have a dog dig up 1 lifestyle point.

The first Achievement you’ll earn is a total gimme. A stray dog will move into your first home early in the game. It digs up items every minute or so; tap the dig icon that appears above the dog before it disappears. The first thing it should dig up will be a free Life Point. Dogs and cats can find Life Points later on too, but it doesn’t happen very often.

Ka-Boom!

Get 5 Sims promoted to Mad Scientist at the Lab.

The first building you buy should be the Science Lab. Then have your first five Sims start to work there by tapping the Job (briefcase) icon from the sidebar on the left side of the screen. The Scientist job has five levels to progress through:

• Test Subject – Pays 250 Simoleons and 400 XP per day of work
• Lab Assistant – Pays 350 Simoleons and 500 XP per day of work
• Science Teacher – Pays 450 Simoleons and 650 XP per day of work
• Inventor – Pays 600 Simoleons and 900 XP per day of work
• Mad Scientist – Pays 1,000 Simoleons and 1,150 XP per day of work

Your Sims earn experience in a career by attending work or using work-related hobby items. Using a hobby item doesn’t pay money, but it will help advance in a job far quicker than actually attending the job.

The scientist’s hobby items are the Chessboard and Telescope. You can buy a Chessboard from the Living Room section of the Home Store for 300 Simoleons or the Telescope from the Hobby Store for 3,490 Simoleons. Two Sims can share a Chessboard.

To make this Achievement go faster, buy 2-3 Chessboards and tell your scientists to use them repeatedly until they reach Mad Scientist rank. The Park includes several free Chessboards to use in its northwest corner, if you want to be really conservative.

Life of Excess-

Buy the Pro Skater’s Dream Pad.

The Pro Skater’s Dream Pad house costs Life Points to build. The costs of all buildings goes up as you progress through the game, so I suggest buying this one as early as possible in order to conserve Life Points in the future.

You can build the Dream Pad on a regular or premium lot. The cost for premium is a little higher, but it gives you a much larger yard to work with. Because you’ll generally use this as one of your main houses, you might find the extra space useful for assigning multiple Sims to gardening or outdoor hobbies.

The Achievement SHOULD unlock after moving a Sim into the home (as it did for me). This one has been particularly troublesome for some users though. If it doesn’t unlock the first time, all you can do is buy another house and try again.

Deep Pockets

Save 50,000 simoleons.

Just earn 50,000 Simoleons over time or purchase a large Simoleon package in the store. We outline the various ways of making money in our In-App Purchase Guide.

When you have the time to pay close attention to your Sims, having multiple Sims hunt ghosts is a great way to make money. As long as one Sim has reached the maximum level of ghost hunting, everyone can find high level ghosts. You’ll need one haunted item per ghost hunting Sim for this method. When you don’ have much time for your Sims, gardening is the best money maker.

Activity Achievements

100 Miles

Drive a total of 100 miles.

There are two ways to get a car: build the Car Dealership or buy a house that comes with one (the Mansion). Because the Mansion is so expensive, the dealership is the faster option. But this isn’t a super time intensive Achievement, so saving up for the Mansion might be the more fruitful choice in the long run. If you buy the dealership, the least expensive Prius will cost 8,900 Simoleons.

After acquiring a car and assigning it to a Sim, it will appear in front of that Sim’s home. Have any Sim select the car to take it for a drive, which lasts for three minutes. You can follow the car around on the map and tap the music notes its produces for money, but it’s not necessary or especially profitable.

You can’t actually track distance driven. Just send the Sim driving repeatedly and the Achievement should unlock after 30-45 minutes.

Popcorn, Anyone?

Watch 8 movies.

You can choose to watch a movie by choosing the appropriate option after selecting a television. The Marathon option does not count towards this Achievement.

Multiple Sims viewing the same movie will only count as one movie watched. But you can make it go faster by purchasing multiple TVs and assigning a Sim to each one. The Achievement should pop after the eighth movie finishes.

The Diet Ends Here

Bake 5 chocolate puddings.

After a while you’ll receive a goal to buy a stove. Once you own one, you should be able to bake a chocolate pudding. It takes two hours to bake one. To speed this up, you could buy multiple ovens in order to bake more than one pudding at a time.

Sim Negotiator

“Negotiate” with 3 Man-Eating Plants.

When you plant genetically modified seeds, there’s a significant chance that a Man-Eating Plant will grow in place of one of the target fruits or vegetables. The tomato is the first genetically modified plant you can get. It takes six hours to grow.

Once your modified plant is ready to harvest, a Man-Eating Plant might grow. If it does, your only choice is to negotiate with it. You can speed up the process by having multiple Sims plant modified seeds; the Gardening Patch is actually quite cheap.

To be continued

That’s all for part one of our guide, boys and girls. Check out Part Two and our full review. And don’t miss our Sims FreePlay In-App Purchase guide!

• The Sims FreePlay – Windows Phone 8 (1 GB of RAM) – 427 MB – Free – Store Link

Welcome to the second half of Windows Phone Central’s Sims FreePlay Achievement guide! In this installment, you’ll learn how to bust ghosts and feel good, make babies, and get your kids’ grades up on high. We’ll put you on the long, long road to completing 1,000 goals as well.

In case you missed it, please note that The Sims FreePlay MUST be connected to Xbox Live in order for an Achievement to unlock. Sometimes it drops the connection during gameplay – without warning the player. If that happens, any Achievements you unlock won’t count.

To avoid unlocking Achievements while offline, always save and exit the game by pressing the Save and Exit button at the bottom right corner of the main menu. You can also do this right before you expect to earn an Achievement. That way, whenever you restart the game you’re sure to be connected.

Ghost Hunter

Catch All 12 Ghost Types.

To hunt for ghosts, you’ll need at least one haunted item (designated by a red ghost symbol in the Home Store) in your house. The Pro Skater’s Dream Pad includes a 3-star haunted Skeleton, so you could start on this Achievement after buying that house. The skeleton is found in the southwest corner of the Dream Pad’s game room. If you don’t want to hunt in the Dream Pad (the layout is kind of a hassle to watch), feel free to move the skeleton to a smaller/less cluttered house.

Once you have a haunted item, select it and choose to hunt for ghosts, which will take three minutes and thirty seconds. Once the three minutes are up, your Sim will have a red icon above his or her head. Tap it and a ghost will appear and try to escape. Tap the ghost three times to catch it; take too long and it will get away.

Hobby experience earned from catching ghosts will level your Sim up in that hobby. Your Sim will need to reach level 6 before you can catch all twelve ghosts. It should take 4-6 hours of hunting to catch them all. Buy multiple haunted items (they appear in Decorations and other categories) to increase your chances of finding the rare ghosts.

Once you’ve caught every ghost, you can choose to restart the hunting path in order to earn the collection rewards again. There’s no disadvantage to restarting, so go for it. Also, any additional Sims you have can find the same tier of ghosts as the highest level ghost hunter, regardless of their individual hunting levels.

Relationship Achievements

Sims can have three basic types of relationships with one another: friendly, romantic, or unfriendly. The conversational choices you make contribute towards these statuses: green adds to friendship, purple to romance, and red to unfriendly relationship.

To check the currently selected Sim’s relationship status with other Sims, press the Relationships button at the top of the sidebar on the left side of the screen.

Wedding Bells

Have a Sim ask another Sim to get married.

Choose romantic conversation options with a pair of Sims until the option to ask the other Sim to move in shows up. To actually ask, both Sims will need to be at one of the two Sim’s houses.

After successfully moving in together, one Sim can then ask the other to get married. This requires the purchase of a wedding ring. The rings that are most likely to work cost Life Points, so don’t waste money on the ones that cost Simoleons.

If you wait until the goal to get married comes up, you’ll receive a free Eternal Ring. Get married before that and you won’t get the ring, so it’s best to wait.

If the wedding ring works, the two Sims will become engaged. Have them perform romantic actions until their engagement meter fills up and they can finally get married.

Nemesis of the State

Have 1 Sim be nemeses with 16 Sims.

Perform unkind actions towards another Sim to move through the three unfriendly relationship levels. The third and final level is nemesis. It takes 30 “Be Rude” gestures (five total minutes) or 10 “Complain” gestures (10 minutes) to reach nemesis level with one Sim.

This Achievement requires a total of 17 Sims. The ability to have 17 Sims unlocks at level 30, so don’t bother antagonizing Sims until then. At that point, have the seventeenth character be mean to everyone else.

Kid-related Achievements

Baby Boomers

Have 3 babies.

A couple must be married to have a baby. After that, buy a crib and choose to have a baby. It takes 24 hours for the stork to arrive, and one parent must stay home the entire time. Also, you can’t create any other new Sims while a baby is on the way.

Once the baby is born, you can use a birthday cake (which costs life Points) to turn it into a toddler. Birthday cakes take 24 hours to bake, but you can start baking them before the baby arrives. They don’t appear in your inventory but the game does track how many cakes you have. There’s no point to leaving a kid as a toddler, so use another birthday cake to advance it to preteen status. Preteens can’t be turned into adults. The Achievements only require three babies, so don’t make more than that.

You don’t need to have three babies simultaneously for the Achievement. Just advance each baby into the next growth stage as it comes along. You can move and reuse the crib for each baby, so don’t buy more than one.

Want this Achievement a little early? When your second baby is born, confirm its appearance. Then go back and adjust any of its features by oressing the stick figure button at the bottom-right corner of the screen. Accept the change, and the Achievement should pop as if you had created a third baby.

Pro Dancer

Have a pre-teen Sim become a Professional Ballet Dancer.

The Community Center allows preteens to learn ballet and karate hobbies, plus adults can learn woodworking. After advancing your first baby to preteen status, buy the center and send the kid there to train.

You can use the speaker or balance bar to practice ballet. Using the bar to stretch takes 30 seconds and pays generous hobby XP, so use it to quickly fly through the ballet ranks. To advance from the fifth level to the sixth and final level, it should take 100 stretches. You could max out ballet in less than two hours via stretching.

Wax Off

Have a pre-teen Sim get a Black Belt in Karate.

Karate takes a lot longer to max out than ballet. Have your second preteen use the two karate tools to practice. The 20 minute exercise pays the best hobby experience, but you’re still looking at several days to hit the final level.

Top of the Class!

Have 3 preteen Sims with a grade average of A+++.

School works the same way for preteens as jobs do for adults. First build a school and enroll all of your preteens in it. You can then send them to school during the hours you choose. As students gain school experience, they will advance through the eight grade averages. The grades are: C, C+, B, B+, A, A+, A++, and A+++.

Studying at a 3-star desk will advance your students through the ranks far faster than actually attending school. At level 17, purchase the cheapest 3-star study desk from the Children’s Store using Life Points. Have your third preteen study non-stop. When the other preteens max out their hobbies, you might want to pick up another desk or two. It takes forever to advance through the grades, even with a nice desk.

Town Value Achievements

• Onward and Upward! - Have a town value of 15,000 simoleons.
• Sim Town 90210 - Have a town worth 12,000,000 simoleons.
• City of Gold - Have a town worth 30,000,000 simoleons.

Adding new houses and other buildings is the primary way to increase your town value. Adding a new story to a house increases town value by 500,000, but it costs a million Simoleons so most players won’t be able to do it.

The most affordable way to increase your value is ghost hunting. After progressing through the ghost hunting ranks once and receiving the Ghost Cabinet decoration, every subsequent completion of the ranks (catching all 12 ghosts again) will increase the town value by 500,000. Spend lots of time hunting and this Achievement will be yours.

Goal Achievements

• 10 Goals Down - Complete 10 goals.
• 1000 GOALS! - Complete 1000 goals.

Goals appear in the bottom-left corner of the screen. A goal must be either completed or skipped, which costs five Life Points. You’ll need Life Points just to complete many goals though, so don’t skip a goal unless it would take close to a week to accomplish. Oh, and nobody knows if skipping a goal counts as completing it.

Working on goals should be your number one priority, with a few exceptions. If a goal comes up and all of your Sims are occupied, you might want to  free up a Sim by canceling his or her current action. Select the Sim and press the small red X to the right of the progress meter that pops up. Or you could spend 4 Life Points to add a new Sim to your town early. But if  a Sim will be finishing a task relatively soon, you're better off allowing the task to finish instead of canceling actions or blowing Life Points.

Knocking out 1,000 goals will likely take months, especially because some goals can only be done at specific times of day or on certain days. Whenever you have a goal that will take a long time to complete, try to be patient and make as much progress in other areas as possible along the way. Just keep playing, always prioritizing goals, and you’ll get there someday.

More helpful Sims FreePlay articles

• Sims FreePlay Achievement Guide, Part 1
• Sims FreePlay In-App Purchase Guide!
• Full review coming tomorrow!

And just in case you don’t have the game yet…

• The Sims FreePlay – Windows Phone 8 (1 GB of RAM) – 427 MB – Free – Store Link

If you’re like us, you’ve spent a good chunk of the day updating your PCs, tablets and Ultrabooks to the brand spanking new (and spectacular) Windows 8.1 OS. If you did, pat yourself on the back because we have a small, but cool, bonus for you troopers: The Windows Phone Central Live Tile.

Sure, it’s not our official RT app, which is still in the works (you can bug Jay about it), but as runner up you can use the new Internet Explorer 11 “pin to start” feature, which will give you four Tile sizes: small, medium, large or wide. The tile is also Live, pulling directly from our site—think of it as another cool way to keep up to date on your favorite Windows Phone and Microsoft news.

The Tile will update every 30 minutes, giving you a peek at what’s new on the site!

Instructions

1. Make sure IE11 is set as the default browser—at least to pin, you can always switch it later. To choose your default browser, just type in “default programs” on the Start screen and launch the settings.
2. Launch IE11 in Metro mode (not desktop) and head to www.wpcentral.com
3. Tap the Star icon (for favorites)
4. Hit the Pin button
5. Rename the Tile or just keep ‘WPCentral’
6. Choose Tile size (you can always change it later)

And that’s it!

The tile should refresh with our direct news feed and depending on the size you chose, it will have a slightly different layout. Oh, and  if you’re a fan of our other sites on Mobile Nations, including Android Central, iMore or CrackBerry, those too will be getting this feature soon!

Enjoy, from the Windows Phone Central team!

*If you’ve already been using the Live Tile, you should unpin and re-pin today as we switched from a slow RSS feed to a direct feed to our site

1. Hit the Favorites/Star button, then Pin icon

2. Select Title and Tile size

3. Move Tile to desired location, it should update with site feed every 30 mins

4. You can always resize the Tile later

The Sims FreePlay was a very big game when it arrived on Windows Phone 8 in September. So big that we published a two installment Achievement guide and an In-App Purchase guide on top of our usual review. But even then, our version lacked some content from the iOS version, including all social features. The iOS and Android games received a new update on October 11, pushing even farther ahead of our version.

Only one month after its initial release, The Sims FreePlay has just received a massive update. Windows Phone players now have access to the Mysterious Island area, teenage Sims, a whole new quest system, tons of new items, and much more. However, the update also makes a few Achievements much more difficult and time consuming. Head past the break for detailed descriptions and screenshots of the many changes!

Quest Chains

The largest change to how the game itself works is the revamped quest system. Prior to the update, players could only work on one quest at a time. If the quest required you to complete it at a certain time or you didn’t have the necessary building, it could take days or weeks before you could make any progress.

After the update, players can have up to three active quests at once. Each quest is now part of a quest chain. Complete one and you’ll move on to the next quest in the series. Finish all of the quests in a series and you’ll earn a reward. However, quest chains are time sensitive, so you won’t get the full reward unless you finish before the time runs out.

The good news is this system makes completing goals for ‘1000 GOALS!’ Achievement a fair bit easier. The bad news is that Goals are now far less likely to provide Life Points as rewards. You’ll still get them every now and then, but for the most part goals just pay out in Simoleons and XP now. This doesn’t stop players from earning Life Points via other methods, but it does slow the earning a bit.

Mystery Boxes

The basic quest chain (comprised of random quests) provides a new item as a completion reward: the Mystery Box key.  You can only earn one key per week, though the chain continues to produce quests even after completion. 

To visit the Mystery Boxes Store, collect at least one key, select the weekly quest chain, and touch the Mystery Box icon. Mystery Boxes cost 1-10 keys, with the more expensive ones providing better rewards. Their contents are random, but at least you can judge the reward rarity by the cost of the Box.

Money Grows on Trees (unlocks at level 13)

Story-based quest chains contain a series of non-random quests and tell a little story as part of each goal’s description. They also pay out unique rewards for completing the chain.

The first story chain you’ll work on is called ‘Money Grows on Trees?’ It consists of the following goals:

1. Ponder in a Lounge Chair
2. Grow Potatoes
3. Make a Double Shot of Coffee
4. Grow Watermelon
5. Make a Hot Snack in the microwave
6. Catch some Zs on a Couch
7. Buy a Seed From the Supermarket
8. Have a Quick Dip in the Bath
9. Negotiate with a Sim-Eating Plant
10. Bake Donuts
11. Grow a Simoleon Sprout in the Garden

The Simoleon Sprout is a new plant for your Sims to grow. Planting one instantly launches a slot-machine minigame in which all of the payouts are in Simoleons. You can plant a Simoleon Sprout for free every four hours. Planting them sooner costs 5 Life Points. Probably not a great investment.

The Mysterious Island (unlocks at level 15)

After completing the Simoleon Sprout quest chain, you’ll gain access to the Mysterious Island quest series. It contains the following goals:

1. Watch the News on TV
2. Go for a drive
3. Wash hands
4. Build bridge on the town map
5. Visit the Mysterious Island
6. Tap the Monument icon
7. Read Encyclopedia
8. Call a Friend
9. Catch a Ghost
10. Grill 'em all on a BBQ
11. Bake Pancakes
12. Bake Cookies
13. Read the Big Book of Stuff
14. Browse Internet
15. Have a Deep Sleep
16. Rest Eyes on a Couch
17. Grow Onions
18. Rich Lather in the Shower
19. Find Another Resource
20. Upgrade 'The Riches of Terra' to Level 1
21. Garden, Bake, or Work until you get a Simoleon bonus
22. Upgrade 'The Riches of Terra' to Level 2

The Mysterious Island itself is a new map that you can travel to after building The Mysterious Island Bridge. It contains a series of monuments for players to build. Each monument provides a chance to earn Simoleon or Life Point bonuses from completing tasks.

Instead of Simoleons or Life Points, monuments cost resources – a new class of item. Players will randomly earn resources by completing tasks such as gardening, hobbies, etc. The resource earned is random as well, with certain ones being much rarer than others. After you’ve upgraded the first monument, you can choose to substitute Life Points for resources at a cost of 3 Life Points per missing unit of resource.

Coming of Age (level 23), Higher Education (level 24), and the Road to Fame (level 25)

The update introduces a new NPC character: Osiris the alien. Windows Phone players will first meet him at the beginning of the ‘Coming of Age’ quest series. Once you’ve unlocked Osiris, you can go to him or call him just like other Sims - from the SimTracker.

The ‘Coming of Age’ consists of:

1. Meet Osiris
2. Be Nice To Osiris
3. Bake Donuts
4. Be Nice To Osiris
5. Read The Big Book Of Stuff
6. Watch A Movie Marathon
7. Bake Chocolate Pudding
8. Talk To Trees
9. Grow Potatoes
10. Be Inconspicuous On A Park Bench
11. Bake Birthday Cake

After completing ‘Coming of Age,’ you’ll be able to advance Preteen Sims to full Teen status! The ‘Higher Education’ series then allows you to build the High School for teens to attend.

The ‘Road to Fame’ quest allows teens to become Teen Idols. Idols can play new instruments, sign autographs, and more. You’ll also be able to build one more new building: the SimTown Sign. It gives a chance to get extra revenue when collecting Simoleons from the town map. Unlike other buildings on the main town map, building the SimTown Sign requires unique resources instead of Simoleons.

Hobby Rewards

The new quests and content have all been good news, but here’s where we get to negative territory. Prior to the update, hobbies were the best way to increase your Town value. Completing a set of ghosts via ghost hunting or crafting all of the woodworking designs more than once would net players 500,000 Town Value each time.

Sadly, the update removes the 500,000 Town value bonus from all hobby collections. Completing collections now just gets you 3 Life Points. As such, hobbies remain the best way to earn Life Points. But the change makes the Town Value Achievements so much harder. In fact, it would take the rest of your life, much of your firstborn child’s life, and an extra month for good measure to actually reach 30,000,000 Town value now. So if you haven’t updated yet, don’t do it until you get that Achievement!

Ghost Hunting and Halloween Event

Even without the allure of Town value bonuses, Ghost hunting has long been a popular method of grinding for Simoleons and Life Points. EA knows this and so they made ghost hunting a little harder. Haunted items now lose their hauntedness for 20-30 minutes after use.

If you want to continuously hunt for ghosts, you’ll need several haunted items in the same house (a good idea anyway). And if you want multiple Sims hunting for ghosts, you’ll have to buy a boatload of extra haunted goods in order to ensure they always have a haunted object to investigate.

Downer, right? On the plus side, the ghost hunting hobby can now level up to 8 instead of six. There are six new ghosts to find, which also bumps up the reward for subsequent ghost collection completions to 5 Life Points instead of 3. More exciting, each tier of ghosts offers brand new haunted items to unlock as rewards. These are all part of the special Halloween event that EA runs every year.

Complete the expanded collection of ghosts by November 1^st and you’ll unlock the Petrifying Putting Green item! It will only be available until then and never again. You’ll find it in the Outdoor Furniture section of the Home Store.

It's great to see a time-based event included in an Xbox Windows Phone game. We've missed out on similar features in past games like Ice Age Village. Maybe EA will keep The Sims Freeplay up to date right alongside the other versions.

Job Leveling

Just as ghost hunting got harder, so did leveling up careers. Before, the fastest way to level up a job was to use its related hobby item for one hour at a time. The update has changed the hobby item time to three hours, reducing the items’ effectiveness. Jobs are not as critical as hobbies in this game, but this change does make the ‘Mad Scientist’ Achievement take longer.

Limited edition Progressive items

Here’s a mostly good thing. From time to time, EA adds sponsored items to the game. Windows Phone already has Toyota cars and guitars, and the iOS game has Febreze spray. This update throws Progressive Insurance cars and TVs into the mix.

The TV is rated at 2-stars and gives players the option to watch that annoying Flo lady that I want to slap. Both the TV and car are free, so we can’t complain too much about the commercialization aspect. The Achievement for driving ‘100 miles’ just got easier, though you do still have to build the Car Dealership in order to pick up your free car.

New In-App Purchases

Naturally a giant content update like this has to add some new ways for players to spend real money. These are the ones I’ve encountered so far:

• Adopt a Preteen– $4.99
  Use a phone and choose this option to instantly add a preteen to your roster. Saves the trouble of having a baby and baking birthday cakes.
• Adopt a Teen–$4.99
  This option appears after you complete the ‘Coming of Age’ quests. “Why make a teen the old fashioned way when you can just buy them?” someone asks.
• Life Point Lotus– $.99
  Works like the Simoleon Sprout but with Life Points, and it always costs money. I won 50 Life Points when I tried it. This seems like a good deal no matter how much you win.
• Dolphin Pool Pack – $3.99
  Add a splash of dolphin-themed awesomeness to your pool area with our all-new Dolphin Pack! Contains dolphin float, pool slide, and beach towels. Found in the Specials section of the Online Store.

We’ll update our In-App Purchase Guide soon.

Miscellaneous changes

• Item prices are now displayed in the Online Store. Sweet!
• The camera can now be zoomed out much farther.
• The game now displays what type of fish you caught after your Sim gets swallowed by a giant fish.
• A DJ can no longer join in with dancing Sims if no one else is DJing.

This update revamped the user interface displayed at the bottom of the screen, including buttons. These changes are mostly for the better, but the Sims' needs meters are more scrunched up and harder to read than before.

Bigger, mostly better

Thanks to the Sims FreePlay version 1.1 update, Windows Phone now has all of the iOS content except for the social features. Sadly, the Party Boat, the ability to visit friends’ towns, and items that cost Social Points are still nowhere to be found. It looks like EA won’t be giving us those features in the future, but you never know.

Still, they did add tons of new quests and items to complete. The new quest system actually makes the game way more varied and interesting. The time-based quests series even instill a sense of urgency that wasn’t there before. Players who enjoy decorating and accessorizing their Sims will love the new items. Margaritas all around!

The only people who should NOT download this update are players who haven’t reached 30,000,000 Town Value yet. If that includes you, I suggest you max out your woodworking skill, purchase work benches for all your Sims, and put them to work until you get the Achievement. Woodworking is a faster completion than ghost hunting. After the Achievement unlocks, Town Value doesn’t matter anymore and you can enjoy the update without worry.

• The Sims FreePlay – Windows Phone 8 (1 GB of RAM) – 504 MB – Free – Store Link

Thanks to Dr. David Baptista da Silva for the tip!

One fantastic accessory for the Nokia Lumia 1020 Windows Phone is the camera grip. It gives the Lumia 1020 a little more girth for the gripping and with the built-in battery the grip extends your camera time significantly.

While it would have been great if Nokia had threaded the camera lens opening on the grip to accommodate screw-on accessories, we've seen a few reader's tips for making due without. We've seen close-up filters taped to the camera to boost the Lumia 1020's macro abilities and now we've got a lens hood to reduce any lens flare bright lights may cause.

Windows Phone Central reader Vesku found the need for a lens hood and simply glued a collapsible lens hood to the flat portion of the grip that encircles the Lumia 1020's camera. The only prep work needed was to sand the area of the grip slightly to allow the glue to set correctly.

A $5 46mm lens hood was used and fits fairly spot on with the grips lens opening. You may want to check out the local camera store to make sure of the fit before diving in. Additionally, keep in mind you're likely making a modification that won't be easily un-done. On the plus side, some of these lens hoods allow for screw-on filters which would make using those close-up filters a lot easier.  On the downside, you may booger up a $60 camera grip.

Another alternative that isn't as permanent would be to cut the end of a small plastic cup off and tape it to the camera grip. It's not as clean looking as Vesku's lens hood but it'll do the trick.

While I've experience cases of lens flare at times, I'm just not sure if the needs is great enough to warrant such a permanent modification. However, your needs may differ.

If you've come across a Do-It-Yourself photography solution for the Nokia Lumia 1020 or any other Windows Phone, feel free to share in the comments below.

Want to pick up the same lens hood as seen above? Head to B&H Photo to grab it for five dollars.

Thanks, Vesku, for the tip and pics!

While we wait for the official Instagram app to come to Windows Phone, we're happy using third-party apps like 6tag or Instance. If you're new to the social network, we've gathered 5 tips for you to use Instagram like a pro. 

Head past the break to see our video tutorial and get links to all the must-have apps for Instagram on your Windows Phone.

1. Turn on the square grid

Instagram displays photos and videos in square aspect, so keep that in mind when using the camera. If you're using Nokia Camera, turn on the square grid. Go to settings > framing grids > square. This will help you see which objects in front of you will fit when uploaded to Instagram.

2. Use photo editing apps

People love filters on Instagram. Apps like 6tag and Instance have built-in filters you can use to spice up your photos, but you don’t have to limit yourself. There are plenty of photo editing apps at the Windows Phone store. One of our favorites is Fhotoroom. In addition to the usual image editing controls, there are several styles to choose from in addition to textures, light effects, and vignettes. Go ahead and get creative, but try not to overdo it.

3. Use hashtags

Your photos may look beautiful, but you won’t get ‘likes’ if no one sees them. Use relevant hashtags to gain exposure. Have a photo of your dog? Go add #instadog, #dogsitting, #dogstagram, etc. Instagram allows you to have up to 30 hashtags per photo. If you need help with hashtag ideas, there’s a great app from the Windows Phone store called Tagram. DO NOT put the hashtags in your photo caption. #It #will #annoy #your #friends #on #Twitter #or #Facebook. Insert the hashtags as a comment instead. It’s just as effective.

4. Add location

Add your Foursquare account and share the locations of the photos you want. This automatically checks you in so you don’t have to open the Foursquare app separately. This also adds your photo to that location’s Instagram page, so more views for your photo.

5. Reply the right way

When responding to comments, don’t forget to include the usernames. If you don’t include their username, they won’t get a notification and they probably won’t see your comment. To respond in 6tag, just press and hold on a comment. It will automatically insert the name for you.

Instagram is not all about filters. It’s a popular social network with over 100 million active users. These 5 tips should hopefully get you better at using it even before the official app hits the Windows Phone store. Have any more tips? Let us know in the comments!

When you email photos from your Windows Phone device, it is downsized for faster transfer. What if you want to share full resolution photos taken with the 41-megapixel sensor on the Nokia Lumia 1020? What if you want to send the high-resolution photos to your computer without using the USB cable? Read on to find out how to do it by using the Phriz.be application. We also have video to show you how it’s done.

Phriz.be is intended to be a mobile sharing app for your Windows Phone 8 device that lets you discover other members nearby and share photos to the network. It was announced for Windows Phone at Nokia World and is also available on other major app stores. Phriz.be gives you an option to send high-resolution photos, so we’ll be using this app to send those high-resolution photos to ourselves or other people via email.

When you open the app for the first time, it asks for your email address. Don’t type your primary account! We’ll explain in a bit.

Photos from your camera roll are shown by default. Change that to “Hi-Res.” When you click on a photo, check the file size on the upper left corner. Notice how much bigger in size they are? High-resolution photos are about 8 to 10MB each compared to 2MB file sizes for the 5 megapixel photos in the camera roll.

Clicking the share button below the photo displays who you can send to. Other Phriz.be users who are nearby will show up on the list, but we rarely see that happen. Your contacts list is also available. Select yourself if you simply want to send those full resolution photos to your email inbox. Remember when we told you not to type your primary email account in the Phriz.be settings? That’s because if you entered your primary email and send the photos to the same email account, it will be sent to the phriz.be app inbox, not your email inbox.

You can send multiple photos, too. There are two ways to do this. You can click on the plus sign to the right of the first photo or you can click the select button in the photo selection screen.

If you want to send photos to more than one person, just tap on each recipient in the contacts list. 

One thing that we’d like to see in this app is the ability to send photos to any email address. Currently, only the email addresses in your contacts list are available. If you want to send photos to people you just met, you’ll have to insert their email addresses in your phone book before using phriz.be. We also noticed some crashes when opening full resolution photos.

Once your photos and recipients are selected, click the send button at the bottom. You can also use a flick gesture like throwing a frisbee to do the same thing.

The email Phriz.be sends has a thumbnail attachment for preview and a link to download the photos. They also include a note saying the files will be available to download for 3 days.

That’s it! That’s how you send full resolution photos from your Windows Phone devices. We wish Microsoft made things easier by having an option in the email app to send photos in different sizes. High-resolution photos take up a lot of bandwidth, so we understand why they would prevent users from doing this. Having a choice would be nice, though.

If you plan on sending photos in full resolution, definitely check out phriz.be and follow this guide. The app is free at the Windows phone store.

Does this method work for you? Do you have a better technique? Let us know in comments!

If you’re one of brave who have committed to a life of BAP with the Nokia Lumia 1520, congratulations. You have an awesome 20 MP camera loaded with a 6-inch 1080P display that will catch everyone’s attention in public. It also means you have the latest firmware from Nokia, dubbed Lumia Black. That release allows notifications to be displayed on the Glance screen so that you can easily see what’s important in your busy life.

Here’s a quick an easy tip to get the current temperature always on that Glance screen, which is especially useful in the winter months. And if you don’t have a Lumia 1520, but instead another Lumia with Glance, bookmark this for when you get your update early next year!

Since the Lumia Black update allows notifications on the Glance screen, users can head into Settings > Lock Screen and choose up to five apps for ‘quick status’ aka icon notifications. The defaults are email, messaging, missed calls, but you can add WhatsApp, IM+ or even our own app to that list. This way, even when the phone is in standby, you can still see what’s important to you.

To get the current temperature, you’ll need to grab the app LockTemp from aephid technologies. We covered this app earlier in the year and gave it a thumbs up. This app simply puts the temperature with a little thermometer icon in your ‘quick status’ notification area. Combine it with the Glance screen update in the Lumia 1520 and you can now have the updated temperature permanently on your display. As you can see in the lead image, it looks awesome.

It’s clever, easy and let’s be honest, for some people, always knowing the temp outside is important. LockTemp can use an inputted location or your phone’s GPS to constantly keep it based off your current whereabouts.  It also has Celsius or Fahrenheit options.

LockTemp has a free trial and otherwise costs 99 cents. Pick it up here in the Store or scan the QR code below.

If you know of other lockscreen temp apps or other useful Glance tricks, let us know in comments!

The Lumia 1520 is arguably one of the more intriguing devices released in 2013 for Windows Phone. While the size isn’t for everyone, the specs are certainly eye catching. There is just one problem though: AT&T.

In their infinite wisdom, AT&T requested that Nokia gimp their Lumia 1520 with only 16 GB of storage and that they remove Qi wireless charging. True, you can add a backcover to get that function back, but even there, people are left high and dry. That’s because the only case that’s available that supports wireless charging is the PMA variant, the competitor to Qi. So throw out all of those Qi chargers because they are now worthless.

AT&T will be adding a 32 GB SKU for the Lumia 1520 in the future, but Qi wireless is not coming back. That is, unless you want to take matters into your own hands…

In the Windows Phone Central forums, a discussion started by Benny Vallejo has broken out over replacement shells/covers for the Lumia 1520. A seller on eBay is offering official Lumia 1520 replacement backs, but they are the ones for the international version of the phablet. That means that they have the coveted Qi coil built in. It also means you now have a choice.

Granted, removing and replacing the whole shell/case from the Lumia 1520 is probably not trivial, although there is a nice video (posted above) that walks you through the process. The cases come in all four colors, including glossy red, black, white and even yellow. In theory, you can now also swap colors, if you so choose.

The parts run for $55-$62 with shipping worldwide and the seller has a 99.6% positive feedback rating, so you can feel confident in your order.

Should you go for it? That’s a tough question, though it’s common for people to replace their cases and shattered displays (our own Seth Brodeur has done so, documented here). But let’s be very clear: this will void your warranty, if you care about such things.

Tell you what: we’ve already ordered our matte-white replacement cover, so we’re going to give this a go. Stay tuned in the coming weeks if you want to know our results (we’ll be documenting the process).

Ready to jump on board, regardless? Simply do a search on eBay for the Lumia 1520, then whittle it down to ‘Replacement Parts & Tools’. There you should see the listings from seller ‘original_parts_mobile_99’ located in Spain.

Via: Windows Phone Central Lumia 1520 Forums

On Android and iOS devices, there are shortcuts to settings from any app or screen. Swipe down on Android or swipe up on iOS. Windows Phone doesn’t have those options yet, but an app that has just been released provides a clever workaround.

The Kirik Settings application brings quick access to your settings like Wi-Fi, cellular data, location, rotation lock, Bluetooth and more from anywhere via your volume controls. Head past the break to watch our hands-on video.

Launching Kirik Settings for the first time brings you to a page with just an on/off switch and a warning:

"Warning: Turning quick settings will kill all music. Also if you play music, quick settings will be turned off. You will need to manually enable it again."

To get started, swipe the slider on. You still need to restart the app to apply the change. Now, from anywhere on your screen, you have quick access to certain settings. This initial version gives you shortcuts to:

• Wifi
• Cellular
• Bluetooth
• Airplane mode
• Location
• Lockscreen
• Create new mail
• Create new SMS
• Rotation Lock (needs GDR3/Update 3)
• Battery percentage

This doesn’t actually let you turn on/off settings from the playback pop-up, but it forwards you to the specific settings page when you tap on it. You cycle through the settings by pressing the forward or reverse buttons. The play button does not activate or de-activate anything, although that would be cool if that were possible.

Kirik Settings is very clever and we wonder how Microsoft feels about this workaround. The battery percentage setting is our favorite because it lets us see the percentage without the use of a live tile.

While Kirik Settings provides a unique solution, it’s not really practical. It stops working when you listen to music or play some games. You need to re-open the app to be able to access the shortcuts again.

Kirik Settings is available at the Windows Phone Store for $1.99. There’s also a free trial available with limited features. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments!

If you're anything like most of us here at Windows Phone Central, your phone is probably loaded with pictures from all over the place. Wouldn't it be nice to organize them better, so you don't have to scroll through all of them to find what you are looking for?

Reddit user, DashThePunk, posted a way to do just that by using your computer.  It turns out to be shockingly easy. Take a gander after the jump for step-by-step instructions.

Start by connecting your Windows Phone to your computer via USB cable. It should show up as its own device/drive in Windows Explorer.

From there, browse to your phone. Click on Phone, then Pictures and you will see the standard folders: Camera Roll, Saved Pictures, Screenshots, etc.

Right-click, then select New Folder.

Name the new folder to whatever you like and add pictures by copy/pasting or dragging and dropping from other folders.

Once you disconnect your phone and go to the Windows Phone Pictures Hub, you will see your newly-created folder in the Albums section.

Now go forth and organize. Never again be caught fumbling around for a picture. It's so easy, even my cat, Maggie, could do it (if she'd ever get out of bed).

Source: Reddit;

When the first Final Fantasy arrived on Windows Phone, all of its Achievements were secret and thus couldn’t be viewed by players. We quickly posted a Mini-Achievement Guide to help get players on-track.

Now Final Fantasy III has appeared on Windows Phone, once again with Xbox Achievements. This time, the Achievements aren’t secret. But they do require plenty of time and effort to unlock. You just might need a guide! And wouldn’t you know it? Windows Phone Central is proud to present our latest Achievement Guide, filled with tips and resources for dedicated RPG players and Achievement hunters.

Progression

Cloud of Darkness

• Gone adventuring with the Wind: Defeat Djinn and obtain the Wind Crystal.
• Some Like It Hot: Defeat Salamander and obtain the Fire Crystal.
• Release the Kraken: Defeat Kraken and obtain the Water Crystal.
• Quieting the Tremors: Defeat the Titan and obtain the Earth Crystal.
• Warriors of Light: Defeat the Cloud of Darkness.

You’ll fight the Cloud of Darkness immediately after defeating Xande in the Crystal Tower. But you can’t beat it that first time. Just lost right away, triggering a cut scene. You’ll then proceed to the final area, the World of Darkness. The Cloud is the final boss there.

Eureka dungeon

Eureka entrance

• Glutton for Arms: Obtain every weapon in Eureka, the Forbidden Land.

The entrance to this optional dungeon can be found at the bottom floor of the Crystal Tower, near the end of the game. You’ll see the door immediately after entering the Tower, straight ahead from the Tower’s entrance.

To open the door and enter the Forbidden Land, you’ll need the Eureka Key. It can be obtained during normal progression after defeating a powerful pair of NPCs (Doga and Unei) within Doga’s Grotto. The elderly pair also provides the Syrcus Key, which you need to enter the Crystal Tower. See this article for more information about Eureka.

Money

• For a Rainy Day: Save up 50,000 gil.
• Who wants to be a Gillionaire?: Save up 500,000 gil.

Earning gil won’t be a problem if you seek out the hidden dungeons and raise your characters’ job classes to 99. You can also farm gil by encountering an enemy like the Greater Demon who summons other monsters. Don’t kill the summoner, just the summoned monsters. You’ll rack up lots of gil by the time you decide to finish off the summoner.

What do you do with all that gil? Why, it can be spent on Shurikens– the Ninja class’s most powerful throwable item. One of the Shops in Eureka sells Shurikens for 65,500 gil apiece.

Summons

Bahamut

• My Little Esper: Obtain a summonable creature.
• No Such Thing as Too Many: Obtain all the summonable creatures.

The Evoker, Summoner, and Sage classes can summon creatures called espers during battle. The actual spell cast varies by character class. New espers can be bought or found by defeating certain bosses. There are eight espers to find:

• Chocobo
• Shiva
• Ramuh
• Ifrit
• Titan: This boss guards the Earth Crystal.
• Odin: Encountered underwater in the Saronia Catacombs.
• Leviathan: Encountered at Lake Dohr.
• Bahamut: First encountered early in the game, Bahamut can only be defeated in the optional Bahamut’s Lair dungeon.

Treasure chests

• Nose for Treasure: Open 50% of all treasure chests.
• I, My, Me, Mine: Open every treasure chest.

Finding all of the treasure chests could be one of the hardest Achievements in the game. You’ll have to visit every location, including optional dungeons like Eureka and ???.

The best way to make sure you don’t miss any chests is by using a walkthrough that points them out. GameFAQs also has maps of the various dungeons that should be helpful.

Bestiary

• Collecting is Half the Battle: Complete 50% of the Bestiary.
• Filling Up the Grotesquerie: Complete the entire Bestiary.

There are 226 monsters in the game (including bosses). You’ll have to visit every single dungeon, including Eureka and the ??? Dungeon in order to find them all.

Luckily you can check your progress by viewing the in-game Bestiary. You can view it by talking to the bestiary Moogles in the town of Gysahl or on the Invincible airship. Check this page for a complete Bestiary list and links to monster locations.

Legendary Smith and ??? Dungeon

• One Sword to Slay Them All: Obtain the Ultima Weapon from the Legendary Smith.
• Steely Resolve: Defeat Iron Giant.

During normal progression, players will first meet the Legendary Smith during a quest to restore Princess Sara’s pendant. Upon bringing Orichalcum to the Smith, your final reward for this quest chain will be the Ultima Weapon.

Afterward, the Legendary Smith randomly appears in 10 specific places. Talk to her when one of your characters has reached a job level of 99 and she will provide that class’s unique Job Master item.

Iron Giant

The Iron Giant is a boss enemy who only appears in the optional ??? Dungeon. You’ll need to have received all four letters from the Four Old Men and Prince Alus in order to unlock the dungeon.

Getting those letters in the mobile version involves a complicated series of steps that differs from the DS game:

• One character must reach level 99 and receive a Job Master Item from the Legendary Smith
• Defeat all bosses in Eureka
• Open approximately 80% of the treasure chests in the game
• Complete all optional dungeons and obtain every summonable boss monster

After completing those requirements and receiving the necessary letters through Mognet, hop into the Nautilus airship. Look for a shadow in the water halfway between the Floating Continent and the Dalg continent to the east.

Defeating the Iron Giant is no easy task. You’ll want to have everyone leveled up into the nineties before attempting it. Put all four characters in the back row and equip them with two shields instead of weapons. Then attack with magic spells until he cries “Superman” and plummets back to the Earth. Something like that!

Jobs

• When I Grow Up I Want to Be…: Attain level 99 with any job.
• Jack of All Trades: Attain level 99 with all jobs.

Characters start out as Freelancers. After obtaining the Wind Crystal, six more classes unlock. The fire, Water, and Earth Crystals also unlock new jobs. There are 22 normal jobs and one hidden job: Onion Knight. The Onion Knight gets the highest stats in the game, but only at job level 92 and above.

To unlock the Onion Knight, you’ll need to complete 25% of the Bestiary. The NPC Topapa will then send a letter informing you that three children have been kidnapped. Rescue them in the Altar Cave (the first area of the game) and you’ll gain access to the hidden job.

Job level is separate from a character’s overall level. Attacking, defending, and performing other actions during battle earns an invisible stat called Job Points. When a character accumulates 100 Job Points, he or she will gain one level in that job.

With most jobs, the number of Job Points earned from battle decreases by 10-60 percent after reaching level 14 in that job. The exceptions are Freelancer and Scholar, which gain JP at the same rate all the way up to level 99 (thank goodness).

Players can switch a character’s job at any time. However, the character will enter the Job Adjustment Phase after making the switch. His or her stats will be reduced by about 12.5 percent during this time, which lasts from 2-10 battles. After the phase ends, the character will switch to the new job. Read this guide for more job info.

More Resources

I’ve linked to several helpful pages within the guide. Here are a few more websites with useful Final Fantasy III information:

• Final Fantasy III at Wikia
• List of locations
• GameFAQs guides and maps
• Final Fantasy III at Strategy Wiki

We hope this guide has helped! Stay tuned, and we’ll either update with a treasure chest guide or create our own.

• Final Fantasy III– Windows Phone 7 and 8 – 451 MB - $15.99 – Store Link

If you ever have the need to know your Windows Phone IP address, you can track it down through a simple Bing Search.  It is a trick that some of our seasoned readers may already be aware of but those new to Windows Phone may not be.

Just as you can do on your Windows 8 computer, if you launch Bing Search on your Windows Phone 8 device and type, “my IP address” the result will be your phone’s IP address.  It is easy as pie.

If you have a Windows Phone tip or trick you would like to share, hit us up on the tip line.

Thanks, AMir, for the tip!

We love our smartphones, but one issue that might come up is battery life. If you’re a heavy user, you want to find ways to be able to use the phone as long as you can before needing to recharge. We have included 17 tips to extend your Windows Phone 8 battery life, but many of these tips involve turning off services and features. You decide which services you’re willing to let go to save juice. You don’t need to follow all of them, but following some will help extend the battery life on your Windows Phone 8 device.

Head past the break to read our tips with screenshots and video.

1. Use battery saver

You can set your phone to automatically save power when the battery level is low. Head to settings > battery saver, and turn it on. It turns off some services while in standby to help preserve battery life, but you will still receive calls and texts.  Emails will have to be refreshed manually.

Even if your battery charge isn’t low, you can manually turn on battery saver by clicking the advanced button. You’ll have three options: when battery is low, now until next charge, or always (not recommended). You know it is active when a little heart appears over the battery icon on the status bar.

2. Turn off unnecessary sounds

Select only the sounds that you need. You can turn off certain sounds by going to settings, then ringtones + sounds. We like to turn off the sounds for key press, lock and unlock, and camera shutter. We like to keep notification sounds on. If you receive a lot of emails, you may also want to turn off the sound for new mails.

3. Set glance to peek (Lumia only)

Glance on Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 8 lets you take a look at clock and notifications when your phone switches to standby. You can choose to turn this off, but it’s a cool feature to have. Head to settings > glance, then select peek. This option lets you see the glance screen when you hover your hand over the phone. Don’t forget to set the start and end times.

4. Turn off double tap to wake up phone (Lumia only)

Double tap to wake up phone is another cool feature to have on Nokia Lumia devices, but you can turn this off to save battery life. If you’re happy with pressing the power button to wake up the phone, then there shouldn’t be any problem turning off this option.

5. Lower the auto screen brightness

By default, your screen brightness is set automatically on medium. You can change this. Go to settings > brightness. Switch off the automatically adjust option and switch the level to low. Turn back on the automatically adjust option for a lower auto screen brightness that can help conserve battery.

6. Prevent some apps running in the background

Some apps may run in the background unnecessarily. If you don’t want them running in the background, go to settings > swipe to applications, then tap background tasks. Tap the app you want to block, and tap block.

7. Turn on airplane mode

If you're listening to music or using your phone, but don't want to make or receive calls, you can switch airplane mode on. It turns off cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC sharing in one try, but you can individually turn them back on if you need to.

8. Turn on NFC or Bluetooth only when needed

If you don’t use NFC sharing or Bluetooth often, we recommend turning them off. Reactivate these features only when needed. Go to settings > tap+send or settings > Bluetooth to switch them off.

9. Set to check for new mail less frequently

If you have added email accounts that don’t need to be checked frequently, you can change how often your phone downloads new content from those accounts. Instead of 30 minutes, change it to hourly, every 2 hours, or even by manual request only. Go to settings > email+accounts, then click on a mailbox account. Change the frequency under “Download new content.”

10. Decrease screen time-out

You can set the screen to automatically switch off after a short time. Go to settings > lock screen, then scroll all the way down to where it says “Screen times out after.” The shortest time you can choose is 30 seconds.

11. Keep Wi-Fi on when screen switches off

It’s more efficient on the battery when Wi-Fi connection is used to connect to the Internet, rather than a mobile data connection. To keep the Wi-Fi connection on even when the phone screen switches off, go to settings > Wi-Fi > advanced, and tap the Keep Wi-Fi on when the screen times out check box.

12. Stop scanning for new Wi-Fi networks

If you have already added your Wi-Fi networks at home or office, it will be more battery efficient to stop the phone from scanning for new networks in the background. Go to settings > Wi-Fi > advanced, then uncheck “Notify me when new networks are found.”

13. Disconnect Xbox Live

If you don’t care about uploading games scores and achievements to Xbox Live, you can prevent your phone from connecting to the service. Go to settings > swipe to applications > games, then turn off “Connect with Xbox.” This is really helpful if you actually have more games listed under “other” compared to Xbox Live compatible games.

14. Disconnect Xbox Music

If you don’t use Xbox Music, you can disconnect from the service. Go to settings > swipe to applications > music+videos, then turn off “Connect with Xbox Music.” You can also turn off Xbox Music cloud collection from here. This doesn’t affect users who prefer to listen to music with other services like Pandora, Spotify, or Nokia MixRadio.

15. Close apps you are not using

If you know you’re done using an app, press the back button to exit instead of pressing the Windows Phone key. If you have the latest Windows Phone 8 update 3, you can also exit apps by pressing and holding the back button then clicking the X’s on the upper right corner of the apps you want to close.

16. Ensure that your phone SW and apps are up-to-date

Some updates bring bug fixes and optimizations that may be beneficial to your device’s battery life. Make sure you have the latest phone software by going to settings > phone update. For app updates, go to Store > Updates.

17. Use power cases or portable USB chargers

Another way to extend the battery life of your Windows Phone 8 device is to use accessories. There are portable USB chargers like the Nokia DC-18 and cases with built-in extra battery like the camera grip for the Nokia Lumia 1020.

So those are some tips to help you extend the battery life of your Windows Phone 8 device. You don’t have to follow all our tips, but following some of them may help.

If you feel like your battery is draining unusually fast, restart your device by pressing and holding the power and volume down keys simultaneously until the phone vibrates. Release and the phone will restart. If you feel it’s still draining fast, the battery may be wearing out and requires replacing. You may need to contact the manufacturer for support.

Do you have more battery-saving tips for Windows Phone 8 that we may have missed? Let us know in the comments!