Questions and answers

Everything people ask about The Scavengers: what it is, whether it suits children, how a hunt works, where you can play and what it costs.

About the game

What is The Scavengers?

The Scavengers: Lost City Treasures is a treasure hunt and scavenger hunt game you play on foot in a real town or city. Your phone's GPS puts the hunt on the streets around you: you walk to real landmarks, statues, blue plaques and old buildings, solve riddles and photo clues there, take on mini puzzles, and dodge make-believe steampunk tanks on the map, while a gruff old narrator called the General talks you through it.

Is it a good scavenger hunt game for families?

Yes, that is what it was made for. A family can play as one team on one phone, pick the Relaxed level (fewer clues, close together), and a hunt lasts from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Children enjoy spotting the statue, reading the plaque or taking the photo; adults enjoy the history in the General's "Did you know?" facts. See the families guide.

How is it different from a printed treasure hunt or a geocache?

Nobody has to prepare anything. The game builds a fresh hunt around wherever you start from more than 27,000 clues at real places, checks the answers itself, keeps score, and adds things a printed trail can't: a narrator, puzzles, rival teams, supply crates, battle cards and hazards that chase you on the map. Unlike geocaching there is nothing hidden in the real world; every answer is out in the open, on a public street.

Who are the General, The Man and the Benefactor?

The General is your guide: he narrates the hunt, cheers you on, warns you when a tank is close and tells you a fact about each landmark. The Man is a mysterious puzzle-master who offers brain-teasers for treasure. The Benefactor is the shadowy patron who sends you on the expedition, tells the story and quietly helps teams (and young explorers) who are struggling.

What kinds of clues are there?

Riddles you answer by reading something at the spot (a date on a building, a name on a plaque), photo clues where you snap the landmark, blue plaque and statue clues, street-history clues, "Map Fragments" trails whose pieces at two or three places combine into a final answer, and educational "From the old books" questions taken from historic books about the town. Every clue is at a real, public place.

What are the puzzles?

The Man has 21 kinds of mini puzzle: ciphers, gears, idols, wires, aqueducts, rolling relics, a glyph ledger and more, each in Easy, Medium and Hard. Beat one during a hunt for treasure, or play them any time, anywhere, in the Enigma Rooms and the Daily Expedition, with no walking needed.

Are the tanks and the bomber real?

No. The tanks, spider tanks and the bomber exist only on the map in the game. They move along the real roads towards you at a walking pace, and you keep away from them on the map, fire a flare to lure them or raise a shield. Nothing in the street changes; keep your eyes up and mind real traffic.

Families and children

What age is it for?

Players need to be 10 or older, and children play with an adult. Younger children can join in on a grown-up's phone as part of the family team: spotting the clue, reading the plaque, taking the photo.

Is it a good thing to do with kids at the weekend or in the school holidays?

Yes. It turns an ordinary walk into an adventure, it's free, it works in your own town without any travel, and a hunt fits an afternoon. Pick the Relaxed level, 30 or 45 minutes, and a start near a park or a café. On a wet day the Enigma Rooms' puzzles work indoors.

Is it safe for children?

Every clue is at a public place you can see from the street or a public path; the game never sends you into private property, onto railway lines or into the water, and clues in paid areas are always optional. The hazards exist only on the map. Children should play with an adult, who keeps an eye on roads and traffic, and the team chat can be reported. Guests play with a first name only: no email, no photo and no age is asked for.

Can the game go easier on younger children?

Yes. The team leader can mark a player as a young explorer with the lobby's KID button (in a solo hunt, the KID switch in Settings). The game never asks for an age; the Benefactor simply helps a young explorer's team a little more often.

Can we do a birthday treasure hunt?

Yes. Tap "It's my birthday!" in the lobby and a birthday cake appears on the map during the hunt for the first team to reach it, with a birthday message for the party. No dates or ages are collected. For a bigger party with several teams, one adult hosts and shares a code or QR for everyone to join.

How far will we walk?

It depends on the level and length you choose: Relaxed keeps clues within about 800 m of the start, Classic about 1.5 km, Expedition about 2.5 km. At the end the results show each explorer's distance, steps, minutes walking and a rough calorie figure.

Is it educational?

Yes, by stealth. Every landmark comes with a "Did you know?" fact from the General, the clues are built from local history (listed buildings, plaques, statues, old books about the town), and the "From the old books" questions are marked Educational. Teachers and youth groups use Custom Games to set their own clues.

Playing

How do I start a hunt?

Open the game, choose Run solo for a quick 30-minute hunt, or Host a hunt to set the length and level and invite friends with a code or QR. The hunt starts where you stand, using your phone's location. Friends choose Join a hunt and type the code.

How long does a hunt take?

You choose: 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, 1½ hours or 2 hours (solo hunts 30 to 60 minutes). The clock is shown all the time; in the last minutes the Mists of Time close in and you head for the pickup point where the plane lands.

How many people can play?

Play alone, as one team, or as several rival teams in the same hunt. A team has up to 8 players, each on their own phone, and team-mates see each other on the map. A whole family can also share one phone.

Do I need an internet connection?

The game uses the internet to start the hunt and check answers, but it saves the clues and the map for the area as you go, and offline city packs let you play whole hunts without a signal in Belfast, East Belfast and around Rhodes (others can be downloaded in the app).

What if there aren't many landmarks where I live?

The game builds a hunt from open map data wherever you start. Where landmarks are thin on the ground it adds walking zones to reach, and the host can choose "Country walk" for a hunt along paths and lanes.

Is there something to do without a hunt?

Yes: the Enigma Rooms (The Man's 21 puzzles on their own, at your level), the Daily Expedition, Story Mode, a City Tour (a relaxed guided walk through the town's history with no clues or clock), collecting the city's statues and climbing your city's leaderboard.

Where you can play

Which towns and cities have clues?

Over 130 places across Northern Ireland, England, Ireland and Greece, including Belfast, Derry~Londonderry, Bangor, Lisburn, Newry, Armagh and 26 Northern Ireland towns, London's 33 boroughs, Manchester, Birmingham, Chester and the Cheshire towns, historic towns across England, National Trust places, Ireland's national parks, the Peak District and Rhodes. See all the cities. New towns are added every week.

Can I play on holiday?

Yes. Rhodes in Greece has hand-researched clues for Rhodes Old Town, Lindos and the coasts, with offline packs so you don't need data abroad. Anywhere else, the game builds a hunt from open map data around you.

Can we play in a park or the countryside?

Yes. National Trust places such as the Giant's Causeway and Mount Stewart, Ireland's national parks and Peak District villages have their own clues; paid areas such as houses and gardens are always optional bonus clues, and clues never ask you to climb or leave a path.

Schools, clubs, work and events

Can a school, club or company run its own hunt?

Yes, with a Custom Game: choose landmark clues around your venue or write your own riddles, add helper tasks where volunteers hold a handover code, set the teams up, and follow the scores on a live dashboard on the day. Everyone joins with one code. It costs from £25 for up to 10 players, then £2 per extra player, paid once on our website. See groups and events.

Is it good for team building?

Yes. Teams walk, talk and solve together, the live dashboard and results make a good finish in a café, and the answer sheet and results download make it easy for the organiser.

Cost, phones and privacy

How much does it cost?

The game is free to play and has no adverts. Organisations pay for a Custom Game (from £25 per event) on our website; nothing is sold to children in the game.

Which phones does it work on?

It works today in the web browser of any modern phone (Android or iPhone) at play.the-scavengers.com, with location switched on. The Android app is in private testing and coming to Google Play; the iPhone app is on its way to the App Store.

Do I need an account?

No. Play as a guest with just a first name. Sign in with Google if you want to keep your explorer, XP and medals on another phone.

What happens to my location and data?

Your location is used to run the hunt and is shared only with the players in your hunt. There are no adverts and no third-party analytics or advertising cookies. Photos are checked on your own phone; one is sent only when you ask the host to check it, or the host has chosen to review photos. Read the privacy policy.