The Arcana: cheats - Coins, Trinkets, and Keys explained
As mobile visual novels go, The Arcana is one of the most magical. As a sorcerer's apprentice, you woo one of six diverse characters while solving the mysterious murder of Vesuvia’s previous ruler: Count Lucio.
Like many games on iOS and Android however, you are not free to progress through The Arcana’s story at your leisure. To see everything there is to see in The Arcana, you need to balance three currencies: Keys, Coins, and Trinkets.
Keys are used to read and reread chapters, so are incredibly important to your progress. For walkthroughs of the three main characters' stories, we have a page linked here.
Coins unlock paid dialogue options within chapters which, although they don’t count towards which character ending you receive, are usually some of the best scenes in the game.
They can also be used to buy books, which permanently unlocks chapters and all the paid choices within them, as well as other items.
Lastly Trinkets are obtained from the Wheel of Fortune, and are used to watch special scenes in The Arcana.
They can also be bought and sold for Coins.
Once you’ve read the Prologue chapters one to five, Arcana splits into six spokes - each a different version of the narrative where you romance a different character.
There are currently routes for:
- Countess Nadia
- Dr Julian
- Your master, Asra
- Muriel
- Lucio
- And the head servant, Portia
The last three on the list aren’t complete yet, and are still a work in progress.
While there are fewer options than something like Mystic Messenger, there's still plenty to play through.
How to get more keys in The Arcana
Since you need Keys to read every chapter in The Arcana, you will be using a lot of them to see your favourite romance through to fruition.
The most basic way to get Keys is to wait. Your three core Keys will refresh themselves over time, so if you wait a day once they’re depleted you’ll be ready to go again.
However, just reading three chapters a day doesn’t lend itself to binging through the story to get to some of The Arcana’s steamier sections.
To build up more than three, your best bet is to head over to the Heart Hunter mini-game in the Dailes menu. Here, by collecting sets of Postcards from different characters, you can earn items as rewards - this includes extra Keys.
The sets of Postcards are based around the different locations on the board, so try to focus your efforts on winning with different characters on the same spot.
The Arcana Keys cheat
Finally, there is an exploit which refills your daily Keys more quickly. However, abusing this sort of thing can lead to inconsistencies in your game or difficulties with your account.
Like with many mobile games, the refresh timer for The Arcana is linked to your system clock rather than anything else. This means that you can advance your device’s clock forward a day in the Settings and the game will refresh everything - your Keys, the Dailies, everything.
Once again, though - I wouldn’t advise you to mess with it. But hey, it’s not like you’re my Apprentice or anything.
How to get more Coins in The Arcana
The most enticing transactions in The Arcana are the ones you make with Coins. Most often, Coins unlock extra scenes within chapters which shed more light or characters’ personalities and motivations. Generally, they have little effect on the overarching story - and it has been confirmed by Nix Hydra that they have absolutely no effect on which ending you see.
Coins can also be used to buy Trinkets, Books so that you don’t have to use keys to read chapters, as well as Tarot Readings of your fortune.
There are a few ways to get more Coins. The first is to, like with Keys, complete sets of Postcards in the Heart Hunter mini-game. This takes the most effort, but is also a lucrative source of Coins.
The second is to log-in to The Arcana every day and go to the Tarot Dailies screen. Each new day you boot up the game, you will receive a small amount of coins.
There’s also a chance you can be randomly selected to view adverts within the game in exchange for some coins. Apparently this feature is still being beta tested, so it isn’t reliable.
Lastly, you can obviously purchase more coins from the in-game Store.
Beware “hacks” claiming to give you infinite Coins in any mobile game. These are usually scams which either install malicious applications on your device, make money from you by tricking you into downloading additional software, or just get your store account banned.
How to get Trinkets in The Arcana
Trinkets are character-related items you get from the Wheel of Fortune.
You can either get Trinkets randomly from the Wheel, or buy them individually for 50 Coins.
Apprentices receive one free spin every day, or can purchase more for 20 coins.
Once you’ve collected one or two of each type of Trinket - or 100 total - you can view “Special Scenes”. These are generally fun mash-ups featuring many different romanceable characters in charming situations.
You can see bits and pieces of these special scenes around the internet, so we’ll point you in the right direction, but beware of spoilers!
The first is called Nadia’s Birthday, and there’s a video of it linked here.
The second Special Scene is called Haunted Holiday, which we’ve not found a recording of, but you can see parts of it on Tumblr (linked here)- be extra wary of spoilers when searching Arcana on social!