How to play Dispatch Hunt
Read the tip from your editor: which fictional star is coming to the café, the one detail that gives them away, and a clue about what they will do.
The screen is a camera viewfinder. Drag to look around the café, which is two and a half screens wide, and use the zoom slider (or pinch) to get close. Zoom in to spot the detail and tell the star apart from look-alikes.
Watch the star. In levels 1 to 3 a red ! pops up over their head one second before each moment. Press the big round shutter at the peak of the moment, with the face in the frame and nobody in front of it.
When the 90 seconds are up, pick up to 3 photos for the story and one of 3 suggested headlines, then publish it and watch the comments and shares roll in.
On a computer: Space shoots, the arrow keys look around, Z and X zoom, N hides behind the newspaper and P pauses.
What a photo is worth
- Everyday: 100 Walking, ordering and sipping coffee. Any photo taken outside a moment counts as this.
- Awkward: 600 Six sugar packets in one coffee, or a dropped cake: they look around, pick it up and eat it anyway.
- True colours: 1,200 The star loses their temper and scolds their assistant in the middle of the café.
- Exclusive: 5,000 A secret date at the corner table with someone in a red cap: one drink with two straws, then heart hands.
- Multipliers The peak of a moment ×1.5, a partly hidden face ×0.5, a face out of the frame ×0, strong hand shake when zoomed in ×0.6, all three steps of a chain ×2, and a look-alike costs 200.
Things that go wrong
- Dead battery The viewfinder goes black. Drag the old battery out, tap the new one until + and − match the slot, and drag it in.
- Bodyguard quiz One question with 3 choices and 5 seconds to answer. A wrong answer gets you thrown out for 10 seconds.
- The star turns around You have one second to tap “Pretend to read the paper”. Too slow and you lose a third of your stealth; lose it all and the star leaves.
- Full memory card Delete at least 3 shots before you can shoot again.
Dispatch Hunt features
- A camera you hold Corner brackets, a blinking REC light, the battery, the shots left and a clock, with hand shake that grows as you zoom.
- Five levels From 5 to 25 people in the café, shorter moments every level, and a star in sunglasses from level 3 and a face mask in level 5.
- A scandal chart Three fictional stars take turns: singer Bin Bon, beauty queen Xinh Xinh and film star Lãnh Lùng. Every story pushes one of them up the chart.
- A shop for your gear Your fee is the discussion divided by 10, paid in coins. Buy a telephoto lens, a spare battery and a big memory card.
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- Thread the Needle Steady trembling hands and push the thread through the eye of the needle.
- Roach Smasher Smash scurrying roaches across the kitchen with fast taps before they escape.
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