Imagine a reality TV show where nobody votes you off, but a monkey flatly refuses to help until you hand over a banana. That is Artifact Seekers in one sentence. This Artifact Seekers walkthrough covers everything you need to survive the show: how the free hidden object adventure from FIVE-BN GAMES actually works, a full step by step route through Episode 1 Tropical Island, the exact formula for collecting all 10 stars in every episode, the secret room, and a breakdown of all 15 episodes released so far. I also cover which platforms it runs on, what the in-app purchases really do, and why so many players keep confusing it with a completely different roguelike. Grab your virtual knife, because you will be cutting a lot of nets.

What Is Artifact Seekers and How Does the TV Show Setup Work?

Artifact Seekers is a point and click hidden object adventure built around a fictional reality TV competition. You pick a pair of contestants at the start, step in front of the cameras, and travel to a themed location. Each episode is a self contained adventure with its own puzzles, side characters, and artifact to recover. The studio behind it is FIVE-BN GAMES, the same team that makes the Legendary Tales series, so genre veterans will recognize the polish right away.

The show framing is more than decoration. Your stars act as your score with the audience, and the game frames each run as a race against rival contestants for the viewers' love. In Episode 1, the host Maxim greets you with a few tips, and the game offers an optional tutorial if you have never played this style of game before. You can choose any of the available couples, and the choice is cosmetic, so pick whoever looks the most camera ready.

"Take on other players to win the love of the audience."

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Is Artifact Seekers Free, and Where Can You Play It?

Yes, the base game is free nearly everywhere. Artifact Seekers first launched on mobile in 2024, then reached PC as Artifact Seekers 1 on August 18, 2025, followed by console versions. The studio makes money through optional purchases such as virtual currency, and the mobile version also runs ads. On PS5, those paid add-ons are not required to finish the game or unlock trophies, which tells you how optional they really are.

How Does Artifact Seekers Gameplay Work?

Every episode follows the same loop: explore, find tools, combine them, solve a puzzle, unlock a new area, repeat. Here is what makes the formula tick:

• Item combining: Many tools are built in your inventory. In Episode 1 you assemble a machete from a blade, a handle, and two bolts, then tighten it with your knife.
• Item locking: You often cannot pick up an object until the story gives you a reason to need it. This is the single biggest cause of "I'm stuck" moments.
• Randomized solutions: Several puzzles shuffle their symbols or orders per player, so you need the in game clue, not someone else's exact answer.
• Environmental clues: Flags, cushions, murals, and wall drawings quietly hold the answers to puzzles you meet much later.
• Collectibles and bonus minigames: Collection items, morphing objects, and sets of five special items feed into optional stars.

Fair warning from personal experience: when I first played Tropical Island on Steam, I spotted the purple berries floating in the temple water long before any recipe asked for them. I tapped them like a raccoon at a broken vending machine for a solid five minutes and got absolutely nothing. Two puzzles later, the recipe unlocked, I went back, and they slid straight into my inventory. That moment taught me the real rule of this show: if an item ignores you, the game is not broken, you are just early. I now keep a mental list of "stubborn objects" and revisit them every time a new objective pops up, and it has saved me hours across later episodes.

Artifact Seekers Walkthrough: Episode 1 Tropical Island Step by Step

Tropical Island sends your contestants to a subtropical island to uncover the secrets of a forgotten religion. It is the longest tutorial you will ever enjoy, and it teaches every mechanic the later episodes rely on. If you prefer watching to reading, the full playthrough below covers the first five episodes back to back.

Part 1: The Beach and the Fisherman's Hut

1. Grab the Knife: Take it from the box in the wreckage at the top of the beach. Look at the flag in the top right too, because its picture hides four shapes you need later.
2. Open the clams: Use the Knife on the basket of shells to get Bolts and an Amulet.
3. Meet the Fisherman: Tap the nets at the far end of the beach to reach his hut. Talk to him and he hands over the boat Key.
4. Boat Trunk Puzzle: Slide each gold block onto a pink plate using exactly as many moves as it has blue dots. Collect the Manuscript, a Handle, and Nippers.
5. Enter the hut: Cut the door wire with the Nippers and take the Shovel. A Pungi hides behind the hammock.
6. Get the Glass Eye: Shovel away the sand by the gate left of the hut, then cut the net with the Knife.
7. Stone Face Puzzle: Place the Glass Eye on the stone face back on the beach and clear the board by matching pairs. Three patterns of dots appear as a clue.
8. Bells: Inside the hut, tap the three bells that match those dot counts to get a Detail.
9. Build the Machete: Dig up the buried chest on the lower left of the beach for a Blade, add the Handle and both Bolts, then tighten with the Knife. Hack through the vines above the well to reach the Jungle Path.

Part 2: Jungle Path and the Lake Village

1. Cut down the pack: Use the Knife on the bag hanging in the trees for a Recipe Book and a Casket.
2. Fire pit Key: At the lake, tap the ashes in the fire pit for a Key, then open the beach chest for a Prybar and Forceps.
3. Bribe the crocodile: Use the Forceps to pull Fish from the boiling pot in the hut, then feed it to the crocodile blocking the village path.
4. Stone platform: Pry open the round stone on the Jungle Path for a Decoration and a crocodile Head.
5. Spice Drawers Puzzle: In the forge, take the Rope, then close the spice drawers in the order listed in your Recipe Book to win a Mosaic Part.
6. Gold Box Puzzle: Inside the house on the right, grab the Flask and a Banana, then add the Detail to the gold box. Rotate the squares until each corner matches its color. Finish in 100 moves or fewer for a star, and you get the second Head.
7. Pay the monkey: Give the Banana to the monkey above the Jungle Path. It drops a Weight, because apparently even primates have a union.
8. Down the well: Tie the Rope to the well, climb down, take the Bucket, dig by the skeleton's hand for a Key, and memorize the wall drawing.
9. Water Taps Puzzle: Empty the village trough with the Bucket for a Valve. Fit it to the taps behind the house's back doors and open them in the order of the ten flowers on the nearby mural, bottom to top.
10. Square Column Puzzle: Put both Heads on the pillar by the lake and rotate its sections to match the flag's shapes from top to bottom. Stepping stones rise across the water.
11. Lake temple: Rotate the door box to line up the flower symbols. Inside, cut the slit cushion for a Bird Figurine, open the lamp for Oil, and add the Mosaic Part to the floor. Slide every lotus into its slot to earn a Ruby.
12. Open the gate: Sort the colored sand tubes in the forge to get a Brush, clean the pool drain so Nisha gives you a second Weight, then put both Weights in the big gate. Pull the bars in the right order and slide the seven bells to the green line.

Part 3: Pulleys, Paint, and the Cave Wall

1. Laser figure: Insert the Bird Figurine and line up the blue lasers with the pattern behind them to get a Lens.
2. Maze: Cut open the sack for a Pick, then hunt down all 8 Pulleys hidden in the maze.
3. Pulley board: Use the well drawing as the layout, place the Pulleys, and thread the belt. Break the rock with the Pick for a Handle and raise the bridge.
4. Recipe prep: Hold the Flask under the flower named in the recipe and cut it for juice, then take Black Pepper from the spice box.
5. Tools: Push the Knife into the rock crack for a Key, open the wooden crate with the Pick for a Crucible and Torch, and set the Decoration on the statue.
6. Paint the cave: Take the Sieve and Ladder, break the barrel for a Brush, and place the Ladder for your first Bas Relief. Sift the ashes for two figurines, mix pigments with Oil, and paint the wall: blue for the monkey, purple for the bison and crocodile. The wall collapses, revealing an Emerald and a lever puzzle.
7. Lever puzzle: Pull lever A four times, B four times, and C three times to open the secret room (full guide below).

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Part 4: The Golden Lotus Finale

1. Egg and torch: Unlock the chicken cage for an Egg and add it to the recipe bottle with the Black Pepper. Light the Torch and use it on the rock hollow for another Amulet and Ruby.
2. Timed casket puzzle: Put the Amulet in the Casket and move the blue and yellow circles onto matching fields in under two minutes for a star. You receive a Bracer.
3. Ruby statue: Insert both Rubies and press left twice, right twice, left once, right once. Solve the circle puzzle behind the new door.
4. Solvent: Fish the purple berries from the water, finish the recipe, give the Bracer to the cow statue, and use the Solvent and Brush on the wall.
5. Second Bas Relief: Turn the statue's arms and head, then combine both Bas Reliefs and rotate the colored circles into place for a Map, a Mold, and a lotus drawing.
6. Forge the lotus: Mine Gold with the Pick, fuel the oven with Dry Manure and the burning Torch, melt the Gold in the Crucible, and pour it into the Mold. Set the Emerald in the Golden Lotus.
7. Finish: Place the Lotus and the Lens in the final statue. Credits for the episode roll and your completion star appears.

How Do You Unlock the Tropical Island Secret Room?

The secret room is a hidden object scene behind the painted cave wall, and it pays out one star. Every episode has one, and the pattern is always the same: gather three tokens, then open a locked case.

1. Collect supplies: Take the Lever near the purple plant, then a Candle, a green cloth, and a Key from the small table.
2. Drop the cage: Fit the Lever into the wall slot by the glass case and pull it. Unlock the fallen cage with the Key for the Circle Token.
3. Feed the crab: Grab Dried Meat from the blanket and give it to the crab in the water for the Triangle Token.
4. Make a sieve: Stretch the cloth over the metal hoop, seal it with candle wax, and sift the water for Mosaic pieces.
5. Mosaic Puzzle: Swap pieces until all seven flowers match their backgrounds to earn the Square Token.
6. Open the case: Insert the Square, then the Circle, then the Triangle, and collect your star.

How Do You Get All 10 Stars in Each Artifact Seekers Episode?

Here is the part most guides scatter across a dozen pages. Each episode offers 10 stars: one for finishing and nine optional extras. The categories repeat across episodes, so once you understand Episode 1, you know what to hunt for everywhere. Stars never block story progress, but completionists will want every single one.

My take on why this system works: the stars split each episode into two games. The story path is a guided puzzle chain, while the star hunt is a scavenger hunt layered on top of the exact same scenes. Most hidden object games put bonus content in a separate chapter you unlock later. FIVE-BN keeps it inside the main map, so a second lap through an episode feels like a different game rather than a repeat. The catch is that morphing objects and collection items are tiny, so do a slow sweep of every new scene before you touch the puzzles.

Artifact Seekers Guide to All 15 Episodes

New episodes arrive as updates to the same game, each one a new stop on the show's tour. Here is every episode released as of October 2026, with the premise and the special items worth tracking.

Pacing data most guides skip: a clean, mistake free run with a guide takes about 37 minutes for Tropical Island, 34 for Wild West, 42 for Viking Village, and 40 for Doll Factory. Playing blind, budget at least two to three times that, especially if you chase stars on your first pass.

Which Artifact Seekers Walkthrough Tips Save the Most Time?

1. Revisit after every objective: Locked items unlock as the story moves. When you get a new task, sweep the earlier scenes again.
2. Screenshot every clue: Flags, cushions with animals, murals, and wall drawings all solve puzzles later. In Tropical Island, cushions with 2 cows, 3 tigers, and 2 rhinos are not decor.
3. Trust your clue, not a copied answer: Symbol puzzles and bell orders change per player, so a friend's exact solution may fail for you.
4. Look before you rush timed puzzles: Plan the first few moves of move limit and time limit puzzles before you tap, since those stars reward efficiency.
5. Count your sets of five: Bonus minigames need all five special items. If one level is locked, you are missing an item, not a skill.
6. Hunt morphing objects mid change: They shift slowly between two shapes. Watch a scene for a few seconds rather than tapping randomly.
7. Use the tutorial once: The Episode 1 tutorial explains the interface quickly, so do not skip it on your first ever run.

Artifact Seekers vs Artifact Seeker: Which Game Are You Looking For?

One missing letter causes a lot of confused downloads. Artifact Seeker, singular, is a completely different game from a different studio, and its fans want builds, not bucket locations. Here is the quick split:

Is Artifact Seekers Worth Playing in 2026?

For hidden object fans, it is an easy yes, since the price of entry is zero and the puzzle variety is excellent. Players consistently praise the atmosphere and the sheer number of puzzles per episode. The story gets weaker marks, which makes sense: a TV show premise is a frame, not a plot. Here is my honest scorecard:

• Pros: Free on every major platform, huge puzzle variety, 15 distinct locations, low PC requirements, and a star system that makes replays worthwhile.
• Pros: Episodes are bite sized enough for an evening, and new ones keep arriving.
• Cons: Item locking can feel unfair until you understand it, and the mobile version shows ads.
• Cons: The story is thin, and some art and translations use AI, which will bother some players.

Final Verdict: Should You Sign Up for the Show?

Artifact Seekers is one of the most generous free hidden object games around. You get 15 handcrafted episodes, a star system that rewards careful exploration, and puzzles that feel fresh from the tropical beach to the haunted house. Learn the three golden rules (items unlock when needed, clues hide in decorations, and stars come in repeatable categories) and every future episode becomes far less frustrating. Bookmark this Artifact Seekers walkthrough, keep feeding that monkey his bananas, and may the audience love you forever. If you want to jump in now, the free PC version is waiting on the Artifact Seekers 1 Steam page.