Hint Coins in Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Hint coins are the currency you spend when a puzzle has you stumped. In Curious Village there are only so many of them, so it pays to collect them as you go — and to spend them wisely.

The numbers

Hint coins in the game	200
You start with	10
Hidden around the village	190
Hints per puzzle	3
Cost per hint	1 coin
Picarat penalty for using hints	None

Hints unlock in order: you can’t skip to Hint 3 without opening Hints 1 and 2 first. That means opening every hint on a puzzle costs three coins.

Can you buy every hint?

No. With 135 puzzles and three hints each, you’d need 405 coins to open every hint — about twice as many as the game contains. You’ll have to choose which puzzles really need help. A coin sitting unused at the end of the game doesn’t help you either, though, so don’t hoard them out of habit.

Where hint coins hide

Coins are hidden in the scenery of each location. Tap things that stand out — barrels, windows, signs, lamps, plants, odd marks on the ground — and a coin pops out with a little chime when you hit the right spot. You have to tap fairly precisely, so if a spot looks promising, try a few taps around it.

A good habit: whenever you arrive somewhere new, sweep the screen for coins before you start talking to everyone. Some screens change as the story moves on, so it’s easier to collect coins while you’re already there.

The coin-finding helper

Gizmos are hidden around the village too. Collect them all and you receive a robot dog that helps you find hidden hint coins and puzzles you might otherwise miss — a handy reward if you’re aiming to find everything.

Spend coins on our hints instead

If you’d rather save your coins, every puzzle on this site has three free hints that build up gradually, followed by the answer. Start from the Curious Village puzzle list.

A full location-by-location list of all 190 hidden coins is coming once we’ve checked it in the game.