After learning that this year’s Chinese New Year reunion dinners are to be capped at 8 persons per household, the feeling of excitement that usually accompanies this time of year just isn’t there. Whether it’s not being able to yell during the Lohei, or wearing a mask while tossing the yusheng, or the fact that no inter-mingling is allowed in restaurants, this Chinese New Year just doesn’t feel right.
But POSB, iconically known as the ‘People’s Bank’, wants to make this time of year still feel special. They have brought back their game, #HuntYourZodiac: The Hunt Begins, and it’s about to be bigger than ever!
This time, you get to go around Singapore with your families on the hunt for Chinese zodiac animals in their four elements – wood, metal, earth, water. This means you’ll be on the hunt for 60 Chinese zodiac animals, and that too scattered all around Singapore in over 34,000 locations, called the ‘Gates of Fortune’!
If you’re lucky, the zodiac animal you capture may come along with an e-angbao, and you stand to win up to $150,000 in angbaos. So be sure to link your DBS PayLah! account beforehand to redeem your angbaos (read on to learn more about them)!
Each animal of each element variation also comes with a specialised horoscope prediction, so make sure to catch yours to see what 2021 has in store for you!
To start, visit the #HuntYourZodiac website on your mobile phone, link your DBS PayLah! account, and watch the tutorial to be guided through the game yourself.
Ensure your location settings are turned on, and you’re ready to hunt! Go around and find a ‘Gate of Fortune’, and click on it to play a mini-game to capture the zodiac animal. If you succeed in the game, the animal is yours (psst, it may come with an angbao, so be sure to redeem it if you get it!). It also comes with a horoscope for the birth month and year, so make sure you keep hunting to find yours too!
But wait, did you know that your animal can escape?
After a certain period of time, the animal you captured may run, causing you to lose your shot at attaining your wanted animal combinations, and risk losing out on a hefty angbao! Furthermore, depending on the type, the zodiac animals will escape after 7-22 hours.
But there’s a way you can stop this from happening, or at least, delay the time your animal takes to escape, and that is through ‘Oranges’!
The oranges will be your most prized possessions in the game, and you can redeem them from the Orange Shop. They serve three different functions:
- Summon Oranges can call for a particular animal type or its specific element, which will appear at a nearby Gate of Fortune sometime after the power-up is enabled.
- Extension Oranges can help to delay the animal’s escape after it’s captured.
- Skip Oranges are used to skip the waiting period, to hunt from the same Gate of Fortune again, allowing you to make your catch faster.
Now, back to the part that makes your eyes shine with grit, mouth curl into a smile, and heart race like you’re in a marathon, the angbaos!
There are three different angbaos you stand a chance to win:
- Zodiac Angbao: The angbaos that come in the zodiac animals’ hands range from S$1.08 to S$88.
- Combination Angbao: When you complete challenges and collect the correct sets of zodiac animals (for example, the 12 fire zodiac animals, or zodiac animals in the East). These angbaos are worth between S$1.88 to S$188.
- Golden Angbao: The grand prize, the ultimate reward! It could be yours if you successfully catch all 60 zodiac animals in the inventory. This angbao could be worth anywhere between S$18 to S$8888! But only one golden angbao is up for grabs throughout the game period. Again, it could be yours!
But remember what I said about having 60 animals to catch, at 34,000 Gates of Fortune scattered around the country?
This means that you could get duplicates. You may find an animal of an element which could already be in your inventory. So when you catch a duplicate, you can replace the one you already have, and refresh the escape time, giving you more time to win your Combination Angbao!
There is also something called a Golden Gate! All gates with the DBS PayLah! logos will transform into special golden gates where you can find the most elusive zodiac animals during the golden hours of the day, from 5.00pm to 7.00pm every day!
During this season of celebrations with your family, the times are different. So let’s do something different too. Spend the time with your family to earn these angbaos together, and go out for a nice meal as you travel all around Singapore. Make some new memories. Have a good time together.
The POSB #HuntYourZodiac virtual mobile game will take place from 10 February to 14 February! I wish you all the best on your quest and hope you make some lasting fun memories to tell your friends this CNY. Happy Hunting!
Photos by Darren Chiong of the DANAMIC Team.
