How do you beat Counterfeit Island?

Answer 1

The object is to prevent the theft of priceless paintings from the Island Museum. The island was the 10th island of Poptropica. It was released to Early Access on December 21, 2009 - to all on January 4, 2010)

(For a shorter version of the solution, see the related questions.)

Arriving on the Island

You may wish to tour the island before going to the museum. The areas include the Docks, the Museum and Main Street, Downtown, and the Countryside. The valuable painting "The Scream" by Edvard Munch is due to be exhibited at the Museum Fantastique (this is a French island, but mostly they speak English). It is daytime when you arrive and you have a chance to look around. At night, Downtown is closed for construction and repairs.

Downtown / Countryside

1) There is a pair of large trash cans near the Underground Tunnel Tour. If you dig through the one on the right, you will find a pair of tickets to the Tour. But you decide to return them to their proper owner if possible.

2) There are free balloons in Bobo's Clown Store, and they will lift you high into the air when you jump. This makes the few building climbs easier. Take a green one to the Countryside for a crying boy there. (Oops! He's off!)

Main Street / Museum

3) Return to Main Street and check the news coverage at the internet Cafe. The PONG game there is addictive, but if you press the old guy, you will find he is the rightful owner of the Tour tickets. He will give you one.

4) Look on the upper right of the Moldy Baguette Inn to find an odd scrap of paper, part of a torn picture of some sort of dragon. (There are 5 more pieces to find.)

5) Take the Underground Tour, which includes some skeletons and coffins. Inside a domed arch, you will find another of the odd dragon picture pieces. There is some sort of special hatch leading up to somewhere. The exit is to the Docks on the far left of the island.

6) Talk to the shady guy at the exit, and get the 3rd piece of the torn picture behind him. The 4th piece is on top of the ship.

Museum Fantastique

7) Go to the Museum (to your right) and see the female Chief Inspector in front. Climb up to get the 5th dragon picture piece on the roof.

8) Enter the Museum and apply for a job. The assistant curator tests you with four sets of paintings, each a different style. Pick the paintings that don't belong and move them to the right category. (The middle one at Upper Left goes to the right at Upper Right, that one goes to the right at Lower Right, that one goes to the middle Lower Left, and that one goes to the middle at Upper Left.)

9) Take the tutorial for Forgery Detection. Use the X-ray to spot the painting with the older artwork underneath. Use the magnifier on three paintings to spot the different signature. The moonlight photo shows stars through the Moon. For the paint test, click the color that lights up in the frame during each timed test : oil, watercolor, and pastel. (1st is Green-Red-Blue-Red, 2nd is Red-Green-Blue-Blue, 3rd is Blue-Red-Blue-Green.)

10) Get your key to the supply room. Go through the Statue collection and to the Security Office to examine the video surveillance equipment. Go to the Supply Room, where you will find the last piece of the dragon face.

Night Time at the Museum

11) Leave the museum, and go left to the City Docks, and see the guy you met earlier. He wants you to stop the theft of the painting "The Scream". Enter the underground and make your way to the secret tunnel to the surface.

12) Solve the dragon face lock by arranging the 8 facial features to match the picture.

Left (your left) horn : flat to left

Right horn : up to right

Left eyebrow : up to middle

Right eyebrow : over top of eye

Left eye : down and left

Right eye : up and right

Chin : halfway down below mouth

Tongue : all the way out

13) Enter the Supply Room and unlock it. Slip past the Security Window and out into the Statue Room.

14) Avoid the lasers by hiding behind the statues until it is safe to move, enter the main hall. The door to the museum is locked, so there is nowhere to go. Take up a protective position near the painting in the upper gallery. You will click on the painting or the light above it. (Uh oh! You have tripped the alarm! You are arrested!)

Next Day (In the Jail)

15) Take a lie detector test with the Chief Inspector, who tells you that the painting was actually stolen later in the night.

16) You return to the museum to see if the thief is on the surveillance video.But it is too long. Go to find the security guard who was on duty. All of the townspeople think he needed cheering up, and sure enough you find him in the Clown Store. He has his timecard showing when he wasn't in the gallery hall.

17) Back at the museum, discover that the shady guy was the crook, and print his photo to show around town. Although no one seems to know him, the Ship Captain suggests you ask the mimes about him. When you do, they just whistle. This suggests he is in the All That Jazz Cafe (although if you look there first, he's not).

18) Confront the Shady Guy, and chase him through the streets on the motor scooters. Try not to wreck, although you can't catch him anyway and he escapes by boat. Pick up a key card he dropped, which has a Black Widow on it.

19) Back at the museum, you have a package waiting that contains information. By x-raying the painting of the Starry Night, you will find a message from the Museum Fantastique's curator, who is on Early Poptropica Island.

Off to Early Poptropica

20) Take the blimp to Early Poptropica and go to the Art Museum. You meet the curator who says that a famous thief is threatening the world's greatest artwork. She gives you a key to some unknown lock, and you return to Counterfeit island to search.

In the Countryside

21) Go to the mysterious locked cottage of the Inspector, who is probably intended to be the Chief Inspector (the sign is supposed to say "Veuve Noire" - Black Widow in French). The key from the curator fits the door!

22) Inside are a locked chest (a dummy item) and a strange painting. The sidewalk artist said that he had done a painting for the Chief Inspector but without a frame. Peel back the corner, and it's the stolen "Scream" from the museum.

(Lights go out and you are noisily subdued.)

In the Lair of the Black Widow

24) You are tied up and questioned by the Black Widow, notorious art thief (it's the lady Inspector, but you saw that coming). She leaves, and you talk to the shady guy, who turns out to be her henchman, who she has now betrayed. Scoot yourself backward in your chair, so you can get untied.

25) Enter the guarded room, move along the lower level to pass the guards, then climb back up behind one of them. You can now jump up as a female guard turns away, trailing her quietly until you reach the large chair at far right. Springing onto it, you reach the top door.

26) The Black Widow key card opens the door and you and the shady guy confront the Widow. Go to the large cranked lift at far left to get Shady Guy up to catch her.

27) Before you can get there, the Widow begins trashing valuable artwork from her loot. You will have to save the art from destruction at the same time as you crank the handle to raise the lift. Jump up to catch it, as she throws four pieces at a time. After each set of four, she throws small bombs down to distract you, so you can only spend part of that time cranking the lift up. If the value of lost items goes over $1 million, you have to start over. After about 8 or 9 sets of items, you should have the lift fully cranked.

28) Shady Guy (probably hoping for a lighter sentence) captures the Black Widow, and the game is over.

The passageways are open to the surface now, and the curator meets you at the museum to give you the Island Medallion! (The museum had cleverly hidden priceless art behind phony walls.)

* (see related questions)