"Archie: Riverdale Rescue": Easter!

I began writing about the "Archie: Riverdale Rescue" iOS gaming app back in October 2013. Since then, the game has expanded to PC users. It's an oddly addictive game where you are tasked with the improvement and beautification of Riverdale USA using a variety of recognizable characters, such as Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica. A big part of the game also involves building emotional bonds between the various characters, leading to romantic couples, BFFs, and overall friends. I thought it would be fun to discuss aspects of the game that I find exciting, disappointing, and/or note-worthy.

The "Riverdale Rescue" game was upgraded earlier this week. This latest upgrade is an Easter update. Unlike previous holiday/season-themed upgrades, this Easter upgrade didn't introduce any new Quests. But there were lots of other upgrade elements that really got me excited.

Here is the concept. Dilton has been experimenting on Bunnies in his lab. I'm not sure what happened (maybe PETA pulled a liberation effort), but the Bunnies escaped and are slowly swarming Riverdale! If left unchecked, they will eat up all the local vegetation!


Here is something important to realize as you begin playing after the Easter upgrade: It takes a while for the Bunnies to appear. Pretty much everyone I know who plays "Riverdale Rescue" did the Easter upgrade and then stared at their game expecting to see tons of Bunnies, but saw nothing.

I reached out to The Archie Game twitter account and asked for a tip. They told me that it takes about 12 minutes for Bunnies to appear within the game. If you are walking Runty (like I was early in the game -- more on him below!!), then that will also delay the Bunnies' appearances. Also, it seems like it's a slow build-up. Initially, you will find one or two white Bunnies. As your game progresses, it looks like the number of Bunnies increases and the types of Bunnies will diversify.

In order to protect Riverdale, game players are tasked with collecting the liberated Bunnies! If you see a Bunny, you just need to tap them and they will get trapped -- and presumably sent back to Dilton's lab for future experimentation!! There are three types of Bunnies and you earn points for each Bunny that you capture. Your points will vary depending on the type of Bunny that you capture:


This Easter upgrade marks the first time since the initial launch of "Riverdale Rescue" where a new character was introduced to the game: Runty! You'll be forgiven if you don't remember Runty. He was introduced in late 2012 in the digital exclusive comic book REGGIE & ME (here), but he's also appeared in print once in ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #244 (here).


Runty is not a free character. He costs about 150 soda pop points, if I remember correctly. You can definitely earn soda pop points for free by playing the game, but unless you've been playing a really long time and stockpiling it'll take a long time to get enough to "buy" Runty in for free. If you don't have enough soda pop points to pull Runty into the game, then you can purchase him through iTunes. (I'm not quite sure how PC players purchase buy-in characters like Runty or Hot Dog or Kevin Keller, etc...)

Runty in "Riverdale Rescue" is very much like Hot Dog. Unlike Hot Dog, Runty doesn't clean up the trash or tall grass, nor does he repair the torn up landscape. But he does enjoy going for walks with other characters.

More importantly, he collects Bunnies!! Not only that, he collects a lot of Bunnies! Runty can gather up more Bunnies in one walk than you can hope to gather up without him. Every time you walk him, you'll end up with 80-90 captured Bunnies and those Bunny points add up quickly!

Here is something important to realize as you begin playing after the Easter upgrade: It takes a while for the Bunnies to appear. Pretty much everyone I know who plays "Riverdale Rescue" did the Easter upgrade and then stared at their game expecting to see tons of Bunnies, but saw nothing.

I reached out to The Archie Game twitter account and asked for a tip. They told me that it takes about 12 minutes for Bunnies to appear within the game. If you are walking Runty (like I was early in the game -- more on him below!!), then that will also delay the Bunnies' appearances. Also, it seems like it's a slow build-up. Initially, you will find one or two white Bunnies. As your game progresses, it looks like the number of Bunnies increases and the types of Bunnies will diversify.

 So why should you collaborate with Dilton the Animal Experimenter? What's in it for you? As I noted above, you earn Bunny points for each captured Bunny. You win prizes as you hit Bunny point milestones, including a Bunny hutch, new outfits, and various monuments. Check these out:


Once you are rewarded for your hard work, you can then upgrade your own private Riverdale, which can be a lot of fun! Check out some of the work I've been up to this week:




As usual, there are lots of new outfits introduced with this upgrade. Some are rewards. Some are for sale. One is an automatic addition.

Dilton is the one character whose primary outfit changed once "Riverdale Rescue" got upgraded for Easter. I think I like it! I like it a lot! I think it would be cool if we could keep this skin during the next upgrade:

Easter Dilton

Then there are the outfits that you earn once you meet certain Bunny point milestones:

Easter Betty // Veronica // Jughead

Then there are the new outfits that you can purchase through the game. It took me a while to figure out Moose's and Midge's Easter outfits. They remind me of their winter outfits, but I think they're supposed to be jogging outfits. So maybe they're taking advantage of the warmer temperatures?:

Easter Reggie // Ethel // Moose // Midge

There is one other outfit that you can purchase for Easter. It's a cute Easter Bunny outfit for Archie. But I also managed to win a free safari outfit for Archie, which is pretty cool:

Easter Archie // Safari Archie

And, of course, here is a picture of Runty, who you can purchase through iTunes, along with his dog house. Notice Reggie's house, which has a mixture of Halloween and Valentine's Day decorations!:


I'm not sure how long the "Riverdale Rescue" Easter upgrades will last. I can say that I've had a lot of fun playing with Runty, re-decorating my own private Riverdale, and chasing after the Bunnies. I can't wait to see what the next upgrade will be about!