WitchCatcher

Salem in October is wall-to-wall witch hats. WitchCatcher is the excuse to count them. See someone wearing one? Tap the hat. That is the whole game — and then the leaderboards do the rest. COUNT WHAT YOU SEE One big tap target, no menus to dig through. Count while you walk, while you queue for a museum, while you are stuck in the crowd on Essex Street. Taps are saved on your phone and sync when you are back online, so a dead spot or a basement shop never costs you a hat. FOUR LEADERBOARDS Today, this week, this month, and this year. Each board shows the top spotters by hats counted, plus your own rank if you are further down. Everything runs on Salem time, so a day means the same day for everyone and weeks start on Monday. Have one big afternoon and you can take the daily board without being anywhere near the top of the year. NO ACCOUNT NEEDED The app opens ready to count. Tap away as a guest and nothing is asked of you. When you want your count saved and your name on the boards, make an account with a username — that is your public handle, and it is all other players ever see. Your email address is never shown to anyone. STORES AND EVENTS A guide to Salem shops, museums, and seasonal events, kept current through the season. Check in when you visit, write a note about what you found, and look back on it later. YOUR VISITS ARE PRIVATE Check-ins and the notes on them are yours alone. Nobody else can see where you have been. Your hat count and your leaderboard placing are the public part — that is rather the point of them. BADGES FOR GETTING OUT THERE Three different places earns Curious Visitor. Five makes you a Wandering Witch, ten a Coven Regular, fifteen a Salem Familiar, twenty a Keeper of Lore, twenty-five a Witch City Local, and it keeps going from there. YOURS TO LEAVE Change your username or password whenever you like, and delete your account and everything in it from inside the app, in three taps. No email, no waiting. BUILT FOR THE SEASON Salem fills up in October, and a good share of it is wearing a pointed hat. WitchCatcher is a reason to look up from your phone, notice the crowd, and turn it into a number worth arguing about over dinner. Place data © OpenStreetMap contributors.