The Great Dalek Hunt

Dalek care guide

Congratulations, on your new Dalek! This guide will shown you how to properly care for your new, genocidal friend, properly train them to be completely obedient and yet homicidal, and travel the galaxy to finally defeat their nemesis, The Doctor, and obtain unlimited rice pudding.

Dalek badges are available at the regsitration desks. In addition to the scavenger hunt throughout the con space, the Dalek badge can play its own games to train it to be obedient and murderous, and can also be objectives for others in the scavenger hunt.

Would you like to play a game?

Or, why is my Dalek flashing its lights?

Daleks bore easily and need to be entertained often. The more games you play, the less bored your Dalek will be. When bored, your Dalek will flash its lights to attract your attention, and then start playing a game of Davros Says by lighting up the start of the pattern. It will flash a second time if you don't start playing Davros Says.

If you don't see (or ignore) the flashes, your Dalek will "sleep" for at least fifteen minutes before flashing again. It will sleep for longer and longer periods, up to two hours. After sleeping for two hours, the next sleep will last for only fifteen minutes again. If the lights bother you while you are trying to sleep, slide the battery out of the holder in the back.

After you interact with your Dalek, it will flash its lights once just to see if you are still in the mood to play a game.

Train in the five Dalek virtues

Your Dalek plays a number of games to learn to be a better (worse?) Dalek. Start a game by pressing the two-button combo for that game; all game button combinations include the upper left button.

Obedience: Davros Says: Press upper left and upper right simultaneously. Davros will flash a pattern of lights on its skirt, one light at a time. When the pattern finishes, you enter the same pattern using the buttons next to the lights. The patterns start with one light. After succesfulling entering the pattern, Davros will increment the pattern by one light. You may think this is the human game "Simon Says," but you would be wrong.

Cleverness: Mastermind: Press upper left and middle right simultaneously. Your Dalek will choose and 4-digit number, and you must guess it. Enter your guess through the button pad. For each correct number in the correct position, the Dalek will flash the left collar light. For each correct number in the wrong position, it will flash the right collar button. You may think this is the human game "Mastermind," but you would be wrong.

Resourcefulness: Magic Square: Press upper left and middle left simultaneously. Your goal is to light up your Dalek's head, eyestalk, weapon and collar. Each of the six buttons will turn on specific lights, and turn off others. You may think this is the human game of the same name, but you would be wrong.

Relentlessness: Davros Dalek Revolution: Press upper left and lower left simultaneously. After the Dalek lights up, lights will start "falling" down from the collar between the buttons. When the bottom line lights up, press the button next to the lit light (or both buttons if both lights are lit). The lights will continue to fall as long as you click the correct buttons, getting faster and faster. You may think this is the human game "Dance Dance Revolution," but you would be wrong.

Aggression: Whackinate: Press upper left and lower right simultaneously. Exterminate the enemies as they light up by whacking (or pressing) the buttons next to the light. The lights will come more frequently and closer together the longer the game goes on. Keep whackinating! The game is not over until you are overwhelmed with enemies (all the lights light up) or you survive five rounds (and win). You may think this is the human game "Whack-a-Mole," but you would be wrong.

Conspire with other Daleks

When you meet another Dalek badge holder, you can conspire with each other by entering each others Gallifreyan codes on the back of the Daleks.

Learn to read Gallifreyan

The Gallifreyan codes should be easy to enter once you understand how to translate them into button presses:

  1. Work from the outside in: the first button(s) to press are in the largest ring, the last in the smallest, inner ring.
  2. The small circles on the rings correspond to the positions of the buttons on the Dalek.
  3. A ring with multiple circle means the buttons should be pushed at the same time.

Let's try it with this Gallifreyan code for Earth, which is right under your feet, and experiencing an invasion of hundreds of Daleks on Long Island right now!

  1. The outer ring has two circles: one in the upper right, and one in the lower left. Press the upper right and lower left buttons of your Dalek at the same time.
  2. The next ring has a circle on the middle left; press the middle left button.
  3. The next ring has a circle on the upper right.
  4. Then a circle on the lower right.
  5. Finally, the inner ring has a circle on the upper left.

After pressing the sequence of buttons, your Dalek will flash its lights at you for success. If your Dalek flashes only the two orange/yellow lights in the collar, the code was mis-typed, and you should try again. If nothing flashes, that often means two buttons were pressed at the same time; press any button until the collar lights flash, then try again.

Your Dalek will track the serial number of the other Daleks that you conspire with. You can take your Dalek to the printing station and print out all the Daleks you conspire with, along with any other adventures you have during the scavenger hunt.

Conquer the galaxy!

At least Long Island for the weekend!

Around the convention space are photos of planets, companions, Time Lords and other characters from Doctor Who, Blake's 7, and Space 1999. Each photo has a Gallifreyan code to enter into your Dalek. (There is also a QR code for attendees without Dalek badges to join the hunt.)

Your Dalek will track the serial number of the objectives you find. You can take your Dalek to the printing station and print out all the Daleks you conspire with, along with any other adventures you have during the scavenger hunt.

Report your victories; out-rank your fellow Daleks

As your Dalek sows chaos around the convention, you should make up little stories about how it invaded Earth to battle the Doctor. Or, you can find Zen and Orac, report your adventures, and have Orac generate a story for you.

Privacy policy

Each badge stores whether you are a guest or staff, the Daleks you interact with, the games you play (and how many you win), and the objectives you find. When you print your Dalek's adventures, that information is used to generate the story, and is copied to our database to generate the leaderboard, and to free up space on the Dalek for more adventures. We do not collect any additional information from guests, and cannot identify who has which badge.

Get help!

If you need help with the scavenger hunt or your Dalek badge, or just want to meet the maintainers, look for the three attendees (Jorj, Sue, and Jakob) with the purple Dalek badges. We will usually be hanging out by the Daleks, and have ribbons.

If your Dalek flashes only the two orange/yellow lights in the collar, the code was mis-typed, and you should try again. If nothing flashes, that often means two buttons were pressed at the same time; press any button until the collar lights flash, then try again. If you get stuck, please come find us hanging out by the Daleks and Zen.