A QR code scavenger hunt, ready in 10 minutes
No app. No sign-⁠up to play.

Print a sheet of QR codes and hide them around a house, a classroom or a park. Each one opens a card on a player's phone — treasure, a riddle, a monster. The phones keep score.

Build a trail for free

Your first 5 players are free, no card. Then $1 a player.

  • One phone per team
  • A home printer
  • Internet at every code
A family scans a fantasy trail marker with a phone while a child finds the next marker in the forest.

What a QR code scavenger hunt is

Point a phone's camera at a printed code and a card opens in the browser. The paper stays taped up for the next team. Cards can stay locked: in some stories, the boss won't fight a team that hasn't found the sword.

The Stone Sentinel's monster card: its vitality, attack and defense, the points and coins a win pays, and the Leaf of Sun it guards.
A real card: beat the Stone Sentinel in a duel to unlock the Leaf of Sun.

How to run one

Ten minutes with a ready-made story, most of it with scissors. The hiding is up to you.

  1. Pick or write the story

    Pick a ready-made adventure off the shelf. Or describe your space to the AI assistant you already use, and it writes the cards: about 30 minutes, $1 a card, art included.

  2. Print the sheet

    One PDF: a key with every answer for you, then one code per card with cut lines. Print it full size on any home printer.

  3. Hide the codes

    Under a chair, behind a plaque, up a tree. In the shade, where a phone has bars, in a sandwich bag if it's outdoors.

  4. Start, and watch the board

    Each team joins on one phone under a team name, and scans. The leaderboard updates as they go, and you can see which codes nobody has found.

Build a trail for free

Your first 5 players are free, no card. Then $1 a player.

No printer, or a park too big to label? A GPS trail pins the stops on a map instead; players turn location on and play outdoors. GPS scavenger hunts →

Questions about QR code scavenger hunts

You don't have to. Building a trail makes one code per card and hands you the sheet. A generator leaves you tracking which code points where — the part that goes wrong.

One per card, so the story decides. A dozen codes around a house and garden, and the afternoon runs itself. Past about twenty-five, the hiding takes longer than the playing.

A player is one phone, any number of people: 12 children in 4 teams are 4 players, free on your first trail. After your first 5, each player is $1. Writing your own story? $1 a card, art included. You pay in Gold Eggs, 1 Gold Egg a player, in one-off packs — never a subscription.

The Code check page lists every code by its last scan and flags one that has gone quiet while the rest of the trail was busy. Print that code again and put it back.

Build your first trail

Print the codes. The players bring the phones.

Build a trail for free

Your first 5 players are free, no card. Then $1 a player.

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