Update: With the April 1st, 2015 Mystery Box update, it appears that Homer Buddha has been removed from the store. We’re hoping this is just temporary and we’ll update this post if and when it returns to the store.
As the Buddha says: Spend 15 donuts win a premium item every time. For that reason alone the Homer Buddha is a much better donut investment than the Mystery Box.
Wondering if you can really win something good, like the Volcano Lair or the Duff Brewery (both premium buildings with characters) from the Buddha? Well wonder no more, because you absolutely can!
Similar to the Mystery Box, when you buy the Homer Buddha there’s a game going on behind the scenes (pretty much like all games of chance). Every time you either buy a Homer Buddha for 15 donuts the game internally generates a random number. Each item available through the Homer Buddha has a number assigned to it and the prize you win is the item that has the first number that’s greater than the random number generated.
So what are the odds of winning something really good (like premium characters or more donuts)? Here’s the prize break down and the odds of winning:
| Prize | Odds |
| Mystery Box | 9.98% |
| Premium Bench | 10% |
| Planter | 10% |
| Premium Dumpster | 10% |
| Picket Fence | 10% |
| Burning Bush | 10% |
| Orange Tree | 10% |
| Apple Tree | 10% |
| Tire Swing | 10% |
| Squeaky Voice Teen/30 Donuts | 4% |
| Hans Moleman/60 Donuts | 4% |
| Frink’s Lab/150 Donuts | 1% |
| 30 Donuts | 1% |
| Tire Fire/40 Donuts | 0.01% |
| Springfield Sign/170 Donuts | 0.004% |
| Duff Brewery/ 190 Donuts | 0.002% |
| Volcano Lair/ 200 Donuts | 0.001% |
What’s the best thing Homer Buddha has granted you? Besides inner peace and enlightenment of course!
Is the Homer Buddha ever coming back?
Not sure…for now it’s disabled.
Where is homer Buddha? I can’t seem to find it in the store???
Currently MIA from the game. We think it’s temporary while the Mystery Box deal is running
Thanks for the info, I have bought several mystery boxes, I now have 3 lard lad buildings…is there a updated list of what you can get? You guys are awesome with running this site.
Coming soon
Good morning!
I have a couple of questions. First, How can you tell if you have homer buddah? And if you don’t have him, can you buy him?
Secondly, I’m struggling to get the things for this quest or whatever you call it that we are doing right now 🙂 for example, I just got through with 2 prisoners doing stuff and I didn’t get any handcuffs for either of them. .. is that how is supposed to be? My husband plays less than me and is finishing stuff faster than me 🙁 I thought something was wrong towards the beginning of this and so I uninstalled and reinstalled the game, but it doesn’t seem to have helped 🙁 is it just that I’m unlucky?
Thanks so much 🙂
You can buy a homer buddah in the shop. (i believe it’s 15 donuts) Otherwise if you have one unopened it’d be in your inventory, but usually you’d open it right away.
Handcuffs only fall on the last felon hit. So when they have 1 heart left and you fight them and they’re down to 0 that’s when handcuffs should fall.
Thank you so much!
Just won Frink’s lab!!!!!woohooo, awesome day!!
I just got a burning bush and…..Hans Moleman!
I bought a golden scratcher, actually won 50 donuts, then bought Buddha and won Frinks lab!
Woo hoo!
I made some calculations on the Homer Buddha.
It can be found here in the official EA-Forums:
Maybe it is of value for you guys. You can share it as you please, of course.
Thanks for the help offer. The link didn’t work so I phased it out. Let us know if you get a working link 😉
Oh well, don’t know why the link doesn’t work for you. Maybe you don’t have an Origin/EA account?
Here is the respective part I wrote in the thread:
I made some calculation, based on the %-numbers presented on several sites and found out that the Homer Buddhas are not as bad as they appear – at least if you look at them on a purely donut-exchange perspective.
Do you know the term “expected value”? It basically expresses, what kind of value you can expect if you do a certain action like in an ‘unlimited’ amount.
Here it comes: the expected value for a Homer Buddha ist 16,17!
That means, you will get 16,17 donuts out of a Buddha (in terms of items) while just paying 15 donuts for it. So, in the long run, you get more donuts (mostly bond into items) out of it than you invest. My calculation is shown here:
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/903x360q90/199/jb7u.JPG
I hope you understand what I did there. I made a seperate calculation for the Mystery box, since you get a Mystery box out of a Buddha in 9,983% as well.
So by the sheer numbers, the Homer Buddha is actually not THAT bad.
There is just one BIG downside to it!
You don’t get the donuts, but mostly returning items instead (except for multiple premium buildings or characters. Then you’ll get the donut cost worth of it. Same for the straight donus, of course. Otherwise you just get benches, trees, fence and such). You certainly don’t need 10k fences or 2k benches and so on. So that is why you don’t want to waste too much donuts into that. Plus: some items are not worth the donuts in your personal opinion and you wouldn’t buy it straight.
But, as I said, from the sheer value of donuts, the Buddha is kind of a good deal.
Does Homer Buddha stay and give new gifts at specific time intervals or you buy it and get one gift, have to buy again, etc?
You buy it and get 1 gift. So you would have to buy more. Hope that helps! 🙂
Never got anything more than a tree and benches. Major rip off in my view. Same with scratch cards have never got more than $750 and been playing since beginning of December.
I’ve gotten the grand prize, but even if you get the lowest prize, you’re never going to lose money.
I just got the jackpot yesterday for 12000$ , other times I get the second best prize. It’s just ur luck buddy. Don’t give up.
accidentaly clicked while browsing and got me a bench…
Make sure you set your confirm donut option.
I just got robbed, spent the 15 doubts on the Buddha, showed I got a planter, took my donuts and I got nothing in my inventory. Anyone know of a way to contact them about getting my donuts back?
Sorry you experienced that. Steps I’ve taken to contact EA are laid out in the post linked below.
http://tstoaddicts.com/2013/10/05/where-is-my-character/
I got 250 dollars. Not even on the list above, but I got it. Lame.
I just won 30 donuts today.
Woohoo! That’s awesome! 🙂
And I got a picket fence for 15 donuts. Duh
Aw! Hate when that happens! 🙂
Mummie, the same happened to me! Duh!
I have received finks lab and mole man, plus a few planters and benches. Definitely worth it for me! Also, 60 donuts!
Got 2 planters… not worth it in my opinion
I did that too the first time lol
I bought one once thinking i was buying the statue…haha my bad!
Therefore, a 10.0161% chance of it being worth it and a 89.9839% chance you coulda just bought what you got for less than 15 donuts.
Not worth it in my book.