Updated Below the fold with details from the April 1st, 2015 Mystery Box update.
The Mystery Box is a premium item that you can purchase for 6 donuts or you can get it for free every 5 days, as a bonus for playing the game every day. The Mystery Box could contain a premium item or it could contain a non-premium item, which one it reveals to you truly is a Mystery.
The Mystery Box is typically one of those premium items I would tell you not to purchase and save your donuts, unless of course you’re desperate for a Lemon Tree (the Mystery Box is the only way to get one), because you can earn one every 5 days and there’s no guarantee of a premium item. However, for those of you purchasing the Mystery Box, or just curious about what might be inside of yours every 5 days there are a few things you should know.
With the Mystery Box there’s a game going on behind the scenes, (pretty much like all games of chance) every time you either buy a Mystery Box for 6 donuts or collect one as a daily reward. The game internally generates a random number and each item available through the Mystery Box has a number assigned to it. The prize you win is the item that has the first number that’s greater than the random number generated.
So what are the prizes you can win in a Mystery Box and the Odds of winning them? Here’s a complete breakdown of your chances:
| Prize | Odds |
| Mystery Box | 10.98% |
| Lemon Tree/$250 | 10% |
| Parking Lot | 10% |
| Brown Fence | 10% |
| Tree | 10% |
| Large Hedge | 10% |
| Newspaper Dispenser | 10% |
| Picket Fence | 4% |
| Gazebo | 4% |
| Angel Topiary | 4% |
| $500 | 4% |
| Premium Bench | 4% |
| $1,000 | 4% |
| 10 Donuts | 2% |
| Squeaky Voice Teen/30 Donuts | 2% |
| Homer Buddha | 1% |
| $2,500 | 0.01% |
| 30 Donuts | 0.004% |
| Tire Fire/40 Donuts | 0.002% |
| Lard Lad | 0.001% |
Of course it’s all a matter of luck –and I did win my Squeaky Voice Teen via the Free 5 Day Mystery Box when I first started playing.
What’s the best thing the Mystery Box ever awarded you?
Update: On April 1st, 2015 EA rolled out a new Mystery Box. Basically the same concept, just with a new look and some new items added. Here’s a look at what happened with that:
There was a new look to the box icon. It now looks like this:
Same concept, however. Spent 6 donuts…or wait once a week for your Daily Play Bonus and get one for free..and open a Mystery Box for a chance to win some cool Premium items, and some freemium duds.
There is an end date indicated in the files of April 30th, 2015. However, it’s not indicated if this is the end date for the new box or just the end date for the free box awarded with the initial questline. (You should be awarded a free box between April 1st and April 30th, 2015, after a some dialogue between Mr. Burns and Smithers. You can view more about that on this post) Once April 30th hits, and we know for sure what will happen…we will update this post with the details. Update: It appears that my initial prediction was correct and April 30th just marked the end of the free Mystery Box initial questline. So the new Mystery Box contents are here to stay!
Here’s a look at what’s inside the new box:
| Item | Unique? | Value |
| Khlav Kalash Stand | No | $760 |
| Minnow Pond | No | $4,500 |
| Bomb Shelter | No | $5,600 |
| Chalmer’s 1979 _ONDA | No | $9,800 |
| 10 Donuts | No | 10 Donuts |
| 30 Donuts | No | 30 Donuts |
| Squeaky Voiced Teen | Yes | 30 Donuts |
| Channel 6 News Van | No | 40 Donuts |
| Itchy & Scratchy Billboard | No | 40 Donuts |
| Tire Fire | Yes | 40 Donuts |
| Kearney | Yes | 60 Donuts |
| Blue Haired Lawyer | Yes | 90 Donuts |
| Lard Lad Donuts | No | 110 Donuts |
| Lemon Tree | Yes | n/a only way to get is the box |
Note: We’ve decided against posting the odds for the revised boxes..and here’s why. First, there’s a ton of conflicting information out there about it. Some are saying one set of odds, some are saying another. There’s one version that we follow from the files…HOWEVER. It’s more complicated than saying you just get this ____ % of the time. There’s a script it follows, that basically says if you don’t get ____ than you have ____ % chance of getting ____. And moves down the line like that. So because it’s conflicting and confusing information. We’ve decided not to post the odds. Just enjoy the free boxes that you get & don’t worry about what the odds say you’ll get.
Hope that helps you get a better understanding of the Mystery Box!
Are the only prizes available to win from the new box? or are the prizes listed from earlier available too?
I now have 5 lard lads thanks to the mystery box
i see people talking about free weekly mystery boxes but i dont think i ever got one
Quick Question, I have all the characters from the Mystery box. Am I able to get the characters again and the because I have them they convert it into donuts or what? Couldn’t seem the find the answer anywhere, because you can get duplicates of everything else but don’t know about the characters.
You cannot get duplicate characters. So it will be replaced by something else.
Thanks for the Help 😀
Where do i buy these boxes? I cant find anywhere and i want my damn lemon tree lol…
In the store, premium menu…scroll all the way to the end of it
Ok I’m probably the craziest among you guys.
I open around 46 boxes today, which means I spent 276 donuts just for mysterious box.
It all just started from reading this post.
Before I started this session I had 236 donuts and I already had blue hair lawyer,lemon tree, squeaky, tire fire, so what I’m looking for is Kearny and lad lard donuts.
On first couples of trials, I got kearn but then it all repeated
And it all goes like this
Bomb shelter
Onda
Van
Billboard
Khlav
10 donuts
Pond
30 donuts
Then it repeated this sequence again, but the pattern I notice is that it will never repeat itself until the same thing comes up again (eg you can never gets 2 or 3 bombs shelter in the roll.
And I repeat this sequence at least 6 times until I get lad lard donuts
So the result is that I ended up with 150 donuts total (before was 236) so in total I spent 86 donuts and get
6 bombshelter
6 onda
6 billboard
6 khalav
5 pond
4 10 donuts
5 30 donuts
So my advice is that if you just started the game, this mysterious box is the way to go. My guess is that if you don’t have any rare items, you will likely to get more of them.
So 86 donuts in total, and I get Kearney And lard lad donuts. With 20% in bonus, this is not bad.
This actually makes me want to give the Mystery Box another shot. As a free player I find donuts hard to come by and save up for bigger stuff. So far I’ve opened two Mystery Boxes to get the billboard twice. A tad disappointed, but after reading your post I might save up for another. Thanks!
Hey, I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I haven’t had a mysterybox since the end of the christmas task… Anyone got an idea?
http://tstoaddicts.com/2016/02/05/daily-challenges-rundown/
Thanks!
When will they be updating this again? I have like 10 lard lads now that just keep accumulating from the weekly boxes we get. It would be great if we had opportunities to snag other premium items, or if they would just bring back the Homer Buddha’s!
Not for a while I’m sure…
In my opinion i would buy mystery boxes if you want kernly, blue-haired lower or squeeky voiced teen,lor lads, lemon trees (or possibly premium decoration for money and xp % bonus) until you have thoughs then stop buying
I got 10 donuts from this but they just disappeared, and I completed the monorail challenge but never got the 5 donuts for that either!
Try going to krustyland and back see if that resyncs it. If not contact EA
I was under the impression that if you had already obtained one of the items the box grants you a second time, it would instead give you the value of the item (i.e. cash/donuts) rather than duplicating what you have? I have two I&S billboards. Kinda peeved about that.
This is the greatest thing that has ever come into the game. I got a free one 6 days ago not realising it was new and it contained the tire fire. Then after reading the tapped out wiki and seeing the odds I decided to buy one. Then more. In order I got:
Tire Fire
10 donughts
Itchy and Scratchy sign
Krav Kolash
Blue Haired Lawyer
This thing is the kingpin of all purchases at the moment.
Then again…
Minnow Pond
10 donuts
Bomb Shelter
Minnow Pond
Kearny
epic!
Anyone can tell me wich premium characters are in the box?
If you read the post above…it’ll tell you.
i purchased 3 mystery boxes with my remaining donuts and i got Lard Lad and Squeaky Voice Teen 😀
Question: free weekly mystery boxes — I don’t get those, never have, since I started playing at the end of June 2015. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a new feature? Makes me jealous as all get out reading about people getting them free! Maybe the mystery boxes were replaced by tap ball stuff like foam fingers/hats/banners and amateur bucks? Those I do get. If so, here’s hoping the weekly free boxes come back when the tap ball season is over…
That’s because you started playing during Tap Ball. Once tap ball is over it’ll go back to the regular cash/mystery box combo.
I already earned two lard lads, and grateful I never spent any donuts on it. I’ve also got Blue haired lawyer and 2 billboards (can be placed in Krustyland). I regretfully spent donuts on Squeeky voiced teen and Kearny prior to the update, and that was a tough pill to swallow since I’m freemium. The only thing I’ve yet to get is 30 donuts and the news van. I’m crossing my fingers next time.
The new mystery box seems far better than the old one. Since it changed, I’ve gotten mostly great items and very few parking lots or hedges like the old version.
I just started a new game so I can see better exactly how neighboring works. The game tutorial insists one purchase a mystery box which contained 30 donuts; I think this is standard for the forced one. Since I believe the boxes are now worth it, I spent all available donuts and got:
Squeaky-voiced Teen
Lemon Tree
Channel 6 News Van
Blue Haired Lawyer
Itchy & Scratchy Billboard
Kearney
Tire Fire
5 of 7 are fantastic money-generating prizes and 2 are way better than a parking lot! I would predict that I’d get the last premium item (Lard Lad) next based only on these results, but my other game has not given me thhat yet, so I think I’ll wait for the 5 day free one.
I have gotten every single item from the mystery box. Most more than once. Lard Lad Donuts still eludes me. I am going to shout for joy when that building FINALLY pops out of that darn box. Lol!
I’ve had great luck with the mystery. I’ve purchased less than 5 total and was able to get Kearney, the lawyer, and SVT. And from being a consistent player, 5th day of playing, received Lard Lad, tire yard and two billboards
The new mystery box is awesome. I have gotten most of the premium items plus 30 donuts over the last 2 months.
Is the mystery box still available for purchase? I can’t seem to find it in the menu.
You need to go to the premium menu icon (Homer Buddha when you expand the icons) and it’s the very first one listed on the left (you’ll have to scroll to get there)
Thanks! Decided I wanted to get Kearney without waiting for the daily prizes and got him on the first try 🙂
I just bought 2 mystery boxes and nothing happened…..they did however deduct 12 dougnuts…..any suggestions….I even tried restarting the app….please help!
Looks like there’s a glitch going around with the boxes right now. A couple of other players reported it as well. Best thing to do is contact EA and let them know.
Happy with my free items from this after the update! Got BHL as the free one, then (not in order) bomb shelter, two _onda’s, tire fire, minnow pond, channel six news van and today, 30 donuts! Woohoo!
I have under 100k dollars saved. My run has been
Weekly free box…
Itchy and scratchy sign
Kalaflacesh stand
Just discovered you could buy mystery boxes today so I spent 24 doughnuts and got.
Sqeaky teen,
Lawyer,
News van,
Bomb shelter.
I might have just been lucky but that was a great reward for only a few donuts
Any update info on the mystery box now that April 30th has passed? Thanks for all y’all do.
Looks to be what we originally thought… kill date for the questline. So far… it is sticking round.
With my free boxes from the daily play bonus I won two Channel 6 News Vans and BLH (and some cash items). Since the new box goes away after today I decided to buy a few more. I only ended up spending 26 donuts (after figuring in the donuts I won) and got another news van, an I&S Billboard, Kearney, the Tire Fire, and Lard Lad (and a bunch of cash items). Not a bad haul! I think I won the 30 donuts twice and 10 donuts once, so that would mean I spent 96 to buy 16 boxes. Of the 16 boxes 8 had premium items (including donuts). I’ll probably stop now since I have at least one of every premium item available 🙂
So far, from a combination of weekly and bought boxes, I’ve won an _onda, a minnow pond, a bomb shelter, blue haired lawyer, lard lad doughnuts, channel 6 news van and finally the tire fire! I feel I’ve done very well 🙂 all the premium items are things I’d considered but not felt worth the doughnuts.
I am loving the new mystery boxes! The freebie gave me the Channel 6 news van, next one gave me Lard Lad, today I got 10 donuts, then I bought 4 more boxes to see what I could find. The first gave me the Tire Fire, second was a minnow pond, third 30 donuts, and fourth was Blue-Haired Lawyer!!! I am a happy girl! 😃
I was so shocked I had 26 doughnuts spare so got the box 4 times and in order I got lemon tree, squeaky voice teen, blue haired lawyer, and news van. I was a happy girl.
My daily one contained the Blue Haired Lawyer! I just hope that his quest line won’t interfere with the event questline.
I can’t believe it! I was reading this article then I opened the game and I got the free Mistery Box. I opened it and I got the Tire Fire! So lucky!