Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Well here we are…we’ve reached the end of the Halloween update! While Halloween was officially over on November 1st, EA decided to give us a few extra days of trick-or-treating to see what prizes we could win! However…now it’s all coming to a close! So squish the last of those Rigellians, send those kids on their final Trick-or-Treat tasks, shoot down the last of those UFOs…because tomorrow it’s ALL gone!
As of right now, we see no signs of this event being extended. In the past, if an event was going to be extended, EA would make an announcement several days before it was initially scheduled to end. As of now, no announcement & no changes to the files. So I think it’s a safe bet to assume Halloween will be gone tomorrow. (and hopefully a something new in it’s place!)
So beyond the items what else do you need to know for the end of the Halloween Event? Let’s take a look at some of the steps you should know to finish out the event and get ready for some kind of update.
Based on previous events this is what we can expect to happen tomorrow:
-The set end time for the event is 8:00 GMT (3am EST…remember in the US we jumped clocks back 1 hr on November 2nd, so GMT to EST is now 5 hrs instead of 4.). However, based on past events, the update won’t end at that point. It will take the update to remove it from your game. So you should still be able to play your game for some time tomorrow morning. (remember….this is based on previous experiences. You never know with EA)
-Some kind of update will hit our games tomorrow. This will be an App Store (or Google Play Store) update, where you will need to actually go in and update your game.
–Usually, and again I say this because it’s based on what’s happened in the past, the update will hit sometime between 12PM EST and 2PM EST.
-The update may contain a new Event, or a level update, or it could just be an update to remove Halloween with nothing new in the game (like what happened after Easter). Right now we’re not seeing anything in the files to indicate anything. So we’re all flying blind & at the mercy of EA.
As always if we see anything in the files…we’ll let you know. Usually if something is going to appear in the files before the update hits it’s a 2-4 hr window before it actually hits.
What you can do to get ready if you’re on Level 46:
-Do not send your characters on 24hr tasks. Whatever task you send them on tonight into tomorrow morning make sure they’ll be free after 10AM EST (just to be on the safe side).
-Ignore all of the random quests the game will try to send you on between today and tomorrow, unless they’re short quests. Just because they’re telling you to send Bart and Milhouse for a 24hr Sleepover doesn’t mean you have to. So hold off on those quests until you know what’s going to happen tomorrow. (you’ll know it’s a random quest because there won’t be dialog popup with the task request)
-Check your App Store tomorrow, again this will be an App Store update. So you will need to download and update TSTO for it to work.
Finishing Out Halloween:
-If you haven’t yet cleared all of the prizes…keep trying. You still have time. Also, just because an update is here doesn’t mean you have to update your game. Because this will be an App Store update, if you haven’t yet cleared your prizes you don’t have to update your game. You can keep playing in Halloween and earn more Protein Strings (usually 2-3 days after the update hits, although in the recent past they’ve forced Tappers to update hours after the update hit the App Store). Just keep in mind if your neighbors have updated it makes it that much more difficult to earn Protein Strings, since you won’t be able to squish Aliens in their towns, or shoot down UFOs.
-If you’ve finished the event…STILL HELP YOUR NEIGHBORS! Visit neighbors who are behind and leave them Grem-Aliens. Also, don’t defeat Grem-Aliens in your own town…this way they can earn the max from them. This is the best way to ensure your neighbors can earn all that they can before time runs out!
-Make sure you purchase all of those limited-time items before they’re gone, if you want them. They won’t be here late tomorrow for you to make a decision on. If you’ve already purchased the Halloween items, they’re yours forever and will remain in your Springfield (or storage) unless you sell them or delete your game (via origin ID…not uninstalling from your phone). This also applies to items won. If you’ve won them, they’re yours.
So just what are the limited time Halloween items? Well here’s a complete list of everything that you will no longer be able to purchase (with think) after November 12th:
Freemium:
Dead Tree- $270
Jack-o-Lantern- $135
Pumpkin Patch– $450
Spooky Tree- $325
(Make-A-Thing will also no longer be available to build..but by now you all should have built it)
Premium:
Drive-In Theater- 150 Donuts. Comes with Space Mutant
Tentacle Tree- 18 Donuts
Portal to Rigel 7- 100 Donuts
Teleporters Alpha and Omega- 50 Donuts.
That’s it for limited-time items.
For the complete TSTO Addicts Guide to Halloween check out our Halloween Event Page.
Confused about what you should purchase before it’s gone? Well here’s my advice. If you have the cash buy everything, you can add a few of each (you can also store them). I’m not saying run out and spend all of your cash on decorations, but be sure you buy them before they’re gone. Trust me you’ll regret it in a few months if you didn’t purchase them. Plus, it’s part of your “battle scars” for playing TSTO. So next summer when new Tappers are coming into the game they’ll covet those spooky decorations!
As far as premium items go, check out our Should I Buy Guide (listed on the Event Page) to see if it’s something worth your hard earned donuts!
Remember the event ends tomorrow so be sure to purchase everything you need by tonight before it’s all gone!
Now…some are you are asking what to do with all the items from Trick Or Treating. Are there better items to craft? What’s the best for you to do? Well here’s my advice…
First…and most important. Craft what you like. If you want 10 Rigellian Shrubs, craft 10 Rigellian Shrubs. If you want a ton of Spooky Houses, craft them all!
If you’re looking for the best strategy when it comes to crafting, here’s my suggestion. Spooky Walls are the only items craftable that will earn you a bonus %. So if you have everything else, craft as many walls as you can (remember…you will have to place them in your Springfield in order for them to count toward your bonus). This is especially great advice for freemium players who don’t have a lot of premium items to boost their bonus %.
Now…it you’re like me and already have a fairly high rate as your bonus % and are looking for other fun things to do…craft other stuff. Personally, I’ve crafted several Rigellian Tribal Hunts & Shrubs. This will help me decorate my Rigellian area once Halloween is over.
Remember…the Pumpkin House, Spooky House & Tribal Huts should all earn you cash and xp after Halloween is over. So those are also great investments…if you have the space.
The one thing I do not recommend crafting more of…Human Test Subject.
What did YOU think of the Halloween update? Which premium items did you purchase? Did you finally clear out the prizes? Will you be updating tomorrow when the App store update hits? Sound off in the comments below, you know we LOVE hearing from you!
Somehow there has been no new updates for me but the timers in game have ended. Why is this?
The event is over. Now it is just a matter of time before they send the app market update out to take it all away.
So should I still wait to set my townspeople to tasks? They’ve been walking around with out my guidance all morning
Totally up to you. Until it hits…we have no idea what is coming with it …if anything. I am sending mine on short 2 and 4 hr tasks
Arg, with every stage, I got up to the final prize and couldn’t get to it. Ended up about 4000 strings from the UBO. I REALLY wanted that one! Looks like even pushing off the update won’t help, though – nothing listed in achievable prizes.
Any point in squishing aliens until the update that you can see?
Yes. Keep trying. Turn the auto update option to OFF for the game in your app market…and see if you can still win it. Push for as many extra days as you can til it forces the update. Worth a try
You know what my favorite part of this event was? The way visiting my neighbors always gave me stuff to tap.
At times it can get frustrating visiting neighbors and searching for a couple minutes to discover there is nothing to tap because the person stopped playing, they are too early in the game to have much to tap, or I’ve just chosen a moment right after the town has been completely cleared.
I don’t want to resent my neighbors. They’ve been kind enough to share their Springfield with me and that’s pretty kind. With this Halloween event, as long as the neighbor has started Free Hugs then there are enough tiny Rigellians to squish in the town. It doesn’t matter how often the person logs into the game or what level they are on.
So for five weeks now I’ve been able to visit my neighbors without any secret resentment in my heart, just appreciation. I’ve just felt neighborly.
I’ve also liked how I haven’t had to worry about keeping my ‘house farms’ untapped. That was also a source of guilt for me.
One advantage of brown houses is that they regenerate quickly — I keep several groups of brown houses with red brick walls around them that I won’t tap when everything else has been tapped (but I do tap them occasionally because I’ve found that if they go untapped for too long, my neighbors don’t always see their dollar signs). The red bricks serve as a reminder to me that they should be left alone, while allowing me to tap my other houses.
It’s funny you should say that, because I’ve actually felt * less* neighborly, since my visiting my neighbor’s towns didn’t benefit them during this event (unless I had some gremalians to drop off).
The one thing that did make me feel more neighborly (in a way) is that I didn’t have to unfriend anyone during this event, because dormant towns were actually the best place for me to drop off eggs, because I knew I’d get the full four points for them. (However, I did make sure to drop eggs on “live” players, too, both to be a good neighbor and to encourage them to reciprocate.) Now that the event is over, I have a hunch I’ll be doing a little “spring cleaning”!
Might want to wait for the next event to start, just in case there is a similar benefit to having less-active neighbors. 😛
I mean “won these prizes”
Whew! Based on all these comments I thought I was out of luck. I was about 200 protein strings away from the UBO when the timer ended. When I check this morning, my prize screen switched to “you’ve already one these prizes” with no pics (I never saw a message about being able to craft them). I decided to keep trying to gather protein strings this morning and just won the UBO at 10:28 AM EST, so it may be possible for some people.
Had a very nice glitch for the first two parts of the thoh. Kept a regalien on rev. Lovejoys head and every time I squished it another would appear. You could get bonus silver bags in no time as well as brown, silver and sometimes gold bags randomly every time you squished it in the process. The final update in the thoh fixed it unfortunately but it allowed me to build 4 spooky houses, 3 pumpkin houses had enough for two tribal huts and with all the extra bags I was able to get I got 10 human test tubes and best of all around 20 spooky walls! Couldn’t shoot down a ship with the donut bonus though.. Got spoiled with the glitch and had to play constantly to get ubo. Still a fun update.
This is the second time I’ve heard about such a glitch… the first was a user (in the comments section of another TSTO Addicts post) who was able to keep a Rigellian on the Bumblebee Man’s head and do much the same thing. I think his glitch was fixed at the end of Phase 1, though. Consider yourself lucky! 🙂
It definitely helped me considering I was a somewhat new player. Kept running out of rockets in the last phase. Could have used it lol. Spoiled.
I received the U.B.O. yesterday and currently have it on its second quest. However, after reading this thread, I checked to see if there was anything else that I might want to craft and accidentally selected the event phase icon. It depicts the third event as being incomplete. The U.B.O. does not have a gold or yellow ring around it. The text below it states You did not complete this stage but you can craft any item that you did not complete. Does this mean that I didn’t get the U.B.O. or my U.B.O. will disappear after the update. What’s up with that?
Default settings for the Personal Prizes. It auto sets them to say that. I dont think they could have coded it to stop on the third set. You cant craft him and it shows you didnt get him even if you did. It did same with hover copter.
What do think would happen if I sent my kids trick or treating, then installed the update whenever it becomes available? I’m just curious about your opinions, not just “We’ll find out when it happens.” Do you think they’ll still finish and get XP and game cash? Or maybe they’ll just be kicked off? Or they’ll finish but nothing happens?
Until you put the update in your game…you will be on Halloween. So if you want to extend it…make sure your auto update is on OFF in your app market. Otherwise…it will most likely just kick them out of the task. Or…nothing
I am hoping against hope that I will be able to keep some of my juvenile Rigellian invaders and a few Grem-Aliens in my town after the update… kind of like people who don’t clean up all of the nuclear waste trash in their Springfields. 🙂
Oh no…I can’t even use donuts to get the UBO anymore. My only hope is to actually get the remaining ~1800 strings before I’m truly forced to update and pray that the game will give me the UBO anyway, despite the ominous notes in the counter area. I was originally going to wait until tonight and buy it with donuts while reducing the cost with strings. :/
Since the UBO is one of the few Virtual Things I Need in Life, I have to admit that I might take a self-imposed break from the game for a while if I miss out as I’ll just be too peeved.
Make sure you go to your app market an UNSELECT the option to auto update. Then push it as far as yo ucan.
I crafted a bunch of gold bags in hopes that I would get more rocket ammo. I won 90 donuts back in phase 1 with the rockets and was hoping for more of that, but never got another +30 donut prize.
It’s really too bad people can’t win U.B.O. in the “extension time” any more. I have one neighbor who is soooo close and I keep sending him all my eggs and he keeps sending me his, but I am afraid it is futile.
Personally I made sure not to take any risks and got the second hut I wanted an hour before time was up – by paying 3 donuts for the 6 missing choco bars. Now my queen has two huts to reign over! I’m stupidly happy about this. XD
I am testing out a theory that if you keep collection if it’ll bypass the pop up change. I’ll let you know.
I am very disappointed. I missed UFO skin for Burns so i saved up stuff to craft him and he isnt in the crafting menu!!!! All the other items were placed there if you missed collecting ray guns or whatever.
He never was gonna go there. Just a default. Keep collection strings to see if you still can override the change and win him.
I missed UBO too :(.. I had rockets so I probably could have gotten him except a spaceship never appeared unless I was still able to help my neighbors. Once on a timer, no ships… Ever. Same thing happened with the hover chopper. Had to spend donuts to finish it and had tons of rockets but never a ship. So frustrated and giving us the hope of being able to craft it when we can’t is just rude! I held off on spending donuts assuming we would be able to craft it like the hover craft but noooo! Sad 🙁 I did enjoy the event but it was too hard to get the prizes. I am all for a challenge but this was just exhausting and took a lot of the fun out of it! Made life hell trying to log in so often and in the end all for not. Also didn’t like how they took away some of the limited time items so soon. Assumed they’d be there til the end of the event so I missed out on those too… I have to agree, cost of premium items is getting insane. They seriously need to reevaluate this. The free donuts does nothing offset their prices either…
Where is the Super Collider and Black Hole? I could not find them last night, many hours before end of event. As a Freemium player I had waited til I had enough donuts but couldn’t find it. Was also wanting the Drive-in Theatre so…broke down and bought donuts for the first time only to discover Super Collider and Black Hole were gone. Gave up my Freemium virginity and didn’t get the prize!
They pulled them over the weekend.
This event was good for me in that you couldn’t rush through it. I’m a “completeist”, so if I see something new, I’ll spend the donuts, aside from the initial doubler, I didn’t purchase anything this time around and I got all the prizes. On top of that, I got lots of free donuts, I won 30 donuts three times visiting neighbours and loads of donuts from the gift bags. So overall, this was the first event that didn’t cost me to enjoy.
i finish all the Halloween task and it gave me 20 donuts awesome right, i’m a daily player****
Just went on the game this morning. The countdown has no time left. The Make A Thing shop will still let you build items. However, it doesn’t have the items you missed from stage 3. I think I have a glitch as well; when I tap the icon for the event to see how many protein strains I still need for the UBO, it tells me I don’t have the DIET sign either. When I then hit Craft Now, it takes me to the Make A Thing shop, but both items are not there.
It was an auto default message the items were sent to show. It does make you sad to see it in there and hope that you could Craft it. But you can’t 🙁
Turn your auto update off in your app market and keep going as long as you can to try and win him.
I was 12 strings left to get UBO and now it says the time is over and I can craft it, but I can’t see to craft it! Any solution someone?
It was an auto default message the items were sent to show. It does make you sad to see it in there and hope that you could Craft it. But you can’t 🙁
Turn your auto update off in your app market and keep going as long as you can to try and win him.
i mean Halloween!
Got my UBO with 25 minutes to spare before the cut off time. Loved this event and thanks to everyone who excepted my friend requests. I had not done the friend thing until this event but I’m glad I did. It’s very fun. Wish I did this sooner.
Personally I didn’t like this halloween. To much from last year and way to difficult to obtain if you have a job and are able to play 2-3 times a day. And if you did want to obtain them with doughnuts they were way to expensive so most prices I didn’t collect. And I didn’t like the phase thing they implemented either. Instead I did get a lot of doughnuts wich is great for a fremium player like me. Hope the rest of you enjoyed it though but I am glad it’s over. Have a great day all!
Got the grand pumpkin just in time! phew! although had to spend a few donuts, but i guess it’ll still be cheaper than if it come back as a premium item later on.
Missed out on the queen though..but not keen on her anyway
Got my Grand Pumpkin and Pumpkin house just in time! Phew! Although i had to spend a few donuts but I guess it’ll still be cheaper later if they come back as premium items!
Missed out on the Rigellian queen and hut though…but not too fussed with that…..
Am I the only one that does not have the Ray gun in my shop? I wanted to purchase and shoot down the ufo before this ended and now it’s disspeared from the shop..
Nope…they pulled it before end of event
No 30 donuts for me, and i bought the ray gun and got free bullets daily from the start 🙁
Ditto. But I have 1007 gummy bears that I can’t spend on anything useful. Would be nice to exchange a few hundred of them for a big missile or two. 🙂
No UBO for me: once again in this third part of the event. I got the final treat bag but not the main prize. Too bad EA doesn’t respect people’s work and real-life schedules and bases their calculations of what’s possible on what can be done by people who don’t sleep, don’t work, and take their devices everywhere with them.
Feedback for EA: 1) Earlier I said that if a player’s Confirm Donut Spend is on, the game should confirm crafting as well. After further review, all crafting should be confirmed. Nobody wants to spend hard-earned supplies on stuff they don’t need, and nobody will be inconvenienced by having to confirm that they want to craft something. That said, I think lots of people want to see the ability to craft items remain in the game. This brings us to the next feedback item.
2) When things can be crafted, there need to be clearly defined ways to earn and buy each supply separately. Nobody wants to end an event with tons of one supply and nothing they can do with it. Nobody wants to be short of just one item (for me it was broken fences) and unable to get the items they need to craft the prizes they want.
3) Please make sure the top event prizes can be won by players who are unable to play while they are at work or sleeping.
4) Please consider turning counters that reset every 24 hours into counters that reset after, say, 22 hours. This would make the game more flexible for people with schedules, while still allowing certain actions to take place (basically) once per day. Yes, some people will wait exactly 22 hours to repeat the action, and get a small benefit from this, but most will still repeat the action once per day. Why does this help? Well, if a person normally completes an action while playing at a certain time each day, such as right after supper, but has to work late one day, he/she is then stuck with that new later time every evening. The next time there is a delay, the daily play time becomes even later. Eventually, it becomes so late that the player cannot maintain the schedule every day, and one day is missed so the player can get the schedule back to just after supper. By making 24-hour counters into 22-hour counters, the player with a job or other commitments can correct for brief delays without having to skip a day of playing. I am referring to things such as daily play prizes, “come-back” times for neighbor visits, etc. I am not including 24-hour tasks since players can generally schedule shorter tasks if these get out of sync.
Thank you for your consideration of these matters!
:burrito: >-I
This is a really good idea about having 22 hour counters, especially for visiting friends. I sometimes miss a day because it gets too late.
I agree! Farmville works on a 23-hour day (or at least it did, back when I was playing that), and it worked out much better that way. I think that kind of approach should be standard for this type of game.
I can’t find ubo or diet sign in the carts workshop? Anyone else have this problem?
It was an auto default message the items were sent to show. It does make you sad to see it in there and hope that you could Craft it. But you can’t 🙁
Turn your auto update off in your app market and keep going as long as you can to try and win him.
So……..I didn’t quite have enough strings to get the final prize – now it has disappeared – does anyone know if there is a way we can get this? Either through doughnuts or to craft it from items collected from treat bags or is it gone forever ?
It does make you sad to see it in there and hope that you could Craft it. But you can’t 🙁
Turn your auto update off in your app market and keep going as long as you can to try and win him.
And the U.B.O. isn’t even available in the list of things to craft.
Okay. So not only did I just get some dialogue from U.B.O…out of nowhere (sooo Truman Show right now) prompting Pt.1 task, but it seems I’d scrolled right past a comment below that deals with this. So it is because Mr. Burns is still busy since winning U.B.O., he hasn’t been activated. Whew.
Correct.
It was an auto default message the items were sent to show. It does make you sad to see it in there and hope that you could Craft it. But you can’t 🙁
Hey! My U.B.O. is gone! I worked so hard to get it. I finally got it with about 11hrs left on the timer. I am so mad right now. I just woke up and I looked at the prizes and it’s telling me ” looks like you missed these prizes, but you can still craft them” . I have the diet sign circle outlined in gold and nothing for U.B.O. Obviously I won it because I had over 14900 DNA and the Prestige Bonus bag is in my task book. Anyone been jacked?
If you did win it, and see the pop up you won it, check your Inventory storage box and put it to “use”. It will then go to Mr Burns.
Hello!
I won U.B.O yesterday (woohoo!) and I understood that it is a costume for Mr. Burns. I had sent Mr. Burns on a task for 1d12h (before I crafted the U.B.O) and I am waiting for him to finish in 9 hours. I suppose that I/we will have an update in 9 hour… 🙂 So my question is when the event finishes and we update the game, will I still have the task(s) for U.B.O. because right now in my prize window (with the donut torture device, buldozer and so on) I see that U.B.O. icon is not in orange circle which means that I haven’t won it…
I am confused 🙁