How To: Visit Neighbors During Christmas 2014

Hey there Hoppereenos. So here we are in the midst of another event. You got your Neighbors involved, but you aren’t quite sure what to do. Well we are here as usual to help, so let’s jump on in. Christmas Splash Screen

First off, the basics. Both YOU and YOUR neighbor need to be in full swing of the Christmas Event for this to occur. That means Toy Factory built and you can SEE the option for Gift Collection in your town ie the Trophy Icon Link to your Personal Prizes.toyfactory_menu

Christmas Trophy Personal Prize Icon

Your Neighbor has to show MORE than one Gift in their town. That means they are in the Christmas Event and most likely to have buildings to tap on and give you gifts. As you can see the one on the Left is ready to give you gifts. The one in the middle will ONLY give you the usual $$ & XP.Neighbor Main ScreenSo I suggest taking a look at your MAIN Neighbor screen first to make sure both of you are on the same page when visiting until they all finish updating. Until then, you are wasting your visits.


Now on to the basics of visiting your neighbors.

HOW MANY ACTIONS IN NEIGHBORS?
There is not definitive count within the game itself, what we are finding is the following for the Total Actions allowed in a 24 hour period. YOURS MAY VARY. (Some tests gave us MORE.)

PresentPresent30 actions, 2 gifts per action

PresentAt LEAST 60 more actions, 1 gift per action (again this will vary)

So approx 90 actions total each day. Approx 120 Gifts each day from Neighbors. This means ANY tap on items. Gifts, $$$ or any other icons, and Feds. Make sure you use them wisely. Tap ONLY the items that show Presents and ONLY in towns updated BEYOND ZERO GIFTS. Once you run out of actions you will continue to earn $$ & XP, FP if you are not maxed out, and random donuts if you are. So keep on tapping through. Yours may vary a bit, but this is what we are mainly seeing through testing. It may change depending on EA.

 

Menu Check Icon Dollar Sign Icon Cash Register Icon Money Stack Icon

ITEMS TO NOT TAP!
Watch really close on what you tap. There are many buildings that WON’T payout Gifts. These will have one of the usual Neighbor Icons on them instead. This means they don’t pay Gifts at all or that the Neighbor has not completely updated to the Christmas Event. Save your actions for Gifts FIRST, then go back to those others later when you MAX out.


 

Federal Agent 1

WHAT IS WITH THE FEDS?
There is an additional element of fun added into the game. It seems Homer is not too happy with Santa and decides to call in the Feds on him for the “illegal Elves” working and takin his job. Lol.

The Feds show up along with the dialog for all this during Jingle Bell Wreck Part 9. At the end of the dialog, Santa redirects the Feds attention to YOUR Neighbors towns. At that point you will be prompted to go send Feds to your Neighbors. Feds In Neighbors Part 1 Feds In Neighbors Part 2

So from that point on, when you go to your Neighbors you will see a Federal Agent Icon in the Top Right corner of their town. Fed In Neighbors Icon

As you can see, you can ONLY send 3 at a time. This WILL count as your 3 Daily Actions, so that means you pick tapping on buildings or sending Feds. You can also mix the two, but still only THREE total Daily Actions per neighbor as usual. So as you tap on buildings or tap on the Fed Icon, you will see the count go down. No worries though, YOU still get your normal Daily Action awards you would get from tapping neighbors. (Gift if within 90 actions, FP, XP, and $$)Fed Dropped In Neighbors 1

Fed Dropped In Neighbors 2

 

WHAT DO THE FEDS DO FOR MY NEIGHBORS?
Feds help you out while also helping out your neighbor. Once you release one in their town, your neighbor will be alerted. (This may not be instant.)Feds in Neighbors Pop Up

Now your neighbor will need to go looking for the Fed(s) you dropped in their town.Fed In Neighbors 2

Normally Neighbors would just get the building payout when clearing a handshake, due to all the Gifts needed the Feds add a lil extra boost. When your Neighbor taps on the Feds you released into their town, they will get the usual payout for the actions (FP, XP, and $$), but they also get 1 Gift too. They will get to see the name of who sent the Fed pop up too as the Fed name. Lol. So that is a possible 20 extra gifts each day from friends if maxed and more if they clear them often.

Fed In Neighbors Tap Info and Prizes

WHAT IS THE MAX AMOUNT OF FEDS?
The total MAX amount of Feds in ANY town is 20. Once that amount is hit, you can’t add anymore to the town.

Basically it is more beneficial to all for you to send Feds out as soon as you get the chance to do so. Otherwise, just plan your taps carefully to make the most of them. Just keep on tapping no matter what for a chance at FREE Pink Sprinkly Donuts once you MAX your FP.

Now a basic gesture when tapping neighbors, SWITCH IT UP! Start from A’s one day and Z’s the next, then maybe in the middle another time. That way you give all your neighbors a chance at visits and Feds. What do you think of this Event Neighbor Visits? Are you sending Feds yet? Have you got any Feds yet? Let us know.

~Bunny

 

220 responses to “How To: Visit Neighbors During Christmas 2014

  1. Okay, here’s what I know… If I tap once in a neighbor’s town at say, 10:00 am and then finish the other two taps at, say, 5:00 pm, that town will become tappable again at 10:00 am the next day, with three new taps available.

    But now say I did the same thing as above, except I only did one tap at 5:00, leaving once tap left. At 10:00 am the next morning, would I have lost that one remaining tap from the day before? Or would the counter say “1” and then, after I took that tap, be reset to 3 for the new day?

    • One starts the timer for the day…but the rest will still have a full 24hrs to tap 3 Times. Just watch the overlap. It’s best to try to keep them all starting and stopping round same time or you may throw off your daily timer.

      • Thanks, Bunny, but I guess I wasn’t clear…. I know about what you’re saying about the daily timer, etc. But, right now, I don’t have my towns at all synchronized, because I’m only tapping caves and cannons (which happens all throughout the day, as the caves and cannons become available, not just as each town becomes available) and, once I’ve got all of the bells I can for the day for that, I’ve been leaving everything else untapped so that, when the day timer resets, I have as many available towns left to tap as possible, even if there are only one or two taps left, knowing that, once I finish those last one or two taps, that town will be available again once its timer resets, later that same day. (Holy cow that was a long sentence!! 😝)

        However, since I don’t know what time the town will reset for towns that still have a tap or two left (because the timer doesn’t display until it’s tapped out), I don’t know when/if I should tap them during non-bell-earning periods. If they have a tap left and they go into a new 24-hour period for that town and it just resets to “3” (in other words, I lose that remaining tap), then I might be more likely to use it up before that happens, even if it’s just to collect money and XP. But if that one tap carried over, then I wouldn’t.

        So, I guess what I’m asking is, if a town has one tap left and then it clicks past its own 24-hour timer, does that one tap get lost (because the town just resets to 3), or does that one tap still show, and then, as soon as you tap it, just resets to 3?

        Is that any clearer? I really appreciate how much time and effort you take to try and help all of us and sorry if my lack of clarity has made it more time-consuming for you to help me! 😔

        • It resets to 3 at the 24 hr mark. Maybe do it this way… tap your first town completely to start the timer (I use other Springfield). Then regardless of the number of taps, you know every one after that town will reset within the next 30 minutes or so if you tapped a complete 99 towns. The towns will show the number of taps left unless they’ve reset.

    • Thanks, Wookiee! I was afraid the would reset, but I wasn’t sure.

      (BTW, I just noticed the extra “e” in your handle for the first time. Sorry for ask those other times when I must have misspelled it.)

  2. Am I the only one who hates the fact that we’re limited on point accumulation? I worked hard to find friends who are active and it’s super annoying that playing MANY times per day 8-10 that I wasn’t able to hit the Nativity Scene. I was 700 points short when the the update hit. I’m a person who buys donuts here and there and it is incredibly annoying that I can’t just play the game and acquire things without spending. You’re already making money off of me….now you’re just making me angry. Plus with the glitches there were several days when the game crashed and didn’t work properly. Stop limiting us. If I have my friend cap and want to take my time to visit their pages it should be allowed to be beneficial to both parties. Stop being greedy EA.

    • Actually…it is NOT EA to blame for that one. BLAME HACKERS!!! Thanks to those that do not use the appropriate methods of playing, EA had no choice but to limit the amounts. Without it, hackers just would dump gift after gift into all their buddies games, fly through all the content in a flash, and make the game…well…not even really playable as everything would be theirs in a blink of an eye.

      By putting in limits, this has slowed down many hackers. Stopped people from cheating in the game. Made it so EVERYONE playing is more on a fair playing ground.

      Shut down the hackers for good…and game play may change. There is always that one person that has to mess it up for the rest of us.

      • Bunny I get that…but we’re being popped on our side. You’d think they’d have algorithms in place to detect odd/rapid accumulation. We’re limited at 99/100 friends. Limiting accumulation to 30 or so friends seems extreme IMO. It just doesn’t add up.

  3. After the last update I can’t buy donuts anymore??

  4. Add me Deven3

  5. If my friend’s town is full of feds, is it better to: (a) tap on the presents or (b) go through the rest of my neighbors dropping feds off as i go?

  6. I’m just wondering what is the best way to catch up with gifts? I’m def behind a bit and I really want to finish this event, it will be the first event I’ve been able to even come close to getting the prizes. Please any help would be greatly appreciated. I just want to say thank you very much to everyone here for the work they do to keep us informed, if I can ever do anything to help please feel free to message me 😀

    ******

  7. When I log on during the day (8-10 times) my friends have sent feds and I tap them and earn presents with no problem. But when I log on in the morning (after a long winter’s nap) I find only handshakes and no feds. I can’t believe that not one friend sent a Fed overnight. Is this a glitch?

    • A few others are reporting the same thing. But personally I don’t think it’s a glitch. I just think it’s your neighbor’s timing. It could also be there’s 1 or 2 Feds there but you can’t find them. That happens a lot as well.

      If you think it’s a glitch though you can contact EA, but they’ll basically say if you’re getting Feds during the day it’s working.

      • I agree that there IS a glitch, when i wake up i have NO feds, never had any, yet during teh day, and into the evening, when ever i can pop on there are feds, so i find it impossible to believe that duing a 9 hour period i get NO feds, yet during the day, I do…

        • Look, I believe you. But also…are you sure there aren’t any there? I know often my last 5 or so feds I have a hard time finding because my town is so large. Whenever I scroll for them I don’t see them because they’re hiding in and out of buildings etc. So it takes a while for me to see the popup that they’re all clear. (usually I just give up..)
          All I can tell you beyond that is if you think it’s a serious glitch contact EA with it and let them know. But I can tell you they’ll ask if you’re getting them during the day…and because you are they’ll tell you nothing’s wrong with your game. But you never know they might still give you donuts for your trouble.

    • I have been experiencing exactly the same thing and, with all due respect to Alissa (for whom I really do have a lot of respect), I don’t think it’s a timing thing with my neighbors, since I awaken to a town full of handshakes and I can’t believe that all of those neighbors just happened to choose to tap buildings instead of leaving feds. I’m convinced that, to them, my town looked like it was heaving with feds. I think that, for some of us (maybe due to the server we’re on or something), there’s some kind of significant lag between what we see and do and what our neighbors see, or something like that. Since I’m at least getting feds throughout the day, I’ve decided to just accept the situation and move on, but it’s kinda nice to know that I’m not alone in this!

      • I have noticed this happening since the last update, I had seen the game updating a couple of days ago from the game loading screen ( you know when it says 210/295 updates with the blue progress bar while the game starts) and ever since then when I sign on in the morning my whole town has handshakes but there are no Feds! I was getting most of my Feds this way but now I’m not getting any in the mornings. Is there a way to let EA know about this? I’ve never had a problem like this so I’ve never had to contact them. Now I most likely won’t be able to finish this event. I was wondering why my present earning had slowed down so much even though I’m playing more than I was…

      • I have also noticed that since the last game update a couple of days ago (you know the 210/295 updates with the blue progress bar on the game loading screen when you start the game) that my present earnings has slowed quite a bit and that when I start the game in the morning after sleeping that my whole town is handshakes with no Feds to be found. This was when I got most of my gifts, now I definitely won’t be able to finish this part by Xmas 🙁

        Where do we go to let EA know about this?

      • I have chatted with someone about this issue and the specialist team is looking into it because I’m noticing I’m not earning nearly as much gifts since the level 48 update. It’s making it so I won’t be able to earn all the prizes so I will let you know the outcome once I hear back from them. I took pics of my Springfield from this morning showing my entire town having handshakes yet not one fed in sight, and usually my town is crawling with Feds every morning as I have all seasoned players as neighbors. So I doubt very much that they wouldn’t use the fed button. If there were a couple of Feds then I could agree that maybe it’s an issue on my part but a town full of handshakes and not one fed, when there used to be tons of Feds every morning tells me the issue is on their end.

    • Could it be that after 90 friend actions I/my friends think we are sending feds/presents to our neighbors but are really only sending handshakes? If that is the case I need to rotate the order of my visits to send feds to all my neighbors equally. I have 100 neighbors so maybe only 30 per day can get feds/presents.

  8. Think mine is glitching. My wife sent me Feds and I never saw them. I just used her iPad today and sent myself three Feds and they are nowhere to be found in my game. I’ve tried resetting and going to my friends towns and back etc a few times and still nothing. I’ve got the Feds in my task bar saying I’ve tapped 1/3 which I did a few days ago but nothing new since. Thoughts?

    • There is a delay in getting them as the game has to sync THEIR progress through the system, then sync it up to YOUR town. So sometimes it may take up to 24hrs for the Feds dropped to be reflected. If it has been more than that, alert EA

  9. When I go to put Feds in another spring feild, I don’t have that Feds button. So I don’t know what to do

  10. These”randomly” awarded donuts, does that mean you guys haven’t found any relative conformity to when they pop up?

    • It varies on YOUR play. How many neigh or you visit. How many you have. That all factors into it.

    • To add to what Bunny said, even if you have max neighbors and visit them all every day, the number of donuts will still vary from day to day, from 0 to maybe, on an really, really good day, 5 (or 6?). From my experience, 1 or 2 is probably the most common. But I’ve definitely had my share of 0 donut days!

  11. I’m only able to visit 40 neighbors before I stop receiving presents. Does that mean I have to wait 24 hours before I can get presents from visiting neighbors again? Just curious, I wish I could visit more neighbors before it shuts me down for gifts 🙁

  12. I still have no Fed button. Have completed the tasks needed, gotten a task from Santa to send Feds but when I go to a neighbour’s town, I have no Fed button. What’s the go?!

  13. Question: Does sending feds count for our limit of 90 clicks for presents? What I mean is, can I gather all of my allotment of presents and THEN send feds when they run out (send in other towns, of course.) Or do I lose the ability to send feds when I stop getting presents each day. Hope that makes sense!

  14. Still no Feds. I have uninstalled signed out and in an contacted EA. I have passes the point to get Feds. But still no Feds.. So what do i do?

  15. I’ve been playing everyday and made the elf bonuses for all but one door. I didn’t hit pt 8 of the quest line to be able to use the fed button until late last night. I imagine over the next few days the use of Feds will increase, it took a while to get to that point. And I’m a start my simpsons at 6-7am player. Feds started popping up in my Springfield a couple days ago. Then yesterday three different players left Feds. So I think it will really pick up this week for everyone.

  16. A comment to mix things up: EA should do something with that problem by sorting by name and social events. I personally would like to see the list be able to sort by various categories (level, event points, date added, last online, etc.).
    Nevertheless that might not happen and I like to have close friends (so more like real friends) in the beginning of the list, for a fast look how they are doing and sharing most benefits of social events. What I do is adding not personally known neighbors from various sites, which name comes in alphabetical order after my close friends (in my case after “R”). It limits which people I can add, but my neighbor list is still maxed out. And people with names later in the alphabet benefit from that.
    Maybe it’s something to consider for you, maybe not.

    In this event there is no limit of feds you can send, so visit all your neighbors! Unless you’re lazy 😉

    • ninjafish04@gmail.com

      Within the friends list, you can select and deselect with of your “friends” you want to see. Turn off your neighbors and visit only your real friends. It’s kinda like not looking at houses when rearranging inventory

  17. Even though you mention it here, I have found different results for the max amount of presents you can get from your friends town actions, its 2 presents per action from your first 30 actions, and then its 1 per action for the next 90, so 150 a day.

    Also, unlike the TTOH event this year, if you accidentally press a building that doesn’t give presents and instead money, I have found that it does not count to your 120 actions (30 for 2 presents each and 1 for the other 90), so you’ll still be able to get the 150 presents a day, even if you do click such a building.

    Hope this helps 🙂

  18. I got the prompt for the Fed portion starting just now. It gave me the intro dialogue and the task to complete was to tap the first three Feds. After tapping 2, I got a dialogue that the task was complete, and when I clicked on the task, there was no longer an option to tap “Go to” like the first two. It shows 2/3 completed, but I can’t find the third Fed. Did I just stumble into a glitch perhaps?

  19. If I hear a police siren when I log in, does that mean they are feds in my town? I heard it today, but didn’t see any. Also is there a time limit to remove feds from our town like so the gremalian eggs?

    • No time limit on Feds.

      The Siren is just one of the event sound effects…

      • Alissa – I’ve been testing it out and I’m pretty sure that the siren only sounds when there are feds in whatever town you’re going into (your own or a friendville). So I would say that, yes, if you hear the siren when entering your town, start looking for feds. They can be hard to spot sometimes (and it doesn’t help that they look a lot like Louie or Legs), but just keep looking around for them and I’ll bet you’ll see that they’re there! (Off course, if you’re visiting a friendville, you don’t need to bother looking for them, because there’s nothing you can do with them.)

      • Sandra, it helps if you darken out all but the citizens, they are easy to spot 🙂

      • 👍 Yeah – I love having those buttons for stuff like that! That technique was particularly helpful for finding aliens during the Halloween event, since those little suckers were short and hid even better than the feds.

  20. So I’m new to this game today.. (I didn’t know it existed until I saw the ad on the FGTQFS addicts page). I read this whole post several times and alot of the comments so hopefully this isn’t answered in them or i’ll feel silly..
    I have the toy factory and managed to find neighbours willing to add me even though i’m only level 7. I didn’t have any gifts but could collect them from neighbours so have a few now. So can my friends collect gifts from me? You mentioned not all buildings gave gifts, which ones are these? I want to be a good neighbour and it’s all a bit confusing… If I click on my own building does that mean a friend won’t see a gift? And is it more helpful to click on neighbours buildings that take longer to pay out or not?
    Sorry about the multiple questions.. I spent hours trying to find out from this site first I promise..

    • Well welcome! 🙂 We’re glad to have you on the original Addicts site!

      As far as neighbors go…every building you would have at this point they can leave you presents. The only buildings where presents can’t be left are ones from limited-time events that have passed. So you won’t have them anyway.

      The more important thing to do is make sure you keep clearing your handshakes in your town so the gifts reset. However, neighbors can also leave you Feds..and then they won’t have to click on any buildings.

      For your neighbors…until you unlock the ability to place Feds…yes it’s more beneficial to tap the buildings that take longer to generate money again… (ie Burns Manor, White House etc). However, once you unlock the ability to leave Feds THAT because the most beneficial thing to leave them…because it helps you and them.

      Hope that helped!

      • Yes that was very helpful thank you! You guys are amazing! So they can get my gifts so long as my buildings either generating or ready to pay but not if there’s already a handshake? Just checking that me collecting my own rent isn’t short changing anyone..

        • If you only have a few buildings you won’t want to collect rent on them just yet. Wait and see how many handshakes you’re getting. If you’re getting more handshakes then keep leaving them free. If you’re getting more Feds then you can collect Rent.

          Handshakes are good to collect, $ and other icons over buildings hold off on. Since that will mean there’s nothing for your neighbor to collect.

  21. I am on Jingle Bells Part 11, and have no Feds, no neighbours have any, so whats up, any idea ?

    • They’re part of your daily actions. So if you already visited them you can’t leave feds. Also, if they haven’t upgraded to Christmas you can’t leave feds (even if they have presents).

      When visiting neighbors…as long as you have actions left you can leave them feds in the top right corner. For feds to go into your game friends will have to leave them for you..

      • Hi, well, no it doesnt really help, I am passed the point where these Feds should be appearing, and i have just 60 neighbours, the vast majority of which have more presents than i do (I have 3500) but NOT one has the the option of Feds, just the comment under the top right box.

        Surely if i am behind my neighbours, then I should be able to send feds to one or two of them, but nothing, and i visit my neighbours every day.

        • Do you have friend actions available? Does it say 3/3 or come back in 24 (or less) hours?

          You have to have actions available to send them….

          It’s either or with the gifts. You can’t get gifts AND send feds. You can send Feds OR get gifts.

          • Hi, Yeah i am aware it is “either or”, but i have not even got the box in the corner, and never have, i have just completed all my neighbours, and like yesterday and the day before, there was nothing, just the box in teh top right corner, whech has been mentioned elsewhere.

            Seems really strange that i am past the point where these Fed things are supposed to be available, and that ALL my neighbours dont have that facility, they are usually well ahead of me, as i can only play a couple of times a day, if it is a glitch, then i am not surprised, it wouldnt load at all yesterday, after my early morning visit, until late, being a Weekend day i can pop on more.

            Oh well, never mind, it will just be another game i dont complete, they like to do these games for more frequent players, and those who only “pop on” lose out…. 🙁

          • Just had a new friend request, and they too seemm to have the necesary requirements, but no FEDS, oh well, never mind….

  22. I thought I would check on a point regarding the feds. I don’t think I’ve reached the point where I should have them, however, when I visit my neighbors there is a box below the neighbor information providing the information on how to use the Fed button. (“Use the Fed button…) Does everyone else have this? Thanks for the help!

  23. Cecilia Southall

    Hi!
    I have been sending Feds to my friends for a couple of days now but I have not had one in my town yet although I can see my friends have visited. I have finished all my tasks…

    • You getting feds has nothing to do with you. It has to do with your neighbors. They can’t leave them unless they’ve reached that point in their own questline.

  24. I had someone drop Feds into my town on like day 2 of the event. Spending donuts i presume? I’ve been playing several times throughout the day, but still cannot send Feds. Anyone else getting slowed down complating Santa’s tasks because they send Homer to do his long tasks that come up for him? Like 16 hour plant shift because he’s fed up working for Santa?

    I’ve just barely won the bonus presents two times because Homer was sent on some long task as prompted by the dialog.

  25. Hi me again! I am still Not understanding what I need to do so that I begin accruing gifts in the friends area. I Still have zero, though I have gifted many feds at this point. What am I doing wrong? I just read your quote, bunny, “So I suggest taking a look at your MAIN Neighbor screen first to make sure both of you are on the same page when visiting until they all finish updating. Until then, you are wasting your visits.” And Am pretty sure I was on the same track as my primary neighbor. I have since added some new neighbors, so now I am unsure what my main neighbor is? Everyone who is now my friend has a couple thousand gifts, and I still have zero in the friends area. Can anybody help me with this issue? I Appreciate the tips and tricks so much.

    • Let all of your timers reset back to 3 actions. Don’t send any Feds/don’t visit any neighbors until they do. They see if that helps.

      In your main Springfield screen you’ve got gifts, correct?

      • Okay, I have let everything go back zeroed out in the friends area. By that, I mean, I left the mall wait a day and somebody sent me three fed so I clicked on them in my Springfield I got no gifts added to my balance they did not add to my endgame told all it was just three feds that went poof I saw the gift icon, But I am not accruing gifts in other Springfield. All my friends have 3 to 4000 approximately, as I should. But I have zero! Still not sure what to do my call EA tomorrow.

  26. I just sent Feds to all my neighbours (I have max neighbours), even when I was over the daily limit. Should I have done this? Because once I reached my daily limit I still had the option of sending Feds, even though I didn’t get any presents. Do my neighbours still get presents from the Feds I send even after my limit has been reached? I’m just wondering if it would be better for my neighbours if I always send Feds? Or is it better if, after I reach my limit of Feds and presents, to then tap on buildings rather than send Feds? I like to do whatever benefits my neighbours the most.

    Thanks very much!
    abby_oscar

  27. I got my feds…from everything I can see…It makes far more sense to use feds rather than click on presents. I still get the same number of presents and my neighbors get the added benefit of getting a present. Am I missing any downside??

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