Hey there Grumples.
Here we are, Phase 2 of the Event …. and here you all are panicking you just can’t make it or get enough of items to complete the requirements. Well, as usual, here is some Math to help you out and see how YOU can make it by just playing the TSTO Christmas Event.
All the information is very similar as in past events. The more time you spend in your game, the more characters you have to complete Bell Earning Actions, and the more Neighbors you visit daily, along with you just playing daily… you get will all contribute to YOUR individual results.
Now for the Breakdown
BELLS FROM ELVES IN YOUR TOWN
You will start collecting Elves and Bells pretty quickly, however the Elves won’t help payout Bells much until you get to Part 4 in the Project After-Party questline, place the Cannon, and are able to shoot Elves out of the Cannon. No worries though, until that point you can still collect Elves in the bottles and those counts will still show up once you get to Part 4 and complete the main Phase 2 info.
The Spawn Rate breaks down as the following:
3 Elves about Every 15 mins changed to 30 mins
40 MAX allowed in your town at a time
20 Bank if you go beyond the MAX. You will have to clear the MAX before they will start to show.
This works out to roughly 12 6 Elves an hour…but again, this all depends on where in the spawn YOU hit within that hour. For instance, if you visit just after a spawn and return just before a spawn…you will see a difference of Elves. You won’t know where they spawn, you have to look for them. Just watch your town and see if there is a pattern where they show up. (If you are quick enough, you will actually see the Bottles launched from above down into your game, and smash down releasing the Elves, who scatter once they’re released.)
BELLS FROM ELVES FROM THE ELF TUNNELS
Every 8 hours (as long as you are NOT maxed out on Elves), you will be able to tap on your Elf Tunnel and release and addition 4 Elves to bottle in your town. (Now I did see in my town something cool, but I do not know if it will stick or a glitch. The Tunnel continued to collect even though I wasn’t in my town. In other words I hit the 8 hrs twice and went into my town see TWO Elf head icons on my Tunnel. When I tapped on them, 8 Elves 
were released. Again, this may be a glitch so do not count on it.)
You will NOT see the Elves released from the Tunnels either. They auto appear randomly around your town, just like the others. You have to find them.
No matter how you get the Elves or how many you have bottled, they won’t help until you actually fire them out of the Cannon. To start off, you will have a total of 3 shots for 9 Elves @ 2 Bells each every 3 hrs 45 mins.
So, let’s break this down…
1 shot of 9 Elves @ 2 Bells each =18 Bells
18 Bells x 3 Shots = 54 Bells
So you could roughly earn 54 Bells under 4 hours daily. That is only the start. This is roughly 324 Bells Daily just starting out. Not bad at all.
This will change as you Upgrade your Cannon, but that info will be gone into more in depth in another post. The short of it is this, get as many Bells as you can to get the Cannon Control Building. Once you do, you will get Cogwheels from Elves too. Cogwheels upgrade the Cannon, upgrades equal faster Cannon fire times, upgrades equal MORE Bells for Elves fired, upgrades equal more Elves being able to be fired.
Upgrades are a good thing and will help determine just how fast you get through this Phase. It won’t happen overnight, so just focus on one Level at a time.
BELLS FROM PLAYING DAILY
In addition, if you play 5 days in a row…each day will add MORE Bells and on the 5th day Cogs to use to upgrade your Cannon and the ability to get even MORE Bells. 
Day 1: 5 Extra Bells
Day 2: 10 Extra Bells
Day 3: 50 Extra Bells
Day 4: 100 Extra Bells
Day 5: 50 Cogwheels
Do not worry if you do not have the Cannon Control Building yet, the Cogwheels will still sit in limbo until you place it, then the ones you win will be added right away.
BELLS FROM CLEARING HANDSHAKES
If you have Neighbors visiting and tapping on your Elf Tunnel and Cannon, you will get some Bells for clearing those handshakes. I am seeing 5 Bells paid out on mine.
Now you have a basic idea of how to get Bells from just playing daily. Now for more extras that will add to your Bell Totals.
BELLS FROM NEIGHBORS
As with previous events, you can visit your neighbors to get help with the Event Currency. This Phase it is the Bells. Now, just like any other time, you will be limited on actions as you visit Neighbors. The following is the Breakdown of your Neighbor Visit Actions.
30 actions, 5 Bells per action (Double for Elf Cannon & Elf Tunnel)
30 actions, 3 Bells per action (Double for Elf Cannon & Elf Tunnel)
30 actions, 2 Bells per action (Double for Elf Cannon & Elf Tunnel)
30 actions, 1 Bells per action (Double for Elf Cannon & Elf Tunnel)
So that is a total of 120 Actions every 24 hours. YOUR Bell payout will depend on what you tap on at what point in the collections.
Going off the basics and NO extras, you can get at least 330 Bells Daily.
This is just from visiting neighbors, but do not stop there. If you have your FP at the MAX, you can also get that additional random FREE Donut from visiting neighbors. The amounts vary daily on what you get. The more you visit, the better the odds.
BELLS FROM COMPLETING QUESTLINES
Playing through the questlines will help you earn Bells too. Starting from Project After-Party Part 3, you can earn them from completion. 200 Bells each time. So clearing them out will help too.
So there you have it. MANY ways to hit the end target as well as earn the Personal Prizes for Phase 2. YOU just need to put in the time and effort. It may seem like you can’t keep up as first, but as you continue to unlock more and more and get further along, it will get easier and easier.
Where are YOU on the Bellss count? What items have YOU won so far from the Personal Prizes? Did this help you out to not worry so much? Let us know.
~Bunny
If they brought in the ability to collect elves in friend’s towns, it wouldn’t be so bad for the lack of elves with the cannon.
There is not enough elves for me to shoot from the cannon. They take too long to pop up around. Or maybe I’m playing too much.
I’ll just copy and paste my comment from the calendar post:
I came up with a nice strategy to improve my bells collection when visiting friends.
I usually visit all my friends in a single roll, from A to Z or Z to A makes no difference since I visit them all.
Like we all had probably noted by now, tapping the cannon and the cave give us twice the bells.
For the last couple of days what I have done is the following scheme:
I start visiting the 1st neighbor and only tap the cannon or/and the cave, leaving one action undone. Then I move to the next friend and do the same.
If the cannon has already been tapped by someone else, I look for the cave and will only tap it leaving two actions undone, and vice-versa. Some users don’t put their cannons right next to the cave, but this can be a good thing, other neighbors may not find it, and it will be untapped.
If both of them are already tapped, you can move to other Springfield leaving no actions done, or do as I do, tap anything just to start the clock and keep the time flux organized…
When I got to the final friends, all I collected was double bells from cannons and caves (except for the ones I tapped to start the clock, but still two actions to come back and check later), and still some double points left to collect. So before the clock hits the zero mark, I’ll try to find some cannons or caves untapped to collect the last double bells.
Once in a while I find some towns with no update (the federals siren is audible as soon as it loads), I just left them untapped and lather, if they are more than 7 days away I remove them from the list and replace with new ones.
Sorry for any weird grammar, portuguese is my native language, anyway, I hope it helps someone, and thanks folks.
I do the same & it works like a charm! 😉
I have the same low elf production problem. Is this a glitch or is it EA moving the goalposts? I was doing fine until today but now can’t keep up. My cannon is level 7 but reluctant to upgrade.
See top of post.
So it’s confirmed, just 6 elves per hour? But then what’s the benefit of upgrading the cannon? At the moment my cannon takes 3 hours to cool down, so every 3 hours I can fire 3×11=33 elves. But the game just generates 18 elves in three hours…so the reduction of the cooling-down time is a rather useless “upgrade”.
Depends how you play. Every single hour…yes. Off n on its fine. MORE Bells is the upgrade goal to shoot for. That…and you don’t have to shoot the max. Shoot what you got…wait…repeat.
This gives people who can’t play while at work or asleep, a chance to finish the event, because they can fire the cannon multiple times during their down time, and earn elves while away.
As of this moment, 7765 bells.
When I got the daily rewards, I got both day 4 & 5 together, so it gave me day 4’s reward then immediately jumped to day 5 and gave me the next reward. Did that happen to anyone else?
Happened to me several times during part 1 – I got the presents from day 4 and immediately afterwards got the elf. Hasn’t happened during part 2 yet.
I too do not get enough elves to keep up with my cannon. I started with a surplus of them by the time the cannon was ready to fire and now I don’t have enough for my next firing round.
Could someone already have over 23K without hacks? I have 2 neighbors that are way up there on their bell count.
I do. I pay for it with donuts. Not hard.
Thank you! I thought maybe there were using hacks and was going to unfriend them!
Never assume. It’s the cruelest thing any human can do to another. Kindness goes a long way. Especially if you have no way of knowing or understanding the other persons situation or game play. The old “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” thing. You’re always free to ask us if you have doubts. 😉
Nice math.
Just curious, is there any benefit to getting to that point so quickly? What I mean is do you earn more doughnuts at the end (due to the time left after you’ve earned all the prizes) than you spend getting there or do you just do it so you can share the lessons learned with us? Thx
For the site. I would rather PLAY the game at a regular pace. Having it all in two seconds is boring. That is why we all have multiple games. Ones for the site, and ones to play as regular players.
I am so confused. I play daily, like all the time, zap those bare-butted elves as soon as they appear. I have never gotten bells from them.. I fire my cannon asap I get 5 bells I up grade asap. What is a handshake? what is the Bart’s screen?I have not yet made it to the Sequel shop and short 700 elves.My cannon is level 8. So am I on target??? I thought this was just going to be a game to keep an old lady entertained! Should never have started reading your comments…LOL… but glad I did.
You get bottled elves when you tap/zap them. When they are shot out the cannon you get bells. When you finish part of the quest line you get bells. The handshakes mean a neighbor visited your town and scored some bells off buildings that you had money above. And yes, if you’re at 6400 bells you’re on target for all the prizes. About 500 ahead of pace. Events can be a little crazy, it’s a pretty relaxing game in between them.
Thank you… think I got it now..
…and the (dreaded) Bart Screen is the screen you get when your game loses contact with EA’s server. When you see it the first time, you will know that the term means in the future.
Oh, and welcome to TSTO 🙂
I just want to add that I also experience a lower elf production, at least today. I tested it and I don’t get more than 6 elves per hour. My cannon is at level 9 and my stock of elves is almost gone.
So I noticed I have this one neighbor that keeps visiting my town every few hours and taps the cannon and elf tunnel. I keep getting elf bells when this neighbor does it. However, I thought you have to wait every 24 hours to visit the same town?
You get 3 taps total. Have they returned more than 3 times?
Thank you! I thought maybe there were using hacks and was going to unfriend them!
Yes they have
Knowing the rules, I run through my neighbors’ towns looking for cannons and tunnels. I return to untapped neighbors within the 24 hour period seeking those extra bells, and often end up just looking and not tapping because there is nothing to tap. Does this count as a visit? Also, do neighbors see the notification that I am “stalking” their cannons and tunnels? (^^^) LOL . . . too much time on my hands; thanks to the holidays. <3 Loving the game. 🙂
Lol. Nope. Only a handshake shows proof you were there.
Thanks Bunny, I like these posts as they show me if I can pick up my collection of (insert random item). The limiting factor with this event is the generation of elves, 3 in last hour and a half. Not to worried about hitting target, using your calendar I am just over a day ahead of where I need to be.
My tip to increase productivity is to outsource😃 I have left my tablet at a friend’s house and their kids happily do the tapping on my behalf.
Have a Happy New year from Wales
LOL on the outsourcing! Be sure they know not to speed up tasks with your donuts, however, or your outsourcing could be quite expensive.
I’ve seen the above comments about low elf production and am having the same issue. My cannon is at level 9. Cools down in 3hr cycles and shoots 11 elves. The last two days I’m averaging roughly 7 elves per hour, making any upgrades I’ve made pretty useless. Seems like counter-productive game design to me, given on one hand you’re encouraged to upgrade to increase the cannon’s output but not allowing for a relative increase in elf production to match.
Perhaps this will give you a chance to sleep.
A tip that in sure has already been stated but bears repeating as a lot of my friends don’t seem to get it. The launch point for your friends visit is the cannon. Put the elf cave door next to the cannon. Having it anywhere else in your town doesn’t make any sense.
Like Like Like 🙂
I have checked my elf spawning it works out to be 6p/hr but i shoot 11p/hr this has been like this since yesterday and if I only go in each hour it becomes 3p/hr not happy
How sure are you of the 3 elves every 15 minutes? I’ve done timed experiments in my own town and am seeing consistently 6 elves per hour, about half the rate you mention. I did both these by tapping elves until I get the “but for how long?” message, setting a timer for 60 minutes, then tapping again until I get the “but for how long?” message. Both times I had exactly 6 elves.
I was getting them just fine in my test games. Will test again in a few days after I let them all stack up again.
It looks like Bunny has already edited it. FYI I saw a message from Lisa about how the game was balanced for people to spend donuts, and since they weren’t, some things had to be adjusted. I was busy tapping something at the time and didn’t catch the message that prompted this, however, so it is incomplete.
I recently added a lot of high level friends thanks to fellow addicts and your add me thread. But I notice that I am no longer getting bells from tapping their cannon or elf cave. Is this a new glitch? I’m also getting Bart lock out screen a lot
Did you hit your daily max? (see this very post you are commenting on)
That must be it. Thanks bunny
How does the Elf Bottler work? I tap and hold down the icon in the upper right corner but nothing happens… I don’t care that much but there is a task for this…
Nope. You tap the icon to activate it. Clear the pop up… then tap anywhere on the screen. Preferably where no building or character is. Post will be up soon to help.
Thanks TSTO Addicts. You guys are very helpful and calm. Reading though a lot of these comments I dont know how you dont bang your heads against walls and shut this whole thing down. We appreciate all of your patience and guidance. Keep up the wonderful work you do and hope you get sometime to enjoy the holidays!
You mean I am doing it wrong???!!!
***smashes head on wall and cries…reaches to press the “SHUT IT DOWN” button***
I notice at the start you were getting cogs on every 4th elf or so, but as you progress the cog rate slows down. Has any one else noticed this?
Mine are all over the place. Sometimes I get like 6 in a row. Sometimes one or two.
Great article
Every Tapper ought to give thanks
(very usefuk info)
At this point in the Game I’ve got:
7260 Bells
1/3 into building Sequel Shop
and that’s truly the pertinent info
(the rest are Side Quests that earn
Bells & Elves & upgrade Elf Cannon)
I’m not even thinking “am I going to obtain the last quest item?”
(EA isn’t making it easy with all the bugs / network problems,
some free stack of “we’re sorry” donuts would be nice, but this
is EA we’re talking about (lol)
Just remember, have fun 🙂
Anyone else getting the Bart Screen from Heck again? I thought we were over this from Christmas Eve and Christmas day…
I was just in mine.
Glad to know I’m not alone. I feel like I keep falling behind because of the servers.
yes, Bart screen here for the last hour or so. Was fine all morning
Does the elf tunnel seem to be glitching for anyone else? I didn’t have the “no more elves left” message, Assumed there must be 1 or 2 left hiding so clicked the elf tunnel.
3 elves letter and I get the message saying my town is clear! Shouldn’t have been possible
This is rather addicted thing for me to do, but when I visit my neighbors, I ONLY tap on the caves and/or cannons my first run through. This ensures that I get the max bell pay-out bonus for those items. I then go back through and tap on other buildings to round out my three actions per neighbor. The downside is that it messes up the count-down timers until I can visit them again (the timers are no longer in a nice sequential order because the timer starts from your first tap even though it doesn’t indicate that, but when you come back to finish your 3 actions it will show that it started earlier…small price to pay for getting extra bells, I’d say).
Depending on the availability of the caves and cannons for tapping, you can pick up around 200+ extra bells per day 🙂
This is a good strategy if you are behind in your bells, but it takes a lot more time, especially if you have a high number of neighbors. Personally, I tap those bonus items if they are available, but if not, I just pick something else and move on.
This part is way too easy IMO. I have 8246 by now and am currently under 1000 needed a day By tonight I’ll be launching 11*5*3 = 165 elves every 3 hours. I should be easily done with this soon. The only criticism for this part of the event is that I don’t think I can collect 6875 Cog wheel to get the third skin for the Elf Launcher as it looks the best.
I have the Sequel Stop… Well it’s building so I do believe I’m on task to complete it. I love the elf bottler it helps me to find them hiding shaking booty elves.
Is anyone else having an issue getting bells from the elves in their own town? For me this started today. I can get bells from using the cannon, and from visiting neighbors, and from the daily bonus, but when I tap or zap elves in my own town, they get bottled, occasionally will drop cocgs, but no bells drop.
Please read this very post you are commenting on. 😉
Hmmm. I re-read the post, but I must be missing something. I’m currently at 6591 bells. My cannon is placed and upgraded to level 8, so I should be getting 4 bells per elf. I am getting cogs occasionally, and the elves are getting bottled, but still no bells.
From FIRING the elves out of the Cannon.
“No matter how you get the Elves or how many you have bottled, they won’t help until you actually fire them out of the Cannon. To start off, you will have a total of 3 shots for 9 Elves @ 2 Bells each every 3 hrs 45 mins.”
So if we only get the doubles in our town visits its 660 bells. My god!!!
Question here on extra bells needed to make it possible to get this all done in time. It was said in the calendar post that we need roughly 1184 bells per day. If your math is correct, we are only getting roughly 654 a day not counting bonus or hand shakes. Add another 13 per day for daily play bonus.( 165 every 5 days).
I am near 8500 but pretty far in the questline(pt 10) so my average bells are going to go down once i finish it.
My count right now says I need to make 1000 a day to just get all the prizes, I need to find roughly 300 to 400 more. I need 1145ish to get the extra for donuts.
How do we make up the extra bells?
It also says on my calendar that it is just a number and at first…you may feel behind as this is a progressive event and as you open more, upgrade more, unlock more options…it will change.
Doing very well on the bells so far, I’m on around 7200 bells, so I just unlocked the Sequel Stop which will take another 24hrs to complete. In my opinion this part is quite doable, had to work hard on the previous part to get all prizes.
I’ve noticed that too. Unfortunately, I was locked out with the glitch until late on the 26th, but I’ve managed to get ahead and keep up to the calendar really well. Perhaps it was the awesome duplicate elf head glitch. 🙂