Hey Howdy Hey My Elfish Tappers!
Well….unless you’ve been partying a little too hard you know that Elves have taken over Springfield! Elves work hard and party even harder…so much so that even Santa bailed on Springfield! It’s your job to contain the Elves and send them back to the North Pole. In doing so you’ll earn Elf Bells..which will give you some awesome prizes!
With this event EA is repeating a similar prize structure to what they did for Halloween, only more prizes, and releasing the event (and prizes) in stages. For the second phase, which lasts until the event ends (Jan 14th), you can win 8 prizes by collecting Elf Bells. The second prize awarded at 1,700 Bells is the Cannon Control Building.
Let’s take a closer look at this building and just what happens when it enters your town…
WARNING Mild Dialogue Spoilers Ahead
Once you’ve collected 1,700 Elf Bells the Control Building will automatically be awarded to you and you’ll see this popup:
Much like Friendship Prizes, if you’re visiting a neighbor when you hit the 1,700 Bell mark this message will still popup and your buildingwill be waiting for you in your inventory once you get back to your Springfield.
The Control Building will be placed in your inventory, so you’ll have to go into your inventory to retrieve it. Just tap on the “use” icon to place it in your Springfield:
Before you even place it in town…some dialogue from Professor Frink will popup. You will then be prompted with the task to place it, after that some more dialogue will popup. Here’s the full rundown:
Better One’s Elf
Frink: Professor Frink here. This pixie popper is impressive, but we can do better. I’ve created this custom control panel that will allow you to improve the cannon. It’ll really put the KAA in your KAA-BOOM! Cannon improvements don’t grown on trees, though. Really, nothing scientific does. Every time you catch an elf, you should frisk the frisky creature for cogwheels in its pockets.
Place the Cannon Control Building
Upgrade the Elf Cannon
Completed Task Earns 200 Elf Bells and 10XP
So here’s the deal with the Control Building:
-A building for Sprinfield. The control center of your cannon upgrades.
-Currently does not payout anything.
-Upgrading your cannon will decrease cool down time (by 15 minutes), increase Elf Bell rewards (by 1) and Increase Elves per blast (by 1)..in that order.
-To upgrade you need Cog Wheels. Wheels are earned through tapping Elves, Daily Bonus (day 5 earns 50 Cogs) or by purchasing them through the store for donuts (don’t recommend doing this).
-Conform-o-Meter Vanity +100
We’ll have a full breakdown of the Cannon and the levels in another post.
So that about covers all the details on this Control Building!
What do YOU think of the ability to upgrade your cannon? Where have you placed the control building in your Springfield? What level are you currently on? Thoughts on the way the Event is set up this time around? Sound off in the comments below, you know we LOVE hearing from you!
I have not been able to bottle any elves because none are on my screen. No bells on friends pages. What’s going on? I also noticed that I have reverted back to older quests that I have already completed.
Your game might have rolled back. I suggest contacting EA and letting them know what’s going on in your game…
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/01/14/troubleshooting-101-contacting-ea/
Has anybody else had their elf cannon not fire because a friend tapped it?
Hmm are you not seeing the lit part? I know sometimes in my game it looks like i can’t fire it but then I just let the game reset itself (just let it sit there) and it all clears out and I can fire it again…
If the problem continues I’d contact EA and let them know what’s going on…that shouldn’t be happening.
It’s happened to me twice now in 2 days… I’ll click the hands to clear the friend action, then the screen blinks and the 3 shots that are ready just disappear and the timer resets. It’s annoying as hell, especially since i’ve gone from not having enough elf bottles to now having a surplus because I can’t fire as often as I’d like. I’m so close to getting the tropical island too so the fact that it’s now being delayed sucks…
Report it. Let them know you are missing bells and approx how many. They should help out.
I’ve been having the same problem. You press the hand and the fuse image, but then no bells come out and you can’t press it again, like the normal three times you get in the time frame.
It doesn’t really matter if you lose out on one cannon not firing because you only have enough elves in a day to fire your cannon 12 times (if you have collected all the elves) So that means only 4 times a day.
6 elves per hr x 24 hrs = 144 elves
plus 4 elves per 8 hrs(from elf cave) = 12 (in a 24hr period)
Total = 156 elves
divide that by the number of elves your cannon can shoot and that means (from L14) 156/13=12.
and 12 shots makes 4 times per day.
I’m fast running out of elves to fire out the cannon. I had a surplus of bottled elves, but now that my cannon is up to level 11, I’m down to 41 bottled elves in the hopper. The frequency of elves popping up in town is less than the rate of elves I’m shooting our of the cannon. I’m assuming I will still get enough bells to collect all of the prizes (I just got little helper Ralph). So I guess it doesn’t really matter(?).
I’m not at that point yet but some folks feel this same way. I would say just keep plugging away and all the prizes should be obtainable.
Unless they change the spawn rate, I’m not sure that it’s actually possible to spawn enough elves to upgrade your cannon to level 20 without buying cogwheels. To get from level 11 to level 20 requires 5560 cogwheels, which means 1390 elves have to drop cogwheels if they drop 4 cogwheels each. That’s about 10 days worth of elf spawns if EVERY elf dropped cogwheels, and the drop rate isn’t anything close to that.
I honestly don’t think you need to Level it up all the way. I think 10 is good. Let them know your thoughts though
I seem to have stopped getting cogwheels. Anyone else having this problem?
They are random, how many Elves has it been since you last got them?
I can’t find my cannon control building in my inventory anywhere. And I can’t use the bottler or upgrade the cannon. Any thoughts?
If it is nowhere to be found in your inventory (mine was right in the opening screen)…and you checked all building and decorations tabs…then contact EA.
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/11/17/tappers-101-navigating-the-new-inventory-menu/
Got Little Helper Ralph a few hours ago whooooo
I just got him too, pulled him from my inventory, and now I don’t see him anywhere. Any ideas?
Find Ralph via the Town Hall. Then scroll over to the Little Helper skin.
is the server down I can’t get in
Another great article every Tapper ought to read
We would all be applying it IF Tappers could log in!!
No excuses, 3rd year into game app, EA knows better
& doesn’t care (guess my New Years resolution will be
watch how many Neighboreenos disappear cause of this)!
Boo EA your 1st day in 2015 is an epic fail!
Having major glitches since these winter updates, my sideshow Bob game in Krustyland isn’t working/reloading and my kwik-e-mart no longer produces money.
How do I report it?
Those aren’t glitches. Those are changes made to the game with various updates. (both happened before Christmas). More details can be found here:
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/12/30/christmas-issues-update/
One way I get more bells is that for the first time arLund I only tap onmy neighbors cannon and tunnel to get double then I wait a couple hours and go thru my neighbors again. Ideally I go thru them unail I don’t get anymore bells and I come out with about 660 bells per day from my neighbors.
I put mine in my little power plant area. Fits in nicely with that stuff.
I just wanted to say that seething just happened in my game. When I came back into the game the Frink daily thing popped up and accepted it. But after I received the prize, it glitched and it also gave me the 50 cogs that you get on the 5th day. I was wondering if I got the next day, today because of a glitch in the game. Also I’m playing the game w/o any hacks just so you know.
Just wait and see what happens. It depends on when YOU hit that 24 hr mark. If you went in just at 23:58, then it is VERY possible to hit two markers in a row. I have had it happen too many times to count.
Just wondering if you know when the event is scheduled to end. When I tap on the jingle bell trophy to see the prizes it says countdown 12 days but when I click on the question mark in the top right hand corner it says countdown 17 days. Thanks!
the 13th
So two hours cool down is the max for the cannon? I’m over level 20 but my bells per elves hasn’t increased nor has the cool down time lowered.
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/12/30/elf-cannon-level-ups/
Once the cannon reaches level 10 it changes its appearance!! Epicness!!
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/12/30/elf-cannon-level-ups/
I haven’t been able to get into the game for over an hour. Anyone else?
Rush Hour. Lol
I got booted around 2am and still can’t get into my game. Its now 9 am and still trying. 🙁
Those little Elves can moon me all they want. I have a plan for them. I will bottle their little bottoms, tightly corked, and store them on a shelf to ferment until later in the event when I can blast them out of my Springfield, when their bounty is more bells per butt cheek! Good things come to those who wait, and I dream of a Tropical Island while munching on sprinkled deserts…
Diet coke for me please
G.. Not happy with this. So much junk. Wasting too much space in my Springfield!
I play on 3 devices. One Android KitKat(4.4.4) Moto G level 46 has all elves depleted. No more to shoot. It is at 6741 bells. One Kindle fire level 48 has 230 elves at 6400 bells. One generic android (4.2) has 253 elves and 4000 bells. I don’t know why the Moto G can’t get enough elves. Getting only 3 per hour. The other devices seeem to be getting 30-40 about every 4 hours. The Moto G gets a Measly 12 elves every 4 hours.
Spawn is 3/30 mins
Do you have more friends on some devices? Friends tapping the elf tunnel may be dropping a few extra elves.
he prizes are obtainble until thr 13th the event ends the 18th
For me its the opposite. I have over 200 elves waiting to be blown away. Its the cogwheels I have trouble collecting. I get over 50 bells each time I fire, but my turn around time is currently 3 hours! Lol
Placed mine next to the cannon.. I am at level 9 and was getting 5 bells when I shot it off, but later yesterday I started getting only 2 bells..If you tell me to report it, please give me the web site address.
What does Craig mean when he says..”don’t shoot all your elves, if you wait, they will be worth more bells later”
It varies for every player on what region you are in…so we provide the link to you to seek it out on YOUR device so you locate it properly.
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/01/14/troubleshooting-101-contacting-ea/
My cannon has also stopped working, it sets after 3 hours as on high level, then when you tap fire nothing happens and resets for another 3 hours.
Report it please.
There is something I don’t get in your winter part 2 post. You say clicking on the elf caves or Canon is marked as vandalized.
For me, the Elf Cave have a Bell icon like all of the other one, so it’s not vandalizing (but it does give double price).
For the canon, it has the same icon that I have in my own town, which is the light canon to fire. This is not vandalizing since you fire the canon the same way the town owner does, with the same icon. Vandalizing is always a different icon (like the spray can). For me, you simply fire the canon to launch elfs (which doesn’t count to either player launched elf count). Since it’s actually what the canon is used for, there’s no vandalism in that.
We also specifically note it does NOT impact like vandalism. It is just how it is labeled in the details for i. We NEVER said it is the same as the graffiti. 😉
When you tap the elf tunnel in a friend’s town, you will hear the spray paint sound effect, but nothing gets spray painted. I’ll also note that I’ve been tapping that thing like crazy, but have had no decrease in my stats (so far, anyway).
Tapping a friend’s elf cave or cannon uses some vandalism sound effects. There’s a spray paint sound when you tap a cave, and a squeaky eraser sound when collecting on your cave or cannon a friend has tapped.
I guess that’s a function of the game handling it internally like a special kind of vandalism (with all the bad effects of normal vandalism replaced by good ones).
I wish EA had given it different sound effects though.
I’m enjoying the event very much, but yesterday I noticed a weird glich. Elves I had waiting to be fired disappeared and now my town is producing maybe 6 elves per hour. It takes 6 hours to have enough elves to fire 3 full shots. Any suggestions? I would love to have my missing elves back 😉
That is normal. 3/30 mins
Got a glitch where I tap my cannon and the timer just resets no elves fired.
As Comic book guy would say …Most Annoying Glitch Ever!
Report it please.
Tap the barrel, not the body of the cannon!
Don’t shoot all your elves!!!
If you wait, they will be worth more bells later.
What do you mean Craig?
I have reached the point where all my elves are used up and so I wait and wait until I get more elves so I can shoot the cannon. I wonder why EA is stingy with the elves, it’s not like they are selling elves to buy, are they? (Not that I’d spend donuts on them anyway… Just trying to make sense of it all)
I’ll answer for Craig. Keep collecting elves and cogs. If you keep upgrading the cannon, you will get more bells for the elves you do shoot. Since it is the bells that you need for the prizes, this strategy is intended to maximize bells obtained for the limited number of elves that are appearing in the game. Don’t wait too long, however, or you will have too many elves to shoot them all before the event is over.
Could you elaborate more please? I’ve been busy shooting all elves I have and now I’m kind of stunned. Why is that:(?
I’m doing this too. At the start, firing the cannon gives you two bells per elf. If you keep upgrading the cannon, you can get as many as ten bells per elf when you fire them. So collect elves, but don’t fire them until closer to the end of the event. Figure out how much time you need to fire all elves before the event ends, and start firing them all then. With a cannon at max upgrades, I think you can shoot 39 elves every 2 hours, so you can get through a backlog pretty fast.
This strategy makes some assumptions though. Maybe there’s a limit to how many unfired elves you can get? Or maybe the game gives you fewer elves if you have a lot you haven’t fired yet? If it’s doing something like that, a more limited strategy might be better. For example, when your next cannon upgrade gives you an additional bell per elf, hold off shooting the cannon until you’ve got it. (For now, though, I’m just accumulating elves without firing, and hoping for the best. It looks like I’m still getting 3 elves per 30 minutes, as expected, FWIW.)
Place mine with the nuclear plant. Looks really good.