Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
We’re sitting in a little bit of a TSTO lull right now, as we wait for “the next big thing” to hit our games. Some of you are working your way though the last few parts of Level 49 & others (like myself) are building their cash flow back up after blowing 10 million + on new land.
Of course whenever there is a lull in the game many of us start to go back and take care of some of the little things we’ve been neglecting during the madness, like town deigns or finishing up that premium questline. We’re noticing more and more questions in the comments about a few older areas of TSTO (areas many seasoned players may have forgotten about) & some of the finer details of Level 49. So I thought I’d take a minute to go over a few tips, tricks & reminders we may have forgotten about or completely missed the first time around.
First up let’s talk talk about the Old Abandoned Warehouse.
This Level 49 building will not unlock until you’ve reached Part 6 of the Baking Bread questline. Once unlocked, it can only be placed on Squidport. So if you’re seeing red when trying to place it (even if you have a ton of open space) make sure you’re on the Squidport tiles & not the green grass of Springfield.
And while we’re still on the Old Abandoned Warehouse, for those of you curious you’ll need an open section of Squidport that’s at least 2 boardwalk tiles by 2 boardwalk tiles to fit the Warehouse.
Squidport Tiles.
The current max of Squidport tiles is 151. So if you’re tapping on your Squidport entrance and getting the “You have made the maximum number of boardwalk sections” message, that means you’ve created all 151 tiles you can create. Unfortunately, there’s no way to get more at this time, so if you’re stuck on space you may have to redesign your Squidport a little to fit the Abandoned Warehouse.
Also relating to Squidport tiles. Once you make the tiles, they’re yours forever. Even if you delete them, they won’t actually leave your game. They’ll be stored in your inventory…under Squidport OR where you find the road, water & pavement tiles. So feel free to delete your entire Squidport and start over again, you won’t lose any tiles.
Earning more money in the game.
Even the most seasoned TSTO player can find themselves getting cash poor right now, especially with the new land that was just released. I was one of those Tappers that had a large bankroll in my game & once I saw the new land available with Level 49 I quickly dropped 10 million + on those precious land squares. So how do I earn my bankroll back up quickly? It’s simple…play often.
I’ve always been one to leave plenty of buildings available to tap for my neighbors, but since there are no new Friendship prizes at the moment & vandalism doesn’t really bother me I’ve been clearing my buildings frequently to build my bankroll back up. So tap your buildings, send your characters on frequent tasks. Use task times that match your playing ability. If you can get into your game every 4hrs, send them on 4hr tasks. If you’re tapping every 8hrs, send them on 8hr tasks. You get the idea.
Note: There is a detail about task lengths I’ll cover under Valentine’s Day a little later in this post. So be sure to check it out before assigning long tasks for your characters.
We’ve got a great article by a newbie tapper here, that’s designed to give you some more tips and tricks to earning cash quickly. I highly recommend you check it out if you’re struggling to earn cash quickly.
For new players, remember, it’s not a race to the newest level. Take your time, build up your bank account. As long as you’re past Level 5 you’ll still be able to participate in all the new events that hit the game. So have fun with it & build your Springfield the way you want to.
Training Walls
We say this all the time, but it bares repeating for new players….For those tappers concerned about their Righteousness Rating, Training Walls should be your best friend. At +10 Righteousness points each Training Walls are the BEST items in the game to give your Righteousness rating a boost (and make it so you really don’t care if you were vandalized).
Note: Training walls will unlock for purchase (in game cash) once you reach Level 33.
Bunny, Wookiee & I all hide these all over our towns & our rating never dips. They’re small enough that they can be hidden behind buildings or even worked into designs. Here are a few examples:
Random Tasks (this section added after the post went live)
From time to time you’ll see a random task popup for various characters, there will be no dialogue associated with it. Just a task popping up to send Grampa to Tell Stories or Bart to have Sleep Over etc. These are supposed to happen. They’re random tasks assigned by the game, designed to keep you engaged in the game. So don’t think you’re missing something with them, they’re supposed to be there. And as you progress further into the game, they will ALWAYS be there. You can clear one & another will appear.
Unlike actual questlines, you can ignore these. They will just sit in your task bar until completed (and another will take it’s place once complete), but they won’t prevent you from progressing in the game. Personally, I tend to leave them for a while. I have a random task for Grampa to tell stories sitting in my task bar & it’s been there since Christmas.
So take random tasks or leave them…but don’t think your game is glitching out on you. It’s just the residents of your Springfield saying “don’t forget to play with us too!”
And finally..Valentine’s Day/The Next Event:
We don’t know when the next event, which we’re all assuming at this point is going to be Valentine’s Day, will hit. Last year Valentine’s Day hit our games on February 5th, so it’s possible we will see it later this week. Here are a few tips to keep in mind while we wait for it to hit (a lot of this also applies for any impending event):
-Keep your characters on shorter tasks. Don’t assign any 24hr tasks late at night. Typically App Store Updates, which Valentine’s day will most likely be, hit our games between 12-2pm EST (Christmas was an exception, that hit after 6pm EST). Try to make sure your lower level characters (Homer, Lisa, Apu, Flanders Cletus & Krusty) are free around that time each day. This way if something hits, you’ll be ready.
Curious as to why I said those characters? It’s because events are designed for ALL tappers to play, once they get past the tutorial (Level 5). So it makes more sense that one of those characters will kick off the event than Patty or Selma (who aren’t unlocked until level 35). Make sense? (Just a quick FYI, for new levels try to keep all freemium characters free, because you never know who will kick that off since you should have every character before that unlocked)
-Start growing Corn at Cletus’ Farm. I know you might think i’m being crazy BUT last year we were given a task to grow Roses at the Farm. Because this was a forced task whatever you were growing at the time would rapidly auto-complete for you. So if you start growing Corn it’s a great way to earn some extra cash and XP. (FYI this also happened during Easter)
And if for some reason this doesn’t happen, no harm done. Just store Cletus’ farm and the corn you started growing will be delete & you’ll have the farm back.
-Remember to save your donuts for now. With a limited-time event (hopefully) on it’s way, there will be returning premium items to purchase. So if you’ve been coveted Brandine or Shauna in your neighbors town for the last year, this could be your chance to pick them up. Of course there’s no guarantee they’ll make a return, but is it a chance you want to take?
What are your thoughts on this tips and tricks? Any of them new for you? Something you forgot about? Do you have any other tips for players? Ready for the next event? What are you hoping to see? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
-Alissa
Can you use witch marge to rush corn more than once to cut down on the time it takes to finnish?
Yes, it’ll reduce it by 4hrs (well really 8 since the task takes 4 hrs) every time you send her.
What task is it exactly that does this??
Witch Marge, Speed Up Crop.
http://tstoaddicts.com/2013/10/06/should-i-spend-donuts-on-the-cauldron-witch-marge/
She’s No Longer Available, but from Halloween 2012, 2013 & 2014.
Oh, I misunderstood what that task did (i’ve never used it before) I though it was supposed to reduce growing time by half.
nope 4hrs each time 🙂
“Some of you are working your way though the last few parts of Level 49 & others (like myself) are building their cash flow back up after blowing 10 million”
Don’t forget about the many players who don’t fall into either of those groups.
certainly not forgotten in the post 😉
That’s all great and all but I think that you all should do something that gets the player free donuts and more then ten maybe a event were you earn donuts and xp instead money by Doing task Or something like that
Remember…we’re not EA and have zero control over what’s in the game.
Well, I never, ever thought I’d plant corn, but I guess I’ll risk the $9,000 (since I’m not really tight on money…in the game at least lol) and plant some tonight, in case your trick works. (Actually, this would be the first event for me with an “event crop,” since my first event was CoC.) Thanks for the tip! 🙂
I’ve been growing corn for almost a month and a half using Marge the Witch have less than 8 days left hoping I can wrap that up and start again before the update.
Where do I go to apologize? I just accidentally vandalized Stev1dir.
Best place to post it is on the vandalism thread..
http://tstoaddicts.com/2015/01/28/add-friends-who-pledge-not-to-vandalize-you-part-8/
As long as we are going over old and new tips, anybody new or anybody who hasn’t seen this yet should take a look at http://tstoaddicts.com/2013/08/19/how-do-i-get-the-jebediah-springfield-statue/
Ten Free Donuts the first time you follow those instructions!
Anymore of these tips… this one is great. Just did it thanks. Only been playing a few months so I don’t know all of the tricks.
Another money earner I noticed recently is the leprechauns (when did this change, I was fairly certain they didn’t used to pay out but it has been a while :), I tapped three times and had payouts everytime!
It’s Yupprechaun that pays out either $6 or 2XP when you tap him. He’ll pay out as long as you keep tapping him. Love this guy and can’t wait to have him in my town. (sorry to my neighbours if I spend too much time in their towns chasing him 🙂 )
Oh, thanks for the clarification! I didn’t realize that this was something one could do in other’s towns; I thought it was something one had to own oneself. Now I’ll have this check and see which of my neighbors has this little guy! 🙂
Hi Sandra. He can be hard to spot, but if they have him, he came with the Sham Rock building (cafe?). May be easier to find that building first.
‘pologies, it’s only the yupper… but another good earner 🙂 Still trying to uncover every opportunity!
Good reminders for tappers at all levels! After reading this I tried to pop into the game to start my corn and got the Bart screen! Here’s hoping that we have another exception to the rule and Valentine’s will hit tonight like Xmas did. fingers crossed!
Im really hoping its going to come today! This is my first valentines day so im really hoping that Brandine, Shauna, Mindy and potentially even Kumiko are available to purchase, i don’t care how many donuts it’ll cost!
I have Brandine. She has given birth two 3 children as well! Lisa seems to have a comment here and there with the births.
I wonder how many donuts, they are going to be set at?
Mindy and Kumiko were both free last year, so I’m guessing—if they continue with the trend of similarly reintroduced characters—each will be priced @ 90 to 100 doughnuts each.
In fact, if Oogle serves me correctly, the other two characters were introduced as premium with that same price range: Shauna @ 90 doughnuts, & Brandine @ 100 doughnuts.
So, if all are brought back in, this will mean up to 400 doughnuts for the four ladies (and potentially an extra 3 npc’s).
Whatever it costs ill pay it! Haha. Mind you, im sure EA will also introduce new premium content also. Will be interesting to see what they bring out…
Mmmmm donuts, I received 4 donuts today from my maxed out friends points and won 2 for max level up!!! 6 donuts, woohoo!!! I’ve never gotten that many from friends town before, has anyone else?
I love tapping away and a donut pops out!
Last week I scored six donuts from neighbor visits. It was pretty great. I don’t expect that to happen again for a long time. But it made me feel like I’d won the lotto or something. 🙂
question re: random tasks & righteousness rating.
I heard that if you put characters on “evil” tasks such as rob the kwik-e-mart that your righteousness rating goes down. BUT what happens when one of these “evil” tasks are randomly assigned to you? Does it still count against you? doesn’t seem fair if so
It’s the nature of the game. Righteousness we aren’t sure if even EA understands what they did. Lol. That’s why we gave up trying and plastered the towns with Training Walls.
Before I was able to fill my towns with training walls, any time a task for Snake came up, I would always pop over to Krustyland and back. This resets the fill-in automatic task and nearly always gives it to someone else.
The other thing to note is just because you have the extra random task, it doesn’t mean you have to DO it anytime soon. It can just sit there in your list for as long as you like. This often happens if there’s an event just starting and I end up with a 24-hour assigned random task for Lisa or Homer — I know not to tie them up with anything lengthy.
Another well written article every Tapper (especially noobs) ought to take note of before the Valentines Day Quest starts! 🙂
This Tapper is on the Final Quests in Level 49, redesigned his Squidport Pier (making plenty of space available for the Abandoned Warehouse and other future new Buildings), is about to complete level 49 for the first time (yay free Donuts) and has earned $300,000,000 TSTO (set aside to purchase new Freemium goodies)!
Valentine’s Day quest 2014 was fun, unfortunately I was not able to win the freemium Tunnel of Love for Krustyland (while I would love to earn it this year, I certainly will not pay Donuts for it)! I hope EA has something new for Krustyland (in my opinion, this section has again been neglected by EA for too long)! There should always be something new (Premium and Freemium) for Krustyland during each Holiday Quest!
if EA decides to offer new Buildings in 2015 force Squidport? They should also offer Tappers additional 25 Pier Spaces to purchase & build (you can only shuffle Buildings and Decor so often before you run out of space)!
let’s have fun this February, fellow Tappers 😉
When did the new land appear?
With Level 49.
I didn’t get a land expansion with the level 49 addition 🙁 In fact, I have “leveled up” several times since 49 dropped (buying too many decorations, my XP rack up quickly) and still nothing. Maybe it was a glitch in my game that will be corrected in the next update. I play on Android (for Kindle) and that has happened before… things don’t show up until another update drops.
I hope it does because I’d love a new piece of land to really build out the Rancho Relaxo area! 🙂
It’s at the very bottom of your springfield, everyone got it. Remember you have to go into the buy land option to see it
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/08/28/addicts-how-to-buying-land/
Cannot connect to server … Update coming? 🙂
Not seeing anything…could just be the server down for the moment.
Luckily I make almost 100000 a day.
A money tip: if you hit a new level and you know you make enough money before an event starts buy the building with a character.
You will be able to continue the level questline. But DO NOT BUY the 2nd building of the level. Costs way too much, just let it sit there and wait till the price drops.
I still have bloaters and ziffcorp in my task menu while I’m already close on buying the summer home from level 49.
I think valentines will release Wednesday on the 4th
I like your tip about getting a building with a character, sometimes getting more people helps with event quests. Growing corn is another great tip, I had not known that before. As soon as the farm is ready I’ll set it up to grow the corn.
Feb 5th, 2014 was a Wednesday.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is Feb 4th, so you could be right!
Or… they’ll push it out on Thursday.
The problem with having unfinished questlines linger on is that some tasks for those characters may not become available until after completion of the questlines. A newly added character only achieved its full money earning potential when at least the usual 4/8/12/24 hour set is usable.
As always, Alissa Wookiee and Bunny, you bring us altogether into a supportive and information rich community. Thank you!
Great post filled with helpful tips and tricks. Love the corn idea.
Looking forward to Vday. 🙂
🙂 Thank you for being a part of it!
I try to send as many people to krustyland so i can change tickets to money. Am I just imagine it goes faster to get money?
It’s faster to send them on cash earning tasks.
Lol glad I am not the only one who likes it clean : )
In my mind a clean town is a happy town 😉
Thanks so much for the tip about the corn just off to plant some now …hoping it won’t too long before valentines update now! Also wondering whats the big deal about keeping garbage? My towns spotless did I miss out on something big?!
I think the same way you do…not a drop of trash in my Springfield. BUT some of the creative minds at Addicts (ie Bunny & Wookiee) like to keep it for designs. Works well with various designs/2D art. To them it’s TSTO Gold. To me it’s just annoying trash lol
I would however like to see more debris when they add land! After all, clearing it can earn you donuts…
That’s true!
I kept a few it’s and bobs of the “nuke-ular” waste and put it around my power plant. And then stuck my zombie graveyards next to it (Night of the Living Dead style).
I just bought 2 new bits of land and with it 6 or 7 bits of trash. Cleaning them gave me 2 donuts. 1 would have been a very nice surprise but 2 has really put a spring in my step this morning. 😀
Do the pieces of trash count towards the total amount of decorations?
Most of the garbage has been cleared, with the exception of a few “accents” around here and there.
I don’t think I’m close to the 4500(?) maximum of items, but every little bit less will help decrease the chance of a possible lock out (as I inferred happened to Bunny).
I believe they do.
I think some people are not aware of how to clean it up. Actually… I’m remembering in the very beginning, we are asked to clean the junk up. Maybe some neighbors had forgot or simply don’t mind it being around. Kind of like how some neighbors let their dogs in your yard or never bag the fall leaves 😉
I’ve kept most of mine in a junkyard in the middle of my Springfield. Along with the official trash, there’s a random bit of everything sprinkled throughout which, I think, gives it a real junkyard feel. It still needs a bit more work, but I’m sure it will just be an ongoing project, always needing just a bit more work!
I think there’s two camps on how to accumulate money: play the game as it leads you through it OR build a bunch of houses (sometimes called “house farms”).
I’m firmly in the second camp. I have maybe 200+ blue houses that get me a bunch of TSTO moolah every 8 hours. If you have the space I suggest building a bunch of houses from which you can get a regular “harvest” of money.
You can easily get a couple of million in just a couple of weeks if you stay on top of it. And for me it’s REALLY helpful since I wound up spending a lot of the money I had built up to buy land. I guess my chocolate building will just have to wait a little bit more!
I am curious, though, as to how many people are pro “house farm” vs. anti “house farm”.
I’m in the firm no house farm camp. I believe you can have plenty of houses to earn $ quickly with out having a massive section of your town looking like a block of houses. Just create residential neighborhoods. Design stuff like this works well too
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/03/06/simple-town-designs-residential-neighborhoods/
Two houses right next to each other, but just looks like a neighborhood.
I’m a donut farmer. House farms = Cash and XP. Cash means you can buy stuff to generate more cash and more XP. More XP = More donuts for levelling up. But the recent, unexpected addition of land, came at precisely the wrong time. I blew about 20 mill on BLood Mobiles and Rat Trap trucks, sold them all immediately and bought more. Now I cant afford all the land, and am taking my cotton-picking time getting it into my game.
I agree, Alissa! I don’t really have any house farm camps. Your post about designing residential neighborhoods and turning front yards into backyards with trees, etc really revolutionized TSTO town design. I love the way my cul de sacs look in my town, and apparently so do my neighbors: about a fifth of them use the same technique! Kudos 🙂
🙂 Glad it worked well for you! (And your neighbors) 🙂
Amen! Also, having everything jammed together aesthetically sucks sand and makes it irritating to find Sideshow Bob or to move around without tapping a house unintentionally – which reminds me of another tip for n00bs: if you don’t want vandalism, don’t make it difficult to avoid for your neighbors when they visit. If all your potentially vandalized buildings are clustered and centered in your town, it might be impossible for a neighbor to avoid tapping one or two.
Houses on two sides — just a few rows — leaves the middle of the game field open for building and design. I have about 150 blue houses and a total of about 200 (including the unique houses). The houses on the upper-right are behind a fence made of training walls (with trees in front blocking the doors).
I’m a freemium player so my bonus multiplier is fairly low compared to Alissa’s and the other addicts team members. The array of houses allows me to build up cash fast enough that I can actually play the game, but not at an excessive rate. (Current reserves are only about $1.5M, which is low compared to many players at the top level of the game.)
I’m also in the no-farm category. I put in neighborhoods and hid the front of the houses with trees, and even a cul de sac! That design guide was really helpful!
I’m a premium layer, so my bonus multiplier is pretty decent, helping me earn at an okay rate. I’m looking forward to getting to the point where I can build up those awesome reserves! But first I have some ridiculously expensive land to buy. 😉
I have a few duplicate brown, blue and purple houses, but they have some distance and trees in between them, so it looks more like a uniform suburban neigborhood rather that a sea of roofs.
A massive problem with densely placed identical buildings is that it’s extremely hard to catch Sideshow Bob if he runs around in that area. This is also true for your neighbors.
And finally, games with massive house farms look pretty boring to me. I wouldn’t enjoy looking at that in my game.
Basically, it’s each player’s own decision, but I’m quite against house farming.
I’m also anti-house farm. I just don’t like the look of them. During CoC I invaded a town with a wailing wall farm – rows and rows of the wailing walls from Halloween 2013, each a hundred deep, maybe more. I just sat staring at it for a while. I think the wall was a unique item so I suspect it was a hacked game, but still, crazy.
Maybe I’m over thinking this but the game had me make Rev. Lovejoy do his 24-hour counsel couples task early this morning and I started thinking it was a precursor to Valentines Day activities.
Nah, it’s just random – that didn’t come up for me.
Absolutely stellar post with great suggestions. About the only addendum I can think of is that for the high level Tapper, it’s usually a good idea to have about about 1.5-2m bucks on hand in case a new level drops with the Valentines update, too. In other words, don’t drain the wallet to buy up land or optional buildings. Normally, the event-related buildings are fairly cheap, but if a new character and building comes along or there are limited-time freemium items added to the store, they can be rather expensive.
I have 2 accounts and they are both on level 49, my main account has been on level 49 for a couple of days but I did not have enough cash in it since I bought the staircase to nowhere my other account was on level 48 and built up enough cash before it got to level 49 so have started the quest on that one still trying to catch up on my main account
hi, can anyone tell me where the training walls are please.
I can’t find them anywhere.
thanks
At Game Play Level 33, you can unlock them for purchase. You will find them in your Decorations Icon in the Menu.
you are brilliant, thanks sooooo much..
First off y’all are awesome!!!!!! I like the ideas for the training walls, I have been playing for a few years and never thought of using them for say like a fence. I’m ready for the Valentines Day update..bring it on.
You are most welcome. It is interesting the silly things you don’t even think about using in the game that you can put to use as a decoration or addition to an area. 😉
I really appreciate the advice on the corn. I grew it over the Thanksgiving/Christmas events because I didn’t want to have to deal with one more thing, but I hadn’t planned on growing any more.
I usually just leave some sitting there before every event… just in case. Lol.
I did the same thing! The crop time isn’t as long when so much more is going on.
Great advice on the “Abandoned Warehouse”. You all are the best!!
It’s funny how this is a giant game played by people all over the world, but you three are able to make it feel like a close-knit community of friends playing together. 🙂 I appreciate all the time you three take to share info on all the aspects of the game with fellow tappers!
Awwww well thanks. We wanted it a place WE would come to and hang out, so I am glad that you feel that too. 😉
I’m a tapper, going on 3 years now I think. It’s the only game I’m playing on my iPhone. The tips, suggestions, and general information about the game is helpful despite being an older player.