Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
So looks like we’ve got a new game sweeping the streets of our Springfields…Tap Ball! A game invented by our very own Homer J Simpson!
Tap Ball is a combination of a bunch of sports, as Homer says…”Tap Ball takes the best parts of other sports — dribbling, the infield fly rule, an epidemic of concussions — and adds the excitement of watching people play second-rate video games! …. Best of all, the only equipment you need is a smartphone, thirteen balls of varying size, bats made of glass…some chalk to mark the many end zones, a quaffle, Kevlar body armor and a greedy, narcissistic owner to screw it all up!”
As you can see Tap Ball doesn’t make a whole lotta sense, but hey what do you expect from a game Homer invented? After all… “The only rule of Tap Ball is…
THERE…ARE…NO…more than sixty-seven rules. With attached sub-rules, notes, and clarifications.”
Anywho…to play Tap Ball in YOUR Springfield, it’s a whole lot less complicated. So let’s breakdown the ins, outs and how tos of playing Tap Ball on your Tapping Device…Homer Free 😉
As usual let’s start with the basics….
When Can I Start Playing Tap Ball?
You can start playing Tap Ball once you trigger the Balls of Glory Pt. 1 quest. This quest triggers AFTER you’ve completed Meet My Trophy Life Pt. 4. For the full questline check out our Turbo Tappin’ Post here.
Who Can Play Tap Ball? (Which Characters)
From the initial quest triggering in Act 1 only a select few players can Play Tap Ball. Initially you’ll only have 4 or 5 characters that can play (the 5th depends on if you shell out donuts for Football Nelson). As you win prizes in Act 1 and complete the Daily Tasks you’ll unlock more Characters who can play. Here’s a list of who can initially play in Act 1 BEFORE you win prizes:
-Referee Homer
-Soccer Lisa
-Pin Pal Apu
-Flanders
-Football Nelson (Premium, you have to purchase with donuts)
And once you’ve unlocked Act 1 Prizes here’s who else can play:
-Baseball Jasper
-Softball Mr. Burns
And Daily Training Prizes:
-Tatum (should unlock by Saturday 6/27)
-Lugash (Should unlock by Tuesday 6/30)
The other characters you won’t unlock until Act 2 starts….
If A Character Is On A Task, Can They Still Play Tap Ball?
Yes. This is probably one of the best benefits of this update…you can send a character off on a task (for the questline or to earn extra Amateur Bucks) and they can STILL play Tap Ball!
How Do I Play?
To start playing Tap Ball you can either tap on your field or bring up the game hub and find the flag icon, either way will bring you to the Play Tap Ball! menu.
Once you’ve got the Play Tap Ball! list up you’ll see a bunch of options for playing various Tap Ball Games. To play a game IN YOUR OWN TOWN select the Single Player Option:
This will then bring up your list of characters on your Tap Ball Team:
You will need to select FOUR characters for your team. Just hit the Select Button to bring them over the the Roster:
Once the Play Button turns blue you’re good to go! Hit Play to Play Tap Ball!
Note: The order you select the characters in is the order they’ll appear in your game (Character at the top is the first one that’ll start the match and the players will move down from there. So in this case it’ll be Ned, Lisa, Homer & Apu (will close out the match)
What Happens Once I’m Playing Tap Ball?
Your first time through you’ll get a TON of popups explaining how to play and what each action does. We’ll go over them again here.
Your play field will look like this:
You’ll have 3 icons across the bottom and the score, as well as your rating and your opponents rating will be across the top.
Here’s what each Icon at the bottom does. The first, on the bottom right corner (the Flag) is the GO Button:
Pretty simple right? Tap the Go Button once and they’ll start their Face-off, you’ll see the characters each with their own individual sports related animation. Tap the Go Button twice and you’ll skip the animation and go right to the results of that round.
Next let’s talk about the Icons on the Bottom Left. First up the Switch icon:
The Switch button does just what you think it would, it switches a player for another player. (will only switch for the player directly behind them. So in this case it’ll switch Apu and Lisa) This comes in handy if your character has a low star rating and is facing another character with a higher rating (you always want your character to be tied or better in the star rating than their opponent). Here’s how EA explained it:
And finally the Tonic Button:
Pushing this will give that character a temporary (for that round) 2 star boost. So if you’re in a close match and you have a weaker character up use the Tonic Button to win that round. Here’s how the game describes it:
And yes if you’re 5 star going up against another 5 star it’ll still give you a boost.
And that’s really it to actually playing Tap Ball. You literally just tap 😉
How Often Can I Play Tap Ball?
Well…your characters need to rest after playing. They require a 4hr Cool down after each match. So when you go into your Play Screen you’ll see this:
However…this is a digital game and not real life, so naturally there’s a solution to make the Recharge time go faster…Obesotade!
Obesotade is a magical sports drink that will instantly Recharge your players for another Tap Ball match! You can pick it up in the Amateur Shop…but of course it’ll cost you Amateur Bucks…and a lot of them!
Here’s what you can get:
So you can either wait the 4hrs or shell out some Amateur Bucks to recharge them instantly with Obesotade!
Tip: Leveling up your characters will also instantly recharge them. In some cases this may be a cheaper (Amateur Buck wise) option than getting Obestotade!
What’s the Payout For A Win/Loss/Tie?
In Tap Ball, much like soccer, you can either Win, Lose or Tie a match. The payouts for each are different. It also doesn’t matter how many points you win by (or lose by) the score is exactly the same.
Here’s what the payouts look like if you start the match (either in your town or in a neighbors town…just a match YOU started):
Act 1 Payouts…
For a Win:
10 
For a Loss:
2
For a Tie:
5
We’ll cover the payouts if a neighbor plays you in your town while you’re away in our neighbors breakdown post.
Now you’ll notice below the reward on the popup screen there’s something called a Bonus
| Rating | Amateur Bucks | Foam Fingers |
| 1/2 Star | 2 |
10 |
| 1 Star | 4 |
20 |
| 1 1/2 Star | 6 |
25 |
| 2 Stars | 8 |
30 |
| 2 1/2 Stars | 10 |
35 |
| 3 Stars | 12 |
40 |
| 3 1/2 Stars | 14 |
45 |
| 4 Stars | 16 |
50 |
| 4 1/2 Stars | 18 |
55 |
| 5 Stars (Max) | 20 |
60 |
So as you can see with the bonus payouts you can still make a ton of Amateur Bucks and Foam Fingers even if you play a high level player and lose.
Let’s say your rated 1/2 star & your opponent is rated 5 stars…if your match is rated 5 stars in difficulty and you lose you’ll still earn 22 Amateur Bucks and 90 Foam Fingers…
That’s a lot better than playing a game rated at 1/2 Star and winning…where your payout will be 12 Amateur Bucks and 70 Foam Fingers.
So don’t always avoid those 5 star players…even if you lose the rewards are still pretty good!
IMPORTANT: The difficulty rating of a match is determined by THEIR rating, not yours. So if you’re 2 stars and you play a 5 star, the difficulty is 5 Stars. BUT if you’re a 5 star and play a 2 star the difficulty is 2 star. So be careful who you play once you get higher in ratings.
Also, important to note…you WILL NOT know the rating of a RANDOM Opponent until you’ve started the game. You can only know the ratings of your neighbors (via the Tap Ball menu). Random Opponents will not be shown. So (in my opinion) it’s better to play your neighbors, than random opponents. It helps you and it helps them 🙂
How do I Increase My Difficulty Rating?
It’s pretty simple really, you use Amateur Bucks (or donuts) you earn by playing to upgrade your players to higher stars. The higher level your players are, the higher your difficulty level will be.
We’re going to cover leveling up characters in another post, but for now know that each time you level them up and spend the Amateur Bucks, it’s for 1/2 a star. They can only be upgraded 1/2 star at a time.
Note: There’s something going on where at times (if you have some tickets) you can upgrade the characters fully for 0 donuts, even if you don’t have enough tickets (as long as you have some). Not a bad way to level them up quick. Just tap the orange upgrade button (even if you don’t have enough tickets) and it’ll show you the buyout cost to upgrade with donuts…
What’s a Good Strategy For Playing?
The thing about this game (TSTO) is that there’s really no right or wrong way to play. Everyone’s going to play their own way and that’s ok.
But I know a few of you (ok a lot of you) are going to ask us what’s the best way to play…and while there is no “best way” I will share with you my techniques:
–Upgrade your characters early and often. For me I’d rather spend my Amateur Bucks on upgrading my characters than Obesotade. Then all of my matches (as long as played with a 5 Star Player) will pay out at the higher bonus % and I have a better chance of winning and earning even MORE Amateur Bucks.
–Send characters on tasks frequently to earn more Amateur Bucks. Knowing that you can still play a Tap Ball match even if your character is on a task is a HUGE help. There’s no reason why all of your Amateur Buck earning characters (we’ll have a post up very soon with the list of who can earn what) shouldn’t be earning Amateur Bucks every minute of the day.
–Don’t use the Tonic unless you absolutely need it & if you get an offer to buy some with donuts, Don’t. (you can earn it for free from tapping fans, occasionally they’ll fall). The tonic really isn’t needed that much, at least not right now. If you’re playing a high difficulty level, which is when you might think you need it, odds are if your characters aren’t leveled up enough you’re going to lose the match. And that’s ok. Don’t waste Tonic on 1 player to get 1 point, it’s not worth it. Similarly with a lower level match odds are you’ll win, so it’s not worth wasting Tonic if you already have 3 points. It’s the same pay out if you win by 2 or 4. The ONLY time I think it’s worth it is if you’re 5 stars going against another 5 stars. In which case the boost will give you the edge, but in this case I’d wait to see how the coin tosses have gone first before wasting the boost.
–Help your Neighbors. Your neighbors will earn points for you challenging them, so before you play a random opponent think about playing your neighbors first & help them earn more points.
And that my friends covers the details of playing Tap Ball in Springfield! A pretty simple game to play, once get get the hang of it!
What are your thoughts on Tap Ball? What’s your current win/loss record? What difficulty rating are you on? Thoughts on the payouts? What’s your strategy for playing? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!