Hey there Hoppereenos!
Trying to figure out just what is going on? What to focus on first? Where to begin? Well, here to help as usual. Bouncing by with some of the Basic Mechanics of the New Tap Ball Event.
In this post, I will be going over the aspects of Neighbor Visits.
There will be a lot of information in this post, so let’s start off with the Basics of getting to the Visits as it will depend on where YOU are in the Questlines on what you can do.
WHEN CAN I PLAY TAP BALL AGAINST NEIGHBORS?
The option to play against a Neighbor will not trigger until Balls of Glory Part 4. So try not to visit Neighbors and use up your Daily Actions before this is completed and you trigger the Fans below.
WHEN WILL I SEE FANS TO TAP IN MY NEIGHBORS?
The option to see Fans in a Neighbors town will not trigger until AFTER you have Completed all of Balls of Glory Part 4 AND start Fickle Fans.
So be cautious, if you have NOT triggered the Fans… Playing Tap Ball against a neighbor WILL count as a Daily Neighbor Action until you trigger fans. So don’t use them all up Playing Tap Ball.
HOW MANY DAILY NEIGHBOR ACTIONS DO I HAVE?
Each Event you will be limited on your Daily Neighbor Actions to get Event Currency, so watch closely for when your 24 hr Visit Clock resets and do not waste your taps on Buildings and Graffiti. (Here are the results from Bunny’s game.)
50 Total Daily Actions per 24hrs
This means once you Trigger the Fans… Fans and ANY Building taps will count. BEFORE you trigger the Fans, playing Tap Ball will count. So tap wisely.
HOW MANY FOAM FINGERS DO I GET?
Once triggered, you will get ONE Foam Finger per Fan tapped up to your Daily Actions MAX. After that point, you will only get $$ & XP.
CAN I STILL TAP HOUSES & GRAFFITI?
Yes, the option of Building taps and Graffiti/Tagging will continue to be live during this Event. So be VERY careful as you move about the screen looking for Fans. You may accidentally hit a Building or Spray Can.
This means you can continue to tap on through your neighbors towns seeking those Free Pink Sprinklies that occasionally arrive here and there by continuing to tap on Buildings.
Update Alissa: As of this morning (6/25) this is no longer an option. Yesterday (6/24) every town we went to had both fans and items to tap…so it was pulled out either late yesterday or this morning. So IF your neighbor has the fan option unlocked you’ll no longer be able to tap houses etc. 🙂
HOW DO SELECT A NEIGHBOR FOR TAP BALL?
Now with the Basics out of the way, let’s look into MORE details on just what goes into Playing Tap Ball against another Town/Neighbor.
Again, you will have had to start Balls of Glory Part 4 to start the Neighbor Tap Ball Play.
There will be a few different ways to initiate the Neighbor Play.
Flag Icon (Springfield): After Balls of Glory Part 4 and Fickled Fans, you will notice you have another icon available at the Right Top Corner of your game screen in Springfield. Tapping on the Flag Icon will take you to a Random “Matchmaking Player”.
You will not know who this Player is, but the info in the Top Left Corner will tell you what Level they are on. Their Star amount may vary.
If you like the “Match”, tap on the Flag Icon floating on the Grass Field, Select your Players, then PLAY.
If you do NOT like the “Match”, tap on the Flag Icon again (now alone in the Top Right Corner), and you will be taken to another “Match” option. You can keep doing this as many times as you like until you reach the Player you want to go up against in Tap Ball.
Event Menu/ Flag Icon Tab (Springfield): In your Event Menu (Mit w/Soccerball), go to the Flag Icon Tab and tap it. The PLAY TAP BALL! screen will appear.
Random Opponent: From here you can “Pick” a “Random Opponent” to play against. Again, you will not know who it is but just basic details of them. Same as the “Matchmaker”.
Single Player: This is just you playing against the “game” essentially. More details on that in another post, HERE.
List of YOUR Neighbors: Just underneath the first two options, you will see a list of the Neighbors in your town that are able to currently Play Tap Ball with you. I do not know how long/short this list will be. Right now mine is at 11. Each one will tell you the Neighbor ID and their current Star Rating. Tap on “Pick” to go to their town to Play Tap Ball.
Neighbor Screen: From here, you can also pick any Neighbor. The difficult part of doing it this way is that you can’t see their stats until AFTER you go into their towns. The game will take you right to their Grass Field, so look for the Flag Over the Grass field to know you can Play against them. But that may not matter as you may be seeking Fans to tap too. But once in any town, you can use that Flag Icon in the Upper Right Corner to go to a “Matchmaking Player”.
Gold Soccer Medal Icon: You will also notice in the Main Neighbor Screen in the Lower Right Corner there is a Gold Soccer Medal Icon. Tapping on this will show you the Game Leaderboard and your current standings against your Neighbors.
NOW ON TO THE TAP BALL
Alissa did a really good job of explaining HOW to Play Tap Ball in her post, HERE.
It will be pretty much the same concept in a Neighbors. The difference? Payouts. In playing against your Neighbor, not only do YOU benefit from a Win/Loss/Tie but your Neighbor does too. Let’s take a look.
Team selection is important when playing as you want to Win, but you also need to keep enough handy for other games of Tap Ball you want to play against a Neighbor. Due to each time they play, they will be required to Revive for 4hrs before they can play again.
For Instance, if you are going up against a 5 star player and you only have 1/2 Star or 1 Star Players… it may not matter WHO you select. If you are going up against a 1 Star Player, you will want to put in anyone OVER 1 Stars you have to get a better chance at winning.
Either way, the order you select them will be the order you see them Play in Tap Ball when it starts.
Once the Tap Ball Game starts, use the Brain & Nerve Tonic and Swap Icons wisely. For instance, if you have a 1 Star Character going up against a 5 Star Character it would be wasteful to use the Tonic as it only adds 2 Stars and would put you to 3 Stars. Now if you have a 5 Star Character behind that 1 Star and next in line, it may be a perfect time to Swap them out. Or you can just let it play out as your 5 Star may be up against a 2 Star next and will cancel the lost point with a won point.
PAYOUTS- YOU
There will be plenty to Win, even if you do not Win a Tap Ball Game. It is set up so no matter the results, you will get something for the effort. Many times it may work out that you get MORE for a Loss then a Win depending on the Overall Star Rating for the Match (See Bonus Payout).
For a Win:
10 
60
For a Loss:
2 30
For a Tie:
5 40
And the Bonus Again…
NOTE: You will get a Bonus based on the OPPONENTS Difficulty Level. NOT yours.
| 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 you could LOSE the Match against a 5 Star Player and still walk away with…
2 30 (Loss Payout) & 20 60 (Bonus Payout 5 Stars)
That is a total of 22 Amateur Bucks and 90 Foam Fingers.
In short, don’t just go running away from a 5 Star battle just because you think you can’t win. EVERYONE IS A WINNER WITH TAP BALL!!!
PAYOUT- NEIGHBOR (DEFENSIVE GAMES)
So now you have all these cool Payouts for Playing against your Neighbor, but what do THEY get. Or… if someone played against YOU while you were gone… what do YOU get for being the “Opponent”?
These Payouts will be a lil smaller as they are more just “participation” on your Neighbors behalf, but still… it is at least SOMETHING for doing NOTHING.
When you have been away from your game and return… or if you were out visiting… you will see a Pop Up on your return. It will let you know that someone has played against YOU, the Results, and the Payout.
If you are running round your Springfield, the game will send a pop up telling you to refresh the game to see the results. (Though I noticed this sometimes came AFTER I already had the pop up, so don’t be surprised.)
Now just WHAT can you get for someone picking you to compete against?
For a Win:
3 4
For a Loss:
1 1
For a Tie:
1 1
There is no Bonus for just being picked to play against, but it is still nice to get something for doing nothing, right? 🙂
And there you have it, the Basics of just what you can do while you are bouncing around your Neighbors towns.
What do you think of it all? More inclined to “Lose” to a 5 Star Player now? How are your Tap Ball Games going? Having fun? Let us know.
~Bunny
I have a few comments about the event in general. As with the other events, the beginning of the event is a bit chaotic. There’s a lot to learn, and a lot going on. I wish the daily events were more obvious. You have to be proactive to initiate the daily activity. I would have liked to see a pop up or some kind of reminder first thing in the morning.
Playing tap ball is easy, but you really have to stay on top of things (i.e, keep track of the time). Friend tapping is a little frustrating. I don’t like having to hunt down fans that blend in with the other characters and NPC’s.
Overall, it’s a pretty good event. Much of the event is a lot like past events with the exception of playing tap ball itself. I like that part. I’m planning on upgrading my layers as quickly as possible, because there is a definite advantage to winning.
That’s all for now. Thanks for all of the help Alissa, Bunnny, and wookie.
I meant “players” not “layers”. Dang it
That’s why nearly all of my playing characters are on indoor or stationary tasks. Even with short streets, they are pretty empty. Thought it was the least I could do for visitors.
Are fans available in other towns like the criminals were in the superhero event? When I visit neighbors I do not see fans, only in my town do I see them
Yes, but you have to trigger them from the questline. Fickle Fans.
I am way past the Fickle Fans quest and have tons of fans in my own town and have been collecting foam fingers from them since yesterday
They should then appear in your neighbors towns. They appear in your town after Meet my Trophy Life Pt. 5…
If you’ve completed Fickle Fans and aren’t seeing them in neighbors towns any longer, contact EA.
http://tstoaddicts.com/2015/06/24/turbo-tappin-tap-ball-act-1/
Well I never saw them in a friends town so there may be an issue, will contact EA
My experience was that in towns that had reached the fan part of the quest line I found fans in their town, and building taps was not an option. For neighbors that had not yet reached that part there were no fans and buildings taps was the option there.
Yesterday every town I went into had fans to tap and houses. So I think it was something they pulled out either late yesterday or this morning…
Thanks again for all the info..Kudos!!!.
So glad that tomorrow I’ll have eight players with Dredrick Tatum becoming playable. Two games back to back, yuss. Also this event has made it hard to show love to all my neighbors. But loving it so far.
I completed balls of glory part 3 but part 4 never triggered instead homer started the perfect pitch
Perfect pitch is new today…
Balls of Glory is stuck for some players. Give it a little bit of time. If you don’t see it trigger later today, contact EA.
One of my neighbors has two TapBall fields, the normal grass one and also a dirt field. They also have Springy the Springfield spring wandering around their streets.
This is what I will tell you…
That neighbor is playing a hacked or modded game of TSTO.
I have a neighbor who has 4-5 Mayflower ships, which is a unique item, as well as other unique items and things I’ve never seen in anyone else’s game. I’ve also seen Gil wandering around their town when he’s not supposed to. Definitely a hacked game. I’ve thought about unfriending them, but they’re not a bad neighbor, it just irritates me.
Hello! If I have triggered fans in my friends’ towns, will playing TB count in my 50 actions? If I’ve tapped 50 fans, does that mean I won’t be able to play in their towns?
Thank y’all for your awesome info. Without you, we’d be dazed and confused! 🙂
Nope. Only happened before the fan questline triggered
Awesome details! Thanks for the info and making it seem so simple now. As always, YOU ROCK!!!
way over complicated and confusing……already hating this update
It’s not that complicated. It’s pretty simple and is just like every other event. If you’re confused about playing Tap Ball itself, this post will help you:
http://tstoaddicts.com/2015/06/24/tap-ball-101-how-to-play/
I felt a little overwhelmed at first but I just kept going through everything over and over and searching for stuff here if I didn’t understand or asked questions. Anyone on here, including the amazing people that run the site, will be glad to help you 🙂
For once, there is so far nothing I wanted except a 5 donut French flag and bonuts. So I am not worrying so much about ‘winning’ or completing tasks on the left-hand side, and just playing. So in that sense, I am having fun as there is no stress about making mistakes or starting late.
Brought a UK flag looks great next to my stadium : D
…just wanted to thank all my neighbours who have challenged me lol alot of loss in my achievements table giggles never a sore looser!
I have my heart set on the UK flag too, but dithering as a freemium player.
I’ve pretty much decided not to play “single” in my town. With the refresh time, I’d rarely be able to play my neighbors. So, I’ll play all my games against them so they can benefit, too. I will also avoid the random opponents for the same reason, although I understand why someone with few neighbors would choose that option.
In my game, none of the Springfields with fans had any buildings to tap on. Not even the Other Springfield. Is this a glitch or do the buildings become unavailable at some point? Honestly it’s not that big of a deal regardless as long as there’s a payout with the fans, just wondering.
I think they pulled it this morning.
It seems to me that it’s like the previous event – that is, once you and a neighbor reach a certain stage in the event then the roaming fans become the eligible targets. Until then, the buildings are still the targets. Once all neighbors have completed the event threshold, a player should be sure to tap all his own buildings (I call it clear-cutting 🙂 ) because otherwise the earnings will sit uncollected. I’ve already started tapping more of my own buildings than usual and will start clear-cutting as soon as I see that no neighbors are tapping buildings any longer.
Thats strange….. with this logic everyone will prefer to loose for a 5 star player…. and give him/her more currency…
while playes with less stars, that need more currency, will receive less challenges….
dont you think this should be different ?
You don’t get a ton when you’re not in the game anyway. It’s not really that different if you win or lose. The objective is to level up quickly so all of your matches are 5 stars.
Agreed. 🙂
If you calculate all the options (in a spreadsheet like I have *blush*), it’s only really more profitable to lose to a 5 star player if you’re under 3 stars. Losing against a 5 star player will give you the same number of gloves as winning against a 2 star player. Losing against a 5 star player will give you the same number of tickets as winning against a 3 star player. Plus, trying to win against equally matched players and moving up the neighbours scoreboard is way more fun!
Agreed. good point
So then we should be playing against 5 star players if we are under 3 stars since it doesn’t really matter how many losses and wins we have, right?
Bingo
MoneyTapBall? 😛
Seems to be a glitch in mine.i completed balls of glory part 3 and the rest hasnt triggerred so i cant visit neighbours yet
Some of them are just stalled. Give it a little bit of time and see if it loads. If you still don’t see it, contact EA and let them know.
Contacted ea.no reply and game is still stalled
Ok, well beyond that and the other tips we’ve given there’s not much more I can tell you to do. You’ve got to wait for them, unfortunately
Another way to select an opponent – If you tap a neighbor’s name in the leader board, it will take you directly to their field.
Well, I want more amateur bucks fast to upgrade my players. On the other hand I can’t bear to get my lose count any higher. Agh I can’t decide! 3 hours left to think it over till my players are ready…
By the way is the star rating of a team the average of their players? Or is it the level of their weakest player?
I honestly don’t know just yet. I’m still playing around with it
I got 50 foam fingers, but i have nothing else for the tap ball series. What is going on?? I don’t understand.
You have to follow the questlines. What tasks are currently in your task book?
Thanks for the post. I was wondering about the the Defensive Games as I am a player who plays anonymously. Guess it’s my Other Springfield who plays against my while I’m gone, or one of the other random Matchmaking Player “neighbors” I play when I choose Random Opponent for Tap Ball play.
Did you see a your first win of the day award too? I got 125 fingers (currency one) & 50 tickets (upgrading one). You also get goodies from logging in daily.
Yup. We’re working on a math post too that’ll outline all of that. 🙂
Could there be a glitch with the first win daily bonus? I have not received this and neither has my husband’s game (even though we have won our first games), but my son’s game has gotten it two days in a row….
It’s possible. You can try contacting EA and let them know what happened…
Despite my continuing lag, I’m finding this event to be refreshingly fun. And I’m not really into any sports besides baseball ⚾ and occasionally hockey
For the random matches, you say that the info in the Top Left Corner will tell you what Level they are on both in game and for their Players average. I don’t really see their Tap Ball Team level though. Or isn’t that what you mean by “player average”? I accepted several random encounters with 4 or 4,5 stars in the top left, still the teams I played turned out to be about 2 stars only. 🙁 Where can I see the Tap Ball level of a random match before accepting?
The top left corner tells you, but sometimes their players are better. Top left corner will show you the difficulty of the level.
I’ve ran into the same problem multiple times now as well. The stars in the top left corner show 4.5-5, but once the game is started (and you can’t back out) I find out that no one on the team i ranked above 1.5 stars and get a very low bonus score as a result. When I check the win/loss record, I then see the team only had a 1.5 ranking. I’m not sure what the top left star rating is actually showing, but it’s definitely not the matchmaking/random TEAM’s star rating. (Maybe it’s their conform-o-meter stars?) How do we find out the TEAM’s star ranking on the random or matchmaking player games BEFORE playing the team? I’d rather play teams that are higher ranked, or at least close to my 5 ranking, because it’s worth more for me.
If you go to the Pop Up Screen, you will see YOUR neighbors there. The Randoms… are just that… Random. You will not know til you start the game. Your rating top left, theirs top right.
I think I know what’s happening… I think you’re looking in the wrong place! If you’re looking on the top left of the screen when you’re in their town (or their stars when you scroll horizontally through the list of your neighbors), you’re seeing their Conform-o-Meter rating, not their team rating. To see their team rating before you play them, open the ball-and-mitt menu, then tap the flag icon. That will show you a list of neighbors that you can pay, along with their team’s ratings.
Beyond checking the team’s ranking in the win/loss screen, I just noticed that I also see the team’s ranking once the actual match starts as well (once you’re locked in and can’t get out of the match 🙁 ). I just played a team that showed a 5 star rating in that upper left section you mentioned, but then when the game started the team’s actual ranking dropped to 2 stars and no player had higher than 2.5 stars. I’m not sure what the upper left ranking is, but it hasn’t yet been the TEAM’s actual ranking on all the matchmaking games I’ve played. Is there a way to know the TEAM’s actual ranking before you’re locked into playing the team (and wasting your time for far less bonus)?
I get that I can see my neighbor’s ranking in the “Play Tap Ball!” screen, but that’s not what I’m talking about. If I just click the flag in the upper right of the main game screen OR pick a random opponent using the “Play Tap Ball!” screen, I’ll come to a screen that says “Matchmaking Player: Level # and then show the star ranking”. This is before I ever tap on the flag in their field. That is what I am talking about when I say upper left. This is the rating that doesn’t seem to correlate with anything, as far as I can tell.
For example, after clicking on the flag in the upper right, right now I’m looking at “Matchmaking Player; Level 54; 4.5 stars”. I click on the flag in their field to play them > assign my players > … and now I see that the team is actually only ranked 2.5 stars even though it had just said 4.5 stars. So what is that previously stated 4.5 star rating about? Each time this happens I earn far less difficulty bonus and just essentially just wasted a game on a low ranking opponent. Any idea what that rating is about, because it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with their team’s player levels?
That rating in the upper left is their conform o meter rating, not their tap ball level.
Because of this…I’m only playing my own neighbors, since I can see their ratings.
I unlocked the fans in neighbouring Springfields this morning but there were no building or graffiti taps in ANY of my neighbours towns, and I did not see any foam fingers being collected. Any one else seeing the same?
P.S. Thanks so much TSTOA team for doing such a great job helping us with our games and bringing a community together 😁
I think it might have been corrected with the patch, but I have to verify it.
Great summary, thanks!
In the section “How to select a neighbor” you write:
“You will not know who this Player is, but the info in the Top Left Corner will tell you what Level they are on both in game and for their Players average.”
I am afraid this is not (always) correct. I tapped the flag icon in the upper right corner, several times, finally found a nice level 13 with 2 stars, but when the match started all of his team members were at maximum level. That was a bit of a surprise.
I think I was getting sprinkles by tapping on fans last night. And I wasn’t seeing house symbols where I saw fans to tap on. Will keep a better watch tonight as I really need the donuts.
My suggestion for leveling up is to concentrate on only two characters. This means they will reach level 5 faster and then you will be able to tie sometimes with even 5 star players (I have one such neighbour, apparently a fan of China). Until you level up the last two players, your star rating remains deceptively low, a little trap for those visiting with the expectation of winning. Of course, not so good for bonus payouts for them. Today I was 1.5 stars (visible in the upper left corner when you are actually playing a match), but got the 5 star payout from playing a 5 star player.
Thanks for pointing out the high bonus for the five-star games – at least for now, I will prefer to lose! XD What would I do without your site.
🙂
Thanks a lot Bunny for all of this great info!!! This helps!!! 😀 😀 😀
For me there’s no option to tap houses, just fans
and tap ball seems separate to play every 4 hours regardless of friends actions…
Hi I have app stuck on a 7day shift
Is there any way of getting him out of it without spending donuts?
Thanks
Store and replace the Kwik -E- Mart
http://tstoaddicts.com/2013/08/14/canceltask/
I really love the RPG element of this event
Thank you, this is really truly positively absolutely helpful.