Some changes were made to the Community Prizes on 7/7, these changes have been updated on the post below. You can also check out more details on the change post here.
Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Act 2 of Tap Ball launched last week and with it we saw the return of Community Prizes!
Initially launched in October 2013, Community Prizes was another aspect of events designed to get the Tapped Out Community to work together for a goal, in each case the goal was a group of prizes. They were short lived though, as we only saw them for Halloween 2013 and Christmas 2013 (You can check out details from Halloween here and details from Christmas here). After that EA tried a bunch of different methods to engage people in the games, but there were always cries for Community Prizes to return. So now those long time Tappers have their wish and they’re back!
Of course being that they were only around for the last two major events in 2013, I know many of today’s Tappers have no clue what they are, how they work, or what the heck is going on. I also know that the numbers can seem overwhelming, they always have. So let’s break down the ins and outs of Community Prizes and how exactly they work for this event….
As always let’s start with the basics…
What Are Community Prizes?
Community Prizes are a group of prizes that can be won in your Springfield if the ENTIRE Tapped Out Community reaches the goals set by EA.
Is the Counter Just For Me and My Neighbors, or Is It Tapped Out Players World Wide?
It’s the collective total of ALL Tapped Out Players World Wide, so not just you and your neighbors.
How Do I Unlock the Community Prizes?
Community Prizes will unlock at Part 9 of the Act 2 questline. You’ll get a prompt that says this:
That will unlock your ability to see the prizes and start collecting Sports Balls.
How Do I Collect Sports Balls?
There are a few of different ways to get Sports Balls:
-You can purchase them in the Amateur Shop for 500 40 
-You can earn them from Daily Training Tasks (there are three in Daily Training (and each one should unlock several balls for you to throw), but won’t appear for a little while)
-You can earn them by collecting balls your neighbors send you. (we’ll cover this more in depth below) If you see a ball bouncing around in your town tap on it. You have a 20% 68% chance that that ball you collected will earn you a ball to throw at your neighbors town.
How Does it Work?
It’s pretty simple really, you collect Sports Balls and send them to your neighbors and that’s it.
You’ll have a sports ball counter on the bottom left of your Main Springfield (next to Cap and Amateur Buck totals), this will tell you how many Sports Balls you have available to throw.
When you have more than 1 you can visit a neighbor and you’ll see in the upper right corner of their screen the Sports Ball Icon with a the number of balls you have available to throw. Tap on that Icon to throw the ball.
You’ll then see the ball rolling around your friend’s Springfield.
And that’s it, you’ve contributed to the Community Prize Total!
For the Questline, Do I Need to Spend the 500
Honestly, I’m not 100% sure because I’ve already completed it. I know that you do need to complete the questline for Act 2 in order to advance to the Act 3 questline when it hits. I’ve seen a few comments from players saying ones they’ve collected in their town have counted towards the task complete, but I have not been able to verify it myself.
Personally, I think right now Amateur Bucks are a little easier to accumulate, especially with the fans dropping them…so for the greater community I say just spend the 500 Bucks when you can…or as they say in baseball “suck it up and take one for the team”.
Do I Have to Participate to Get the Prizes?
No, as long as you unlock the ability to get the prizes you don’t have to participate to actually get them. BUT I say yes, participate. Buy some balls and put them in your neighbors town. You don’t have to do it a ton, but every once in a while is nice. It helps everyone out to get those prizes. So don’t be selfish and be a “team player”, everyone’s participation (no matter how great or small) is what makes the goals achievable.
What Happens When I See A Sports Ball In My Town?
You will see sports balls rolling along in your town (they can be VERY hard to see, especially if you have a large town). They’ll look like one of these:
If you see one, Tap on it! You’ll have 20% 68% chance of earning a free sports ball to throw to another neighbor! It’s a great way to earn free Sports Balls!
Will I See Any Sort of Notification That There’s a Sports Ball In My Town?
No. There are no popups indicating that someone left you a Sports Ball. It’s mostly just look around your town, if you see it Tap it. But for the most part you’re “flying blind” about it.
Will I Be Able To See Who Left Me a Sports Ball?
When you Tap on the Sports Balls they’ll only say Ball Collected (or + 1 Sports Ball if it’s one of those 20% ones) it will not tell you which neighbor left it.
I’ve Been Sending Balls To Me Neighbors and No Ones Throwing Them Back, What Gives?
First of all remember that there’s no indication in the game who sent the ball a player just tapped. So they may not know how to give credit too.
Second, it’s difficult to accumulate Sports Balls. Just because you sent one doesn’t mean the player will have one to send back. Even if they tap on that one there’s only a 20% chance it’ll turn into a Sports Ball to throw…so be patient and don’t unfriend people because of it.
Remember it’s a Community Goal. As long as they’re throwing Sports Balls too, whether they’re to you or not, means that they’re contributing to the Community Total for the prizes…and that’s something everyone should be happy with.
How Long Do I Have to Tap A Ball in My Town? Do They Disappear After a While?
Honestly, I don’t know. I’m still checking to see if I see anything in the files that indicates a timer on them. However, I can tell you I dropped a Sports Ball in my C town from my A town a couple of days ago and it’s no longer bouncing around in my C town. So it does look like they have a timer, how of a timer? That I’m unsure of at this time.
What Are the Community Prizes?
Here’s the breakdown:
110,880,000
230,400,000
402,200,000
538,040,000
How Can I View the Prizes/Counter?
It’s simple, just bring up the event hub in your town. Scroll to the very bottom and you’ll see the Community Prize icon, tap on it and it’ll show you the prizes and latest totals.
Why Is the Counter Going So Slow?! It Feels like We’re NEVER Going to Earn All the Prizes!
I know. It’s moving slow right now. I get it, everyone’s frustrated by it. But keep in mind we’ve never not achieved all of the Community Prizes, I have a feeling now that the holiday weekend is over something will happen to cause the counter to start to spike.
I can also tell you that the in game counter is only an estimate of what the actual total is. While the counter itself is very real, the one we see in game (because it changes every second) is only an estimate based on the last average the server took.
So just keep playing your game and try not to focus too much on the numbers.
And that I think covers all of the details of the Community Prizes! Hopefully all of the players who weren’t around in 2013, will now get the hang of things and we can all work together to earn the prizes!
What are your thoughts on Community Prizes? Thoughts about the prizes being offered? How about the Sports Ball challenge? Have you earned any for free so far by tapping? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!