UPDATE: Looks like EA lowered the time for the Hunt Nightmares task. It’s now been reduced to 4hrs from 8hrs. So you should earn twice as many each day. This will be a big help for many of you worrying about just how you’ll earn the 9,000+ Candy Apples for Act 3.
Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Just popping in with a quick tip for earning more nightmares via the Hunting Nightmares Task. We’re seeing loads of you in the comments upset because you’ll send all your kids to Hunt Nightmares, and it’ll only yield 20 when the task is complete.
So why is that? Well it’s because the max in your town allowed at one time is 20. Now there’s been a bank of 40 throughout the entire event (that your nightmares will appear from when you clear the first 20), but it appears that..at least for now..the bank isn’t working with the Hunt Nightmares task.
So how to we optimize and get the most out of the task to yield the most Candy Apples? Let’s take a look….
Here’s the key to maximize the most out of this task….
Multiple Brown Houses
Since the task takes place at the Brown House, the best thing is to have multiple Brown Houses in your town. Then send various characters to perform the task at different Brown Houses. Count up how many nightmares the characters will yield and don’t have more than a yield of 20 from any of the houses.
Then clear each house one at a time, clear the nightmares that spawn & reassign the kids to the Hunt Nightmares task at that house.
Basically…if you have ALL of the kids (or almost all of the kids) you’ll need 4 Brown Houses to maximize the Nightmare spawns….here’s a look for each one:
Brown House #1- Yields 20 Skeleton Nightmares: Bart (2), Database (2), Gino (4), Sherri and Terri (8) & Laura (4).
Brown House #2- Yields 20 Bunny Nightmares: Milhouse (2), Ralph (2), Rod (2) , Todd (2) , Shawna (4), Jessica (4) and Uter (4).
Brown House #3- Yields 20 Zombie Nightmares: Martin (2), Michael (2), Kearney (4), Greta (4), Jimbo (4) and Squeaky Voiced Teen (4).
Brown House #4– Yields 10 Snake Nightmares: Lisa (2), Hugo (2), Nelson (2), Dolph (2) and Janey (2).
So when they’re ready clear the thumbs up over Brown House #1, then clear the skeletons that spawn from it, then reassign the kids to the task and move onto Brown House #2.
Repeat for each Brown House.
Important….Space your Brown Houses apart OR store your IRS building so you don’t accidentally clear them all at once. This will only work if you clear 1 brown house at a time.
This will help you complete maximize how many nightmares you’ll get from doing the task….
Hopefully this will help many of you clear up the issues of nightmares not appearing when you clear the Brown House and help you maximize your Candy Apple earnings for Act 3!
What are your thoughts on this strategy? Have you been doing this or sending them all to the same Brown House? Think this will help you earn more Candy Apples? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
D’oh. Wish I’d read this earlier. Knew I was doing something dumb…
So, yeah. I followed your advice here and stored my IRS building. I then decided I wanted to still use it after I had collected my Nightmares and so went to go find it. It’s gone. Not in my inventory and not available to purchase. Any suggestions? Am I the only one?
Check your overall inventory list, not your buildings.
Excellent suggestion, thank you. I checked under buildings and decorations, never even thought about just going through the overall inventory.
I freaked out when my IRS building wasn’t in my inventory after picking it up. A short time later, it mysteriously reappeared in my inventory. Just be patient. 🙂
No premium kids for skeletons so will take much too much time for squishing 30!!! Two skeletons at a time with 2 characters is not going to di it!!!
You don’t have to complete the task the same day it appears–you just have to squish 30 skeletons by next Monday morning. If you are able to get four skeletons every four hours even two times a day, you’ll get 8 a day and be done in four days–less if any spawn from your Gate to Nowhere or your friends. (I got 9 from friends today–I was shocked!) Don’t panic! Bonuts will be yours–I know it!
yes, especially if the kids that are supposed to spawn skeletons start to spawn ZOMBIES!!! i followed the brown-house theory in this post, but didn’t work..
Bart did that to me today! One of my neighbors still has skeletons, but even still… Not even sure if it’s possible for me. I only have Bart spawning Skeletons and he’s gotta be at the campfire half the time…
I’ve been trying to use this strategy but it doesn’t work although I’ve been following it step by step. And I won’t be able to complete this week’s challenges because skeletons just won’t spawn. All the other nightmares do, but not a single skeleton I’ve seen this week so far. Dammit.
You can either wait until tomorrow and see if they spawn, or contact EA. If they don’t spawn tomorrow for sure contact EA
Do I contact EA if I cannot connect to different towns?
Yes
http://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/new/?product=the-simpsons-tapped-out
Other than the fact that the skeletons aren’t spawning (grrr–I’ve gotten four today, although I should have gotten eight, but I’m not complaining because at least I got four! not to rub it in), is there anything else that’s not working with this strategy? One of the things many of us have noticed is that all the nightmares spawn from one house. So if you click the thumbs and don’t see any nightmares, try quickly moving to one of your other brown houses and see if they spawned from there. (And remember you have a week to squish those skeletons for the “daily” task. It’s only “daily” in that a task is issued every day. You have until Monday morning next week to accomplish it.)
My Bart and Database are spawning bunnies instead of skeletons. I only need 3 more.
having the same problem
I cannot get any skeletons I have tried all morning and all I got was 2 at that rate I will never get 30 in time
You have allllll weeek to get 30
Is anyone having the problem of having no nightmares?? Ive cleared my game of nightmares… Sent the kids on. 4hr task and get nothing… Is this just me or are others having this issue…
They spawn outside 1 brown house…all of them. They’ll only appear outside of the brown house you started the task it. Best way to determine which one that is is hit Do it under the shop keepers challenge, it’ll take you to that brown house.
Am I missing something? Because I just don’t see how it’s possible to get enough candy apples. Even if I send the kids to the brown houses in the correct way, I’m still WAY low. My campfire isn’t spawning anything at all any more – is that correct? I busted my butt to increase the spawn rate and now I get nothing. Either I’m missing something or this is freaking impossible! And I actually think I have quite a lot of kids…
Don’t over think it. Just play. If you still have complaints than contact EA. LOADS of people have been complaining since the start and those same people are now all commenting that they’re ahead of the calendar. Don’t over think. Just play.
Ridiculous that I will be 6 bunnys short from collecting 20 donuts. For the past 4 days no bunnies were being spawned from the brown houses. I am done with the game because it seems every new event, this game always finds a way to screw me. Time to delete this game after 3 years… Wasted too much time on this and it’s too frustrating.
Check in with your neighbors! Squishing them in other towns counts too!
It didn’t count for me when I squished them in my neighbour’s towns. Started with zero and still had zero afterwards.
I’m having the same problem this week with getting 30 skeletons. Neighbors have yielded only 3, as most have nightmares.
I realize now its not working for me any more either. Not gonna make my shopkeeper task either if that’s the case.
You have all week to complete the task. You don’t have to just to it today
yes, quite frustrating…. since now, not even the nightmare that SHOULD spawn do so… today i got four zombies from Bart and Database… also the “bunny-house” spawned at least half zombies.
Does anyone know if the number of spawn walking around affect the number of nightmares produced? I have 2 brown houses, with only Bart giving skeletons and I just got only 1 from him. Today’s shopkeeper challenge of getting 30 may take a while!
I’m pretty sure one of the posts on this blog said that star spawn don’t have any effect on how many nightmares are produced. Don’t panic yet about the shopkeeper challenge for today–you have all week to get those 30. Wait until Saturday. Panic then. lol.
When i separate my kids to differant brown houses, i don’t get anything then about 5 minutes later i get about 3 rabbits. I’ve stuck them all back in the same brown house. At least i get some that way
They spawn outside the original brown house. So you have to go back and check your other brown houses for the spawns…
Mine don’t spawn outside my original brown house; they spawn outside the one that is in the upper left-hand corner. Not sure why, but now that I know, I just tap on the thumbs and scroll back to the spawning brown house.
for some reason, skeletons will not spawn. i send the kids who’s tasks spawn skeletons and i only get rabbits?? has anyone else had this problem?
Try hard closing and restarting your game…could just need to sync up
Yes, me. I get zombies and snakes. No skeletons (so much for the shopkeeper’s challenge) and no bunnies.
Sent Bart for skeletons and got zombies. Hard closed the game and no better luck.
you can either wait until tomorrow (usually they’ll spawn the next day) or contact EA
Skeletons also seem to be my least-spawned item. I do get them, but I should have gotten four this morning (two from Bart, two from database), but I only got Bart’s. (And this was after a hard close.) I’m still not going to panic. We have all week to get the shopkeeper’s challenge. Five a day will do the trick. Fingers crossed!
So helpful! I’ve been so confused to why I didn’t see all my nightmares after the kids finished their brown house tasks.
I always know I can count on your guys to figure everything out perfectly. I don’t know what we’d all do with out you! 😝 thanks for always having our backs
Late reply here, but I’ve discovered in my games that if Bart, Lisa, Milhouse, and Martin are fighting the monster, the kids hunting nightmares do indeed only yield a max of 20 at any given time. However if hunting nightmares during the monster’s 12 hour downtime, the bank reestablishes itself as before – meaning that if I have all the kids completing their hunt nightmares task from the same house, I’ll still get over the 20 with no problem, so long as the monster is away.
man i didn’t realise till today after reading this that you could send kids to the brown house,i thought once the monster took over the bonfire that was it no more upgrading,the only spawns i was getting was from my mausaleum and wall thingy.i doubt i’ll get all prizes now.
Just keep going. You may be surprised how once into it how fast you can start to get them. 🙂
You can still do it if you stick with it, this act is easy once you get going. I should have the Ned center tomorrow. It goes quick
I agree with Bunny and Ryan–stick with it. I am at least two days ahead even though I’ve been fretting all weekend. “Oh, woe is me, how will I ever earn enough candy apples?” It does seem to work out. You may have a little more work to do to get there, but have faith!