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Gift Info: A lot of you are asking questions about how to get more gifts to drop after the initial 5. It looks like…my thought process…you get 5 presents to drop per day. However, I can’t test this theory until tonight when it’s been 24hrs after I dropped my initial presents. So for now that’s the theory…just stick it out for the rest of today, we’ll know more tonight. (there were over 100 comments just on this alone. I tried to respond to many of you, but I’ve got an appointment this morning so just ended up pushing a bunch of them. If anyone wants to help out and respond to those letting those players know to refresh the post I’d appreciate it 🙂 )
Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Looks like Christmas is going live! So far it’s live on iOS, Kindle and Android
As usual I’ll be back with more info as I go through it…give me some time as I’d much rather work on my Android than the old iPhone….
The dialogue should auto start right up between Lisa and Homer, with a 1m task for Homer.
Remember this is an APP STORE update, so you MUST go to your App Store to download. Check it, don’t wait for the game to tell you to download it.
Working on details guys…should be up soon. I’ve just got a cranky baby who doesn’t want me to put her down…so give me a bit. I’ve worked through most of it, so everything will be up shortly 🙂
More details below the fold…
So things will start with 3 tasks in a row for Homer. 1 minute, 45 seconds and then 30 seconds. Once you’ve completed those tasks you’ll launch the basic event menu. This will show the prizes and items in the store. BUT to unlock neighbor actions, crafting abilities, the snowman and challenges you’ll need to continue with the questline. But here’s a quick look at the new items in the store and the prize breakdowns..
Remember you won’t see this until you’ve completed the 3 tasks for Homer and unlocked the Merrymakers..
Freemium
Lollipop Flowers- $6,500
Marshmallow Tree- $10,000
Festive Hot Drink Stand- $1,200 (returning from Christmas 2013/2014)
Murdered Snowman- $30,000
Ice Fence- $500
All above items leave stores on 1/2/16
Premium
White Witch Burns- 60 Donuts
Springfield Animal Shelter- 60 Donuts
Victor’s Secret- 85 Donuts
Ski Lift and Sexy Flanders- 150 Donuts. Returning from 2014, Should I Buy
Springfield Skating Rink- 85 Donuts. Returning from 2013/14.
Festive Light Plunger- 55 Donuts. Returning from 2014
All Above items leave stores when Act 2 hits
Duff Center Arena- 200 Donuts, generates event currency (200/6hrs)
Holiday Tree- 75 Donuts (returning from Christmas 2012/13/14)
Above 2 items leave stores on Jan 2nd.
Event Guide
Act 1 Currency & How To Earn It
Currency for Act 1 is Santa Hats…
These are earned by tapping Merry Makers. You’ll earn 3 from each Merry Maker Tapped. You’ll also earn them via completing the questline (100 for each part completed). Also, they can be earned by completing the Best Snowman Ever upgrade. Hats can also be earned by sending characters on tasks…
They can also be earned as the Daily Play Combo
Act 1 Prizes
Leftoriam Express- 2200 
Springfield Orphanage- 5,800
Dancing Reindeer- 11,300
Virgil’s Cabin- 19,900
Patches and Poor Violet- 28,850
Act 1 Ends December 19th
Merry Makers
3 Different types of Merry Makers will spawn in your Springfield. You won’t see them until you’ve completed the first 3 Homer tasks and see this message…
Now because I know someone will ask….you don’t actually serve them hot drinks. It’s just the way it’s worded. You simply TAP on them to clear them and earn the Santa Hats. So again…don’t look for a way to serve them a drink…just tap on them.
Initially the Merry Makers will only earn you Santa Hats. BUT once you unlock the crafting ability they’ll also drop 1 of the crafting currency in addition to the hats.
You’ll earn 3 Santa Hats for every Merry Maker tapped and 1 crafting currency.
SPAWN RATE…
The Merry Makers are supposed to spawn at a rate of 1/5 minutes. There can be a MAX of 40 in your town at once, and there’s a “bank” of 20.
Take that information for what it is…don’t yell at us if the results vary in your game. This is what’s “supposed” to happen according to the files…but as always results may vary.
You will see an alert when your out of Merry Makers…
Pile of Snow
The Pile of Snow unlocks after you’ve cleared the first Merry Makers task. It’s free to place and it’s something you’ll have to upgrade as the event goes along…you complete tasks to upgrade it.
Level 1- Homer Pile Snow (1m) Earns 480
We’ll cover upgrading this in another post..but eventually it’ll be a completed snowman and look like this…
Neighbor Actions (Naughty/Nice)
Once you’ve completed Level 1 of the Pile of Snow you’ll start the task to unlock Neighbor Actions. Neighbor Actions will help you earn Bows, bows are part of the crafting currency.
To leave gifts in a neighbors town (the neighbor action), simply tap on the Present in the top right corner of their screen…
This year you’ll have to choose when leaving presents for your neighbors if you want to be Naughty or Nice..you’ll see this popup when you go to leave a gift in a neighbor’s town..
Click on Naughty if you want to keep all of the rewards for yourself and Nice if you want to share with your neighbor.
When you (or your neighbor) find a present in your town you’ll see the same popup. There you’re basically trying to guess if your neighbor was Naughty or Nice to you. Select whichever one you think.
So what’s the deal with the rewards for this? First of all you only earn Bows with this. Which is a crafting currency. You WILL NOT earn Santa Hats for prizes via neighbor actions. So keep that in mind. Second, here’s the breakout provided by EA for Naughty or Nice:
So here’s how it works…if you select naughty and your neighbor picks nice (Whether it’s in your town or your neighbors town) whomever picked Nice will get 1 Bow, whomever picked Naughty will get 25 Bows.
If you both picked Nice you’ll each get 15 Bows
And if you both picked Naughty you’ll each get 5 Bows.
Again you can ONLY earn Bows, crafting currency, via the Naughty/Nice. This is not for the Santa Hats for the main prizes.
A summary will appear after gifts have been opened by your neighbors..
Crafting
After you’ve unlocked neighbor actions, you’ll be able to start the crafting section. But first you’ll need to build Things Unnecessary…Free, 6s..
This will unlock the crafting menu, which can be accessed via the event hub…
For Act 1 there are 2 different crafting currencies…Bows and Ornaments (
)
Bows are earned via Daily Challenges (more on that in a minute) and via neighbor actions (naughty/nice)
Ornaments are earned via tapping Merry Makers. You’ll earn 1 for each Merry Maker tapped.
Here’s a breakdown of the crafting prizes..
Wooly Bully- 20 40
Fancy Igloo- 227 506
Christmas Clams $50 a Pound- 408 778
Ski Chalet- 839 1440
Festive Bow Lamp Post x3- 78
Festive Lawn Bell x3- 78
Marge Snowman- 80
Santa’s Little Helper Snowdog- 80
Daily Challenges
So just like THOH there are Daily Challenges for the Christmas Event! Completing each one will earn you more prizes. The prize will be listed under each day…
Day 1 is more Bows, Day 2 is the Festive Nutcracker…
Remember…you DO NOT have to complete the challenge to move onto the next one. They’ll automatically unlock each day when they’re scheduled. So you can complete all 5 in one day if you’d like (the 5th day)….
The Daily Challenges will unlock AFTER you unlock the crafting section…
Hot Squishee Station
Unlocked via the Barty It’s Cold Outside questline, which won’t start until you’ve done everything above…
Free to place, and allows you to send kids to Buy Hot Squishees to earn Loyalty Cards…
Loyalty Cards allow you to upgrade the Squishee Station…which in turn increases your Tap Radius for Tapping Merry Makers…
Character Changes
Santa’s Little Helper and the Snow Monster both now have tasks…
And that completes the quick rundown for Act 1 of the 2015 Christmas Event!
What are your thoughts on the event? Liking the prizes? What are you most looking forward to? Any items in the store you’re excited about? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
Hey.
I have a lot of the kids that can’t do the squishee – Challenge. How come?
Because that’s the way EA designed the game….
One of the best.events.ever. Love the snowman and gingerbread house, just icing on the prizes cake. Five gift max a down point but overall great event!
Thanks so much guys! You’re awesome! Hope you and little tapper doing well Alissa!
Hi there can you help me to get the gingerbread house when does it appear is it after the snowman is complete I’m 5000 hats off the pace at the moment and I play daily several times per day.
It starts after you complete Level 5 of the Giant Snowman.
Hello Alissa! Could you add information to the “Crafting” section as to which items are unique? Thanks! ^KMP
It’s coming…a full post dedicated to it
Hooray for Game Theory being the latest buzzword.
if everyone sent naughty and opened nice (or vice versa) the result would be the same as nice and nice provided you are sending and receiving equally.
25 and 5 for your packages
5 and 25 for your neighbors packages
Either way in a direct trade you have a maximum of 30 bows per two boxes. This is the exact same as nice and nice:
15 and 15 for your packages
15 and 15 for your neighbors
Math is your friend.
The only thing to imbalance this is if you spread packages willy nilly.
I agree nice and nice is simple. However, naughty and nice can earn the exact same.
Sorry – your math may be correct but your facts are wrong. If you play nice and the other person plays naughty, you only get 1 bow, not 5. So, no – nice and naughty do not net out the same.
ok, so maybe this is a silly question. When a friend leaves a gift in my town, is there a way for me to easily figure out where in my town they left it. A few times I’ve had trouble locating it, which in the long run means it’s time to declutter my streets, but in the short run, I need to open those gifts.
Not really…
Not easy but go into move mode and turn on X-ray vision by tapping on houses icon to see behind things. When a present is located it can be moved to an open area to open later. However still have to scroll entire town and no way to see thru monorail buildings.
Yes, you can see through monorail buildings. In move mode, on the right, where the icons are to hide things, scroll down and you’ll see one that allows you to hide all of the monorail-related stuff! 🙂
I’m going to write on this post in hopes someone sees it. I wrote one earlier on another post and it didn’t show up. I am having an issue with presents. I know we get 5 a day and they come in every 24hrs but I am not receiving presents at all to put in my friends town. On Tuesday when I updated the game I got the task to send gifts and I did that. That was the only time I’ve had gifts to send. It is Saturday night now and I still have not seen one present that I can send. I have received many from friends but that isn’t helping me. I won’t be able to finish my weekly task without this function working properly. I contacted EA and talked to two people who were of no help at all. Not bashing them but I think it’s weird they couldn’t help me. The one lady said she would email me a link but I couldn’t understand what she was saying other than that. I never got an email from them like she told me I would so I’m asking if anyone knows what I can do. I already deleted the game entirely off my iPad and re entered the game with no luck. Downloaded it on my phone and that didn’t work either. Every function on my game works great, just not getting gifts so I can send them to friends.
That’s a tough predicament. Most likely you’d get some actual help from an EA rep in the US. (Sounds like you got the dialogue reading variety from another country.) You’ll have to bug them again on Monday. Since that will ruin your chance at getting the prizes, you’ll need to request they award you them anyways. To make a better case, make sure to complete every other challenge that you can.
I believe the presents are a server based game element. That’s why you don’t get a local count in your town (to help prevent hacking, I bet). So, it’s all on them. The reinstalling you did won’t help. Sorry.
I had a sneaking suspicion [SPOILER ALERT!!!] when I saw the thumbnail for this update. I was tapping around in my Springfield and happened to click on the act three prizes tab. We’re finally getting the youngest Simpson (if my suspicions are correct) character. There’s specific Christmas themed ‘cups’ and the one in the act three tab is Maggie ‘themed’. It also says a very special gift is coming on the 2nd of January. Thoughts??? 😀
I noticed that as well. I believe our requests will be answered!
I noted that too. I believe our frequent requests have been answered!
I’m happy about the character changes and now more satisfied with my decision to splurge on SLH during the last donut sale. But…all of his tasks are indoors! I’m conflicted between making money and loving him walking around my town… Anyone else? Half a win from EA.
Can anyone confirm in what way White Witch Burns “Helps with Winter” – it’s pretty vague lol!
All of his tasks earn Santa hats… 60 min = 1, 4h = 6, 8h = 9, 12h = 12, 24h = 18.
Thanks! I couldn’t see the comments before 🙁 But I’ve now bought him 🙂
I started to play game and it started over at beginning. It still says level 58. I logged out and back in but it is still at level 1. Please fix problem
Well…we’re not EA so we can’t fix the problem. However, there’s something YOU can do to try and fix it for yourself. Try fully unisntalling and reinstalling TSTO. If that doesn’t work try loggin in from another device. If you’re still stuck you can try contacting EA. They’ll be able to restore it for you
http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/07/05/troubleshooting-101-my-game-went-back-to-level-1/
Today, Rod, Todd and Michael cannot go to the Squishee Station. Has this always been true, and I didn’t notice? OR, is this a new problem? Anyone else have this issue?
Thank you Addicts, and Addict Helpers!
Always been true.
Is the dancing rein deer an NPC or a decoration I earned him but am having trouble viewing it in my town not sure what I am looking for. Thanks for the great job keeping us informed on the update!
The dancing reindeer is just a NPC. It seems to do nothing but dance when you click on him
Actually, when you clear a merrymaker you really are giving them a hot drink. If you look carefully at the animation, after you tap them a drink appears in their hands and they take a sip before poofing away. I thought the drink looked like a mug at first, but now it’s a domed cup with a straw. Might be a hot squishee even though the colors are different. The image have changed after the hot squishee stand was placed, for instance. I’m pretty sure it was originally a mug.
I think it is a hot Squishee, because, after drinking it, their lips/mouths turn a really gross red. I don’t know of any hot chocolate that would do that! 😉
I was once given pink Hello Kitty hot chocolate mix as a gift. Tasted more like chalk than chocolate, but I love Hello Kitty so I still drank it 🙂
I stand corrected, lol! 😀
is there a limit to how large of a tap radius can be achieved for the Merrry Makers?
not really…
How can i get the gift which i drop to neighbors’ town? I’m afraid of not being able to accomplissh the daily events
It’s a max of 5 per day no more no less. The daily challenge is to drop 5. You should be able to complete it no problem.
http://tstoaddicts.com/2015/12/10/christmas-2015-101-neighbor-visits-including-how-to-get-more-presents-to-drop/
Oh ok thanks very much.
comments?
Love this
Please ignore. Just trying to view comments.
So I have a question. I am level 17 and I can’t get Ralph until I believe level 26 therefore I can’t complete Springfield orphanage can I? Also will that make a problem for me completing the rest of the Christmas quests? Or is there another way to get him cause as of right now I don’t even see the Wiggins house as a locked item
It won’t stall your progress in the event. They’re just side quests…busy work. To remind you to get the prizes..
Any thoughts on the crafting prizes? Are any of them more valuable than others? Which ones are unique (Wooly Bully and possibly the chalet?)? Any hidden multipliers like the Wailing Walls in the last event?
Wooly Bully pays out 160 hats/4 hrs and is unique.
Anybody have info on payouts (if any) for the igloo or the ski chalet. I’m also holding up on yesterday’s daily challenge of “CRAFT AN ITEM” until I can get a little info or the timer runs out. Thanks.
I’m guessing that the chalet and igloo are unique, and I know for sure that the lampposts and bells are not (nor do they have a multiplier associated with them). I think the multipliers usually chime when they let you craft things that used to be a premium purchase.
The igloo is not unique, I crafted one a few days ago and I can now craft another, which I won’t. It’s nice to have one but I don’t really like the design. Too glassy looking, not snowy looking enough lol.
Has anyone found that new free Xmas stuff increased the bonus % for their town? I’m unsure whether or not my bonus % has increased by 0.25 or maybe something else caused it. I’ve also added 0.75% by bringing a few of last years festive items back out of storage!
Please please please some help on what to craft
Post is coming. Crafting isn’t going anywhere so don’t rush it. Just collect the currency and then decide…
You should craft Wooly Bully as it payouts Hats and not cash. For the rest hold on.
I’d save up for the bigger buildings, then spend whatever’s left over on the smaller ones. But, frankly, I wouldn’t craft anything now (except whatever you need to craft for three questlines), since they’re almost sure to add more craftables in future acts.
Is the naughty or nice summary cumulative or new each day?
In the menu cumulative…
I agree it’s cumulative, but I also think there may be a limit to how many it retains (with older entries being pushed of the list by new ones). Not 100% sure of that, though….
I’m sure. I was keeping track of a double gifter at the bottom, then they became a single, then gone.
Wish we could get more than 5 presents in a 24hr period. Also is anyone else having trouble visiting friends? Ie: lag time or game crashes.
Are you guys going to make a should I buy for white witch burns? I almost bought him but I remembered how disappointing the halloween costumes this year were.
Yup
🎙
I’m trying to see if there has been any responses to my MerryMakers Naming Comment
But I have to scroll down and down and then hit Older Comments, then scroll down and down and repeat and repeat and for some sadistic reason my tablet kicks me off the site and off the net, and yet I keep trying :/
I don’t recall seeing that comment. What was it? Link?
I found it, it’s on this thread about 4/5 “older comment” clicks away, You (Simp7fan) even star-Liked it.
I’m happy to see that the Baby Sitter Bandit is going to be in the game (unlike my pessimistic prediction)
Yesh, Sandra sparked my memory, because the way you said it had me thinking of a group name, not individuals. Do you also have a group name suggestion? I think they should have initials that spell LSD. So, Elle, obviously. Sandy (in honor of Sandra)? And Duncan? I’ll need a refresher on yours. Maybe I’m duplicating….
K, found your comment again.
http://tstoaddicts.com/2015/12/08/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas-2/comment-page-19/#comment-393248
We’re on different wavelengths. 😇
I’m cool with the names you chose (although I’m blanking on the man’s one….).
By the way, been meaning to thank you…. I’ve gotten a donut from your town twice in the past week!
I planned it that way just for you ;p
No need to thank me Sandra just send presents :p (lol)
Oh, the names again, Gary (guy), Mary and (little) Carrie
Oddly it seems like it’s almost easier to find Carrie because her Skip/walk is a different patern than the other Springfeilders walks and movements
I remembered Mary and Carrie (although I was spelling it with only one “r”), but it was Garry I forgot…thought maybe it was Larry….
:$
How do I earn more presents? I’m out!
http://tstoaddicts.com/2015/12/10/christmas-2015-101-neighbor-visits-including-how-to-get-more-presents-to-drop/