2 updates noted below….i’ve called them out in Red font
Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
So the Wild West Event hit our games less than 24hrs ago..and we’re seeing loads and loads of questions come in. Most of them repeated questions asked. So hopefully one big Addicts Question Corner post will help address many of your questions AND prevent you from asking the same questions over and over again. 🙂
Remember, this event is just like past events. Should be like riding a horse…just not if Homer’s doing it…once you get into it, it should all come right back to you..
So let’s get to it shall we?
First thing I’m going to tell y’all is if something seems wrong it’s because it probably is. Trust your instinct. If you think it’s wrong, it probably is. Don’t panic and think it’s just your game if it seems like something bizarre is going on…use your good old noggin’ and think “if it doesn’t look right, it’s probably not. I bet something else is going on…” Also, check the comments before you comment. Often times you’ll see others with the same issue if it’s widespread. (note if it’s between 10pm EDT and 7am EDT, often times we’re not available to moderated the comments (surprisingly we sleep
) so you may not see comments on it then…)
So now let’s get into the issues/questions/concerns/horseback riding game play tips…
My Game Is Crashing Whenever I Visit Neighbors! Will I Still be Able to Finish the Event?
First, it absolutely stinks when this happens. So I’m sorry that it’s happening to you. Know that it’s not just you it’s happen to, we’re seeing comments from players having the same issue. So take a deep breath… 🙂
Second, yes. This Event is very much achievable without visiting your neighbors. So don’t worry too much about not getting all of the prizes. You’ll get out of the game what you put into the game…log in often and you’ll have a better chance of success than if you don’t log in often. With or without the help of visiting neighbors.
Third, contact EA about this. It does need to be fixed so the more reports they get the better chances you’ll have of them fixing it.
Finally, this will impact your progress in the questline as one of the tasks involves you sending prospectors to a neighbor. So first try Other Springfield for this task. Usually that town will load for most. If it’s still crashing when you’re on that task in Other Springfield, contact EA. See if they can help you progress through it.
At the General Store, If I Exchange Goods for Clues Will the Number Carry Over for Tomorrow’s Prize?
So at the General Store you can hand in Axes 
and Hats 
for Clues 
. The Clues are what unlock your Act 1 Prizes.
Handing in a certain number will unlock special prizes for the day. Each day, with the exception of Day 1, unlocks 1 new prize. There are prizes for all 14 days of Act 1 (it’ll continue for Acts 2 and 3), via the General Store. From what I can tell…beyond the very first prize, each prize will require you to hand in 4 exchanges to unlock.
From what I can tell, you CANNOT build up “hand ins” for the next day. For example, say you’ve already collected the Prize for the day and you continue to hand in resources. From what I’ve seen those resources you exchange will not count towards the next days. You’ll still need to hand in 4 exchanges the next day to unlock that day’s prize.
So is it better to hoard resources and only unlock the prizes for that day? Not really. It’s fairly easy to build up resources, so just play smart. If you hoard everything for the last day you won’t unlock your Act 1 prizes until the last day.
The key is finding a balance between exchanging the goods for Clues and earning prizes.
My method…I plan on exchanging resources until I can’t for that day. And doing it all again tomorrow. For me the sooner I unlock the prize track prizes the better.
What Does The Running Man Icon Mean Next to the Tasks?
This icon 
indicates that the task next to it is animated (outdoor/visual).
I Can Rush the End of Tasks for Free Now! Is This a Glitch?
No, this looks like an intentional change. When there’s only a small amount of time left on the timers the jobs can be rushed for free.
I Can’t Place Dirt, Dirt Roads, Roads, Pavement or Water on the New Strip of Land! Anyone else?!
Yes, everyone else. The new strip of land is bugged for some odd reason and none of these resources can be placed on it. You’ll also notice that there’s no grid lines on the new land..
Hopefully EA will patch this soon….
How Do I Drop Prospectors Off In Neighbor’s Towns?
To drop a Prospector off you must first have Prospectors to drop. You can unlock them via tapping on Bandits in your town. Prospectors to drop look like this:
Once you’ve collected them, even just 1, simply visit a neighbors town. There will be an icon in the top right corner showing the Prospector image, simply tap on it to drop the Prospector.
There can be 10 Prospectors per town. So if you can’t leave any for a neighbor it could be because they’re full…
The number you see in Orange reflects how many you can drop in that town currently.
Bandits. Everything About Them.
Bandits will drop a combination of the resources you need for the event. 
. Tap them to earn them. Pretty simple…
You will be notified when you’ve cleared all of the bandits in your town…
So if you don’t see that message, that means you have bandits to tap.
Tapping Bandits also upgrades your Town Plaza…this is beneficial to you and does not cost resources. So upgrading is something you want to do early and often…it should happen automatically once you tap enough bandits.
I’m still looking for Spawn Rate info…haven’t had a chance to fully dissect the files yet.
My Daily Challenges Are Showing a Negative Number When I Collect Items.
This is a bug. If your Daily Challenge is showing you a negative number when you’re collecting items, contact EA.
My Kids Have a Task To Throw Garbage At Springfield Elementary, What’s This About?
It’s just a random task…don’t make too much out of it. It’s probably an indication of something to come and the game has glitched causing it to show now. I know it’s annoying that it’s at the top of your task list…but just ignore it for now as best you can.
I’m Getting Friendship Points From Neighbors Even Though I’m Maxed Out and There Are No New Prizes, Why?! Does This Mean No More Donuts?!
It’s just another bug with the update. If you’re seeing FPs pop out and you’re max level, just ignore them.
If you’re seeing FPs pop out and you need them, as you’re still working on a prize, and your points are not valued at what they should be (i.e. it says you should get 10 points and it’s only adding 1 point)…contact EA.
What does this mean for Bonuts from Friends? No idea. I won’t know until I or someone else sees one from visiting. So if you get a bonut, please let us know. In the meantime don’t panic. Just have fun 🙂
And now I think/hope I’ve answered most of your burning questions/concerns so far.
We’ll be back, as always, throughout the coming days to bring you more in-depth analysis about each and every aspect of this event. So if you’re still lost/confused…we’ll be here to help you. And when in doubt, just play. The game guides you..it’s how we figure out how the play and how the events work ourselves. 🙂
What are your thoughts on the Wild West Event? Having fun so far? Was your question/issue addressed? If not, what is it? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
I didn’t see this anywhere and I think I know the answer,but can someone confirm or refute that the dirt ground and the dirt road are staying after the event ends. I am rearranging and expanding my western area every few days and would like the option to expand with not event buildings after event is over. Hard to do if I can’t get more dirt.
They’re supposed to be
So I’m confused about the rewards for this event. The rocks that are rewarded after handing in hats and whatnot… what are those about? I know they add tree-hugging points but what other purpose do they serve? Right now they’re just taking up space and making me cringe when I look at them.
Just decorations to make a desert area. If you don’t like them, storage works.
Can you bring back Devil’s Anvil mountain?
Can the Addicts? No. We’re just the Addicts.
Can EA, the game makers? Ask them. 🙂
Where is that pesky Big Bad Bandit??! I found him the first time he came around, but now even with hiding building I looked for 3 days with no success. Help??
What big bad bandit are you talking about
The task from the Wanted Poster.
I am having the same issue. My daily task said to get rid of the bandit in the wanted poster bit he’s nowhere! The first time was easy. I think it’s a glitch. Very irritating.
The one on the Wanted Poster, task from several days ago.
The Prospectors? Those don’t stay around long…
Unless you’re talking about something else that hasn’t hit our games yet and your game is glitching out.
He’s the one from the task list’s Wanted poster. First time I haven’t been able to complete one, and I frequently clear all of the Bandits. I need those clues to get the bank and barber shop without buying donuts!
Thx! The Running Man 🏃 icon was driving me nuts
I play regularly, and in all of these mini-games I usually have time to spare to complete the prizes (act 1, act 2, etc.). This time (Wild West) there seems to be no way I can get there without cashing in donuts. Is this on purpose? I have less than 2 days and there seems to be no way of accumulating enough in time to get even the bank/barber shop.
Ok, figured it out. I can be thick sometimes 😛
I had no trouble getting all the prizes–I finished at least three days ago. It may be too late for Act 1, but I’ll tell you what I did, and if you didn’t do some of these, maybe it will help you in Act 2:
–I tapped on bandits as often as I could. When I had a little extra time, I would hide the buildings and find a few bandits that you couldn’t see otherwise. At least once a day–usually right before bedtime–I made sure I got the message that there were no more bandits left in my town so that while I slept, I could gather/bank as many bandits as possible. Tapping bandits not only gives you hats and pickaxes, but it also levels up your Town Plaza, which helps you earn more prize currency.
–Every four hours, I sent Homer or Apu to the General Store to Start a Craze (Homer if I needed more hats, Apu if I needed pickaxes), and then I sent five people to do their jobs at the general store (Bart, Marge [after upgrading the the Town Plaza to level 2], Cletus, Gummy Joe [after upgrading the Town Plaza to level 4] and Homer/Apu, whichever one is not starting the craze.). I was able to do this an average of four times a day.
–At the same time, I cleared five bandits [after upgrading the Town Plaza to level 3] from the Simpson house, the Flanders house, the Kwik-E-Mart and the Krusty Burger [after upgrading the Town Plaza to level 5].
–I visited my neighbors every day, tapping on bandits ONLY (not buildings) for the first 30 taps. (Some neighbors didn’t have bandits available, or had bandits and buildings–I skipped those neighbors until I tapped the maximum number of bandits.)
–I dropped prospectors in my neighbors’ towns as often as i could. This didn’t help me directly, but I believe it encouraged my neighbors to drop prospectors in my town, which gave me more event currency.
–I did as many trades as I could at the General Store every day–not just the four required to unlock that day’s tasks.
–I completed my Daily Challenges, which sometimes gave me more clues (or more hats/pickaxes to hand in at the General Store to get more clues).
I hope this helps. Good luck!
Any info on spawn rate for bandits?
I have a question what is best to do next?
I already have all the prizes from act 1 (except the daily prizes yet to come) so i have about 26000clues. But what to do next? Change as much pickaxe and hats in clues or keep the pickaxe’s and hats and stockpile them??
Do 4 hand ins a day to unlock the General Store prizes, and save the rest…
Just a comment on my neighbors. The way towns are laid out, so interesting. Characters and places I never new existed show up at places I visit. One person even had their town totally encircled by the el train. Fun to visit – plus I get ideas for my own town.
I’ve fallen seriously behind, although I suppose I do have quite a few resources banked, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to complete this event. Is there any freemium way to catch up?
I’ve not quite hit 9k clues, while the calendar says I should reach 15k today. 🙁
Is it still worth accumulating hats and pickaxes after you get Wes Doobner(i.e. are they going to carry over to act 2)?
I would.
Is anyone having trouble with the Find Maggie task? I searched the site a bit but haven’t found mention of this so forgive me if it was discussed elsewhere. Basically, the screen freezes after the 3-2-1 countdown. I can shut the game down, restart and it’s like the task never happened, so I can try it again and the same problem occurs. This only started since the Wild West event rolled out so I imagine it’ll clear afterwards.
It’s a known issue that EA is working on. It’s not impacting everyone though..just a small group. You should contact EA to let them know you’re impacted as well..
Thanks Alissa!
If you wait and do nothing for 40 seconds, the animation will catch up and you still have 2 min to find maggie.
Thank you! I’ll give it a try after Maggie finishes her task. I figured I may as earn some cash and put the baby to work.
Thanks again, I’ve tried this twice and it works. About a 20 second delay for me and eventually it releases. It doesn’t seem to lose any time either.
Mine keeps freezing just before she flies off, only started happenin since latest update.
Whenever I want to hand in the resources the game crashes. I’ve tried it on my tablet and on the phone that are both androids and it still crashes. I even tried on my boyfriend’s iPad and it still does the same thing. What’s happening and why does it crash?
It’s a bug. EA’s working on a patch. In the meantime continue to collect resources (pickaxes and hats) and once it’s patched you’ll be able to turn everything in at the store and catch right up.