Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Time to hitch up the wagons and head out west, because the Wild West has hit our Springfields! With bandits to tie up, guns to sling, gold to pan & gold ole’ Homer getting everyone all riled up!
With so many layers to this event, it’s easy to get confused with what’s going on. But, that’s where we come it! To guide you through the ins and outs and break it all down in a manageable way, that anyone can quickly understand.
In this post we’re going to break down the General Store, for Act 1. By the time we’re done you’ll have the ins, the outs & and the know how to fully understand just how the General Store works for Act 1.
So let’s get to it shall we?
As always let’s start with the basics….
How Do I Get The General Store?
The General Store is FREE, and will unlock for you to place once you reach Part 5 of Once Upon a Springfield. (you can check out the Turbo Tappin’ Post here, if you’re lost) Once you’ve triggered the task for the General Store, you’ll find it in your TSTO Store as a free item. Simply select and place in your Springfield to unlock all the fun!
What Does the General Store Do?
The General Store is where you can, for Act 1, exchange currency you collect for Clues (the Act 1 Prize Currency). So basically the General Store will help you earn even more Clues and unlock the prizes faster!
What Do I Turn In At the Store?
So at the General Store you can hand in Axes 
and Hats 
for Clues 
. The Clues are what unlock your Act 1 Prizes.
How Do I Turn Them In?
Once you have enough Axes and/or Hats simply hit Hand In to earn the Clues…
What’s With the General Store Prizes? How Do I Unlock Them?
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.
Here’s a look at the 14 Prizes you can unlock during Act 1:
Day 1
Days 2, 6 & 8
Day 3
Day 4
Days 5, 10
Days 7, 13
Day 9
Day 11
Day 12
Day 14 (last day)
Prizes will repeat as Acts 2 and 3 hit, as well as some new ones will hit. So, if you see something you like chances are it’ll come back around 🙂
Also, if you miss a day…you can go back and get that prize. So don’t panic if you miss a day or 2. You will be able to go back and get them 🙂
So now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s go into a bit more detail…
Here’s a question many of you are asking. We covered this on the Question Corner post, but we’ll put it here too..
At the General Store, If I Exchange Goods for Clues Will the Number Carry Over for Tomorrow’s Prize?
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.
I’ve Been Handing In Resources and Suddenly It Cut Me Off, and It Says I Can’t Trade In Any More. What’s the Deal?!
So if you see this message popup in your town
DON’T PANIC!! This just means you’ve reached your Clue cap from the General Store for the day, and you can earn more tomorrow. Think of this as EA’s way to slow you down, and prevent you from speeding through the Act in 1 day.
This Event is fairly easy, as in you shouldn’t have a problem earning enough Clues to earn all of the prizes before Act 1 ends (As long as you regularly tap…remember it takes regular tapping to unlock everything. You can’t just play once a day and expect to get everything)
So What Are The Caps for Each Day?
Just like the Monorail Event, there is a set cap you can earn via the General Store each day. Here are the Clue earning caps for Act 1 (Remember these are via the General Store only. There is no cap on Clues you can earn via tapping bandits…)
| Day | Clue Cap |
| 1 | 4400 |
| 2 | 6600 |
| 3 | 8800 |
| 4 | 11000 |
| 5 | 13,200 |
| 6 | 15,400 |
| 7 | 17,600 |
| 8 | 19,800 |
| 9 | 22,000 |
| 10 | 24,600 |
| 11 | 27,200 |
| 12 | 29,800 |
| 13 | 144,000 |
This is a running total. So if you skip a day you’ll be able to collect the Clues to make up the difference. Basically you can earn between 2,200 and 2,600 Clues per day you can earn via the General Store (until you get to the last day, which then shows the caps are essentially removed).
So if you’re seeing the message, it’s because you’ve capped out for the day.
And that my friends, I believe, covers all of the common (and some less common) General Store questions! Hopefully, after reading you’ve got a better understanding of what’s going on with the Store & how to earn Clues from it!
What are your thoughts on the General Store? Are you unlocking your prizes each day? Have you capped out? How’s your Clue count coming along? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
My human statue is wandering the streets also
JMP – my human statue is wandering the streets also
The slightly annoying part is that you get way less hats then pick axes. Wish they would have made it more equal. Im now at a part that the general store asks basically for hats for every hand in 🙁
did anyone calculate the different trades and their return value for clues? I started a few days late and I am trying to catch up…
The big trades (the ones all the way to the right) have the best return on materials.
Here’s what I’ve got so far:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10hUXBtZv9tY3uGVgM_TZxbDCNXv_rel_Af4j90Rb52I/edit?usp=docslist_api
In case anyone hasn’t figured this out yet, you don’t have to make all pick axes or all hats…you can make some of each in the same 4-hour period. Just send some characters to make whichever the current “craze” is, then have Apu or Homer change the craze and then send the rest of the characters on the new craze. Make sense?
When figuring out how many to send on each, you’ll obviously want to see what the store is looking for vs. what you currently have stored up, but also keep in mind that any premium characters (like Lurleen) earn twice as much of whatever currency they’re making, so, if you’re trying to split things up fairly easily, count those characters as if they were two characters.
Thanks, Sandra. It took me a while to figure this out. As a result I have way too many pickaxes and not enough hats. Now I’m grinding away for hats.
Also, what’s the story with 14 days of prizes and only 9 days to get them, each day being locked?
Will this carry through to Act 2?
https://imgur.com/a/eeLtS
Forget all that I posted. I just realised what I’ve done. I haven’t subtracted the days I’ve already completed so I’m on track🙄
My brain is fried. Too much wine, too little sleep.🍷💤
I hope that after the event we’ll get the same principle as the monorail event, crafting and posibility of gaining Bonuts.
Does anyone have the following problem: everytime I try to hand items at the general store my game crashes, and when I reboot I get sent on a mish mash of missions from the last three years or so…..independance day, st. Patricks, pride week etc. ? I’ve had this problem since wednesday, have tried contacting ea without any result. I’ve reloaded the game, nada, this morning I had an update, thought it might help…..nope………pleeaaase if someone could point me in the right direction, would be greatly appreciated!
Memory. Too much going on in this even for devices. Make room in game by storing items. Make room on device by freeing up memory
Did you build the jail? I had to open a ticket with EA and they said a specialist might have to reset my game and I might lose progress in this event.
I am having the same issue as well. I keep storing items and clearing space and still have the same issue.
Is it just me… or does anyone else experience a severe imbalance when it comes to crafting material and options to trade? 95% of the time it’s asking for hats so I end up with 32 hats left compared to 3000 pickaxes that I can’t trade!
It varies, I have the opposite problem. Too many hats not enough axes
It cycles through “phases,” like the rail yard. Keep going and you should eventually see a shift to pick axes for a while.
I’m having the same problem… 7000 pickaxes, 30 hats! 🙁
With both, monorail and general store I have a feeling that the game tends to pick the resource that is more scarce for crafting requirements… For this reason I try not to do trades as soon as the requires resource becomes available, but try to develop a larger store of all resources before trading. So, if you have 3000 pickaxes and 30 hats – try not to craft at all for 24 hours or so, build a store of maybe 6000 pickaxes and 2000 hats and then try to trade. Stop trading if you start running low on some resource before you hit the point where you can’t trade any more. In my experience this helps.
Ooo good trick. I’ll try it! I’ll try not to get panicky to get the required number of clues at the end of the day.. 🙂
Two strange observations:
1) You can’t put the cactus patches from Terwilliger event on dirt. Kinda strange… Also you can’t put normal road on dirt – there’ll always be a thin green strip between them. Not so for dirt roads
2) The human statue for the first time in his life wandered away from the boardwalk and is currently performing on the dirt road leading to the growing wild west city… He hopes to get some of the gold? 🙂
Oh man, as usual I’ve been doing things wrong and not realizing it until I read the posts here. When will I learn?Thanks for the great job you guys do.
Hey, my daily prizes track says I have only 10 days left before the prizes are replaced, but I need 14 to get through the daily prizes. Am I missing something.
Another great post! 🙂
Any advice as to /how/ we should be trading in the General Store?
My third-grade math seems to suggest the far-left option (“Minor Kit”) offers the best clue bang for your pickaxe/hat buck, but I’m terrible at math so welcome other opinions. 🙂
With the Railyard prizes, it seems like the rightmost option usually gives a (slightly) better blueprint bang for your metal/plastic/glass buck.
Varies. If they just want a trade (4/4) I use smallest amount of clues to trade possible I can. If they ask for a total amount (5000/5000 clues) Then I’d use large numbers to reach that amount quickly. See what it wants and decide based on YOUR game
Just the opposite, for maximal amount of clues use the largest trades. As an example: 192 pickaxes in a small trade give you 60 clues. 384 pickaxes (twice the number) in a medium trade give 125 clues (so, more then twice). And in a large trade you may get 210 clues for 576 pickaxes – 3.5 the amount of the small trade for three times price.
Let me be more specific. If you’re going for the prizes, but not sure you’ll have enough… small trades will at least get them for you. Easier to hit 4/4 with 4 trades of 200 ish each vs 4 trades of 500+.
Then for actual clue ratio… largest in that aspect.
It depends WHAT the player is going for.
Yeah, I re-looked at my math, and realized I had my bang-for-the-buck calculations wrong.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10hUXBtZv9tY3uGVgM_TZxbDCNXv_rel_Af4j90Rb52I/edit?usp=docslist_api
I was following the conservative approach and only doing what was needed for the daily challenges, but I really wanted cowboy Homer so I rushed through lol. I knew my impatience would get the better of me eventually. Haven’t started the questline yet though.
I unlocked Cowboy Homer – do we have to complete his quest to advance the game? I’d rather keep him earning items to trade at the general store.
Can I wait until after the event to finish his quest line?
You can wait on it
I finished all of cowboy Homer’s quests in about a day. Just stock up on hats from the general store first, then switch to Apu having people earn axes while Homer is out of commission. I’m not behind on anything, and it was a fun little quest line.
Anyone else having their game crash when they try to exchange for clues at the general store? It started this morning for me. There have been two updates since, but that bug has not been fixed. Does anyone know what I can do?
Limit memory in your game and device. Store so ensure decorations and buildings, animated items too, unused NPC, not needed Characters, etc.
Also make a lil more room on device if you can and try again.
Having the same problem since wednesday……can’t figure it out. Contacted EA, nothing. When you restart your game does it revert you back to past missions? Mine does……I mean past missions…..some a couple of years old!
I opened a ticket with EA and they have someone working on it. I hope I will be able to catch up with the event.
Never reached the daily cap – I must be doing something wrong…
I haven’t either, but I also haven’t been taking my currency down to 0 each day…I like to know that, at the end of the night, I still have enough to easily finish the 4 daily trades first thing in the morning.
Honestly, I’m not worrying about anything with this event – this one seems pretty easy (at least so far)!
I just hit daily cap today for the first time but it’s day four and I’m under 11k (10711) so I’m not sure how the cap is calculated. Given that most but not all clues come from general store, shouldn’t I be over 11k on day 4?
Also the math is really simple: the far right column always offers a slight clue bonus. if 192 pickers = 60 clues, if you hit that 3x, you’ll earn 180 clues. But 576 pickers (192×3) in the right column equals 210 clues so you get a small bonus of 30 clues if you save. I do choose the left option to get the prize in the morning (so far I’ve only had to complete 4 trades) but once I have it I only pick right most choice.
Info about the clue call is here: https://tstoaddicts.com/2016/04/22/wild-west-101-general-store-act-1/
I traded in clues today to advance to Cowboy Homer in addition to the daily prize which I had already got. Is this the same for anyone else?
Yup I got Cowboy Homer today also, haven’t done the questline yet though.
Yup – Cowboy Home day for me, too. Waiting until after the event to do the questline…no good reason to take Homer off his event-currency-earning tasks for something that I can do later!
I never really wanted Belle til now. I liked the episode & all…seems like my Old Springfield should have that establishment. I’m like 26 donuts short to getting her. Yesterday was my b’day & expecting $$ so I think tomorrow I’m gonna be goin’ to the market. When I get to be a SH billionaire I’ll break down & get the rich Texan…
I’m not sure if this is just on my game or not but….lol….for some reason every time I go into my game I keep hearing last years “Halloween” creature noise….its the exact same sound effect used for Halloween. It may be because of what I’ve done in my game lol….which wouldn’t be a surprise. I have glitched my game before but this time wow….its just funny in fact I like it. I just was wondering if its happening to anyone else.
Yea it’s the prospector noise
huh? They are suppose to sound like monsters? Okay lol
lol just reusing the voice…
I know we’re not there yet, and it’s probably coming, but I noticed that Neighbor taps don’t count towards robber tap count at the Plaza. Not even the first 30 taps of the day. Just me or is this a thing for everyone?
Same for me
Near the end of the day I stop trading the resources in to get a bit of a headstart for the next day. That way I can unlock the prize of that day fairly quickly 🙂
When I turn in trades at the general store my game shuts down. Contacted support and was told they are aware of the issue and are working to fix it. So here I sit waiting, falling more and more behind each day they are “working” . Ahhh….
Store all npcs and anything not needed especially anything animated. Free up more space on device. Close all others apps when playing.
When I was earning hats, I was able to use Rich Texan, but when I’m earning pick axes he doesn’t have an option to earn. Is that supposed to happen or is it a glitch?
Supposed to happen. Belle has the option for Pick Axes..
Wait.. So, Belle is a Golddigger!? 😛
Can Belle and the Texan be used at the same time (by storing Quik-e-Mart)?
I just tried. It works but then Belles name disappears from the list even though she’s inside. So I don’t know if she’ll earn them, won’t until 4hrs are up. But she completely vanished from the list.
All the pieces are falling into place
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ztsyy1nh8ci14sw/Screenshot_2016-04-22-13-48-23.png?dl=0
Oh,,,, that looks really good!!!
Dang! This looks good. What do you think of the quicksand? Will it go well in a movie lot?
Does anyone else have a prize showing after day 14 in the daily prize track?
Yup mine has an “up next?” with a question mark. My guess is those are next acts daily prizes
Ah, I thought it was another building. 🙂
Nope, probably act 2 starts on the 15th (I’m guessing) and that’s when the new batch of prizes unlocks
Do we know yet if there’s a cap on levelling the saloon, or should I just assume its like buildings from past events, no cap, can go on forever kinda deal?
Yes there’s a cap. I believe it’s level 14
Easy breezy for those of us grinding away at monorail for the last few months.
We were Prepared.
More like “programmed” LOL
Ain’t that the truth!!
Super curious to see how the prize on day 14 is going to work. Obviously we’re going to get donuts but is it just coincidence that clue caps are essentially removed that same day? Bonut round 2.0 or what? 🤔
Ok here’s my question. You’ve got your “minor bunch”, “regular sack” and “huge carton”. Since day 1 I’ve been handing in the minor bunch, costs less and handing in 4 does the trick so is there any reason or advantage or anything like that to hand in the regular sack or huge carton?
Only advantage I can see, is the “clues” to unlock the act prizes also, you can turn in more than just the four for the day, and from what I’m seeing, if you don’t turn in more than just those four you MAY miss out on some of the act prizes.
From what I see, the Huge Carton offers more clues per invested pickaxe/hat.
My strategy has been to make the first four trades “minor bunches” to quickly get the prize, then focus on “huge cartons” the rest of the day to maximize the clues I get. It seems to be working, because I’m ahead of the calendar.
Huge carton offers the best clue-per-currency exchange. I try to stick with that as much as I can, since I see no reason not to. (I haven’t had any problems so far making at least my 4 daily trades, even when I only go with the large carton.)