2016 Winter Event 101: Mystery Gifts

Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!

The snow is falling in Springfield, which can only mean Winter has arrived in our pocket-sized towns!  And what better way to celebrate the Winter holidays than with presents?!!

This morning a Mystery Gift element was launched in our games, where you collect vouchers to earn returning Christmas/Holiday content.  And who doesn’t love presents?

I know a bunch of you have loads of questions about the ins and outs of how it all works, so let’s break it all down…

As we always do, let’s start with the basics…

What Are My Gift Box Options?

The options are:
Silver (1,000 )
Gold (1,400 )
Platinum (2,o00)

What Are the Prizes In Each Box?

A variety of prizes are available from Christmas Events past.  So if there’s something you didn’t get, here’s your chance to get it.  Some were formerly premium items, others were event prizes.  Here’s a look at what’s in each box…
(if you click on the item name it’ll take you to the previous post about it)

Silver	Gold	Platnium
1,000	1,400	2,000
Christmas Clams $50 a Pound	Spruce Caboose	Bear Cave
Leftorium Express	Sequel Stop	Costington’s (and Mr. Costington)
Picture on a Rembrandt	Chocolate Shoppe	Springfield Orphanage
Tropical Island	Victor’s Secret	Buckingham Pay-Less Motel
Plow King’s Plow	Springfield Skating Rink	Wall E. Weasel’s
Virgil’s Cabin	Springfield Mall	Slide Factory
Abercrombie & Rich	Plow King Skin	North Pole Monorail Station
Springfield Animal Shelter	Mr. Plow Skin	Efcot Center
Wooly Bully	Mrs. Sinclair	Sophie Krustofsky
Helter Shelter		The Yes Guy
Fort Sensible
Ebenezer Burns Skin
Fetivus Comic Book Guy Skin
Christmas Raccoon

How Do I Earn Gift Vouchers? 

Gift Vouchers can be obtained two different ways.  The first is by playing the Gnome in Your Home game every 4hrs.  In addition to Chicken Fingers and Books, and guilt dust, the Gnome will also award Gift Vouchers.  The amount of vouchers you earn from the Gnome will increase as you level the Gnome up.  Here are the payouts at each level:

Level	Reward
1	22
2	24
3	26
4	28
5	30
6	32
7	34
8	36
9	38
10	40
11	42
12	44
13	46
14	48
15	50

You’ll also be able to earn Vouchers through various items purchased through the event.  Certain items will award a voucher rebate… 

And you’ll get Vouchers back.  Here’s the breakout of the Voucher Rebates and the items they’re offered on…

Click the links to be taken to detail posts or SIB posts if available

Item	Rebate
Best Snowman Ever	240
Gingerbread Mansion	420
Murder Horn	1500
Snow Monster	420
Reindeer	120
Fancy Igloo	120
Duff Beer Tree	60
Ice God	60
Holiday Totem Pole	60
Bonestorm Santa	270
Frosty the Hitman	270
Candy Kevin	270
Kearneys Other Son	540
Duff Center Arena	1200
Giant Outdoor Fireplace	210
Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers Babysitting Service	720
Elf Home	360
Egg Nog Bar	360
Festive Trashcan Fire	20
Exotic Petting Zoo	205
Pig of Paradise Pen	90
Wooly Mammoth Pen	90
Land Octopus Pen	105
Nativity Scene	1050
Marge Snowman	60
Lisa Snowman	60
Grampa Snowman	60
Ice Sculpture Couch Gag	100
First Ever Christmas Tree	45
Dancing Reindeer	135
Xmas Trees Slightly Irregular	180
Large Iceberg	150
Medium Iceberg	90
Dunking Device	480

For returning items, you’ll notice a bunch are back in the stores now.  Some will be coming back in the coming days.

New items added to the store will also have rebates attached to them.  We’ll let you know what they are once those items hit.

Now here’s the part that’s a kick in the pants….if you already own those items (as in you got them for free as prizes during past events, or you paid donuts for them) you get nothing, as far as vouchers back.  You’d have to buy stuff over again, if you can.  (you’ll notice a bunch of stuff in your store now.

Incoming rant…

This kind of ticks me off.  It’s like EA is once again punishing loyal players who have played for years.  Not cool EA, and I hope you make an adjustment.  Even if it’s a partial voucher award for all the donut and sweat equity long time players have put into the game.  You should give us some kind of voucher bank to start with, as credit for all of the items we already have.  It’s just not cool.  So EA please make an adjustment to this.  It’s Christmas after all. 

Note: Listen I’ve got a few of you telling me EA has every right to do this, they’re a company they’re supposed to make money etc.  I get it.  And if you’ve followed this site you know that I always defend EA when it comes to reducing the price.  Or having you grind something out etc.  But you’ve got to understand, in the rant above I’m not talking about grinding out the vouchers. Please understand that. I’m talking about the fact that if I wanted more of the premium items in the store with the vouchers offered, I CAN’T BUY THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE UNIQUE.

Therefore I can’t take advantage of the same offer you can. Where you can spend 150 donuts for Murderhorn AND a Platinum box item. (or something similar), long time players are at a disadvantage with this one and it’s just not how you reward loyal players in my opinion.

If this was about grinding it out, I wouldn’t say anything. Because everyone is at the same place, and those who’ve spent donuts already or who have played for years are at a slight advantage because they’ve got less stuff in their boxes.
But this case…it’s a direct kick in the crotch from EA to those who have played for a long period of time. Grinding things out for years (as most of these were prizes at one point) or spent donuts already.

Even if they offered half the amount of vouchers for the items we already own I’d appreciate that.  This way it just puts those of us who’ve played for a long time at a disadvantage and THAT is what’s frustrating.

End rant…

How Do I Get A Mystery Box?

When you launch your game today you’ll receive a few popups about the Mystery Box.

You’ll then receive a task to Open a Silver Mystery Box..

EVERYONE will get this task, even if you already own everything. (if you own everything you’ll default to an Island, and then the box will disappear)

You’ll then be given 1,000  to open the Silver Box (basically for free). Tap on the Purple 1,000  icon to start the box…

NOTE: Opening ANY of the 3 boxes will clear the task.  So if you want something in the other boxes save the vouchers and wait to open another box.  Again it does NOT have to be the Silver Box to you open to clear the task.  So save them if you’d like (Thanks to Gio and several readers for pointing it out…)

Let me also point out, that you can buy the boxes straight out without having Vouchers.  The Silver is 50 Donuts, Gold 70 Donuts and Platinum 100 donuts.  IF you’ve collected vouchers already, those prices will be reduced. It’s .05 donuts for every ticket you have. So if you have 20 vouchers, it’s 1 donut off the price.  

Oh and clearing the tasks rewards 25

Once you’ve completed the initial Mystery Box you’ll find it again in your store…

Simply tap the View Button to bring up the Mystery Box Trio to select a box to open.

I Don’t See the Mystery Presents In My Store?

If the Mystery Presents Icon disappears from your store, than you’ve likely already obtained everything available in the boxes.

If you don’t think that’s the case, contact EA.

And that’s really it to the Mystery Boxes my Friends.  For fear of being yelled at…it’s basically the Wheel once again.  EXCEPT…there are no “filler” prizes.  Once you earn an item it disappears from the box, so it’s fair.  And every prize is a decent prize.  (in other words there are no pink fountains, or snowmen to fill up your inventory trying to get a good prize)

It’s not a bad addition to the games, and if EA makes that adjustment to award older players vouchers for items they already have it’ll be even better!

What are your thoughts on the Mystery Presents?  Do you already own most of the items, so are your boxes pretty small?  Do you think you’ll take a Mystery Present “plunge”? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!