As always seems to happen with these major events, confusion, panic and excitement are the order of the day, until we step back and take a breath, and take a long, hard look, at the basic math involved. What I am always going for, is what I call, “Return On Tapping” or ROT. This is the best method to use, which requires the least amount of effort, to maximize the return for your time. It is my credo for a happy life.
In short…you want to do what earns you the most, by doing the least. And it seems in every update these days, there are some patterns that emerge that make “getting everything” far EAsier!
Let’s take a look at what we are trying to accomplish, and what method provides the best ROT.
As with most of the updates, there are three basic levels of earning/prize gathering that we need to work on.
As you will see…the “Magic 4 Hour Cycle” comes into play over and over again…so get used to living your life if four hour chunks…with your phone timer (or kitchen timer) going off every 4 hours for the next few weeks.
The first, is actually the EAsiest…but seems the most difficult. The Prize Track earns most of it’s “currency” (French Pins) by clearing tourists, and tapping pins in your neighbor’s towns. There are also some rewarded in chunks for daily prizes, and bonuses, but the basics are the basics, and the best way to earn them is by clearing your tourists.
HOWEVER…there is a reason that the Magic 4-hour cycle is “magic.”
Once you clear all of your tourists, they will repopulate at a rate of 1 every three minutes, or 20 per hour. 20 times 4 is 80…and if you clear them every 4 hours, along with the task to send Springfielders on trips, you will actually not have to worry about chasing down the tourists in your town. THAT is Maximizing your ROT. You will max out at 80 either way…as the “reserve” only allows for this max.
Every four hours, your airport will look like this. Tapping all of the icons will produce your rewards, and clear all of the tourists in your town, and your reserve. BOOM! Maxed out.
Each tourist that you tap in your town earns you 4 Pins and 2 Sky Credits. So…if you are clearing 80 every 4 hours (set your timers!!!), you will earn 320 pins…times at least 4-5 cycles per day (I clear at 6a, 10a, 2p, 6p and 10p) that is either 1280/1600 pins per day. So…you’re already almost halfway there to the required 3365 per day, to reach the “got everything” on the prize track.
When tapping the the Pin Shields in your Neighbor’s towns, you can collect 5 pins for 90 actions (3 per 30 neighbors).
That is an additional 450 pins. And you will also get game cash at the same time. I have also found donuts …rare…but it happens.
Add to this, rewards that happen in the daily challenges (today, I collected 1025 for completing the daily challenge), and you are well on your way to your goal.
Collecting Pins for Sending Characters on Flights
In addition…(and THERE IS A LOT OF CONFUSION ON THIS ONE…)you can/will collect pins from ALL of the characters that you send on flights. There is a trick to maximizing them…and it requires some patience and game management.
You can only use three tickets at a time…even if you have far more players eligible to fly the friendly skies. Each of these tasks has a “riddle” associated, so begin by tapping the character with the correct answer…but then keep tapping available characters until you max out…but then WATCH THE TIMER IN THE TOP RIGHT, and it will generate another plane ticket every two 20 minutes. (They changed this to fix the multi-flyer bug).
Use this to expand your “flyers”…If have 3, 4,5, or even 6 characters available…USE THEM ALL. Each one will bring in another 34 pins every 4 hours. That’s an additional 150-170 pins every 4 hours…times 4-5 cycles…up to 850 EXTRA Pins plus the 170 from the one “solving the riddle.” More than 1000 pins per day!
BONUS ROT…
I have experienced, (and it has been reported) that ADDITIONAL flyers can crop up every 2 hours during this cycle. There is no reason to wait out the 4 hours…SEND THEM ALL on fights by waiting out the timer…for new tickets. Every 34 pins helps…right? And yes…these flyers can be regular or Premium Characters…and I HAVE seen a preponderance of Premium Flyers. (Our bonus for buying Premium Characters?)
Each Cycle will help in completing your THREE ADVENTURE TASKS each day to earn even MORE Pins.
SKY CREDITS for Reward Center Earning
This really isn’t any different than previous events, in that you have loads of options as to earning prizes and leveling up. The sky credits are earned by tapping tourists (2 per, or 160 every 4 hours) and tapping the Pin Shields (or pins if you want to be specific) that show up when a neighbor taps a pin/shield in your town. This is where BEING A GOOD NEIGHBOR pays off. You only get one Sky Credit per pin, but a neighbor can tap three pins a day in your town…and if you have 50-100 GOOD NEIGHBORS…you could earn an additional 150 Sky Credits.
These will also show up in tasks, rewards etc. The thing to remember is that you can level up (which opens a larger variety of prizes), by purchasing items, or by simply using your stash of Sky Credits to do so (or a combination of each). There is no perfect ROT plan for these, as you are only going to earn what you are going to earn. But, you can either get a bunch of little stuff…or save them for bigger items…or just keep leveling up. There is no real advantage to any plan.
IN SUMMATION…
The Key Is to CHILLAX…and log in to clear your tourists, send flyers flying, and clear your Neighbor pins at least every 4 hours (more frequently if you want to check for Bonus Flyers). We are used to this by now...no doubt about it.
So…in basic math terms- you can/should earn at least 1600 pins per day in straight pin collection from your town. Another 450 pins from tapping pins in your neighbor’s towns…and at LEAST 1,000 pins from sending your characters on flights. That leaves just a little over 350 pins per day to earn through tasks, rewards, and challenges and Adventure Task bonuses. EAsy? Not so much. But, everyone can handle 3 minutes of tapping every 4 hours…with 15 minutes to clear your neighbors. Right?
OK. So,it will be a bit grindy. What’s new? The First Act always feels grindy.
How are you doing? What tricks, tactics are you using? Share with the community…we love to know what you think.
NOTE— THIS FROM A READER (Thanks IA!)… THIS SEEMS TO WORK– So Try it until they fix it!!
I finally worked it out!, and looking at some most recent posts there doesn’t seem to be anyone else with this info,
So you can send tons and tons of ppl to the airport!
All you have to do is send all but one of the characters from the list, then send that one on a normal job instead.
Airport will allow another 5 characters to go, repeat over and over 😀
Still have to wait for tickets though so to send everyone will take a long time.
UPDATE— this method is working for me! Try it…use it til they fix it!
Try it and report back, Addicts! Use it while you can…sounds like it is a short-term deal.
UPDATED- I was right…they corrected this bug on 02-02 (bastids!) so now you have to wait 20 minute for each ticket to generate…Making it VERY cumbersome to keep multiple layers of fliers in the air (but it can still be done).
Not sure if this has been reported yet but I’ve found a way to always have people available to send on flights. Send all but one person on flights and when you get down to that last person send them on some other task. This will refresh the list and you can start working down the list all over. (Wish I had figured this out in Act 1)
My timer keeps resetting for the tickets and not issusing tickets. Is anyone else having this issue?
I have the exact same issue, there is a timer but when it reaches 0, my ticket counter remains unchanged; f.e right now, I can only send one springfielder on a trip because I only have 1 ticket!
This also has happened to me. It showed I didn’t have any tickets but when I clicked on the airport it showed I had three.
My ticket counter always reads “0 0s”, why?
Seems like I’m not getting any new tickets…
Just sent a message to ea. Glitch is bad for me. Tickets don’t accumulate while I’m logged off. When I log back on the timer restarts.
I’ve the same issue too, does it help to send a message to EA?
Guys, this is completelly normal, EA just want us to play at the original time lapse they planned, it was really good while it lasted, it helped a lot for those of us that were too far behind on pins, now we have betters odds of unblocking all prices; try going back every 60min so you can send 3 characters at once and so on, it still helps a lot, rember to send the correct one for the bonus
for unblocking*, prizes*, remember *
It does help, even though the ticket refresh time is now 20 minutes.
This is what happens when you share a secret……it gets fixed.
My counter says 20 minutes and then after the 20 minutes I do not get another ticket. Just says zero tickets and zero in the timer?
I only get one ticket to begin with–not three. It also says 0 when I wait 20 minutes for a ticket. At this rate, I have only one ticket every four hours–unless I use doughnuts to fly.
Mine was doing that too. I uninstalled and reinstalled twice; that seemed to fix it.
The glitch is still working for me somehow but now I’m afraid to log out lest the timer change to 20 minutes 😐 Glued to the screen. This is both a blessing and a curse.
EA responds: “You have to sleep some time.” 😂 LOL
The character that can fly are completely random. However, there are only 65 destinations. I only send non premium characters that arent already involved in quest stuff so i can max revenue from “staying busy” jobs.
Good tip. Thanks.
DAMIANF- Great minds think alike! I’m doing the same. I was going to post about it here, so thanks for saving me that job☺️…💜X
Its 20 minutes for bonus travelers beyond the first 5. You gotta wait longer than you want for the next flight. JUST LIKE REAL TRAVEL. A very hilarious joke from EA in my opinion. I did get 2 rounds of 65 travelers each. The first round i woke up and everyone was done. The second is on now. I will have return travelers for almost 2 hours. I hope the next fligbt task switches to one in progress already. If not, no worries. I rallied A LOT of pins in those two sessions. Took forever tho. Ironicaly, im sick with the Oregon Flu, so i have plenty of time to wait. Tappa tappa tappa.
Are you guys putting the SF that answers the riddle as one of the first three or are you waiting until the end to put the SFer in? I think if you do the one that answers the riddle last it will continue with the 2 mins. Anyone else?
Does anyone read the comments before posting?
What comments…there’s comments?
LOL 😂
Is there a post on the comments?
Where is the SIB on plane tickets?
It takes a while until a comment is moderated, so probably a lot of people posted the same thing and then all these comments were released at the same time. That’s at least what happened to me.
The Mods have been asking that question for years. Who do you think created “copy” and “paste”? LOL!
😉
Many of my male tourists like to hang around Mindy, who is sunbathing on the beach. For some reason this made me think of Patric. 😄
Regarding sending Springfielders on flights – I can only send “death” on flights!!!!! That’s my only option. This started yesterday after the patch update which I think corrected the Ozaka flu glitch. Is anyone else having this issue? What should I do to try and fix this? I’ve tried hard closing clearing cache, visitng Krustyland and friends. I haven’t resorted to uninstalling/reinstalling yet. My daily prize is to send 10 characters on flights – it’s going to take forever if I can only send one every 4 hours. Thanks for your help in advance!
Josie
Are the majority of your characters on other jobs? That’s what seemed to mess me up. I keep almost everyone free now and have plenty of flight options.
I can send max 3 people. I don’t understand the posts of people sending multiple people. What’s “normal” ?
It has all changed since this morning. You can only use three tickets at a time…and it now takes 20 minutes for a new ticket to generate, even if you have multiple fliers available to select.
Did they just adjust it? It was working fine, but I accidentally got booted out of the game, and now my ticket spawn times are later and later. First ticket wasn’t spawning for 10 minutes, and now that I used that one, the next ticket isn’t spawning for another 20 minutes.
I had similar, but my very next group…down to 12min per ticket!
Nope…back to 20 ;(
Looks like the airport has been fixed. It now takes 20 minutes to generate a ticket. Would guess this is after the initial 5 tickets but can’t yet verify. Also if you send your 5th character on a standard task, it no longer generates 5 openings but just replaces that one character, and the countdown timer is still coming down from 20 min
I still get the 5 new tasks after sending the old 5th one on a normal task. However, it’s kind of useless since it takes 20 minutes to make each ticket. Oh well.
For me it still works that 5 new flights appear. But the 20 minute waiting time happens always, not just after the first 5. At least that’s what happened to me. It’s ok that they fixed a glitch, but I think it’s unfair to make the “normal” gameplay that much harder, also for people who don’t want to use the glitch or don’t know about it. Why don’t they fix the glitch itself, if they don’t want it?
Looks like they fixed the bug….
I still only have 1 character available to send on flights = death! Even if all my folks are free and available there is still only 1 option to send a character on flights = death. He is always the right character to solve Norbert’s riddle, but still only one! No one else is having this problem????
Yikes. Don’t fly today…….
Reset your game, Shut your device all of the way down… otherwise, you may need to reinstall.
Thanks Patric! Ugh I am not really wanting to reinstall but I guess that is the route I will go. Never had to do this before….anything I should know before I do this?
So, I’m seeing something a little different, and I’m not sure why. After I sent my first group of 3 people, the tickets were 2 minutes apart. So I logged in a little later and sent more. Now I’ve got a bunch that are currently gone, but I wanted to send some more, and now my ticket timer says the next one is in 19 minutes. Anyone else seeing a much larger than 2 minute timer?
Looks like they have patched it! 🙁 Timer now takes 20 minutes to generate a new airline ticket. Method still works but just a lot slower to take advantage of.
What controls the regeneration rate on tickets? I’ve seen different times like 2m, 8m, 20m
I just tried the airport trick. It works but now instead of every two minutes it went to 20mins to wait for another plane ticket… 🙁
Actually now it seems that it’s stuck in a loop and not giving me tickets but starting the clock over again at 20mins… kinda wish I hadn’t tried this trick…
I had the same problem! Whenever I left my game (or it crashed like it does very often unfortunately), the timer started again at 20 minutes! So I stayed in my game for 20 minutes (watching TV and just moving around from time to time, so that it doesn’t close) until I finally had a new ticket. And after that it works fine now again, when I leave the game and come in again the timer is working “normally”.
Ok, forget what I said: I still have the same issue! My timer is also stuck! Whenever I leave my game and come back the timer starts at 20 mins and I have ZERO tickets! I think I’m starting to panic now…
65 is the cap as that’s all of the destinations that are programmed in.
But…they just fixed the spawn rate of the airline tickets. It now takes 20 minutes for one ticket to spawn. I am not sure whyet whether or not the cap is the same on them now, though.
To get tickets it now takes 20 minutes instead of 2. Has this happened to anybody else?
Is anyone else seeing much longer wait times for more tickets? I sent the three, but had to wait 6 or 7 minutes for the fourth (at which point I sent the fifth guy on a normal quest). I had five new characters pop up but a wait time of like 18 minutes!!!
I have over 30 characters on flights at the airport but now it is taking me 20 min to generate each new ticket. Is this a fix for the glitch via ea or just happening to me? Thanks
did multi people on flights for little while now have notices tickets coming in at 20 minutes instead of 2. anyone else?
It’s strange I’ve been sending everbody on flights but today my ticket refresh timer went up to 12 minutes to get a new ticket. It has been 2 minutes previously and even this morning. Not sure what precipitated the change.
It’s weird. When I sent my characters on flights, my flight ticket counter said 16 minutes. When I used that one, the next timer said 19 minutes. I wonder what’s happening? Unfortunate glitch?
Flight ticket timer now resets every 20 mins instead of every 2 mins … buuuh!
Just verified my ticket timer. I’m now in the middle of sending many SF’ers out of the country for 4 hours and my ticket timer is now set at 20 minutes to produce a new ticket.