Addicts Question Corner: TTT Prehistoric Era

Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!

It’s been a little while since we’ve done one of these, but I feel like this might be a good place.  Lots of new information coming at you quick and fast, always best to slow down and break it all down so everyone’s on the same page.  So let’s get to it with a Time Travel Toaster Edition of Addicts Question Corner…Prehistoric Era focused….

Updated, I forgot one area…

Are their Bonuts? (Bonuts = Bonus Donuts)
Yes, once you complete the prize track you’ll have the chance for 1, 2 or 3 donuts for every 8,250 fossils you collect.

And as usual if you miss out on 3 the first time you can try again, for $150,000 each try.

My Bonus % Increased.  What Caused it?

Sacred Parchment now offers a .5% bonus as does the explosives.

Pro Tip:  This is a good indication they’ll both be back in the store during this event…if you’ve missed out.

Gravedigger Billy’s Grave Isn’t Paying out Shovels, Is it Supposed to?

Sorry guys, there seems to be some confusion with the way I wrote the rundown post.  Gravedigger Billy can earn Shovels at Mom and Pop’s (just like the other characters), his Grave does NOT pay out Shovels.

I Can’t Get Cecil’s New Tasks to Trigger.

I think a patch may have been released this afternoon to fix the Road to Riches not triggering for some of you.  If not try uninstalling and reinstalling TSTO.  Also, check to make sure you have your Townhall out in Springfield and not stored away in inventory.  HappyTapper reported this helped him.

Other than that…it’s time to contact EA and open a support ticket.

I’ve Lost ____ Millions In Game Cash, What Happened?

The way the Road to Riches items are earned are via tasks for Cecil.  These tasks cost significant amounts of in game cash and they’re how you’ll earn the road to riches items (don’t worry I’m breaking it all down in another full post). This works in a similar way to Money Mountain.  Spend money to unlock the prizes.  In this case you SPEND the money to send Cecil on the tasks  to unlock the prizes.

Again if you select one of these tasks (in green) you are SPENDING the money listed.  And I suspect this is what’s caused some of you to have in game cash missing…

Best Strategy at the Excavation Site


I’m working on the full detailed post for the Excavation Site for Act 1, hopefully it’s ready to go tomorrow morning, so this is just a quick little discussion.

There’s some question over strategy with this…your best bet is to find the Gem in as few digs as possible for each round.  A few tappers have posted strategies in the comments including:

This from Charles:

a sample
where -n- where to hit if hit rock on n.

13 -1- -6- 6 -2- 11
-1- 1 -1- -2- 2 -2-
9 -1- -5- 14 -2- -7-
-9- -4- 5 -5- -3- 7
-4- 4 -4- -3- 3 -3-
12 -4- -8- 8 -3- 10

hitting (r,c) (2,2), (2,5), (5,5), (5,2) will cover 25 of 36 squares. If you don’t find a rock try (4,3) covering 3 spots. Then you have 4 covering 2 spots (1,3 or 4), (4 or 5,1),(4 or 5,6),(6, 3 or 4). . That leaves the four corners. And last being (3,4). Worst case: it takes 14 shovels. If you get a rock in the first 4, the most to find the gem is 4 more, or 8 max. The 5th requires 2 more, or 7 max.

But someone else came up with a better pattern:

x0x6xx -7- 10 -6- 6 -6- -5-
7xxxx5 7 -7- -1- -6- -5- 5
xx1xxx -7- -1- 1 -1- -2- -5-
xxxx2x -8- -3- -1- -2- 2 -2-
83xxxx 8-3- 3 -3- -4- -2- -9-
xxx4x9 -8- -3- -4- 4 -4- 9

And this from Declan

https://pastebin.com/hSm4nRDq

With this image

Simpsons Tapped Out optimal dig strategy. Hit As first, then Bs, then Cs. If you hit a stone, stop search and dig neighbours.

And this detailed Google Doc from Teo47
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kN66glGHgcVXxe3dVakxwTKJQI88EWkvWiTuGT9lXE8/edit

And finally these detailed images from Bugman

People keep saying to use a checkerboard pattern when digging at the Excavation Site, but I’ve got a better method. Touch on all four corners, draw a line through the middle, then another above and below it. Although both methods guarantee that you will find either the gemstone or its surrounding rocks, the second method requires 4 fewer squares to do so. Since the actual location is random, the order in which you search doesn’t really matter, only the *pattern* that you follow. Over time, the second pattern pays off better than the straight checkerboard. I don’t know if this is the *best* pattern, though, since I haven’t really worked on perfecting it!

(he submitted a few images with this, but then sent me an email saying he found an even better way, so including the image with his better way..)

Start at a corner (say the bottom) then do a line every 2 rows. There’s no place the crystal-and-rock formation can hide completely, and the pattern requires only 12 clicks instead of the full 18 required by a checkerboard approach.

However you decide to do it you’re best bet is to do it in as FEW moves as possible.  Why?  Because you need to uncover 48 Gems before the Prehistoric Era ends on June 11th.

And note, the simpliest way is to locate the Rocks by the Gem.  Typically a Gem is surrounded by 4 tiles of Rocks (left, right, top and bottom).  You should be able to find the gem quickly once you’ve found the rocks.

(Note: You may have seen me comment in the comments earlier that it was better to do it in as many moves as possible.  I was thinking that because I was thinking of the Fossil benefits.  But I’m not ashamed to admit I was incorrect with this line of thinking.  In this case you need to do it in as FEW moves as possible to clear as many Gems as you can to get the final Excavation Site prize (Baby T-Rex)

Which Characters are NPCs, Skins or Full Characters?

Booberella- Full Character
Cavewoman Booberella- Costume for Booberella
Hollis Hurlbut- Full Character
Darwin Fish- NPC
Baby T-Rex- NPC
Caveman Moe- Full NEW Character (NOT a Skin for Moe)

And I think that wraps up all of the initial “burning” questions we’re seeing in the comments.  Again, I’ll have FULL breakdown posts for each element of this event (as well as Should I buy posts) up in the coming days…

Thoughts on the event so far?  Were your questions answered? Anything else you’re still wondering? What’s your excavation site strategy, if you have one? Sound off in the comments below you know we love hearing from you!