Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Wowzers! Dinos are roaming the streets of our Springfield’s as we’ve flashed wayyyy back in time, via Homer’s toaster, to the Prehistoric Era! This all new Time Travel Toaster Event is full of fun historic flashbacks, kicking things off with a trek back to Dinos and Cavepeople!
You can tell EA is trying to do a few things different with this event…for starters it’s a week shorter and there are more prize elements, but it’s really the Excavation Site that people are digging…see what I did there?
The Excavation Game has Tappers everywhere talking…about the best strategy, how many moves they can find the Gem in and apparently it’s become almost as addicting as this site !;)
So let’s breakdown the how-tos of this dig site & explore just what is the best dig strategy….
As we always do, let’s start with the basics…
How Do I Get Started With the Excavation Site?
To get the Excavation Site you’ll have to work on the main questline, launch the event and then start the Buried In Time questline. Buried in Time Pt.1 is what triggers you to build the Excavation Site.
Note: ou’ll see that there are two layers to the Dig Site once you start digging. The Grass layer (as shown above) and the dirt layer, which appears after you’ve cleared the Grass Grid (i.e. found the Gem).
Once you’ve cleared the dirt layer it resets back to grass.
I Have a Task to Unearth a Gem, but I Ran Out of Shovels. How do I Get More?! I’m Stuck!!! It won’t let me move!!! PLEASE HELP!!!!
Ok maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration of the questions we’ve been seeing, but it does seem like some of you are getting stuck with this. As part of the Buried In Time Pt.1 quest you’ll have to build the site AND Dig to unearth a Gem. However it’s very possible you’ll run out of shovels (in fact i recommend doing so, but ONLY with this part) before you find the Gem.
If this happens…DO NOT PANIC! Just breath. Seriously, it’s going to be ok. As I’ve mentioned in the rundown post, during this part of the questline the game will give you more shovels for FREE. Just keep tapping the boxes….
I Did That, But My Game Reverted and Now I Have to Do the Same Part Over to Complete it!
If that happened, you should still have Mom and Pop’s (because that’s unlocked with the next part of the questline) so just make more shovels and dig again. You’ll still get credit for it.
If you’re stuck in some weird time space Excavation Site continuum, and nothing is working. My first suggestion is always to uninstall TSTO and reinstall it (as long as you have an EA account to save your game you won’t lose progress). If that doesn’t work and you’re not unstuck…contact EA.
What’s the Object of the Excavation Site?
So the object of the Site is to find the Gem in as few moves as possible. You’ll need the Gems for the Excavation Site prize track (more on that in a moment). In doing so you’ll earn more Fossils, Specimens (for Crafting) and Tacyons (for leveling up the Panini Press).
How Do I Dig?
Well the in game tutorial will show you, but basically you just Tap the Squares in the grid…
But like real life, unless you really want to get your hands dirty, you’ll need shovels to dig. No digging with your hands, it really messes up your screen.
You can earn Shovels at Mom and Pop’s Hardware.
How do you get Mom and Pop’s Hardware? Glad you asked. You follow the questline.
The very next task, Buried in Time Pt. 2 will trigger you to build Mom and Pop’s Hardware. 
Note: for Buried in Time Pt. 2 you’ll only be able to send Lisa, Milhouse and Cletus to earn the shovels. The tasks, ONLY for this part will be 6s long. Once you’ve cleared this part of the questline it’ll revert to 4hrs.
How Long Are the Tasks to Earn Shovels? Who Can Earn Them?
The Shovel Tasks are FOUR hrs, you knew it’d be in there somewhere. For the Prehistoric Era you can send….
Lisa
Milhouse
Cletus
Apu
Willie
Gravedigger Billy
Cavegirl Booberella
And before you ask, to send them you just tap on Mom and Pop’s Hardware and the list will appear…
What Does the 199 
It’s the number of Shovels you can bank before you need to use them. It’s irrelevant to 99% of you if you’re continuing to dig each time you get shovels.
What Does Each Character Earn at Mom and Pop’s? How Many Shovels, How Many Fossils?
Regular Characters (Lisa, Milhouse, Celtus, Willie & Apu) earn 2 
Gravedigger Billy earns 3
Cavegirl Booberella earns 4
So if you just have FREEMIUM characters, you’ll earn 10
If you have everyone you’ll earn 17
The Store Shows That I Can Buy Shovels For Donuts, Should I Spend Donuts On Them?
NO.
The Excavation Site is meant to be addicting. The Shovels in the store are meant to be there to tempt you and feed your Addiction. They want you to part with donuts over something silly like the shovels. DO NOT DO IT!
The only time it may be acceptable, is if you’re way behind and need to catch up. In which cause go with the biggest pack and play very smart to maximize your Gem total.
What Does the Dig Site Pay Out?
So for every square you dig up you’ll earn 42 
The
Note: Upgrading the Panini Press will (at points) increase your payouts from the Excavation Site. When this happens your Fossil rate per square tapped will increase. 42 is the base number, and the min you’d get per square.
What Are These Excavation Site Prizes?
In your event hub you’ll see that there are 5 Excavation Site Prizes to be earned. You earn these as you collect Gems. You’ll need 48 Gems to unlock the Baby T-Rex.
I’ll cover more on prizes below.
Ok So Now I Know How To Dig, What’s the Best Way TO Dig? Is There Strategy Involved? Should I Just Tap Blindly? HELP!
Ok so the best way to beat the dig site and earn all 48 Gems you’ll need to unlock the Baby T-Rex before the Prehistoric Era is over (June 11) is to find the Gem in as FEW Digs as possible.
The Gem is ALWAYS Surrounded by Rocks. Usually 4 blocks of Rocks, sometimes 2-3 if it’s on an edge. Looks like this:
So a big thing is to always look for the rocks.
There are A LOT of strategies floating around out there. I posted several yesterday and there are more in the comments, as well as on the EA forum. I can tell you’ve I’ve personally tested every one I posted yesterday, a few from the forums and 1 other method…it was a lot of digs (and a lot of donuts) and I’ve found the two BEST methods…in my opinion. Here they are…
This first one is from DaPimp:
This is how you START your digs. From here you go to the corners. When you find rocks you stop the pattern and dig around to find the Gem.
As you can see in the image above, I found Rocks on the 3rd Tap so now you would dig around those rocks to find the Gem. (i.e. stop the pattern and follow the rocks)
I ran this method from DaPimp A LOT. And I’ve found it to be the best. On average I found the Gem in 6 digs.
Now sometimes it’s less, sometimes it’s more. It’s an average. The most it took with this method was 14 and the least was 1. (It only took 14 once in the test runs I did. More often than not I was in single digits every single time)
It’s not perfect, there were 2 times I started in those 4 spots, went to the corners and still didn’t find a rock. When that happens (and it’s not often), you just kind of rely on dumb luck..or looking to see what area isn’t uncovered. When that happened it took me 14 tries to find the Gem and 10 tries to find the Gem. Every other time this was spot on. So a 6 average was pretty solid.
Method 2…
This method is from Bugman. I posted this one last night…
This is the pattern you need to follow to find the Rocks. This one is pretty solid as well.
I completed this in the same number of tests as the other methods and this one averaged 6.8 digs to find the Gem.
With this method I did have a 14 Dig, as well as a couple 12s and a 10..but mostly single digits…and overall this was a good method as well.
Remember, you’re ultimately relying on a bit of luck once you find the stones, as to what direction the Gem will be. So that plays a role in the number of digs as well.
Overall, these are the 2 best methods I’ve found.
Now, I know there are a ton of other methods floating around…so I’m sure I didn’t test every single one. But these two work, have 6-6.8 averages and are really simple to follow. I recommend either one.
Now That I Know The Strategy, What Are the Prizes?
This prizes are just for the Prehistoric Era and they will reset when the next Era hits…
There are 5 total prizes….
And that’s it my friends! The details behind the Excavation site! Complete with the best (IMO) strategies to find the Gems in the Shortest number of turns!
What are your thoughts on the Excavation Site? How many Gems have you earned? Are you using Strategy or just tapping blindly? Which Strategy do you find works? Thoughts on the Excavation Prizes? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!