Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
So there have been loads of questions surrounding the Panini Press in recent days. What is it? Do I need to upgrade? Should I focus on upgrading? And so on…so let’s break everything down one by one in a detailed Panini Press Post..
A quick note: the Panini Press and it’s upgrades will be around for the ENTIRE Event. So there’s no rush to max it out, work at your pace and you’ll upgrade it as far as you need to….
So now let’s get to making those Paninis…
What Is the Panini Press?
The Panini Press is a pretty tiny item in your Springfield that looks like this..
It’s only 2×2 in size, so it’s fairly tiny. You’ll unlock the Panini Press during It’s About Time Pt. 4 and it’s a free item.
The Panini Press is Professor Frink’s answer to Homer’s Time Travelling Toaster…and another one of those “tap to clear all tappables” items.
However, this has a little twist….the Panini Press will need to be upgraded in order to decrease the cool down time, Create a Bigger Tap Radius and increase the dig payouts at the Excavation Site.
So not only is this Press “magical” in that it’ll clear all Tappables (Dinosaurs for Prehistoric Era), but it also helps you earn more Fossils and Specimans at the Excavation Site.
How Do I Use the Panini Press?
So the only thing you’ll need to actually use it for is to clear all of the Tappables (Dinosaurs in this case, for Prehistoric Era) at once. Everything else (payout increases, tap radius increase etc) will happen automatically.
To use your Panini Press to clear all tappables at once simply tap on your press when you see the floating Tachyon over it…
And simply tap the Blue Blast Button next to Blast to the Past!
Once you tap that it’ll clear every Tappable in your Springfield (you’ll get the Fossils and Specimen credit for them) and start the cool down timer for when you can use it again.
With this event the starting cool down timer for the Panini Press is 24hrs. That time will decrease as you upgrade your press (we’ll cover exactly how much below).
How Do I Upgrade the Panini Press?
So the nice thing about this is you don’t have to think and choose when it comes to upgrading the Panini Press. It’s something that’ll happen automatically for you with normal game play.
To upgrade the Press you’ll need to collect Tachyons, which look like this…
You’ll collect the Tachyons automatically in Springfield via the Excavation Site (they’re a reward from digging up squares just like Specimens are). You’ll also earn Tachyons when you place/build Prizes from the Main Prize Track, Prizes from the Excavation Site Prize Track, Crafting Prizes and Premium Items.
In other words, there are a whole lot of ways to earn Tachyons, but you really don’t need to think to hard about earning them…because they’ll come just from normal game play.
And, you don’t need to actually do anything to upgrade the Panini Press. It’ll happen AUTOMATICALLY for you as you collect the Tachyons, once you collect enough for the next level the press will upgrade itself and you’ll get a notice that it upgraded (and what it now unlocked/changed for you).
So How Many Levels Are There?
There are 24 levels to the Panini Press. So when you’re all maxed out your press will be at Level 24.
How Many Tachyons Will It Take To Upgrade to Each Level?
Here’s the Tachyon Breakout Per Level…
| Level to Upgrade To | Tachyon Required | Unlocks |
| 1 | 0 (Starting Level) |
Starting timer 24hrs |
| 2 | 1,012 |
Lowers Cooldown Time (18hrs) |
| 3 | 2,025 |
Larger Tap Radius |
| 4 | 4,050 |
Lowers Cooldown Time (12hrs) |
| 5 | 6,074 |
More Rewards At Excavation Site |
| 6 | 8,099 |
Lowers Cooldown Time (10hrs) |
| 7 | 10,124 |
Larger Tap Radius |
| 8 | 12,149 |
Lowers Cooldown Time (8hrs) |
| 9 | 14,174 |
More Rewards At Excavation Site |
| 10 | 16,198 |
Lowers Cooldown Time (6hrs) |
| 11 | 18,223 |
Larger Tap Radius |
| 12 | 20,248 |
Lowers Cooldown Time (to 5hrs) |
| 13 | 22,273 |
More Rewards At Excavation Site |
| 14 | 24,298 |
Larger Tap Radius |
| 15 | 26,322 |
Lowers Cooldown Time (to 4hrs) |
| 16 | 28,347 |
Larger Tap Radius |
| 17 | 30,372 |
Lowers Cooldown Time (t0 3 hrs) |
| 18 | 32,297 |
More Rewards At Excavation Site |
| 19 | 34,421 |
Larger Tap Radius |
| 20 | 34,446 |
Lowers Cooldown Time (to 2hrs) |
| 21 | 38,471 |
Larger Tap Radius |
| 22 | 40,496 |
Lowers Cooldown Time (to 1hr) |
| 23 | 42,926 |
More Rewards At Excavation Site |
| 24 | 44, 950 |
Lowers Cooldown Time (to 6s) |
What Does Each Payout Do?
So let’s break each upgrade option down one by one…
Let’s start with the easiest…the cooldown timer.
So at levels 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 22 and 24 those upgrades will LOWER the cooldown timer for the Panini Press. i.e. shortening how much time you have to wait before you can use the blast all at once option for the tappables.
The timer starts at 24hrs (level 1) and can go as low as 6s (Level 24) and has various hours in between. Personally, I think 6s is a little pointless because your town is maxed with tappables at 4hrs. So the ideal cooldown time (in my mind) is 4hrs. This way you can clear all the tappables and your Mom and Pop Hardware tasks all at once. Which is Level 15. However, you’ll still want to upgrade beyond that because of the higher payout options….
Onto the Tap Radius…
At levels 3, 7, 11, 14, 16, 19 ans 21 you’ll slowly increase your tap radius for manually clearing your Tappables. This is simply how big of a tap radius will appear when you tap 1 Tappable (dinosaur in this case). Similar to how the IRS building works with collecting money, this is an upgrade to collect Tappables. (note: it won’t work in a Neighbor’s town..just yours). There’s really no perfect spot for this one…odds are once you get your Timer down low enough you won’t be manually tapping many Dinos…
And finally the Higher Excavation Rewards..
At levels 5, 9, 13, 18 and 23 you’ll increase your Payouts at the Excavation Site by 10% each time (it’ll go (from starting point) 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%). So let’s take Fossils as the example…(although it’ll help you earn more Specimens and Tachyons as well) your starting Fossil payout from each spot you dig is now 36 
per square you dig up.
Once you’ve hit level 5 that payout will increase by 10%…
Once you hit level 9 that payout (from the starting point, 36) will increase by 20%
And this will continue on increasing 10% each time until you’ve hit level 23 and your payout is 50% more (than the starting 36) will max at 54 per square you dig up.
Obviously, with this one you’ll want to go to Level 23. As it’ll just give you more Prize Track Currency, more Crafting Currency and more Tachyons…
So even though, timer wise, you may want to stop caring around Level 15 (4hr cooldown), you’ll likely want to continue upgrading until you’ve reached Level 23, to maximize your Excavation Site Payouts…
Is Leveling Up Something I Should Be Focused On?
So as I mentioned above, it’s something will happen automatically for you as you progress through the event. Every item you craft, every premium item you purchase, every prize you unlock will award Tachyons (remember you have to place them to earn the Tachyons)…so it’s just something that will happen for you naturally as you play the game. But it is an important element of this game.
Let’s be honest…tapping those Dinosaurs can be a royal pain in the butt. It’s nice to have that Panini Press cool down time as low as possible so you can use it and quickly get them all when you go into your Springfield to clear the shovel tasks.
So the long and short of it is, yes you need to level up but you don’t need to be consumed by it.
How Do I Know Which Items Award Tachyons When Placed? And How Many Do They Earn?
As a reminder you can earn Tachyons in the following ways:
Tappables
Excavation Site
Crafting Items AND PLACING THEM
The Prize Track Items WHEN PLACED (Event Prize and Excavation Site Prize)
Purchasing (AND PLACING) Premium items
Simply look for the word Tachyon or the icon next to an item to see if it’ll award Tachyons….
For craftables you’ll see it in the list:
And for premium items you’ll see it in the item description…
And as a reminder…every prize you earn (either via Currency Prize Track or Excavation Site Prize Track) awards Tachyons when placed (except for the Free Land Tokens and Crafting currency..) But you MUST place the item to get the Tachyons. They won’t be awarded to you if you store them and never take them out…
And that my friends wraps up everything you need to know about the Panini Press. The basic message is…yes, upgrade. But don’t stress about it. It’s something that will happen naturally as you play the game. However, you may want to strategize and craft some items before you may normally craft them…to earn the Tacyhons.
Hopefully that clears things up for those of you that were still confused about the process!
What are your thoughts on the Panini Press and it’s upgrades? What’s your strategy for leveling up? What Level is your Press on? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
This is what my Panini Press looks like, but my cool down is stuck at 1hr – am I the only one?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbqx8cetk3urtsw/IMG_7572.PNG?dl=0
Woops! Bad link! This is my Panini Press:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/su2cj72nnomao64/IMG_7573.JPG?dl=0
I’ve upgraded my panini press to level 14 and still have not seen any improvement in radius when tapping. There can be 2 or more time invaders walking together and it only lets me tap one at a time…. then the money, xp,etc. have to be collected before i can tap another one. Its annoying!
Is there any reason to craft anything other than ferns until you’ve got the panini press to the level you want it? Most bang for your ground-up butterfly, beyond the shadow of a doubt.
I guess if you want your Pannini Press upgraded rapidly, it requires crafting “more Decor that you’re going to store” (no wonder I’m on Level 6 – I have only been crafting what I want)! 🤔
Yup…place a fern, store a fern, place a fern, store a fern…..🤷♀️
Hi Alissa,
Great post! I greatly appreciate you doing it.
Unfortunately, my question still wasn’t answered yet. Will you please answer?
Does the panini press blast give credit for the full 30 Dinosaurs/Tappables in town plus the 50 in bank (80 total)? Or do we need to clear the bank first, before blasting, to get all 80 Dinosaurs/Tappables every 4 hours?
Im getting credit for all when i do it. Some others are saying they aren’t
Hmm. Interesting.. It’ll be a while until 4 hours have passed since my last tap for me to try it and check the math.
All you other addicts, are you getting credit for the full 80 dinosaurs after waiting 4 hours and then blasting with the panini press? Or are you only getting credit for the 30 actually in your town at the time?
After waiting 4 hours, the panini press blast gave me 400 (=80 x 5) each of specimens and fossils. So, it looks we get credit for tappables in bank as well.
👍 it’s been giving me credit for them did glad you’re getting them too
“Personally, I think 6s is a little pointless because your town is maxed with tappables at 4hrs. So the ideal cooldown time (in my mind) is 4hrs.”
“odds are once you get your Timer down low enough you won’t be manually tapping many Dinos…”
“So even though, timer wise, you may want to stop caring around Level 15 (4hr cooldown), you’ll likely want to continue upgrading until you’ve reached Level 23, to maximize your Excavation Site Payouts…”
This is what I was saying before, once you’ve completed level 15 (4 hour recharge/cool down time) or higher, there’s no point in further upgrading the tap radius (or really even the cool down time). Only the excavation site upgrade is worth doing at that point. EA forces us to to just needlessly collect and spend tachyons on the 2 upgrades that are no longer really needed. It causes a lot of wasted time and effort. I really wish the leveling ups were only for the excavation site upgrades once a player reaches the level 15 4 hour cool down.
I hate having to upgrade the panini press! Gimme back the one tap for all of Springfield ability!
Boo, Homer Lizard is a teeny, tiny itsy bitsy NPC
Yeah, Caveman Moe is a separate playable character.
Don’t need to worry about any of this as I maxed out using the Darwin fish glitch. Sorry but it seemed daft not too.
I like how this upgrade works, didn’t want to send characters on tasks for upgrades.
I haven’t worried about it, I just tap it when it’s ready 😂 I’m at level 11, but I’ve bought all the premium items, and have crafted a lot. I have not however noticed any radius increase when I come across a group of little dinosaurs to tap on. Oh well 😊
I didn’t see any increase in range until level 13…then it becomes obvious, and you can obliterate 5 or 6 of the little suckers with one tap.
Yep, I think I was being a little tap-happy too & didn’t notice that the radius had increased. Lol @little suckers 😊
You’ll find this funny. To me, the tap radius upgrade image looks like a naked Homer sticking his head in water.
hahahaha
Stay out of my meds silly 😜😂🤣😂🤣😂😊
You can see it. Right?
Well of course 😁
I dunno, I think Level 24 is the best-est. recharging every 6 seconds. When Tappables regenerate every 3 minutes. I can hardly stop giggling just thinking about it.
The 6s is funny, but the 2hr upgrade (level 20) is worth having.
The Panini Press does NOT clear the time travelers which are being held in inventory. It’ll only clear the creatures already wandering Springfield. I’ve used the Panini Press and, 5 minutes later, there’s a bunch more dinosaurs wandering the town. I only got the “no more Time Travelers” pop-up twice in the past week despite lots of manual tapping plus Panini.
Tap on the travelers a bit to clear out the backlog. Then hit your Panini. That usually clears everybody out for me.
Can you earn tachyons via the daily challenges?
Nope, just event currency and shovels (and donuts of course)
Alissa…do you know if the shovels will stay “shovels” into Act 2…another tapper mentioned letting them pile up and then using them to excavate when the next Act starts (for new spendables).
Any ideas? Will they maybe change to pick axes…or front-loaders?(I would pay donuts just for that!)
They Should….i don’t see any other icons for shovels or the excavation site. BUT it is important to upgrade the Panini press too..so personally i’d do a mix of saving/digging
Thanks😁
Back from a Pre-Op consultation.
Got Moe’s Caveman in its 4 hour build.
300 away from Homer-sauris.
Helps me to decide what to do until it’s “Steve Martin” time
i.e. KING TUT!
Do shovels carry over between rounds? I already have the Baby T-Rex and was wondering if I should just save any shovels I earned for Egypt.
Wait until you’re almost done getting Caveman Moe and then start to stockpile..
You can craft Egyptian stuff now.
They mean the ones earned with gems.
You can… but you shouldn’t.
Tachyons can only be earned via crafting or via shoveling. That means this event is not like the others where you can hold off on crafting until the very end. If you don’t use the shovels and hold off on the crafting… you won’t get the Panini upgrades.
Besides the radius/cooldown upgrades, there’s the payout upgrades. That means the best strategy is to use all the shovels and craft as the current piles up until level 23.
You might hold off on shovel usage if on the last day of each section, if there won’t be enough to earn the final prize or bonut. But premium players hoarding shovels for multiple days is not a good idea.
there’s some benefit to a bit of strategy when crafting items. If you want to level the press up faster initially, because you want to reduce the cooldown time quickly for example, make sure to check which items to craft. The cheaper an item is to craft, the more tachyons you’ll get relative to the crafting price, and it quickly adds up. For example, crafting a fern costs 250 and yields 125 tachyons, or 1 for every 2 craftable currency. A triceratops costs 5000 and yields only 650, or 1 for every 7.7 craftable currency. So you can either craft 20 ferns and get 2500 tachyons, almost enough to level twice, or one triceratops gaining 650 tachyons and not even level once.
Just a note…for some reason the Dragonfly Rock and Prehistoric Foliage are not listed in with the rest of the craftables for this Act…they are hidden in with the locked Egyptian items. You can craft multiples of these items, you just have to search thru the rest of the locked craftables to find the…wierd 🙃…🤷♀️
It’s because they become craftable only after you “discovered” them at the dig site. The first plant or dragonfly rock or… has to be earned from the excavation site prize track, only then it’s unlocked and crafteable. The crafteables are listed in that order: first you see all the ones that are always available (up to crafting level 15), then the ones that you need to win first to unlock them. Right now you will not be able to unlock or craft two Egypt and two pirate prizes yet…
Great observation. Thank you.
As Ferns provide the most “bang for the buck” in terms of tachyons, I’m crafting them level up as a way to increase dig pay outs. Hopefully it will serve well and I’ll be able to catch up to craft items before the event ends.
I have been crafting a lot of Ferns since the Tachyons pay out seems to be the best. Usually have plenty of material for crafting later on. Just want to get the cool down to 4 hours.
I have been crafting a lot of Ferns since the Tachyons pay out seems to be the best. Usually have plenty of material for crafting later on. Just want to get the cool down to 4 hours.
I’m only level 5 it’s good ?
Yup that’s just fine
After the event I will probably move this to the Springfield Heights Institute of Technology because other than Frink’s lab it seems that it fits there.