Homerpalooza 101: Jam Sessions for Act 1

Hey Tappers!

Hope you’ve got your dancing shoes on and your cell phones ready to light up the night because Homerpalooza has arrived in Springfield! That’s right the rock fest has begun! One key aspect introduced in Homerpalooza is Jam Sessions.

NOTE: While this post included info/speculation about Act 2 – Pop and Act 3 – Hip Hop, we’ll focus on Act 1 and have separate posts for Act 2 and Act 3….

Jam Sessions:

So in this event, similar to a few events in the past (TapBall, Superheroes, Halloween come to mind), you’ll be tasked with sending characters on a secondary task.  In this case it’s Jam Sessions.

From the Event Hub or in the top right of your screen, click on the stage icon to send characters to Jam Sessions.

Jam Session Stages:

Jam Sessions are conducted at four various stages in each Act. In Act 1 – Rock, Jam Sessions are conducted at the Rock Stage, Moe’s Tavern, Kwik-e-Mart, and eventually The Simpsons House (when you unlock it in the prize track). Act 2 – Pop and Act 3 – Hip Hop stages will be discussed in future posts.

4 characters can jam at the Rock Stage, while only 2 can jam at Moe’s Tavern, Kwik-e-Mart, and The Simpsons House. If you fill a stage, you get 50 bonus event currency ( in Act 1). You’ll notice all slots at all four current stages have a blue lining around them, similar to the blue icon  representing this Act. More on this in the follow up posts for Acts 2 and 3.

Jam Session Characters:

Various characters can Jam (perform on stage) to earn more event currency.

In Act 1 – Rock, characters that can jam at any of the four Rock stages have a blue icon next to them, and include:

• Homer
• Apu
• Rev. Lovejoy
• Dr. Hibbert
• Lisa
• Bleeding Gums Murphy
• Shredder Stevens
• Freddy Freeman
• Rockstar Maggie
• Nick Delacourt
• Peter Dabbruzio
• Rockin Otto
• Weird Al

NOTE: Act 2 – Pop and Act 3 – Hip Hop characters will be discussed in the Act 2 and Act 3 continuations of this post.

Star Management:

The more frequently you send characters, the better the character will get (i.e. Practice Makes Perfect), and as a result, the more event currency they will earn. The goal is to get your characters to 5 star performers to earn the most event currency possible from each Jam Session, as higher star ranks earn more rewards from Jam Sessions.

Each character has a base star value: (NOTE: Act 2 and Act 3 characters have been removed and will be shown in the subsequent posts!)

As shown above, 1 star characters earn 25 event currency. 2 stars earn 50 event currency, 3 stars earn 75, 4 stars earn 100, and the maxed out 5 star characters earn 125 event currency.

When sending characters, you get 50 bonus event currency for filling the stage, so best to fill those stages up.

Upgrading Characters:

Each character requires 80 star points to rank up to the next half star. Each Jam Session awards the character 5 star points. So it takes 16 Jam Sessions to be upgraded to the next half star. After the 16th Jam Session, the character will automatically be upgraded to the next half star and earn an additional 12 or 13 event currency per Jam Session.

Alternatively, you can spend 1 donut per 5 star points (or 16 donuts to level up a complete half star) – though we never recommend spending your precious donuts to do so.

Time commitment wise, it takes 4 hours per Jam Session, 16 Jam Sessions to upgrade half a star, so 64 hours to upgrade half a star. Homer, Apu, Rev. Lovejoy, and Dr. Hibbert will require 8 half-star upgrades to reach 5 stars, so that’s 512 hours or 21 and a third days of practice. This time commitment is reduced by 64 hours for every half star a characters base star rank is higher than 1 star.

Tips and Tricks:

While you can send 4 characters to jam at the Rock Stage, if you don’t have at least 8 characters to fill all 3 initial stages, or 10 characters to fill all 4 Act 1 – Rock stages once you unlock The Simpsons House Stage, it’s best to fill the 2 character stages (Moe’s Tavern, Kwik-e-Mart, and The Simpsons House) first, as you earn a bonus for filling the Stage. Example, if you have 6 characters and send 4 to the Rock Stage and 2 to the Simpsons House, you’ll get two 50 cuffs bonuses = 100. However, if you have 6 characters and send 2 to the Simpsons House, 2 to Moe’s and 2 to KEM, you’ll get three 50 cuffs bonuses = 150.

When choosing which characters to send, focus on characters like Apu , Dr. Hibbert , Lisa , Bleeding Gums Murphy , Rockstar Maggie , and Weird Al , that will also be used on multiple Stages in future Acts.

In addition to migrating towards Weird Al when he’s tapped, fans tend to migrate towards the stages as well. So if you position your four stages in the same area of your Springfield, you’ll find a lot of fans in one area.

As with most tasks, when the Jam Sessions are 90% complete, you can speed finish the rest for free without spending any donuts. So instead of 4 hours per Jam Sessions, you can do it in 3 hours and 36 minutes without spending donuts.

Here is a Jam Session with over 24 minutes left requiring 8 donuts to speed up the 4 characters:

Here is that same Jam Session a few seconds later with under 24 minutes left that can now be sped up and completed for free:

And that’s it my friends. A few quick tips to make Jam Sessions in Springfield rock….

What are your thoughts on Jam Sessions? Have any other tips or tricks you can share for Act 1 only? Rank up any characters yet? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!