As promised, I have now completed a week of KEM farming, doing my best to follow Safi’s system…which you can find here.
I begin, by once again stating that I have never really been a donut farmer of any sort, whether it be KEMs or Vehicles (Rat Trap Trucks/Bloodmobiles). I just never thought it was worth the grind, when you consider the value of the time spent. As I have written about in the past, Life Currency (time) is more valuable than almost anything, especially at my advancing age. And even in my current state of semi-semi-semi retirement (I would retire if I could, and didn’t have another wedding to pay for in February…but still find enough time to golf and tap), I find that I need to affix SOME monetary value on time spent grinding…whether it is for Bonuts (bonus donuts) or the “incredible prizes” offered during the latest TSTO events. (spoken with tongue planted firmly in cheek).
I have to admit…I was surprised by the results. I was equally surprised by how the “new normal” has changed my view on what the term “grinding” means.
In the end…there is a recent change in the game, that may make Donut Farming a thing of the past…or at least not as attractive.
And that thing is??
Railyard Farming (RF).
If…and I say if, (because there is no way to know at this point if the change is permanent), the Railyard has turned into a “Perpetual Donut Factory,” and, it may very well rival Donut farming for ROTT (Return On Tapping Time).
STOP!!!!!!! All of you hardcore donut farmers who are going to stop reading right here, to write some prolonged explanation of why “Donut Farming Rocks!!”…please don’t! There are several qualifiers to this “maybe,” and in the end, I am likely going to still be a fan of “Team Safi” who uses DF in a practical, measured way.
I’ll break down the method…and the results…in as clinical (unemotional and unbiased) way as I can.
IMPORTANT….FIRST OF ALL…This article is meant for someone who is new, or relatively new to Donut Farming. If you are already at “Level 939+” and have hundreds, if not thousands in Bonus % Multipliers… good for you. You are a TSTO God. Yay. We get it. You are obsessed…and have been obsessed for months, if not years. Whoop. Tee. Do! Strike up the band! Congrats!
This is about starting the process now…perhaps late in the game…and if it is worth the trouble and time to do so. Starting this process at level in the low 200s of level-dom, I am a good Base-Line Test Case.
****When I started this experiment…
I had 232 donuts in reserve.
My Bonus % was at 246%
I had 14,400,026 in game cash.
The BASICS…
Breaking down the “best methods” for DF, you need to start with a reasonable amount of cash. As in a few million at the very least. I say this, because unless you are fine with a very measured, slow, and perpetual grinding reality, you will want to generate more than a couple of donuts every 4 hours (the minimum time it takes to run a full cycle of Kwik-E-Mart farming/planting/harvesting).
In my case…I actually started with a little over 14 million in cash. This was reduced almost immediately to a little more than 10 million, because I had to buy some land, on which to farm, so I could keep the clutter on the periphery of my Springfield. You’ll want to do this for a couple of reasons. First, because DF is butt-ugly…but more important, managing KEMs (placing, harvesting) is best done in a controlled area, away from stuff you actually like.
Safi’s amazing charts lay out the return on investment…and the graduated cost of each KEM. But, for the purposes of time and space here, they start at 220 per KEM, and quickly move up to 14,400 a piece. So yes…placing 50-70 of them will cost you a ton of cash.
Using the XP Collider to Maximize Your Return is a must! However…as you will find out very quickly, it is also an immediate “Donut Deficit” in regards to your final Net Donut Profic (NDP).
In my case, I spent 20 donuts for a week’s worth of boosting. DD-20.
YOUR % MULTIPLIERS COUNT! But there is a cost…
It was clear right from the start, that at just 246% multiplier factor, I wasn’t going to maximize my return. But, the CATCH-22 to increase your multiplier, is that you need to SPEND DONUTS to buy things that earn multipliers. Yes, there are a handful of hidden “freebies” (we’ll cover that in another post), but for the most part, only PREMIUM items give you enough bump, to be worthwhile. However, trying to boost your multiplier, while you are farming, is a fool’s game…(it costs you more donuts than you will earn).
HOWEVER…if you are like me, you may have a ton of Bonus hidden in storage. I went through every item in my storage, and hit the little “Info” tab, where I was surprised to find a good number of items that earned Bonus %, that I had deemed too ugly or repetitive to put into my town. Satan’s Anvil…ugly…huge…but worth 5% bonus! Who knew? (Satan????)
After a half hour of digging and placing, I was able to increase my percentage all the way up to 276.5%. That actually made the difference between earning 4 donuts per cycle and 5 donuts per cycle. And, the bonus is permanent. So…all is good. I’ll get back to “Buying Bonus” in the recap.
My Method…
In my first KEM Crop/Harvest, before I realized that I had more % hiding in the attic, I placed 60 KEMs, and got 4 donuts in return, upon harvest. Remember, part of the process is selling back the KEMs after you harvest the XP/Cash. The resale value of KEM is the same as all other items, 25% of the purchase price. So if you spend $100,000 on KEM farming, you’ll get $25,000 when you sell them all back. Even after selling back all 60, I ended up with a Net Cash Loss of around $275,000.
Here is Safi’s Chart for the Cost of KEMs
The key figure here, is that for the first 25, you are going to spend
$75, 770 in cash. However, the NEXT 25 will cost you, 360,000. The same for every 25 after than. So…in my case, in order to get at LEAST 5 donuts per cycle (one every 12 KEMs harvested), I needed to spend $579,770 in game cash.
To try and offset that…I started sending ALL of my Springfielders on a 4-hour task (with a handful at 8, because they don’t have 4-hour), and collecting the cash/XP when I cleared them all every 4 hours. I was able to reduce my Net Cash Loss every cycle, to just a little over $234,000. In other words…I was spending at a rate of around $47,000 PER DONUT.
That’s OK if you have a ton of cash… Because, let’s be honest… Other than Land, there is almost NO OTHER USE FOR GAME CASH these days. EA has made it a “cashless society” except that you need cash to buy KEMs, to get donuts.
The NET RESULTS for One week of KEM Farming…
(Full disclosure…I actually missed 2 sessions of sending my peeps on 4-hour earning runs…so the cash outlay may have been reduced by a tad. But, I did farm/cycle every 4 hours, 4 times a day).
HOLD ON…That Looks GREAT!! That is a LOT of Donuts!!
Except…now subtract the “Free Donuts” I received from EA… (15 daily task bonus, and Halloween award). Now subtract the 9 donuts I earned from “Where’s Maggie?” (3 earned with each 48 hour cycle), and most important…Remove the 35 Donuts I earned from the Rail Yard (and yes, I’ll follow up on that).
That is a Net/Net of 104 Donuts,
at a cost of 105, 799 in game cash per donut.
BUT, YOU CAN DO IT FOR “FREE!!!” as some from Team Safi would argue? (and have). And yes…you can…as long as you figure out your Net Earnings for Sending your Sprinfieldians on 4-hour tasks, and collecting all of your building earnings. But, in my case, and in the case of most average players, that is going to limit how may KEM’s you can buy, without causing a deficit in your cash. Safi uses the example of 36 per cycle…in my case that earns 2.75 donuts per cycle…and would result in taking more than two days, just to recoup the cost of the XP Collider charge…and as a result, taking your Overall Net take down to between 60-72 total NET donuts earned for the week.
The Reality of Grinding…
At the top of the article, I made mention of the fact that the past few events have trained us to become 4-Hour Grinders. During an event, and even in some of the episode tie-ins, we “get it all” by doing simple tasks, every 4 hours, at least 4 times a day. Like dogs to Pavlov’s water dish, we have been trained to become semi-automatons, to set our alarms, tap, and go back to “Real Life.”
Ironically, many of us are complaining that the updates are too easy…that you only have to log in for a few seconds (30 seconds to a minute, tops) to perform the task required to earn the currency. Maybe once a day, you need to cash in your currency, or craft something, or place the prize that you earn. VERY easy…and a VERY small investment of Life Currency. It is in fact, and amazingly good ROTT.
To that end, I have become lazy about clearing my town of all of the earned income. I might do it once a day…tops. I rarely, if ever, send all of my Springfieldians to do 4-hour tasks…because it takes a lot more time to clear them all, and collect the reward.
What I heard time and time again from “Die Hard Donut Farmers” (most of whom have huge stashes of donuts, and Bonus Percentages exceeding 1.000%), is that it only takes them a couple of minutes, TOPS, to complete the harvest/sell/replace cycle…and they earn HUNDREDS of donuts a week…because they took the time to “Buy EVERYTHING” including multiples of every Premium Item that earns a % that they could…just to keep the cycle going.
I can’t even begin to calculate the time invested to get to that level...because it boggles the mind. And, to all of them saying “it doesn’t take much time,” I say…BULLSHIRT!
Using even the most basic calculation of time…a Premium Item that gives you a 1%-2% bonus, costs somewhere between 75-100 donuts. If you are doing it through KEM farming…that is a week of work. A WEEK. So…someone who has 1,000% has either spent a TON of time…or a TON of REAL MONEY, to get there. Period.
The FASTEST that I could place and collect 60+ KEMS, sell them…and then replace them, was about 3 minutes. However, that didn’t take into account having to clear all of my Springfieldians from the 4-hour task, as well as clear all of the earnings from the buildings. Even using the “finder” on the top left, it took at least another 3-5 minutes to clear the characters, and do a full search of my town to collect every dollar earned… and I was STILL in a deficit cash spending mode.
Instead, during a regular cycle, without KEM farming, I log on for a minute, every 2 hours…(which is far less than I check my phone for news updates these days), do my Rail Yard tasks, and move on. Every other time, I do the additional minute of doing the update/event tasks. And, I am done. No crazy math. No insane levels of land/KEM/XP management…just a lazy, fun way to play the game.
The Final Analysis…
95% of what is being offered by EA in these updates, just isn’t worth any more than a minimal investment of time. If I REALLY see something that I want…that is 100-150 donuts… I will gladly spend the $4.99 to round out what I need to have it, to offset the 40-50 donuts I earn in other ways easily. That represents about 1/10th of a billable production hour in my REAL life. I’ll just take a pass on the drink after work…or not.
Be honest. What was the last game prize or item that you wanted SO BADLY…you were willing to give up hours of your life to earn?
So…while it may have “only” taken me an additional 20-30 minutes a day to do this…(which is a very lenient estimate), that’s almost 6 hours of time in a week. Six hours you won’t get back. What’s your time worth? I certainly hope it is worth more than a $1 an hour. Because that is what you are “saving/earning” in real currency for the cost of buying donuts.
Time. I can’t stress this enough…is simply worth more than grinding for a week…or even a couple of days. A week’s worth of additional grinding and management for $4,99? Nope. Sorry. I’m just not that TSTO obsessed…or bored.
Rat Trap/Blood Mobile Farming as Time Saver?? – Kinda!
The overarching beauty of Farming Rat Trap Trucks or Blood Mobiles (there is no difference as I’ll show you), is that it is WAY faster. Mostly…kinda.
The math is way more simple…requires a ton less time…mostly…and the results are just about the same, if you are starting with the same amount of game cash.
I’ll do the same exact math, with the same exact cash and multipliers that I used for the KEM farming. The difference is, I can do this in less than an hour…as opposed to 7 days. LESS THAN AN HOUR…
Let’s start with the same 14,400,00o in game cash.
You don’t need a ton of land, because you can buy and sell the vehicles immediately…with no waiting. So, pick a parcel that will hold 10-15 vehicles and start buying and placing them…selling them back…then doing it over and over again, until you run out of game cash, or hit a level of donuts you want.
In the case of Rat Trap Delivery Trucks…
My game cash would buy me,
| CASH START | 14,400,000 |
| Rat Trap Delivery Trucks | 128 @ $112,500 ($150k less buy back of $37,500) |
| XP earned | 38,055,040 |
| Donuts Earned | 76 (@ 500K XP per donut) |
And Bloodmobiles have different math…but the same outcome in rewards.
| CASH START | 14,400,000 |
| Bloodmobiles | 145 @$99,000 ($132,000 less $33,000 Buy Back) |
| XP earned | 38,054,545 |
| Donuts Earned | 76 (@ 500K XP per donut) |
In both cases…subtract 5 donuts for the one-day XP Collider Charge…so 71 donuts Net, Net, Net…in an hour, max!
So Vehicle Farming is Waaaaaayyyyyy faster. Right?
Not so fast…
How long did it take to accumulate that game cash?? For me…unless I got into a pattern of sending/collecting/sending/collecting every 4 hours. It could take me weeks to earn another $14 Million.
So…if you don’t have a ton of game cash (less than $5 million) and want to take a longer, but less expensive route, perhaps even growing game cash while earning donuts, FIND YOUR DAILY EARNING LEVEL (Collecting your Rewards from buildings and characters) and don’t spend any more than that each day. You will slowly, but surely grow your donuts…but, you will need to keep up the grind every 4 hours…for days, weeks, and months. Oh. Wait. Kinda like the rest of the game!
FINAL CONCLUSION…
In the end, either method will pretty much force you to log on every 4 hours…forever. But, that seems to be the way the game is going anyway, so maybe you’ll just bite the donut, and spend the extra time to earn and burn!
Or…you can just do the Rail Yard…gather your daily challenge rewards (which are more donut-centric in non-event times) and stop sweating the occasional $4.99 for something you think you want.
OK. Bring it on. Convince me I’m wrong. But, for me…I just value my time more than KEM farming…or grinding for game cash, so I can Vehicle Farm. ESPECIALLY if the Rail Yard Donut Factory is a permanent feature. After all…I’m all about the Monorail. Monorail…monorail…monorail! And more donuts…with more rails…keeps me coming back!
Let us know what you think. We don’t all have to agree…to each his own. Right?
A couple of points first the bonus % does not cost 75-100 doughnuts if you use the mystery box I get 1-2 signs/need vans per 30 doughnuts spent (any math wiz’s out there I would love to see how much you need to increase the bonus % to lower the number of QEM’s it takes to level up). Second point you missed is on the rail yard and that is the time, the time for the trash pickup it takes me 4-5 rounds to get the 2000 trash @ 30 seconds per round that’s 2 – 2.5 minutes, if you need any for the turn in’s then you usually have to do it again on average it takes me 5 minutes each go for the tail yard and if you are doing it every 2 hours (8 times a day) that’s 40 minutes a day (4 hours 40 minutes a week) I only get rail yard about once or twice a day with 8 goes a day, let’s say 2 every day that’s 70 doughnuts per week again right back at about 1$ per hour all three seem to be about the same ROTT AT lowish levels. Personally I do 25 ARMs per 4 hour 4 times a day takes around 2 minutes each time. Since 2017 started I have gotten every premium event character and in between events I buy mystery boxes
I did address my Rail Yard math understatement in another comment…but, you are right. However, what I do, while waiting for the 30-second cycle, is to use that time to clear tasks, do my daily challenge, etc. So, it isn’t wasted time. But, to your point, now that the Railyard is perpetual, It is generating at least one full cycle a day for me…5 donuts.
I agree with you…there is only so much time in a day. But, unless I am missing something, Placing/Harvesting KEMs every 4 hours, as well as Collecting/Placing every character with 4-hour tasks, plus doing the Event tasks every 4 hours, takes a LOT more than 2-3 minutes. If you have a secret for doing that faster…please share.
Thanks for taking the time to write…and yes…I should have explained my Rail Yard routine better.
For placing characters on tasks use the unemployment center, for collecting my town is set up in a grid pattern each grid is sized to one tap collect from the center point I placed an easily noticeable building in the center and then Cramer as many buildings around it makes about 8X8 squares about 64 taps to clear the entire town of building income and jobs. My town looks really really ugly but it’s functional also only a really small section of road. If just left all the money takes about 15 minutes to collect, but I have tested it several times and instead of waiting just pop to krustyland or list of friends and back all the money instantly collects without any loss. For placing QEM’s place a road (the only road in my town) parallel with the water the length of how many QEM’s you want to farm. Start your first QEM on the water side of the road and closest to the mountains use move the screen so the bottom corner of the QEM is in the center of the screen you can just spam click the check Mark and the QEM’s will all place in a row
Great post. I have played since the beginning. I have always concentrated on spending my sprinkles on characters and not paid attention to items with a bonus percent (I don’t want even 1 beach house let alone 5 of them) and so my bonus % is only about 240. During the music event I finally picked up the last premium characters on sale that I have been watching (Disco Stu & later Jesse Grass). I will watch the vault but the characters I haven’t picked up I just don’t really want. I have dabbled in KEM farming and bloodmobiles but in the end there just isn’t joy in that for me. I would rather spend my time planning and decorating my town. I have fun searching for Maggie once a day and the monorail is easy enough to do every 4 hours when I send people on event tasks. Everyone else gets a 12 or 8 hour task. I have over 440 donuts that I will spend on interesting characters for future events (picked up Angelica and the shopkeeper this time). I leave the heavy duty farming to others and if I run out sprinkles for something I really want I can always help keep EA in business with a gift card. It is only a game and as you point out, time is the real life currency.
In my opinion…. Hard KemFarm it’s worth it
until a specific point
How many Donut’s it’s required:
per week (VAULT + Update)?
or per update (3Parts+Offers)?
TSTO should not a be focus… it’s chill.
Why so many ‘r forgetting about this?
In conclusion.
I have a my number, my goal
1~2 time(s) FullKF (takes 20min)
(Full Tasks and $Town + Max#KEMFarming)
1~2 time(s) for Task Current Update (takes less than 3min)
How many Bonuts it’s the enough per day?
I regularly make 60 donuts per day
in a FullKF… it’s possible 180Donuts
but why?
Why should I spend my REAL-TIME?
I have to….
work
a beautiful daughter
( self + house + career + study ) care
and then go
workout
partying
and DATE
i luv go datin’
a lot !!! \o/
yeaaaaaah
4lvinos from Brazil
If EA ever wanted to get rid of heavy-duty KEM farming, there’s plenty of ways to do it without angering player excessively.
Hypothetically, EA could just put a 24-hour reset cycle on level-up requirements. The first post-939 level up with bonut is 1 million XP – same as now. Next one is 15% higher. Repeat as needed.
Round #10 = 4 million XP.
Round #20 = 16 million (!) XP
This way the bonus percentages would still matter, XP collider would still be used, but the amount of donuts that can be gained would be drastically cut back.
This would provide a soft-landing for people who got used to farming, unlike that heavy-handed attempt to increase from 1 million to 10 million. That was rolled back pretty quickly once players started complaining.
A thought: (1) Assume it takes you the same amount of time to earn 5 donuts through the monorail and KEM farming. (2) You could (a) just save the donuts to buy premium items. No difference. (b) You invest the the donuts in buying Mystery Boxes (6 donuts). As your % increase it will have no effect on the amount of donuts you generate from the monorail, but it will increase what you get from KEM farming.
With all rail yard all the time, I no longer need straight track, but I’m replacing the pairs of short ones with the longer ones.
I’m all for the rat trap truck farming – I really don’t have a use for all the cash build up otherwise.
I’ve barely ever used real money for games, so I’m 100% freemium, and I love KEM-farming! The 4 hr cycle works for me, but I only do it because I know I want the donuts to by stuff. I’m still getting the hang of the % and how to increase it. I don’t play because I feel like I have to, I still enjoy it! But it really is a good way to get donuts, together with rail yard and find Maggie, if you can’t or don’t want to spend actual cash. I’ve got a good system so logging in every 4 hr really doesn’t take long, it’s worth it for me, but I get that it’s not for everyone.
And as somebody else said, the rail yard takes up more time than the farming, or anything else😂
One thing missed overall in the discussion, is the investment aspect. We’re all addicts. We all put in the work.
I was happy for years (halloween 2013) being a freemium. I passed on every premium offer. I just started learning how to house farm when the took that option away. Could have bought a ton of white houses cheap, but didn’t because i was progressing through the levels just fine. I had enough cash to make it to the next level. all I needed. That’s all I needed.
I never bought %. Only characters and cash. So I played for 3 years had a % of like 150% or something.
I was scared to KEM farm when I found out about it. I am a low risk taker and hate wasting sprinkles.
I tried it this year. Started out slow. I think at the beginning of the year and after buying the beach houses I may be up to 250%. Today I just crossed 750%
The investment comes in…just like they tell you about compound interest. You work smarter and let your money work for you. At a certain point you cannot tap enough at low % to make up for high %. You can spend 5 min each time in game to come up with 5 donuts at low %. Or you can spend 5 min in game to come up with 50 donuts if your % is high enough. Its not about time spent. You spend the time you want. Its about retirement. Let the % work for you.
I am cheap. I only buy items on sale and only if I want them. I am creative, I can put multiples in my design and will find a way to be happy with it. (Jet engines go by the race track, or used car lot)(tentacles trees make for a nice forest through Mirkwood,T-trees make good frames, Knight boats are ready to skim on super spy missions).
I never bought any premium items, no scratchers, nothing with real money. I asked for a gift card this year and got SVT deal. 1st purchase ever! Because of the joy I have in the game.
I balance items i want vs. Items with %.
Sometimes I’ll let things pass even if I want them. I never buy any item I don’t want. I have missed a lot of deals I wish I took. Because I didn’t want them at the time, but now I do. I’ve come to find out Its good to have it all. So jump on the deals if you like ’em and think they are worth it.
I passed on Good Friday deals last year and bought Hank Scorpio at full price because I wanted him. Then they released him for cheap.
So I could have had ’em all. But … Live and learn.
Sometimes I’ll farm really heavy.
Just recently, I farmed really heavy. I wanted the 2 characters from the county fair event. 300 donuts. I could do it. I farmed a lot to get them. I was at 500%. I ended up not getting them because it was a lot of work. With the donuts, I almost got burns dragon, but skipped it, too. I figured if it was doable to get what I wanted at 500% it would be doable and EAsier at 1000%
It does take work, but it doesn’t have to take time if you consider you will be playing for another 3 years and you want to build slowly.
It is great playing with 28 KEM FARM. 4 rows of 7. You can swipe them all up with 1 swipe and be done. I have mine in center of town and build around them as I tap. And its right by the railyard, so added bonus. I can just do it while I’m there. The added bonus adds to the cash, so the cash escalates as well.
I learn to be content with the donuts I get from 28 KEMs while I rest. If the time comes to get all the 50 Donut costumes from the Halloween mystery box next week, I’ll push hard if I need to, in the meantime, I can get 50 Donuts /day without much effort at all. When you farm 60 its a lot of work.
Slow and steady. 28 KEM every 4 hours. No more than 25 if you are a noob. Or have no cash. Slow and steady.
With the cash I save, I can buy Cecil’s projects. About halfway to the final goal.
(EA , make the next project a COLLECT ALL PLUNGER FOR $120,000,000)
During the Homerpalooza, I bought everything whether I wanted it or not…(except the Otto Skin-could have, but the price was ridiculous for the skin). If I was at a higher % I may have bought.
Events are a LOT MORE FUN when you can buy everything. A LOT MORE FUN…even lame ones.
On this site, I was scared EA may take the option away like they did with the house farms if people keep talking about it. I hope they don’t. I enjoy the idea of my investment in the game rising. It has made the game MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE. I don’t mind logging in every 4 hours because I know it is making me fake money. I know the payoff is worth it to farm 25 KEMS every 4 hours.
I don’t look at it as a grind. Except when I need it be. I play relaxed and work with the long deadlines EA gives us for specific items.
The railyard has been more of a grind for me than anything else. I was happy logging in every 4 hours, but the every hour for railyard is too much. And I miss my 4 hour time if I’m in the game too much. I hope they keep the rail yard open though, I like the endorphines it gives me when I get another piece of track moving me closer to another pinkie.
Well, gotta go tap. Hope this gives some insight for anyone considering KEMMING for the 1st time.
With the extra cash you can buy rat trap trucks when you need donuts in a hurry.
Used this trick on the Cyber Monday deal and got 3 more prize boxes. Great tip!
Thank you Patric for the great article I do have a question though I think Alissa did a blog on what is worth % if I remember right but thank you all for all your hard work in helping all of us get through the game
The rail yard is also a grind… i actually find it more of a grind than KEM farming.
Hit 1000% last week, took me many months to get there. Have a huge field of news vans and billboards in my town now…
LOL! I think that is how I would do it too… I’d just have a huge “refuse area” where all of the % earners would plop.
I still have my original % earners island that I made long before they added it to the conform-o-meter screen. A bunch of reindeer, couple christmas trees, fences, benches, homer’s dome car, krusty totem, and big butt skinner. haha… it’s a relic to the edge of the map from years ago. crazy.
LOL! I think that is how I would do it too… I’d just have a huge “refuse area” where all of the % earners would plop.
Congratulations! Getting to 2000% from there will be relatively easy. Of course you may feel you’re “high enough” before you get to that point. 🙂
I’m not saying this because I’m trying to tell anybody how to play their game (I’ve been fussed at on here before for describing my game play…cool it everybody…you way is as good as mine or better, I admit it 🙂 . I’m just saying showing here is another of MANY options for how to play. I currently have $156 million in-game currency. Why do I have so much? I send almost all my characters out for tasks twice a day for usually one 12 hour task and then one 8 hour task, as the clock permits, or two 12 hour tasks if I’m lucky (some characters are doing event tasks and others are at the rail yard and others are animating my buildings according to building schedules…UGH…on my wish list: give me a logo to light up my buildings similar to the logo for outdoor tasks. I have a lot of the building animators memorized BUT I WANT THEM ALL and there has to be an easier way.) The trick to piles of moolah for me, a freemium player, is that I send them out individually. I RARELY use the employment office because it costs $…I’m so cheap (thus freemium). Yeah it sucks…I have over 200 characters and it is a MAJOR grind…but it really doesn’t take that long and I bank. I have all the land and when I get up to $200 million I will start KEM farming or I may try one of the other farming methods. I think I’m earning about a million every day or two from tasks and clearing my town probably 4 times a day, maybe more if I have the time.
Well…as you said, everyone has a way of playing. I could never do the one at a time bit with characters…but, I will send them out for 4-8 hour tasks when I am in need of game cash. All in all…everything you posted makes sense as to how you got %180 million.
One thing I would add to this is, what do you do with those donuts once you farm them? The answer should be re-invest them, and the way they should be reinvested is mystery boxes. The return on donut investment from mystery boxes, if you buy a whole cycle, is a minimum of 1% per ~9 donuts spent. That’s because in each cycle, you’ll likely spend about 45 donuts, (give or take) get about 5% in bonus items (give or take), along with a lard lad that will boost your income and a bunch of crap you can sell for in-game cash. That 5% per cycle will add up over time, as will those lard lads, giving you more money and XP from your taps, which translate to more KEMs per cycle.
Once I got things rolling merrily along, I started keeping a stash of about 100 donuts on hand, reinvesting the rest into the collider and mystery boxes to raise my bonus %. No major grinding, I just popped in every 4 hours like I was already doing for events, (4 hours is also my go-to for character tasks) my bonus % and cash reserve slowly got bigger over time. Patience, rather than grinding.
My approach is low-key and sporadic. My bonus is about 250%, not including SH’s hidden bonus. I wait until I have $10-20 million saved up and I buy the collider charger for one day. I send everyone on 4-hour tasks for the duration and build 25-30 KEMs at a time (maybe more overnight). I then blow through the cash (all except a few hundred thousand for building more KEMs and paying for the 3-donut box as necessary) with Rat Trap Trucks.
This works for me — only one day of serious tapping roughly every major event (how long it takes me to generate $10-20 million), and I get about 130 donuts which is enough to get a premium item per event (supplemented by Maggie, the Monorail, etc.). I’m not a completist, so that’s good enough.
I actually don’t plan on farming for a while again; a glitch in buying the SVT donut deal meant days of EA giving me 120 donuts for free before I finally uninstalled and reinstalled the game to end it (I felt so guilty!). Instead I’m using the cash to purchase land; I still have quite a bit unbought.
I think what I find odd is the concept that we need to somehow maximize the efficiency and quantify the value of the time we spend in the game. Trying to get in and out of the game in a minimum of time seems like the antithesis of game enjoyment to me. How can you be enjoying the game, if your goal is simply to get out as quickly as possible. I know all our time is valuable, so… if you can’t log in during work…don’t. Play when you can (or want to) and don’t worry about artificial schedules set up by EA. If your farming, great…farm at your own pace and don’t worry about how many donuts your neighbor is making. For a non-competive game, we certainly do spend a lot of time comparing how far we’ve gotten and how quickly we got there. I don’t see the time I spend in my game as competing with time I spend with loved ones or on other pursuits…it’s just a part of my day…no more or less valuable than any other part of my day. I enjoy playing…that’s enough. It doesn’t have to have some sort of “Return on Time Spent” anymore than making dinner or walking the dog or talking with a family member. If you don’t feel that you are getting enough from your game (enjoyment), then it’s time to find a different form of entertainment…one that doesn’t make you feel the need to justify your time spent. Or maybe…we could all just quit beating ourselves up because we enjoy a video game…everybody is entitled to a few vices…this just happens to be mine.
And yes, I have a high XP %…and yes, it took a while to get there…and I enjoyed every minute of it…no regrets. Think I’ll go waste some time rearranging something in my town…
KEM farming isn’t exactly the fun part of the game – it’s the grinding that allows farm-ium players to afford all the other things.
Pre-KEM farm, I wouldn’t have been able to get the premium characters. Not enough donuts without spending cash.
After making it to 939 during the tap-ball event thanks to the crowd-tap bug and then gradually building up bonus-% over the years since, I am now in a place I really enjoy. I have confidence of hitting every goal, getting all the premium items I want (not all of them), and being able to design with freedom.
As long as we grind for event currency… might as well grind for some bonuts at the same time. 🙂
Absolutely…I also did some farming, and it wasn’t my favorite part of the game, but it didn’t devalue the rest of my “play time”. Getting to a point where farming was no longer needed was never a conscious goal…it just sorta happened while I was busy playing the game. 😁
This is one of the best, most relateable posts I have ever seen on this topic. Thank you!
Farming isn’t the end goal – it’s one tool among many to help maximise enjoyment of the game. I love the design aspect of TSTO and enjoy having the parameters of the familiar Simpsons universe to work within. I started playing in the old days, before Maggie, the Railyard and Daily Challenges and back when there were still levels… It was during that time that I became addicted to the game. I farm now because I can but if I suddenly couldn’t, I’d still play the game.
I do worry about the impact on the game economy so buy donuts occasionally. Pricing definitely seems to have changed in the last couple of years. There are a lot more ways to earn donuts now, so I think that has a lot to do with it – but KEM farming probably does have an influence.
I agree with you. I think the fact that they are giving away a lot more donuts has more of an effect on overall pricing than farming. It is kind of a “coupon/rebate” strategy that lots of retailers use. Give them a discount/jack the prices!
I agree with everything you just said 😘
Well said!!!
Oh man. You hit the nail on the head ebron. It’s funny to think that some people think that the less time spent on the game the better. Why play at all then? You wouldn’t be spending any time at all on the game that way. LOL! 🙂
I heartily agree, well said !!!
Well said, that is actually the point I am trying to make all the time. Playing this game should be fun, not another chore. Since for me farming is not fun, I don’t do it.
Is there a way to tell your bonus % other than collecting from buildings and comparing actual vs theoretical yield?
Also, am I correct that you have to have items placed, not in the inventory for bonus %, but SH items count toward your total there even if they’re in the inventory?
Thanks!
I used to…. disable IRS (store building), send 1x non-premium character on 1 hr task. Click to complete, and compare before-after for both cash/XP.
That gives me a quick view of both cash/XP bonus once I click that 1 character.
And for SH hidden bonus – it must be deployed in town. One bonus with all the Vault and KEM farm is that I’m starting to store some of those SH buildings. The hidden XP bonus is no longer as important, and I could use the freed-up real estate.
I finally stored my last SH building a few months ago…I am trying to get all items not part of my design into storage. Now, as I add new XP bonus items to my town (that I like), I store items that are out just for their bonus value ( I have six ancient graveyards to go).
>Is there a way to tell your bonus % other than collecting from buildings and comparing actual vs theoretical yield?
For your XP bonus, no, not really, unless you want to count it up manually (i.e.; knowing how many Springfield Heights buildings you have put and how much each is worth and multiplying then adding all of that up).
> Also, am I correct that you have to have items placed, not in the inventory for bonus %, but SH items count toward your total there even if they’re in the inventory?
All items that earn a bonus percentage must be placed for that bonus percentage to apply. Or, to put it in the inverse, nothing earns you bonus percentage points while it’s in storage.
Hope that helps! 🙂
I’m not sure if this is what you mean but if you click on the stars (next to where it says which level you’re on) it will bring up a box with the total stars you have for each category.
And the top line of the box has ‘Bonus from conformity and decorations’
with your current total %
You do need to have items placed for the bonus % to work.
As for Springfield Heights- i’m not too sure, i’m not sure which ones have a ‘hidden’ %
I just placed a couple of SH buildings from my inventory but my % (looking at the % via clicking on the stars) didn’t change.
I hope this helps 🙂
The reason you didn’t see a change is that the Springfield Heights buildings have a hidden bonus percentage…it doesn’t show up in the Conform-o-Meter percentage because it only affects XP, whereas the regular multiplier (the one you see with the Conform-o-Meter) affects both XP and cash.
How do you farm with the Rail Yard?
Every full cycle completed…rewards you with 5 donuts.
Patric I 100% agree with you that you need a balance in all things. I have been playing since 2013….and took a year off….and back playing again since the event before Halloween last year again. I have always been generally a Freemium player but I do like to support developers and would purchase a few scratchers a months and $10-30 once a year during the Halloween or Christmas events to get a few coveted premium items.
I originally tried KEM farming but found it not worth the time due to my % level being under 100%. In the last year I taken full advantage of events / sales / discounted premium items / reasonable bonus donuts at the end of events / plus a few scratchers a month (nothing over the top with time or $$). I surprisingly found myself at around 250% range 14 months later without doing anything special.
So about a 6 weeks ago I tried KEM farming again and found that this seemed to be the breaking point with starting to balance time RIO for KEM farming for me. So during Events I got into the habit of logging in on 4 hour cycles (but don’t stress if I mess any). So adding a buying / selling KEMs wasn’t much more time invested.
With just over 250% bonus, I earn around $200,000 ever 4 hour cycle with all characters on a job. I don’t worry about on hand cash very much so I just get as many KEMs as I can that cycle (ranges between 30-45 KEMs) with my cash on hand. I get 3 chances to earn 1-3 donuts each cycle, which means up to 12 chances a day to earn 1-3 donuts so I earn an average of around 24 donuts a day (can range between 12-36).
Then on top of that Maggie donuts (1-3 donuts every 2 days), daily bonus donuts (1-3 donuts a day), Rail yard (5 donuts a day)….for a total of an average of an extra 8 donuts a day.
So doing pretty much what I do naturally…….log in every 4 hours during events which follow above gives me 30-40 donuts a day. Which means during a 6 week event I will earn low end around 840 donuts if each of my 1-3 donut bonuses were won 1 donut each time. Perfect amount to buy 4-6 premium items during an event. (realistically I average 2 donuts each bonus then that would be around 24 donuts a day and 1,680 donuts during that 6 week event or nearly $49.99 worth of real $$).
But then during non event times I log in probably every 5-6 hours (or maybe only twice a day), with no stress of missing any. Then I just KEM farm when I log in and I get what I get. I will also buy any specials that comes along with real money (again supporting developers), like I bought the $4.99 60 donut special that gave an extra free 60 donuts plus the Squeaky Teen Harry Potter Event Skin.
During the Harry Potter / Hallabaluza / And the missed mini events …I grew from 250% to 284% as of today and have 603 available I am now saving for hopefully some fun Christmas items..
I have found this gives a nice balance without spending much extra time currency while not having to spend any significant real world currency.
Great approach!
So I count myself as an EVENT FARMER (feel free to coin that player classification). As I mentioned above, doing this with 280% bonus rate I earn an average of 1,680 donuts during a 6 week event or nearly $49.99 worth of real $$.
If there are three 6 week events a year, that is around $150 worth of bonus donuts a year (enough to satisfy premium splurges but still have to budget / strategic planning what to actually buy)…..and that is with no stress of having to log in at all between major events.
https://tstoaddicts.com/2013/08/23/whats-in-the-mystery-box/
Patric, I have noticed you and some others might want to check the update on mystery boxes. The last post (most recent) is my update on the sequence of mystery box prizes.
I’d like to add one more thought to the discussion, and the reason why I don’t use Safi’s method of just farming when I need donuts, but, rather, continue to build my donut reserve (albeit more casually/slowly at this point), which is that I can see the possibility (not probability, but, still, possibility) that EA could decide at some point to change the game mechanics again in such a way as to render farming impossible. I don’t want to shine deary find myself sitting there with a depleted donut stash wishing that I hadn’t let it become depleted.
I’m no longer pushing myself to make sure I farm at least four times a day…I even skipped a whole day recently, but the 3-5 minutes worth of time it takes me to do a round of farming is well worth the almost 40 donuts I get for doing it. Even if I only do it twice a day, it’s a pretty good hedge against a possible future time when donuts become a more valuable currency again. It also takes much less time than what I used to do to earn donuts, namely, completing QuickThoughts surveyed to earn gift cards with which to purchase donuts!
I agree completely. I want to have a big stash of doughnuts just in case….
You could always just let cash pile up ( I assume your bonus percent is pretty high), then buy trucks whenever you need donuts. At a certain point, there’s nothing else to do with the cash anyway. Don’t think they’ll ever do away with the ability to buy 12 trucks and then sell them… it’s certainly faster and easier than KEM farming…and it nets about the same number of donuts (36). True, it is more expensive than farming, but if your bonus is pretty high, the cash issues are moot.
I dunno…they could easily decide to make those vehicles unique (or limited, like the beach hideaways) items. I also still have lots of land to buy (as I need it) and I’m waiting for the next part of the Cecil thing to be released. (Plus, I like having cash to spend on ensuring 3 donuts from the bonus boxes every time.)
It’s funny, though…just for fun, I bought the first couple of rat trap trucks that I had bought in ages and found that I was getting a bonus round for each one. For some reason, it seemed like MORE work doing the old rat trap truck thing than farming KEMs…maybe because I was just so used to doing the other.
But I will admit that I’ve been tending to farm one time fewer than the number of collections….if I don’t feel like harvesting and/ or role-playing, then I don’t.
Thanks for this. I farmed last weekend, just 5🍩 accelerator. I had fallen behind on Act 2 and worried I wouldn’t complete in time. I farmed a mixture of KEM & bloodmobiles, enabled me to buy wiggops, raymondo & evil shopkeeper. My bonus is only 274%. 😊
I can’t start the questline of The Vestige, I’ve got the “Do It” button but nothing happens, I’m sure it’s a glitch because I wasn’t prompted to send kids to battle Montymort, please help
You’ll have to contact EA for help with that one. Good luck!
I already have contacted with EA and the assistant that talked with me said me that sent a complaint to fix this glitch
Unfortunately you have to be very persistent with EA. You will have to call or chat over and over until you get someone to help you. The first level of contact will just blow you off. If you can talk by phone or chat you may get better help. Try to contact them during the hours 9-5 Central Daylight Time and hopefully you will get someone in Texas.
Thank you, Patric! I had cleaned out my inventory looking for bonus percentage items but I missed the Spooky Walls. I had 66 in storage – I’m putting them out now. 😊
BOOM!!!
Fixed the pdf.
Level 7 to 866, 150 days, 229.50%.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Yi8PGmKLDwhrwd2I1RqY4r3RnA8oVLtk
The reason why: my “A” game. Now my “neglected” game now that I redesigned it. 27 KEM farm, 2707.66%, bonus. Earns “donuts” for every 4 KEMs. In less than 5 minutes I can do the event tasks, click on the recycling plant, and farm. I have 1,040,688,500 in cash (completed Road to Riches). In a minute I can go around my town and collect $1M cash. No house farms. If I send my characters out on 60 min jobs, when I return I might get 2 rounds of donuts when I collect them.
Here’s an observation. KEM’s in Safi’s list says 220 for the second. When I go to my purchase pop up I have the KEM at 300 for the first one. This would mean Safi’s chart is out of date or wrong somehow.
Something is off in your game then. Mine is exactly what Safi posted… 220 is the start…and it ramps up from there with every one purchased.
Strange.. it’s always been 300 for the first few since I started playing a few years ago. 14,400 for the back end of buying.
Don’t forget that any KEMs you may have in your town as just buildings count, too. I have a few in scattered among the different “neighborhoods” in my town (put there long before I started farming), so my first “farmed” KEM costs me $420.
If you are short on cash you want to leave one KEM. You might think going from $220 to $440, cost you only $200 more, but if you farm the same number of KEMs each additional KEM is costing you $14,400 * 75%.
I’m not at all short on cash (in fact, I’m looking forward to EA releasing the next “phase” of Road to Riches, so I can get something fun with the pile of cash I have). And, anyway, for me, town design trumps any cash savings…I want my Springfielders to have access to a convenience store in a “convenient” location for them. (No point having a convenience store that’s in the other side of town…that’s not very “convenient”!)
That said, I haven’t added any more permanent KEMs in a while, but mostly because it didn’t fit in with the themes for many of the most recent areas.
You might have a couple in inventory. Happens sometimes.
It depends on how many KEMs you already have out as just regular buildings, too. For example, before I ever started farming, I already had four or so KEMs in various parts of my town a) so it would be more realistic (most sizeable towns IRL have more than one convenience store, or it isn’t really going to be “convenient” in most neighborhoods) and b) as an inexpensive way to boost my Consumerism rating, back when I needed that. So, my first farmed KEM costs me $450 each time.
I think a lot depends in if the player was able to take advantage of the spooky wall / wailing wall crafting a couple Halloween events ago. Because of that I crafted 50 some spooky walls and 50 some wailing walls giving me a easy % boost for cash and exp
Yup, that is definitely when things turned around for me.
I love those, and then there were those SH tennis courts that could be crafted… and earned bonus.
I’ve got lots of those hiding behind buildings too.
Hi Patric. I appreciate your post. You seemed to have really thought this through, and I won’t argue any points with you. In the end I think it’s all very subjective. Some people (like me) find KEM farming to be easy and not all that time consuming. I consider it “part of the game”. Others will probably find that it’s just not worth the time investment. So Be it. The beauty of the game is that it allows for a variety of strategies for accomplishing one’s goals. Ironically- I find the rail yard tasks to be more of a grind than KEM farming. Truck farming is probably the easiest and quickest way to obtain doughnuts. Game cash is practically useless at this point (for me anyway). So in all honesty- I could probably farm trucks easily, but I still choose the KEM farming method, because I have this ingrain need to preserve my cash- probably a result of my memories of when I first started playing the game and cash was super important to me then.
I think the thing that has bothered me the most about the entire argument is that I’ve had the feeling that there are people out there actively discouraging people from KEM farming. There has been the suggestion that KEM farming is somehow cheating or destructive to the game for everyone else who isn’t farming. I have never insisted that everyone should KEM farm, but conversely, I’ve always felt that people should know that it’s an option worth looking at.
I’m thankful for your posts Patric, because I think you’ve helped give the concept a broader public airing. Everyone should know what their options are.
Thank you.
I am certainly not telling people not to KEM farm. It is a viable, realistic way to “stay FREEMIUM.” Which at this point, because the game has devolved into a 4-hour grind-fest for pretty “meh” items, I am all for.
I do think the key word to happiness in life and TSTO, is “Moderation.” What my post, and research kind of proves, is that there is no possible way to be “moderate” and get to 1,000% and thousands of donuts quickly. You either invest a ton of time…or a ton of real money.
KEM and Vehicle farming are both methods…ways to play the game…and we are all able to play as we choose.
Go Huskies. Beat the Ducks. 😉
LOL.. uhm…until we get Herbert back, this isn’t much of a fight. Other than Saturday, I have been rooting for the Huskies to win. They are the only hope for the Pac to get into the playoffs this year, in a year where every team seems to be losing, except for Alabama. I don’t hold much hope for the Ducks on Saturday…their defense will keep the Huskie’s honest. But Braxton is not Justin…at all. We can’t win without a passing game.
I think the Duck’s biggest problem the last two years is a lack of defense. The Ducks are giving up, on average, 29 points a game this year. The Duck offense is actually pretty solid even without Herbert. The replacement QB seems to have found his groove the last game. I think the difference in the game between the Huskies and the Ducks this year will be the defenses. The Huskies have a better defense. Of course anything can happen in college football. Famous last words.
I think you need to check the stats…LOL. Our defense is actually our strongest asset right now. Entirely re-energized under the new DC. They won that last game for us. And the best thing to me…is they are almost all Freshman and Sophomores. But, we’ll see. I don’t think the Ducks will win. But, they won’t be a pushover, either.
Huskies defense much better than Ducks (on paper). Huskies defense ranked #2 in nation for yards/game; #4 for points allowed/game; #2 for total rush yards given up; #9 for total pass yards given up. I just hope the Huskies can shut down the Duck rush offense. That’s my biggest worry.
I don’t think you need to worry. We are pretty one-dimensional right now.
If Herbert is back (rumored) we may give you a game. That kid is the real deal.
Everything said here is true! It takes up to 10-15 minutes every 4 hours, 4 times a day (I’m not getting to 5 times a day normally).
Important is what badbrad2723 said: it comes in 2 phases. With level 939+ I’m in phase 2 and spending IGC (IGC = Ingame Currency) for the choice of 1,2 or 3 donuts becomes important.
As I have my own statistics, I looked up the last 10 days (Oct, 23th – Nov, 1st) and have some figures for comparison:
Day 1: 540% Bonus
Day 10: 544% Bonus (buying stuff from the vault)
XP-Accelerator bought on 30th Oct: minus 25 donuts per 10 days
Railyard: 6 times (30 donuts)
Maggie: 2 times (6 donuts, 600k IGC paid – yes, that was lazy for 10 days…)
Event-Bonus Act 2: 3 times (8 donuts, 300k IGC)
Overall, I made 617 donuts, minus 35 (Railyard and visiting friends) = 582
This is including Maggie and Event-bonus, because both cost IGC as well, if you __ALWAYS__ want to get the 3 donuts!
Now the KEM-Farming part: I bought and sold 1817 KEM within these 10 days (all at a base price of 14.4k), thus 26.164.800 IGC spent minus 6.541.200 IGC return for selling KEMs, net 19.623.600 IGC spent.
As said above, Maggie + Event-bonus was additional 900k IGC (for 14 donuts), but I spent as much as 8.6M IGC for the remaining 568 donuts.
Result: for 10 days, I spent 29.123.600 IGC and received 582 donuts, that is around 50k IGC/donut. Just by playing 4 times a day.
Q.E.D.: Phase 2 is more effective!
Thanks? LOL! This is good info…but I can’t imagine doing what I did the past week, all of the time. I get it. Some people are into stats…and moving the needle. We need people like you, in order to decide where the limitations of time/real money values come into play.
You name it: I’m a nerd – lol
We need nerds! They make sense of the world… I am not patient enough to be a true nerd, but very much value the data that comes from that camp!
There’s another thing about doing the statistics: in the beginning I spent some 25 Euro/Dollar (whatever) every month to get some random premium stuff. But over the time that became a lot of money.
I wanted to do the stats to see my “break-even”, the point where I get everything in the game without spending more money (Safi gave me the strategy to get there 😉 ).
And I’m almost there… not yet a complestionist, but if I want something, I can get it… (like Burns Dragon)… but you’re right: you always have to spend either a lot of money or a lot of time to get here.
I’m glad that I can still send Springfielders to the Walking-KEM which yields premium tasks for almost everyone every 4 hours… this has been the best thing ever for my strategy, as tapping time is reduced to 2:10 mins (this is the time it takes my device to clear all character tasks in the Walking-KEM, in the meantime I can easily clear the rest…)
So, every KEM-Farmer should have gotten the Walking-KEM 😉
I’m with you, Patric. So much grinding just doesn’t seem worth it to me. I’d rather bide my time and occasionally get myself a gift card to buy some donuts if I really want something.