Salutations Senors, Senoras, Senoritas, Statisticians & Strategists,
(Today’s post is sponsored by the letter ‘S’)
Hi, I’m Super Safi and you may remember me from such stats and strategy posts as KEM Farming and the advanced losing-to-win Superheroes battle strategy.
What better way to spend your time than talking math. So from time-to-time, I’ll come to you with a post that delves into the wonderful world of numbers, stats, and/or strategies.
While we’ve previously discussed Springfield Downs and the Go Kart Track a couple months ago, last month and this month we’ll continue to look at most of the Minigames found within our game. After discussing Bigclaw a couple weeks ago, we continue our journey today with the Excavation Site!
EXCAVATION SITE
The Excavation Site minigame is played at the Excavation Site. Every hour, a player earns two shovels, up to a maximum of 50 shovels at one time. The player can then use these shovels to excavate for prizes.
The basic “how-to” of the Excavation Site was wonderfully covered here by Alissa. Again, the goal is to use your shovels to unearth the hidden gem. The four adjacent tiles that share a border with the gem are tiles that contains rocks. Once you find a rock, you can assure yourself that the gem is adjacent to the rock. Here is an image most people use to minimize the number of shovels required to obtain a gem (image courtesy Declan):
Here are the prizes a player may dig up when they discover the gem:
Hieroglyph Wall |
20% |
Wooden Barrel (Single) |
20% |
Rock Pile (Small) |
20% |
Broken Down Washer |
11% |
Broken Down Dryer |
10% |
Castle Wall |
10% |
Castle Tower |
5% |
Castle Gate |
2% |
Pirate Booty |
1% |
Barbarian Statue (Awards 2.00% bonus) |
1% |
Do you play the Excavation Site? How many times do you usually play in a week? Do you have a Barbarian Statue? What stats or strategy related topic would you like discussed? Share your thoughts. You know we love hearing from you. And be sure to come back next time for the Drone Scan.
Minigames:
Springfield Downs, Go Kart Tracks, Insanity Mode, Sideshow You, Rocket Launch Pad, Claw Machine, Scratch-R, The Eliminator, Bigclaw, Excavation Site, Drone Scan, Sci-Fighter, Where’s Maggie
I play this daily (or almost daily) since the original event. I have won the pirate booty at least 5 times….but still hoping to finally win the Barbarian Statue.
If you already have one, you won’t win a second.
Apologies if already covered, I’m wondering where this item is from and is it still available, I’ve recently returned to playing after a break.
It was last year event: Time Travel Toaster
I started keeping track, and my average is 5.4 over 25 games.
If I find the gem in the bottom left section, I start the new game in the top left section or bottom right section, then the top right section.
Has EA confirmed there’s an equal chance to find the gem behind each square, 1 out of 36?
Statistically it should, but remember Fat Tony has his clutches in every game of chance.
What I’ve been wondering is: is there any benefit to uncovering all possible squares before finding the gem? During the event, there are two strategies (find gem fast/ dig more to get more currency) depending on what you needed. Which provides more $ and XP? I don’t care about the prizes as I have too many I need to sell/store. I want to know if cash/XP are consistent regardless of strategy? Anyone know…Safi? Thanks.
No, there’s no correlation with digging all tiles but the gem earning you more income (either cash or XP) than just going for the gem as quickly as possible. Forget prizes, in terms of cash and XP alone, you are still better off going straight for the gem.
Thank you!
Stored it. Looks out of place in my Springfield.
When it was in place during the event I only got the gem a few times.
Here is my method. It has a 6.05555 average, and a 10 move maximum. Let me know if you have a better one.
+B+C++
+++++B
C+A+++
++++A+
+A++++
E++B+D
It might be worth pointing out that the Barbarian Statue is a unique item; you will not receive a “second” Statue. If the game tells you that you found a Barbarian Statue when you already have one, it just unceremoniously disappears into the proverbial bit-bucket. (I saw that happen twice in my own game, when I was still actively playing the Excavation mini-game.)
Aaaaaand, I’ve been ninjaed, numerous times… It looks like I should have read the rest of the comments from last night, before posting. 😀
I played the Excavation site quite regularly to farm $ and XP. However about 3 weeks ago the timer on my dig site changed to days instead of minutes. It went to 45d 00h 00m 00s. Currently as i write this i’m at 21d and counting till i get my next 1 shovel. is anyone else experiencing this? I’ve tried storing the dig site and pulling it out to no avail? Have i reached a cap on the maximum times i can dig?
https://imgur.com/DBhZTDY
Thanks!
-Mark
Oh dear, you’ve been/being robbed. I enjoy playing it, guaranteed reward – design item or something I instantly sell for cash 😊 interesting to have the % I feel like I get mainly the broken down washer/dryer, which is fine by me 😊
I got bored with it and stored my Excavation Site for good. I use this space for KEMfarming now.
Hieroglyph walls are a good prize – rotate them so the plain side is facing out and you have a nice way to build boundaries 😀
Yes, I’ve done that in my design of Francesca’s home 😊
I dont want any of the prizes so i just clear all the squares (using the technique safi detailed) when im down to the treasure i store and replace. This resets the site. The point of it is to collect maximum XP and cash without getting the useless prizes.
What do you mean by “resets the site”? When you get the treasure, the site resets itself, so I’m not sure what you mean. What are you gaining by storing and replacing the excavation site? Do you get more shovels by doing that?
He means he doesn’t collect the treasure at all… when he knows where it is he stores the whole site in inventory and places it again. Presumably that resets everything back to the grass level and he can dig down again. It seems like a waste of time to me as the items can just go in inventory and be forgotten about. The washer & dryer can be sold for cash, and the castle walls might come in handy.
But the site resets itself when you find the gem! 😜 Oh well….perhaps the reason I don’t understand this is that it makes no sense, lol! 😉
EXCAVATION SITE
This was fun at first, until my Inventory became too full of Decor I could not sell (c’mon EA! let a Tapper sell off his Inventory!) 😬
Damnit, the Xmas mystery box just disappeared along with all the decorations. The decorations were supposed to vanish, but the box still had another 30 days or whatever.
Crisis over. The mystery box has reappeared with the new event.
We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can’t cope with is therefore your own problem.
Actually, they already removed the barbarian statue.
An alternative strategy uses max. 10 shovels only, though I fear the Safi-strategy is more likely to find the gem earlier (thus uses far less shovels than the max. 12 in long terms):
+E+B++
B++++B
++A+++
++++A+
CA+++D
+++B+d
(D or d can either be used)
As you see fields adjacent to already scanned ones are used or their ‘+’ overlaps with a scanned one (C and D/d), so possible new information is wasted. I played this strategy all the time but, when I think about it, I may use Safi’s from now on.
Thanks for the post, Safi, but as long as we’re talking about “stats and strategy”, I thought I’d point out that the strategy you mention is not optimal, and never was. So far, the lead contender that I know of is one posted by a user named Teo47. I wrote a simulator for measuring different strategies back when the event was live:
https://jsfiddle.net/shmax/z246ttdy/12/
After the mini-game was over, I put the excavation site in inventory because I thought the access to shovels were gone.
Is there another mini-game in progress, or did the shovel access never stop?
I had a system for uncovering the jewels and got through the mini-game fairly quickly, thinking I had all I could get.
It became automatic. As Safi mentions every 60 minutes 2 shovels are added up to a cap of 50. If you wait a day after restoring the site you’ll have 48, then the same a day later, or just dig in when you feel like it / happen to be near.
It never went away.
Where’s the snow? I’m ready for the Xmas update!
Hey, I have a question.
Is the statue……
Unfortunately, I believe with the Homerpalooza update, they removed the ability to get the Barbarian Statue from the Excavation Site…https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/The_Simpsons:_Tapped_Out_Homerpalooza_content_update
I had know idea you could get the Barbarian statue from this. I might actually pull it out of storage. Thanks Safi!!!! 😁😁😁
I can’t buy donuts. Donut sale forthcoming?
I did not get the barbarian statue yet. Is it really 1% because I have now in my inventory 218 barrel, 126 washer, 288 hieroglyph wall, 77 castle wall, 239 rocks, 114 dryer, and I don’t count those already in my city so it looks more like 1/1000 rather than 1/100 odds
Think of it like Heads or Tails on a coin toss, where the odds are 50/50.
Just because the last result was Heads does not mean the next must be Tails, it’s actually back to 50/50 again for what will turn up.
That is true for one try, and after 100 throws you may not end up with 50/50. But the more you throw, more closer should it get to the odds. After a thousand throws you should end up close to 50/50 (and a sore hand).
I never got any mini nuclear warhead from Rommelwood or the rocket, the last one I launch every 12h (for money). The barbarian statue on the other side fell once TTT was over, 1 or 2 weeks after. The elder god from insanity mode came the first time ever this year AFTER I bought one when it was on sale. 2 weeks later the second one.
So you’re not alone 🙂
Ah, the fun of “awaiting moderation” ( which I get the need for, BTW ) It looks like we all decided to bombard poor Safi with the same thing over and over even though none of us knew someone else had raised the point.
I play a few times a day. I’m pretty sure I started playing at the tail end of the event with the castles, so I’m lovin’ every time I get a gate or piece of wall. I do have a statue by my castle with my original four pieces of wall, but I’m going to expand that one day. I also like to play for the XP as I don’t farm.
Hi All – Is the Barbarian Statue unique? I had stopped playing the excavation yard but may start again if not!
Should be a unique item. You may get a glitch that rewards additional Barbarian Statues, but you won’t actually find them in your inventory.
Thanks Safi – looks like each and every one of us had the same question!
That is correct Safi, I have won the statue, but did not receive it because I already have 1
I have two in my town. One from the original event and one from the excavation site. Placed it as soon as I unearthed it, didn’t store it.
Well, I should have just left it alone. I tried to move one of the barbarian statues to beside the other one I have to take a screen shot, and it wouldn’t let me place it this time (only let me “X” it) and now its gone from where I originally had it. Shaking fist at the clouds!!!!!!
I play the excavation site whenever the shovels max out at 50. every prize but the pirate booty goes straight to inventory – I have almost 300 washer & dryers! if the prizes don’t get changed the whole site will go in storage. is the barbarian statue unique?
Should be a unique item. You may get a glitch that rewards additional Barbarian Statues, but you won’t actually find them in your inventory.
Remember that you can sell the washers and dryers for in game cash. No need to stockpile them. You can always collect more if you have a sudden need to design with them.
My thoughts…
Sell your unwanted busted washers and dryers, just store the rocks and walls and barrels and play for cash and XP when you feel like it until you need the land.
Castle pieces reward XP on placement, Hope your placing those, or you have a lot of unclaimed xp sitting in your inventory.
Unless I’m mistaken, the Barbarian Statue is a unique item so if you got one already either from the mini-game or the old event when it was introduced you cannot win and place another – damnit !!
Partially correct:
“…if you got one already either from the mini-game or the old event when it was introduced you cannot win and place another”
More correct than the above:
“…if you got one already either from the mini-game or the old event when it was introduced you may ‘win’ another due to a glitch, but you can’t place another”
is the statue one of or multiple? I didn’t think the dig site gave out percentage prizes….
Should be a unique item. You may get a glitch that rewards additional Barbarian Statues, but you won’t actually find them in your inventory.
I’ve gotten 2 barbarian statues and can’t find them in the inventory.