Super Safi has been an official member of the Addicts staff for nearly two years now and in that time he’s given us loads of stats, strategies, tips and bracket battles! Not to mention he’s a fixture on Addicts Live!
Way back in 2016 Safi wrote the strategy post to end all strategy posts. A post Addicts, and non-Addicts, have been reading, referencing and linking to whenever the subject of Free Donuts comes up. Yes, Safi was the original author of Kwik-e-Mart farming for free donuts! A post, I’m sure many of you have read before, all about how to buy and sell KEMs to earn free donuts in TSTO! I thought there’s no way we can have a look back week without including this classic from Safi!
So now I’ll turn it over to Super Safi and his stats and strategy in Kwik-E-Mart farming…
Originally posted From the Mouths of Addicts: Kwik-e-Mart Farming for Free Donuts! September 28th, 2016.
“Hi Everybody!” (Hi Dr Nick Safi!)
With the recent release of Level 60 and the end of all levels, the games concept of leveling up has shifted slightly. Once you complete Level 60, you’ll be able to continue to level up to Level 61 and beyond. There’s just no questline, character, or building associated with those levels (Homerlayas excluded).
Initially, you can level up from Level 61 to Level 100 each time you fill up an XP bar of 40k XP. You receive 1 donut for each time you level up, for a total of 40 donuts.
You can then continue to level up from Level 100 to Level 939 each time you fill up an XP bar of 500k XP. You receive 1 donut for each time you level up, for a total of 839 more donuts.
Beyond Level 939, your Level does not go any higher. However, each time you fill up an XP bar of 1 million XP, you have the opportunity to choose one of three boxes for a chance at 1, 2, or 3 free donuts.
So there is potential for premium and freemium players alike to score thousands of free donuts as a result of leveling up by continuously filling their XP bar.
Let’s take a closer look at the details and strategies that go into XP Farming…
So how do you fill up your XP bar quickly and efficiently?
There are two great ways to earn XP: Bloodmobile/Rat Trap Delivery Truck farming (Quickly) and Kwik-e-Mart farming (Efficiently).
Both methods obviously will work better the higher your XP bonus is, and work best with the XP Collider turned on as you get 5 times more XP when the XP Collider is active.
A) Quickly
Well when it comes to filling it up quickly, farming Bloodmobiles or Rat Trap Delivery Trucks has been used for a couple years. Wookiee wrote a wonderful post on the subject over two years ago:
https://tstoaddicts.com/2014/05/27/farming-for-free-donuts/
This method requires a pretty decent in-game cash fund that you can blow through to purchase and sell as many Bloodmobiles or Rat Trap Trucks in a short period of time.
Each Bloodmobile cost $132,000 and earns 13,200 XP baseline (not including your XP multiplier or the 5x for activating your XP Collider). Likewise, each Rat Trap Delivery Truck costs $150,000 and earns 15,000 XP baseline (not including your XP multiplier or the 5x for activating your XP Collider).
The pros of this method include:
- You only spend 5 donuts to activate your collider for one day
- You only need to spend a short concentrated amount of time to farm XP (don’t have to be a regular tapper)
- You don’t need too much land to farm
- You earn a lot of donuts in one day
The cons of this method include:
- You need a large amount of in-game cash in order to maximize your donuts
- You deplete yourself of your in-game cash
B) Efficiently
Many of you may have noticed a lot of comments recently regarding the term “KEM (Kwik-e-Mart) farming”. Most noticeably brought up by Tapebelt and then discussed heavily by the 6 S’s (Sillyboy, Sparkinsac, SwissWavey, Sandrashill, Simp7fan, and myself Safi), MAB the Great, and Josephine Kick@$$ from June 10th to June 15th on another post by Wookiee: https://tstoaddicts.com/2016/06/10/tsto-anonymous-jonesing-for-the-next-event/
The pros of this method include:
- You don’t need a large amount of in-game cash in order to use this method
- Arguably the biggest benefit is that you don’t deplete your in-game cash
- You earn more XP per in-game cash invested than farming with Bloodmobiles or Rat Trap Delivery Trucks
- You continue to earn free donuts on a daily basis
The cons of this method include:
- You need to invest a lot more time as this is a long-term strategy (works best with addict tappers who check in multiple times each day)
- You continuously spend 25 donuts to keep your collider on for stretches of ten days
- You need some land to farm your Kwik-e-Marts
Now everyone generally has one Kwik-e-Mart in their Springfield, which brought Apu into their game when purchased for $220 during the tutorial levels. This original KEM can no longer be sold.
Subsequent KEM have dynamic pricing – in that the price increases for each additional KEM you purchase from $220 for the 2nd to $12,400 for the 25th KEM; and than remains constant at $14,400 for every KEM beyond the 25th.
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.
After completing it’s build in 4 hours, each KEM generates 2,000 XP (not including your XP multiplier or the 5x for activating your XP Collider). This ratio of in-game cash to XP is far superior to the 10:1 ratio of Bloodmobiles ($132,000 for 13,200 XP) and Rat Trap Delivery Trucks ($150,000 for 15,000 XP).
With your XP Collider activated, you can earn a lot of donuts depending on how many KEM you farm and what your XP bonus percentage is. The table and graph below show how many donuts you can earn based on how many KEM you farm and what your XP bonus percentage is when you are between Level 100 and 938, with an XP bar of 500,000.
Click Table to view larger
(Note from Alissa: These tables are SUPER detailed…this is the best way to “display” them. Click on them to make them larger, and see all the details….)
The table and chart look nearly identical at Level 939. However, as the XP requirements have doubled from 500,000 to 1,000,000 XP, the amount of donuts earned is halved. Below is the table for donuts earned at Level 939.
Click Table to view larger
Now the biggest difference with KEM farming versus Bloodmobile/Rat Trap Delivery Truck farming is that you don’t lose any money if you farm the ideal number of KEM. But how do you know what the ideal number of KEM to farm is?
The ideal number is one that maximizes XP whilst minimizing change in income.
In order to not lose money whilst maximizing XP, the amount of income you earn in four hours should equal the amount of income you spend on KEM. Your income whilst farming will come from two main places: 75% will be generated by your characters and buildings while 25% will come from selling the KEM you farm. To illustrate how many KEM to purchase, I will use my own situation as an example.
In order to calculate how much income I earn in four hours, one morning I woke up cleared all character tasks and building incomes. I then sent all my characters on a four hour task. At this point, my in-game cash was $1,240,920. I then returned four hours later, cleared all character tasks and building incomes. My income was now $1,393,900. So my four hour income is $152,980.
So let’s say every four hours my characters and buildings earn $152,980. This will account for 75% of my income whilst KEM farming, as the other 25% will come from selling the KEM you farm. So we take this $152,980 and multiply it by 4/3 to account for the other 25%. $152,980 x 4/3 = $203,973. So $203,973 is how much money I should spend to farm the ideal number of KEM for me.
Now that I know my four hour income and ideal number of KEM to farm, I can turn on my XP collider and start KEM farming.
For $203,870 I can purchase 32 KEM for farming (if I only have one in my town at baseline). So 32 is the ideal number of KEM I should farm. So lets say I spend $203,870 farming 32 KEM. While those 32 KEM undergo their four hour build, I send all my characters on a four hour task. When I come back four hours later, my characters and buildings will again earn $152,980. And when I sell those 32 KEM, I’ll earn $50,968 (25% of $203,870). So my four hour total income is $152,980 + $50,968 = $203,948, while my expense on 32 KEM is $203,870.
In summary, after a four hour round of KEM farming, I had no significant change of in-game cash (gained a measly $78), but at the same time gained some major XP from 32 KEM (a base XP of 64,000 or 320,000 with the XP collider turned on, not including any bonus percentage). Now I’ll continue doing this every four hours, amassing large amounts of XP, yet not losing any in-game cash.
Depending on your ideal number of KEM and your XP bonus percentage, you can be earning multiple donuts every four hours. At 25 donuts to activate the XP collider for 10 days, even if you only have the time to earn three donuts a day farming KEM, you will have a net profit of donuts every ten days, without losing any in-game cash.
Well, I hope this comes as good news for some of you and something to look forward to for others. I know not everyone has a huge bankroll of in-game cash, and have been looking for alternatives to Bloodmobile/Rat Trap Delivery Truck farming. What are your thoughts about KEM farming? Have you already been using the technique? What is the ideal number of KEM you can farm? What is your bonus XP percentage? Sound off in the comments below. You know we love hearing from you.
We hope you enjoyed this look back from the Addicts Archives! Are you a KEM farmer? Thoughts on Safi’s strategies? Sound off below, you know we love hearing from you!
Apart from getting the spent cash back or freeing up used land, is there any reason to sell the KEMs? Because I find more convenient to just leave them there
First off, you can certainly do whatever you want. However, the purpose of “farming” KEMs is to earn the XP you get from building them, not the XP you routinely collect from them after they’re built. And the rain fire selling them is to earn back money to invest in building the next bunch. So, if you’re farming KEMs to level up/earn donuts, then the whole point is to buy them, let them finish building, collect the XP for that, sell them, and then repeat. (Word of advice…if you’re farming, and you’re not doing it to earn donuts to buy something time-limited, like an event character, it’s generally best to use your donuts to buy Burns’ Mystery Boxes to earn both more donuts and items that have a good bonus multiplier attached to them, like news vans and billboards. Getting a high bonus multiplier is the secret to ultimately being able to earn more cash and donuts than you’ll ever need, without ever having to farm anymore (at least if you have the Collider).)
I’ve been playing for years and just found out about KEM farming. I’ve amassed almost 300 million and now I’m KEM farming 100 units every 4 hours. Ive leveled up 30 levels in 24 hours. Already made back the 25 donuts spend on the collider.
Perfect. Welcome to the world of Safi’s gentleman donut farming method.
Never late to start a KEM farm, starting Today… Lets see
I have just started donut farming. As I have been hit by the roll back glitch, it takes me 20 – 30 mins to clear my characters. As my character button is broken it’s rather cumbersome. I was going to give up TSTO, but then I read Safis article (for like the 100th time lol) and decided to try KEM farming. I have not switched on my bonus collider, because of that thing I also do, err the job lol. However, I was off today and tried a 24 hr bonus collider and it’s phenomenal ! I may try and leave it running longer but due to the job I do I cannot check in every 4 hrs to farm. Also, the roll back glitch creates a real pain the behind. I’m glad I finally started farming, and think I’ve hit the correct number of KEM’s to farm withoigj dropping my cash.
Just to clarify…I construct KEM’s and I turn on my XP Collider before they are done constructing, click on them after they are built, collect the XP and then sell them & start over?
Hi Carol,
yes, I think that’s the way to go. If you’d start the Collider before you built the KEMs in the first place, in my humble opinion, you’d “loose” one round, because you need to sleep at some point in time 😉
I searched for this post today, I’m at 526% in-game bonus and found a 1-day-collider-pack in the daily challenge … so I’ll farm for a few hours today 🙂
This is a fantastic resource and made even more sense once I started KEM farming. I am very cash-strapped – I spend all my $ on KEMs, currently rolling $300-$400k per cycle.
Is there a definitive guide to House Farming to increase cash ?
I don’t house farm – I previously put down lots of the buildings from old events when EA allowed you to build multiple income-generating buildings (e.g. the Retro Style Townhouse, or Spooky House). I also play the Mystery Box and put down the Lard Lad Donut shops that I get from that.
Canny playing of the Mystery Box is the key to building your bonus XP. If you get the Channel 6 news van then another play immediately after *always* yields either 10 or 30 donuts. If I get the fall-out shelter I know that another two plays will get me first a Khlav Kalash Stand and then either the 2% news van (and then more donuts) or a 1% Itchy and Scratchy sign. And then I stop, and wait awhile, because I know if I play straight away I’ll get a useless prize.
I’m running probably three (occasionally four) 4 hour cycles a day, each taking at most 10 minutes. I’m easily clearing $5M per day (perhaps more) in game cash, even after putting down 90 KEMs each cycle and *always* playing for three donuts. I’ve got 1590% bonus XP (+153% from Heights), $822M in cash, 9000 donuts and nothing to spend them on.
Recently I’ve been specifically playing the Mystery Box to increase my bonus XP. In the last week I’ve increased it by 120%, bought the 150 donut Opera House and still have about 200 more donuts than I started with.
Kwik-e-Mart Farming (Efficiently) courtesy of the XP Collider …. because why else would EA offer up that Sprinkles powered Item in our Game App? 😆🍩
Excellent article! I’ve read the original more times than I can count, and re-posting it never hurts. One comment on the charts. They work great, but it took me a while to realize that when your in-game % meter says zero, that equals 100% on your chart. Basically just add 100% to what your game meter says, and also include the hidden heights bonuses. I had to experiment a few times to ensure I had it right, but if you follow those two rules, your charts work great!
I’ll be honest, when I first read the original post my ‘not so strong in math’ brain took a look at all those charts and went ‘ this is far, far too complicated for little me. Wasn’t until late last year when I read a ‘KEM farming for dummies,’ or what amounted to one, comment and the lightbulb went on. Safi was totally clear, I was just extremely overthinking things. As I’ve been known to do at times.
is anyone getting the error login message? i’ve not been able to login to the game for two days
The article comments that after you reach level 939 your yield halves due to doubling xp requirements to gain a level, but as you switch from single donuts to random 1, 2 or 3, averaging 2, your donut yeild remains the same on average or increases if you choose to spend cash on a 2nd or 3rd choice.
Also worth mentioning is that the cost to pick again is only 50,000 compared to 150,000 for Bonuts or Where’s Maggie. I think it is worth buying fewer KEMs, and maintaining a small fund to pay for extra picks when required.
My strategy is to KEM farm with extra 100,000 income left each cycle, if i pick again twice this covers that, if i don’t it builds up to cover where’s Maggies or future bonuts, or land (not bought it all yet).
If you are budgeting for addition donut box guesses (and always go until you get 3 donuts), you will average 1 guess per bonus box. If the additional guess cost is $50,000, you will have a 1/3 chance at 3 donuts first guess, 1/3 chance at 3 donuts for $50,000, and 1/3 chance at 3 donuts for $100,000. $0*1/3+$50,000*1/3+$100,000*1/3 = $50,000
If you don’t guess until you get 3 donuts you can budget less.
I just crossed over to the Fark Side (farming + dark). Oh Alissa, what have I done!!!? If I get the craving to bite the heads off of chickens I blame Pat, Safi and Wook.
😂😂 as long as you don’t blame me.
Ur ideas are intriguing to me and i would like to subscribe to ur newsletter…..lol
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut job, I believe EA placed the KEM farming ability into the game on purpose. I think they designed it with the intent that we should discover it. Might seem to be a contradiction to their desire to make money, on the surface, but there is a sound economic principle behind KEM farming that benefits EA. I will not get into it here, because this is not my blog.
I love Safi’s contributions; his approach to the game mirrors mine. Maths!!! 🙂
I hate going into someone’s town and all it is kem’s. It’s not pretty and it slows down my visit.
If I saw a town of all KEMs I would think to myself “you’re doing it wrong; they should all be under construction”. 🙂
Lately my favorite neighbors are ones from years ago who quit the game early – their towns are forever frozen with a low item count and super fast to visit. 😀
Had a RL friend who is also a tapper, during the last event, with a small army of KEMs in her town. She made a comment about not having enough donuts to get disgruntled squirrel, so obviously I was like ‘But… it’s a 65 donut premium character and you have an army of KEMs!’ (easily a hundred) I was for some reason unsure if they looked built or not, so I hadn’t said anything about it until then. Turns out she misunderstood the concept slightly and thought it was like a house farm.
Lol! Nice!
I agree. As soon as I have the premium characters I want, my KEM operation will be shut down. Not only do the KEMS take away from the nice things we are able to do design-wise, but one corner of my town is full of S. Heights clutter for the hidden bonus. Not why I play.
Accidentally hit my boatload of donuts the other day and had sprinkles all over town – I had forgotten it did that!
Marge: Doughnut? What’s a doughnut?
(Homer screams three times and runs back into the basement. Outside, doughnuts fall from the sky).
Marge: Oh, it’s raining again
I just got Sherri and Terri and really liked how their quote said you can’t bake negative doughnuts