Yup the servers may be down for some of you. This shouldn’t be a surprise at this point. Since moving the update time to 10am ET they’ve crashed nearly every time a new act hits…
Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
It’s update Wednesday! Woohoo! Who’s excited for all new content in TSTO? After all that downtime (seriously was a SLOW July) everyone should be excited for something…anything to hit our games!
Well…that something has arrived! As Moe’s Ark is now officially live in our Pocket-Sized towns! Yes, that’s right my friends log into your Springfield’s to see all the zoo raising fun. Or just to see what items are available for you to throw donuts at…
Anywho, remember this was an app store update that hit our games YESTERDAY. So if you didn’t download the update check your app store for it now…we’ll wait. (if you don’t see it listed in your update section try searching the store for Tapped Out)
Waiting…..
Everyone got it? Good. Great. Grand. Let’s get started…
As I’ve mentioned several times over the last few days, this update kicks off with a task for THREE of the Simpsons to complete. So be sure you have at least 3 free. And more details are below the fold…
Note: As always, I’ll be updating this post frequently while I play through the event myself. So keep checking back today for all of the details on Act 1…
First thing you’ll notice is…FREE Donuts!
60 of them to be exact! That’s a lot of donuts! Why? I have no idea…but free donuts are free donuts so I’m not complaining, nor investigating. lol Just taking my donuts and running…
Note: Some are reporting that if you haven’t logged into TSTO in a long time (like over a month) you’ll get 300 donuts and a tree. I’ll have to test this out on one of my other games a little later…
Getting Started
Your initial quest for 3 Simpsons will be 6s long. Once you’ve finished that you’ll be tasked with placing the Springfield Zoo sign and you’ll also unlock Larry Kidkill for free…
THIS will trigger the event to start for you. Only after you’ve placed the Zoo sign and unlocked Larry will you unlock the prize track and the new items in the store. And as usual, you’ll continue to unlock more actions (such as tappables and neighbor actions) as you progress through the questline.
IMPORTANT: Be sure to follow the We Stole a Zoo questline. Do not complete any other tasks until you’ve worked through that questline, to the point of getting to “Unlock Big Cat Country Prize”, otherwise you’ll get stuck. The We Stole a Zoo questline is essential for unlocking neighbor actions and more. So follow that one until you cannot follow it anymore. The work on other questlines/task book action items.
FREE LAND
You’ll notice you’ve been awarded 9 free squares of land in the top right section of Springfield (along the Mountains). This is to start placing your zoo.
For now stick to placing your zoo in this area, as I’ve seen a few reports of players moving the items and the free land disappearing.
Gil’s Day Old Dounts
Gil appears in Springfield offering a Day Old Donut sale…
Seeing LOADS of reports from you guys saying you purchased it, it took your money and didn’t give you donuts. So for now, if you haven’t already, do not buy it!
If you did buy it and did not receive your donuts, contact EA. Alternatively, you can contact your app store, inform them and they should be able to refund you as well. But I do feel it’s important to contact EA so they know there’s an issue with it and they can correct it…
Free Stuff
Here are the free items awarded with the start of Act 1, how you get them and what they’re for. We’ll go into more details below (and in some cases in their own post)…
Springfield Zoo Sign. We Stole a Zoo Pt. 2. This will act as your “hub” for the event. This will also be the area in which the arrangement bonus is based on. Yes, the arrangement bonus area is back. At least it’s a fairly large area, basically takes up a little more than the 9 land tiles you’re given for free.
The Emu Experience. We Stole a Zoo Pt. 3. This is your first animal hub, and you can upgrade it to unlock more decorations and items to increase your arrangement bonus. More details on this will be below.
Animal Feeding Area. We Stole a Zoo Pt. 5. They finally brought back a “clear all” for the tappables. Tap this every 4 hours to instantly clear all Zoo Visitors (and collect their rewards). Now you don’t have to go searching for them…
Act 1 Prize Track
Discount Lion Safari Entrance– 2,100
Land Token– 7,100
Canary M. Birdhouse– 12,200
Crafting Currency (3000 Sanctuary Grants)– 17,500
Big Cat Country– 23,300
Land Token– 29,600
Brittany Brockman– 39,500
Tappables
Tappabales for this event are Zoo Vistors…
Payout: 4 , 2 
, you’ll also have a chance to earn an invasive tadpoles. 
They can be sent to neighbors to earn more currency (more on that in a minute)
Tappable Spawn Rate: 1 every 10 min. 30 Max in town, bank of 30.
Using the Animal Feeding Area you can clear all tappables at once every 4hrs. Makes life easy…
Tappables unlock during We Stole a Zoo Pt. 4
Neighbor Actions
Tapping Tappables in a neighbor’s town will unlock during We Stole a Zoo Pt. 4. You can tap the same visitors in a neighbor’s town for the same payouts above. You can tap 3/town but there is a limit of taps/day.
As far as invasive Tadpoles go…
While you can potentially start earning them at We Stole a Zoo Pt. 4, you won’t be required to place them in a neighbor’s town until We Stole a Zoo Pt. 5. There can be a max of 10 in a friends town at a time. And simply tap the tadpole icon in the top right corner of their town to drop them off. If you are unable to drop them it’s likely their town is full.
And I believe the payout for Frogs is the Same as the payout for Tappables, 4 , 2 . If your friend taps them you both get the rewards, if they don’t just you get the payout. Payout till likely appear after 4hrs if they go untapped.
Emu Experience
You’ll notice there is no crafting with this one. Always welcomed. However, there is something different going on. Upgrades. You’ll need to collect (Sanctuary Grants) in order to upgrade your Emu Experience (and other items that will come along as the event progresses).
Upgrading your Emu Experience will unlock new decorations (and animals) for your zoo. So it’s like crafting, except you don’t get to pick what you want….
Prizes include…
Big Horn- 500
Duck Pond- 750
Buck and Fawn- 500
Hay Bale- 750
Armadillo- 500
Petting Zoo Awning- 900
Additional Emu Enclosures
You’ll also have the ability to change which animals are visible at the Emu Experience…
You can earn Sanctuary Grants for upgrading via tappables, tasks, prize track and you can purchase them from the store…
Characters That Earn Event Currency
Some folks are getting confused on this one because you’re supposed to volunteer at the Emu Experience. However, when you tap the Emu Experience you can’t send characters on tasks. Instead, you need to tap the Zoo Entrance…
That’ll bring you to the quick send list for characters to earn event currency. Here’s who you can send:
Lisa
Homer
Marge
Bart
Flanders
Cletus
Krusty
Milhouse
Apu
Skinner
Then when you buy/unlock…
Azzlan
Kitenge
Brittany
Another character coming later in act one
Premiums do earn at a higher rate on BOTH Prize Track and Upgrade currency.
Regular characters: 41 7 /4hrs
Premium Characters: 81 14/4hrs
And these amounts will increase as you increase your Bonus % in the Arrangement Bonus area. That’s just the base payout.
Cash Items in Store
Finally, there are items in the store available for in-game cash! It’s about time they brought those back! Here’s a look at what you can spend cash on…
Springfield Zoo Wall- $10
Butterfly Garden- $100
Animal Habitat Wall (Small)– $5
Zoo Lion Statue- $50
Velvet Rope- $500
New Premium Items
New Premium
Serfsons House & Azzlan– 185 Donuts (Earns event currency, and will be available until the event ends)
Peak-At-Em Park- 75 Donuts (Earns event currency and will be available until the event ends)
African Tree Resort & Kitenge- 150 Donuts (Earns event currency, available until 8/14)
Returning content will hit the stores frequently throughout the event…
New Mystery Box
Zoo Gift Shop Mystery Box– 100 Donuts
Springfield Opry House & Mary Spuckler
Sherri & Terri
Hungry Hun & Uter
Brandine
Ling Bouvier
Apu’s Apartment & Manjula
Patches & Poor Violet
Power’s House & Laura Powers
STEM Conference Hotel & Brendan
Hootenanny Barn & Luke Stetson
Another Box will appear later in the event. However, this one lasts the entire event, so if you want to wait to see what’s in the other box you certainly can…
Sneak Peek At Characters Coming…
If you check your character collection you’ll get a look at all of the characters that will be introduced with this event. Here’s a look…
Yes, that is a certain female character we’ve all be wanting to hit our games for YEARS. No, she will not be free (as we all expected). All I can tell you is, save your donuts if you want her. Save LOTS of your donuts….more than 250, but less than 400 of them. She’ll be hitting later in the update.
And yes, that’s a new costume for Maggie. No, it’s not available yet. All I can tell you with that one is, save your cash. Your physical cash for her…not in-game cash but your actual real life money.
On a personal note…
The newest baby Addict is due here pretty soon. Which means we will likely run this update a little differently than we’ve done in the past. (this particularly applies to Acts 2 and especially Act 3, as I likely won’t be around for much (if any) of Act 3) We may combine posts and skip other posts that we feel aren’t as important. You may not see the full slate of posts posted each day, some days there may only be one post up.
We’ll still work to give you guys all of the information you need (especially on new content), but if I don’t get around to a SIB for returning content it won’t be the end of the world, ok? We’ve got over 5,000 posts on this site and a handy search tool. So if you don’t see a SIB post about written about a returning item, or items in the Mystery Box, simply search the site for them. They’ll appear…
Thanks in advance for understanding!
What are your thoughts on the Moe’s Ark Update? Any prizes you’re excited about? Content you’re looking forward to? Will you be making a massive Springfield Zoo or storing most of this stuff? Sound off below, you know we love hearing from you!
*Sigh* got into game, started playing update, bought Gil’s donut deal… bam, can’t get back into game ☹ Never fun to get behind immediately. C’mon EA!!
Thanks Alissa, for all your help…as for acts two and three, there are enough of us that have been here a while, so if an SIB for an older item is asked for, someone can be helpful and post a link to a past page. Your main job right now should be to relax and kick back. Making a new person is enough for anybody to handle👍😊.
Thanks Ebron..
FYI, the Daily Challenge turn over didn’t work. It’s because the event doesn’t trigger until a certain part of the questline, and before you get to that your DC triggers. So you’ll have to X them in order to get the zoo ones to show up (but only X after you’ve full-fledged started the event)
Same thing happened to me…did the ‘x’ for today’s job, but will have to wait for the others. Oh well, it was worth a try. Will still get the extra currency this week, just a little slower. 😁
Donuts AND more land – awesome !!
Preferred it when updates hit 8am GMT cause at least I could get in the game and start it off before the US came on. With these later starts I just hit server errors cause they can’t handle number of people in the game. Very frustrating.
Ohhh no not this screen again /
Something went wrong maybe if you try again /
Just some minor server overloads as everyone attempts to login/start the event at the same time…….it’ll settle down in a few hours
I can just picture Randy from South Park saying
” AND IT JUST CRASHED”
>:- (
I can’t connect to the server right now, so I thought I’d read ahead to see what’s coming. First, I’m very excited about Sarah and the mystery box. I have everything in it except 2 things. I’ve been waiting on a deal on Manjula for years and will finally have her! And if there’s a teen Homer skin, where’s teen Marge?! Most importantly, Alissa, no reasonable person would expect you to keep up with the updating with a new baby. You give enough of your time freely as it is. We will manage just fine. Enjoy your time with the new tiny addict! Best wishes for an easy delivery and a happy, healthy baby.
I got on for about 2 minutes then “could not connect to the server”. Great. I hope it’s temporary.
first off, congrats on upcoming event!
secondly, I got stuck in a loop! I got event started and got as far as tapping three Zoo members in other Springfield. When I went to other Springfield my game crashed saying I had to reconnect to server. I’ve done everything I can with both my iPad and my modem. And now I keep getting stuck in a loop where it says the game is synchronizing, then I log in, then it says connection error, then I press retry, and then I log in again, and so forth and so on. finally got back in after doing this Loop about 6 times , and then was able to do a couple tasks but then when I tried tapping on a visitor in my own town I got kicked out again. Anybody else experiencing this?
lol, in the time it took me to post this, there were no posts but now there are a bunch all about connection issues. Glad I’m not alone! LOL
Servers down……………..
Took Gil’s deal for 300 old doughnuts, didn’t receive them.
This is a bad start to this update
I was able to kick everything off ok and now I’m struggling to get the game to load.
So far mixed bag here. I like the content but a ton of server issues and my friends are missing.
Having some connectivity issues. Anyone else?
Didn’t take long to get the Bart screen. Checked the EA website and there is already a thread about not being able to access the server. You think by now they would figure out a way to handle the load of an event start!
By the way, looks like this could be a nice event.
Whoo-hoo a zoo! Now everyone else quit playing & clogging up the server so I stop getting kicked out 😄. Okay, I’ll be patient…
i got on now. And i must admit. THERE ARE GREAT PRIZES! id ont care about the zoo. But wiggum and brockmen daughter!? thats boss right there. and 60 free donuts. and a great mystery box deak filled with great characters.
Would be great to play. I got as far as sending the 3 on their 6s tasks the got Bart screen. Now can’t reconnect. Doh! Will keep trying.
Sent the simpsons on the first task, game crashed and all I get now is “cannot connect to server 🙁
Oh why was I foolish enough to expect a glitch free start to the event. Was rearranging stuff to clear room for my zoo around 10 when I get the Bart screen of death. Finally get back in, get two lines of dialog, then more Bart screen. Grrrrr
And then Glitch No. 2, bought the half price donut deal but they never showed up
It seems the game is down right now. Keeps giving me the “Cannot Connect to Server” screen.
Well shoot, thought I was lucky or EA fixed the opening day event issue with the server, but no. I was just able to place the Zoo entry gate and crash. 🙁
Hey!! As I was typing this I’m back in. Was only about 10 minutes.
You get 300!!!!! Donuts and a huge tree if you havent logged in to Your game for a While, my B-game which i havent used for a month got this superb surprise after logging in 😀
My wife got that too. That’s what I (don’t) get for playing way too much.
All was good until I went to tap in a neighbor’s town.. now I can’t get back into mine. Miss those middle of the night updates!
I am VERY happy they gave us a bunch of land! I won’t be using it for this update but I wanted to move some stuff around to make room for Halloween and that’s going to help so much.
It worked at first but now the server is either collapsed or down, I don’t get it to load.
Springfield is down for me 😒
Lovely. 10 minutes into the update and it’s crashed, and now I can’t get back in
Everyone trying to get in at once…
Thanks for the update!! Servers are down already though. Got the free donuts and the emu house then…bam! Hopefully working again soon!
Aaaand server issues. I was able to log in for about 2 minutes. : /
servers are down….but no surprise there eh?
They probably gave us the donuts to distract us from the server crashing constantly.