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!
Already first few minutes I took the Gil deal for 300 donuts payed for it game kicked me out donuts disappeared
Haven’t played in about a month so the new update got me intrigued. It gave me 300 donuts. I was thrilled and started planning what to spend them on.
I’ve just logged in to check how my jobs etc are going and all 300 have disappeared.. gutted..
Also didn’t get the donuts after buying them and getting an email saying I’d been charged. Can’t contact EA on their website but messaged them on twitter. Also you’d think they’d give more free donuts to players who check it more but I guess it’s to encourage people back.
This event does look interesting so theres that!
OK, I admit it. I’m getting lazy. Instead of grinding it out, I just paid the 100 donuts for the 10,000 crafting-currency to upgrade the Emu Experience to max immediately.
I don’t quite understand why there’s a 2nd Emu Experience as the final upgrade, but I figure 1 fully upgraded unit is enough – I’ll save the currency for Act 2.
Made possible by KEM farming desensitizing long-time players to donut-costs….
The 2nd and subsequent EE allow you to increase your bonus % for Animal Feed. I went up to 9.75% before running out currency.
(And I guess we follow until we hit We Stole a Zoo Pt. 6).
If you get Kitenge save Homer (12 hour task). And Lisa for Visit Peek-At-Em Park (4 hr). … And completed Daily Challenges do not turn to event currency.
Interesting about the Daily Challenges not granting event currency but rather the crafting/upgrade currency.
Now that I look at the prize track, I’ll probably want to keep the currency in order to fully upgrade the 2nd attraction to max immediately instead of trying for the extra 4% immediately.
Alissa won’t be around much for Act 3 because,
she’ll be busy with Act 4
Aww, I wish you the best!
So I had issues with the server drop. I got the 300 donuts and tree/Kitembe before it happened, since the server issue resolved the donuts are gone, but the tree has stayed. Anyone else lost the donuts?
Same happened to me. Should have spent them fast. Hopefully we’ll get them back
Best of luck for the baby Alissa!
On another note, I sent you guys an email recently. I’d love to hear back from you guys! 🙂
xx
Don’t take Gil’s deal on donuts! I tried to but after I put in my password, the server went down. When it came back up, no donuts but my account got charged. Thankfully I used gift cards but still I tried this twice. Wait til this issue gets fixed
Same with me. I’m out $20 for now.
Everyone always said that Sarah Wiggum would be the games last hope to stay afloat with a half off donuts and 60 more free what are they trying to say?!?!?
bought the gil deal for a boatload… and i still have zero donuts… wtf EA?? can’t ever release an update without problems…
I got a pop up saying its giving me 60 free donuts, but it didn’t give me anything. Anybody else have this happen?
+1, no 60 donuts after clicking ok, it took me to the daily challenges activities only
I contacted EA, and was told it could take 24hrs to show up. They have been contacted by others as well stating this same thing. I would get in touch with them and open a case to make sure you get the donuts
I just bought the 300 donuts at 50% off and was charged but I did not receive them! Do you happen to have a direct link so I can get help? THANKS!
I got in and got started without a problem. When I placed the zoo entrance, instead of keeping it in the massive (new) land area where it defaulted to, I put it in the area I had cleared yesterday, and I kept playing. I ran into the “cannot connect/retry” loop when visiting friends for the tap visitors task. I finally got back in after 10-15 min…but that wide expanse of new land is gone. Boo! I’m kicking myself for not leaving the zoo entrance there. I wonder if I’ll get it back (or maybe it was never supposed to be there?).
I don’t like that the game decides where these big installations go/where to add 9 squares of land. 2x now they’re extending it along the mountain range. I’ve been playing since the beginning, my town is huge, and I have a plan. Stop screwing with it, EA. And to those ends, stop telling me where I can’t put some stuff, ie, Put I&S-land stuff on K-land surfaces? And some stuff randomly can’t go on dirt, etc
You can duplicate the emu enclosures when you fully upgrade them. I’ve now got 3 (2 fully upgraded) out of curiosity. And yes, I did buy the 100 donut upgrading currency due to KEM farming. This is a great way to quickly increase the event currency bonus percentage early doors.
Maybe I’m missing something, but it looks like you can’t click on the Emu Experience and send characters to volunteer that way; you have to click through characters and see if they have that option.
Anyone else running into that? Or am I really missing something?
Click the Zoo Entrance instead
There it is – thanks! I could’ve sworn I looked there, guess I didn’t.
maybe £19.99 for 2400 donut purchase… but not showing up in game?restarted game, device, logged out and back in again 3 times? i have the invoice from Apple but nothing in game… what do i do now?
A similar thing happened to me! I’m hoping it will fix itself
Anyone else having a problem with Gil’s offer?
Every time I buy the donuts, the game crashes. This better not be cheating me out of $10. Ive tried it 3 times and it had crashed on me every time after the “your purchase has been completed” comes up, and when I come back back, no donuts have showed up.
This better not cheat me out of $30. I’m go to be mad if it does.
Yeah, same problem here with the Gil’s offer. Bought 2 times. No donuts. Money left my bank account…
I didn’t get my donuts either. Got a receipt from Amazon shows i did purchase them.
I also didn’t receive Donuts from Gil’s deal.
The 50% off donut deal keeps crashing my game. Tried buying three times, yes 3 times, got to the “your purchase was successful”, then game would crash. Still don’t see the now 900 donuts I have just bought in my account. EA will be hearing from me once I get my receipt.😒
My wife got the tree and 300 doughnuts for logging in, wth. I want 300 doughnuts
I think if you’ve had a long lay off from the game you got more
60 donuts seemed like a lot…for free…no complaints here😄
just a tip: do not put Larry Kidkill on the 4 hour job, “krusty burger with cheese” quest.. you need him to get your event going. I learned the hard way
Me too…I just stored Krusty Burger and replaced it…pulled him right out.👍
I think 100 donuts for a mystery box is a crazy high price. 80% discount for donuts sounds like a last request of a dying game 🙁
What do I do after the initial 6s tasks??
Well 1st please have a safe delivery of Baby # 2
And 2nd ….. Thank you EA for the Free Donuts (I’m guessing this is their way of saying my bad due to all of the complaints? I will take them and say thank you without question!)
3rd, hmmm this Event looks like a combination of Moe’s Petting Zoo + Country Fair (mixed in with our dystopian Desert Dwellers and their 3 Sections you have to build up, all this time sections have Zoo Animals).
Happy Tapping to all, I’m giving this Event a chance (and eating a 🌮 from Roberto’s ) 😉
Anyone having issues with dropping invasive frogs in others’ towns?
Alissa: yay for baby! I understand that posts will not be as frequent. 😊👶🏼
The counter seems a little wonky when I drop the frogs (which, by the way I love!) in my neighbor’s towns. The counter goes to zero, then back to the real number, then back to zero…like I said, wonky. 🤪
Aaaaargh! I want to go to bed! It’s late here! I can’t sign in! Great to get 60 free donuts! I have to get Azzlan though.185?! A bit expensive but ……
My disgruntled goat disappeared
Well…he was disgruntled…
Thanks for the run down. I will wait until this afternoon/evening to access my Springfield….. I don’t want the death screen…
Do NOT but Gils deal.. tried to buy it twice now.. i have been charged twice but the donuts hasn’t appeared 😭
Me too !
Same thing here.
I actually tried 3 times and as soon as it completed the purchase, I got disconnected. Happened in the past and didn’t get charged. Which is why I tried again (and again). But checking purchase history at Apple it shows the charges Pending, but still charged?!
Did you get kicked off the server at the end of the transaction?
I’m in the same boat… Tried twice, charged twice, nothing… And EA’s help page won’t load