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!
I was interested to see a day old donut deal at all, when in game dialogue mentioned once that they would never do it again. I’ve only been buying donuts when they come with characters ever since the bonus items were introduced. I was mildly interested in this deal, until I saw the Shelbyville item wouldn’t still come with it. Guess I’ll wait for the Maggie skin instead, but EA almost had me spending twice in one event.
Nevermind. Upon double checking, what they actually did was remove my $9.99 donut purchase with the motor home while I’m being offered the $19.99 bundle for $9.99, but I bought that one when it originally came out with Jebediah. Maybe someone who was offered the boatload could speak to whether or not it still comes with the statue.
It doesn’t.
My mom and myself, we both play the game, say congrats on the baby and I am sure everyone will understand that RL comes before a game. It is understandable that with that it will be hard to keep up with the event and posts.
Not a bad Event in my View, but some Questions/Observations:
Animal Habitat Wall (Small) – Does this mean there will be other (longer) Walls later on?
Velvet Rope – I couldn’t sell it back. Is this a returning crafting Item (from Casinoevent maybe)?
not sure if this has been posted… but the lion statue and butterfly garden xp payouts have been patched. Nice while it lasted.
EA adjusted the lion statue and the butterfly garden XP so farming them is out now. 🙁
Lion farming over 🙁 was fun while it lasted
Interesting, so far
We start with EMU EXPERIENCE and add big birds, next we have
BIG CAT COUNTRY, where I well get lions and tigers and cheetas, then. .??? Perhaps…..
BEAR COUNTRY JAMBOREE and bears and polar and grizzlies, then
CROCK YOUR WATERS, with crocodile and gators and such, maybe
WADE IN THE WATERS with Nemo and Flipper and Shamu, then
THIS IS FOR THE BIRDS, with falcons and eagles….
I can sorta see where this is heading
Just wish I better understood Currency earning rates
Don’t forget the Polar Not-so-Icy Cap Exhibit…a group of melting icebergs with Penguins and Polar Bears jumping on and then sliding off into the water🙁.
I quit the game for a while ( but thankfully didn’t delete it) and I got 300 donuts when I came back for this update
Does Bighorn go into inventory after I earn him? Can’t find him
Emu experience. It’s an animal you can select to be visible there. Not a general animal to roam around Springfield
gotcha, thank you
Wouldn’t it be fun if he was an NPC, tho, that would randomly butt other characters wandering around Springfield? Would be worth a few sprinklies to see Skinner or Burns go flying😆.
😂😂
I can think of a few people I’d like to see go flying too lol
Now, now…I wasn’t referring to tappers…but now that you mention it…
“What’s that up ahead?…it looks like a goat. No… its a bighorn sheep! Wait…stop…it’s after me! Ayyyyeeeee!
Wow, everybody looks like ants from up heeeerrrreeeee…”
I can’t figure out what items increase my zoo bonus nothing I’ve added so far had increases my bonus I’m stuck at 1.25
Only the items up upgrading the Emu Experience will increase it right now
I finally upgraded to Level 2, but my percentage is still at 1.25. I have everything in the blue area for the entrance. Hmmm.
It’s not upgrading its the items from the upgrade. Certain ones have a % others dont. For example, animals no % but the Duck Pond (level 3) does.
Oh! Now I get it. I’ll just keep plugging along.
You won’t update until you place the rest of the potential buildings you can earn. Please…people…settle down. A 2% multiplier is so small…that it just doesn’t make sense to care this much. Chillax.
When you have fully upgraded 2 Emu Experiences, you will still only be at 8.5%, so not much of an increase. If you want to hurry it along, tho, there is Emu-event currency for sale in the store (event section). The 3000 package will fully upgrade one EE, the 10,000 package will upgrade both with left-overs. If you have extra donuts…go for it.
Over the almost 5 years I’ve been playing, ive prolly spent about $200 on the game. I think that’s fair, $40 a year. I got the 80% off on a boatload of donuts, but actually would have been happier getting the deal on the store full of donuts to get that last Shelbyville item I’m missing, the impound lot. Will prolly end up plunking down the $20 for the boatload, I don’t see how you can wrong with a deal like that.
Apologies if this has been posted but I can’t seem to get to the older comments to find out. Three words:
BUTTERFLY GARDEN FARMING.
Just do it! Or lion farming. Whatever makes you happy. Before they change it.
Looks like the little update just fixed the XP for the Lion and Butterfly garden.
My game just now updated. It’s been patched. Oh well, fun while it lasted. 😛
I got almost 400 donuts out of it before they patched it 😋
I can’t seem to increase the bonus percentage above 1.25 any help on how to do this is appreciated.
How do I increase the percentage above the 1.25?
Items from emu experience upgrades
I’ll buy everything for this event 😂
Is anyone else confused as to how to increase your bonus percentage? I don’t see any items I can place to increase it. Are they part of the bonus track or the Emu Experience upgrades?
Upgrades
How am i supposed to get additional bonus%? I’m on the second prize Andrzej still have my bonus counter stuck at 1,25%.
Upgrading the emu experience
I have the option of a boatload of donuts for $19.99
This is too good to be true, right?
Also, totally didn’t place the stuff on the free land, because I did not realize anything had opened up; thought it was just random it took me to the boonies of my town. And not sure if I lost anything.
Sigh.
I placed an event item on the new land first, then moved to a new area. So far, all the new land is still there.
Mine’s still there! Nothing in it yet, though. I wish they would just give us free land tokens to open up what we want.
My general percentage is 460.5% however, the xp number has gone up since 400%! Is this normal? I am on multiplier and it appears to be capped at 24 xp were there is normally 1 xp. Or 6 xp without the multiplier. And Actually if I get 6 xp on normal I should then get 30 xp, as it multiplies by 5 ! I have been ripped off! That this happens to everyone?
How does the percentage goes up in the event! It’s not moving, despite upgrading once the emu enclosure.
my bonus % went up from 750 to 950 after I updated for this event. I don’t know if they added % to old items of increased it, but 200% if a massive jump.
Has there been any update from EA about the donut glitch from the store?
I dont know about you guys but I had 80% off on the boat load of donuts for $19.99. Purchased and got my donuts plus the free 60 donuts. Also, I’m messing the craft teaser item that was given to us before this update.
How do you contact EA to report the donut buying issue? I was stupid enough to try twice, got charged twice, and got zilch.
https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/new/?product=the-simpsons-tapped-out
Uhm….please tell me there’s a hunt somewhere that the animal enclosure fences and zoo walls are going to become permanent after the event….I’m sort of a fence hoarder, so having new and more variety is awesome….if not…I’ll be buying many many of both
Doubtful
I’m buying an extra 200 pieces, maybe more…this is a great looking wall, and I know I’ll want to use it more in the future. Just like the Magic Academy walls, I expect these will disappear when the event ends (at least these aren’t crafted, so you can get as many as you like) 😁.
I’m wondering if the Gil’s deal of 300 donuts is going to people who haven’t logged in for a while. So weird that it’s 300 donuts, which is the exact amount of Gil’s deal that random people are getting but the people who bought the donuts aren’t receiving them. Maybe a weird glitch?
Ghoul, I’ve two games, one free, one premium, 1st, got boat load at 1/5th the normal price, 2nd, 300 at 1/2 price. Not complaining at all. Going to save these sprinkles, till the next event, Halloween….. favorite time of the year…
Feeling a little lucky. My Gil deal was 2400 donuts for $19.99. I’m a fremium player for the most part (I’ve bought once before during a “sale” that included a character) EA finally got some $$ out of me. And…they all showed up. Nothing missing.
Now if i can just find out what happened to my angry goat pen we received during the teaser…
Great that SH bonus is now visible. Shame that some of my buildings are stuck in storage. If I try to place them nothing pops up except a blue tab saying the name of said stored item! SH storage has a blip. If I try to place all of say, condos then parking pops up to spoil the party. Oh well…..😔
I pulled all my bonus SH items out of storage (one by one, what a pain) to an empty area, and then group-stored them by type (along with all my other bonus items, grouped in bunches). Now, if I’m RTT farming for a day, I can pull out all my bonus stuff in groups, turn on the collider for a day, farm a thousand donuts and re-store everything easy as pie 🥧 (mmmmm, pie). I really don’t need that high of an XP bonus on a daily basis (what can you do with all that cash these days?), so this keeps my town tidier and makes RTT farming a much simpler endeavor. 👍😁
Snap. I did exactly the same, as somehow it stores them like a wally. Anyway, it sorted itself out when the game crashed on me. For once, glad to see the Bart screen😂
Not that I begrudge what people get for free it seems so lame that people who play religiously get nothing and people who don’t got the free premium character and a shot at 2400 donuts for 20$. The only way for EA to make this right is for everyone to get kitenge and 300 donuts. Especially after the bad til glitch etc. This is a fiasco. Have TSTO ever had such a bad roll out?
JAKEY – Believe me, this is not too bad compared to the days of old. Anyone who has played from Day 1 will tell you to count your blessings 😂
I got the 300 donuts earlier today but they’re gone now, and I’m pretty sure I got the same 60 as my husband did.
2400 donuts for $20?
Only if you’re not normally premium. I got the 300 for $9.99 deal. Yes, seems unfairly punitive to Premium players, should have been the other way around, I would think…or everyone should have got the 2400 for $20. Not good EA.
Glitch number 2 : not limited to this number .
OK the little tent that we got the other day as a teaser to the event has gone missing from my game . Has anyone else notice this ?
🔫🐒 . See ya bye . 👽
Yep, in both of my games. I also haven’t found it in inventory.
yes 🙁
Me to…and I gotta tell ya, I’m pretty disgruntled about it☹️
Did everyone who lost it place it on land? Mine was on my squidport where I left it.
mine came back. it was on land
Unable to login with my other accounts. I uninstalled and reinstalled and when it’s about to start, it closes right away. What do I do?
I didn’t notice the free patch of land until I read the post. Should I move my stuff there? I’ve noticed that my percentage didn’t go up, even after placing a few things.
My percentage is also not going up
Your percentage will increase only by upgrading the Emu Experience…each piece added increases your event bonus. You can buy the necesary currency (with donuts) in the event section of the store, if you want to speed up the upgrade.😁