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 second half of September) everyone should be excited for something…anything to hit our games!
Well…that something has arrived! It’s officially Halloween in our pocket-sized towns! Ghosts, goblins, werewolves, mummies, vampires and more! Bring on the pumpkins, murky water, fall foliage and grind fest..Treehouse of Horrors here we come!
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)
Now on with the update, more details below the fold…
This auto starts with dialogue from Dracula, followed by a 6s task for Springfielders and a 6s task for Dracula if you have him. After this you’ll have a 6s task for Ned…
P.S. I’ve noticed my game is very laggy…not sure if it’s just because much is initially going on or a flaw in the game. We’ll know soon enough
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…
Land
Since I know this will be the most commonly asked question…YES you will get a section of land for free with this event. In my game it was placed just below the land unlocked for the Zoo.
Bonus Area
Yes, it’s back. I’ll cover this as I progress in this post…I just know it’ll be a popular question.
Basic Premise
This is like previous Halloweens, the Time Travel Event and a variety of other events. The basic idea is…
You have THREE prize tracks PLUS Craftables.
The main prize track is acquired via collecting Fangs for Act 1 
. There are a total of 6 main Act 1 prizes, including a Land Token and Crafting Currency. Those prizes are listed below in this post under Act 1 Prizes. The main prize is Countess Dracula.
Then you have Old Ruin Relic Prizes. This is broken up into three categories, representing each Act. For Act 1 it’s Vampires. These are prize0s you’ll unlock via finding relics at the Old Ruins Dig Site. There are 5 total prizes for Act 1 and the main prize is Count Grampa.
And finally you have “prizes” from Flanders Family Tomb. These are items that will help you progress quicker in the game, things like decreasing the Cool Down Time and a larger Tap Radius. You earn these “prizes” by collecting crafting currency. You don’t have to spend it, you just have to earn it.
And then there’s crafting. Crafting takes place at the Holy Forge, with a variety of craftable items. You’ll need to collect crafting currency to spend to get the craftable items. Craftable items will help increase your bonus area.
And as usual you’ll have to tap something to earn Prize Track and Crafting Currency, and send characters on tasks to earn Prize Track Currency and Pickaxes for the Ruins Dig Site. (those tasks take place at the Holy Forge) And of course there are neighbor actions to earn more Prize Track and Crafting Currency.
All of these areas will be broken down further as this post progresses.
Getting Started
As mentioned above this kicks off with a series of 6s tasks. Once you reach Biting Back Pt. 3 you’ll be tasked with placing the Old Ruins and Discovering a Relic. Placing the Old Ruins will trigger the event start for you.
Finding a Relic and Digging is like a return of the Excavation Site from the Time Travel Event. Safi wrote an extensive post on it here. We’ll take a look and see if it applies to this event as well. But it’s the exact same concept.
Free Items
Old Ruins- Free. 15×15. (Unlocks with Biting Back Pt. 3)
Holy Forge- Free. 4×7. 6s Build. (Unlocks with Biting Back Pt. 4)
Flanders Family Tomb- Free. 2×2. (Unlocks with Biting Back Pt. 5)
Act 1 Prize Track
Transylvania Welcome Sign– 24,000
Land Token-60,000
Dracula-la Land– 116,000
The Webs– 153,000
1000 Incantations (crafting currency)-191,000
Countess Dracula– 249,000
Tappables
Each act will have monster centric minions as the tappables. For Act 1 they’re Vampire Minions and the look like this…
Tap them and they’ll transform into a character…similar to this
Or they’ll appear as a regular towns person from Springfield…
Tappables for Act 1 earn 35 and 1 
for each one tapped.
They spawn at a rate of 1/5 minutes with a max of 60 per town. (there is no bank with this one)
Neighbor Actions
Unlock with (Unlocks with Biting Back Pt. 5) and the Flanders Family Tomb. You can Tap Monster Minions in a Neighbor’s Town to earn 1 and 35
Old Ruins Dig Site
Safi’s Dig Site extensive post (strategy) can be found here.
As mentioned above the Dig Site is a recycle from the Time Travel Event. Basically you collect Pickaxes (by sending characters on tasks at the Holy Forge) to dig up squares on the site to find the relics. You can also purchase more Pickaxes in the store for donuts. Finding the relics (and each dig) earn you prize track currency AND relic prizes.
Prizes are…
These are just prizes for Act 1. More prizes unlock with Acts 2 and 3
Spooky Shrub Bundle– Find 2 Relics
Stone Arch- Find 10 Relics, also unlocks Stone Arches in crafting
Ornate Ruin Wall- Find 25 Relics
Summoning Circle- Find 50 Relics
Count Grampa- Find 90 Relics
Note: this is where your bonus % area will come into play. The payout for the Dig Site will increase as your bonus % increases.
Flanders Family Tome
The Family Tome is unlocked at Biting Back Part 5 and serves basically as the “clear all” for the minions…
When tapped/activated it will clear all Minions in Springfield. Now starting time with this is 24hrs, meaning you can only tap it once every 24hrs. However, there are a series of Tome prizes you can unlock to lower that time, increase your tap radius, and increase payouts at the dig site…
To earn this prizes you simply collect the crafting currency but you DO NOT HAVE TO SPEND THE CURRENCY. The prizes are automatically awarded to you once you’ve collected the number of required . So you do not need to do anything to unlock these prizes. Simply tap as normal and they’ll unlock automatically for you.
Again I repeat…YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SPEND CRAFTING CURRENCY TO UNLOCK THESE PRIZES. So you do not have to choose between crafting and upgrading the Tome. It’s automatically done for you.
Clock starts at 24hrs, if you fully upgrade (24 levels) you can get the clock down to 6 seconds to clear all the minions (in addition to a large tap radius and dig site upgrades)
Holy Forge
The Holy Forge serves two purposes, 1 it’s where the crafting hub can be found and 2 it’s where characters perform jobs to earn more pickaxes and prize track currency. Remember pickaxes are needed for the Ruins Dig Site
For Act 1 the following characters can perform jobs at the Holy Forge to earn currency and pickaxes:
- Nosferatu (Premium)
- Homer
- Ned
- Bart
- Lisa
- Grampa
- Marge
- Willie
- Burns
- Milhouse
- Wiggum
The tasks are 4hrs long and the payout is: 120 and 2 
f0r Freemium and 180 and 3 for premium.
Note: Unlike previous events, this payout DOES NOT change as your bonus area % increases. That bonus only impacts the dig site, not the character tasks.
Crafting
Unlocks with Biting Back Pt. 6 and is through the Holy Forge.
Crafting items increase your bonus % in the bonus area.
Crafting Level up is triggered by levels but also Ancient Ruin Prizes.
It’s going to be VERY slow going. You’ll earn craftables via the Dig Site (and not many) and tapping Minions. Plus the prize track. It’s going to move S-L-O-W for crafting.
I’ll cover crafting in more depth in it’s own post. Lots going on this time.
The Store
New items in the store unlock after you complete Biting Back Pt. 5. Here’s what’s in the store…
New Items
Monster Hunter License- 90 Donuts. DO NOT BUY THIS
Monster’s Castle- 185 Donuts, includes Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. Earns $300, 30xp/12hrs.
Cursed Ship- 165 Donuts, includes Nosferatu (and he will have tasks to earn Pickaxes). Ship has a 4.5% Bonus on all cash and XP
Spooky Gorge- 100 Donuts. Earns 3% bonus on all cash and XP. Also earns 180 and 70xp/4hrs. (should convert to Act 2 and 3 currency when they hit)
Cash Items
Cobblestone Wall- $220
Ruined Wall- $550
Jack-O-Lantern- $135
Dead Tree- $270
Spooky Tree- $325
Pumpkin Patch- $450
Returning Premium Items
Scary Dock- 170 Donuts, 50 Donut Rebate, NET 120 Donuts. Comes with Blinky Monster Dock has a 4.5% bonus on cash and XP. (available the entire event)
Town Square- 50 Donuts. 2.25% Bonus on cash and XP. (available the entire event)
Count Burns’ Castle- 70 Donuts (available until 10/10)
Burns Coffin and Count Burns- 120 Donuts (available until 10/10)
Mystery Boxes
Magical Mystery Box- 45 Donuts. Contains items from Halloween 2017. Chance for:
• Magic Academy Library + Angelica Button
• Fantastical Beastarium
• Wiggops + Wiggops’ Station + Wizard Bart
• Treestache’s Grove + Treestache
• Walking Kwik-E-Mart
• Mess Hall
• Black Magic Hall
• Greystash
• Unicorn Wizard
• The Great Raymondo’s Home + The Great Raymondo
• Magic Palace
• Burns Dragon’s Pile of Treasure + Burns Dragon + Wizard Lisa
• Cat Bus
• Department of Magical Vehicles
• Sorcerer Frink
THOH Mystery Box- 50 Donuts. Contains different items from THOH events of the past.
Chance for:
King Homer’s Skyscraper
Hellementry School
Gate to Nowhere
Booberella
Drive-In Theater + Space Mutant
Bad Dream House + The Raven
Shinning Bundle (Shinning Hotel + Shinning Maze)
Hugo
Gingerbread House + Suzanne
Gypsy Fortune Teller Shop + Maude’s Ghost
Count Dracula
Frinkenstein
Death
BOTH of these boxes run for the ENTIRE event. So no rush.
Upcoming Items During Act 1…
(these items are NOT currently in came but should appear at 10a ET on the dates specified)
New:
Tongue-Kiss Point- 55 Donuts. Arrives Oct. 8th, leaves Oct 15th.
Tween Lit Inc & Slick- 150 Donuts. Arrives Oct. 12th, leaves Nov. 14th.
Returning:
Freakmobile- 60 Donuts. Arrives Oct. 6th, leaves Oct. 13th.
Wailing Wall- 50 Donuts. Arrives Oct. 8th, Leaves Oct. 15th
Pet Cemetery, Clawing & Snarling Zombies- 90 Donuts. Arrives Oct. 11th, leaves Oct 18th.
Also, remember things are added as the event progresses. So if you don’t see something you’re looking for (returning) yet be patient it’ll likely come back as the event progresses.
And before you ask….
YES Should I buy posts are coming on premium items
And YES there will be a calendar
And YES there will be breakdowns of each individual area in more detailed posts
I appreciate your patience in advance.
What are your thoughts on the Halloween Update? Any prizes you’re excited about? Content you’re looking forward to? Will you be making a massive Monster Area or storing most of this stuff? Sound off below, you know we love hearing from you!
This game lagging SUCKS! I no longer look forward to playing ever since the Halloween update. My man, who also plays, can’t even get his character tasks to load. Attempting to collect income from houses has got to be the biggest pain in the ass I have ever experienced while playing tapped out and I’ve been playing for 6 years. WTF EA? Is there a complaint department? Lol
Tapped out crashes every time I visit the neighbours to tap the monsters! Not going to get any bonus points for this Halloween 🎃 update 🙄 have 128gb lots of space nothing is working as it should in this update. Been playing since the game came out what are they doing at EA
Is anyone else having a problem with the crafting items? I am on level 2 of crafting, and the spooky shrubs (level 1 crafting, already unlocked by playing the ruins) and the vulture tree (level 2 crafting, also unlocked from the ruins) are now locked in the crafting menu. Am I missing something? It is making it difficult to craft the items that allow you to get the bonus %. Is this a known glitch, or something weird with my game only? Thanks!
Edit: I meant that the stone arch is locked out in the crafting menu, not the vulture tree. I am level 2 in crafting, and have already unlocked the stone arch through the ruins.
How many cumes can I have from friends in total? I think there is a limit.
Is Nos going to be able to help with the entire event or just act 1?
Likley the entire event…just like other events, the Premium earners keep earning.
I’m finally fed up with this game. This update seems good but having to download the update every four hours is so annoying as my work WiFi is awful so can only play at home, and then all the lagging in the game is ridiculous and it take forever to collect everything and get all the ghouls! If EA doesn’t fix this in the next day or so I’m done and I’ve been playing for 5 years. 🙁
EA can’t fix that, that’s your device. You don’t have enough free space on it. You need around 5gb free for TSTO anything less the game will continuously download because there’s not enough free space
Clear some space ob your device, it’ll download one more time and then it will stop.
Oof… Discovered a new bug tonight. Managed to hit the relics on the first tap of a new dig site and the entire game froze. After completely shutting the app down on my iPad and reopening it, it gave me the income from it and stated I’d levelled my tome up again.
EA, please for the love of god fix all these bugs fast. I mean the income collection movement freeze is irritating enough, but you also compound it by phantom double taps (it taps whomever you tapped on and shortly after does a second tap to clear everything/one around the first tap), Evil Homer going from NPC to PC after getting turned, phase 1’s final prize floating around town for no reason, and even more…
Now the game crashes when topping the bad guys on other neiborhoods
My game is laggy to the point of being borderline unplayable. I hope EA is working on a solution
Any other characters or skins that help with event currency that aren’t already part of the forge jobs? Sometimes characters from past like-themed events help out but aren’t obvious/easy to find.
I’ve noticed that when the black banner stating “the monster minions are gone; check back later”, that there are still many of them running around, waiting to be tapped!
After you get Count Grampa are the Relics good for anything?
Not sure. Let us know when you get there.
I have Count Grampa. The count of relics goes up but I can’t see any use for them. I was just wondering will they carry over til “Werewolves” or it just another thing EA counts that have no value.
(BTW Count Grampa changing forms isn’t too bad).
Man, what’s the point in playing if you just rush everything? Seesh…talk about needing instant gratification.
Anyway it’s a useless count. A new track unlocks with Act 2 with new goals to hit to unlock those prizes, there’s no way to “store” for that track (as far as I know).
FYI, When you have more than one game you can have “instant gratification” on one of them and go very slow on the other. In my main game I need more land in the right places to redesign. So I am stuck with gathering too much cash which I burn off buying Rattrap trucks. Which gives me way too much donuts to use..so I burning them off digging – which is kinda fun. A little bit like playing mine sweep. – BTW Have you notice the leftmost square is sometimes blocked by the log so you can’t see if you hit a rock there?
Anyways.. Advancing the game means use game use the Tome quicker (currently at every 6 hours). Plus you the earlier you increase your bonus the more you can craft.
Ahhh Charles, the horrors of being a donut farmer…..
😱
Is anyone else getting those “you just won” screens taking over the newer posts?
Please read
http://tstoaddicts.com/2017/11/17/about-the-ads/
Thank you. This is the first time I’ve experienced those with this sure, and of course it’s just after the chrome update on my phone
If your games crashes while visiting neighbors I found it’s because the crafting currency is at a point where Flanders family tome is about to level up and apparently can’t be done in a neighbors town. Clear a minion in your town to level up the tome, then you are free to tap neighbors without the game crashing! Hope this helps.
What’s in the Mystery Jack-O-Lantern this year please?
WHat Mystery Jack O Lantern? I only comment on what’s currently in the game or that which I have the authorization to discuss…
****
see my previous comment.
Sorry and Thank you for taking your time. 🙂
Sorry – I meant your time and not taking…. You do awesome work and thank you for all that you do. That’s what I meant. Sorry again.
Great stuff. I always love coming to your site first for the new character reviews. Very helpful!
Just a big “Thank You,” as always, for all the work you guys put in to these events. Your cumulative dedication for so many years is amazing – and inspiring. You’ve saved my bacon 🐖/🥓 a few times on the more involved events…don’t know what I’d do without the guidance, help, humor! 🍾💗🍻
Sorry if this has already been posted, but it’s probably time for a “pickaxe strategy” post. Your best chances of getting the jackpot in the fewest taps:
Assign letters across the top (A-F, left to right) and numbers along the side (1-6, top to bottom) for reference.
Tap the four cells B4, C2, D5, and E3… stopping if you catch glimpse of rubble. There is a little less than a 70% chance of hitting rubble (or the jackpot) in those four taps. If you see rubble, the jackpot is in an adjacent cell and you should hit the jackpot in 8 pickaxes MAXIMUM.
If you don’t hit rubble in the first four taps, your next four taps should be the corners (again, stopping if you see rubble). If you find rubble, you should hit the jackpot within 10 pickaxes MAXIMUM.
If you still haven’t seen rubble, the jackpot (yes, jackpot – not just rubble) is in one of four cells: A3, C6, D1, or F4… 12 pickaxes MAXIMUM.
Hope this helps.
So. 12 maximum. Mostly.
Nope. 12 maximum, totally. There should be no scenario that takes more than 12 pickaxes.
Unless it does. Lol.
Yes it does. Beginning from the bottom corner, shift one row up and four boxes over in the second row to click and repeat at the subsequent corners 4 times. Then the corners themselves and then one of the 4 blocks in the remaining 4 block sections. As was previously posted on this wonderful site, the average dig is about 6.
Unfortunately there is lag. I have reinstalled 3 times but no help. Some taps take 20 seconds to process. I even got in the Pop Balloons for prizes mini game with the balloon available to tap the reply = Requirements not meant. I hope a patch comes soon!
70% of the time, will be in 8 pickaxes or fewer.
89% of the time, 10 or fewer…
and 100% within 12 pickaxes.
Using the same labels, by going B5, C3, E4, D6, F2, D1, B1, A3, F6, A6 you should be able to achieve a hard upper limit of 10 Pickaxes. Obviously, as soon as you see rubble, you have stop following the pattern and go for the jackpot instead. 🙂
That pattern was posted on the EA forums during the previous dig event, so no credits to me (but I can’t find the original poster to give credit, either 🙁 )
Strange, but I find mostly random (i.e. don’t hit a space that is next to an open one) produces the best result. If you follow a pattern you will get the average. But being random I I usually get most by 6 and I get a lot at 3 or less.
This is an interesting glitch- Countess Dracula is already floating around my Springfield. Nothing happens when I tap her, and I can’t store her either. Oops, EA!
Mine too!!!
Mine too
I don’t think it’s a glitch. She seems to follow playable characters that aren’t on jobs and turn them into vampire minions. I haven’t seen her turn them yet, but I’ve seen her following someone who eventually became a minion…
I’ve seen it!! Totally cool!!! Hilarious!
She stalks them…locks in…and POOF!!
I’ll have to watch for this!!!
I have her in my game too, but had to come here to see if she was NPC or not, since nothing happens when she is tapped.
So now it is waiting time to actually be able to send her on tasks!
When I try to clear the housefarms & kems the game goes in slomotion and its irritating and slow
When I found the relics in Dig the game freezes sometimes, losing my items.
Me too, it’s horrible!
So what is Evil Homer supposed to do?
I saw Evil Homer (an NPC from the black hole/ time travel event) listed in the box in the upper left hand corner as ready to be assigned. Never saw that before. So I tapped on that box, and it took me to him with a one-line forgettable cryptic message above him. I heard a loud crack and after I recovered from the thought that my phone broke — I just tapped him or that message box and he popped out the same stuff that the vampire minions do. It seems to happen periodically but I haven’t timed it yet. So look for him in the ready-to-be-assigned corner.
I guess he’s now basically like Big Claw, the giant turkey who wanders around town but can be tapped three times every 24 hours and spits out goodies. Big Claw never shows up in the upper left hand corner box, but I guess they needed to do that for Evil Homer because it’s a new feature for him. So far just one tap at a time for Evil Homer, don’t know thevinterval between taps.
Apparently he can be turned into a vampire minion and this what happens once he is turned. So far he is the only npc that I have seen that this happens to.
So what is Evil Homer supposed to do?
I remembered from another event. If you can’t tap in neighbors towns, try tapping underneath the tappable below their “feet”. Not directly on them. I had the problem and tapped under them and am now able to clear them by tapping under them
I’m not seeing a lot of people reporting this, but every time I’ve logged into my game today I too have had to a) confirm my age and b) download the 876.2 MB update.
Every time I switch between my A & B games (several times a day) I have to confirm my age as part of the sign in. It’s a new EA thing that’s been around since the K lands were demolished without our consent. Annoying is the least I have to say about it!
They got rid of KLand due to time issue lags; Yet added the age sign in @ the same time! That sign in takes longer than any trip to KLand ever did!
I understand they may need age verification by law in some countries. But I just type 28 into the age box; I’m actually 30 odd years older than that!
Clear memory. You are short.
D’oh! Thanks Patric.
Thanks Karen!
This happens to me when I have less than 4gb of available storage on my phone (iPhone 6). I’ve spoken to EA many times before and haven’t gotten any answer, but know of others for whom this also happens. It’s super annoying to have to keep that much space free, but yet, here I still am, tapping away… ah the things we do… 😉
I guess it’s a good reason to clean up my phone? Thanks for the help!
I had a glitch with the new square of land. I had a narrow stripe left so instead of filling that stripe and putting the other square in the following free square below it created a new patch of land outside the map with the line of square not filled push to the east. So now I have 2 square south of the new land that I cannot unlock and 3 square east of the new land that I can unlock.
I am afraid to use them
So happy I checked Addicts before going to bed last night. THOH went live at 9 pm here, so I was able to start before bed. Thanks for all the posts, especially the ‘should I buy’ ones.
I’m looking forward to Act 3’s Egyptian (and Mummies) content. I wish that EA would do more Egyptian themed content for the game in general. I even have a few ideas. Here are some of them: Krabapptra skin for Edna Krabappel; a (game exclusive) half-human/half-scorpion skin for Hank Scorpio as the Scorpion King; mummy skins for the Simpsons (specifically a skin for Marge, at least); a solid gold Egyptian style pyramid (either as a building skin, or as a separate building); an Ancient Egyptian themed Monorail Station w/ extensions (game exclusive).
Does anyone know whether or not Marge The Witch will be available to unlock at any time during this event?
Like it says, lots more is still to come..
I “love” how people say lazy QA, shoddy work, etc…. I work in a software company, I’ve done support, developer, and PM’d, not for EA and certainly no freemium model.
Based on experience most of these comments are unwarranted and also come from a place of little experience or knowledge, bugs do occur that’s life, there is also a surge of users at event commencement over daily play, and especially if android users their OS is all over the place so testing all cases is a nightmare.
Unfortunately no matter how much QA there will always be bugs, plus with the model this game operates, a beta release doesn’t work which is where user testing pays off instead user testing is a live task and in the main I think they do a pretty good job of fixing bugs. So thanks to EA and those that report bugs through reasonably collected STR as they make the game better for all, rather than mouthing off.
So what’s your argument here? That there’s absolutely no way to avoid a launch like this that has literally crippled the game for hundreds (thousands?) of players? Disappearing IRS radius is due to… “surge of users at event commencement”? Where’s Maggie bugs, Sideshow You glitches and everything else described in these comments are that way because…. “android users their OS is all over the place?”
“Sorry players, due to the reasons listed above, our game is unplayable. There’s nothing we can do about it! A beta release doesn’t work! We’ve tried and tested everything! This is the best we can do, it’s not out fault!”
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Trust me. It’s not the best they can do.
My B device (iphone4) is missing the Forge craft listing and no Halloween items in the store. I’m guessing these are glitches from the event? Laggy too,but it is an I4.
suuuu … are you saying we have no daily challenges for THOHXXIX to help jump start the grind fest? ! ? wha … wha .. ??
also i tapped Evil Homer… what did i get? stuff just flew at me and i couldn’t tap him again….. O.O what did it get?
You have to X out of the daily challenge to get an event related one, after you get to the tap neighbors part of the quest.