Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Halloween is back in Springfield! Yes, the water is murky, the screen is slightly darker, monsters and minions are roaming our towns…is there anything better than Halloween in our pocket-sized towns? (of course I would say Christmas, but Halloween is a close second to me lol)
We’re seeing a blast from the past in this event, with the return of the Dig Sites! For Time Travel Toaster it was the excavation site, this time around it’s the Old Ruins Site.
As with the Excavation Game during TTT, the Old Ruins Dig Site has Tappers everywhere talking…about the best strategy, how many moves they can find the Relic in and apparently it’s very addictive.
So let’s breakdown the how-tos of this site & explore just what is the best dig strategy….
As we always do, let’s start with the basics…
How Do I Get Started With the Old Ruins Site?
To get the Ruins Site you’ll have to work on the main questline, Biting Back. Biting Back Pt. 3 is what triggers you to build the Ruins Site
Note: You’ll see that there are two layers to the Site once you start digging. The stone level (as shown above) and the dirt layer, which appears after you’ve cleared the top Grid (i.e. found the Relic).
Once you’ve cleared the dirt layer it resets back to Stone.
I Have a Task to Discover a Relic, but I Ran Out of Axes. How do I Get More?! I’m Stuck!!! It won’t let me move!!! PLEASE HELP!!!!
If this happens…DO NOT PANIC! Just breath. Seriously, it’s going to be ok. Since this is a task associated with the questline (Biting Back Pt 3) if you run out of Pickaxes you will magically be given more!
You’ll see a popup appear and it’ll say “here are some more”. So relax, it’s going to be ok.
What’s the Object of the Ruins Site?
So the object of the Site is to find the Relic in as few moves as possible. You’ll need the Relics for the Ruins Site prize track (more on that in a moment). In doing so you’ll earn more Prize Track and crafting currency.
How Do I Dig?
Well the in game tutorial will show you, but basically you just Tap the Squares in the grid…
But like real life, unless you really want to get your hands dirty, you’ll need PickAxes to dig. No digging with your hands, it really messes up your screen.
You can earn Pick Axes at the Holy Forge.
How do you get Holy Forge? Glad you asked. You follow the questline.
The very next task, Biting Back Pt. 4 will trigger you to build Holy Forge (4hr build time).
Via Holy Forge you’ll be able to send characters on tasks to EARN Pickaxes to dig.
How Long Are the Tasks to Earn Axes? Who Can Earn Them?
The Axe Tasks are FOUR hrs, you knew it’d be in there somewhere. For Act 1 you can send….
- Nosferatu (Premium)
- Homer
- Ned
- Bart
- Lisa
- Grampa
- Marge
- Willie
- Burns
- Milhouse
- Wiggum
The payout is: 120 
and 2 f0r Freemium and 180 and 3 for premium.
And before you ask, to send them you just tap on Holy Forge and the list will appear…(although first you’ll have to tap the purple acquire pickaxes icon. This is because the Holy Forge doubles as the crafting hub)
What Does Each Character Earn at Holy Forge? How Many Axes, How Much Prize Track Currency?
The payout for Act 1 is: 120 and 2 f0r Freemium and 180 and 3 for premium.
The Store Shows That I Can Buy Axes For Donuts, Should I Spend Donuts On Them?
NO.
The Ruins Site is meant to be addicting. The Axes in the store are meant to be there to tempt you and feed your Addiction. They want you to part with donuts over something silly like the Axes. DO NOT DO IT!
The only time it may be acceptable, is if you’re way behind and need to catch up. In which cause go with the biggest pack and play very smart to maximize your Relic total.
What Does the Ruins Site Pay Out?
So for every square you dig up you’ll earn 10 (Act 1) and when you find the relic you’ll earn 15 
(crafting).
FYI 
is the icon for the relic.
Note: Upgrading Flanders Tomb will (at points) increase your payouts from the Ruins Site. When this happens your prize track rate per square tapped will increase. 10 is the base number, and the min you’d get per square.
Also, increasing your bonus % via Arrangement bonus (placing craftable items) will increase your payout as well.
What Are These Ruins Site Prizes?
In your event hub you’ll see that there are 5 Old Ruin Relic Site Prizes to be earned. You earn these as you collect Relics. You’ll need 90 Gems to unlock the Count Grampa
I’ll cover more on prizes below.
Ok So Now I Know How To Dig, What’s the Best Way TO Dig? Is There Strategy Involved? Should I Just Tap Blindly? HELP!
For this I refer to Safi’s strategy post for the excavation site. In his post Safi referenced a diagram from Declan. The goal is to use your shovels to unearth the hidden relic. The four adjacent tiles that share a border with the relic are tiles that contains rocks. Once you find a rock, you can assure yourself that the relic is adjacent to the rock.
Now That I Know The Strategy, What Are the Prizes?
This prizes are just for Act 1 and they will reset when the next Act hits…
There are 5 total prizes….
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
We’ll have a separate post quickly breaking down each prize and giving the tasks/questline for Count Grampa. I was planning on including it here but it’s late, I’m exhausted and this post is long enough.
And that’s it my friends! The details behind the Old Ruin Dig site! Complete with the best strategy to find the Relics in the Shortest number of turns!
What are your thoughts on the Old Ruin Dig Site? How many Relics have you earned? Are you using Strategy or just tapping blindly? Which Strategy do you find works? Thoughts on the Ruins Prizes? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
I’ve just unlocked vampire grampa so now thinking of holding on to picks for a bit for act two. Is there a maximum number I can hold at once?
Nope. They aren’t related to a specific currency.
Awesome. I know the original dig site ones cap out at 50
http://tstoaddicts.com/2018/10/10/halloween-2018-how-to-act-1-into-act-2-preparations/
Generally like the this Halloween. But is any one else finding it really glitchy? Particularly tapping on minions etc and nothing happens or screen just freezes!
http://tstoaddicts.com/2018/10/07/2018-treehouse-of-horror-bug-roundup/
Can someone tell me what’s the max amount of axes ? And after getting count grampa, should I keep diggin to get more relics (in case they don’t change)? Or should I wait til the next event? ._.
You still need to unlock the countess. Dig until you’ve finished the prize track then save
I have to force quit, as it locks up. When I go back into the game I did not get credit for the loot I found. Happened several times so far. Frustrating.
Not sure where to post this, but is anyone else’s game crashing when they visit their neighbors towns?
Sorry, just read all the other comments and I can see other people are suffering from this problem as well
pssh.. throwing my tablet out and now i need better reading glasses for smaller phone screen ….. >8\ those glitches.
I skimmed these comments and noticed the best offered is 11 or 12 max moves to find the dagger (or whatever it is). But if anyone is feeling adventurous or inquisitive enough to look back at the old comments within Safi’s original post about this, you will find one or two people who posted a 100% guarantee of 10 or less moves. And I’ve been doing their method at the archeological dig site since that event and am now doing it with this event….never more than 10! Usually much less. Unless I screw up by not hitting the intended square, I will always get it by the 10th move as worst case scenario. Sorry I can’t describe the method. Honestly, I don’t want to take the time to figure out how to do so. But if you want, it is there in the old comments of the original post!
You’re right, it can be done in 10 moves! I worked it out myself in Excel. (And I had way too much fun doing it!) I don’t know how to post an image but if you google search “TSTO 16 square dig in 10 moves” you can find images that show it! I guess I could have done that before I spent all that time in Excel but oh well! lol
Doh! But at least rewarding I hope 😉
https://i.imgur.com/YCdeu3k.jpg
Excellent! Not quite the order/placement I found in the old comments of the archeological site event, but this looks to be it’s equal. ❣️
why cant I build more Kwik EMart
Oh Bonus Percentage area, how I hate thee, let me relate the latest way. I tap to see your parameter-you quickly fade away. I attempt to fence around to see but stupid ruins keeps following me around, out of borders away from craftable percentages. Stay Ruins! Stay! I hate this EA , didn’t I say? Maybe my premium dollars are better spent astray.
Wow that needs to be written down in a white poetry form. I felt moved.
Myself I don’t hate it THAT much, but it’s unpleasant in the fading area. Hahahahaha
Does the flanders family tomb deteriorate x amount if you purchase a decoration?
Would it be time/cost efficient to skip buying a decoration (for the main quest) until I get my bonus area % up to 5?
Pleeeeeeeaaaaaase EAAAAAAAAA fiiiiiiiiiiiix the laaaaaaaagging! It’s driiiiiiiiviiiiiiiiing meeeeeee nuuuuuuuuuts! And so to everyoooooone eeeeeeelse! Not funalloween! 👎👎👎👎
Thanks Alissa for all your hard Yakka.
Does anyone know if EA is working on a game patch?
I am going to guess they are and hopefully they will release it soon as possible.
There’s usually a patch half way through act 1 to correct glitches when a new event launches
I’ve had enough already. Each time we get a new event in our games the game stops working. I created a help ticket with EA. I encourage anyone else to report the problems you’re having with the game. Tap radius gone. I can’t play mini games. You can’t move until the cash and XP are collected. I have limited time before work to wait for my town’s building to collect income. It’s frustrating if you have a large town. This is the race track and Roller Coaster bug from our last major event. Anyone who has a fix please let me know.
I don’t have that problem, game works fine on my iPhone so it must be your device
When visiting friends towns when clicking it either does not work, and if it does it kicks me off the game. Looks like a glitch as noted above I am not the only one experiencing this problem.
I want to get the boat and premium character… then save everything for black friday
Will the zombie sandwich be making an appearance 👹👺👿👽
Old Ruins Dig
Fortunately, I haven’t needed to spend sprinkles to catch up, and I’ve already earned the Stone Arch (yes it’s a 4-Hour Grind fest waiting for your Characters to obtain Event Currency, Crafting Currency and Pickaxes – I suggest shrugging that off and try to have fun).
I have noticed the blue perimeter around the Old Ruins (I’m almost at 3% Bonus). It appears any Building, or Character, in this perimeter is affected by a lack of the regular “tap radius” one is used to …. and I’m guessing once you Level Up the Old Ruins this “tap radius” increases.
Off Topic – the dialogue for this Event is funny, but my favorite is definitely with Nosferatu (no spoilers, spend sprinkles on this Character and you will get some extra help learning Event Currency, Craft Currency and Pickaxes – definitely will get rewarded with the biggest laughs!)
Thanks for the Post, Alissa 👍
Has anyone else had there screen lock up after you tap on a building? Mine freezes until all currency is collected and about 15 seconds go by. Also I have noticed a few of my neighbors have Countess Dracula, but I know a couple and they say they haven’t unlocked her yet?!?!?!?
I’ve experienced the collection delay; it’s actually a very annoying step backwards, away from robust multi-threading and into the yester-years of single-threaded processing. My only guess is that they implemented this to try to manage some of the other longstanding (but predominantly event related) performance issues that many people have complained about… but I seriously hope they don’t decide to rely upon this wacky workaround as their long-term fix.
And Countess Dracula is present somewhere in your Springfield too — you just haven’t spotted her yet. She isn’t a full character until you earn her at the end of the prize track; in the meantime, she’ll just sort’a float around aimlessly, as an NPC.
Yes mine freezes up also every now and then give it time it will work. The countess is running around in your town also I found out by reading other post she is supposed to be there that is how you get the tappable charters. Mine freezes up more often if I tap a tap able that was changed from one of my towns people. Thank you Alissa for all your information.
I’ve seen her walking around in my town, but I can’t tap her. I haven’t even earned the land token yet, so it’s a glitch.
Not a glitch. She is enchanting minions. See my next post.
Countess dracula floats around the map, I usually find her in Itchy and Scratchy Land, she isn’t tappable, just decoration for now
Read my latest post.
I read the posts all the way through but when I come to the comments I often wonder- do people even read anything or do they just jump right to the comments? Some of these questions have been covered in multiple postings. I try to refrain commenting because all of you guys do so much already to help us. I’m still not convinced that Alissa is just 1 person!! She handles so much,,I doubt I could juggle 1/4 of what she does.
Ya that’s true. But what hasn’t been addressed that I’ve seen is this fun new glitch where after I found the relic, my game crashes and when I go back in, it won’t acknowledge that I found the relic. So frustrating that it’s exposed and I can even click other squares but it still won’t reset.
I’m referring to the comments about stuff extensively covered,,,,not glitches & that is definitely not 1 I’ve heard/read about. I feel bad sometimes where it seems like they are moderating comments about stuff that’s already been posted about,,, often more than once. My comment does not apply to a question like yours. & I’m not trying to be offensive or put anyone off. I hope that glitch doesn’t spread. Hope you put a ticket in to the game.
Anyone else having problems visiting friends towns? I get to click on the monsters in the other Springfield, but when I get to any of my friends towns as soon as I click on a monster it freezes and then kicks me off the game.
Same with mee looks like yer another glitch
I am too! Hope they fix it soon, my daily task thing today is to visit neighbours!
I had that happen when I was about to level
Up the Flanders family tome, try tapping a minion in your town to get past leveling up the tome. After work hat I was able to tap with no problem.
Yes – that worked for me as well.
I just started having problems with that myself.
Yeah mine finally went back to normal too.
Yes. It has been driving me nuts. However, I’ve noticed that some minions seem just not to be tappable in neighbors’s towns, BUT others are. I have more luck tapping minions that are in more open space, but not always. And in the towns with more decorations, I seemed to be having more trouble. However, I have now found that even when the first few minions I try to tap in a town don’t work, I am able to move elsewhere in the town and find others that do. Just don’t waste even more time trying to convince non-cooperative minions! I hope EA fixes this glitch with whatever patch it releases.
Alissa & Team, thanks for your info and help. With your insight into what’s coming will it all fit into the extra free land given, or are we going to have to move it somewhere bigger. Just a thought before I start a design and then have to bin it😊🇬🇧
Theres A LOT of items..unfortunately if it’s not in the game yet I dont know the footprint, so I couldn’t tell you if it’ll fit.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…
I am digging this event 🤣🤣🤣
this one is better
O O X O X O
X O O O O X
O O O X O O
O X O O O X
O O X O O O
X O O O X O
my previous post didnt show up. i think the spam filter doesnt like it
I have not tried your way I have been doing safi’s way and have the wall already I know it’s just chance you get it fast I hope your way works well also thank you for the post
Both your strategy and safi’s end up with an average of 6.166667 moves. (You have a max move of 11 compared to safi’s 12, but still has the same average)
This is the best I’ve come up with (6.055556 average):
0 B 0 C 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 B
C 0 A 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 A 0
0 A 0 0 0 0
E 0 0 B 0 D
And not to burst your bubble..but if you look at my Math Post…I proved that you COULD go as high as 15 or even 16. It’s all pretty fun, a bit random, and in the end…really doesn’t matter.
Agreed. And the average difference between those techniques is a single axe over 10 games.
i was just looking at max moves (mine is 10) but i see your strategy to bring down the average. yours have 3 As with 4 adjacent squares, then 3 Bs with 3 adjacent squares. mine would have 2 As and 4 Bs
i just realised mine does have a max of 11 cos i only have Ds. your E is what allows you to have a max of 10
I did this out of fun but now I’m a believer!
I’ve had that error happen about 3 times so far. Luckily like you said a force quit and restart resolved the issue.
My dig site doesn’t work, it won’t let me tap on any of the squares. I’ve reinstalled the app a few times but that hasn’t helped… -_-
I’ve had it lock up quite a lot just as you find the goodies. As you say, quitting the game and starting again brings you the “congratulations” dialogue so nothing is lost 🙂
Ok my new favourite tapped feature, seeing which town character popped out when I tap one of the cloaked vampire minions.
Leon Kompowsky little dance and squeaky voice teens little jump after you’ve released them from the spell, so funny. Simple pleasure!!!
Since the diagram is 90° but the dig site in the game is 45°, do I rotate the diagram image to the left or to the right?
Does it matter?
Yes you do…….. it doesn’t matter what edge you start the pattern on.
Dr. Alissa,
Thank you for the detailed explanation. Your patience with your patients here is greatly appreciated.
For now, I am off to engage battle with the dust bunnies that are procreating in the corners of the room, but I shall return.
Wanna come battle mine? My housekeeper hasnt been here since before Sam was born… they’re really multiplying fast!
I can be purchased cheap –
can you make a good Shrimp Etouffee?
the event apprpriate term for them is ghost farts
I usually love the THOH but I don’t like the dig site. I liked the old style with the kids collecting candy. It would of been better if there was a boss challenge or something.
I really miss the kids trick or treating. That was my favourite thing about Halloween in the game.
Just a heads up: there appears to be a minor bug in the Ruins Dig Site, in which it sometimes just locks up when you find the Relic. I’ve hit this only once so far, so I don’t know how severe it is… but a quick force quit of the game resolved the issue.
Had it happen to me, too. When I force-quit the game and went back in, it gave me the loot I found. Minor annoyance.
Yes I’ve had this happen about 4 times so far. The frustrating part however is that once you restart you collect far less than had it worked normally.
I’ve ran into this glitch. Instead of force closing it allows me to visit my neighbors and when I come back it’s back to normal