Thank Grog It’s Firday!
If we are to be pragmatic about the current state of affairs in TSTO, you have to be a true “Purist” to choose not to donut farm. In almost every instance, concentrating on farming, so you can concentrate on rushing, so you can actually have more “Life Currency,” is simply the most prudent use of your time (which is of course, Life Currency defined).
Case in point, the choice whether to grind every 4 hours to complete the tasks involved with the event, or whether to simply make donut farming your substitute grind…even during downtime and during events. This is a decision that requires a bit of “New TSTO Math.”
I have played this event both ways…mostly due to the need to actually “live more life” while still “getting everything.”
Let me explain…then you can decide.
During the first week, I simply added the nominal 4-hour tasks for the event, to my already habitual routine of donut farming, and task-setting my characters. It is rote. I am so conditioned in a Pavlovian way, that my days seem to slip into regular 4-hour chunks. 6A-10A-2P-6P and if I’m still up, 10p. That’s at least 4 daily cycles, which is the same that is also needed to complete the event cycle.
The current Prize Act is no different.
Basically, it comes down to collecting 1550 “H-Tokens.”
So…you can log in every day, 4 times a day, and if you don’t have any premium characters, you are going to collect 56 H-tokens every cycle. That works out to 28 cycles…or 4 cycles a day, for 7 days. Do-able. Barely.
But, if you have Premium Characters, it will give you an additional 22 H-tokens per round, which translates to 20 cycles…(19.8) or just a tad over 5 days. EAsy pEAsy.
And that’s exactly how it went Week One. I bought the Premium Character…had one already (Sophie) and finished early Sunday, as I was able to get in 5 sessions a day.
However…the entire time I was playing, I was also doing my Donut Farming cycles.
Before we go nuts again with people bragging about their bonus multipliers in the 1ooo’s and how fast they can earn donuts…I am going to once again point out, that I am a “Casual Farmer.” I only farm as much as I can collect in regards to dollars earned in order to offset the cost of farming. I have about $120M in game cash…that just accrues as I play. I got most of my Bonus % by getting stuff through the Mystery Box and the Vault, and a huge bump when EA gave us the chance to increase significantly with tennis courts. (SEE THE LINKS TO FARMING on this site).
So…currently, I am farming 66 KEMs in my “KEM paddy” which keeps them orderly, and quick to add and delete, as they are protected by water. This generates approximately 30-36 Bonuts per 4 hour cycle..or between 120 and 180 Bonuts a Day.
So, if you do this regularly, and do a bit of “pre-event grinding” it is EAsy to earn 1,000 Bonuts or more before the event even starts. This Adds Up to DGPTO (Donut Generated Paid Time Off).
I have 5 daughters who all have jobs who LIVE for PTO. The younger generation is all about quality of life -vs- quantity of gathered stuff. They GET the idea of “Life Currency.”
This all leads up to Alternate Event Play…using DGPTO.
As it turns out, life can get in the way of tapping. And with every update, there is a flanks of folks who complain that they are going to “run out of time, before they get everything.” Well…doing a little Pre-Event-Donut-Farming solves both problems.
In my case, the “getting in the way of Tapping” came in the shape of my oldest grandson, and 4 of his friends, crashing at our place for 5 days during a baseball tournament in which they participated. Oh…and my daughter and her husband came up to stay with us at the same time to go to a wedding in Portland with our other daughter, and then wine-tasting with my other daughter, and then back home just in time for a year-end Rotary party…just in time to pack, to fly out to New Jersey to see our other daughter…and JAKE..the cutest of them all.
So………………………
Rather than grind, and tap, and play, and collect… I found ONE HOUR to buy my way through the update, get the Premium character I wanted, and be DONE with this act. I could have done it in a few minutes…but wanted to take the time to read the dialogue that the writers had worked so hard to produce. (Thanks, Writers!).
It cost me just a little over 400 donuts (including rushing the tasks for quest-lines). BOOM. No sweat.
So…as I am actually in New Jersey as you read this, I have already done the same for Act III, while watching Jake at the pool (Deb watched him while I tapped…and then was done…BOOOM!).
I had to spend 438 donuts to rush the entire event…plus an additional 75 to get the Premium Item I wanted this round. (75 Donuts for Mr. Dirt). A grand total of 438 Donuts. Cake. Had ’em… DONE!
With 8 regular characters collecting 8 tickets, one with 10 (Sophie) and Mr. Dirt with 12…that is a lot of collection per round. But, most important, they all cost just 2 donuts to rush, each task.
The math for me was pretty simple.
I needed 1550 H-Tickets. As I can earn as many as 86 of them each cycle…that comes out to 19 cycles (18.02) plus another handful of cycles to cover rushing the tasks (the cost per cycle is a very simple 10 characters x 2 donuts= 20 per cycle) plus 75 for the Premium Item…and BOOM. Done.
And I STILL have more than 350 donuts left…and will continue to farm…WHEN I WANT TO…not because I have to.
And, Boom! I am done saying BOOM!
I’m not advocating that this is the way to play every updated now that these are all just mini-events…but, gosh…it is a whole lot EAsier, and gives you time to actually hoard your most valuable asset… “Life Currency.”
So…no. I am not currently tapping…because for this act of this event, I am “Tapped Out.”
But, I will be spending hours and hours and hours, with THIS little guy!
And YES…with Jake walking now (started two weeks ago), it’s time for his first GOLF LESSON! He loves his new clubs…MJ the Cat…not so much!
Head down…follow through…hit ’em straight, Jake!