Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
In our games, the snow is falling and TSTO is calling yoo hoo! It’s the most wonderful time of the year Tappers, Christmas in TSTO! Of course, an all-new event means all-new premium content in our stores, just tempting us to drop those pink sprinkles!
As we all know, that limited-time label can tempt us to grab everything in sight because it’ll be gone soon. But don’t sweat it! That’s where we come in to tell you what’s worth those donuts and what you might want to hold off on.
Wondering if you should add the Golden Pickaxe to your Springfield? Or just wondering what the heck it does? Well before you hit that confirm button let’s break down the pickaxe and assess if it’s worth those pink sprinkles…
Going to do this one a little differently. Let’s break down the details on the pickaxe, then we’ll assess what it does and how it works for your Springfield, and then I’ll give a final opinion. And yes, this is a Saturday game-related post. Very rarely do I do these because weekends are for family and non-TSTO time…but I’ve been seeing so many questions and confusion on this, just felt it was necessary to get this up as soon as I could.
Building/Decoration: Golden Pickaxe
Donut Cost: 100 Donuts
Earns: Nothing, increases the CHANCE you’ll earn the donut jackpot from donut veins
Conform-O-Meter: n/a, not a physical item for your Springfield
How Do I See It: This will only appear in your store if you have the new frontier land available in your game, and donut veins available to tap on. It’s also important to note, there are 150 available donut veins in the new frontier. If you had the replicating glitch for donut veins, even if you didn’t unlock all of the land yet, the game will think you’ve cleared 150 veins and this will NOT appear in the store for you.
Leaves stores January 12th
The Rundown:
Ok so let’s address some basic info on this…
True or False: If I Buy This I’ll Get 100 Donuts Per Donut Vein I Mine.
FALSE. That’s not how this works. The Pickaxe increases your ODDS of getting the Jackpot from a donut vein, it doesn’t automatically award them, every time. From our very own Safi on the subject:
Typically you will get anywhere from 1 to 20 donuts from the donut veins. However, every x percent of times, you will hit the Jackpot and earn 100 donuts from the donut vein.
So x percent of times, you get 100 donuts. (1 – x) percent of times, you get 1 to 20 donuts.
What the Golden Pickax does is increase the likelihood of hitting the Jackpot by 3. So every 3x percent of times, you will hit the Jackpot and earn 100 donuts from the donut vein.
So 3x percent of times, you get 100 donuts. (1 – 3x) percent of times, you get 1 to 20 donuts.
True Or False: The Pickaxe increases the payout for every donut vein I tap on.
FALSE. If it’s a non-jackpot donut vein it’ll still payout 1-20 donuts per vein as a standard. It does NOT triple the payouts for every vein. It won’t increase the standard payouts, nor does it increase the jackpot payout. The payouts are still 1-20 donuts and the occasional 100 donut payout.
True or False: I Found Pickaxes in my Neighbors Town, So I Tapped On Them and Got a Donut Payout.
UPDATE: It appears this was a glitch and has now been patched by EA. So this no longer works.
TRUE. If your neighbor has unmined veins, you’ll be able to tap on them and earn donuts. What we’re not sure about is if this impacts your neighbor (ie if they lose the donuts). I have seen in a neighbors town multiple pickaxes stacked up on a donut vein, similar to when you see multiple handshakes in a town, which makes me think it doesn’t hurt your neighbor. But I honestly can’t say for sure.
What Did I Do?:
So I purchased the pickaxe, but I have A LOT of land still to unlock in the frontier, have yet to get a jackpot payout, and have the donuts to spend. So I didn’t mind dropping 100 donuts on this.
However, for a lot of players this may be something you want to skip. If you don’t have a ton of land left to unlock, if you aren’t a fan of taking the gamble, or if you’re strapped for donuts…this may be something you want to skip. Spend your donuts on a character combo with this event instead!
And that’s it, my friends, the details on the Golden Pickaxe. Hopefully, this post has cleared up some of the confusion for many of you about this one!
Thoughts on the Golden Pickaxe? Will you be spending the donuts to bring it to your Springfield? Did you already? Why or why not? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
Just getting back into the game after many years away. I just completed the bridge and have 133 donuts. Should I get the golden pickaxe with 100 of them since I’ve only mined one donut node so far? Will it pay for itself with the bonus jackpot chances?
Don’t buy it. Not worth the donut investment at this point for you.
My husband bought it and immediately mined 100 donuts so I bought it and so far nothing! 🙁 I’m having buyers remorse.
I ain’t gonna lie I regret not getting the building to generate new maps over the Black Friday weekend.
Having to collect from the shack 3 times / then sending a characters is a pain.
Is the golden pickaxe only useable during the event?
No. One you buy it you unlock the chance for all frontier land until you clear it.
I still can’t play. Does anyone know if EA is ever going to fix this!!!!!! I’m going through some awful withdrawals. I’ve done everything we normally do. I even went so far as to uninstall and reinstall. First time I’ve done that.
PLEASE HELP ME!! Are their other players still having a problem?? 😎
I’m going through the same exact thing. I’ve wrote EA and they were no help. I was told there is an update but it’s not in my AppStore yet. My AppStore version is still 4.53.0 the original update. I keep checking to see if I can get in (everyday) but at this point I feel like I’ll have to wait until the Christmas update is over. This has never happened to me before and I have played for many many years. I uninstalled and reinstalled 4xs now with no luck. If you find a way to fix it please share here. I will do the same. Good luck.
Definitely! I’m curious, are you playing on a Kindle fire?
I also have never had this kind of problem . Just minor glitches now and then. I’ve gone so far as to calling Amazon out of frustration. I already knew they wouldn’t be able to help, but I thought maybe they could suggest something.😫
Stephanie
Forgot to tell you that I’ve also been playing since the start of the game. I’m really feeling like an addict, restlessness, frustration you name it. It’s been 1 day shy of a week since I’ve been able to play. Arrrrrgggh. 😤
I feel like you 100% it’s so weird not being able to do anything. I’m use to checking in at the very least, once a day. It’s bothering me so much that I can’t even see my Town. I do play with an Amazon Fire tablet. I contacted them too (Amazon). They couldn’t do anything but take “note” of what’s going on. I’m going to call EA in the morning.
Generally, calling is better than writing. Try to call until you get one of their US or Ireland call center people.
You’re right, I might get further if I call. I will call them in the morning. Fingers crossed.
Previously I would mine donuts and get a fair amount but ever since I bought the Golden Pickaxe I barely get any now. Is anyone else experiencing this too?
Yes, came for this. It’s highly suspicious.
Any advice I can’t mine donuts from other towns, I’ve update to the latest version done the log out, turn off and turn back on. Not mined any donuts other then 1 the other day. I can see the rocks glowing pink but no axe. Got the golden axe as anything to help increase my donuts is a bonus?? Thanks 😊
It was a glitch and was patched over the weekend
DON’T BUY IT!!! I made the mistake to get it and now the amount of donuts from the veins dramatically dropped to single digits! Before the golden axe I used to get over 10 donuts in almost every vein, now I barely get 3 to 6 at best donuts! STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Typically you will get anywhere from 1 to 20 donuts from the donut veins. However, every x percent of times, you will hit the Jackpot and earn 100 donuts from the donut vein.
So x percent of times, you get 100 donuts. (1 – x) percent of times, you get 1 to 20 donuts.
What the Golden Pickax does is increase the likelihood of hitting the Jackpot by 3. So every 3x percent of times, you will hit the Jackpot and earn 100 donuts from the donut vein.
So 3x percent of times, you get 100 donuts. (1 – 3x) percent of times, you get 1 to 20 donuts.
Is the golden axe after purchase only usable during the Event?
No. Purchasable during the event, impacts your chances until you run out of Frontier land
Ok, a little update after a week with the golden pickaxe. I got my second 100 donuts vein couple of days ago (the first jackpot I got it during Northward Bound event). I guess you’re right after all. The 3x is for hitting the 100 donuts jackpot not 3x times chance to get better quantity of donuts in general than before. My bad here for falsely interpreting the purpose of the pickaxe.
It may have more to do with which land patches you’re opening now…my guess is that the odds of hitting a rich vein are higher in the land closer to the ravine. Finally, how many veins are you basing your observation on? You can’t make assumptions based on just a few….that would be like saying you had a defective coin because you flipped it four times and it came up tails all four times.
I really don’t understand what you, and others who have posted similar comments, are thinking…do you honestly believe that EA is just tricking people into buying the golden pickaxe just to give them fewer donuts? Does that really seem likely or logical? 🙄
A couple of days ago, I was in the process of buying some Blood mobiles when all of a sudden! A box popped up with one of the games characters and it said. “We’ve noticed you have been buying a lot of B M”. It continued with. ” what are you doing ? Are you running some kind of Blood scam ? ”
I wish I had taken a screen shot. Visuals are always better then a recollection.
Has this ever happened to anyone ????
E A always 👀👀
Yup.
This is happening to me too. Every time I mine now with the golden pickaxe I get barely any donuts compared to before. I was thinking that Golden Pickaxe would mean I would get more donuts now but this is not the case.
This. Before I bought the pickaxe, I was getting 15 or so donuts but ever since I bought it I have yet to get double digits. Do not recommend
Coincidence doesn’t mean causation.. I don’t have the Golden Pickaxe and it feels like I am getting less donuters when mining.. I used to get 20-11 donuts per vein, now I get 5-9 donuts 😮 Or maybe I am just reading too much into free donuts? The human mind always desperately searches for patterns in the chaos..
YES!!!
I also think that what people may be experiencing is that the rich donut veins may be more common in the first couple of rows (or something) so that, as they do later ones (which are more likely to be mined post pickaxe purchase), they’re less likely to get rich donut veins, with or without the golden pickaxe.
Clearly the schools are not doing a good job at teaching probability (and logic), based on the comments I’ve seen here…
I visited a friend who has a glowing donut rock, but I couldn’t mine it, as others have reported being able to do. Any idea why? I tapped on it multiple times, but nothing happened. 🙁
We believe EA patched it
Yeah, a patch that sucks.
I found a neighbour with a rich vein but the forced update put an end to that, got 200 donuts before it kicked in, sure sucks
Bummer! I don’t actually need the donuts, but it seemed like a fun thing to do (and a good excuse to visit neighbors and get a few new ones). Oh well…thanks for letting me know!
Can you give the answers to the trivia questions, please? I got 2 out of three right but stuck on a few.
We did, 2 days ago. You can find the post here…
https://tstoaddicts.com/2021/12/09/holiday-whodunnit-trivia-time-act-1/
They may have fixed the veins in town, but I decided to buy the pickaxes anyway just in case my neighbors can get them. (As a farmer it is far easier to buy RTT and I think I hit the 150 limit a long time ago on most of my games). I did check on many of my neighbors and most haven’t play in over a year. I been deleting them and most who haven’t played in 26 weeks. What gets me is the number of players who have not reach 939 level. These are people who have played for years. (I think I had one friend request in the last year).
They may have fixed this, I just went and checked after reading the blog, and Comments, tapped glowing rocks and got nothing.
Wouldn’t be surprised
I bought it and already won 100 doughnuts twice. Pretty cool (even if I don’t need the doughnuts).
Had a small update and now I can’t tap on veins in neighbour’s town to collect donuts 🍩
Not surprised. It’s why I don’t like posting about stuff like that in main posts. Usually leads to things getting patched quickly
LOL…….😎
How’s our littlest addict doing?
Hope you’re getting some 💤💤💤
Alissa, you and hubby make some beautiful babies. 🍼 🐣 👣 🚼
Thank you 🙂
And he’s good, getting as much sleep as parents of an almost 4 week old can get lol
I know, EA is watching
EA……IS……..ALWAYS……..👀👀.
Except when there is a real issue! I haven’t been able to get into my Town since the Christmas update. I’ve wrote EA, nothing is fixed. However, if it’s something FUN like players being able to mine donuts it’s fixed instantly. EA = the fun police
I’m sorry to inform that an automatic update removed the bug.
If anyone would like to add me as a friend, when I unlock new land I will not claim it for people to claim the donuts from me. If you do the same it will be greatly appreciated! Two usernames: DeanT2912 and Freddy694
Sorry to inform, Dean, that an automatic update removed the bug
I made a test with a friend. The neighbor does not lose the donuts. I got 1576 donuts. Not all are mineable, but you can go back to your town and then back to friends. All their mining site are still there, so you can mine again. It’s probably a bug.
Definitely seems to be a glitch.
I just visited a friend’s town five times, came went, came, went…
Kept tapping the same mining sites and got donuts.
Like Dean, I just opened four sites in my own town so my needy neighbors can visit. (I used my illicit acquired donuts to open the four lots)
Have either of you got the friends username to add? Looking at farming some donuts 😁
I have not been able to get into my Town since the update. I use a tablet with no other apps, no pictures, only TSTO. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game twice. Nothing has worked. I’ve contacted EA and they haven’t helped at all. It’s been days now. It feels like I just won’t be able to play anymore. I have never had this issue before and I’ve been playing for many, many years.
Is it crashing? If it’s the crash issue there’s a new update in the app store, download that and it should fix it. If it’s a verification issue, that’s a different story.
It is crashing. I’m checking for the update now. I can not thank you enough! (Thank U so much) ❤️❤️❤️
There was no update. If you are talking about the Christmas update I have already downloaded it and haven’t been able to get into my Town since. I uninstalled it again today and reinstalled but that didn’t work. Thank you for trying to help, I am beyond grateful.
There was an app store update last night, it should say when you look at it in the store updated on Dec 10.
I don’t have the update. Mine says 4.53.0. Not sure what to do about that. I’ve uninstalled my game again. Hopefully my AppStore will update soon. I checked to see if there was a way to upgrade it or upgrade my system. There is nothing. I can not thank you enough for helping me with this. I’m hoping I’ll get that update soon and it will fix my issues. Thanks again, I wouldn’t have known about any of this without you. A million thank yous.
I have the same problem ,word for word.
Even calling EA. NOTHING. MIGHT AS WELL BE TALKING TO MY Carine Terrier. At least he can understand and respond to a whole sentence. (In his own way) He’s a freak of nature ! LOL😎
Hahahaha. So true! You are hilarious. I appreciate the laugh. 😂
THANK YOU for this post! I was getting frustrated with how many people either didn’t read the description for this item properly or who didn’t understand the concept of probability (probably more their education, or lack thereof, on this concept to blame than themselves, but still frustrating to me). Hopefully, this will cut down on the number of people complaining that the golden pickaxe isn’t doing something it never said it would do in the first place!
Don’t have it but don’t think it’s worth the 100 donuts
Feel free to come to my town and get you some donuts. I don’t plan on mining the dimes. I have accidentally tapped a couple but I like the glow from them
What’s your handle in the game, if I want to add you as a neighbor? Honestly, I don’t really need the donuts, but it seems like it would be fun to do, nevertheless.
What’s your name to add?
Krustoferson123
Thanks, I just added you
Will you add me. I don’t mine my donuts either. ****
Friend requests should go here
https://tstoaddicts.com/2020/10/14/add-friends-in-tsto/
Also they patched the donut mining ability from neighbors, so you can mine your Donuts… no point/benefit to your neighbor in not mining them
I mined mine but will start to leave the pick axes from now on. If you want to friend me: SumdgyShip4571
lol, when I read the description I thought it would give me 3x donuts every vain I picked, so now I fell scammed 😉
Thank you for taking the time to address the Golden Pickaxe.
If you are a Long Time Tapper / 🍩 Farmer? I wouldn’t bother obtaining it for 100 🍩’s (chances are you’re going to Farm back faster and more than whatever you can potentially obtain from a Mine Vein 🪨
I’ve seen better odds for payout from penny slots 🎰 (or craps 🎲🎲 ) ….. especially skip if you are new and want to use your 🍩’s for Premium Content.
I’m not even halfway through unlocking New Land Tiles, I’ve gotten 1 Mine Vein rewarding me with 100 🍩’s (and I’ve honestly Farmed 3 x ‘ that quickly before being rewarded by the Mine Vein).
Have a nice weekend / Happy Holidays 🎅🏻🎄⛄
Without the golden ⛏, I still ma aged 3 x 100. On all the land.
I’ve got the golden pick axe and after countless mining have not mined 100 donuts even once. In fact the most I get is about 3 to 6 donuts!! You did the right thing to not buy it. Absolutely not worth the donuts. I feel ripped off!
There are limits to how many doughnuts you can harvest from your neighbour’s mines. I’m maxed out at the moment and waiting to see if it resets on a 24hour cycle like tapping your neighbour’s buildings.
Currently if I harvest a neighbour’s mines, the dialogue says I have gained doughnuts but my tally doesn’t increase.
I read elsewhere that the limit was 1500 doughnuts which is approximately the amount my tally rose when I first harvested my neighbour’s mines.
Also, I only have one neighbour with unmined mines. Not sure that affects anything. I suspect hitting the limit is the critical factor.