‘The Simpsons Tapped Out’ Christmas 2015 update review: Quick walkthrough of Act One with new prizes, craftable items and character jobs

Snow has arrived in Springfield alongside a hefty update dubbed as the Winter 2015 event. The event starts off with a seconds-worth of decoration battle between Homer Simpson and Ned Flanders, though only Homer needs to be free to get started.

Most of the mechanics for crafting, collecting Act Prizes and completing challenges are still the same as previous events. All the Act One activities will be detailed below. The update is already available over at both the iOS and Android App Store.

Mini events: Upgrading the snowman, tapping Merrymakers

This time around, the currency is a red Christmas Santa hat, which players need to collect to get the prizes for the event. This means that, to get the Act One Prizes, players will need to attain a certain number of Santa hats.

Another way to earn Santa hats is to build and upgrade the Giant Snowman. One side project that can be seen in “The Simpsons Tapped Out” Christmas update has a similar format to the Monorail event. Different characters can have different jobs that will earn specific currencies. The first level of this attraction is to build the Best Snowman Ever, where youngsters can pile up snow.

This mini event also follows the Terwilliger event format in that there will be groups of people that players can put to work to upgrade the Snowman. Other levels in the Find Attraction mini event include Gingerbread Mansion and two winter projects slated for Act 2, the Exotic Petting Zoo and the Reindeer Burger Truck.

Just like other “The Simpsons Tapped Out” events, there are five prizes per Act. For Act One, players can expect the Leftorium Express, the Springfield Orphanage, the Dancing Reindeer NPC, Virgil’s Cabin and Patches and Poor Violet.

Tapping Merrymakers will also yield some event currency used for crafting. This happens once the player reaches the White Elephant in the Room questline. Once this is done, “The Simpsons Tapped Out” players can get the Christmas baubles every time they tap a Merrymaker.

Once players reach the Barty It’s Cold Outside questline in “The Simpsons Tapped Out” Winter 2015 update, they will be prompted to build the free Hot Squishee Station, which also has jobs for the kids. They will have a four-hour Buy Hot Squishee task, which will yield two loyalty cards for freemium characters and four loyalty cards for premium characters.

What’s great about Act One overall is that, when a player attains all five prizes, the bonus donuts round is back. This is a great way to earn more donuts, which can be used to get the new Winter 2015 premium buildings and decors. The bonus donuts round will pop up for every 4,000 Santa hats collected after the Act One Prizes have been completed.

The only downside to this is that, for starting or freemium players, they may need to do some extra grinding to get a lot of the good stuff in “The Simpsons Tapped Out” Winter 2015 update. Considering how the groupings for characters are making a comeback in earning currency for the event, some players who may not have a lot of a specific character group will need to visit their games more.

This will also halt some progress with the new Springfield Heights update. The last update is not necessarily timed, so the best way for players to go is to put all available characters to work for the new TSTO Christmas update.

A Crafting Christmas

Another free building and one that makes use of Frink’s very big brain is the Things Unnecessary. Tapping on the building will yield the Crafting pop-up screen. From here, players can choose to craft several items, provided that they already have the necessary materials.

For Act One, there are quite a number of buildings that can be crafted. There are two Christmas currencies needed to craft items, namely the Christmas Ribbon and the Christmas Baubles. The former can be obtained by visiting friends and dropping presents in their towns.

Some of the prizes include the Wooly Bully (20 Christmas ribbons and 40 Christmas Baubles), the Ski Chalet (839 ribbons and 1,440 baubles), Fancy Igloo (227 ribbons and 506 baubles) and the Christmas Clams $50 a Pound (408 ribbons and 778 baubles).

Naughty or nice: Visiting neighbours

Visiting Springfield neighbours take on the Naughty or Nice routine, which mixes a bit of luck to get the best rewards. Players need to drop a gift and choose whether they want to be Naughty or Nice. Naughty means that they get to keep the rewards while Nice means players will share it with neighbours.

The interaction between neighbours happen when the gift recipient opens the gift and guesses if the neighbour chose to be naughty or nice. There will be a corresponding number of Christmas ribbon rewards, depending on the recipient’s answer.

Players have to note that they are limited to only five presents to drop to neighbours for every 24 hours. The time will reset from when the first gift was dropped in a neighbouring Springfield.

In-store goodies to buy or pass on

The store has also updated to include the Winter 2015 premium and freemium purchasable goodies. A new costume for Mr. Burns, the White Witch Burns, can help premium players gather more currency, but it does cost 60 donuts. New buildings include the Springfield Animal Shelter (60 donuts), Victor’s Secret (85 donuts) and Duff Center Arena (200 donuts), the last of which helps generate event currency.

Other returning items include the King Winter’s Cave (175 donuts), Helter Shelter (60 donuts), the Ski lift with the Stupid Sexy Flanders outfit (150 donuts) and the Springfield Skating Rink (85 donuts). A couple of skins for Springfield buildings are also available to get Springfield into the holiday season. These include the Christmas Burns Manor skin (15 donuts) and other Christmas building skins worth 10 donuts for the Compound, the Mansion, Sanjay’s House, Crazy Cat House, Apu’s Apartment and the Houseboat.

For freemium players, there are also some Christmas decorations that can be purchased using in-game money. The Lollipop flowers (6,500), the Marshmallow tree (10,000), the Festive Hot Drink Stand (1,200), Murdered Snowman (30,000) and the Ice Fence (500). All freemium items can be purchased until the end of the event.