Part 07: The Middle Stage (Level 12)

The bulk of the previous section of the Guide – The Middle Stage Part I: Level 11 and 12 – was spent in detailing the strategically central process of selecting the tasks and/or quests that you should be using based upon the time gaps in play.

This section begins with a more narrow view of one particular aspect of the game and its play for much the same reason – an incredible amount of email asking the question why specific quest elements, Buildings, or actions were not available despite the fact that the player was at or past the level indicated in the store menu as being where they should otherwise have access to the related Building or item.

In addition to email messages asking that or related questions, there has been significant Q&A section questions asked that relate to that. Before we begin addressing these related questions there is an important – nay, a critical – aspect to this that we must address.

That aspect is you emailing your questions to me. The thing is you really really should not be emailing those questions to me. In fact to illustrate that point my editor here at SuperCheats actually removed my email address from the Guide – an unusual action that should be interpreted for its true purpose, which was to prevent the readers and gamers – you in other words – from sending your questions to me via email.

Not because that is not an effective means, but rather because the new Questions & Answers (Q&A) system, otherwise known as the “Help a Gamer” system, was implemented and added to SuperCheats specifically to address the issue of you and your questions.

Ideally the way that this is intended to work is that you ask your questions using the Help a Gamer system, so that the question is asked publicly, and so that it is answered publicly, as that way you not only get your answer, but so do the hundreds and even thousands of other gamers who need the same information, and want to ask the same question!

Trust me on this, using the Help a Gamer system in place of emailing me is the best route for you to take - in fact you need to know that as of now I am not going to answer ANY questions submitted to me via email that clearly should be submitted via the Help a Gamer system.

Now let's tackle the issue you have all been asking about...

Quest Items, Order, and Getting them Unlocked

The process for unlocking quest-based Buildings and Items in the game has become something of a hot-button issue as you all have discovered that some of the buildings that are quest-based are not unlocking when you think that they should be – for example when your game reaches the level at which they should unlock.

This confusion is completely understandable and with respect, appears to be mostly based upon a misunderstanding of the meaning behind the level markers that are placed on the Buildings in the store.

The simple answer to why Building X or Item Y has not become available to you when you reached Level Z is simply this: they are not Level-based.

You did not misread that – despite the fact that a Level is clearly listed in the item entry on the in-game store, all that the level indicator is intended to represent in that listing is that you cannot purchase the item until you have reached that minimum level.

The presence of that level indicator does NOT mean that the Building/item will actually be unlocked and available at the indicated level! Almost every one of those locked resources is part of a specific quest or task chain. Read that again. What it translates to is this: to actually gain access to those Buildings/Items you have to complete the chain of quests to which they belong.

For instance the item Willy's Shed is actually part of the quest chains for both the “We Do Need Yes Education” and “School House Crock” series, which collectively make up a very long string of often seemingly unrelated quests and tasks that are, nonetheless all related.

To put that in perspective for you, each of these chains are made up of specific and prompted tasks – like sending Lisa and Milhouse to school for the day, which is a task called “Go to School” that lasts 6 hours.

There are tasks in these two quest lines for both Lisa and Milhouse, as well as Principal Skinner, and unrelated elements that involve other Characters who are members of your team.

The simple fix for this is to remember this golden rule: whenever the game prompts you to have a specific character complete a specific task, that action is part of a quest chain, and it MUST be completed in order to unlock the next action in the chain, and those actions when combined will eventually lead to unlocking the Building or item that you actually want to unlock!

When you factor in the added Bonus that some of those key Buildings actually add new Characters to your team – you get Ned Flanders with his house, Willy's Shack adds Willy, Bart's Treehouse adds Bart – and etc. you should start to see the benefit and the attraction.

So, that being the case, you get the idea quickly that doing what you need to do to get to the unlocks is the best way to go, and what you need to do in that case is complete the tasks that the game asks you to do as quickly and efficiently as you can manage.

You also need to bear in mind that these are not isolated or easy to accomplish events!

The typical cost for many of the Buildings are north of $10k so that means that you not only need to be completing the requested tasks (many of which require 6 to 12 and even 24 hours to compete!) but you also need to spend an equal amount of time and three-times the effort in completing tasks that generate Money (and in harvesting buildings, which you should be making every effort to do as often as you can irrespective of the task schedule you are following).

That should very nicely answer the questions that you have all been asking about why you cannot seem to get access to the Buildings/Items that are at or below your present level. And with that mischief managed, it is time to address the remaining elements to this phase of the game!

The Post-Elevation (Second Half) of Levels 11 and 12

If you have been faithfully following the play Strategy outlined in this Guide, and you have been working hard to quickly complete the different tasks that the game requests of you, you should have reached the point where the game prompts you to have Skinner patrol the halls and otherwise complete the final element in the chain that finally leads to purchase and placement of Willy's Shack.

Once you have placed Willy's Shack and burned through the 24h timer to build it, Willy is added to your crew.

Make a point of NOT assigning any tasks to any of your crew while you wait for a few minutes for the game to catch up to your crew count, so that it properly flags the next stage in the different quest lines you have active.

This is important because there is a slight lag between when the game asks you to do the tasks that are part of those chains and in that lag it is easily possible (and even likely) that you will commit members of your crew to tasks that then interfere with completing the required tasks, if you see what I mean.

So hold off in assigning tasks after Willy is added until the game flags Willy and you see a requested task in your Task Book (the sliding menu that pops out of the notebook on the bottom left corner of the screen).

The requested task will be identified as Schoolhouse Crock Pt. 5 (Skinner is asking Willy to clean the puke out of the halls at the school).

This is a 24h task, and it is actually called Wax the Floors – it pays off in $600 and 150 XP before you factor in any Bonus you have active.

Other Active Chains

In addition to the chains relating to Lisa, Milhouse, Skinner, and Willy, there are active chains that focus upon Cletus the Hillbilly and the other Characters.

With Cletus you are going to be asked to brew some Moonshine, which is another of the very inconvenient 24h tasks. Yeah, it really does suck that they throw so many long-running tasks at you, but on the other hand you do get a tasty reward for them...

When you get the Moonshine quest for Cletus you may as well plant the Moonshine Crop on his farm as well, since it is also a 24h task and pays nice in Cash and XP...

Since you are forced into committing to 24h tasks for the flagged Characters this is a good time to run the rest of your characters through their own 24h tasks, which basically gives you a full day when you can just log into the game as you like to harvest Buildings, not worrying about The Characters at all for that day!

The sooner you move along Willy's chain the better though since that is one of the chains that you need to get out of the way in order to begin unlocking the tasks for deploying the Church and Bart's Treehouse, so get on it mates!

Once you have unlocked and placed Willy's Shack that will have the side-effect of unlocking the second Kwik-E-Mart (but placing that costs a cool $20,500) so you want to plan ahead and work on banking the Money for that as it will smooth the way towards unlocking additional chains and other related Items so making that a priority is an idea.

Completing the Base Story Quests and Tasks

At this point in your game you should be actively working on the continuation of the Schoolhouse Crock Pt. 5 quest (Skinner is asking Willy to clean the puke out of the halls at the school) which you should now have completed, picking up the standard $100 and 10 XP reward for.

You should also be ready to turn in the Let Your Hillbillies be Hillbillies quest with Cletus and his Moonshine Still, which pays you $50 and 5XP for your troubles.

For Ned Flanders you should have just completed the quest The Greatest Joke Ever Told, which also pays $50 and 5XP, and

I mention both of those because they are key quest entries to the continuation of The Story and need to be completed close in time to each other for reasons that will only later become apparent.

Go ahead and collect on all of the Buildings for this play session, and complete all of the finished tasks, and you will notice that in addition to the task notice in your Task Book for Cletus that has him doing what seems like a mundane task (Whittling, which is a 60m task that pays off in $70 and 17 XP) you should also be seeing more than a few “!” bubbles that indicate you have dialogue and special tasks/quests waiting for key Characters.

First, accept the task book request and set Cletus to whittle, and then click on Ned Flanders, who has a “!” bubble that prompts you to accept the “That Ain't Right” mini-task, which has Ned Condemn Science (45s, $3 and 1 XP).

When you start receiving what seem to be minor and pointless tasks like these that is the indication that you are approaching a major shift in The Story if you have not figured that out by now...

The “!” for Willy has him do the “Is it even Autumn?” chore, which is rake leaves, a 12h task, and the “!” for Abu triggers the next major quest in the game, “It's Pronounced Nu-cular Pt. 1” which will see us Building the Nuke plant (finally) which if you recall is where our troubles began!

The specific assignment you get for this is to build the Cooling Towers, which costs $15000 (and chances are you do not have the Money for that just now).

The placement of the Cooling Towers will also add Mr. Burns to your crew, and this stage will actually be completed in the next section of the Guide, but it is started here, in this one.

Completing these last few tasks and quests will throw you over the line and unlock Level 13, which takes us to the next section of the Guide.

As you were previously warned, the game is now approaching the point where you will begin to hemorrhage Money, and now the temptation to spend real-world money in order to buy game money is going to be at its peak. You have to decide for yourself whether you want to do that – for me, and for the Guide, the answer is not to.

Hard work is its own reward in Tapped Out, so start raking in the bucks, and use the previous section on planning out your Time Banditry to make the best use of your play as you can, and you will soon have the target in case that is required – $45,000 – but bear in mind that you are also going to need the following in addition:

• $18,500 for the Reactor Core

• $15,000 for the Control Building

• $25,000 for Bart's Tree House

• $20,500 for the Springfield Library

• $30,000 for the Comic Shop

• $24,500 for the Orange House

• $32,500 for the First Church of Springfield

All of these Buildings are important for advancing The Story, so as you can see our predictions that the game is going to get very expensive very soon not only hold true, but feel almost overwhelming!