Hey there Clammers!
I wanted to do a post to focus some attention on something that is bothering me and some of you on the Leaderboards themselves. The Bans that are taking place for Players stating no foul play was done, but still did not get their prizes.
First off, I want to really point out this is NOT a post to yell, scream, vent, argue, name call or bash, etc. This is a post here to HELP. Nothing more. I ask that you ONLY comment and participate if you want to help.
If your thoughts are on hate, swearing, bashing, anger, etc… then you need to go HERE instead. That kind of activity will not be allowed in this post or this ADDICTS site.
Now with all of that out of the way, let’s dive into the post itself.
There will be a lot of information in this post, so hang in there and take your time.
First up, I wanted to post an email from a fellow Player and Reader on this site, Russian Tigger. I feel that the email covers a lot of what many of you were feeling and thinking as well as starts us out on the HELPFUL path I want this post to take.
Here is Russian Tigger’s email.
*****
You win some – You lose some
Then there’s the new 3rd scenario, you’re “cheated” out of them. Yes the Raid to the North Pole Leaderboard has saw a big issue appear, and it’s not wrapped in a nice bow to make you feel better when you are hit by it. It’s a bit like being hit by a snowball only to find the thrower popped a stone in the middle as a not so nice surprise.
What am I on about you ask, well I’m trying to do what Bunny asked and get the community involved in helping us that were wrongly labelled cheats get our leaderboard prizes.
For those of you who don’t know what’s going on, let me explain how a winner becomes a loser in the world of FGQFS. Well they fall fowl of the Giant chicken that is obviously running the TinyCo cheat monitor, now I’m not saying he should be tarred and feathered for his mistake but I am asking that TinyCo address the issue and with other players help we can hopefully get our prizes and move on with no grudges held. Before I start can I please ask for only comments that will help, no threats or venting, just information on how medals were collected and thoughts on what it’s like to be wrongly labelled a cheat.
As a long term players and part of this community, I don’t like being labelled a cheat one little bit, I try not to judge others but think those with hacked games are a little silly as in the end they are mainly cheating themselves out of the challenge that is playing the game. I just don’t see the point in it. So that’s all I have to say on actual cheaters as I’m more interested in us, the falsely accused.
How did this come about, well it would appear some of us shocked TinyCo with our medal accumulating abilities without spending clams. Listen I had clams to spend but nothing caught my interest to buy, so I didn’t splurge any clams.. I do spend clams but only on items I really want in my game, I actually do what Bunny & Alissa always say, think will I still want this characters in a few months time in my Quahog, if the answer is yes I buy, if no I pass. Anyway so yes I was a little Scrooge like in my clam spending during this event, in fact I only dropped 5 clams, 4 to unlock Spy Brian in the final hours of the event once I got the wristwatches down as low as they could go, and 1 clam was spent accidentally speeding up the Toy Warehouse when it only had minutes to go.
But it would seem I paid a hefty price for my Scrooge like behaviour as my leaderboard prizes are being held hostage by TinyCo until I show I didn’t cheat to reach my 9183 Medals. Now I would have thought that this would be easy for TinyCo to see, just go into my game, it’s an official download from the App Store which I play on my IPad and Iphone, it’s linked to a Facebook account set up only for this game, nothing has changed since the day I downloaded the game. They can surely see how often I play and how I play? It would seem perhaps not, why, I don’t know, this is maybe something Bunny could tell us more about as she knows a bit more about game mechanics than I do.
But innocent until proven guilty seems to have been thrown out the window by TinyCo on this one and we are seeing long term players one after the other all being told it was impossible to reach the level of medals they did without cheating. But surely looking at these long terms players games and comments here should be flagging something with TinyCo, creating a creeping doubt in them they got this very wrong. Well I’m hoping so and with your help we can show this. How you ask, well let’s tell them how we played to get our totals, now I know it’s impossible to remember all the facts and figures but just a quick rundown of what made your play different from other freemium players is all they need.
I will start the ball rolling. Now bear in mind I may be off with odd level as I am trying remember these from memory.
I’m going break it down a little in order show how my medals built up, and feel free use these headings when you comment on your experience.
Time Spent in Game
The first reason I earned more than other freemium players is basically I spent an insane amount of time in the game, I went from at the beginning saying I would play less due to family commitments over the holidays to the extreme opposite as my other half was very ill and hospitalised, I spent many many hours at their bedside with only my game for company whilst they slept or went for procedures. Then at night I found my poor sleep routine worse than ever as I sat awake worrying, again using this game and another to pass the time. I not only progressed well in the game due to this but got quite a few clams for watching videos, if TinyCo looks in my game they will see these were mostly earned during the night, UK time obviously.
So firstly there is the big difference between me and the casual players, being constantly in the game meant constantly setting tasks to earn items for battles and unlocking characters, quicker, this allowed me more opportunities to upgrade and battle, especially in the latter weeks where my characters were busy collecting or battling 24/7.
Phases & Battles
Well I proceeded through these quite well, working through the quest lines and unlocking characters in good time due to putting them on tasks during night as well as the day. I obviously completed each weeks quest line levelling up as required, until the final week where I ignored the quest line to concentrate on my medals haul.
The various battles during the phases panned out as follows for me, and forgive me if my levels are off by a tiny bit but these are the best I can remember off the top off my head.
Phase 1 – Holiday Humma – this was levelled up to the max and I was therefore able to send only Santa on battles at the end and receive good rewards, this left Camo Peter free to help with the hovercraft battles.
Phase 2 – Blocko Hivercraft – this was levelled up to around Level 16/17, I needed to use Saran and Camo Peter to get awards. When on lower level I used only Peter as I had Sarah clearing misfit toys for the Santas Little Helper quest line which awarded decent amount of medals. But the level I got to required 2 after this.
Phase 3 – Nutcracker Truck – this would have been about level 15/16 I believe at the end and had decent payouts, I constantly had Kevin and Snake battling this.
Phase 4 – Gingerbread Tank – this got to about level 9/10 and Veteran Herbert was battling on his own here, in between when I was having gather materials he was clearing gingerbread men. I’m still traumatised by how slow this was for a 45 second task, ha.
Phase 5 – Christmas Copter – I think I only had this to level 6/7, I was able to get decent payout using just Pilot Quagmire, who I unlocked immediately, I didn’t have Lois on this often as she was collecting materials for other battles.
You can see I planned and levelled up in a way to help me maximise payouts whilst leaving characters free to gather materials. I luckily avoided the scenario many were trapped in whereby they levelled up too quickly and got trapped with no payouts, I tried to keep mine at destroying as much of the buildings in that area without completely destroying, ie 4 out of 5 destroyed etc, I only completely destroyed when the Santas Little Helper quest line requested this, it was worth it for the medal payouts here. But I made sure I had items to upgrade vehicles after I did this. I used tactics very well here.
Using planned upgrades and utilisation of characters allowed me to build up a steady income of medals and items to exchange in Santas Supply Depot.
Puppy Brian
In Phase 4 puppy Brian could suddenly help gather materials to upgrade vehicles and I worked him like a , well like a dog, day and night he scrambled to get the items I needed depending on which vehicle I was working on. For something so little he was a big help, more he helped me level up the more medals I got from battles.
Little Box of Material Joy
By the time this appeared I had unlocked the characters so I got a nice 100 medals and I believe hats and toy cars here, not a lot but every little helps.
Santas Little Helper Questline
I think many missed this or dismissed it as the tasks were difficult to complete, I decided to ignore the weekly challenges and concentrate on this instead, I completed Parts 1-5 and gained myself a nice boost of around 1000 medals or more, in fact completing these was what saw me start to climb the leaderboard, encouraging me to keep at it in my plans to win Chuggs.
Glitches
I luckily wasn’t affected by the vehicle glitch, only suffered from Lyle timer starting due to quest line, sadly my messages regarding this went unanswered.
Santas Supply Depot
Now no medals came from this but it was a big help in Phase 5, after the Halloween fiasco with reels TinyCo made changes to make exchanges easier and maybe they got too easy as in final 2 weeks I was exchanging constantly, now these exchanges didn’t buy medals direct but they allowed me to quickly in Phase 5 get Pilot Quagmire who had decent payouts for battles, but more importantly the Toy Warehouse and Toy Assembly Line. Now both of these had nice medal payouts, especially if you were collecting day and night towards the end I even had a timer on my phone for the Toy Assembly Line.
So these 2 items were paying out 20 medals every 4 hours and 50 medals every 6 hours, fully utilising my time this saw me able collect almost 300 medals a day, on top of what I was getting with my constant battles, this saw my total really ramp up in the final week. I went from reaching my aim of Chuggs to being in the tier for the Nutcracker Factory, and I’d done it freemium apart from 5 clams. And more important,y I did it honestly. Hopefully the fact I’ve shown all this will help TinyCo address the currently serious issue they have of false accusations and stop this happening in future. After all this is TinyCos own words on Leaderboards.
“TinyCo encourages every player competing in Leaderboards to seek nuanced ways to gain advantage over their opponents. These edges come from knowing the ins and outs of the game, maximizing the timing, systems and outputs in ways both intuitive and surprising.”
I think I followed that advice to the letter, my reward for surprising them was to be labelled a cheat. Please sort this TinyCo as what you have done by removing us who played hard to get our prizes is also move people up who didn’t put enough work in, that’s another kick in the teeth to us, that those who played game less now have our leaderboard spots and prizes.
Now I need ask others to help by giving a brief summary in the comments of their medal total and how they achieved it freemium or with minimum clams spent, just basics, no need to go on and on like I have. Feel free use headings I have, and I look forward to your help in this. Thanks to Bunny & Alissa also for providing a way to collate all the data in one area for TinyCo to see.
Thanks Russian Tigger for your information. I now want to take it a step further though. In dealing with Game Houses over the year, any company really, I know that numbers and stats talk and that’s just what I am looking for help on getting. The Plain Math of the Game showing HOW Players reached the results that they got. (I played mainly Premium, so my Stats can only help so much.) This will be a big help in speaking to them and showing them just how the Snowflake Medal Counts were obtained. This is the information once completed that you should send to TinyCo, if you have not already.
Here is mainly what I think you should note if you can…
VEHICLE LEVELS: If you can pinpoint or at least get close to the Level of Vehicle you had at each Phase of the Event. This should include the following…
- The Name of the Vehicle
- How many Characters used per Battle per Phase
- Level of Vehicle per Phase
- How many Medals (if you know) you averaged daily from the battles per Phase (here is where levels and Characters help). Just try to get it as close as you can remember.
In short this will vary with the multiple vehicles and Phases, but the numbers will help in overall count. Here is some payout ideas for two of the Vehicles.
HOW OFTEN YOU CHECKED YOUR GAME: This made a HUGE difference in the Event as the more you were in there, the more you collected and reset tasks, the more you earned. Just note on average how many times you played a day.
DID YOU HAVE PUPPY BRIAN: If you got him from a past Event or this one, did you have him to help get drops for the Vehicle Level ups.
MYSTERY BOX: Did you get the 100 Snowflake Medals in the Little Box of Material Joy
SANTA’S LITTLE HELPER QUESTLINE: Did you complete any of this? If so, to what part?
SNOWFLAKE MEDAL DROPPING ITEMS: Did you earn the final two Buildings during Phase 5 in Santa’s Supply Depot? If you did, were any clams spent speeding up their payout? If so, how many?
For Instance…
- Pt. 1- 100 Snowflake Medals
- Pt. 2- 150 Snowflake Medals
MISFIT ROBOTIC TOYS: How many of them did you clear each day with Sarah?
ANY OTHER MEDAL DROPS NOT LISTED: Note any other ways you earned Snowflake Medals that are not already listed.
CLAMS CLAMS CLAMS: This is the part that I think really matters a lot. IF you have Clams in your game, how did they get there? For instance from Jesus, Clam TV, Neighbor Visits, etc. “FREE CLAMS” do not register the same as purchased ones and so if you have some and spend some and the game can’t figure out how you got them, it will flag you… so this info is really important.
BE HONEST: We all know that there ARE Players that may have knowingly or unknowingly used an “outside source” to obtain Materials, Clams, Buildings, Characters, etc in the past… but have since gone legit and are playing completely fair. If this applies to you, just let them know. If TinyCo already gave you a second chance and you are playing completely fair now… you should not continue to be punished.
Now if you did have an “altered” game from the past and during the Event noticed “odd tasks” during Events that randomly dropped Snowflake Medals or other game currency for no reason (and yes I know this happened) then that altered game would have been banned rightfully so as that is most definitely unfair game play and against their practice. If you are still playing an “altered” game and getting ANY help from outside sources including during the Event, that is also unfair game play and will be banned.
Try to supply EXACT numbers or as close to whenever possible so you can then show how they add up much easier. Numbers Numbers Numbers… that total is what they are looking for.
HOW CAN I HELP?
Here is where other players can get involved in helping these Players with some of the details. Keep any eye out to see if you know info or details that another Player is unsure on and if you have the answer, provide it. For instance the payouts for certain Levels of Vehicles. If you have information you can provide to help them, do so in the comments.
RESPONSE TIME?
Once you have your information and have sent it, keep in mind that it WILL take time for them to evaluate and respond. They are only in house and only a handful of people handling those messages, so be patient.
If NO response in 5 days, just send a follow up message. Repeat every 5 days.
Watch for ANY reply, including an autoreply…even if it seems it may not apply, and respond to it if your issue is still needing attention. This will keep you in queue.
In game messaging is always best as all your game stats are linked to the message, however you can email them too if you feel that it is better… but doing so make sure you include all your game info possible to help speed the process. Information like your Player ID is critical (Menu, Account, long number lower right corner). Email help@tinyco.com
Screenshots as well can help. Don’t flood them, just select some you feel may help if you have them.
There you have it. A basic idea of information you can send to TinyCo to help you with getting the Prizes you feel you fairly won. Numbers and Stats always help show proof, so if getting those Prizes is worth it to you… take action to get them. In the meantime, this can also help out ALL Players in the future so TinyCo can fine tune their “cheater net” so innocent Players are not impacted. In short, this will help better the game.
Have something to add to help that I missed? Suggestion of information for others? Need help with some information you are unsure of? Have a breakdown of your game stats that shows how you reached 9000 “Freemium”? Let us know. Help out each other and let’s see if we can get this resolved.
~Bunny
Family Guy Addicts 
Hi Bunny, I know this may not be the best or right place to post but I’m not sure where to post. I have 2 FGQFS games both registered on Game Centre & with email. I deleted from my phone as I wasn’t playing it so often. I wanted to pick the game back up but when I d/l it it started from scratch. I cannot see or remember how to reach my game. I was on approx District 9/10 when I stopped playing. Any help you/ community can give is gratefully received. Thank you. ps before I deleted game I did contact TinyCo ingame to check. They just kept ignoring me & never ever bothered to reply. Thx in advance.
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You will see brand new game when you download the game, load it, play through the tutorial with Peter & Chris, once that’s done you will see the account menu button will appear at the bottom, this is the button full little squares, click on this, then account info and sign in using your original email etc, your previously saved game will then load. There is a step by step guide here: https://familyguyaddicts.com/2014/05/17/where-did-my-game-go/
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RUSSIAN TIGGER – Thank you very very much for replying to me and for replying so quickly. It’s very much appreciated. I’ll probably load up after the current event has passed & play Halloween. You’re a ⭐️….💜X ps. read your post re. leaderboard awards. It was a bit off putting but won’t be an issue for me as I was never very good at it. I had approx 300 clams unused all gained by ads & freebies from TC. I hope they’re still there. I do hope your problem got resolved favourably- bad pr for TC.
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Hi Ella, TinyCo sorted out my problem, and we’re very apologetic, so all good. Current event ends at 3pm PDT today so probably be an update available soon. Your game and clams should be safe, I’ve changed device twice with no issues. Hope see, hear more from you once your back in your game.
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I never did receive a message back so I sent another short one earlier today pretty much just saying I didn’t get the prizes and that I have screenshots that I was qualified when the event ended and left it at that.
Now the new Star Trek leaderboard is up and it says I’m banned. Figured that’s what I’d see on the next one. Still disappointing to play every hour and be tagged as a cheater for using strategy and having more time to log in than the next person.
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Hang in there. They are sweeping the Leaderboards. Should come back soon. 🙂
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So even if they didn’t award the prizes from North Pole event because they falsely think I cheated we may still be able to participate in this and future leaderboards?
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Hang in there… an update to this post coming to the site soon… and GOOD NEWS!! 🙂
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Awesome. Thank you! I really do appreciate you giving us this space to discuss this issue and for deciding to get involved to try to help us out. Looking forward to your update
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Finally got a response from tinyco 3 weeks later saying i cheated, too bad. I’ve been playing this game since the beginning and am always defending them with friends when they finally throw their hands up and quit but this is the last straw i have never cheated and never would as that takes all the fun out of the game. They couldn’t even tell me what i did wrong so i don’t repeat it just a big “f-you too bad you wasted your time playing our game”. I tried explaining the tactics i used from visiting this site combined with constantly logging in but it didn’t matter just got an immediate response of no our system said so but thanks for playing. Sorry to vent but I’m at a loss of what to do at this point because if they could do this now whats to stop them from doing this the next event?
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I do get the frustration. Hang in there. I am still in communication with them on this. Thank you for the update. At this point, don’t message them again just yet… wait. Let me see if there is more I can find out or help with on this end too, K? 🙂
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Thanks hopefully they’ll change their system and sorry about the rant
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Just little update on my situation, no reply from the email full of details sent to TinyCo, but as soon as I hear I will update. Thanks to all for the support, it does feel lousy to be called a cheat when you’ve played honest. But we need to keep at TinyCo to make sure they sort their system that is wrongly flagging hardcore players as cheats. Anyway if I, or Bunny of course, get any feedback we will pass it on. Hope the others in same situation aren’t giving up on the game, although I do understand the temptation to do so.
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Hey all,
I’m just writing in to say thanx to u Russian Tiger for putting it so well! I was accused of cheating in the last leaderboard event b4 Christmas & it’s a really chitty feeling when u know u did your best to play , have fun & win fairly , I wasn’t accused by TC. But still … The problem is , as I explained when it happened to me , is that a lot of the haters are just that, HATERS. It’s because we play , harder, longer (& the one that they just don’t get) SMARTER!! I didn’t really mention it in my post , but since u now have , lol, the easiest way to get the jump on things in events , which I’m sure u do, & I’m always trying to do ,is I always get my Quohogian to start running their next mission or quest early so when it’s time to start their quest , they are either almost done with it or finished already & just need to be tapped on the check to receive credit for it. Obviously u & I both have our other shortcuts & tricks that I’m not going to give away , but those r the things that keep us a step ahead of some of the newer or just less slick , lol, players. Well again buddy, well written, great points , keep up the fun in game & ill c u around town!!
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I was mysteriously banned from the leaderboards right at the end of the mobster event and have been banned from subsequent leaderboards right from the start of those events.
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Just an observation/question for Dr Ulzy & Vicenzo – I’m wondering if you two are confusing the snowflake medals with the silver bells? Nothing was available to purchase with the Snowflake medals. The medals only accumulated a total for the leaderboard so you had no choice but to save them because they could not be used for anything else. The silver bells were the currency used for the various buildings and deco’s that were available in the shopping cart.
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I agree with russian tiger as I’m also wrongly accused of cheating due to my ability of playing this game successfully without buying clams and not cheating.
Tinyco responded my message and they need my prove of buying clams so I don’t know what else I can convince them to believe me.
Here are some of my methods:
1) Vehicles
Hummer – Level 15 maximum. Santa
Hovercraft – Level 14. Sarah
Truck – Level 16. Snake and Kevin Swanson
Tank – Level 6. Herbert
Chopper – Level 5. Quagmire
2) Gamechecks – Around 12 or more per day as I work as a freelancer.
3) Puppy Brian – I used his task to collect the items to upgrade the trucks.
4) Santas Helper – I completed Level 3 questline
5) Snowflakes – I had more than enough snowflakes as not much items interested me to buy.
6) Clams started with 600 Free clams. Videos provided 1-2 clams per day. 30 clams as a christmas present from Tinyco. I then used 350 clams to buy Jesus,
7) Total score, somewhere around 8,890. No cheats, no hacks but glitches that banned me from accessing my game at least a day.
Final observations:
I had never cheated due to me having enough free clams at the beginning. I was struggling to keep up at first but then later it got easier for me to catch up and I was able to complete the challenges and I earned around 500 medals.
The Farming Method:
I was able to unlock the last 2 buildings that provided medals in 4 and 6 hours time.
Thank you Bunny and clammers for providing this post to help us.
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Thanks for putting this together.
Did the Gingerbread buildings drop any snowflake medals when they were first placed from the cart? the Goody Gumdrop building, Gingerbread Shack, and Gingerbread trailer. thought I saw something mentioned about it recently but haven’t found any numbers. I only had 1 of each and don’t remember if they dropped anything when I placed them. Anything else that gave snowflake medals when placed? I ended up with a whole pile of silver bells I didn’t use, so I missed out on some medals if that was the deal.
Here are the numbers for the rest of the Santa’s Little Helper questline for anyone wondering.
Part 1: 100 medals | 100
Part 2: 150 medals | 250
Part 3: 250 medals | 500
Part 4: 300 medals | 800
Part 5: 350 medals | 1150
Part 6: 400 medals | 1550 total
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Still wondering about these gingerbread buildings if anyone is still looking at this thread and can help.
My first two messages a few weeks back were not answered, but I still need to get a detailed message to them put together and have been hoping maybe someone would have some more numbers to post here. I know about how many I had from the medal giving buildings the last week, and also from the santas little helper questline. That still leaves the bulk of my medals to the battles and still unknown if any of the decos or buildings from the Cart dropped some number of medals when first placed.
Seems like a number of the people who had originally said they didn’t receive prizes in the leaderboard prizes thread have not checked in here. Did you just give up?
Does anyone have any sort of updates? Has anyone that sent more info heard back anything at all from TinyCo recently?
Bueller? …… Bueller? …… Bueller? …..
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Only the two in the Supply Depot dropped them really. The rest were Snowflake dropping. I’ll double check through the Event content… you can find it too on the Weekly phase releases on the Raid to North Pole Event Page. I list drops next to the building/ deco if drops were available for it.
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Thanks. I’ve looked through everything posted for the event a time or three at this point and can’t find anything that indicated any deco’s or those gingerbread buildings dropped snowflake medals when placed at the initial purchase. I lost track of where it was posted but there was comment made by someone on this site that stuff was dropping medals and thought it might be plausible since past leaderboard events gave leaderboard currency with some deco’s – like the bamboo, hedges etc during the mobsters event. I think this was probably another instance where the snowflake medals were confused with the silver bells. I think you’re right that it was just those last two buildings from the supply depot.
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Hi bunny hope your feeling better? Could you please tell me what place on the leaderboard did you need to be to get the prizes? Am I wrong in thinking finishing on the leaderboard you got Chugg’s and top 100 got elf? (Sorry to bug you but can’t find info,I don’t want to message tiny con again if I’m wrong)Thanks.
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I do not know what the final “Counts” were as far as where the cut off was. I just know I was around 6500 and I got just Chuggs.
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Here’s my skinny:
Vehicles:
I set all my vehicles to “farm” mode as soon as I worked out the strat. I’d level them to take one less tower than the kill so I could max the upgrade token rewards.
Hummer Maxed, Running Santa only
Hovercraft – 14-16? Running Sarah only, killing only 3 towers per go. I saved tokens till I had enough to upgrade it more than once so I could go straight back to 3 tower kills
Truck – 14-16? Same as hovercraft, though the quicker battles made it easier to level
Tank – 5 or 6? Maybe a little higher. Using Herbert only, again saving tokens for 3 or 4 upgrades to take only 4 of the 5 towers per battle.
Chopper – No idea. 4 or 5. Same as all the others, I sent Quagmire only and only upgraded when I could boost the level 3 times.
Gamechecks – Frequent. Hourly or more 16 hours per day.
Puppy Brian, yes mostly farming for the truck upgrades. At times he was needed for others, but mostly the truck as it was quicker returns.
Santas Helper – Level 2 I think. I never destroyed the Toyshop as it was too damaging to the farm method
Snowflakes – YES! I saved every damn snowflake I could. I got Lyall, but never bought a building with snowflakes as there was no value in it. In the final phase I bought the second last building on day ONE of that phase (20 medals) then had 24hrs to get 1400 snowflakes. Because of the FARM method I had that in about 20 hours. So I had 5 or 6 DAYS of farming medals from buildings. whats that, 20 * 5 per day * 6 days is 600, plus 3 * 50 per day times 5 is 750, so over 1300 just from the buildings.
Clams started with about 300 Free clams for videos – 3 -6 per day. Jesus – 1 every 3 days, 30 as a christmas present from TinyCo. I spent them on the building that gave 9 hats every 4 hours and the building that gave the fuel for the hovercraft (which was a poor decision, but it was too late). Ended with about 200 clams.
Total score, somewhere around 9500. No cheats, no hacks, no glitches that helped (my hovercraft got reset once, but it got restored within 24h)
Final observations:
I played this EXACTLY the same in another game, except the starter clams were from a previous purchase. The only difference was that I took time out to do the challenges, which cost me some medals. Ended maybe 100 less medals
The Farming Method:
I saved ALL my drops (i forget them all now) until I actually needed the next building, then I spent them all, picking the present option that used my most numerous gift, and continuing till I had bottomed them out. This maxxed the presents in one sitting more efficiently than just trading whatever I could afford at the time. The cost was the same, but it meant less waiting for things to build up. This was how I got the last medal building on the timer – carefully picking presents to max the return.
Sigh. Now I have to cut & paste for TinyCo.
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Why on Bunny’s earth is the comment box down there?! – Yes has been a while.
I don’t know, I felt like being pushed suddenly during the Christmas Leader Board thing. Event though I never did care about the prices.
My advice don’t spend money on a game you like, because you will always get, or feel like you got cheated anyway.
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WordPress changed the format we use, so it is a new one.
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i was mostly a freemium until the the glitch, but during the glitch, the only battle vehicle i had was the nutcraker one. once i saw how many medals i could get with the nutcracker compared to what i could get with the other two, i stopped using them after they came back from the glitch. i also did not upgrade the vehicle on a regularly, as what i saw from the other battle vehicles was harder to get medals and more people needed to get medals. the nutcraker vehicle was the only vehicle i actually did fully upgrade. once i fully upgraded the nutcraker vehicle i only needed one person to get a boat load of medals. i had a timer set to make sure all i did was go in and collect the nutcraker vehicle and send it right back into battle, i usually did nothing else most of the time. since the upgrading of the battle vehicle was not automatically done, i didn’t do it when it was ready to be upgraded. i used bunny’s guide to see how many of the updrade items i would need to jump right to the next color roof/tree, and would only upgrade when i had enough items. my friends who also play the game could not understand why i wouldn’t upgrade my vehicle if i had enough items to, they also did not undrrstand how i had so many medals. all of my friends focused on upgrading the the first two battle vehicles. i would have to go back and look at bunny’s list to see how many medals were give per stage and level, but i do know that i could send the nutcraker on 3 battles in the same time it took the hovercraft to do one battle, and i was already getting 5 to 6 times more medals for one nutcraker battle than one hovercraft battle, put that with the fact i was doing 3 battles to 1 battle, that gave me 15 to 18 times more medals from the nutcraker vehicle than the hovercraft vehicle. i was running in the 90 to 100 postion on the leaderboard, when ever i would drop below 100 after the glitch, i would use clams to speed up my nutcraker vehicle, to get back to 90.
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I got 8000+ doing many of the same things as Russian Tigger with even less efficiency and didn’t complete all of the SANTA’S LITTLE HELPER QUESTLINE, was pleased to be pushed in to the second prize tier after the results were calculated and was really happy to receive my worthless prize.
One thing both info requests are missing though, the battles needed items. Even if somehow they were dropping 100% (come on this is TinyCo) there was a logjam? My Humma was idle because I couldn’t use Peter to collect the necessary item and Chris just stopped contributing for long periods (as Quagmire has during the current event). Nutcracker truck was idle waiting for items, Gingerbread truck had to wait for Herbert and I had to alternate Lois? to collect items for the other two. Is this not the real source of contention because I’m always reading about how the item drops vary between games and if one game is ‘luckier’ they’re going to be able to complete more battles and appear differently than a game doing exactly the same things.
P.S. Herbert should have been dragged and dropped next to the Gingerbread Men 😉
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I was able to get Chuggs with room to spare and I wasn’t even really trying hard at the end (I felt like I was basically locked in with a day or two to go, unable to move up or fall down). This was after barely being able to play for the first week of the event (I was out of town) and falling a few days behind. All my efforts were put into getting caught up and I wasn’t worried about collecting medals. I was able to catch up and ended up with something like 2,000 extra presents. I know presents and medals aren’t the same but just saying it it was possible to catch up to that point. If you were playing regularly and concentrating on medals I don’t think it would be that hard to get the top prize with no (or minimal) clams spent.
Your ” clams clams clams” section got me thinking though. Awhile back someone mentioned having their clams taken away and being accused of using a hacked game. I want to say they had 1,000-1,500 clams and TC told them there was no way they could have gotten so many for free. Well, earlier this week I surpassed 2,000 freemium earned clams. (I’ve since spent 250 on Tom Brady.) That’s from Jesus, neighbors, and clam tv. I’ve been hoarding them because there hasn’t been anything that I wanted to spend them on. I sure hope my game isn’t flagged for earning clams from the game!
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I got over 6000 medals as a freemium player and not playing during sleep and work hours. Enough to get Chugzz. 9000 definitely seems feasible.
My concern with Tinyco is that they seem to be really bad at basic math. We have seen this time and time again. Remember the 16 vampires in 24 hours challenge?
The leaderboards bug early in the event where everyone was banned was also a little disconcerting.
Clams earned through methods not involving direct payment (i.e. watching video ads) should not be a reason for punishment.
I hope everyone that legitimately earned prizes is compensated but it really shouldn’t come down to this.
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I really feel for you guys who did qualify and played the game without cheating. I got just under 8000 medals and didn’t even make the leader board. I do however think something needs to be done with this as 80, 000 + medals is questionable and honest players get penalized Good luck with your quest to get what’s rightfully yours
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So sorry, don’t really remember all the details, but I was actually surprised at how easy it was to earn medals, especially in the end with the two buildings, and also via the medal questline. I didn’t really try all that hard and ended up somewhere in the middle of the last tier, and got Chuggs. I did spend clams on the two terminators, though, and I also bought some during the event, maybe that makes all the difference?
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I can’t possibly remember all the details of which battle which level etc, all I know is I was on top of the game playing every couple of hours and I was always at least 200 medals shy of the bottom (# 5000 I think) I don’t know how everyone managed to be so far up like in the top 100 , probably by spending a boatload of clams. Which I did not do. Also there were a lot of crashes which I hadn’t experienced before . One thing that really grinded my gears was that you could send 2 characters into battle and receive no prize. I did communicate w tiny co a couple times during the game with no help basically they were a day late and a few clams short in their responses . I’ve been playing almost since day one with all of you and have kept my comments to myself mostly but I’m starting to lose my tenacity with all this hoopla. I really feel sorry for you guys like Russian tiger who have been accused of cheating when they haven’t. You really have to have a lot of spare time on your hands just to keep up in this game, I mean ALOT! Or be sitting at the computer all day and night. Anyway thanks for all your help Bunny and Allissa these past two years. Sometimes I’ve enjoyed this site more than the game itself.
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Is there anything to do if they just don’t reply at all? I’ve sent messages every few days, not quite as detailed as this but detailing how I strategized to get maximum payouts, and have heard literally NOTHING back in response.
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Stop sending messages everyday. You are just flooding the message system and causing more of a delay. One message only, wait at least 5 business days… then follow up… repeat.
Reply to ANY response, including an auto reply to keep in queue.
Keep in mind this is not a simple Q&A, it takes time to go into individual games and pick them apart. A lot of time, so… give them time.
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I waited patiently for the prizes at first, and waited 5 days the first contact. Didn’t receive any response of any sort to that first one, or the one sent a week afterwards. I did admittedly get a bit frustrated by absolutely no response after that.
sent 1/14 – no response
sent 1/19 – no response
sent 1/20 – no response
sent 1/21 – no response
Nothing since then, and no response to any of the 4 messages sent. I’m kind of at my wit’s end for this.
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I know it is frustrating, all I can offer is to try to be patient and wait. Give them time to look into all those with the same exact issue writing in.
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Had a little over 9000 on my freemium and just got a reply ; sorry you wasn’t qualified; Why do they make us hope if it’s a clamboard?!?
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You can try to go through these tips and ask them to look again if they apply to you.
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That can’t be possible. I had 5039 medals and got Chuggs. I was barely on the leaderboard, about 100 positions above the bottom of the last tier, early the last day of the event. The counter stopped working for the rankings so I have no idea where I was by the end. But with over 9000 medals, you had to qualify. And I agree, 9000 medals is quite feasible freemium. I didn’t do a lot of things that could have significantly increased my medal count, because I assumed I would never qualify for the leaderboard prizes anyway so didn’t focus on medals.
I don’t understand why they can’t just automatically track the in-game sources of earned clams and also items like the medals. Can’t the clams earned with clam TV, Ollieland, and quests/tasks be registered somewhere and attached to a particular user? Ditto for the sources of medals. If they are using the numbers to ban people from the leaderboard, they really need better data. I would like to build up a stash of earned clams eventually so I can buy characters or buildings that I want, but I’m concerned that this will get me labeled a cheater – in an earlier event, that seems to be how they decided, people were being banned for having a few hundred clams and had their clam stash reduced. Their math doesn’t seem realistic, with regard to number of clams or number of medals.
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I feel for all you players out there who rightfully won a prize and did not receive it. Can feel pretty awful. Even though this is just a game, we as serious players put a lot of time into it and as everyone knows, time is money. I had this happen to me wrongfully during the first ever leaderboards during the mob event. First two or three times that I messaged them after I was wrongfully banned they came back at me with something along the lines of “we know you cheated, you will never get unbanned, so stop even trying.” I never stopped trying, I came at them with more and more detailed information and low and behold they unbanned me after explicitly stating it would never happen. I got my prize in the end but it was quite a frustrating process. I was banned for about two weeks total. So basically keep trying and I do know the struggle and feel for you players. Sucks that actual cheaters have to cause this problem for us in the first place. Hope everyone gets their issue resolved.
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I was on the 2nd tie for prizes. No where near the first tier to get robotic elf. I got the elf anyhow.
If it’s any consolation, the elf is dumb. If I could give it to Russian Tigger or anyone else who worked hard and got cheated, I would.
I constantly was messaging tinyco to leave santa and Peter in the humma, quit popping them out for dumb questlines. I even growled grrrrrrr at them once. I wonder if this is why the elf was awarded.
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