Maximizing elf return

I think this is a good idea. Saving means we'll get more bells per elf. I haven't run out yet, but I'm pretty close and expect to either today or tomorrow. With almost 13 days left, doesn't hurt to try for a couple days.

The other thing that could burn you is if EA decides to up increase the number of elves available - then we may be stuck with too many elves. But as has been pointed out, there is a lot of time to the end so you can adopt a wait-and-see strategy at least for a few days.

I think my next upgrade costs 340 cogs, and it's to decrease cooldown. The next upgrade will cost even more, so waiting for that might drive me nuts. It's probably a good idea, but I'm well ahead of the daily bell chart, so I won't worry about it.

I've been tracking "elf production" over the last few days. I ensured that every elf was collected until I got the "no more" message (this involved turning off all buildings, props and ground textures so the eleves hidden behind buildings, and there are a lot of them, are visible).

The current rate is 3 elves / 15 min or 12 elves/hr. Plus there are the additional 4 elves every 4 hrs. So that works out to 52 elves every 4 hours. (Which also happens to be the max cap, since when I left the game alone for more than 12 hours, that is what the max was). This can be as much as 312/d.

So here's the math:

Assume a player is diligent/obsessive compulsive/has no life and hits the cannon as soon as cool down expires and doesn't sleep (so over a 24h period)
- At level 1, they get 6 firings a day, consuming 162 elves with 150 leftover. Total daily bell earning = 324/day
- at level 20, they get 12 firings a day, consuming 540 elves, a deficit of 228; this is impossible so earning caps out at 312*(bells per elf)=2496 Bells/day

At this Rate, the magic level one would assume to halt (where elf consumption exceeds production) is level 13.

But my assumptions are unrealistic so let's make some realistic assumptions.
1) people like 8 hours of sleep
So instead of a 24h window, it is 16. Elf production maxes out at 260 (because when you stop playing, the world will accumulate to the max allotment, so you get 20 hours of production vs 16 hours of consumption)

With this assumption, The magic tipping point actually gets pushed out to level 17.

Now let's look at rate of Returns, not just elf availability.
If you stopped at level 13 (as per the original formula) for every day you do not upgrade, you are losing 312-624 bells (the daily elf max production * bells earned per elf difference). If this is your strategy, you are better off stopping at level 15 instead, The next bell/elf upgrade point) and take your losses.

If you stopped at level 17, you are only losing out at 260 bells/day. By this level, you will only Have a couple days left in the event, so it would be silly to stop upgrading.

Honestly, the math is more complex than I'm presenting and my spreadsheet I've been working with takes more variables into account. I just wanted to make the point that stopping Cannon upgrades is an unwise tactic. In addition, The reduction of elf production is a fallacy; currently they are being produced at a constant rate regardless of level. I toI originally thought that elves were not being produced consistently and were decreasing in rate. It wasn't until I searched until completion that I discovered they are being produced consistently in volume, just that they were hiding from sight due to the environment I created in my city.

So the only tactic I truly would recommend is:
1) turn off the textures Of everything but characters when hunting for elves.
2) grab elves from the cave as soon as possible
3) hunt until completion (notified the town is empty)
4) once town is empty then fire Cannon (once above level 13, there will be times you won't get 3 firings)
5) go to friends towns and only tap on their cannon and/or cave. If either isn't available, skip their town this time around this is significant, as it can earn around 400-600+ bells per day alone. Just following this rule alone for the duration of the event would gain you 10000-12000 bells!)
6) wait for the next cool down period and repeat steps 1-5.

Following this tactic should get all the rewards with 2-3 days to spare.

Thank you for explaining this so clearly. It would be great if this could be added to one of the stickies at the top of the Game Discussion page as it will help a lot of players. :-)

EDIT: reread cannon guide. Info I gave was incorrect, thus post obsolete.

Has anybody been able to work out if it is better to leave firing your cannon until near the very end of its cooldown period - thus leaving the floating icon there for visiting neighbours to tap - and for you to wait and collect on?

Or even only firing two shots so that the icon is still there?

Just curious if this would help.

thatdonald845 wrote:
Has anybody been able to work out if it is better to leave firing your cannon until near the very end of its cooldown period - thus leaving the floating icon there for visiting neighbours to tap - and for you to wait and collect on?

Or even only firing two shots so that the icon is still there?

No, don't do that. Neighbours can tap your cannon regardless of whether it is in cooldown or not -- the only limit is that they can't tap it if it already has a handshake. So your goal is to clear the handshake as fast as possible regardless of when it appears. (This is where the "X has visited your Springfield" push notifications are actually useful.)


Personally, I've never had a problem keeping a surplus of elves -- it's been slowly growing in fact, and I'm now at ~250 extra. I'm probably not firing the cannon as often as I could, but I'm still maintaining a bell income ahead of the daily chart. So unless you're desperate to get to the free donuts at the end (assuming they do that again) I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you're behind the chart.

Agreed. Clear the handshakes as fast as possible. Each clearing of the combined Cave/cannon nets 10-15 bells. If you have 100 friends and they all followed the same tactic, it would net you 1000-1500 Bells per day just for clearing the cannon/cave alone (so technically, you could get all prizes without firing a single shot if that was done since day 1)

It's a bit of big numbers theorem an a bit of a pyramid scheme. So when people panic that they won't get everything, they just aren't looking at all the logical opportunities to maximize bell return (remember, it doesn't Matter how many elves you get rid of, unless you want bragging rights on the leaderboards; bell accumulation is the only currency that matters)

kellyfennig wrote:
I've been tracking "elf production" over the last few days. I ensured that every elf was collected until I got the "no more" message (this involved turning off all buildings, props and ground textures so the eleves hidden behind buildings, and there are a lot of them, are visible).

The current rate is 3 elves / 15 min or 12 elves/hr. Plus there are the additional 4 elves every 4 hrs. So that works out to 52 elves every 4 hours. (Which also happens to be the max cap, since when I left the game alone for more than 12 hours, that is what the max was). This can be as much as 312/d.

If this is the rate you're getting, consider yourself lucky. Most people are getting only 6 elves/hour, as indicated in a number of other threads on this forum.