2023 Fall Event Minigame & Strategy Guide!
Hello! My name is MooingCat and welcome to my minigame tutorial and event strategies for the 2023 Fall Event! In this guide I will go through all the rewards you can get in this event, I'll guide you through the mechanics of the minigame, and go over strategies on how to get the most out of the event!
You can also check out my videos on the event:
Table of Contents
Event Rewards
Let's start by quickly looking at the rewards, because there are some really good ones this event!
If you want to check out all the new buildings in my sortable table, you can use this short link: https://mooingcatguides.com/fall-buildings-23
Main Building: Autumn Vineyard
The Autumn Vineyard is a 3x7 building with 11 levels. You love the "Golden" upgrades, right?? Well! This time around you're also treated with a "Silver" upgrade kit, which means you need 2 special kits to fully level the building! Yay! Let's first look at the Level 9 building:
Note: Where values depend on age, they will be displayed as "BA-SAT" values.
Autumn Vineyard Level 9:
- Size: 3x7 (road required)
- Population, Happiness, Coins, Supplies
- 17-21 Forge Points (0.76-0.93 per tile)
- 70 Goods (3.11 per tile)
- 3 BPs (of your age or higher)
- 5 Fragments for Autumn Vineyard Silver Upgrade Kit (150 required = 30 days)
- Random chance:
- 50%: 1 Fragment of Shroom Throne (100 required = 200 days)
- 50%: 1 Fragment of Granny Aurora's Apple Tree (100 required = 200 days)
- 26-30% Attack for Attacking Army (1.16-1.33 per tile)
- 26-30% Attack for City Defense (1.16-1.33 per tile)
When upgraded to level 10 with the silver upgrade kit, the building turns into the Rustic Autumn Vineyard:
Autumn Vineyard Level 10: Rustic
- Size: 3x7 (road required)
- Population, Happiness, Coins, Supplies
- 19-23 Forge Points (0.84-1.02 per tile)
- 80 Goods (3.56 per tile)
- 6 BPs (of your age or higher)
- 5 Fragments for Autumn Vineyard Golden Upgrade Kit (150 required = 30 days)
- Random chance:
- 50%: 2 Fragments of Shroom Throne (100 required = 100 days)
- 50%: 2 Fragments of Granny Aurora's Apple Tree (100 required = 100 days)
- 32-36% Attack for Attacking Army (1.42-1.60 per tile)
- 33-37% Attack for City Defense (1.47-1.64 per tile)
When upgraded to level 11 with the golden upgrade kit, the building turns into the Vibrant Autumn Vineyard:
Autumn Vineyard Level 11: Vibrant
- Size: 3x7 (road required)
- Population, Happiness, Coins, Supplies
- 21-25 Forge Points (0.93-1.11 per tile)
- 90 Goods (4.00 per tile)
- 10 BPs (of your age or higher)
- Random chance:
- 50%: 3 Fragments of Shroom Throne (100 required = 67 days)
- 50%: 3 Fragments of Granny Aurora's Apple Tree (100 required = 67 days)
- 38-42% Attack for Attacking Army (1.69-1.87 per tile)
- 40-44% Attack for City Defense (1.78-1.96 per tile)
For a full comparison with other buildings check out my sortable table!
The level 9 building is already really good, with a really good amount of fps, goods, and a decent attack boost. Don't sleep on the Shroom Throne and Granny Aurora's Apple Tree either - more on those right below! In at most 2 months, you'll be able to level the building up to its final level, but you will get some fragments from the event itself, so it won't even take that long!
New Buildings: Shroom Throne & Granny Aurora's Apple Tree
As you can see in the chapter above, the main building produces fragments for 2 small new buildings! Both of these are really good, but for different reasons. The Granny Aurora's Apple Tree ... let's just call it GAAT ... might not have the most exciting stats, but it produces fragments of another new building, the Cider Garden, which is really good! The Shroom Throne also produces fragments of a really good building, the Jumpin' Pumpkin, but it also has really good bonuses!
Shroom Throne (level 1)
- Size: 1x1 (road required)
- 5 Goods (3.33 per tile)
- 3 Fragments of Jumpin' Pumpkin (100 required = 33 days)
- 1-3% Attack for Attacking Army (0.67-2.0 per tile)
- 2-4% Defense for Attacking Army (1.33-2.67 per tile)
Granny Aurora's Apple Tree (level 1)
- Size: 1x1 (road required)
- 1 Forge Point (0.67 per tile)
- 3 Fragments of Cider Garden (100 required = 33 days)
- 2-4% Attack for City Defense (1.33-2.67 per tile)
- 2-4% Defense for City Defense (1.33-2.67 per tile)
New Buildings: Jumpin' Pumpkin & Cider Garden
Yup, we have yet another two buildings, both of which are amazing! The Jumpin' Pumpkin is a 2x2 (supply) production building, that also has very high attack boosts! This makes it a great Blacksmith replacement! The only downside is a very high population and happiness requirement, but I think a lot of players will be able to fit in 10-15 of these, which will be great for productions during events. The Cider Garden is also no slacker, with high attack boosts, forge points, and light unit productions!
Jumpin' Pumpkin (Level 1)
- Size: 2x2 (road required)
- Requirement: 324 to 20196 Population
- Requirement: 1090 to 24510 Happiness (for enthusiasm)
- 9-13% Attack for Attacking Army (1.8-2.6 per tile)
- 6-10% Attack for City Defense (1.2-2.0 per tile)
- 12-16% Defense for City Defense (2.4-3.2 per tile)
- 5 min, 15 min, 1 hour, 4 hour, 8 hour, 24 hour supply productions
Cider Garden (level 1)
- Size: 2x2 (no road required)
- 3 Forge Points (0.75 per tile)
- Random chance:
- 50%: 5 Current Age Light Units*
- 50%: 1 Next Age Light Unit*
- 5-9% Attack for Attacking Army (1.25-2.25 per tile)
- 9-13% Defense for Attacking Army (2.25-3.25 per tile)
- 8-12% Attack for City Defense (2.0-3.0 per tile)
* In SAT it gives 3 light units or 3 rogues
New Building: Grape Stompin' Festival
Yup ... we're not done yet xD There is one more building, exclusively for the Professional (top 5%) and Star Baker (top 1%) Leagues. In Professinal League you get the level 1 building, in the Star Baker League you get the level 2 building (directly, no upgrade kit).
Grape Stompin' Festival Lv. 1
- Size: 3x2 (no road required)
- 15 Forge Points (2.5 per tile)
- 27 Goods (4.5 per tile)
- Random chance:
- 90%: 10 Fragments of Autumn Vineyard Selection Kit (150 required = 16.7 days, 150 days for 9 levels)
- 10%: 10 Fragments of Autumn Vineyard Silver Upgrade Kit (150 required = 150 days)
- 18% Attack for Attacking Army (3.0 per tile)
- 24% Attack for City Defense (4.0 per tile)
Grape Stompin' Festival Lv. 2
- Size: 3x2 (no road required)
- 21 Forge Points (3.5 per tile)
- 33 Goods (5.5 per tile)
- Random chance:
- 82%: 20 Fragments of Autumn Vineyard Selection Kit (150 required = 9.1 days, 82 days for 9 levels)
- 9%: 20 Fragments of Autumn Vineyard Silver Upgrade Kit (150 required = 83 days)
- 9%: 20 Fragments of Autumn Vineyard Golden Upgrade Kit (150 required = 83 days)
- 30% Attack for Attacking Army (5.0 per tile)
- 36% Attack for City Defense (6.0 per tile)
Grand Prizes & Milestones
To get the main building fully leveled you need at least 280 progress towards grand prizes. This will give you 1(!) upgrade from Milestones, level 1 + 7 regular upgrade kits from grand prizes, plus 60 silver upgrade kit fragments and 50 golden upgrade kit fragments. If you reach 300 progress you'll get the new golden upgrade kit for the Sunflower Oil Press!
If you get to 420 progress you will get all the 150 silver upgrade fragments you need, though as mentioned the level 9 building will produce these. If you get to 500 progress, you will get all 150 golden upgrade fragments, but again you will also get these from the level 10 building.
The Grand Prizes will first have a few unique rewards, before it starts looping between 320 and 640 progress.
| Progress | Rewards (Unique) |
|---|---|
| 0 | Autumn Vineyard Level 1 |
| 20 | 50 Forge Points |
| 40 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 60 | 1 Minigame Wooden Spoon |
| 80 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 100 | Croissant Carl Portrait |
| 120 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 140 | 30 Autumn Vinyard Silver Upgrade Fragments |
| 160 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 180 | 25 Autumn Vinyard Golden Upgrade Fragments |
| 200 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 220 | 30 Autumn Vinyard Silver Upgrade Fragments |
| 240 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 260 | 25 Autumn Vinyard Golden Upgrade Fragments |
| 280 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 300 | Sunflower Oil Press Golden Upgrade |
| Progress | Rewards (Looping) |
|---|---|
| 320 | Autumn Vineyard Level 1 |
| 340 | 45 Autumn Vinyard Silver Upgrade Fragments |
| 360 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 380 | 25 Autumn Vinyard Golden Upgrade Fragments |
| 400 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 420 | 45 Autumn Vinyard Silver Upgrade Fragments |
| 440 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 460 | 35 Autumn Vinyard Golden Upgrade Fragments |
| 480 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 500 | 40 Autumn Vinyard Golden Upgrade Fragments |
| 520 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 540 | 40 Goods |
| 560 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 580 | 10 Blueprints |
| 600 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
| 620 | 50 Forge Points |
| 640 | Autumn Vineyard Upgrade Kit |
Daily Specials
There are a lot of daily specials that can be considered good, so for a complete list check out the fandom wiki ("list of possible Switched Prizes"). Below are a select few of my top recommendations:
- Harvest Farm/Harvest Fields/Epic Fall Kit: My top pick for this event is the fall set - I still think it's a really good investment, and you actually have 3 different daily specials that give them! Due to the nature of this event, this means you can pick up considerably more than if it was just a single option.
- Donkey Enclosure: A good mix of defense for attacking army and unit production.
- Sunflower Oil Press/Epic Fall Kit: With the new golden upgrade kit, this is a really decent option for attack, fps, goods, and unit production.
You can compare all the available buildings from daily specials in my sortable table. For all available event buildings + daily specials, you can use the following link: https://mooingcatguides.com/fall-buildings
Leagues
This event has a league system based on points you get from breaking blocks and collecting jars (chests) and coffee cups.
The points required on beta are not usually a good estimate for live servers.
Quest "Cheat List"
Below you'll find my "cheat list" for the quests in this event. This is not a complete list of quests, that you can find here on the fandom wiki. This is a list of quests you might need to plan ahead for, but I always recommend that you check out the complete list yourself to see if there are any other quests you might find challenging. Also, only the "difficult" part of a quest will be shown. For example, a part like "pay X coins" will not be included.
Event Mechanics - Minigame Tutorial!
The event mechanics are based on the Wildlife Event mechanics, but with a few improvements to make it easier to play! Still, if you have played the Wildlife Event before you should have a good understanding of how it works. It can still be quite a difficult minigame to play at times, so here is my tutorial on the minigame!
Currency: Spoons & Sacks of Flour
This event has two "currencies". You need "Wooden/Golden Spoons" (tickets) to play the minigame, and within the minigame you have a few different ways to spend "Sacks of Flour" (coins) to help you out.
Sacks of Flour:
- Starting: 200
- Daily Logins: 24*10 = 240
- Rush Quests: 30*10 = 300
- Daily Quests: 14*20 = 280
- Milestone: 100+150
- Total: 1270 Sacks of Flour
You can also get Sacks of Flour from Incidents and Daily Challenges.
Sacks of Flour Diamond Costs:
- 100 Sacks of Flour for 150 Diamonds
- 400 Sacks of Flour for 500 Diamonds
- 2000 Sacks of Flour for 2400 Diamonds
You generate a free Wooden Spoon every 8 hours, but only as long as you have less than 4 already. So in order to play as many games as possible, you need to play every day.
Wooden Spoons:
- Starting: 4
- Rush Quests: 11
- Daily Quests: 7
- Grand Prizes: 1 (for free)
- Free Daily Wooden Spoons: up to 3*21 - 1 = 62
- Total: up to 85 Wooden Spoons
This event also has "Golden Spoons", more on those in the next chapter! You can get 3 of these from Milestones, and a very small chance from Daily Challenges (0.6 golden spoons on average for the entire event)
Wooden Spoons Diamond Costs:
- 1 Wooden Spoon for 200 Diamonds
- 4 Wooden Spoons for 750 Diamonds
- 10 Wooden Spoons for 1800 Diamonds
Starting a Board (Wooden + Golden Spoons)
To start playing the minigame, you must use a "Wooden Spoon" by pressing the "Start" button. Once used, you will have 25 free moves (or "pops") on the generated board.
New this year is a special "Golden Spoon". This is a very rare, but also very powerful ticket to the minigame. After activating it, you can start as many boards as you want within a 5 minute time limit, no Wooden Spoons required. This is definitely hectic, but if you know what you're doing you can get a lot out of it! I wasn't particularly happy with my use of them on Beta, but I still managed to get around 20 Coffee Cups each! It's worth keeping in mind that you only have to start a board within the 5 minute time window for it to be free, so for the final game you can spend as much time as you want. During the 5 minute period, my recommendation is to play fast and suboptimally, it's better to start as many games as possible. Go for the low-hanging fruits, don't spend lots of time thinking about the best moves!
Pro Tip: On browser, you can cancel the block-dropping animation and collect all the chests at once by clicking anywhere outside the minigame window. This will immediately close the window and you will get all reward popups at once, then when you re-enter the minigame all the animations are completed. Animations take a lot of time when you have a 5 minute time window, so it can definitely be worth doing when you are using a Golden Spoon. To get the absolute most out of this, you should try making big groups of rewards that drop down with a single pop, then you can "skip" all at once. However, if you spend a lot of time figuring this out, you might lose the time you save. Also, when using this trick you can't see the blocks for a few seconds, so it might take more time to figure out your next move. So my recommendation is to try it when using wooden spoons, practice, to see how you feel about it and if it will actually save you time in the end!
Popping Blocks (Coffee Cups + Jars)
The main goal of the minigame is to "pop" blocks to collect Coffee Cups and Jars (chests). Any group of 2 or more blocks of the same color can be popped. In total there are 5 different colors, however only 4 will be available on each board. This is a huge change from the Wildlife event, and it will make the minigame a lot easier to play! Blocks above the popped blocks will drop down to fill the now empty spaces, and new random blocks will spawn from the top. Each time a new block spawns, it has a low chance of being a Coffee Cup.
If you pop groups of 5 or more blocks you create a Jar, which you can collect to get rewards, including a chance for the Daily Special. The Daily Special chance increases based on the size of the group of blocks, for a full list of rewards check out the fandom wiki. In total there are 6 "tiers" of Jars:
- 5 Blocks = 1 Star Jar (2% Daily Special Chance)
- 6 Blocks = 2 Stars Jar (3% Daily Special Chance)
- 7 Blocks = 3 Stars Jar (4% Daily Special Chance)
- 8 Blocks = 4 Stars Jar (5% Daily Special Chance)
- 9 Blocks = 5 Stars Jar (6% Daily Special Chance)
- (NEW) 15 Blocks = 6 Stars Jar (16% Daily Special Chance)
The new 6-star Jars have a really high chance of giving the Daily Special, so you should definitely aim to generate these. It can be a bit challenging at times, but with the new limitation of only 4 colors on each board, it's actually not that difficult to generate a few of these on each board.
To collect Coffee Cups and Jars you must drop them all the way to the bottom of the board.
Extra Moves
At the end of each board, you can choose to finish the board, or spend 65 Sacks of Flour to buy 10 additional moves. My recommendation is to spend most or even all of your Sacks of Flour on these additional moves.
You have 1270 Sacks of Flour, which spread over 85 games is 14.9 per game. In other words, you can spend 65 Sacks of Flour for additional moves every 4.35 games. With some Sacks of Flour here and there from incidents and daily challenges, that's probably closer to once every 4 games. That doesn't mean you should only spend every 4th game, but that's roughly how frequently you can spend. And it also doesn't mean you should limit yourself to buying 10 moves after a game, if you think an additional 10 will help.
Boosters
If you are stuck, you can use special Boosters to help you out, without using up any moves. The Boosters have been slightly changed from the Wildlife Event:
- Fork: Same as the Hammer in the Wildlife Event, it removes any 1 block.
- Spatula: Removes all blocks from the selected row (left to right).
- Rolling Pin: Removes all blocks from the selected column (top to bottom).
Note: The Spatula and Rolling Pin do not remove Coffee Cups or Jars, but they will remove all other blocks in the row/column.
You start with a limited number of these, and the cost of buying more really isn't worth it. The Booster Packs are too expensive, with the biggest one costing almost 100% of your free Sacks of Flour. If you really feel like a Booster will be useful you could consider buying an individual one, but it's worth considering the alternative first by looking at how many moves you could buy for the same prize:
- Fork: 60 Sacks of Flour = 9.2 Moves
- Spatula/Rolling Pin: 100 Sacks of Flour = 15.4 Moves
For reference, the Booster Packs are (you get 1230 free Sacks of Flour (excluding Incidents/Daily Challenges)):
- 660 Sacks of Flour: 6 Forks, 3 Spatulas, 3 Rolling Pins
- 1230 Sacks of Flour: 16 Forks, 7 Spatulas, 7 Rolling Pins
Minigame Guide
For a video tutorial of how the minigame works, and some general tips on how to play it, check out my minigame guide video from the Wildlife Event! I am planning on making an updated version as well, should be out in a day or two!
Event Strategies
Alright, let's talk about strategies. For this event there isn't actually a lot of strategy involved, most of the challenges of this event come from actually playing the minigame well. The main strategy choice comes down to when you play the minigame, so let's talk about that. Just as a reminder, you need 280 progress to get the Autumn Vineyard to level 9, so that will be the target for my analysis here.
When should you play the Minigame?
First of all, you should always play at least 3 boards per day! As mentioned, you get a free Wooden Spoon every 8 hours, but only if you have fewer than 4 at hand. This means that you always want to use at least 3 per day to ensure you always generate these free spoons. These spoons account for just over 2/3rds of your total spoons, and depending on how well you play a lot of them will be required to get the main building fully leveled. If you want to maximize the number of spoons you can spend on a given day you should try to have 3 ready when the daily special resets, but as this is midnight it might not work for your sleep schedule. If you can't spend at midnight, I recommend spending all your Wooden Spoons at roughly the same time of day each day, for example in the afternoon each day, so that you can generate the free Wooden Spoons during the night/next morning.
You do still have 18 Wooden Spoons from quests and 1 spoon from grand prizes that you can control when you want to use. My recommendation is to use these on daily special(s) you want, which means only completing the quests during those days. There are a lot of good daily specials this event and some of them come multiple times, for example the Fall Set can be won both as a separate selection kit, and as a part of the Epic selection kit. This means that you will get the Fall Set at least 3 days, likely more with switches, so you are able to spread these 19 spoons across multiple days for a more relaxed time.
How should you spend Sacks of Flour?
Another common question is when to spend your Sacks of Flour. I strongly recommend spending most of them on additional moves - buying boosters is simply too expensive. As mentioned, the top booster pack costs almost all of your free Sacks of Flour, which means you can only really buy it during the final days of the event... If you are out of free boosters and you think a booster can really be valuable on your current board, you could buy it individually, but for the most part, I think additional moves are more valuable.
So, if you plan on buying additional moves, how often can you do it? As mentioned earlier, roughly once every 4 boards on average. If you really think buying 10 moves is valuable, then go for it (and you can do it more than once per board)! If you run out of Sacks of Flour towards the end it sucks of course, but at least you got good value for it earlier on.
In general, I recommend buying additional moves when doing so can get you 2+ Coffee Cups. I suggest that you keep a rough track of how much you've spent compared to the number of games you've played, and then you can adjust how frequently you buy additional moves going forward :)
Can you get the Autumn Vineyard fully leveled for free?
To get the Autumn Vineyard fully leveled you need to collect 280 Coffee Cups. For free you can around 85 Wooden Spoons, which means you need 280/85 = 3.3 Coffee Cups per game to get there. Well, that's if you ignore the 3 free Golden Spoons you can get. Based on my play on Beta, I was able to get close to a full Grand Prize for each Golden Spoon, or 60 Coffee Cups in total. Let's be a bit more conservative and use an estimate of 40 Coffe Cups from Golden Spoons. That brings down the required Coffee Cups per game (from Wooden Spoons) to 240/85 = 2.8. Both 3.3 and 2.8 Coffe Cups per game are definitely possible, but it does require that you play at least decently well. Below is a table of how many Coffee Cups you will pick up at a few different Coffee Cups/game numbers (excluding Golden Spoon).
| Coffee Cups / Board (Excluding Golden Spoons) | 2 | 2.5 | 3 | 3.3 | 3.5 | 4 | 4.5 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boards | 85 | 85 | 85 | 85 | 85 | 85 | 85 | 85 |
| Total Coffee Cups | 170 | 213 | 255 | 281 | 298 | 340 | 383 | 425 |
| Missing/Excess Coffee Cups | -110 | -67 | -25 | +1 | +17 | +60 | +102 | +145 |
How many Daily Specials can you expect?
Honestly, this is a very tricky question to answer, but it seems like with the minigame changes it is higher than past wildlife events. Estimates from beta are at around one every other board. How accurate this is I don't know, but I know that this event is a good one for daily specials. If we're using the once every other estimate, that's 42-43 daily specials during the event. A big downside is that you have to spend a lot on days when the daily special doesn't interest you, but when you get a daily special you want you can get a decent amount of them.
For example, if you are after the Fall Set I wouldn't be surprised if you get it as a daily special 4-6 times during the event, so let's say 5 times. This means you can spend at least 5x3 = 15 generated Wooden Spoons, or if you enter each day with 3 Wooden Spoons that's closer to 6 Wooden Spoons per day, so ~30 free Wooden Spoons. Then you also have 19 Wooden Spoons from daily quests / grand prizes, so you might be able to spend as much as half your spoons on the Fall Set. Assuming the 0.5 daily specials per board estimate is accurate, that's around 22-23 Fall Set pieces.
Diamond Spending Costs
It can be a bit tricky to estimate, but let's give it a go! You need 320 Coffee Cups per additional Autumn Vineyard, so let's look at the cost for different Coffee Cups/board numbers. I recommend spending most of your diamonds on Wooden Spoons, so as a reminder here are the Wooden Spoon costs:
- 1 Wooden Spoon for 200 Diamonds
- 4 Wooden Spoons for 750 Diamonds
- 10 Wooden Spoons for 1800 Diamonds
If you plan to buy Wooden Spoons for 2+ Autumn Vineyards, it might also be beneficial to buy some Sacks of Flour, but I would probably not spend more than 2.4k diamonds for 2000 Sacks of Flour. So you could add that number to the table below, though keep in mind with those extra Sacks of Flour your Coffee Cups / game should increase as well.
| Coffee Cups / Board | 2 | 2.5 | 3 | 3.11 | 3.5 | 4 | 4.5 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee Cups | 320 | 320 | 320 | 320 | 320 | 320 | 320 | 320 |
| Boards | 160 | 128 | 107 | 91 | 80 | 71 | 64 | 58 |
| Diamonds | 28.8k | 23.4k | 19.8k | 16.4k | 14.4k | 12.8k | 11.6k | 10.8k |
As for daily specials, with the estimate of 1 per 2 Wooden Spoons, the cost would be around 360 diamonds per daily special, which is a really good price! If you feel comfortable with the minigame, I can absolutely recommend spending diamonds for additional Wooden Spoons to get more daily specials!
It's also worth keeping in mind landing in the top 2 leagues will give you the level 1 or 2 of the Grape Stompin' Festival!
And that's it for this guide! I hope you found it helpful, and please let me know in the comments if you have any questions!
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Event Rewards
- Quest "Cheat List"
- Event Mechanics - Minigame Tutorial!
- Event Strategies!
- Diamond Spending Costs
- Comments
