Tips and guides

This is the page for posting tips and hints for the game. Feel free to add your own tips and strategies here, provided you are not duplicating information.

Completion guides
In order to finish the main story quest completely, even taking the changing store prices into consideration you will need approximately ( before X-mas update) to buy unskippable items and to skip buying more expensive items, so don't bother buying any  if you want to try and complete the story. These unskippable items include:
 * Rarity ( ( before X-mas update))
 * Large Clock Tower
 * Rainbow Dash ( ( before X-mas update))
 * Town Hall
 * Shining Armor
 * Sweetie Belle
 * Cadance

Certain ponies need to be leveled up to 5 stars in order to progress in the game. Focusing on leveling these ponies up early on can save you time later. These ponies include:

FROM PONYVILLE FROM SWEET APPLE ACRES FROM CANTERLOT
 * DJ Pon-3
 * Fluttershy
 * Rainbow Dash
 * Rarity
 * Royal Guard
 * Twilight Sparkle (shows up as a Canterlot mission)
 * Applejack
 * Cherry Jubilee
 * Beauty Brass
 * Lotus Blossom
 * Masseuse Pony
 * Parish Nandermane
 * Sunset Shimmer
 * Twilight's Dad
 * Unicorn Guard

(You can only buy Beauty Brass, Lotus Blossom, Twilight's Dad, Sunset Shimmer, and Parish Nandermane at level 15.)

General tips

 * It's not necessary to tap all the bit, etc. that fall out of buildings. If you leave them there they will be collected automatically.
 * Obstacles can be removed from the playing field for . Prices can vary between (certain trees) to  (huge rocks). The removal process also varies, the higher the price the longer it takes.
 * If you are just starting out, don't remove any obstacles just yet. There are multiple quests that require you to remove a given amount of obstacles, and ones you removed before being given the quest don't count.
 * If you tap on any sort of decorations (bought/not bought), there's a chance of one bit falling out. NEVER TAP RANDOMLY AT DECORATIONS AT NEAR UNEXPANDED AREAS! Doing so may cause to be spent unnecessarily on expansion.
 * On that note, if you like to tap decorations, do your best to keep them away from shops and homes of ponies who aren't at five stars. This way, you're less likely to accidentally speed up a timer with a misplaced tap. And keep your shops away from activated Harmony Stones for the same reason.
 * Ponies who live in a house that's already built arrive instantly when purchased. For example, if you already have Sugarcube Corner built (from getting Mrs. Cake) then Pinkie Pie and Mr. Cake will arrive as soon as you unlock them with . Other ponies that live together are Lovestruck, Crescent Pony, and Apple Cobbler; Braeburn and Golden Delicious; Aloe, Lotus Blossom, and Masseuse Pony; Octavia, Frederick Horseshoepin, Parish Nandermane, and Beauty Brass; Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot; Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Babs Seed, and Peppermint Twist.
 * When you get Princess Celestia, King Sombra or Princess Luna, you'll notice once in a while that they'll spout out one of each type of shard after a special animation plays. This happens more or less randomly as long as the game is running.
 * Shards of Harmony can be spent at activated Harmony Stones for . You get random amounts of for every shard deposited, and spending 100 of them has a chance of getting one gem (three  for 100 deposited Loyalty Shards, though the chance for that is also much lower).
 * One can fill his or her "unlocked space" with decorations (ideally wells or dirt paths) to fully mitigate the costs of removing rocks/debris that randomly spawn there during "catastrophes".
 * (UNTESTED) It may be viable to designate certain areas to be filled with rocks/parasprites during "catastrophes" so that you fill your "rock/parasprite quota" and thus prevent further spawning of them.
 * Similarly, filling at least one square in all 2x2 areas will prevent parasprites from spawning in your town. You can select a "pile of hay" from the store to find open 2x2 that need to be filled.
 * One can repeatedly buy and sell wells/fancy bushes for cheap EXP. This can also be exploited to fill "collect " quest tasks.
 * When spending, it may be best to wait for a sale or to check if the pony is obtainable through the Equestria Girls mini-game.
 * Quests to collect a certain number of, , or element shards only count those collected while you are in the same region as the quest. This is especially important to remember when playing Balloon Pop or when you are about to reach a new level.
 * If you want to make a pony move to a certain place, tap the pony, then double tap the place you would like it to move to. Take care that the place has to be on your screen otherwise it won't work.
 * İf you want to level up faster then buy lots of decor, then go to edit then sell all the decors you got. You will get most of your back and gain more EXP.
 * When you start the game be sure to play with the ponies that require quests first.
 * In Ponyville,expand areas only when you are attempting to reach Harmony Stones,don't expand areas unnecesarily because the price for expanding area will go more expensive as your area go larger
 * In Canterlot,the stone path from the map itself can be sold,use this to minimize your outcome from expanding area.

Shop strategies

 * Usually buildings offer the same per hour for the two items it offers, so it may be profitable to spread your ponies out and just build the faster item if you don't mind checking back often.
 * If your shop employs three ponies it is more profitable (in per hour) to build the first item instead of the second item (Example: Lemon Stand gives 158 bits for Lemons in 3 minutes with three ponies, and 203 bits for Lemonade in 4 minutes 30 seconds with three ponies. That's 52.667 /min for Lemons vs. 45.111 /min for Lemonade).
 * However, the second item appears to have better odds at producing element shards.
 * Place all of the job buildings as close together as possible, so you don't have to scroll across the map to finish their jobs.
 * One can move ponies to a shop that is about to complete it's production cycle to get the third pony bonus, and thus better use available assets when attending to the game.
 * One good way of economically utilizing your ponies is to ask the question, "considering my habits, how long are the average intervals between my checkups on the game?" Consider your sleep cycles in this analysis.  It may be worth it to change production based on your intervals.
 * It is best to always have access to a shop that will be continuously working for the duration of any of your absences from the game. (prioritizing the short production cycle shops of course)
 * If the second item in one of your shop's production cycles is about to finish (30 min), and you fear that you will lose productivity in your absence (240min), it may sometimes be a good idea to switch the production cycle to the first item (180 min) which may will keep your ponies busy continuously during your absence, and thus gain you more . You can then switch to the second item (30 min) when you are at a time where you can tend to the game more often, like when making edits to a wiki (every 10 min).
 * Process in the production cycle is not lost if you switch to the other item or even stop production in the shop entirely. Progress is only lost if you sell the shop or move it to the Inventory.
 * Judging from the shops graph, Shops can be divided into 5 categories. 1. The attentive (1-4), which demands your continuous oversight. 2. The "proper" (15-90) which should be tended too as one does low priority tasks. 3. The strange (240-360) which probably have the worst production timers. 4. The sleepers (360-480) which can be used while sleeping. 5. The non-playing, (720-1200) which should be used by those who really can't play the game. (numbers in parenthesis represent minutes).
 * Rotate your workers! Each shop generally has one position that doesn't require a worker with any stars (the Windmill has two). When you get a new pony, find a shop whose workers all have two or more stars and replace one of them with the new pony. Then put the experienced pony in a different shop with an open position.

Avoiding parasprites and changelings
Before you follow any of the below tips, you should ask yourself whether you actually want to avoid changelings or parasprites. Element shards are much easier to come by since the Everfree Forest update thanks to the Zecora's Hut and its totems which should eventually grant you more shards than you'll need. Most importantly, defeating them will occassionally yield hard-to-earn gems at a better rate than feeding the Harmony Stones.
 * 1) To avoid changelings, always travel back to Ponyville before exiting the app. It doesn't guarantee "no changelings", but it does minimize the chance of getting them.
 * 2) Changelings don't really need to be avoided. Unless you accidentally tap on them, they will just walk peacefully around Canterlot not blocking your building space.
 * 3) Another way to avoid parasprites is to fill up your land with decorations and dirt road.
 * 4) Don't let your game go unplayed for 24 hours or more. This is one of the biggest ways to get parasprites.
 * 5) Don't change your phone's time in order to cheat. When you switch back to normal time, your land will be filled with parasprites.

Keeping gems

 * 1) To avoid accidentally spending on items, don't tap around randomly, especially if your game is lagging, freezing, or displaying images improperly. The game will remember the taps and you might find yourself accidentally purchasing/skipping something when the game processes return to normal.
 * 2) Don't scroll through the center of the screen; Use only the edges to pan around. This minimizes the chance of spending on ponies and shops  if the system interprets a swipe as a tap, as the "Skip" button is always towards the center of the screen.
 * 3) Tap outside of shop and small pop-ups ("Skip" and otherwise) to close them, especially if you get an error for trying to swap a pony worker for one that doesn't have enough stars.
 * 4) When you browse the shop, avoid swiping over ponies that already have their homes built (by purchasing other pony that lives there earlier). If your game interprets swipe as tap, the pony will be purchased immediately without any kind of confirmation, whereas with ponies whose homes you don't own you could always cancel during placing the house on the map. It should be also safe to swipe over ponies you have insufficient funds for (real-money shop will open) or browse a shop for different town than the one you are already in (a pop-up message will tell you to move there first).
 * 5) If you play the Equestria Girls Dancing Mini-Game, you can win a pony at the end of every week. Some ponies cannot be won, such as Princess Celestia, but this will allow you to win a lot of ponies that require gems (the ponies each week are selected randomly). Playing all of the songs, and getting the "You Rock" announcement after it, will give you the necessary points within 4-5 days as long as you select the maximum number of bits (3500) for the costume, have the Mane 6 at 5 stars, and have two friends to dance with.
 * 6) If you already spent gems on something expensive you didn't want, you may attempt to kill your app immediately. If done quick enough, the game won't have a chance to save the progress and after restarting you would be back just before your purchase. Keep in mind that this will not always work and may potentially cause major progress rollback.

Technical Stuff / Troubleshooting

 * Android Users: If your game just pauses (so none of the timers update while you're away) and takes up battery life when you're not playing consider closing it with a task manager-type app (or a built in task manager) if you're not playing for a while. For the Nexus 7: press the windows list button, long press on the MLP game and choose "remove from list".
 * Android Users: If your game is crashing on startup, try turning on Airplane mode. To do this, hold your power button and a menu will pop up. In this menu should be an option for "Airplane mode" click this and it will turn off all wireless connectivity and the game should start. WARNING: When you turn on airplane mode on a phone, you will not be able to receive phone calls, SMS messages or anything else that requires a cellphone or wireless signal.
 * Android Users: If you turn off your device whilst you are still in the game, the game may not save. This is a useful glitch to exploit if you did something you didn't want to (like accidentally spending gems). This does not work 100% of the time, but this is arguably the only viable option other than restoring from a backed-up save.

Exploits

 * While connected to the internet through wifi, your game will download a shop list from the game servers that will replace the prices of items in the shops. By playing the app in both online and offline modes, it is possible to get certain ponies for bits when they would otherwise cost or need to be won from the 10  . It only gives you the ponies 1/8 of the time. Otherwise shards and .

Quick Money, Elements, and Experience
On any iDevice you can manually set your clock ahead. The game will therefore think it is realtime and will give you the things that will happen in that allotted time. For instance, if you have a bunch of shops you can just skip ahead an hour, get all the and things that they give, and rinse and repeat.

You can also use this trick to skip build or demolish times. Be warned, however, every twenty-four hours new parasprites and demolishable objects will appear. (Warning cheat sometimes might not work depending on if you updated)