Golden Horseshoe Inn

Where to begin with the Golden Horseshoe Inn? 

Once upon a time, pony fans expressed concern that the only way to buy a pony was with gems (a lot of gems), an was there something to be done...? 

And there was!

A pony named Hoofer Steps arrives and wants to stay in town... So you have to build an Inn...

In pursuading Hoofer Steps to stay - it isn't hard, she was planning on sticking around anyway- the Inn explains itself in a handy pop up, which, if you are too finger tap happy, you miss...

I do not know if the Inn was a peace offering to players or not, however, the Inn introduces players to traveling ponies which may be persuaded to stay in their Equestria - for the right price. Accumulate so many points in a mini game, provide a number of element shards and/or bits, or some other form of earn able in-game currency.

Earlier game play introduced players to task earn able tokens. Rather than assign several ponies to a job at a shop to earn bits, XP stars and element shards, an individual pony may be assigned to a task outside a job; the sort of things a pony might do in their free time. This may be something like reading a book, going on a picnic, harvesting apples, shopping, minding a friend's cat, and so on. Each task takes a variable amount of time, much the way any activity does, but instead of an element shard, the pony earns a specific token. Once the required number of tokens have been met, the pony can still be sent to do that task, but they will not earn a token. 

As in the real world, a pony cannot do two things at once. 

Not every pony at the Inn wants tokens. Tender Taps wants bird houses. There are three ponies, all in Ponyville, that can earn bird houses. 

It is also important to note that some ponies have more complicated requests, as well as a time constraint. The first two ponies at the Inn, Hoofer Steps and Tender Taps, which appear consecutively, have no time constraint. Presumably this is to give players a chance to learn the Inn game play, as level of complication becomes higher. The next pony will likely have more tasks to earn as well as a time constraint. 

What if the tasks remain incomplete by the end of the time? The pony leaves the Inn. My experience has taught me that they don't return, but the Inn has also not had a first anniversary yet, so it is hard to say. Furthermore, it is important to note that a player can buy the pony outright for gems at anytime during their stay in the Inn - the longer tokens are played for and the more tasks are completed, the lower the gem cost to the player will be. I have never used this feature of the Inn, but having noticed it, I really appreciate that it is there. 

The Inn also seems to function as a means of catching up players who maybe missed out on earning a pony during an event. The current mega-event is Daring Do; I am pathetically attempting to earn Henchpony in the last 22 hours of gameplay, which means I have run out of time to earn Quibble Pants. Will Quibble Pants appear in the Golden Horseshoe Inn? Dr. Caballeron? That's a tale stranger than fan fiction. 

On a side note, after securing all of Tender Tap's requests, a pony I did not expect appeared in the Inn:

It's Fluttershy's mother, Mrs. Shy. She does not appear to have a time constraint. Obviously, Mrs. Shy is currently going to cost me 650 gems, as I don't really have anything to offer her. The more tasks I complete, the lower the gem cost will be. 

Canterlot: hold my phone

What? Okay, cool, bro, we got this.

I haven't even had time to fire up the brick oven for pizza, Spike, what...?

Celestia, you're not here, but I know you can here me: this is why we can't have nice things. 

I have about two square feet in Canterlot right now, and everything is on hold for Daring Do... I'll get back to you guys in about two weeks...

Daring Do! DARING DOOOOOOOOO!!!

You can buy Daring Do and A.K. Yearling (I have a hunch that's a play on J.K. Rowling...) from the store for BITS! 

And they're not a fortune! Best adventure EVER!

Day 2: As Spike would say, good grief

Wow.

Everyone complains about the high prices of ponies and other merch in this game - mostly ponies - because the only way to get a pony after a while is to flat out buy in game currency to then buy a pony. There are two types of in game currency; gems and bits. Gems are by far the harder to obtain, and you can earn them or buy them. (The smallest purchase pack for gems is 20 gems/$1.99... The largest is 1680/$99.99) 

... And, personally, it's all about the ponies. In my G1 collection, for example, (the ones from the 80's) I have around 450 unique production ponies. In the last game expansion to the Crystal Empire, there were two VIP collection ponies, one for 750 gems and the other 900. That means that for $100, I can have bragging rights for just one of those digital VIP ponies. Or, if I own a gem producing shop or two and can sit on my hands, I can wait a couple of months until I produce 900 gems. Gem producing shops typically only produce 1-2 gems a day, so at best, it would take 2 1/2 years to produce enough gems for the most expensive of the two. (To my knowledge, there are only three gem producing shops) Right...

So imagine my surprise when, not five minutes into game play, a screen flashes up with the offer of a pony, 10,000 bits, and a bit of decor, for $0.99. NINETY NINE CENTS. Say WHAT!? 

My first mistake was not taking a screen shot. Who would believe me? So I wised up the next time. Next came Architecture Unicorn, a Canterlot pony - unlocked in level 25, then Fashionable Unicorn, also a Canterlot pony. The least expensive flash offer I received was for Nurse Redheart, who is only available in a bundle, for $1.99. 

Of these flash offers, the best is probably Nurse Redheart. Not only is she the obviously least expensive, but she comes with a shop that is very expensive. As a new player, hearts are a nice commodity to have, but they quickly loose their value after the purchase of Zecora (30 hearts) and Hoity Toity (70 hearts). Yes, you can use them for the Balloon pop, but be prepared to be well stocked for Sweet Apple Acres in wells, barns and rodeo enclosures. There have not been any other heart based purchases in a game update since I started playing in 2015. It is a shame, as hearts are often offered in solo events. My last account had 500+ hearts racked up. I really didn't need another well or rodeo enclosure taking up space in my inventory.

I can't recall seeing ponies offered for a flash price *that* low. Maybe someone has been listening? It's difficult to say...

*EDIT*

As I have been leveling up and unlocking ponies, it turns out there are a few others available to buy for hearts, and I believe one of them is a potential Ponyville community must have, Mayor Mare. Also available in the Ponyville community, along with the aforementioned Mayor Mare, Zecora and Hoity Toity, is Jeff Letrotski. I feel like this is a pun for something - The Big Lebowski? - but I'm not sure. 

The only for hearts purchase that is not in the Ponyville community can be found in Sweet Apple Acres. Uncle Orange is somehow, likely from her mother's side, related to Applejack. It is interesting to note that it sounds as though the order of expansions to different areas started with Sweet Apple Acres, and then Canterlot, then The Everfree Forest, and now most recently The Crystal Empire. After the expansion to Sweet Apple Acres, the hearts were aparently abandoned as a means of buying ponies; there are no heart gem ponies available in Canterlot nor the Crystal Empire. Hearts are earned through participating social activities; I'm not sure why they were abandoned, but I stand by staying that after the purchase of these ponies, heart gems are useless, and either they should be removed from the game, or they should have purchasing power.

Day 1: I start my journey

Hello friend. To start, I should probably begin with a disclaimer statement that I am in no way affiliated with Gameloft, Hasbro, I'm not being paid, and that all opinions expressed in this blog are my own, et cetera. I was a My Little Pony fan as a kid, I enjoy playing the game... Okay, sort of true. I got bored playing the game and I started over from the beginning, wondering what sorts of changes had been made since I started playing 2 years ago. Further disclaimer: I'm not a gamer in the traditional sense of someone who ownes gaming consoles. If I was going to play something, I would pony up (no pun intended) the $16 for the original 8bit Final Fantasy role play turn based game you can now play on an iOS device. That's the extent of my game. 

Is this about tips and tricks? Eh, that will possibly come up It's a quasi-experiment. I played for two years, and played through several updates and mega events. That had some definite perks - the whole MVP awards came as a surprise. I am in no way benefiting from that anymore. MLFFIS is big on no cheating, in fact, you can report other users for cheating. In two years of game play, I haven't figured out how someone can cheat at this game, most likely because I am tech-illiterate. I also don't have any pony friends, so, that may have something to do with it... In any case. A play by play of my game play, with the codes I pick up, whether they work, what I discover, oopses and what I am doing now that I am doing it over a second time.