Gumball Collections Mission

N.B.  You will find the current timed Mission below this post.

Only new players probably will be interested in this post.  Most other players will be familiar with this style of Collection Mission.

What it involves is first, placing an item from the Market on your farm and then collecting from ANY or EVERY type of Crop, Animal, Tree or Machine to obtain the Collection item.  In this case, you purchase the Gumball Machine in the Market for 500 Coins and then collect Gumballs.  Once placed, you have five days before the Gumball Machine will expire and become an item with which there is no more interaction.

Only the Seaside Farm will yield Gumballs, however.  The Island is not involved in this Mission. You can use Batch Production and Farm Aids such as Rainbow Rain to speed your Collections.  I did not obtain any when I used Goldfinger Tech however... perhaps I am unlucky but I somehow feel you will not be able to collect this way.

The final Reward which is a Toy Submarine Decoration must be unlocked before you can use your Gumballs to trade for it.  You unlock it by obtaining at least one of each of the subsidiary Rewards.  In this case, these are:

Machine Head: 1 Gumball or 1 RC each
  This is one of the Materials needed to upgrade your Gumball Machine and the only Reward where the cost will not increase

Organic Fertiliser (x25): 1 Gumball (increasing each time you redeem one) or 1 RC each

Soda Cooler: 200 Gumballs or 10 RC . (The Soda Cooler Decoration is one of the Theme items in the current Beauty Contest)

Super Fertiliser (x6): 1 Gumball (increasing each time you redeem one) or 1 RC each

Once you have purchased or redeemed one of each of the above, you can begin to collect Gumballs for the final Reward.

Toy Submarine: 350 Gumballs

To participate in the Mission, you must tap on the Gumball Machine once you have placed it.  You then will see all the Rewards with their current prices as well as an option to 'Improve your Luck'. When you tap on that, you will be taken to the Upgrade Screen.  The Machine Head is one of the upgrade Materials and the Machine Bottom is the other until you reach the final Upgrade screen.

You can request Machine Bottoms from your neighbours using the old method rather than posting to the dreaded Chat!

It is only when the Gumball Machine is upgraded to Level 5 that you actually 'Improve your Luck' as then you will receive 2 Gumballs rather than 1 Gumball randomly from your harvests.

Eye on the Prizes
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There are many different considerations here, and if you think you will have a difficult time obtaining over 500 Gumballs in 5 days or if you care more about the final Toy Submarine Decoration than anything else, my own strategy would be to BUY 1 Soda Cooler for 15 RC rather than amassing 200 Gumballs for it.  I actually have a Soda Cooler and am not keen on duplicating it, but that is probably what I will do here, as I lack constant access to my farm at the moment.

You need 25 Gumballs for the Materials to upgrade to Level 5 using the Machine Heads you can obtain with Gumballs.  You need an additional minimum of 203 to trade for one of each of the subsidiary Rewards in order to unlock the ability to trade for the Toy Submarine... then 350 Gumballs for the Toy Submarine.

Cost of Upgrades:
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To upgrade to Level 1:

15 Machine Bottoms
2 Machine Heads

To upgrade to Level 2:

15 Machine Bottoms
2 Machine Heads


To upgrade to Level 3:

25 Machine Bottoms
8 Machine Heads

To upgrade to Level 4:

25 Machine Bottoms
8 Machine Heads


To upgrade to Level 5:

30 Machine Bottoms
5 Machine Heads
1 Machine Handle (5 RC)

Note that the final Upgrade requires 1 Machine Handle, a Material that can only be purchased with RC.  You need the full Level 5 upgrade to receive 2 Gumballs instead of 1... so my opinion is to either perform the upgrades through Level 5 and be resigned to the cost in RC or not bother at all with them!