Game update: 23/04/14

After weeks of Spring and Easter updates, we seem to have moved on.

Notification for Fairytale update

A Fairytale theme is today's offering. Here's a list containing all the new content:

Tables:

• Lily Pad Table - 90,000 coins

Chairs:

• Prince's Chair - 27,500 coins

Wall decorations:

• Mirror Mirror - 29,000 coins

Floor decorations:

• Mr. Clock - 15 gems
• Bear Porridge - 35 gems (LTO)

Wallpapers:

• Floral - 29,500 coins

Counters:

• Castle Counter - 5 gems

With the exception of the limited time offer, all of this stuff is unlocked at level 69. The same is the case for a new recipe on the Basic Stove, which will be rated later on.

Let's start with the limited time offer:

Bear Porridge limited time offer

The Bear Porridge which can be seen (along with the rest of the new items) on the TeamLava Blog:

Items from update as shown on TeamLava Blog

The Bear Porridge costs 35 gems and takes up a 3x3 space. I always like a decoration which includes a kitchen, but they don't usually have bears in charge of them! As is often the case with LTOs, there's lots to look at, but it's just a bit too 'out there' for my taste. However I'm sure many will find this item just too adorable to turn down. It's worth noting that this piece is actually a rehash of the Picnic Prep, with everything just given a makeover (including changing the people for bears!) with the exception of the blue kettle which keeps its place.

The other new floor decoration is the Mr. Clock. It's a strange name since the clock doesn't seem to have a 'face' to identify it as a character, like is the case in many fairytales. I would like to see a straightforward grandfather clock, but the curve on this one means it fails for me. It's actually quite similar to the Twisted Clock which was added in January, but is three gems more expensive.

Both the new table and chair are available for coins, which is a rarity. I really like the Lily Pad Table, although it comes at a hefty price - 90,000 coins is the most ever for a table by a fair distance, and is borderline unacceptable. Since I already own a couple of Lotus Flowers I was tempted to do some re-jigging in my garden section to create a watery theme, but the lack of a chair which matches has put me off.

That's because the Prince's Chair lacks the elegance of the Lily Pad Table. With a frog design on the back, it's obviously a fun item which isn't supposed to be part of any sophisticated area. I make it the fifth dearest chair active in the market, so again you shouldn't be buying these for the sake of it unless you're really settled with what you'll use it for.

The new wallpaper, Floral, does have the elegance. The stems of the flowers intertwine in such a way that the wallpaper 'flows' when consecutive walls are covered. It's so good that I've decided to splash out (29,500 coins each!) to redo the background of The Garlic Tree's garden:

Garden section of The Garlic Tree with Floral wallpaper

A costly exercise, but it does blend nicely with the vast amount of greenery in the vicinity.

I won't be buying the Mirror Mirror wall decoration. Once again the price tag is pretty high, and for what you're getting I don't think it's worth it. The mirror is just too small! The Castle Counter will also be absent from by diner. It's quite nondescript in all honesty, with very bland colours used to create a very unmemorable counter.

Something I've noticed of late is the lack of new floor tiles. In fact, we haven't had any new flooring outside of goal weeks since before Christmas, and even then it was only a re-release of an old floor tile. I'm not sure why the gamemakers put so little time into creating flooring - I'd have thought it was easier to design than most other types of item.

Moving on, we've got another new dish on the Basic Stove:

New recipe on Basic Stove

The Dragon Nachos win no prizes for most appetising food. I wouldn't taste this one for 50 gems (actually I think I would!) It enters one of the most competitive durations of them all. So with the help of some recipe ratings, let's see how it fares:

Dragon Nachos
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
7	10	6	10	4	7.9

It's a beauty! The 99 XP is perfection as far as 4 hour recipes go. Every dish which yields more XP per hour across all lengths are of 2 hours or under in duration, so if you can't access the game regularly all day then this is a winning recipe. It's other numbers are decent too, with the profit actually the fourth best for 4 hour recipes, but the Smores (Basic Oven) is just so far ahead with more than 1,000 coins more profit.

Since it doesn't unlock until level 69, the availability rating is dragged down, but an overall score of 7.9 is mightily impressive and places the Dragon Nachos second among its 4 hour fellows. The Smores is just too good on profit, and is very strong with portions too.

I mentioned the level 69 unlock there, and following on from last week's content being available from level 68, there seems to be a bit of a pattern. And upon further investigation it isn't something new. A lot of the newer items unlock at a high level, and it seems that the level of unlock is gradually increasing. I think TeamLava are filling in gaps to allow a wide range of new stuff to be unlocked at every level. This makes sense, as previously you could often level up but find there was nothing unlocked.

The question is, how far up will they go? I've advocated adding new content for only the very elite players in the past, but if the majority of updates are going to be for the high rollers only in their entirety, that would be pretty unfair. I think the Smores at level 75 are the final unlock at present, so we'll see if this pattern continues beyond that point.

In the mean time, ponder whether to part with a deluge of coins to buy up the new items, and have no hesitation at all in cooking the new recipe to bag some serious XP gains!