Countdown to content removal 2014

This time of year is all about Autumn, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas. It's a busy period, but there's one not so exciting event also falls in this part of the year, and that's the dreaded content removals. Here I'll try and provide some guidance on what a content removal consists of and what we can expect.

If you've not experienced a content removal before, it basically consists of an in-game notification alerting of a poorly described removal to come in the next week, which is swiftly followed by pandemonium as the community erupts with protests.

Notification for 'winter holiday items' content removal

When the deadline passes, you get to retain any of the removed items you already purchased but won't be able to buy any more.

TeamLava typically carry out a content removal on seasonal items only. All of the themes I mentioned at the start of this post have suffered at the hands of a removal in the past, although the structure of such removals can be erratic. I started playing in 2012, and endured a mega erasing of content in January 2013, consisting of all the seasonal stuff which had been added in the past 12 months. But such a comprehensive removal didn't occur at the start of this year, with only Winter content being dropped. And Halloween got a content removal all of its own in 2013, with that coming in mid-November.

So now is certainly a good time to get prepared! Halloween is the theme I'm particularly focusing on. There's a high probability that the game's developers will be cleaning up the market of Halloween content shortly, so here's a full list of all the items currently available which have been released as part of a Halloween themed update:

Item	Category	Cost
Spiderweb Table	Tables	14,000 coins
Skeleton Hand Table	Tables	4 gems
Spiderweb Chair	Chairs	9,000 coins
Mummy Chair	Chairs	4,000 coins
Web Window	Wall decorations	10,000 coins
Witch Wreath	Wall decorations	12,500 coins
Vampire Waiter*	Floor decorations	15,000 coins
Cemetery Archway*	Floor decorations	7,500 coins
Trick or Treaters*	Floor decorations	30,000 coins
Expired Display	Floor decorations	20 gems
Haunted Clock Tower	Floor decorations	30 gems
Haunted Elevator	Floor decorations	35 gems
Mummy Pumpkin	Floor decorations	2,000 coins
Coffin Bookshelf	Floor decorations	5,000 coins
Well of Spirits	Floor decorations	10,000 coins
Skeleton Lamp	Floor decorations	8,000 coins
Graveyard	Wallpapers	9,500 coins
Scary Wallpaper	Wallpapers	1,000 coins
Spider Stone	Floor tiles	7,000 coins
Kiss of Death	Floor tiles	750 coins
Haunted Oven*	Appliances	24,000 coins
Witch's Cauldron*	Appliances	22,500 coins
Haunted House Counter	Counters	10,000 coins
Monster Counter	Counters	3 gems
Cocoon Counter	Counters	500 coins

(*) Goal item

If TeamLava do decide to execute a Halloween content removal then these are the items likely to be in the firing line. If there are any of them you want to stash away for next year then buy them up now.

As for any other future removals? Who knows? It's a bit of a lottery. Last year I tried to cover all the bases by listing EVERY item that was added in 2013. That was a colossal effort which spanned a number of posts and several months. And then there was no major removal - just a dropping of Winter stuff! That's why I haven't undertaken a similar project this year!

The main thing to take away from this is that removals have an element of randomness to them. You should probably purchase as many of the items you would regret not having if removed pronto just to be safe. I'm still reeling at not buying the Mad Scientist last Halloween when I had the chance!