Farmville Ideas

Pigpen Truffle Rewards

2010-09-11T16:48:00.000-04:00

Hunting for truffles can be a very rewarding experience in Farmville. Sending your little piggies out to hunt for the elusive goodies then sharing them with friends it is a great way to spend some time. Each pig looks for a different color truffle, and each truffle color contains a different prize, maybe another pig or some gold. I thought it might be a good idea to create a little chart that shows which types of pigs look for which types of truffles as well as the prizes associated with each.

In the left hand coloum is the type of pig, in the center the color truffle they can find and in the right hand the prizes you can find in each.

Pigs

Truffles

Reward for Truffle

Pig
Black Pig
Ossabaw Pig
Party Pig

Brown Truffles

1/5 Fuel Refill
Strawberry Pig
Black Pig
Ossabaw Pig

Saddleback Pig
Piglet
Strawberry Pig

Black Truffles

1 Fuel Refill
Strawberry Pig
White Pig
300 Coins

Hot Pink Pig
Hula Pig
Island Pig
White Pig

White Truffles

5 Fuel Refills
White Pig
Pink Pot Belly Pig
1,000 Coins

Javelina
Miniature Pig
Pot Belly Pig
Pink Pot Belly Pig

Gold Truffles

10 Fuel Refills
Pink Pot Belly Pig
5,000 Coins

The Current Most Profitable Items.

2010-09-06T18:40:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago I made a post regarding the most profitable use of land in Farmville. It has been nearly a month since then and I wanted to make an update post because there have been a couple of additions to the market. New entries are indicated in bold.

First lets have a look at the Trees in Farmville. The new Arjun tree seems to have matched the Jackfruit tree as the most profitable standard tree available.

Arjun Tree - 32.46 G/Hr
Jackfruit Tree - 32.46 G/Hr
Gingko Tree - 30.14 G/Hr
Mango Tree - 22.61 G/Hr
Olive Tree - 19.48 G/Hr
Date Tree - 16 G/Hr
Pomegranate Tree - 15.03 G/Hr
Mandarin Tree - 13.91 G/Hr
Bananna Tree - 12.99 G/Hr
Almond Tree - 12.75 G/Hr

As for animals the list has remained the same. While there is a new entry in the top 10, the Mini Donkey, it was only available for a limited time through the Mystery Dart game.

Belted Cow - 500G/hr
Arapawra Goat - 400G/hr
Saddleback Pig - 333.33 G/hr
Cream Mini Horse - 56 G/hr
Belted Calf - 53.33 G/hr
through 10. - Most every Calf and Foal in the game has the same average 53.33 G/Hr

*The Snow Leopard (an iPhone Exclusive gift) has an average of 100. However it is omitted as it is an exclusive gift not available to all players.

On to the Crops and we see a couple new entries here. White Grapes and Carnival Squash have pushed Asparagus and Ginger off the Top 5 list.

Forget-Me-Nots 8.89 G/hr
Oats - 8.75 G/hr
Basil - 8.5 G/hr
White Grapes - 8.33 G/hr
Carnival Squash - 8.13 G/hr
Peas - 7.65 G/hr
Asparagus - 7.63 G/hr
Ginger - 7.5 G/hr
Lemon Balm - 7.5 G/hr
Onion - 7.5 G/hr

All in all the top items have remained at the top over this last month with very little movement for trees, no changes to the most profitable animals. The largest changes happened with the crops with two new entries appearing.

Personalized Neighbor Visits

2010-09-02T10:46:00.002-04:00

With the new neighbor help system in Farmville there are a few new ways to really help each other out. Under the new system when a player visits your farm they have the ability to fertilize crops, plow withered plots, and harvest trees and animals. When you harvest an animal or tree you are rewarded with the gold from doing so. (Don't fear your friend will still be able to harvest them when they return to their farm later)

Because you can harvest your friends animals one very good strategy to consider is setting up a mutually beneficial deal with as many friends as you can. Purchase five of any of the following animals, Belted Cow, Arawapa Goat, Saddleback Pig. These three animals are available in the market and have the highest per harvest reward of any single animal in the game.

Next convince as many friends as possible to purchase these animals and leave them out on their farms. When the animals are ready to harvest a visiting neighbor can harvest them and collect the reward. However, the owner of the farm should not harvest from them, instead harvesting from neighbors farms. This will keep the animals permanently harvest-able. In the case of the Belted Cow this means each visiting neighbor will be collecting 15,000 gold every visit to your farm.

While you will be collecting a huge reward from all the neighbors you get to agree to having 5 of the above animals on their farm. You will of course either need to simply not harvest your animals so that your neighbors can always collect from you, or try to work out a specific time to harvest them.

For 5 Belted Cows the reward is 15,000 gold (5 x 3,000 gold)
For 5 Arapawa Goats the reward is 6,000 gold (5 x 1,200 gold)
For 5 Saddleback Pigs the reward is 5,000 gold (5 x 1,000 gold)

Make the most of your Pigsty

2010-08-28T18:00:00.000-04:00

The new Pigsty currently has very little use. The amount of space it takes up, is more than the space 20 pigs take up. So how can you use this new building to the utmost? By knowing that the Pigpen harvests every 24 hours, and when it harvests you gain the bonus for every animal inside it.

This brings me to the Saddleback Pig;

Level	35
Goods	Truffles
Harvest for	1000 coins
Harvest in	2 days
XP gained	3,000 XP
Sell for	15,000 coins
Cost	300,000 coins
Size	1 square
Profit per square	20.83 coins/hour

Costing 300,000 coins, and requiring a player be Level 35 to purchase the Saddleback pig has the second highest harvest in the game. (The highest belongs to the Belted Cow) Bringing in 1,000 coins every two days. However, if you place it in the Pigsty, you will earn 1,000 coins every day from this little piggie. Filling up your Pigpen with Saddlebacks will cost 6 million gold, earn you 60,000 XP and produce 20,000 coins a day.

Zynga has stated that more features will be coming to the Pigsty in the future, and the general consensus among players is that a type of Hog will be introduced and Pig Breeding will be possible through the Pigpen. This means that filling up your Pigpen with Saddleback Pigs now may very well pay off massively in the near future.

Information for the Farmville Red Animals from the Zynga Lotto

2010-08-28T16:41:00.001-04:00

With the recent release of the Red Goat, Red Sheep, Red Cow and Red Horse I thought I should take moment and collect the information for them. Harvest rates, offspring and other pertinent information can be found below.

	Red Goat	Red Sheep	Red Cow	Red Horse
Sell For	100 Coins		180 Coins	80 Coins
Days to Harvest	2 Days	3 Days	1 Day	1 Day
Harvest For	54 Coins	28 Coins	6 Coins	80 Coins
Size	1 Square	1 Square	4 Squares	4 Squares
XP Gained	20 XP	10 XP
Goods	Goat Milk	Wool	Milk	Horse Hair
Offspring			Red Calf	Red Foal

Crafting Mastery - Master your goods

2010-08-27T20:17:00.000-04:00

Zynga recently released the ability for players to earn Craft Mastery for goods produced through the Crafting Cottages. These work very similarly to the Crop Mastery available for seeds. As you progress through the levels you earn gold and experience bonuses, including a sign that is similar to the crop mastery signs. However, the signs for Crafting goods will change appear depending on what level you have achieved.

Each Crafted good will have 5 levels you can master, at the first level you will receive a sign, and the bonus. After that, the appearance of your sign will change, adding more stars, as you progress through the levels. At level 5, it will have 5 stars. Here is the Spicy Tomato Juice sign as an example, on the left is the level 1 version and on the right the fully leveled sign showing all 5 stars.

Below is a table showing the Item level required for each star, as well as the XP and Gold coins rewarded when reaching the level.

Progress	1 star	2 star	3 star	4 star	5 star
Item Level required	23	33	50	75	100
XP Reward	500	1000	1500	3000	4500
Coin Reward	1000	2500	5000	10000	25000

And remember, it is possible to level up 1 item using all four slots within your crafting cottage.In essence leveling it up 4x at once.

Zynga Lotto A fun way to win rare prizes

2010-08-26T15:58:00.002-04:00

Zynga has released a new Lotto for players of Farmville, where participants have the chance to win exclusive items and prizes. By signing up you will receive one free entry, and another every day after that. Users can also send each other tickets every day, up to 20, for more chances to win.

The current prizes are;

Red Cow
Red Sheep
Red Goat
Red Horse

Be sure to book mark the page so you can easily return every day for another chance to win!

Click here to sign up with the Zynga Lotto

Here is an example of all four animals in game;

Filtering your News Feed

2010-08-25T18:15:00.000-04:00

If you are a heavy Farmville player you no doubt understand that it can some times be frustrating missing items because they get hidden in the news feed and you simply do not see them. While some players resort to using tools to scan their feed and snag items from it others are left in the dark. There is however a couple easy ways to help make sure that you never miss an item in the news feed.

The first and easiest way is to click the "Most Recent" link at the top of your feed list.

Clicking on this will show your News Feed in real time, as your friends post things they will instantly become available. Sometimes within a second of it being posted. If you are watching for items and bonuses this can be a great way to get the jump on them and significantly increase your chances of getting an item.

Another problem created by an overcrowded news feed is how Facebook groups similar posts. Instead of showing you that someone just turned in 6 collections at one time, they only show you one. While viewing you news feed in real time can be helpful for getting items, helping your friends can be somewhat harder unless they happen to start a barn raising while you are actively watching the feed.

In this instance it is better to sort your feed according to what you want to see. While logged in, in the left hand column there is a link that says "Friends" if you click on it some items will appear below. These are your lists of friends. Clicking on an item here will filter your news feed and show you only the items from within that list.

To get the most out of this you will need to setup a list for your Farmville friends, and make sure everyone who plays Farmville is included in it. For help in setting up a new Friends List have a look at the end of the Rare Farmville Animal Breeding post.

There is a standard sorting link here as well, "Status Updates" this will show you only hand written status updates from your friends. Useful if you want to keep in touch with others outside of the game. It will not show any status updates posted by an application.

One final way exists to view only Farmville News items in your feed however it seems to not work for all players. Try clicking on the link below, it is setup to filter your feed according to application ID, with Farmvilles ID already input.

http://www.facebook.com/index.php?filter=app_102452128776

While that URL may or may not work for all players, the above methods of sorting your News Feed will always work.

How long is a day in Farmville?

2010-08-23T20:19:00.000-04:00

The title of this post may confuse some people. "A day is 24 hours right?" Yes and no. Knowing the intricacies of this can help you in decideing what you want to plant and more importantly when.

In Farmville crops, animals and trees are harvested according to a schedule. Some things take 1 day, some 2 days and a few things only hours. So you would expect a 1 day crop to be ready in 24 hours. Unfortunately that is not the case.

In Farmville, a day is 23 hours long. That means that a one day crop will only take 23 hours to become ready. A two day crop will not take 48 hours, it will take 46.

While the day plus crops are straight forward, the ones that take less than one day can be a little bit tricky. Up to about 8 hours, the crops are straight forward. Strawberries will be ready four hours after you plant them. Over 8 hours though and the times are slightly off. A 10 hour crop will become ready in roughly 9 and a half hours, while a 16 hour crop will come ready around 15 hours in.

So keep in mind the longer the crop takes to reach harvest, the more time you can take off.

Finishing your Storage Cellar Quickly

2010-08-20T17:52:00.002-04:00

On August 19th 2010 Zynga started rolling out the new Storage Cellar to players. Unlike the old barns and sheds the new storage solution requires very little room on top of the farm (meaning more room for plots!) and packs a massive amount of space inside, up to 500! With this players will be able to remove the older barns and sheds giving them more room for decorations, crops, trees or animals.

The way the cellar works is very similar to the Tuscan Wedding Tent, or the Spring Basket. Players send each other Shovels, where each shovel represents on more point of storage space, up to the maximum of 500. Just like with the other two as you add shovels to your Storage Cellar it will change its apperance based on how many you have added.

Hole in the Ground	Narrow Crawl Space

0-99 Shovels	100-199 Shovels

Secure Storm Cellar	Huge Storm Cellar	Underground Wonderland

200-399 Shovels	400-499 Shovels	500+ Shovels

And just like the Tuscan Wedding Tent as you add shovels to your cellar you are eligible to claim rewards. With each reward costing progressively more shovels, not to worry though once you add shovels to your cellar claiming a reward will not mean you lose storage space. The rewards are as follows;

Mole	Crystal Rock

Requires 20 Shovels	Requires 40 Shovels

Miner Sheep	Cave Gnome	Antique Tractor

Requires 60 Shovels	Requires 120 Shovels	Requires 200 Shovels

As the title of this post implies though there is a way to earn shovels much faster than normal. During this event when you fulfill a request for shovels you are given a reward screen allowing you to choose between the usual things, gold, experience, mystery gifts OR 2 shovels for yourself.

Using this to your advantage, goto the Make a Wish Tool at the top of this page. Next find some friends who maybe have stopped playing Farmville and send them some shovels using the tool. This will reward YOU with 2 shovels! It takes a little bit of extra work because you have to find everyone's Facebook ID, but the reward will be finishing your storage cellar in record time.

Remember, as long as a friend has played Farmville in the past this will work, simply paste their Facebook ID into the box and pick shovel from the drop down. Then copy and paste the web address into your browser. The Make a Wish Tool was originally designed to allow YOU to request things, however instead of putting your ID in, put your friends!

Getting the most out of one plot of land

2010-08-17T18:39:00.000-04:00

Animals, Trees, Crops - They are the three main ways someone can make money and experience in Farmville. But, which ones are the best? Which ones can make you the absolute most gold or experience per hour? The following post hopes to answer that question.

First what is a plot? Put simply, one plot in Farmville is the size required for one piece of plowed land. While different things take up different amounts of space, one plowed square is 4x4 spaces. Knowing this, lets consider the two critical components for Farmville. Gold and Experience. Are you trying to level up fast? Or are you saving up for that shiny Villa? Whatever your aim is, knowing what brings in the most per hour is going to help you on your way!

Gold Per Hour

Trees

Disregarding limited time trees the following trees will generate the most gold per hour. This assumes 16 trees crammed into a 4x4 space and harvested as soon as they are ready. One 4x4 grid containing 16 trees will earn you;

JackFruit Tree - 32.46 G/hr
Gingko Tree - 30.14 G/hr
Mango Tree - 22.61 G/hr
Olive Tree - 19.48 G/hr
Date Tree - 16 G/hr

As you can see the top performing trees are all available only through gifting. For this reason get lots of neighbors and use the Make a Wish Tool at the top of the page.

*The Acai, Maple Tree (Golden) and Asian Pear all produce more G/hr, however they are limited time offer trees. Get them when you can, otherwise work for what is on the list.

Animals

Animals in Farmville come in all shapes and sizes, and likewise each has a different hourly profit that can be achieved. Just like the trees this is going to assume you cram as many of each animal as possible into a 4x4 grid. (Or 16 single squares.)

Belted Cow - 500G/hr
Arapawra Goat - 400G/hr
Saddleback Pig - 333.33 G/hr
Cream Mini Horse - 56 G/hr
Belted Calf - 53G/hr

With the exception of the Belted Cow, you can squeeze 16 of the others into one 4x4 grid, the belted cow taking up more room will only allow you to fit 4 into the same space.

*The Snow Leopard out performs the Mini Horse, earning 100 G/hr however it is an iPhone exclusive item.

Crops

Ahh the mainstay of Farmville, Crops. Or Seeds. These are actually one of the hardest items to list, due to mastery bonuses and co-op's changing the end value of each crop. Let us assume though, no mastery and not done in a co-op. Just the basic seed, at the basic income. Again, this list will only contain crops that will always be available through the market. It should be noted that the top10 crops are ALL limited time only seeds.

Forget-Me-Nots 8.89 G/hr
Oats - 8.75 G/hr
Basil - 8.5 G/hr
Peas - 7.65 G/hr
Asparagus - 7.63G/hr
Ginger - 7.5G/hr

Experience Per Hour

If it is experience you are looking for the following lists should help you earn it as fast as possible. Just like the gold lists above though, only permanent crops, animals and trees will be listed here. Any of the limited time items will not be included.

Trees

Trees give their XP gain upon planting, not when harvesting. As such here is the list of permanent trees in order of most XP when placing.

Durian Tree - 13 XP Farmville.com Exclusive Gift
Olive Tree - 12 XP
Starfruit Tree - 12 XP
Pomegranate Tree - 11 XP
Cashew Tree - 8 XP

Crops

Earning XP in Farmville is best done by planting crops.While each crop varies in how much you will earn the following is a list of the highest earning permanent crops available.

Clover - 32 XP / hr
Black Berries - 31.75 XP / hr
Blueberries 31.5 XP / hr
Raspberries 30.5 XP / hr
Strawberries 27.5 XP /hr

With the exception of Clover, berries provide the best XP profits in the game. However, all berries have a very quick growing time so be sure you will be able to check your farm when they come ready or you may end up losing money in the long run.

Animals

Like Trees, Animals only give XP upon placing on the farm, from purchasing in the market or placing them from a gift box. Most animals will not give XP though, because of this Animals have been left out. If you are trying to earn XP by far the best method is planting the crops listed above.

Free Gifts from Ribbons

2010-08-16T16:46:00.001-04:00

Ribbons in Farmville are much like Achievements on the 360 or Trophies on the PS3, the allow the player to complete various tasks and reward them with Gold and XP. In addition some of the Ribbons will gift the player with a different decoration upon completion. The following is a list of all the Ribbons that give the player a gift as a bonus reward for finishing them.

High Roller Ribbon
Color	Coins	Experience	Item
Yellow	500	50	Hay Bale
White	2500	100	Butter Churn
Red	5000	250	Wheelbarrow
Blue	10000	1000	Hay Wagon

A Pretty Penny Ribbon
Color	Experience	Item
Yellow	50	Rest Tent
White	100	Well
Red	250	Tool Shed
Blue	1000	Fruit Stand

Knock On Wood Ribbon
Colour	Coins	Experience	Item
Yellow	1000	25	Fig Tree
White	2500	50	Apricot Tree
Red	5000	100	Banana Tree
Blue	10000	250	Pomegranate Tree

Zoologist Ribbon
Colour	Coins	Experience	Item
Yellow	1000	25	Sheep
White	2500	50	Duck
Red	5000	100	Goat
Blue	10000	250	Horse

Pack Rat Ribbon
Colour	Experience	Item
Yellow	25	Picnic Table
White	50	Stone Mailbox
Red	100	Covered Wagon
Blue	250	Small Pond

Animal Shelter Ribbon
Colour	Coins	Experience	Item
Yellow	1000	25	Sheep
White	2500	50	Duck
Red	5000	100	Goat
Blue	10000	250	Horse

Tree Hugger Ribbon
Colour	Coins	Experience	Item
Yellow	500	10	Plum Tree
White	2500	20	Lemon Tree
Red	5000	50	Grapefruit Tree
Blue	10000	100	Passion Fruit Tree

Noahs Ark Ribbon
Colour	Coins	Experience	Item
Yellow	500	10	Chicken
White	2500	20	Pig
Red	5000	50	Duck
Blue	10000	100	Horse

Not Spoiled, Gifted Ribbon
Colour	Coins	Experience	Item
Yellow	1000	10	Hay Bale
White	2500	20	Barrel
Red	5000	50	Crate
Blue	10000	100	Wood Pile

Pretty Garden Ribbon
Colour	XP	Item
Yellow	25	Perfect Bunch of Daffodils
White	50	Perfect Bunch of Red Tulips
Red	100	Perfect Bunch of Pink Roses
Blue	250	Perfect Bunch of Sunflowers

As you can see there are quite a few Ribbons that give gifts when completing them. If you are unsure how to complete any of the ribbons please refer to yesterday's post; Complete Ribbon Guide

This list is current as of : 8/16/2010

Complete Guide to Ribbons in Farmville

2010-08-15T17:02:00.000-04:00

Farmville offers players the ability to complete various tasks in order to unlock the games equivalent of Achievements. While some of them are very straightforward others are a little harder to complete. Each Ribbon has 4 levels of completion, Yellow Ribbons, White Ribbons, Red Ribbons and Blue Ribbons.

Upon completion you will be rewarded with XP Gold and a special gift in the gift box. While the gift varies based on the ribbon earned the XP and Gold rewards are as follows;

Yellow Ribbons - 100 XP / 2,500 Gold Coins
White Ribbons - 100 XP / 2,500 Gold Coins
Red Ribbons - 250 XP / 5,000 Gold Coins
Blue Ribbons - 1000 XP / 10,00 Gold Coins

Ribbon Name	Description	Requirements
		Yellow	White	Red	Blue
Local Celebrity	You need neighbors for this	4	8	25	50
Good Samaritan	Helping out Friends	20	150	500	2500
High Roller	Total Coins Earned	25,000	50,000	500,000	1,000,000
A Pretty Penny	Coins Spent at the Market	50,000	100,000	500,000	1,500,000
Cream of the Crop	Number of Crops to Harvest	10	1,000	5,000	25,000
Knock on Wood	Number of Trees to Harvest	20	250	1,500	5,000
Zoologist	Harvest Animals	15	500	1,000	5,000
Architect	Buildings Owned	2	6	15	30
Pack Rat	Decorations on your Farm	25	50	100	250
Animal Shelter	Lost Animals Adopted	2	3	4	15
Green Thumb	Differenty Types of Crops	5	10	14	17
Tree Hugger	Different Types of Trees	3	8	12	15
Noah's Ark	Different Types of Animals	2	4	6	8
Not Spoiled, Gifted!	Different Types of Gifts	3	9	15	21
Crop Whisperer	Neighbors Crops Fertalized	100	250	500	2,500
Flower Power	Flower Crops Harvested	15	500	2,500	10,000
Pretty Garden	Flower Bouquets Placed	5	10	25	50
King of Compost	Crops that have been Fertalized	75	150	300	600
They of Mystery	Mystery Boxes Opened (Mystery Darts thrown)	2	6	15	30
Fenced In	How many Fences	5	50	100	250
Lord of the Plow	Plots plowed by Tractors	200	1,000	2,500	10,000
Need for Seed	Crops planted with the Seeder	200	1,000	2,500	10,000
Cat Lady	Cats brushed	5	50	100	250
Vegetable Virtuoso	Vegetable Crops Harvested	15	500	2,500	10,000
Foremost Fruit Farmer	Fruit Crops Harvested	15	500	2,500	10,000
Egg-celent Discovery	Finding Mystery Eggs in the Coop	5	25	50	100
Cunning Collector	Collections Completed	2	25	50	100
Horse Power	Find buffs in your Stables	5	25	50	100
Employee of the Month	Completing Co-Op jobs in record time	5	25	50	100
Fabulous Foreman	Finish Co-Op jobs within the time frame given	1	5	10	20
Best of the Rest	Harvest the most crops in a completed Co-Op	1	10	20	40
Baled Out	Bales of Hay placed on Farm	5	50	100	250
Cracked	Mystery Eggs Opened	5	50	75	150
Super Salesman	Selling Crafted Goods	5	25	100	250
Crafty	Make Crafted Goods	5	25	100	250
Best Buyer	Purchased Goods from Friends	5	25	100	250
Gearhead	Vehicles Upgraded	2	6	15	30

How to get Free Fuel

2010-08-14T19:30:00.000-04:00

What is the one thing every farm needs? No... Not piglets (though they are adorable!) Fuel! In order to harvest, plow and seed you need Fuel for your vehicles. While the cost of Fuel through the market is outrageously high, there are thankfully a number of ways you can get free fuel in Farmville.

Here is a guide of all the ways you can get free fuel while playing Farmville.

Regeneration - Fuel naturally regenerates on it's own. However, the rate of the refill is based on how many plots are on your land. To shortest amount of time to refuel one full tank is 24 hours. While this is helpful it is far from the best way.

Mystery Gifts and Mystery Eggs - Both have a chance to find fuel in them. In varying quantities.

When plowing your own field, or fertilizing a friends, there is a small chance you will find one tank of fuel.

Completing a collection grants you 5 full tanks of fuel.

The Farmville Toolbar will gift you with 1/5 of a bar every 8 hours. Or depending upon the number of friends using the bar, you may be rewarded with a full tank.

Crafting Goods can be redeemed for fuel, with the quantity based on the level of the good.

From the Game Feed - Fuel can some times be found in the News Feed when a player shares found fuel.

Email - From time to time Zynga runs a free fuel promotion where they send players an email with links for free fuel.

Cross Game Play - Advancing a level in the Zynga owned game "Mafia Wars" will reward Farmville Players with one free tank of fuel.

Mobile - It is said that logging into Farmville from an iPhone also grants the player free fuel.

From the Market - Players can also purchase fuel from the market in the following quantities;

1unit for 3 FV Cash
15units for 15 FV Cash
30units for 28 FV Cash
45units for 40 FV Cash
75units for 50 FV Cash

Collections in Farmville

2010-08-10T15:57:00.000-04:00

Knowing where to look can make all the difference between finding a collectible in Farmville and not finding one. While each collection has one item that can be gifted where do you look for the other 5 hidden objects? Listed below is every collectible and where you can expect to find it.

Gardening Tools Collection

Gloves can be received as a gift.
Trowel is found by plowing or by hatching a white mystery egg.
Cultivator is found while fertilizing neighbor's crops.
Twine is found while harvesting from sheep.
Pruning Saw is found by harvesting trees and gold mystery eggs.
Shears is found while fertilizing neighbor's crops.

Country Kitsch Collection

Needlepoint is received as a gift.
Spigot is found by plowing or by hatching a Mystery Egg.
Pocketwatch is found by plowing
Salt Shaker is found by plowing
Thimble is found by plowing
Cow Bell is found while harvesting from Cows and Dairy Farms.

Bugs Collection

Ladybug is found while fertilizing a neighbor's crops or hatching white mystery eggs.
Dragonfly can be received as a gift.
Caterpillar is found by harvesting trees or hatching white mystery eggs.
Stick Bug is found by harvesting trees.
Beetle is found while fertilizing a neighbor's crops or hatching a black mystery egg.
Centipede is found by plowing.

Butterfly Collection

Emperor can be received as a gift.
Painted Lady is found a neighbor's crops or by hatching a brown mystery egg.
Blue Butterfly is found by harvesting trees or by hatching a brown mystery egg.
Swallowtail is found while fertilizing a neighbor's crops.
Zebra is found by harvesting trees.
Copper is found by harvesting trees.

Feather Collection

Green Plume can be received as a gift.
Hen Feather is found while harvesting from Chickens and Chicken Coops. It can be obtained from any color chicken.
Dapple Plume is found while harvesting from Ducks.
Red Feather is found while fertilizing a neighbor's crops.
Banded Quillis found while harvesting from Turkeys, Brown Geese and Swans.
Blue Feather is found by harvesting Trees.

Button Collection

Check Button can be received as a gift.
Brass Button is found while fertilizing a neighbor's crops.
White Button is found by plowing.
Jewel Button is found while harvesting from Chickens and Chicken Coops. It can be obtained from any color chicken.
Formal Button is found by plowing.
Pearl Button is found by plowing.

There is another type of collection new to Farmville, the "Lightning Collection". These are limited time only and require a set number of each item to finish.

Gemstone Collection

Active 7-15-2010 through 8-20-2010

Topaz can be found via seeding, or purchasing for 1 cash.
Amethyst can be found via seeding, or purchasing for 1 cash.
Turquoise can be found via seeding, or purchasing for 1 cash.
Ruby can be found via seeding, or purchasing for 2 cash.
Emerald can be found via seeding, or purchasing for 2 cash.
Diamond can be found via seeding, or purchasing for 3 cash.

Farmville update - 8/8/2010

2010-08-09T00:53:00.000-04:00

Farmville has released some new items with tonight's update.

As well as updating the Mystery Game prizes the following new items are available from the Market;

CA/Yukon Limited Edition Items:

Elk - 20 Farm Cash
Proud Goat - 12 Farm Cash
Petrified Wood - 1 Farm Cash
Golden Trout - 8000 Coins
Wooly Mammoth - 6000 Coins

Farmville Stimulus Package

2010-08-07T13:23:00.000-04:00

A little publicized bonus Zynga gives every Farmville player is the stimulus package. While it was originally given out in an attempt to get people back into the game it now is used as a care package for all players.

While the contents have changed from the original package, players still receive 3 Free Farmville Cash, 1 Large Fuel, 1 Unwither and 1 Saanens Goat.

The Farmville Stimulus Package

You can get the new stimulus package by clicking here; Farmville Stimulus Package

This package is available once to every player. When Zynga changed the package last time it reset for all players, hopefully they change it again in the future allowing all players to claim another 3 Free FV Cash as well as the very useful free Unwither.

Update 8/6/2010 - Garages are here!

2010-08-06T18:28:00.000-04:00

Zynga has started rolling out it's newest addition to Farmville today, Garages!

These buildings will allow you to store Farm Vehicles inside, as well as upgrade them. An upgraded Vehicle will be able to plow, seed and harvest progressively larger blocks at a time. To upgrade a vehicle will require a new item, Vehicle Parts.

Each Vehicle Level requires the following:

Level 1: 2 Parts
Level 2: 5 Parts
Level 3: 10 Parts (Must be level 26 or above)
Level 4: 15 Parts (Must be level26 or above)

To begin with you will need to place a bare bones building and gather materials to complete it. Nails, Bricks and Wooden Boards will be required to finish the building, 10 of each. At that point you can start storing and upgrading your vehicles.

At this time you will only be able to have one Garage on your farm at a time, and the Bi-Plane will not be able to be stored. Each Garage will be capable of storing up to 20 different Vehicles though.

You can read the full break down for Garages here; Farmville Forums - Garages!
You can also reply and give Zynga your feedback using this thread; Official Garage Feedback Thread

Selling more crafting items and bushels.

2010-08-04T17:40:00.000-04:00

As Zynga continues to expand the options available for bushels and crafting items it will become increasingly important to sell as many of these items as you can to your neighbors. Whether you are looking to get more Gold, Experience or Fuel as a reward for selling there are a couple of ways to try and maximize how many items you sell.

Sharing
The first thing of course is to Share Share Share. When you harvest a crop you are presented with the "Share with Friends" box. Be sure to share these bushels with friends so they are aware of you selling something. Often times you can sell out all the bushels simply by having your friends get them off the news feed.

Location
Where you put your market stall's and crafting building may not seem important at first glance, however there are a couple things to consider when placing them. How far away from the chicken coop are they? Often times your friends will come to fertalize your farm, and feed your chickens. Farmville automatically moves the screen to the chicken coop so having your Market Stall's and Crafting Building located next to or near your chicken coop can often times result in more sales of supplies and bushels.

Mastery
One last suggestion to really maximize profits. Become a master at one highly used crop. Something like Blueberries which is used by all three crafting cottages in recipes will be in high demand with all of your friends as they try to get bushels. Earning the 3rd star for Blueberries then leaving one section of your farm for nothing but growing and harvesting Blueberries will earn you more sales in record time.

For other crop ideas take a look at the Crafting Corner.

Farmville Update 8/3/2010

2010-08-04T14:54:00.000-04:00

Zynga released an update to their popular Farmville last night, here is a quick run down of the additions and changes.

Limited Edition Items:

* Miniature Horse - 26 Farm Cash (This horse has a chance of producing a Miniature Foal when placed in your Horse Stable. Miniature Foals will grow into the new Cream Miniature Horse when placed in the Nursery Barn.)
* Heirloom Apple - 10,000 Coins
* Stone Villa - 50 Farm Cash
* Village Center - 36 Farm Cash
* Flower Bridge - 42 Farm Cash
* Rose Arch - 7 Farm Cash
* Quilts – 10,000 Coins

Landscape:

The new Beach Landscape can be purchased for 1000 Coins from the “Upgrade Farm” section of the Market.

Crops:

* Lady Slippers (Level 15) – Grows in 6 hours, grants 1 XP, costs 70 Coins to plant and yields 115 Coins when Harvested. This crop cannot be mastered.

Mystery Game:

The Mystery Game has been restocked with brand new prizes! Throw a dart... win a prize. It's that simple! Start playing for your chance to win a Miniature Stallion or other rare “mini” animals!

Rare Animal Breeding Secrets

2010-07-31T17:42:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wondered how some of your high level Farmville friends get their farms filled with the rarest breeds? Why it seems like they have an advantage over you when it comes to collecting gifts? While they may consider this a trade secret all it takes is a little bit of work and a small change to the way you publish items you find on your farm.

The first thing you need to do is find some breeders, start by looking through your current friends to see if anyone has a good collection of rare animals. If not head over to the Zynga forums and post in the "Looking for Neighbors" thread. Make sure you include that you are looking for "High Level Breeders" or "Rare Animal Breeders" when posting there. If your not sure how to do that take a look at this thread Getting more neighbors in Farmville for more information.

Once you have four or five breeders for friends it is time to do a little bit of work that will pay off greatly in the future. Send them each a personal message and explain that if you get any rare breeds out of your Nursery, Dairy or Stables you will send it out to just them. In exchange for them doing the same for you. Basically you are making some good connections with fellow breeders and setting up a common interest group. You can even take this a step farther and setup a private Facebook group so you can all communicate together. You may even want to refer them to this post so they can see how it works and what they will need to do to ensure you get their animals.

Now, you may be wondering how can you possibly guarantee them that they will be the ones who receive your rare breeds? After all, it is common for gifts to be gone the instant they hit the news feed right? Well hang on cause here is a super secret tip the rare animal breeders do not want the masses knowing.

It is possible to send any post to one specific person or group instead of to all of your friends! There are two ways to do this, either by sending the item to one specific person, or by creating a new friends list inside of Facebook and sending to just that list. And you may be surprised just how easy it is.

First let's look at how to send an item to a single person instead of to your entire friends list. Whenever you find a collectible on your farm, complete a ribbon or some animal wanders by you get a pop-up window alerting you about it and asking you to share. When you click the Share button a Facebook window appears where you can click Submit and send it out. Before you click on the submit button try the following;

Next to the Submit button there is a tiny Security Lock, click on it and you will see these options

Everyone
Friends of Friends
Friends only
Customize

Choose Customize from the list and another window will appear showing you the options available. Under the "Make this post visible to" section is a drop down menu, if you choose "Specific People" a small text box will appear allowing you to type in someones name. Fill in the desired reciepents name and then click Save. (You can choose to make this the default however it is recommended that you leave "Everyone" as the default)

Back to the Publish window you will find that it has changed and should now be showing just that friends name in the upper right hand corner. Click on the Publish button and viola! They are the only person capable of receiving the rare animal. You may want to send them a private message alerting them of the post so they do not miss it.

Believe it or not, this small tip is how the best breeders work. They setup a coalition with each other and just send the rare animals back and forth maximizing their ability to earn coins and experience.

Now, you can expand on this if you want. Lets say that you have a breeder coalition with 20 people in it. What you want to do is first create a sub list inside of Facebook and put each of them into it.

To create a new list click on Friends in the upper right hand corner while logged into Facebook. On the next screen you should see a button that says "+ Create a list" click on that and a smaller window will appear. In the upper right hand corner is a place for you to name your new list. Try to use something easy to remember like "Breeders" or "Coalition" something that you will be able to recall easily. Once you have named this list, go through your friends and highlight anyone who you want to be on it. Then click Save.

Sending to this list works the exact same way as sending to one person with a slight change. After selecting "Specific People" from the drop down, type in the name of your list instead of a persons name. This will publish your post to anyone on this list giving them all equal chances to receive the rare animal.

Maximizing Space in Farmville

2010-07-30T19:33:00.001-04:00

When playing Farmville the first thing you notice is how little room you are actually given. While you can expand your farm later on it is important to start out on the right foot. While everyone always says to use most of your space to plot they tend to neglect a couple other tidbits.

Trees

Trees in Farmville can be a great source of income, however they can also lose you income if placed poorly. For instance, you do not want to place a line of trees in the middle of your farm. The tops of the trees will cover up valuable space that you could use to plant crops or place animals. One exception is if you plan on being a "Tree Farmer". One way of playing Farmville involves planting nothing but trees, no crops, no animals, just tree's. By filling the majority of your farm with only trees it is possible to pull in 100k a day.

Trees also offer a couple other benefits for you, first they never wither. This means you can easily walk away from your farm for as often as you like without worry about losing any money. The other noticeable bonus is that tree's have no animation* to them this will help your farm keep from lagging while playing.

For the Farmville player who wants it all, try to place a tree line along the top edges of your farm. This will keep them out of the middle, allowing you to maximize space while at the same time giving you all the bonuses of having tree's. Also worth mentioning, unless you are going for a specific look to your farm try to only use the highest grossing trees available. Here are the top 5 and bottom 5 trees, in terms of earnings potential.

HIGHEST GROSSING

Gingko Tree - 130
Mango - 130
Olive - 112
Passion Fruit - 93
Lime - 75

LOWEST GROSSING

Cherry - 18
Yellow Maple - 25
Apple - 28
Plum - 30
Tamarind - 35

Note about this list - Only permanent trees were included, limited time only items were not taken into consideration. This is also showing how much you earn from 1 tree and 1 harvest. If you take the time to harvest into consideration then an individual tree may go up or down. For instance the Olive tree has an hourly rate of approximately 19.48 while the Gingko tree has an hourly rate of 30.14, this assumes a 4x4 grid of trees (or 16).

*(for the most part, the Japanese Falling Blossom does have some animation but is ornamental with no harvest)

Animals

Animals can be a very lucrative way of earning gold and experience in Farmville, however they have a couple drawbacks that everyone should be aware of. Compared to trees, some animals are just not as rewarding. Most of the foals and stallions take up the same amount of space four tree's would. While some of the smaller animals take up the same amount of space, they produce half the amount of gold.

While you need to be careful about maximizing profit when placing animals another thing to keep in mind is lag. Each and every animal is animated in Farmville. This means the requirements to properly load and display your farm increase drastically when you add a lot of animals. For the most part each animation sequence has 4 individual pictures it needs to load. This means that while one tree uses one image, each type of animal uses 4.

If you are already starting to see some lag while playing Farmville you may want to keep this in mind while decorating your farm. Users with low end computer may choose to place one animal of each type to minimize the impact, while high end computer users may opt to build an entire horse ranch with thousands of animals on it.

One easy way to see how much of an impact a farm full of animals will cause is to simply look through your neighbors. Find a couple with tons of animals and try moving around, zooming in and out, going into full screen etc. This will give you a rough idea about how laggy your own farm will become as you add more animals.

Following the above format with tree's here are the lowest and highest grossing base animals available in the game.

HIGHEST PROFIT

Belted Cow - 3,000
Arapawa Goat - 1,200
Saddle Back Pig - 1,000
Dutch Rabbit -150
Percheron Horse - 140

(The Snow Leapord sits at #4 with a harvest earning of 300, however it is iPhone only.)

LOWEST PROFIT

Cow - 6
Chicken - 8
Long Horn/Brown/Groovy/Holstein Cows - 12
Brown Chicken - 16
Neapolitan/Pink/Simmental/Referee Cows - 18

Just like with the Trees list, this is only referencing how much gold is earned when harvesting a single animal. This is not showing a earnings per hour potential.

Buildings

Buildings in Farmville are some what of a tricky thing when talking about maximizing space, mostly because they are so big. For somethings like nurseries or stables they are a must. Once placed on the farm you can fill those types of buildings with animals that will greatly increase the earning potential available. On the other hand, some buildings like the Post Office or the School do nothing once placed, basically costing you gold in the long run. While they may look nice and help your farm look like the real deal, gameplay wise they do nothing for you.

It should be noted though that buildings often times offer the greatest experience gain in Farmville. For that reason you should place them on the farm, then sell them off.

Buildings that you want to keep around, such as the Nursery, Stables, Chicken Coupe and such need to be placed in such a way that they take up as little space as possible. This means either up against the top edges, or down just a little bit saving room for some trees behind them. One effective method is lining the top edges with a row or two of trees then placing your buildings up against them. Because a building can stick up farther than it sits it is possible to end up covering up valuable real estate if you place them anywhere but the edges.

Farmville update - 7/29/2010

2010-07-29T20:34:00.000-04:00

Zynga has released an update to Farmville today! Some new crops, ribbons and a new lonely animal should be available in your farm right now! Some other changes include raising the amount of space in the farmers market, and the ability to purchase "Packs" of bushels.

The complete list of changes is as follows;

New Achievements:

Cunning Crafter – Make 5/25/100/250 Crafted Goods
Super Seller - Sell 5/25/100/250 Crafted Goods
Best Buyer - Buy 5/25/100/250 Crafted Goods

New Crops:

Chickpea (level 10) – Grows in 20 hours, grants 2 XP, costs 80 Coins to plant and yields 210 Coins when Harvested. To unlock this crop, you must master Soybeans.

This Crop can be Mastered.

Level 1: 400
Level 2: 1200
Level 3: 2400

Purple Haze Carrot (Level 57) – Grows in 12 hours, grants 1 XP, costs 110 Coins to plant and yields 210 Coins when Harvested. To unlock this crop, you must master Carrots.

This Crop can be Mastered.

Level 1: 1400
Level 2: 4200
Level 3: 8400

Additional Information:

A new Lonely Animal is now available!
The capacity of your Bushel Inventory has been increased from 50 to 100.
You can now purchase “packs” of Bushels to finish your recipes for 3 FC per pack.
The OOS issue some players have experienced when placing a crafting building has been fixed.
The “Multiple (empty) Albums” bug has been fixed.

Why you should not clear your cache.

2010-07-28T18:45:00.000-04:00

Time and time again I read somewhere online that you should clear your cache when playing Farmville because it will cause errors. This is very far from the truth of the matter. First let me explain what the cache is, what it does, and why you want to keep it around.

Cache is a term used for stuff that is stored locally on your computer, in regards to Farmville the best way to describe it is the art work. Each tree, crop, animal, decoration is a separate file both on Zynga's servers and on your machine. The cache on your machine is keeping a copy of those items, meaning if you already have a copy of the item there is no need to download it again. Firefox can just look at its cache and pull the data from there. This will save you time, first you will not need to wait while your machine downloads the file again, but when loading up the Market for example you will not have to wait while it downloads hundreds of files at once.

The reason you see people talking about clearing the cache is because if something starts going wrong on your farm, it could be the old version already on your machine. After all if Zynga updates Farmville and changes the way a grey kitten looks, the file in your cache will load instead of the new one from the server. Once enough things change then you will start running into an issue.

So in a nutshell, the cache makes things faster by not having you download over and over. Should you clear it on exit? no. Should you clear it when you run into a problem? YES!

You can also change the size of the cache, a larger size will let you keep more items downloaded on your machine, but will take up more space. For new computers space is generally not an issue so I say make it unlimited!

What about de-fragging your hard drive? You should do this once a week regardless of problems. De-fragging the hard drive will help keep load times down, and everything running happily.

Getting your building raising done in record time

2010-07-28T15:33:00.000-04:00

While having a lot of Farmville neighbors can get your raising's done quickly, occasionally one will slip through and you may find yourself having a hard time getting them done at all. I like to use this little trick when things like that happen. You can use this with any raising request really, storage, chicken coupes or nurseries.

First you will need to find the original post on your wall. Login to Facebook and click the "Profile" link in the upper right hand corner. You will find yourself at your wall, scroll down until you find the raising you want to finish, it should look something like this;

Look for your building raising post, it should look like this.

Once you have located your request for help post you will need to right click the "Click here to help" link located in the lower right corner. (The black squiggles are pointing at it). Right click on this link and choose "Copy Link Location" from the menu.

Next start a new status update in Facebook, preface it with some text along the lines of "Please help with my raising" then right click and paste the copied link into the status bar, click Share.

This will paste your request link as your status, the bonus to doing this is how Facebook processes the news feed. Like posts are grouped together under one entry, so typically you will find all the Farmville posts hidden under one post. While custom hand written status messages are all displayed individually. By pasting the building request in as a personal status update Facebook gives it more prominence in the news feed. Giving it more exposure and helping you finish the building raising faster.

Understanding the Wither Mechanic

2010-07-27T23:24:00.000-04:00

One of the pitfalls some new players find themselves in when they first start out is planting something then not being available when it comes time to harvest that crop. When you visit a friends farm you will sometimes see this has happened to them, all their crops have withered! While there is a lot of speculation on the net regarding withering, is it random? is it timed? A little research on the official forums has lead me to believe the following;

Once a crop has reached maturity, that is, it is ready to harvest. You will have the same amount of time it took to grow before it will start withering. Now the withering itself is not instant, each individual plot will wither out randomly once the time frame has been reached.

Lets take strawberries for example, they take 4 hours to reach maturity. This means if you plant them at Noon, they will be ready at 4pm. If you miss the deadline you will have until 8pm before you need to worry about wither kicking in. However, at 8:05 the majority of your farm will still be harvest-able, only a few of the plots will be withered. This is good to know if you are working on a specific crop and are worried that you may not be available the instant it reaches full harvest. An eight hour crop will take eight hours to before it starts withering, then approximately another 4 hours before the entire farm is withered. (Roughly half the growing time for full wither, this is speculation but is generally agreed upon by the forum goers on Zynga's site.)

Getting the most out of the new Fertalize All item.

2010-07-26T19:57:00.000-04:00

As of the July 23rd 2010 release Zynga has added a new item called "Fertilize All". This does exactly what the name implies, it fertilizes all plots on your farm instantly. While this sounds like a good thing, remember people visit your farm to fertilize your crops earning gold and experience for doing so.

One way to capitalize on this new item is in conjunction with the Bi-Plane. Plow and plant all your fields with a high yield crop, Yellow Melon for example will net you 308 profit per plot when harvested. Plant them in every one of your fields, then instantly use the fertilize all item. Followed by using the Bi-Plane so that they all become ready to harvest. This way you will be able to harvest a field full of Yellow Melons, earning yourself A LOT of gold AND a lot of experience (Fertilized Yellow Melons net 8 experience per plot) all in one go!

Viewing someones farm who is not your neighbor

2010-07-26T15:46:00.012-04:00

Often times you will want to view a particular persons farm, even if your not their neighbor. Doing this is quite easy but requires a little bit of work. First you will need to find their Facebook profile ID. Do this by clicking on their name in Facebook and going to their profile page.

At the top of the window, in the address bar, you should see a url that looks like this;

This is the Facebook profile link

The number at the very end of the link is the persons Facebook Profile link, you will want to highlight only that number and then copy it to the clipboard by right clicking the highlighted area and choosing copy. (TIP: You can quickly select only the number by double clicking on it. This trick will work with most text boxes)

Once you have the profile ID copied you need to add it to the View farm link here;

http://apps.facebook.com/onthefarm/index.php?visitId=

After the equals sign paste in the number you copied by right clicking and choosing paste. (TIP: Ctrl+V is the shortcut key for pasting)

Besides being able to view someones farm who is not on your neighbor list you can use this to also generate a lot of extra experience points. While you are visiting the other farm you will have the ability to fertilize fields and feed the chicken coupe.You can do this with any of your Facebook friends, however if the person is not a friend through Facebook this will not work.

In an effort to help out the newer computer users I have created a small little box below, simply get your friends profile ID and paste it into the box. Then click "Go Help!" and it will take you directly to their Farmville farm allowing you to help them and earn some XP and Gold while your at it.

The above box was created using plain HTML, all the code is available by viewing the source code for this page.

How to create hay bale images in Farmville

2010-07-26T01:35:00.000-04:00

Many times the featured Farm of the week will contain a small "pixel art" image created using hay bales. Ever wonder how people make them? Think they have some great hidden talent for art? Not really :)

First lets talk about what Pixel Art is, simply put Pixel Art is an image created using an 8bit scale. Meaning only the basic 8 colors can be used, and normally there are no curves so creations come out looking like they were drawn on a grid. If you have ever played on an old Nintendo or Atari then you know exactly what I am talking about.

Now how can you create a beautiful image in Farmville? Easy, simply use some online tools to create an image and then use it as a guide when placing hay bales on your farm!

Here is a great site you can use to create your own images, or upload an image and have it converted.

Pixie
This tool will allow you to hand create a Pixel Art image, save it and then print it out.

Pixie also offers you the ability to upload an image and have it automatically loaded into the pixel editor, you will need to sign up for an account (its free) before you have access to this feature though. However, the image must be rather small in dimensions, so be sure to re-size it before loading or you may not be able to see all of it.

Another trick you can use is searching online, simply goto the Google Image Search and put in what you are looking for followed by "Pixel Art" (without the quotes). So lets say you wanted to find a picture of Hello Kitty, On Google Image search type in the following;
hello kitty pixel art
All of the returned images will be pixel art of hello kitty, simply find one you like and save it to your computer, print it out and use it as a guide when placing the hay bales in Farmville.

Trick to adopting lots of animals in Farmville.

2010-07-26T01:07:00.000-04:00

Due to the way Facebook groups up relevant posts it can some times be hard to find and adopt lost animals. This is hindered by some people having so many friends that the adoption happens almost immediately. One thing you can always do is actually go and look at your friends wall in Facebook.

If you look directly at their wall you will see each and every post they made, including any lost animals up for adoption! In order to see a friends wall in Facebook all you need to do is click their name, it is easiest to use the search bar at the top of the Facebook page. Simply start typing their name and you should the results popping up as you type. Once you are on their wall start scrolling down and look for any animals that wondered onto their farm looking for a home.

This trick works best if you have a lot of neighbors as it increases the chances of finding a lost animal. Another bonus is that you may come across Mystery Eggs, Fuel or even a Bonus reward while your looking!

Getting More Neighbors in Farmville

2010-07-25T23:36:00.000-04:00

When you first start playing Farmville one of the things you may realize is you need A LOT of neighbors. In fact, you may not have enough friends on Facebook to do some of the low level expansions! While posting in your status feed and asking for more neighbors, or for friends to suggest other players, may seem tempting it is by far the lest effective way to actually get more people on your neighbor bar.

One of the easiest ways to get more neighbors is actually to goto the Zynga forums and just ask! Silly I know. But the fact is after I posted requesting more neighbors I woke up the next morning with over 400 friend requests in Facebook. Talk about instant results!

Zynga updates the thread occasionally by clearing it and letting people start a new one. This is good for both users and Zynga as it helps keep the thread fresh. For the best results you may want to wait for them to create a new one, just check the date of the current one before posting.

In case you are new to internet forums or just wondering what to do here is a quick over view.

First goto the Zynga forums and setup an account. You can use the blue Facebook Connect button in the upper right hand corner to save yourself some time. Just be sure to use a name that is NOT like your Facebook login name. (This is for security reasons of course. The Zynga forums are a public location, anyone has access to them even without an account)
Second navigate to the Farmville Forum section and scroll all the way down the page. Near the bottom you will see a thread titled "Add Neighbors" click on that.
Third you need to make a choice, you can either post and request others to add you (the fastest and easiest way by far) or you can look through the post and add other people by clicking on their Facebook profile link and then adding them as a friend on Facebook.

If you decide to post your own link you will need your Facebook profile link, to get this sign in to Facebook, in the upper right hand corner there is a link that says "Profile" click on that. Now in your address bar at the top of the screen is your Profile link. Simply highlight everything in the address bar, right click and copy it. Now go make a new post in the "Add Neighbor" thread and paste your profile link in. You may want to add any information like "Horse Breeder" or "Dedicated Gifter" this way people will want to add YOU more than anyone else in the thread.

You can find the Zynga Forums here ; Zynga Forums

And you can find the Add Neighbor thread here ; Find Farmville Neighbors

There are automated programs that will go out and add Facebook Friends for y ou, however Facebook looks down on these and you may find your account banned for using one. I recommend the above method as it is both extremely effective and most importantly allowed by both Zynga and Facebook.

Boxing in your Avatar

2010-07-24T19:26:00.000-04:00

I figured the first post to this blog should also contain a rather well known tip. Why? Because like all new Farmville players this idea blog should start off as a new user, with new user idea's! In a nutshell this tip deals with boxing in your Avatar. Why would you want to do this?

Well, boxing in that avatar will keep him from being able to walk around your farm. This will allow you to harvest your crops VERY quickly. In fact you could say it is instant harvesting, plowing and seeding. As a bonus when your friends come to fertilize your crops and feed your chickens they wont have to wait while your character walks around, the actions will be instant and they will be free to move on to the next farm. This will benefit you as your friends will want to come and help since it goes so quickly.

Now there are a nearly limitless ways you can box him (or her) in. The easiest way is with some bales of hay like this;


Boxed in Avatar

Now using just bales of hay you can of course keep a large field to plant with. But as you get more and more decorations you may want to consider something a bit more ornate such as this;

Here you can see a little more time was spent and the result is quite pleasing, a small area in the middle of the farm has been hollowed out and sectioned off using the green hedge decoration. Along with some flags and flowers to add to the effect. You can expand this out as far as you want. Just remember to totally enclose your Farmville avatar in his area, cutting her (or him!) off from the rest of the farm. Another thing to watch out for is expansions.

Your character will load in the VERY CENTER of your farm, as such when you expand they will start loading 2 places lower than they used to. Because of this it may be better to create a larger area to start with so your not moving hay bales every time you expand.