Thursday, November 8, 2012

Mistletoe Lane

The new Mistletoe Lane Farm in FarmVille is available for early access for the price of 35FC.  There are some advantages to early access for a dedicated player.  First, there are quests with rewards that are limited to those who complete them.   The quests that will be released with the free regular access to the farm will be different.  FarmVille Freak, usually very reliable, seems to have posted different quests entirely this time, which is why I am posting these here.

Regrettably, I neglected to write down the first two quests, and am giving them from memory.  The most important part of these quests if one wishes to have an advantage, is to plant the required crop and make the required recipes BEFORE the quest appears.

The first sequence of quests is as follows:

Quest 1:  Take a photograph of your farm.

Quest 2:   Collect  6 Brass Spyglasses, Harvest 30 Apple Cider, Make Holiday Pudding

Quest 3:  Get 8 Holiday Garlands, Harvest 40 Winter Squash, Make Benne Cake two times

Quest 4: Get 8 Wood Canteens, Harvest 40 Potatornaments, Make Holiday Pudding two times

Quest 5: Get 9 Stringed Snowflakes, Harvest 60 Wax Beans, Make Benne Cake two times

Quest 6: Get 10 Exploring Lanterns, Harvest 70 Winter Grain, Make Apple Cider 2 Times

As Recipes are included in these quests, it may be useful to list the ingredients for the first two levels of the Mistletoe Lane Patisserie, the crafting building for this farm:

Holiday Pudding: 1 Winter Squash Bushel, 2 Cider Apple Bushels, 2 Coffee Bushels

Benne Cake:  3 Honey Ginger Bushels, 2 Wax Ben Bushels, 1 Lavender Bushel

Apple Cider:  2 Cider Apple Bushels, 1 Holiday Poinsettia Bushel, 2 Rye Bushels

Level 2:

Hot Mint Chocolate:  2 Choco Mint Bushels, 2 Winter Grain Bushels, 2 Peppermint Bushels

Holiday Cookies: 1 Winter Grain Bushel, 2 Cider Apple Bushels, 2 Sugar Cane Bushels

Holiday Stew: 2 Potatornament Bushels, 2 Flint Corn Bushels, 2 Tomato Bushels

Level 3:

Potato Latke: 2 Potatornament Bushels, 1 Winter Squash Bushel, 1 Sunflower Bushel

Winter Casserole: 2 Flint Corn Bushels, 2 Wax Bean Bushels, 1 Bell Pepper Bushel

Hollow Berry Pie: 2 Hollowberry Bushels, 3 Jingleberry Bushels, 3 Blueberry Bushels

As in the case of Jade Falls Recipes, the dishes usually contain two ingredients that are limited to the new farm itself and one ingredient that can be grown on any Farm. 

Where Bushels are concerned, there are a number of different methods for obtaining them.  One can grow the Crops on the new Farm, then Harvest them, hoping that a Bushel will be included in the yield.  Bushels are random, although it is easier to obtain them with Mastery of any given Crop and the greatest number of Bushels usually appear when one harvests Super Crops.  Another method of obtaining Bushels is through 'Trade' with Neighbours.  There is no cost for Bushels obtained from a Neighbour, although there is a limit of three.

Other methods of obtaining Crop Bushels are by 'harvesting' the Holiday Square.  The actual item obtained depends on the level of Upgrade to the Square and is random in a sense as there is more than one 'reward' that can be obtained with harvest at any given level.

One can 'request' a specific type of Bushel in a Wall Post, although this method tends to be glitchy sometimes.  Finally, one can purchase a Bushel directly using 1 FC.

With respect to Harvests of Crops on any Farm, Instant Grow can be used to speed the process.  Bushels still will be random, however, and one may be required to grow the same Crop multiple times in order to receive the number of Bushels required for any given Recipe.

Incidentally, for those players who do not wish to invest in early access to Mistletoe Lane, it is useful to know that the new Animal Workshop can be placed and built on ANY Farm.  You therefore can begin to unlock all the Animals before you have the free access to Mistletoe Farm.

The colour of Animal Spirits when the Animal Workshop is harvested is random only perhaps only when more than one Animal inhabits it.  Each Animal when created is associated with a specific colour.  and when that Animal is created, the corresponding Spirit will be available to other players on a Wall Post. .   The 'recipes' for creating new Animal Spirits are:

Bumby Bear: Purple Animal Spirit
  Create with 4 Purple Spirits

Max Moose: Yellow Animal Spirit
  Create with 5 Purple Spirits

Winston Wolf: Purple Animal Spirit
  Created with 2 Purple Spirits, 4 Yellow Spirits

Catrina Cat: Pink Animal Spirit
  Create with 4 Purple Spirits, 3 Yellow Spirits

Bently Beagle: Yellow Animal Spirit
  Create with 4 Purple Spirits, 3 Yellow Spirits, 2 Pink Spirits

Mrs. Flops:  Pink Animal Spirit
  Create with 4 Purple Spirits, 4 Yellow Spirits, 3 Pink Spirits

Davy Deer:  Blue Animal Spirit
  Create with: 5 Purple, 4 Yellow, 4 Pink

Petie Penguin:
  Create with: 4 Purple, 5 Yellow, 4 Pink, 3 Blue

Patty Pig:
  Create with: 4 Purple, 6 Yellow, 6 Pink, 4 Blue

Sinclair Sheep:
  Create with: 5 Purple, 7 Yellow, 6 Pink, 6 Blue

Camilla Calf:  Yellow Animal Spirit
  Create with: 5 Purple, 4 Yellow, 8 Pink, 6 Blue, 4 Green

Henrietta Horse: Blue Animal Spirit
  Create with: 6 Purple, 5 Yellow, 8 Pink, 7 Blue, 6 Green

Eugene, Final Animal:
  Create with: 6 Purple, 8 Yellow,  6 Pink,  10 Blue,  8 Green


Although a Support Agent told me that the colour of Spirit one receives when harvesting the Pen is random,  that is the case only when multiple Animals inhabit the Pen..  What is certain, alas, is that one does not receive a Spirit oneself but simply makes one available to neighbours through a Wall Post.  In this respect, the Animal Spirit Workshop is similar to the Chicken Coop and the Eggs that are harvested.

I tested the random aspect of harvesting by keeping only one Animal in each Pen.  With the Catrina Cat in one Pen, I received a Pink Animal Spirit.  That makes sense, actually as she is associated with Pink.  Davy Deer alone in a Pen delivered a Blue Animal Spirit, which is the colour associated with him.  Sinclair Sheep delivered a Green Animal Spirit.

It therefore is clear that a single Animal when placed in the Animal Workshop will deliver the colour of Spirit with which he/she is associated.  This is not the case, however, when Animals associated with more than one colour are kept in the Pen.    In the Unicorn Island, when more than one Unicorn was kept on the Island, the default Gem was Amethyst, the lowest type of Gem.  I expect that the Animal Workshop is similar as I was obtaining only Purple Spirits when I had eight different Animals in my Workshop.

It is a pity that one does not obtain Animal Spirits when one harvests but only when one clicks on a Neighbour's Wall Post.  This makes the completion of all Animals worrisome and frustrating as one is a victim of chance essentially, unless one has very cooperative Neighbours!