Horse Hall

Another recent option in FarmVille consists of the Horse Hall, where new Horses can be created with Horseshoes harvested from existing Horse Hall creations.  In other words, it is very much like the Unicorn Island option.

The first colour of horseshoe, Silver, is given upon the completion of the Horse Hall Building.  Sufficient are given to create the first Horse in the form of the Space Horse.  After that, the colours are:

Space Horse: Silver Horseshoe

Plains Horse: Black Horseshoe

Forest Horse: Silver Horseshoe

Desert Horse: Red Horseshoe

Jungle Stallion:  Black Horseshoe

Grasslands Pony: Red Horseshoe

As you can see, new colours appear less frequently than repetition of existing colours as the Player continues to unlock new Horses.  Whenever a new Horse is created, the Player will obtain a single Horseshoe of the corresponding colour.  The accomplkishment can be shared on the Farmer's Wall, where other players can obtain a Horseshoe as well.  The number of players who can benefit from the Wall post depends on the colour of the Horseshoe.  Rare Horseshoes allow fewer Farmers to benefit from the post.  There is another strange aspect to this  some Wall posts allow Players to take a Horseshoe up to 23 hours after the original post, as is the rule with all FarmVille shares, but sometimes, even after less than half a day, the Player will receive a prompt to the effect that the Horseshoes are 'too old'.

Useful Details about new Atlantis Farm

Atlantis is the first underwater Farm in FarmVille.  It is much more appealing than I actually anticipated.  A friend of mine described it as 'similar to a fish tank, only brighter' and I found her descriptions quite apt.  The buildings and decorations that are sold for Atlantis are those that one might find in an upscale fish tank or aquarium, consisting of elaborate ruins.  Sunken Treasure Chests form the obstacles that must be cleared if you wish to be able to plough and plant throughout the farm.  As always, they contain treasures of their own.  'Opening' a Chest unlocks the item enclosed therein in the Marketplace, as with the Enchanted Glen.

FarmVille Freak has the Quest information for the early Access Quests in Atlantis, but there are other details that may be of use to players who seek to avail themselves of the opportunity to cultivate their new farm now.

First of all, there is a new build, the Atlantis Garden that requires materials.  The Materials needed to upgrade it are: Marble Vase, Coral Shears and Garden Sketches.  You cannot request these materials from neighbours but must craft them in your Atlantis Craftshop.

Marble Vase:
3 Shellfish Bushels
3 Morning Glory Bushels
3 Rhubarb Bushels

Coral Shears
3 Coral Bushels
3 Aloe Vera Bushels
3 Jalapeno Bushels

Garden Shears:
3 Sea Sponge Bushels
3 Lilac Bushels
3 Cotton Bushels

You therefore can benefit greatly if you have neighbours who are not in Atlantis who are willing to grow the other Crops needed for these items.  Players who are not willing to pay 45 FC for early access still may find the information interesting as they will be able to sell these Crops to neighbours who have taken the early access option.

If you do not have the necessary bushels to create these items, you can buy them for 2 FC each.

The new Atlantis 'eatery' is the Coral Cafe.  At Level 1, you can cook the following dishes:

Sea Melon Sorbet:

3 Seawatermelon Bushels
3 Urchinberry Bushels
3 Sugar Cane Bushels

Salt Water Taffy:

3 Ambrosia Bushels
3 Starfish Bushels
3 Blueberry Bushels

Sea Biscuit:

3 Sea Sponge Bushels
3 Coral Bushels
3 Wheat Bushels

Shellfish Surprise:

3 Shellfish Bushels
3 Plankton Bushels
3 Onion Bushels

A little tip upon arrival may be very useful if you are attempting to complete the Atlantis Quests, Chapter 1:

You will be required to complete 2 Shellfish Surprises as a requirement for Step 3.  As usual upon arrival at a new farm in FarmVille, you will find that one slot in the Cafe is occupied by a Shellfish Surprise that is ready to be completed and that ingredients for another have been provided.  I was foolish enough to complete BOTH before I even looked at the information about the Quests.  With few FarmVille neighbours who have opted for early access, it is a little difficult to obtain the necessary ingredients to make more of the Shellfish Surprises immediately!

N.B.  The Bubble Seahorse, by the way, that one is required to harvest in Chapter 1, may be placed in an Atlantis Zoo.  It evidently can be placed in the Marine Observatory as well.

The Marine Observatory is a building project similar to those on other Farms that allow the Player to create new types of Animals using magical ingredients.   There is a Lab where new Animals are created and a Pen where Animals can be housed.  By creating a new Animal, one unlocks the ability to create the next Animal in the list.

The first to be created is the Abu, using four Red Scales.  Next is the Zaratan, which requires five Red Scales and produces a Yellow Scale.    When you arrive at Atlantis, you will find a Marine Observatory on the farm.  It is incomplete but lacks only a few materials.

A new Marine Observatory can be purchased for 5 Coins.  The materials required to complete it are as follows:

10 Bronze Hammers
10 Coral Chisels
10 Ultramarine Crystals

You can request these materials from Neighbours.

New Untimed Quests in FarmVille

After FarmVille went through a very impractical and frustrating stage wherein only 4 Quests could be displayed on a farmer's screen, I (as well as a number of others, no doubt!) suggested that FarmVille use a Quest Manager similar to those in other games, including Family Farm.  Recently, FarmVille not only implemented the system, but added a number of new Untimed Quests.

The Untimed Quests allow players to work at their own pace and to obtain Limited Edition items, in many cadses, that they may have missed in the past and do not appear in the Marketplace.  For example, the Chinese New Year Quest sequence offers many of the Lunar New Year Animals as rewards.

FarmVille Freak is a wonderful site that usually makes any efforts of mine to publish information about FarmVille rather superfluous.  In the case of the Untimed Quests, however, I have not been able to find any details on that site and therefore am posting whatever information I obtain either from my own game or from contributors who play FarmVille on this site.

Unfortunately, I did not think of this plan until I had progressed through a number of steps in a couple of the Quests.  What is posted here therefore at this point in time is a 'work on progress'  Ultimately, I will create a separate page on this site for the Untimed Quests for which I have all details:

Why are details about Quests helpful? The primary reason is to give Players details about the Crops they will need to harvest to satisfy requirements for completion of a step.  Where more than one Quest requires the same Crop harvest, a Player often can synchronise his/her farming efforts to allow the harvest to count towards more than one Quest sequence.

Another reason are the Rewards.  If you know the Rewards in advance, you can decide whether or not it is worth your time and effort to pursue any given Quest.

If a Player has the energy and determination, I would welcome ALL details, including the names of the Quest steps and every reward.  The most important details, however are simply the Crops required for each step, Animal harvests required and special Limited Edition Items given as Rewards.  Usually any Reward will include Coins and XP as well as an Item, but the Item is the most important in terms of creating a guide for Players of FarmVille.

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Lunar New Year Quests:

Six:
Get 8 Cake Decorations
Harvest Lunar New Year Cow twice
Harvest 125 Wheat

Seven:
Get 8 Red Envelopes
Master the Lunar New Year Cow
Harvest 150 Rice
Reward: Lunar New Year Sheep

Eight:
Get 10 Large Flashlights
Harvest Lunar New Year Sheep
Harvest 150 Morning Glories

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Mardi Gras Quests:


Farmville Mardi Party

 The Colours
Get 8 Mardi Gras Streamers
Harvest Mardi Gras Duck
Harvest 100 Morning glory
Reward:  175 XP, 1 Mardi gras Llama, and 3500 Coins

Get 8 Baby Doll trinkets
Master Mardi Gras Duck to 1 Star
Harvest `150 Cranberries

Six: Colourful Cakes
Get 8 King Cakes
Harvest Mardi Gras Ostrich
Harvest 150 Rice
Reward: Mardigator

Seven:
Get 8 Cameras
Harvest Mardigator
Harvest 150 Peppers
Reward: Mardi Gras Peacock

Eight:
Get 10 Bags
Harvest Mardi Gras Peacock twice
Harvest 150 Red Tulips

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The Rise, Fall and Career

1.  Sign Away
Get 4 Truffles Autograph
Harvest 50 Tomatoes
Harvest The Horse Paddock Twice
Reward:  125 XP.  1 Scarlet Pigonia, and 2500 Coins

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Kelly the Spring Flower

1.  The Spring of Love
Get 4 Scarlet Begonias
Harvest 50 Red Tulips
Store 10 Items on Your Home Farm
Reward:  125 XP, 1 Scarlet Pigonia, and 2500 Coins

Solacorn Reward

I am very partial to horses and their mythical cousins, the Pegasus, Unicorn and Pegacorn.  For those who may not be aware of the subtle distinctions between each type of steed that can be found in FarmVille, the Unicorn has a single horn, the Pegasus has wings and the Pegacorn has both a single horn and wings.

Every Farm has its own rules where upgrades and requirements for 'beating' the Farm are concerned.  Requirements invariably include completion of all upgrades of a building project or projects unique to that farm.  In the case of the Enchanted Glen, one must complete both the Mushroom Home and the Rivermist Fortress.

I was rather delighted to discover that the maximum upgrade level for the Rivermist Fortress is Level 5, which is not that difficult to attain.  Furthermore, there is a wonderful reward for those who make the final upgrade in the form of a Solacorn, which is a golden Pegacorn.

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!
 

Level 1 Trees and Activating Quest Sequences

I wrote a little preliminary guide for FarmVille that can be found on a separate Page on this site.  Pages are displayed as Tabs above any Post.  The following are nothing more than random Tips for beginners and veterans alike.

Purchasing Premium Trees:

Trees can be obtained in a number of ways in FarmVille.  They can be grown from 'Mystery Seedlings' that can be obtained when you Harvest one of your own Orchards or found on Wall Posts from Friends who play the game.  A few Trees can be obtained as Free Gifts from Neighbours.  For the most part, however, new varieties of Trees must be purchased from the Marketplace using FC.

Premium Items of any kind tend to be time-restricted.  You have a set number of days in which to purchase any Premium Item.  Sometimes, a Premium Item displayed in the Marketplace is a Reward Item for completing a Quest.  It is a good idea to go to a site like FarmVille Freak to see what all the current Reward Items for Quests are before you purchase a special Tree or Animal that is offered for sale.  You then can decide whether or not you wish to go through all the Quest sequences required in order to win it or whether you would prefer to buy it outright.  In many cases, however, Quest Rewards are NOT offered for sale.  The only way to obtain one is by completing the necessary Quest.

Whenever you look at Trees in the Marketplace, you will see a tiny message declaring that the Tree either is Lv. 1 or Lv. 2.  This message can be quite important as Lv. 1 Trees CANNOT BE GROWN FROM MYSTERY SEEDLINGS, nor obtained in any fashion other than by purchasing them from the Marketplace.  If, therefore, you see a Level 1 Tree that you really like, you should buy it!

There are two types of Level 1 Trees, however.  One is the Tree that, when harvested, creates a Mystery Seedling that will grow into a Big or Giant Tree of the same variety.  For example, a Mystery Seedling obtained from the 'Spooky Crystal Tree' will grow into a 'Big Spooky Crystal Tree'.  These Big or Giant Trees are Level 2 Trees.  In fact, any Tree grown from a Mystery Seedling will be a Level 2 Tree.  The Big or Giant variety of any Tree is very much like the original Level 1 Tree.  You therefore need not purchase the original Tree if you have Neighbours who have that Tree and are willing to share one with you when they obtain a Level 2 Tree from a Mystery Seedling.

The other sort of Level 1 Tree is the one you should purchase if you really love it.  This sort is unique.  When it produces a Mystery Seedling, that Seedling will grow into an entirely different variety of Tree from its parent.  A current Premium Tree of this type in the Marketplace is the Pinecone Tree.  The Pinecone Tree, when placed in an Orchard and harvested, will produce Mystery Seedlings that grow into an Acorn Tree.  If, therefore, you do not purchase the Pinecone Tree, you will not obtain one from any Neighbour's Wall Post.   If you do purchase one, you cannot grow any more of them.  You can grow only Acorn Trees.

Finally, there are some special Trees that can be unlocked by Mastery of other Trees.  These include the Astrological Trees.

Activating Quest Sequences:

This is a situation that I have experienced myself and therefore feel that the 'fix' may be useful to other Farmers.  It can occur at two points in time.  The first point when it can occur is when a new Quest Sequence is released.  You may find that other Farmers are able to activate the Quest Sequence but that you are not able to do so.  In this case, TRAVEL.  For example, a new sequence of Haunted Hollow Quests may not activate when you load the game on the Haunted Hollow Farm.  Travel to another Farm and then return to the Haunted Hollow to activate the Quest sequence.

The second point when you may experience the same problem is when you complete a Quest Sequence and opt to go through the Quests a second time.  Again, if the Quest sequence does not begin, TRAVEL to a different farm and then return to the Haunted Hollow to activate the first Quest in the sequence again.

This problem arises evidently only on NEW Farms that are linked specifically to any Quest Sequence.  It is easy enough to circumvent in the manner described.

Licorice and Dandelion Recipes

With the release of a number of new Crops, new Recipes have appeared in the various craft buildings as well.  Some of the Crops required to complete Quests recently can be found in the new Recipes.  For Farmers who, like me, hate to toss Crops away because his/her Market Stalls have been filled to capacity again and again, it comes as a relief to discover the new Recipes.  Note that FarmVille recently gave Players the option to own all Craft Buildings for no cost whatsoever.  You can have a total of  five of the original Spa, Winery and Bakery on your Farms.  In other words, one of each and two additional buildings on any other Farm.  The additional duplicate buildings will be at the same level as the original. 

Licorice and Dandelion are featured here:

Bakery:

Black Licorice

3 Bushels of Licorice
3 Bushels of Rye
3 Bushels of Sugar Cane

Strawberry Licorice Cupcake

2 Bushels of Licorice
4 Bushels of Strawberry
3 Bushels of Rye

Winery:

Root Beer:

3 Bushels of Licorice
3 Bushels of Peppermint
3 Bushels of Dandelion
 

Other recent additions to the Menu:

Spa

Dreamy Scented Oil

1 Bushel of Lavender
1 Bushel of Pink Roses
5 Bushels of Raspberry

Lily Bath Bomb

4 Bushels of Lily
4 Bushels of Peppermint
4 Bushels of Columbine

Not as recent, but released with the Hawaiian Farm were:

Seaweed Soap

2 Bushels of Kelp
3 Bushels of Green Tea
4 Bushels of Aloe Vera

Flower Lei

3 Bushels of Double Pikake
1 Bushel of Daffodil
2 Bushels of Lily

Bakery:

Rose Macaroon

4 Bushels of Rye
4 Bushels of Pink Rose
4 Bushels of Purple Poppy

Shrimp Toast

2 Bushels of Shrimp
2 Bushels of Rye
3 Bushels of Onion

Winery:

Oyster Shot
4 Bushels of Oyster
3 Bushels of Rice
4 Bushels of Ghost Chili

Daffodil Spirits

4 Bushels of Daffodil
4 Bushels of Raspberry
4 Bushels of Gladiolus

Sweet and Spicy Liqueur

6 Bushels of White Roses
2 Bushels of Potatoes
8 Bushels of Pepper

Artichoke Spirit

1 Bushel of Artichoke
3 Bushels of Elderberry
3 Bushels of Rhubarb

Chardonnay Wine
4 Bushels of Chardonnay
4 Bushels of Sugar Cane
3 Bushels of White Grape

Saffron Brandy

8 Bushels of Saffron
6 Bushels of Blackberry
8 Bushels of Zinfandel

English Pub:

Foxes Ale:
4 Bushels of Foxglove
4 Bushels of Hops
3 Bushels of Royal Hops

Turnip Stew:
3 Bushels of Turnips
3 Bushels of Field Beans
3 Bushels of Cara Potatoes

Jade Falls:Tea House

When my Farmer upgraded the Tea House to Level 5, the following Recipes were not included in the Menu.  I therefore believe they are new Recipes:

Tom Yum Soup

4 Bushels of Lemongrass
 3 Bushels of Saba
 4 Bushels of Pepper

Onigiri

3 Bushels of Nori
3 Bushels of Sesame
3 Bushels of Rice



Kimchi Pancake

6 Bushels of Green Onion
5 Bushels of Sesame
3 Bushels of Cabbage

Portuguese Rice

3 Bushels of Bok Choy
2 Bushels of Chinese Daikon
3 Bushels of Rice

New Jade Falls Recipes and Zynga Search Dog

With the new requirements for mastering a large number of Jade Falls Crops if a Player wishes to receive the Shipping Licence that will allow him/her to move items freely from Jade Falls to other Farms with corresponding Licences, new Recipes have been added to the Tea Shop:

Kimchi Pancakes:
  6 Bushels of Green Onions
  4 Bushels of Sesame
  3 Bushels of Cabbage

Tom Yum Soup:
  4 Bushels of Lemongrass
  3 Bushels of Saba
  4 Bushels of Pepper

Onigiri:
  3 Bushels of Nori
  3 Bushels of Sesame
  3 Bushels of Rice

Players will notice that many of the ingredients are Crops that formerly had no use apart from generating income and mastery numbers.

Another new option that is not limited to any Farm is the Search Option.  The Zynga Dog that now can be found in the Menu with the Gift Box and Storage Icons can be used not only to find any Item that is in the Gift Box, Storage Facility or on the Farm but can be used as well to count Crops!  This is extremely useful for Players who perform the various Quests that require specific totals of Crop Harvests.

Monster Lab and Serum Creation

I have to confess that I'm not really enamoured of 'Monsters' in the classical sense.  The Monsters in Rune Factory are quite different as they can be charming and cute.  The Chipsqueeks immediately come to mind.  In FarmVille, however, Monsters tend to be hideous and frightening in the classical way that Monsters have been portrayed throughout the ages.

Despite this, one must complete the Monster Lab in the new Haunted Hollow Farm if one intends to succeed in the Spooky Quests... and I therefore did so and am trying to unlock the Monsters in the Lab by using the Serum that one can harvest periodically from the Lab.

The reason I am creating this post is because I could not obtain anything but the Blue Serum for ages from the Lab.  I now realise rather belatedly that the Monster Lab was created on the same principles as the Unicorn Island.  In other words, in the same way that the Purple Amethyst is the default Gem harvested from Unicorn Island (and will be the one that is harvested from all existing Unicorns placed there as well as those who correspond to that Gem), the Blue Serum in the Monster Lab may be the default.  It certainly is the Serum that corresponds to the original Chickenpire Monster you create.

The first Monster created in the Lab is the Chickenpire Monster and it is the one that gives Red Serum from the start.

I have unlocked very few but here are the correspondences I have so far:

Chickenpire:  Blue Serum
  To create: 4 Blue Serum

Frankensheep:  Green Serum
  To create:  5 Blue Serum

Monster Hog:  Blue Serum
  To create: 2 Blue Serum, 4 Green Serum

Mummy Duck: Orange Serum
  To create: 4 Blue Serum, 3 Green Serum

La Chupacabra: Yellow Serum
  To create: 4 Blue Serum, 3 Green Serum, 2 Orange Serum

Giant Moth:  Orange Serum
  To create: 4 Blue Serum, 5 Green Serum, 4 Orange Serum, 2 Yellow Serum

Fish Creature: Pink Serum
  To create: 5 Blue Serum, 7 Green Serum, 6 Orange Serum, 6 Yellow Serum

Mega Monkey: Yellow Serum
  To create: 6 Blue Serum, 4 Green Serum, 10 Orange Serum, 6 Yellow Serum, 4 Pink Serum

Final Monster:
  To create: 6 Blue Serum, 8 Green Serum, 6 Orange Serum, 10 Yellow Serum, 8 Pink Serum

In other words, it probably is best to keep your Monster Hog out of the Monster Pen and simply Harvest from the Pen containing nothing more than the Frankensheep until you have sufficient Green Serum to unlock and create the fourth Monster in the form of the Mummy Duck.   I daresay you then will need some Orange Serum from the Mummy Duck for the fifth Monster.

As I confessed, I haven't made any real haste to move forward on this, quite unlike my actions with respect to the Unicorn Island, where I unlocked all five pages of Unicorns as quickly as possible.  If a Player is as keen on Monsters as I am on Unicorns, he/she can build a second Monster Pen to be able to harvest more Serum... Another method of creating more Green Serum is by creating another Frankensheep.  In the same way that a new Unicorn will generate a Gem upon creation, a new Monster generates its corresponding Serum colour.

If you would like to obtain any Harvests of Green Serum, you should remove the Chickenpire from the Lab with all haste after creating the Frankensheep.

If you look at the list of ingredients required to create the first six Monsters, you will see that as you progress, more Serum of EVERY colour is needed.   As with the Unicorns, you will discover that the Blue and Green Serum you formerly spurned must be created in quantity if you wish to continue to unlock new Monsters.  Again, the quickest way to achieve this is by having more than one Monster Pen and placing a single Monster for each colour in each Pen.

Remember that Monsters like the Imp, a Quest Reward and a Creature that must be Mastered in order to complete one of the Quest Sequences, will yield NO Serum.  Only Monsters created in the Pen will yield Serum.  There is no advantage to an increase in the number of any single type of Monster placed in your Pen.  One Giant Moth will yield as much Orange Serum as three Giant Moths.  You can harvest the Monster Pen twice daily, however.

Incidentally, Mastery of specific Monsters and harvesting the Monster Pen a specific number of times both have been requirements in Quest Sequences.  Furthermore, the creation of ALL Monsters in the List is a Requirement for 'beating' the Haunted Hollow Farm.  When you 'beat' the Haunted Hollow, you will obtain a Shipping Licence that will allow you to share items freely between the Haunted Hollow and any other Farms for which you have Licences as well as giving you a Statue to commemorate the achievement.

New Haunted Hollow Farm

It has been claimed that Hallowe'en is the second most popular holiday in the U.S. and one that generates almost as much business as Christmas.  People often decorate their houses more lavishly than they do during the Christmas holidays and the purchase of sweets and costumes is another source of income for businesses.

FarmVille initially released the Lighthouse Cove Farm as an Autumn Getaway a year ago but the new 'Haunted Hollow' Farm is more overtly a 'spooky' farm that is based on Hallowe'en.  As is often the case when Zynga first releases a new farm, there is an 'early' opportunity to unlock the locaiton and to perform special quests that will not be available when the Farm is released free to the general public.

The cost for the 'early ticket' to the Hollow is 35 FC.  Although many players have not 'beat' Jade Falls yet, some have yielded to the temptation to unlock the new Hallowe'en farm early.

At the Haunted Hollow, there is a mountaintop like the ones in Hawaii and Jade Farms that can be upgraded to Level 10. and harvested for items.  There is a Monster Lab, a new option in FarmVille similar to the Dinosaur Lab.

My Potion Shop is the building where Recipes are completed for items that can be traded for Fuel.  New Crops that can be grown only in the Hollow are ingredients in these Recipes.

At Level 1, the Recipes are as follows:

Nightshade Sherbet:
2 Bushels of Zombies
2 Bushels of Tombstones
2 Bushels of Sugar

Pumpkin Pie
1 Bushel of Jack-o-Lanterns
1 Bushel of Green Toadstools
2 Bushels of Wheat

Witch's Brew
1 Bushel of Ghoul Garlic
1 Bushel of Sage
2 Bushels of Red Tulips

At Level 2:

Cauldron Stwe
1 Bushel of Sage
2 Bushels of Tombsttone
2 Bushels of Tomato

Invisibility Potion
1 Bushel of Wormwood
1 Bushel of Green Toadstool
2 Bushels of Aloe Vera

Crystal Cocktail
2 Bushels of Spectre Berries
2 Bushels of Jack-o-Lanterns
1 Bushel of Grapes

At Level 3:

Fire Brew:
2 Bushels of Spectre Berries
1 Bushel of Sage
2 Bushels of Jalapeno

Stink Bomb
1 Bushel of Ghoul Garlic
2 Bushels of Zombies
1 Bushel of Bell Peppers

Lucky Charm:
3 Bushels of Tombstones
2 Bushels of Green Toadstool
1 Bushel of Lavender


The Monster Lab can be harvested regularly for Monster Serum in the same way that the Dinosaur Lab can be harvested for its DNA.

Jade Falls Shipping Licence Requirements

Today, players began to experience prompts with respect to the requirements for earning the Jade Falls Shipping Licence.  These are as follows:

Upgrade Mountain fully to Level 10.
Upgrade Imperial Docks fully to Level 10.
Master all ordinary Jade Falls Crops
Upgrade Tea House fully to Level 5.


FarmVille farming has become more sophisticated with the introduction of each new Farm.  On the original Home Farm, there is only one location where plots can be tilled and Crops grown.  The English Countryside, the second Farm to be released, is no different in this respect, nor is the third Farm in the form of the Lighthouse Cove.  The Lighthouse Cove did introduce a new, rather tiresome option, however, in limiting the number of Plots that can be tilled at any level of expansion.

The Winter Wonderland, which is the fourth Farm, limits the number of Plots that can be tilled at any expansion Level but offers only the snowy ground.  It is when the fifth Farm in the form of the Hawaiian Farm was released that a new option was given in the form of Water Crops.

The sixth farm to be released was Jade Falls where sophistication of Farming achieved new heights, both literally and metaphorically.  Here Crops can be grown on the Main Field, in the Water and in Paddy Fields elevated above sea or river level.  As with all Farms introduced after the English Countryside option, the number of Plots that can be tilled is limited for each of the three different locations at any expansion level.

For the purpose of achieving the 'Beat the Jade Falls' goal and obtaining the coveted Shipping Licence that allows a player to transfer items freely between Farms, 20 different Crops must be mastered fully.

For each Crop, there are three Mastery Levels and each is given a Star.  Full Mastery is 3-Star Mastery.  You will find Crops grown on all three Locations in the list of the 20 Crops that must be fully mastered in Jade Falls.

The Crops that must be mastered do not include the 'Forbidden' varieties and consist of the following:


Azuki
Growth Time: 8 Hours
Location: Main Field
Mastery: 720 (10/260/450)

Bok Choy
Growth Time: 12 Hours
Location: Main Field
Mastery:  450 (90/180/450)

Brown Rice
Growth Time: 12 Hours
Location: Paddy Fields
Mastery: 360 (50/90/220)

Chinese Cotton
Growth Time: 1 Day
Location: Main Field
Mastery:  360 (50/90/220)

Chinese Daikon
Growth Time: 8 Hours
Location: Paddy Fields
Mastery: 370 (50/90/230)

Green Onion:
Growth Time: 8 Hours
Location: Main Field
Mastery: 740 (90/190/460)

Grouper
Growth Time:  12 Hours
Location: Water
Mastery: 180 (20/50/110)

Horse Radish
Growth Time: 12 Hours
Location: Main Field
Mastery: 1080 (140/270/670)

Imperial Rice
Growth Time: 4 Hours
Location: Paddy Fields
Mastery: 1130 (140/280/710)

Imperial Tea
Growth Time: 1 Day
Location: Main Field
Mastery: 360 (50/90/320)

Lemongrass
Growth Time: 8 Hours
Location: Main Field
Mastery: 1490 (190/370/930)

Lowland Ginger
Growth Time: 12 Hours
Location: Main Field
Mastery: 720 (90/180/450)

Prawns
Growth Time: 8 Hours
Location: Water
Mastery: 370 (50/90/230)

Ramen
Growth Time: 4 Hours
Location: Water
Mastery: 1130 (140/280/710)

Rock Cod
Growth Time: 1 Day
Location: Water
Mastery: 380 (50/90/240)

Sesame
Growth Time: 1 Day
Location: Main Field
Mastery: 740 (90/190/460)

Sichuan Pepper
Growth Time: 4 Hours
Location: Main Field
Mastery: 1080  (10/400/670)

Sticky Rice
Growth Time: 1 Day
Location: Paddy Fields
Mastery: 180 (4/66/110)

Watercress
Growth Time: 12 Hours
Location: Paddy Fields
Mastery: 360 (50/90/220)

White Cloud Tea
Growth Time: 8 Hours
Location: Main Field
Mastery: 720 (90/180/450)

Crops that can be grown at Jade Falls are unlocked in the same way that new Crops are unlocked at any other Farm in FarmVille.  To give it the simplest interpretation, it is FARMING that unlocks new Crops.  A player's XP or Experience Level, reflected in the player's general Level  as well as specific requirements in some cases for the Mastery of a specific Crop in a Crop Sequence are included in the requirements to unlock new Crops on every Farm.

In the process of achieving the ultimate goal, one will receive small rewards as one completes each requirement.  Given that the sole requirement for obtaining the Shipping Licence for the Lighthouse Cove is to upgrade the Cove fully, the amount of labour required to achieve the equivalent at Jade Falls is staggering.
 

The cost of purchase for the Lighthouse Cove Shipping Licence is 75 Farm Cash while the cost of purchasing the Licence for Jade Falls is 200 Farm Cash.  It can take a long time to obtain all of the materials required to upgrade the Cove to Level 10 but at least all of the materials are available as Free Gifts.   Where the two construction projects at Jade Falls are concerned, there are two materials that can be obtained only through Wall Posts or outright purchase.  This makes the task even more daunting.  Furthermore, the materials used for these projects have no other function and therefore any excess is waste where the three materials used to upgrade the Cove could be applied to other building projects as well.

Useful FarmVille Recipes for Unicorns and Crafts

Recently, there have been a myriad of new options in FarmVille. Although some of them can be tedious and annoying, others, like the Unicorn Island, are fun, especially for any player who loves fantasy. A list of Unicorns with the Gems they produce may be useful to those players who are intent upon creation of these often dazzling creatures. Quests have continued to proliferate but no longer are restricted to crop growing. Often, a requirement may be the creation of an item in the Crafts Building. Recipes for the items that are demanded most often may be useful as well. Jade Falls is the newest Farm in FarmVille and the Quests for Jade Falls usually involve Recipes. Those recipes will be included on this page as well.

 *************** Unicorn Island: ***************
Unicorn Island must be built, using three different builsing materials in the form of

10 Enchanted Blossoms, 10 Rainbow Clovers and 10 Hearts of Gold.

 All materials can be found in the Free Gifts List. Once the Island is completed, it will render 1 Amethyst to the builder. You then need to stock the Island with at least one Unicorn in order to allow it to produce regularly. The following list gives the Unicorns that can be created using the Gems as well as the Gems needed to produce each. All other Unicorns, if placed in the Island, will yield only Amethysts.

 Note that you must unlock each successive Unicorn by creating the preceding Unicorn in the list. Once all Unicorns have been unlocked, therefore, you will be able to create any Unicorn on the List. The Unicorns require progressively more Gems to create but may not yield more valuable Gems in every case. There are Unicorns such as the Fancy Pants Unicorn that require a prodigious number of valuable and rare Gems to create but, as in the case of the Fancy Pants, only produce Amethysts once placed in the Island.

 ************* Unicorn List *************

 A list of Unicorns with the Gems each produces as well as the Gems required to produce one:

Pink Lemonade Unicorn: Amethyst
     To create, you will need: 10 Amethysts

 Moon Unicorn: White Diamond
    To create, you will need: 12 Amethysts

 Sun Unicorn: Amethyst
 To create, you will need: 6 Amethysts, 8 Diamonds

 Moss Unicorn: Emerald
To create, you will need: 12 Amethysts, 4 Diamonds

Wind Pegacorn: White Diamond
To create, you will need: 9 Amethysts, 5 Diamonds, 4 Emeralds

Princess Unicorn: Emerald
To create, you will need: 5 Amethysts, 11 Diamonds, 6 Emeralds

Emerald Pegacorn: Ruby
To create, you will need: 8 Amethysts, 9 Diamonds, 10 Emeralds

Starry Night Unicorn: Diamond
To create, you will need: 12 Amethysts, 9 Diamonds, 10 Emeralds, 4 Rubies

Icy Fire Unicorn: Emerald
To create, you will need: 10 Amethysts, 12 Diamonds, 11 Emeralds, 10 Rubies

Tiara Unicorn: Ruby
To create, you will need: 11 Amethysts, 10 Diamonds, 19 Emeralds, 14 Rubies

Angel Pegacorn: Sapphire
To create, you will need: 10 Amethysts, 16 Diamonds, 17 Emeralds, 22 Rubies

Fancy Pants Unicorn: Amethyst To create, you will need: 15 Amethysts, 20 Diamonds, 18 Emeralds, 16 Rubies, 10 Sapphires

Lightning Pegacorn: Ruby
To create, you will need: 22 Amethysts, 15 Diamonds, 23 Emeralds, 18 Rubies and 20 Sapphires

Robot Unicorn: Sapphire
To create, you will need  20 Amethysts, 23 Diamonds, 20 Emeralds, 33 Rubies, 26 Sapphires

The final Unicorn to be unlocked:

Phoenix Pegacorn: Sapphire
 To create, you will need: 40 Amethysts, 37 Diamonds, 29 Emeralds, 23 Rubies, 30 Sapphires

If you study the list, you will see that Amethysts can be created from ANY Unicorn, including the Pink Lemonade, which is the first Unicorn you can unlock. The Moon Unicorn is the first Unicorn that will produce a Diamond but you will not be able to produce an Emerald until you create the Moss Unicorn. The first Unicorn to produce a Ruby is the Emerald Unicorn and the first to produce the Sapphire is the Angel Pegacorn.

Unicorns created on Unicorn Island can be placed in Horse Paddocks to produce foals. When placed in Unicorn Island, they produce only Gems. Incidentally, when Unicorn Island reaches 100%, you always should harvest it BEFORE you place any other Unicorn on the Island. Doing so will decrease the readiness instantly to zero, making the operation of the Island different from that of any other Animal enclosure. Ordinarily, when you place a new Animal in any Animal Enclosure, the readiness will decrease only a little. In the case of any Enclosure at 100%, it will be decreased usually to 96%. Trees can be added to Orchards or Groves, on the other hand, without decreasing readiness at all. If at 100% at the time of adding a new tree, the Orchard/Grove will remain at 100% until harvested.

Strategies for obtaining Gems:

 Gems can be harvested from Unicorn Islands, found on Wall Posts or purchased for Farm Cash.

The prices for Gems are:
Amethyst: 2 FC
Diamond: 2 FC
Emerald: 3 FC
Ruby: 3 FC
Sapphire: 3 FC

You can build more than one Unicorn Island on any or every Farm if you have space and patience. This is a far better strategy actually than purchasing Gems that you need to create any Unicorn. If you are willing to spend premium cash on your Unicorns, you are better served by purchasing the Instant Grow option on any Farm with multiple Unicorn Islands. I have found that the cost of Instant Grow for Animals tends to be 3 FC ordinarily, which is no more than the cost of a single Emerald, Ruby or Sapphire.

Building multiple Unicorn Islands can be a tedious affair and however beautiful they may be, they do tend to dominate a Farm if there are too many of them. Nonetheless, any player who is addicted to Unicorns may wish to follow this strategy in order to unlock the entire list at the earliest possible time. Each time you build a new Unicorn Island, it will yield Amethyst as well.

At the start, you may find that you have more Amethyst than any other Gem, but as you unlock Unicorns, Amethysts may be in demand. If you wish to be certain of the type of Gem that you will harvest, place only one type of Unicorn in your Island. In other words, place only Unicorns that yield Rubies if you wish to make certain that the Island will yield Rubies. Unicorns can be moved in and out of Islands, transferred to Paddocks or simply stashed until needed.

Once you have unlocked all Unicorns, you can create any that you wish or move them into Paddocks in order to create Foals.  All the Unicorns have the potential to produce Foals.

Note that there are two Doghouse options in FarmVille that are similar to some extent to the Unicorn Island option.  The Sunshine Doghouse and the Cupcake Doghouse produce Dog Treats and a Player can unlock new types of Dogs in each.  The difference between the two Doghouses is the types of Dogs that each can house and produce.  I am not really a Dog Person, being more partial to Cats in the real world and Cats and Unicorns in the virtual worlds.  I did enjoy the original Dog Training option in FarmVille that allowed me to purchase, raise and train a Puppy to run at my heels and perform tricks and tasks.   I do not know if that option still exists because I never wished to go through all of that again once I trained my original Japanese dog.  I do know that he stays on the Home Farm and will not accompany me on my travels to other Farms.

I wonder if Zynga plans to release a Cattery that will operate in the same fashion as the two new Doghouses.

 *********************** Craft Items and Quests: ***********************

 As previously indicated, Craft Items often are requirements in Quests in FarmVille now. The Items requested tend to be those requiring the least amount of mastery and are as follows:

 ********************* Simple Craft Recipes: *********************
 Farmhand: 4 Cotton Bushels, 3 Soybean Bushels, 1 Cherry Basket

Fertilise All: 2 Manure Bags, 4 Carrot Bushels, 3 Chickpea Bushels

Shovel Set: 3 Jalopeno Bushels, 3 Double Grain Bushels, 1 Lemon Basket

Arbourist: 3 Peanut Bushels, 4 Morning Glory Bushels, 2 Orange Baskets

Animal Feed: 1 Walnut Basket, 2 Sunflower Bushels, 2 Barley Bushels

You will see that any Crafts Recipe usually requires two different types of Crop Bushels as well as a Basket harvested from Trees or an ingredient, such as Manure, harvested from Animals. Cows yield Milk and Pigs yield Manure, for example. Apple Trees of any kind may yield Apple Baskets, while Cherry Trees yield Cherry Baskets and Orange Trees yield Orange Baskets. Another common ingredient harvested from Trees is the Walnut Basket, which is harvested from any Walnut Tree.

***********Hybrid Crops*************

There is one Crop in the Craft Recipes given above that is not an ordinary Crop but is rather a Hybrid Crop.  The Recipe for the Shovel Set requires 3 Double Grain Bushels.  Double Grain is made in a Greenhouse by combining Rice with Wheat.  It ordinarily takes 3 Days to complete, but can be accelerated to be produced instantly for 7 Farm Cash.   As with any Hybrid Crop, only a finite number of Seeds will be 'unlocked' in the Marketplace with any Greenhouse production.  In the case of Double Grain seeds, a player will be able to purchase 100 Seeds in the Marketplace.   When any Hybrid Seeds have been made, a few can be 'shared' by posting to the Player's Wall.  A Player who clicks on a Wall Post for Double Grain Seeds will receive 40 Seeds.

As with any Crops, Bushel yield is not guaranteed.  Certainly the sum of three Bushels needed to complete the Shovel Set Recipe may be difficult (but not impossible) to obtain from 40 Seeds.  As the actual Double Grain Crop takes only 12 hours to mature, a Player can produce another batch in the Greenhouse if he/she fails to obtain the required number of Bushels from the Crop.

******************* Jade Falls Recipes: *******************

Jade Falls is the first Farm to offer paddies as well as ordinary farmland and water crop areas. Any Crop that is planted in a paddy field will not rot and can be harvested at any time after it matures. Ordinary Crops and Crops planted in Water will rot or wither in the same way as Crops on other Farms.

The Hawaii Farm was the first to offer Water Crops. Jade Falls differs in that separate farm tools are NOT required to plant or harvest Water Crops. An ordinary Combine will harvest Crops in any sort of plot in Jade Falls. Note that Jade Falls Recipes usually consist of two Jade Falls Crops and one Crop that can be grown on any Farm.

The Crops from other Farms that are most commonly used are Wheat, Rice and Green Tea. Jalapeno, Pepper, Basil and Ginger are used as well in some of the low grade Recipes.

 At higher grades, you will find requirements for Cabbage, Eggplant, Sugar Cane, Soybean and Coffee.

 Milk Tea: 3 White Cloud Tea Bushels, 3 Azuki Bushels, 3 Green Tea Bushels

 Pho Soup: 3 Jade Bamboo Bushels, 3 Sichuan Pepper Bushels, 3 Jalapeno Bushels

Hamachi Maki: 1 Hamachi Bushel, 2 Nori Bushels, 3 Rice Bushels

Bao: 2 Chinese Daikon Bushels, 3 Grouper Bushels, 3 Ginger

Egg Roll: 1 Edamame Bushel, 3 Azuki Bushels, 3 Wheat Bushels

 Bibimbap: 1 Sticky Rice Bushel, 3 Sichuan Pepper Bushels, 2 Pepper Bushels

Chow Mein: 3 Jade Bamboo Bushels, 1 Sticky Rice Bushel, 3 Basil Bushels

 Ihura Nigiri: 1 Squid Bushel, 2 Wasabi Bushels, 3 Rice Bushels

Oolong Tea: 2 Imperial Tea Bushels, 2 Lotus Bushels, 3 Green Tea Bushels

Kimchi: 1 Jade Peanuts Bushel, 2 Wasabi Bushels, 1 Cabbage Bushel

Hot and Sour Eggplant: 2 Prawns Bushels, 3 Bok Choy Bushels, 1 Eggplant Bushel

Takoyaki: 3 Unagi Bushels, 1 Squid Bushel, 2 Wheat Bushels

Moon Cake: 2 Baby Corn Bushels, 3 Chinese Cotton Bushels, 3 Sugar Cane Bushels

Fried Rice: 3 Scallops Bushels, 2 Sticky Rice Bushels, 2 Soybean Bushels

Thai Tea: 3 Imperial Tea Bushels, 3 Lowland Ginger Bushels, 3 Green Tea Bushels

At Level 5:

Congee: 1 Millet Bushel, 2 Prawn Bushels, 3 Wheat Bushels

Vietnamese Iced Coffee: 2 Sesame Bushels, 3 Jade Bamboo Bushels, 3 Coffee Bushels

Egg Tart: 2 Lotus Bushels, 3 Azuki Bushels, 2 Rye Bushels

Tips on Being a Good Neighbour

These are a few tips I've discovered while playing FarmVille. They do not benefit the player much in some cases, but can benefit his/her Neighbours, especially when they are at low levels, struggling to survive.

Fuel can be difficult to obtain when one is a low-level player. One can purchase craft items from Neighbours but often one lacks sufficient coins. Neighbours who are at higher levels have the option to share craft items by posting to their Wall. Obviously, the item that will be converted into the largest amount of fuel when used is the craft item of the highest level.

There are two ways to obtain the option to share a Craft Item when a player accesses his/her Craft Building on any Farm. The first is by raising the level of any Craft Item that is being made or sold. It is here that other players can help. Whenever a player purchases a Craft Item from a Neighbour, XP points are awarded to the Seller of the Item. Often it can be useful to ask the Neighbour which Craft Items he/she is trying to increase in level. Two different strategies apply.

First, there are those who would like to concentrate on a single Craft Item to raise its level and thereby its value to the maximum. A Player who is interested in pursuing this strategy would prefer that Neighbours purchase THAT Craft Item and none others. It will be the most expensive Craft Item that is offered from any Farm.

Note here that high-level Craft Items require far more XP points than their low-level counterparts. In practice, this means that their level will increase very slowly and that it will require many purchases on the part of Neighbours to raise the Craft Item to the next Level.

In dealing with Craft Items, it is important to understand that they affect a Player's ability to increase the Level of the Craft Building itself. This is where the second strategy in terms of raising Craft Item levels can be preferable to the first.

I believe there are five possible Levels to any Craft Building on any Farm. A Player usually can raise the Level of the Building by using Farm Cash at ANY stage, but the the option to purchase the Upgrade using Coins only will be unlocked when a specific total of Craft Items are raised in Level.

Players who have upgraded their Craft Buildings to Level 5, the highest Level, no longer will care about this aspect of Craft Items as increase in Craft Item levels no longer will affect their Buildings. It therefore usually is the high-level Player who will prefer that his/her Neighbours purchase the Craft Item with the highest Level.

Low level Craft Items will increase in their Level far more quickly than the high-level Items. If a Player wishes to upgrade his/her Craft Building using Coins, therefore, he/she will prefer that Neighbours purchase the Craft Items with the LOWEST Levels.

It is here that FarmVille can be a little complicated, as Craft Items from ALL Farms and Craft Buildings will be offered together when any Player accesses a Neighbour's Craft Items in order to purchase one. Unless one is aware of the status of that Neighbour's Craft Buildings on each Farm that he/she owns, it is almost impossible to know which low-level Craft Item to purchase. Many Farmers do not care that much about these matters but there are others who do. I would suggest that any Farmer who is trying to upgrade a single Craft Item or Craft Building post a note on his/her Wall to Neighbours to request that they purchase a specific Craft Item when this is desirable.

I began this post actually to give a tip to Players who wish to help their struggling low-level Neighbours. The tip is as follows:

Whenever Neighbours purchase any Craft Item, it will gain XP points towards the next Level. When it gains sufficient points to push it to the next Level, the owner of the Craft Building will be informed of this when next he/she accesses his/her Craft Building. An option then will be given to share the improved Craft Item with Friends by posting.

If the Farmer has any low-level Neighbours, even a low-level Item will be appreciated! That is why I often will post a Craft Item, even if its value would not be significant to high-level Neighbours.

The second opportunity to share a Craft Item occurs when a Farmer finishes any Craft Item in the process of being made when the Craft Building first is accessed. If you wish to help your Neighbours, choose the Craft Item of the HIGHEST Level to finish first. You will be given the option to share this Craft Item with your Friends.

This all may sound overly-complicated but it can be helpful to Players to understand how FarmVille works where Crafting is concerned. I have created a separate page on this site for all the Recipes that are available on the various Farms at each Level of Upgrade.

New Facebook Game Data Options

I am writing this because I received absolutely no help from Zynga when both FarmVille and CityVille crashed my Flash plug-in each time I tried to load the game for almost a fortnight. Having played FarmVille for almost two years, the response Zynga sent, which was to copy and paste an elementary list of system requirements, made no sense whatsoever and was unhelpful in the extreme.

The fact that the many advertisements linked now to FarmVille and CityVille ALWAYS loaded easily and only the game itself was unable to load was a clue that the problem lay within the actual games and new options that pertained to the Flash plug-in.

Note here that I am not technically advanced where the internet is concerned. I cannot write software or code and basically can perform only the most basic tasks on my laptop. I had hoped for some expert advice, therefore, but it was not forthcoming.

The Adobe site was my next stop on the internet highway, but 'support' is offered only to paying customers. I then tried to research the problem myself. What I discovered was that one needed to be able to access the Flash Settings Panel. Alas, whenever I attempted to do so, IT crashed instantly as well! I therefore could not perform any actions whatsoever to change the settings.

My research led me to some reports that camera and microphone access sometimes led to Flash plug-in crashes. If I had possessed the ability to go into my Adobe Flash settings, I could have made certain that this access were denied but I could not do that.

Meanwhile, I could not play either FarmVille or CityVille on my own laptop. Note here that I had enabled Zynga to save data for FarmVille and CityVille on my laptop long ago. The worst part of the problem was that I could not send any Crash Report to Firefox or Adobe when the Flash plug-in crashed. Each time it crashed and I attempted to do so, 'submission failed'.

I uninstalled Flash in all of its manifestations and then reinstalled it, but in vain... The problem continued. Oddly enough, I still was able to play Fantasy Kingdoms and Gourmet Ranch on Facebook as well as loading streaming video on other sites. The problem therefore was peculiar to Zynga games.

There is one aspect of FarmVille and CityVille that has changed radically since the games first were released. The amount of data used is tremendous and if you do not allow Zynga to store data on your computer, you may not be able to load these games easily or handily. If the games do not load quickly and 'hang' for any length of time, you need to adjust your Flash settings to allow storage of data. Quite a lot of data actually...

I was able to solve the problem with the two games only after I finally was able to load the Settings Panel without a crash. Firefox has updated itself in the past week so perhaps there was a fix involved in that update. (I could not load the games on Chrome or IE either, however, so it may have required a Flash update of some kind. I always install all the latest updates in any case.)

Perhaps this is a pointless post because I don't have the technical knowledge required to assist any one else, but I wanted people who have experienced the same issue to know they aren't alone and that allowing Zynga the capacity to store a lot of data on your computer/desktop may be part of the solution. Clearing my Cache did nothing but clearing my Cookies may have helped as well.

A Wealth of Christmas Gifts in FarmVille

Zynga pulled out all the stops where Christmas was concerned this year. Christmas in FarmVille always is a magical experience and the holiday celebrations are reasons enough for me to remain a loyal player, despite the other annoyances and frustrations that accompany the game.

For Christmas this year, the first experience at the start of Advent was a new Winter Farm, in the form of the Winter Wonderland, with a magical Railway and frozen Treasures... A new Sweets Shop on the Winter Wonderland Farm allows Players to prepare wonderful traditional Christmas Recipes.

This release was followed by the Winter Hearth closer to Christmas, where a Player's stocking resided and grew whenever others sent Stocking Stuffers. A magical Sleigh yielded Holiday Gifts each day when harvested.

Then came the Twelve Days of Christmas, a little different from last year and at first, a bit confusing to some players who experienced it in the past. This year, the 12 Days Gifts are contingent on the number of players who click on the link and a Player receives only a single item for each day. In other words, for the 12th Day Gift, 12 Friends or Neighbours must click on the link and the Player never receives more than one 12th Day item.

There were Christmas Quests as well but these can be highly annoying as there are FAR too many of them and they require FAR too many Crop harvests of Crops that a player may have no desire or need to grow. I'd rather concentrate on the Crops that can be used in my favourite Recipes frankly. The rewards for completing the Quests can be good or they can be disappointing. Many players ignore the Quests now, and that is a pity. If Zynga had only a single Quest sequence at any given time, it would be much better.

On Christmas Eve, Players were allowed to open the Gifts under the Christmas Tree by moving their mouses over each wrapped Gift. After all Gifts were opened, a little film appeared. Santa and his reindeer were silhouetted against a full moon, then landed on Earth and delivered a huge Gift wrapped in gold paper. It contained one of the most gorgeous winged Unicorns created in FarmVille. What is particularly wonderful about this is that EVERY Player who had a Tree, whether the Tree were large or small, received this glorious Gift. In too many cases with Zynga and other FB game creators, Gifts follow reality in that the rich receive more than the poor...
In this case, however, every Player received the Winter Pegacorn, which sells for almost 40 FV Cash in the marketplace.

The Stockings are an ongoing game. This should have been explained better frankly because I and many other Players did not become involved with the Stocking game until Christmas. There is a sequence of possible Gifts under two headings: Naughty or Nice. Players must receive a specific number of Stocking Stuffers at each level to initiate a vote by their Friends and Neighbours: Naughty or Nice. This determines the actual chain of Gifts one can receive, but there is an opportunity at each level to purchase the OTHER Gift at a reduced price if one wishes.

For the actual Christmas celebrations, I would give my vote to FarmVille for the best Gifts and celebrations. CityVille as always offers wonderful animated items and buildings BUT there are far too many clicks required for almost everything. The concept of four expansions, each of which had its own magical gifts embedded in it, was good but the amount of work (and work on the part of Friends and Neighbours) required to complete any of them was outrageous. It becomes frustrating and actually unpleasant to view the unattainable Gifts each day. Completion of one set of requirements for the first expansion, moreover, initiated ANOTHER level of requirements. In all, there are four different sequences that must be completed in order to unlock the 'Giving Tree' on the FIRST holiday expansion. I still have not been able to complete that, and it makes me very sad. If any one at Zynga reads my posts, I hope they will unlock these holiday expansions for ALL Players before Twelfth Night! Otherwise, (not that my vote carries ANY weight in the Zynga universe), I will vote CityVille as one of the unsatisfying Christmas experiences.

CastleVille should have been wonderful, but alas, many low level players were unable to participate in the St. Nicolas Quests at all. Players were given a Tree only when they had completed Quests. To create the Catapult that sent Gifts to Friends and Neighbours, they had to complete MORE Quests. Gifts only contained a CHANCE of being a desired Item. Very disappointing... in its own way, as frustrating as CityVille.

Fantasy Kingdoms gave every Player one spectacular wrapped Gift in the form of a special Christmas Tower. It was a very beautiful Gift and frankly, I'd rather receive one REAL Gift than the chance to receive however many Items that never materialise. So Fantasy Kingdoms has my vote for being the most reliable and always magical game.

Unfortunately, there are many frustrations that accompany FarmVille still. Although the animated advertisements ALWAYS load and proliferate, the game itself sometimes does not load. Travel between farms is almost impossible. More often than not, the Player is forced to reload the game before he/she can perform any actions on another Farm. This ultimately discourages Players from playing more than one Farm, unfortunately. Zynga, please solve this problem! It is frustrating and time-consuming to be forced to reload.

At least with FarmVille, clicking on links to help other Players is not too time-consuming. In CityVille, on the other hand, it can take ages for a click to reach its goal and very often one receives the message of 'timed out', making the entire process a colossal waste of time. If my Neighbours wonder why they don't receive more clicks from me on their CityVille posts, THAT is why.

As in FarmVille, there are far too many Quests in CityVille, to the point where Players are overwhelemed and either ignore all of them or stop playing altogether. Instead of spending so much time and energy on Quests that should be staggered over the course of months rather than days, the developers should be set the task of working out the glitches and problems in the game! The same holds true for FarmVille.

Why are we asked to become Neighbours with Players with whom we have been Neighbours for months in CityVille? This is annoying not only to the Player who is urged to make the Request but to the Player who receives repeated Requests to become Neighbours to existing Neighbours? Work it out, Zynga!!! Why are we asked to send Requests constantly in FarmVille to Friends who either do not exist (because every one we know ALREADY plays FarmVille) or are people who definitely do NOT wish to play FarmVille??? The splash screen is extremely annoying and when it appears after what should be a simple act of travel to another Farm, almost intolerable.

Despite all of this, it is wonderful to be able to experience a little Christmas magic in virtual realities like FarmVille, Fantasy Kingdoms, CityVille and CastleVille.

New Winter Wonderland Farm

For the Yule season, Zynga has released a new Farm in FarmVille. The Winter Wonderland is a frozen landscape ruled by a northern Winter Season, with special frozen Crops as well as Crops appropriate to Yuletide. With the Farm, http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifa Player will have a rather rudimentary Sweets Shop. The new Recipes that are available both at the Winter Wonderland Farm and at the Home Farm can be found in a little Guide on a new page at:

Winter Wonderland Recipes Guide

You can find links to all my Guides for FarmVille as Tabs above this post and every post.

The Winter Wonderland has some rather creative new options in the form of a railway that can be harvested each day and frozen mounds of various sizes that, when chipped away or melted, reveal Treasures. Treasures in the largest mounds can be uncovered only with pickaxes. Treasures of other sizes are melted by means of hair dryers!

Crops grown at the Winter Wonderland are:

Candied Yam:
Harvest in 4 Hours

Carroticicle
Harvest in 12 Hours

Gingerbread
Harvest in 8 Hours

Iced Rice
Harvest in 12 Hours

Red Iceberry
Harvest in 8 Hours

Holly
Harvest in 16 Hours

Iceberg Lettuce
Harvest in 20 Hours

Mint Candy
Harvest in 1 Day

Frozen Grapes
Harvest in 1 Day

Snow Tulip
Harvest in 1 Day

Gummi Bear
Harvest in 1 Day

Glacial Rose
Harvest in 2 Days

New Winter Wonderland Farm in Farmville

A new Winter Farm has been released in FarmVille. At present, it costs 55 FV Cash to buy a VIP ticket to travel immediately. As with the Lighthouse Cove's initial release, special Quests have been created for players who are willing to pay for the VIP Ticket. In a few days, travel to the WInter Wonderland should be free to all players.

To help those who opt for early travel as well as those who wait for the free tickets (to travel either by second class or 'cattle car'), I have made some notes of the initial requirements and Items:

When you arrive at the Winter Wonderland, you will have only the hoe by which to plough squares by hand. You actually can till up to 100 squares without expanding the Farm, making this new seasonal Farm superior to the Lighthouse Cove.

You will find the following on your farm:

1 partially completed Winter Animal Pen
1 partially completed Orchard
1 Train Station
Various new Winter Trees
Some frozen Treasure Mounds

A Winter Animal Pen requires the following:

10 Ice Posts (this requirement has been completed when you arrive)
10 Conifer Dust
10 Candy Cane Beams

Orchards are the same, thankfully, in every season and Farm, requiring:

10 Bricks (this requirement has been completed when you arrive)
10 Nails
10 Boards

The Train Station can be harvested (rather like the Cove) and can be upgraded. Upgrading materials required for the first upgrade are:

3 Rail Spikes
3 Rail Ties
3 Lumps of Coal

Treasure Mounds come in different sizes and must be unfrozen. Each size requires a different device to unfreeze it.

Each Small Treasure Mound requires:
15 Hair Dryers

There are two Small Treasure Mounds on your Farm.

Each Medium Treasure Mounds require:
25 Hair Dryers (15 of these have been applied before you arrive, apparently, to one of the two Medium Treasure Mounds on your Farm)

Each Large Treasure Mound requires:
45 Pickaxes

There is one Large Treasure Mound on your farm.

Each Extra Large Treasure Mound requires:
75 Pickaxes

There is one Extra Large Treasure Mound on your Farm.

Expansions of your Farm allow access to more Treasure Mounds of various sizes.

You have a storage Igloo and a Sweet Shop on your Winter Farm. The three Initial Recipes that can be made are as follows:

Ginger S'more:
3 Bushels of Gingerbread
3 Bushels of Iced Rice
2 Bushels of Sunflowers

Candied Yam Pie:
3 Bushels of Candied Yam
1 Bushel of Glacial Rose
2 Bushels of Cranberries

Candied Apples:
2 Bushels of Gummi Bears
3 Bushels of Candied Yams
3 Bushels of Wheat

As you can see, Recipes at the Sweet Shop include ingredients from Crops both from the Winter Farm and a player's Home Farm.

The two Trees on your Farm are a Frozen Spruce and a Winter Spruce.

Lighthouse Cove, Where the Rich get Richer and the Poor Stay Poor

The new Lighthouse Cove option in FarmVille has a great deal to offer but unfortunately, it is very much slanted towards players who can afford to spend Premium Cash on the game.

Unlike the English Countryside (which appears to have disappeared as an option for new players), the Lighthouse Cove can be accesssed by players at low levels, where the English Countryside was unlocked previously only when players reached Level 20.

The Lighthouse Cove, advertised as a 'Fall Getaway', is a charming cove featuring New England landscapes and trees clad in autumn foliage. It is very limited initially in terms of farming, allowing players to plow a maximum of 35 plots.

It is here that the new Cove demonstrates its capitalist nature. The sole option to expand is through a payment in Premium Cash, aka FarmVille Cash. For 30 FV Cash, a player can expand the Cove to allow the tilling of a maximum of 45 squares. In other words, 30 FV Cash buys a player only an additional 10 squares of tillable soil.

On the other hand, the Quests that are initiated when the player arrives in Lighthouse Cove follow the traditional FarmVille pattern, in rewards of vital farming items including all three regular farming vehicles. If a player is patient and goes through the entire Quest sequence, he/she will receive a Tractor, a Seeder and Harvester by the end as well as a Restaurant where new Recipes can be made.

Lighthouse Cove is unique in offering players 'Bonus Quests' when he/she completes the regular Quests early. The Bonus Quests allow a week for completion and then are supplanted by a new series of Quests.

Another interesting aspect of Lighthouse Cove is that the Crops available there can be used in new Recipes both on the Home Farm and in the English Countryside. It therefore gives a player a wide variety of new Recipes to complete and master.

An Open Letter to Zynga

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For a number of years, I have written strategy guides for games, specialising in Harvest Moon and Rune Factory, series that were produced for consoles and handheld systems. At the prompting of some of my fans, I became involved with Farmville and have been playing it now for over a year. More recently, again at the prompting of friends and fans of my game guides, I began to play CityVille. Although these games share some of the characteristics that endeared Harvest Moon and Rune Factory to me, there are some essential differences that are both positive and negative.

Positive aspects of games that use Facebook as a platform include the fact that the games are free to all players and the ability to change and enlarge the scope of any game as well as the ability to introduce new items and options. The positive aspects of this are obvious. The negative aspects only become apparent over the course of time.

Although Facebook games generally advertise themselves as 'free', a player has the opportunity to purchase items that require a currency that for the most part must be bought using real money. Often these items either are Limited Editions that are time-restricted. In other words, a player will have a limited amount of time to purchase them before the items disappear from the Marketplace. There is nothing wrong with the general principle of offering players special items of this sort. What is unethical, in my view, is the way Zynga has increased the number of Limited Editions, linking them to new options that bombard the player with invitations to purchase. Special 'sales' both of FarmVille Cash/CityVille Cash and Limited Edition items likewise bombard the player almost every time he/she logs into the game.

It can be argued that a player has an opportunity to demonstrate his/her support of a 'free' game by investing a little real money in it. After all, a console or handheld game can cost between $25.00 to $50.00. The difference, of course, is that, once purchased, a handheld or console game is complete and all new options and items are included, even if they must be 'unlocked' by the player's progress and advances in the game.

When I began to play FarmVille, it resembled traditional console and handheld games insofar as many of the options required a certain degree of progress in the game rather than being options and items that had to be purchased using real cash within a limited time period. Unfortunately, this has changed in the course of the past year. There is a certain appearance of desperation and greed in the manner in which both FarmVille and CityVille operate now and it may lead ultimately to the downfall of Zynga as a successful competitor in the world of Facebook.

Many players, including myself, perceived Facebook games such as FarmVille as a haven and sanctuary of peace, a place where one could escape the pressures and problems of the real world. Unfortunately, when the game itself places pressure on the player to use real money to purchase items and options before they disappear, the game becomes far less attractive, even when the player could afford to invest the money in the game. When the player cannot afford to invest limitless sums of real money, the game becomes frustrating and the endless stream of offers become rather unpleasant.

Let me use the example of a player who has been using my Harvest Moon and Rune Factory guides for years and who is an avid fan of those series. After a year on Facebook, she recently began to play CityVille. Within a matter of weeks, I received an email from her to the effect that she no longer would be playing the game as it 'cost too much money'. Note that the game itself remains free and in fact, in the original vision of the game, Quests are the method by which most items are unlocked. It is only because of the constant, unending stream of special offers and sales that this player was induced to spend more real money than she ever envisioned or intended.

Zynga may argue that no one 'puts a gun to your head' to force players to invest real money in FarmVille or CityVille. On the other hand, players are extremely susceptible to pressure to purchase 'premium' items when those items are time-restricted. This may benefit Zynga significantly at the start, but ultimately many players will do what my friend did.

About a fortnight after the first email, during which period my friend continued to play CityVille, after avowing her intention to end her participation, I received the following email:

'Just thought I should let you know I have had to Block CityVille from my computer. I was addicted and it was costing me too much money for this economy. I'm going through withdrawal now.
I did love playing!!!'

This player is not the only one who either has blocked the game or simply refuses to log into the game after spending far more money than any Harvest Moon or Rune Factory game would cost. Investment in Facebook games is a very slippery slope with almost imperceptible descent at times. For example, FarmVille recently has begun to offer a 'free gift' of a Limited Edition item when one purchases ANY amount of FarmVille Cash, including the purchase of a dollar's worth of FV Cash. These items now consist primarily of rare Zoo Animals for the new Zoo option. I have no doubt that many players who previously resisted the temptation to purchase FV Cash have been drawn into the investment by these seemingly benign and small purchase options.

The problem here is that the offers continue to proliferate and, combined with the frequent sales that offer FV Cash at a discount, can lead to rather excessive spending on the part of players who never intended to allocate a significant part of their 'entertainment budget' on Facebook games.

One can justify a certain amount of spending by comparing it with the vices of others. When one does not smoke or drink and, if disabled, is unable to go out to dinner or to the cinema frequently, one could argue that an investment even of $20.00 in a Facebook game is not excessive. It may not be excessive, but can one afford it? The answer in many cases, is negative. Furthermore, I believe that Zynga has a moral duty not to engage its loyal fans in this sort of constant marketing pressure.

Players of Facebook games often fill the gaps in tneir real lives with the small pleasures found in landscaping their virtual lands or making progress in the game. These games, however, should be a blessing and not a curse. Few players have unlimited real resources to place at the disposal of Zynga. Ultimately they, like the player who solved her problem by blocking CityVille, will reject the games completely in favour of console or handheld games that hold equal pleasure and enjoyment without the constant pressure to SPEND, SPEND, SPEND.

The world is experiencing an economic recession of sorts and, while virtual purchases can act as a fulfilling substitute for real purchases, this is not true when the virtual items require significant investment of real money that is needed to LIVE in the real world.

I continue to play FarmVille and CityVille regularly. While I love the themes and Limited Editions, as well as welcoming sales of FV Cash and CityVille Cash, realistically I am not in a position to make any significant investments in these games. I do believe that I have exhibited my support of these games in the past.

Why do the themes have to be SO limited in terms of time? Why can't Zynga offer a new theme every two months rather than every week or fortnight? Why are Limited Editions in CityVille available only for 5 days? That sort of time limit is unconscionable, in my view.

I urge any players who agree with this 'open letter' to add their comments and urge Zynga to give serious consideration to these issues. Thank you.

Freyashawk de Conde

Embarrassing Ignorance or Carelessness

Too often in popular Facebook games, there are embarrassing instances of misspellings. Granted that it is likely that English is not the native tongue of many of the developers, but surely the concept of EDITING is not entirely defunct. In this screenshot, a new fantasy Tree is shown with its name. 'Fleur de Les' is a meaningless name. In French, the words mean 'Flower of the'. Obviously, the intention was to give the traditional symbol of France its proper name, which can be spelled either 'Fleur-de-lis' or 'Fleur-de-lys' but NOT 'Fleur-de-les'. 'Fleur-de-lys' or 'Fleur-de-lys' means 'Flower of the Lily' or 'Lily Flower' in French. It is a very old heraldic device that became common in France during the Middle Ages.

How can such carelessness be tolerated by Zynga, a company that quickly is becoming quite famous for its online games? It could not be THAT difficult to make certain that some one fluent in the language read all text before its release. I understand that these games are available in a multitude of different languages but the amount of text is not significant and surely an appearance of basic literacy in EVERY language used should be important to the makers.

23 July: Zynga fixed the misspelling of the 'Fleur-de-Lys' Tree yesterday. I have no idea if some one from Zynga read this post or if the action were undertaken entirely by coincidence. Whatever the case, I am happy to see the correction. Each time I obtained a 'Fleur-de-les' Tree, I was rather uncomfortable with it.