Friday, August 31, 2012

FarmVille Loyal Sturdy Doghouse: Everything you need to know

We haven't had to wait long for the next Loyal Doghouse to launch in FarmVille, as the Cupcake Doghouse has been quickly followed up by the Sturdy Doghouse. If you're familiar with the way this feature works, you won't have any problems jumping in and completing this third installment, as you'll simply need to build the new Sturdy Doghouse on at least one of your farms to win five new dogs for that farm.

The Loyal Sturdy Doghouse requires building materials to complete: 12 Chew Toys, 12 Dog Beds and 24 Tennis Balls. Once you collect them you'll receive the Black Pug, which is one of five dogs in this event in total. From there, you'll need to ask your friends for Treats to gather the other four dogs. Here's a complete look at the lineup of dogs in this event and how many treats you'll need for each.

Black Pug - Finish the Doghouse
Bulldog - Collect 20 Red Treats
Brindle Boston - Collect 40 Red Treats
Brindle Boxer - Collect 70 Red Treats
Buff French Bulldog - Collect 120 Red Treats

Once you've collected enough Treats to unlock all five dogs, you'll be able to master them by keeping them inside the Doghouse, or can pull them out to display them proudly on your farm(s). You can also use anywhere from 6-30 Treats to send your dog out to "fetch" items for your farm. Finally, the Doghouse will also give you 100 coins per dog stored inside (up to 500 coins in all) when you collect from it each day.

We already know that another Doghouse is going to be released in the future, but an exact release date is still unknown (as is the selection of dogs it will contain). Don't worry though, as we'll bring you all of the news you need to know about this newest Doghouse as we learn more. Stay tuned!

FarmVille Animal Mastery Totems: Everything you need to know


While Double Mastery events in FarmVille frequently give players the chance to earn double the mastery points on all crops and trees harvested in short events, animal mastery is normally ignored entirely. This looks to be changing, however, via the release of Animal Mastery Totems, which offer you double the amount of mastery points on animals within animal storage buildings, like the Livestock Pen or Zoo.

Totems are decorations that need to placed nearby an animal storage building, similar to how groves must be placed near Orchards to boost tree mastery. There are three different varieties of Mastery Totems to purchase thus far, ranging in price from 15 to 25 Farm Cash, and we have a guide to their stats right here, courtesy of Zynga.

The animal pen that you'd like to alter will need to be placed within the full blue area seen above, but some buildings aren't compatible as of this writing (like the Dino Lab, Baby Bunny Hutch or Doghouses, as examples). In addition, you won't be able to "cheat" the system by moving fully ready animal pens into the space, as these harvest-ready buildings will simply be harvested for the standard amount of points, and won't receive a bonus. However, you can place more than one Totem around a single animal pen, earning up to a 400% mastery boost on a single harvest if you have a pen surrounded by multiple Totems and happen to own an Animal Mastery Statue that was released previously.

All in all, these Totems are rather expensive, but if you're incredibly focused on mastering every animal that comes your way in FarmVille, at least these Totems give you a chance to save time in the process. Are they worth the investment price? Ultimately, that will be up to you.

FarmVille Prize Machine: Everything you need to know


If the occasional free FarmVille Mystery Dart or Pig-O Token just aren't doing it for you, you'll be happy to know that you can now win new prizes for your farm via the game's Prize Machine feature. This Prize Machine will give you a single free spin to start, and will give you another free spin every single day after that.

While the full list of possible prizes is still up in the air, we do know this Prize Machine can give you building ingredients (Fuel Pipes, Hearts of Gold, or Rainbow Clover, as examples), along with Flower Food animals, flowers, Farm Cash and much more. Interestingly enough, the main Prize Machine window says that you'll receive just one free spin everyday, but if you click on the question mark to learn more about this feature, we're told that free plays are "offered 4 times per day." This means that spins likely reset every six hours, but if you don't want to wait that long, you can also purchase additional "spins" for 2 Farm Cash each.

While you will also be guaranteed to win a prize each time you activate the Prize Machine, if you collect six prize chips within a single week, you'll win a very special prize. The current prize, for instance, is a lovely Gem Unicorn, which horse and unicorn collectors are sure to love. You can find this Prize Machine by its icon on the right side of the FarmVille gameplay area, so remember to constantly click on it to see if you have free spins available. Good luck winning some awesome prizes, and even the final Gem Unicorn in this week of the event!

FarmVille Mystery Baby Nursery: Everything you need to know


Is your Gift Box, or even your farmland, overflowing with Mystery Babies in FarmVille? If that's the case, you'll be happy to know that a new Mystery Baby Nursery will give you a one-stop-shop for storing these animals and eventually growing them when you've collected the Animal Feed necessary to do so.

The Mystery Baby Nursery is available to players that have reached at least Level 5, and it requires building materials to construct. There are three stages to the Nursery in all, giving you a storage capacity of 20-40 animals, so here's the complete rundown of items you'll need for each stage.

Stage 1: Capacity of 20 Mystery Babies
  • 15 Baby Blankets
  • 15 Pacifiers
  • 15 Baby Mobiles

Stage 2: Capacity of 30 Mystery Babies
  • 20 Baby Blankets
  • 20 Pacifiers
  • 20 Baby Mobiles

Stage 3: Capacity of 40 Mystery Babies
  • 25 Baby Blankets
  • 25 Pacifiers
  • 25 Baby Mobiles

Once you've completed the first stage of the Mystery Baby Nursery, you'll be able to store any babies you might have on hand, freeing up farmland or space in your Gift Box. The babies are separated by type within the Mystery Baby Nursery, so if you decide to grow any of them, you'll know exactly which ones to feed (that is, an Island Pet Run Baby is separate from a regular Pet Run Baby, and so on). Thankfully, you won't have to remove the babies themselves from the Nursery to feed them, as a simple "feed" button is available below each, allowing you to spend your Animal Feed when you're ready. Additionally, the building itself can be harvested once per day for additional Animal Feed.

Hopefully, this gives you enough extra space in your Gift Box and farmland to hold all of the Animal Feed you'll need to grow these babies! Good luck building this one on your farm(s)!

FarmVille Loyal Cupcake Doghouse: Everything you need to know


A few weeks ago, the Loyal Sunshine Doghouse launched in FarmVille, giving players the chance to adopt five new dogs without worrying about them running away or causing trouble. When that feature first launched, we were promised that a "Cupcake Doghouse" would release sometime in the future, and that time is now! The Loyal Cupcake Doghouse is now available to place and build on your farms, and we're here with a guide on building it!

The Cupcake Doghouse requires parts to build, and hopefully you have some of these items on hand from the first doghouse. You'll need 12 Chew Toys, 12 Dog Beds and 24 Tennis Balls to finish the construction of the Cupcake Doghouse, and when its finished, you'll receive your first dog: the Bichon Frise. From there, you'll need to collect Dog Treats to unlock the other four dogs in the series, or simply purchase them with Farm Cash. Here's the rundown of prizes:

  • Silky Yorki - 20 Pink Treats
  • Silver Pomeranian - 40 Pink Treats
  • Pekingese - 70 Pink Treats
  • Parti Chihuahua - 120 Pink Treats

As with the last doghouse, if you decide that you want these dogs but don't want to keep them confined to the doghouse itself (that is, if you want to display them out on your farm), you can simply head into the doghouse and click on "Unleash" to place the dog out on your farm. However, they must be inside the doghouse if you want to master them, so you can thankfully place them back inside at any time.

After you've adopted all of the dogs in this Loyal Cupcake Doghouse, you can send your pets out for items that will go into your Gift Box via the "fetch" mechanic. This goes along with the treats you can harvest from the doghouse once per day, and you must have at least six treats (up to 30 in total) to actually send your dog out to fetch. As you might expect, the more treats you have at the time, the better potential prize you'll earn.

While we don't know specific details about the next farmhouse that will be released in FarmVille, we can only assume that one is coming. We'll make sure to let you know if and when another doghouse launches, so stay tuned!

FarmVille hits a triple crown: Double mastery, new crops, and new coin expansions

An impromptu "Player Appreciation Week" has launched in FarmVille, with plenty of rewards and new items available throughout this week and beyond. We're here with a complete look at these new features, so that you can make the most of them on your farms!

First and foremost, double mastery has been activated across all of our farms, and this includes not only the standard trees and crops, but also animals. That's right - the rare "double animal mastery" event has come back to our farms, so you'll want to bust out some Farmhands and harvest every single animal you can until this boost ends at the end of the week (sometime on Friday).

In addition to this, a series of 10 new coin crops are now available to plant and master on your farms. Most of these require you to have mastered other crops previously to unlock them, but none of them cost Farm Cash to plant (which is the most important thing). Here's a rundown of each crop and its stats.

Mercury Melon
  • Costs: 20 Coins Per Square
  • Harvest Time: 1 Day
  • Harvest For: 107 Coins
  • XP Gained: 1

Aquarius Arugula
  • Locked Until Mercury Melon is Mastered
  • Costs: 30 Coins
  • Harvest Time: 1 Day
  • Harvest For: 129 Coins
  • XP Gained: 1

Cereses Carrot
  • Locked Until Aquarius Arugula is Mastered
  • Costs: 35 Coins
  • Harvest Time 17 Hours
  • Harvest For: 122 Coins
  • XP Gained: 1

Capri-Corn
  • Locked Until Cereses Carrot is Mastered
  • Costs: 40 Coins
  • Harvest Time: 17 Hours
  • Harvest For: 136 Coins
  • XP Gained: 2


Moon Flower
  • Locked Until Capri-Corn is Mastered
  • Costs: 55 Coins
  • Harvest Time: 12 Hours
  • Harvest For 136 Coins
  • XP Gained: 2

Aries Azalea
  • Locked Until Moon Flower is Mastered
  • Costs: 60 Coins
  • Harvest Time: 12 Hours
  • Harvest For: 147 Coins
  • XP Gained: 3

Venus Fly Trap
  • Locked Until Aries Azalea is Mastered
  • Costs: 70 Coins
  • Harvest Time: 8 Hours
  • Harvest For: 135 Coins
  • XP Gained: 3

Jupiter Juniperus
  • Locked Until Venus Fly Trap is Mastered
  • Costs: 85 Coins
  • Harvest Time: 8 Hours
  • Harvest For: 152 Coins
  • XP Gained: 4

Apollo Aster
  • Locked Until Jupiter Juniperus is Mastered
  • Costs: 100 Coins
  • Harvest Time: 8 Hours
  • Harvest For: 171 Coins
  • XP Gained: 4

Celestial Camellia
  • Locked Until Apollo Aster is Mastered
  • Costs: 150 Coins
  • Harvest Time: 4 Hours
  • Harvest For: 194 Coins
  • XP Gained: 5

Next, we have a list of new land expansions that are available for coins, starting with the Frigid Realm farm in Winter Wonderland. This farm costs 2 million coins and will see your Winter farm expanded to a 34x34 size. Back on our Home Farms, we can now expand to the 36x36 Amazing Acreage for 7 million coins. That's a lot of virtual money, to be sure, but it seems worth it, if you ask me.

Finally, Claire has come back to our farms, bringing the Flea Market feature along with her. You'll be able to earn some fast, free coins by clicking on Claire in your friends' list. Remember, she will offer you different amounts of coins depending on the farm you're currently playing on, so if you don't like one set of offers, simply switch to a different farm and see if there's an offer that's more to your liking.

All in all, this week has been incredibly exciting for FarmVille players, as Zynga seems to be going down a "checklist" of things players want. Not only can we master trees, crops and animals faster for a few days, but we can also plant new crops to master along the way. Add this to new land expansions and the return of the Flea Market, and it's simply a great time to be a FarmVille player, don't you think?

Saturday, August 18, 2012

FarmVille Summer Flower quest guide

FarmVille released the Summer Flower quests to players on Monday afternoon.
Players will have 14 days to work on them, and the tasks can be performed on any of your farm spaces. These quests are running alongside the current Jade Falls Chapter 11 and Falling Stars quests.
We have compiled a complete list of the tasks you’ll be asked to perform and the prizes that will come along with them below. If you’d rather not know the contents ahead of time, you should head over to my other FarmVille articles now.
Stage 1: Foxy Flowers
Requirements:
Get 6 Foxglove, harvest 50 Blueberry, harvest the Swimming Pond twice
Rewards:
2500 Coins, Flower Fox, 125 XP
Stage 2: Hop to It
Requirements:
Get 7 Kangaroo Paw, harvest 75 Aloe Vera, harvest the Flower Fox Twice
Rewards:
3000 Coins, 1 Mystery Dart, 150 XP
Stage 3: Almost Paradise
Requirements:
Get 8 Birds of Paradise, harvest 100 Bell Pepper, craft a Farmhand
Rewards:
3500 Coins, Chicken of Paradise, 175 XP
Stage 4: Iris the Messenger
Requirements:
Get 9 Iris, harvest 125 Grapes, harvest Chicken of Paradise 2 twice
Rewards:
4000 Coins, 1 Book of XP, 250 XP
Stage 5: Lavender, Sweet Lavender
Requirements:
Get 9 Lavender, harvest 150 Pepper, master the Flower Fox to 1 Star
Rewards:
4500 Coins, Lavender Suit,225 XP
Stage 6: Baby’s Breath
Requirements:
Get 9 Baby’s Breath, Harvest 150 Soybeans, master Paradise Chicken to 1 Star
Rewards:
5000 Coins, Baby’s Breath Penguin, 250 XP
Stage 7: Running Low
Requirements:
Get 10 Chinese Rain Blossoms, harvest 150 Red Tulips, harvest Baby’s Breath Penguin Twice
Rewards:
5500 Coins, Chinese Rain Tree, 275 XP
Stage 8: Rooster Brush
Requirements:
Get 11 Cockscomb, harvest 150 Peas, craft a Fertilize All
Rewards:
6000 Coins, 1 Unwither, 300 XP
Stage 9: Coming Up Roses
Requirements:
Get 12 Red Roses, harvest 200 Cabbage, master Baby’s Breath Penguin to 1 Star
Rewards:
6500 Coins, Red Rose Unicorn, 325 XP

FarmVille Master Motto: Earn bonus items for paying up (again)


As if FarmVille's Jade Falls expansion didn't already have the potential to be expensive enough, what with the cost to even get into the farm early and the cost to unlock the Imperial Shipyard / Forbidden Coast early, yet another mini-expansion has come to the game's newest farm, offering you a chance to receive bonus building materials, a Monkey King animal and earn the ability to complete a series of "Exclusive Motto Training Tasks."

This expansion is called simply "Master Motto," and it costs 20 Farm Cash to access. That may be less than $5 US, but when you add it to the other early access prices, Jade Falls has now become rather expensive. Either way, if you choose to pay to access Master Motto content early, you'll receive a free Monkey King animal, 12 parts for your Imperial Shipyard and 20 parts that will allow you to complete other things in Jade Falls, whether that be building animal structures, uncovering fortunes or otherwise.

In addition, you'll be able to complete a series of 12 tasks, similar to those given by Master Lu, to receive free bonus materials, ZP and more along the way. These tasks are currently only available for users that pay the 20 Farm Cash to access them. Here's a guide to finishing them off.

Dog Care Challenge
  • Ask 3 Friends for Help

Rewards: 50 ZP, Sail

Tasty Treat
  • Ask friends for 5 Dog Treats

Rewards: 100 ZP, Pig-O Token

Walk the Dog
  • Get 5 Dog Leashes
  • Get 5 Chew Toys
  • Get 5 Tennis Balls

Rewards: 150 ZP, Bedazzled Dragon

Paint the Fence
  • Get 5 Friends to Help you

Rewards: 100 ZP, Dragon Gnome

Carrying Water
  • Get 7 Water Buckets

Rewards: 200 ZP, Small Axe

Cross the Waterfall
  • Get 8 Dog Training Books
  • Get 8 Jumping Ropes
  • Get 8 Hoops of Fire

Rewards: 300 ZP, Floating Butterfly Knife

Gather Your Team
  • Ask 7 Friends for Help

Rewards: 200 ZP, Mystery Dart

Treasure Maps
  • Get 9 Treasure Maps

Rewards: 300 ZP, Blowfish Kite

Treasure Hunt
  • Get 10 Treasure Shovels
  • Get 10 Treasure Picks
  • Get 10 Treasure Keys

Rewards: 400 ZP, Rainbow Dragon

Find an Audience
  • Get 9 Friends to Help

Rewards: 300 ZP, Lantern Kite

Prepare the Ceremony
  • Get 11 Paper Lanterns

Rewards: 500 ZP, Boat Hook

Graduation
  • Get 13 Karate Books
  • Get 13 Tae Kwon Do Books
  • Get 13 Kung Fu Books

Rewards: 800 ZP, Golden Motto Statue

Again, these quests are only available to complete by those that purchase early access to the Motto expansion in Jade Falls, but Zynga's official wording doesn't really make it clear as to whether or not they'll be available to everyone eventually for free (we're assuming they will be, and will update this space when we can confirm that). If you do decide to purchase access early, remember that these quests are timed and have time limits between them, so you can't quickly finish them all off without paying even more Farm Cash to do so.

FarmVille Dream Tree: Everything you need to know

The latest collection event has launched in FarmVille, bringing us a large (but rather dark) Dream Tree to build on one of our farms. This Dream Tree brings about a twist to the collection feature, as your methods for collecting objects are more limited this time around. Still, there are six exclusive, limited edition prizes up for grabs by participating in this event, so we're here with a complete guide to get you up to speed.

First things first, you'll need to place the base of the Dream Tree on one of your farms. From there, you can post a general news item to your feed asking for Dream Drops, the collectible you'll need to earn in bulk for prizes. You'll of course earn Dream Drops when friends click on these requests, but you can also purchase them outright with Farm Cash. Your only other method of earning Dream Drops, as of this writing, will be to click on your friends' news feed posts as they work on this even in their own games. Unlike other events, you can't send these Dream Drops freely from the game's free gifts page, making news posts absolutely key in making quick progress.

As you collect Dream Drops, the tree itself will change in appearance and complexity, and you'll start to unlock access to the six prizes inside. Here's a look at the full lineup of items.


  • 15 Dream Drops - Purple Primrose Bloom
  • 30 Dream Drops - Jumping Fountain
  • 45 Dream Drops - Summer Donkey
  • 60 Dream Drops - Dream Trumpet Tree
  • 80 Dream Drops - Rose Dragon
  • 100 Dream Drops - Dream Unicorn

If you'd rather not wait for your friends to help you collect Dream Drops, you can also purchase these prizes outright for Farm Cash, although that's of course a rather costly choice if you want one of each of the six. It's unlikely that additional methods for collecting Dream Drops will be offered via this event, so you'll want to make sure and use our guide to sorting your News Feed to seeing just FarmVille's posts so that you can collect as many Dream Drops as possible while this event lasts. Good luck!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

FarmVille Sneak Peek: Unicorn Island coming soon!

If you're a fan of unicorns, as so many FarmVille players are, then an upcoming game feature will likely send you to the moon (figuratively speaking, of course). Soon, we'll be able to build and construct a Unicorn Island, complete with rainbow clovers, golden hearts and other fun and whimsical items.

This feature will likely be launched sometime within the next week, as the building materials for constructing the Unicorn Island are already available in the game's store: Rainbow Clovers, Enchanted Blossoms and Hearts of Gold. Furthermore, if you head into the game's store and search for "Unicorn," you'll find four new Unicorns that are available to purchase for Farm Cash.


  • Pirate Unicorn - 65 Farm Cash
  • Bubble Gum Unicorn - 35 Farm Cash
  • Ballerina Unicorn - 40 Farm Cash
  • Rainbow Unicorn - 50 Farm Cash

If you can't wait, then by all means shell out the Farm Cash to purchase these animals now, but I'd personally recommend waiting until the Unicorn Island itself launches in full, just in case there's a way to earn these four Unicorns for free. Either way, this looks like the first of many waves of Unicorn-themed content that will be released in FarmVille over the next few weeks and months. If we're lucky, this will be as major a feature as the dinosaur themed content that continues to be available, giving us something prettier to focus on instead! Stay tuned for more, as we'll make sure you're the first to know when you can start building your very own Unicorn Island on your farm(s)!

FarmVille Premium Babies / Saplings: Everything you need to know


If you're tired of receiving the same few animals or trees from your own personal Mystery Babies or Mystery Seedlings in FarmVille, and also haven't had much luck collecting these Babies and Seedlings from friends, you can now take matters into your own hands by purchasing either a Premium Baby or a Premium Sapling from the game's store. To find these items, simply stay on the "Specials" tab in the store until the Premium Baby / Sapling ad appears, or search for "Premium" in the game's search box.

Each Premium Baby or Premium Sapling costs 2 Farm Cash each, and growing it guarantees that you'll receive either an animal or a tree that you don't already own. Each Premium Baby takes 40 Animal Feed to grow, while a Premium Sapling requires 20 Watering Cans. If you're one of the incredibly rare farmers that actually owns one of every animal or one of every tree, you'll instead receive an animal or tree that you need most based on your current mastery point totals.

Hopefully, this "guaranteed" new item algorithm works as intended, as I can imagine farmers will be mighty upset if they fork over Farm Cash and then receive something they don't need. Still, there's a lot of potential for this event, as simply purchasing a tree or animal outright costs a lot more than 2 Farm Cash each. These items don't have a time limit, so if you're willing to take a chance that you'll receive something great, simply head into the store to buy one (or more) now.

FarmVille Deco Studio: Everything you need to know


If you're a fan of item customization in your Facebook games, prepared to be delighted as a new "Deco Studio" has launched in FarmVille. For those keeping score, the new Deco Studio is almost identical to the expensive Dream Horse Studio, except here you're designing your perfect decoration, rather than a perfect horse.

Technically, you can now build a new Workshop on your farm in order to access this feature, but you don't have to place it. You can instead simply access the building ability within the store by clicking on the "Create" button underneath an item template. After you've entered the Deco Studio, you'll be able to build one of five templates, starting with a basic Shack (and eventually leading up to a Grand Mansion).

Like in the Horse Studio, you can customize this item with different roofs, colors, accessories and more. However, instead of each piece adding to a Farm Cash price, each customization raises the amount of building materials you'll need to ask your friends to send you before the building is complete. To be fair, you can also purchase these building materials with Farm Cash if you'd rather not bother your friends, but if you have some helpful neighbors, you can now earn your dream building(s) for free! Additionally, you'll eventually need to ask your friends to be a crew of builders to put the item together into a final product.

While this could be the beginning and end of this Deco Studio feature, the entirety of this event becomes a bit more complex with the introduction of item recycling. If you have spare buildings or decorations taking up space in your storage sheds or on your farms, you can now trade them in for spare building parts. You'll be told exactly how many building materials, and of what varieties, you'll receive for each item you "recycle," and of course this is an entirely voluntary process. If you'd rather not recycle items, simply as your friends for building materials instead to reach the same end.

It's possible that this item recycling feature will come to other events in FarmVille in the future, so you might want to save some excess items just in case that prediction comes true. Stay tuned for more!

FarmVille Harmony Garden: Everything you need to know

With the launch of Bloom Gardens in FarmVille, players have become dependent on a constant street of Flower Food to grow those new blooms into fully grown flowers. While asking your friends for Flower Food technically works, wouldn't it be nice if we could earn a free supply of Flower Food once per day? With the launch of the Harmony Garden in FarmVille, you can now do just that.

The Harmony Garden comes with five different levels, each of which requires different amounts of building materials to finish. These items (Zen, Yellow Bamboo and Stone Lanterns) are earned by asking your friends to send them to you, or by purchasing them outright with Farm Cash. You can also claim some free materials that are being posted by your friends as they too complete this Harmony Garden in their own games.

As you upgrade the Harmony Garden, each level will require more building materials than the last, and the item itself will change in appearance and complexity. You'll also be able to collect more individual units of Flower Food from Harmony Gardens that have been upgraded fully.

It's likely that we'll be able to place Harmony Gardens on multiple farms in order to earn the most Flower Food possible each and every day. While you don't have to build any Harmony Gardens if you simply choose not to, you can now start building at least one of your own by logging into your farms. Good luck finishing one off!