FarmVille 2 Animal Mastery: Everything You Need to Know

Crop mastery has long been a staple of FarmVille 2. But farmers have never had that same "master them all" incentive to continue tending to animals if they no longer need their resources. That all changes with this week's addition of animal mastery to the game. Your hard work and dedication will be rewarded with up to three ribbons for each animal that you master.
This event receives a proper introduction, as you're given a free rabbit and some Speed Feed during the feature's tutorial. Speed Feed will allow you to feed an animal again without having to wait for the animal's feed timer to tick down as usual. As of this writing, you can purchase additional Speed Feed in bundles of 2, 10, or 25 for 2 Farm Bucks, 7 Farm Bucks, or 14 Farm Bucks each, respectively.
While you'll definitely earn mastery points for tending animals that are wandering freely around your farm, you'll also earn mastery points for tending animals that are in storage buildings, like the Goat Shelter or Chicken Coop. While these stored animals are "prized," they still count for mastery points on the original animal (i.e. Prized White Chickens will count for regular White Chicken mastery).

If you're ever interested in finding out how many more mastery points you need for a ribbon, you can head into the marketplace and hover your mouse pointer over the animal's slot in the store. Protip: While you can use Speed Feed to feed animals more often for mastery points, you're better off saving this new boost for a lengthy animal for a timed quest.

FarmVille 2 Sweetheart Tree: Everything you need to know

A dreamy new character has appeared on our farms in FarmVille 2, as Zynga has introduced Gus, a character that is a "hunky mix of Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, and Brad Pitt." Gus' arrival brings more Valentine's Day content to the game, as we're now begin given a chance to plant and grow a Sweetheart Tree, and collect Valentines around the farm that can be used to earn new prizes for the farm, including a Caramel Pygora Goat.

If you're used to previous holiday celebrations in FarmVille 2, this one works similarly, as the Sweetheart Tree will serve as your "hub" for this event, but you'll need to build it first. Gus will give you the tree for free, and it requires 10 Shovels, 10 Bags of Soil, and 10 Wood Planks to complete. You'll be able to earn these items via a combination of general news posts and individual requests sent directly to your neighbors. Once you've collected all of these items, you'll be able to finish off the tree by asking four of your friends to be builders in your game.

With the Sweetheart Tree completed, you'll be able to collect Valentines in a variety of ways. You can tend trees to earn Valentines at random, similar to how you earn prized crops elsewhere on the farm, or you can craft Valentines yourself in the Crafting Kitchen. A single Valentine can be created using one Milk Chocolate and one Candied Rose Petals.
Both of these items are recipes in and of themselves, with Milk Chocolates requiring Cocoa Nibs (ask friends) and Milk to create, and Candied Rose Petals requiring Confectioner's Sugar (ask friends) and Roses.

As you collect Valentines, you'll be able to use them as "tokens" to redeem up to four prizes. Here's the breakdown of prizes:

Pink Planter - 15 Valentines
Bird Bath - 30 Valentines
Camellia Tree - 60 Valentines
Love Picnic Tent - 145 Valentines

Once you've earned at least one of each of these four prizes, you'll earn a special fifth prize for free: the Caramel Pygora Goat. If you continue to collect Valentines even after you've earned all five prizes, you can turn them in for duplicates of these items until the event ends on February 19. Good luck earning them all!