Basic Information

Farmville allows you to learn the world of agriculture from an insider perspective! Grow crops, raise livestock, and continuously upgrade your farm with new equipment, animals, buildings, and other fun items.

An important thing to keep in mind as you grow your farm is to consider your time frames when you'll be able to check on your farm. Activity occurs in real time, not game time, so if a crop takes 2 hours to grow, you need to make sure to get back to your farm at that time to harvest it, otherwise it might wither and die!

Learn the controls, which are mainly at the bottom right of the screen. You can even take a screenshot of your farm using the camera tool. We'll go over each of the tools in detail in the Getting Started section.

For each crop you plow, seed, and harvest, you'll earn experience points (XP). XP are how you increase your level in the game. Along with those, there are many ribbons that you can achieve for doing things such as helping others fertilize their crops, planting certain numbers of crops and trees, owning certain numbers of animals, and so on. These ribbons earn you additional experience points, as well as gold coins, which help you purchase additional items.

There are many directions you can go in the game You'll develop your own strategy as you play, but this guide is intended to help you get started, and learn some tips to help you.

Another tip for success in the game neighbors! Obtaining neighbors is critical to advancing in the game. You can obtain most things through the normal progression of the game but it's easier and more fun, and faster, with a lot of neighbors! One way to gain neighbors is to ask/beg your friends to play the game; another is to visit the Farmville Facebook fan page. There are many people on the fan page asking others to be neighbors, but remember you have to friend them to have them as a neighbor, so this technique might not be for you.

OK, let's begin!

Getting Started

Who am I?

When you start the game, you have the opportunity to create your Farmville avatar. You can select the gender of your farmer, and choose different colors for skin, hair, eyes, and so on.

Additional clothing options are available at later levels. Once you've created your Farmville avatar, you can change or customize him/her at any time.

What do I start with?

You begin the game with a small plot of land and a few coins. Now it's up to you. The first thing that you should do is harvest a few plants that you can see immediately as you get started with the game.

You can plant crops of one type over the entire farm or choose to have a mixed harvest. You can customize the look and feel of your land by moving items around.

How far can I go?

The game has 100 levels at the time this was written and the beginning levels are very short. The further up in the game you advance, the further apart the levels are; eventually it will take you 10,000 XP between levels. Once you reach level 34 you will be awarded 10,000 coins each time you move up a level in addition to the 1 Farmville Cash earned each level from the start of the game.

How do I level?

XP (Experience Points) are earned throughout the game in varying amounts and are what you need to level up in the game. The more XP points you earn, the faster you move up in levels and can unlock items for purchase and use on your farm. XP is partially collected according to the number of fields you have bought. Suppose you have 180 fields, then each of these fields will give you 1 XP = 180 and each field that is harvested will give you 2 XP which doubles the number to 360 totaling to 540. This large amount of harvesting is possible only if you are a regular visitor to your fields and come back exactly after the crop cycle has finished.

The Tools of the Game

At the top of the game window, you'll see the top panel. In the top panel, you can see the following:

Eye icon = toggle image quality

Sound icon = toggle sound effects on and off

Music icon = toggle game music off and on (hint: this way you can listen to your own music instead!)

Coins = how many you currently have; these can be earned by harvesting your crops, trees and products from animals, or selling items

Farmville Cash = how much you currently have; this is a special currency that allows you to purchase luxury items for your farm. Although you earn 1 Farmville Dollar every time you advance a level, and sometimes find them as special gifts, to get extra, you must actually purchase FV Cash with your own cash using Paypal or a credit card.

XP Meter = hover your mouse over the bar and you can see how many more XP you need to reach the next level!

Message bubble = this tool allows you to place a sign post with a custom message anywhere on your farm, or on your friends' farms!

At the bottom right of the game window, you'll see the toolbox.

This is the toolbox you'll see at the beginning of the game. As you advance through the game, some of the tools will be combined in order for additional tools to be included. When this happens, the game will inform you what is being combined and where you can find the tools, as well as what the new tools are.

Zoom Control

Sometimes you want to see a plot of land up close, and other times you want to see your whole farm at a glance. The buttons that look like magnifying glasses but with a ‘+' and ‘-‘signs allow you to do this.

Full Screen

Clicking on the icon that has two overlapping squares allows you to switch to Full Screen Mode where the game can be played in full screen.

Camera

As mentioned before, Farmville allows you to take photos of your farm. Click the camera icon, and an outline of a red square appears on screen. Move the red square to the point where you want to take a picture. Click to take the photo. Click on your mouse if you wish to take a particular scene in your farm. A caption box displays; you can add a caption to your image. Clicking Share publishes this photo to your Facebook page.

Cursor (Arrow) tool

The cursor tool is also known as a Multi Tool.

Plow tool

The hoe icon is your plow. Click this took to turn your green land into land suitable for farming.

Shovel tool

Oops, you don't want that plot of land there no worries! Just click the shovel and delete the plot. The game will ask you if you really want to do so and deletion cannot be undone!

Ribbons!

As mentioned before, along with gaining XP and gold coins, you can also gain ribbons for completing tasks and these ribbons give you extra XP and coins! Click the Ribbons button to see what ribbons you've already earned and how far you have to go!

The Market

Click the Market button to access the Farmville Market. This is where you can buy seeds, animals, buildings, trees, decorations, vehicles, farm upgrades to make your farm the best it can be. You can buy these for yourself, or gift them to your neighbors.

Only certain items are available when you begin more become available to you as you level up.

Gifts

Finally, the last button in the toolbox is your Gifts box. This is where you can see what gifts you have from your friends, or from Farmville! You can either use the gifts or sell them for coins.

Playing the Game

Learning the Land

There are three types of land to begin with.

Available land - this means that the land is free to be used for any purpose. Land is marked with a bright green square when you hover your mouse over it.

Fallow land - this means that the land has recently been harvested. It's “tired” and needs to be replowed before planting more crops.

Plowed land - this means that the land is ready for planting. Plowed land looks healthy!

OK, now we can really get started!

Plowing, planting, and harvesting

Just like in the real world, to build your farm, you need crops. To plant crops, you must first prepare the ground. Use the “plow” tool to prepare a piece of available land for planting.

Select the plot of plowed land you want to plant crops on, and the Market will display.

Now choose what to plant. Choose wisely! Try to select one that yields the most coins and fits your time schedule for harvest. Remember, if you don't harvest in time, your crop will die! Once you've planted .you wait. When the crop is ready, the plowed land will show them. Mouse over them with your cursor tool, and if they are ready, you'll have the ability to harvest.

Uh oh-my crops died!

Fear not, all is not necessarily lost! You can now purchase applications of an unwithering treatment that can save your crops! Unwithers can be purchased in sets of 3 for 30 FV Cash from the Market under the Upgrade Farm tab. Once purchased, you'll find them in your Gift box. On your own farm, you must have at least 8 or more plots of withered crops for the Unwithering action to be available. An icon will display in the lower left corner of your screen (near your fuel) to let you know how many Unwither treatments you have available. Click on “Use” to save your crops!

Notice a neighbor seems to have left their farm unattended? You can help them out by unwithering their crops as well! You will use one of your own Unwither treatments to do so, unless your neighbor hasn't played in over 30 days. If that's the case, you'll have an option to use a free treatment of Unwither to help them out!

Livestock

You can make your farm home to all sorts of animals as well. There are pigs, rabbits, cows, chickens, horses, ducks, and more! Just like your crops, each type of livestock can be harvested (i.e. cows for milk, sheep for wool, etc.). When animals and trees are ready for harvest, a little pink icon will display above them. Click each with the cursor tool to harvest.

Trapping your Farmer

Once you've begun to build your farm, you'll notice that your avatar likes to walk to the location before performing an action. This isn't such a big deal while your farm is small, but as you grow, it can be rather time consuming. At this point, you may want to consider “trapping” your farmer. To do so, pay attention to where your avatar is at the very beginning of the game (hint: it's the exact center of your farm). Clear it of fields/etc, and buy either some hay bales or fences. Create a “box” around your avatar. Now, your actions will be carried out immediately, instead of waiting for your avatar to get there.

Neighbors and Gifting

At the bottom of the game window, you'll see the panel of your neighbors. Click a blank neighbor space to add a new neighbor!

The more neighbors, the better. Click on a neighbor to visit their farm.

Take advantage of options to fertilize their crops (you gain XP and your friend gains additional XP when they harvest!), check for eggs in their chicken coop, or feed their animals at the trough. Each time you visit a Neighbor's farm, you can do a total of 5 actions every 24 hours!

Help out your neighbors enough, and you'll earn the “Good Samaritan” ribbons!

If a Neighbor helps you on your Farm, you can mouse over their avatar to see what they have done. Click “Accept Help” and you will receive the same amount of coins and XP as you would if you had done those applicable actions yourself. The coins and XP gained from your neighbor's assistance will automatically be added to your account.

Aside from visiting your farms, sending and receiving gifts from your neighbors is a great way to get what you want and need for your farm, and to help your friends do the same!

You can send gifts through the “Free Gifts” tab above the Farmville game window

or click on one of your neighbors in the neighbor panel and click on “Send Gift.”

Select the gift you'd like to send, and then select any additional friends to whom you want to send the gift. Click “Send Farmville Gift Request” and your gift is on its way! You can also click on a feed post on a friend's wall in order to respond to their request for gifts.

You can even send gifts directly from the Market. Keep in mind that gifts in the marketplace must be purchased before they are sent. To send a gift from the Market, open the Market and find a gift that has a “Send” button beneath it.

Click “Send,” and then select the friend to whom the gift should be sent. When sending a gift from the Market, you can only select one neighbor for one gift at a time. Click “Next” after you've selected your recipient. Review the summary of what you are sending, to whom, and how much you will be paying for the gift, and either Accept or Cancel the purchase.

If you click “Accept,” the gift will be sent. If you want to do so, you can also post to your friend's wall to let them know you sent them a gift, by clicking “Share.” Otherwise, you can click “Cancel” to go back to farming.

You can send a maximum of 30 free gifts per day. Your neighbors will hopefully be so appreciative that they'll send you gifts in return

Receiving Gifts

When you receive gifts, you'll get notification messages and/or wall feed posts to let you know. You can access your gifts via the “Gifts” button in the Toolbox. Not getting what you need? You can request a specific gift by using your “Wish List.”

Wish List

Open your Gifts via the button in the Toolbox. Click on the “Make a Wish!” button at the top left of the Gifts box.

You will now see a version of the Free Gifts page where you can select a gift that you are dying to own.

Once you select, a message will be sent to your Neighbors to let them know! Hopefully they'll click the “Give Item to (you)” link to confirm that they want to send you the object you desire. Each neighbor can only send you a gift from a Wish List feed one time, but you can receive multiples of the same gift from as many neighbors that send you the item.

So now you know how to play it's up to you to decide what the farm of your dreams looks like!

And there's more

Here are some additional tips for playing, but again, you'll probably create your own strategies as you play.

Consider the Return on Investment

Select crops with large profits. You can determine the profitability of a crop by doing some “simple” math. Subtract the cost of the seeds from the money you make from the harvest, and then divide that value by the cost of the seed. By doing so, you determine your return on investment, or ROI. The greater the value, the better the ROI. Of course, you can make the math a little more specific if you want to compare the profitability of crops with different growth rates by dividing the ROI by the growth time. Or if you want to get down to the real nitty-gritty, consider the actual yield that each crop will provide and so on.

Farmer's Market

Once you hit level 15, you can collect the crops you harvest in bushels, and then sell them at the Farmer's Market!

The bushels can be used to gain bonuses for yourself or given to your neighbors. When you collect your first bushel, you'll get a Market Stall, or you can purchase one from the Market for 50,000 coins or 20 FV Cash. You are limited to 5 Market Stalls on your farm in total. Each Market Stall you have can sell one type of crop, and your ability to get additional Market Stalls is dependent on the number of neighbors you have, unless you purchase them with FV Cash. Place your Market Stall somewhere on your property, and the Farmer's Market tutorial will display.

You can access this tutorial any time using the “How does this work?” option in the Farmer's Market menu. Once you have your Market Stall, you can start collecting bushels to use yourself, or to let your neighbors collect. Every time you are harvesting full grown crops, you have the chance to collect bushels from them; you will receive a notification above your neighbor bar if you collect one! You can hold up to 100 bushels in your inventory, and each bushel can be shared or used.

Clicking the "Use" button consumes one of the selected bushels and gives you a bonus. The type of bonus depends on whether you have access to the crop or not. If the bushel used is for a crop you can plant, you receive a bonus of +1 Mastery whenever that crop is harvested on your farm for two hours. If you have already mastered this crop, the bonus is +1 XP per harvest. If you use a bushel of a crop that you are not high enough of a level to plant, you'll receive a license to plant that crop that lasts for two hours.

Whenever your neighbors use your Market Stall, you'll be able to receive a reward! Look for an arrow pointing to the Stall the next time you return to your farm! Click “Look Inside” to see what you can get!

When you have rewards available, you do not have to accept them immediately. Each time you visit your stall, you can decide to wait until later once more people have used your stall to redeem greater rewards.

Mastery?

Each time you harvest your crops, you will be awarded with Mastery Points which count towards the total Mastery of your crops.You can see your progress by visiting the Market where you will see 3 stars and a bar beneath each crop photo.

Mouse over the bar to see how many crops must be harvested to achieve each gold star.The blue part of the bar reflects your progress. Once you have achieved Level 3 mastery of a crop, indicated by 3 gold stars, there is a chance that any crop of that type planted in the future will be a “Premium” Crop. A Premium Crop will appear larger than other crops, and will provide you with 1 XP when it is harvested, but will not provide bushels!

As mentioned previously, plan crops around your schedule. Since different crops grow at different rates, and thus take longer (or shorter) to mature, you should definitely consider when you will be online and able to work on your farm when considering what crops to plant. On the other hand, trees and livestock will wait to be harvested for an indefinite amount of time. So if you're going to be away for a while, forget about the crops and load up on plants and animals!

Stay focused on the farming Farmville has all sorts of fun extras in the form of cool decorations and such. Until you've built up both XP/levels and coins, try to not focus on those items. Consider the potential resale value of an item before you buy it, and don't buy decorations and other items that don't provide you with XP or coins!

But what's this item I just “found”??

However, one of the fun extras along the way is Collections! You can earn rewards by completing collections of sets of items. They're found during farming activities or gifted from friends! You cannot begin finding collectible items until Level 10, but once you do so, you'll find the Collections Menu inside the Ribbons/Achievements box in your Toolbox.

When you find an item, a message displays above the neighbors panel that tells you what item was found, which set it is part of, and how many more items you need to complete that set. If you find an Uncommon or Rare item, you have the option to post a feed to your friends-5 of your friends can get the same item! You can also gift collectibles through the Free Gifts tab. Once you collect a full set, trade them in for a reward! There are both limited time collections and permanent collections, so keep an eye on them!

I love this game!

Becoming a fan (or “Like”ing) the Farmville application can help you add many neighbors, if you want to expand your friends. But remember to set your other privacy settings appropriately, otherwise your Farmville friends will see everything you post on your wall, etc.

Maybe my friends shouldn't see _everything_...

Set your Farmville permissions appropriately. Your friends probably don't want to see EVERY time you send a gift or win a new ribbon. Think about when you really want to post on your friends' walls, instead of accepting every time to do so.

Can my friends help me actually raise crops?

Once you reach Level 20, you'll have the option to join in several available Co-op jobs with your neighbors. The faster you can complete the job, the more XP you can earn. To access the co-op jobs, you'll now have a new button in your toolbox!

Click the “More Info” button to learn about how co-op farming works. Click “Okay” to see the Co-Op Farming Page. There are three tabs on this page: Jobs, Active Job, and Job History.

The Jobs tab shows you what jobs you have available to start, or any jobs from your neighbors that you can join. The Active Job tab displays progress you are making on the job you are currently working on. If you don't have a job currently, the tab is grayed out. Your stats for previously completed jobs can be seen in the Job History tab.

To start a job, click on the “Start” or “Join” button to see a description of the job and the requirements to complete it, as well as the reward you can reap! Each job has three different reward levels that you can achieve, depending on how quickly you and your neighbors complete the job. Both the Bronze and Silver rewards will yield each of the farmers that contributed to the job some gold coins and XP. The Gold medal will net everyone even more gold coins and XP, as well as a special prize exclusive to Gold medal winners. You can see this item if you mouse over the Gold trophy in the job requirements section.

Once you click "Start", you'll immediately have the opportunity to post a feed to invite your friends and neighbors to join your job and help you and you can invite friends to help you at any time during a job from the "Recruit Friends" button on the Active Jobs page. All members of your co-op will be shown on this Active Jobspage when they join.

Once you've joined or started a job, you should begin farming to meet the requirements of it! To begin working onthe job, simply return to your farm and seed or harvest the necessary crops. Each crop that any member of the co-op seeds and harvests (once having joined the job)will count toward the job's total. When you're harvesting a crop that counts toward a co-op job, you'll see a progress counter appear above your neighbor bar.

If you complete the job, you'll see a Job Complete! window displaying the medal awarded, the percentage of the work each member completed, and what rewards were gained. You can choose to post an announcement feed to offer a bonus to your helpful neighbors. However, if you don't complete the job in time, you'll see a Job Failed. window.

Co-Op farming adds more ribbons to the game, so don't forget to check them out!

And now crop experimentation!

You can now construct a greenhouse! In it, you can experiment with combining specific crops to create new and different crops! The larger you can expand your greenhouse, the higher the number of seeds you can produce! You'll need your friends to help you speed up the experiments! To expand your greenhouse, you'll need to obtain parts such as boards, nails, and bricks. Each level of growth allows you additional seed trays for experimenting. You can get the parts in much the same fashion as other gifts and items, either as gifts from friends, from Special Delivery boxes, or purchasing them (with FV Cash).

OK, the greenhouse is built, now what?

To see what the Greenhouse can offer (and it's at least Level 1) just click on it on your farm and choose “Look Inside” from the menu options.

The initial Greenhouse display is the Nursery display, where you can find and use the right seed combinations to produce one of the new crops.

Click on the “Place a Seed” display and you'll see a mini-Market display showing twenty familiar crops (like Strawberries, Lilacs, Wheat, etc.). Once you enter in the right two-crop combination, you'll be told what the new crop will be and that the experimentation process has started and you'll be deducted the cost (in coins, listed under each crop). If you enter in the wrong combination you'll get an error message. Can't figure out a good combination? Check out the “Seed Genealogy” tab, where you can see the new types of crops that can be created! Once you begin a valid two-crop combination, you'll be able to see the experiment. Asking friends to help will make the process happen faster!

Once the experimentation process is over the clock will be replaced with an image of a new seed packet. Click on “Harvest” and you'll be rewarded with a new super-enhanced crop (in the case of mixing the Strawberries and Raspberries you get the Straspberry).Each time you finish experimentation you'll get fifty (50) seeds of this new crop-so go plant them!

What about a farm dog?

Always wanted a dog?

You can purchase a Puppy for your Farm using coins or FV Cash. Different puppies have different requirements, but all require you to feed them every day for 14 day. After that, your puppy will be an adult dog that can do tricks and even help you out.

Can I start a business?

As you reach higher levels in the game, you can! You can start a winery, a bakery, or even a spa!

Just keep playing and the game will present you with new and exciting activities, games, rewards, and achievements!

Want to have to click less?
Farmhands and Arborists can be bought for FV Cash in the Market, gifted from a friend, or sometimes gained in a mystery box. These can save you time and clicks! Farmhands will harvest all of your ready (showing pink teardrop icon above) livestock, and arborists will harvest all of your ready trees. Each can be used once, so use them wisely!

As your farm gets bigger, you'll probably want to purchase farm equipment. You have to reach certain levels before the equipment is available for purchase, but once you can, go ahead and get the, as they will save you lots of time and clicking. Not only that, but purchasing these items earn you additional XP! Oh, but to run them, just like in real life, you'll need fuel and gas is expensive! Each piece of equipment does its job to a 2x2 area for 4 fuel per click. Your fuel gauge displays in the bottom left corner of the game window. There are many ways you can earn fuel; sometimes you'll find it when fertilizing a friend's crop, you can buy it in the market, it can be gifted from a friend, or you can purchase goods at friends' market stalls and then exchange them for fuel!

Tractors: Available at level 12.

Harvester: Available at level 13.

Seeder: Available at level 14.

Happy Farming!!