FarmVille Tutorial

Basics:

When you start out the game, you have a couple of crops growing, a little bit of cash, and a
couple of plots of land. The game will prompt you to harvest the 2 crops that are done (by
clicking on them) and ask you to do a few more basic tasks.

After that, you are pretty much let loose to do whatever you want. To navigate your farm in
FarmVille, you have a 6 button tool bar in the bottom right of your screen (click to see full size).

These buttons have a variety of functions, accessed by clicking on them. Here is what they do:

Multi-tool

The multi-tool is, as advertised, something that can do a lot of tasks. By clicking on the
multi-tool button and then subsequently clicking on different objects, you can do a lot of
things:

- By scrolling over growing crops, you can see their progress.
- Once crops have reached 100%, you can harvest them simply by clicking on them with the
multi-tool activated.
- To repeat, harvest finished crops with the multi-tool.
- You can also harvest trees and livestock with the multi-tool.
- You can interact with objects by clicking on them with the multi-tool. This allows you to
move decorations and animals (i.e. a picnic bench or a cow) in addition to petting animals.

Click on different things with the multi-tool activated for a variety of options.
- By clicking on a plowed field, you bring up the marketplace menu.
- By clicking on fallow land, you automatically plow it.

To change the appearance of your farmer, click on your farmer with the Multi-tool activated.

Plow Tool:

The green shovel allows you to plow land. Click on the shovel then click on Fallow land or
an empty plot to plow a small square. Farms start off 12x12 - you have 144 squares where you
can grow crops. With the green shovel, you can plow 1 square at a time. By clicking on a
square, you get 1 xp and spend 15 coins to plow the land. Once the land is plowed, you can
plant seeds there through the market window.

Demolish:

The red shovel allows you to demolish things you do not want anymore (note: this is different
from harvesting) such as fields (like if you messed up the placement of a plowed field). When you use the "demolish" function on an animal, building, or decoration it is gone forever. Rather than demolishing buildings, try selling them with the multi-tool when you are done with them.

Ribbons:

Ribbons are FarmVille's achievement system. Clicking the ribbons button will bring up the
ribbons tab. By completing the tasks found in the Ribbons tab (such as help out 20 friend's
farms) you will get a nice reward, which usually involves experience points and either money
(coins) or a prize (such as a building or decoration). I will have a ribbon's guide up soon, so check the FarmVille Strategy homepage for updates.

Market:

Clicking on the market button will open up the market window. This is where you
can spend your coins. Use this button to plant crops (click "Buy" on whatever crop you want)
and then click on whatever plowed fields you want to place it in.

Side note: When plowing fields or planting crops, you can give your farmer many tasks to do
in advance (like plow 100 field squares) and then walk away from the computer or do
something else while your farmer works. You do not need to wait for your farmer to finish
whatever he is doing to give him a new task. You can even mix and match tasks, such as tell
your farmer to plow 20 fields, collect 30 crops, and plant 10 crops.

At the market you have a lot of options. You can buy crops, animals, buildings,
decorations, trees, and extras (such as expanding the size of your farm). Most items cost
coins (shown as gold coins). You get coins by selling crops There are items that cost cash. You can get cash by buying it for real-life money. This is how Zynga (the FarmVille developers) make money off of FarmVille. A lot of these items are vanity items (such as different buildings and decorations). You also get 1 cash for free every time you level up.

Gift button:

At the bottom right corner of the main toolbar, you will find the gift button. By clicking on this button, you can find gifts that you have accepted from friends. When someone gives you a gift, you will get a notification that can be found at the same place you find your Facebook friend requests. Once you get a gift request, accept it, and you will find the gift to use inside this gift menu.

Other Buttons

Experience Points Bar:

You get experience points by planting crops, plowing fields, and raising animals. When the bar fills up, you will go to the next level (from 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc) and the bar resets.

Currency:

There are two types of currency - coins and cash. Coins are the main currency and are used to pay for plowing the fields and planting the crops. Harvesting crops, trees, and animals is the primary way to acquire coins.

Cash is a special type of currency used to buy some buildings and a variety of vanity items (decorations, flags, etc). Cash can be purchased for real-life money via credit card (this is how FarmVille developers make their money since it is free to play). You also get 1 cash per level up.

Neighbors & Neighbors tool bar:

You can join up with friends by inviting them (click on the "invite friends" tab shown below and follow the directions) to be your neighbor in FarmVille.


You can only add 24 friends per day, so be careful with your invites! If none of your
friends play FarmVille or if you want some more neighbors, you can add friends on the
FarmVille discussion boards (viewable on the applications page on Facebook).

Your added friends will appear (takes 5-30 minutes) on the neighbors bar at the bottom of the screen.

Adding neighbors has a variety of benefits:

- You can visit different neighbors' farms a day and help them out once every 24 hours. To help someone out, click on their portrait on the neighbors bar and then click "Visit/Help (Friend's name)'s Farm). Once you visit their farm, you will be prompted to help them out. This will give you some money and experience points (20 coins and 5 XP for the first 20 you help, 5 coins and 1 XP after that). The 20-count tally resets once a day.

- Adding neighbors unlocks the "expand your farm" options in the Marketplace. For example, you need 8 neighbors and 10,000 coins to expand your farm from 12x12 (144 squares) to 14x14 (196 squares).

- Adding neighbors is used for the "Local Celebrity" ribbon. By adding 4 neighbors, you will be awarded the yellow ribbon which will give you some extra experience points and coins. There are additional rewards for reaching 10, 25, and 50 total neighbors.

- You can send and receive free gifts from neighbors, such as trees, farm animals, and
decorations. This function is also used in the "Gifted, not spoiled" ribbon as well.

- You can visit your neighbors farm just to see what they have done or leave them a note. Pretty self explanatory - visiting a friends farm, admire their internet handiwork, and leave them a message.

When you visit a friend's farm, a house-shaped icon appears. Clicking this will take you back to your own farm.


Playing FarmVille

Now that you know how to get around the game, it is time to cover the basic concepts.

Planting Crops

Growing crops is the primary way to earn money and experience points. To plant crops, you first need to plow an open or fallow square.

1. Click on the plow tool.
2. Click where you want to plow.

That is all there is to it. To plant crops,

1. Click on the market window.
2. Click what seed you want to plant
3. Click on your plowed field.

And now your crop is planted. You do not need to water it or check on it until it is done - it will automatically grow. However, you can not let it sit too long after it is ready to harvest or it will go bad. I *think* it's about double the time it takes to mature before it spoils. For example, soybeans take 1 day to grow, so if you plant them, you need to harvest them within 2 days.

When you plow fields and plant crops, you get experience points. You do not get any experience points from harvesting crops, just money.

When you harvest a crop, the land becomes fallow. Fallow land needs to be re-plowed before you can plant again.

Planting Trees

Trees are another way to make money in FarmVille. They have several pros and cons compared to crops.

Unlike crops, you only have to plant trees once. After that, you can continually harvest off them and never need to replant them. Additionally, trees take up less space, so you can stick them on the edges of your property where crops will not fit.

However, harvesting trees does not give experience points. You get a couple experience points when you first plant a tree, but that is it. If you want to level up, you will need to plant crops. You can get a lot of trees via the free gifting feature.

Raising Animals

Animals are like trees, except you can pet them. They do not need to be fed or fenced in - they just sit there. When an animal is ready to be "harvested", it will glow, like the cows in this picture:


The cows can be milked for a few coins every day (no pun intended) and do not need to be re-purchased. Animals take up a lot of space though and are not very useful for progressing through the game (except to get ribbons). For now they are more to make your farm look good.


Conclusion

That sums up the tutorial. I should say that how you play the game from here is up to you! To sum it up:

- Plow fields and plant crops to make money & level up.
- Add your friends to your farm.
- Send and collect gifts.
- As you collect more money, friends, and levels, expand your farm and plant more and more crops.
- Repeat, forever.

- As you expand your farm fully and have plenty of money, make your farm more aesthetically pleasing. Remember, your friends will be visiting!

Hopefully you have a good understanding of how to play the game. If there is still something confusing you, you can see this video tutorial or click banners at right column.Happy Playin.....