Playing Farmville

Farmville is a highly addictive social-networking and farming game by Zynga. The Farmville game is hosted on Facebook, where you can begin operating your own virtual farm, exchanging gifts with Facebook friends and protecting your neighbor's crops from pesky crows.

Farmville is 100% free, but, before you hurry over to Facebook to give it a shot, remember: once you start farming, you may find it hard to stop.

I began playing Farmville in the summer of 2009. At the time, only two other friends played the game and I had a lowly 14x14 farm with a 2x2 plot for growing, a few chickens and my trusty virtual hoe.

Since then, more than two dozen other Facebook residents have joined my Farmville neighborhood, I've grown my mom-and-pop farm into an 18x18, heavily planted, fully mechanized, milk and egg producing wonder. I even have four elephants to provide circus peanuts and a few pigs to hunt down some truffles!

In the beginning, Farmville might seem a bit overwhelming. There are so many potential crops, animals, trees, decorations and buildings to choose from that you may have no idea where to start. With some time and plenty of amusing effort, you'll quickly level up, unlock amazing new items and grow your farm to epic proportions.

To begin with Farmville, you need to install the Farmville Application for Facebook. This doesn't install anything on your computer, but will give Zynga access to your profile information. If you have your Facebook account on security lock-down and don't want to share your information with anyone, unfortunately, Farmville is not the game for you.

Once you've installed the application, you need to set up your character. You can choose a male or female avatar, set hair and eye color and style, and other facial features. With your newly created character, you can begin playing!

In Farmville, there are five resources that you should keep an eye on.

Experience Points

You gain Experience Points by plowing land, planting crops, helping on Neighbors' farms and earning Ribbons. Sometimes, you might receive Experience Points just because the Farmville feels like giving them to you. The more Experience Points you gain, the higher level you will become, and the more secret, amazing Market items you can buy (or gift to your friends!).

Coins

Coins are the basic currency of Farmville. It costs Coins to plow, plant and purchase items. You earn Coins by harvesting crops from plants or trees, and by collecting goods from your barnyard animals. You also can earn Coins in the Daily Raffle, by helping Neighbors' farms, by selling extra items or by earning new Ribbons.

Farmville Cash

Farmville Cash is very hard to earn. Usually, to get more of it, you'll need to buy it (with real money). However, you don't strictly need Farmville Cash to play the game. If you have some, you might be able to buy special, promotional items.

Land

Next to Coins and Experience Points, your available land is the most important part of the game. If you don't have enough land to plant at your current rate, you're missing out on earning potential. As soon as you have enough Neighbors and Coins, you should upgrade your farm to a larger plot. You must increase your farm one step at a time, though. You cannot upgrade to an 18x18 plot without first upgrading to a 16x16 plot, and each size requires a certain number of Neighbors.

Fuel

Fuel isn't an issue until you begin using farm equipment. When you do, though, you may quickly run out of Fuel and find yourself plowing, planting and harvesting by hand once again. You Fuel recharges itself every few hours, and, every so often, you may receive a Fuel Refill. Fuel Refills are saved in your Fuel Tank until you need them.

The Tools available in Farmville are really simple. The basic Tools-Plow, Multitool, Market, Delete and Gifts Box-are found in the lower right-hand corner of the Farmville screen. Until you move on to using farm equipment, like the Tractor, you'll use the Tools for all your plowing, planting and harvesting. For a quick overview of what each basic Tool does, see the images to the right. In addition to the basic Tools, there's a Ribbons section.

Ribbons are awards you receive for completing certain tasks or reaching milestones. For example, to earn the "Crop Whisperer" Yellow Ribbon, you need to fertilize 75 neighbor crops (more on fertilizing later). Aside from a fun gauge of your Farmville progress, Ribbons earn you extra Experience Points and Coins.

Each Ribbon has four levels: yellow, white, red and blue. Some Ribbons, like the "Noah's Ark" Ribbon, require you to own or acquire a certain number of items. To earn the Ribbon, you don't need to have all the items at once, but must have owned/acquired a certain number since the Ribbon was added.

At the time of writing the Ribbons include

• Local Celebrity (number of Neighbors)
• Good Samaritan (helping Neighbors' farms)
• High Roller (earned Coins)
• A Pretty Penny (spent Coins)
• Cream of the Crop (harvested crops)
• Knock on Wood (harvested trees)
• Zoologist (acquired animals)
• Architect (owned buildings)
• Pack Rat (owned decorations)
• Animal Shelter (rescued animals)
• Green Thumb (unique crops)
• Tree Hugger (planted trees)
• Noah's Ark (unique animals)
• Not Spoiled, Gifted (Gifts received)
• Crop Whisperer (Neighbor crops fertilized)
• Flower Power (harvested flowers)
• Pretty Garden (flower bouquets placed)
• King of Compost (harvested fertilized crops)
• They of Mystery (Mystery Boxes opened)
• Lord of the Plow (Tractor plowed spaces)
• Vegetable Virtuoso (harvested vegetables)
• Foremost Fruit Farmer (harvested fruits)
  

To help a Neighbor, you first need to have Neighbors. Sometimes, friends who already play will add you, but you can't count on that.

At the top of the screen, above your farm view, the "My Neighbors" tab sits next to the "Play" tab. On this screen, you'll see a list of all your Facebook friends who currently play Farmville. To add them as a Neighbor, click the button that says "Add [friend's name] as Neighbor." You'll see a Facebook pop-up asking permission to notify them of the request.

Once you've sent requests to all your friends, click on the "Play" tab to return to your farm. Farmville enthusiasts will respond will alarming speed.

Your Neighbors will display at the bottom of your farm screen after they've accepted the request. To help, click on a Neighbor's picture and select "Visit/Help [friend's name]'s Farm." This will take you to their farm, where you'll be given a task, such as raking up leaves or shooing away pests. All you need to do it click "Accept."

After you've completed the task, you'll receive both Experience Points and a small award in Coins. If you have fertilizer, which you get from your cows, you can fertilize one or more of their crops to improve the yield.

You can only help a Neighbor once every 24 hours. If you haven't visited their farm in a day, a pop-up might display on your farm screen asking if you'd like to go help. Since you get free Coins and Experience Points for doing it, why not help out a little?

Chances are, if you have Neighbors, you'll soon start receiving a flood of Gifts. On one particularly hectic day, I received 27 Gifts from my Neighbors. That's a whole lot to stuff on my farm!

Fortunately, Gifts are returnable. Not to the giver, of course, but you can sell them back to Farmville. After you've accepted a gift through your Facebook Notifications window (found on the upper right-hand corner of the Facebook home page), the Gifts will appear in your Gifts Box.

Open your Gifts Box to see all the Gifts you've accepted. You can have up to 30 Gifts in there at one time. To earn Ribbons faster, you should place every single Gift on your farm, at least temporarily. Since the Ribbons count only how many of the items you have owned and not how many you currently own, placing a decoration and then selling it will count towards the Ribbon.

To place a Gift, click the "Use" button underneath it. Place it wherever you'd like on your farm, as long as it is not on top of plowed land or another item (like a cow or tree). You can leave it there, or click on it with the Multitool and select "Sell."

Continue the process until you've worked through all the Gifts you've received.

As a good Neighbor, you should always send gifts to people who have sent them to you. You can send Gifts by clicking on "Free Gifts" next to the "Play" tab at the top of the screen.

First, select a gift to send. You can send a seasonal Gift or something more practical, like a chicken or a partial Fuel refill. Select the Gift and scroll down to the bottom of the screen to select "Proceed to Send."

Every day, you can send one gift to up to 30 friends. You can send Gifts to Neighbors or to Facebook friends who aren't playing Farmville yet. If they accept your Gift and sign up for Farmville, they'll automatically become one of your Neighbors.

The first tab, marked "All," contains all your friends from Farmville and Facebook. The second tab, "Farmville Friends," contains just your Neighbors, and the third, "Facebook Friends," contains only Facebook friends who aren't signed up for Farmville. Keep this in mind when you send out goodies, and make sure to send Gifts to Neighbors who sent them to you!

That about wraps up my Playing Farmville Hub. For those of you who are new to the game, I hope this was informative and will get you off to a good start.

Up next in my Farmville series:

• Intermediate Play farm equipments, animals and trees
• Advanced Play buildings, dairy farms and getting all the Ribbons
• Tips and Tricksmost profitable crops, managing rotations and managing the business

Happy Farming!