Advice for New Farmers

Being a Good Neighbour
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I have addressed this elsewhere as well because it is one of the most important aspects of the game now.  If you are a good neighbour, you will benefit greatly and your Neighbours will benefit as well.  If you ignore the basic rules of being a good neighbour, both you and your Neighbours ultimately suffer.

First of all, failing to give your farm a name that is unique can confuse your Neighbours and prevent you from receiving special rewards from them, such as Friendship Flowers.  Name your farm and give it a special Avatar! You can do this by tapping on the square portrait frame in the top left corner of the screen.  This takes you to a very useful Menu that includes the options to rename your Farm, choose an Avatar and see useful data such as how many points you need to reach the next level and how many visitors you have had within the past day.

How to Rename your Farm
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To rename your farm, tap on the little pencil icon at the top centre of this Menu.  The default name for any Farm is 'My Farm' or the equivalent of this in whatever language you have chosen for the game.   When you open the name box, you will be able to choose the frame for the name as well as typing a new name.  Make certain that you erase the default name first though, because often I will see a Farm named  ... Farm Farm because the player failed to erase part of the original name.  Use backspace to erase.  When you have finished, tap the green chequemark and you will have a new name!

Changing your Avatar
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To change your Avatar, tap on the square portrait icon in the far top left corner of the Menu.  The default Avatar is a clover.  You now can choose your Facebook Avatar or any Avatars that you have purchased or won in the game.   You can change the Avatar frame as well if you choose.

If you have not connected your Farm to Facebook, you will be unable to use your Facebook Avatar.  It is really important to connect your farm to Facebook actually as it prevents loss of your Farm if something goes terribly awry.  If they farm is connected to Facebook, you can recover it easily on any device.

The game basically was designed for anonymity, but I have found that one of the best aspects of belonging to a good group on Facebook is the ability to communicate with and become truly acquainted with your Neighbours on FFS.  Our members are wonderful, caring, active individuals.  We welcome new members and help one another as much as possible.

A New Farm
xxxxxxxxxxx

I recently was able to borrow a Kindle to create a new Farm.  I added some of the changes in Quests to my Quests page on this site.  In three days, I was able to reach Level 16, which allows one to participate in the Beauty Contests.  A new time-restricted Quest will be released on Friday (tomorrow) I expect.  If this new Farmer does not reach Level 18 by then, she probably will not be able to participate fully in the Quest... On the last new farm I created for a friend of mine, he was able to perform the time-restricted Quest sequence at Level 16 but could not participate in the Collections Mission until he reached Level 18.  The fact that the Collections Mission included a Crop unlocked only at Level 18 may or may not have been the reason for this.

I was dismayed, however, to discover how difficult it has become to play the game successfully without a substantial investment in RC or premium cash.  I have been playing Family Farm Seaside now for over three years.  When I created my original Harvest Moon Farm, there were only a few premium purchases available.  It was possible to advance without investing too much.

Note that I am a firm believer in real money investment in games.  Without money, firms that create games cannot continue to operate.  Developers must be paid and I daresay considerable money must be given to the various firms that support the platforms on which these online games are played.

A little aside here:  My favourite platform is the DS and my favourite games are the Rune Factory series of games.  In English, these were made by a firm named Neverland in the past decade or so.  Recently, the firm went bankrupt I believe.  Who, if any one will take over the job of translating any new Rune Factory game into English and making it for the English markets???

On Facebook, my favourite game, apart from Family Farm, was called Fantasy Kingdoms.  It ceased to exist a few months ago.  This is a REAL and PRESENT DANGER.  If you love a game, for God's sake be willing to invest in it!

That having been said, I am finding that the cost of success in Family Farm Seaside has become utterly prohibitive.  You need ALL the Trees really in order to participate in every Quest. Over half of the Trees require RC (premium cash) to purchase.  Yes, you may find these at some point in the Green Mystron Mystery Shop, but it takes time to amass the Green Mystrons and if you play on the Kindle, you never will be able to see the Green Balloons that deliver 15 Green Mystrons whenever you are willing to watch an advert.

You can play this game without participating in the various time-restricted Quests and Beauty Contest and so on, but you will advance far more quickly if you can participate.  The Island is another option that can be very expensive unless you work like a dog or are willing to wait years to complete tasks that are requirements for expansion and so on.  On my  Rosewood Farm,  for a long time, I lacked the final expansion.  I spent a lot of real money to complete all the tasks and options on my Harvest Moon Farm long ago, mainly in order to be able to write a comprehensive Island Guide, but I could not afford to do that with Rosewood.  The final expansion requires the following:

Save and use 1500000 Coins to buy the expansion
  Skip for 20 RC

Have 80 Coral Dressing Tables to buy expansion
  Skip for 80 RC

Have 800 Stetsons to buy expansion
  Skip for 50 RC

Note that Coral Dressing Tables and Stetsons have level requirements.  If you have not completed full Mastery of the Hat Machine, you won't be able to make any stetsons.  900 Stetsons is a significant number of Hats.  I know farmers achieve these totals but it will took me forever and a day, especially on a SECOND Farm which is what Rosewood is.

Still, Rosewood is in far better shape than the poor little Kindle farms I created.  I rather despair of either ever unlocking the Island, at least in the near future.

Family Farm Seaside Freyashawk Group
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Neighbours are an issue for many new farmers.  If you connect through Facebook, you can send requests to your Facebook friends, but I do not like to trouble my friends with requests for games if they do not play games.  You can share your Farm I.D. in a post on Facebook or you can join a Facebook group and share it there.  I have created a little Facebook Group for Family Farm Seaside simply for the purpose of publishing the Farm I.D.s of my readers on this site...  So look for a Family Farm Seaside Group called Family Farm Seaside Freyashawk and add your ID there if you wish.

Basically, success in Farmily Farm Seaside now is very much influenced by Neighbours and money, both Coins and RC.  You need Farm Aids to progress quickly and these can be purchased in the Market or obtained in the Cleaning Gift Boxes that you receive either from Neighbours who visit your Farm and clean your cleanable Decorations or by visiting Neighbours and cleaning their cleanable Decorations.  Other ways to obtain Farm Aids are by logging into the game more than once during the day to collect the Dedicated Farmer Bonus.  Sometimes this will contain even RC!.  Another way to obtain Farm Aids on a daily basis is by completing Tasks in your Daily Quests path to earn Treasure Chests.  The tasks that you can complete will depend on your Level, which is another reason to level up as quickly as possible.  Finally, the time-restricted Quests usually have two special Mission Gift Boxes as Rewards and these will contain specific Farm Aids.  Other Gift Boxes contain RANDOM items that include Farm Aids.

Once again, by joining a good group like my Family Farm Seaside Freyashawk Group, you have an instant opportunity to add over 100 Neighbours who all are active players.  Visiting Neighbours on a daily basis is the quickest way not only to increase your Level but to obtain Gift Boxes and earn extra Coins.

Why are Farm Aids so important now?  Well, when a Quest has a time limit, the ability to speed the growth of Crops and Tree Harvests as well as being able to use OP in Batch Production to collect products from Machines and Animals automatically can make a tremendous difference.  You still can do it all the old-fashioned way and wait for a Crop that takes 20 hours to mature to mature naturally but it can be daunting.  If you can plant a Crop and harvest it instantly, you then can replant...

Of course, it becomes tempting to use Farm Aids on a constant basis, but that can prove expensive in real money.  What I do ordinarily is collect Gift Boxes and then keep them in my Gift Box unopened until needed for a time-restricted Quest.  I do this with Power and OP that is in my Gift Box as well.

When should you purchase RC?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

One question that new players often ask is when to spend real money and when to spend RC (premium cash in the game).

Real money is used to purchase RC, Coins or special items offered during Sales.  Sale items usually cannot be obtained in any other way and seldom are offered more than once.  There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, if you want a specific item offered in a sale, you need to purchase it during the sale.

What are the advantages of purchasing sale items?  Well, these items usually if not always are cleanable Decorations with a sum of RC included in the deal and sometimes offered with a premium Tree and some Farm Aids.  When cleaned, they sometimes will yield a special item such as RC or Yellow Mystrons for a specific number of days before they begin to give out the usual Gift Boxes.  As previously indicated, Gift Boxes are extremely important now in this game.  You need to have cleanable Decorations on your Farm if possible as well as cleaning Neighbours' decorations as often as you can.

Unlocking Cleanable Decorations
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

By the way, on the new Kindle farm, it appeared that one only begins to unlock the cleanable Decorations that give good Gift Boxes upon reaching Level 17.  At Level 17, I saw one could purchase the Clothes Drying Rack, the Christmas Candle, the Chinese Pavilion, the Panda Lantern, Market Stall, Swimming Pool, Willow and Mini Beach.  Of these, however, only the Market Stall yields the best Gift Box in the form of the Blue Gift Box.

Do be warned that Cleanable Decorations that can be purchased for Coins usually yield no more than Coins when cleaned...   Nonetheless, it is important to purchase and place these as soon as possible for two reasons: one is to be able to enter them in your Gallery by registering them and the second is to be able to earn Buddy Points when your Buddies visit you.  A section on the Buddy System is located at the end of this post.

Sale Offers and the Millionaire Cow
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Note that the amount of RC that you obtain in a sale offer will be less than the amount you would receive for the same price if you simply purchased RC.  The advantages of a sale offer are in the special Decoration and whatever other items are included in the offer.  You do need RC to survive.  You will earn 1 RC for each level that you reach in the game.  Sometimes you can receive RC for logging into the game and the fifth and final Achievement of any kind usually gives you 1 or 2 RC.  Collection Registrations in the Gallery and sometimes the Registration of a special item can give an RC Reward as well.  Finally, there is the Millionaire Cow that, when purchased yields 1 RC per day.  All of these have their own advantages to a serious player.  Most players, including myself, find the Millionaire Cow a wonderful method of recouping RC.

Skipping Tasks and purchasing Ingredients
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Your RC should be used judiciously, however.  Purchasing a missing ingredient for a Dish in the Kitchen is a bad use of 1 RC unless you have not reached the level where you can obtain it yourself otherwise.  Skipping a Task in a Mission is a poor use of RC unless you could not complete the Task because of your Level or any other reason.

Use of RC to complete Farm Expansions can be good or bad depending on the Task that you are skipping.  When your Farm is too small and crowded, you may be tempted to move forward by skipping an Expansion task.  That is your call, obviously.  If there is any way to amass the item required in a Task, it is better not to skip it.  A Level requirement usually is best met rather than skipped.  It is the Coin total requirement that sometimes may be worth skipping by paying RC if you are a fairly low level player, mainly because it is hard to earn Coins and you will need them for so many other purposes.  Better to buy all the Trees, Animals and Machines that you can, because they will be used again and again...

Cooking Stand Contests
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A very good way to earn Coins is by participating in the Cooking Stand Contests.  You do need to unlock the Building Plot that contains the Cooking Stand now and you must have a Kitchen.

Fishing
xxxxxx

Raising your Level is the key to unlocking new options, whether it is the Kitchen and Cooking, the Fishing Pier, the time-restricted Missions or access to the Island.  Unfortunately, the Island is a very expensive options and it requires a great deal of Level-raising and Mastery in order to be used with any degree of success.

Do not be too quick to use RC to skip Tasks to unlock new options such as the Island if you cannot afford to unlock any options there.  My Island Guide give the Level and the Mastery requirements as well as Tasks for every optiona and Island Expansion.  The Garden there as well as the Mine are linked to specific Expansions.  I think where the Island is concerned, patience is the key unless you wish to spend a great deal of real money on this.

As far as the time-restricted Missions are concerned, they now are divided between Seaside Tasks and Island Tasks.  You can complete half of the Quest sequence without having access to the Island. The second half of any time-restricted Quest now has a Level requirement attached to it as well.  I believe it only is unlocked either at Level 26 or Level 28.

Mystery Shops
xxxxxxxxxxxx

One point should be mentioned here.  The Mystery Shop has given players the hope of obtaining Decorations that were the Rewards for Missions from the past.  There are five different Mystery Shops now: a Coin Shop, a Yellow Mystron Shop, a Purple Mystron Shop, a Blue Mystron Shop and a Red Mystron Shop.  Even in the Coin Shop, you often can purchase items you have not unlocked yet, so access it and use it!  The Yellow Mystron Shop allows you to purchase some Decorations that are not available in the regular Market.  It is the Blue Mystron Shop that allows you to purchase the very special Decorations that were given as Rewards in past Missions but you need to complete the entire Reward Path for the Daily Order Board, earning all the special Sheep, before you will begin to earn Blue Mystrons.  Even then, one earns only 1 Blue Mystron for each Order filled, so it is a slow process!  Again, patience is the key here...

Selling Items from your Barn
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Should you sell as much as possible from your Barn?  My answer is in the negative now, because so many items are needed to complete the Daily Order Board orders, Recipes and so on.  Wait until a Task or Order requests the item before you sell it!  The best way to earn Coins is by visiting Neighbours and completing Quests really.

Buddy System
xxxxxxxxxxxx

Recently, a number of new options were added to the game.  One of these is the Buddy System.  This allows you basically to have up to 15 Neighbours as special friends who visit daily to perform the ordinary actions of fertilising/harvesting, cleaning any Decoration and eating at your Cooking Stand if a dish is available.  Beyond that, though, advancing to Level 1 in the Buddy System with even one Buddy will allow you to purchase, plant and grow a Buddy Tree.  Special 'heart' actions are performed on these trees to upgrade them and each 'Heart' action is worth Buddy Points as well.  When the tree is upgraded, the Buddies who helped will obtain a special Reward.  At level 2, you will have access to your Buddy's Share Box, another new option.

The Share Box is linked to the new Lucky Wheel which is a second Wheel that you can spin.  Unlke the first Wheel that can be spun at no cost on a daily basis, the Lucky Wheel requires Lucky Tokens.  The Rewards, however, can include Decorations that are no longer available in the Market as well as premium Trees, farm aids and even RC.  Apart from the Decorations, all other items are sold at discounted prices.  When a player obtains one of the items that can be shared, he/she can buy it or share it into the 'Share Box'.  This is accessible only to Buddies at Level 2 or higher.

Primarily, the Buddy System is designed to give you at least 15 visits per day, if you have the maximum number of Buddies.  Here, it is most important to have cleanable Decorations on your farm as even one that gives Coins delivers the same number of Buddy Points as one that gives a Blue Box. You need to make certain that you have crops on your plots, even if they are ready for harvest, because, once again, a Crop that is mature gives the same number of Buddy Points as one that can be fertilised.  What gives NO rewards is an empty plot.

I do not know how helpful this post is, but I was disconcerted by the difficulty that new players now face in this game unless they are willing to spend a fair amount of money.  Neighbours really do help here and that is why I have formed the Family Farm Seaside Freyashawk Group.

Another post about starting a new farm can be found here:

Starting a New Farm