24 May 2016

Updated Buddy System

Updates to the Buddy System
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I first published this post when the Buddy System was fairly new and relatively uncomplicated.  Since then, a host of new options have been released in Family Farm Seaside that involve the Buddy System.  Among them are the addition to the Lucky wheel of Decorations that become 'Theme Decorations in the current Farm Beauty Contests.  Whenever there is a Farm Beauty Contest, it now aggressively features Theme Decorations that can be obtained on the Lucky Wheel.  What this means is that they can be added to the Share Box of any Buddy and, if you are at Level 2 or higher with that Buddy, you can purchase the Decoration there if you cannot obtain it on your own Lucky Wheel.

Other options that are affected by the Buddy System are the Pets, the Upgraders, the Research Laboratory and upgrades to the Warehouse.

Buddy Pets
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The Pet System has become increasingly important in Family Farm Seaside and does not depend on high experience Levels on the part of the Farmer.  You can borrow one Pet each day from a Buddy even if you are only at Level 1 with the Buddy.  The number of times that your own Pets have been borrowed is now a Farm Achievement so do try to take advantage of this option not only to help yourself by giving an 'extra pair of paws' when Guest Groups are invited, but to help your Buddy.

Even more significant perhaps in some cases is the option to feed a Buddy's Pet when you reach Level 3 with the Buddy.  This is where increasing your Buddy Levels is very important.  At Level 2, you can buy items from a Buddy's Share Box.  At Level 3, you can feed a Buddy's Pet each day.  At Level 4, you can send Organic Fertiliser and Watering Cans back and forth with Buddies for only a small price in Coins.

Building Materials
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Some of the items needed to build upgrades can be obtained only from Buddies, unless you are willing to spend RC to obtain them.  You can send one request for an item each day to any Buddy who is Level 1 or higher.

Finally, there are the Cropology and Treeology options in the new Research Laboratory.  When you have a Level 4 Laboratory, you can choose either Cropology or Treeology.  Either of these ultimately will allow you to plant special seeds/seedlings.  These are fertilised with a special 'Liquid Fertiliser'.  Any Buddy can interact with your special seeds to fertilise them even at Level 0.  The number of times you can fertilise in any given day is determined by Buddy Level.

When the Buddy System first was released, many players declined the opportunity to participate.  It now has become painfully obvious that, unless you participate in the Buddy System, you will be shut out from many activities in Family Farm Seaside.  That having been said, here is the original post, giving details on how to maximise the benefits of the Buddy System...

A Simple Introduction
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As some readers know, I have a group on Facebook named Family Farm Seaside Freyashawk and since the Buddy System was introduced, our page has been bombarded with questions from group members as well as a great deal of confusion.  We all are learning how to use this new option, but I feel I may be able to help by providing a quick, simple introduction as how to begin to interact with it.

First of all, you need to have a few Buddies... 15 is the maximum number and the reason why you might prefer to have that number is mainly in order to be able to request 15 of the special Buddy Gifts per day. Note, however, that the Buddy System only really becomes active when at least one of your Buddies reaches Level 1 with you.  Until then, all you can do is rack up points by visiting your Buddies' Farms daily to fertilise/harvest and clean 1 Decoration.  When the Cooking Stand Contest is active, you can earn 1 Point by eating at your Buddy's Cooking Stand.

When one Buddy reaches Level 1 with you, all sorts of new options will become available.  You will find the Red Mystron Mystery Shop has been unlocked to allow you to purchase your first Buddy Tree.  Place that on your farm immediately.  To grow it, you either will need 5 Fences or 5 RC or a combination of these.  Do make the effort to grow it as quickly as possible because your Level 1 Buddies cannot interact with a baby Tree.

Now as well, as soon as you reach Level 1 with a Buddy, you will have the option to borrow one of his/her Pets each day.  The Pet System has become very important in Seaside and the temporary addition of another Pet can make a significant difference on occasion when you have a Guest Group on your Farm.

For example, if some of your Guests like the Water Paths but you do now have your own Turtle, borrow a Turtle from a Buddy!

Raising Buddy Levels
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When you confirm a new Buddy, you will be at Level 0.  Until you reach Level 1, you will be unable to send or receive Buddy Gifts or tend a Buddy Tree.  I have noticed, however, that you can call a Level 0 Buddy Boat to your Wharf.  That is one of the few options that recognises the Level 0 Buddy.  To reach Level 1, you need to gain a total of 100 Buddy Points.  Every ordinary Neighbour action you perform on a Buddy's farm will give you 1 Buddy Point.  This includes fertilisation of Crops or Trees, harvesting Crops, cleaning Decorations and, if there is an active Cooking Stand Contest, eating at your Buddy's Cooking Stand.  What this means is that you need to visit that Buddy every day.

Provided your Buddy reciprocates and visits YOUR farm on a daily basis, it will not take long to reach Level 1 at which time you become REAL Buddies.  You will be asked to confirm the relationship.  At this point, you can begin to give and receive both the Free Gifts and the Special Gifts.  You can send and receive 1 Free Buddy Gift from each Buddy on a daily basis.

The Special Gifts are different.  Each has its own time reference.  Some can be sent every hour and some can be sent only once every two days.  Moreover, each has its own Level requirement.   Some have a coin cost.  Others cost RC.  Each has its own Buddy Point value as well.  The most valuable is the Elephant, costing 10 RC but with a Buddy point value of 30 Buddy Points.  This gift will raise Buddy Levels quickly but it is costly and you can send one only every 48 hours.  Fertiliser and Watering Can gifts are useful and, if you are a player who buys these Farm Aids (usually a lower level player who has not amassed many yet from rewards), you can make an arrangement with a new Buddy to send them to one another.  You can send either 6 Super Fertiliser or 25 Super Fertiliser or 25 Super Watering Cans.   Let me add here that you can append a message to your Buddy with any gift.  If you really feel you can have a good relationship with a Buddy, you can become friends on Facebook as well.  This makes communication easy.  Another way to communicate is by joining my Family Farm Seaside Freyashawk Group  or Friendship Group.  We are all very active, helpful farmers and communication is easy when all you have to do is post on the page.  The Friendship Group was in fact designed for chat and communication.

If you do not wish to spend RC, however, you can send the Stone and Flower Path for 500 Coins and Forest Road for 800 Coins.  They may be worth only 1 Buddy Point each but you can send them every hour.  This is a great way to raise Buddy Levels quickly.  I have discussed it later in this post, but felt it might be useful to place a section at the top for new players.

Island Wharf
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The most recent option added to Seaside is the Island Wharf.  It is rather like the Daily Order Board in that boat traffic relies on filling a series of Orders.  I have written a separate post that describes the system in detail.  Suffice it to say here that there is a special Buddy Whistle that allows you to call up to 3 Buddy Boats to your Wharf on a daily basis.  When you use the regular Whistle, you have no choice as to what boat arrives at your Wharf.  When you use the Buddy Whistle, on the other hand, you will see a list of the Buddies that currently have a boat at sea and can choose one.

Seasonal Buddy Items
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From time to time during various holiday seasons, there are special items that operate in a similar fashion to the Buddy Trees.  During the Christmas Season, we had the Snow Bench and Gift Mailbox.   During the Easter Season, there was the Buddy Easter Egg.

You now cannot buy these any longer but you still can interact with existing Benches and Mailboxes and Buddy Easter Eggs that still are on your Buddy's farm.   Unlike the Buddy Tree, which will vanish when it has been upgraded to 100% by your Buddies, the Bench and Mailbox will continue to grow to another level.  Why do you want these items?  They did give Festival Mystrons but now they only increase Buddy Points both for you and for your Buddies.    It is the Buddy Tree that will continue to be an active part of the Buddy interactions now that the Bench and Gift Box and Buddy Easter Egg  no longer are being sold. In tandem with the special Items were special Recipes in the Beauty Shop for use in tending these items.  These Recipes no longer are available.

Tending Buddy Trees
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A free Gift that can be used to tend ANY size of Buddy Tree is the Magic Stick.  If you do not wish to use Fertiliser, Watering Cans or RC to tend Buddy Trees, request the Magic Stick.  The number of Magic Sticks that you need to use will depend on the type of Buddy Tree.  The ordinary Buddy Tree requires only 1, but the Mega Buddy Tree requires 3.

NOTE THAT THE NUMBER OF TIMES THAT YOU CAN TEND ANY BUDDY ITEM WITH HEART ACTIONS DEPENDS ON YOUR LEVEL WITH THAT BUDDY.  In other words, if you are Level 1 with a Buddy who has a Mega Buddy Tree, you can tend it once and it will require 3 items for that single action, but if you are Level 2 with that Buddy, you can tend it TWICE and it will require a total of 6 items.

Why should you use three Watering Cans on a Buddy Tree rather than using the free Magic Sticks that cost nothing?  Well, every item you use on a Buddy Tree gives a different number of Buddy Points.  Furthermore, each gives its own type of Gift Bag and the items that you can find inside these bags when opened, although random, include more valuable Farm Aids when you use the Watering Cans or 1 RC.

Note here that a new addition was made recently that allows a farmer to interact with a Buddy's Crop or Tree using his/her own Farm Aids in the form of Fertiliser, Super Fertiliser, Watering Can or Super Watering Cans.  This increases the number of Buddy Points you can obtain on any visit to a Buddy's farm but it only applies if you have reached Level 1 or higher with the Buddy.

Lucky Wheel and Share Boxes
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It is at Level 2 in the Buddy System that you will be able to access the Lucky Wheel on any Buddy Farm and purchase items that the Buddy has placed in the 'Share' box.  Items that you have placed in your 'Share' box will be available to your Level 2 Buddies.  When you reach Level 2 with any Buddy, you will be able to perform 2 'Heart' actions on his/her Farm.  At Level 3, you can perform 3 Heart Actions I believe.

Note that items that are purchased from your Share Box, even if the price is an RC price will give you only Coins and 1 Lucky Wheel Token for each item purchased.

When a Buddy has purchased an item from your Share Box, please remember to clear that item from the Box.  This makes it less frustrating for other Buddies who access the Box (as they no longer will see the item there) and it allows you to collect the Reward.

As mentioned at the very start of this post, the Lucky Wheel has become critical where the Farm Beauty Contest Theme items are concerned.  In the last two Farm Beauty Contests, a number of Decorations were added to the Lucky Wheel that were Theme Decorations for contest.  If you have been playing Family Farm Seaside for years and have participated in all time-restricted Missions and obtained all Calendar Reward Decorations, you probably own these items and do not need to buy them from the Wheel or Share Box.  If, however, you have been playing the game for less than three years or so, you may find that the only way to obtain these Decorations, apart from the random appearance of a couple of them from time to time either in the Yellow Mystrons Shop or the Blue Mystrons Shop is via the Lucky Wheel.

It is here that many players who initially failed to take advantage of the Buddy System now are scrambling to find active Buddies and raise their Levels to Level 2 in order to be able to use this option.

Note here that nothing in Family Farm Seaside is mandatory.  You do not need to participate in the Farm Beauty Contests or the Buddy System or the Research Laboratory if you would rather not do so.  You will lose valuable farm aids and so on but that is your choice.  If, however, you wish to maximise all advantages in the game, you will find that you have to participate in all the new options as soon as you are able to do so.

Unfortunately, for a low level player, it is almost impossible to perform all the available activities on a daily basis.  Apart from the Daily Order Board that gives the Special Sheep as Rewards and now gives Blue Mystrons as well as Farm Aids in the highlighted Order, there is a new Coffee Shop with Characters that demand specific tasks on a daily basis.  This really is nothing to do with the Buddy System per se, but everything in Seaside is interrelated to some extent now.  If you are new to the game or fairly new to the game, pick and choose carefully.  Do not try to accomplish everything at once.  I do recommend that you engage in the Buddy System as early as possible, however.

Free Buddy Gifts
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A nice little benefit of having Buddies at Level 1 or above is that you can request both a Buddy Gift and a regular Free Gift from each of them on a daily basis.

The Free Gifts have a number of different purposes.  The first two regular Free Buddy Gifts are used on Buddy Trees.

Buddy Tree Fence:  This is used to build any size of Buddy Tree.  You need a total of 5 to build any Tree.  With the Super and Mega Buddy Trees, you will need other materials as well.

Magic Stick:  This is used to tend a Buddy's Tree.  The number required to tend a Tree depends on the size of the Buddy Tree.  You need 1 for any regular Buddy Tree, two for any Super Buddy Tree and 3 for any Mega Buddy Tree.

Soil Rake:  The Soil Rake is used to upgrade the Holstein Cow Upgrader.  If you do not have Buddies who can send these, you will be forced to pay 1 RC for each.

Cheese Mould:  The Cheese Mould is used to upgrade the Cheese Master Upgrader.  If you do not have Buddies who can send these, you will be forced to pay 1 RC for each.

Broom:  The Broom was an item that could be used to tend one of the special holiday Buddy items that no longer are available.  Not certain if it can be used anywhere else...

Lab Storehouse Window:  This is used to upgrade your Research Laboratory at higher levels.

Cement Bag:  This is used to upgrade the Decoration section of the Warehouse at higher upgrade Levels.

Essentially, it is best NOT to send Lab Storehouse Windows or Cement Bags to your Buddies... if they need them, they can request them.  Every one needs Buddy Tree Fences and Magic Sticks.  Most players now have Cow Upgraders and Cheese Maker Upgraders but if they need the items that are associated with them, they can request them.

Level Requirements:
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You need a total of 100 Buddy Points with a Buddy to reach Level 1.  The game will tell you that Level 0 is not a 'real' Buddy and that it is only when you reach Level 1 that the system really kicks into place as it is then that you can perform Buddy Heart actions such as tending a Buddy Tree.

Level 2 requires a total of 1100 Buddy Points.  At Level 2, you can access the Buddy's Share Box to purchase items.

Level 3 requires a total of 3000 Buddy Points.  At present, there appear to be no special advantages to Level 3.

Level 4 requires a total of 7800 Buddy Points.  At level 4, two more Special Gifts become available.  These are:
  Organic Fertiliser, costing 100 Coins, worth only 1 Buddy Point and consisting only of a single bag.  You can send one every 2 hours.
  Watering Can costing 100 Coins, worth only 1 Buddy Point and consisting only of one Watering Can.  You can send one every 2 hours.

No doubt more options will be added, but for now, it appears that once one reaches Level 2 with any Buddy, that is the most important advance.

Share Box Items
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Players are asking which items should be placed in the Share Box.  I personally advise players to place the Trees that can be purchased only for RC but more importantly, the Decorations that are included as Theme Items in the current Farm Beauty Contest.  These include the Flower Barrow, the Reading Teddy Bear, the Fishing Elephant, the Lotus Pond and the Water Fountain.  The prices of these vary from 12 RC to 25 RC, but they ARE Theme items.  Remember that duplicates do not count in terms of theme but only for Charm Points.  I suggest that players do not purchase duplicate Decorations until all Buddies have had a chance to acquire the Theme Decorations.  It is not that easy to obtain them on the Wheel.

Other items that players may want are the little Avatars.  Fertiliser and Watering Cans are always useful to some players but can be purchased easily enough from the Market.  The RC sometimes is discounted.  For example, in the Share Box, 7 RC can be purchased for 6 RC.  That's a good deal.

Ordinary Neighbour Actions and Buddy Heart Actions
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The ordinary Neighbour actions that you perform when you visit any Neighbour are the same actions that you need to perform whenever you visit a Buddy's farm but beyond this, there are special 'Heart' actions that can be performed once you reach Level 1 with any Buddy.  The 'Heart' actions help to grow a Buddy Tree or a special Buddy item like the Snow Bench or Gift Mailbox.  At Level 0, you will not be able to perform any Heart actions.  At Level 1, the default number of Heart actions you can perform is 1 action per day, although the game sometimes will allow double that on special weekends or holidays.  It is when you reach Level 2 with a Buddy that the default number of Heart Actions increases to 2.

Tips for Buddy Interactions
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The Buddy System has been the subject of far too many posts, but I promised to address it again. First of all, it takes considerable time, energy and even cash sometimes to build a Buddy Relationship first to Level 1 and then to Level 2. If some one has made that investment, please do try to keep the relationship alive. As a host, please try to keep at least two out of the three Buddy Trees on your Farm so that your Buddies always can interact with an item for 'heart' points. If you still have a Bench or Mailbox, please add the Trees as well. If your Buddies have items still that can be used to upgrade them, they WILL do that first, but many no longer have any items they can use, so please make certain you have trees on your farm as well. When unlocked, you can have one of each type of Buddy Tree. For low level farmers, it often is easier to interact with the ordinary Buddy Tree that requires only a single item. You will increase your Buddy Level faster with the Mega Buddy Tree, but some farmers cannot afford to give 3 items or, at Level 2, 6 items... so try to keep a regular or Super Tree on the farm as well. If you are the visitor in the Relationship, even low level farmers can visit daily to clean a decoration, tend or harvest Crops and eat at the Cooking Stand. Finally, please, please make certain that you have cleanable Decorations on your Farm. Even at low levels, you can buy some of the Coin Decorations and although they are not worth much in terms of rewards when cleaned, they have the same value as any Decoration that gives a Blue Box in terms of increasing Buddy Points. Send Buddy Gifts to your Buddies daily... if you keep three Trees on your Farm, you need 15 Buddy Fences for that. If you have a Buddy who does not have 15 Buddies, he/she may need Fences desperately and low level farmers really really need the Magic Sticks. In terms of special gifts, two of the paths have a coin cost... if you need to increase Buddy Points, send those back and forth.

Finally, COMMUNICATE with your Buddy if you are unhappy with him/her before you delete that Buddy!  By sending a Special Gift to the Buddy, you not only earn Buddy points but you have an opportunity to send a personal message to him/her.  If the Buddy has no Tree on his/her farm, let the Buddy know by attaching a message to that effect to your Special Gift.   Even at Level 1, you can send the Stone and Flower Path for 500 Coins or the Forest Road for 800 Coins.  You can send each of these every hour to a Buddy so take advantage of this both to communicate with your Buddies and to increase your Buddy Level especially when you are trying to reach Level 2.

Holiday Buddy Items
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As discussed previously, there have been special Buddy Items that have been released to coincide with specific Holidays.  Gift Mail Box and Snow Bench were Christmas Items and the Buddy Easter Egg was an Easter item.  You no longer can purchase these but if you find them on a Buddy's farm, you can interact with them still provided you have the right items to tend them.

 Buddy System
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The new Buddy system is quite different from the Neighbour Menu.  This is a situation where there will be many new options and any Buddy chosen must accept.  At present, there is a limit of 15 Buddies for any farmer.  To choose a Buddy, you need to go to the Neighbour Menu and find the second (lower) tab, then tap on it.  You will see a list of your neighbours.  You can choose up to 15 if you have no Buddies and then send Requests to them all at once by filling the little box next to the farm name.  Neighbours thus chosen must accept your request before you can become Buddies.

Note that when a Buddy increases his/her Level from 0 to 1, you must Confirm the Buddy relationship again.  At Level 1, real interactions begin in the form of tending Buddy Trees on Buddy Farms and,  during a holiday season, tending any special holiday item.


There are Levels to the Buddy system and these will be available as time goes on.  You can see the special Gifts you can send and receive at specific levels by accessing your Gifts Menu and choosing the second tab.

You receive 1 Buddy Point for each of the 5 ordinary actions you can complete on a Neighbour's farm if that Neighbour is your Buddy and you will receive 1 Buddy Point for cleaning that Neighbour's Decoration as well.  If you eat at your Buddy's Cooking Stand, you gain 1 Point as well.   You therefore can receive 7 Buddy Points for one visit in some instances.

New Option to Interact with your own Farm Aids
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Recently, a new option was released, allowing a player who has a Buddy at Level 1 or higher to interact with additional actions using one's own Farm Aids in the form of Fertiliser, Super Fertiliser, Watering Can or Super Watering Cans on Crops and Trees.  This simply allows you to increase the number of Buddy points you will receive when you visit a Buddy's farm.

From the game itself:

Here is all the information you need about the Buddy system:  Grade up by collecting Buddy Points from helping on this buddy's farm.  Reach Buddy Grade 1 and discover many new activities!  For buddies on Grade 0, if you do not help each other for 3 days, your Buddy Connection will be cancelled.

Getting Rid of a Buddy
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A member of my group posted that, if you should find yourself removed as a Buddy, it does not necessarily mean that you were a 'bad' buddy.  I suspect there are many players who would like to have their personal friends as their Buddies.

There are two ways to get rid of a Buddy.  One is if the person does not interact with your farm for three days.  The other is more pro-active.  Simply go to the Buddy List in your Neighbour Menu and hold down that Neighbour's icon until it begins to shake and displays an 'x'.  You then will be able to remove that Buddy and any others you do not wish to keep.

I personally would advise players to be patient with their Buddies.  Sometimes a player who wants to be a good Buddy cannot access the game.  During the Holiday season, people are busier than usual.  Delete a Buddy and you will have to start at zero points with any new Buddy.

Here are some tips, however, on being a good Buddy:

Being a Good Buddy
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A Good Buddy will make his/her farm Buddy-friendly by making certain that there are sufficient Crops and Trees to be tended by ALL his/her Buddies.  If you have 15 Buddies, you need to have options for 5 ordinary actions (fertilisation or harvest) by each every day.  Furthermore, you need to have sufficient cleanable Decorations for all of your Buddies to clean as that action is worth 1 Point. For this purpose, the Decorations that can be purchased for Coins are as good as any.

Finally, Buddies can obtain 1 Point by eating at a Buddy's Cooking Stand.  At present, the current Contest is coming to an end, but when the next Contest begins, remember this option.

Perhaps this is too much effort for some farmers.  There is no need to engage in the Buddy option if you find it too demanding.  Simply do not accept Buddy invitations and if you have, remove all your Buddies from your List if you feel you cannot be a 'Good Buddy'.

It is similar to the Friendship Flower option.  Although many players actively seek Friendship Flowers from Neighbours, there is the option to place an X on your Friendship plots to let Neighbours know that you do not want any more of them.

To visit your Buddies, first choose the second Tab in the Neighbour Menu.  This screen shows all your current Buddies and the three icons beneath each will show you what actions currently can be performed on their farms.

Remember that many of your Neighbours/Buddies have two farms.  If you cannot find any way to interact with Crops and Trees on the original Seaside Farm, go to the Island instead.

The Buddy option appears to be a permanent addition to the game and there is NO time-restriction to it.  Players are being rather impatient about Buddy interactions and tend to delete their Buddies quickly if the Buddy's total points are below specific values each day, but remember that this may not be the Buddy's fault.  It may be his/her Buddy who has been inactive!  It is becoming increasingly important and it is difficult to obtain maximum benefits from Seaside now if you do not have some Buddies.

It is only when a Buddy reaches Level 1 with you that you can take full advantage of the system by tending his/her Buddy Tree or, during the holiday season, the Snow Bench and Gift Mailbox.  When these items are fully grown or upgraded, both you and your Buddy can receive a Gift Bag.  In the case of the Buddy Tree, it will contain Red Mystrons, Coins and Farm Aids.  In the case of the Snow Bench and Gift Mailbox, it will contain a few Festival Mystrons, Coins and some Farm Aids.

You need 100 Buddy Points to go from Level 0 to Level 1.  You need a total of 1100 Points to go from Buddy Level/Grade 1 to Buddy Level/Grade 2.

At Level 2, the Share box for the Lucky Wheel becomes available to you.  You can purchase special items then that your Buddy has 'Shared' from the Wheel.

Delaying the Upgrade to the Buddy Tree
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At Level 1, there appears to be a limit as to the number of Buddy Trees you can buy on any given day.  You only can purchase one Buddy Tree apparently.  What this means is that, should you perform the upgrade when it reaches 100% through the actions of one or more of your Buddies, the Tree will vanish and you will not be able to place and grow another until midnight.

I noticed, however, that if you do NOT Claim the upgrade instantly, other Buddies can continue to perform their actions on the Tree and after you have claimed the current Tree, those actions (percentages for the upgrade) will go to the next Tree.  Furthermore, to delay the upgrade is kinder to your Buddies who are trying to increase their Points and Rewards.  At present, my Buddy Tree on Rosewood is at 160%.  Instead of claiming it now, however, I will wait until a point that is closer to midnight.  What possible advantage can it be to me to claim it earlier if I cannot plant another earlier?  At midnight, however, the game will reset as far as the Mystery Shop is concerned, and I will be able to purchase and grow another Buddy Tree.

When to place two Buddy Trees
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The number of Buddy Trees that you have grown to harvest determines the ability to unlock the next Level of Buddy Tree.  When we temporarily were given the option to perform two 'Heart' actions on ANY Buddy's farm, I suggested that we all place both a regular Buddy Tree and a Super Buddy Tree on our Farms to enable each Buddy to perform 2 Heart Actions.  At this point, however, having both may retard your ability to unlock the Mega Buddy Tree as you need to have grown a total of 10 Super Buddy Trees to unlock the final Level.

If most of your Buddies are at Level 1, the default number of Heart actions for them to perform is only 1 per day.  It is only when 15 Buddies each have two Heart Actions available that it benefits THEM if you place two Trees.  It does not really benefit you much as you really want as many points as possible to go to the Super Tree to complete its upgrade.

Easiest Buddy Actions
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Easiest Buddy Actions: It is difficult for low level farmers to participate in the Buddy System fully and higher levels need to help them.  The BEST way to help your low level buddies is by trying to keep a Buddy Tree on your farm at all times. Once you unlock a Super Tree, you can place TWO Trees, one an ordinary one and the other the Super Tree. Some may not have enough space for this, but if you do, I urge you to do this. The Buddy Trees can be helped with nothing more rare than Watering cans and Fertiliser, but for low level Farmers, it is the Magic Stick that you can request as a Buddy Gift that you can use to tend Buddy Trees without any cost at all in Farm Aids.

For a Buddy who does not wish to spend RC, obviously the first step is to bring 15 buddies to Level 1 at least so you can request gifts from them on a daily basis.  If you have 15 Level 1 Buddies, I suggest at this point in time that you request 5 Fences and 10 Magic Sticks per day.  If your Buddies are active players, they should be logging into the game on a daily basis and you should be able to receive all 15 items.

Buddy Trees
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The game declares that:  You can help Buddy Trees a limited number of times.  Get your Buddy Grade higher to increase the limit.

Help your Buddy Tree with different items. It could give the Tree some Tree Hearts and Buddy Points for you also.

The Buddy Tree is a Level 1 option.  You reach Level 1 when you have a total of 100 Buddy Points in the game.

The game states:  Once you reach Buddy Grade 1, you will be able to unlock the Red Mystrons tab.  From here, you will be able to purchase such items as the Buddy Tree.

ALL YOU NEED IS ONE BUDDY AT LEVEL 1 TO UNLOCK THE BUDDY TREE AND RED MYSTRONS SHOP.

After purchasing the Buddy Tree, you will need to build it by tapping on it.  It takes a total of five Buddy Fences to 'build' a Buddy Tree. After that, you will need Buddy Hearts to grow it.  You will receive Buddy Hearts when your Buddies tend the Tree.  After it is grown, it will give a Reward to both you and all the Buddies who helped to tend it and then it will disappear.

Specifically, you need 5 Buddy Fences to build it.  These can be requested or you can spend 1 RC for each, making a total cost of 5 RC.  Once the Tree is grown, any Buddy who has not exhausted his or her allotment of activities on your Farm can tend the Tree.  There are different items that give different amounts of Hearts to a Tree.  A total of 100 is needed to fully upgrade it and deliver the Reward.  By spending 1 RC, you can upgrade any Buddy Tree instantly.

Crafting Buddy Items
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At present, there are no Buddy Items that can be crafted.  This section of the post is obsolete, but I am not certain that they will not reintroduce the option so will leave it here.

There were three Buddy items that you could craft initially.  Each of these took time, whether on the Seaside Farm at the Beauty Shop or on the Island at the Workshop.

The following is interesting historically but no longer applicable to the game:

To craft a Crystal Giftbox, you first have to craft a Blue Crystal in the Glass Factory.  It takes an hour to complete.  You will need two of these which means 2 hours or two Glass Factories.  You then need to use 2 of the Blue Crystals with 2 Oil Painting Frames in the Workshop to actually craft the Crystal Giftbox.  This is instantaneous but it will take Power.  Once you have completed the Crystal Giftbox, it will take 10 minutes to transport it to the original Seaside farm for use.

The other two items are crafted at the Beauty Shop.

To craft the Starfish Envelope, you will need 3 Sakura Flowers, 1 Dried Starfish and 1 Envelope.  You can purchase Envelopes in the Coin Mystery Shop.  Dried Starfish is made in the Seafood House and take 12 minutes to complete.  The actual Starfish Envelope takes a quarter of an hour to complete.

The Shell Box requires 1 Scallop (raw), 2 Silk Ribbons and 5 Red Roses.  Although the Silk Ribbons can be requested from Buddies, you evidently have to be at a higher level than Level 1 to be able to do so as I cannot request them.  You can purchase them for 1 RC each.  It then takes 2 Hours to complete a Shell Box.

When the Buddy Easter Egg was avaiable, one could craft two special items in the Beauty Shop to tend it.  These Recipes no longer are available either.

Buddy Tree Rewards:
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When you go to your Buddy's Farm and tap on a Tree with the Heart icon, you will see a list of the following items or tools that can be used with their effects and the sort of Reward that you will receive for using each:

For a Magic Wand: 5 Hearts, 2 Buddy Points, 1 silver Gift Bag containing 1 Red Mystron, 10 Coins, with a chance to receive 1 Green Watering can and 1 Blue bucket

For 1 Organic Fertiliser: 10 Hearts, 5 Buddy Points, 1 Red Gift Bag containing 2 Red Mystrons, 100 Coins, chance for Green Watering Can and 2 Buckets

For 1 Watering Can: 20 Buddy Hearts, 10 Buddy Points, 1 Blue Gift Bag containing 3 Red Mystrons, 100 Coins, change to get 3 green Watering Cans and 3 Buckets

For 1 RC: 100 Buddy Hearts, 50 Buddy Points, 1 Gold Gift Bag containing 6 Super Watering Cans, 10 Red Mystrons, 1 Power, 100 Coins, and a chance of 5 Green Watering Cans and 5 Buckets

You can grow any regular Buddy Tree to maturity with 5 Buddy Tree Fences or you can opt to use 5 RC (1 for each Buddy Tree Fence).

YOU NEED A TOTAL OF 100 BUDDY HEARTS TO COMPLETE A BUDDY TREE'S UPGRADE.  YOU CAN DO THIS IMMEDIATELY FOR A NEIGHBOUR BY SPENDING 1 RC.

The problem with this is that a Buddy is limited to the number of Buddy Trees he/she can purchase in a day and with 15 Buddies, each one should have the opportunity to interact with Buddy items every day.

Limit to Actions
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At Level 1, the developers temporarily allowed us to interact twice with any Buddy item on any Buddy's farm per day.  On my Level 1 Buddy's Farm, on the little Buddy Tree icon on the top right, it showed 2/2 when I had performed two Buddy Heart actions.  The prompt states that: You can help Buddy Trees a limited number of times.  Get your Buddy Grade higher to increase the limit.

Now, however, the default number of actions has become 1.  You will see this reflected in the little tree bar on your screen.

At Level 1, when you have performed one 'Heart' actions on any given day, you will not be able to perform more at Level 1 on any Buddy Farm unless you are willing to use your own Farm Aids in the form of Fertilisers or WAtering Cans.

You need 1100 Points to go from Buddy Level 1 to Level 2 or Grade 1 to Grade 2.

Some items for the Buddy Trees and Upgraders now are found in the Mystery Shops.  They include:

Buddy Tree Sign: 2 Blue Mystrons
  4 available:  These are used to build a higher type of Buddy Tree

Soil Shovel: 5 Blue Mystrons
  83 available:  These are used for the Cow Upgrader

Milk Container: 50 Blue mystrons
  These are used for the Cow Upgrader

Low Fat Gadget: 100 Blue Mystrons
  This is used for the Cow Upgrader

Milk Powder Gadget: 150 Blue Mystrons
  This is used for the Cow Upgrader

Red Bricke: 5 Blue Mystrons
  This is used for the Cheese Upgrader

Cheese Container: 50 Blue Mystrons
  This is used for the Cheese upgrader

Low Fat Cheese Gadget: 100 Blue mystrons
  This is used for the Cheese Upgrader

Blue Cheese Gadget: 150 Blue Mystrons
  This is used for the Cheese Upgrader

Mozzarella Gadget: 500 Blue Mystrons
  This is used for the Cheese Upgrader

Other Items are available in the special new Buddy Free Gifts Menu, but not until you reach a higher Buddy Level than zero.  They include:

Buddy Tree Fence
  5 of these are needed to grow any ordinary Buddy Tree

Magic Stick
  This is an item used to upgrade a Buddy Tree on a Buddy's Farm.

Soil Rake
  This item is used to upgrade the Holstein Cow Upgrader

Cheese Mould
  This item is used to upgrade the Cheese Master upgrader.

Cement Bag
  This item is used to upgrade the Decorations section of the Warehouse.

Note that some of these items are for the new Upgraders.

Special Gifts
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There now are a total of three options in the Free Gifts Menu.  The first is for the ordinary gifts that can be requested and sent to Neighbours.  The other two are strictly for Buddies.  Tap on the Buddy tab and you will see two choices.  One is for regular Buddy Gifts and the other for Special Gifts.  The Special Gifts are NOT free, but some can be pirchased with Coins or Green Mystrons.

Note here that there is an advantage to sending Special Gifts even if the recipient does not need them.  Every Special Gift has a Buddy Point value and increases your Buddy rating.

At present the list is:

20 Lucky Tokens: 10 Green Mystrons

Super Fertiliser: 1 RC  (3 Buddy Points)
Super Fertiliser (25): 3 RC (9 Buddy Points)
Super Watering Can (25): 6 RC  (18 Buddy Points)
Organic Fertiliser (1) 100 Coins  (1 Buddy Point) (Must be Grade 4 to send)
Watering Can (1) 100 Coins  (1 Buddy Point)  (Must be Grade 4 to send)

Rose Fence: 1 RC  (1 Buddy Point)
Christmas Fence: 1 RC  (1 Buddy Point)
Big Snow Flake Fence: 1 RC  (1 Buddy Point)
Flower Hedge: 1 RC  (1 Buddy Point)
Macaron Road: 1 RC  (1 Buddy Point)
Elephant: 10 RC (30 Buddy Points)
Stone and Flower Path: 500 Coins  (1 Buddy Point)
Forest Road: 800 Coins  (1 Buddy Point)



All Special Gifts set a timer when sent.  You have to wait until the timer expires before you can send another.

Extra Reward for Buddy Tree
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Before your tree is fully upgraded by any Neighbour, you have an option to choose an extra Reward.  The options depend on how many of the Trees you have grown.

For the first Tree, the option is to choose between 700 Coins or 15 Red Mystrons

For the 2nd Tree, the option is to choose between 15 Festival Mystrons and 2200 Coins

Tap on the little i to access the Menu.

There appears to be a limit as to the number of Buddy Trees you can buy per day.   You should be able to buy another after midnight though.

Gift Mailbox and Snow Bench
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These no longer are available:

These are two Buddy Items that you can purchase with Coins in the Festival Mystron Shop.  After placing them on your Farm, like the Buddy Tree, a Buddy can interact with them to 'build' them for a Reward.

The items used to upgrade the Bench and Gift Mailbox can be crafted in the Beauty Shop, Glass Factory and Workshop.  One actually is a Gift in the form of the Broom that you can request from your Buddies.  Unlike the Buddy Trees, the Bench and Gift Mailbox simply upgrade and do not disappear from your Farm apparently.

They include:

Broom (Buddy Request)

Cyrstal Giftbox:  2 Blue Crystals (made in Glass Factory) and 2 Oil Painting Frames

Starfish Envelope: 2 Sakura Flowers, 1 Envelope (buy in Coin Mystery Shop) and 1 Dried Starfish

Shell Box: 1 Scallop, 2 Silk Ribbons (Buddy Request) and 5 Red Roses

Tending the Gift Mailbox:

Use Starfish Envelope: 10 buddy hearts, 5 Buddy Points, Starfish Envelope Reward Bag

use Shell Box: 10 Buddy Hearts, 5 Buddy Points, Shell box Reward BAg

Use Crystal Giftbox: 10 Buddy Hearts, 5 Buddy Points, Crystal Gift Box REward Bag

Tending Bench:

1 Broom gives 5 Hearts, 2 Buddy Points, Broom Gift Bag


1 RC gives 5 Hearts, 2 Buddy Points, RC REward

Transport
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Note that any items made on the Island like the Crystal Giftbox have to be transported to the Seaside Farm before you can use them to tend Buddy Items.

Super Buddy Tree
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When you have grown and upgraded 5 regular Buddy Trees, you will unlock the Super Buddy Tree in the Mystron Shop.  To build the Super Buddy Tree, you will need:

2 Buddy Tree Signs
 Blue Mystron Shop for 2 Blue Mystrons each

5 Tree Fences
  Request to Buddies or pay 1 RC for each

5 Blue Buckets
  This can be obtained as a Reward for tending Buddy Trees or as a Request to ANY Neighbour.or pay 1 RC for each

When the tree is grown, you will need 400 Buddy Hearts before the upgrade is complete.

Mega Buddy Tree
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When you have purchased the Super Buddy Tree ten times, you will unlock the Mega Buddy Tree for 3000 Coins in the Mystery Shop.  It is build with the following:

4 Buddy Tree Signs:
  Buy in Blue Mystron Shop (Buy 4 for 2 Blue Mystrons) or pay 1 RC for each
  N.B.  You only can buy 1 set of 4 per day from the Mystery Shop

5 Buddy Tree Fences
  Ask from Buddy or buy for 1 RC each

5 Green Watering Cans
  Receive in Buddy Reward Bag from helping other Buddy Trees or buy for 1 RC each

The Mega Buddy Tree needs 1200 Heart Points to upgrade.

REWARDS
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The following no longer are available unless you complete the upgrade of a holiday item that still stands on a Buddy Farm:

Starfish Envelope Reward 3 Festival Mystrons and 1300 Coins
Crystal Giftbox Reward: 6 Festival Mystrons and 4500 Coins
Broom Package: 1 Festival Mystron and 1100 Coins
Snow Bench Special Package: 2 Festival Mystrons and 1000 Coins

RC Reward had 2 Festival Mystrons and 1000 Coins,
Reward had Shellbox Festival Mystrons 3 and 600 Coins

These are the regular Rewards that remain available:

Gold Buddy Tree Reward: 100 Coins, 1 Power, 10 Red Mystrons, 5 Blue Buckets
Blue Buddy Tree Bag Reward: 100 Coins, 3 Red Mystrons

Note that I believe all these to be the BASIC guaranteed Reward... you have a chance of obtaining a bonus in each case.

I received, for example, a Crystal Giftbox Reward that contained 16 Festival Mystrons and 4500 Coins

Buddy Boost
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There was a temporary Boost to the points you can earn by tending a Buddy's farm until 27 December.

Super Buddy Trees and Mega Buddy Trees
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After you have purchased 5 Buddy Trees, the Super Buddy Tree will be unlocked.

The Blue 'Bucket, a Reward found in some of the Bags given for helping your Buddies with their Buddy Trees  is used on the Super Buddy Tree.

The Green Watering Can, a Reward found in some of the bags given for helping your Buddies with their Buddy Trees is used on the Mega Buddy Tree.


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