Simple Introduction to the Cloud Farm

29 January:

First Day of the Lunar New Year.

Work in progress:

I have written two very detailed posts now about the Cloud Farm.  They both essentially are walkthroughs, written as I progressed in increasing my Levels and unlocking new areas.  All of my posts are chronological.  Scroll down to find the initial walkthrough and then the advanced Cloud Farm Level walkthrough.

The walkthroughs have not been edited so they may appear less than elegant,  but you should be able to find all the informarion you need.  The most important details are the level requirements for every new option, lists and amounts of materials required for unlocking every new area,  level increases in the Cloud Lab and requirements for every Cloud Farm tech.

I wrote a separate post on the Card Collection Activity.  Note that this is an Activity that connects the Cloud Farm to Seaside in that you can earn card packs by completing actions in the Cloud Farm and rewards include items for the Clous Farm.

(Currently, you can obtain a 3 star card pack daily for sending off your Zeppelin with all orders filled.  Remember that the card menu has a tab that gives valuable card packs when you reach specific point totals.  Even if you no longer need 3 star cards, their value in points will move you closer to the goals that might give you the cards you still need.)

The Cloud Farm operates on Energy and Cloud Coins as well as Reputation points.  It is the same Energy used for the Treasure Island activities.

Not everything will allow you to earn the Reputation points you need to increase your Levels.  Clearing items from the map has no effect.  I am using the Treasure Island terminology here, referring to the Cloud Farm as a map where new areas must be unlocked.  It is a farm as well where you can place Crops, buildings and Animals but beneath it all is a map where objects constantly are being generated.  

Filling orders is what earns both Cloud Coins and Reputation points.  Reputation point totals increase your general Cloud Farm level, unlocking new options.  Orders require the 'wild' items you harvest from the map.  Be aware that enormous amounts of items are required to unlock and activate the techs in the Cloud Lab.

It is the Cloud Farm Lab basically that impacts your gameplay on your other farms through various techs.  Once you unlock the Cloud Lab, you first will find techs for the Seaside Farm.  A second tab has Island techs.  The third has Cloud Farm techs.

All techs follow a specific order and the only way to progress to the next group of techs is by completing at least one of the previous ones.  For requirements, you will see a required experience level for the Lab, but also one that demands that you have completed a 'prerequisite tech'.  The third requirement will be one or more research owls.  There are techs that allow you to earn more owls to work on advanced techs.

In short, there are two different Levels in the Cloud Farm you need  to increase.  One is your general Reputation level earned through Orders.  The other is the Cloud Lab level, each with its own specific requirements.  All of these are documented in my two Walkthroughs.

Cloud Farm Lab techs in my opinion fall into three different categories.

The first is shortening specific crop growth times.  These techs exist for Seaside, the Island and the Cloud.  I did not find them very useful but they tend to be part of a chain that unlocks new and more interesting techs.  I personally found the sprinkler system quite adequate where crop growth times are concerned and sprinklers are not crop-specific.  Wherever a sprinkler is placed, that is where growth time will be shortened.

The second category is automatic harvest or collection of one type or another.  In my view, the point of these is to reduce the need to tap on everything.  I am not terribly enamoured of these myself but again, they are part of a chain.

These techs for Seaside and Island are Batch View and Batch Pick Up.  Production Overview simply shows status.

There also is a Cooking Stand Automation tech that I do not find helpful.  In tandem with the new announcements by Darryl about the cooked dishes consumed, the Cooking Stand now is a mess at least visually and Darryl's interference slows actual work down.

The third category is automatic collection as well but it actually appears to make a difference.  The ones I find interesting are the Bon Voyage collection for Seaside and the One-Tap Sweep for the Island.

These are the highest techs in their respective chains.

The Bon Voyage tech allows your pet to collect 30 bags from the boats of others using batch visits.  The One-Tap Sweep allows me to play the Submarine game and collect coins 5 times daily without being required to go through the map manually.  (I have to confirm whether all farmers have 5 games per day or not.)

So, with the Bon Voyage tech, you can either choose your 15 buddies and 15 of your favourite farmers (or 30 neighbours on whatever basus you wish) to receive a pet visit for their boats or you can reciprocate the visits you had from others.

Another recent addition to the Cloud Farm is the Fountain.  This allows a return of Energy for every 500 Energy spent.  There are a series of upgrades to reach 5 Water Jugs and 50 Energy, all documented in my second Cloud Farm post.

My tip for the Cloud Farm is, while watching your Energy total and Cloud Coin totals is to collect items from the map to fill orders without bankrupting yourself and to try to acquire the new Animals and Trees as they are unlocked.  The Ice Crystal Butterfly Deer is unlocked as a quest when you reach Level 5 and unlock the area with the Cloud Lab.  The others become available in the Market at specific levels.

Note that only a set number of items of any one kind will be generated within any time period.  You therefore may find an item you need for a recipe has become 'unavailable' briefly if you concentrated on collrcting as many as possible within a short time period.

There are two builds with Activities needed to collect badges.  The first is the Adventurer's Zeppelin and the second is the Adventurer's Fortune.  The Zeppelin Orders can be filled daily with orders for Cloud Farm items.  The Adventurer's Fortune is a weekly event with Orders for items from all farms.

I am going to mention the 'free owls' here that are an integral aspect of the Cloud Lab because people are confused often about these.

'One free owl' describes a requirement for learning a new tech.  It does not indicate that you will be given an adfitional owl.  Wgenever you learn a tech, an Owl does the time and the research.  There are techs that allocqte more Owls to you.  These are fairly advanced in the tech again and my walkthrough gives these details.  I have a total of three owls now.  If you have only one owl, you only will be able to research one tech at any given time.  Alao advanced techs may require the research efforts of more than one owl.