Sakura Farm Beauty Contest

(Above, two screenshots of the Springtime Base with theme decorations on it.  The top photograph shows the Singing Hamster with the Accordion Hamster on the right, with the Park Fountain and Flower cage on the left.  The lower photograph shows Oskar the Dog with Bello the Dog behind him and the same decorations on the left.  All of these items are featured now in the special sales offers you can find on the top right of your screen.)

N.B.  You will find the current time-restricted Mission, 'Life's Lesson'  in the post below this one. The final section of this post, after the Mission that gives players the Springtime Base is a Q & A for players who wonder why they are not doing better in the Contest.  I did this for one of the Harvest Moon games long ago, and players found it really helpful, so I decided to try it again.

You still can obtain 1 Springtime Base from the Lighthouse Mission if you did not complete the Mission previously.  (Still active, according to our group member, Melissa Elder.) You can obtain a SECOND Springtime Base by merging the materials in your Factory.

It looks as though only ONE Springtime Base can be made by any player in the Factory so if you want two, you need to have one from the Lighthouse Mission.

Note, as previously indicated, that you now can merge a Springtime Base in the Factory when you have collected sufficient materials. Materials for the Springtime Base will be given in a series of activities.  The first is the Cooking Bag Stand where you randomly can find a material in the March Cooking Bags.  To forge a Springtime Base you will need 12 Spring Wreath from the Cooking Stand bags, 6 Picnic Soda and 40 Lunch Box.    The 6 Picnic Sodas are obtained from the highlighted Order on the Daily Order Board through 30 March.

Friday, 30 March:  This is the last day that you can receive Soda Cans (second material for the Base) from the highlighted Order.

Introduction
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You will not be able to participate in any Farm Beauty Contest until you reach Level 30 now.  As soon as you reach Level 30, if there is an active Farm Beauty Contest, a new icon of a golden Trophy will appear in the top centre of your screen.  You then need to take a snapshot of your Farm in order to register it.  It is a good idea to look at the list of Theme Decorations before you do this and make certain that all Decorations that you own that are included in the current Theme are registered in the Gallery.  Make certain that you have a variety of DIFFERENT Crops planted on your Farm and that you place as many DIFFERENT Trees and DIFFERENT Machines on your Farm as possible before you take your 'snapshot' and enter your Farm in the Contest.

There are two basic components to any Farm Beauty Contest.  One is the Votes that you receive from the four game Characters and other players and the other is the Votes that you can give every day.  At Level 30, you will have the minimum number of Votes to allocate which is 3.  The maximum number is 6 and you must be at Level 60 or above to have that number of Votes to give.  You can give more Votes randomly to farmers by using the 'Bet' option.  More about that later.

Spending RC or Cash
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Every new Farm Beauty Contest usually is accompanied by special sales offers for Decorations that are included in the Theme.  Some players either cannot or will not spend real money on the game.  If you are one of those players, skip this section.  Otherwise...  generally speaking, it is better to buy one of the Decorations in the special sales than a Decoration that is found in the Lucky Wheel or Share Box, especially if the Decoration gives the coveted Blue Box when cleaned.  You will find usually that there is more than one NEW Decoration offered in the Sale (top right corner of your screen) that is worth more in terms of Characters' Votes for Theme.  In this Contest, the Singing Hamster now on offer gives a Blue Box when cleaned ultimately but for the first 5 days of cleaning, 5 Blue Mystrons. Blue Mystrons can be difficult to obtain and although the Singing Hamster is the most expensive Decoration in the sale, it has the best value in terms of Votes and ultimately will give you a Blue Box every time it is cleaned.  As you can see by studying the Theme Decorations List in this post, it gives a total of 3 Votes rather than 1 from 3 of the 4 game Characters every day.  This can be a tremendous boost, especially to a low level player.

In general, I have found that it IS worthwhile to purchase the special Theme decorations offered in the sales.  They will be featured again and again in the Farm Beauty Contests.  A friend I have known for years sent me a message shortly after the start of this Contest to say that, much to her surprise, she had 79/80 for theme on the very first day of the Contest without doing anything!  It was due to the fact that she had purchased some of the special decorations each time they were offered and those from last year have been featured again.   She bought Lucky Wheel Decorations in the past as well... and obtained Decorations by completing Missions, and those have been featured again now.  The point I am making is that her past investments in time, energy and money still are effective.

Decorations are important for more reasons than Theme.  If they can be cleaned, having them on your farm benefits both you and your neighbours as it is the Gift Boxes that contain many of the Farm Aids that you need constantly, including Power and OP.  Neighbours may be more likely to visit a farm that has cleanable decorations on it on a regular basis as opposed to one without any Cleanable Decorations, especially if the Farm is at a level where a certain number of Decorations are to be expected.

You can earn RC in the game but it can take time.  You can purchase RC as well from the game and use that to buy the Lucky Wheel Decorations.  Yes, the price of the Singing Hamster is about the same as the purchase of 75 RC...  and some players may prefer to have 5 Lucky Wheel Decorations that all give Purple Cleaning Boxes when cleaned instead of one Blue Box Decoration.  There is a small chance that when you spin the Lucky Wheel yourself, it may land on one of the Theme Decorations, giving it to you without cost but it is more likely to appear in the 'line-up' of items when the Wheel is spun, giving you the option to purchase it yourself, place it in the Share Box for your Buddies to purchase or simply to ignore it and move on.

Many of the Theme Decorations are stackable, which means that they can be placed on a Base.  In this case, the Base to which they are linked is the Springtime Base.  It was offered originally as the final Reward for a special Gallery Mission.  I believe you still can perform the Mission to obtain the Base if you do not own it.  I have included the entire Mission with all of its tasks below.

Balance of Items
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For new farmers, there are a few basic instructions.  You need to organise your farm BEFORE you take the photograph in order to gain the maximum benefit from your design.   Have a good balance of Crops, Trees, Animals, Machines, Decorations and now Paths as well.  Your design now has to take Landscape Points into account, which means that you need to lay paths and water paths, then place as many Decorations as possible within their sphere of influence.  Remember that the maximum number of points for any tile is 50 (for Macaron and Pebble Paths as well as the Snow Path and the Pond Shore Path for a Water Path), and therefore, once you have a total of 50 Points from the Path itself and Decorations within the area, more Decorations will not add any more points.

Designing Paths
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Generally speaking, it is better to make a long single-file path surrounding an area filled with Crops, Machines, Trees or a combination of these with Decorations than to place all of your tiles together.   To discover the effect a specific Decoration will have on your Landscape Point total, use the Move Tool and hover near the Paths you have set on your Farm.  If you have achieved the maximum number of Points for any path, you will see that the Decoration would add zero points if placed in that location.  If there is a Path that does not have the maximum points from Decorations in its sphere of influence, you will see the precise number of points that your Decoration will add to the total in that area.  If you have Bases with stacked Decorations, placing them within a Path's sphere is the easiest method to boost your Landscape Points as long as you have not obtained the maximum using other lesser Decorations.

Note here that an unfinished Base neither counts for any Farm Beauty Contest nor can it be registered in the Gallery until it has been completed.   An empty completed Base usually does give a Blue Box when cleaned and often is one of the Theme Decorations in a Farm Beauty Contest.   Unfortunately, the Springtime Base, the one that is included in THIS Contest, gives only a Purple Gift Box when cleaned!

Crop, Tree, Animal, Machine Totals
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For the Farm Beauty Contest, you need a variety of Crops.  It originally was 16 different Crops in order to gain the maximum Votes for your Crops.  For Trees, it was 16 different Trees and for Machines, 16 different Machines.  For Animals, it originally was a requirement for 16 as well.  I believe that the count for Machines and Animals has been lowered now to 12 instead but again must confirm what is needed for THIS contest.

Butterfly Houses, Beehives and the Bat House qualify as 'Animals' for the purpose of the Contest and every different style of Beehive or Butterfly House will count as a different Animal.

Landscape Point Totals
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In previous Contests, Charm was the aspect that three of the Characters prized.  Now they prize Landscape Points instead.  The Vote category speaks of Beautiful Paths with High Landscape Points. In essence, you need less than 3000 Landscape Points to gain the maximum number of Votes from Felicia, Darryl and Grandma.  You do not need more than that.  I confirmed this myself.  The actual total needed is somewhere between 2000 and 3000.  I will confirm that when I can.  Rosewood was very low in Landscape Points origingally but after added to the total with 2320 Landscape Points achieved the maximum of 24/24.

With 1034 Landscape Points, another farmer received 16/24 Votes for Landscape.  With only 242 Points, another received 6/24.  At 293 one more Vote was acquired for 7/24.

Gallery Registration
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Gallery Registration is central to all the Farm Beauty Contests.  If a Theme Decoration has not been registered in the Gallery prior to the point of submitting your Photograph, it usually will not count towards Theme.  Furthermore, two of the Characters in the form of Darryl and Grandma give Votes based on the total number of items you have registered in your Gallery.  The number required to gain the maximum points in this category is not that high, however.  My rather new farm, Asgard, has been able to gain the maxmum in this category (but not in some of the others) and I have not registered that many of my Trees, Animals or Machines, although I have tried to register most Decorations as I acquired them.

I believe that all that counts for the Gallery Vote itself is the number of Gallery Points that you have, earned through obtaining the little round Cow Tokens that are one of the Rewards for every Registration.

524/1250, almost half of the total for filling the third tier (third Cow Token at the top of the Gallery Menu) gives 15/16 Votes.

With three tiers filled on Asgard (the first three Cow Tokens at the top of the Gallery Menu), that farm finally achieved 16/16.  I believe that would be 1250/1250 on the third tier level.

Note here that a recent game update added registration of Crops to the Gallery, allowing low level players to gain higher totals in Gallery Registration.  Registration of any Crop takes only 2 minutes.

Claiming Items in the Gallery
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This is an important point, not only where the Farm Beauty Contest Theme is concerned but for the Collection Sets that give special Clam Friendship Flowers if claimed within a specific time frame.  It is not sufficient to begin the Registration of any item.  You must CLAIM it in the Gallery before it will count for the Farm Beauty Contest or for any Collection Set.  I sometimes forget to do this myself and it can cost dearly if I lose a special Clam Friendship Flower because I did not complete the entire process in time.

Timing of Snapshot/Photograph
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You have to take an initial photograph of your Farm to enter the Farm Beauty Contest.  If you have time to design your Farm on the first day, do so BEFORE you take the photograph, making certain you have maximised all aspects that will  give Votes from the four Characters.  If you do not have time to organise your Farm, simply take the photograph of it as  it stands... better to get some Votes than no Votes.  You can take a new photograph every day if you wish.

If you need more Theme Items, make certain that, should you obtain a new one, that you register it BEFORE you take a new photograph of the Farm.  Only the items as they appear in the current photograph are counted.

After taking the photograph of your perfected Farm, you can remove anything or change anything without it modifying or changing the Farm Beauty Contest entry.  It is only when you submit a new photograph that anything will change.  Thus, you try to set up your Farm for maximum Votes in every category, take and submit a photograph of it and then do whatever you need to make your farm more practical for specific tasks, quests or whatever.

Contest Decoration and Avatar Rewards
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Most farmers have a goal in terms of the Rewards that are offered in the Contest.  You need to receive 200 Votes per day to obtain the Decoration that is the Reward for a total of 4000 Votes.  You need to receive 300 Votes per day to obtain the final Reward of the Avatar.  Most Farmers, if they are eligible to participate in the Contest (at Level 30 or higher) should be able to organise their farms to receive 200 Votes per day FROM THE FOUR CHARACTERS even if they are not receiving Votes from Neighbours.  If you really want the Decoration, be willing to spend a little RC or even cash on Theme Decorations if you are a fairly new player.  They are worth purchasing not only for the Contest but as Cleanable Decorations that will give valuable Farm Aids both to you and to your Neighbours.  The Water Fountain is the one non-cleanable Theme item in this contest but it is quite valuable to keep on your Farm as it is a Collectable that gives Distilled Water.  You can find it randomly in the Mystrons Mystery Store or you can find it now randomly by spinning the Lucky Wheel or in a Buddy Share Box.

I have listed all Theme Decorations below giving details as to how to obtain each.  There are only a few that cannot be obtained at this point in time.  Three can be purchased for coins in the Market.

To receive the Avatar, which is the final Reward, you need a total of 300 Votes per day.  This is a little more difficult to achieve.  There are many farmers who never obtain the Avatar but again, if YOU maximise the value of your own farm, you may be able to do it even if no one gives you Votes.

In the Family Farm Seaside Freyashawk Group, we try to help farmers with the Farm Beauty Contests.  I always am willing to help a farmer maximise his or her farm by studying the Vote totals that are being given and suggesting specific improvements that can be made.  We also have a thread where farmers can be paired to share votes with one another.

Buddies and the Farm Beauty Contests
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The Buddy relationship is becoming increasingly important with the release of the Pet option and the ability to feed and/or borrow a Buddy Pet.  It has been important for quite some time, however, where the Farm Beauty Contests are concerned.  The Buddy Share Box in the Lucky Wheel usually contains a number of Theme Decorations in any current Farm Beauty Contest.  If you are not at least a Level 2 Buddy with the farmer who has the Share Box, you will be unable to access it or purchase anything from it.

This Contest is no exception.

First of all, Landscape Point totals depend somewhat on the Paths that you use on your Farm.  At low levels, a Player often cannot afford to purchase the most valuable Paths, but you can send your Buddy the Stone and Flower Path at any Level I believe (game Level, not Buddy Level) and you can send your Buddy the Forest Path if you are at Level 43 or higher.  The Stone and Flower Path allows 20 Landscape Points and otherwise will cost the Farmer 5000 Coins.  A farmer who has not reached Level 43 will be unable to purchase the Forest Path that allows 25 Landscape Points for 15000 Coins from the Paths Menu but he or she WILL be able to use it from the Gift Box if a Buddy has sent it.

There are a number of Theme Decorations that can be purchased from the Buddy Share Box or obtained when you spin the Lucky Wheel yourself.

Farm Character Votes
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The fundamental rules of these Beauty Contests remain the same.  The difference now for this new Contest is in the substitution of Landscape Points for Charm Points as one of the farm aspects that draw votes from three out of the four Farm Characters.

You now have the following from the Farm Characters:

Felicia:

Theme: Maximum Votes 24/24
  Theme Items are given in the red book that you will find in the Main Farm Beauty Contest Menu.  Not all Theme items have the same value.  Very often a new Decoration will be worth 3 Votes where an old one will be worth only 1.  I will list all Theme items below with their values.

Expansion: Maximum 16/16
  You do NOT need the largest expansion to obtain the maximum points.  With the 18 x 18 Expansion, a player told me he had the maximum number of votes in this category.

Landscape Points: Maximum: 24/24
  Description:  Beautiful Paths with high Landscape Points
  Note here that a total of 2100 is giving 24/24 now evidently.

Animals:  Maximum 16/16
  You may receive this with a total of 12 animals on your Farm now.

Dad:

  High Level Farms: Maximum: 16/16
  Note that Level 101 gives you 11 points.  I believe you need to be at Level 150 to receive the maximum of 16 Votes here now.

  Expansion: Maximum: 16/16
     With the 18 x 18 Expansion, a player told me he received the maximum of 16/16

  Theme: Maximum: 24/24

  Machines:  Maximum: 16/16
    You may receive this with a total of 12 Machines on your Farm now.

Darryl:

  Theme:  Maximum: 24/24

  Crops: Maximum: 16/16
    N.B.  Variety here is the key.

  Landscape Points: Maximum: 24/24

  Gallery Registration: Maximum: 16/16

Grandma:

  High Level: Maximum is 16/16

  Gallery Registration: MAximum is 16/16

  Landscape Points: Maximum is 24/24

  Trees: Maximum: 16/16
    Variety is the key.

List of Theme Items
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Theme Decorations:  The following is a comprehensive list of all Theme Decorations (I hope) divided into sections according to the manner in which you can obtain them.  Where a Decoration gives more than 1 Vote from each of the 3 Characters who like Theme, I have noted the number of Votes next to the name of the Decoration.  All other Decorations give 1 Vote from each of the 3 Characters.

As far as Charm Value and Landscape Value and the kind of Gift Box that each Decoration will give when cleaned are concerned, in the past I had to perform all the research myself, but now all you have to do is go to your Gallery, find the Decoration and its values and Gift Box type will be given there!

I will include these statistics below nonetheless.  LP will signify Landscape Point value.

Theme Decorations include the following:

From Lucky Wheel or Buddy Share Box:
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These now can be found on the Lucky Wheel or Buddy Share Boxes for the following prices:

Fishing Elephant: 20 RC
  11 LP, Purple Gift Box

Water Fountain: 15 RC
  This actually is a Collectable that produces Distilled Water.  Alas, it does not have any Landscape Point value and as a Collectable, cannot be cleaned either.  It is extremely beautiful, however, and is a personal favourite of mine, along with the Lotus Pond.

Lotus Pond: 15 RC
  11 LP, Purple Gift Box

Cute Monkey: 20 RC
  4 LP, Purple Box, Stackable

Flower Barrow: 15 RC
  6 LP, Purple Gift Box

Peter Pan's Picnic Table: 15 RC
  11 LP, Purple Gift Box

Available in the Market;
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Flower Box: 2500 Coins
  1 LP, no Gift Box

Picnic Baskets: 1500 Coins
  1 LP, no Gift Box

Tree Arch: 10,000 Coins
  1 LP, no Gift Box, Stackable

Willow: 5 RC
  4 LP, White/Silver Gift Box

Flower Hedge: 1 RC or as Special Gift from Buddy for 1 RC
  1 LP, no Gift Box

From the past:
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Ride On Car Deco
  5 LP, White/Silver Gift Box, Stackable

Toys Deco
  4 LP, Gold Gift Box, Stackable

Little Dog Deco
  6 LP, Purple Gift Box, Stackable

Flower Shelf
  9 LP, Purple Gift Box, Stackable

Picnic Hamper
  3 LP, Silver/White Gift Box, Stackable

Springtime Base (the game claims you still can obtain this by performing Farm Fest Mission in Lighthouse.  The Mission is included in the final section of this post.)
  11 LP, Purple Gift Box

From the past or from Special Sakura Sales:
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Park Fountain (random from March Lucky Bag)
  10 LP, Purple Box, Stackable

Bello the Dog (random from March Lucky Bag)
  12 LP, Purple Box, Stackable

Oskar the Dog
  15 LP, Blue Box, Stackable

Tyre Swing
  8 LP, White/Silver Box

Flower Cage
  8 LP, Gold Box, stackable

Butterfly and Flower Decoration (2 more votes from 3 Characters)
  not yet available
  will have 10 LP, Purple Gift Box, Stackable

Accordion Hamster (2 more votes from 3 Characters)
  not yet available
  will have 12 LP, Blue Box, Stackable

Singing Hamster (3 more votes from 3 Characters)
  15 LP, Blue Box, Stackable

Reward from the Sakura Farm Beauty Contest at 4000 points
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Sakura Standing Flower
  Gold Box, not yet available and stats not available

Other:
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Picnic Table*

*I think this is an error, rather like the repeated appearance and disappearance of the Love Fountain in the Theme lists... I believe it probably is the Sakura Umbrella which is the Calendar Reward for March.  Incidentally, there is one other long table apart from the Peter Pan's Picnic Table and this is the Tea Table... it is quite different from the mysterious table in the Theme list that does NOT appear anywhere in the Gallery.  There is a round table which is the Greek Taverna Chair Set but again very different from the one in the Theme List.

Farm Fest Mission for Springtime Base
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The Springtime Base is obtained only if you complete a Lighthouse Mission, originally one of the special Gallery Mission.  Go to the page in the Gallery that shows the various Gallery Missions and tap on the Farm Fest Mission.  You will have three days to complete the first half.  You will not be able to participate in any time-restricted Missions until you complete any part that you have activated.  It now supposedly can be accessed from the Lighthouse, but as I completed it when it first was released, I cannot confirm this myself.

THIS IS THE FIRST GALLERY MISSION THAT REQUIRES ACCESS TO THE ISLAND. There is only one Island task, however and you can skip it for 8 RC.

Note that Gallery Missions have no time restrictions in terms of being available, so it is usually best simply to time them so as not to interfere with time-restricted fortnightly Missions in Seaside.  Once you do activate any part, you will have a time limit to complete THAT part of the Mission.  They are organised into parts and each part can be completed separately without being forced to move forward to the next part.  This particular Missions is divided into two parts.

Warning:  For lower level players who depleted their stocks of Yeast in the last Weekly Activity, you may wish to wait to activate this Mission until you have collected about 60 Yeast.

Many thanks to Kathy Marcum of our Group, Family Farm Seaside Freyashawk for her help in logging the tasks.

Note that the Fountain that is very plain does become animated when placed on the Base.  All three of the Dogs can be placed as well.  To see a full list of all items that can be placed on any Base or Upgrader, use the Move Tool on the Base/Upgrader and then choose the items that you wish to see in every specific position.  If you own all the items, you then can opt to 'Save' the configuration.

Preparation for Mission
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Even if you do not activate the Mission immediately, you can make certain that you have some of the necessary ingredients to complete it when you do.  For example, you will need 6 Butterfish to make into Lemon Fish, an ingredient for a recipe required in the second half of the Mission.  You will need Sweet Potatoes and Herbs to make Potatoes with Fresh Herbs for the same Recipe.

You will need some premium items to complete this Mission.  One is a Matcha Tree and another is a Herb Garden.  A Chocolate Tree and an Elderberry Tree are required as well.

Even veteran and high level players find this Mission grueling in terms of the amount of Power required.  It will BANKRUPT a new or low level player if he/she does not make as many ingredients as possible BEFORE activating either part of the Mission.  if, however, you make all the ingredients in advance, you will not have much trouble, provided always that you have the premium items required to complete it.  Ingredients in this case are themselves Cooked Dishes in many cases, which is why so much Power is required.  I have given the Recipes for the ingredients as well as the Cooked Dish that actually is required to complete any given Task.

Let me give you an example of a single task.  Blessedly, it is in the very last part of the Mission, but it is very Power-intensive.

You need to prepare 8 Elderberry Pancakes for this Task.   Each Elderberry Pancake requires 2 Apple Kulfi and 1 Elderberry.  If you have all the ingredients, you will use only 8 Power to complete this Task.  If, however, you do NOT have the Apple Kulfi, you will need a total of 16 Power to make these, provided you have all the ingredients...  The ingredients for Apple Kulfi include Kulfi.  If you do not have the Kulfi, you will need to prepare 16 of these and that will require 16 Power.  Note, however, that one of the tasks preceding this one asks for 10 Kulfi so when you complete THAT task, save the Kufli for the next one.  Essentially then, you need to make only 6 Kulfi in advance but only if you have enough Power to make all of the Apple Kulfi required for the Elderberry Pancakes in the final Task.

Each Kulfi is made with 1 Batter and 1 Nectar.  If you have 16 Batter, you will not be required to use Power to make them, but if you lack them, you will need 16 Power for the 16 Batter.  Fortunately, the two ingredients to make Batter are 2 Wheat Flour and 1 Egg, requiring no Power.   If you do not have any of the ingredients, however, you will use 16 Power to make the Batter, 16 Power to make Kulfi, 16 Power to make the Apple Kulfi and then 8 Power to make the Elderberry Pancakes.  It is a daunting total, unless you make all the ingredients BEFORE you activate the second half of the Mission!

This does not even touch the amount of OP you will need if you are a player who uses Batch Production....  Sugar may not require Power to produce, but if you use Batch Production to make it, you will need to use OP to generate the Sugar Machine... and so on.

Temporary Collectables
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The Herb Garden that you need for this Mission is a permanent Collectable which means that you can keep it on your farm and collect from it forever, but you will need a couple of the 'temporary' Collectables for this Mission.  One is a Yeast Barrel and the other is the Spice Rack.  These are Coin purchases but vanish in three days.  Remember that you cannot speed the collection process unlike the method by which Watering Cans can be used to speed the harvest of any Tree.  Make certain BEFORE you activate the Mission that you have sufficient Yeast and Spice particularly as vast quantities are required here.

Other New Options
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The release of the Research Laboratory has made more options available where certain tasks are concerned.  For example, one of the final tasks in this Mission is to make 40 Oat Bread.  You can choose to make these in the Baker, using the traditional ingredients required to make Oat Bread and either use Batch Production (requiring OP) to make them all at once or make them manually.  A new option, however, is to use the Gold Finger Active Tech instead, requiring 20 Farmium to make 3 Oat Bread instantly, requiring NO ingredients at all!

Farm Fest I
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Darryl:  I'm getting the hang of playing my new guitar and I started a band called '3 Farmers and a Cow'.  Even Felicia said we sound good!  I have an idea!  We could invite our neighbours to our farm for a music festival - Farm Fest!

Produce 50 Veggie Burgers
  Skip for 25 RC

Prepare 10 Whole Oat Fruit Breads
  Skip for 10 RC
  Each requires 1 Fruit Butter and 1 Oat Bread
  Each Fruit Butter requires 1 Apple Jelly and 3 Cherries
  Each Apple Jelly requires 2 Maple Syrup and 6 Apple Jam

Harvest 5 Gisela Cherries
  Skip for 5 RC

Reward: 80 Coins, 16 XP

Darryl:  I'm already really excited!  I hope our neighbours know some bands that can also rock out on the stage!

Farm Fest II
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Darryl:  Great news!  People are coming to Farm Fest and we now have more bands to play.  I am not sure what the order will be yet, but no festival can take place on a farm without having some cider.  Selling it will also keep Grandma happy.

Produce 20 jars of Orange Jam
  Skip for 20 RC

Prepare 10 bottles of Apple Cider
  Skip for 10 RC
  Each requires 2 Yeast and 3 Apples

Prepare 10 bottles of Cherry Cider
  Skip for 10 RC
  Each requires 3 Yeaast and 2 Cherries

Darryl:  The Cider is ready!  We need o get some seats for the audience.  I know what we can do.  We can use some hay!

Reward: 85 Coins, 17 XP

Farm Fest III
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Darryl:  We can bundle together pasture to make hay for the seats!  It's quite comfy and people can even dance on it.  We should also make some juice as it's going to be quite hot I hope!

Plant 20 Pineapples
  Skip for 20 RC

Harvest 50 Pasture
  Skip for 25 RC

Cook 5 Macaroni and Cheese in the Stove House
  Skip for 5 RC
  This is made in the Stove House.  Each requires 3 Wheat Flour and 2 Cheddar Cheese

Reward: 90 Coins, 18 XP

Darryl:  Okay, that's the seating sorted.  Now it's time to think about food and volunteers for the event.  Still lots to do!

Farm Fest IV
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Darryl:  Oops, I forgot about the juice.  And we need some t-shirts to identify the volunteers helping with the running of the event on the big day!

Prepare 8 Orange Smoothies
  Skip for 8 RC
  Each requires 1 Condensed Milk and 1 Orange Jam

Collect 10 Volunteer T-shirts from Neighbours
  Skip for 10 RC

Prepare 20 plates of Grape Cornbread
  Skip for 20 RC
  Each requires 1 No-Flour Cornbread and 2 Grape Jam
  Each No-Flour Cornbread requires 2 Buffalo Milk Cheese and 1 Cornmeal

Reward: 100 Coins, 20 XP

Darryl:  The volunteers will come soon.  We need to give them their t-shirts and make some more food for them to eat when they help set up.

End of Part I.  Take the Farm Fest Icon and place it in the empty spot on the left side of the page that matches its form.

The second half of the Mission now can be activated whenever you wish.  Note that this is the first Gallery Mission that requires access to the Island and it is in the second half, in the very first group of tasks, that you will be required to produce Mohair.  Again, you will have a limited time to complete it once you activate it.  Many thanks to Kathy Marcum from our Group, Family Farm Seaside Freyashawk for logging the next group of tasks.

Farm Fest V
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Darryl:  We still need some food to sell and maybe we should have some blankets.  We can make them from wool and Mohair.  People can use them if they feel cold at night!

Prepare 5 Meatloaf
  Skip for 5 RC
  Each requires 1 Grilled Flank Steak and 1 Cheese Burger
  Each Grilled Flank Steak requires 8 Beef and 2 Ketchup

Produce 40 Wool
  Skip for 20 RC

Produce 15 Mohair Yarn
  Skip for 8 RC
  This is an Island task.

Reward: 100 Coins, 20 XP

Darryl:  The stage looks amazing.  I can't wait to rock 'n roll on it and see the other bands playing!

Farm Fest VI
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Darryl:  3 Farmers and a Cow have had a sneaky practice and will be opening the festival to warm the crowd up.  We managed to secure ACRC who are headlining, I can't wait!

Harvest 4 Ice Cubes
  Skip for 4 RC

Produce 4 Matcha Orange Ice Cream
  Skip for 4 RC
  Each requires 1 Matcha and 1 Orange Ice Cream

Prepare 6 plates of Fish and Potatoes
  Skip for 6 RC
  Each requires 1 Potatoes with Fresh Herbs and 1 Lemon Fish
  Each Potatoes with Fresh Herbs requires 2 Sweet Potatoes and 1 Herb
  Each Lemon Fish requires 1 Butterfish and 1 Lemon


Reward: 110 Coins, 22 XP

That's enough food and drink! Now it's time for the event.  I'm so excited, I hope it doesn't rain, the campers will not be happy!

Farm Fest VII
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We rocked out, people were even dancing!  I think I even saw Grandma dancing, maybe the cider we made was too strong... But the other bands are really good and lots of people are buying food!


Produce 15 Tiramisu
  Skip for 15 RC

Prepare 5 Allspice Crumbles
  Skip for 5 RC
  Each requires 3 Spice and 1 Orange Crumble

Prepare 10 plates of Kulfi
  Skip for 10 RC
  Each requires 1 Batter and 1 Nectar


Rewards: 120 Coins, 23 XP

Darryl:  We played quite well, maybe I will become a rock star!  The food went down a treat and the final band ACRC will finish soon.

Farm Fest VIII
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Darryl:  Some people didn't even make it to their tents, haha.  Felicia just fell asleep on the hay!  I bet she danced too much.  I'll wake her up so she can help me make breakfast.  She will not be happy!


Prepare 8 Elderberry Pancakes
  Each requires 2 Appple Kulfi and 1 Elderberry
  Each Apple Kulfi requires 1 Kulfi and 2 Apple Jam

Produce 40 Oat Bread

Produce 12 Blueberry Jam
  Skip for 12 RC

Darryl:  What a success!  Lots of tidying up to do but we can keep the stage.  Maybe we'll have Farm Fest next year.  It has put our farm on the map!

Reward: 120 Coins, 25 XP

Go to the Gallery and swipe the Farm Fest T-shirt icon from the right side of the page into the empty slot on the left.  You will receive 50 Green Mystrons, 5 Medals and the Springtime Base as your Reward.

Go to your Gift Box to find the Springtime Base. It is worth 32 Charm and is a Cleanable Decoration, although it yields only a Purple Gift Box  as well as being a Theme Decoration in the current Park Farm Beauty Contest.

Final Reward: Springtime Base

Beauty Contest Q & A or 'What am I doing wrong?'
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Question: Over half of my farm has crops growing on it.  Why am I not getting the maximum from Darryl for Crops?
Answer:  You have to have 16 DIFFERENT types of Crops on your Farm at the tine when you take the screenshot.  Remember always that the Votes are based on the current photo of your farm!

Question:  I have 20 machines on my farm.  Why am I not getting the maximum from Dad for machines?
Answer:  Duplicates do not count.  If you have 2 Wine Makers, for example, only one Vote will be given for that Machine.  You need 12 different machines in the current photo of your Farm.

Question:  I have 18 Animals on my farm, but Felicia is not giving me 16/16 for Animals!
Answer:  Like the Crops and Machines, duplicates do NOT count.  Make certain you have 12 different types of Animals on your Farm and then take a new photograph for the Contest!  Note that the different Beehives and different Butterfly Houses each count as a different type of Animal.

Question:  When I look at the red book in the Contest Menu at all of the Theme Decorations, I know that many of them are on my Farm but they are not given the green chequemark there and I do not think they are being counted by the three Characters for Theme. Why is that?

Answer:  First of all, you need to register any Decoration in the Gallery before it will be recognised usually for the Contest.  Second of all, you need to take a new Screenshot for the Contest after you place any new or additional Theme item on your Farm.

Question:  How many Votes do I need each day to get the Theme Decoration in the Farm Beauty Contest Rewards Menu?

Answer:  You need a total of 200 Votes each day to get the Reward Decoration.  It is far better to organise your own farm to get this total from the four Characters than to try to rely on the Votes of Neighbours.  It is not that difficult to get 200 Votes each day.  First of all, plant 16 different types of Crops, then make certain you have as many different Trees as possible on your Farm.  (You may only need 12 different trees this time.) . Place as many different Machines as possible on your Farm.   (Again, you may need only 12 different machines, no duplicates.)  Place at least 12 different Animals on the Farm... remember that each type of Beehive and Butterfly House is considered to be a different Animal in this context.  Now, finally, look at the Theme Book in the red top corner of the Farm Beauty Contest Menu and see how many of those Decorations you have on your farm.  THEME DECORATIONS MUST BE REGISTERED IN ORDER TO COUNT!  Is your Landscape Point total over 2200?  Not certain what is required for this contest, but if you have 2350 Landscape Points, you definitely will receive the maximum votes for Landscape.  Finally, only AFTER you organise your farm for maximum votes should you take a NEW PHOTOGRAPH.

Harvest Moon FDC
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Please do request to join our Family Farm Seaside Freyashawk Group if you need neighbours or help with the game.  My farm is Harvest Moon FDC (Freyashawk de Conde), and if you use this site and wish to let me know you appreciate my work, I would be most grateful for your Votes in the Contest. This is a 'clean' site without advertising of any kind.  I don't get paid in any way to do the work. Apart from anything else, though, I feel that when Harvest Moon FDC ranks high in the Contest, it may direct more players to our groups and this site.  Thank you!

Hallowe'en Farm Beauty Contest

The 3rd Farm Beauty Contest in the form of a Hallowe'en Beauty Contest now has begun.  The following are tips on how to meximise your potential to gain votes.

First of all, it is important to know which Decorations and Items are theme-related.  You can access the list yourself by tapping on the Farm Beauty Contest icon in your menu and then tapping on the book icon.  You will see the following list:

Pumpkin Fountain: Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 1 Vote each day for this.
Hallowe'en Fence: Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 1 Vote each day for this.
Pumpkin Light:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 2 Votes each day for this.
Flower Torch:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 1 Vote each day for this.
Ghost Broom, Reward of the 3rd Beauty Contest:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 2 Votes each day for this.  This will be the Decoration that is awarded for a specific number of Votes like the Backpack and Whale Decorations from previous Contests.  Every time you reach a specified total, you will receive rewards.  Most of them consist of Farm Aids and Purple Mystrons but somewhere in the middle of the list is a Decoration and at the very end, there is a special Avatar with RC Rewards.
Scarecrow: Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 1 Vote each day for this.
Strange Scarecrow: Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 1 Vote each day for this.
Spooky Tree: Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 2 Votes each day for this.
Bat House:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 1 Vote each day for this.
Pumpkin Tombstone:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 1 Vote each day for this.
Stereo Casket:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 2 Votes each day for this.
Straw Witch:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 2 Votes each day for this.
Running Mummy:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 4 Votes each day for this.
Witch Legs:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 2 Votes each day for this.
Jack O'Lantern Machine:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 3 Votes each day for this.
Pumpkin Tower, Reward for Month of October 2015: Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 1 Vote each day for this.
Skeleton Rockstar Diva:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 5 Votes each day for this.
Halloween Stage:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 3 more Votes each day for this when it finally is completed
Skeleton Rockstar Frontman:  Felicia, Darryl and Dad will give you 3 more votes each day for this.

Now, it is important to remember that 'theme-related Decorations only account for a quarter of the Votes given by Felicia, Darryl and Dad.  I believe that once you achieve the total that is the maximum those Characters can give to you for theme, you will not be able to earn any more Votes from them for THAT, irrespective of the number of Theme Decorations that you purchase and place. Bear this in mind when you are tempted to go mad in the upcoming sales.  I personally believe the total is 18 or 20 Votes, depending on the Character.  Dad only has 72 Votes to offer.  I therefore believe his Theme total might be two Votes lower...

Some of the Theme Decorations can be purchased using Yellow Mystrons.  These are the Pumpkin Fountain, Hallowe'en Fence and Flower Torch.  Each will cost 100 Yellow Mystrons.  They cannot be cleaned, by the way.

The Scarecrow was the only Theme Decoration that can be purchased in the ordinary Market for Coins until more items were added temporarily.  See the section on Theme Items below for a full list. The Spooky Tree costs 8 RC.    Some of the Decorations, including the Running Mummy and Witch Legs were offered in a special Hallowe'en Sale last year and are being offered again in sale parcels that include RC and trees.  These at present are the Running Mummy and the Witch Legs, for old items and three new items in the form of the Skeleton Rockstar Frontman, the Stereo Casket and the Skeleton Rockstar Diva.

Although there is a 'ceiling' to the number of Votes you can earn from the three Characters for Theme, there is no limit to the possible Charm Point total.  How does this benefit you?  For the Characters who value Charm, once again, you can achieve only a total of 18 or 20 Votes each day for that aspect of your Farm from those Characters... once you achieve that, additional Charm points will not be considered by the Characters.  After that total is reached, additional Charm only benefits as far as your global rating is concerned.  It does not affect your Votes from Neighbours or at least it did not do so in the previous contests.  If anything changes in this respect, I will update this post.  If this Contest follows the rules of the previous ones, you will find that each Farmer has 3 Votes per day to give to Neighbours.

Of course, I would be thrilled if farmers who used my site would be willing to send their Votes to Harvest Moon or Rosewood Farms.  I would prefer Harvest Moon only because I have no hope of winning the Contest with Rosewood or even being placed in the top 50 globally.  Thanks to my readers and neighbours, Harvest Moon did place in the top 50 in the last Contest.  I would like to thank every one who voted for me again.  As I wrote previously, I do not make any money with my site.  I do not have any adverts on it and do not promote anything other than the game itself.  I write the guide because I always find a good guide useful when playing a game and I believe other players feel the same, so if you wish to give me anything, please give your Votes! To do this, tap on the FINAL icon for 'My Neighbours' and then 'Visit' Harvest Moon or Rosewood.  Once at the farm, you can choose to Vote once for it or use all three Votes in quick succession.  That is how the Voting procedure works.

There evidently is another player who has given her farm the name of Harvest Moon.  My farm always will have an avatar of a hawk on a tree against a blue sky.  I took the photo myself long ago in my garden in the middle of an urban area.  Freyashawk  has been the name under which I have written guides for years Harvest Moon was the game for which I wrote most of my guides.  I have changed my farm name a little to Harvest Moon FDC, adding my initials at the end.

Having promoted my farms shamelessly, I now would like to try to help low level Farmers who may feel the contests are pointless.  THEY ARE NOT!  Even if your Charm total is low and you have no hope of placing in the top 50, you can earn valuable Rewards from your Farm and from your Votes.

Whether you vote for my farms or not, please do take the time to vote EVERY Day as you will earn a Gold Treasure Chest that contains Farm Aids when you do.  At least, that was the case in the previous Contests.  If anything changes, I will update this information.

Now, how can you boost the Votes of the four Characters even if your Charm totals are low and you cannot afford to buy Theme Decorations with real Cash?

First of all, each of the four Characters bases his/her Votes on different aspects of your Farm.  As shown in the list of Theme Decorations, there are three Characters who give Votes for the Theme. Votes are given by different Characters, however, for a wide variety of Crops, for Trees, for Animals and for Machines.  Gallery Registration will give you Votes with two Characters.  Expansions count as well...

So what I suggest to every Farmer is to make certain that you have registered as many items on your Farm as possible before the Contest begins and if you cannot complete this task prior to the start, keep registering your Items until they all have been added to the Gallery.  This cannot give you more than a total of 18 or 20 Votes daily but if you do qualify for the maximum number of Votes for Gallery from the two Characters that value this aspect of Farming, you will be in a good position.

Expansions give Votes as well so make certain that you have completed as many Farm expansions as possible on your original Farm. I do not think that the Island counts for this, because the Farm Beauty Contest is only for the original Seaside Farm.

It is not mere ownership of items that gives Votes but PLACEMENT of them on your Farm.  When the Contest begins, place a good balance of Animals and Machines on your Farm and plant a variety of Crops as well as making certain that you have as many different types of Trees as possible.  Again, each of these aspects of farming will not give more than a total of 18 or 20 of the Votes of the Character or Characters who value them.  Each Character has four different categories of farming upon which his or her Votes are based.

As previously indicated, Charm is valued by some of the Characters but piling Decorations on your Farm is pointless as there is a ceiling to the number of Votes given by the Characters for your Charm. I therefore would recommend that farmers who cannot place in the top 50 globally focus more on creating a balanced Farm with a good mixture of Crops, Trees, Animals and Machines than attempting to load your Farm with duplicate Decorations or indeed Decorations that are not cleanable once you have exhausted your normal stock of Theme Decorations and a certain number of Charm points.  The members of my Group on Facebook, Family Farm Seaside Freyashawk and I experimented with this during the last Contest to see how Votes would be affected.  it really did not require too many Decorations to achieve the maximum number of Votes from a Character who valued either Charm or Theme... beyond that, one was using space on the farm that would be better allocated to ANOTHER aspect of farming that would garner Votes from a Character.

Theme-related Decorations only add to 'Theme' Votes from a Character ONCE.  I have confirmed this myself.  Harvest Moon had the Witch Legs and Running Mummy from last year.  In the current sale, therefore, only the purchase and placement of the Skeletn Rockstar Frontman added to the Characters' Vote total.  I think this is why the placement of an additional Pumpkin Fountain failed to add to the Vote total for Harvest Moon.

Now, this is how low level Farmers can benefit from full participation in the Contest. There is a list of Rewards given for achieving specific Vote totals.  Every couple hundred Votes or so, you will receive a specific Reward.  Most of them consist of Farm Aids, Coins and Purple Mystrons but there is a Decoration Reward and at the very top of the list, two Rewards that consist of RC, the final one being paired with a special Avatar.  Again, this was the case in previous Contests but if it is different for this one, I will update accordingly.

Your Votes from the four Characters DO make a difference, therefore, even if you cannot achieve huge totals of Votes or place globally.  You can achieve a number of the Rewards on the list if you maintain a balanced Farm.

NONE of this will count, however, if you do not take photos of your Farm.  The Votes of the four Characters are determined by your CURRENT PHOTO in the Contest.  In other words, give your Farm the greatest advantages in terms of Crops, Trees, Animals and Machines as well as Decorations, take your photograph and THEN AND ONLY THEN store items or do whatever is necessary for REAL work on your Farm.  A new time-restricted Mission should be released tomorrow if everything goes according to the regular schedule.  You may need to store items in order to produce products and so on... so start your day by registering for the Farm Beauty Contest by taking a photo after you have made your Farm as profitable, vote-wise as possible.  You then will be free to get on with the business of real farming.

I am not certain if there is any need to take a new photograph every day if nothing improves on your farm.  It is only if you purchase or obtain a new item that will count towards a Character's Vote total that you need to take a new photograph... at least that is my instinct.  Make certain, though, that you do not take your photographs unless everything is as balanced as possible.  There is no point in attaining a good score with Dad but lowering your score with a different Character, for example, by having too many Machines and not enough Animals on your Farm.

The Contest now is live and appears to follow the same rules as previous contests.  Good luck to all of us!

Voting for my farm
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I understand that every one involved in the Contest would like to have your votes but if you have found my site useful, I do ask that you think of me when casting your Votes in the Beauty Contest.  I do not receive any pay for the work I do, but your votes would be a form of thanks that I greatly would appreciate.  Sadly, there is another farm that goes now by the name of Harvest Moon but mine always will have the same avatar of a hawk in a tree in my old garden...  and I have added my initials FDC now to my farm name of Harvest Moon.  My level currently is 85.  Thank you.

My second farm is Rosewood and if you are not a neighbour of Harvest Moon FDC, please consider voting for little Rosewood...

Gaining Votes from Multiple Farms
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You can have more than one farm if you have more than one Facebook account or if a friend allows you to use his/her account for Family Farm Seaside.  Each Farm can vote three times per day, but there is a catch here and it probably was designed to prevent farmers from creating a large number of farms for the purpose solely of voting for the primary farm in any Beauty Contest.

The Farm Beauty Contest only unlocks at Level 16.   In other words, you certainly can have more than one Farm and use the Votes from one to promote the other but it requires a fair amount of energy and time to bring the subsidiary farm to the level required!  Just a note to advise players of the rules with respect to Voting privileges.

Gift Box Colours in Gallery
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Farm Aids always are vital in this game, and I spent hours in the past logging the results of cleaning Neighbours' Decorations to see which Decorations yielded the coveted Blue or Gold Box...  Although you still can find this information on my site, you now can access it yourself very easily by looking in your Gallery.  Every Decoration now is colour-coded.  It is the background colour that determines the colour of the Gift Box.  The Blue Box Decorations have a gold or yellow background, oddly enough.

Theme Items in Market
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The current Halloween Farm Beauty Contest overlaps somewhat with these Events and some of the old items from previous years and quests now have been added to the market.  To wit:

Spooky Tree: 8 RC  (I do believe this is available always)

Bat House: 18 RC  (temporarily available, once the reward for a quest, steep price, but produces Bat Milk when Bats pollinate specific trees including the Sakura and Spooky Trees)

Pumpkin Tombstone: 10 RC, produces 6 Charm (temporarily available)  Limit 1

Halloween Fence: 5000 Coins  (temporarily available, Charm 1, no limit)  Unlocked at Level 26 unfortunately for low level farmers, jolly unfair, that

Theme Items in Special Sale
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Running Mummy: 18 Charm Points and 4 Theme Votes
  Gives Gold Cleaning Box

Witch Legs: 2 Charm Points and 2 Theme Votes
  Gives Silver Cleaning Box, least valuable of all

Skeleton Rock Star Frontman: 6 Charm Points and 3 Theme Votes
  Gives Purple Cleaning Box

Stereo Coffin, 7 Charm Points, 2 Theme Votes
  Gives Gold Cleaning Box

Skeleton Rockstar Diva, 8 Charm Points, 5 Theme Votes
  Gives 10 Yellow Mystrons for 7 Days, then Blue Gift Box

New Beauty Contest, the 2nd Beauty Contest

A new Beauty Contest began in Seaside today, along with a sale that offers two items with specific Beauty Contest Theme Charm, which this time is 'Amusement Park'.

I am not that keen on the Beauty Contest for one reason and that is the following:  it is virtually impossible to win 1st Place or 2nd Place or 3rd Place unless you are a very important 'Power' Farmer who has hundreds of contacts who will vote for him or her.  Until now, I was able to obtain and register almost every item available.  Only one eluded me and that was the Flamingo Pond, a special sale item that was offered during a period when I had no access to the internet.  Now, however, there are a number of Beauty Contest Decorations I never will receive nor be able to register.  I hope the developers will reconsider this as the current situation will discourage ordinary farms such as myself from continuing to buy every single Decoration offered... what is the point when I never will have 100% completion anyway???

Here I am going to do something I never have done before and request help from my readers.  I do not make any money with this site, unlike many 'bloggers' who place adverts on the site and various 'click' oriented devices that offer financial benefits to the owner of the site.  I do it because I love the game and I always found guides helpful myself.  If any one feels inclined now, please vote for Harvest Moon Farm in this Contest and I will let you know how close I come to winning one of the Trophies at the end of it.  I was saddened by the last contest as I was not able to win even the total number of Rewards on the board, as I did not receive sufficient votes.

I do have two farms.  My primary Farm is Freyashawk's Farm, Harvest Moon, with Farm I.D. AVLIMXC.  I usually have the maximum number of Farm I.D. neighbours but you always can 'friend' me on Facebook to become a neighbour... I will clear out my inactive neighbours again though now to allow new Farm I.D. neighbours.

My second farm is Rosewood.  This is Eugenia Martino's farm and as I began it only fairly recently, much lower in level than Harvest Moon.  No chance at all of winning a Trophy and probably little chance of obtaining the rewards on the board either, but she could use more Farm I.D. neighbours as she has only a hundred.  So her I.D. is FBPUBUU.  Both farms are active, played daily and I do my best to visit Neighbours who visit me on both farms.

Sorry about all that.  Now to the main purpose of the post which is to explain the Beauty Contest to farmers who are not familiar with it.

First of all, you can boost your Charm by placing Decorations on your farm.  After upgrading my Warehouse endlessly to store Decoraitons I did not like and to clear my farm to make it more beautiful and less filled with the cleanable Decorations that did not yield Blue or Gold Boxes, I had to reverse that strategy when the Beauty Contest option was released.  The more Charm you have, the better chance of increasing the Votes given daily by the four Main Characters in the game who are Felicia, Darryl, Dad and Grandma.  Each has a slightly different reason for giving Votes but they do not differ substantially.  Between the four of them, you need as many Farm Expansions as possible, as many Trees, Animals, Machines, as high a Level as possible, as many Charm points as possible, as many Gallery Registration items as possible and finally, as many items connected to the current Theme of the Contest as possible.

This is where the very high Level Farmers and those with the most Neighbours who vote for them daily have an incredible advantage.  Harvest Moon Farm has all the Expansions, and is at Level 82, which is not that high but not low either.  Unfortunately, because of my great love of the Iris Crop no longer available, much of my farm is occupied by Iris Flowers as I never will be able to replant them if I harvest them.  Furthermore, I do not have that many Neighbours who vote for me, sadly enough!  That is why I made an appeal here.  You can make three Votes per day and by doing so, will gain a Gold Treasure Chest.  All your Votes can be given to the same farm or to three different farms.  If you choose the option to Vote for Neighbours rather than random Voting, you can choose Harvest Moon and/or Rosewood.  Between the two, I would prefer Harvest Moon as Rosewood is fairly unlikely to gain sufficient to win the Decoration on the Board even.  Rosewood was unable to win the Backpack in the previous Contest.

The Theme this time is Amusement Park and the following Decorations are connected to the theme:

Ferris Wheel, Rockinghorse, Sheep Rocking Chair, Macaron Road, Welcome Arch, Welcome Sign, Balloon Door, Movie Star, Robovase, Bocca della Verita, Disco Van, Funny Scarecrow, Bottlehead Darryl, Jukebox,  Tyre Swing, Bumper Car and a couple of items that have not been made available yet.  Evidently, there will be another Sale shortly that will offer a special Amusement Park train and a Monkey holding Cymbals.  The next time-restricted Mission entitled End of Summer Special Mission may be the source of the other Decoration which looks like one of those machines that measures Strength.  In any case, you can access this list yourself by going to the Beauty Contest Icon in the Menu and then tapping on the Book Icon at the top in the Theme window.

Rewards are given for Vote point totals (not to be confused with Charm Point totals) as before.  At 100, you receive the first Reward of 5 Purple Mystrons and 500 Coins,  At 2000 Votes, you receive 2 Organic Fertilisers, 1 Watering Can.  At 3000, you receive Super Fertiliser and Super Watering Cans.  You need a total of 4000 Points to obtain the special Decoration Reward.  Finally, if you receive 5500 Votes, you can gain 7 Powers and 1 RC and at 6000 Votes, a special Amusement Park avatar and 3 RC.  Even Harvest Moon Farm was unable to obtain 6000 Votes last time.  I hope my readers will help me this time!

I had thought originally that Charm Point totals were the key but they are NOT.  They help but you really need the Votes as well.  Fortunately, there are the four Main Characters in the game to give you THEIR Votes each day.  Make certain you collect these daily.  I do not know if they reset or simply are combined with the next day's votes if you fail to do so, but I think they may reset, which would be unfortunate.

New Farm Beauty Contest

With the last big update in Family Farm Seaside came the release of a new option that changes the rules in terms of how you choose to decorate your own Farm, if you choose to avail yourself of this new option.

The Farm Beauty Contest is a new icon in your Menu as well as appearing on your screen near the top whenever you obtain points from Neighbours or have points to give to your Neighbours.  You are given 3 points per day to 'vote' for Neighbours' farms.  Doing so will give you some Rewards, by the way, in the form of a gold Treasure Chest that contains random Farm Aids.

There are two different window in the Menu when you open it.  The first is 'My snapshot' which deals with your Farm, your Charm total and so on and the other is 'Vote for others' which is where you can visit other Farms to use your three Votes.

When you tap on 'My Snapshot', you will have a number of possible choices.  The first is to take a photograph of your Farm for viewing by Neighbours.  The next is to collect your Votes by tapping on the various icons at the bottom of the window.  Tap on the Neighbours' votes first and then move on to collect points from Felicia, Dad, Darryl and Grandma. 

Tap on Rewards to collect any current Rewards.  Until the current Contest, Grilling and Chilling' ends, the only Rewards to collect are those that are given for specific Ballot totals.  Claim them when you can for Coins and 5 Purple Mystrons.  As you advance up the Reward page, you will find Farm Aids are added to the Rewards that you collect and, ultimately, two special Bobo items and RC.

The Beauty Contest is based fundamentally on your Charm total, although the four main Characters have their own reasons for giving you their Ballots, including size of farm, number of Trees or Animals on the farm and so on.  The specific theme that is current will give you Ballots with them as well.  At present, it is 'Chilling and Grilling'.  Having the specific items that are designated as part of the current theme will give you advantages.

Charm total is based on Decorations that are currently placed ON your original Seaside Farm.  For those of us who had attempted to clear our farms of clutter, this new development has reversed the trend completely.  Now the goal is to place as many Decorations as possible on your Farm, whether or not those Decorations are cleanable.  Each Decoration now has a specific Charm rating.  Your total Charm will be displayed at the top left of the screen in a box with a red clover icon.

The Votest that you receive from your Neighbours have nothing to do with your Charm total, by the way and may or may not have anything to do with your photograph.  Your Neighbours have the option to choose how to disperse their 3 Votes as follows: 'Random pick', 'Great farmers', My Neighbours'.  It is the last of the three that will allow you to choose specific Neighbours.   If you have many personal friends who play the game, you are more likely to receive Votes from the 'My Neighbours' category.

Voting is a little more labour-intensive, I think, than it should be.  It requires a specific trip to the Farm in question to deliver the Vote rather than being available whenever you visit a Neighbour's farm for cleaning and collecting XP and Cooking Bags.  Perhaps this will change in future.  After all, the Farm Beauty Contest is new.

It can be fun to see how many Votes you have earned during the course of a day but I have a feeling that ordinary Farmers like myself never will obtain First Prize...  I never have gained a top position in the Global Events in the original Family Farm for the computer either.  In this context, there are a number of new items in the Gallery consisting of various Bauty Contest trophies.

For those of us who upgraded our Warehouses again and again in order to be able to store unwanted or unliked Decorations, now all those Decorations must be found a place on the Farm again.   I am certain I am not the only Farmer who sold an unliked Decoration once it had been registred in the Gallery, thinking I would have no further need for it.  Well, now that Grandma's Bike, which I sold TWICE (sold the first and then bought another with Yellow Mystrons in order to register it when the Gallery option was released), is part of the 'Chilling and Grilling' theme and I must decide whether or not to use my precious Yellow Mystrons to purchase a third one!

There was a time when I tried to make certain that my Farm had clearly visible Decorations that give out the valuable Blue Cleaning Boxes.  Now, that is impossible if one wishes to compete in the Beauty Contest.  Once again, Cleaning Brush icons are cluttered everywhere, and sometimes the one associated with the Blue Box is obscured by ones for lesser rewards...  What can one do???

The fact os the matter is that almost all colours of Cleaning Boxes are worth something, even if only in the form of completing an Achievement for collecting a specific total.  The Blue Boxes and the Golden Boxes contain the best Farm Aids but it one visits all Neighbours regularly, one should be able to receive a goodly number even if one cannot target the best Decorations now.

It will be interesting to see how many Farmers participate in this new Beauty Contest option.  Most appear to be participating now in the Cooking Contests.  After all, the 'Final Reward' always is a Decoraiton that yields a Blue Gift Box when cleaned.  Many of these are animated as well.  The only problem now will be to find an empty spot where the Decoration can be placed.

With all Decoraitons now having a Charm point rating, tye ability to purchase special Decorations using Yellow or Blue Mystrons becomes even more attractive as an option.  Originally, apart from any personal aesthetic preference for a Decoration, the only Decorations that actually had an effect when placed were the Cleanable ones.  Now they ALL have a Charm rating.  Primarily that Charm total depends on the size of the Decoration, the number of plots it occupies on your Farm in other words.

They really need to give us another Farm Expansion...

You can purchase Decorations no longer available in the regular Decorations section of the Market using Yellow Mystrons or Blue Mystrons.  Yellow Mystrons are given for completing the Weekly Activity, randomly in the Gold Treasure Chests and sometimes for cleaning special Decorations sold in sales for a sepcific number of days.  At this point in time, there is a Boy Grass Hair Deer for sale that will give 10 Yellow Mystrons for 5 days when cleaned.  After that, it simply gives Purple Cleaning Gift Boxes.  The Weekly Activity gives a Reward of 10 Yellow Mystrons when completed.  1 Yellow Mystron sometimes is to be found in the Gold Treasure Chests at the end of the Daily Quest path.

Blue Mystrons can be obtained only when you have completed all other Rewards on the Daily Order Board 'path'.  Once you have received the Gasoline Sheep, you can begin to earn Blue Mystrons for each Order completed.  You need 300 Blue Mystrons to purchase any Decoraiton in the Mystery Shop.  These tend to consist of the Final Rewards for special time-restricted Missions in the past.

In the Yellow Mystron Mystery Shop department, you need 100 Yellow Mystrons to purchase any Decoration.  Some will be cleanable and others will not but they all now have Charm totals.