User blog:Jeffrey.Bourne/My tips

I've only been playing since DEC 09, but here are some of the things I have found to be important:

1) You have to have more than just neighbors, you need active neighbors to send you gifts, click on barn raising etc. I have known a number of people open a second FB account to have a "pocket farmer". This can help with those missing horsehoes or gloves. Also, you can use it to transfer bushels back and forth.

2) Always be in a Co-op. It's best if you are contributing. The sooner the Co-op finishes, the better chance for the gold medal. But join even if you aren't growing any of the needed crops. And don't get upset when people join your Co-op and don't contribute. You are not losing anything.

3) Maximize your use of green space. Make every square contribute towards xp or coins. It's a balance between more crops and more animals/buildings. I currently plant 644 plots (4x4) and am using every other spot of green for buildings or animals. The web site shows figures for coins/hour/square for the various animals and trees. Generally, build animal holding buildings (i.e. chicken coops), maximize their size and fill them up with what you have. Over time replace animals inside with those with higer output or better rewards (for example replace black chickens with gold, or gold with cornish). Buy animals for your buildings if you have spare room or plenty of coins. Balance the best producing animals with those that provide collection items. Collection turn-ins give great coin, xp, and fuel. Trees have generally low production coin/hour/square, but have some to get collection items.

4) Spend your coins to invest in your farm. Buy high production animals (saddleback) for their production and xp values.

5) Use a crafting cottage to maximize a single recipe. A lvl 54 pumpkin bread costs the same to make as a lvl 1 pumpkin bread, but it earns more coins and is worth 2 "gallons" of fuel. This will have the effect of slowing your mastery of the crafting cottage, however, my experience is that most people will have a difficult time keeping 4 ovens busy all the time anyway, so more ovens isn't a big deal.