03: Levels and Leveling

Chapter 03: Levels and Leveling

While we touched upon levels and leveling earlier in this part of the guide, and reviewed the various levels, their titles, and the special unlocks for them, there are some additional issues that relate to the process of leveling your farmer that it is important that we cover, because, as mentioned above, there are many aspects of game play that are level-based. For example the Co-Op Jobs, certain buildings, and other activities are only accessible to farmers who have reached key levels.

One thing you may not know is that you are rewarded for leveling your farmer. Each time you gain a new level, you are rewarded with 1 Farm Buck, which means that you can actually obtain some of the items that require Farm Bucks without ever making a real life purchase!

Farmville may be a great simulated farming, and cute fun, but at its heart it is a game and, like any other game, is largely level-based. What that means is that as you play it -- and as you level up -- more content is available to you.

In addition to the content that is level-restricted, there are also prerequisites that you may have to meet on other areas, for example some seeds can only be planted after your farmer reaches a specific level and additionally has mastered a specific crop.

To learn what your farmer's current level is, look at the game screen and you will see at the very top center a black and white bar with a gold star on its right side. Inside of the gold star is the number of your farmer's current level, while inside the black and white bar is your current XP total. The white part of the bar represents your progress towards unlocking your next level -- when the bar is completely white, you unlock the next level, and it goes back to being completely black so you can full it up with white again.

It takes a lot of XP to climb the ranks in this game -- and the higher your level is, the more XP it will take to reach the next level -- so it is a good thing that you gain XP for practically everything that you do in the game!

The Marketplace Seed Catalog Includes Locked Seeds

Breaking the Crop Locks

The first level-related subject for us to cover is Crop Locks -- many of the crops in the game have minimum level requirements before you can purchase the seeds for them and plant and harvest them, which are often called the Lock Level for a crop, or Crop Lock. The following table lists the basic level requirements that you will want to use as goals as you play the game, since you cannot grow these crops before the minimum level has been reached.

Knowing what the minimum levels are is important, so that you can begin to plan for activities like Co-Op farming and crafting, and so we include the Crop Level Requirements for all of the basic (meaning not special) crops below.

The Level listed here is your farmer's level and not the level of the crop. The Seed Name is self-explanatory, while the Additional Requirements are just that, additional steps you must fulfill in order to plant that crop. Usually these consist of having already mastered a different crop.

(1) Cascadian Farms was founded in 1972, and is one of the leading brands of organic foods in North America, offering more than 85 natural food products cereals to frozen fruits and vegetables, as well as organic snacks and juices. The Cascadian Home Farm is nestled in the foothills of the North Cascades Mountain Range in western Washington State within the area known as the Upper Skagit Valley, and the advertising tie-in with Famville offered players the opportunity to grow Organic Blueberries on their farms while receiving a variety of coupon offers via email, so it sort of ended up offering gamers the opportunity to actually buy and consume real farm-grown versions of the crops that they planted in the game, and how strange is that?

XP Boosting

When you are starting a new character getting it to Level 25 is generally considered to be an important first goal, since so many different aspects of the game become available after that pivotal level. Many players choose to boost levels to get there as fast as they can, and you may want to do that as well.

Boosting levels is accomplished by planting crops and performing activities that provide the best income rate you can achieve, and then using the coins gained in the process to basically turn them into XP. There are several ways to do this, but the most common methods are listed below:

(1) Soybean Method

This method involves plowing a plot and then planting soybeans, and then immediately deleting the plot, and doing it over again. You gain 1 XP for plowing, and 2XP for planting the Soybeans for a total of 3 XP for the cycle. As Soybeans only cost 15 coins, and plowing costs 15 coins, you are getting the XP for 10 coins per point, which is about as cheap as you can do it.

Gaming The System: Turning Coin into XP

(2) Hay Bales

Each hay bale you purchase from the Market costs 100 coins, but gives 5 XP. This is a faster method than the Soybean Method but a more expensive one as well. Using this method you purchase a hay bale for 100 coin, which nets you 5 XP, and then sell it back to the Market for 5 coins, with a net cost of 95 coins per 5 XP.

Non-Boosted XP

In addition to boosting there are also the normal ways that you earn XP in the game, which include:

-- Buying Animals

-- Buying Buildings

-- Buying Decorations

-- Buying Vehicles

-- Completing a Collection

-- Co-Op Farming

-- Feeding Neighbors Chickens

-- Fertilizing Neighbors Crops

-- Harvesting Fertilized Crops

-- Harvesting Crops which have been Mastered

-- Opening a Mystery Box

-- Planting Crops

-- Planting Trees

-- Plowing Harvested Plots

-- Plowing New Plots

-- Receiving Ribbons

-- Receiving from a Mystery Egg

-- Receiving from a Mystery Gift

-- Selling items from your Bakery, Spa, or Winery

-- When a neighbor takes a bushel from your Market Stall you can claim XP

As you can see, practically everything that you do in the game pays off in XP, so the path to leveling and reaching your goals should be an easily managed and predictable one!