As technical glitches are worked out and resolved, Unwither protection will remain on and will end around 10 AM (PDT) tomorrow, July 28th 2010.

During Unwither your crops will not wither.

Crafting Buildings are a more complex feature in FarmVille. It utilizes several existing FarmVille features such as Bushels, Farmer’s Market, and the usual harvesting and neighbor interactions. If you would like to understand how the Crafting Building works or for those of you who do not have access to Crafting Buildings yet, you can get a jump start by reading this FarmVille Freak Guide.

FarmVille Freak Crafting Building Guide

Previous to their official release, FarmVille and FarmVille Freak referred to Crafting Buildings as “Crafting Cottages”. The name was changed to Crafting Buildings upon their release.

Crafting Buildings are accessible to Level 25 Farmers. Level 25 farmers and above will be albe to turn their Bushels into Crafted Goods to use with the Crafting Building.

Upon logging into FarmVille, you will see a pop-up that alerts you that Crafting Buildings have arrived and if you did not participate in the “Crafting Cottage Preview,” you will have a new opportunity to pick your building.

Step 1: Pick your profession by choosing the coordinating Crafting Building.You have three choices:

1. The Winery – Make Wine
2. Bakery – Make Baked Goods
3. Spa – Make Perfume

• Each building has its own unique set of recipes you can use to create crafted goods.
• You can view how many of your FarmVille neighbors picked each specific building (as shown below).

Clicking “What is this” will give you more detailed information on each of the buildings. Once you have decided on your profession, clicking “Yes, Place”  allow you to place your Crafting Building on your Farm for free.

For those who have already chosen a Crafting Building by participating in the Preview, you will be prompted with a different pop-up. At this point you will have the chance to change the Crafting Building you initially selected or keep the one you already chose.

Step 2: Placing your Crafting Building on your Farm.

Upon placing your building, you can share a FaceBook newsfeed that will inform your friends of your new business and give them the opportunity to adopt some supplies. The first 5 neighbors who click on this feed within 24 hours will receive 1 of the following items: (Note: Item depends on the Craft you have chosen).

• Baker : Level 10 Triple Berry Pie
• Spa Host: Level 10 Relaxation Candle
• Wine Maker: Level 10 Tropical Wine

Your Buildings Recipe menu will automatically appear after posting the newsfeed notice.

Step 3: Making Goods

• Everyone will start with one Level 10 Good that is 1 minute from completion.
• Clicking on “Make a good” will bring you to your recipes menu.
• Your recipe to make a Good will depend on the profession you selected.
• Click “Make it” from the bottom of the menu to create your Good.

Recipes will require you to have Goods. Goods will require you to collect Bushels from your friends, because Bushels are the key ingredients for Goods. Remember, that you can obtain Bushels the following ways:

How to Obtain Bushels:

1. Harvesting your own Bushels from crops you have planted.
2. Visiting your neighbors’ Market Stalls.
3. “Adopting” Bushels via the Facebook newsfeed from your friends.

After “Making your Good” it will need time to Cook. Clicking the “Finish it” button will complete the Level 10 Good. It is now ready to use for your Recipe.

After completing your Good, you will receive the pop-up below and also have the opportunity to share a newsfeed and give the first three neighbors who click within 24 hours to get 1 type of Good made.

Step 4: Selling Goods

• Clicking on “Goods I am selling” from the crafting menu displays the goods you currently have for sale.
• Selling goods improves existing Recipes and unlocks new ones!
• Each time you sell a good to your Neighbors, you will receive 1 Recipe XP.
• Access your “Sales Report”at the bottom of the menu. This report shows you what Goods you have sold and how many were purchased.
• If neighbors purchased from your store while you were away, a bouncing arrow will appear over your building. Clicking on this will show the following menu:

• You earn 90% of the sale price of items sold.
• The Daily Sales Report will display the amount of total coins and experience earned in your absence.

Leveling Your Crafting Building

If you wish to make a successful and thriving business, you must Level-Up your Crafting Building.

• The level of your Building determines the number of crafting spots you have available for use.
• Leveling your building will also unlock new recipes.
• You can level your Building with Farm Cash or coins by unlocking the option.
• To unlock the coin option, you have to level a certain amount of recipes. (See requirements below):

Amount of Recipes Required for Crafting Building

• 1 Star: Level up recipes 6 times + 50,000 coins
• 2 Star: Level up recipes 18 times + 100,000 coins
• 3 Star: Level up recipes 27 times + 400,000 coins
• 4 Star: Level up recipes 36 times + 1,000,000 coins

Recipes are leveled up by fulfilling the requirements above. Basically each time you make a recipe it will count towards your level up progression.  Continue making the required Goods your Recipe requires.

• The higher level your Recipe is, the better your crafted Goods will be.
• There is no limit on how high you can level your recipes!
• Currently Crafting Building can only be upgraded to 5 Stars. Once you have a 5 star Building, the buttons to level with coins or cash will disappear.

When you level your Building, you will receive a pop-up below and the opportunity to share a FaceBook newsfeed with your friends that will allow the first three neighbors who click this feed within 24 hours to receive a level 3 crafted good.

Step 5: Trading Goods for Rewards:

In addition to selling your crafted Goods to your friends, they can also be traded for rewards. To access Goods that you have in your inventory, click “Use” from the crafting menu and select “Goods”.

This menu displays how many crafted goods you possess.

• You can only have 200 Crafted Goods in your inventory at a time.
• This capacity limit only pertains to your Crafted Goods.
• Your Bushel inventory does not count towards this capacity.

If you click the “use” button underneath a good, you will trade it for fuel.

• The higher the level of the crafted good you use, the more fuel you will get.
• You can see your fuel gauge increase within the inventory menu.

Step 6: Purchase or Sell Goods

You can purchase or sell Goods from your FarmVille neighbors.

You can purchase/sell by visiting your neighbors by two ways:

1. From the Crafting menu, click “Buy”. You will then see the option to select “Shop for Goods” or “Shop for Bushels”. Clicking “Shop for Goods” will bring up the following menu.
   
   • From this menu, you can select the type of good you would like to purchase.
   • Clicking “select” underneath a good triggers another menu that automatically displays the highest level goods for sale first.
   • Select the good you want to purchase and you will be brought to the following screen:
   

2. By visiting a neighbors farm.

• Simply click on their Crafting Building to see what they have available for you to buy.
• Upon purchasing an item from your Neighbor’s store, you will receive a pop-up allowing you to post a feed to their wall informing them of your actions.
• The first 3 Neighbors to click this feed within 24 hours will receive 1 good of the same type as the one you purchased. (see below)

• Goods purchased from your Neighbors can also be traded for Fuel.

Deleting Your Crafting Building and Buying a New Crafting Building:

If for some reason you wish to delete your Crafting Building or purchase a new one…

• All progress on the level of the Building and Recipes will be saved.
• You will lose all Goods that are being sold in your store at the time.
• If you wish to purchase a new Crafting Building, it can be purchased from the “Buildings” section of the Market for 100,000 coins, provided it is the same building you initially signed up for.
• If you wish to purchase the two Buildings you did not sign up for, they can be bought for 80 FV$ Farm Cash each.
• You may only own one of each type of Building at a time.

* Facts were sourced directly from the Official FarmVille Forum.

So what do you think? Do you like this new Crafting Building feature in FarmVille? Do you invite new complex features like this or do you find yourself wishing for the simplicity of the beginning FarmVille days?

The pop-up states that no rewards of farm cash are given after Level 100, but it also hints at “rainbows after rain,” possibly meaning that in the future more levels will be added, with more incentives.

What do you think the reward should be for leveling up after 100?

FarmVille Freak Example

We are FarmVille Freaks for many reasons, but we all have the same thing in common- we LOVE FarmVille!

So what makes you a FarmVille Freak? Do you wake up extra early just to harvest your crops? Maybe you plan your vacation around crop harvest times or you could require at least 3 computers and 4 monitors to fulfill your FarmVille farming needs like the picture above.

Since you are visiting FarmVilleFreak.com, the number 1 fan site dedicated entirely to FarmVille, and reading this right now you must have at least some degree of FarmVille addiction, obsession, or at the least dedication that qualifies you as a FarmVille Freak .

So please answer and share with us . . .

Why are you a FarmVille Freak? Send your pictures, fan art, stories or whatever proof you have of being a FarmVille Freak to farmgoddess@farmvillefreak.com and we will feature them on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Horse Stable Not Producing!

UPDATE: This is a glitch that will be resolved when FarmVille “enhances” with tonight’s Updates. You will not have to do anything to restore the White Stallions functionality.

From FarmVille’s Community Manager, Grimwell:

“I’d like to thank everyone who has sent me their UID so far, and ask that nobody else does!
The development team has found the bug that is causing this issue with your stallions, and intend to have a fix for it later today. You will not have to do anything to restore functionality to your stallions, the update later today will care for it. Thank you for your patience, and special thanks to everyone who shared their ID’s so we could get a look!” (Source: Official FarmVille Forum)

Lots of FarmVille Freaks, such as FarmVille Freak Lisa, FarmVille Freak Julia, FarmVille Freak Pia, and FarmVille Freak Becky, among others are reporting that their White Stallions are no longer producing Foals!

As you know, the White Stallion was a special limited edition farm cash animal available only through a Mystery Box. Unlike other Wandering Stallions, the White Stallion is a permanent Horse Stable occupant and once purchased you are able to keep it forever. Owners of White Stallions have the advantage of being able to produce a Foal everyday. The ability to produce foals explains why the temporary “neutering” of White Stallions, has caused angry FarmVille Horse breeder enthusiasts and White Stallion owners.

We are waiting on an official response from Zynga and will keep you informed and updated as we learn more information about the questionable fertility of the White Stallion.

You can read some of our FarmVille Freak White Stallion owners’ user-submitted emails below:

“Hi FarmGoddess, After the introduction to the Beehives, I went on my farm to do my nightly ritual of horse breeding.  I have gone through 30 horses without any reproduction success (I would usually achieve one foal in every 3-5 horses).  Not only has this changed, but also the message that comes after you harvest your stable has changed (I have taken a screen shot & attached it for you to see).  For the past few days I have encountered issues while breeding (screen freezing, out of sync issues etc…).  I noticed that I used to collect a couple thousand coins each time I harvest without a Foal produced, but now the amount has gone down to about 168 coins.” – FarmVille Freak Lisa

“Hi, Since yesterday I can’t make foals in my stable. I have a White Stallion but it’s like he’s not there, I always got the message: “You didn’t find anything special in the stable, but you did earn 588 coins while tending to your horses. Tend to them again tomorrow for a chance to find something special.” Some people say the the White Stallions have been neutered. Have you heard something about this? I worried coz I paid farm cash for my Stallion… I paid to have the chance to make as many foals as I can in one day, this is not fair…” -FarmVille Freak Julia

“It seems they made changes to the harvest of Horse Stables, and make it like the Dairy Barns.You get no thank you and money anymore and rumors say you will only be able to harvest once a day. Maybe something to look into. As they release the black stallion (Gelding) in next mystery boxes, wonder what happen to the people who already have one. Regards.” -FarmVille Freak Pia”

“Can you find out what the problem is with our White Stallions not producing anymore…post something on your website plz….they are just like any other horse when you try to breed Foals…people on facebook wall are going crazy ” – FarmVille Freak Becky

Are you experiencing problems with your White Stallion, such as non-producing Foals?

FarmVille Beehives are here!

Lexilicious first told us about Bees coming to FarmVille in a FarmVille Podcast and tonight they finally made their debut to FarmVille.

FarmVille Beehive Notice

You will find one free Beehive in your FarmVille Gift Box. Placing it on your farm prompts more events, the first of which will allow you to share a notice via FaceBook newsfeed stating that you have started building your Beehive and that your FarmVille neighbors can send you free supplies. (All the free Beehive building supplies can be found here.)

FarmVille Beehive in Giftbox

FarmVille Congratulations Beehive Notice

Step 1: Build your Beehive

The Beehive and Bees will be a complex feature that will require you to first build your Beehive.

Building your Beehive will require the help of your neighbors similar to other buildings with purpose.You will need to collect 10 each of the following supplies to build your Bee Hive for a total of 50 supplies:

• Smoker (10)
• Bees Wax (10)
• Wooden Board (10)
• Brick (10)
• Nail (10)

FarmVille Honeybee Beehive Giftable

***Only two rotating Beehive gift supplies will be featured on the FarmVille Gifting Page at one moment. However, you can find all the supplies by using our handy FarmVille Freak Beehive Gifting Links located here.

You can obtain Beehive building supplies three ways:

1. For Free from your FarmVille neighbors via the Farmville Gifting Page.
2. Purchasing supplies directly from the FarmVille Market. (Supplies cost 1 FV$ each)
3. “Ask for More” option that you send to your selected neighbors. Use the “Ask For More” button, that is located when you “Look Inside” your Beehive and is found on each remaining supply icon.

Completing 10 of any building component will trigger the option to post a FaceBook newsfeed and allow you to share a supply with the first 10 of your neighbors during a 24 hour period. Reaching 25 items overall will allow you to share a newsfeed for a random building supply for your first 10 neighbors.Finally, completing your Beehive will also allow you to share a newsfeed for another building supply for the first 10 neighbors.

Step 2: Find or Purchase a Queen Bee & Build your Swarm of Bees

After completing your Beehive, you now have to build up your colony of Bees. Now that you have completed your Beehive, it is time to build a colony of bees. Before you can get started on your swarm of Bees you will need to find or purchase a rare Queen Bee.

Finding a Queen Bee (The Free Option):

• Queen Bees can be found when harvesting flower crops on your farm.
• Queen Bees can also be found when fertilizing flower crops on your Neighbor’s farms.
• If you find a Queen Bee you will receive a pop-up notifying you and the Queen Bee will automatically be added to your Beehive.
• You may only possess one Queen Bee per Beehive at any one time.
• If you find a Queen Bee and already are in possession of one, then you are allowed to share it via FaceBook newsfeed. Only one neighbor will be able to “adopt” the Queen Bee.

There are only 3 options for obtaining a Queen Bee for free:

1. Finding a Queen Bee on your farm when harvesting FLOWER crops.
2. Finding a Queen Bee when fertilizing a neighbor’s farm.
3. Adopting one via the FaceBook newsfeed share from a friend that has found a Queen Bee, but already possessed one

Purchasing a Queen Bee (Farm Cash):

• You may buy a Queen Bee from the Hive’s menu for 10 Farm Cash.

Step 3: Build your Colony of Bees

Once you have found your Queen Bee, at that point you can start producing your own swarm of Honeybees to pollinate your crops and receive special rewards!

Begin growing your colony by clicking “look inside” from your Hive’s menu.

Honeybees find pollinated seeds from fertilized crops. So, the more Honeybees that you own, the greater your chances of finding pollinated seeds.What is so special about Pollinated Seeds?

Pollinated seeds will be required to unlock special pollinated crops in the FarmVille Market! Pollinated crops have a higher chance at yielding bushels than normal crops do and Pollinated Crops’ bushels will last for 2 days.

Beehives can house a total of 200 Honeybees. In order to obtain Honeybees, you will have two options:

1. Purchasing Honeybees with Farm Cash

• You can purchase Honeybees from your Beehive’s menu by clicking on the “Buy Honeybees” button.
• 5 Honeybees can be purchased for 5 FV$ or farm cash

2. Honeybees as Gifts from Neighbors

• Your FarmVille neighbors can gift you Honeybees via the FarmVille Gifting Page.
• You may ask for Honeybees  by using the “Ask for Bees” button.

After placing the Bee Hive on the farm, most farmers experienced crashing and accessibility issues.

Zynga address the technical issue and suggests the following:

“Looking into a Placed Beehive Causes Screen to Lock

Description:
Clicking “Look Inside” from the menu on a placed beehive causes the screen to lock.

Status:
The cause of this issue has been identified to be browser related. If you clear your cache and reload FarmVille, you will no longer be impacted.

Workaround:
Clear your browser cache.

If you find your issue in this section, please refrain from creating additional threads unless otherwise specified in the description of the Bugs listed above.” (Source: FarmVille Official Forum)

If you do not know how to clear your internet cache or are unsure, you can consult the following helpful “How to Clear Cache” page.

WikiHow.com’s How to Clear Your Browser’s Cache

FarmVille Grimwell on Beehive Causing Screen Lock

With the release of the FarmVille Bee Hives and Bees, lots of FarmVille Freaks are reporting problems in FarmVille!

So far, we have numerous reports of FarmVille “freezing up”  or crashing after your Bee Hive is placed on your farm. Others are reporting that they cannot accept any of the Bee Hive Building supplies or are losing supplies in the process of acceptance or usage.

As with all new releases, there will be potential glitches that will need to be addressed. Stay tuned for more information regarding tonight’s update and technical issues.

FarmVille Bees are Here Loading Screen

Are you experiencing errors with the Bee Hive feature or with FarmVille tonight? If so, what is happening?

FarmVille Unreleased Red Biplane

This weekend, lots of FarmVille Freaks such as FarmVille Freak JacobK, FarmVille Freak Ben and  FarmVille Freak Gils,  reported that the cost of using the FarmVille Biplane seems to have changed.

FarmVille Freak Gils suggests that this is the new formula for the cost of using the Biplane below:

“Hi,
It looks like Zynga made an adjustment to the cost formula for using the biplane over the weekend.
I was able to check on two farms, new formula seems to be:

FV$ = roundup((p*d*3,5/1000)-1;0)
[p = number of plots, d = harvest duration]
Can this be accurate? Any other users experiencing this?
Regards,
-FarmVille Freak Nils”

and

“Hi I’m Ben I’m a Level 88 Farmville Freak and I was wondering if you have had any reports of people noticing a chance in the biplane formula. I ask because I have been using it for clovers, up until yesterday about 90 minutes into planting you could spend $1 FV to complete a little less than 500 plots.  Yesterday it took me to almost 75% to be able to only spend $1 FV on using the biplane. Thanks I love Farmville Freak it is the only FarmVille website I go to for my FV information.

Thanks,
FarmVille Freak Ben”

and

“Hey Farmville Freak, I am unsure who to send this to but I wanted to update you guys on the bi-plane formula. As everyone knows the bi-plane formula keeps changing. The basics of the formula that was reported on Farmville Freak is the same, however the hours have changed, now it is 1 Farmcash for the first 570 hours, then 1 additional farmcash for each 280-290 hours after that.  It seems that FV has varies the number of additional hours slightly for each additional dollar so that people cannot exactly guess the farmcash amount.

It goes 570 + 290 for the first two farm cash, then (this is from memory I can’t remember exactly) 282 + 286 + 300 for the next 3 farm cash.  Sorry I can’t give you an exact formula but this is approximate for everyone to understand.” – FarmVilleFreak JacobK

What do you think? Did you also notice that the cost of using the Biplane seems to have changed?

FarmVille Expand Your Farm Loading Screen

Ever wonder how FarmVille calculates the cost of land expansion?

Well, with the latest 26×26 land expansion being rolled out and currently available as a limited release, lots of farmers are wondering how the 2 million coins price tag for 26×26 land expansion is validated . Please note, not all farmers have access to the 26×26 expansion at this point. More users will gain access over the next few days and eventually everyone will have the 26×26 available in their FarmVille Market.

A FarmVille Freak came up with the following equation that FarmVille seems to have used for past, current, and future land expansions. He shared his equation via the official FarmVille Forum.

“I’ve done the math, and the current price formula for expansions is ridiculous. I have determined this:

14*14 —- 52 New Plots = 10,000 coins | ~192 coins per new plot
16×16 —- 60 New Plots = 25,000 coins | ~417 coins per new plot
18×18 —- 68 New Plots = 50,000 coins | ~735 coins per new plot
20×20 —- 76 New Plots = 75,000 coins | ~987 coins per new plot
22×22 —- 84 New Plots = 250,000 coins | ~2,976 coins per new plot
24×24 —- 92 New Plots = 500,000 coins | ~5,435 coins per new plot
26×26 —- 100 New Plots = 2,000,000 coins | 20,000 coins per new plot” (Ben MKM)

More details on the 26×26 Land Expansion:

• Can be purchased with 2 Million coins OR farm cash for 80 FV$.
• The coin option will require you to add 5 new FarmVille neighbors, unless you already have the maximum of 300 neighbors allowed.
• You must have a minimum of at least 35 FarmVille neighbors to purchase the expansion.
• Land Expansion is currently in a limited release, meaning only a certain percentage of farmers have access. FarmVille will be “slowly rolling out” the expansion to all players over the next few days.

How do you feel about the latest FarmVille Expansion? Is it too much? Does it matter? Will you purchase as soon as possible?