CastleVille is the Second Most Played Facebook Game Daily in 22 Days

If there's one takeaway from this, it's that 'Ville games still got it. Zynga's CastleVille has surpassed the likes of FarmVille, The Sims Social and Zynga Poker to become the second most played game daily on Facebook with 8.1 million returning every day. The game is now in the top five for monthly players, with 27.6 million, according to AppData. And it did it in just 22 days.

As a result, CastleVille is both faster and slower than CityVille was a year. The latter reached nearly as many monthly players in almost half the time, but didn't amass as many daily players as Zynga Dallas's new hotness did last month. For what it's worth, CastleVille is far stronger out of the gate where it counts: daily players, the best measure of how gripping a Facebook game is.

This explosive growth can be chalked up to a few factors, but one stands out the most: the Zynga fan base. CastleVille released to a pool of over 200 million able-handed social gamers practically twitching at the thought of a new game to play. Of course, Zynga took great advantage of this, employing several cross promotions across its existing stable of successful games. "Reach Level 5 in CastleVille and get a free Cow" ... or something like that.

That easily explains the burst of growth, but what is it about CastleVille that's drawing more players in than nearly all of Zynga's games? While the game is certainly the most robust, full-featured and gorgeous 'Ville game to date, it's still a 'Ville game. Could it simply be that it's new and shinier than the rest, or is the 'Ville formula really still the best way to approach social games?

Source: Games

CastleVille Beastie Lab Quests Everything You Need To Know

A new quest series has launched in your Kingdom in CastleVille, which sees Beasties trying to overrun your land (as usual). Now though, you'll really have a way to fight back by constructing the Beastie Lab through these quests. There are eight quests in all, and we're here with a guide to help you know what to expect and how to finish each one. Let's get started!

The Good Fight

Banish 2 Gloom Rats in your Kingdom

Visit 2 Neighbors

Tend 5 Buildings in your Neighbors' Kingdoms

This one's pretty simple. You can either complete tasks around your own Kingdom with the hope of randomly drawing out a Gloom Rat, or you can head into the market and purchase a Gloom Rat potion for just 5 Reputation points. As for the tending jobs, you'll need to actually collect from buildings - not just accelerate their progress - for them to count towards your five. When you finish this first quest, you'll receive 500 coins, 10 XP and two Gloom Rat Potions.

Weird Science

Buy a Beastie Lab

Construct the Beastie Lab

The Beastie Lab costs just 2,000 coins in the market, and can be constructed using three Wood Planks, 10 Stones and five Beakers. The Beakers come from asking your friends (via individual requests), or they can be earned at random by tending buildings in both your own and your neighbors' kingdoms. When you complete the Lab's construction, you'll finish this quest and will receive 1,000 coins and 20 XP.

Here, Beastie Beastie

Collect 6 Gloom Rat Tails

Craft 1 Rat Decoy

Place 1 Rat Decoy

The Rat Decoy can be crafted inside your newly constructed Beastie Lab. You'll need three Shells (earned by fishing), two Gloom Rat Tails (defeat Gloom Rats) and a block of Moldy Cheese (ask friends) to craft it. It takes 12 hours to complete, and afterwards can be placed in your kingdom as you do with any other item. When you complete this quest, you'll receive 1,000 coins and 20 XP.

Wolf's Bane

Ask friends for 4 Longbows

Craft 5 Silver Arrows

Use 2 Silver Arrows to Banish Gloom Wolves

The Longbows come from a general news post that asks your friends to send them to you. Meanwhile, the Silver Arrows are crafted inside your Beastie Lab, and can be thought of as Wood Clubs or another weapon that allow you to take off more health per energy point used to combat the Beasties in your Kingdom. A single Silver Arrow requires four Gloom Wolf Hair, two Silver Ore and two Arrowheads to craft. Arrowheads come from friends, or by tending flowers. A single Silver Arrow takes four hours to craft.

Morphing Time

Collect 3 Thief's Cloaks

Craft 4 Thief Morphers

Use 2 Thief Morphers on Gloom Thieves

Gloom Thief Potions can be purchased in the market for 10 Reputation Hearts each, and you'll have a chance to receive a Thief's Cloak when banishing them. The Thief Morphers, meanwhile, are crafted inside your Beastie Lab. You can use them from your inventory on extra Gloom Thieves to turn them into chickens. when you finish this quest, you'll receive 1,750 coins, 35 XP and a Alchemy Table decoration.

Clucked Up

Ask friends for 6 Chicken Feed

Tend 15 Chickens in your Neighbors' Kingdoms

Craft 3 Hard Boiled Eggs

Hard Boiled Eggs are crafted in your Kitchen using five Pails of Water and 10 Eggs each. You can get Eggs by tending your own adult Chickens. Finishing this quest gives you 1,000 coins and 20 XP.

Secret Ingredient

Ask friends for 6 Philosopher's Stones

Collect 8 Gloom Goblin Ears

Craft 5 Alchemist Powders

Even though you can earn the Alchemist Powders for free by simply helping out in your friends' Kingdoms, they can also be crafted within the Beastie Lab. The Gloom Goblin Ears, meanwhile, come from banishing Gloom Goblins. You can purchase their potions in the store for 12 Reputation Hearts each. When you complete this quest, you'll receive 1,750 coins and 35 XP.

WMBD

Have 15 Alchemist Powder to Make Beastie Bomb

Visit 10 Neighbors

Use Beastie Bomb

The Beastie Bomb is special item that will immediately banish all Beasties currently active in your kingdom. You'll craft one within your Beastie Lab. When you finish this final Beastie Lab quest, you'll receive 2,500 coins and 50 XP.

Source: Games

Build and expand the Sheep Pen - FarmVille English Countryside

One of the most hotly anticipated new features in the English Countryside expansion in FarmVille is the ability to breed sheep. You'll receive two free, plain white sheep (not specifically Ewes or Rams) for free when you start working on your second farm, but if you'd like to jump into Sheep Breeding itself, you'll first need to build the Sheep Pen in which to house them.

The Sheep Pen is available to purchase from the store for 5,000 coins. For that price, you'll receive just the frame, which must be built up with building materials: 10 each of Wooden Boards, Nails, and Bricks. Most of you will have saved up more than enough of these materials in preparation for your trip to England, but if not, you can meet us behind the break for a guide on how to earn more building ingredients, and how to continue your work on building the Sheep Pen.

Once you build the Sheep Pen, you'll have a new building that can hold 20 Sheep, Ewes, or Rams by default. This building can be expanded twice, adding 10 more storage slots with each expansion, to a total capacity of 40 sheep. Both of these expansion require more building ingredients for the last, but remember, expanding right now is an entirely voluntary process. Once you have room to store 20 sheep, you can freely use those extra building ingredients to build things like the Horse Stable or Garage.

If you choose to expand, your first expansion of the Sheep Pen requires 15 each of Wooden Boards, Nails, and Bricks, while the second (and final expansion as of this writing) requires 20 of each part.

Here's a rundown of where to get extra building ingredients, should you not have enough on hand (or have used them elsewhere):

- Purchase them for 1 Farm Cash each

- Click on the "Ask for Part" button and send individual requests to friends for ingredients

- Open Special Delivery Boxes which can contain the parts you need

- Look out for wall posts from your friends that share excess building parts as they complete their own buildings on their farm(s)

- Have friends send you these ingredients from the free gifts page

While you can use your Sheep Pen just a storage building, remember that you can also use it to breed sheep

Source: Games

FrontierVille English Countryside - Expand Your Farm With Surveyors

FrontierVille English Countryside - Expand Your Farm With Surveyors While you may be excited to make the trip to the English Countryside in FarmVille, keep in mind that you won't be landing in an area that's as large as the Home Farm size you may be used to. Luckily, there are six expansions ready for you in the game's store.

However, this isn't a process as simple as having a specific amount of neighbors and then unlocking them with coins. Each expansion is locked to you (at least the coin option is) until you can collect enough "Surveyors" to unlock the ability to purchase each particular expansion with coins. Your first farm expansion, for example, is called the "English Homestead," and it expands your second farm to the 14 x 14 size for 25,000 coins.

First, though, you'll need to ask two surveyors to help you. Meet us behind the break to see how to add Surveyors' help to your land and expand your farm to new sizes. To receive the help of Surveyors, you'll need to think of Surveyors as your friends. You'll be able to receive their help by clicking on the "Unlock" button on your next expansion and then clicking on the "Invite Friends" button to send out individual requests to friends, asking them to help you expand. In the image above, we've moved onto the second expansion, which requires six Surveyors in total.

This expansion takes the two Surveyors you gathered for the first expansion and simply adds to them. That is, you only need to have four additional friends help you in order to reach the full six. This means that the feature is cumulative, which should help you expand just a bit faster.

Once you collect the needed Surveyors for a particular expansion, you'll be able to purchase it as normal for coins (which increase with each expansion, just as the number of Surveyors increases). It will apparently take 20 Surveyors in total to unlock the final expansion currently available - the English Estate - but we'd imagine the coin price tag will be the issue to slow people down, rather than the number of Surveyors. Still 750,000 coins is much better than the multi-million coin price tags we've seen back in the Home Farm, so I guess we can't really complain.

Source: Games

15 New Crops to Plant and Master - FarmVille English Countryside

We've been bringing you FarmVille Sneak Peeks for the past few weeks concerning the unreleased crops that we thought would be releasing as part of the English Countryside expansion, and now we've found that 18 crops have officially launched in the game, many of which we correctly predicted.

The 15 crops are all labeled as "English Countryside" crops, and are available to view in your Home Farm's marketplace, but can't be planted. You'll have to make the trip to England yourself in order to plant and master these new crops. There are six new flowers here, some grains, vegetables, and even some tasty Black Tea that can be grown in this new market section. We have all of the details about these new crops for you behind the break.

Here's a look at the new crops in the English Countryside, in no particular order:

Black Tea: Plant for 50 coins. Harvest in 8 hours for 110 coins.
First star of mastery at 900 harvests.

Field Beans: Plant for 80 coins. Harvest in 16 hours for 210 coins.
First star at 600 harvests.

English Peas: Plant for 200 coins. Harvest in 12 hours for 290 coins.
First star at 750 harvests.

Radish: Plant for 90 coins. Harvest in 18 hours for 230 coins.
First star at 600 harvests.

Turnips: Plant for 160 coins. Harvest in 16 hours for 290 coins.
First star at 600 harvests.

Red Currant: Plant for 40 coins. Harvest in 4 hours for 75 coins.
First star at 1100 harvests.

Cornflower: Plant for 60 coins. Harvest in 16 hours for 110 coins.
First star at 600 harvests.

Foxglove: Plant for 101 coins. Harvest in 12 hours for 202 coins.
First star at 660 harvests.

English Roses: Plant for 125 coins. Harvest in 6 hours for 165 coins.
First star at 950 harvests.

Cara Potatoes: Plant for 250 coins. Harvest in 2 days for 620 coins.
First star at 450 harvests.

Barley: Plant for 80 coins. Harvest in 12 hours for 170 coins.
First star at 750 harvests.

Hops: Plant for 150 coins. Harvest in 10 hours for 220 coins.
First star at 780 harvests.

Pink Asters: Plant for 50 coins. Harvest in 1 day for 130 coins.
First star at 310 harvests.

Bluebells: Plant for 120 coins. Harvest in 12 hours for 210 coins.
First star at 850 harvests.

Spring Squill: Plant for 140 coins. Harvest in 12 hours for 220 coins.
First star at 780 harvests.

As you can see, these crops offer anywhere from 1-3 experience points per square planted, so while they may be relatively normal in that respect, it is nice to see some lower mastery requirements for the first star. Just how quickly these crops can truly be mastered, however, will be dependent on whether or not you choose to leave the English farm running, while your other farm is paused.

Source: Games

Building a Garage - FarmVille English Countryside

So, you've already spotted the broken Super Combine on your FarmVille English Countryside, but even after you repair it (check out our guide), do you really want to leave this fantastic three-in-one farm vehicle only capable of farming a 2x2 square area of land?

If not, you'll need to build a Garage, and luckily for you, a themed Garage has been released in the new English Countryside market. However, just like the Super Combine itself, it comes in a state of complete disrepair, and you'll need to rebuild it. Unlike the Super Combine, which was placed on your new farm by default, this is a building that must be purchased, even in its sorry state. The Garage Frame costs 50,000 coins to purchase from the store.

Once you purchase the frame, you'll have a building on your farm like the one in the image at the top of this post. To make the garage whole again (that is, make it functional), you'll need to collect a series of building parts - 10 each of Nails, Wooden Boards, and Bricks. Technically, you'll only need to collect 29 parts, as a Brick has been given to you for free.

If you didn't save up these 29 building ingredients in preparation for the launch of the English Countryside, or you've already used all of your saved parts on another building, here's a reminder of where you can find more.

- Click on the "Ask for More" button under any ingredient and send out individual requests for ingredients

- Purchase them from the store for 1 Farm Cash each

- Open Special Delivery Boxes which should give you the parts you need

- Ask your friends to send you these items from the game's free gifts page

- Look out for wall posts from friends that have completed building either their own Garage or other structures as they offer free building materials.

Building a Garage is the only way you'll be able to upgrade your Super Combine, or any other vehicles you may purchase in the future. It comes with a starting capacity of 20 Vehicles, and as of this writing, can't be expanded to hold more. However, unless you simply like to collect excess vehicles because of the way they look, the Super Combine is all you will ever need in terms of pure function.

Source: Games

A New Travelers Guide - FarmVille English Countryside Cheat and Trick

With FarmVille English Countryside (EC) inching closer, it's time to give you unsuspecting farmers a crash course in getting there for when the time comes. Well, at least we can tell what we know based on extensive previews from Zynga. We already know that Duke will crash land on your farm sometime soon, but now we have an even better idea of what to do once we touch down in England.

1. Fix and Send off the Airship

In order to fix Duke's Airship once it crashes, players will have to gather supplies from the farm. After fixing the Airship, you will be tasked with throwing a party. The party will function much like the New Year's Ball party did in the original FarmVille, so you will have to invite several guests to the shindig. Once you've reached the final level, you will have unlocked access to the English Countryside.

2. A not-so-easy landing

Once you arrive in EC, you'll be greeted by several characters including Lily, Duke and more. It will become immediately apparent that this expansion is far more story-driven than FarmVille ever has been. However, participating in the storyline isn't mandatory nor does is cost Energy. In fact, Energy doesn't exist in EC just as it doesn't in the original game. But we imagine you'll be enticed by the Goals' rewards to complete them.

3. Questing made easy

You should have by now noticed that EC is in shambles, and it's up to you to restore this decrepit farm to its former glory. This is done through the game's list of Goals that are represented through an interactive map. It's here that players will be able to track their progress, see what's ahead and their friends' position in the storyline in order to help them.

4. Almost everything will come with you

When you touch down in EC, take a look at your storage--it's not there! Don't be alarmed, this is intended, unfortunately. While your Gift Boxes are linked between games, your stored items are not. Players will likely receive most of their rewards in EC through the Gift Box, so that players have the choice of where to stick things like new decorations and Mastery signs.

Source: Games

Dairy Farm and Chicken Coop - FarmVille English Countryside

After you've likely spent all of your reserves of FarmVille building ingredients working on the Sheep Pen, Horse Stable, and Garage in the English Countryside, you'll be happy to know that two other animal buildings require no building materials whatsoever, giving you a break from the "building," as it were.

These two buildings are the Dairy Farm and the Chicken Coop, which are available to purchase in their completed forms from the English Countryside Marketplace. The Chicken Coop is the cheaper of the two buildings, costing 5,000 coins to purchase. It is limited to one Chicken Coop per user, meaning that in total, across both farms, you'll only be able to own two Chicken Coops - one on your Home Farm, and one in England.

Meet us behind the break for a further look at the Chicken Coop, and all of the details you need to know about the Dairy Farm.

The Chicken Coop comes with a Level 1, regular white Chicken when you purchase it, and has a total capacity of 20 Chickens by default. This can be expanded by clicking on the Chicken Coop, clicking on "Expand Storage," and then waiting for that familiar Storage Menu to appear on your screen.

From there, click on "Expand," and you'll post a news item to your wall, asking your friends to help you with your Barn Raising - you'll need 10 friends to help in a three day time period to expand the Chicken Coop from 20 to 40 Chickens in capacity. A second expansion is possible, taking the Chicken Coop to 60 Chickens in total.

The same expansion technique works for the Dairy Barn, but of course you'll have to purchase it first. This can be done in the game's store for 10,000 coins. As with Dairy Farms on your Home Farm, you aren't limited to just one Dairy Barn here, and can purchase more, if you feel the need to house more than the default of 20 Cows on your farm.

Unfortunately, the Dairy Farm does not come with an inhabitant for the purchase price, but there are some Cows available in the game's store right now - even some in the current English Countryside theme. Each time you expand the Dairy Barn, you'll be able to add 10 spaces for Cows in a single Dairy Farm, until you reach the maximum of 40.

Remember to keep a lookout for Mystery Eggs on your news feed to potentially receive free Chickens, and keep your Nursery Barn stocked with Calves to increase your chances of receiving Cows when they grow. Even if you receive Chickens and Cows on your Home Farm, they will go into your Gift Box and can easily be transferred to your English Countryside, and these new animals buildings.

Source: Games

Back to Basics Goals - FarmVille English Countryside

After you've completed the Village Faire goals in FarmVille's English Countryside, you'll be introduced to Henry, the Duke's son, who is desperately in love with Lucy, but has no idea how to be a good farmer! You'll need to help him out in Chapter 7 of the game's English Countryside storyline, so let's get right down to business, shall we?

The first quest is called Back to Basics, and it has you completing just two tasks, both of which can be done at the same time (should you have rebuilt your Super Combine, that is).

Plow 200 Plots

Harvest 200 English Peas

English Peas take 12 hours to grow, and can be planted for 200 coins per square. For finishing this goal, you'll receive 200 XP, five Fences and 2,500 coins.

Once you've taught Henry the basics of plowing and planting crops, you'll move onto the second goal, called Building Blocks, which teaches Henry about the various buildings on your farm.

Harvest your Chicken Coop Twice

Harvest your Horse Stable Twice

Craft Duke's Stout to Level 15

If you're reading our guide before unlocking these goals on your farm, this is as good of a warning as I could ever give you - start crafting all of the Duke's Stout that you can to make sure that you're at Level 15 before this quest launches, so as to not get stuck at this point. If you have finished all of the missions up to this point, then I hope you have a bunch of bushels on-hand to quickly get you through, as I sure don't. Finishing this goal gives you 200 XP, another five fences and 2,500 coins.

Goal three is called A Growing Concern, and it tasks you with teaching Henry some new tricks around the farm.

Achieve Level 1 Mastery of Field Beans

Complete the Amazing Aster Job

Use a Combine 50 Times

While the Field Beans and Combine tasks can be completed simultaneously (Field Beans are grown for 80 coins per square and take 16 hours to grow), the Amazing Aster task is a full co-op farming job that must be completed (or skipped with Farm Cash) before you can move on. The job asks you to harvest a whopping 1200 Pink Asters (which grows in one day) to finish, and you'll have two days to finish the job with friends to earn the Bronze medal. If you want to really challenge yourself, try for the Gold Medal, which is earned by finishing in under 19 hours.

For finishing this co-op mission, and the other two tasks, you'll receive 5,000 coins, 250 XP and 4 Flower Pots. This brings us to the end of Chapter 7, with a quest called Being Neighbourly. If you're a bit tired after completing all of these previous quests, I assure you - pushing on to the finish will be worth it.

Fertilize plots on neighbors' farms 40 times

Get 6 Testimonials

Expand to English Freehold

The English Freehold is the 18x18 farm expansion, which can be unlocked for 100,000 coins, should you have enough Surveyors to help you (just ask friends individually to help you expand). The Testimonials, meanwhile, are earned through a general news feed post. For finishing this final quest, you'll earn 500 XP, one Heather Knoll and - wait for it - you'll unlock Lush Soil for your Home Farm! As with Lush Soil on the English Countryside farms, you'll be able to earn extra bushels and crop mastery for farming on your Home Farm with this new Lush Soil. I told you it was worth it!

After all of this hard work has been completed, you'll once again be at a standstill in the English Countryside, until Zynga can release more goals. There's a lot of work ahead of us to get here though, so good luck as you make your way through these goals!



Source: Games

CityVille Chinese New Year Goals: Everything You Need to Know

Perhaps no other Facebook game has taken to the Chinese New Year celebration quite like CityVille. The game is full of themed content, including items in the store and a Red Envelope collection event, but if that's not enough for you, you can also complete a series of four Chinese New Year goals in your city.

Chinese New Year!
Ask for 12 Passports
Complete the Dignitary's House
Collect from 50 Businesses

The Dignitary's House is an actual house, even though it requires you to collect staff members to complete (like a community buildings). You'll need 12 friends to come help you out, and when you finish this home, your town will receive 500 citizens (this can be boosted to 980 through random moving van drops). Meanwhile, the Passports come from a general news item on your wall. When you complete this first goal, you'll receive the Dragon Statue, which offers just a 2% payout bonus.

Shanghai Bound!
Collect from 40 Shanghai Shipping Routes
Check into 10 Hotels
Collect 40 Red Lanterns

Red Lanterns are earned at random when collecting rent from homes, or you can ask friends for them. The Shanghai Shipping route takes just one hour to return, so at least reaching 40 in total won't be a terribly time-consuming process. When you finish this second goal, you'll earn five energy and 5,000 Goods.

Year of the Dragon!
Ask friends for 20 Paper Dragons
Collect 40 Red Fire Crackers
Collect from 30 Neighbor Residences

Again, the Red Fire Crackers come at random when collecting from homes, or you can ask your friends to send them to you. For finishing this goal, you'll receive 50,000 coins and five energy.

Boy Meets Girl
Collect from 50 Restaurants
Sent Tour Buses to 50 Neighbor Businesses
Send 50 Trains

Of course, you can send the quickest train you'd like, if you want to complete this goal as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you're in for quite a long stay with these goals. Once you complete this final goal (watch out - they are only available for a limited time), you'll receive the Lightning Firecrackers decoration.

There's no specific time limit for how long these goals will be available in CityVille, but if Zynga suddenly does place one on them in the game, we'll make sure to let you know.



Source: Games

FarmVille Tricks - Quickly Master Trees With Orchard Rotation

It's no question that the higher the level you reach in FarmVille, the less new things you have to work on. That is, by the time you reach level 75 and above, you've likely come to greatly understand bushels, crafting, animal breeding and the like, and might be looking for something else to occupy your time. I was in such a situation until I finally decided to hunker down and master the dozens of tree types that were quickly filling my Home Farm.

Sure, Tree Mastery has been around for some time now, but if you're only casually participating, or you delete more trees than you plant, you're missing out on a fine opportunity to expand your Mastery Sign collection by leaps and bounds. Luckily, there's a surefire way to master each tree much more quickly than if you had simply left the trees to grow on their own, harvesting them every two days (or less often) and then moving on, and this all has to do with your Orchards.

For those that have yet to undertake the Orchard Rotation trick to master trees in FarmVille, we've got a detailed guide on how to get you started. Just be warned - once you start, this addictive (yet admittedly time consuming) process might pull you in and you won't want to stop!

First and foremost, there are some ground rules to consider. Most importantly, the amount of time it will take you to master a particular tree will be greatly decreased by each individual Orchard you have. If you're going to undertake the Orchard Rotation strategy, you'll want to build as many Orchards as you have materials to build. I'd suggest having at least 10 on hand at all times, if you really want to earn the most bang for your proverbial buck.

From there, you'll need to make sure that your trees are organized. The best way to master trees is if you've been able to assort all of your trees in groups of like-species, so that all of your available trees can be used in this trick at the same time. To setup your farm, you'll want to place just one tree (either the type of tree you're trying to master, or some random species) into each Orchard, so that the overall Orchard becomes "ready" to harvest as normal. Place all of your desired trees to master in the first Orchard on a line, and then wait for everything to become "ready" to harvest before moving on.

Once your farm looks similar to the picture above (I keep each Orchards separate visually by placing incredibly different trees in each as the "starter" tree), you can begin. Each time your full set of Orchards is ready to harvest, click to harvest the Orchard that's full of your current active tree. If you're like me, you'll gain up to 19 individual mastery points with that single click. From there, do not harvest any of your other Orchards, but instead, remove all of the trees from the Orchard you just harvested, and place those trees into the next Orchard in the line (remember to leave one tree inside). Since you haven't harvested the second Orchard, these moved trees will instantly take on the "ready" status of the entire thing. Once full, harvest the second Orchard, earning another 19 points of mastery.

And so on and so forth the system goes. It's best to click slowly as you move trees from one Orchard to another, so that you don't accidentally harvest a ready Orchard before it's full (trust me, I've done it before, and losing all of those points is disappointing, to say the least). Once you've harvested every Orchard in your possession, you'll be pleased to know that you will have earned dozens or even hundreds of mastery points, all on a single type of tree, all within a single 10-15 minute session simply by following this plan.

Again, the more Orchards you have, and the more trees you have of that particular type, the more effective this strategy will be. We'd suggest even leaving some excess trees outside of your Orchard, if you have that many extras, so that they can continue to grow as normal (a few extra points never hurt, after all). In this way, you'll quickly find that you can take a tree that requires over 500 points to master, and whittle that point-earning process to a matter of a week or even just a few days (again, depending on the number of Orchards you own).

Orchard rotation may take up a lot of your free time, but with Orchards only becoming "ready" once every two days, those extra-long gameplay sessions don't have to take over your life. And as the mastery signs start piling up, I'm sure you'll agree that the process is worth the hassle. We can only hope that Zynga doesn't remove this "exploit" of sorts from the game to ruin our fun, but for now, take advantage of this great earning potential while you can!



Source: Games

FarmVille Wildlife Habitat Goals

What good is a feature in FarmVille without a new set of goals to go along with it? Actually, in the case of the Wildlife Habitat, I can see plenty of good uses for the building even without the goals, so we're in for an extra bonus now! A three-part goal series has launched on your farm this evening, which will be available for the next two weeks. Let's take a look at what you'll need to do to walk away with some pretty nice rewards.

The Stink of Success
Get 6 Eau De Skunks
Complete 1 WIldlife Habitat

Place one Baby Animal on your Farm
To complete the Wildlife Habitat, you'll need to collect 30 building ingredients, and you can find out more about that in our complete guide. As an extra note, you'll need to place a baby animal from the Wildlife Habitat for this to count, as Piglets and Lambs (while babies) don't seem to count for this particular task as of this writing. Finally, the Eau De Skunks can be earned by simply posting a news item on your wall asking for help. Finishing this first goal earns you the Silverback Skunk, 50 XP, five Animal Feed and 2,500 coins.

A Little Squirrely
Get 6 Squirrel Feeders
Harvest one Wildlife Habitat

Raise one Baby Animal
Again, the Squirrel Feeders can be earned by posting a general news item for all of your friends to see, while you'll need to use Animal Feed to raise one of your Baby Mystery Animals from within the Wildlife Habitat. Knocking this goal out will reward you with 50 XP, five Grey Squirrels (yes, five), five Animal Feed and 2,500 coins.

The Squirrel Whisperer
Get 6 Scritchy Brushes
Harvest 50 Vegetable Crops

Achieve Level 1 Mastery of the Grey Squirrel
And now, the reason for five Grey Squirrels in the last goal becomes clear. Remember to harvest these animals as often as you can to reach level one as quickly as possible. In the meantime, ask for the Scritchy Brushes by posting yet another item to your news feed for your friends to respond to. This is the final goal in the Wildlife Habitat series, and for finishing it, you'll earn 50 XP, an Ermine Stoat and 2,500 coins.

Again, these goals are only available for the next two weeks, but as plenty of animals are being given away in the process, I don't think we'll need much more incentive to finish them off quickly - at least I won't!



Source: Games

Revealed the FarmVille English Countryside

Zynga sure are the masters of teasing us without revealing too much of the nitty gritty information! Today, we have just a little more information about the new English Countryside that is coming soon to a FarmVille near you. A new fan page was set up for FarmVille English Countryside, which will be updated with sneak peeks and more information as the new location becomes available. So far, we know the following...

You're going to love the English Countryside! New land, new crops, and new adventures.

What does this mean? It certainly sounds like a second farm with an English theme to it. What else could "new land" mean? Players have been begging for a second farm for a very long time - could it be that FarmVille is finally releasing this long-awaited new feature? The fan page tell us to keep checking our farm for updates in the next week, so we could be finding out very more soon.



Source: Games

FarmVille Royal Wedding Party

While Enchanted Love decorations, animals, and buildings in FarmVille is one thing, you didn't really think Zynga was going to let the real-world Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton slip by without a grand event, did you? Of course not! That has been made clear this evening, as the "Royal Wedding Party" event has officially launched, allowing you to ask your friends to join in the party and earn some neat prizes.

To start, you'll see the pop-up above in your game when the Royal Wedding Party update has rolled around to your game. From there, you'll receive the Wedding Tent item for free. This Wedding Tent can be thought of as a more sophisticated version of the Party Barn released during the game's New Year's celebration, in that it's main purpose is to allow you a place to "store" your neighbors that come to your Royal Wedding Party.

Once you place the Wedding Tent, you'll need to start inviting your friends to come to the party - after all, what's a good wedding without tons of friends to share in the joyous occasion? From now until May 12 (when the "Royal Couple" arrives), you'll be able to collect up to 32 different guests in your party, and will unlock four different items along the way.

The breakdown of prizes is as follows:

4 Guests - Lover's Arch (a balloon archway)
8 Guests - Royal Crystal Tree (think the Wedding Tree but gold)
16 Guests - unlock the Majestic Roses crop in your market
32 Guests - Royal Steed

Note: the Majestic Roses take one full day to grow, and can be harvested for 145 coins per square. You'll gain 3 XP for each square you plant. They look exactly like the English Roses, although they're cream in color, rather than pink.

To add more friends to your party, you'll need to click on the "Invite Friends" button at the bottom of the above pop-up (click on the Wedding Tent and click on "Go to Party" to see this window), and then send individual requests to those FarmVille neighbors that you think would be most likely to help you.

As your guests RSVP, their avatars will show up alongside the red carpet inside your Wedding Tent, so you'll be able to keep track of exactly who has accepted and who hasn't. Once you reach each prize limit, your prize will automatically be added to your Gift Box, or will be available in the market, in the case of the Majestic Roses crop.

Again, after May 12, you won't be able to add any more guests to your party, so your best bet is to add friends quickly, while this event is still at the top of their minds. After May 12, the Wedding Tent will also become "storable," so you can reclaim that area on your farm after the event is finished.



Source: Games

FarmVille A Test of Wool Goal

Get it? Zynga replaced what would have been "will" with "wool" in this new FarmVille Goal. (We'll admit, we're pretty big fans of play on word tricks, so kudos.) In "A Test of Wool," the second of four goals in Part 4 of the English Countryside, farmers must help Angus the Sheep Breeder fine-tune his Sheep Breeding skills. And it's surprisingly easy to get the little bugger in tip top shape.

Make 3 Floral Scones in your Pub
Harvest your Sheep Pen once
Place a Lamb on your farm

See? We told you--easy peasy. To make three Floral Scones, you will need to stumble back into the Pub after mustering up two Bluebell Bushels, three Spring Squill Bushels and two Cornflower Bushels. Do this three times for a total of six Bluebells, nine Spring Squills and six Cornflowers. Oh, and each one will take six hours to cook in the Pub. You can also buy the Bushels from friends if you don't want to bother with planting.

A Test of Wool rewards

Don't worry, that was the hardest part. Just harvest your Sheep Pen once, place a Lamb on your farm (presumably from Breeding) and this Goal is complete. Finito. Done. And for your sort of hard work, enjoy 200 XP, a Wool Hat for your avatar and 2,500 Coins to throw around. Now, you can make it rain in the Pub in style.



Source: Games

FarmVille Blog Explains More About Sheep Breeding

While the basics of Sheep Breeding in FarmVille's English Countryside are fairly easy to understand (check out our full guide if you've yet to begin), the aspects concerning which traits are carried down from which parent are a bit more complicated. While the basic phrase of "pattern comes from the father and color comes from the mother" holds true to a point, there is a whole possibility for variation with each and ever Lamb that you breed. To help clarify matters, Zynga has posted "a bit more on sheep breeding" over on the official FarmVille Blog.

First, for those users that have been "unlucky" enough to receive the same gender of Lambs three times in a row, you are supposedly guaranteed to receive a Lamb of the opposite gender the next time around. Unfortunately, this seems to be a bit more like "wishful thinking" than an actual guarantee, as users like myself are now on our fourth or fifth Lambs, all of which have been one gender or another (in my case, all females).

This may just be because the "guarantee" has yet to roll out into the game's coding, so we'll give Zynga the benefit of the doubt here. In other news, Zynga says that while the patter does come from the "father alone," the colors of both the body and the pattern of each Lamb can actually come from both the father and the mother, which is entirely different from what the basic Sheep Breeding tutorial image claimed (that color came solely from the mother). In actuality, the color comes from both parents, and can deviate through a limited range of colors for variety. That is, in order to eliminate exactly identical sheep on your land.



Source: Games

CastleVille on Facebook in the next Ville

Games like FarmVille, FrontierVille and CityVille popularized the standard for what most Facebook games look and feel like. That said, Zynga Dallas's debut game, CastleVille, has massive shoes to fill as the fourth major 'Ville game. And after a look at the game, courtesy of Creative Director Bill Jackson, CastleVille's approach is clear: Sweat the small stuff.

When there's no need to reinvent the wheel, you simply make it smoother, give it more traction and maybe even a shiny rim. And along the way, you might happen upon something new entirely. CastleVille takes the tried and true formula of building your own sprawling property to manage and adds touches that competitors either haven't thought of or had the resources to muster. While we'd go with the latter, it's nevertheless impressive. "CastleVille, to us, is one of the most beautiful games that we've been able to create to date," Jackson gushes to us.

It's no joke. The first thing players will notice when they arrive in CastleVille is simply the visual fidelity. From the bright colors to the numerous points of animation in the characters and the environment this game is turned up to 11 when it comes to looks. These characters are far more defined than in any Zynga game to date, but so is the world. Jackson showed us what it looks like when you'll chop down trees in the game, and with each whack a tree wiggled and ultimately bowed before crashing down.

"When we were having some early players try the game, they expressed how much delight they had in building a kingdom and have it come to life like that," Jackson says. "And that really is one of the big aspirations of the game: Allow people to feel like the world is alive around them."

But there are other tricks up Zynga Dallas's sleeve to make the world of CastleVille feel alive, and again, it's the little things. Take quests, for instance: They no longer appear as simply icons on your screen, but the characters within the game world will provide you with your next goals. As quests progress the story in most recent Zynga games, they serve the same purpose in CastleVille. However, players choose where the story goes next by venturing into The Gloom, or the darkened area around their kingdoms.

Expansion in CastleVille--done by building up your castle and gaining the necessary Castle Points--is directly tied with the storyline in the game. This makes it more meaningful than simply purchasing land. That's because the characters that will provide you with your next quests are lost in The Gloom, though you can clearly see their silhouettes. It's your choice which characters you rescue first, and once you expand to that area, that character will have a host of new quests for you. (Of course, there are other goodies to find in The Gloom, too.) It's this feature alone that leads Jackson to think he's onto something.

"The story unfolds by my path, and which way I choose to explore the world will decide what I learn about the world and how the story actually works," Jackson tells us. "So, this is really much more common to a massively multiplayer role-playing game than it has been to the 'Ville series to date. I think what we're seeing with the evolution of the 'Ville series is really the first sign of what a massively multiplayer role-playing game for the masses might look like."

George the MinerWell, with this much of a focus on story and exploration tied to such high production values, maybe Zynga Dallas is onto something. If anything, CastleVille is telling of what future Facebook games might look like. That's especially thanks to, again, the little things, like seamless sharing. Because of what sounds like extended Facebook permissions allowed on the players' end, sharing general accomplishments and requests will no longer summon the hateful News Feed pop-up.

Other small tweaks to the tried and true 'Ville formula round out what looks to be not a revolutionary, but an evolutionary Facebook game. Reputation, or Hearts gained by visiting and helping friends, is no longer just a level, but a secondary currency. (Think Social Points in The Sims Social.) With it, players can buy new decorations and items, motivating players to help one another even more. And a collaborative item crafting system will have players playing together--asynchronously, of course--more than ever.

CastleVille ultimately doesn't do much to revolutionize the 'Ville or the social games genre, but it's the little steps it takes that could move the genre forward. Like, say, a soundtrack performed by a full choir and 75-piece orchestra. But really, that's just fluff compared to what Zynga Dallas is trying to accomplish at heart: To bring a Facebook game to life not just through fancy visuals, but the spirit of exploration all too common in traditional online games. Zynga tells us that CastleVille will launch in the coming weeks in a whopping 17 languages.



Sourc: Games.com

FarmVille Sheep Breeding Tip: Make Your Very Own Black Sheep with White Stars

If you've ventured into the unpredictable world of sheep breeding in the FarmVille English Countryside, you'll soon realize that it takes a dedicated craftsman to come up with some of the more rare mixed breeds of sheep out there. One of these elusive sheep is the black sheep with white stars, and FarmViller Korgly has come up with a visual guide on how to make your very own.

To get started, you will need Brutus the ram, a black ram, a schooled ewe and any star sheep. Then breed the various sheep as listed (click the image above to view a larger version). Of course, you might need to try more than once (or two or three times) to get the correct offspring, but Korgly says persistence will eventually be rewarded. Please note that we have not actually tested this formula, we're just trusting Korgly knows what he's talking about.



Source: Games

CityVille: More Chinese New Year Items Celebrate Asian Culture

As we predicted just a few short days ago, CityVille has received yet another update in the Chinese New Year theme, bringing five new items to the game's store. There's only one item here available for coins, rather than City Cash, but it's a fun house with a fairly large population (when considering the price), so it's worth taking a look at all the same. Here's a complete rundown of these five new items, which will be available in the game's store for the next two weeks.

Tai Chai Academy (Community Building)
Costs: 70 City Cash
Allows: 4,750 citizens added to maximum population cap

Woo House (Home)
Costs: 50 City Cash
Population: 1,000-1,960
Rent: 299 coins every 18 hours

Li's Lanterns (Business)
Costs: 35 City Cash
Requires: 283 Goods
Earns: 1,549 coins
Firework Display (Decoration)
Costs: 25 City Cash

Payout Bonus: 25% to surrounding homes and businesses; bonus 25% to Chinese theme

Chan Cottage (Home)
Costs: 20,000 coins
Population: 190-370
Rent: 234 coins every eight hours

If you're not interested in spending this much City Cash now, you can always hold out a few days to see if these items go on sale. Since they are technically associated with a holiday, it's possible that we'll see them placed on sale just as other holiday items often are before they're finally removed from the store. Still, don't depend on that happening as a guarantee. Either way, we'll make sure to let you know if this theme continues to grow with new items, so keep checking back with us!



Source: Games.com

Duke Airship Goals - FarmVille English Countryside

The Duke has finally arrived in FarmVille, but his landing wasn't exactly smooth. In fact, his airship is in tatters, so it's up to you to fix it and accept his offer of your very own farm in the English Countryside. This introductory set of Goals isn't terribly difficult, but to ensure you're ready to get to England as quickly as possible, join us behind the break for a detailed guide.

Duke's AirshipWhen the content becomes available to you in-game, a boy will point out something in the distance that's approaching fast. The game will then play a short cutscene displaying Duke's graceful entrance. Afterward, he'll offer you a deed to your new farm (how did these people find out about you?), but needs you to fix his airship if you're to make the trek across the pond. You'll immediately be put into placement mode, so place the airship down and begin tackling the first Goal:

1. Drop Anchor!: Buy 3 Crates from the Market and place them
Easy enough, right? Crates cost just 150 coins and yield 5 XP when placed. Once you purchase one Crate, you will remain in placement mode, meaning you don't have to access the Market to buy the next two Crates--just place two more. Once this Goal is complete, you'll earn a whopping 100 XP, 5 Farm Cash and 2500 coins. Zynga's being mighty generous for being on your out of the farm.

2. Cotton to It: Plant 50 Cotton
That's it, really. Just throw down 50 Cotton plants and, without even harvesting them, you'll have completed this Goal. However, this one will cost you 3,750 coins. Finish planting and you'll be rewarded with 100 XP, 1 Flag and another 2,500 coins.

3. Nice Supplies: Purchase 1 Cow from the Market
Couldn't these just be condensed into one Goal? Just buy the Cow from the Market and you will be rewarded with 250 XP, an Aviator's Cap and yet another 2,500 coins.

Duke's Airship Party

4. Bon Voyage Party:

0-3 neighbors: Unable to travel to England
4-14 neighbors: Depart in 4 days
15-34 neighbors: Depart in 2 days
35 neighbors: Depart right now

Finally, it's time to say goodbye to your old farm, but not without a send-off party. This could potentially be the biggest snag for people itching to get into FarmVille English Countryside. This Goal acts similar to the New Years party in that you'll need to add friends to your party for a meter to fill to the top. However, the time in which you'll have to wait for access to England is at stake. Add only up to three friends, and you won't even be able to go; add 4 to 14 and the wait time for your flight will be four days, and so on.

And yes, those days are in real time, meaning you'll have to wait another four days to enter the English Countryside expansion if you don't have more than 14 friends. Unfortunately, this is the only way to access this new content, so get into the forums, the FarmVille Facebook page or even the comments below to find more friends to colaborate with.

Once the timer reaches zero, a pop-up will appear guiding you to your new farm. Follow the instructions and you'll be in England in no time. To switch between farms, click on the small airship or home-shaped icons (depending on which farm you're currently in) on the upper righthand corner of the game screen. Now, you're ready to farm in England.



Source: Games