As we told you earlier today, CastleVille is now live on Facebook, but before you head straight into Zynga's newest Facebook game in this medieval land of castles, make sure to check out our getting started guide below, bringing you a preview of the first 10 Quests you'll encounter in the game. Through it, you'll be able to learn the in's and out's of CastleVille's basic gameplay mechanics, and will be ready to venture off into the Gloom by yourself!
CastleVille starts with you being allowed to customize your avatar (choosing gender, facial / hair features, clothing and color) and then introduces you to Duke, your computer-controlled neighbor, and Yvette, your kingdom's first citizen. They're being attacked by Gloom Rats, a kind of Beastie that has become a drain on the land. Duke rules the kingdom next to yours, and he offers you this spot of land to create your own kingdom. First things first, Yvette wants to actually place some roots in your town, so you'll need to give her a place to live. And so begins your first quest in CastleVille.
Raise the Roof
Find a good location and place Yvette's House
Gather materials to build the house
Build Yvette's house to add her to your kingdom
Yvette's House (well, the base of it anyway) is found in your inventory, the small rucksack in the bottom right corner of the gameplay screen. For this quest, the game will automatically highlight the item in your inventory, but all other buildings will be found manually in the "Buildings" tab of your inventory proper.
Once you've placed the base, you'll need to collect five each of Stones and Wood Logs to build it. Stones come from mining the various rocks or rock piles that sit on your land, while Wood Logs come from chopping trees. Note that there is no requirement to ask your friends for anything here; the 10 items can be gathered by yourself. Gather those 10 items and you'll complete Yvette's House, thus completing this quest and opening up the ability to claim coins in taxes every so often from the home. You'll also receive 500 gold (coins) and 4 experience points for finishing the quest.
Sticks and Stones
Gather 5 Wood Logs by chopping Trees
Gather 5 Stones by mining Rocks
As soon as you receive the quest above, to build Yvette's house, Duke will come around with a quest of his own, which is a redundant one, asking you to collect the same building materials for Yvette's house as you were already planning to. To be specific, you'll complete both this quest and Yvette's home with the same 10 materials, so this just serves as a bonus opportunity for experience points. You'll receive 250 gold and 3 experience points for finishing this quest.
Tax Yvette's House for coins
As soon as you finish building Yvette's home, it will instantly be ready to be taxed - how convenient! Click on it to receive some coins in tax, and to finish this quest, giving you 250 coins and 3 XP. You can tax Yvette's House once every 30 minutes from there on in.
Get Plucky
Buy 4 Chickens
Feed 4 Chickens
This quest must be activated manually by clicking on Yvette. Chickens are available in the game's market (the cornucopia symbol in the bottom right corner of the gameplay screen), under the Nature tab (the evergreen tree). Each chicken costs 250 coins, and they're relatively free roaming, once you place them on your land. A yellow arrow will appear above an animal's head when they're ready to be fed (think of the system in Pioneer Trail), and you can simply click on these four chickens immediately after you've purchased them to feed them. You'll earn 500 coins and 4 XP for finishing this quest.
Visit your new neighbor the Duke
Banish the invading Beastie
Earn 5 Reputation by helping your new neighbor
You'll be forced to Duke's kingdom as part of the in-game tutorial, and once there, will need to kill a Gloom Rat that has invaded. You'll be able to spend five friend-visit energy in your neighbors' kingdoms each time you visit to earn reputation hearts, so while you're here, go ahead and click on some animals or buildings to earn five hearts for this quest. You'll receive 500 coins and 4XP for finishing this quest. At this point, if you've followed our guide and haven't strayed, you should reach Level 3.
No Bull
Buy 2 Cows
Feed 2 Cows in your Kingdom
Spend Reputation Hearts to buy a Large Trough for your thirsty animals
Cows can be purchased from the market in the same way that you purchased the Chickens above. Each cow costs 750 coins, but so long as you haven't ventured away from the guide and spent everything, you'll have more than enough coins at this point to purchase two. Again, these animals are ready to feed instantly, so look for the yellow arrows on their heads, and click on them to feed.
For the Large Trough, you'll be introduced to the fact that Reputation Hearts don't just serve as another form of XP, but also act as a currency, allowing you to purchase some exclusive items in the store (think Social Points in the Sims Social). The Large Trough costs 5 Reputation Hearts, which you earned from visiting Duke above. You'll receive 500 coins, 4 XP and a bag of Animal Treats for finishing this quest.
A Noble Beginning
Place 5 Rubble Walls to enhance your Castle
Get your Castle to Level 10 so you can explore
As you build your castle, you'll need to venture out into the Gloom, or the dark gray areas that surround your kingdom. Exploring the gloom is the same thing as "land expansions" here, but you'll need to level up your castle itself (not your in-game character) to be able to explore further and further out into the Gloom. As the Gloom is inhabited by all sorts of nasty Beasties, you'll need more and more defenses in your kingdom to allow for further exploration. While your kingdom starts at a level of 6, purchasing those 5 Rubble Walls from the store (each costs 200 coins, and is found under the "Decor" section) will get you up to level 11. You'll receive 250 coins and 3 XP for finishing this quest.
Rescue Rafael from the Gloom
You will have already been shown Rafael's location on the map, as you can see his silhouette on the right side of your Kingdom. To explore that section of the Gloom, or expand your land, you'll need to simply click on this square to see a pop-up showing you the requirements to do so. You'll need the aforementioned Level 10 castle, along with two Crystals and 1000 coins, which you already have on hand. You'll receive 250 coins, 3 XP and another Crystal for completing this quest. You'll also receive that new chunk of land to expand your kingdom into automatically. Rafael will also become a potential citizen in your kingdom.
From Gloom to Bloom
Place 5 Flowers
Feed 3 Animals
Clear 2 Rocks
This quest is pretty straightforward, and will likely be representative of further quests we'll receive in the game. Flowers can be purchased from the game's store (Passion Flowers, for instance, cost 200 coins each), while, again, you'll just need to wait for the yellow arrows to appear above animals' heads to know that they're ready to be fed.
Chickens are ready to be fed once every nine minutes, for the sake of argument, or you could also purchase new animals from the store for instant progress (but more expense). For the rock requirement, some rocks take eight energy to remove, while others require just four. Keep that in mind if you're looking to save energy. you'll earn 500 coins and 4 XP for finishing off this quest.
Place the house foundation for your new subject
Build Rafael's House to add him to your kingdom
Tax Rafael's House
As we said above, once you venture out into the Gloom for the first time, you'll come back with a new character - Rafael, the Romancer - who needs a place to live. You've been given his home, just as you were given Yvette's, and can place the base where you'd like. You'll need eight each of Stones and Wood Logs to finish his home, so just go mine some rocks and chop into enough trees to be able to finish its construction. After you've completed Rafael's Home, you'll be able to immediately collect its taxes, thus finishing this 10th quest in the game, and giving you 500 coins and 4 XP. For the record, you can collect further taxes from Rafael's House every 30 minutes.
And there you have it! A complete guide to what to expect from the first 10 quests, and the first three levels of Zynga's new Facebook game CastleVille. From this point, you'll be introduced to even more characters - like Alistair, a powerful wizard - and more Beasties like wild wolves. You'll be able to continue to build up your castle in size and defenses, and visit your friends to share in on the fun. Make sure to keep checking back with us as we bright you continued coverage surrounding Zynga's new game, but for now, why not try out CastleVille for yourself?
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