Note: Original guide by Three Rivers’ edited and revised by Jakets (Jake Smith).
Note 2: Time of post does not indicate actual time of post or last update, this is due to backdating posts for guides and other information to keep it off the front page.
This guide does NOT require you to log in to Farmville every four hours, or set your alarm for 3am so you can harvest those berries! It is aimed at the student or worker who can only log in a few times a day. For the purpose of this guide I will start at level 5, but first let’s lay some ground rules:
Rule 1: Forget about aesthetics. This is not about having a pretty farm. It’s all about leveling up!
Rule 2: Use all of your land for crops if possible. Put your gifts (trees and animals) around the back edges of your farm (where you can’t fit plots), and fill the rest or your farm with your crops. You can make your farm pretty and spread out your trees and animals later, once you’ve reached a level you are happy with (see Rule 1).
Rule 3: Save your coins, and expand your farm as soon and as often as you are able to. Make sure have sufficient neighbors to meet the requirements. A bigger farm = more plots = faster leveling!
Rule 4: Try to achieve your ribbons when you get a chance, but without sacrificing too much crop space. There are numerous other threads about how to achieve your ribbons quickly, so I won’t waste time on that here.
Rule 5: Visit your neighbors once a day – at least 20 of them if possible. This will earn you extra XP (5 for the first 20 visits, and 1 for every one after). Edit: with the introduction of fertilizer neighbors take on added importance. Every crop they fertilize earns you XP at harvest time, so get as many of your neighbors as you can to visit your farm daily, and return the favor.
Rule 6: Farm vehicles don’t save you many clicks because they run out of fuel after 150 plots. Plus they take up valuable crop space, so don’t bother buying them. Go green – farm by hand!
Rule 7: Remember Rule 1.
O.K. Now that we understand the rules, let’s look at our daily plan:
Levels 5 – 11
Daily routine:
1. Plant pumpkins (8 hour crop) in the morning before school / work
2. Harvest the pumpkins and plant strawberries (4 hour crop) as soon as you get home
3. Harvest the strawberries and plant pumpkins again before you go to bed
4. Visit your neighbors and fertilize their crops – hopefully they will return the favor
5. Repeat daily
6. On weekends, if you are around your computer, plant strawberries instead of pumpkins as often as you can.
If you ever need to plant a 24 hour crop because you will be away from your computer for a long time, plant soybeans.
Levels 12 – 16
Stick with the same plan as for levels 5-7. Don’t be tempted to move away from pumpkins and strawberries. Stick with them right through to level 16. Hopefully you will master those crops along the way and earn some bonus XP at harvesting time. The only change from levels 5-7 is that if you ever need to plant a 24 hour crop you can now plant peppers (available at level 12).
Levels 17 – 19
Switch to blueberries instead of strawberries. Blueberries will become one of your favorite crops. Other than that, follow the plan for levels 12-16. Getting sick of those pumpkins yet?
Levels 20 – 31
Finally you can move away from those pesky pumpkins! Now you can move on to tomatoes – a fantastic and (I think) underrated crop.
Daily routine:
1. Plant tomatoes in the morning before school / work
2. Harvest the tomatoes and plant blueberries as soon as you get home
3. Harvest the blueberries and plant tomatoes before you go to bed
4. Visit your neighbors and fertilize their crops
5. Repeat daily
6. On weekends, if you are around your computer, plant blueberries instead of tomatoes as often as you can.
If you ever need to plant a 24 hour crop because you will be away from your computer for a long time, you should plant grapes now. Stick with these crops and you will master them after a few weeks. That bonus XP will come in handy as the XP needed to move up at each level becomes a lot higher.
Level 32 onwards
You can try out the peas for a 24 hour crop (much better than grapes), but for XP stick with your mastered tomatoes and blueberries and that same daily routine you started at level 20. If you get bored with tomatoes and blueberries you could upgrade to sugar cane and blackberries but the extra coin is not really worth the switch – especially because of the time it will take you to master these new crops. XP is the aim here, not coins!
Power Leveling *
You can do some extra work to help level up if you have the time (and the inclination).
Tip 1 – the soybean delete method: This needs to be done straight after harvesting your crops, and it involves planting soybeans and deleting the plots straight away, and repeating that process. It costs you 30 coins per plot (15 to plow, 15 for the soybean seeds) and provides 3 XP (1 for plowing, 2 for sowing). So in essence is costs you 10 coins per 1 experience point, and involves a lot of clicking. Once you’re done, plant the crops in the above guide and you’re back on schedule.
Tip 2 – the hay bale drop and sell method: Just like the soybean delete method it involves a lot of clicks, and is simply a variation on the same theme. The hay bale drop and sell method involves buying yellow hay bales (for 100 coins each) from the market, and dropping them on your farm for 5 XP each. Then you sell them for 5 coins each. This equates to 19 coins per 1 experience point, so is almost double the cost of the soybean delete method. However, dropping hay bales can be done wherever you have space on your farm (no need to use up valuable crop space). You could do it along the edge of your crops for example, and you can drop heaps from one single purchase at the market. The painful part is selling them – that is where all the clicks become annoying. If you have cash to burn though, I think it is easier and faster than the soybean delete method.
* power leveling costs you coins, but since you are not wasting them on buildings and decorations you will have plenty to spend on power leveling. However, remember to keep enough coins to expand your farms as often and as soon as you can. More plots = faster leveling!
