Of all the Zynga games on Facebook, Frontierville seems to be the most addictive. While the others burn hot for awhile, boredom eventually settles. So far that hasn't happened with Frontierville. Why?
There are a number of reasons for its lasting power. The biggest might be that it has nearly limitless missions to be completed, and some of them are quite hard to do. Others can take months to finish (depending on how many neighbors player has and/or how often he/she plays the game). Daily visits are required to keep up with asking friends for help. Yes, this game is very neighbor intensive, probably more than any other game on Facebook.com.
This means it probably isn't the best choice for a person new to Facebook who hasn't had enough time to make friends, without which player cannot advance in the game. Neighbors are required to unlock items in the Market, as well as acquiring items for the missions. If a player cannot find enough friends willing to play the game, there is a solution that many people try.
Create a Facebook account solely for playing games and then visit the Frontierville Help Forum and add other players who post their information. This helps everyone involved gain more neighbors, and you just might make some new friends in the process. If having a separate account would be too much to keep up with, create a special list for game friends and restrict access to these people. That way your personal information and photos will be protected against basic strangers.
Create a Frontier in the Old West
As far as the game itself, player starts with a plot of land, a few animals and a wagon. Trees and weeds must be cleared in order to make room for a frontier to be created from the ground up. Frames of buildings can be bought in the Market, and it takes wood and energy to erect them.
From there, numerous items must be collected to finish the building. These items cannot be purchased but must be acquired through friends. This is where it gets challenging. The more friends a player has, the faster he/she can advance in the game.
Frontierville Buildings Require a lot of Work to Finish
With every building that is bought, missions are assigned to each that enable the player to earn bonus items. Some of these items are better than others, but it increases interest in the game. When the missions require animals to be bought and sold, it's best to keep in mind that only adult animals can be sold.
The best trick for all the animals is to only feed them until they are adults. Then it's just a waste of energy to feed them, since they will not die from neglect. But the baby and young animals will not grow until they are fed enough. So feed them as often as possible to get them to adults. Then just leave them alone until a mission asks for a certain amount of those animals be sold or fed, or items are needed to complete a collection.
Keep a stock of at least a dozen of every animal until then. Buy one batch and grow them to adults before moving on to the next batch. Otherwise, it's a waste of energy. Keep in mind that certain collection items can only be awarded by feeding specific animals. When necessary, hire two friends to feed a batch of that animal until item shows up.
Buy Fruit Trees for Energy
Energy is used every time the player does anything on the homestead other than planting crops, though it does take energy to harvest them. Energy can be replenished by buying food in the market, harvesting fruit trees or by visiting neighbors. It will also recharge over time. It's best to use gifted food before buying in the market, since it is very hard to accumulate coins in the beginning of game play.
The best thing to do when starting game play is to visit at least 5 friends. 25 coins, 1 energy and 1 cloth are earned with each visit. Keep in mind that those cloths are constantly used in missions, so collect and save as many as you can.
Friends, Neighbors and Horseshoes
Luckily, many people play Frontierville, so it shouldn't be too hard to find neighbors, and subsequently earn the various rewards for visiting them. However, not everything can be earned in this way, so sometimes only Horseshoes will do.
Horseshoes are like Farmville Cash, for those familiar with that game. They enable the player to buy special items in the Market and/or buy items in the missions that cannot be acquired through neighbors. Zynga does sell them for real money, so it is important to hold onto them until they are needed. It is easy to feel tempted to buy some of them, especially when they go on sale.
Just remember that any money spent is wasted on a virtual game where you get nothing tangible in return. One horseshoe is earned with every level increase, so if enough are collected, items can be sparingly purchased without having to spend any hard earned cash. There is also the option to earn Horseshoes by participating companies, such as Netflix or Vistaprint.
Neighbors can Revive Withered Crops
Another neat aspect of Frontierville is that when crops die, they can be revived by a neighbor. So if a player forgets or can't get back in time, he/she can simply ask neighbors to help. The best thing about this is that they will sit in hibernation until player can return to accept the neighbor's help and then harvest the revived crops. So no coins are lost, which is very important in a game where they are hard to earn.
Hopefully these tips and tricks will help new players. There is more to share, but that will have to be provided in another article. Just be sure to visit as often as you can or trees, weeds and rocks will take over the frontier. Some other articles mistakenly state that animals will take over as well, but that's not true.
They only turn up if the player does something to trigger their entrance and then doesn't scare them away before leaving game play. Animals don't do any harm if they are left alone and some will even prevent others from showing up. More info on that will be provided in the next Frontierville article on dealing with these animals.
Judith Lee - Judith has been a writer for over two decades. She is also a blogger and book/movie reviewer.
