Facebook's FarmVille is one of those online games that can be played in lots of different ways. Some people are just happy to amble along with a small, neat farm. Most of us are pretty competitive, though, and like to accumulate XP (experience points) quickly to zoom through those levels.

There is no perfect way to do this but there are lots of ways of improving your game play and reaching those higher levels- and all the new crops that they unlock- faster.

Get yourself some Neighbors.

This is one of the most important things to do. The FarmVille makers deliberately designed this online game to reward social gamers.

Persuade friends or strangers to start up around you and you get a lot of benefits. You can expand your business more easily and own more land. Also you can help out on neighbor's places and get more XP and coins.

If you go into the Facebook's forums, you often see gamers begging for neighbors and some even promise many gifts in return. Other gamers just get to a good level then ask for invites from people at similar levels. The better the levels of your neighbors, the better the gifts they send.

You can also get a Local Celebrity Ribbon for adding many neighbors which translates into a big reward. If you take pics of all your neighbors you can get a Shutterbug Ribbon.

Facebooks forum:

http://te-in.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=101135361775&topic=10214#topic_top

Tractors and Fuel

I like my online games for free but anyone using a credit card gets definite advantages.

A tractor can be bought from the market just with coins. This will speed up the game but you get limilted free fuel every day. You can buy extra fuel with a credit card to get round this. If you buy an extra fuel tank it gives you 150 fuel but it won't fill up free on a daily basis. Once you have used all 150, you will need to buy again.

Some ways to rise through the game levels quicker.

Mixed Harvests or just one Crop at a time?

For a real FarmVille pro, achieving the right balance of crops, trees and animals is the essence of the game. This is a matter of experimenting with the crops available at each level. This is one reason FarmVille is fiendishly addictive- different levels need different fixes. You will have to study the tables like the ones down the page.

One approach that will work pretty well at every level is the quick turnover of harvests described below. Instead of mixing crops that give XP with crops that give coins, you just alternate between the two. One day you grow crops that give good coins, another day crops that give good XP. Of course, if you are topping up your FV-money with a credit card you can just go for the XP every time.

Quick Turnover Harvests

The faster you keep the plow, sow and harvest cycle turning over, the more coins and XP points you will accumulate. Also, the better the shape that your farm is in, the better it performs. So get all the farm upgrades that you can then add extra fields up to the maximum allowed. Planting and harvesting quickly will soon bring in the rewards.

To get XP

Say you have 240 fields (easily achievable). If you sow the cheap, quick harvesting plants (see list below)- the ones that can be harvested in a day and yield 2 XP, your total XP increase for that day will be 720, since:

Each field gives 1 XP= 240

Each field harvested gives 2 XP= 480

Total= 720. A good haul.

If you want to use the higher yielding crops that take longer before harvesting, do a little math to make sure you get the same return. Often, you just don't. On the other hand, slow growing crops may be essential if you can only visit your farm occasionally. Remember that they spoil if you miss the harvesting window.

How to Keep the FarmVille-Money Coming

You need to buy the seeds, pay for plowing etc so remember to plant good coin producing crops as soon as funds run low. Always keep something for expenses!

The crops that deliver most coins per hour are listed in the table at the bottom of the page.

If you see “Super Berries” in the market these will harvest in 2 hours and you can sell for 100 coins. Super Berries are usually only around for a day or two though. The last time was when FarmVille reached 5 million visitors, Worth watching out for.

Also, visit your neighbors farms regularly. If you are lucky, a pop up will ask if you want to do some weeding or other job. Filling in surveys, as described below, is boring but gives a steady stream of FV-cash.

Hay bales and Ribbons

Rich and want to level quickly? Buy hay bales. They will give you 5 XP each. Buy as many as you have room for, delete and buy more.

Buying hay bales also gives you a Pack Rat Ribbon pretty quickly. You can also get an Architect blue ribbon (with the same reward) by buying rest rooms.

Best Yielding Trees and Animals

Focus on the animals that yield a lot like Horses, Goats, Ducks and Rabbits (50 coins each). The best trees are Pomegranate, Banana and Passion fruit tree's (100 coins each).

Ask for these as gifts and avoid all the low yielding animals and trees.

Fertilizer

FarmVille's creators recently announced that they will be randomly selecting users to receive free bags of fertilizer. Crops that are given fertilizer will grow bigger and sparkle. They will also give extra XP's when harvested.

You can only apply the fertilizer to neighbor;s farms but you get a reward for doing this and you can also pick up a ribbon.

Gifts

The only real reason for asking for the whole range of gifts is to get a blue ribbon for unique gifts. You need 21 unique gifts in your box (not working on your farm) to qualify and get that game bonus.

Farmville Feeds from Friends

There are a lot of goodies to be picked up from friends. This is best seen in the video below.

FarmVille Cash

FarmVille cash is different to coins. It is signified by the notes symbol next to the coins at the top of the screen. Every time you go up a level you are given one more unit of FV-cash. You can also buy FV-cash online.

Another way to get more FV-cash is to fill in surveys on this facebook page facebook.com/onthefarm/ This can bring in a lot if you are quick (and maybe unscrupulous) in filling in forms.

What can you use these riches for? Well, there are some nice garden gnomes that you can buy for your farmyard plus a flamingo or two. Then are really useful things like seeds etc...

Knowing where you are going- Levels in FarmVille

The blog below has a list of the levels you can acheive, from Level 1 - 0XP - (Field Hand) to Level 70 - 437000XP (World Fair Champ).

How many people have acheived the maximum level? Well nobody has owned up to being such a gaming addict they have passed fifty (though I will take corrections on this). My own level is a sad 33 which makes me a Livestock Lord. I guess that is better than being an Udder King.

http://farmvillegame.blogspot.com/2009/09/farmville-levels.html

Automate FarmVille Using Scripts

Some of the tasks in FarmVille are pretty time consuming. Clicking a couple of hundred squares to plow, seed and harvest them can make those fingers ache. If you're good with computers you could automate the longer jobs like this with a script.

There is an interesting discussion here with a number of time saving scripts.

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=98544

Have I tried this myself? No. I like the slow way but if these things are what you want- why not use them?

If you want a truely comprehensive guide to FarmVille success you could try The FarmVille Secrets Guide. It shows you how to take the uncertainty out of Farmville, zoom through the levels, get those new crops quicker and enjoy your richer, ever more beautiful farm even more.

FarmVille Hacks and Cheats

I don't enjoy using cheats in any online game,- like I said before, I like the slow but engrossing play of normal games. The cheats/hacks and exploitations of software glitches are interesting to see in action though. There is a speed trick that you can see in the video above. If your avatar is trapped by signs or anything else (like hay bales) then any plowing, etc that you order is done instantly.

It's worth remembering that If you use any of the cheats you could find yourself banned for life from facebook's online games. Enjoy your farming!

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.......Crop..........................................XP................................Coins per Hour

• Tomato – 100 Coins – 8 Hours – 1Xp – 173 – 58 Coins – 7.25
• Sunflowers-- 135 Coins – 1 Day – 2Xp – 315 – 165 Coins – 6.875
• Coffee – 120 Coins – 16 Hours – 1Xp -- 243 – 108 Coins – 6.75
• Blackberries – 75 Coins – 4 Hours – 1Xp – 117 – 27 Coins – 6.75
• Blueberries – 50 Coins – 4 Hours – 1Xp – 91 – 26 Coins – 6.5
• Carrots – 110 Coins – 12 Hours – 1Xp – 200 – 75 Coins – 6.25
• Raspberries – 20 Coins – 2 Hours – 0Xp – 46 – 11 Coins – 5.5
• Broccoli – 200 Coins – 2 Days – 4Xp – 473 – 258 Coins – 5.375
• Cabbage – 140 Coins – 2 Days – 2Xp – 388 – 233 Coins – 4.85
• Red Wheat – 180 Coins – 3 Days – 2Xp – 449 – 254 Coins – 3.52
• Aloe Vera – 50 Coins – 6 Hours – 1Xp – 85 – 20 Coins -- 3.3
• Yellow Melon 205Coins – 4 Days – 2Xp -- 528 – 308 Coins – 3.208
• Peppers -- 70 Coins – 1 Day – 2Xp – 162 – 77 Coins – 3.2
• Rice – 45 Coins – 12 Hours 1Xp – 96 – 36 Coins – 3.0
• Corn – 150 Coins – 3 Days – 2Xp – 380 – 215 Coins – 2.98
• Pumpkins – 30 Coins – 8 hours – 1Xp – 68 – 23 Coins – 2.875
• Pineapples – 95 Coins-- 2 Days – 2Xp – 242 – 132 Coins – 2.75
• Potatoes – 135 Coins – 3 Days – 2Xp – 345 – 195 Coins – 2.7
• Strawberry – 10 Coins – 4 Hours – 1Xp – 35 – 10 Coins – 2.5
• Yellow Bell – 75 Coins – 2 Days – 2Xp – 198 – 108 Coins – 2.25
• Watermelons 130 Coins – 4 days – 2Xp -- 348 – 203 Coins – 2.11
• Cotton – 75 Coins – 3 Days – 2Xp – 207 – 117 Coins – 1.625
• Soybeans – 15 Coins – 1 Day – 2Xp – 63 – 33 Coins – 1.375
• Squash – 40 Coins – 2 Days – 2Xp – 121 – 66 Coins – 1.375
• Artichokes-- 70 Coins – 4 Days – 2Xp – 204 – 119 Coins – 1.23
• Eggplant – 25 Coins – 2 Days – 2Xp – 88 – 48 Coins – 1.0
• Wheat – 35 Coins – 3 Days – 2Xp – 115 – 65 Coins – 0.9