Farming Strategy on Farmville
If you are on Facebook, you have certainly been implored by a connection to join Mafia Wars or Farmville. I have, and I’ve joined both. Farmville’s interactivity is far more visual and engaging, so I actually spend time playing Farmville. Here are some thoughts on maximizing your returns from the game.
Neighbors
First off, Farmville is a pyramid scheme! You gain the most and progress the fastest by having a lot of ‘neighbors’. So, if you have a lot of friends playing Farmville (at least 6, better if you have 30), you are going to move really fast. You could of course choose to spend real money and buy virtual goods for real dollars. But I won’t go to that extent of fanaticism. Visiting Farmville twice a day is about as far as I’m willing to go.
So, you have reached the maximum capacity for enrolling your friends into Farmville. You have expanded your farm, and are reaping crops, gaining experience and banking coins. How do you know you are doing your best? Which crops are the best money earners? How do you optimize experience earning? Let’s delve into some tactics now.
Activities
You can gain a good bit of money and experience by earning ‘ribbons’. There are various kinds of ribbons associated with different achievements. You earn ribbons for helping your neighbors, making purchases at the market, planting varieties of crops, taking pictures of your neighbor’s farms, buying trinkets, etc. To maximize ribbon earning, some easy to do activities are:
- Visiting your neighbor’s farms once a day and helping them clear weeds, rake leaves, etc.
- Planting at least one patch of each new crop you gain access to at each level
- Buying at least one of each item you can afford at the market
- Taking pictures of your neighbor’s farm every so often
Don’t spend too much money on animals or trees since that doesn’t earn you any experience. The money you earn from the animals is pretty low yield, as it is from most trees (the exception is Acai, and you have to pay a more expensive exchange for it!). Sometimes, you will need cash to buy something. But most often, you want to earn experience points to keep moving up the ladder.
Crops
The most common task on Farmville will be planting and harvesting crops. Take a look at the chart below. It’s a mathematical analysis of return-on-investment on various crops.
| Crop | Cost | Maturity (hrs) | Payback | Experience | ROI/hr | Experience/hr | Exp to Profit Ratio |
| Strawberries | 10 | 4 | 35 | 1 | 6.2500 | 0.2500 | 0.0400 |
| Eggplant | 25 | 48 | 88 | 2 | 1.3125 | 0.04167 | 0.0317 |
| Wheat | 35 | 72 | 115 | 2 | 1.1111 | 0.02778 | 0.0250 |
| Soybean | 15 | 24 | 63 | 2 | 2.0000 | 0.08333 | 0.0417 |
| Squash | 40 | 48 | 121 | 2 | 1.6875 | 0.04167 | 0.0247 |
| Pumpkin | 30 | 8 | 68 | 1 | 4.7500 | 0.12500 | 0.0263 |
| Artichokes | 70 | 96 | 204 | 2 | 1.3958 | 0.02083 | 0.0149 |
| Rice | 45 | 12 | 96 | 1 | 4.2500 | 0.08333 | 0.0196 |
| Raspberries | 20 | 2 | 46 | 0 | 13.0000 | 0.00000 | 0.0000 |
| Cotton | 75 | 72 | 207 | 2 | 1.8333 | 0.02778 | 0.0152 |
If you want to earn money fast, look for highest ROI/hr values. If you want to earn experience fast, look at highest Experience/hr values. If you want to balance the 2, look for highest Experience to Profit Ratios. This table will keep expanding as I gain access to more crops, but for now, the winner are:
- Highest ROI: Raspberries. Catch: No experience, frequent tending (every 2 hrs)
- Highest Experience gain: Strawberries. Catch: Frequent tending (every 4 hrs)
- Best Balance: Soybean
About The Author
Many people overlook the fact that Raspberries, in fact, generate just as much experience as Strawberries. Each time you plow, you gain 1 experience point. Thus, planting Strawberries actually generates 2 exp every 4 hours, and planting Raspberries generates 1 exp every 2 hours. So if you are able to tend your farm frequently, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be planting Raspberries instead of Strawberries. It yields the same amount of experience with nearly twice the coin return.
interesting site,
i have been looking far too much into this game, i like to maximise success with little effort,
basically looking at the ROI/hr does not seem to take into account the 15, you spend for re-ploughing the area of land! therefiore the ROI/hr of the raspberries is only 5.5coins/hr. and even this is high, as it would be quite hard to do it 12 times in one day, you would probably end up spilling into the next day, but this is irrelevant, as it accounts for all crops. as the crops wont rotate immediatly after reaching 100% as it takes time to harvest, plough etc…
The crops which have a greater differnce “absorb” the 15 more readily and it doesnt affect the ROI/hr as much, as say the crops with a smaller difference. though i have not worked out the best crop, taking into account the 15 coine for re-ploghing (it probably will end up being the raspberries)
there many more crops than this though!
the area of the game where you gain levels is also quite important as this unlocks new crops, repectively!
having looked into this i have found that the bvest way to gain experience, quickly, without having to plant crops is to put in decorations! the best “experince to cost ratio” is the yellow hay, which is a 1:19 ratio, and is immediate! (not 1:20 as you can sell the hay for 5 coins) it is a hassle deleting the hay but it is quick experience!
any way get back to me on your thoughts
Mark Rambatino
You are wrong good sir. When you plow you get 1xp point, so since Resberries are ready within 2 hours, this means you plow twice in 4 hours – this is 2xp points.
This is identical to strawberries where you get 1 experience point to plow and 1 to seed every 4 hours.
Only difference is resberries have a much higher ROI