My Pioneer
You can change your Pioneer's appearance by visiting your Family Album in the My Stuff menu. To access the Family Album, click on the My Stuff button on the lower right portion of the game screen and then select Family Album in the My Stuff menu. When the Family Album menu appears you may select which avatar you wish to edit by clicking on the Customize button. This will display the avatar customize screen, where you can modify skin, eye color, facial features and clothing, as you did at the beginning of the game.
Walking
You can make your pioneer walk by clicking on the map with the Tend tool selected. In this mode you can tell your pioneer to walk anywhere on the screen by clicking on that location. The Tend tool can be used to select, chop, clear, plant, or harvest various items on your homestead. Dragging your mouse over items with this tool will reveal details about the item.
Planting and Harvesting
Once you have cleared enough land, it is time to plant some crops and trees. A selection of seeds and trees are located in the market. Each crop and fruit tree in the market will tell you how much it costs to plant and how long it will take to mature.Crops have a variety of maturation times ranging from 5 minutes to several days. When a crop matures, you must click on it to harvest. Harvesting crops rewards you with coins, food, and experience points. The wither time for a crop is twice what it takes to mature. Therefore, if a crop takes 1 hour to reach maturity, it will take 2 hours to wither after it reaches maturation. Once a crop has withered, you must clear or delete it. Clearing withered crops will not cost energy and will only yield half the initial coin investment.Fruit trees start as baby saplings at the beginning and require watering periodically until they reach the fully-grown state. When they are fully grown, fruit trees will produce fruit. Harvested fruit trees will reward you with food and sometimes energy! Fruit trees never wither, but harvesting them regularly will provide you with more food and energy.Lumber trees are available for purchase at the market. When a lumber tree becomes fully-grown, it may begin producing saplings. The larger the tree is, the more wood you can get for chopping it down! You can only use the move tool on small lumber trees.
Level and Experience
Actions like Plowing, Planting, Helping Friends, and Buying Frontier items (buildings, trees, animals) award experience points. As these points accumulate, your level increases and more items are unlocked.
Quests
Clicking on a quest icon, located on the left hand side of your game screen, will display details about your current quest. To complete a quest simply follow the instructions to meet the requirements. You will earn rewards when you meet that quests requirements! Questing is the only way to gain things such as a family.
Neighbors
Invite friends to be your neighbors by using the 'My Neighbors' tab or by clicking on the 'Add Neighbor' button on your friend bar. This button sends you to a page that allows you to send invitations for your friends to become neighbors. Your friend must accept the invitation in order to become your neighbor on FrontierVille. Having many neighbors will unlock many items and will allow you to visit more homesteads!
Visiting and Helping Neighbors
Neighbors are located on the friend bar at the bottom of the game screen. Clicking on a neighbor will open a menu that has the option to visit a friend. When visiting a friend you may help them with up to five actions on their homestead. Simply perform actions on your neighbor's homestead as you would on your own. When your neighbor returns they may even see your avatar on their homestead! This is a great way to earn extra coin and experience.
Hiring Friends
Every day you may hire up to two of your neighbors to perform tasks on your homestead. To hire a neighbor, click on their neighbor icon on the friend bar on the bottom portion of the game screen. After clicking the neighbor, select the hire button and pay the required coin. After you've paid the coin, you may now instantly tend a cluster of objects on your homestead! Neighbors with higher Reputation Levels will be able to tend more objects at once.
Reputation Level
You earn reputation points every time you tend an object on a neighbor's homestead. As you collect reputation points, you will increase your Reputation Level. A good reputation will make you more useful to friends that choose to hire you! It also lets you visit more friends each day and receive bonuses.
Gifting
You can receive gifts from your friends as well as send them gifts. To send a gift to a friend click on the 'Free Gift' tab or click on a friend's icon on your friend bar. You may also send a friend a gift by going to your inventory menu. Gifts can be items such as collectibles, trees and animals. Be sure to add the items you really want to have to your Wishlist so you can share it with your friends! Send your friends gifts often, and they'll be sure to return the favor!
Family
You can gain a spouse by completing various quests. You may also gain a child by completing quests but only after you have gained a spouse. If you wish to customize a family member simply go to the Family Album and click the customize button under the family member you wish to customize.
Varmints
Dangerous varmints have a habit of showing up when you're trying to work. Performing actions on the frontier leaves you at risk of snake, groundhog, or even bear attacks! Varmints will make certain objects red on your homestead. The red objects will cost an extra energy to clear, tend, chop or harvest. To remove a varmint from your homestead you have to attack it the required number of times or chase it outside your homestead border.
Finishing Buildings
Each building has its own requirements. You must collect all of the needed materials in order to finish a building. There are 2 phases for building; constructing and finishing. First you must purchase the foundation from the Market. Once you have placed the foundation on your Homestead, you'll need to start construction. The construction stage uses Wood and Energy. If you hover your mouse over the foundation you'll see how many Whacks you'll need to do and how much wood is needed for each whack; and each Whack is 1 energy.Once you have completed all the whacks for the construction stage you'll move to the finish stage. If you place your mouse over the construction, you'll be asked to 'Click to Finish'. Clicking will bring up the list of items you need to finish the building. If you don't have all the items needed to finish you may ask your neighbors to send the item to you, or you may purchase the item with Horseshoes.
Crafting Workbench
Every building has a crafting workbench menu where players may turn resources and items into new items that are required for quests and various tasks around the homestead. To access a crafting menu you must first own a building and then click on the "Go Inside" button on that building's context menu.
Resource Objects
Many actions you make, on any homestead, will result in resource objects dropping into the game world. Clicking on resource objects before they fade away will display a Bonus bar on the top right corner of your screen. Different kinds of resources fill up the Bonus bar at different rates. Each time the bonus bar fills, you get more and more coins! Plan carefully because as you build a larger bonus streak it becomes harder and harder to fill. Remember to do this quickly because if you wait too long you'll lose your steak bonus and will have to start over again.
Tend Tool
When you click on the arrow, you enter Tend mode. Now when you hover over a pine tree it will tell you how many chops you'll need to harvest the tree. You may also use the tool to make the selected avatar interact with trees, animals, crops, varmints, or buildings by clicking on the object. Some items, such as buildings, will activate a context menu with several options you may select. You may use the Tend tool to queue actions for your avatar to perform by clicking on multiple objects.
Move Tool
The Move tool will allow you to move buildings, decorations, animals, fruit trees, and crops around your homestead. To activate the Move tool you must first click on the Tend tool to activate the tool selection menu. When the tool selection menu appears, you may then select the Move tool from that menu. To deactivate the Move tool, simply click on the Tend tool.
Sell Tool
The Sell tool will allow you to sell or delete buildings, decorations, animals, fruit trees, and crops on your homestead. To activate the Delete tool to you must first click on the Tend tool to activate the tool selection menu. When the tool selection menu appears, you may then select the Delete tool from that menu. To deactivate the Sell tool, simply click on the Tend tool.
Rotate Tool
The Rotate tool will allow you to rotate buildings, decorations, and animals on your homestead. To activate the Rotate tool you must first click on the Tend tool to activate the tool selection menu. When the tool selection menu appears, you may then select the Rotate tool from that menu. To deactivate the Rotate tool, simply click on the Tend tool.
Cancel All Actions Tool
The Cancel All Actions tool can be used to cancel any action the avatar is either performing or is about to perform. If you accidentally queue an action for your avatar you may click the Cancel All Actions tool and the avatar will not perform the action. The Cancel All Actions tool is located on the bottom right portion of the game screen.
Market Menu
Click the Market Icon to open the Market menu.
You can purchase a variety of items from the Market menu:
Seeds
Purchasing seeds is the first step when planting crops. Crops have various costs, maturity times, and payouts.
Trees
Fruit and lumber trees are available in their sapling states. Fruit trees require periodic watering to reach full maturity while lumber trees will grow on their own. Like crops, all trees take various amounts of time to reach another maturity state. Trees will not wither. Only fruit trees are sellable, lumber trees require chopping.
Animals
Animals are available in their youngest states. Animals require periodic tending for them to grow. After you tend the animal a certain number of times, they will grow larger until they are fully-grown. You must sell animals using the Sell tool to remove them from your homestead.
Buildings
Buildings are required for many quests. Finishing buildings unlock new game features! To get a building you must first purchase a foundation and work on it. When a building has a complete framework, you must ask your friends to help you finish. After enough friends have helped, your building will be complete! Completed buildings allow you to collect daily bonuses and unlock new craftable items!
Decorations
Decorations are objects you place on your homestead to make it your own personal space. Decorations award you with experience when purchased and some are required to complete quests.
Meals
Meals are items that you purchase to replenish your energy. Meals can be purchased using food or horseshoes.
My Stuff Menu
The My Stuff menu is located on the bottom right portion of your game screen. You will have access to other important game menus within the My Stuff menu.
Inventory
The Inventory menu is a place to keep accepted gifts and rewards gained from quests. The Inventory menu is also a place to add items to your Wishlist.
Collections
The Collection menu is where you go to see your progression in completing collections. You gain collectible items by performing most tasks on your homestead. A collection is complete when you own all items within a collection. Turning in a collection will give you special rewards. Be sure to add collectibles you need to your Wishlist!
Gifts
The Gifts menu is where you go to view the gifts received from friends. Remember to send them a thank you gift by clicking the "Send Free Thank You" button.
Family Album
The Family Album is where avatar customization takes place for the whole family! When your family's size increases be sure to check the Family Album to customize the avatar.
Options
Mute Sounds.
Turn on/off sound.
Mute Music.
Turn on/off music.
Toggle Graphics Quality.
Turn on/off anti-aliasing. (Lower quality graphics)
Zoom In
Make the game world larger.
Zoom Out
Make the game world smaller.
Full Screen
Toggle Full Screen Mode.
