This educational guide was not written by, endorsed or affiliated with Zynga, and is solely for educational purposes. FrontierVille is an interactive game where you carve out your own homestead in the wilderness.  Work with friends to chop and clear land, erect buildings, plant and tend crops, and even create your own family. With constant goals to keep you challenged this game is sure to please. GETTING STARTED *Tip – Don’t like your avatar design? Don’t worry, your choice doesn’t have to be permanent.  At any point in the game you can make changes by clicking on the “My Stuff” icon and selecting the Family Album.  In the Family Album select the Customize button under your avatar picture and make whichever changes you’d like. Frontier Jack Wondering what’s next?  Well your friendly neighbor Frontier Jack will direct you to your first task, the clearing of your fields.  Don’t get overwhelmed!  Just follow Jacks instructions and work at it a little at a time. Frontier Jack is going to continue to directed you throughout the game.  He will deliver your mail, offer you new challenges and give you a friendly “Yee Haw!” when you’ve completed a collection. Level-Up Frontier Jack was kind enough to plant a few crops just in time for your arrival.   It’s time to harvest your corn and tomatoes, feed those cute chicks and check your mail.  Now you have a little money in your pocket and some experience to boot! Surprise, you’ve made it to level two! Now that you have started the game it’s time to learn how to navigate through it.  The following  are instructions to help you find your way around your homestead and a few tips to help you keep your panties from bunching while you take on the wilds! * Tip- At each new level your energy is refilled and increased and you receive a horseshoe which you can use to make “special” purchases. NAVIGATING THE GAME Status Meter At the top of the screen you will see your stats.  Starting from the top left, the coins show how much money you have earned, the log is how many logs you have collected, the slice of pie is how much food you have, the lightning bolt shows the amount of energy you have used,  the star shows your experience in a level, and the horseshoe is another form of currency, the most rare kind.  Challenges will also appear on the top of your screen in a column under the horseshoe  with an icon that will stay there until the challenge is completed. With the exception of the horseshoes all of these items are dropped onto your screen when you either clear land or harvest animals or crops.  They must be collected or they will disappear.  The Excellent! meter will give you a coin bonus for picking up your booty quickly.  So click away as fast as you can to score extra cash. When you visit a neighbors homestead your status meter will change only slightly.  You will notice above that the energy meter has been replaced with a heart meter.  This heart meter tracks your reputation.  When tending a neighbors homestead you will earn coins, food, experience (you may also earn logs and bonuses for your collections),  and you will also earn a heart for each service.  Once your heart meter is full your “reputation” will go up one level and collect a large food bonus. Lower Menu Visit your neighbors homestead, hire them to work your homestead, or send out gifts all at the bottom of your screen.  Click on your neighbors picture for those options to appear.  To quickly view and send your neighbor a gift from their Wish List move your curser over their picture and their wish list appears.  Simply click on the item you would like to send them. *Tip – Hiring a neighbor is a great way to get some extra work done when you’re out of energy.  It will cost you 50 coins for each hire and it is money well spent.  The neighbor will complete 5 tasks for the 50.  But you are limited to hiring two neighbors each day. Gray Sub-Menu The triangle to the left will minimize/maximize the gray submenu.  The eye will lower the game resolution on your screen.  The speaker will mute miscellaneous game sounds such as animal noises. The musical note mutes the music. The magnifying glasses will zoom in and out while the two-squares icon will maximize the game into full screen mode. Selecting the Arrow icon will open another menu where you can choose to move, rotate, or sell your possessions.  To go back to your regular curser select the arrow again. Market Visit the Market to buy your must-need homestead items.
On the Special page is where limited or rare items are found to purchase.  But the cost is going to be high. Horseshoes are the currency used and they have to be either earned by leveling-up or actually purchased via credit card.  To buy more horseshoes select the blue Add Horseshoes button at the top of the  Market menu. By selecting the Crops button you can choose which crops you would like to plant.  The current options are: clover, tomatoes, pumpkin, potatoes, wheat, cotton, flax, corn, peas, peanuts, sunflowers, and eggplant.  An effective way to level-up often is to plant crops regularly and maintain a constant crop rotation. Under the Trees tab are the fruit trees available for purchase.  The present options include: cherry, apple, pear, peach, and apricot.  You may also purchase a fully grown pine or oak tree for horseshoes or immature ones for 350 coins.  You are probably thinking “why buy trees that grow automatically?”  The answer is that you have to have trees to grow trees.  If you have over-cleared your land no trees will grow.  Or if a neighbor has chopped down a tree that you particularly liked you may purchase a replacement (this has happened to me).  You may also earn these trees by completing certain collections or receive them as gifts from neighbors. Buy your animals under the animal tab.  The current choices are: chicken, goat, sheep, pig, cow, ox, mule, horse, and goose.  Again, all of these animals are also awarded by completing certain collections and may be received as gifts from neighbors. Under the Buildings tab you can purchase… you guessed it, buildings.  And that word is as it implies.  All buildings must be built.  There is a challenge in each structure.  You must use your energy to pound away on the building, the number of whacks depends on the kind of building. Once you are done building you must collect an assortment of tools.  The tools range from hand drills and bricks to paint and hammers, etc. All of these tools must be purchased or gifted… they are never awarded.  This makes completing the buildings a little difficult because you must have your neighbors participation.  I recommend sending daily requests and swindle deals if necessary!  The current building options are:  cabin, general store, barn, school house, inn, covered wagon, chicken coop, and sawmill. *Tip – As you level-up  there will be building challenges and sometimes even several of the same building. If you have already completed a building before the challenge has been set you will have to purchase another one and do it again.  I recommend waiting for the game to prompt you so that you don’t have to go through a building challenge without getting a bonus. * Tip- Keep a nice stockpile of tools.  You will always need them in a building challenge and some building require a lot. On the Decorations page you can purchase an assortment of items to spruce up your homestead.  Most of the items cost coins or logs but the best ones, of course, cost horseshoes. Many of these choices are really fun so save up your horseshoes and plan ahead.  It wouldn’t be a real homestead without an outhouse! Energy!  Ah, a must have.  Click on the energy tab to purchase your lightning in a meal.  A whole guide can be written about the best ways to gain and spend your energy.  But alas, I only have a few tips for you in this guide.  See below for an energy breakdown and a few tips to help you get the most out of your fuel. My Stuff Reach into your Gifts box to view what has just come in.  Don’t worry, if you were expecting to find something  and it’s not there it has probably been moved into your Inventory. The Inventory is where all your gifts, bonuses, and unused decorations can be found, gifted and used.  You can also add to your wish list of an item you already have by clicking on the green plus sign (+) right next to it.   Send your wish list to your wall  by selecting the Share button. There are so many Collections there are too many to list.  These collections can be really fun but some are harder to complete than others.  For example the groundhog collection.  When the groundhog pest arrives he must be beaten into submission.  This takes several whacks but when he’s good ‘n gone the award is usually coins and experience.  Occasionally however, you will also find a random treat.  Once all the treats are collected and the reward is traded in you will receive four extra energy.  I’ve been working on the groundhog collection for months and I still haven’t found the pumpkin rind. If this happens to you with any collection, just add the item to your wish list by selecting the green ( + ) sign and beg  your neighbors to share from their bounty. *Tip – By the way, it’s not necessary to clobber pests.  If they are in the way of your work just use the Move tool to pick up the crop or animal you want to harvest and move it away from the pests red zone.   This comes in handy when you first start playing and you have a great deal to accomplish with very little energy.  I have heard of players being able to move the pest to a new location but have never been able to do this myself. *Tip – Most neighbors can be lured into giving you a much needed item if a trade is on the table. Gifting Everyone loves to give gifts. Whether it’s a fun and decorative knick knack or something useful it is always a pleasure to give.  Practice the art of gift giving daily in FrontierVille! In fact, your neighbor is relying on you to provide certain gifts to help them progress through the game.  While your screen is minimized you can go to the Free Gifts tab to give one gift to each friend each day.  The current options include items such as energy in a meal, building materials, fruit trees, livestock, decorations, and even occasional items to help people with a challenge. * Tip- you may also send from your own abundance at your Inventory screen.  Select the present icon next to an item you would like to send and select which neighbor will be the lucky recipient. The Ink Pen and Spitball are examples of challenge items that can be gifted from the Free Gifts tab. Wish List Gifting Another way to bless your neighbor is to give them an item on their Wish List from your personal inventory.  You are not limited in giving away these items if you have them. There are a few ways to give according to a Wish List. 1. Move curser over neighbors avatar at the bottom of your screen.  Their Wish List will pop out.  If you have the item a SEND GIFT button appears under it. Select the SEND GIFT button and a menu prompts you to choose how many of the item you would like to send. 2. While checking your News Feed you may see a Wish List posting from a neighbor.  Select the Send Items link at the bottom of the request to see if you have any of the items to send.  This will redirect you to the My Neighbors tab in FrontierVille which is located on a the top of the screen while the game is minimized.  If you go to the My Neighbors tab through this route the only options visible will be that specific neighbors Wish List as seen below. 3. You may also go directly to the My Neighbors tab while your game is minimized to view all of your neighbors Wish Lists at once. *Tip – Be careful when gifting from your personal inventory. You may need those items for an up-coming challenge.  Keep your generosity to a minimum because some of these items are really hard to get your hands on. Neighbors In our privileged time our requests to our neighbors (if we even know them) may be to borrow a cup of sugar, or an egg or two.  Maybe you’ve gone out of town and asked your neighbor to keep an eye on the place.  FrontierVille is so much more interactive than our real life relationships with our neighbors.  In this game you rely on your neighbors not only to help out on your homestead, but for much needed items to make it through the game.  There are specific items that are only attainable when gifted from friends and there are also items locked until you reach a particular number of friends.  So make sure you find a good bunch and help each other out regularly. Since this game is relatively new there aren’t very many groups on Facebook dedicated to increasing your neighbors list. But the numbers are growing every day.  I found FrontierVille Friends group to be very helpful in expanding my neighbor list.  To find group add on pages: 1. Type “FrontierVille Add” into the Facebook search bar. 2. Choose a group with a large amount of members. 3. “Like” the page. 4. Post a message on wall. “FrontierVille daily player, please add me.”  or… 5. Start selecting group members and “friend” them with “FrontierVille” in the message. 6. Once you have made the new friends, make sure to Invite them to be your neighbor on the Invite tab. *Tip – Keep your Facebook Friends organized by categorizing them.  If you want to avoid communicating game questions on your wall you can send an Inbox Message just to your FrontierVille Neighbors. Creating Facebook Friends Lists 1. Select Friends on the left side of your screen while viewing your Facebook wall. 2. Choose Create a List at the top of the screen. 3. Name the list and click the friends to be added. ENERGY Energy is your most valuable resource!  And as I said before a whole guide could be written on energy strategy.  Early in the game it can be frustrating trying to accomplish anything with such a limited amount of energy. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your energy. Hire Neighbors Your land is overgrown with grass, wildflowers, trees and cactus and you must clear this land to make progress.  If you are short on time and patience you can still get work done. Hire a neighbor to harvest or clear. *Tip- Remember you are limited to hiring 2 neighbors each day, so wait until all your own resources are exhausted to use this feature. Meals Food is gained by harvesting animals and crops, and can be used to purchase meals in the Market. Meals will partially refill your energy meter, allowing you to continue working. Some of the various meals are:

MEAL	COST	ENERGY REFILL
Light Snack	36 Food	3
Breakfast	80 Food	7
Lunch	165 Food	15
Dinner	320 Food	30
7 Course Feast	600 Food	62
All You Can Eat	10 Horseshoes	Full Refill
Beef Jerky	30 Horseshoes	Full Refill + 3 (permanent increase)

*Tip – Don’t buy more energy than you need. For example, don’t buy a dinner that refills 30 energy when your max energy is 24. Meal Requests Hoard your gifted meals.  You may even send a group message to your neighbors requesting meals when you are not otherwise needing items for a challenge. * Tip- Check your wall regularly for neighbor posts for food  bonuses. Accept Neighbors Work Neighbors working your homestead can yield food and energy, both of which will contribute to your energy meter. * Tip – Make sure to use a little energy before accepting your neighbors work.  If your meter is full you cannot use the energy gained from your neighbors labor. Work Neighbors Homesteads By visiting a neighbors homestead you’ll receive energy points among other items. So make sure you visit all your neighbors every day. *Tip- Again, make sure you exhaust some of your energy before working a neighbors homestead.  Your meter must have a little drained to receive energies earned while working. Working Your Own Homestead Working  the your own homestead will very often yield extra energy. Whether your clearing out wildflowers, clobbering a snake or whacking at a building, a lightning bolt will sometimes pop out. * Tip- Peach trees frequently give off one energy when harvested.

*Tip – Placing decorations like barrels or shovels on your cleared land will stop grasses and wildflowers from re-growing.

Waiting One unit of energy is regained every five minutes. Therefore, the simplest way to reclaim a full meter is by taking a break from the game. Level-Up Leveling-up will completely refill your energy meter and add one permanently to your maximum level. Wall Posts Check your News Feed often because you can find food, energy, coin, experience, etc. off your friends’ Facebook wall posts.  Picking up some extra experience will help you get closer to leveling-up.