Gold is the super currency in this game. It allows you to:
build better buildings (fancy houses give 20% more workers, fertile fields give more product and nectar, fertile orchards give 50% more product and nectar, fancy decorations give more happiness)
buy many missing items – if you are short to upgrade, build, expand or send a contract, the balance can be bought with gold
skip product, construction and contract waiting time (product and construction are 3 gold/min, market is 8 gold/min)
buy cash, premium fertilizer, premium feed and dog bones
upgrade you external barn, add more frying pans and buy plans for the water tower and nursery
(Small amounts of gold are rewarded as part of game play. The bulk must be purchased with real money - see Acquiring Gold)
Every farm and farmer has a natural resting place. If you look at their farm, strategy, and how often they play, they will have a natural number of contracts per day (# of market points) and farm size (land).
The problem becomes that if you use gold (or seaweed) to advance your farm beyond it's natural resting spot, then you will need to keep using gold (or seaweed) to keep your farm there.
Lets say your farm naturally produces 80,000 market points per day. This is going to place you around Gold 2 or Gold 3. Lets suppose you Seaweed Fertilize 2 almonds, 4 apples and 3 peaches in a day to give yourself a competitive edge in the tournament. Those 95 seaweed fertilizer would give you an extra 11,000 market points (91,000/day). That would be enough to bump you up a tier to Gold 3 or Emerald 1. The catch is that your farms natural balance of 80,000 market points won't keep you there. If you want to maintain, you now need to spend 100 seaweed fertilizer per day just to stay where you are. Most farmers that spend to get ahead are not content to just more up one level, so further advancing will require more ongoing input.
You are either stuck buying seaweed (or premium fertilizer and "golding off" the production time – I haven't studied the best way to spend cash on expediting crops yet) or you have to be content returning to where your farm's natural balance is.
Land is even more fun. You can spend $5 on gold coupled with a 50% off sale and buy expansion 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19. Problem is that if you fill it (and who wouldn't) you won't have anywhere to put your ducks and peaches as you progress.
So you either need to:
preplan - which could include leaving some buildings at level 1 knowing you will bulldoze them, like an apple knowing it will become a peach, or a pig/field knowing it will become a duck
be patient and let your farm's natural balance catch up to where you can expand again
keep buying gold to further advance your farm. Land expansion #40 is $100 USD if bought at 50% off with wisely purchased gold. Take a moment to make sure you are sitting; #49 is at least $475 USD.
Strategically, I'm not opposed to front loading a farm. At the beginning, everything is cheap and $5 of well bought gold with a 50% sale can accelerate your farm. Extra house, pair of 6x6 upgradable decor, 2 cows, a field, 2 goats and an apple. Plan that the field becomes a duck and the cow becomes a peach. The extra workers from the field to duck conversion help you upgrade more. The extra livestock helps your co-op and builds a fertilizer reserve.
It is so easy to get ahead at the beginning... the hook is having to keep spending to stay there. That is why I recommend in my tips, that if you spend money on the game, invest in capital purchase that will always have a permanent impact on your farm. Invest in things you can't buy with a little hard work or time.
Once you upgrade your external barn, the extra storage is there for life. An extra frying pan can produce 25+ conchs of white fillets in a day with almost zero effort. The nursery will always produce premium and super feed. Fertile fields and orchards will always produce more product. Premium houses will always give you more workers. (Side note -> 6 levels of market xp bonus has the same impact as running a level 3 market tractor but doesn't require gas)
Seaweed is gone the second you use it and the benefit will not last more then a week. Skipping a 12 hour goat upgrade will get you 9 co-op points and $2500 in cheese sales if you can sell all that cheese at market. After that the value of the gold investment is pretty much nothing.
(There are times when a little push is smart, like trying to get a tournament tier for the one time rewards, finishing a lingering project or theme event, or skipping construction time on a upgrade to start a subsequent upgrade and save 50% of the purchase cost during a 50% of sale – spending 2,880 to skip saves 20,000 on the next upgrade)
I would define a good investment as one that you can say a month later “That gold got me this” and it is still contributing to your farm. I have growing gold coupled with tournament rewards and I can say it got me frying pans, fertile fields, a decoration (looks cool), water tower/nursery and external barn upgrades.
Yes, there are people that spend lots of money on this game. That isn't what this post is about. For those that do invest, I just want you to make informed decisions. All of the gold upgrade costs can be found here.
Disclosure – This game is my primary source of entertainment. I have 3 presents invested into this game and a $5 bucket package I got thanks to Google Opinions. The extra honey from a level 4 beehive will always contribute to my farm. If I had an income, I could handle spending $5-10 per month on this game to slowly upgrade my fertile fields and possibly ponder slowly changing my houses over to fancy.
Happy Farming! Smart
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