The Golden Railway!

It's Pioneer times which means it's a time of innovation and new technology, including the widespread birth of the Railroad!

So why should you be left out of the fun? Especially when your older brother Jasper is coming into town to enlist your help in a shiny little adventure called the Gold Rush! (there's signpost two down!)

It all starts with a letter from Jasper needing some assistance after putting all his money into the Gold Rush... and he just needs you to build yourself a railway station so he can roll into town...

This kicks off a four mission thread (all details HERE) and the exciting storyline of creating your own Railway station... but don't worry about room, this time we get something to keep OFF the homestead!

This special area will appear above the top right of your stead, right now it's empty land but with a little bit of work (see the Crafting Guide HERE for full details) you'll be rocking along and making your very own Grand Central stop on the burgeoning Frontier Railroad network!

Once you're done you'll be able to collect the Railroad bonus for special building materials, decorations and animals being transported in each day on cargo trains and get parts for the Railroad Collection with a generous reward of 300XP and a Granny Gut Punch...

But, finally, the most exciting of all... The railroad is only the first step on the road to Gold Rush! A new expansion land where we can go mining like true Pioneer Panhandlers!

So get them sleepers down and let the smoky iron horse in... We've got a bright future ahead...

It's A Date!

Doesn't time fly when you're in love?!

It certainly doesn't seem like a year ago we were building the Chapel of Love and setting Fanny and Hank on the road to matrimonial happiness but it was!

Now the year is over Hank is determined to make the anniversary date a good one... but as we all know poor Hank is fairly useless when it comes to doing anything and always needs our help (frankly I'm amazed they managed the conception, what a mission thread THAT would have been...) and we'll soon be up to our leather belts in date related madness!

The first thing you'll spot is a new area of land off to the right hand side in the usual "bonus land" area, this is where the date's going to be.

As you work through the missions (all details HERE) the area will get more and more romantic as you clean up the lake, build a gazebo, get Fanny all purdied up, help cook the food and finally run off and get the bunch of flowers the great eejit Hank SHOULD have bought! (But hey, it's not like he owns the store or anything...)

The missions will also involve a fair bit of crafting in a number of different screens:

Fixing Up The Lake:

Preparing Fanny:

Gussy Fanny Up:

Finishing Touches:

The items will be a mix of homestead duties, other crafting, requests and mission rewards, for all the details go HERE.

And finally we'll be seeing two new free gifts...

And, along with those two, another item to buy in the market, unlocking as we go through!

So... best make it a good one for them!

Favour-ite Boredom Busters

When it comes to a thriving Pioneer Town there's always something to keep everything flowing smoothly and all the coffers full... but it's fair to say sometimes we need a little prod to remember to do those simple tasks that will stop anyone from being bored in such a busy part of the Frontier.

Well, worry no more because your neighbours will soon be getting a place to remind you of the things they want a hand with and trust me, you'll be shocked at just how much they can come up with for you to do... after all, as Granny says:

"Idle Hands are Naughty Hands."

First things first, we need a place for our townspeople to ask for your help, they can just grab you as you wander around your stead but they'll also post messages asking for things on the new Bulletin Board...

As usual the Bulletin Board takes 6 different materials in a format we know all too well by now, it's a very small footprint though.

Once it's up and running... Let the missions begin! It all starts off with one OVERVIEW MISSION (With a handful of Horseshoes as the prize) which WILL appear in your normal missions list.

After that you need to keep your eye out for new Favour Missions by clicking on the Bulletin board itself or checking for icons over the various townsfolks head, they'll get two new icons depending on whether they have a Favour to ask or if you're currently doing a Favour for them...

Now, here comes the slightly amazing, slightly scary and extremely mindbending bit.

The word being bandied around for these missions is "dynamic", but what does that mean for us... well, it means that the missions aren't set, aren't the same for everyone and aren't locked in to a certain order.

In fact, prepare to bend your mind with this one... due to all the different factors, according to Zynga there are approximately 120'000 different mission variations...

Let me just say that again... One hundred and twenty THOUSAND different missions we can be asked to do.

Let's just say I think the phrase "I'm bored" might just be a thing of the past, eh?

PLEASE NOTE: These missions will NOT replace traditional mission threads, they're a bonus for when times are quiet or you're waiting on stuff to grow. The usual mission threads will STILL happen.

Obviously it also means it's impossible to provide mission info so here is what we do know from some examples (shown HERE).

• Each mission will have two requirements, one homestead (harvest lemons, tend ducks etc) and one collectible (teamwork or helping hands). They'll not be severe, just a small challenge at worst.
• The requirements are random and are reliant on what you have. If you haven't unlocked a crop, tree or animal the game will NOT give it to you to deal with.
• The collectibles are one of the same two every time 
• The rewards are 900XP, 900 coins and a special prize; a limited edition animal, a mystery crate, giant fruit trees, special decorations, etc, etc...

And what about how the missions will work? Well:

• You'll be able to have one Favour active.
• The Favour WON'T show up in your normal mission list, you'll need to click the Bulletin Board or the Character you're doing the Favour for to see progress.
• If you don't like the Favour you can remove it, once per day for free then for HS, and get a different one.
• If you quit the quest you wont get it again, a different Character will ask for your help.
• The Favour will run out after two weeks.

So there it is... Off times with nothing to do, wiped out in a swoop of 120'000 possible missions! You can even keep checking the Bulletin Board to see how much you've helped so far...

Oh yeah... and a collection!

Are you looking forward to the Favours? Why not come let us know on our Facebook Page?

Growth Spurts!

"Tired of sitting around waiting on that
garden to grow?!"

"Oh yes Bob!"

"Then you need NEW Humble Bob's Irrigation Station!"

"Wow, that sounds great, what does it

DO Bob?"

"I'm so glad you asked Bess, well, my patented
Irrigation Station makes sure ALL your crops are
well watered and cared for in the correct
environment to promote healthy growth!"

"I love healthy growth Bob!"

"Don't we all, don't we all?! Well, we GUARANTEE
a 20% reduction in all crop times thanks to BobTech
licensed watering techniques, that's not 5 or 10 but
TWENTY PERCENT off all crop time!"

"And how do we get it Bob?"

"I'm SO glad you asked, we want to promote togetherness
and neighbourliness on the Frontier so all you need to do is
buy my plans and share items with your neighbours (who can
also buy my plans, tell them Bob sent you) and you can have
your very own Irrigation Station on your homestead!"

The Irrigation Station - More Water, Less Wait!
START BUILDING YOURS TODAY!

[Please note: the Irrigation Station can also be purchased fully built at the recommended retail price of 200 Horseshoes. Humble Bob is not liable for any injuries caused during the building and use of this product or any other in the Humble Bob range of garden implements. This is not a toy, not suitable for Pioneers under 3 due to small parts.]

Room For The Mall

Hank's not JUST a pretty face, he's also a handy man to have around with his building tools and clever little ideas... It seems building a house for Fanny isn't enough and he has bigger, and more commercial things on his mind that'll help YOU with space on your homestead!

Hank's put his head together with his drawing board and invented... the EMPORIUM!

Combining ELEVEN different shops, all in one Shopping Centre which will save massive amounts of space and STILL leave the buildings collectible from and craftable in!

[Mission details are HERE]

First up we need to build the Emporium with the normal collection of building supplies... Don't worry about the big footprint, we'll soon show you in the long run this is going to save you space!

Once built the Emporium will house up to 11 different shops from our homestead... The Trading Post, Land Office, Bank, General Store, Tailor Shop, Barber Shop, Kennel, Pet Store, Inn, Toll Booth and Fireworks Stand!

Once inside things will get quite a bit easier! You can go inside and see any building you have and individually collect their building bonus or craft inside them...

Or you can use the new "Collect ALL Bonuses" feature AND the new combined crafting window, select which building to craft from at the top, then away you go!

It's also fully customiseable...

...and has it's own collection!

Now, down to what I'm sure you'll all be asking... how much space WILL this save me? Allow us, with the aid of some images, to show you...

This image shows the size of the Emporium compared to the buildings it replaces...

...and, even more obvious, this shows you in crop squares what you'll be saving, the crop area is the footprint of all 11 shops, the red rectangle is the footprint of the Emporium.

As you can see, the saving IS large, in fact the emporium is just over 31% the size of the buildings it contains. The 11 buildings in all take up 77 crop squares of room (actually 76.5 but what's half a crop between friends?) and the emporium is a bijou 24 squares!

Looking forward to the shopping haven? Fancy more storage items such as this in the future? Come let us know on our Facebook Page.

Emporium Mystery Crate Contents

The Emporium Mystery Crates that come as mission rewards and collection rewards can contain two of the following:

1000 XP		15 Energy
100 Food		3500 Coins
Market Street Sign		Gold Cart
Frozen Chicken		Elderberry Tree
Tree Mastery Mystery Crate		Fast Hands Boost
Moose		Unwither Crop
Sheep Ready Boost (x1)		Peas Ready Boost (x1)
Super Rose		Super Melon
Granny's Gut Punch (x2)		Dairy Cow
Triple Mastery 1 Hour		White Oak Tree
Snowy Spruce