Powerful Poles

When it comes to the Frontier there aren't many better at working the land than the Wikiwah, and Laughing Bear is trusting you with one of the secrets of their success.

The Wikiwah use spiritually powered Totem Poles to power their animals, crops and trees and he's going to teach us to make our own.

With these Totem Poles we'll be able to boost all manner of things on our homesteads and get a step up in our homesteading...

As usual, we'll see a popup...

...which will kick off a five mission thread and a wrapper mission which will be our Monday release (all details HERE). It'll also allow us to place a four step buildable, the Totem Workshop (all details HERE).

So, how do these magical totems work? We start off with an uncarved wooden base.

This is then carved into a simple wooden totem.

This is then empowered with one of three Spirit Crystals, which are crafted separately.

Then, the Totem can be used to empower items placed around it, so for example a Totem powered with the Animal Crystal grows up to four animals stood around it.

There are also craftable crystals to grow crops and lumber trees instantly.

The Totems themselves can be used multiple times a day, with the only limitation being the power of the crystal. The Animal Crystal has enough power for 6 tends, the Crop Crystal 7 tends and the Lumber Crystal 5 tends, then the Totem is unpowered. (Once the Wrapper is completed our totems will become more powerful and do 50% more stuff).

However, the Totem itself does not need rebuilding, you can simply click it and select to replace the Crystal inside it.

Totems can wither if left unpowered for a certain amount of time (60 hours for Animals, 80 hours for Crops, 40 hours for Lumber). If that happens you have to recharge it, but that does take TWO crystals (for a full guide to the Totems, click HERE)

We are going to see a healable, the Lost Soul...

Which will be fed Spirit Feed (a wall post)...

...and turn into one of three animals, the Spirit Falcon (not shown), the Spirit Raven and Spirit Hawk.

We'll have one new free gift crop...

...which will also be in the market along with the Totems and a mission reward/premium item.

So, lets get building!

Let's Go Fly A Kite...

The wind has picked up and it's time for the homesteaders to have a little fun!

Seems the perfect time to teach our kids how to fly kites, although for Doc it's also a good excuse to get some science done!

So, string? Yep. Canvas? Yep. Wood? Yep.

Seems we're good to go! The Kite missions will be three separate threads that run alongside each other, with a wrapper covering over the top of them. The first two threads will release Monday and Tuesday sees number three and the wrapper (all details HERE). As with most of the missions of this kind there's no build to get through.

Each of the threads and the wrapper will give us an interactive kite for out homestead. As well as flying the kite (it follows you around) you can also collect from them for a variety of bonuses.

The first mission involves teaching the family to fly kites...

...and gives the Goat Kite, which drops Goat Allure boosts and other Goat based goodies.

The second thread has Doc following in the footsteps of the great Benjamin Franklin and his "key on a kite" electricity experiments...

which gives us the Franklin Kite.

The third set is Helping Little Crow retrieve her kite from the tree...

...and gives the Crow Kite.

Finally the wrapper...

...which gives us a dragon kite!

There will be one new crop which is a free gift...

...and in the market along with some other goodies.

So, let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height...

Build At A Rush!

OK, let's just get this out the way nice and early so we call all have a quick celebratory cry and get to it...

Doc's latest invention lets you complete old buildings. Yes, you read that right, complete old buildings, something I know a LOT of us have asked for.

He's been fed up of the clutter around the homestead so has designed the BUILD-O-MATIC to solve some of our old building woes.

As usual we'll see a popup...

That will kick off a five mission thread (all details HERE), no wrapper and the Buildomatic itself, a four step build (all details HERE) which is useable STRAIGHT AWAY, from the instant we place it we can start sorting old buildings.

So, time to cut to the chase, how is this going to work? Well, you can read a comprehensive guide HERE but here's a quick Starter Guide.

First up we're going to need power for the buildomatic, and that comes from Cattle Rotators (a market item for coins) and Hamster Generators, a Free Gift and Premium Item.

They are classed as injured animals and are healed with five Multiform Conductors. Each requires 3 Recovered Shavings (Recycle Bins/Corn) and 2 Sparkling Operators, a Wall Post.

When fully healed they then pop out "Cattle Power". The more you upgrade the Build-O-Matic the more will drop and the Hamster Generator drops more than the Cattle Rotator.

This Cattle Power is then used to "buy" old building parts inside the Build-O-Matic. We simply open up the building, select what building to work on from a list and go from there.

Now, the list of buildings we can work on will be set to a certain amount and also will be rotated on a regular basis, so the buildings inside will change and WILL include newer buildings, it's constantly changing and updating. To begin with it'll be the Fishing Pond, Library, Parcel Wagon, Auction Block and Museum.

I know what some of you are thinking though. You're thinking "But Andy, I'm up to date, I have no unfinished buildings, won't somebody think of us?!"... well, calm your fears, that's exactly what Zynga have done.

As well as completing buildings we can also use Cattle Power to create a Manufactured Crate.

This box of delights can contain all manner of high end stuff, rare animals, boosts, Books of Experience, Beef Jerky and even Horseshoes!

So even if you're up to date, there's something for you.

So, we'll see the aforementioned new free gifts, Recycle Bins (a crop) and Hamster Generators...

...and they'll be in the market along with the Cattle Rotator and some other HS and Mission reward items.

And finally, a collection!

So, lets get DIY-ing!

...They Wear Big Socks

There's something new lurking in the forests around the Homestead and it's scaring the pioneers!

It seems we've been visited by the infamous Bigfoot, scourge of the wilds and creator of many a massive footprint!

He's scared the kids fishing, Doc collecting ingredients and even Jack walking his Poodle... and now it's up to you to hope into your Mystery Wagon and track the beast down and find out just what he's doing around our Homestead and even catch him!

It all kicks off with a popup as usual.

That will launch a five mission thread today and a connected wrapper mission that will be our mission on Monday (all details HERE), along with a four step Build/Story, the Mystery Wagon (all details HERE).

The missions will guide us through a map, with each point an investigation into the secret of the Bigfoot.

During the missions we'll see one new healable animal, a frightened ball of white fur that needs some looking after.

They each need 10 Fearless feed to heal...

...and become one of three varieties.

They will be in the market along with the new Free Gift crop and some mission reward items.

[PLEASE NOTE: The Frightened animals will be unlocked in the market on Monday]

So, it's time to get our detective trousers on and get sleuthing!