Erupting Geezer

PLEASE NOTE: This post was originally posted on the 19th April 2014. A second chance to purchase Keys unlocked on the 3rd July 2014!

Ohhh boy.... I thought it may happen one day and it has... Jack's gone totally loopy and even Granny can't keep him controlled for long!

So, to try and distract him, we need to give him something to do, and that something will be to turn things around a bit so he does some work for us, not the other way around...

Now, first up, a note, this is NOT a mission series and is also totally optional, it's a special premium trick, along with a pretty brilliant decoration/Building attached... :D

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you... Crazy Jack....

I know, how ace is that?

So, what is Crazy Jack going to do? Well, he's going to have a special ONE OFF purchase option where we can buy a Straightjacket Key for two dollars to complete one of a selection of missions, specifically made up of some final missions of threads, wrappers or Monday Missions, one of the real toughies.

Doing this will complete the mission but also give you ALL rewards, so you don't lose out on anything.

Clicking him will bring up one of two things, a purchase screen...

...and a mission manager where missions will be kept that can be completed, as you can see there will be two options, one to see the standard requirements, and one to finish the mission!

PLEASE NOTE: Take care picking which mission to complete as you can only buy ONE Straightjacket Key.

Finally, you also get a Crazy Jack Crate.

The crate can contain ONE of this list: 2 Horseshoes, 50 Cattle Power, 100 Gold Dust or All You Can Eat Meal.

...and ONE of this list: Escargot Boost, Animal Edibles, Fertile Ash, Foie Gras, Sweet Payoff, Strange elixir, Saving Grace, Animal Vaccine, Dream Boost or Deep Fried Chocobar!

OK, something VERY important to note. As stated previously the Straightjacket Key is a One Off purchase and you will have to refresh the game to receive it.

If you purchase from Crazy Jack again you will NOT receive a second Straightjacket Key, just a Crazy Jack Crate and a small mystery item. So please don't try to buy more Keys.

Get Your Goat

Oh dear, we've got missing animals on the homestead and it seems there's someone, or something, from far afield that's invading!

Can a new friend from across the border help us contain the monsters and protect our goats? Well, that's up to us...

Yes, it seems the infamous Chupacabra (or Goat Sucker) has arrived on the homestead and is a serious danger to our livestock, threatening to kidnap them and take out some vampiric urges...

Thankfully a Chupacabra Expert, Maria from Mexico has arrived at just the right time...

As usual, it's popup time!

That will kick off a series of 5 missions, a wrapper and a Monday missions (all details HERE) and a four step build, the Goat Sanctuary (all details HERE).

We're also going to see a brand new sidebar on the left hand side, replacing the Ice Pond...

So, what about the missions themselves?

Well, nothing too far out of the ordinary... first up a new Varmint, the eponymous Chupacabra itself... (I get the feeling it's not that cute in legend...)

Those, when clobbered, can then drop an extra healable, the Disorientated Goat... (Look, yes, we know what it looks like, lets just move on...)

Which has 5 variations when healed...

There's also a third healable, one that comes from "fishing" in the new sideboard or the Sanctuary and will drop some goodies when completed, the Cave Painting.

All healing requirements are in the missions area when needed.

We'll see three new crops, two Free Gifts, the Jalapeno and the Pepper Bush (the latter unlocks Monday)...

...and a coin crop, the Charentais.

Finally, we're going to see a theme appearing in the wrapper, with some new craftable boosts and a brand new optional premium totem.

The boosts will each block a specific type of Varmint for half an hour, the Groundhog Blocker, Snake Blocker and Bear Blocker are fairly self explanatory...

Or, if you're feeling flush, for 100 Horseshoes you can buy the Varmint Blocking Totem. You can activate this totem for half an hour, every 18 hours and it'll block ANY varmints from appearing.

So, that about covers it, so grab your goats and a Chupacabra Club and lets go whacking!

A Little Culture

Fanny's been on the homestead for a while now and one thing she's never managed to get done is the addition of a little culture and some manners!

Well, she's determined to stop that now as she gets all schoolmarm on us and the animals and drags everyone up to her level!

What does that mean for us? Well, it means we'll have the perfect place to slip away some Decorations that might have been cluttering up the homestead but we like keeping around for their bonus...

First up, the ubiquitous popup!

That'll start of a series of 5 missions, one wrapper and a mission on Monday (all details HERE) and a four step build (and Deco Storage base) the Gallery (all details HERE).

The Gallery will have the much awaited Decoration Storage menu and work like the Warehouse, we'll start out with 5 slots from just being placed, with more slots being opened as the missions are done, ending in a base of 20 Decorations stored.

More will then come over the weeks as mission rewards!

So, how about the missions themselves? Well, here goes, and make sure you stick with us... you see the new missions are Free Range Part II...

I know what you're thinking, but take a moment and, as the Guide says... Don't Panic! You see the studio have been very interested in talking to us about why many found Free Range confusing and have made a lot of changes for us, so consider this Free Range Lite!

First up, there's no more of different animals or crops for different players... We'll all use the same five Uncultured Animals, the Chicken, Goose, Ox, Horse and Duck!

The Chicken and Ox will be coin purchases, the others will be Free Gifts. They'll then become Free Range, drop some awesome goodies like Free Gift Crops and Boosts along with counting as 8, yes EIGHT tends of the normal type of animal!

We'll also be using the same two crops, one a coin purchase that's used to feed the Chicken, Goose and Duck (Green Tea) and the other a Free Gift that is used to feed the Ox and Horse (Cheesemakers).

So no mission varieties, we'll all be feeding the same stuff to the same animals for the same missions!

One thing still around is the feature of helping neighbours and speeding up the feeding of the Free Range Animals, but has also been simplified.

We craft Unaged Feed (details in the mission windows) and then send it to neighbours where it becomes Aged Feed, which counts as 4 tends towards the animals! That's also been streamlined a bit, the Aged Feed won't need "opening" because we all use the same stuff, so we just find it in the inventory and use it like a boost.

They've also changed the Gift Box slightly to make it easier to spot when friends have sent the items as they'll show up at the top of the Gift Box when you log in so it's easy to see who was the generous friend!

We will be able to buy a premium option to age the feed which will also be a reward from the new Collection...

...oh and finally, two new badges! The first is for tending Unhappy or Uncultured animals, the second is for tending Chickens, Geese or Ducks...

...so lets get going and get those decorations stored!

Egging Them On

Easter is on its way and everyone celebrates it differently so we're going to get to explore how three different homestead residents each want to celebrate.

Whether it's Doc Auburn's scientific approach to the holiday, Eddy's somewhat unique take on gifting or Granny's release of her artistic side in painting eggs, they certainly take their own paths to celebrating Easter and we'll be walking along with them!

Of course, along the way we're probably going to need to help them quite a bit... well, that's what we do.

As usual, a popup will herald the arrival of the new missions...

That will start off a set of Map Missions, so that means missions that will release over the course of a few days, but no build! In total there will be 14 missions (all details HERE) and a small placeable decoration to access them from, the Giant Easter Egg...

Inside that will be our map, showing three columns of three missions, with a wrapper to tie them all up.

During the missions we'll have four new injured animals, each with their own healing item that is crafted...

They'll all use the same drop item which comes from the new Free Gift crop, Salmonberry Bushes...

...that are also in the market along with a new coin crop, the Easter Eggplant!

We're also going to get not one but THREE new collections, one for each section and each drops a specific crate that will contain items that we require in the missions!

So, get your egg paints out, your best bunny ears and maybe a balaclava for helping Eddy... and lets go enjoy Easter!