John Chapman's Guide to The Big Farm Theory
How do I...
Many of the questions you have can be answered by the game's help page. Look for the 'Help' tab at the top. If your question isn't answered there - or here, you can post it in the comments below.
...get more energy?
The trick is to have lots of friends playing the game.
- Visiting their farms gets you energy - one for every 5 times you help them
- You can ask friends to send you energy
- harvesting crops and feeding animals often gets you food. You can trade in food for more energy. The best deal is 100 food exchanged for 40 energy
- You can buy energy refills with gold (the apple icon) - That will eventually cost you Facebook credits and real money
- You can wait. Your energy will refill at 1 energy every three minutes.
- If you level up AND have less than 30 energy, it will be refilled (so try to level up with a low amount of energy)
- Sometimes you can get energy while harvesting or feeding animals
- Sometimes you can get energy from opening nanochests on friend's farms.
...get gold?
You get three free gold when you start the game and reach the end of the tutorial section.
Watch your wall for any friends who have completed level 5 of the daily bonus. The reward is 1 gold. You'll have to be quick though, since there is only one available.
If you play the game every day for five days and complete the daily bonus you'll get a gold as a reward.
If you buy the gold mine (for 250 gold) you get one gold as a bonus every day. You might think that price is extortionate but the investment has a 150% api.
Buy it with Facebook credits. That may go against the grain but remember that we pay for other forms of enjoyment. It works out less expensive than other methods of spending your time. You are also paying for the game to be developed further.
...get sour cream to feed the cat?
You'll need 10 of these, When you first get the cat you'll just have been rewarded by getting to level 7 with enough to feed it the first time. With 100+ neighbors it's easy to get cream.
- Ask your friends for it and keep checking your messages/gifts
- Feed animals to get the 'Foods' collection. That rewards you with 1 sour cream and $200
...Use that 'Combo' feature?
If you achieve level seven of the combo then you'll get a reward. Here's an example of what you get:
To get a combo you need to be fairly quick with your pointer and collect the rewards given. This is one of those game features which gets a lot easier with practice. It seems almost impossible at the start. The easiest way to get this reward is to harvest trees in a fairly dense forest. You'll need to have plenty of energy and it helps to have the cat help you collect the rewards. Here's what I do:
- Have at least 120 energy available - spend 3 x 100 food on 'Strong energy drink'
- Wait until morning so that you have lots of friends offering help
- Have your animals close together - especially small animals such as chickens, turkeys and rabbits
- Make sure the cat has been fed
- If you have the dog - make sure it has been fed but not if you are trying to get combos while visiting friends.
- Use the fastest form of transport available to you.
- If you have a partner, switch to them as soon as you get a monster, harvest some more them switch back and shoot the monster. The quickest way to switch is to click the partner.
- Have a large, wide area filled with trees. Two lots of 'medium nano woods' should do for a start.
- Have lots of beegun shots available
- Accept friend help and let the cat get the rewards. At the same time start harvesting trees at one side. Click steadily, collecting rewards as you get them. Remember the cat won't collect rewards which fall in water!
- Get your rewards as they appear.
- As soon as a new help from friend message appears, click 'Yes'.
- If you get a monster, shoot it with whatever weapon you have selected. I use the slingshot mostly. Each shot earns you rewards which count towards the combos. Get rid of the message which appears as soon as you get it because it stops you clicking further.
- If you run out of trees - click animals which need feeding. With practice you'll be able to anticipate the trees and go shopping for more if you have 900 cash.
- When you get to combo level 7 - keep clicking the award is given at the end of that level.
You can also get combos with any farm actions including visiting friends and even friends visiting you (provided you have good neighbors).
Combo rewards are toxin, radium, bronze, aluminium, neon and a large amount of XP and other goodies.
...Get rid of monsters?
The wolf
These are always available. Using one costs one energy and is powerful enough to scare the wolf off in one go.
The Yeti
You'll have to make these in the workshop. You can also get 3 beegun shots by trading in a monster teeth collection. Beeguns get rid of Yetis in one shot. The number underneath the picture is how many shots you can fire. To make the beegun you'll need 1 hive and 1 tube of glue.
The mutant tree
which will get rid of it in one shot. This one is grayed out though meaning it isn't available. That means you may need two or three shots with a beegun.
The gas nebuliser is made in the workshop and requires two motors, 1 toxin, 3 powder and 4 metal to make it.
The alien
Zap it with 
which will get rid of it in one shot. This one is grayed out though meaning it isn't available. That means you may need two or three shots with a gas nebuliser or even more shots with a beegun.
The nanoemitter is made in the workshop. You must be on level 22 or higher to make it and requires 3 bronze, 3 bolts, 2 aluminium and 2 mushrooms to make it.
If you have the dog AND he's been fed with 10 meat he will help you deal with monsters - it will require fewer shots, slingshot and beegun will be enough.
...see what's available in the daily bonus?
You don't. It's a matter of pot luck. Each day you play the game you will be able to unveil an extra square. Once you get to five days you get five clicks but the next day you start again at one. The items are positioned randomly but here's an image of one which was cleared completely by buying extra squares:
Apart from getting five rewards on the 5th day you'll also get a free gold! Incidentally every 5th day make sure you share the reward because it's also one gold!
...find out how many neighbors I have?
Click the button 'Invite a friend'. In the window which opens you'll see the number of neighbors at the top. While you are there, send requests to anyone who appears when you click the 'Invite neighbors' button.
...get more neighbors?
First you'll have to add them to your friend list:
Click the tab 'Fan page' at the top. There are always people there who want neighbors. Just hover your pointer over their name and you'll see an 'add friend' link. if you invite more than 10 per day you are likely to be blocked by Facebook from adding friends for a time. The trick is to only add people who you share friends with - here's how:
Hover your pointer over the name of the person you wish to add. You'll get something like this:
...................
In the popup window which appears it shows that you have four mutual friends. This person is reasonably safe to add as a friend.
In this example you share no common friends. It would NOT be safe to add many new people like this in a single day. Risk no more than two and message them first. If you can't send them a message, respond to their post and wait until you get a reply.
Next you'll have to add your new friends as neighbors:
Click the 'Invite a friend' button.
Use the 'Invitations from friends' tab to accept any existing invitations you have been sent. Use the 'Invite neighbors' to send any of your new friends an invitation to be a neighbor.
...Turn the sound off/on and change the scale?
At the top right of the screen you'll see these two icons:
Click the cog (game settings) You'll get this:
The dropdown reveals the + and - screen scale icons, a film icon - allowing you to turn off screen animations, a speaker icon allowing you to turn off sound effects and a music icon to turn off the music.
The icon to the left of the cog makes the game full screen. The music and sound effect volume can also be controlled.
...get the expansions?
I got the first expansion at level 20 (after completing the 'Stock' mission - 3,000 wood and $5,000).
The second comes at level 22. You'll need to rebuild the bridge to get to it.
The third expansion is available around level 30-32; you'll need to complete the 'New territory' missions which includes buying it for $75,000 and then the 'Logjam' mission (get 15 dynamite; clear 1 debris15x $1,000 + 200 wood;50 powder, 50 phosphorous, 40 metal).
The fourth expansion appears around level 35. You'll need to complete the achievement 'Research of the territory' and feed the dog. To use the fourth expansion fully you'll need to rebuild the teleport also.
The fifth expansion appears to be available after you complete the five 'Abandoned expanses' missions
- have 25 sunny melons in storage (used up)
- harvest 25 doppler eggplants
...improve my comfort level?
Buy and place decorations. Sometimes the game offers decorations as a gift, If that's the case you might also try asking friends for any of these decorations. In the instructions below I did this with 'flower cans':
- Click 'Your gifts'
- Click 'Send' then scroll left
- Click the flower can
- Click 'Neighbors'
- Click 'Select all'
- Click Send to selected.
This will send one to each of your neighbors and you should get lots back in return.
Tips - If you are short of space put tiles under all your buildings and in their 'shadow'. Put decorations or animals on top of the tiles. Stack high comfort items in the building shadow. The white wicker gate gives +3 comfort and costs just $50.
...get gifts?
Send them out and you'll get them back. See above for the method.
...accept gifts?
At the bottom of your screen you'll see a number next to 'Your gifts' if you have any available. In this case I have 373
Click the gift box and you'll get a window something like this:
You'll notice you have two options 'accept' and 'thank' on some items. If you want to accept the gift and return one to the sender (you both get the item) then choose 'thank'. If you just want to accept the gift (only you get the item) then choose accept. Why would you want to be so selfish? You may want to send a different gift back. Some gifts are allways available - paint, energy, glass, motors, bolts. If you thank someone for sending you energy then you can't send them a bolt on the same day. This doesn't stop you from sending gifts of other collection items you have available.
Hint - accept gifts BEFORE you answer messages! You and the sender may get double gifts that way.
...ask neighbors for items?
If this item is part of a mission, click the mission icon and you'll see an 'Ask' button. Use that:
If you need an item to complete a collection then add it to your wish list. To do that:
- Click 'Collections'
- Scroll left or right to find the collection
- Click the magnifying glass under the item you want.
- Sometimes there is a megaphone icon there also. Click it to post a message to your wall saying you want that item. It appears to do nothing so only click it once.
You can have five items in your 'wish list'. Friends who have these items can send you them. You can see someone's wishlist by hovering your pointer over their name at the bottom of the screen. You can't send them items which are grayed out. If you hover over the non-grayed icons you'll see how many of these you have. Clicking the icon sends the friend the item.
You can also request gifts by sending out gifts. The person receiving the gift will see two buttons on their gift window - 'Accept' and 'Thank'. Provided they click the 'Thank' button first, a copy of the item will be sent back to you.
You can send each friend 1 gift per day using 'Gifts'. You can send many collection items via the person's wish list... but there is a limit. Once a friend has reached their gift limit, you won't be able to send more until the next day.
Paints, glass, motors, bolts and energy can be added to the wish list but each person can only send one of these per day.
...put cows in the cowshed
You can't do this. You need the animal houses only to increase the number of animals you can keep.
...find the rocks on my farm quickly?
It would be nice if there was a button to show hidden objects but there isn't one (yet?). If a rock is hidden behind a building or amongst trees you can discover them by moving your pointer over the area. If there's a rock it will change to a pickaxe.
There's also another method I use:
- Use the settings button to make icons small (- button)
- make the browser window full screen.
- Close the game window
- Re-open the game window and allow it to load (Without looking at any messages)
- When the map re-opens the rocks will appear first and you can note their positions. Take a screen capture if you have suitable software - e.g. Windows key + 'S' if you have MS OneNote.
This is one case where a slower Internet connection and computer can be an advantage.
A rock hidden behind where the mill will appear. Move your mouse over the image to see it after the game fully loads.
If you can't find any rocks (or trees) needed to complete a mission try clicking the help button in the mission description. You'll get a red icon pointing at where the rock/tree is.
...get more toxin?
- You get toxin as a bonus reward from lab 1, the workshop and lab 2
- You can get toxin as a reward from nanochests
- You can get toxin as a reward for getting combo level 7
- You can get toxin as a reward for a complete butterfly collection. get the butterflies by harvesting hybrid plants at yours or your neighbor's farms.
- You can now make toxin in the workshop (needs 20 hydrogen peroxide, 10 liquid nitrogen, 3 radium)
...get more metal?
If you never seem to get metal by clicking rocks at friends or your farm then try clicking something other than a rock three times and then going back to the rocks. So:
- on a friend's farm click a rock
- go back to your farm and harvest three crops or chop trees
- go back to the friends and click rocks
The same method seems to work when looking for eggs and milk.
You can also get metal from nano-chests, by trading in a precious stone collection and as the bonus from the magnetron.
...get more aluminium?
Aluminium is obtained from breaking rocks. These can be either on your own farm or on the farms of your friends. It's also the bonus obtained from the blast furnace (despite blast furnaces making iron - aluminium is made by electrolysis in a smelter). You can also get aluminium from the nano-chests.
...get more radium?
Radium is also obtained from breaking rocks. These can be either on your own farm or on the farms of your friends. It's also the bonus obtained from the neutrino (despite a neutrino being a sub-atomic particle not a machine). You can also get radium by cashing in a seashell collection or from the nano-chests.
...use the segway, hover board or jet belt?
