A lush green garden, lots of farm animals and endless hours of gameplay right on the screen of your smartphone! Big Farm: Mobile Harvest is a farming simulator and strategy game that has generated a category of its own in the gaming universe since its release. Developed, released and marketed by Goodgame Studios, the game is a unique strategy based simulator which introduces all the elements of a great farming simulator along with enough content for those who have a flair for micro management. Big Farm: Mobile Harvest holds a respectable reputation and a dedicated fan following due to its presence on all the major gaming platforms including the oldest PC version. The current version of the game is available to download and play for free on iOS devices from the Apple iTunes App Store as well as on devices running Android through the Google Play Store.
Big Farm: Mobile Harvest provides cute and attractive graphics and an almost infinite gameplay width in a small package size of only 160 MB. The game is also regularly updated and has special events frequently introduced by the developers. When playing Big Farm: Mobile Harvest, you will never have to worry about any bugs or glitches because the game has an active fan base which constantly reports such errors. The most recent update to Big Farm: Mobile Harvest occurred on November 04, 2017 and brought about small new features and more bug fixes from the previous versions. In addition to eye catching graphics and cute characters, the music in Big Farm: Mobile Harvest syncs perfectly with the actions of the player and provides a deep feeling of true to the core farming simulation and this factor greatly helps to keep you from getting bored while playing a simulator game.
The main concept of this game is very simple; grow as many crops as you can while keeping your plantation safe from predators and pests. You start off with a small piece of land and a simple farmer which is your primary farmer in the game. In the beginning, you have very few gold coins which are the main in- game currency so you can plant a small vegetable growing patch only. However, the game gives out exponential rewards and soon after playing the game for around half an hour or so, you will be able to plant multiple fruit trees and crop plantations on your piece of land slowly turning your humble starting patch into a beautiful garden and a huge farm shortly thereafter.
Big Farm: Mobile Harvest is a very friendly game and will make you feel at ease while playing but as with any other simulator you will have to work hard in order to benefit from your garden. Regardless of the welcoming atmosphere and the relaxing background music, the game will challenge you as you progress further and further introducing new predators and trouble makers to join into the foray of the creatures you must be wary of while playing Big Farm: Mobile Harvest. The learning curve for this game is very carefully adjusted to help even the newest of players make significant progress but if you want to really cement your name into the hall of honors, you will need some guidance. Follow the tips mentioned in this article and you will be able to succeed in making your farmland a living representation of the hard work of a true farming tycoon.
1. Learn To Farm Efficiently
Big Farm: Mobile Harvest is set on an isolated farmland and as the manager of all aspects related to the land, it is your first and foremost responsibility to ensure that a constant supply of food and construction materials is readily available to the people working on your fields. Farms are the single source which can be used repeatedly for this purpose and as such you will have to keep in mind not to accidentally cover up the area that farms could have been placed upon by building duplicates of a building or by other unnecessary things. A single plot of farm land takes up quite a lot of real estate on your small land but even so you have to ensure that free land is always available for you to plant new types of crops and harvest all sorts of produce from your farmland.
The best and most viable tip for you to follow for this option is to use the originally existing plot of farms at the start of the game and build around it in a diagonal pattern. It sounds a bit weird yes but once you start practicing this formula, you will begin to see the wisdom behind this advice. Moving diagonally from the starting plot of land in both directions will allow you to cover the greatest amount of area on your land with farm plots all the while leaving sufficient space for other important buildings that are necessary for the survival of your field workers and making new advancement and research facilities. Moving in a diagonal manner from the center point will also enable you to have multiple farms near the town center control building and this will greatly benefit you because you will have to monitor the town building very closely on most occasions and having the ability to harvest a sufficient amount of produce quickly with the swipe of a hand can be a game changer when you are on a very tight management schedule.
Another aspect that you need to be aware while farming in Big Farm: Mobile Harvest is the type of different crops that you should plant at different stages of the game in order to make the most out of the limited farmland available to you. When the game starts there are multiple tasks which require grain and the main raw ingredient for this is the basic wheat crop. You will also be instructed to plant as many of these farms as you can when Big Farm: Mobile Harvest begins through the in game tutorial. However as you progress to the higher levels and expand your farmland, many quests will be related to constructing new buildings and repairing old buildings that have gone into neglect. You will need bamboo as the raw ingredient for all construction activities as well as repair tasks. For this purpose, you should move towards allotting half of your total farm land towards planting bamboo as you move past level 3. An additional benefit of having a large amount of bamboo crops planted in a large portion of your farmland is the speed with which bamboo becomes available for harvest and you can easily harvest double the amount of bamboo compared to a basic wheat crop in half the time.
Big Farm: Mobile Harvest simulates real life farming with relative crop harvest times and just as bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world, it manifests this property in the game as well. Just remember to replant the bamboo as soon as you harvest it so that no part of your farm land stays inactive for too long. The third type of crop in Big Farm: Mobile Harvest is the fruit or orchard farm. These farms are essential as a food supplement for your island community and provide a good amount of produce when harvested. They add to the beauty of your island as well if you are particular about that and also allow a large amount of food to be available for the villagers at once. Therefore these fruit farms come in especially handy when you are running short of food and space for more farms as they provide a convenient and space friendly solution to your problems. Just be prepared to plan accordingly as the fruit farms take longer than other farms to yield a harvest just as you would expect real life fruit farms to behave.
2. Managing Construction And Repair
Big Farm: Mobile Harvest is a complete farming simulation management game and as the sole proprietor and manager of your farmland and farming town, it is your responsibility to ensure that life on the island is running smoothly not just for you but for all the inhabitants and field workers. To this end, you need to make sure that the people on your farmland have enough resources and food at all times. We explored the farm lands as a major source of food for the people but given the constantly expanding population, you need to keep other sources of survival and development in mind. This is what most of your construction and repair activities and quests on the island will revolve around. In order to ensure a continuous pave of construction and repair in your farming village you will need to keep a close eye on the main raw materials like bamboo and wood which when out of stock can cause a significant delay and this extra time multiplies over time as you progress to the higher levels.
At the start of the game you will be instructed to construct a workshop which should ideally be placed at the center of your farming village for ease of accessibility and control. This building will serve as the central hub from where you will be able to process the raw materials that you harvest from your farms and forests into wood planks, ropes and other construction materials as required for your selected activities. Wood planks will be your main source of repair at the lower levels and this will be replaced by bamboo for wood planks as you start building more and more huts, houses and skill centers on the island. In addition to looking out for the construction and repair tasks on your farmland, you will often receive requests from your neighboring farmers to send over some help when they are shorthanded. Having extra raw material in your warehouse ensures that you are always ready to help everyone out and remember do not be selfish and ignore these requests as the bonuses and relationship rewards that you gain as a result greatly outweigh any losses.
As Big Farm: Mobile Harvest is based around the life of a farming tycoon and his beloved farm land, it is a major cause of concern for everyone if one of your trading caravans or exploration vehicles gets damaged. Such incidents greatly slow down trade activities with other farmers and as a result you lose quite a significant amount of easy revenue for your farm land. Therefore it is very important that you focus on repairing these trade caravans and exploration vehicles as soon as possible and do not allow them to stand stagnant at your trading hubs as that will cause many hidden costs that you will not be able to control or track. The main raw materials mostly used for repairing these caravans and vehicles are wooden planks and lengths of ropes. Both of these raw materials are processed in the central workshop that you have constructed on your farm land and as such you need to stay aware of how much stock of bamboo and long grass you have available at all times especially as you progress to the higher levels of Big Farm: Mobile Harvest.
Once you have built a long lasting friendship with your neighboring farmers, construction of bridges and new trade routes to gain foot access to these friendly farm lands will be another activity that you will have to partake. This is a much more advanced construction and you will require a greater amount of raw materials as well as processed construction items. Therefore plan ahead of time so that you can immediately carry out these advanced construction activities when the time comes.
3. Use All The Perks Available
Big Farm: Mobile Harvest is a farming simulator but it is very much of a clicker title at its core. Put short, you can progress very fast to higher levels just by committing your fingers to simple clicking for an hour daily. If you do not like the idea of smacking your thumb across the screen of your smartphone, Big Farm: Mobile Harvest has many idle perks which you can use to ensure your idle production while the game is not active. However, if you rely on idle production only and ignore the clicking production altogether, you will be left with a very slow progress rate not to mention the excessive amount of coins that you will have to spend upon upgrading your idle resource perks.
Therefore, clicking once in a while is the best way to go in this game because unlike other primary clicker games, Big Farm: Mobile Harvest makes you focus more on paying attention to your farm land rather than just mindless tapping on the screen. This enables you to link with your garden on a personal level until you care about the crops and fruit trees like a real farmer would. Not only this, but clicking in Big Farm: Mobile Harvest is made even more fun and engaging by the feature of predators and mischief makers like Moles, Magpies, Crows and Foxes which can be sent away if you are vigilant enough to spot and click on them. This guarding of your garden comes with great rewards in the form of extra coins when you click on the predators and of course with the obvious benefit of your plants being safe and healthy.
Progressing to a respectable idle production also requires a dedicated clicking response from the start of the game as idler features like the scarecrow and guard dog are quite expensive and you will only be able to purchase them once you have amassed enough coins by good old clicking on the screen of your smartphone. Another easy way to get these perks quickly is just to purchase them for a price on the App Store but it is not recommended as it takes out the fun from the game. You need not worry about the production that comes from the plantations in your garden because your farmers will auto harvest them. For the fruits, you will have to click on them when you think they are of a ripe color and this feature brings a great learning experience for the players because you will have to practice your clicking timing to coordinate with the ripening of the fruits. Therefore if you have an interest in farming, you will keep on clicking and clicking until your beloved farm land becomes a wonder for all farmers to behold and talk about.
4. Distributing Your Farm Land
Big Farm: Mobile Harvest is a farming simulator and as such the game expects you to take on the role of a real farmer for which you will also need to think like a real farmer would think about the land that he has available. When you begin the game, it appears to the casual player that a huge patch of land is available and it might never run out. However to the serious farmer, that land is still too small and in order to make sure that your farm is producing the best yield of crops and fruits you will need to divide the land according to your style of play.
In the previous tip we discussed the two main styles of gameplay that players tend to follow. If you are one of the idlers, it is suggested to plant as many crop fields as possible and a small number of fruit trees just for the look of a garden. Fruit trees are not viable for the idle style of play because they require you to pay attention to the ripening and are dependent upon seasons among other factors. Crops are self- harvested by your dedicated field workers so you can just log in to check how the production is going and plant more crops as needed if you have the coins available for it.
In the case of an idle player, the ideal land division would be 3:1 which means that you would approximately keep a third of your screen space for fruit trees while giving all other space to vegetable and bamboo fields. Keep in mind that crop plantations take up more space than trees and have a lower produce rate so you should replace lower yield crops with higher yield crops whenever you have the coins available to do so. This replacement operation can be easily performed through the trash feature in Big Farm: Mobile Harvest using which you can delete any patch that is unwanted. After clearing up space just follow the basic planting procedure to get a brand new crop patch with an increased yield.
On the other hand, if you are a really passionate farmer with time to spare and energy to donate towards many hours of clicking, there are many more options for you to choose from. The land division for an active clicker is based upon the total number of hours that you are willing to dedicate towards the game during the course of a day. For example if you can spare around 2 to 3 hours a day for Big Farm: Mobile Harvest, the ideal land division for you would be half crops and half fruit trees.
Giving half the land to fruit trees is more efficient because trees take up much less width than crop patches which means you can plant nearly twice as many trees in the same land space as taken up by the crops like vegetables and wheat. However, giving up all the land to fruit trees is definitely not recommended because that will cause you to become too addicted to this game and could result in possible adverse effects on you and your social interactions not to mention the rest your body needs. Therefore the ideal land division hits the sweet spot for clicker farmers when you leave just enough space for two crop patches and rest of the space for fruit trees. This division will ensure that you are able to satisfy your clicking impulses and produce enough coins while you sleep peacefully in preparation for the hard work of another harvesting day.
5. Protect Your Farm From Miscreants
Big Farm: Mobile Harvest is a farming simulator that teaches you about the different scenarios that real farmers have to deal with every day in their lives. Farming seems to be the most relaxing and quite job in the world but what most players fail to realize is the dependence of successful farming produce upon factors controlled by nature. Big Farm: Mobile Harvest also introduces these natural factors into the game to make the gameplay more interesting and relatable to real farming. Just as you would expect on a real farm, your crops are prone to attack by pests and all sort of creatures ranging from moles to the most dangerous foxes. Big Farm: Mobile Harvest gives you control of your farm land by providing you the option to use farm helping creatures on your land which perform many diverse functions including protecting your precious crops from mischief makers and predators. Let’s have a look at which creatures you should keep on your side for the best possible farming experience and the trouble makers who you need to be wary of.
Chief among the farm helpers are of course helpers from the tribe of your main character. When you reach level 4, you will notice that more field worker and farm managers will become available for purchase against gold coins that you have available in your balance. Add this to your farm and you will have another helper who will be working alongside the first few on your farm. This will help your first farmers by allowing you to collect crops faster from the plantations and ultimately lead to an overall increase in your idle gold coin production. It should be noted that adding more farm managers beyond 3 on a single farm decreases the total efficiency of the farm because they will be more prone to predator attacks as you progress to higher levels. Therefore it would be much more productive if you invest your precious gold coins in purchasing other farm animals and protectors and keep an ideal number of 3 farm managers per farm only.
Another great helper for your farm is the occasional butterfly that starts to flutter around your plantation patches. Don’t be afraid of these because they will start to glow after some time and once you click on them you will receive 1 gold coin. This coin boost comes in very handy when you have planted lots of fruit trees because the butterflies are attracted to the fruit and will come in hoards to flutter around the trees. Just spam click on them and you will have collected around 50 to 100 gold in no time. When you reach level 5, a small red ladybug will also start to appear although this will be much rare than the butterflies. You can click on the ladybug to receive coins as well.
Some farm animals in Big Farm: Mobile Harvest can help increase the crop yield from your farm. The cows and pigs are examples of this. The cow when left to feed on your farm will consume some crops but will in turn produce manure which is an excellent booster for the growth of your crops. Purchasing a cow might feel expensive at first but you can be assured that it will definitely pay off in the long run. Similarly, pigs can till the ground for you, making the fields much more fertile and giving your crop yield a boost. Pigs are not much use for fruit trees however so double check your field division before purchasing one.
Moving on to the destructive category, we have the mole as the first creature to disturb your otherwise relaxing progress. This critter will pop in and out of your fields and you have to click on him to make him disappear back underground. Unlike the other critters, the mole is the only trouble maker in the game that cannot be dealt with using a guard dog and will require you to be present and clicking. It doesn’t do any damage to your farmers though so you need not be too concerned about this critter. Next we have the stealers. These mischief makers come in increasing difficulties as you progress to higher levels and are the ones you should definitely be worried about. The bunny comes at early levels and steals your crops and fruits. So does the magpies and crows which swoop in from the skies. Both of these thieves are quite easy to handle and you can install a scarecrow in the field to ward off any magpies from coming near your precious crops. You can also send the bunny scurrying off with one click. However it is NOT recommended to install a guard dog so early in the game just to combat the bunny, crows and magpies. This is because you will need a lot of coins to purchase a guard dog and you can use these for building and expanding your farmland instead.
The Hunters are the elite predators in Big Farm: Mobile Harvest and can make your farmer’s life a living hell. The fox is a moderate hunter which you can deal with using the high level farm managers but if left unnoticed, the fox will proceed to chase all your farmers around the field leading to no crops being harvested and a huge decrease in the overall yield from your farm. The Wolf is an upgraded version that cannot be dealt with as easily as the fox and it is recommended to purchase a guard dog at this stage to help scare all kinds of predators away from your field. If left unchecked the wolf can eat your farmers as well and you do not want to waste all your hard work in exchange for a lazy nap without installing a guard dog on your farm first.