Family Farm Adventure Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Build a Thriving Farm and Explore All the Islands

From the makers of Dragonscapes Adventure comes a new farm simulation game called Family Farm Adventure. Building on a similar blueprint, this new game is sure to delight players with its heartwarming story and addictive world-building mechanics.

The narrative is woven around Felicia, a photographer by trade who travels back to the island where she grew up. Shocked to find her grandma’s farm in a dilapidated state, she takes it upon herself to help restore the estate before the Festival of Flowers is set to begin. Our heroine hopes that her whole family will join them on the island for the yearly celebration, but before they arrive she has lots to do.

Together with her grandma and a few other characters who she meets while exploring the nearby islands, Felicia sets out to make the farm profitable again. Players will need to step in and guide her every action so that she can complete tasks in a timely manner and kick start her adventures.

Family Farm Adventure is built around an Energy system. This means that actions like gathering raw materials and removing obstacles to explore islands will cost a certain amount of Energy. The Energy bar is rather a small one by default, but the good news is that it tends to regenerate rather quickly – an hour or so. You can, however, go beyond this cap, without restriction, by crafting more Energy manually or simply by collecting certain items.

Century Games’ latest farm adventure game might not be most complex game in the world, but it still filled with a lot of stuff, so at least at first glance, you might have a hard time wrapping your head around it all. Luckily this is where our new Family Farm Adventure beginner’s guide comes in. We’ve populated it with a many tips and tricks that will hopefully nudge you towards making the best decisions for your farm and island.

1. Solving The Energy Problem

The gameplay in Family Farm Adventure almost entirely relies on Energy expenditure, and given how fast it runs out, players shouldn’t be using it without a well-defined purpose in mind. Don’t just tap randomly left and right, but instead make sure that when you’re clearing an obstacle or mining for a resource you have a clear purpose for doing so. Below you’ll find a bunch of tips regarding ways to help you tackle the Energy scarcity issue in this game.

Play In Short Bursts

Going into this game be aware this is not a game you play for hours on end. Instead, sessions are kept short, due to the Energy requirement. Therefore, it might be a good idea to set a goal every time you log into Family Farm Adventure. Let’s say, for example, you want to clear a path that leads to a certain objective, then you should focus all your energies to take care of the task during that interval.

Once you’ve ran out of juice, you’ll need to take a break and switch to doing something else for a while to allow it to regenerate. As you increase the cap, more time will be needed to get a full Energy bar.

Quick tip: You can increase your Energy bar’s maximum point by levelling up in the game. Every completed task yields Golden stars (XP points) and once you have enough, a new level is unlocked for you. This gives you access to new buildings, crops and more, and also extends your Energy cap.

Take Care Of The Tasks Available

Tasks move the game forward, so you should start picking them up as soon as possible. Not only do they offer rewards consisting of XP points, but also of gold and, once in a while, Energy.

Quick tip: Try and prioritize those tasks that yield Energy rewards, so as to extend your gaming session a bit further. Simply tap on a task to see the requirements for completing it and above the rewards. These types of quests aren’t quite as common as the standard ones, nevertheless remember that they do exist, so keep your eyes peeled for them.

Use The Magnifying Glasses To Quickly Find The Items You Need

The Family Farm Adventure universe is teaming with all kinds of plants, rocks and trees. Given their variety, it’s often hard to identify them solely by name (as they appear in quests). So whenever you’re tasked to do something, make sure you open up the quest and tap on the magnifying glass next to each item you’re supposed to collect to see where you can find them in your surroundings.

Mining for random resources is not really advantageous, when you’re trying to solve a quest. Instead, you should focus on getting the items you need to complete the tasks quickly so that you can reap the rewards.

Remove Smaller Obstacles First

Thread as gently as possible in Family Farm Adventure. Whenever you have to clear a path, don’t just go in blindly and start tapping. Instead, lightly tap on the targeted spot to reveal the energy expenditure bubbles for each item and select the cheaper ones in terms of Energy costs first.

Basically, try and see if you can clear the path by spending the least amount of Energy. In some cases, this will work smoothly, while in others you might be forced to remove ALL obstacles in order to fully clear the path ahead. 

2. How To Get More Energy

Given the central role of Energy in this game, it’s important to be aware of the various methods that can help you boost your reserve. We’ve listed all the methods we’ve managed to identify.

Scan The Environment For Random Chests

Random chests will show up on the map as you go exploring and they’re very important to your overall progress. Not only do they contain resources of all kinds, but they also might include vital rewards such as Candy. These sweets are great assets, because they can be instantly converted into Energy. So keep your eyes peeled for any chests, ancient-looking vases that might be hiding behind a bush or a tree. They can be the key to prolonging your gaming sessions.

Quick tip: Sometimes it’s hard to see some of these chests because they are well hidden by the surrounding vegetation or constructions. To get a better view of your environment, go ahead and tap the Gear icon in the upper right corner of the display (under Gems) and click on the Tree icon.

You will switch to a different viewing mode where buildings are hidden from view and vegetation diminished (tree tops are no longer visible, for example). So if you’ve just uncovered a new area, go ahead and employ your special vision to see what might be hiding behind the shrubs. 

Get The Cauldron And Others Like It

The Cauldron is an element that can be purchased from your village’s store. It uses specific “junk” you’ve collected while exploring and mining such as Gummy bears, Lollipops and Cakes and turns them into precious Energy. Once you’ve cooked up an energy portion, the Cauldron will need to cool off for a while before it’s ready to produce again.

As you make progress in the game, you’ll continue to uncover objects like the Cauldron which serve a similar purpose, but they are fueled by different materials. For example, the Juice bar produces Energy from the various fruits (blueberries, bananas, avocados etc) you’ve collected while playing so far.

Play The Merging Game

Purchase the mini-game truck from the shop in your village and play the merging game in exchange for a nice Energy reward. Orders need to be filled and so you’re supposed to create the desired items by merging similar pieces on a board.

There are limited slots and you only get 50 pieces to work with to craft the items. If you are unable to finish the order, don’t worry, you can pick things up later. You’ll just have to take a break from the game before you can attempt that again. Even when you have managed to complete the order successfully, you still have to find something else to do for a while, before you can play again.

Help Islanders With Their Problems And Questions

From time to time, the game will challenge you to help characters with a dilemma. For example, when grandma discovers the ruined Flower Altar, she loses hope for a moment and wants to abandon the idea of hosting the Flower festival this year.

She asks Felicia what to do, and if players pick the right answer from the four variants available, grandma will thank you for helping by presenting you with a magic chest. This can contain various items, and occasionally it might even contain some additional Energy.

Prioritize Orders With Energy Rewards

Orders (which are distinct from quests) play an important role in Family Farm Adventure, as they produce important resources including Gold coins and XP. But occasionally, they can also yield Energy rewards. Make sure you routinely scan the board for orders of this kind and focus on completing them first so you can beef up your Energy reserve a little bit.

Unwrap The Flying Gifts

Whenever you spot a bunch of colorful balloons carrying a chest, make sure to tap on it. These offerings bear small gifts of various sorts, but most importantly they might contain some extra Energy.

Even if you don’t get some extra juice, it doesn’t really matter. The chest could still contain something useful, such as a bunch of Blueberries which can be converted into energy at the Juice bar. Alternatively, you might find Gold coins and additional items such as Gummy bears or Lollipops hidden inside.

Watch Some Ads

Keep an eye on the left part of the display so that you can notice if any new icons show up there. If you happen to spot a small TV set, click on it and watch an ad in exchange for a small Energy boost of 5 points.

We know it’s not much, but sometimes it might be just enough to help you finish clearing an obstacle. So don’t ignore these opportunities, which reoccur quite frequently. It would be a real shame not to take advantage of them.

Don’t Forget To Check Your Emails

Simple emails can bestow rewards too, so don’t forget to check to see if you have anything new in your inbox. To do so, tap on the gear icon in the top right corner and then on the mail symbol to view your messages. Whenever the game’s developers perform sever maintenance, for example, they will send out a compensation package to make up for any inconveniences.

The last gift package we received contained Coins x1000, Energy x50, Hourglass x3 and Fertilizer x3. As you can see these are consistent rewards, so make sure to remember to check your inbox.

Spin The Wheel

Once a day you can spin the Lucky Wheel for a chance to win some nice prizes. Check the Bank (press the “+” button next to the Gems) and try your luck. If you’re willing to watch an ad, you can spin again, although after that you will have to take a pretty big break before you can spin again. There’s a 6.3% probability that you’ll be able to score some Energy by playing this mini game.

Have Hank Follow You Around

Once you’ve uncovered the Animal sanctuary in the Northwestern part of the island, you’ll be able to have the village dog Hank follow you around. Hank is a good boy and so from time to time he will find and bring you small Candy gifts. As you make progress in the game, you’ll be able to unlock other animal companions that will bring you other gifts. For example, the Giant bird fetches Gold coin gifts for you. But if you need a quick Energy infusion to complete a certain quest or order quickly, just have Hank follow you around.

3. Work On Expanding Your Home Village

Your home village acts as your base camp – the place from which all your expeditions set out and where you come back to, to gather products and other things you might need in your travels. In this section, we’re going to look at some tips that will come handy for growing your village as much as possible.

Keep Production Up At The Camp

Crop production is an important part of sustaining life in your village. In the center of your settlement you’ll notice a plantation. Here you can start planting Sunflowers, as this is the first crop you can sow and the cheapest. As you progress in the game and level up you’ll be able to unlock more crops such as Corn, Oat and many others.

While Sunflowers take only a few seconds to grow to full maturity, more advanced crops are piercer and take longer to become ready for harvest. Which is why it’s important not to leave the land unplanted. Once you’ve harvested the available crops, make sure you plant up again immediately.

Aside from planting, you should also focus your energy on keeping production up at your factories. Throughout the game you’ll be tasked to build numerous factories which will start to produce goods. For example, the Weaver’s Workshop makes Rope, Baskets and Wattles, while the Smithy crafts Nails and Carving knives.

The more advanced the items the longer it will take for said item to be done. So in order to cut down on these waiting times, our suggestion is to have your factories’ slots filled at all times to keep production running. The ideal scenario would be to never stop the manufacturing process, as you might never know when you will need a certain item.

Quick tip: Make sure that you add new planting plots next to each other. Abstain from creating separate plantations, as you won’t be able to manage them as effectively as if you had all arable land in one spot. The goes for your factories. We encourage you to build them in the same area (although that might prove impossible to do from a point onwards), so you can have an ensemble view of all your structures. This is to make it easier for you to spot if there are any new finished materials ready to be picked up.

Rotate Your Crops

In the beginning of the game, your only crop is the Sunflower. But, as you level up in the game, more and more crops will be added to your inventory. The problem here is that you have limited planting ground, although with each new level you unlock you will be able to expand your arable lands. But for a large part of the game you won’t have enough room to plant every crop in your inventory.

This is where crop rotation comes in. To ensure you can stock up on all crops, make it a habit to plant by rotation. So if you’ve planted Sunflower and Corn one time, the next time around you should sow Oat and Bergamot Flower instead.

Clear Land To Make Room For New Buildings

You’re constantly supposed to be building new stuff around your village, but sometimes things can get a little bit too crowded. If you’ve noticed that you don’t have room to drop new buildings on the home island anymore, it’s time to do some cleaning. Don’t worry, it’s worth the energy investment. Clearing land can be a useful activity because it allows you to easily collect various resources, if you have the energy to spare.

For example, you need Leaves and Grass to create Rope at the Weaver’s Workshop or Stone to make Flagstone at the Stonemason’s Workshop. These are basic resources and while you regularly mine for them simply by clearing paths to complete tasks around the archipelago of islands, it never hurts to have more.

Quick tip: You should do clearing work whenever you’re waiting for a product to be completed at one of the factories and you have some energy to spend. Above we encouraged you to keep production up at all plants constantly, but given the sheer amount of factories you’re supposed to be supervising, you might find you’ve forgotten to refill the production lines at some plants.

It’s not the end of the world, of course, and you can use the waiting time to do something productive with the energy that’s ready and waiting to be spend. If you don’t feel like clearing land around your village, no problem, you can visit one of the islands you’ve unlocked so far and mine for resources there.

All resources are important, don’t forget that! They exist in the game for a purpose. So even if you can’t immediately see the uses of a Feather or a Tribal instrument you’ve picked up while exploring, their function will be revealed at some point or another.

Keep Building Homes For Your Workers

Your factories need workers to be able to produce fast and efficiently. It’s important to attract as many workers as possible to your village or else you risk not being able have all your plants producing the same time. Workers require homes to live in, and so you’ll need to channel some of your resources into building those.

At first you can only build Cabins, which accommodate 3 workers each, but as you progress in the game you will be able to add Villas and Huts to your settlement. These are bigger residences which can house larger groups of workers. Like factories and animal sheds, homes cost Coins to build.

Quick tip: It might be wise to concentrate on building the homes first and then the factories. Opening up plants without people to operate them is quite useless. So always make sure you’ve build as many worker homes as the level you are at allows you to.

Spend Gems Only To Buy New Slots In Factories

Gems are a type of resource in Family Farm that can help you with many things. For example, Gems can purchase extra Energy, missing resources and can speed up the production process. However appealing this may sound, we strongly suggest to abstain from spending your Gems like that.

It’s simple to spend Gems in this game, but it’s not as easy to win them back, so we suggest you use this resource only in one situation. As it turns out, Gems also let you expand your factories’ production capacity via extra production slots. Getting your plants to produce more will become a priority later in the game, which gives you the chance to gather a decent number of Gems before reaching that critical moment. You can get small Gem amounts from various places including from mining, exploring and random gifts and chests.

Use Hourglasses To Quickly Deliver Animal Products

The animals you keep at your farm have a limited lifespan. For example, the Goat can produce only 12 bottles of milk before going extinct. When that happens, you’ll have to spend money once more to populate your farm again. Or you could use Hourglasses.

These are items you’ve probably come across during your explorations and you can use them to produce instant milk or eggs on your farm. Hourglasses come quite in handy when you’re trying to complete a large order quickly or when you’re looking to save money and keep your animals alive a little longer.

4. Miscellaneous Tips To Help You Thrive

Now that we’ve covered our suggestions regarding how to collect and use energy, as well as how to manage your village, we take a look at various other strategies that might help you thrive while playing Family Farm Adventure.

Be Consistent In Your Order Filling Efforts

We covered orders before in section 2 when we told you that some of them can produce small amounts of Energy. Well that’s not to say you should ignore the other orders. Actually, filling orders on a constant basis is very important. Orders yield Gold coins, as well as XP, both which are vital to your progress. Cash allows you develop your town by planting crops to building houses and factories, so the more you can accumulate the better off you will be. 

If you want to be able to expand your village fast, we suggest you pay close attention to these orders. Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in exploring the islands that surround your base camp and forget all about them. But without a steady amount of Gold flowing in, you won’t be able to plant nor build housing and new factories, and so your progress will come to a halt quickly.

Quick tip: Keep an eye on the orders that bring extra rewards (wooden mystery box). You might want to prioritize them if you wish to gain some extra rewards (usually in the form of “junk” items).

Exchange Full Collections For Prizes

Remember how we told you that each item you collect while clearing territory has a use? Well, enter collections. The “junk” you keep accumulating can be catalogued into different collections. Once you’ve completed one you can exchange it for a nice little prize.

To give you an example, you can exchange a Seashells Set for 5x Avocados. The fruit can then be turned into Energy via the Juice bar. You can check the status of your collections by visiting the Collection Cabin back at the village. Once a collection is completed, you’ll receive a notification on the display, no matter where you find yourself. You just have to approve the transaction and grab the prize.

Visit The Local Traders

Local traders offer yet another opportunity to make use of the “junk” you’ve collected so far. You can find them scattered across the islands of the archipelago, including your own.  Once you spotted one, go ahead and pay them a visit to see their offers.

For example, on the Volcano island, you can get 500 Gold coins in exchange for 9x Ruby Ore, but these offers different depending on where you currently find yourself.

Go Back To Previous Islands For A Chance To Get Extra Rewards

Once you’ve finished all quests on an islands, you’ll be redirected to the next one. Make sure you’ve exhausted all trades before leaving, but if you haven’t done so, don’t worry. It’s possible to make a comeback trip at a later time. Just don’t wait forever to do so, because these islands will only be accessible to you for the next 24 hours. As long as you see a timer on the map next to an island, you can still visit it.

Another reason to revisit islands is that you might find flying balloons waiting for you there and we all know what that means – you get to grab some additional goodies. 

Get Resources With Minimal Energy Investment

Looking to take down an obstacle but you have very little energy left? You can still go ahead and approach it. The obstacle will be only partially demolished, but on the bright side, you’ll be able to collect a small share of the resources you’d get for removing it completely.

Once your Energy gets restored, you can go back and chop off the other part. This ability comes in handy in situations where you are in desperate need of a certain resource (wood for example), so using up your last bits of Energy allows you to get your hands on some fast.

Use Dynamite Sparsely And Wisely

Dynamite is one precious resource in Family Farm Adventure. It can be used to clear a wide area of obstacles, but the trouble is, it’s super hard to get. You will rarely unearth some during your expeditions, and so you should conserve these items as much as possible.

When you do decide it’s time to detonate some TNT, make sure you position it in such a way as to impact at least a few obstacles which are expensive (in terms of Energy) to remove. In addition, keep your eyes peeled for any extra opportunities to use TNT, some might be free while others require you to spend Gems.

With this last suggestion we conclude our Family Farm Adventure beginner’s guide. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading it and that you’ve managed to identify a handful of new and useful tips to incorporate into your own strategy. If you have discovered any tricks yourself, pleased don’t hesitate to share them with us in the comment section below!