Candy farm
The Candy farm is a time-limited event farm that Johnny Apple invites me to as part of the village fair. I reach it through the Airport from level 35 onwards and I only have 30 days before the fair wraps up and the stalls disappear. In that time I build the Charming candy palace, collect lollipops and, by way of the trader and the Greenhouse, work my way up to training my own horse at the ranch.
I treat the Candy farm as a side event well worth doing, mainly for the lollipops and the follow-up rewards for the Greenhouse and the Horse ranch - even if I never push the candy palace to its top level, I still get something out of every day I spend on the farm.
I reach the Candy farm from the Airport only from level 35
Johnny Apple lets me know about his plan for the village fair, but the invitation only arrives once I hit level 35. The Candy farm then opens through the Airport - and that is where I swap Dollars for candy dollars, so I can start building and buying on the farm straight away.
The event runs for just 30 days. Once they are over, every building and unfinished product on the Candy farm disappears, but the game hands me Dollars and lollipops in return, so none of the work I put in is completely wasted.
I swap candy dollars at the Airport at a great rate
Candy dollars are a currency that only works on the Candy farm. I get them by exchanging Dollars right at the Airport, at a rate the game describes as especially favorable. There is a wait between exchanges, though, so there is no converting my whole farming fortune in one go.
It pays to upgrade the Exchange machine right at the start - once it is upgraded I can swap more money at a time, so the cooldown between exchanges stings far less.
The Candy farm has fourteen buildings, from fields to an alpaca pen
The Candy farm is made up of fourteen buildings - from the main caravan and the living trailers through fields and orchards to the production buildings and a single animal pen. An overview of what each building costs and which category it falls into helped me plan the order to build in.
| Building | Category | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Candy caravan | main building | — |
| Sugar field | field | 1200 candy dollars |
| Sweet cherry orchard | orchard | 5750 candy dollars |
| Sweet almond orchard | orchard | 28750 candy dollars |
| Cocoa orchard | orchard | 80000 candy dollars |
| Sugar factory | production | 32000 candy dollars |
| Crushing mill | production | 20700 candy dollars |
| Composter | production | 1200 candy dollars |
| Alpaca pen | animals | 46000 candy dollars |
| Simple trailer | house | 10000 candy dollars |
| Fancy trailer | house | 250 Gold |
| Exchange machine | special | 10000 candy dollars |
I left the Candy factory and the Charming candy palace out of the table - both are central to the farm's main goal, so I cover them separately.
Sweets from the factory go into the candy palace in exchange for lollipops
The goods from the fields and orchards - sugar cane, sugar beet, sweet grapes, sweet cherries, sweet almonds and cocoa beans - go through the Sugar factory, the Crushing mill and finally the Candy factory to become finished treats such as marzipan, chocolate, gingerbread hearts and sugar decorations. The nutritious grass from the field, on the other hand, I use as feed, among other things for the alpacas in their pen.
The finished sweets then get donated towards building the Charming candy palace. Different kinds of sweets move the progress along by different amounts, so it pays to watch what counts the most towards the palace right now. Donating also earns me lollipops - though the game itself points out that the amount differs from what the same sweets would fetch if sold through farm management, so before I sell off a bigger stock I compare the two.
The palace has sixteen upgrade levels, with the fifth, tenth and fifteenth counting as the main story chapters. Every completed level pays out a reward - usually a decoration, which I find in the temporary storage on the Candy farm or straight away on the Main farm.
The event leaderboard counts the lollipops I collect
Besides driving progress on the candy palace, lollipops also count towards the event leaderboard. Finishing near the top lands a serious prize, but simply collecting as many lollipops as possible pays out too, as the so-called hard work reward - so it is not only about where I place against the other players.
Collected lollipops turn into rare seeds for the Greenhouse and rewards for the horse
The trader on the Candy farm takes lollipops in exchange for decorations and rare seeds - special sweet grape seeds, special sugar cane, sugar beet or nutritious grass seed. I then plant those seeds in the Greenhouse on the Main farm, where they grow into rare fruit.
Once the fruit in the Greenhouse ripens, Captain Barnacle's ship pulls into the Harbor and carries it away. The reward includes horseshoes, which come in handy right on the Horse ranch for training my own horse. The Candy farm is not an isolated event, then, but the first link in a longer chain running from the Greenhouse through the Harbor to the ranch.
