Collecting and searching on the farm
The seasonal search is a recurring activity that turns up on the farm throughout the year - at Easter I hunt for eggs, at Halloween for pumpkins, in winter for mugs and so on. The mechanic is always the same, only the theme and the rewards change, so you only have to understand the principle once and then you'll recognize it in every seasonal version. It combines two things at once - clicking your way through hidden objects across the farms and passively collecting tokens that appear as a by-product of your normal harvesting and production.
I treat the seasonal search as a bonus activity on the side of proper farming - nothing falls apart if you skip it, but a few minutes a day do pay off, because the rewards come free just for playing normally and you only top things up with Gold when you don't manage to finish the whole event in time.
Every seasonal event runs on two parallel tasks
The seasonal search always hides a pair of tasks that run at the same time and have separate rewards. The first is the hunt for hidden objects - eggs, pumpkins, mushrooms, beach balls, mugs, sweets or heart balloons, depending on which season is currently running. The second is collecting tokens, which aren't deliberately hidden anywhere on the farm but appear as a by-product of me harvesting and producing.
Both parts have their own progress window and their own reward on completion, so I keep an eye on them independently of each other.
I search for hidden objects every day across all the farms I have unlocked
Hidden objects appear around the Main farm and possibly on the other farms too - the Gourmet farm, the Flower farm, the Horse ranch and the Cooperative village, if I have them unlocked. The search is a daily task - once I've found every hidden piece on every farm for the day, the game confirms it with a message telling me I can get back to searching tomorrow.
When I'm not sure where to look for the last piece, I can buy a hint for Gold - the game either highlights where the hidden object is or shows it to me outright. Both options cost Gold per piece, so I only use them on that last annoying object I simply can't track down.
I collect tokens like chocolates and candles by harvesting and producing, not by searching
The second part of the event - chocolates at Easter, candles at Halloween, flyers during sweets for the market, recipe pages during mushrooms, ice cream in summer, winter clothes in winter or romantic gifts at Valentine's - isn't hidden on the farm at all. I get it automatically whenever I'm active on the farm, meaning harvesting crops and starting production. Without that activity the tokens simply don't add up, no matter how diligently I hunt for hidden objects.
If I'm a few tokens short of the goal and don't feel like waiting for the next harvest, I can also buy extra pieces for Gold.
The last chance after time runs out discounts the tasks I already finished
The seasonal search always has a time limit. If I don't make it and fail to complete every task, the game still offers me a last chance - I can buy the remaining rewards for Gold even though I didn't fully meet the conditions. The nice part is that the tasks I did manage to finish bring the price of the rest down, so I'm not paying for anything I've already done.
An overview of what each seasonal event has you search for and collect
| Event | What I search for (hidden object) | What I collect by harvesting and producing |
|---|---|---|
| Easter | eggs | chocolates |
| Halloween | pumpkins | candles |
| Sweets for the market | sweets | flyers |
| Mushrooms | mushrooms | recipe pages |
| Summer | beach balls | ice cream |
| Winter | mugs | winter clothes |
| Valentine's | heart balloons | romantic gifts |
