Why and how to join a cooperative
Playing solo only gets you so far – a cooperative opens up projects, research, the village and the cooperative competition, and the whole crew benefits from all of them at once. Here I go through what membership actually gets you, how to pick a co-op and what is expected of me and of you as a member. I am going purely by what the game itself says in its own descriptions.
What a cooperative gets you
A cooperative is a bunch of players you can chat with, complete projects with and research perks with that the whole co-op benefits from at once. Before you jump into the first one you come across, it is worth knowing what membership actually involves.
- Chat – in the Chat tab you keep up with what is going on around the cooperative and agree with the others on what to do next.
- Cooperative projects – shared tasks that earn the co-op reputation points, which raise its level.
- Research – the cooperative can research perks that every member benefits from once they are finished.
- Shared tree – it grows with the co-op's level and the members water it together so they can harvest it as soon as possible.
- Rankings – they show how your cooperative is doing compared to the others.
How to pick the right cooperative
In the game you will find cooperatives that have switched on the setting letting them be flagged in the rankings as looking for members, or that let you join without sending an application at all. Those are the first signs of a co-op that is actively recruiting and probably actively playing too.
- Take a look at the cooperative overview – you will find the basic information there, the level and the stats that tell you how active the co-op is.
- Check the Members tab – who the leader is and who the deputies are, because they are the ones who decide about projects, research and building the village.
- The number of members also affects the rewards in the cooperative competition, so do not be afraid to ask how many people in the co-op actually play, not just how many are on the list.
If a cooperative turns you down, you can send another application after a while – the door is not closed for good.
Collections and projects show what a crew is made of
Cooperative projects are tasks you complete together. Before the leader or a deputy can start a project, the co-op first has to finish the matching collection – every player puts collectible items into it whenever they have enough of them. Once a project starts you have a limited time to finish the task, and the reward is reputation points that raise the cooperative's level.
The assignments vary – anything from a delivery of eggs for the research institute through straw and cabbage for a school campaign to apples for the zoo or milk for the cheese dairy. The more often you manage to finish projects, the harder they get, but the rewards for completing them grow as well. That is why it pays not to ignore projects – even a small contribution counts.
The cooperative village and its buildings
The village is where the cooperative produces materials together (wood and textiles on one side, bricks, minerals and metals on the other) and puts up buildings. The leader or a deputy can start construction straight away, or at least a third of the members can vote on it – but only one building goes up at a time.
- Before building you need to donate the required construction materials, and ideally the whole co-op should chip in.
- The leader and the deputies can donate gold or village dollars from the cooperative account to buy materials, and each donation in gold also cuts the material requirement by 1%.
- The entire construction time can be skipped with up to ten gold donations, with each contribution shortening the remaining time by 10%.
- If you do not finish the donation tasks, the building loses at least 1% of the donated material every day – but one member donating once every 24 hours is enough to avoid the loss.
The village also has a job center with seasonal specialists who repair damaged fields, and a champions' factory that charges up from your League of Champions results and then produces automatically based on them.
The cooperative competition and the leagues
In the cooperative competition you complete missions and earn reputation points that count towards the co-op's overall score – so everyone benefits from your work. Cooperatives move up through the leagues from beginner through bronze, silver and gold all the way to the champions league, where they represent their region against the best cooperatives in the world.
- In smaller cooperatives (at least five members) the co-op's best player gets a reward.
- In big cooperatives (twenty members or more) several of the top players get rewards.
- You can buy bonuses yourself, or ask the leader to buy them for the whole co-op – they increase the number of reputation points you get from missions.
On top of that, the points you earn in the competition feed into champions' factory XP, which permanently raises the level and the production speed of the village factory.
What is expected of you as a member
Membership is not just about cashing in on the perks – it works both ways. Before you join, expect to be counted on to take part regularly.
- Contribute to collections as soon as you have enough of the items needed, so projects do not get stuck waiting on one player.
- Your turn will come round for watering the shared tree and for donating materials to the village, ideally at least once every 24 hours.
- If the cooperative starts a research, the leader or a deputy may need you as a researcher – though everyone can only take part in one research at a time.
- During the cooperative competition, play the missions and collect reputation points, because they count towards the shared result, not just towards your personal one.
Buildings and products mentioned in the text
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