Temporary farms
A temporary farm is a separate map that I play alongside my main farms only for as long as a time-limited event runs. I've already been through the Viking farm, the tropical-themed Island farm, the Festive farm, the Northern lights farm and the Candy farm - each one has its own theme, but they all stick to the same mechanic with their own currency, trader and tasks. Once the event is over, the trader closes his gates and everything I hoarded on the farm and didn't spend disappears with him.
I treat temporary farms as bonus content on top of the main farms - a good way to grab seasonal decorations and rewards for finishing tasks. It does pay to keep an eye on when the event ends, though, because unspent currency and unused monument coins are handled differently depending on the type of season, and if I'm not paying attention I lose more than I have to.
A temporary farm only runs for as long as its themed season
A temporary farm opens up for me as a brand new map next to my permanent farms as soon as a seasonal event starts. In the interface I switch between the Event overview tab, where I can see my progress, and the Event information tab, where I find the rules for that season.
Progress on the farm is split into chapters - in each one I work through five tasks, and once I've finished them all, I unlock the chapter reward and move on to the next one.
The currency I earn on the farm disappears when the event ends
On a temporary farm I collect its own currency based on the theme. With every single one of them the game warns me outright that as soon as that farm's trader closes his gates, I lose every unspent piece.
- Lollipops - Candy farm
- Northern lights coins - Northern lights farm
- Viking coins - Viking farm
- Pearls - Island (tropical) farm
- Festive coins - Festive farm
On top of that, in some seasons I collected other tokens as well - Rune stones, for example, which you can trade in with the rune trader for seeds, decorations and other goods, or tickets and other collectibles that you then swap for special seeds and decorations with the Candy farm trader, or with the voucher trader.
I swap dollars for farm currency in a special bank
If the currency I've collected isn't enough, I buy more with ordinary dollars right there on the farm. That's what the Island bank on the tropical farm, the Viking treasury on the Viking farm, the Festive bank on the Festive farm and the Exchange machine on the Candy farm are for.
The game promises a favorable exchange rate with all of them, so I mainly use this option right before the event ends, when I'm a few pieces of currency short of one last purchase at the trader.
The temporary farm trader sells goods in two separate tabs
In the temporary farm shop I get a Goods for your main farms tab and a Goods for the temporary farm tab. Anything I buy in the first tab goes straight to my regular farms and has nothing to do with the temporary farm. Goods from the second tab, on the other hand, only work on this temporary farm.
Here you need to watch out for whether the season uses the older or the newer type of currency - with some events you could still exchange unused items after it finished, while in newer versions unspent currency is simply taken away shortly after the event ends. If I come across an upgrade I've already bought and have active, the shop tells me straight away, so there's no risk of buying it a second time by mistake.
At the start of a season I pick one of three starter farms
Before I begin, the game offers me a choice of starter farm - a regular farm for free, a Prosperous farm or a Miracle farm. They differ mainly in the starting layout of the plot, that is in how many farm expansions I have available right from the start. Once I've picked one, I click Enter farm and carry straight on with the tasks.
The season monument has to be finished before the event ends
A temporary farm usually comes with a decorative monument that I upgrade with Champions League coins. Before I can start upgrading it, I first have to place it on the farm - otherwise the game won't let me.
Shortly before the season ends, a message pops up telling me the season is coming to a close, how many coins I have left and how many are still missing for the next upgrade, with an offer to buy the rest. Any Champions League coins I don't manage to spend are simply converted into dollars once the monument closes, so technically I don't lose them, but I get less out of them than I would from upgrading directly.
