Themed buildings and skins
Themed buildings are among the strongest rewards you can get in Big Farm – they do the same job as ordinary buildings, only more efficiently, and on top of that they have a unique look. Alongside them there are skins, which dress up a cowshed, chicken coop, orchard or field you already own in a festive or seasonal style and at the same time raise its yield for a limited time. You earn themed buildings as a reward for your placing in events and for completing tasks, and you'll find them in your inventory.
The way I see it, a themed building is always worth putting down, because it does more work on the same spot than an ordinary one. Skins are worth activating deliberately, only when you know you'll really make full use of that building over the next few days.
A themed building does the same job as an ordinary one, only more efficiently
A themed building replaces the ordinary version of the same building type – it works on the same principle, just with higher output. The game talks about them as the strongest reward you can get in Big Farm, because they provide the same function as a whole range of existing buildings on the farm, but handle it far more efficiently.
Besides the better stats, a themed building also has its own unique look, so it spices up the appearance of the whole farm at the same time. You get it as a reward for your placing in events, or for completing tasks, and you'll find it in your inventory (with Tessa) – only from there do you place it on the farm.
Personally I always give a themed building priority over the ordinary version of the same type. I see no reason to leave it lying in the inventory when it does the same job on the farm, only better.
A skin changes how a building looks and raises its yield for a while
A skin is a different thing from a themed building – you put it on a building you already have standing on the farm. The vast majority of skins follow the same pattern, whether it's a cowshed, chicken coop, pigsty, sheep pen, orchard, field or mill: the building gets a new, themed coat of paint and at the same time its yield or production improves.
The important part is that this effect isn't permanent. With the vast majority of skins the game explicitly says they have a limited active time once used. So it's a consumable item – the moment you activate it a timer starts running, and once it's up the building goes back to its ordinary output.
That gives me a clear rule – I only activate a skin once I know I'll really be working that building hard over the next few days, never ahead of time as a stockpile.
Skins exist for most animal buildings, orchards and fields on the farm
According to the game, seasonal and themed skins cover practically the whole range of farm buildings. In the game's help I found variants for:
- Animal buildings – cowshed, giant cowshed, themed cowshed, pigsty, chicken coop, sheep pen, duck coop, giant duck coop and rabbit hutch, in festive, Easter, beach, autumn, spring, winter, New Year, Valentine's, St. Patrick's, sports or Asian styles.
- Orchards – apple and cherry orchard (including the themed cooperative apple orchard) in festive, spring, autumn, winter and St. Patrick's versions, and the almond orchard in a St. Patrick's version.
- Fields – the ordinary and the fertile field in English village, Greek style, snowy cabin or free-range styles, and in spring and autumn variants.
- Mill – in snowy cabin, goldfish or Day of the Dead style.
Most of these skins follow the rule from the previous section – a new look for the building plus a temporarily higher yield.
A few skins are purely decorative and change the mood of the farm, not the yield
Not every skin in the game's help talks about a yield increase with a time limit. A few of them are described only as a change to the building's atmosphere, or as the source of a different bonus:
- The Egyptian barn and its hieroglyphs teach the workers to walk like an Egyptian – a purely visual joke with no mention of yield.
- The safari skin for the goat stable gives the goats a wild enclosure, though the description warns, more in jest, that goats love to get up to mischief when nobody is watching.
- The Asian house skin adds statues that are supposed to lift the workers' morale.
- The fairy-tale house skin and the Japanese cowshed skin with a rest in the shade of a cherry tree are described as improving mood and well-being, not as raising yield.
I take these skins more as a bit of extra atmosphere for the farm than as a workhorse of production, but it's good to know what to expect from each reward before you use it.
