Green-fingered fun: hints and tips for Gameloft's freemium FarmVille-esque Green Farm

French publisher Gameloft is well known for using established IPs as inspiration for its own games.

Green Farm is no different, a social FarmVille-esque freemium game that tasks you with sowing, fertilising, and harvesting crops.

You can also take on a profession, use a variety of vehicles and robots, and visit your friends' farms.

If you've ever played FarmVille or one of its many homages, there is a good chance that you're adequately green-fingered already.

If you haven't, check out these hints and tips.

The majority of your time with Green Farm will be spent sowing and harvesting crops, which you can buy from the in-game market for coins, or for cash - Green Farm's premium currency.

Like in most games of this nature, crops wither if you don't harvest them fast enough. They'll start to decay at the same rate that they grew, meaning you have to harvest a two-hour crop within four hours of planting it.

Choose your crop carefully, taking your lifestyle into account. If you can only play every couple of days, don't plant a crop with a short life-cycle - it'll be useless when you return.

You're automatically rewarded with coins and experience (XP) for successfully planting and harvesting crops, but you can also earn additional rewards by tapping on the 'jumping icons' that appear after each of your actions. Increase these rewards by using fertiliser.

Fertiliser is also useful for increasing the time it takes for a crop to wither and for boosting your chances of producing a 'perfect plant'.

If you're lucky enough to come across a perfect plant - it's largely random - you'll be rewarded with a ribbon, with three ribbons awarding a special bonus.

Aside from crops you also have the ability to plant various trees, which also have to be harvested before their fruit rots.

Trim a tree part way through its growth to earn extra fruit and coins.

Whilst waiting for your crops to grow you can while away the hours tending to a selection of colourful animals, which gift rewards at varying intervals.

You can allow your critters to roam freely, or place them inside a special animal building. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Keeping your animals free-range, for example, will leave them susceptible to predators, but will allow them to level-up after each feed. High level animals not only gift more coins but are worth more at sale.

Using a building will allow you to collect rewards in one fell swoop and increase the chance of finding a brand new baby animal. Your animals are also protected from marauding pests but are, unfortunately, unable to level-up.

Remember: recruit neighbours to stroke your animals and they'll gift fertiliser once fed.

Specialise in a specialty

Once you reach level ten, you'll be given a free workshop and the choice of four specialties - Carpenter, Artisan, Gardener, of Tailor - each allowing you to create items at bargain prices and gain exclusive swag.

Here's a description of each role.

• The Carpenter is an expert with wood and can create buildings and smaller objects such as fences.
• An Artisan is a clever business person with the ability to make animal buildings and special production elements.
• A Gardener, unsurprisingly, is a dab hand at pruning a bush and can make special plants and landscape elements.
• The Tailor is an expert with materials and can design exclusive clothes for you character.

Don't worry about your initial selection too much, as you can choose to pursue another specialty every time you gain ten levels.

Some items require the help of your friends and neighbours with specific specialties. You can check which specialties you require by first tapping on your workshop, then tapping the magnifying glass icon.

If you're playing Green Farm with a bunch of your friends and you're yet to choose a specialty, talk to your mates and all select a different role. This way you can easily help each other out.

Created items are generally cheaper than their market counterparts.

Vehicles come in four distinct colours - blue, red, green, and yellow - which correspond to plowers, seeders, harvesters, and crop dusters respectively. Several Robots are also available.

Each type of vehicle has a specific role on your farm.

• Plowers can create new plots of land that are ready to be seeded.
• Seeders quickly and efficiently plant whichever crop you choose.
• Harvesters grab your ripe crops with lightening speed.
• Dusters quickly spread fertiliser over your farm.

Vehicles and Robots require energy to work, which is drawn from a single pool of pizzazz. This is automatically replenished by one point every five minutes, and you can also purchase energy from the market.

You can increase the total amount of energy you have by finding perfect plants amongst your crops.

Currently, you can only add neighbours to your farm through Facebook.

Once added, however, you can visit their farms by tapping on their avatar in the bottom-left of your device's screen.

To earn some extra rewards you can collect your friends' crops and tend to their buildings. The amount of reward you receive is dependent on their percentage settings.

Another way to earn some extra copper is to fill your farm with production buildings such as a juice press, which gift coins at regular intervals.

These have basic requirements, such as the presence of specific trees on your farm.

If you have any tips of your own, post them in the comment section below or visit our forums.

Gameloft's Green Farm was recently included in Pocket Gamer's top 10 best iPhone farm games.

Download Green Farm