FarmVille Winter Holiday Crops: Gum Drop and Golden Poinsettia

Two limited edition crops have launched in FarmVille's marketplace, both of which are in the current Winter Holiday theme. One is more traditional, offering us a golden version of the classic Christmas flower the Poinsettia (appropriately, the crop is called Golden Poinsettia) while the other is more whimsical, coming in the form of Gum Drop candies.

Both of these crops are available to plant across farms (that is, they aren't limited to just the Winter Wonderland farm), but only the Golden Poinsettia is free to plant, as it costs coins. A single square of Golden Poinsettia costs 20 coins to plant and requires 16 hours to grow. You'll gain 4 XP for each square you plant and tend, and you'll gain 215 coins for each flower at harvest. The first star of mastery for this one comes at just 275 harvests.

As for the Gum Drops, this is a Farm Cash crop which can be unlocked for 10 Farm Cash. For that price, you'll receive a seven day permit to plant and harvest as many Gum Drops as you'd like. If you decide to purchase the crop permit, you'll earn 2 XP for each square grown and will earn 150 coins for each plot when you harvest these candies. This crop can also be mastered, with the first star coming after 400 harvests. If you do purchase this permit, feel free to plant extra squares on multiple farms so that you'll have the best chance of mastering it in the short week-long window you're given with this permit.

You'll have about a month to plant the Golden Poinsettias - 27 days, to be exact - while the Gum Drop permit will be available to purchase for the next 28 days. If you're hoping to receive Farm Cash as a Christmas present, that still gives you a few days to rush and master these Gum Drops, so keep that in mind. If you're worried about more limited edition crops launching within that time frame, however, you might want to purchase the permit now, only to be paid back later.

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2011 coverage right here.

What do you think of these two limited edition Winter Holiday crops? Will you pay 10 Farm Cash for the Gum Drop permit, or does its exclusive mastery sign not hold a draw for you?

FarmVille Halloween items: Candy Corn Tree, Halloween Cottage, Jack-O'-Lantern and more

With tonight's FarmVille update, we see the game switch to Halloween-mode, as the first set of Halloween related items has been released in the store. This particular update sees the launch of both new items and old, so if you happen to regret not purchasing some items from last year's Halloween theme, take a look at our overview of these items to see if they've come back around.

Crops

Jack O Lantern - 10 Farm Cash

To be specific, the Jack O Lantern crop comes as an exclusive, permit-only crop that can be unlocked for 10 Farm Cash. For that price, you'll gain access to planting the crop as many times as you'd like for a seven day period. Once purchased and planted, you'll be able to harvest the Jack O Lanterns after 12 hours, and will gain three experience points for each and every square planted. The crop is masterable, with the first star coming at 400 harvests.

Trees

Candy Corn Tree - 8 Farm Cash
Giant Candy Corn Tree - 14 Farm Cash
Halloween Candy Tree - 8 Farm Cash
Big Halloween Candy Tree - 14 Farm Cash

If you're like me, the thought of bright and whimsical trees will likely have you ready to whip out your credit card. These trees are no exception, as the Halloween Candy trees keep their purple color constantly, while the Candy Corn trees start out in different shades of green, only to mature into the classic white, yellow and orange trio of colors we're familiar with from the candy. As usual, the Level 1 (cheaper) trees are the only ones you really need to worry about purchasing outright for your collection, as you'll likely earn the larger trees in each pair for free via Mystery Seedlings.

Animals

Candy Corn Cat - 12 Farm Cash
Candy Corn Pony - 24 Farm Cash
Candy Corn Unicorn - 30 Farm Cash
Candy Corn Stallion - 35 Farm Cash

For these animals, the Candy Corn Pony was released last year (also for 24 Farm Cash), so you might already have one on your farm. If you'd like to purchase these items for your new Lighthouse Cove farm, however, you will have to purchase multiples (duplicates) as there is no way to transfer storage to your new farm as of this writing.

Buildings

Halloween Cottage - 30 Farm Cash
Candy Corn Home - 18 Farm Cash

The Halloween Cottage has to be one of the most intricately detailed buildings I've seen released in FarmVille in quite some time, if not ever. The building is covered in various spiderwebs and has candy, pumpkins and what appear to be twigs resting in the windowsills, around the front "porch" and the sides. Even the weather vane on the roof is in the design of the bat - how neat! As for the Candy Corn Home, it takes on a cuter appearance, with smaller candy corn pieces branching off from the main home as separate rooms. It's just a shame that both of these items cost Farm Cash, rather than going for coins.

Decorations

Candy Corn Gate - 10,000 coins
Candy Corn (Fountain) - 15 Farm Cash
Jack-O'-Lantern - 3,000 coins
Candy Corn Gnome - 15 Farm Cash
Candy Corn Fence - 5,000 coins

If this Jack-O'-Lantern trio looks familiar, it's because this is one item that has been a stable in FarmVille's Halloween events for the last few years, first appearing in 2009. The price has increased somewhat, but at 3,000 coins, it's still a bargain (especially considering that they glow as though lit with a candle).

Avatar Clothing

Banana Costume - 5 Farm Cash
Candy Corn Costume - 7 Farm Cash

While I'm fairly confident additional costumes will be launched in the game's store between now and Halloween proper, if you're looking to get into the spirit early, or just really like Bananas or Candy Corn, you can spend a few Farm Cash to dress your avatar up appropriately. Remember, you can try on items to see if you like the way your avatar looks in them before purchasing.

All of these items (with the exception of the crop) will be available in the game for the next 13 days. To top all of this off, however, if you happen to purchase seven items in this theme so far within the next seven days, you'll receive a free Nightmare Rider: a Halloween-themed sheep with a pumpkin hat and an orange and black flame motorcycle. We'll make sure to let you know when additional Halloween items and features launch in the game in the coming weeks, so keep checking back with us!

Are you excited to see FarmVille transition into Halloween-themed mode this year? Which of these items is your favorite so far? Sound off in the comments.

FarmVille: Horses return to the store in celebration of Horse Paddock

As has become a new (but temporary) ritual in FarmVille, every time another animal breeding building releases in the game, a set of matching animals are re-released in the game's store allowing you to fill it with a variety of limited edition animals. Such is the case with this final breeding habitat - the Horse Paddock - as you can now purchase a variety of Horses to fill it from the store for a limited time. Remember, you don't need a Stallion inside your Horse Paddock to trigger breeding; you just need a single kind of a particular Horse to produce a Foal at random you harvest from the Paddock. Here's a look at the animals you can now purchase.

Disco Pony - 24 Farm Cash
Pinto Pony - 26 Farm Cash
Clydesdale Stallion - 40 Farm Cash
Mini Appaloosa - 26 Farm Cash
Palouse Horse - 28 Farm Cash
Haflinger - 24 Farm Cash
E-QUESTR10N - 24 Farm Cash
Mini Purple Unicorn - 35 Farm Cash
White Pegasus - 35 Farm Cash
Andalusian Horse - 26 Farm Cash
King Horse - 26 Farm Cash
Pink Ponytail Horse - 26 Farm Cash
Pinto Mini Horse - 26 Farm Cash
Fairy Horse - 26 Farm Cash
Comtois Horse - 26 Farm Cash

There are plenty of Horse collectors in FarmVille, and it shows here, with a whopping 15 horses/ponies being released once again for players to add to their collections. If you joined the game later than other farmers, or just started your collection recently, this is a fantastic (albeit incredibly expensive) way to flesh out your collection into something that's definitely worth showing off. Just remember, these Horses will only be available in the store for the next week. After that point, they'll go into retirement, with no guarantee of when (if ever) they'll come back again.

Will you purchase any of these re-released Horses, or is your collection of Horses already large enough to fill plenty of Horse Paddocks? Sound off in the comments.

FarmVille Horse Mystery Box: What's inside?

If the recently re-released set of Horses available in the FarmVille marketplace aren't enough to satisfy your Horse-collecting needs, why not look into purchasing one of the new Horse Mystery Boxes that have also been released in the game's store? Remember, these Mystery Boxes are found under the Decorations tab of the store, even if they contain animals, so don't worry if you don't see them where they likely should be.

As for this particular box, it comes stocked with six Horses, but remember - you'll have no way of knowing which Horse you'll receive when opening a single box up. They come with the expected Horse price tag of 24 Farm Cash per box, and for that price, you're guaranteed to receive one of the following:

Black Shire Horse
Chrome Pegasus
Rainbow Mini Horse
Rainbow Pony
Rainbow Stallion
White Unicorn

Unfortunately, another problem inherent with these Mystery Boxes is that they also don't guarantee you to not receive duplicates if you decide to open more than one. Depending on how many of these Horses you already have on your farms from previous releases, that fact alone could actually make this box too much of a risk to purchase. Either way, you'll need to make up your mind about a purchase fairly quickly, as the box (and its contents) will expire from the store in a week's time.

Will you purchase a Horse Mystery Box for your game? Which Horse are you hoping to find inside? Which one did you actually receive? Let us know in the comments!

FarmVille: Limited edition Cows come back to the barnyard (again)

No, you're not experiencing deja vu farmers, Zynga has yet again re-released a set of cows into FarmVille, giving you guys a chance to fill your collections in anticipation of what looks to be a Cow-centric breeding habitat coming to the farm. We last saw some of these Cows back in August, when Animal Mastery hit the farm, but there are some different options for your shopping pleasure this time around.

As usual, you'll only have a week to do any shopping associated with this re-release of Cows, so here's a complete look at those that have been re-released:

Autumn Cow - 22 Farm Cash
Blue Cow - 22 Farm Cash
Robot Cow - 22 Farm Cash
Western Longhorn - 20 Farm Cash
Devon Cow - 22 Farm Cash
Mohawk Cow - 22 Farm Cash
Fairy Cow - 24 Farm Cash
Hereford Cow - 22 Farm Cash
Highland Cow - 22 Farm Cash
Chrome Cow - 24 Farm Cash

Unfortunately, there aren't any coin-only Cows in this update, so you'll have to spend some of your hard-earned Farm Cash to stock up on any of these animals. Unlike previous animal habitats, the upcoming Cow building will allow you to breed Calves, rather that duplicates of these Cows, so if you don't want to waste time waiting for those Calves to grow inside your Nursery Barn, you might want to buy these Cows as is.

We'll make sure to let you know when the next animal habitat launches in the game, and hopefully we'll be able to bring you the news very, very soon.

Will you purchase any of these Cows for your farms, even if you don't place them in a storage building? Which ones are your favorites? Sound off in the comments.