Building the Pioneer Trail Potting Shed: Everything you need to know

For releasing a brand new game complete with four massive maps worth of content, Zynga sure is focusing quite a lot of effort on our homesteads in Pioneer Trail. But rather than speculate on that, how's about we tell you just how to build this brand new feature to the game, the Potting Shed?

This new building, available to players Level 15 and higher, allows players to unlock two brand new crops and create a new item that's said to make planting crops far easier. The new feature is introduced through three new Goals that will slowly guide you through the Potting Shed's many features and eventually reward you with Cranberries and Pineapples to plant. Here's everything you need to know about the Potting Shed:

When you first log into the game, you will be greeted by a pop-up that explains that Granny has come down with the collywobbles (which is a real thing, mind you). Click on the "Let's Build" button to get started on creating your very own Potting Shed and this series of Goals.

A Cure For The Collywobbles

    Place The Potting Shed
    Clear 5 Rocks On Your Homestead
    Collect 15 Ginger Ale


After placing the Potting Shed from that introductory pop-up, just click on five rocks to clear them. Then, the 15 Ginger Ale look like they're requested for through your friends. Once this simple Goal is complete, you'll score 250 XP and 250 Coins.

A Symbol Of Welcome

    Craft 1 Multi-Planter
    Clobber 5 Groundhogs
    Collect 10 Pineapple Cuttings


The fastest way to clobbering five Groundhogs is to plant lots of Potatoes, which cost 90 coins and take four hours to harvest. The 10 Pineapple Cuttings seem to also come from friend requests, too. At this point, the Goals assume you've already built the Potting Shed, which, once placed, requires the following items to complete:
The top three items in the above image--10 Clay Pots, Bean Poles and Sittin' Stools--look to be sourced through general News Feed Posts, while the latter three seem to be found by asking friends for them directly. Once you've finished begging asking for the 75 items in total, click on the complete Potting Shed to open a brand new Crafting Bench.
Potting Shed Crafting 1     Potting Shed Crafting 2
Click on the images to make them larger.

This Multi-Planter requires several crafted items that are made through asking for the items above. For instance, you must ask for 15 Springs and 15 Pipes to make one Hinge Arm, which is required to make the Seed-O-Matic (along with one other item that's made in a similar fashion).

Then, that Seed-O-Matic and 15 Whirelygigs (found through asking even more friends) are used to craft the finished product, the Multi-Planter (pictured below). Once you finally finish this long and arduous Goal, 500 XP, 500 Coins and the Pineapples crop are yours.

Multi-PlanterCranberries

    Harvest 30 Pineapples
    Clear 15 Debris On Your Homestead
    Collect 15 Buckets Of Bog Water


Now, this final is somewhat simpler. Simply plant and harvest 30 Pineapples, though information on the exact stats of this new crop are unavailable to us as of this writing. Then, simply click around on 15 Debris. The 15 Buckets of Bog Water most likely come from asking your friends, as per usual.

This final Goal, once completed, will reward you with 750 XP, 750 Coins and the Cranberries crop. Now, enjoy your new crops and the ability to plant eight crops at once with the Multi-Planter.

[Source and Image Credit: Zynga]

Check out the rest of our FrontierVille Cheats & Tips right here. >

Have you already started on your Potting Shed? What tips do you have for completing these Goals, the new building and the Multi-Planter even more quickly?

Pioneer Trail survey reveals possible storylines involving... pirates?

Yes, you read that correctly - pirates. They may be coming to the Pioneer Trail in the future, if a recent fan survey (released by the big Z itself on the Pioneer Trail fan page) comes true. We've been given quite a few options to toss around in this new survey, but unfortunately, we're not told if these are story ideas that would pertain to Pioneer Trail itself (either the Homestead or actual Pioneer Trail portion of the game), or if this is just a general survey about future game ideas that Zynga is exploring. As it stands, no other fan page, as of this writing, has linked to the survey, which does give some weight to the former idea above.

As for this pirate story itself, we're told that we could "set sail for Booty Island," and play pirates with a full crew. We'll plunder ships and neighbors' islands, and can match up friends with others (this portion is lacking in fine details) for either love or "pirate mischief." If that isn't a wild enough storyline, then how about heading into space? In this storyline, we'd find ourselves crash-landing on an "uncharted planet," where we're forced to build a farm using alien plants or creatures (that is, instead of Cows or other traditional farm animals).

When it comes to this space storyline, I'm reminded of Astro Ranch on iPhone, which is a space-themed farming game allowing you to grow crops and livestock with the help of aliens. As we all know Zynga likes to cop---err, draw inspiration from other titles, could this be a definite game in Zynga's development cycle?

As with all things, we're left to speculate about which of these storylines/game ideas (or lack thereof) will actually come to light, but if you see something in the survey that you're more excited about than others, make sure to give it your vote. Who knows? Your vote could be the deciding factor between playing pirates and launching off into outer space, whether we do so with our Pioneer Trail characters, or in a whole new game.

What do you think of these new storyline ideas? Which ones did you vote for? Let us know in the comments.