Hay Day is one of the most popular

Hay Day is one of the most popular free
to play games on the App Store, but it'll
cost you a bundle in in app purchases if
you're not careful. Here are some tips
I've figured out on how to get ahead in
the game without paying a dime.
Hay Day puts you in charge of
rehabilitating a farm that's seen
better days. You grow and harvest
crops, raise livestock, clearing land, and
make goods you can sell to local
businesses and consumers to make a tidy
profit. With each new level comes new
goods you can make, new livestock and
crops, and some other assorted goodies
to help make your farming experience
better. Like most free to play games,
there's an in app purchase mechanism
that you can use to buy a hard
currency in the game (diamonds) which
will get you ahead and get you out of
jams. The tips I've come up with are to
keep you out of those jams.
1. Don't run out of
seed crops
Every crop you plant will double its yield
upon harvest — one unit of corn planted
in your field yields two corn units in
your silo. As tempted as you may be to
use up all the seeds in your silo to fill a
lucrative order, don't . Plant those seeds
and make sure to keep enough on hand
to create the products you're going to
need later. If you do, you'll have no
choice but to use diamonds to buy more
seeds.
Especially as your farm grows, you're
going to need to constantly supply your
livestock with feed — to that end, you
should always have a good stock of
wheat, corn, soybeans and other feed in
your silo at all times.
2. Plant slow-
growing crops at
night or during
work hours
Some crops only take a few minutes to
pop up — wheat, corn, and carrots, for
example, all take less than ten minutes.
Others, like pumpkins and indigo, take
hours. Make sure to plant those crops
before you go to sleep or if you're going
to busy with work or school for a few
hours; that way they'll be ready when
you get back and you can harvest and
use them as you need to.
The same rule applies to livestock and to
finished goods you're making. Some take
hours to get ready, so make sure they
start production before you're off to
bed, and they'll be ready when you wake
up the next day.
3. Don't bother
with visitors to
your farm
Visitors to your farm want to buy your
goods, but they typically don't want to
pay a premium for them. So don't be
afraid to say no. They won't take
offense and they'll come around again
soon enough as soon as the mood strikes
them.
About the only exception I make is when
I have a total glut on something, like
chicken eggs, or something I can make
really fast, like wheat.
This brings me to my next tip...
4. Use your
roadside stand to
fill your coffers
Rather than selling goods to visitors, sell
them to your friends and followers who
are also playing Hay Day. You can check
your newspaper to see what your friends
are selling products for and follow suit.
What I usually do is just max out the
price of the good then knock 10 percent
off. Usually it sells right away.
5. Don't be afraid
to say no to orders
Your bulletin board will pile up with
orders from nearby businesses that
need your goods — stores, salons,
schools, churches and more. They're
usually willing to pay a fair price, but
sometimes you don't have enough goods
to fill the orders, or it'll take too long,
or you may not even have the equipment
or livestock to fill the order. Don't be
afraid to dump the order in the trash.
You'll end up waiting a few minutes until
the next order arrives, but if you can
fill it, it'll be more worthwhile than
having the limited space you have for
orders taken up by stuff you can't or
don't want to fill.
6. Balance money
with experience
As your orders come in, you'll see two
figures appear at the bottom — coins
and stars. Coins are the money you'll
get for each order, and stars are the
experience points you'll get for
completing that order.
Succeeding at Hay Day is as much about
leveling up as it is about making coins, so
look at those orders carefully. It may be
worth your while to go with an order
that offers less cash but more
experience to help you level up faster.
7. And a cheat -
reload the game to
refresh the
newspaper
I've already given you six tips and
tricks, but I promised you a cheat too,
so here you go: Your newspaper shows
you the current deals that other Hay
Day players are offering. You can force
the newspaper to refresh if you quit the
game entirely, then relaunch it. (And
when I say quit the game, I mean get it
out of active memory - if you're
unfamiliar with how to do so, follow
these instructions.) The newspaper
should be refreshed and you'll see new
deals.
Your top tips,
tricks, and cheats?
So there you go — six quick tips for
getting the most out of Hay Day. Do you
have others? Are you frustrated with
Hay Day? Or has it already cost you a
bundle in in app purchases? Sound off
in the comments and let me know what
you think. And if you haven't already
tried Hay Day, make sure to check it out
in the App Store.
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