Farmville Launches Pig Breeding and Love Potion Crafting

For those of us who could not get enough of sheep breeding, Farmville has just launched Pig Breeding.  Though the process looks a lot like sheep breeding, there is sure to be many new different designs to experiment with.  Another great development is Farmville's release of love potion crafting.  I am sure this will be a relief to many Farmville players since sending a request every 4 hours was getting quite tiresome.  Here are some details on both new additions:

Pig Farming
When you enter your farm, you will be prompted to place a pigpen on your farm.  Once you have completed building the first level of your pigpen, you will receive a green boar.  This definitely makes it convenient to get started.  Plus, you can build a pigpen on both your home and English farm and receive a boar for each.  When you place your boar and pig in the pigpen, you will use the same love potion that you use for sheep and breed in the same manner.  You will be given an option to keep or give away the piglet and you can grow it up using the same amount of bottles.  The only thing that is different is the type of colors and pig designs you will encounter.  Here are a few examples:

Love Potion Crafting
When you go to your English Countryside farm, you will need only to open up your Brew house to see the addition of love potion as one of your crafting options.  In order to make love potion, you will need Field Beans, Pink Asters, and English Peas bushels.  So if you haven't done it already, start working on expanding your brew houses so you can make as much as possible.  In addition to love potion, you will find that nails, bricks and boards are also craftable now depending on what type of crafting building you have on your home farm. 

I think that everyone will agree that these are all great improvements.  So, all we need now is an easier way to get bottles.  Then we can feed all our lambs and piglettes waiting in line to grow up. :)

Farmville Sheep Breeding: The Magnificent Devil Sheep Descendants

Though the breeding of the infamous Devil sheep has, for the most part, been near to impossible.  Farmville players who have Devil sheep may be focusing too much on the failure of the flashing horn and red eye features to pass on to its descendants.  However, if you have received one of these, somewhat genetically flawed, Devil descendants, then I doubt you feel disappointed in the least.  Of all the special featured sheep out there,  the Devil sheep descendants are the craziest.  Though I am sharing an picture of one of these sheep, without the animation, the image hardly does it justice.
Example of a Devil Descendant (without animation)

Example of a Devil Descendant Lamb

Devil Descendants:
Since you may not know a Devil Descendant when you see one, here is a list of their common features.

Flashing Mask Colors: Instead of having a single color of mask, Devil Descendants constantly flash all different mask colors.

Rapid Flashing: The Devil Descendant tend to flash at a much quicker rate than Flashing sheep and Poppers. In fact, they flash so fast that they look like little strobe lights.  When you visit a neighbor's farm, you will notice this type of sheep first since it will be constantly tweaking and popping.

Split Color Feature: Most Devil Descendants have the split color feature, which devides horizontally through the middle of the sheep.  So while, the top half of the sheep's base color is flashing one set of colors, the bottom half is flashing another set of colors.

Electric:  The Electric Feature in Devil Descendants is never one color of Electric.  Instead the Devil Descendant has electric lines that flash all different colors.  Since electric is a feature that goes off for a while and then comes back on, you will see the same thing in the Devil Descendants.  When the electric lines turn on, the lines run a spectrum of colors and disappear for a moment and then turn right back on.

Popping Colors: Sometimes instead of flashing the base color, Devil Descendants flash the secondary color which gives the sheep the appearance of colors popping out at you.
All of the features that I've described above are constantly flashing and moving.  The parts of a Devil Descendant that are not moving are the base color or the sheep's design color which is the secondary color.  If you are not sure which colors are which, the base color is the backdrop of stars and dots whereas the secondary color is the color of the stars and dots.  In a Camo sheep, the base color is in the middle and secondary is on the edges. Though there are some variations in the combination of special features that occur in Devil sheep descendants, they tend to keep most of the features at once and this is what makes them look so crazy.

Breeding Tips:
Breeding of Devil Descendants should be done in a manner similar to breeding multi-feature sheep, but is ultimately easier.  Instead of getting a sheep that is missing several features, as is seen in regular multi-feature sheep, the Devil Descendant will ever give you another Devil Descendant or it will give you a plain or single feature lamb.  So, you will know when you see the lamb weather or not the breed was successful.  In order to have the best breeding results, you will want to pair the Devil Descendant with a sheep that has no special features.  Though two Devil Descendants can be bred together, ultimately breeding with a plain patterned sheep will give you the highest ratio of breeding success. 
So if you don't already have a Devil Descendant, they are well worth seeking out. Though this type of sheep may not be as easy to find as some of the others, you are sure to bump into one on on a neighbor's farm.  If you do, you shouldn't ask your friend for a Devil Descendant since they may not even be aware that this is what they have.  Instead, post a sign next to the sheep once you find one and ask if you can have on of those.  It may be a little forward, but there's no way you're neighbor will be wondering what sheep you are talking about.  Lastly, once you get a Devil Descendant, be sure to share lambs with your friends, since it is probably the last type of crazy featured sheep we will see for a while.

You may also be interested in:
Farmville Sheep Breeding: How to Breed Popping Colors Sheep 
Farmville Sheep Breeding: Answers to the Devil Sheep Mystery
Farmville Official Statement: Illegal Sheep Pardoned  
Farmville Sheep Breeding: Changing Star and Dot Colors
Farmville Sheep Breeding: The Split Color, Masked, Flashing Sheep Combination
How to Share Farmville Love Potion Links on Facebook

How to Breed Rare Calves in Farmville

The processes of breeding calves has gone through many changes since the time that Farmville first released the dairy barn for cows.  However, now that other breeding crazes such as sheep breeding have been introduced, the chances are very low that Farmville will make additional change to dairies and how to breed calves.  So here are some of the best methods you can use to breed rare calves. 
Calf Breeding Basics:

1. You can only get one calf a day.  However, if you are able to get a bull for your English Farm, you can get two calves in a day.
2. You can only have 5 coin bought dairies on each of your farms. 
3. There are 10 calf links on each calf post from a dairy.
4. If you happen to get an English calf, you can put it in your nursery barn and grow it up which will give you five English calves to share with your friends.

How to Breed a Specific Rare Calf:

1. If you just got a new type of cow that you would like to breed, the best way to do this is to have more than one of this type of cow.  The reason you want more of that type of cow, is because Farmville often favors the type of cow that that has the greatest number in your dairy. 
2. The second thing you need to do is to use a dairy that has only at a capacity of 20 cows.  The reason for this is because your chances of getting a calf are based on a ratio of numbers of cows to cow capacity.  So, if you have 4 cows in a 40 cow capacity dairy, you will have less chances of getting a calf than if you have 4 cows in a 20 cow capacity dairy. 
3. The next thing you need to do is to place a lot of cows on your farm so they can be used as seeders.  Since calf breeding using seeders can never be 100%, you should assure that you are using seeder cows that are also rare types of cows.  These should be cow types that you would not mind getting the calf from in the event that the type of cow you are trying to breed is not selected.
4. Once you have your empty 20 capacity dairy, at least two of the rare type of cow, and a lot of ready seeder cows on your farm, then you are ready to begin.  Using the hand moving tool, grab one of the rare types of cows and place it in your empty dairy.  Harvest.  If you do not get a calf, grab your second rare cow and place it in your dairy.  Place each of your target rare cows in the dairy and harvest before you start using the other seeder cows.
5. If you did not get a calf with this first attempt, go ahead and grab a seeder cow and place it in the dairy with your 2-3+ rare calves and then harvest.  If you still do not get a calf, this time you will have to look inside the dairy and remove the seeder cow.  Keep using the seeders until you get a calf.  Hopefully FV will follow its most prevalent rule in cow selection and that is to select the cows that have the greatest number in your dairy and not the seeder.

Hands Off Approach to Breeding Rare Calves:
If the previous approach sounds like a lot of work, you are right.  It is not something that you will want to do every day. The first approach is nice to do when a new type of cow comes out that you want to breed right away.

1. So in order to have a hands off approach to breeding rare calves, you need only to fill a dairy with as many rare calves as possible. Remember the capacity ration when doing this.  So if you have 15 rare cows, you should place them in a 20 cow capacity dairy.  This will give you better chances of getting a calf. 
2. Once you get more rare calves you should expand your dairy and try to fill it to the next level.  The reason for expanding is that you have better chances of getting a calf every day if you have a full 40 capacity dairy than if you had a full 20 capacity dairy.
3. When you have your dairy full of rare cows, then wait for it to be ready and harvest.  Be sure that this is the first dairy with a bull in it that you harvest for the day since that is the most likely dairy that will produce a calf. 
4. If you do not get a calf on the first try, you can use your cow seeders to try again.  The good thing is that with fuller dairies, it is unlikely that you will have to try more than two or three times before getting a calf.  Furthermore, since your dairy only has rare cows in it, you are sure to get a rare calf.

So, if you follow these two methods you are sure to get at least one rare calf in a day and maybe more since you have the opportunity to get 4 rare calves every day.  You have two chances of breeding in your dairies on both your home and English farms.  Plus you have two chances of growing up a calf in your nursery and then sharing the calves with your friends.  So have fun with it.  Since you can only get one calf in a day from dairies, you will definitely be happy to get the calf you are trying for.

You may also be interested in:
Farmville Sheep Breeding Patterns
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Farmville Sheep Breeding: How to Get a Ram

Changes to Farmville Sheep Breeding

On 14 April of this year, Farmville made the announcement that they had made some changes in sheep breeding.  Instead of getting three lambs of one gender and then one of the other, the gender of the lamb is now random.  The statement from Farmville went on to say that though the lamb gender would be random, there would be less possibility of getting a Ram.  So, is sheep breeding truly random now?  Here are the differences that I have found so far:

Lamb Gender
Before the change, you had a higher chance for a boy lamb when selecting the Ram first and then the Ewe and vice versa.  Following the change, the opposite seems to be the case.  When selecting the Ram first, you have a higher chance of getting a girl lamb and when selecting the Ewe first, you have higher chances of getting a boy.  Though this does not happen all the time, it happens enough that to form a definite pattern.

Design
Before the announced change, the design was for the most part determined by the Ram.  However, since the change, I see more and more breeds that do not follow this pattern.  Getting the Ewe's design is therefore much easier than it was before.

Color
Before the change, the base color was determined by the Ewe and especially when selecting the Ewe first.  Now it is possible to get the base color of the Ram.  This change is particularly nice since all of the special features such as Flashing, Electric, Popping Colors, Split Color and Masked are coded just like colors.  So before if you received an Flashing Ewe from a friend, then you would be able to breed that Flashing feature easily.  However, if you received a flashing Ram, you would have to try much harder until you were able to get the Flashing feature to breed.  Now, you can get a Ram or an Ewe with the special feature and easily breed either one to get the feature in the lamb.

Tips for Success
Though breeding results have become more random, they have also become easier.  This is great news for those of us who rely on the limited amounts of love potion we can get from friends rather than spending farm cash.  Although breeding is easier, there are still some things you should do in order to get the best results.  The most important thing you can do is to pair your special featured sheep with a plain design sheep.  For example: If you have an Electric sheep and you want to breed that feature, you are better off choosing a Camo, Star or any design of sheep that does not have any special feature.  Pairing these two will give you better chances for having a lamb with the special feature you are trying to breed. Secondly, if you select the sheep with the special feature first when breeding, you will have a higher chance of getting a sheep with that special feature.

Though I miss the previous certainty of sheep breeding, Farmville always seems to change things for the best.  I am sure that you and many others will love this new change since it makes breeding designs and getting boy lambs much easier than before.  So I hope that you will have fun with all the new possibilities.

You may also be interested in:

New Farmville Sheep Breeding Patterns

Farmville Official Statement: Illegal Sheep Pardoned

Answers to the Devil Sheep Mystery

All About Electric Sheep