FrontierVille Buildable Snowman: Everything you need to know

A new Winter Holiday item has appeared in the FrontierVille store today, and it comes in the form of a buildable Snowman. The Snowman is able to be built over time and then customized with the help of friends. We have all of the details you need to know about this new holiday item, so meet us behind the break to find out how you can add a touch of snowy magic to your frontier.

The Snowman base can be purchased from the FrontierVille store for 100 coins (95 coins, if you have learned the "Rithmatic" class in the School House, which gives you a discount on coin items in the market.

Once placed, you'll need to "tend" your tiny snow pile three times, each time receiving one of the three balls that makes up a Snowman. This costs just a single energy to tend the Snowman one time, so three energy in all.

Your snowman will come equipped with what appears to be lumps of coal serving as the buttons that run vertically down his "chest" area. From there, you'll work on finishing the Snowman in the same way that you would finish a building in the game, by collecting various ingredients with the help of friends.

Here, you'll need to collect 4 each of Coal, Carrot Noses, Top Hats, Wintery Scarves, Snowman Pipes, and Buttons. Three of these items (the Coal, Carrots and Hats) are earned by posting requests on your wall asking your friends to click on the wall post to send you the item (and receive one for themselves in return). Meanwhile, the Scarves, Pipes and Buttons are earned via the reverse gift requests method that has you sending an individual gift request to your FrontierVille neighbors to see if they will accept them, thereby giving you the item you need.

Luckily, even if you help a friend through a gift request, you will still receive a like-item in return, as a thank-you gift for helping them out. This should ensure that most users finish the Snowman quickly, and without too much difficulty.

Once completed, the Snowman can be customized just like you can customize other "building" objects in the game, in order to make your Snowman look unique when compared to those of your friends.

The Snowman will only stick around until the snow melts in FrontierVille, so build him fast before you lose your chance! (Note: The Snowman is apparently on a slow roll-out to users, so if you don't have access to buying one in the store just yet, be patient, as we're sure you'll receive your chance soon).

FrontierVille 12 Days of Christmas Goals: Everything you need to know for Day Two

On the Second Day O' Christmas
Just two days remain in FrontierVille's 12 Days of Christmas Goal series and, oddly enough, things are getting progressively easier. "On the Second Day O' Christmas" requires three simple, almost menial tasks, of pioneers. First, you're to visit two Neighbors. While you're there, tend two of your Neighbors' Pigs and clean up two Debris while you're at it.

And that's it. No, we're not kidding. This could very well be one of the easiest Goals in the game, which is odd considering we're one Goal away from being done with Christmas once and for all in FrontierVille. Come to think of it, you could probably finish this Goal in five minutes. You'd imagine that Zynga would start to end the holiday with a bang, but a break from gift requests and cross promotions never hurt anyone. Complete this Goal and a not-so-well earned 1,000 XP, one "Tend Here" Sign and one Fruitcake are all yours. But we're not out of the woods yet. Check back tomorrow to find out what the final Goal of this series has in store for the frontier.

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2010 coverage right here.

Earn 250 free FrontierVille Horseshoes through Netflix free trial

Sure, FarmVille has its sponsored links down, but Zynga knows how to make it rain Horseshoes in FrontierVille too. In the most recent promotion on the homestead, pioneers can earn 250 Horseshoes after signing up for a free Netflix trial. If you're one of the millions who already use the service, that's too bad. But for those living under the proverbial rock this is a golden opportunity.

Just click on the banner ad beneath the game screen and you'll be taken to a pop-up. This is a good one, trust us. Follow the link that reads "Place Order Now" to the Netflix homepage. From there, sign up for a free one month trial. After signing up, we suggest allowing at least 30 minutes for the 250 Horseshoes to post to your account.

FrontierVille Netflix
Just be sure to cancel your subscription before the trial transitions into tapping your account monthly. That is, if you end up not digging Netflix (fat chance). Now kick back, boot up the homestead and catch on your backlog of "The Office" episodes. At least that's what I did.

FrontierVille: See building progress and ask for items before loading the game

While FrontierVille may be adored by many, there is one widespread complaint amongst even the most diehard fans - that the game takes quite a bit of time to load, which is especially true the higher the level that you reach. Zynga is attempting to help ease the burden on some players, who may only login to check on their building project status, as they have added a new progress window that now appears seemingly every time you play the game.

Instead of forcing the game to load in its entirety, you're shown a list of three building materials that you currently need, and are given the option of asking friends for that particular item via its own button. You never have to enter the game, as you're told how many you still need for your current task, so you know just how many friends to send requests to. Of course, this isn't mandatory, as you can always click the "Maybe Later. Play FrontierVille!" button to access the game as normal, but it is a nice new option all the same.

Have you seen this new item progress screen show up when you try to load FrontierVille?

FrontierVille: Earn 7 free Horseshoes from MasterCard Marketplace

Check out the bottom of your FrontierVille game for a banner from MasterCard Marketplace and after answering two simple survey questions, you'll be rewarded with 7 free Horseshoes, which is the game's premium currency. While not a huge payout, 7 Horseshoes is still a hefty offer. This MasterCard promotion follows on the heels of last week's 5 free Farm Cash on FarmVille. Obviously, MasterCard is eager to get the word out on their new service.

So what is MasterCard Marketplace? Well, in the spirit of sites like GroupOn, LivingSocial, etc, MasterCard Marketplace is a coupon network and daily deals aggregator. Basically, you only need to visit one place to find out what's on sale at tons of other places. This one place will tell you how much you'll save and how long each sale will last. Currently, unique features with MasterCard Marketplace seems to be that they like showcasing 50% discounts, a reward points system, and many personalization options for signing up. But yeah, enough about that -- grab those 7 free horseshoes while you can!
FrontierVille 7 free horseshoes
MasterCard MarketPlace

FrontierVille Newlywed Newbies Timed Goal: Everything you need to know

As if FrontierVille wasn't already filled with enough wedding talk to last most of us a lifetime, a new timed goal has been added to the game that takes life after the wedding into account, as a pair of Newlyweds (Kit and Connie) have made a pit-stop on your Homestead on their way through to the Pioneer Trail. The Newlywed Newbies goal should be available to most pioneers as of this writing, and you'll find its icon along with the rest of your goals on the left-hand side of the screen.

This timed goal must be started by August 31. Once you start it, you'll have seven days to complete it, and if you do, you'll earn some Wedding Gifts that can be used towards special wedding decorations, if you're still trying to complete your collection of those. As you might have expected, this goal comes with three tasks:

Harvest 30 Potatoes
Collect 10 Spare Harnesses
Collect 10 Water Canteens

Apparently, Kit and Connie have found themselves in a spot of trouble, and you'll need to help them make up for the poor planning by rounding up some supplies. The Spare Harnesses are earned through individual requests sent to friends, while the Water Canteens are earned through a general wall post. As for Potatoes, they take just four hours to grow, so you'll likely finish that step first.

For completing this goal, you'll walk away with the aforementioned 10 Wedding Gifts, but will also earn 300 XP and 200 coins. Those prizes aren't huge, but the requirements here aren't too terribly difficult either. Just make sure to have some free space on your land to plant those crops, and the rest should come to you way before your seven day time limit is up. Good luck!

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

Will you immediately start the Newlywed Newbies Timed Goal, or are you going to hold off on this timed goal until you have a chance to finish the other items on your plate?

Pioneer Trail Bug Report: Lost progress bug is being squashed

If you've been playing Pioneer Trail (even when it was FrontierVille) for any considerable amount of time, I'd be surprised if you hadn't suffered from a rollback issue or two, or some other form of game/fun-breaking bug. If not, you're liable to run into one now, as a widespread issue has broken out in the game, causing users to lose considerable amounts of progress on goals. This is apparently such a large issue that the majority of the game's official forums has been branded with posts and banners about the issue, but Zynga is here to let you know that help is on the way.

Specifically, we're told this by customer service:

"We have received a high number of inquiries about players losing progress in the game and seeing old missions come back. We apologize for the problem and have our developers looking at the problem now.

There's no need to submit a help ticket for this matter, as we plan on correcting this problem on our end for all affected players. We request if you are having this problem to try again in a few hours (or even later today) to see if your progress has been returned. If this problem has occurred for you, please simply click the "vote to fix" button, this will alert us that you were affected."

Essentially, what this means is that you don't need to contact Zynga Customer Support to fix this issue, as supposedly everything will be placed back to normal on Zynga's end without any input from us. That is, the "game knows" where you were when the bug first hit, and will revert you back to the proper state when the bug has been fixed. As for the time table, things aren't progressing as quickly as we would have hoped. As of yesterday morning, the issue was still being worked on by developers, but a proper fix hadn't actually been pushed out.

While you're waiting for the issue to be resolved, I'd suggest simply not playing the game (or doing anything significant, that you would be upset about having to repeat). Keep checking back with the game's official forums for updates as to the progress of the bug fix, and we'll make sure to let you know if anything significant happens between now and then.

Have you been hit by this "lost progress" bug? How far did it push you back?

Pioneer Trail Capital One Goals: Everything you need to know

While we've already taken a look at the Capital One cross-promotions in FarmVille and CityVille, Pioneer Trail's version of the promotion is definitely the most complex, taking four goals to complete. The first of these goals introduces you to the Capital One Goat, who hopes that you can help him find his lost band mates, and bring their bandstand to life on your Homestead. That's right - there's a new building to create as part of this cross-promotion, along with the four goals. Here's a complete rundown of the event.

Sterling the Bloodhound

    * Collect one Bandstand Upgrade Part
    * Visit Capital One Facebook Page
    * Craft Sterling's Guitar in the Bandstand


First things first, the Bandstand can be purchased inside the store for under 10 coins if you have the discount enabled in your game. You won't have to whack a frame or collect items to create a functioning Bandstand; however, you will have to collect these parts to upgrade the building. This is done by clicking on the Bandstand and then clicking "Upgrade" on the menu that appears. From here, it's the familiar process of asking your friends for items.

You'll need to collect 10 each of Stage Lights, pieces of Band Merchandise and Concert Wristbands, all of which are earned through general news posts, while 15 each of Sandbags and Scaffolding are earned by sending out individual requests to your friends for help. The final item - the five Band Groupies - are earned by completing these new goals, as they'll be earned automatically. That being the case, you don't have to be in too great of a rush to collect the rest of the ingredients, as you literally can't complete it anyway.

As for finishing this first goal, you'll need to head inside your Bandstand to craft items as you would in other buildings. From there, you'll need three Guitar Fretboards and five Guitar Strings to actually craft the guitar. These are both new items, requiring you to tend goats or simply ask your friends to help you earn them, among other tasks. Finishing the entirety of this first goal will give you 250 XP, Sterling the Bloodhound and 250 coins.

Toonie the Bear

    * Chop 10 Trees on your Neighbors' Homesteads
    * Feed 30 Goats on your Homestead
    * Craft Toonie's Upright Bass in the Bandstand


Again, you'll need to head inside the Bandstand to craft Toonie's Upright Base, which requires three Tailpieces and five Bass Strings. Again, you can ask your friends to send you the Bass Strings, and can craft the Tailpieces, also inside the Bandstand.

Once you finish this second goal, you'll receive 500 XP, Toonie the Bear and 500 coins.

Penny the Bullfrog

    * Feed 30 Geese on your Homestead
    * Have or Collect 3 Termites
    * Craft Penny's Banjo in the Bandstand


Again, just head inside the Bandstand to see the parts you need to craft Penny's Banjo (in this case the Banjo Pot and Banjo Pick), and then make sure you have three termites from the Oak Tree collection to finish this one off. For doing so, you'll receive 750 XP, Goat and Penny (the two remaining band members) and 5 Band Groupies. Remember those Groupies that you needed to complete the upgrade of the Bandstand? There you go.

Entertainment, Not Food

    * Collect the Upgraded Bandstand Bonus Once
    * Collect 10 Wildberries
    * Harvest 50 Corn


Like a regular building, the Bandstand has a daily bonus that can be collected, so complete that and these other simple (albeit time-consuming) tasks and you'll be golden. You'll receive 1,000 XP, a Rockin Horse (a new mount for your avatar that wears sunglasses) and 1,000 coins for finishing this final goal.

All told, we're not given an expiration date for when this cross-promotion and these goals will leave the game, but your best bet would be to finish everything off as soon as possible just to make sure you don't miss out on anything. Have fun!

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

What do you think of this entire Capital One promotion in Pioneer Trail? Are you going to make your avatar ride this horse-with-shades? Sound off in the comments.