Someone recommended that I make this after I gave them so much advice so...
Don't have enough money to spare? Parents not letting you spend money on Pokefarm? Don't worry! This guide is here to help you progress and achieve what you desire, without spending a single cent! My name is FatalDubstep, and I am a completely free to play player (as in I have
never spent money on this site, and I don't plan to), and look at where that's gotten me! I'm (almost) at Arceus rank, I've hatched tons of shinies and albinos, as well as two melans(:D), and I've been able to consistently get hypermode and an ubercharm each month (which boosts shiny and albino chances, which we'll get into later in the thread), as well as shiny charms and a shiny charm box! (again, will talk about later in the guide :D) I'm living proof that this game is not completely pay-to-win, but it does require a lot of patience, and that you don't need to spend a single cent to get rare mons and other valuable things.
Table of contents: (Will add once everything is done)
By the way, if any other f2p (free to play) or other experienced players want to chime in with advice, I'll gladly add it!
1. Just starting out
So! You've just arrived at Pokefarm. First off, welcome! I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about how great the game is, but I just wanted to quickly say that this is one of the few games that I have really enjoyed playing, and I keep coming back to :D
(feel free to post advice on what to do here, it's been so long since I started that I don't remember what happens in the beginning lol)
For starters, your first priority should be unlocking everything that Pokefarm has to offer. In other words, you should try to complete all the tasks that Professor Holly has for you (which can be found
here), so that you can unlock the trade center, shelter, daycare, and pretty much all the important tabs that you'll need.
2. Beginner
You've unlocked everything, congratulations! Now you have access to the wild world of Pokefarm. It ranges from all the pokemon and eggs you can adopt and hatch, as well as the amazing traders and trade threads that you can exchange items or currency in.
Scours
Your next priority should be getting scour slots and scour boosts. First off, let's take a step back. One of the most important mini-tabs is the
scours tab. This tab allows you to send out your pokemon into six different areas, ranging from the vast ocean to the barren deserts, and more! What the scours essentially do is allow your pokemon an hour to search for items, valuable or not. There are many items that you can obtain (full list and more info about scours
here), ranging from evolution items/stones, consumables like gummies, and boxes. The most important item that you can get, and also the most valuable item is the box (which I'll talk more about in a second). There are two ways to get boxes from scours. One way is to maintain the daily task of sending out and retrieving a scour every day, and on the fifth day in a row your very first retrieval will bring back three boxes! Nifty, eh? (Daily tasks are all listed
here, btw) The other way to get boxes is to get lucky during a regular scour (as in one that isn't a daily task reward), and one of your pokemon brings back a regular box of any type!
Scour Boosts and Scour Slots
How do you increase luck, you might ask? (I'll get into why boxes are so valuable in the next section) Easy! If you click on the scours tab and look on the left, you should see two tabs, one called scour slots, and the other called scour boosts. These two items help you drastically improve your scour chances. Scour slots (which you can only max out at getting two of) increase the number of pokemon you can send out on a scour. If you get the maximum two scour slots, you'll be able to send three pokemon out instead of just one! (It also says in the tab, but you can buy as many scour slots as you want, but only two will take effect, the rest will be essentially useless) You are also able to purchase scour boosts (also at a maximum of two). What scour boosts do is essentially boost your chance of getting rarer items, like boxes, while lowering your chances of getting more commen items, like berries. Combining two scour slots and two scour boosts means that you have three pokemon all with a boosted chance at finding rare items!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Pokemon Energy and Pokemon Preference
Two important things to remember when scouring are:
1.
Pokemon location preference.
Each pokemon has a location that they like and dislike (chosen at random, which you have to send out to find out), with the place they like giving the text 'Preferred Area!', and the place that they dislike with the text 'Disliked Area...'. Pokemon are more likely to get rarer items from their preferred areas, and they are more likely to get common items or even nothing from disliked areas.
However, it is possible for a pokemon to get nothing from their preferred area, or even a rarer item from their disliked area, it's all based on rng, but the chances are definitely lower than sending them out to their preferred or disliked areas, respectively.
2.
Pokemon energy
Notice that small battery symbol with a percentage next to it? That's the energy that a pokemon has! Green means high, orange means medium, and red means low/empty. The more energy a pokemon has, the more likely it'll bring back rarer items! Be sure to keep an eye on a pokemon's energy, and when it starts dropping into the orange or red it may be wise to swap it out for another fresh pokemon so that you'll be more likely to get rare items :)
The Importance of Boxes
Probably one of the most important, if not most important item for a free-to-play player is boxes. I listed above how you are able to obtain boxes, but what makes them so valuable? I'm glad you asked. At first glance it may seem that boxes are only good enough to be opened, and you might be lucky with getting something rare like a lot of gp, a megastone, or a summon item, but that's only partially correct. It's true that you may get lucky and obtain a valuable summon item, which you can then sell or use to obtain a legendary egg (more info found
here), but the percentages are also listed in the boxes tab under 'Box contents and probabilities', and you only have around a slim 10% chance of actually getting something valuable. On the other hand, if you save the box, you have a 100% chance of making a profit. I know it's hard to resist just opening those bad boys as soon as you get them, even I suffer from that, but trust me, in the long run, saving them is better.
The reason behind this is because if you save up 21 boxes of any kind, if you pay a small fee (really small, we're talking like 5k creds or 5 gp, easy small change), you are able to pack those 21 boxes into boxboxes! Now we're talking. Once you have that boxbox (or boxboxes), you can now head over to the
trades thread where you can sell that sucker for, at minimum, 500k creds/500gp/100zc, or at maximum, 600k creds/600gp/120zc (prices may vary, these are just the prices I've seen them sold and bought at), but they're usually sold at an average for 525-550kc + conversions. Just make a new thread and offer the boxbox and I guarantee that there will always be someone who would love to buy it. Seems like a pretty good deal, eh? Now that you've made at least 100kc in profit, you are able to put that towards whatever you want! (aka the next step xd)
(I'm really tired and busy right now, and I promise that I'll add to this later when I have time, but this should be a pretty good place to at least leave off for now. Feel free to post here or PM me regarding this (preferably pm as to not clog up the thread) or with any advice as to where to go next. I was thinking albino radar or going back to scours and talking about fantastic friday but any input is helpful.)
I'll also edit this and the parenthesis text out when I come back so that the guide can be nice and polished :D
