You have figured out the trick to making your crops grow. You have a Noah's Ark, full of animals. Your trees are in full bloom.

Once you have gotten the hang of how to make your farm work, it is time to work on mastery skills.

Crop Mastery

In FarmVille, the more you master a certain crop, the more coins and experience points you will get. So it only makes sense to master your crops. But how should you go about doing it?

You will be able to reach level one mastery fairly quickly. Depending on how often you plant and if you are able to harvest your crops before they rot. (Crops that rot do yield some Xp, but you gather no coins and no mastery points).

Crops that are ready for harvest in a short amount of time, such as Strawberries, Blueberries and Raspberries, will be easier to gain Mastery points. Crops that take longer to harvest, such as cotton or artichokes will take longer to master.

Soybeans are a great start if you want to work on crop mastery. Soy beans take 24 hours to be ready for harvest. They are also one of the less expensive crops in FarmVille.

The best way to work on your crop mastery is to plant and plant often. Also, the more you plant of one crop, the faster you will gain mastery points.

So, what crops should you plant first to gain mastery?
 

• Soybeans
• Strawberries
• Chili Peppers
• Bell Peppers
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Tomatoes
• Eggplant
• Squash
•  

The above crops take anywhere from 2 to 24 hours for harvest and are also the least expensive in FarmVille.

Each crop in FarmVille starts at level one mastery. As you plant and harvest your crops, you will advance in mastery up to level 4. With each level of mastery that you attain, you will gain more xp and bonuses each time you harvest.

Another way to work on mastery is to focus on one crop or item at a time. For example, say you want to work on your Soybean Mastery. Instead of planting just a few of the crops everyday, focus on making most, if not all, of your farm Soybean crops. This will help speed up your mastery as well.

Tree Mastery

Unlike the crops, you don't get extra XP for mastering your trees. Instead you get ribbons as you advance in how many trees you harvest and own.

Your goal for the trees is to own at least one of every kind of tree. That means some of them you will have to buy and some will have to be given to you as FarmVille gifts.

Trees have a harvest time of about 2 to 3 days, so advancing through ribbons to reach mastery takes a bit longer then if you were doing crops. The good thing about trees though is that they do not wither. So, if for some reason you cannot harvest them, they won't wither and you don't risk loosing your XP or coin.

Animal Mastery

Like trees, animal mastery is not the same as crop mastery.  The ribbon system is in place here as well.

With animals, your goal is to own at least one of each animal.  As with trees, animals don't wither.

Most animals have a ready time of about 1 to 3 days, depending on the animal. Animals do take longer to reach mastery then crops. The main way that you work on mastery is to harvest from unique animals. The more unique animals that you harvest that faster it goes.

A unique animal is considered one that you have not harvested before. So, for example, if you get a goat from a friend and harvest the goats milk for the first time, that is considered a unique animal

Decoration, Farm Equipment, and Housing Mastery

In FarmVille there really is no mastery system in place for things such as housing, decorations or farm equipment. Again, just as with trees and animals, your mastery will come from gaining ribbons.

With decorations, your goal is to own as much as you can. Kind of like a pack rat! So buy tons of those hay bales and fences.

With buildings, the more buildings you own, the faster you gain mastery. So add a few silos and a wood shop to your farm

Expanding Your Farm And Reaching The Maximum Level

For anyone that plays FarmVille, the ultimate goal is to own a plantation farm and have reached maximum level. At this time it is level 50, although Zynga could decide to change that.

As you advance in level and gain more FarmVille cash and coin, make sure that you focus on expanding your farm. This will help you attain the top level even faster.